METHODIST CLERICAL PRETENSIONS.
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WHOduly appointed the ministry in the Methodist body? A body that is not, and admits that it is not, the body of Christ! Where did this body get authority to appoint a ministry? It has no authority to appoint any thing in the kingdom of God. Who “divinely called” the ministry in the Methodist body? Not the Lord, for he has no Methodist body. He never called a man to minister in a body that he never authorized. The men called in that body were not called of God at all, nor divinely called. They eithercalled themselves, or were called by a body that has no divine authority in it, and therefore are not divinely called. Nor are they divinely qualified. The apostles were divinely qualified. They had the Holy Spirit to guide them into all truth. They never preached any Methodism, nor built up any Methodist churches. They never authorized a Methodist steward, class-leader, circuit-rider, presiding elder, or bishop, any more than they authorized that unmeaningbread and water love-feast, the band-society, the class-meeting, circuit or conference, either quarterly, annual or general. The Methodist church has not a duly-appointed ministry, a divinely-called and sent, ordivinely-qualified ministry in it. Its worship, ordinances and discipline are not duly nor scripturally administered. Indeed, it has but little in it that hears any similitude to the original church. To talk of its having a divinely-qualified ministry will strike any one a little acquainted with the Scriptures with peculiar force. A more absurd idea could hardly be uttered.
The apostles were divinely called, sent andqualified, and should one of them appear in a Methodist revival, where persons are “seeking religion,” crying, “What shall we do?” as they did on Pentecost, and answer as Peter did on that occasion, “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins,” in the place of the loud response, “Amen,” dismay would run all along the line, and thedivinely-qualifiedministry would want the divinely-qualified apostle out of the meeting. His voice would be astrangevoice in their meeting. If he were to tell the seekers, as Ananias did Saul, “Why do you tarry? Arise, and be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on the name of the Lord,” they would soon want him out of their meeting.