Who duly 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 either _called 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 unmeaning _bread
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, or
divinely-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 and _qualified_, 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 the _divinely-qualified_ ministry would want the
divinely-qualified apostle out of the meeting. His voice would be a
_strange_ voice 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.