It is expressly enjoined in the word of God that we should earnestly contend for the faith once delivered to the saints.  This faith includes all the ordinances, as well as all the doctrines of Christ; and it is no less our duty to contend for the former than for the latter.  They have been equally opposed, and there is the same necessity why we should contend for both.  Among the ordinances of Christ, the preaching of the gospel holds a principal place, and it hath accordingly, in all ages, met with considerable opposition.  Like other ordinances, it hath been often grievously abused, and perverted to the most unworthy purposes.  By many who would be esteemed the wise of the world, it is counted unworthy the attention of any but the vulgar:  it has been called the foolishness of preaching.  The infidels of our time, and some who, by attachment to the Arian and Socinian system, are in a progress to infidelity, cry it down as a human device or piece of craft.  This need not, however, occasion any great surprise:  the spirit of the world savoreth not the things that be of God, and the enemies of the truth naturally wish to have full scope to propagate their delusions.  But it is matter of regret that the preaching of the gospel is, by many who attend upon it, too little regarded as an ordinance of Christ.  And some of the professed friends of gospel doctrine so far mistake the nature and institution of preaching, as to engage in it without any other call than their own abundant zeal, and even to plead that all should do so who find themselves qualified.  To show that such a sentiment and practice have no warrant from the word of God, the following observations are offered.

I. The preaching of the gospel is an ordinance that Christ hath appointed for the gathering and edification of his Church; and, being a matter of positive institution, all that belongs to the administration of it can be learned only from the rules and approved examples recorded in the New Testament.  It is not like those duties that are incumbent upon all, according to the opportunities they have in providence for the performance of them, and which, without any express commandment, could be urged upon Christians by the common principles of moral obligation, such as to teach and admonish one another.  And because the obligation to such moral duties depends not upon positive institution, it must equally extend to all, and no person whatever can be free from it.  But it is otherwise as to the preaching of the gospel, which is a positive institution of Christ; for it is a duty enjoined upon some only; yea, some are even absolutely prohibited from intermeddling in it, 1 Cor. xiv. 34; 1 Tim. ii. 12:  and this could not be the case if it were a matter of common moral obligation.  All arguments therefore taken from general principles, to prove the obligation that Christians are under to exert themselves for promoting the cause of religion, are to no purpose here, as they do not prove that the preaching of the gospel is one of those means that all are warranted to use.