“They stood and under open air adored
The God who made both air, earth, heaven and sky.”
And whether they were listning to his word, with attention still as night; or were lifting up their voice in praise, as the sound of many waters; many a time have I been constrained to say in my heart, How dreadful is this place! This also is no other than the house of God! This is the gate of heaven!
*Be pleased to observe. 1. That I was forbidden, as by a general consent, to preach in any church (though not by any judicial sentence) “for preaching such doctrine.” This was the open, avowed cause: there was at that time no other, either real or pretended; (except that the people crouded so:) 2. That I had no desire or design to preach in the open air, till after this prohibition; 3. That when I did, as it was no matter of choice, so neither of premeditation. There was no scheme at all previously formed, which was to be supported thereby; nor had I any other end in view than this, to save as many souls as I could. 4. Field-preaching was therefore a sudden expedient, a thing submitted to, rather than chosen, and therefore submitted to because I thought preaching even thus, better than not preaching at all: First, in regard to my own soul, because a dispensation of the gospel being committed to me, I did not dare, Not to preach the gospel; Secondly, in regard to the souls of others, whom I every where saw, seeking death in the error of their life.
4. But the author of the observations and of the case of the Methodists briefly stated, more particularly in the point of field-preaching, thinks field-preaching worse than not preaching at all, “because it is illegal.”
Your argument, in form, runs thus:
“That preaching which is contrary to the laws of the land, is worse than not preaching at all:
“But field preaching is contrary to the laws of the land:
“Therefore, it is worse than not preaching at all.”
*The first proposition is not self-evident, nor indeed universally true. For the preaching of all the primitive Christians was contrary to the whole tenor of the Roman law; the worship of the devil-gods being established by the strongest laws then in being. Nor is it ever true, but on supposition, that the preaching in question is an indifferent thing.