re the way, by preaching of repentance_. Also an article, or pronoun
adjective, may precede a clause, used as a noun, and commencing with a
participle; as, _his teaching children was necessary_."--_Dr. Wilson's
Syllabus of English Gram._, p. xxx. Here the last position of the learned
doctor, if it be true, completely annuls the first; or, if the first be
true, the last must needs be false, And, according to Lowth, L. Murray, and
many others, the second is as bad as either. The bishop says, concerning
this very example, that by the use of the preposition _of_ after the
participle _preaching_, "the phrase is rendered _obscure_ and _ambiguous_:
for the obvious meaning of it, in its present form, is, 'by preaching
_concerning_ repentance, or on that subject;' whereas the sense intended
is, 'by publishing the covenant of repentance, and declaring repentance to
be a condition of acceptance with God.'"--_Lowth's Gram._, p. 82. "It ought
to be, 'by _the_ preaching _of_ repentance;' or, by _preaching_
repentance."--_Murray's Gram._, p. 193.

NOTES TO RULE XX.

NOTE I.--Active participles have the same government as the verbs from
which they are derived; the preposition _of_, therefore, should never be
used after the participle, when the verb does not require it. Thus, in
phrases like the following, _of_ is improper: "Keeping _of_ one day in
seven;"--"By preaching _of_ repentance;"--"They left beating _of_ Paul."

NOTE II.--When a transitive participle is converted into a noun, _of_ must
be inserted to govern the object following; as, "So that there was _no
withstanding of_ him."--_Walker's Particles_. p. 252. "The cause of their
salvation doth not so much arise from _their embracing of_ mercy, as from
_God's exercising of_ it"--_Penington's Works_, Vol. ii, p. 91. "Faith is
_the receiving of_ Christ with the whole soul."--_Baxter_. "In _thy
pouring-out of_ thy fury upon Jerusalem."--_Ezekiel_, ix, 8.

NOTE III.--When the insertion of the word _of_, to complete the conversion
of the transitive participle into a noun, produces ambiguity or harshness,
some better phraseology must be chosen. Example: "Because the action took
_place prior to the taking place of_ the other past action."--_Kirkham's
Gram._, p. 140. Here the words _prior_ and _place_ have no regular
construction; and if we say, "_prior_ to the taking _of place of_ the
other," we make the jumble still worse. Say therefore, "Because the action
took place _before_ the