work, of bringing Christ and souls to meet; that by "the foolishness of preaching" (or what appears so to carnal wisdom) the chosen of God are called, and come unto Jesus, and are made wise unto salvation; and that the life, which is conveyed to them by the word of life in the hands of poor men, is by the same means preserved and advanced.' 1 The Great Head of the Church has ordained three grand repositories of his truth. In the Scriptures he has preserved it by his Providence against all hostile attacks. In the hearts of Christians he has maintained it by the Almighty energy of his Spirit-even under every outward token of general apostacy. And in the Christian Ministry has he deposited the treasure in earthen vessels" for the edification and enriching of the Church in successive ages. The most comprehensive view of this Christian Ministry is given in Ephes. iv. 7-16. The grandeur of its introduction is shewn to have been long before prefigured by the glorious descent and ascent of Jehovah upon Mount Sinai. 3 Its original grant and institution is traced to the mediatorial work of the Son of God, who, after coming into the world to "purchase unto himself a Church with his own blood," ascended on high to make this suitable provision for its welfare. His work of humiliation ("descending into the lower parts of the earth") obtained this gift for his Church. The proximate cause of its actual communication was his subsequent exaltation to the Mediatorial throne. The high preeminence of this gift appears in its distributive variety of office (" apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers"); and in the im 1 Leighton on 1 Pet. v. 2. 2 Compare 1 Kings xix. 18, with Rom. xi. 4, 5. portant end for which it was ordained (the completion of the Church, in its deliverance from various threatened evils, and in the closer union and mutual edification of the whole body "growing up into" their glorious "Head.") We cannot conceive any more entire view of this institution, nor one that more decisively marks its Divine original. 3 The subject illustrates the Unity of Will and Purpose, with which the Sacred Persons in the Godhead administer the Government of the Church. From each of them did this holy office originate; "God hath given to us the Ministry of reconciliation.” ' Yet was it also, as we have seen, the gift of his exalted Sonpromised to the Church before his departure from the earth, communicated as the first act of his glorious power in "filling all things," and sealed in every instance by his commission conjointly with his Father.4 -At the same time is this office emphatically called "the Ministration of the Spirit." 5 It is his authority, that calls to the work 6-his guidance, that directs in it-and his influence, that supplies the needful furniture of gifts and graces. Thus do the institutions of the Gospel exhibit its deeper and more mysterious doctrines.9 The three Persons in the Godhead are severally and distinctly glorified. The Ministry has an equal concern and dependence upon each, and owes equal honour and service to each. Tracing therefore this sacred institution to the footstool of the eternal throne, with what prostration of soul should we bind ourselves to its solemn obligations! "Mine eyes "saith the Evangelical prophet-" have seen the 2 Matt. xxviii. 19, 30. 4 Gal. i. 1. 1 2 Cor. v. 18. 8 6 Acts xiii. 2. 8 1 Cor. xii. 9. 9 See Ibid 4—6. King, the Lord of Hosts-Here am I"-was his answer to the sacred voice—“ send me.”1 Nor can we wonder to see "the chiefest of the Apostles" unable to express his overwhelming sense of his responsibility-" Who is sufficient for these things ? 2 Who, whether man or angel, “is sufficient " to open “ the wisdom of God in a mystery,❞—to speak what in its full extent is "unspeakable,"-to make known that which passeth knowledge,"to bear the fearful weight of the care of souls? Who has skill and strength proportionate? Who has a mind and temper to direct and sustain so vast a work? If our Divine Master had not himself answered these appalling questions by his promise" My grace is sufficient for thee; "3 and if the experience of faith did not in some measure enable us to prove, that “our sufficiency is of God;" who with an enlightened apprehension, could enter upon such an awful service, or, if entered, continue in it ? But how solemn is the sanction-infinitely above all human authority-stamped and engraven upon the sacred office! And how tremendous the guilt of rejecting its commission !—" He that heareth you, heareth me; and he that despiseth you, despiseth me; and he that despiseth me, despiseth him that sent me." 5 Isa. vi. 5-8. 3 lbid xii. 9. 22 Cor. ii. 16. 5 Luke x. 16. CHAPTER II. THE DIGNITY OF THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. THE Divine original of the Christian Ministry has already opened a view of its dignity far above any earthly honour or elevation, and such as the infidel scoff can never degrade. An institution-introduced into the world, and confirmed to the Church, with such solemn preparation-conversant with the interests, and entrusted with the charge, of immortal soulsordained as the main instrument for the renovation of the world, and the building up of the Churchcannot be of inferior eminence. The office of "fellowworker with God" would have been no mean honour to have conferred upon the archangel nearest the everlasting throne. It formed the calling, the work, and the delight of the Lord of glory during his last years of abode upon earth; and was established by himself as the standing ordinance in his Church, and the medium of the revelation of his will to the end of time. He has not indeed (as the judicious Calvin has observed) called his ministers into the function of teaching, that, after they have brought the Church under, they may usurp to themselves the government; but that he may use their faithful diligence to associate 11 Cor. iii. 9. 2 Cor. vi. 1. This association is evidently that of a Minister with God-and not, we think, (as Doddridge and Macknight have supposed)-of one Minister with another. Comp. Rom. xvi. 3, 9, 21. Phil. ii. 25. iv. 3. Philem. 1, 24. Yet" all is of God." For this co-operation is "God working in us to will and to do." The strength for the work is imparted—not natural; nor was there any "fellow-worker' in the first principles of strength or in its subsequent increase. Eximium elogium Ministerii, quod, cum per se agere possit Deus, nos homunciones tanquam adjutores adsciscat, et tanquam organis utatur.' Calvin in 1 Cor. iii. 9. the same to himself. This is a great and excellent thing, for men to be set over the Church, that they may present the person of the Son of God.'1 The dignity however of the sacred office belongs to a kingdom "not of this world." It is distinguished 4 therefore not by the glitter of outward show, but by results connected with eternity, and, in their present influence, productive of happiness, far more solid and permanent than the grasp of men can attain, or communicate.3 It has been well remarked to be the highest dignity, if not the greatest happiness, that human nature is capable of here in this vale below, to have the soul so far enlightened as to become the mirror, or conduit, or conveyer of God's truth to others.' The right consideration, however, together with a chastised sense, of this high elevation, so far from fostering a vain-glorious spirit, has a direct tendency to deepen self-abasement and reverence. Can we help recoiling from so exalted an office-from handling such high and holy things? What! We to convey life, who ourselves are dead! We so defiled, to administer a service so pure, so purifying! "Woe is me"-said one of old, in contrasting this honour with his personal meanness" for I am undone; for I ain a man of unclean lips" 5 How can we think of this vast commission-this momentous trust, but as an act of most undeserved favour.6 1 Calvin on John iii. 29. 2 John xviii. 36. 3 The honourable designations of the sacred office are beautifully illustrated in Burnet's Pastoral Care, ch. i. Compare also, Chry. sostom De Sacerdotio, book iii, Gregory Nazianzen's Oration,. appended usually to Chrysostom, and Bowles' Pastor Evangelicus -1655, 12mo.-Pref. An old writer reckons up and expatiates upon no less than forty-three Scriptural appellations of the dignity and usefulness of the Christian Ministry. Sal Terræ cap. ii. by T. Hall. 12mo. Francof. 1658. ↑ Mather's Student and Pastor, p. 161. 5 Isa. vi. 5. See Eph. iii. 8. 1 Tim. i. 12. |