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sacred institution, to which we have just referred, are not and cannot be necessary to God, as if he were unable to work without them. But they are such as he has made necessary in the constituted order of means. They are the means of his own appointment for the accomplishment of his own purposes of mercy to the world. The order of ministers is, by the sovereign pleasure of God, the first link of means in the chain of salvation, so that without it there would be no Ministry-consequently, no hearing of the word-no faith in the only Saviour of whom it speaks-no calling upon his name-no salvation.* The destitution therefore of the Ministry of the word is the dark sign of the departure of the Divine presence from his church † It is not our province to prescribe what God might have done, but to mark the consummate wisdom of what he has done, and when we cannot discern the reasons of his dispensations, to exercise the humility of faith. The Lord might have instructed as well as converted Paul by a miracle, but it was his pleasure to direct him to a fellow-sinner for the explicit revelation of his will.I The angel also might have been an instructor to Cornelius, but in order to maintain the order of the divine œconomy, the Ministry of the word was made the medium of conveying evangelical light to his soul.§ The Christian ministry is therefore the ordained means of conversion, and of subsequent establishment in every stage of the Christian life; and its necessity must continue, while there is a single sinner to be brought into the family of God, or a single grace in the heart of the saint to advance to

*Rom. x. 13-16. † Comp. 2 Chron. xv. 3. Hos. iii. 4. Acts ix. 10-17. § Ib. x. 3-6.

perfection. It is a weighty remark of Hooker's, that

help of a spiritual ministry is Which assertion,'-says he,

'religion without the unable to plant itself. 'needeth no further confirmation. If it did, I could easily declare, how all things which are of God, he hath by wonderful art and wisdom soldered as it were together by the glue of mutual assistance, appointing the lowest to receive from the nearest to themselves what the influence of the highest yieldeth. And therefore the church, being the most absolute of all his works, was in reason to be also ordered with like harmony, that what he worketh might, no less in grace than in nature, be effected by hands and instruments, duly subordinated to the power of his own Spirit.* On similar collateral views of the necessary uses of the Christian Ministry, Calvin was led to declare Not even is the light and heat of the sunnot even is meat and drink so necessary for the Support and cherishing of life, as is the maintenance of the Ministry of the Gospel church on earth.'†

* Hooker, book v. 76,-Mosheim observes to the same purport, that 'the best system of religion must necessarily either dwindle to nothing, or be egregiously corrupted, if it is not perpetually inculcated and explained by a regular and standing Ministry.'—Ecc. Hist. Cent. i. part. ii. chap. ii.

† Calv. Instit. lib. iv. ch. iii. 3.

CHAPTER IV.

THE TRIALS AND DIFFICULTIES

MINISTRY.

OF THE CHRISTIAN

OUR Lord's parabolical declaration on the importance of a previous counting the cost of our work,* perhaps applies no where with stricter accuracy than to the Christian Ministry. The temptation to draw back from the work acquires strong force from the want of serious and prayerful calculations upon its painful exercises. Not indeed that any previous contemplation can realize the full apprehension of ministerial difficulty. The difference between contemplation and action is nearly that of a spectator of the field of battle and the combatant in the conflict. General notions of a deeply serious and intelligent character may be attained; but much will be left that can only be supplied by experience--much that will tend to illustrate the importance of the exhortation once given by a veteran to a young soldier-- Thou therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. Indeed the difficulties connected with the due discharge of this work would be abundantly sufficient to deter any considerate conscientious mind from undertaking it with any view to temporal ease and comfort, especially while there are so many other

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* Luke xiv. 28-30 Erasmus justly laments the evil resulting from this inconsideration-Verum ad conciones sacras admittuntur, interdum etiam assiliunt, adolescentes, leves, indocti, quasi nihil fit facilius, quam apud populum exponere Divinam scripturam, et abunde sufficiat perfricuisse faciem, et abstersa pudore linguam volvere. Hoc malum ex eo fonte manat, quod non perpenditur, quid sit ecclesiastici concionatoris tum dignitas, tum difficultas, tum utilitas.' 2 Tim. ii. 1-3.

tracts in life, which offer a far larger promise of indulgence. It is the work, to which most especially is linked the daily cross. Daily and sometimes overwhelming trials must be anticipated as inseparably connected with the work, and arising from these three sources-the professing church, the world and ourselves.

Our responsible relation to the professing church is associated with difficulties of no ordinary magnitude. Much may be learned on this subject from the deep views which the apostolical Eliot entertained of this work. 'He looked upon the conduct of a church,' as his biographer (Cotton Mather) informs us, ' as a thing attended with so many difficulties, temptations, and humiliations, as that nothing but a call from the Son of God could have encouraged him unto the susception of it. He saw that flesh and blood would find it no very pleasant thing to be obliged unto the oversight of a number, that by a solemn covenant should be listed among the volunteers of the Lord Jesus Christ ;* that it was no easy thing to feed the souls of such a people, and of the children and the neighbours, which were to be brought into the same sheep-fold with them; to bear their manners with all patience, not being by any of their infirmities discouraged from teaching of them, and from watching and praying over them; to value them highly as the flock which God purchased with his own blood, notwithstanding all their miscarriages, and in all to examine the rule of scripture for the warrant of whatever shall be done, and to remember the day of judgment, wherein an account must be given of all that has been done. It was herewithal his opinion (as the great Owen expresses it)

* Alluding to the congregational form of church_government and union, which was most prevalent in America in Eliot's time.

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that notwithstanding all the countenance that is given to any church by the public magistracy, yet whilst we are in this world, those who will faithfully discharge their duty as Ministers of the gospel shall have need to be prepared for sufferings; and it was in a sense of these things that he gave himself up to the sacred Ministry. It scarcely needs to be remarked, what dexterity of application, diligence of labour, "discerning of spirit," how large a portion of "the meekness and gentleness of Christ," of his yearning compassion, and persevering self-devotedness is required for thus owning Christ. If the recollection of the church of God-of the Master whom we serve be not ever present to our mind, as the constraining motive and the upholding prop of our exertions, we must indeed sink in despondency.

Perhaps, however, the heaviest weight of ministerial responsibility is found in the awful apprehension of becoming in the end an occasion of aggravated condemnation to our people. 'Since I was ordained,' says Mr. Brown, of Haddington, 'I know not how often it hath been heavy to my heart to think how much this scripture (Isa. vi. 9, 10) hath been fulfilled in my ministry. Frequently I have had an anxious desire to be removed by death from becoming a plague to my poor congregation. Often, however, I have tasken myself, and have considered this wish as my folly, and begged of the Lord, that, if it was not for his glory to remove me by death, he would make me

* Mather's Magnalia-History of New England, book iii. pp. 183, 184.

Nunc si reputemus in eodem populo, quanta sit varietas sexuum, ætatum, conditionis, ingeniorum, opinionum, vitæ, institutionis, consuetudinis, quantâ oportet esse præditum prudentia ecclesiastem, cui sit temperanda oratio.-Erasmi Ecclesiastes, p. 36.

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