"We preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; 'and," far from elevating ourselves above you, on account of the commission we have received, "ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake." 2 Cor. iv. 5. Then we might with propriety salute you, as humble imitators of St. Paul, as zealous ministers of the gospel, and as faithful servants of that condescending Saviour, who "came not to be ministered unto, but to minister." Matt. xx. 28.

TRAIT XV.

HIS UNIVERSAL LOVE.

TRUE Christians are distinguished from Jews, Mahometans, and all other worshippers, by that spirit of universal love, which is the chief ornament and glory of their profession; but among evangelical pastors, this holy disposition appears in a more eminent degree. They feel for the inconsiderate and the sinful that tender compassion of which Christ has left us an example. Their conduct answers to that beautiful description of charity, with which St. Paul presented the Corinthian church, and which may be considered as an emblematical representation of his own character from the time of his conversion to the Christian faith. Universal love is that invigorating sap, which, passing from the "true vine" into its several branches, renders them fruitful in every good work. But this divine principle circulates through chosen ministers with peculiar force, and in more than ordinary abundance, as so many principal boughs, by which a communication is opened between the root and the lesser branches.

The faithful pastor entertains an affecting remembrance of those benevolent expressions which the good Shepherd addressed to the apostle Peter, and in the person of that apostle to all his successors in the ministry, repeating them even to the third time: "Lovest thou me? Feed my sheep." As though he had said, "The greatest proof you can possibly give of your unfeigned attachment to me is, to

cherish the souls which I have redeemed, and to make them the objects of your tenderest regard." Such is the affectionate precept which every faithful minister has received together with his sacred commission, and to which he yields a more ready and cheerful obedience, from a firm dependence upon the following solemn declaration of his gracious Master: "When the Son of man shall come in his glory, he shall say " to all the children of love, "Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done good unto one of the least of these my brethren,” whether their wants were corporeal or spiritual, "ye have done it unto me." Matt. xxv. 31, 40.

The love of the evangelical pastor, like that of St. Paul, is unbounded: "God," saith that charitable apostle, “will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. I exhort therefore, that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; for this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour.” 1 Tim. ii. 1—4. But, not content with submitting to the exhortation of St. Paul, with respect to the duty of universal prayer, he endeavours to copy the example of that apostle, in labouring for the salvation of all men: "I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some." 1 Cor. ix. 22. Being by regeneration "a partaker of the divine nature," (2 Peter i. 4,) he bears a lovely, though humble, resemblance to his heavenly Parent, whose chief perfection is love. Like the high priest of his profession, he breathes nothing but charity; and like the Father of lights, he makes the sun of his beneficence to rise upon all men. To describe this lesser sun in its unlimited course, and to point out the admira→ ble variety with which it distributes its light and its heat, is to delineate with precision the character of a faithful pastor.

TRAIT XVI.

HIS PARTICULAR LOVE TO THE FAITHFUL.

THE universal love of the true minister manifests itself in a particular manner, according to the different situations of those who are the objects of it. When he finds the whole conduct of professing Christians conformable to the nature of their sacred profession, "he loves them with a pure heart fervently;" 1 Peter i. 22; and, giving way to the effusions of a holy joy, he expresses his affection in words like these: "Brethren, we are comforted over you in all our affliction and distress by your faith: for now we live, if ye stand fast in the Lord." And "what thanks can we render to God for you, for all the joy wherewith we joy for your sakes before God?" 1 Thess. iii. 7-9. In these expressions of St. Paul, an astonishing degree of affection is discovered. "Now we live:" as though he had said, "We have a twofold life, -the principal life, which we receive immediately from Christ, and an accessory life, which we derive from his members, through the medium of brotherly love. And so deeply are we interested in the concerns of our brethren, that we are sensibly affected by the variations they experience in their spiritual state, through the power of that Christian sympathy which we are unable to describe. Thus, when sin has detached any of our brethren from Christ, and separated them from the body of the faithful, we are penetrated with the most sincere distress; and, on the contrary, whenever they become more affectionately connected with us, and more intimately united to Christ, our common Head, our spirits are then sensibly refreshed, and invigorated with new degrees of life and joy."

Reader, dost thou understand this language? Hast thou felt the power of this Christian sympathy? Or, has thy faith never yet produced these genuine sentiments of brotherly love? Then thou hast spoken as a person equally destitute of sensibility and truth, whenever thou hast dared to say, "I believe in the communion of saints."

TRAIT XVII.

HIS LOVE TO THOSE WHOSE FAITH WAS WAVERING.

WHEN a minister, after having been made instrumental in the conversion of sinners, perceives their faith decreasing, and their love growing cold, he feels for them what the Redeemer felt when he wept over Jerusalem. Not less concerned for the remissness of his believing hearers, than St. Paul was distressed by the instability of his Galatian and Corinthian converts, he pleads with them in the same affectionate terms: "Ye know," ye who are the seals of my ministry, "how I preached the gospel unto you at the first. And ye despised me not, but received me as an angel of God. Where is then the blessedness ye spake of? for I bear you record, that if it had been possible, ye would have plucked out your own eyes, and have given them to me. Am I therefore become your enemy, because I tell you the truth? My little children, of whom I travail in birth again, until Christ be formed in you," I tell you with sorrow, that after all my confidence in you, "I stand in doubt of you." Gal. iv. 13-20. "Our mouth is open unto you, our heart is enlarged. Ye are not straitened in us, but ye are straitened in your own bowels. Now for a recompence in the same, (I speak as unto my children,) be ye also enlarged. Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty. We beseech you," therefore, brethren, "that ye receive not the grace of God in vain." 2 Cor. vi.

This language of the Christian pastor is almost unintelligible to the minister who is merely of man's appointing. Having never converted a single soul to Christ, he has neither spiritual son nor daughter, and is entirely unac

quainted with that painful travail which is mentioned by St. Paul. His bowels are straitened toward Christ and his members; and, having closely united himself to the men of the world, he considers the assembly of the faithful as a company of ignorant enthusiasts. But, notwithstanding the spiritual insensibility of these ill-instructed teachers, who never studied in the school of Christ, there is no other token by which either sincere Christians or true ministers can be discerned, except that fervent love which the Galatians entertained for St. Paul before their falling away, and which that apostle ever continued to entertain for them. "By this," saith our Lord, “shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another." John xiii. 35.

TRAIT XVIII.

HIS LOVE TO HIS COUNTRYMEN AND HIS ENEMIES.

ST. PAUL, like his rejected Master, was persecuted even to death by the Jews, his countrymen, while he generously exposed himself to innumerable hardships, in labouring for their good. These furious devotees, inspired with envy, revenge, and a persecuting zeal, hunted this apostle from place to place, as a public pest. And when the gentiles, on a certain occasion, had rescued him out of their hands, forty of the most hardened among them, engaged themselves by an oath, neither to eat nor drink, till they had assassinated him. But notwithstanding the most indubitable proofs of their bloody disposition toward him, his fervent charity threw a veil over their cruelty, and made him wish to die for his persecutors: I declare," saith he, "the truth in Christ, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost, that I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart: for I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh.” Rom. ix. 1—3. As though he should say, "It is written, Cursed is every