in the Lord. For though ye have ten thousand instructers in Christ, yet have ye not many fathers: for in Christ Jesus have I begotten you through the gospel." 1 Cor. ix. 1, 2; iv. 15.

When a minister of the gospel, after labouring for several years in the same place, is unacquainted with any of his flock, to whom he might modestly hold the preceding language, it is to be feared, that he has laboured too much like the generality of pastors in the present day, since "the word of God," when delivered with earnestness and without adulteration, "is" usually "quick and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow." Heb. iv. 12 "He that hath my word, let him speak my word faithfully. What is the chaff to the wheat? saith the Lord. Is not my word like a fire, and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces? Behold, I am against them that cause my people to err by their lies, and by their lightness: therefore they shall not profit this people at all, saith the Lord." Jer. xxiii. 28-32.

Those ministers who are anxious so to preach, and so to conduct themselves, as neither to trouble the peace of the formal, nor to alarm the fears of the impenitent, are undoubtedly the persons peculiarly alluded to in the following solemn passage of Jeremiah's prophecy :-" Mine heart within me is broken because of the prophets; all my bones shake because of the Lord, and because of the words of his holiness. For both prophet and priest are profane; yea, in my house have I found their wickedness, saith the Lord. They walk in lies," either actually or doctrinally; "they strengthen also the hands of evildoers, that none doth return from his wickedness. From the prophets of Jerusalem is profaneness gone forth into all the land. They speak a vision of their own heart, and not out of the mouth of the Lord. They say unto them that" secretly "despise me, The Lord hath said, Ye shall have peace; and they say unto every one that walketh after the imagination of his own heart, No evil shali come upon you. I have not sent these prophets, yet they ran⚫ I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied. But if

they had stood in my counsel, and had caused my people to hear my words, then they should have turned them from their evil way, and from the evil of their doings." Jer. xxiii. 9-22.

Behold the reason why nothing can so much afflict a faithful minister as not to observe from time to time unfeigned conversions effected among the people by means of his ministry. The husbandman, after having diligently prepared and plentifully sowed his fields, is sensibly afflicted when he sees the hopes of his harvest all swept away at once by a furious storm; but he feels not so lively a sorrow as the charitable pastor who, after having liberally scattered around him the seeds of wisdom and piety, beholds his parish still overrun with the noxious weeds of vanity and vice. If Nabals are still intoxicated; if Cains are still implacable; if Ananiases are still deceitful, and Sapphiras still prepared to favour their deceit; if Marthas are still cumbered with earthly cares; if Dinahs are still exposing themselves to temptation, even to the detriment of their honour, and to the loss of that little relish which they once discovered for piety; and if the formal still continue to approach God with their lips, while their hearts are far from him; a good pastor, at the sight of these things, is pierced through with many sorrows, and feels, in a degree, what Elijah felt when, overburdened with fatigue and chagrin, “he sat down under a juniper tree, and said, It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my for I am not better than my fathers." 1 Kings

life;

xix. 4.

Indifference in a matter of so great importance is one of the surest marks by which an unworthy pastor may be discerned. Of what consequence is it to a worldly minister whether the flock, about which he takes so little trouble, is composed of sheep or goats? He seeks not so much to benefit his people, as to discharge the more exterior duties of his office in such a way as may not incur the censure of his superiors in the church, who, possibly, are not a whit less lukewarm than himself. And if a tolerable party of his unclean flock do but disguise themselves three or four times in a year, for the

purpose of making their appearance at the sacramental table, he is perfectly satisfied with the good order of his parish; especially when the most detestable vices, such as extortion, theft, adultery, or murder, are not openly practised in it. This outward kind of decency, which is so satisfactory to the worldly minister, and which is ordinarily effected by the constraining force of the civil laws, rather than by the truths of the gospel, affords the faithful pastor but little consolation. He is solicitous to see his people hungering and thirsting after righteousness, working out their salvation with fear and trembling, and engaging in all the duties of Christianity with as much. eagerness as the children of the world pursue their shameful pleasures or trifling amusements; and if he has not yet enjoyed this satisfaction, he humbles himself before God, and anxiously inquires after the reason of so great an unhappiness. He is conscious, that if his ministry is not productive of good fruit, the sterility of the word must flow from one or other of the following causes: either he publishes not the gospel in its full latitude and purity in a manner sufficiently animating, or in simplicity and faith; perhaps he is not careful to second his zealous discourses by an exemplary conduct; perhaps he is negligent in imploring the blessing of God upon his public and private labours; or probably his hearers may have conceived inveterate prejudices against him, which make them inattentive to his most solemn exhortations ; so that, instead of being received among them as an ambassador of Christ, he can apply to himself the proverb formerly cited by his rejected Master: "No prophet is accepted in his own country," where he is accustomed to be seen without ceremony, and heard without curiosity. If the fault appears to be on his own side, he endeavours to apply the most speedy and efficacious remedies, redoubling his public labours, and renewing his secret supplications, with more than ordinary fervour of spirit. But if, after repeated trials, he is convinced that his want of success chiefly flows from the invincible hatred of his flock to the truths of the gospel, or from the sovereign contempt which his parishioners manifest both for his

person and his labours; he is then justified in following the example of his unerring Master, who refused to exercise his ministry in those places where prejudice had locked up the hearts of the people against the reception of his evangelical precepts.

When, in such a situation, a pastor is fearful of following the example of our Lord, lest he should be left destitute of a maintenance, in how deplorable a state must he drag through the wearisome days of a useless life! If every sincere Christian is ready to take up his cross, to quit friends and possessions, yea, to renounce life itself, on account of the gospel, can we consider that minister as a man really consecrated to the service of Christ, who has not resolution sufficient to give up a house, a garden, and a salary, when the welfare of his own soul and the interests of the church require such a sacrifice?

When a preacher of the gospel counts less upon the promises of his Master than upon the revenues of his benefice, may we not reasonably conclude, that he is walking in the footsteps of Baalam, rather than in those of St. Paul? And is it for such a man to declare the statutes of the Lord, or to recite the words of his covenant? Psalm 1. 16. Is he not attempting to publish, before he effectually believes, the truths of the gospel? And has he not a front of brass when, with the dispositions of a Demas, he mounts the pulpit to celebrate the bounty of that God who supplies the little wants of sparrows, who feedeth the young ravens that call upon him, opening his hand, and filling all things living with plenteousness? Let such a one consider, that the character of a virtuous preceptor, or an honest tradesman, is abundantly more honourable than that of a mercenary priest.

In general, it may be reasonably supposed, that if a pastor faithfully exercises his ministry in any place, to which he has been appointed by the providence of God, he will either benefit those among whom he is called to labour, or his hardened hearers will at length unite to drive him from among them, as the inhabitants of Nazareth forced Jesus away from their ungrateful city. Or if he should not be forcibly removed from his post,

as was the case of our Lord in the country of the Gadarenes, yet, believing it incumbent upon him to retire from such a part, he will seek out some other place in his Master's vineyard, that shall better repay the pains of cultivation; whatever such a removal may cost him in the judgment of the world. And, indeed, such a mode of conduct was positively prescribed by our Lord to his first ministers in the following solemn charge :-" Into whatsoever city or town ye shall enter, inquire who in it is worthy. And whosoever shall not receive you, nor hear your words, when," slighted and reproached by its unworthy inhabitants, ye are constrained to "depart out of that house or city, shake off the dust of your feet," as a testimony against those who prefer the maxims of the world before the precepts of the gospel. Matt. x. 11, 14.

If any pastor refuses to adopt this method of proceeding after patience has had its perfect work; if he still fears to give up an establishment, as the sons-in-law of Lot were afraid of forsaking their possessions in Sodom; he then acts in direct opposition to the command of Christ; he obstinately occupies the place of a minister against whom, very probably, less prejudice might be entertained, and whose ministry, of consequence, would be more likely to produce some salutary effect; he loses his time in casting pearls before swine; and, instead of converting his parishioners, he only aggravates the condemnation due to their obduracy.

The faithful pastor, however, is not soon discouraged, though he beholds no beneficial consequences of his ministry. His unbounded charity suffers, hopes, and labours long, without fainting. The more sterile the soil appears which he is called to cultivate, the more he waters it, both with his tears and with the sweat of his brow; the more he implores for it "the dew of heaven," and the influences of that divine sun which spreads light and life through every part of the church. It is not, therefore, let it be repeated, till after patience has had its perfect work, that a conscientious minister takes the final resolution of quitting his post in order to seek VOL. VI.