to which he has no just title, and when the first means of seeking the favours of heaven would be to resign his charge?

The pastor must therefore be called by God; the vocation to a ministry exercised in his name, and in which he is represented, can only proceed from him.1 The affairs on which we are employed, indeed, are not our own, they belong to another,that is, to God,-in a word, they constitute a ministry. The vocation, whether external or internal, must be divine; and for this reason we prefer the terms mediate and immediate in this connexion.

In order that the first, the mediate vocation, may come from God, it is necessary that those through whom it comes should have received full powers from God, or from other men to whom God has entrusted these same full powers. If these full powers are denied, the external or mediate vocation sinks to the level of a conventional arrangement regulating the internal relations of a religious society, which, without decisively ascertaining, merely supposes a general fitness for the office of the ministry; and so far as the candidate himself is concerned, it only furnishes him with an additional means of ascertaining his vocation. We shall afterwards consider it under this point of view.

Since the ministry is purely moral, not sacramental, the qualifications for it are purely moral, and the immediate vocation ought to be sufficient.2

In one system, therefore, it is enough, and in both systems it is considered necessary. In no ecclesiastical system that is founded on Christianity has it been possible to neglect it, or even to refuse setting a high value upon it; there is only one system under which it could be superfluous, that, namely, of a theocracy sustained by miracles.3 Missions like that of Jonah 1 Jer. xxiii. 21. Ezek. xiii. 2.

2 Immediate vocation is exterior or interior. Exterior, when God himself, in his own person, utters his commands and declares his will; this is the miraculous call addressed to prophets by a voice in apparition or in vision.

3 Even then it has not been treated as superfluous. It is not, in all cases, necessary for the accomplishment of the divine purposes, but it is in every case necessary for him who accomplishes them. Jonah and

are not conceivable under the law of the gospel. But wherever an external vocation is declared indispensable, the internal or immediate vocation necessarily suffers.

Roman Catholic writers have always found a difficulty in explaining themselves on this point. St. Cyran, for example, with an evident leaning towards the internal vocation, and not well knowing how to make room for the external, expresses himself thus: "As he who has not received the external call of the church to be a priest, cannot do anything useful for it in the judgment of the church, although he may perform the same outward works, administer the same sacraments, and preach the same gospel as other priests who have been called and ordained by the church; so he who has not the internal vocation of God' to the ecclesiastical estate, to the priesthood, or to a curacy, caunot do anything good for himself in the judgment of God,, although he may perform the same good works, and administer the same sacraments as the priests whom God has called.1

Those who maintain the sufficiency of an internal vocation may be content with the second clause in this paragraph; and the first part will not occasion them much anxiety, since they learn from it that, although not ordained by the Church, they can preach the gospel.-We can, therefore, do all, for all is included in this, unless the administration of the sacrament implies a miraculous power, which certainly no one can attribute to it on his own authority, and for which the internal vocation would not suffice, unless it had in itself a miraculous character.

But a question presents itself. As the immediate call is no longer directly addressed by God to the man by means of a miraculous voice, may we not say that there is no longer any immediate call?

Balaam performed outwardly but not inwardly the divine will. Isaiah said, "Send me" (ch. vi. 8). And the personal character and fitness of the messenger has almost always, even under the ancient law, been reckoned of some and even of much importance to the success of the mission. Many things appear to have been left to the free determination of the prophets. A considerable range of free action was even reserved for the Levite in the accomplishment of his duties. See Deut. xviii. 6. 1 ST. CYRAN, Letter to M. Guillebert on the Priesthood, chap. xxv.

We must say so, if, indeed, in the absence of supernatural communication, man has no means of assuring himself of the will of God with respect to any particular case, or in regard to any choice that is to be made between several determinations, each of which is in harmony with the general principles of morality.

For it is here, and here alone, that the word vocation is applicable. There is no room for any vocation, so far as the practice of the general duties of morality is concerned. A vocation is demanded when a man is required to choose between two courses, two modes of employing his faculties, both sanctioned by morality, and by the general spirit of the gospel.

When, therefore, the sensible, direct, express call of God is wanting, by what can its place be supplied? [In other words, how shall we know that we are called?] Certainly it will not be because the exercise of the ministry procures us a happy and tranquil position. Neither can we regard as a call the wishes of parents, although those wishes, if they are serious, may be blessed, and have been, in the case of many pastors, a kind of preliminary call. The spirit of a child, destined for the ministry by its parents, forms a kind of bent in this direction; but this is not a vocation.-Still less is constraint. It was exercised in the earlier ages of the Church. The idea of the priest and of sacrifice, had, in the time of Chrysostom, already made great advances, and this explains how it was that constraint itself impressed an indelible character.-The same must be said of the signs by which many persons are guided. The signs are first selected and then interpreted, that is to say, the individual chooses his own lot. This is a species of spiritual indolence among Christians who wish for truth fully completed, without giving themselves the trouble to seek it by prayer, labour, and application. So long as we have conscience and the Word of God, we have enough.-Lastly, no one will surely say that interest will supply that direct call from God which we are at present considering.

[What, then, are the unquestionable indications of it?]

The vocation to the ministry is ascertained, like every other,

by natural means, under the guidance of the Word and Spirit of God. The general principle involved in the idea of vocation is, to decide upon following the career for which the individual feels himself best adapted, and in which he thinks he can be most useful; it is from a combined view of the circumstances, and of principles laid down by good sense, and by God himself, that we must attain to clearness and decision in this matter.1 But when a moral action is concerned, when the soul is the instrument to be employed, then regard must be had to the state of the soul, and this state is the chief element in the vocation. When any other career is in question, it is sometimes necessary to keep out of view the feelings which we may have relative to that career, to refrain from it, even though our tastes may incline towards it, to follow it even though our tastes may point in a different direction.2 This is not the general rule; it is, perhaps, the more or less frequent exception. Here, that is to say, in the case of the ministry, there is no exception whatever—the rule is absolute. There must be conformity of the soul to the object of the ministry; and this conformity is composed of three elements-faith, taste or desire, and fear.3

With regard to faith, or a belief in the reality of the object, in the truth of the message with which the minister is charged, this is too obvious to need explanation or proof.

With regard to desire, it must be joined to faith in order that there may be a vocation. For if faith were enough, every Christian ought to be a minister. We do not affirm that faith implies the desire. It does indeed imply the general desire to promote the glory of God according to our ability, but not the special desire of assuming this as an office, and of consecrating our entire life to this work. The institution of the ministry rests on the very supposition that every one is not called to

1 "I have never represented to myself a divine call (Göttlicher Beruf) otherwise than as an external occasion which is furnished me to do and to realise something good, under a religious impulsion, and, consequently, at the instance of God."-PLANK, Das erste Amtsjahr, p. 8.

2 There can be, in this sense, a vocatio ab, as well as a vocatio ad. 3.66 Rejoice with trembling," Ps. ii. 2.

the work. But when fitness for the office exists, will not this supply what is wanting in desire, and suffice to prove the vocation? We reply that such fitness does not exist where the desire is wanting. For when this desire is absent (and we have seen that it may be wanting even in a true Christian), there is not that harmony between the man and his functions, that intimate apprehension of the thing, that undivided heart, which are so essential to success in this work. We do not say that, once engaged in this work, a Christian who has no taste for its duties will do no good in it; we only say that he has no vocation, and that he ought to leave this office to others, except in places and times in which it is evidently imposed upon him by Providence, which, in the absence of any suitable instrument, seems to say, as in the vision of the prophet, "Whom shall I send?" and seems to wait for the man capable of answering like the prophet, "Here am I; send me!"1

But if the desire is the first sign of a vocation, this sign is equivocal. The object of the desire must be clearly ascertained -whether it be the ministry itself, or some other thing in the ministry for which we have a liking. The taste, the inclination which we feel for the ministry, may be superficial, even carnal, erroneous as to its object. What we like in the ministry may be an honourable and respected position, or a sphere and opportunities for the exercise of talents with which we may think ourselves endowed,- -or the sway of the preacher over his hearers; or we may be actuated by views that are moral without being religious, or by a vague sentiment of religion, or by an unreflective enthusiasm (an ideal representation, the poetry of the thing). In these questions, the imagination is but too willing to put itself in the place of the heart and conscience.

not.

Newton gives a very admirable rule by which to determine whether the desire for the ministry is of a right character or He says:-"I hold it a good rule to inquire in this point whether the desire to preach is most fervent in our most lively 1 Isaiah vi. 8. [The absence of taste does not imply repugnance, a distaste for the ministry, which cannot exist in any Christian: it is often rather a taste for something else.]