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SERM. choice of His Apostles out of the lowest condition of life, to teach and instruct the great, the wise, and the learned men of the world. He appointed these and their successors to be the messengers and ministers of salvation to the greatest men on earth. The doctrines th se preached were the most strange, and the most unwelcome to flesh and blood. Such as these; that the salvation of men depended upon the believing in Christ crucified, in renouncing of our own wisdom, in mortification, and self-denial.

Matt. 18. 18.

And as His ministers made no great appearance to the eye of flesh, no more did the means He ordained for conveying His favours and blessings to men.

He appointed them to be baptized with water FOR THE REMISSION OF SINS: He vouchsafed especial gifts and graces of His Spirit, by the LAYING ON OF THEIR HANDS :— -He appointed a sacrament of reconciliation, consisting of BREAD AND WINE, which, being given and received with faith in Him, should be a sure pledge of their pardon and salvation, who devoted themselves to His service.

Lastly; He appointed His ministers, not the ministers of earthly princes, nor the princes themselves, to receive into His Church and kingdom such as they should deem worthy, and to turn out the unworthy; with this assurance, "that what they should bind on earth, should be bound in heaven; and what they should loose on earth, should be loosed in heaven."

To despise, therefore, the Word and Sacraments, the blessings and favours of GOD, because they are offered to us through the hands of the meanest of men, is plainly to despise our own salvation. And if there are any so unhappy as to carry their folly and prejudices so far as to look upon the means of salvation, which God has appointed, as unnecessary, or not likely to convey His blessings and graces to them, there is no help for it; they must undoubtedly perish.

We know that there are people, who are very confident that they can do well enough without these ministrations; that they can read and understand the Bible, and their duty, without a teacher; that if they are morally good, just in their dealings, sober in their lives, and kind to their Micah 6. 8. neighbours, this is what God will be pleased with. "What

doth the Lord thy God require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?"

This is certainly true, if rightly understood. But then let it be remembered, that this was spoken to the people of Israel, who had priests, and sacraments, and sacrifices, and ordinances, as well as Christians. And if an Israelite should have pretended to be just, and merciful, and to walk humbly with God, without circumcision, without sacrifice, and other ordinances of the Law, that soul would have been cut off, he would have been rejected of God and man. Every body that reads the Bible must see this.

And indeed, what the Prophet intends by these words is, to blame those Israelites who placed all their religion in observing the outward ordinances, and took no care of the inward man, or of those duties of justice, mercy, and the love of God, which all these ordinances aimed at.

So we say, that holiness of life is that which God requires as the principal thing without which no man must see the [Heb. 12. 14.] Lord. But then we are sure, that this holiness consists, first, in OBEDIENCE TO GOD, in submitting to what He has appointed in order to make us holy, in hearing, and submitting to His ministers, who are appointed for the edifying Eph. 4. 12. of the Church; in receiving the sacraments, the means of grace, at their hands; and in obeying their godly admonitions.

And lastly, and which is the great thing aimed at by all these ordinances, in leading a life becoming the servants of God.

This, we are sure, is God's ordinary way of bringing men to holiness, in order to their happiness. For we are not here saying any thing of what God can do if He please, or how He I will deal with those who are destitute of these means of salvation; but we speak of Christians who are blessed with a standing ministry, and who enjoy the means of salvation by them administered.

And we must not wonder, that the world continues still so bad, notwithstanding this blessing of a standing ministry. Thus it was, even when our Lord and His Apostles preached the Gospel. Many would not hear; many heard, but laid it not to heart; many suffered the cares, and riches, and plea

LXXXVIII

SER M. sures of the world to choke the seed, so that it brought no fruit to perfection. And so it will be to the end of the world. All that continue to grieve the Holy Spirit, by which they have been sanctified, their unimproved graces will be taken from them, they will become again the subjects of Satan, and be led by him captive at his will.

Rom. 11.

13.

But after all, and as bad as the world is, we may be sure of it, it would be much worse, were there no standing ministers of God, to put men in mind of their duty and of their danger. God, His Word, His Sabbaths, and His Laws, would soon be forgotten, as they have been by the whole heathen world.

And now, good Christians, do not imagine, that it is for our own sakes, but for yours, THAT WE THUS MAGNIFY OUR OFFICE, as St. Paul speaks. It is, that you may know what a blessing you enjoy, that you can hear God's Word, and know His will, and partake of His ordinances, and receive His blessing, by the hands of His own ministers; and that you may be sensible of the danger of despising so great salvation, of thinking yourselves too wise to be taught by the meanest of God's ministers, or too good to be blessed and prayed for by the most unworthy of His servants.

And be assured of it, that they who despise God's ministers will at last despise the Gospel of Christ. This we are sure of, from experience, as well as from Christ Himself; and when this sin becomes general, it is a sure forerunner of destruction.

The Lord Jesus Christ, the Prince of pastors, was despised and rejected of men, even of His own people. And what followed? Why, that whole nation was in a short time rejected, and became slaves to all the nations of the world.

Under the law, God shewed His displeasure and His judgments, in many instances, against such as either invaded the priesthood, or despised His ministers. The Jews lived more by sight than by faith, and they were visibly punished for their profaneness.

We who live under a better constitution, who are to believe things invisible, and rO WALK BY FAITH, should remember, that the punishments of the next life are much more severe than those inflicted upon sinners in this world.

Our Saviour saith expressly, that their condition, who reject His Gospel and His ministers who publish it, "that [Matt. 10. it shall be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah, in the day of judgment, than for them."

And the same Lord Christ has declared it to be the crime of an heathen, of one who believes not in God, to despise the sentence and judgment of the Church and her governors in things of a spiritual nature.

15.]

13.

The Spirit of God commands you, as Christians, "to 1 Thess. 5. esteem the ministers of Christ very highly for their works' sake." "For they watch for your souls, as they that must Heb. 13. 17. give an account." And St. John gives this distinguishing mark of the Spirit of truth and the spirit of error: "He 1 John 4.6. that knoweth God heareth us" (that is, Christ's lawful ministers); "and he that is not of God heareth not us.

And now, Christians, having endeavoured to make you sensible of the very great blessing of a standing ministry, I shall conclude the whole with a few useful observations. The first shall be in the words of an eminent Jew, (Maimonides,) "Do not say what availeth the blessing of this simple priest; for the blessing depends not on him, but upon the Most Holy God." Do not, therefore, mistake, and think, that when the minister of God prays for you, or blesses you, or administers to you the ordinances of God, that he does it as an ORDINARY, PRIVATE PERSON. No; he does it as God's minister, as one authorized to bless you with sure effect, if it be not your own fault. Who does it, as St. Paul speaks, IN [2 Cor. 2. 10.] THE PERSON, or place, oF CHRIST.

You see therefore, the profaneness of those who would prostitute the ordinances of God, and would make them, and the ministers of Christ, contemptible. They do not consider the presumption it would be to take upon themselves to ad'minister sacraments; that is, to seal covenants betwixt God and men, without any commission from God; to take upon themselves to be the ministers of reconciliation, to reconcile men unto God, and God to man;-to bless in His name, and to pretend to obtain graces and blessings from God to His people.

To proceed if you then really value the prayers, the blessing of God's ministers, you will respect their persons

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SERM. and their office. And when you remember that they are God's ministers, you will conclude, that the Master is always dishonoured, when His servants are slighted. And most certainly, he that despises a minister of Christ, would have [Is. 53. 3.] done so by Christ Himself, when He was on earth; "He was despised and rejected of men," by such men as those who despise His ministers.

Has the Christian Religion any thing in it that is ridiculous? Is the Christian ministry a ridiculous institution? No, sure. Why then do so many take pleasure in hearing them ridiculed? Why, the secret is this: their lives being corrupt, they cannot but wish in their hearts, that there were no truth in religion; and that the ministers of Christ, who stand bound by their office to put them in mind of that terrible judgment, which, without a true repentance, will one day be pronounced upon them; they use their utmost endeavours, that these ministers of Christ may be despised, discredited, and set at nought, and that they may sin without rebuke.

Lastly; if the priest, the minister of God, blesseth with a real effect all those that repair to the Church to receive God's blessing, how unhappy are they who are shut out of the Church for their crimes, and consequently are deprived of the blessing of God! And how unhappy are all they who deprive themselves of this blessing, by absenting themselves from the public assemblies of Christians! Little do Christians consider what they lose by doing so.

And now, good Christians, I cannot end this discourse better than by pronouncing this blessing, in the name of Christ, which I made choice of for a text: "The Lord bless you, and keep you; the Lord make His face to shine upon you, and be gracious unto you; the Lord lift up the light of His countenance upon you, and give you peace, now and