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its armor but with your strength to bear it, or with the tabernacle of the body itself. Forbidden to encourage you by expectations which your experience would disappoint, we must represent the life before you, as all a life of toil, anxiety and conflict. We cannot withhold this representation of it, through any fear of discouraging or depressing you; for could the prospect of its difficulties discourage you, you were unworthy the honor of the service of the LORD.

Superior, then, to any discouragement from the prospect of its inconveniences, and guarded against the temptations peculiar to your condition, be diligent during your present, and prepare for a faithful, an able, and effectual future ministry. Learn above all things, to love and delight in your calling, even in the humblest offices of this its humblest degree, as that which has the Savior of the world for its author, and for its objects the present instruction, consolation, and peace, and the salvation and immortal happiness of your fellow men. Forgetful of yourselves, your honor, your interest, and all present reward of human favor, dwell in habitual, fond meditation on your master who is in heaven, and the souls which he would make you instrumental of bringing to his joy. Study the doctrine of CHRIST. Endeavor to learn it practically yourselves, and the task of teaching it to others will be at once, more easy, more pleasant, and more honorable. Strive so to incorporate it with your own experience and the whole system of your affections and feelings and life, that out of the abundance of the heart your mouth may always speak, what it may appertain to your office to utter.

Are these hard sayings? They contain only that without which you cannot be useful or happy in this office; without which you cannot have the present favor and approbation of the master into whose service you will profess to have entered, or his acceptance or reward, when you shall stand before his presence at the last.

By laying these, and all other things which appertain to a faithful, an useful and honorable ministry in the Church of CHRIST, effectually to heart, it is our earnest desire and prayer to GOD for you, that having used the office of a Deacon well and purchased yourselves a good degree, you may have an inheritance of the LORD, rich and abundant; that having finished the work CHRIST had given you to do on earth, you may receive its reward

in heaven; and that having fought the good fight, and finished your course and kept the faith, you may find a crown of righteousness, which the LORD, the righteous judge, shall give you in his day.

My Christian brethren of this assembly, as members of the Church of GOD, and friends to human happiness, and the cause of religious truth and virtue, the occasion claims a peculiar interest in your feelings. In circumstances which admit of few encouragements to it, beside those arising from its own interesting nature, you see before you, candidates for the ministry of CHRIST. While every other walk of life presents inducements so much more powerful than this affords, what can be more grateful to the Christian, than to behold any, however small their number, thus choosing, rather to suffer affliction and poverty with the ministers of God, than to seek, even with the most reasonable presumption of success, the honors, the riches, or distinctions of the world. Surely none can truly call themselves by the name of CHRIST, and refuse to rejoice with us in such an expression as this of zeal and love for the Savior and his truth. None can value the interests and honor of the Church, and behold without high emotion, those well qualified to send them, thus standing on its threshhold and looking back upon the world, its honors, interests, pleasures, and calmly, firmly, cheerfully bidding them farewell. No! we feel, my brethren, that you cannot but take part in our joy in receiving thus to the service of our LORD, those who so well promise to do it honor. While, then, you fervently join your prayers with ours, for the blessing of heaven on their pious and noble purpose; cease not, we pray you, to supplicate the LORD of the vineyard to send forth more laborers into his harvest-equal to its greatness and abundance. By the kindness and the honor which CHRIST demands for them, at the hands of all who call themselves his disciples, encourage their spirits and strengthen their hands: and thus while you promote his glory and the happiness and salvation of your fellow men, contribute to make him your friend and advocate in heaven, who hath said, he that giveth a cup of cold water only to one of the least of these, in the name of a disciple, shall in no wise lose his reward.

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THE SOLEMN CHARGE OF ST. PAUL TO THE ELDERS OF THE CHURCH AT EPHESUS, ILLUSTRATED.

A Sermon

Preached in St. James' Church, at Philadelphia, before the General Convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States:

BY THE RIGHT REV. JOHN CROES, D. D.,

BISHOP OF THE DIOCESE OF NEW JERSEY.*

Acts xx. 28.-" Take heed, therefore, unto yourselves, and to all the flock' over the which the HOLY GHOST hath made you overseers, to feed the Church of GOD, which he hath purchased

with his own blood.

THIS injunction is a part of that solemn and affecting charge, which the Apostle Paul, in his episcopal capacity, gave to the elders of the Church at Ephesus, a city of Asia Minor. The charge itself was delivered at Miletus, to which city, the apostle had summoned the elders, when on his way from Macedonia to Jerusalem. The introductory part of it was admirably calculated to conciliate their regard; and prepare their minds for a ready reception of the injunction that followed. It consists of an appeal to them, in proof of the trials, privations, and dangers, which he underwent; and the disinterestedness, self-denial, zeal, diligence, and fidelity, which he manifested, in preaching and inculcating the great doctrines of repentance toward God, and faith toward the LORD JESUS CHRIST: also of his determination to persevere in the same course; and his willingness to suffer all the imprisonment, and other afflictions, which, through the mo

*This Right Reverend Prelate was consecrated in St. Peter's Church, in the city of Philadelphia, on Sunday, November 19, 1815, by the Right Reverend Bishop WHITE, of Pennsylvania: the Right Reverend Bishop HOBART, of New York, and the Right Reverend Bishop KEMP, of Maryland, being present and assisting.

VOL. II.-20

nitions of the HOLY SPIRIT, he foresaw, continually awaited him in every city. None of these things, said this faithful, this devoted servant of GOD, move me; neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I may finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the LORD JESUS CHRIST, to testify the Gospel of the grace of GoD.

Having thus prepared the hearts of his auditors, he introduced the text, which strictly speaking, is itself the charge; for whatever, of that nature, occurs in the succeeding part of the chapter, may all be comprised in this comprehensive verse. Take heed, therefore, unto yourselves, and to all the flock over the which the HOLY GHOST hath made you overseers, to feed the Church of GOD, which he hath purchased with his own blood.

The charge may be considered as consisting of three parts, careful attention to themselves; the same attention to the flock over which they had been placed; and the high obligations to such care, arising both from the divine nature of the Being, by whom they had thus been constituted overseers of that flock; and the immense value of the price which had been given for it, the blood of the Son of GOD.

These subjects will be discussed, in the order in which they stand.

In the exhortatory phrase, Take heed to yourselves, which is first to be considered, the apostle evidently intended to urge upon the elders addressed, the exercise of the greatest attention and care both with respect to the reality, the correctness, and the purity of their religious principles and affections; and also with respect to the propriety of their conduct in their intercourse with the world.

The first of these is indispensable, as well to private Christians, as to those who hold the sacred and highly responsible office of ministers of CHRIST, and stewards of the mysteries of GOD.*

Without such vigilance and care, with respect to their thoughts and feelings; without, indeed, daily application to the throne of grace,† for divine help to enable them to hold the truth, as it is in JESUS; and to enjoy those affections, and possess those graces,

⚫ 1 Cor. iv. 1.

↑ Heb. iv. 16.

Eph. Iv. 3.

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which are the fruits of the Spirit; neither the minister of the Gospel, nor the private Christian, can long preserve his adoption, as a son of GOD. The consequence to both, as it respects their eternal state, will be the forfeiture of their salvation. But to the former there must be superadded, not only the guilt of violating his ordination vows, but also the inability thus produced, of regulating his life by the precepts of CHRIST; and consequently of rendering his ministry efficient and successful. No man, especially a clergyman, who is uninfluenced by religious principles, by a living faith, and is destitute of those holy affections, which, under divine grace, such principles are calculated to excite and cherish; however well he may, for a time, put on the semblance of a pious and virtuous life, can long continue to exercise that care and vigilance, relative to his conduct, which are necessary to conceal from the world the unsoundness of his pretensions, and his frequent deviations from the purity of the Christian precepts. The consequences of this-in the case of a clergyman-on the religious and moral condition of his flock, cannot fail to be highly injurious.

But, though the absence of a lively sense of religion, in the heart, will, sooner or later, inevitably be accompanied with a defective regard to religious and moral duties; the conclusion must not be drawn, that internal piety, unattended with care and watchfulness as to our conduct in life, will necessarily render that conduct, in all respects, conformable to the divine will. If such were the fact, the directions and injunctions to the practice of moral duties, in cases which presuppose the existence of a genuine faith, and a heart renovated by the HOLY SPIRIT, would have been entirely unnecessary. As it regards the ministry, where would have been the necessity of our Lord's direction to his disciples; Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works.* Where the necessity of St. Paul's exhortations to Timothy, Thou, Oman of GOD, flee these things,―viz. envy, strife, covetousness, &c.— and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness. Flee youthful lusts; but follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace. We must therefore believe, that the apostle, in

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