name-for the purpose of his will-and for the edification of his Church. The direct tendency of these circumstances must however be admitted to be unfavourable to the progress of the Christian Ministry ; and the success of the work under these restraints would probably consist not so much in any prominent outward change in a sphere of operations, as in the silent and effectual opposition to the current of evil, in the raising up of a band of witnesses to co-operate with the Minister in his labour, and in the steady perseverance, with which the ground is maintained in the midst of conflict and discouragement. CHAPTER VI. THE WANT OF A DIVINE CALL A MAIN CAUSE OF FAILURE IN THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. THE want of Ministerial success may sometimes be traced to the very threshold of the entrance into the work. Was the call to the sacred office clear in the order of the church, and according to the will of God? This question bears with vast importance upon the subject. Where the call is manifest, the promise is But assured, "Certainly I will be with thee."* if we run unsent, our labours must prove unblest. their minds Many, we fear, have never exercised upon this inquiry. But do not we see the standing ordinance of the church written upon their unproductive Ministrations-"I sent them not, nor commanded them; therefore they shall not profit this *Exod. iii. 12. people at all, saith the Lord ?"* The curse of barrenness was not, that their doctrine was unsound, but that they preached unsent. Under the old dispensation it was marked as the most dangerous presumption to touch the ark of God without a Divine warrant. Nor is it a less direct act of usurpation to take authority in the Church of Christ without a commission from her Divine Head. Christ himself appeared with delegated not with self-commissioned authority. He declared his Divine call prophetically upon his prospective undertaking of his work. It was manifested to the world as the preparatory step to his public Ministry, as well as in the course of his work. Often did he appeal to it as the credentials of his commission. § Those who "entered into the fold," without his authority, as the Head of the church, he stamps as "thieves and robbers," and he only who "entered in by" his Divine commission at "the door into the fold was the Shepherd of the sheep."|| The Ministry is a matter of pure grace and favour, who then will dare to enter into it without a Divine call! There is nothing in which a king would willingly be more absolute than in the choice of his Ministers. And shall we dare to contest and take away this right from the King of kings ?'T The different illustrations indeed of the office necessarily suppose a regular call. We cannot conceive of a herald-an ambassador-a steward-a watchman-a messenger-an angel-with self-constituted authority. The Apostle asks, with regard to the first of these characters" How shall they preach except they be *Jer. xxiii. 32. Isa. xlviii. 16. lxi. 1. § John vii. 16. viii. 42. VOL. I. ¶ Quesnel on Eph. iii. 2. Col. i. 1. 12 sent?" They may indeed preach without a mission, but not as the messengers of God. No one can be an ambassador, except he be charged expressly with instructions from his Sovereign (else would he deliver what was the fruit of his own brain, not his Sovereign's will and commands.) Nor can any one legitimately come in the name of God to confirm the revelations of his will to man, except by his own express appointment. Hooker admirably observes- They are therefore Ministers of God, not only by way of subordination, as princes and civil magistrates, whose execution of judgment and justice the supreme hand of Divine Providence doth uphold; but Ministers of God, as from whom their authority is derived, and not from men. For in that they are Christ's ambassadors and his labourers, who should give them their commission, but fle, whose most inward affairs they manage ?'* The Divine call is either external or internal. As external, it is manifested by a commission received from and recognized by the church, according to the Scriptural and primitive order not indeed qualifying the Ministers, but authorizing him whom God had internally and suitably qualified. The external call communicates only official authority. The internal call conveys personal qualifications. But both these capabilities, though essentially distinct in their character, and flowing from different sources--are indispensably requisite for the exercise of the Divine commission. Both of them may be expected to unite unto the government of Him who is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all churches of the saints," and whose unction, fitting his servants for his work, is of a rational, holy * Hooker v. 77. : t1 Cor. xiv. 33. and orderly character, harmoniously combining with the constituted appointment of his will. How plainly do the superscriptions of St. Paul's Epistles, (with one or two exceptions,) stamp his instructions to the churches with the seal of his Divine commission! As Quesnel observes, He is never weary of inculcating to us this truth, that the will of God is the sole rule of any man's call, and the only gate, by which he can enter into the Ministry. The Mission is Divine in its -human in its channel and fountain and institutionway of communication.'* We need scarcely remark that the external call-as being the mere delegation of man, though necessary and authoritative in its character-is of itself insufficient to constitute the full credentials for the sacred office. It is upon the presumptive ground of the inward call--the work of Divine influence--that our church delegates her authorized commission. Nothing can be more explicit than the solemn question which she has put to us. "Do you trust that you are inwardly moved by the Holy Ghost to take upon you this office? Certainly,' as Bishop Burnet remarks with his usual seriousness, the answer that is made to this ought to be well considered; for if any says, 'I trust so,' that yet knows nothing of any such motion, and can give no account of it, he lies to the Holy Ghost, and makes his first approach to the altar with a lie in his mouth, and that not to men, but to God.' If indeed there be any meaning in terms as illustrative of things-an inward movement by the * Quesnel on 2 Cor. i. 1. Gal. i 1. In times past,' observes Luther, when I was but a young Divine, methought Paul did unwisely in glorying so oft of his calling in all his Epistles; but I did not understand his purpose: For I knew not that the Ministry of God's word was so weighty a matter." On Gal. i. 1. † Past. Care, chap. vi. Holy Ghost must imply an influence of this Divine agent upon the heart. It is not indeed manifested by any enthusiastic impulse. But it enlightens and influences the heart under a deep impression of the worth of souls, and the constraining influence of the love of Christ. It directs the conscience to a deep, sober, searching self-inquiry to a daily habit of searching the word of God, and prayer in distinct reference to this important subject, and to a careful and considerate observation of Providential circumstances, as the clear indications of the will of God. However, that which no man ought to do, almost every man does, in making himself the sovereign judge of his own calling.'* Many mistakes are made from the influence of a wrong bias upon the mind-from the excitement of feeling, self-will, or adventitious circumstances. Constitutional bias, or considerations of a worldly nature, often perplex the path, and darken those tokens of the Divine guidance which faith and simplicity warrant us to expect. May a man presume that he is thus" inwardly moved by the Holy Ghost" because he has had an inclination to the Ministry—or he has been educated for it--or he is thrust into it by the wishes of friends, or even by parental counsel or authority? Certainly not. Man may propose, but God must dispose; and happy that person who can say with the apostle, that it is "through the will of God," and not through his own, or that of his parents, that he is in the sacred Ministry.† Nothing could open a wider door for enthusiasm, than to suppose that an inclination or bias of the mind was a sufficient warrant for this most solemn undertaking. Motives and feelings, individual * Quesnel on Heb. v. 4. Ib. on 1 Cor. i. 1. |