PART IV. CAUSES OF WANT OF SUCCESS CONNECTED WITH THE PUBLIC MINISTRY. THE Public Ministry of the Word is the most responsible part of our work-the most extensive engine of Ministerial operation-acting, not, like parochial visitations, upon individual cases, but with equal power of application to large numbers at the same moment. It is therefore, as Baxter has remarked A work that requireth greater skill, and especially greater life and zeal, than any of us bring to it.'* It deserves therefore a prominent and detailed consideration in passing over the ground of the Ministerial field, though a full discussion of its several particulars would furnish ample materials for a volume. CHAPTER I. THE INSTITUTION AND IMPORTANCE OF THE 'BECAUSE therefore want of the knowledge of God is the cause of all iniquity amongst men, as contrariwise the ground of all our happiness, and the seed of whatsoever perfect virtue groweth from us, is a right opinion touching things Divine; this kind *Reformed Pastor. of knowledge we may justly set down for the first and chiefest thing, which God imparteth unto his people, and our duty of receiving this at his merciful hands for the first of those religious offices, wherewith we publicly honour him on earth. For the instruction therefore of all sorts of men to eternal life it is necessary, that the sacred and saving truth of God be openly published unto them. Which open publication of heavenly mysteries is by an excellency termed preaching."* This institution belonged to the Jewish economy. Moses received his commission from the hands of God for the express purpose of the public instruction of the people,† and, when himself unequal to this work, seventy elders were set apart by Divine authority for his assistance. Traces of this institution are discovered in the history of the chosen people, during the reign of their kings. It was expressly revived after the captivity, nearly according to the present mode§-marking the decent ceremonial of the occasion-its simplicity, deep solemnity, and peculiar adaptation for the purpose of instruction. Our Lord, as the Great Preacher of righteousness, employed this institution for his public work. The Apostles allude to it historically as a standing ordinance from the beginning,¶ and used it as the medium of the communication of their Divine message. Bingham shows it to have been continued in the Church, though with some interruption, from the primitive ages,†† and it is now established as the grand mean of uplifting the standard, and blowing the trumpet of the Gospel throughout the world. ** * Hooker, Book, v. 18. Exod. xxiv. 12. § See Neh. viii. 4-8. Acts xv. 21. See his Antiquities. The Ministry of our Lord illustrates the importance of this institution. It was the work for which he was anointed-in which he was constantly employedtand for which he ordained his Apostles-first limiting their commission within the precincts of Judea,§ afterwards extending it to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. In conformity to this commission and to their Master's example-" daily in the temple, and in every house, they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ," and in enlarging the field of their labours among the Gentiles, they contemplated nothing short of the accomplishment of their Master's design in the preaching of the gospel "unto every creature which is under heaven "** The purpose of God has constituted this ordinance the main instrument in the work of salvation. tt That is said of preaching, which is said of no other department of the work. Neither the administration of the sacraments--nor the reading of the Scriptures -nor the habit of secret prayer are invested with qual efficiency in the raising of the church of God. In the ordinary course of means it is of supreme necessity" How shall they hear"-so as to believe -call upon the Lord-and be saved, "without a preacher? So then faith cometh by hearing, and Luke iv. 18, 43. Mark iii 14. † Ib. xix. 47, Matt. xxviii. 19. Mark xvi. 15. Luke xxiv. 47. ¶ Acts x. 42. ** Col. i. 23. tt Comp. 1 Cor. i. 17, 18, 21. Prædicatio verbi est medium gratiæ divinitus institutum, quo res regni Dei publice et explicantur et applicantur populo ad salutem et ædificationem.' Bowles' Pastor Evangelicus 1655. Lib. ii. c. i.-a work of considerable value, as giving a serious, important, and detailed exposition of the Christian Ministry. |