OF THE IMPORTANCE AND DIFFICULTY OF THE MINISTERIAL FUNCTION.

[ Preached before the Synod of Aberdeen. ]

2 COR. II. 16.

Who is sufficient for these things? REVEREND and dearly beloved men, brethren, and fathers, It is one of the advantages of that peace and tranquillity wherewith Almighty God is pleased to bless this poor church, that the officers of it have liberty of assembling together on these occasions, for mutual assistance and counsel in the exercise of their holy function. And, indeed, if there were no matter of public deliberation, yet ought we gladly to embrace the opportunity of seeing one another's faces, not only that we may maintain and express a brotherly correspondence and affection, but also that we may animate and excite one another unto greater measures of diligence and zeal; as coals, being gathered together, do mutually receive and propagate some new degrees of vigour and heat. This I have always looked upon as none of the meanest advantages of these synodical meetings; and shall think myself very happy, if my poor endeavours, in the performance of this present duty, may, by the divine blessing, contribute any thing towards this excellent and desirable purpose. To this end, I have made choice of a text which I hope may afford us some useful meditations, for stirring up and awakening in our souls a deeper sense of those great engagements under which we lie.

The blessed Apostle, in the former verse, and beginning of this, has been speaking of the different success the gospel did meet with among those to whom it was preached; that it was not like those weak and harmless

medicines, which, if they do no good, are sure to do no hurt; but like some perfumes which are comfortable and strengthening to the wholesome, but troublesome and noxious to the weak; so doth it prove a vital savour to those who receive and obey it, but a most deadly poison to all who reject and despise it: For we are unto God a sweet savour of Christ, to them that are saved, and in them that perish; to the one we are a savour of death unto death, and to the other a savour of life unto life. And then he takes occasion to consider what a great matter it is to be employed in those administrations wherein the happiness and misery of mankind is so nearly concerned, Kai rís apis Tauta, &c.; and who is sufficient for these things?

We shall not detain you with an explication of the words. Two things, I conceive, are implied in them: 1. The importance; 2. The difficulty of the Ministerial function. For if a business be of small concern, it is little matter who have the management of it; there is no great harm done if it miscarry; any body is sufficient for that thing. On the other hand, let the matter be never so weighty, if there be no difficulty in it, there needs no extraordinary endowments in those to whom it is committed: common prudence and a little care will suffice; there is no likelihood that it can miscarry. But the work of the ministry is at once so important and so difficult of so great consequence and so hard to be performed, that there is a great deal of reason for an emphatic interrogation, Who is sufficient for these things?

I. First, Let us fix our thoughts awhile on the weight and importance of the ministry, and we shall find that it is a greater burden lying on our shoulders, than if the greatest affairs of this world were devolved upon us, and we did hold up the pillars of the earth. This will appear, whether we consider the relation we stand in to the Almighty God, or the charge of the flocks we have committed to us.

To begin with the first. That infinite Majesty which created, and doth continually uphold the earth, and all things in it, as the just owner and lord of the whole cre

ation, (for all are his servants, and must obey his will,) is yet pleased to claim a special property in some things which he chooseth for himself, and employeth for peculiar designs: Nevertheless of old did he choose a house for himself, and a place to be called by his name. At Salem was his tabernacle, and his dwelling-place in Zion. The Lord loved the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob. And the church, in all ages, hath thought it fit to separate some places from vulgar and common use, and to appropriate them to the service of God. Again, Though all times and seasons do belong unto God, yet hath he set apart a day for his worship, and sanctified a sabbath for himself. All men were created for the honour of God, and are infinitely obliged to serve him; yet, because the greatest part of mankind are too much engaged in worldly affairs, and have their souls fettered in the distracting cares of this life, and almost buried in their bodies, hath pleased the divine wisdom to call forth a select number of men, who, being delivered from those entanglements, and having their minds more highly purified, and more peculiarly fitted for the offices of religion, may attend continually on that very thing. Religion is every man's general calling; but it is our particular calling too: and, while the labourer is at his plough, the craftsman at his forge, and the merchant in his shop, the minister ought to be employed in the exercise of devotion, for the interest of advancing piety, and the honour of our Maker. My beloved, ye are deputed, as it were, by the whole creation, at least by the inferior world, to present their homage and service to God, and to praise him for all his works. You ought to maintain a correspondence between heaven and earth, to deprecate the wrath of God, and avert his vengeance and plagues from mankind. Your business is the same with that of the holy angels: you dwell in the house of God, and should be continually praising him. And this is an employment so holy, that, were our souls as pure as cherubs, as zealous and active as the blessed spirits that are above, we should yet have reason to cover our faces, and to be swallowed up in a deep sense

of our own insufficiency for these things. And what is sinful dust and ashes, that he should stand in so near a relation unto the Lord of glory! What is man, O blessed God, that thou shouldst choose him, and cause him to approach unto thee! that he should dwell in thy courts; and be satisfied with the goodness of thy house, even of thine holy temple! The priesthood, under the law, was a very sacred and venerable thing, and no profane hand might intermeddle with the meanest offices that belonged unto it. All the zeal and seemingly religious care that Uzzah had for the tottering ark, served not to excuse his presumption, when he intruded upon the Levitical function: but, certainly, as the gospel ministry is so much more excellent and sublime, being intrusted with the administration of those holy mysteries which were but shadowed in the former-how pure and holy ought those lips to be, by which God speaketh unto his people, and by which they speak unto him; which sometimes pronounce those powerful and effectual sentences of absolution and excommunication, that are so surely ratified in heaven: and those hands which are employed in the laver of regeneration, and to handle the bread of life! Hi sunt, (saith holy Chrysostom, de sacerd. lib. 3.) quibus, &c. "These are the men that assist at the pangs of the new birth, and to whom baptismal regeneration is committed: by those we put on Christ, and are buried with the Son of God, and so become members of that blessed head. Upon which account the sacerdotal function is more creditable than that of kings and princes; and we owe more honour unto priests, than unto parents themselves; for they have begotten us of blood, and of the will of the flesh; but these are the authors of that nativity which we have from God; that adoption, whereby, through grace, we become the children of the Most High." And, again, the same father, speaking of the sacerdotal power, expresses it in these terms: Qui terram incolunt, atque in ea versantur, his commissum est, ut ea quæ in cælis sunt dispensent, &c. "Men that live on earth, do dispense the things that are in heaven; and are intrusted with a pow

er that neither angels nor archangels can pretend unto: for to none of these was it said, What ye bind on earth, shall be bound in heaven. Earthly princes have the power of binding, but it is only the bodies of men. These bands that I speak of, take hold of the souls of men, and reach unto the very heavens; so that God doth ratify above; what the priest determines below; and his servants' decrees are ratified by their Lord. The Father hath given all judgment to the Son; but now, it seems, the Son does deliver it to the pastors of the church. And so eminent is this authority, that one would think the persons invested with it, must needs be raised above the common condition of men, and exempted from human affections, and, as it were, already placed in heaven." Thus far this holy father. Nor can I pass by what he says of that ineffable privilege of the celebration of the holy sacrament, though some of his expressions, being figurative and hyperbolical, have been abused by the Romish party: Dum conspicis Dominum in immolatione, et sacerdotem sacrificio incumbentem,&c.-"When thou dost behold the Lord of glory offered up, and the priest performing the sacrifice, and the people round about dyed, as it were, and made red with that precious blood; where, I pray thee, dost thou conceive thyself to be? Dost thou think thou art on earth, and conversing among mortal creatures: or art thou not rather on a sudden transported into heaven? Dost thou not lose all thoughts of the body, and material things, and with a pure mind, and naked soul, behold the things that are done in those regions above? And when the minister has invoked the divine Spirit, and performed those reverend and dreadful mysteries, and holdeth the Lord of all things in his hand, tell me, I beseech you, in what order of things we are to place him? What uprightness, what purity is required of him! what hands should they be that administer those things! what lips that utter and pronounce those words! For at that time the holy angels stand by the priest; the place is full of blessed spirits, who desire to look into those things; and all the orders of the heavenly host do shout, and raise