ever: embassador of Christ, and a man of God, you have that honour. If it be honourable, to sustain the highest trust, that can, in the methods of common providence, be reposed in mortal man, even to have The glorious gospel of the blessed God committed to our charge*, and to be made guardians of souls which are to exist for -If it be honourable, to bear an office which was sanctified by Christ, who himself bore it, and by bearing it has dignified it for ever; an office, which is mentioned in the sacred oracles, as the great gift of Christ to his church; as the immediate, though not the ultimate end of the most visible and extraordinary effusion of his Spirit:For When he ascended up on high, and led captivity captive, he gave gifts unto men; and distributed the royal donative, giving first apostles, then prophets, then evangelists, then pastors and teachers; that by it holy men might be perfectly fitted for the work of the ministry, that so the body of Christ, that is, his whole church, might be edified †, or built up ‡:- -Rejoice, that your name is now, as it were, inserted in the catalogue of these his servants, and reflect frequently on the honour; not to be exalted above measure, but to be awakened and animated to a dignity and sanctity of behaviour correspondent to it. 2. Let me also congratulate you on the pleasures of that office, on which you are entered. For pleasures mingle themselves amidst all its labours and difficulties, all its reproaches, and its persecutions; yea, when duly executed, it is a series of pleasures. Pleasures will meet you in your secret retirements; they will attend you here in the house of your God; they will follow you to the house of your friends: They will crown all your days, and above all your sabbaths: And these, rational, pure, sublime pleasures, which the man may approve, the christian relish, and which, did angels dwell in human flesh, they surely would pursue. Must it not necessarily be pleasant to a devout heart, and God forbid, that any other should here be in question! to give itself up in secret to the contemplation of divine things, to search the rich mines of scripture, to investigate the glorious mysteries with which they are pregnant, and Which angels stoop down that they may look into §? to compare one part of the sacred oracles with another, that each may be illustrated by the comparison? to discover, I will not say new doctrines of importance, for I +Eph. iv. 8, 11, 12, *1 Tim. i. 11. This version I think the original words will bear; os tov xalaghoper Tar αγλών εις έργον διακονιας, εις οικοδομην τα σώματος τα Χριστο § 1 Pet. i. 12. persuade myself, God has not left his christian church to learn them in these last days, but new illustrations of the great and acknowledged truths of his gospel, new beauties in the arrangement and expressions of particular texts, new methods of touching the hearts of men, by truths already familiar to their ear? What can be more delightful also, than to rise up to lead the public devotions of a worshipping assembly? to spread before the blessed God, in their name, and our own, prayers and supplications, intercessions and thanksgivings? to remind them of the divine mercy? to proclaim among them the everlasting gospel; animated with a secret hope, (while meditating in private, while speaking in the assembly,) that by the divine blessing, the knowledge and love of God in a Redeemer may be shed abroad on some ignorant and wretched soul, hitherto destitute of it; and in many other instances, that truly christian sentiments may be kept alive, in hearts that have already receiv ed them, and be transmitted from the present to the next generation. Nor can any subjects of conversation administer a nobler delight in the houses of your friends, than those which will naturally fall before you, as a minister. For if religion add so much sweetness and endearment to friendship, when contracted between persons of the most private characters, it must much more do it in such instances; where past ministerial services may be recollected, where the fruits of them may be made apparent, and the man of God more abundantly furnished for the future discharge of his office, in the most suitable and therefore the most edifying manner. Which naturally leads me, 3. To congratulate you on that prospect of usefulness, which this happy day may open upon you. It is true, that how well so ever we may be furnished for the ministry, and how agreeable so ever we are placed in it, we must not hope, that our success will be universal: Hardly can we flatter ourselves, that it will be general. What are we Better than our fathers *? Or how comparable to our master? That we should never complain with them, and even with him, that we Labour in vain, and spend our strength for nought †? Yet we can ourselves witness, from what we have seen, and from what we have felt, the blessing that hath attended the ministry of others. And I trust, that even those of us, who are least advanced in life, least experienced in the work, have al ready been favoured with some seals of our ministry, some who are as letters of recommendation, written as it were by the hand of Christ himself *; and that you, sir, will be thus honoured. Oh that it might be abundantly! Yes, I trust, God will give you to convert many. And if it were but one, who can express the happiness of saving one soul from death, of conducting one immortal creature to life and glory everlasting? You will also, I doubt not, edify many by every public prayer you offer, and by every sermon you preach. Your words, proceeding from your own heart, will reach the hearts of others, and rekindle the languishing flame of devotion. Every virtue, and every grace will, I hope, flourish under your cultivation; while you strengthen, with renewed exhortations, every good resolution already formed: And the rising generation, growing up under your care, in concurrence with that of pious parents whom you animate to the important charge of their education, will, by insensible degrees, be furnished with the knowledge of religion, and brought, not only to the speculation, but to the sentiments and practice of it. So that while others have, it may be, their bags, their houses, their furniture, and their fields, to shew as the effect of their labours; you will have captives of satan, rescued from his tyranny, adopted into the family of God, and honoured with the privileges of his children, crouding his courts, and surrounding his table, as the infinitely more valuable fruits of yours. You will see the character of christians brightening from sabbath to sabbath, under your evangelical and practical instructions; their blemishes wearing out, and their graces contracting (as by exercise they will contract) more strength and more beauty continually. God will also undoubtedly give you, to wipe the weeping eve, to chear the mourning heart; to be his instrument in taking off the burthen from tender depressed spirits; in which number you will sometimes find those, who may, (if any in the world may,) be justly called The excellent of the earth +. Christ, the great Lord of the church, will in many instances make you (as it were) the almoner of his bounty, and messenger of his love; while he is giving to them that mourn in Zion, beauty for ashes, and sending them the garments of praise in exchange for the spirit of heaviness ‡. Your kind offices, and the happy effects of them, will attend your friends, not only in all the darkest hours of preceding affliction, but even on their dying beds. * 2 Cor. iii. 1, 3. VOL. III. + Ps. xvi. 3. Is. Ixi. 3. There will you animate their faith; there will you be a helper of their joy*; and furnish the hand of the departing pilgrim, with the promises of God, as a sure staff, to support him in his way through all the gloomy horrors of the last valley, by which he must pass to the new Jerusalem. By such traces of usefulness will you mark, as it were, the several years, and months, and days of life; while the passage of so many others through it is like that of an arrow through the trackless air: Till at length you die with a pleasing consciousness, that you have not lived in vain, and rise to rewards never to be described by mortal voice, never to be conceived by the human heart, and of which I must not say any thing more now, as I am briefly to touch upon them in the concluding part of my discourse. Now while you have these things in view, do you not, my brother, congratulate yourself upon this happy occasion? I am persuaded, you do. I am persuaded, that your heart is even now bowing itself in secret thankfulness before God, that he hath honoured you with capacities for this work: that he hath furnished you with the means of a proper education for it; and that his providence has at length called you out to it. Nor can your gratitude forget his distinguished goodness in settling you with so generous, so affectionate, and so pious a people, and now in the bonds of joint-pastorship with that faithful and venerable servant of Christ with whom you share the office +. You will, I doubt not, Serve with him, as a son with a Father, in the gospel of Christ ‡. Nor can the warmest friendship form a greater wish for you, than that you may learn by the daily opportunities of conversing with him, to improve more and more in that rich variety of christian and ministerial graces, which have for a long series of years rendered his name so honourable in our churches, and his flock so peculiarly happy. Oh that I could also congratulate you, and them, on returning and continued opportunities of learning, as formerly, by his public labours? In the mean time, permit me with these cordial congratulations to intermingle, II. Some faithful admonitions, relating to the labours,—the difficulties, the oppositions, attending the station of life on which you are entered,—and the solemn account in which it is to terminate. Of these indeed you have just now been reminded by my dear and honoured brother, in so judicious, and in so * 2 Cor. i. 24. + The Rev, Mr. Thomas Scott. Phil, ii. 22, pathetical a manner, that it is the less necessary for me to enlarge upon them. Yet were they to be wholly omitted by me in this discourse, it could hardly be called a charge; and I fear, it is a subject, on which we all need Line upon line, and precept upon precept. Let me therefore solemnly, though briefly, remind you, 1. Of the labours, that attend this situation of life. These indeed are such, as will demand an almost uninterrupted attention of mind, and vigour of diligence. Labours await you at home, and abroad :-Labours on your own days, and on the sabbath; a day of rest to others, but to you of the most strenuous, though most delightful service:Labours in the study; that knowledge may be increased; that provision may be made for public ministrations, with solidity, with perspicuity, with propriety, with energy, with tenderness :Labours in the pulpit; that public devotions may be suitably and fervently poured out before God; and sermons so delivered, as, if possible, to command the attention of the auditory, and to communicate, in a natural and effectual manner, those good affections to others, which you feel in your own breast.Not to mention the labours to be gone through in visiting your friends, and in the exercise of that prudent personal and domestic inspection, which you must necessarily attend to, if you would approve yourself a skilful, yea, I will add, if you would approve yourself a faithful shepherd.-What a combination on the whole! Labours of the head, labours of the voice; but oh, above all, labours of the heart! For this is indeed the labour: To fix on our own inconstant spirits a becoming habitual sense of God; to feel always in our own breast those pious affections, which it is our business to endeavour to raise in others; in a word, to keep the sacred flame of love to God, to Christ, and to the souls of men, ever burning, yea ever glowing, with an intenseness of heat proportionable to the number and nature of those sacrifices, which are daily, which are hourly to be presented!Help, Lord, or it will soon be extinguished! Feed it continually by thy celestial stream; or Who is sufficient for these things!You will surely say so, when you consider, 2. The difficulties attending your work, of which I am next to admonish you. But here, as indeed under the former head, your own experience must already have done it in the most convincing man *2 Cor. ii. 16. |