stead, be ye reconciled to God."* Indeed, the commission our Saviour gave his apostles fully asserts this power. They were commanded to go and preach the gospel to men of all nations without exception; to receive those who embraced it into the church by baptism; to instruct them in all christian doctrines, and to teach them to do all that Christ had commanded. Directions were also given them how to conduct themselves in the discharge of the work assigned them, and the Holy Spirit was promised to them, to direct them in their ministry, and enable them to accomplish it with full effect.

4. Clergymen are "the ministers of Christ," as they are, in his name, intercessors with God for his people.

Though this is not directly asserted by our Saviour in his commission to the apostles, yet the very nature of their office implies it: And that it was always understood to do so, appears from their having ever been the conductors of the public worship in christian assemblies; presiding in them, directing what things they should pray for, presenting their petitions at the throne of grace, and interceding with God in their behalf, that he would hear the prayers of his church, forgive the iniquity of his people, grant them peace in this world, and everlasting life in the world to come, through Jesus Christ.

That this office of intercession belonged to the priesthood of Aaron, under the Mosaic dispensation, is evident from many passages of holy scripture: I shall mention only one. The prophet Joel prescribes a set form of intercession to be used by the priests, on a day of solemn humiliation and fasting: "Let the priests, the ministers of the Lord, weep between the porch and the altar, and let them say, Spare thy people, O Lord, and give not thine beritage to reproach." And the author of the text has, in his epistle to the Hebrews, taught us, that "the ministers of Christ" have, under their great High-Priest, a far more excellent priesthood than that of Aaron. They have, therefore, a better right of intercession; and a firmer ground of hope towards God, that their intercession

* 2 Corinthians v. 18, 19, 20.

Chapter ii. verse 17.

+ Chapter vii.

shall prevail, seeing it is made in his name, and through his merit, who offered himself a sacrifice for sin; and who, being now exalted to "the right hand of the throne of God," "ever liveth to make intercession for" his church, and to present her prayers and praises to God, as the sweet odour of incense. "We have an altar," said St. Paul," whereof they have no right to eat, which serve the tabernacle." Now an altar implies sacrifice, and sacrifice a priesthood, and a priesthood intercession.

In these respects, all duly authorized clergymen are to be accounted of, " as the ministers of Christ," as they act under authority derived from him; as they are the appointed rulers and governors of his church, under him the supreme head; as they are his ambassadors to the world, empowered to declare and explain the terms of reconciliation with God, and to persuade men to accept and comply with them; and as they are, in Christ's name, intercessors with God for his people. I come now to consider them,

2. As stewards of the mysteries of God.

And,

1. They are so, as they are dispensers of the word, that is, preachers of the "great mystery of godliness, God manifest in the flesh," which virtually contains in it all the mysteries or sublime truths of christianity.

The word mystery is, I know, particularly obnoxious to a number of men, who, under the affected style of free-thinkers, would persuade the world that they think more justly and clearly, as well as more freely, than other people that, having divested themselves of all prejudices and prepossessions, their minds are more candid and liberal; and that, as they are determined to regulate their opinions solely by reason, they discard all mystery from their system, and will believe nothing which they do not fully comprehend. When these men have explained all the mysteries of this world, whose objects are subject to their senses, it may be well enough to hear their harangues upon religion, and the things of the next world. When † Heb. vii. 25.

*Heb. xii. 2. 1 Tim. iii. 16.

Rev. viii. 3, 4. § Heb. xiii. 10.

they shall fully comprehend the mysteries of their own nature, and unfold to our apprehension the operations of their own minds: how they think, and will, and reason, they may justly claim our attention to their discourses on the nature and operations of the Deity; and may claim some right to our confidence, when they tell us what God can, and cannot do; how he must, and must not act. But while the whole world is full of mysteries which they can no more comprehend than we can; while they cannot account for their own senses, how they hear, or see, or taste, or smell, or feel; nor explain the nature of a fly; nor tell how they themselves move a finger : shall their arrogant pretences fright us from the belief or avowal of the doctrines of our holy religion, founded on the revelation and authority of God? Let us rather leave these men of wondrous wisdom to the enjoyment of their own vanity, and remember, that the works, and nature, and revelations of an infinite God, must appear full of mysteries, when contemplated by beings of such limited understandings as we are. To return;

The mysteries, or sublime truths of christianity, I said, were committed to the ministers of the church as stewards, to be by them dispensed or preached to the people. The principal of these truths are, the trinity of the Godhead, the incarnation of the Son of God, the atonement and forgiveness of sins by the death of Christ, the operations of the Holy Spirit, particularly his inspirations upon the hearts of men, the virtue and efficacy of faith, the resurrection of the body from death, the general judgment of the last day, and the life everlasting in heaven. That these are to be the general subjects of their preaching, the tenor of the new testament declares; and their authority to do so is derived from that clause of our Lord's commission to his apostles, which directs them to make disciples, or converts to his religion, of all nations. The belief of these doctrines is included in the very idea of a disciple of Christ: and though his ministers may not be able to explain them all, so as to bring them to the level of human understandings, yet they can shew that they are VOL. I.

C

doctrines of christianity: they can point out the authority on which they are to be received, the evidences of that authority, their necessity in the christian system, and the influence they are calculated to have on the religious conduct of its professors. When this is properly done, these points become reasonable articles of our belief, and we receive as much benefit from them, as we should do, did we minutely comprehend them.

Another branch of the duty of clergymen as dispensers of the word of God is, their instructing the people in their duty, or their "teaching them to observe all things whatsoever Christ has commanded." The end of faith is practice. The end of christian principles is to produce a christian life. This is, therefore, a great part of the steward's office. They are intrusted with the knowledge of Christ's commands; and the interpretation of their meaning, the defining their extent, the shewing their reason and usefulness, and the inforcing their observance by proper motives, are all committed to them. So is also the interpretation of scripture, the explanation and application of the promises and threatenings of God, the confirmation of truth, and the refutation of error. Their office, in short, as preachers or dispensers of the word, takes in all the revelations and dispensations of God to man, all the articles of christian faith, all the points of christian doctrine, and all the particulars of christian practice.

2. Clergymen are stewards of the mysteries of God, as they are dispensers of the holy sacraments of God, and, in a limited sense, of the gifts and graces of the Holy Spirit, and of the divine blessing.

To admit men into the church by baptism has been shewn to be part of the commission given by our Lord to his apostles, a little before he was taken from them into heaven. The power of administering the other sacrament, the sacrifice of the eucharist, was given to them at its institution, a little before his crucifixion, when having blessed the bread and the cup, and dividing them among the apostles, he said, "this do in remembrance of me."*

* Luke xxii. 19.

That is, as I have now taken the bread and the cup, and blessed and divided them among you, as the representatives of my body now offered to God, and ready to be broken, and of my blood now offered up, and ready to be poured out for the redemption of the world; so do ye in my church take bread and the cup, and bless them, and distribute them to my faithful servants, for a memorial of what I now do, (offering myself to God a willing victim for the sins of the world,) and of those sufferings I shall speedily endure; and also as pledges of my love to you and to all mankind, and of all the benefits to be obtained through my redemption. In the power of this command, and under the immediate influence of the Holy Ghost, the apostles and first christians continued daily to worship and praise God in the temple, and to break bread, that is, administer the holy communion "from house to house," or rather in the house, probably the house where they assembled for christian worship, which could not be celebrated in the temple.* St. Paul also, in his first epistle to the Corinthians,† recites the words of institution from our Saviour, and gives directions for the decent celebration. of the communion, in such manner as declares the perpetuity of the ordinance, and the authority of Christ's ministers to celebrate it. Upon comparing all circumstances together, it does not appear how any other person can validly administer either of the christian sacraments. The power of administration depending so directly upon the commission of Christ to his apostles, he, who holds no part of it by an uninterrupted succession of ordinations, can have no pretence to meddle with them.

The latter of the two sacraments, the holy eucharist, was, by the primitive christians, styled the sacred mysteries. It is probable, that the phrase came from the apostles, and that St. Paul alluded particularly to it, when he called the "ministers of Christ," "stewards of the mysteries of God." Should it be asked why the eucharist was called the sacred mysteries? I answer, it was on account of the great mystery contained in it. For that is properly Chapter xi. ver. 23, &c.

* Acts xi. 42, 46.