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SERMON
PBEACHEE AT THE OPENING- ©F
THE SYNOD OF ALBANY,
WATERTOWN,
JEFFERSON COUNTY, NEW-YORR,
Oct. 4, 1826.Watertown, Oct. 1826.
Resolved that Mr. Coe, Mr. Armstrong, and Mr. Johnson, be a Committee
to request a copy of the Sermon, preached by the Rev. Samuel P. Williams,
for publication.
A true extract from the Minutes.
JOHN CHESTER, Stated Clerk.
KF The next meeting of the Synod is to be opened with a Sermon by the
Rev. Nathaniel S. Prime, in the Second Presbyterian Church,in Utica, on the
first Thursday in October, 1827, at 7 o’clock, P.SERMON.
2 Corinthians ii, 16.
s and who is sufficient for these things,
In relation to the business of every profession, it is an
unquestionable verity that inexperience is ignorance.
The recognition of this truth in reference to men of
all occupations is important, but of the deepest inter-
est to society in its application to the teachers of
religion. The magnitude and difficulties of their
office, have been correctly or falsely estimated in
proportion to men’s ignorance, or acquaintance with
God, themselves, and one another. Hence, some
have coveted it for the ease which they supposed
it to promise, and others shrunk from a call to its
duties, in view of its toils, responsibilities, and
trials. The patriarch Abraham, strong in faith above
ordinary believers, still felt it a fearftjl thing for dust4
and ashes to speak at all to Jehovah in behalf of
guilty men. And Moses, with all his endowments,
penetrating the character of Israel, declines to become
their guide and deliverer. Isaiah with one eye direct-
ed to the majesty and purity of the Lord of Hosts,
and the other to the people of unclean lips among
whom he dwelt, himself consciously unclean, ex-
claims, Wo is me! I am cut off. Jeremiah, educated
among the priests of Anathoth, possessing no com-
mon knowledge of the Holt One, and a heart of
unequalled sensibility, trembles at the thought of
assuming the prophetic office, uttering the unaffected
language of self-diffidence, Ah! Lord God, I cannot
speak, for I am a child.
The Novice, on the other hand, rushes into the
sacred office uncalled, and in confidence of the suffi-
ciency of his own powers, sees the mountains quake
and the hills melt at his presence, and every fortress
of unbelief and obduracy, yield to the force of his
eloquence.
Under the Christian dispensation, is presented
us a man more distinguished for his gifts than patri-
arch or prophet: a man ranked by Longinus with the
chief of orators, and pronounced by far higher author-
ity “the c-hiefest of the apostles,” who is still in his
own estimate, nothing. Yes, even from this man, as
he looks intently on the duties and the issues of the5
sacred ministry, we hear the same language of con-
scious impotence.—Who is sufficient for these things!
'Holiness, my brethren, is a supernatural endow-
ment, and though by no means a full qualification
for the Christian ministry, is among many indispensa-
ble attributes, the first in rank and the pervading ex-
cellence among them all. It is a useful auxiliary to
men of the highest intellectual endowments in every
profession, but in this, it is the “one thing” without
which the Christian church acknowledges no man an
embassador of God. We are not to suppose the
interrogatory, however, to have been suggested by
any partial views of the ministerial office, but by pro-
found reflection on its nature and objects, the weight
of its responsibilities and its overwhelming results.
The most significant word in the text, though
sometimes used in the sacred writings to denote apti-
tude, fitness, worthiness, is better rendered in this
connexion by the comprehensive term, sufficiency.
It is the sentiment of the. apostle, therefore, and of this
discourse, that there is no proportion between the
native powers of man, and the work and end of the
Christian ministry. This sentiment will be partially
illustrated in a consideration of its duties and its
object, the variety of powers to be encountered and
overcome, and the imbecility of him who is to sustain
the conflict.&
I. Let us examine then, however familiar the
subject, the ordinary duties of the Christian minister.
Among these duties, the first and most prominent
is that of preaching the word of God. This compri-
ses both the moral law which came by Moses, and the
grace and truth which came by Jesus Christ, whose
riches an apostle has pronounced unsearchable. In
this duty, which to the superficial thinker seems so
easy a part of his work, he is presented with the most
serious embarrassments in the outset. For as a pre-
requisite to declaring the counsel of God, it is obvious
he must understand it. So that his first duty is a diffi-
culty and his chief privilege a mighty labor. For the
word of God is not like treaties of human science sys-
tematically arranged and methodized, but so unique in
its composition that to form a correct judgment of any
one of its chief portions, and to possess a thorough
knowledge of its meaning and intent, we must know
something of every other part and of their connexions
as a whole. Limiting our thoughts, however, to its
essential truths, to those which are fundamental of
Christianity, and which distinguish it from every
other system of religion, what care and vigorous at-
tention, what intense application, and repeated com-
parison of parts are necessary to ensure to us any
thing worthy of the name of knowledge ? It may not
be possible, and if possible cannot be important, to as-7
certain precisely the relation of each grand truth to
every other, but it is of first importance to discover
their existence and their harmony, or what is, cannot
be distinguished from what is not the word of God.
And in order to this, some acquaintance with the
times, the circumstances, the designs, and language of
the writers is necessary. Knowledge in some extent,
also, of the character and customs of the people to
which their allusions are made, and of those philoso-
phical and historical facts or hypotheses, on which
their reasonings often proceed. But whatever his ge-
nius, learning, judgment, and culture, where is a son
of man who has no improper associations of thought
to be broken up, no prepossessions and prejudices of
education to be subdued, no moral antipathies and aver-
sions to be overcome, before the mind is fitted even to
enter on the investigation of religious truth, above all,
before he is qualified to teach it to others ? Amidst all
the existing and exploded schemes of theology pro-
fessedly derived from the bible and claiming utility
and success as their sanction, how many are there
which have found both serious and able advocates
among the writers of nineteen centuries? Writers too
among whom there exists none, possessing a title to
infallibility, and to exclusive evidence of candor or
integrity. Placed thus in the midst of clashing opin-
ions and conflicting systems, and yet at liberty to fol-
■J '8
low none implicitly, to call none master or father upon
earth, a modest and ingenuous mind, consciously bound
by supreme authority to declare all and none other
than the counsel of God, can more readily feel than de-
scribe the difficulties to be surmounted in discharging
one of the first and chief duties of this sacred voca-
tion. For however great the diversity of systems
presented to his examination, and however renowned
their advocates, he must speak as the oracles of God,
or expect to save neither himself nor them who hear
him, since truth is the only promised instrument of
sanctification.
But to understand, is only a preparatory step to
the duty of testifying, the gospel of the grace of God.
He has next to impress the conscience, and affect the
heart, and both to exhort and convince gainsayers.
He is to put to silence the ignorance of foolish men,
and to disenthral the mind in bondage to error through
the instructions of men who pervert the truth. He
has to overthrow the objections, not of the illiterate
and the wicked only, but the strong holds in which the
learned have entrenched themselves, and to disembar-
rass every mind preoccupied with strange doctrines.
The difficulties of the upright too, and the opposition
of innumerable sects, whose works have found their
way into the hands and the partialities of some to
whom he ministers, it is his, by skilful application of9
divine truth, to meet and to remove, knowing that he
is set for the defence of the gospel, as well as the res-
cue of the ensnared disciple.
Among a mixed auditory of various views, and
variously fortified, he is to distribute the word of God
without mixture, and to commend himself to every
man’s conscience as a workman who needeth not to
be ashamed. He is to give to every description of
men their portion in due season, clothed too in a dress
acceptable and profitable to the refined and uncultiva-
ted taste, to the profound scholar and the little child.
He is to come to one class in the vehemence of a son
of thunder, to another, in the gentleness of the nurse
soothing and cherishing her children. He is to give
to the various departments of revealed truth their due
proportion of attention, and at the same time to adapt
his instructions to the immediate and most pressing
necessities of his congregation. In this branch of the
duty another species of talent is demanded, and such
wisdom in the selection and order of his topics, as
well as skill in handling them, such invention in re-
gard to variety, such propriety in the manner of treat-
ing every subject, as to secure attention and make his
way sure to the understanding, are so necessary, that
he has no small difficulty to surmount when he had
supposed every barrier thrown down.
210
Is he prepared, rightly to divide the word of truth,
to state intelligibly, and vindicate unanswerably the
doctrines of Christianity, to give to each its relative
importance, and elicit its practical tendency ? Has he
attained to a thorough knowledge of all which is re-
vealed concerning the being, perfections, and purposes
of God, and learned the exact boundary prescribed to
human research ? Has he possessed himself of a know-
ledge of all that is common to the moral character of
man as a sinner, and as a Christian, and of their re-
spective duties and dangers, temptations and destinies?
Is he thus far prepared to enlighten, convince, per-
suade, confirm ; to define accurately, the Christian vir-
tues, and enforce powerfully the obligations of all men
in all the diversity of their personal and social rela-
tions? Has he acquired wisdom to apply judiciously
the sanctions of the law and the encouragements, me-
naces, and promises of the gospel, so as to convict the
self-righteous of guilt, alarm the hypocrite,, excite the
sensible to decision, and disturb the secure in Zion;
so as to comfort the mourner, animate the irresolute,
support the weak, rouse 'j|he indolent to action, re-
strain the impetuous, and convert to useful purpose
the spirit of the less enlightened zealot? so as to for-
tify the timid, cheer the desponding, detect the self-de-
ceiver, and correct the deluded? Has he learned to
administer reproof, of the proper character, with chris-»
tian meekness, in due time and degree, to the erring
Christian, and the bold transgressor? Has his mind un-
dergone all that discipline, and his temper, that pu-
rifying process by which he is rendered apt to teach?
even then, a new source of difficulty is presented him
in the duty of practising what he knows, and in defi-
ance of all imaginary and real danger of magnifying
his office and making full proofs of his ministry. A
thousand temptations to unfaithfulness assail him, and
a thousand facilities for gratifying himself and others
by yielding to them, without incurring reproach, are
afforded him. Within are fightings and without are
fears. He is on every side perplexed, if not cast down:
distressed, if not in despair. Coldness and languor
are on his part, while insensibility or irritation are on,
that of his people. Here is the fear of impairing a
needful influence, by incurring, needlessly, the increas-
ed opposition of those whom he would conciliate; and
there, the hope of winning men by a policy which
without any thing of the virtue, passes under the name
of prudence. Now a sense of his own imperfections,
and unfruitfulness, prompts'him to unauthorised con-
nivance at other men’s sins; and now a dread of un-
faithfulness urges him beyond the extreme point of
discretion. At one time his imagined boldness in the
faith rises insensibly to rashness and self-confidence,
and results in outrage; at another, his most cherishedm
compassion degenerates into weak and injurious com-
pliances; and the anticipated retort, physician heal
thyself, gives a time serving stillness, or mischievous
movement to the tongue, from which the law of kind-
ness and of truth should have been resolutely pro-
claimed. His bark is ever between two tides, and
without some other pilot at helm, than the wisdom
and will of the flesh, he will unavoidably make ship-
wreck, and the blood of them who perish, be required
at his hands. From the nature of his contest between
the law of the members and the law of the spirit of
life, and from the complex business of his office, he is
fated to say in relation to himself, O! wretched man,
and in reference to his official responsibilities, who is
sufficient for these things! who can thus excel in all
the gifts of knowledge and of utterance; thus abound
in all wisdom and charity and prudence? Where is the
man whose moral powers are at all proportioned to
the duties of the Christian ministry. Who, is adequate
to make himself a sweet savour unto God both in them
who are saved, and in them who under the most faith-
ful ministry will perish; to make manifest the know-
ledge of Christ in every place, and without ignorance
or corruption of it, declare always truly and seasona-
bly the counsel of God? This, however, though of ob-
vious obligation, is but one of the duties of our voca-
tion.13
A second no less familiar, and of no less solemn
import, is the stated administration of the ordinance of
prayer. And to the discharge of this duty, a kind of
learning is necessary which neither books nor any
professional skill of man, nor nature itself, can teach.
While they combine their influence to enforce the duty
of human intercession, they leave all creatures as
they find them, impotent to perform it acceptably to
God. For the gift, including the grace of prayer,
man needs an unction from on high. The minister
of Christ is required to present to God continually,
supplications, intercessions, thanksgivings and praises,
for his people, and for all men. He, of consequence,
in all his approaches to the throne of grace, is to be
a model of propriety of sentiment and diction, of
solemnity and pathos, of purity and comprehensive-
ness of desire, of holy awe and fervor in spirit. What-
ever of reverence, and love, and humility, and grati-
tude, and admiration, and confidence toward God;
whatever of good-will and compassion toward sinners
who have no covenant interest there, whatever of
animated hope and holy boldness in behalf of the
children of adoption, can be fitly expressed before
heaven and in sight of that throne, is to appear in all
his addresses there. There he is feelingly to recog-
nize, beyond the men whose devotion he guides, the
wants and weaknesses, the mercies and dangers, of14
all, in all departments of society, in all countries on
the globe. Both gifts and graces of a superior order,
are fitly expected of Mm, to follow whom, the whole
assembly suspend the exercise of theirs, yielding
harmoniously to the order of grace, that the consti-
tuted shepherd and bishop of their souls may fulfil the
duties of his appointed station. And how beautiful
that order, when that station is filled. How unmeet
is it on the other hand in the affairs of any kingdom,
that the inferior, occupy the higher place. In such a
station, my brethren, and under sacred obligations to
fulfil the duties of relations so extensive and endear-
ing, what ought he to be who ministers at the altar of
God? What cleanness of hands, what benevolence of
heart, what soundness of understanding, what burning
lips, become an intercessor who pleads for ill deserv-
ing men, and pleads with God! who standing con-
tinually between the porch and the altar, cries to the
one in behalf of the other, spare thy people and give
not thy heritage to reproach. Who from week to
week, through his whole life, is the organ of Jehovah
to the people, the medium of the people’s communica-
tions to the prayer hearing Jehovah. Who of us,
who among men, is sufficient for these things?
■ A third duty pertaining to the sacred office, is the
administration of the Christian sacraments, including
a clear and full explanation of their nature and design;,15'
of the dispositions in which they are to be participated,
and of the effects which they are intended to produce
on the communicant. Who pre proper subjects of
these ordinances, what the qualifications for their
enjoyment and the terms of admission to it? what
errors of Opinion and practise, and what period and
occupations of life, exclude the applicant from a share
in the privilege? are questions neither to be conscien-*
tiously shunned, nor solved without difficulty, nor
contemplated without solicitude. Questions, which
every administrator is to settle at the bar of his own
conscience, by the word of God; some of them in
opposition to the wishes and decision of respectable
portions of the Christian community, and all, without
deference to the custom, usage, authority, or con-
science of any other than the church erected by
Christ himself, through his inspired apostles. These
seals of the covenant, he is to apply to none other
than God has declared meet for them; from none of
that description may be withhold them. He needs of
consequence, a very nice discernment in spiritual
things, an enlarged acquaintance with God’s dispen-
sations to the church, and a maturity of judgment
above the ordinary counsellors of men. Who, in his
administration, has kept these ordinances pure and
entire, always careful to distinguish between the pre-
cious and the vile? Who has not felt himself under a16
necessity to advise and act, in cases where the line of
distinction seemed almost imaginary, while that dread
sentence was before him, which the venerable Chry-
sostom confessed “shook his soul continually,” the
sentence of his Judge, that it were better, with a
mill-stone about the neck, to be cast into the deep,
than to scandalize the weakest of his disciples.
At the table of the Lord, that simplest and dear-
est of all memorials, the administrator feels himself
weak as other men. Yet there, what various powers
are to be combined, what a variety of affections con-
joined, as he labors by means of the symbols of the
body and blood of Christ, to awaken in every soul
the spirit of faith and hope, of penitence, love, and
devotedness, that the head may be exalted and the
members edified! Here, distrust of God and jealousy
one of another is poison in the cup of salvation, and
the absence of a humble and forgiving temper, is the
loss of Christian fellowship in redeeming mercy. Yet
here the minister of Christ must stand, and break to
every communicant the bread of life; and hence, by
the same authority, must drive away the unworthy
and presumptuous guest.
There is a fourth ordinance in whose admin-
istration, they who labor in the word and doctrine,
have their full share of difficulties and responsibili-
ties. I allude to the ordinance of government, andthe duty, of ruling well in the church of God. Such
rule is necessary to the maintenance and support of
the truth; for it involves not merely the ordinary reg-
ulation of the spiritual concerns of a single congrega-
tion, but the order and edification of the whole body
of Christ. It involves an application of the principles
of his kingdom, to every subject and every officer in
the visible church. It implies a superintendence of
all its interests, and is concerned in the formation and
organization of churches, in the promotion of their
peace and purity of doctrine and of manners, in the,
examination and investment of those who would take
part with us in this ministry, in the establishment or
transfer of their pastors, in the excision of the hereti-
cal and schismatic, in preventing and redressing then-
wrongs, and in applying the rules of righteousness to
witnesses, judges and judicatories, to all trespassers
and all transgressors. Talents of a peculiar kind,
therefore, it is easy to perceive, are necessary to all
who share in the government of the church, and espe-
fe
cially to him whose official duty it is to preside. How
shall he who knows not how to rule, take care of the
church of God? or how can he who is not himself
subordinate to Christ in all things, be competent to act
in the judgment of the unruly. It must needs be that
scandals come, for the Spirit has expressly declared
that some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to18
seducers, and doctrines not according to godliness;
and never, while the church retains its mixed charac-
ter, will discipline in the technical sense, cease to be
essential to its prosperity, and even to its existence as
a holy nation, a peculiar people. It will have troub-
les who are to be cut off; wounds which are to be
healed; wants which its collective wisdom only can
supply, and remain exposed to dangers, in which it can
find protection only through the fidelity of its Presby-
ters and Elders. But when we advert to the qualifi-
cations requisite to such rulers, and to the very many
eases occurring, in which, with the highest qualifica-
tions, it is difficult to form an impartial judgment; to
maintain', in the given proportion, long suffering to
men, and fidelity to Christ; to temper tenderness to
the offender with just indignation against his crime;
who has been found adequately wise, intrepid, meek,
upright, and ardent, for these things! Think a moment
What it is to conduct every process with that disinter-
estedness which seeks alike the honor of the Gospel
and the real good or all who have disregarded its pre-
cepts and injunctions. To stand up with firmness
against the encroachments of the public sympathy,
the pernicious zeal, of the interested, and the impor-
tunities of the short sighted; ever ready to prejudge,
and to heal slightly, or cover without healing, the
hurt of the daughter of Zion. We are to judge,nevertheless, between God and the men of his vine-
yard; and reflecting on our exposure from unnum-
bered sources, to mistake or err, we are constrained
to adopt, every one in relation to himself, the hum-
bling negation of our sufficiency for these things!
But the duties of the Christian minister are not
comprehended in the public administration of what are
appropriately called the ordinances of religion. He
has a fifth service to perform, important and diffi-
cult, both for Christ and his people, in concerns which
are not disclosed to the public eye. As an overseer and
a steward, God has committed to him in behalf of his
people both his armory and treasury. He is to de-
fend as well as feed, and therefore to know and make
provision for the flock.
The concerns of the poor are his concerns. The
feeding of the lambs as well as the protecting of the
defenceless sheep, the visitation of the sick, the wi-
dow, and the fatherless, and the relief of spiritual in-
digence and distress, are duties gf high rank, though
little obtruded upon the notice of the world. Christ
ministered to his disciples privately. The apostles
went from house to house, and every shepherd fends
most assiduously the sheep of his fold. We are to be
ready, and thoroughly furnished to the same good
works, patiently instructing the ignorant at his dwell-
ing, exhorting the careless daily, encouraging the fee-;20
ble minded, and admonishing the negligent and sloth-
ful. We are to revive the drooping, establish the un-
stable, resolve the doubting, correct the mistakes of
the erroneous, and confirm and comfort the animated
and exemplary Christian. All classes of men, in all
stages of immature and ripened understanding, the
trembling and the confident believer, the open and the
disguised opposers of their own mercies, and of truth,
claim our personal inspection, and counsel, and care.
We are to share in the burdens of the many and the
few as God is pleased by his providence to indicate,
and to invite every sufferer to throw a part of them
on the arm of his pastor. He is to divide with all,
their distressing apprehensions of the trials they are
to meet, and of the calamities they actually endure:
for thus Christ himself bore our griefs, and carried
our sorrows. He is to disclose sources of comfort to
the mourner, and the way for refuge to the guilty; and
though but a man, frail and full of infirmities, and
perhaps bending under trials of his own, more nume-
rous and oppressive than theirs, to shrink from no call
of an afflicted people on his sympathy. Is it his
duty thus to open in his heart a chamber for each, cor-
responding with the nature and aggravations of his
trials, and adapt his sympathies to all the diversities of
temper among his people? Has he to contend often
with the self-conceited and the murmiuer, the stupidand the sensual, the extravagantly light and the un-
reasonably sad: to deal with ignorance and prejudice?
with men of jaundiced eye and subtle heart, to strug-
gle against jealousies and emulations, the envious, and
the wrathful, the caprice of some, the malignity of
others, and to take part in the trials of all? and in all
these contests, is he to remain self-possessed, neither
impatient nor provoked, persevering in the will to bless,
and though reviled to intreat, though insulted to suffer
it, still in labors abundant, and every where in peril,
in weariness and painfulness, in watchings and in
prayers continually? what variety and strength of vir-
tue does his spirit need to sustain him! what know-
ledge of man and of God and of their various opera-
tions, and even of Satan’s devices, and what an exten-
sive and ready application of this various knowledge
are indispensable to this profession! Is the minis-
ter of Jesus imperiously bound thus to know, and thus
to do? must he thus command himself, in order to act
successfully upon the agency of others? must he weep
with them who weep, rejoice with them who joy,
mourn with the bereaved, pant with the sick, and die
with the dying? who then, among men, is sufficient for
these things!
But in addition to these considerations, it is to be
remembered, he has a vineyard of his own to keep; a
body to be kept in subjection, and a soul to be fittedto minister in the courts above, the temple into which
nothing shall enter that defileth. He is to possess
not merely the essential qualities of a disciple, but
pre-eminence in all his graces He is not only with
every other professor, to lighten the benighted world
around him, so as to produce the conviction and con-
fession that God is in him of a truth, but to be an ex-
ample to the believer himself, in word, in conversation
in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity; a pattern of
good works, expressive in fair proportions and in liv-
ing characters of the whole circle of the virtues which
he inculcates. Without such inherent righteousness, he
will but degrade the office, and though by the sovereign
power of God his soundness of doctrine may conduce
to bring others into the way to heaven, it will not save
even him who delivers it, from hell. Without pre-
tending to a full enumeration of the virtues required of
us, think only of the peculiarity of taste, the purity of
heart, the guileless simplicity of purpose, the unabating
diligence, the vigorous faith, the fervent love, the self-
denying zeal, the patience, temperance, justice, gen-
tleness, truth, meekness and fortitude, which are need-
ful to the performance not of his public duties only,
but of those required in the ordinary intercourse and
business of life. Thus is he ever to carry with him,
the light which reflects the glory of his master, and
the salt which preserves from corruption the mannersof the community. Thus, by an opposition to error
which is not contentious, a generosity not ostentatious,
a magnanimity never contracted to the views of any
sect, and controlled by the wishes of none, but ready
to receive and grateful to acknowledge, whatever is
praiseworthy in all, and to sacrifice to all whatever is
consistent with faith and a good conscience, he is
seen to suffer, forbear, and live, not to himself but for
Christ and for mankind.
Think, finally, of the duty of exhibiting with
this godliness, a contentment which takes every al-
lotted vicissitude without repining; a cheerfulness
which is easily distinguished from levity; a gravity
which approaches not austerity, and a prudence equally
remote from management and servility; of possessing
at all times and in all places, the spirit not of fear, but
Of power, and of love, and of a sound mind: and with
only these requirements in view, point us to the man
who in his best estate, is sufficient of himself, to mag-
nify the office of the Christian ministry.
II. In continuance of the illustration, consider
briefly in the next place, the object of the minister of
Christ.
It is to be an embassador, a witness, an advocate
for God, to the inhabitants of a rebellious and unbeliev-
ing world. To open their eyes, and to turn them from
darkness unto light, that they may receive forgivenessof sins and inheritance among the sanctified. To re-
concile them to the God of truth, through faith in the
truths of God. To bind them bj new and indissolu-
ble ties to Him and to each other, in everlasting am-
ity. It is to persuade the disciples throughout the
world, to unity of faith, and spirit, and effort, and to
dissuade the unholy in like extent, from persevering
in their desperate warfare against the moral govern-
ment of God.
To every man who has made the experiment: to
any man who perceives that after the labors of eight-
teen centuries, this object in nations under the most
auspicious circumstances, is but partially achieved, it is
needless to look for an affirmative answer to the in-
quiry, who is sufficient for these things?
And why has the honorable and glorious enter-
prise failed of complete success?
III. We will consider in reply, the number and
power of the enemy against which we are sent to
contend. Think a moment of the character of the
enemy. The Christian minister addresses himself, it
is admitted, to rational natures, to men of exalted pow-
ers of mind, and of capacity to be, to do, and to enjoy,
whatever by the command and promise of their God his
messenger proposes and proffers, but to men notwith-
standing, who, rational on other subjects, on this are
mad. Who ingenious and discerning in all that pertains25
to physical science, exercise nothing of the spirit of wis-
dom, in things pertaining to the kingdom of God.
Who zealous to a fault in crowding the capacious
chambers of the soul with founts of intellectual and
terrestrial gratification, have reserved not a corner for
the sublimer pleasures of religion. To men in short,
dead in trespasses and sins; whose every cherished ap-
petite turns away from the fountain of life for gratifica-
tion to some broken cistern, and whose every passion
is averse to the business and blessedness of the pure in
heart. To such men, the message he brings is but a
parable, every denunciation of his affections, pursuits,
and pleasures, a contradiction of the senses, in whose
testimony, more than God’s he confides. Every truth
he tells, trenches upon his vain wishes, and is there-
fore regarded as an idle tale; and every cordial he puts
to the lips of his sickly appetite, is a drug. By a
perversion of his intellectual and moral powers, he
renders every Christian doctrine profitless, and by an
alienation of his affections from supreme moral excel-
ence, succeeds in resisting the only appointed, and
only wise means of his conversion unto God. He par-
ries every weapon with which a heart so wicked and
deceitful can be assailed, or when ingenuity fails,
wrests it from the hand of his assailant by violence; and
in default of both sophistry and an erroneous conscience,
receives its full force as upon a target of adamant.
426
His heart is a rock which the bolts of Sinai cannot
break, nor the fires of love which shoot from Calvary,
melt. It hears of heaven, and is perhaps amused; of
hell, and supposes impossible its relation to that place,
or at most, speculates on the nature of its fires. Such
are the rationalists to whom we are sent. Destruction
and misery are in their ways, but they are in darkness
and know it not. Can you redeem from its prison-
house, the inmate thus fancy ing himself free and never
in bondage at all? Can you insinuate wisdom into a
soul, thus wiser in its own eyes than God? Then shall
thou draw out Leviathan with a hook, he will make a
covenant with thee, and thou shalt take him for a ser-
vant for ever. But if he were to be persuaded, if rea-
soning could convince, and love allure, and motive
overcome his unyielding heart, were it left to your in-
fluence only, it is to be remembered there are hosts
against you, and they are with him. The god of this
World has an interest and influence in retaining his
Service, and with a heart like his, it is powerful as it
is adverse to your object. Every effort you make to
withdraw him from the world, is an attack upon that
glutless idol, and all the resources of his kingdom
must be exhausted before he yield a single captive to
its rightful prince. We wrestle therefore, not only
with flesh and blood, but against principalities and
powers, and the rulers of the darkness of this world27
and spiritual wickednesses in high places. And are they
not strong in their subtlety, as you in your wisdom?
Is not their policy as deep, their armor as well adapt-
ed to the object of their warfare, their wakefulness as
incessant, their jealousy over the camp, as great? and
to give them the balance which they are not slow7 to
claim, are they not led captive to satan by their ow7n
consent, and therefore, at his will. While therefore
he glories in the object for which he contends, and in
the cross and cause of his master, and while resolved
to fight for both till death, must not every soldier return
from every onset with the concession, that his own arm
has never gotten him the victory?
IV. But we must look a moment in the last
place, at him who is to sustain the conflict against all
these powrers in behalf of the Redeemer and the people
to whom he sends him. Survey his person and his field
of action, and his armies. Who is this champion? what
are his pretensions and whence his expectations? A
worm! a creature of yesterday! a weak, corrupt, er-
ring and dying Worm! agitated at the shaking of a
leaf, and crushed by the footsteps of the moth; him-
self dependent alway, for every ray of light, on the
sun of righteousness; for every attribute of a guide to
the blind, and for the proper use of every gift and en-
dowment of a minister of Christ. Struggling perpetu-
ally with a diseased and broken nature, with hostileappetites and passions from within, and with avowed
and secret enemies, errors of every grade, and sedu-
cers of every kind without: and all combined in op-
position to the knowledge and glory of God, and the
progress of his kingdom. The world and its honors,
its pleasures and its fashions, the lust of the flesh and
the lust of the eye and the pride of life, in formidable
array against him. That world, the field of his la-
bors, and simple truth and prayer, and faith and cha-
rity his armor. Such is the formidable power sent
forth to convert the wicked, and guide and edify and
defend and cheer the church of God. Whether there-
fore we examine the duties he is to perform, any one
t>f whMi is more than a match for all his natural sa-
gacity, and resolution, and temper, or the object he is
to accomplish, or the nature and number and variety of
the powers arrayed against him; and when over all,
we consider their joint influence, we lay our hand upon
our mouth, confounded at the economy of grace in
making man its minister to man.
1. From this feeble illustration of the sentiment
of the apostle, it becomes us, beloved brethren, to
acknowledge first, in deep humiliation, as well as for
our encouragement in the Lord, that all our sufficiency
is of God. That though we be nothing, we can do
all things pertaining to our office, through Christ
strengthening us. It is indispensable to feel, that itis to no purpose we go forth, or worse than none, in
any other than the strength of the Lord God; or
make mention of any other than his power and faith-
fulness. The messengers of the churches, are in this
way only, the glory of Christ. He has put this treas-
ure into such vessels that the excellency of the power
may be manifestly of God and not of us. And how
are we to account of men who would refuse, or envy,
or filch from him the glory. He sends us on this
unparalleled warfare, not at our own charges; and
even of us, can make able and successful ministers of
the New Testament. He who transformed into apos-
tles the fishermen of Gallilee, who by the rod in
Moses’ hand, subdued the pride and power of Egypt,
and by the clashing of the earthen pitchers put the
host of Midian to flight, has sufficiency, by the least
of whom he sends, to accomplish every purpose of his
throne. And if he have indeed called us, and counted
us meet for it, and put us into the ministry, we will
not faint but wait on him for the knowledge of his
will, for acceptance and success, and labor to stand
complete in it, and be of good courage, unto the end.
Hear his own assurance. My grace is sufficient for
thee, and my strength is perfected in weakness. We
have seen his word verified when he has stilled the
enemy, and out of the mouth of impotence ordained
strength, through the supply of the spirit of Christ.30
Let us carry then to every duty, the salutary con-
sciousness, that whatever be the station, gifts, or use-
fulness of the ministers of Christ, the wisdom, and
virtue, and success, are of God, and render him the
praise. Then, though he have chosen the weak
things of this world to confound the mighty, and base
things, and things that are not, to bring to nought the
things which are; to glory in his presence, will be
glorying only in the Lord. Then too, however
shamefully handled, we may take pleasure in infirm-
ities, necessities, reproaches, that the power of Christ
may rest upon us, for when sensibly weak then
are we strong. Though the inheritance of the Chris-
tian ministry be trouble in the flesh, God, ever faithful
to his people, and who proportions the grace to the
burden, will soften the asperity of the rough wind
and sweeten every trial endured for his sake and the
Gospel’s; and when the cloudy and dark day is gone
by, we shall look back with deeper and happier con-
viction, that it was by his light we walked through
darkness.
2. Secondly, in view of the magnitude and dif-
ficulties of the Christian ministry, it is the obvious
duty of all who enjoy it, to be grateful for the ordi-
nance, and to co-operate with him who sustains it, to
the glory of God. Our dependence abates nothing
of our freedom. Alike sad are the characters andprospects of the men, who, instead of offering an ex-
ample of subjection to the ordinance of God, oppose
and obstruct the work its ministers are commissioned
to execute. Ah! little do they appreciate, little per-
haps consider that it is, the work of God. A work
too, having for its object the benefit neither of its
author or its instruments, but of themselves. Their
sin is written as with a pen of iron, and in characters
of blood. Even with their concurrence and co-oper-
ation, our work is more than enough for human weak-
ness, however easy the task may seem to the carnal
eye. Easy indeed it is, with all its trials and respon-
sibilities, compared with that of men who are labor-
ing to defeat its end. For it is not theirs to boast, the
Lord is with us, the God of Jacob is our refuge.
And if God be not with them who rise up against us,
and thrust in an arm, however feeble, or withhold
their help, they are fearfully lost forever. Whoever
cordially labors for another’s salvation, is entitled, at
least, to that man’s charity and prayers rather than
deserving of his opposition or contempt. And miser-
able he on the one hand, who has too much self-suffi-
ciency to desire, and they on the other, who have too
little religion to bestow them. The one shall be as
tow, and the other as a spark, and both burn together
and none shall quench them. Let me transport you
to a scene from which both may derive a better spirit.32
Behold the apostle of the Gentiles, blindly adored
among the heathen, loved almost to idolatry in the
church, and favored above mortals by the Lord of
glory, bending at the feet of his brethren, and entreat-
ing them for the Lord Jesus Christ’s sake, and for
the love of the Spirit, that they strive together in
their prayers for him. Brethren, pray for us, that the
word of the Lord may have free course and be glori-
fied, and that we may be delivered from unreasonable
and wicked men. I need not say that in answer to
this request, prayers were made continually in the
church of God for him. But in view of this example,
and of the grand object, the unending consequences,
the awful and glorious results of the Christian minis-
try, I must not refrain from saying to both ministers
and people, be ye diligent co-workers with God, that
ye may be found of him in peace. Woe to the idol
shepherd, through whose default the people perish,
who nourishes himself but feeds not the flock, nor
heals the sick, nor binds up the broken, nor brings
back that which is driven away, but with force and
cruelty rules them. But peace to the faithful, both of
the pastors and of the flocks. They shall be glorious
in the eyes of the Lord, and beyond the brightness
and duration of the sun, their honors shall brighten
and endure.