A VISITATION SERMON, CONCERNING THE GREAT DIFFICULTY AND DANGER OF THE PRIESTLY OFFICE. JAMES iii. 1. My brethren, be not many masters, knowing that we shall receive the greater condemnation. THE text may at first sight appear to some to stand at a very wide distance from the present occasion. But I hope, by that time I have spent a little pains in explaining it, I shall set the text and occasion at a perfect agreement. The words, therefore, are by interpreters diversly expounded. Among the rest, two interpretations there are which stand as the fairest candidates for our reception. 1. Some understand the "masters" here in my text, to be proud, malicious censors, and judges of other men's actions, and so expound the text as a prohibition of rash and uncharitable judgment, and make it parallel to that of our Saviour, Judge not, that ye be not judged." Be not rash and hasty in censuring or judging the actions of others, or speaking evil of them, considering that by so doing you will but procure a greater judgment of God upon yourselves. The chief, if not the only argument for this interpretation, is the context of the Apostle's discourse, which in the following verses is wholly spent against the vices of the tongue. But, [Published in London, 1714, together with his Charge to his Diocese, and his Circular Letter to the Clergy. The title-page was, A Companion for the Candidates of Holy Orders; or, The Great Importance and Principal Duties of the Priestly Office. This Sermon was evidently written many years before; 2. Others there are who interpret the "masters" in the text to be pastors or teachers in the Church of God; and, accordingly, understand the words as a serious caution against the rash undertaking of the Pastoral office or function, as an office attended with great difficulty and danger, a task very hard to be discharged, and wherein, whoever miscarries, makes himself thereby liable to a severer judgment of Almighty God. This latter interpretation (with submission I speak it) seems to me, almost beyond doubt, the genuine sense of the Apostle. The reasons are evident in the text itself. For, 1. Unless we thus expound the words, it will be hard to give a rational account of this word Toλλoì, "many," why it should be inserted. For if we understand those masters the Apostle speaks of, to be rash judges and censurers of others, it is most certain then, one such would be too many, and the multiplicity of them would not be the only culpable thing. But, on the other side, if we receive the latter interpretation, the account of the word Tool is easily rendered, according to the paraphrase of Erasmus, thus; "Let not pastors or teachers be too vulgar and cheap among you; let not every man rush into so sacred an office and function." And Drusius's gloss on this very word is remarkable: Summa summarum; quo pauciores sunt magistri, eo melius agitur cum populo. Nam ut medicorum olim Cariam, ita doctorum et magistrorum nunc multitudo perdit rempublicam. Utinam vanus sim. I need not English the words to those whom they concern. 2. If we embrace any other interpretation, we must of necessity depart from the manifest propriety of the Greek word, which our translators render "masters." The word is διδάKaλo, which whoso understands the first elements of the Greek tongue, know to be derived from didáσkw, "to teach," and so literally to signify "teachers." "Be not many teachers." And so, accordingly, the Syriac renders it by a word which the learned Drusius tells us is parallel to the Hebrew, which undoubtedly signifies "doctors" or "teachers." These reasons are sufficient to justify our interpretation, though I might add the authority of the ancients, who gene Ne passim ambiatis esse magistri. rally follow this sense, as also the concurrent judgment of our most learned modern annotators, Erasmus, Vatablus, Castalio, Estius, Drusius, Grotius, with many others. As for the connection of the words thus explained, with the following discourse of the Apostle, I suppose this very easy account may be given of it. The moderation and government of the tongue, (on which St. James, in the sequel of the chapter, wholly insists,) though it be a general duty, (for there is no man's tongue so lawless as to be exempted from the dominion of right reason and religion,) yet it is a duty wherein the pastor or teacher hath a peculiar concern. The Minister's tongue is a chief tool and instrument of his profession, that which, ex officio, he must often make use of: he lies under a necessity of speaking much and often; and the Wise Man tells us, "In the multitude of words there wanteth not sind." And certainly there is scarce any consideration more powerful, to deter a man from undertaking the office of a teacher, than this; how extremely difficult and almost impossible it is, for a man that speaks much and often, so to govern his tongue as to speak nothing that either is itself unfit, or in an unfit time, or after an undue manner; and yet how highly every teacher is concerned so to do. So that it is a very easy knot to fasten my text to the next verse, thus: Let not every man ambitiously affect the office of a teacher in the Church of God, considering that it is an office of great difficulty and danger, "for in many things we offend all; if any man offend not in word, the same is a perfect man," &c. As if he had said, As there are many ways whereby the best of us do offend, so there is no way whereby we so easily fall into sin, as by that slippery member the tongue; and there is no man more exposed to this danger of transgressing with the tongue than the teacher, who makes so much and so frequent use of it. So that the teacher is τέλειος ἀνὴρ, a rare and perfectly accomplished man indeed," that hath acquired the perfect government of his tongue. He that can do that, who fails not in that piece of his duty, may easily also bridle his whole body, i. e. rightly manage himself in all the other parts of his Pastoral office. But this, as it is 66 d Prov. x. 19. very necessary, so it is extremely difficult, and therefore "be To this it will not be amiss to add what Grotius wisely observes, that the admonition of the Apostle concerning the vices of the tongue, subjoined to the caution in my text, "is chiefly directed against brawling and contentious disputers';" such teachers as abuse their liberty of speaking unto loose discourses, and take occasion from thence to vent their own spleen and passions: men of intemperate spirits and virulent tongues, troublers rather than teachers of the people, whose tongues are indeed "cloven tongues of fire," but not such as the Apostles were endowed with from above; as serving to burn, rather than to enlighten; to kindle the flames of faction, strife, and contention, rather than those of piety and charity in the Church of God. And indeed the direful and tragical effects, which the Apostle in this chapter ascribes to the evil tongue, as that "it is a fire, a world of iniquity, defiling the whole body, setting on fire the course of nature, full of deadly poison," &c. are such as are not so easily producible by the tongue of a private man as of a teacher; "whose discourse," saith Erasmus, "spreads its poison by so much the more generally and effectually, as the authority of the speaker is greater, and his advantage also of speaking to many h." Having removed this seeming rub in the context, I return again to the text itself; wherein you may please to observe, 1. A serious dissuasive from the rash undertaking of the Pastoral office: "My brethren, be not many masters," or teachers. 2. A solid argument or reason to enforce it, drawn from the difficulty and the danger thereof; "knowing that we shall receive," &c. μeîçov кρíμa, “a greater" or severer "judgment;" i. e. God will require more of us that are teachers than of others; we shall not escape or be acquitted in the Divine judgment at so easy a rate as they. There is a place in the excellent Book of Wisdom that is exactly parallel to my text, and gives great light to it. "A sharp judgment shall be to • Μὴ πολλοὶ διδάσκαλοι γίνεσθε. f Maxime directa est in rixosos disputatores. * Φλογίζουσα τὸν τρόχον τῆς γενέσεως. h Cujus sermo hoc latius ac pericu losius spargit suum venenum, quod auctoritate dicentis commendetur. i Chap. vi. 5. P them that are in high places." Where the oi vπepéXOVTES, those that are "in high places" in the State, answer to the didáσkaλo in my text, the "teachers" in the Church: the Kρíσis ȧπóтоμоs, "the sharp," or "the precise and severe judgment," to the μeilov xpipa, "the greater judgment" in the text. I shall not at all insist on the first branch of the division, the dissuasive, as remembering that I am to preach not an Ordination, but a Visitation Sermon; and to discourse, not to candidates of Holy Orders, but to such as are already engaged in that sacred profession. I come, therefore, to the reason or argument in the text, (as of very much concernment to all that are in the Priestly office,) drawn from the difficulty and danger thereof. To represent both which, as fully as my short allowance of time, and much shorter scantling of abilities, will permit, shall be my present business. And first, as to the difficulty of the teacher's office, it is a very great difficulty fully to explain it. So many are the branches of his duty, that it were a tedious labour to reckon them up. Lord! what a task is it then to discharge them! I shall content myself therefore rudi Minerva briefly and only in general to describe the chiefest requisites that are necessary to constitute a complete teacher in the Church of God, and even by that little which I shall say, I doubt not but it will appear, how very formidable, how tremendous an undertaking, that function deserves to be accounted. The teacher's office, then, requires a very large knowledge, a great prudence, an exemplary holiness. And surely much is required of him of whom these things are required. 1. Then, the first requisite to the office of a teacher is a very large knowledge. The very name of his office implies this; he is didáσkaλos, "a teacher;" and he that is such, must be, as the Apostle requires', "apt, or fit to teachm." And this he cannot be, unless he be "well learned "" and instructed himself, and furnished with a plentiful measure of divine knowledge. God Himself, by the prophet Malachi, * Κρίσις ἀπότομος ἐν τοῖς ὑπερέχουσι γίνεται. 11 Tim. iii. 2. m Διδακτικός, aptus, sive idoneus ad docendum. η Διδακτός, doctus. |