should have a fair remuneration for their time and talents, and so they are articled to it like an attorney's clerk; a co-partnery is struck between them and their congregations, between them and the societies, as if it were some company concern in trade. This system has been grow. ing more and more upon the church, since the Reformation, and it seems now upon the eve of being perfected. The outcry for the equalizing of the livings in the church proceeds from no other than this same commercial feeling, which is the enemy of faith, of self-denial and self devotion for the sake of God, and Christ, and men, bringing every thing under the conditions of barter and exchange;much time and labour for so much money. There is always too much of this in the world. It is the devil's grand substitute for a belief in Divine providence, and the exercise of mutual charity. God did not intend this world to be a system of barter, wherein man should sell himself to man for a money price; but a system of grace and benevolence, man helping man, and labouring diligently in his calling, that he might have wherewith to help his brethren and this, Paul teacheth, in all his Epistles; as for example, "Let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth" (Eph. iv. 28). "And let ours also learn to maintain good works (marg. profess honest trades), for necessary uses that they be not unfruitful" (Titus iii. 14). But in spite of the apostolic canons, and of the very root of the Gospel, which is grace and not barter, the commercial principle hath, through various means, but especially through means of the compensation-system of theology, so established itself, as to have triumphed over the liberal professions, liberal arts, literature and science, to have brought every professor thereof almost into the condition of a person hired with money. And it is now seeking to storm the citadel of society which is the ministry of the church; to bring us, who should be the examples of disinterestedness and grace, under the bondage of hire, of servitude for money, of obligation, measured by the stipend we receive. The time is not far gone by, when a professional man, whether in the sciences or the arts, would have felt his character dishonoured, if his labour or service had been valued by a piece of money. It is a

poor, low, and miserable idea of man's nature, out of which all this proceedeth. It is the subjugation of his high and heavenly faculties, to his animal and sensual enjoyment, in which it endeth; and instead of a world full of faith, and of faithfulness, it produceth a world full of sense and low-minded delights, and so far from cultivating the principle of duty, it doth continually insult it, by saying, Thou canst not be trusted further than the letter of the bond. It attempts to make conscience also a thing of weight and measure; and conscience under these conditions is not conscience at all. It is mere man-pleasing ; whereas conscience hath respect to God, to that which is pleasing in his eyes, not to that which is pleasing in the eyes of fellow mortals. And so far from religion being capable of such culture, it is the treatment which will surely prove its destruction; for religion is essentially the triumph of faith over sight, the triumph of God's word in the soul, over all visible and delightful things in the sense of man.

Now this, though to a certain extent it hath existed as a temptation to the Christian ministry, hath never till these latter days become the predominant principle. Never till now was it plainly enunciated and enforced, that the minister of the Gospel should have so much or so much for his labour. The Apostle indeed said, The labourer is worthy of his hire; but never his labour is worthy of this or of that hire. Poverty hath ceased to be honourable in the church. The first aspect of the Christian ministry was love to Christ; the second, faithfulness under persecution; the third, declining faithfulness, through the permission of false, covetous, and sensual teachers; the fourth, patient labour, but unholy endurance of the mother of abominations; the fifth, the love of a name; the sixth, constancy in the midst of poverty and rejection; and now, the seventh, and last, is satisfaction in, and fulness of, worldly goods. And, because the character of the Christian ministry will always produce itself in the church, we have now that same spirit of commerce and political economy extended every where throughout the community, to the almost utter extinction of the principle of faith, grace, and charity; which will continue until the angels of the churches cease from feeling what the angel of the Laodi

cean church expresseth, "I am rich and increased in goods, and have need of nothing."

In interpreting these wonderful predictions of the successive states of the church, we should be guided not so much by numerical details, as by the discernment of the spirit which is embodied. For example, the spirit expressed in these words may be as fully embodied in the Church of Scotland, whose livings are comparatively small, as in the Church of England, or the Church of Ireland, where many of them are upon a far higher scale. There may be the same sense of worldly comfort and devotedness to worldly objects, and the same resting upon the mere secularities of the office, and hungry request after preferment. In one word, there may be as much of a worldly spirit in the one with its hundred, as in the other with its thousands a year: and so may it likewise be among the ministers of the Dissenting communion, where the emolument is on a still lower scale. To my observation, the spirit doth universally prevail; and if I were called upon to say where it prevaileth least, where the noblest and most frequent instances of self-denial were to be found, I would say in the Church of England; though there also, amongst its dignitaries are to be found the most notorious examples of self-seeking and worldly mindedness. My. office, however, is not to make comparisons, but to shew that the character in our text is evidently impressed upon the whole face of the Christian ministry. And how utterly inconsistent and incompatible with our high calling is the thought of worldly gain, is well set forth in Paul's charges to Timothy, a pastor of the church: "And having food and raiment let us be therewith content. But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. For the love of money is the root of all evil which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. But thou, O man of God, flee these things; and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness. Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesess" (1 Tim. vi. 8-12).

It is not a pleasant task to identify what almost all men are agreed to call the best, with that which God calleth the worst, state of the church; and nothing but the imperious sense of truth, together with the earnest desire to convince my brethren of so fatal an error, would support me under so painful and grievous a task. My judgment, such as it is, I exercise for the sake of God, and of my brethren, and I am content to bear the obloquy which it brings upon me to utter the truth. And having sufficiently identified the present religious world with the Laodicean church, in this feature as well as the rest, I now proceed to shew how such devotedness to income, and resting upon emolument, produceth a low, mean, and miserable condition in respect of Divine doctrine and of morality. The reason is, that no one can be a disciple of Christ, unless he shall have first in heart forsaken all other objects whatever. "He that loveth the world, and the things of the world, hath not the love of the Father abiding in him :" and without the love of the Father there can be no progress in the knowledge of Christ, nor in obedience of God's holy commandments. How much less with one who says, "I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing," which I have shewn to be the predominant feeling both of the minister and the people in these times. When worldly wealth, outward appearance, a comfortable house, good society, influential friends, and such like accommodations and ornaments of the present time, are accounted as the one thing needful: there is no time for thought and meditation; which are all swallowed up in work and enjoyment: there is no capacity for long and lofty flights, for deep and patient researches into the arcana of our being. And when some heaven-directed person dareth the seldom-trodden course, and returns with his treasures, he is treated as a mystic and enthusiast, a speculative and imaginative person, who follows his own dreams, and works not for the common good of men, nor seeks the glory of God. How can a man, whose thoughts are occupied upon self, and upon his goods, rise into any communion with God, or faith of the world unseen? How can a man, who is minding his own interest, and seeking to secure his own comfort, attain unto the level of Christian morality, which is self-denial and disinterestedness?

How can a man, whose heart is in the present life, be ready to devote all that he has for the sake of God and godliness? Least of all a Christian minister who is set for this one end of continually trampling under foot the visible world, and rising upon the wings of faith and hope, unto the glories of a world unseen? It is not possible that while the soul of a minister is thus bound down to this nether world, he should be able to bring the people any tidings of that upper world, wherein dwelleth righteousness. His mouth is muzzled, and he cannot speak; and if he could, he hath it not in him to speak; for God will not enrich a soul with the better riches which is intent upon the lower. Will God reveal himself unto a soul which is worshipping the lowest of his works? Therefore a worldly ministry must ever be an ignorant ministry, and an ignorant ministry will ever make an ignorant church. Thus it was in the Laodicean, and thus it is in the present state of the church. But it may be good, for the sake of greater distinctness, to condescend upon the particulars, as they are given in order by the chief Shepherd.

hear

First, "I am rich."-To be rich is a comparative term, which, in various lands, and various times, is variously estimated. Taken as a character of the Christian church, it must denote a period wherein riches abound, and are in much esteem, as now they unquestionably are. It is but lately I sat in the company of some Christian men, and listened to their conversation, which turned upon this, how much every thing in these days was estimated by the scale of riches. They said, If a man be spoken of, you it asked, What is he worth? is he in good circumstances? And if he be very rich, they ask if he is not about to be raised to the peerage. And they further went on to say, that when a man died, the question generally was, what he had died worth: and they gave it as their opinion, that in these things they had seen a great change since the days of their youth. Indeed nothing is more common than to hear men calling money the thing needful, and self-interest the main chance; and by a good man is commonly understood in the commercial world, a rich man. When you present such characteristics, many say, it has always been so; and there is some truth in what they say, for man is always man; but still there are tides and cur