strike an awe upon the mind of every secure and thoughtless sinner; and who will, from Sabbath to Sabbath, lay open the blackness, turpitude and malignity of the human heart; and bring God near to you, and you near to God; and make you feel that there is but one alternative before you, either to believe and be saved, or to refuse and be damned. You will, moreover, please to lay it up in your minds, that your treatment of such a minister will be considered as your treatment of Christ himself. If you love him, you will love Christ; if you are kind to him, you will be kind to Christ; if you hear him, you will hear Christ; and if you receive him, you will receive Christ. But if you despise him, you will despise Christ; if you abuse him, you will abuse Christ; if you reject him, you will reject Christ; and one day know, to your cost, that there has been a minister of Christ among you.

In a word, let me say to this whole assembly, Take heed how ye hear. Serious and eternal are the consequences of your living under the preaching of the faithful ministers of Christ. You may indeed be able to despise and reject the solemn messages which they bring to you from Sabbath to Sabbath, till the day of grace and space of repentance are no more. But you

will not be able to despise the voice of Christ, who, on earth, spoke as never man spake; and who, at the day of judgment, will speak as he never spoke before, and say to all impenitent gospel sinners, "Behold, ye despisers, and wonder, and perish!"

SERMON II.

MINISTERS THANKFUL FOR THEIR OFFICE.

INSTALLATION OF THE REVEREND DAVID AVERY, TO THE MINISTERIAL OFFICE IN THE CHURCH IN WRENTHAM, MAY 25, 1786.

AND I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me, for that he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry. -1 TIMOTHY, i, 12.

MANY of those favored persons, whom Christ has employed as signal instruments of promoting his wise and gracious designs, have been raised up and qualified for his service, in a manner very unexpected both to themselves and to the world. The Lord Jesus raised up Joseph, Moses and David, and prepared them for the noble and important parts which they had to act upon the stage of life, by a series of surprising and mysterious causes and events. But the most remarkable instance of this nature that we find in all the sacred pages, is the great apostle Paul. Christ, by a miracle of grace, took him out of the kingdom and service of Satan, and employed him in promoting and defending that glorious cause, which, just before, he had been laboring with all his might to overthrow and destroy. And this wise and gracious conduct of Christ so deeply affected his heart, that he could never speak of it without the warmest gratitude, and the highest expressions of admiration and praise." By the grace of God I am what I am." "Unto me who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ." And "I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me, for that he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry." This text, without any comment, plainly implies that those whom Christ furnishes for the ministry, are thankful for their office.

We shall therefore first show that Christ furnishes men for the ministry; and then suggest several reasons, why those whom Christ furnishes for the ministry are thankful for their office.

It belongs to Christ, as the Governor of the world, and as the Head of the church, to raise up and qualify men for the service of the sanctuary. This Paul more than intimates in the words of the text. And every where in the New Testament, ministers are represented as the servants and ambassadors of Christ, and as his peculiar, ascension gifts to the church. Christ is said to give not only apostles, and prophets, and evangelists, but also pastors and teachers, for the perfecting of the saints, and for the work of the ministry. Hence we may justly consider Christ as forming and qualifying, as well as authorizing, all his own ministers, in every age of the church.

The weakest eye is capable of discerning a great diversity in the characters of men, as to their natural powers and abilities. This difference, indeed, sometimes appears almost equal to that which draws the line of distinction between us and the various tribes of sensitive natures. Solomon, Socrates, and Newton, to name no more, differed as much from some of the lowest of our own species, as one star differs from another star in glory. But all this diversity of intellectual furniture originates from Christ, who endows mankind with various abilities, according to the various services in which he designs to employ them. Some men he means to employ in preaching the gospel, and for that reason, enriches their minds with such distinguishing qualities, as he knows the importance of their office justly requires. Paul, we are told, was a chosen vessel. Christ always meant to make him a minister. He raised him up to preach the gospel among the heathen nations. And accordingly we find that he endowed him with those superior powers and talents which were equal to his superior office; and which, in the eye of the prince of critics, gave him a rank among the celebrated orators of Greece and Rome. By this instance of his conduct, Christ has plainly told us, that in his view there is no station nor employment of life which requires better natural abilities than the ministerial office. Nor can we conceive that any one should need a clear perception, a penetrating judgment, a lively imagination, and all the powers of persuasion, more than a minister of the gospel, whose business it is to understand, to explain, and to enforce, the deep things of God, which carry life or death to every hearer. Christ, therefore, who always acts with infinite wisdom and propriety in adapting means to ends, bestows a large portion of intellectual furniture upon those whom he forms for the great and arduous work of preaching the gospel.

But the noblest powers of nature stand in need of the nurturing hand of education. The uninstructed mind resembles the unpolished diamond, before the artificer's hand has given the finishing stroke to display its sparkling beauties. Sensible, therefore, of the happy influence of instruction to strengthen and enlarge, as well as to soften and refine the opening powers of the mind, Christ has taken particular care from age to age, that those whom he designs for great and extensive service in his church and kingdom, should enjoy the benefit of a learned education. As he raised up Paul to be a pillar of the church, and a principal instrument of spreading the gospel through the world, so, in order to furnish him for this great and arduous work, he brought him up at the feet of Gamaliel, the most noted and learned Rabbi in the Jewish nation. And no doubt Paul improved his time to the best advantage, and acquired a large stock of that human knowledge, which he found to be of eminent service to him afterwards, in preaching the gospel, and opening the great truths of divine revelation. I know, indeed, Dr. Campbell conjectures that he derived most of his learning from the Jewish Rabbis, who taught mere fables, traditions and endless genealogies, which could be of no great service to a preacher of the gospel. But, if we only consider that he was born in the famous city of Tarsus; that there, probably, he spent his younger years in the study of the sciences; that he went into Judea merely to finish his education, and gain a more thorough knowledge of the religious sentiments of his own nation; that he was well acquainted with the heathen poets, and able to quote them with beauty and propriety; and that he disputed the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers in the city of Athens, which, as the seat of learning and of learned men, was called the eye of Greece; I say, if we only consider this, we shall be apt to conclude that Christ furnished him with large measures of human, as well as divine knowledge, to qualify him to preach the gospel in every part of the world. But besides Paul, we may mention many others, whom Christ has formed for his more immediate and special service by means of a public education. He educated Moses in the court of Pharaoh. He educated Samuel in the house of the Lord in Shiloh. He educated David in the court of Saul. He educated Solomon in the court of David. He educated the prophets in the schools of Samuel, of Elijah, and of Elisha, which were at Bethel, Jericho and Gilgal. He educated Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah in the academy in the city of

* See Bishop Watson's Theological Tracts, vol. ii, p. 182.

+ See Lewis's Antiquities of the Hebrew Republic.

Babylon. And to supply the defect of a learned education in the apostles and primitive ministers of the gospel, he miraculously endowed them not only with the gift of tongues, but also with the superior gifts of knowledge and of wisdom.* These instances plainly show that Christ is a friend to learning, and that he commonly makes use of it to qualify men for eminent service in his spiritual kingdom.

But, besides all these powers and improvements of nature, he also communicates his own spirit to his ministers, and makes them like minded with himself. For this is one of his invariable maxims, "He that is not with me, is against me; and he that gathereth not with me, scattereth abroad." He views every natural man as a real enemy to his cause and kingdom; and therefore totally unfit to preach the gospel, until he has experienced a saving change, and become heartily united to his person and interest. Of this, we have a clear and striking instance in the apostle Paul. Before his conversion, notwithstanding all his shining qualities and literary improvements, he was, "a blasphemer and a persecutor, and injurious," and fit to be the minister of Satan only, in whose cause and service he most heartily engaged. Christ therefore appeared to him as he was going to Damascus, and struck conviction into his conscience, laid open the plague of his heart, destroyed his false hopes, and raised him from spiritual death to spiritual life. And this divine change sanctified all his natural and acquired abilities, directed them to their proper use and end, united his heart to the cause of truth, and inspired him with holy zeal and fortitude to spread the triumphs of the cross in the face of a frowning world. Thus a good capacity, a good education, and a good heart, are the noble qualifications which Christ bestows upon those whom he raises up, and employs in the sacred work of the gospel ministry.

We shall now, in the second place, as proposed, suggest several reasons why the ministers of Christ are thankful for their office.

The first reason to be given is this; that the ministerial office bears a favorable aspect upon a life of religion and vital piety. The ministers of Christ hunger and thirst after righteousness, and desire to perfect holiness in the fear of God. They are thankful therefore for that employment which serves to advance, rather than to obstruct their progress in the Christian and divine life. In this respect, we find a difference among the various callings which divine providence requires various persons to pursue. Some useful and necessary employments