nefs, and unction from on high, are neceffary to the due discharge of what we owe to the flocks, of which we have the overfight! Who is fufficient for these things! And when we have done our beft, our all, what defects and defilements have we to mourn over! But this is our great confolation, that he, who knows us, and leads us, confiders our frame, and remembers that we are but duft.

In this delineation of the character and conduct of the Great Shepherd of the sheep*, we have an affecting exemplar and pattern, for the imitation of those, who act in the honourable office of under fhepherds, and are called, by their profeffion and engagement, to feed his sheep and lambs. Whether there be any minifters in our affembly, or not, you will at leaft permit me to speak a word to my own heart; which may, I hope, at the fame time, imprefs your minds with a sense of our great need of your prayers. Brethren, pray for us†! and pray to the Lord of the harvest, that he may fend forth more faithful labourers into his barveft. For it is his work alone. It is not abfolutely neceffary, that a minister of the gospel fhould be, in the first line, of those who

*Heb. xiii. 20. + 1 Theff. v. 25. ‡ Matt, ix. 38.

are

are admired for their abilities or literature; much less that he fhould be diftinguished by fuch titles, honours, and emoluments as this world can give. But it is necessary, and of the last importance, to his character and usefulness here, and to his acceptance in the great day of the Lord, that he should have a Thepherd's eye and a shepherd's heart. He must serve the flock, not for filthy lucre, or by constraint*, (that constraint, which the apostle attributes to the love of Chrift, only excepted) but willingly, and with a view to their edification. And he muft, indeed, ferve them, not acting as a Lord over God's heritage, but as an example to the flock. Not preaching himself, perverting his facred office to the purposes of ambition, or vain-glory, or the acquifition of wealth; but preaching Chrift Jefus the Lord, and employing all his powers to turn finners from the error of their ways. He who winneth fouls is wife. If it be wifdom, to propose the noblest end, the faithful minifter is wife; the end at which he aims, in fubordination to the will and glory of God, is the falvation of fouls; and the recovery of one immortal foul to the favour and image of Pet. v. 2, 3. + 2 Cor. iv. 5. + Prov.xi. 30.

God,

God, is, and will at length be found, a greater and more important event, than the deliverance of a whole kingdom from flavery or temporal ruin. If it be wisdom, to pursue a right end by the fittest means, he is wife; he knows the gospel of Chrift to be the power of God, the appointed, the effectual, the only fufficient mean for accomplishing his great purpose; therefore, however unfashionable it may be, he is not ashamed of it, he preaches it, and he glories in it. If it be an effect of wisdom, not to be deterred from the profecution of a great and noble defign, by the cenfure and diflike of weak and incompetent judges, the faithful minifter is truly wife. He loves his fellow-creatures, and would willingly pleafe them for their good, but he cannot fear them, because he fears and ferves the Lord. He looks forward, with defire, to the day of that folemn and general vifitation, when the Shepherd and Bishop of fouls fhall himfelf appear*. And if he may then stand among those, who are pardoned and accepted in the Beloved, and receive the crown of life, which his Lord has promised to them that lave bim this thought fully reconciles him to † 2 Tim. iv. 8.

* Pet. ii. 25. V. 4: Į

the

the trials of his fituation; and however depreciated, mifreprefented, opposed, or illtreated here, he can fay, None of these things move me, neither count I my life dear to myself, fo that I may finish my courfe with joy, and the miniftry which I have received of the Lord Jefus, to teftify the gospel of the grace of God *.

There is a counter-part to this character, described, in ftrong and glowing language, by the prophets. There are idol fhepherds, who feed not the flock, but themselves +; who neither attempt to heal the fick, to strengthen the feeble, to bind up that which is broken, nor to recover that which has been driven away. Shepherds ‡, who cannot understand, greedy, lovers of gain-and who, by a change of metaphor, are compared to flumbering watchmen, and dumb dogs that cannot bark. The New Teftament teaches us to expect that fuch perfons, under the name of ministers, will be found, likewise, in the visible church of Chrift. Men of corrupt minds §, destitute of the truth, who ferve not the Lord Jefus, but their own belly. Men who are of the world, and speak of the world; and therefore the

world heareth and favoureth them.

But alas neither the wretched lave who toils at the galley-oar, nor he that is doomed to labour in a deep mine, where the light of the fun never reaches him; nor the lunatic who howls in a chain, are fuch emphatical objects of our compaffion, as the unhappy man, who proffitutes the name and function of a minister of Chrift, to the gratification of his pride and avarice; and whofe object, is not the welfare of the flock, but the possession of the fleece. Who intrudes into the poft of a watchman, but gives no alarm of the impending danger. If the fcriptures be true; if the gospel be not, indeed, as Pope Leo the tenth, profanely styled it, a lucrative fable; the more he accumulates riches, the more he rises in dignity, the more his influence extends, the more he is to be commiferated. He may have the reward he feeks. He may be admired and flattered; he may, for a season, be permitted to withstand and discountenance the efforts of the Lord's faithful fervants; he may shine in the accomplishments of a Scholar or a Courtier. But nothing less than repentance, and faith in the Redeemer, whofe name * Ezek. xxxiii. 7, 8.

and