ages of the Roman Catholic Church, the intemperance and im purity of the clergy were a proverb; and it cannot be denied, though it must be spoken with sorrow and shame, that it is by no means impossible, in our own favored country, Great Britain, and in churches calling themselves reformed, to find in the ministry men of whose character and conduct the words before us exhibit but too accurate a portrait. The character here sketched in bold relief belongs, however, to many whose exterior deportment in no degree trespasses against decorum. Every minister, though neither persecutor, nor glutton, nor drunkard, in the ordinary sense of the words, incurs the guilt here described, who is overbearing and tyrannical, who is intoxicated with the love of the world in any of its forms, and who spends that time and devotes that attention to the pursuits of worldly literature, ambition, or pleasure, which ought to be dedicated to the "feeding the flock of Christ," and preparing for meeting with him as “the chief Shepherd."

By acting in this manner, the unworthy occupant of the sacred office makes it plain that he is neither "faithful nor wise." He is not full of faith;" he is an unbeliever, not it may be an infidel, in the ordinary sense of the word, but a man to whom the realities of the Gospel have never been anything else than mere words or abstract notions, to whom "the words of the truth of the Gospel" has never "come with demonstration of the Spirit and with power." He is not faithful. No, his whole character and conduct is a lie to God and to man. He is unfaithful to him whom he acknowledges as his Master, and equally unfaithful to the solemn pledges which he has given the Church and the world by assuming the sacred profession. And he is not wise. Oh! it must be fearful miscalculation which can bring such a man into, or keep such a man in, the christian ministry. Contempt is very often the sentiment which his conduct draws forth even here, to an extent that he is little aware of; and of all the victims of everlasung shame in the regions of retribution, the most pitiable, and the least pitied, is likely to be the unfaithful minister of Christianity. Double will be the perdition of the false Christian, -tend the perdition of the false christian minister.

U. THE DESTINY OF THE OCCUPANTS OF THE CHRISTIAN

MINISTRY.

It only remains now that we shortly attend to the view given the text of the destiny of the occupants of the christian ministry, worthy and unworthy. The faithful servant shall be "blessed when his Lord comes." His Lord shall "gird himself and make him sit down to meat, and shall come forth and serve him." "He will make him ruler over all that he hath." The unfaithful servant shall be "cut asunder," "have his portion

42 1 Cor. ii. 4.

appointed him with the hypocrites and unbelievers," and le beaten with many stripes." The reward and the punishment here referred to are represented in the parable as conferred and inflicted at "the coming" of the master. There can be no rea sonable doubt that "the coming of the master" represents "the coming of our Lord." By some, "the coming" referred to has been considered as the destruction of the Jewish polity: by others, the death of the individual minister. There are insuperable objections to the first mode of interpretation, and I do not think that the death of individual saints is ever represented in the New Testament as "the coming of the Lor 1." They go to be with Him then. The coming of the Lord here, as usually in the gospels and epistles, is His final coming to judge the world, and put a solemn termination to the present order of things. At the same time, as no change of character takes place in the intermediate state-as judgment finds men as death leaves them, the Saviour is represented when coming, as finding his servants - just in the attitude in which they left the world. The descriptions apply in all their extent to the state of things consequent to the resurrection; it is then that the reward will be fully enferred-then that the punishment will be fully inflicted; but immediately on death, the faithful servant is rewarded, and the unfaithful servant punished; and the reward and the punishment in the intermediate period between death and the resurrection, and after it, differ rather in degree than in kind. Keeping these observations in view, let us attend to these two most impressive

statements.

§ 1. Worthy.

And first of the destiny of the faithful minister. "He is blessed"-emphatically "blessed." "Blessed are" all "who die in the Lord; yea saith the Spirit""-but peculiarly blessed is the minister of Christ who dies at his post-" with his loins girt" as a servant-or with his shield on his arm, and his sword in his hand, as a soldier. "Next to the honor," as Mr. Henry says, "of those who die on the field of battle, is the honor of those who die on the field of labor." To die for Christ's cause is the highest glory; the second is, to die in Christ's service. The faithful minister is blessed, for he shall not only "rest from his labors," but be abundantly rewarded. His reward is described in a manner suited to the whole parabolical representation. His Lord shall "gird himself and make him sit down to meat, and shall come forth and serve him." Who can read this, and remember who that Lord is, who acts so condescending and kind a par.“ the 996 the Only-begotten of God," "the brightness of the Divine glory,' King of kings, the Lord of lords," "the great God our Saviour Jesus Christ,' without in devout astonishment exclaiming, "Is this the manner of men, O Lord God?” The general idea is

43 Rev. xiv. 13. 43 2 Sam. vii. 19

4. Joh i. 18. Rev. xvii. 14. Tit. ii. 13.

plain enough, that they shall be introduced into a state of com plete repose, high honor, and rich enjoyment, that this will bь the obvious work of their divine Master, and that in the manner of doing it, he will give the most astonishing manifestations of condescension and love. "This promise," says the learned and pious Bengel, "I regard as the greatest of any in the Bible, and I take the words in a kind of literal meaning, that is, as a bridegroom on his wedding day scruples not to wait on his guests, and to converse in affectionate familiarity with them all, so will Jesus act in the world to come, 'when the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready.'

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Another figurative representation of the reward of the good minister, is that of the faithful servant being, as a recompense for his fidelity, made ruler over the whole of his master's estate. "He will make him ruler over all that he hath." Here, as in the former figure, the minute details are hid from us by the dazzling cloud of brightness, which even to the eye of faith, covers the paradise of God; but the general meaning is not dif ficult to apprehend. The words certainly indicate that faithful ministers shall receive peculiar and appropriate rewards-rewards of a kind which shall strongly mark the regard the Lord has for them, and the confidence he reposes in them-rewards resembling those bestowed on a faithful servant by a grateful master, when he raises him to a station of higher responsibility and greater honor.

We are much in the dark respecting the economy which is to be introduced at the coming of the Lord. "It doth not yet appear what we shall be;"" but there can be no doubt, that in "the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ," there will be the most perfect order and happiness, and that his faithful servants may be employed in a manner we cannot distinctly understand, as instruments in producing and maintaining this harmony and felicity.

I cannot conclude this part of the subject without placing before you a finished picture of the happiness of the rewarded faithful minister, by the hand of a master. "Such is the

mysterious condescension of divine grace, that although it reserves to itself the exclusive honor of being the fountain of all, yet by the employment of human agency in the completion of its designs, it contrives to multiply its gifts and to lay a foundation for eternal rewards. When the church, in the perfection of beauty, shall be presented to Christ as a bride adorned for her husband, the faithful pastor will appear as the friend of the bridegroom, who greatly rejoices because of the bridegroom's voice.' His joy will be the joy of his Lord;' inferior in degree, but of the same nature, and arising from the same sources: while he will have the peculiar happiness of reflecting that he has contributed to it-contributed as a humble instrument to that glory and felicity of which he will be conscious he is utterly unworthy 46 Burk's Mem. of Bengel, p. 397.

47 1 John iii. 2.

48 2 Pet. i. 11

เ

to partake. To have been himself the object of mercy, to have been the means of imparting it to others, and of dispensing the unsearchable riches of Christ, will produce a pleasure which can never be adequately felt or understood, until we see him as he is.' From that oneness of spirit, from that inseparable conjunc tion of interests which will then be experienced in its utmost extent, will arise a capacity of sharing the triumph of the Re deemer, and of participating in the delight with which he will survey his finished work when a new and fairer creation shall rise out of the ruins of the first. And is this the end,' he will exclaim, of all my toils and watchings, my expostulations with sinners, and my efforts to console the faithful! and is this the issue of that ministry under which I was often ready to sink! and this the glory of which I heard so much, understood so little, and announced to my hearers with lisping accents and a stammering tongue!' Well may it be styled 'glory to be revealed. Auspicious day! on which I embarked in this undertaking, on which the love of Christ, with a sweet and sacred violence, impelled me to feed his sheep, and to feed his lambs.' With what emotion shall they, who being entrusted with so holy a ministry, shall find mercy to be faithful, hear that voice from heavenRejoice and be glad, and give honor to Him; for the mar riage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready!' With what rapture shall they recognize amid an 'innumerable multitude,' the seals of their ministry, the persons whom they have been the means of conducting to that glory!"—"To have co-operated in any degree towards the 'accomplishment of the purpose of Deity, to reconcile all things to himself,' by reducing them to the obedience of his Son, which is the ultimate end of all his works; to be the means of recovering, though it were but an inconsiderable portion of a lapsed and degenerate race, to eternal happiness, will yield a satisfaction exactly commensurate to the force of our benevolent sentiments, and the degree of our loyal attachment to the Supreme Potentate. consequences involved in 'saving a soul from death, and hiding a multitude of sins,' will be duly appreciated in that world, where the worth of souls and the malignity of sin are fully understood; while to extend the triumphs of the Redeemer, by forming him in the hearts of men, will produce a transport which can only be equalled by the gratitude and love they shall feel towards the source of all their good.'

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§ 2. Unworthy.

The

Let us now for a little turn our thoughts to the destiny of the unworthy occupant of the christian ministry. Deep has been his guilt, and dreadful will be his punishment. He shall be "cut asunder." By some interpreters there has been supposed

49 Hall's Discouragements and Supports of the Christian Minister. Work vol. i., pp. 263-266.

to be a reference here to a horrible mode of capital punishment occasioning extreme suffering,-the cutting or sawing the living body into pieces; others have considered the phrase as equivalent to he shall be destroyed.' We are disposed to think that this figure, like all the rest, is in keeping with the parable of which it forms a part. The servant is spoken of as alive after he has undergone what is termed "cutting asunder." It consists with the rule and usage of the language to interpret it of his being "cut off," "dissevered" from the family in which he has acted so unworthy a part."-He is "cast out," publicly and disgracefully discarded. His indignant Master says, "Depart, I know you not." He now feels the true import of that " excommunication" with which he attempted to punish better men than himself. He is "ANATHEMA MARANATHA.""2

While cast out of the family "his portion is appointed him with the hypocrites,"" with false pretenders, a class peculiarly hateful to him who "desires truth in the inward part,' "with the unbelievers," rather with the perfidious," who have broken their engagements both to God and to man. And it is his fit place; for the honor of God, the cause of truth, the interests of souls, were put into his hands; he accepted these trusts, and basely betrayed them all. In the prison of hell, classed with "the basest, the lowermost, the most dejected, most underfoot and down-trodden vassals of perdition" must he have his everlasting abode. "This pertaineth to him as the portion of his cup."

His

And there "he is to be beaten with many stripes." damnation shall be no ordinary damnation, and especially his punishment shall be much more severe than that of those who, through his unfaithfulness, have "also come into that place of torment." His conduct in the house of his Master necessarily led to disorder and disobedience. Those whom he ought to have taught the will of the Lord remaining ignorant of it, or being led to form fatally incorrect views of it, have neglected to do His will, and have been involved in the dreadful consequences of disobedience. Nor is this at all unjust; they ought to have known their Lord's will; they had the means of knowing the Lord's will; it is therefore meet that they should be beaten. But they will be beaten with comparatively few stripes;" while many and unabated shall be the strokes of Divine vengeance on the man on whom lies the foul guilt of the blood of the souls of unwarned or deluded sinners. They must "die in their iniquity, but there blood will be required at the hand" of the faithless watchman."-Such is the doom of the unfaithful minister.

The reflections which force themselves on the mind after thus

50 Heb. xi. 37. 2 Sam. xii. 31. Sueton. Calig. xxvii.

51 Snicer, Beza, Bonnet.

54 MOTOLS. Rev. xxi. 8. Xen. 56 Ezek. xxxiii. 8.

52 1 Cor. xvi. 22. Mem., 2, 6, 19.

53 Matt. xxiv. i.

55 Milton.