Prince of the

prince, who, however exalted, is a mortal like himself. The other is a minister of the kings of the earth, the King of kings, and the Lord of lords." The employment of the one, however important and beneficial to the interests of man, is confined to the welfare of our present state of existence. The labour of the other tends not only to promote the present peace and happiness of his fellow men, but to make them partakers of a felicity which will run parallel with their immortal existence, and endure through the revolutions of eternity. Let the ministers of the gospel then magnify their office; not by assuming an authority which does not belong to it, but by supporting it with a conduct consistent with its real dignity, and by exercising it so as to render it extensively beneficial to mankind. But, my respected and reverend brethren, while we contemplate the importance and dignity of the ministerial office, let us not forget its tremendous responsibility. We are "stewards of the mysteries of God;" but the eyes of our Lord and Master are upon us, and soon must we give an account of our stewardship at the tribunal of Him "who shall judge the quick and dead at his appearing and his kingdom." If we are accounted faithful in the discharge of our office, "when the chief Shepherd shall appear, we shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away." On the other hand, should we be deemed unfaithful, by concealing the truth, by corrupting the word of God, by acting merely as men-pleasers, by saying, Peace, peace, when God says, There is

66

no peace," it will be at the hazard of our own souls, as well as at the peril of those “over whom the Holy Ghost has made us overseers. The language of God to the prophet Ezekiel is, undoubtedly, applicable to the ministers of his word in every age, and under every dispensation : "Son of man, I have made thee a watchman unto the house of Israel; therefore, thou shalt hear the word at my mouth, and warn them from me. When I say unto the wicked, O wicked man, thou shalt surely die; if thou dost not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand.”

Trusting, my reverend brethren, that you acquiesce in these sentiments respecting the dignity, the importance, and the responsibility, of the ministerial office, I entreat your attention, your candour, and your indulgence, while, in order to stir up your minds and my own "by way of remembrance," I attempt to illustrate some of those truths which appear to arise from the text.

It is not necessary to take up much of your time in particularly examining the occasion and connexion of these words. Let it suffice to say, that, in this epistle from St. Paul to Timothy, his beloved son in the faith of the gospel, the apostle seems to have intended to prepare the mind of the evangelist and bishop* for those sufferings to which he foresaw he would be exposed as a minister of Jesus Christ; to

*See Scott's Note on the terms Evangelist and Bishop, in loco.

forewarn him of the fatal apostasy and declension
which were beginning to appear in the church; and
at the same time to animate him, from his own
example, and from the powerful motives of Christi-
anity, to the most diligent and vigorous discharge
of the ministerial office. The text is part of a solemn
charge introduced by the apostle in the most impres-
sive and affecting manner, to excite Timothy to exe-
cute with fidelity the high trust committed to him.
I have taken only so much of the passage as the
present opportunity will afford us time to consider.
Assuming, that this apostolic charge is equally appli-
cable to all the ministers of Jesus Christ in every age,
as it was to Timothy in his day, in farther discours-
ing on the words selected from it, I shall,

I. Explain the injunction : "Preach the Word." II. Consider the motives by which it is enforced : "I charge thee, therefore, before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom."

I. The injunction is to be explained: "Preach the Word."

The apostle, in this solemn address, enjoins Timothy to proclaim, with all authority and boldness, as one of the heralds of Jesus Christ, the doctrines and duties of the inspired word of God. Some of the clauses that immediately follow the text, appear to have a reference to those several uses of the Word, or Scripture, which he had just before specified. "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for

of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again."

But do not some assert,

that all the baptized are regenerate, and that there is no other regeneration besides baptism? Allow me, my brethren, briefly to examine this subject, and to state what appears to me to be the doctrine of scripture, and of our church respecting it. Baptism is an outward sign of that internal renovation of soul which is necessary to our seeing and entering into the kingdom of God. It is more than an outward sign of the spiritual blessing; for it is a part or branch of regeneration itself, in the larger and full sense of the word. Regeneration is evidently a complex term. What said our Lord to Nicodemus?

66

Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." If, therefore, regeneration is to be born of water and the Spirit, and if our blessed Lord, by the phrase, "born of water," had any reference to the ordinance of baptism, which, with the generality of commentators, I confidently suppose he had, then regeneration, or the being "born again" in the sense in which Christ uses the term, (as well as in that in which it is afterwards used in the scripture,* and by all the primitive Christian writers), evidently consists of two things, the internal and spiritual renovation of the soul, and the outward ordinance of baptism of water. Hence no one can be considered as

*Titus iii. 5.

regenerate in this complex sense of the word, without, on the one hand, being an actual recipient of the ordinance of baptism, and, on the other, viewed in the judgment of christian charity, as internally renovated by the Spirit. I think it is evident that the terms "regeneration," "renewed," "born of God," 66 new creature," "born again," with every other synonimous word and phrase, are never used in the New Testament, after the introduction of christian baptism, but with reference to the baptized; and nothing can be more certain than that the word regenerate is always used by the early Fathers of the Church with this reference. None were considered regenerate but the baptized, because none beside were "born of water," which is one of the parts of regeneration. But all the baptized were viewed as regenerate, because they were partakers of the external part of regeneration, baptized, or born of water; and because, being supposed to be the proper subjects of baptism, they were necessarily viewed, in the judgment of charity, as possessing the internal and spiritual part likewise, or the new birth by the Spirit, of which the external rite was a sign and an emblem. Hence the terms baptized and regenerate (or words adequate to the latter), though evidently not synonimous, seem to be interchangeably used in the New Testament, and most certainly are so in the writings of the early Fathers of the Church. The baptized are (generally speaking) considered in the scripture as "born of God," and as partaking of, and interested in, all the other spiritual blessings