be their righteousness before God: the robe whicli must cover their souls must not be the homespun garment of tlieir own inherent righteousness wrought in them, but of Christ's righteousness which he wrought for them.
CHAPTER IX.
AN ENCOURAGEMENT TO FAITHFUL MINISTERS.
The gospel affords a word of sweet encouragement to the faithful ministers of Christ. Perhaps you have been long at work for Christ, and see little fruit of your labours ; your strength is spent, and candle almost at the socket of old age ; but your people are still carnal and obstinate, no sun will tan them, — no argu- ments will move them ; to hell they will go, no gate can stop them ; thou hast done thy utmost, but all in vain. This is sad indeed for them thus to go to hell by broad daylight : but thou hast cause of much inward peace and comfort, that thou hast done what God expects at thy hand : remember thy work is, ' To make known the mystery of the gospel,' and upon their peril be it if they em- brace it not. God never laid it upon thee to convert those he sends thee to : no, to publish the gospel is thy duty, to receive it is theirs. Abraham promiseth to discharge his servant of his oath, if the woman which he was to woo for his son would not follow him ; and so will God clear thee of their blood, and lay it at their own door. ' If thou warn the wicked, and he turn not from his wicked- ness,— he shall die in his iniquity, but thou hast delivered thy soul,' Ezek. iii. 19. God judgeth not of his servants' work by the success of their labour, but by their faithfulness to deliver his message : ' Though Israel be not gathered, yet shall I be glorious in the eye of the Lord,' Isa. xlix. 5. Secondly, To the people. As it is the minister's task to make known the mystery of the gospel in his pulpit, so is it your duty to do the same in your lives. The Chris- tian's life should put his minister's sermon in print ; he should preach that mys- tery every day to the eyes of his neighbours which the minister preacheth to their ears. As a well-drawn picture resembles the face from which it is taken, so should thy conversation resemble that gospel which thou professest : let none have cause to say. What hast thou to do with any sordid and impure practices, who pretendest to be instructed in this high and holy mystery ? Thy Christian name ill agrees with a heathen life : if thou sufFerest any that is not of thy pro- fession to outstrip thee in any action that is virtuous and truly honourable, thou shamest thyself, and the gospel also. Thou art trained up in such high and heavenly learning as no other religion can shew, and therefore your lives are to bear proportion to your teaching. It was a sharp reproof to the Corinthians, when the apostle said, ' Ye walk as men,' 1 Cor. iii. 3 ; that is, men in a natural state : and he that walks thus like men, will not walk much unlike the very beasts ; for man is become brutisli in his understanding, and it is worse to live like a beast, than to be a beast. Surely, Christians, if you have not your name for nought, you partake of a nature higher than human ; you should live as far above the carnal world, as grace is above nature, as heaven is above earth. Christ would never have stooped beneath angels, but to raise your hearts and lives above men : he would never have humbled himself to take the human nature, but on a design to make us partakers of the divine ; nor would he have walked on earth, but to make a way to elevate our hearts to heaven. Say not, therefore, flesh and blood cannot bear such an injury, or forbear such a sensual pleasure : either thou art more than a man, or less than a Christian ; flesh and blood never revealed the gospel to thee ; flesh and blood never received Christ; in a word, flesh and bleed shall never enter into the kingdom of God. If thou be a Christian, thou art baptized into the spirit of the gospel, thou hast a heaven- born nature, and that will enable thee to do more than flesh and blood can. Hast thou no desire to see others converted by the gospel? Wouldst thou steal to heaven alone, and carry none of thy neighbours with thee ? Now, how shalt thou win them into a good opinion of the gospel, but by such an amiable life as may commend it to their consciences ? It was a charge long ago laid upon Chris- tianity, that it wasbetter known in leaves of books than in the lives of Christians : hence it is, that many are hardened in their wickedness and prejudice against the gospel. Offend not those by scandals in thy life, whom thou wouldst have ■ converted by the preaching of the gospel. Indeed, the piuity of Christians' lives
AN ENCOUHAGEMKNT TO FAITHFUL MINISTERS. ^^ JJ