I shall therefore proceed to tell young divines, that a total renunciation of the spirit, and inclinations of this life, is the one thing necessary to consecrate them to their holy office; that as sure as the church of Christ is not a kingdom of this world, as sure as Jesus Christ came to deliver us from this evil world, as sure as he requires us to be born again, and to forsake all and follow him, so sure is it that no one has the call of the Holy Spirit to the ministry, nor the least ground of hoping to be led and governed by it in his ministry, till he at least prays, desires, and heartily endeavours to have all that disregard of worldly prosperity, figure, and distinction, which the Spirit of Jesus Christ, the maxims of the gospel, and the practice of the apostles set before him. Till this renunciation of the world is made, we cannot enter into the ministry at its _own door_, but like thieves and robbers, climb over its walls; and then it will be no wonder if we do no more good to the church than thieves do the house they break open and plunder. If a young minister wants to act the part of a fine gentleman, to go on in the common spirit of the world, to cover a secular spirit with an ecclesiastic garb, and make his fortune in the church, he must be told that it is much safer to be a _publican_ and a _sinner_, than to be a _trader_ in spiritual things; that he who with unsanctified hands attends at the altar, is farther from the kingdom of God, than a _publican_.
Covetousness is idolatry; it is a heathenish, anti-christian vice, tho’ only trafficking in worldly matters; but when it takes possession of the altar, and makes a trade of the mysteries of salvation, it has a blackness of vice which much exceeds that of the worldly miser. The spirit of an ♦ecclesiastic should be the spirit of heaven, knowing nothing of this world, but how to escape its snares and temptations, burning in the love of God, and holding out light to all that aspire after every perfection of the Christian life.
♦ “acclesiastic” replaced with “ecclesiastic”
* ’Tis too commonly thought, that when a young student has taken his degree, and shewn some signs of a genius for learning, he is well prepared to enter into the service of the church. But alas! all the accomplishments of human learning are but the ornaments of the _old man_, which leave the soul in it slavery to sin, full of all the disorders and corruptions of the fallen nature. If it were not thus, how could the errors of all churches have the greatest scholars for their champions? All the learned Catholic world is amazed at the blindness, the perverseness, the weakness, the sophistry, the unfairness of _Protestant critics_. All the Protestant world is in the same degree of wonder at the same disorders in _Catholic disputants_. Is not this a demonstration of the nature, power, and place of human learning? Of its great uselessness to religion? Does not this enough shew, that it is the offspring of the old man, and his nature and qualities dwells in him, and is governed by him? Is not this a demonstration, that the greatest degrees of historical, verbal, critical knowledge are no real hinderance of spiritual blindness? That human learning is as different from divine light as heaven is from earth; and that considered in itself, it leaves us in our slavery to blind and corrupt passions? Now nothing can deliver a man from this state, but the Spirit of God derived into his soul, which alone can bring forth a new man created in Christ Jesus. Nothing can make way for this new birth, but a total dying to all that we are by our natural birth. ’Tis only _this separation_ from things below, that can make us partakers of the truth and light that comes from above. Take away all selfishness from the Papist and the Protestant, let them be dead to the workings of the Spirit, and they will be as fully agreed about gospel truths, as they are in the form of a square or a circle. For nothing stands in the way of divine truth, or hinders its full entrance into us, but this selfishness, which adheres to every one who does not make it his first maxim, prayer, and endeavour to die to, and deny himself in all the tempers and inclinations of our fallen nature. This self-denial is the continual doctrine of our Lord; it is by him made the beginning of all conversion to God, and he that cannot, or will not begin there, can make no beginning of that life, to which he is called in Christ Jesus: therefore he that offers himself for holy orders, without this spirit of self-denial, is a miserable intruder; he only hardens and fixes himself in the corruptions of his own nature, and instead of becoming an instrument of saving others, his very office makes his own salvation more dangerous.