discharge of that dutya : nor can any words better express the scope and end of the Christian ministry. If the people be brought to receive abundant com- munications of grace and peace, and to surrender up themselves entirely to God, a minister can desire nothing more in this world ; his labours are well repaid. To promote this blessed end, we shall, I. Explain the words before us —
God is here making known his will to Moses, and directing him what orders to give to Aaron and his sons respecting the execution of their priestly office : and there are two duties which he assigns to them ;
1. To bless the people in God's name —
[This was repeatedly declared to be their office b ; and the constant practice of the Apostles shews that it was to be con- tinued under the Christian dispensation. In conformity to their example, the Christian Church has universally retained the custom of closing the service with a pastoral benediction. We are not indeed to suppose that ministers can, by any power or authority of their own, convey a blessing0: they can neither select the persons who shall be blessed, nor fix the time, the manner or the degree in which any shall receive a blessing: but, as stewards of the mysteries of God, they dis- pense the bread of life, assuredly expecting, that their Divine Master will give a salutary effect to the ordinances of his own appointment. The direction in the text was confirmed with an express promise, that what they spake on earth should be ratified in heaven : and every faithful minister may take en- couragement from it in the discharge of his own duty, and may consider God as saying to him, Bless thou the congregation, " and I will bless tliemA ."]
2. To claim the people as God's property —
[To " put the name of God upon them" is, to challenge them as "his portion, the lot of his inheritance6." This every minister must do in most authoritative terms ; and not only claim them as his property, but excite them with all earnestness to surrender up themselves to his service. Nor shall their exhortations be lost ; for God will accompany them " with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven;" and the
a The circumstance of its being a prescribed form of words, did not render it the less efficacious for the people's good. b Deut. xxi. 5. c Acts hi. 12.
d To this effect, see Luke x. 5, C. and John xx. 23. e Deut. xxxii, 9.