Ezek. xxxiii. 8. 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 ivicked man shall die in his iniquity ; but his blood will I require at thy hand.
THE office of a minister is the most important and most difficult of any that we can be called to sustain. It is the most important, because the sal- vation of multitudes depends upon it : and it is the most difficult, because it requires such self-denying habits, and spiritual affections. The responsibility also that attaches to it is such, that no man would dare to take it upon himself, if he had not a promise of peculiar assistance in the discharge of it. Ministers are the messengers of God to men : to them they must faithfully declare his whole counsel : however painful the truths may be which they are to deliver, and however averse men may be to hear them, they must execute their commission at the peril of their souls. To this effect God speaks in the words before us : in which we may notice,
I. What God saith to the wicked —
It is scarcely possible to conceive a more solemn declaration than that before us ; " I say unto the wicked, O wicked man, thou shalt surely die ! " Consider,
1. Who are the people addressed —
[These are all who do not unfeignedly turn from sin to God. It matters not whether they be rich or poor, old or young, learned or unlearned. In some sense, it matters not whether their sins have been more or less heinous : for though there certainly are degrees of guilt, and some are more wicked than others, yet all are wicked, who are not following after God in righteousness and true holiness ; and consequently, all such persons, however their characters may vary in other re- spects, are addressed in the text.]
2. The declaration of God unto them —
[Death is here denounced as the judgment to be inflicted on all who turn not to their God : and to the same effect the inspired writers uniformly speak a. Nor are we at a loss to determine what is meant by " death : " it is the wrath of Godb, the misery of hellc. This is the judgment that will come upon every individual who shall be found in the state before de- scribed. God may be considered as addressing himself to every individual of the human race : " O thou wicked man!" Nor is
a Isai. iii. 11. Rom. vi. 23. Jam. i. 14, 15. b Rom. i. 18. c Rev. xxi. 8.
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this fatal result of wickedness expressed in doubtful terms: there is no peradventure ; the decree is fixed; "Thou shalt surely die ! " Who can reflect on these words as proceeding from a God of infinite power and of inviolable truth, and not tremble ?]
3. The condition implied in that declaration —
[If there were no condition implied in the declaration, it would have been to no purpose to make known the declaration itself; since it could have no other effect than to torment men before their time. But as in the message to Nineveh, " that in forty days Nineveh should be overthrown," there was an implied condition, that, if they repented, the threatened ven- geance should be withheld ; so, in this case, there is an implied assurance, that the wicked, if they will repent, shall not die. And this is expressly stated in the following context*1 : so that, awful as this passage is, it is no less encouraging than it is awful ; because it assures the contrite and believing sinner that he shall never perish.]
Together with this warning, we see in the text,
II. The necessity imposed on ministers to proclaim it- Ministers are described as watchmen, or sentinels, placed at a distance from the camp to give notice of the enemy's approach. Now this very character marks both their duty and their responsibility. But the consequences of neglect in any minister are de- clared in two respects :