dare to obtrude himself among them. He, however, assured them that he would come to them, and with power too, if they constrained him to do so : and he submitted it, as it were, to their option to determine in what way he should come to them ; whether of needful severity, or of unmixed love.
Now the Apostles had, occasionally at least, a power to inflict temporal judgments; as Peter did on Ananias ; and as Paul did on Elymas the sorcerer : and to this there may be some reference in the menace before us. But every minister of God has such a measure of authority vested in him over the people of his charge, that he may with propriety address them in the language of my text ; " Shall I come unto you with a rod ; or in love, and in the spirit of meekness ?"
That I may make a suitable improvement of these words, I will,
I. Set before you the diversified duties of a Christian minister —
A minister is not merely " a steward of the myste- ries of GodV' to dispense to every member of God's family his portion in due season ; but
He is, as a father over them, to exert authority —
[Even a young minister, if there be occasion, is to " re- prove" both sin and error®; yea, to " rebuke with all autho- rity V' and even " sharply" too, rather than not effect the reformation he desires^. In this exercise of authority, he must seek " the edification, and not the destruction" of the offender'^: but he must rather proceed to the utter excision of a corrupt member, than suffer the whole body to sustain irreparable injury'. Nor is he to be influenced in this matter either by fear or love. If the offender be as powerful as Ahab or as Herod, yet must Elijah reprove the one, and John the other : nor must the true Levite, the faithful minister, know even his own parents or children, so as to withhold from them the needful admonition''. Eli is, in this respect, a warning to all ministers', to " know no man after the flesh."]
" ver. 1. e 1 Tim. v. 20. f Tit. ii. 15.
B Tit. i. 13. 1' 2 Cor. xiii. 10. i Gal. v. 12,
•^ Deut, xxxiii. 9. ' 1 Sam. ii. 27 — 36.