2 Cor. vi. 1 1 — 13. 0 ye Corinthians, our mouth is open unto you, our heart is enlarged. Ye are not straitened in us, hut ye are straitened in your own boicels. Now, for a recom- pence in the same, (I speak as unto my children,) he ye also enlarged.
THE ministers of the Gospel sustain an office cha- racterized in Scripture by the most exalted terms. They are ambassadors of the Lord Jesus Christ : they address men in the name, and in the very place, of God himself^ : and they are in this respect fellow- workers with God''. But, though they are at liberty, and indeed are bound, to " magnify their office",'' they are not at liberty to magnify themselves: nor, indeed, will they be disposed to do so : they know, that, whilst they bear for the good of others an in- estimable '' treasure, they are themselves but earthen vessels '^ :" and, if they glory at all, they can " glory only of their infirmities," by means of which the Lord Jesus Christ is honoured, and his work advanced ^ It is to these that the Apostle, in the passage now under our consideration, refers, as the proofs of his appointment to, and his fidelity in, the apostolic office : and so ample is his enumeration of the diffi- culties and trials to which he had been subjected in the discharge of his duty, that he apologizes, as it were, for the fulness of his description ; and entreats his Corinthian converts to exercise towards him the same disposition which he was at this instant exer- cising towards them.
The words which we have read to you will afford me occasion to shew,
L How the Gospel enlarges the heart of a faithful minister —
To the servants of Christ is committed the ministry of reconciliation —
[In this respect, a common minister is on a par with an Apostle. St. Paul himself could declare nothing, but that " God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself; not imputing their trespasses unto them : " and those blessed tidings we also are privileged to bear; as we are, also, to " be- seech men, in Christ's stead, to be reconciled to God." And this office I will now perform, if peradventure God may give his blessing to the word, and bring the soul of any one amongst you into a state of favour and acceptance with him- self ]
a 2 Cor. V. 20. ^ ver. 1. c Rom. xi. 13.
d 2 Cor. iv. 7. ^ 2 Cor. xi. 30.