if the people to whom he ministers remain in a state of ignorance, or, whilst they profess to have received the Gospel, they walk unworthy of it, he feels con- strained to adopt the language of St. Paul, and to say, " I am afraid of you, that I have bestowed upon you labour in vain."
Now I propose to shew you,
I. When a minister may be said to have " laboured amongst his people in vain" —
This complaint he may justly utter,
1. When they cleave to the law, as a ground of their hopes —
[What is the one great object of ministers, but to bring men to Christ, that through him they may find reconciliation with their offended God ? In this view, their ministry is called " the ministry of reconciliation." But, in order to effect this great work, they must detach persons altogether from their dependence on the law. Men, by nature, are born under the law : and they invariably look to their obedience to the law as the ground of their hope towards God. But, as it is im- possible for fallen man ever to render to the law that perfect obedience which it requires, God has given him a Saviour, through whom he may obtain a perfect righteousness, fully commensurate with all the demands of law and justice. But, in order to his obtaining an interest in this, every other ground of hope must be renounced. He must be saved wholly, either by works or by grace. The two grounds of hope cannot exist together. If a man attempt to blend them together, even in the smallest possible degree, he will fail : the slightest de- pendence on his works will altogether invalidate the work of Christ, and make void all that he has done for the salvation of mena. If, therefore, a person still practise any works of the law, in order to obtain, either in whole or in part, justification by them, all the labour that has ever been bestowed on him will be in vain. St. Paul said to the Galatian converts, " Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years." And on this he grounded the complaint in our text. The observance of days was not evil in itself: it was only evil, as arguing an affiance in the law, and a consequent departure from the faith of Christ. But this being the proper construction to be put upon it, he regarded it as a dereliction of the Gospel ; and therefore expressed his fears, that all the labour he had bestowed on them had been in vain.]
a Gal. v. 2, 4.