Now then we hesitate not to declare, that all which we preach unto you respecting your fallen state, and the necessity of your believing in Christ as the appointed Saviour of the world, and of your giving up yourselves to him " in body, soul, and spirit, to be sanctified wholly" to his service, is the very truth of God revealed in his Gospel : and whilst we
b Acts XX. 28. = Rom. xiii. 1 — 6. ^ Luke xii. 13, 14.
« Rom. xi. 13. f 2 Cor. v. 20. ? 1 Thess. ii. 13.
'' Matt. X. 40, 11. 1 Thess. iv. 8. See also 1 Sam. viii. 7.
' 1 John iv. 1. "^1 Thess. v. 21. '1 Cor. xv. 3.
affectionately entreat, we do also authoritatively enjoin, your acceptance of it, and your submission to it: and we affirm, that, if ye reject this Gospel, ye do it at your peril, and with a certainty of incurring God's everlasting displeasure"".]
2. As stewards over his family —
[This also is a character belonging to us", and a character with which a measure of authority is of necessity connected". Under that character we must, at the peril of our own souls, be faithful to you, and to our God, whose servants we are p. Whatever we judge to be the portion most requisite for your spiritual health, that we must administer, whether it be in- struction or exhortation, consolation or reproof We must no further seek to please you, than will be for your real welfare^: if we go beyond this, we cannot be servants of Jesus Christ'. Of course, in the exercise of discipline, there will be some things which will be more clear, and some which will be of a more dubious character. In those which are clear, and where the word of God has precisely marked the course to be pursued, the submission of the people to the sentence of the minister should be willing and unreserved : and in those which, though not expressly defined by God, are necessary for the maintenance of order, a willing deference should be paid to the judgment of him on whom the great responsibility rests, and to whom authority has been committed by God himself for the good of the whole ^. " Not that ministers are to be lords over God's heritage*," or to *' have dominion over the faith" of any man" : but still, even in dubious matters, a degree of submission is due to them, that order may be observed, and the affairs of the Church be well administered, for the good of the whole '^. This is the kind of rule which a parent exercises in his family ; and in a spirit of paternal love must it be exercised by ministers in the house of God^.]
These observations will acquire additional weight, if we attend to,
II. The considerations with which this duty is enforced —
Two considerations are here urged, as motives to a cheerful acquiescence in the duty prescribed :
"' Heb. ii. 3. 1 Pet. iv. 17, 18. "1 Cor. iv. 1.
" Luke xii. 42. P 1 Cor. iv. 2. i Rom. xv. 2.
" Gal. i. 10. 8 2 Cor. x. 8. and xiii. 10. 1 Tim. v. 17.
* 1 Pet. v. 3. "2 Cor. i. 24. * i Cor. xvi. 15, 16. y 1 Tim. iii. 5.
2350.] THE people's duty, A MINISTER'S JOY. 547
1. The return due to them —
[Ministers have taken upon themselves to seek to the uttermost the spiritual and eternal welfare of those who are committed to their care ; and, when duly impressed with the importance of their office, they " watch for souls as those that must give account." When they undertake this office, they know, that if any perish through their neglect, the blood of those who perish will be required at their hands^. Under this fearful responsibility, " they watch for souls," trembling lest, through their ignorance, or sloth, or cowardice, any have the truth withheld from them, or the means of salvation un- profitably dispensed to them. They feel their insufficiency % and are ready at times to regret that ever they made them- selves answerable to so awful an extent. But a " dispensation having been committed to them, they know that a woe attends them," if they discharge not their office with fidelity and dili- gence''.