Trait 4.
TRAIT 4.
His extraordinary vocation to the holy ministry, and in what that ministry chiefly consists.
EVERY professor of Christianity is acquainted with the honour which our Lord conferred upon the Apostle Paul, in not only calling him to a participation of the Christian faith, but by appointing him also to publish the everlasting Gospel. A just sense of this double honour penetrated the heart of that apostle with the most lively gratitude: “I give thanks,” saith he, “to Christ Jesus our Lord, for that he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry; who was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious. But I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief: and the grace of our Lord was exceeding abundant in me, with faith and love, which is in Christ Jesus. Howbeit, for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show forth all long-suffering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to everlasting life,” 1 Timothy 1:12, 16. The evangelical ministry, to which St. Paul was immediately called, is in general the same through every age enlightened by the Gospel, and consists in publishing the truth after such a manner that the wicked may be converted, and the faithful edified. The commission which this great apostle received from Christ contains, essentially, nothing more than the acknowledged duty of every minister of the Gospel. Leave out the miraculous appearance of our Lord; pass over the circumstance of a commission given in an extraordinary manner; substitute the word sinners for that of Gentiles, and instead of Jews, read hypocritical professors; and you will perceive that, with these immaterial alterations, the commission of St. Paul is the commission of every faithful minister of the Church. Observe the tenor of it. In person, or by my ambassadors, in a manner either extraordinary or ordinary, “I appoint thee a minister, and a witness of those things which thou hast seen, [or experienced,] and of those things in the which I will appear to thee; and I will deliver thee from the hands of the people, and from the Gentiles,” that is, from the hands of hypocritical professors, and from ignorant sinners, “unto whom I now send thee, to open their eyes, and to turn them from the darkness of error to the light of truth, and from the power of Satan to God,” that is, from sin, which is the image of Satan, to holiness, which is the image of God, “that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and an inheritance among them which are sanctified, by faith that is in me,” Acts 26:16-18. Such was the office to which St. Paul was appointed, more especially among the Gentile nations; and such, without doubt, is the office of every pastor, at least within the limits of his particular parish. As for taking the ecclesiastical habit, reading over some pages of a liturgy, solemnizing marriages, baptizing infants, keeping registers, and receiving stipends, these things are merely accidental; and every minister should be able to say, with St. Paul, “Christ sent me, not [principally] to baptize, but to preach the Gospel,” 1 Corinthians 1:17.
It is evident, from various passages in the different offices of our Church, that our pious reformers were unanimously of opinion, that Christ himself appoints, and, in some sort, inspires all true pastors; that he commits the flock to their keeping, and that their principal care is the same with that of the first evangelists, namely, “the conversion of souls.” And truly, the same Lord who appointed his disciples as apostles, or ocular witnesses of his resurrection, has also appointed others as pastors, or witnesses of a secondary order, and suffragans of the first evangelists. If the witnesses of a higher order were permitted to see Christ after his resurrection, these of a secondary order have felt the efficacy of his resurrection, “being raised together with him,” or regenerated through the reception of “a lively hope, by the rising again, of Christ from the dead,” 1 Peter 1:3; Colossians 3:1. So that every true minister who bears his testimony to the truths of the Gospel, whether it be from the pulpit or before tribunals, is supported by his own particular experience of Christ’s resurrection, as well as by a conviction founded upon the depositions of the first witnesses. Now this conviction and this experience are by no means confined to the ministering servants of God; but the hearts of the faithful, in their several generations, have been influenced by them both; if it be true, that they have constantly stood prepared to seal with their blood these two important truths, Jesus Christ “died for our sins, and rose again for our justification.” Millions of the laity have been called to give this last proof of their faith, and, beyond all doubt, it is abundantly more difficult to bear testimony to the truth upon a scaffold than from a pulpit.
If St. Paul and the other apostles are considered as persons of rank far superior to ours, they themselves cry out, “O sirs! we also are men of like passions with you,” Acts 14:15. If it be said that God inspired the apostles with all the wisdom and zeal necessary to fulfil the duties of their high vocation; it may be replied, that our Churches implore for their established pastors the same wisdom and zeal, grounding such prayers