Trait 32.

TRAIT 32.

The grand subject of his glorying, and the evangelical manner in which he maintained his superiority over false apostles. THE disposition of a faithful pastor is, in every respect, diametrically opposite to that of a worldly minister. If you observe the conversation of an ecclesiastic who is influenced by the spirit of the world, you will hear him intimating either that he has, or that he would not be sorry to have, the precedency among his brethren, to live in a state of affluence and splendour, and to secure to himself such distinguished appointments as would increase both his dignity and his income, without making any extraordinary addition to his pastoral labours. You will find him anxious to be admitted into the best companies, and occasionally forming parties for the chase or some other vain amusement. While the true pastor cries out in the self-renouncing language of the great apostle: “God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world,” Galatians 6:14. If the minister who is really formed to preside in the Church, were singled out from among his brethren, and placed in an apostolic chair, he would become the more humble for his exaltation. If such a one were slighted and vilifled by false apostles, he would not appeal, for the honour of his character, to the superiority of his talents, his rank, or his mission; but rather to the superiority of his labours, his dangers, and his sufferings. Thus, at least, St. Paul defended the dignity of his character against the unjust insinuations of his adversaries in the ministry: “Are they ministers of Christ? (I speak as a fool) I am more.” But in what manner did he attempt to prove this? Was it by saying, I have a richer benefice than the generality of ministers; I am a doctor, a professor of divinity, I bear the mitre, and dwell in an episcopal palace? No: instead of this he used the following apostolic language: “In labours I am more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft. In journeyings often, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils by the heathen, in perils among false brethren: in weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness. Beside those things that are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the Churches. Who is weak and I am not weak? Who is offended and I burn not? If I must needs glory, I will glory in the things which concern mine infirmities,” 2 Corinthians 11:23-30. “From henceforth let no man trouble me: for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus,” Galatians 6:17. Such are the appeals of holy prelates. But for a man to glory at having obtained a deanery, a professor’s chair, or a bishopric, is in reality to boast of his unfaithfulness to his vocation, and to prove himself unworthy of the rank to which he has been injudiciously raised.

Ye who preside over the household of God, learn of the Apostle Paul to manifest your real superiority. Surpass your inferiors in humility, in charity, in zeal, in your painful labours for the salvation of sinners, in your invincible courage to encounter those dangers which threaten your brethren, and by your unwearied patience in bearing those persecutions which the faithful disciples of Christ are perpetually called to endure from a corrupt world. Thus shall you honourably replace the first Christian prelates, and happily restore the Church to its primitive dignity.