Chapter 10.
CHAPTER 10.
A fifth objection answered.
THE solidity of the preceding remarks may be acknowledged by many pastors, who will still excuse themselves from copying the example of St. Paul.
“It is unreasonable,” they will say, “to require that we should preach the word of God, in season and out of season, as St. Paul once did, and as Timothy was afterward exhorted to do. We find it, in this day, a matter of difficulty to prepare any public address that may be either acceptable to the people, or honourable to ourselves.”
To this objection we return the following replies:—
(1.) He, who spake as never man spake, rejected the arts of our modern orators, delivering his discourses in a style of easy simplicity and unaffected zeal.
(2.) We do not find that St. Paul and the other apostles imposed upon themselves the troublesome servitude of penning down their discourses. And we are well assured, that when the seventy and the twelve were commissioned to publish the Gospel, no directions of this nature were given in either case.
(3.) St. Paul gives the following pastoral instructions to Timothy: “Give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doctrine. Neglect not the gift that is in thee. Meditate upon these things: give thyself wholly to them. Take heed unto thyself and to thy doctrine; continue in them: for in doing this, thou shalt both save thyself, and them that hear thee,” 1 Timothy 4:13,
16. “Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season. Reprove, rebuke, exhort, with all long suffering and doctrine,” 2 Timothy 4:2. Now, had it ever entered into the mind of the apostle that it would be proper for pastors to compose their sermons in the manner of rhetoricians, and to deliver them as public orators, he would most probably have given some intimation of this to his disciple. In such case he would have held out to his pupil in divinity some instructions of the following nature: “O Timothy, my son! I have frequently commanded thee to labour in the work of the Lord, according to my example. But as thou art not an apostle, properly so called, and hast not received the gift of languages, I advise thee to write over thy sermons as correctly as possible. And after this, do not fail to rehearse them before a mirror, till thou art able to repeat them with freedom and grace: so that when thou art called upon public duty, thou mayest effectually secure the approbation of thine auditors. Furthermore: when thou art about to visit any distant Churches, lay up in thy portmanteau the choicest of thy sermons. And wherever thou art, take care to have, at least, one discourse about thee, that thou mayest be prepared for any sudden emergency, and never appear unfurnished in the eyes of the people.” The idea of such a passage in the Epistles of St. Paul, whether public or private, is too absurd to be endured.
(4.) If advocates, after hastily considering a question of difficulty, are ready to plead the cause of their client before a court of judicature; can it be possible, that, after several years of meditation and study, a minister should still be unprepared to plead the cause of piety before a plain assembly of his unlearned parishioners?
(5.) When we are deeply interested in a subject of the last importance, do we think it necessary to draw up our arguments in an orderly manner upon paper, before we attempt to deliver our sentiments upon the matter in hand? Are not the love and penetration of a parent sufficient to dictate such advice as is suited to the different tempers and conditions of his children? After perceiving the house of our neighbour on fire, we do not withdraw to our closet to prepare a variety of affecting arguments, by way of engaging him to save both himself and his family from the flames. In such case, a lively conviction of our neighbour’s danger, and an ardent desire to rescue him from it, afford us greater powers of natural eloquence than any rules of art can furnish us with.
(6.) Horace observes, that neither matter nor method will be wanting upon a well-digested subject:—
Cui lecta potenter erit res,
Nec facundia deseret hunc, nec lucidus ordo.
With how much facility then may suitable expressions be expected to follow those animating sentiments which are inspired by an ardent love to God and man; especially when subjects of such universal concern are agitated, as death and redemption, judgment and eternity! Upon such occasions, out of the abundance of the heart the mouth will speak, “nor will the preacher be able to repeat a tenth part of the truths which God has communicated to him, while meditating upon his text.” (Act of Synod, chap. 11.) If malice can furnish those persons with an inexhaustible fund of conversation, who delight in malice, how much more may we suppose the charity of a pastor to furnish him with an inexhaustible fund of exhortation, instruction, and comfort!
(7.) It has been a plea with many ministers of the Gospel, that they neglect to proclaim that Gospel during six days in the week, lest they should be unprepared to address their parishioners, with propriety, upon the seventh. With teachers, who are thus scrupulously tenacious of their own reputation, we may justly be allowed to reason in the following manner: to what purpose are all those oratorical appendages, with which you are so studious to adorn your discourses: and who hath required all this useless labour at your hand? Isaiah 1:11, 12. If a servant, after being charged by his master with a message of the utmost importance, should betake himself to his chamber, and defer the execution of it day after day, would not such a delay be esteemed an unpardonable neglect? Or, if he should attempt to apologize for the omission, by alleging that he had been busily engaged in learning to repeat, with precision, the message he had received, and to move upon his errand with dignity and grace; would not such an excuse be regarded as an instance of the highest presumption and folly? And can we imagine that our heavenly Master will overlook that neglect in his public messengers, which would appear in the conduct of a private domestic so justly condemnable?
(8.) What advantage has accrued to the Church, by renouncing the apostolic method of publishing the Gospel? We have indolence and artifice, in the place of sincerity and vigilance. Those public discourses, which were anciently the effects of conviction and zeal, are now become the weekly exercises of learning and art. “We believe and therefore speak,” 2 Corinthians 4:13, is an expression that has grown entirely obsolete among modern pastors. But nothing is more common among us than to say, As we have sermons prepared upon a variety of subjects, we are ready to deliver them as opportunity offers.
(9.) Many inconveniences arise from that method of preaching, which is generally adopted in the present day. While the physician of souls is labouring to compose a learned dissertation upon some plain passage of Scripture, he has but little leisure to visit those languishing patients who need his immediate assistance. He thinks it sufficient to attend upon them every Sabbath day, in the place appointed for public duty. But he recollects not, that those to whom his counsel is peculiarly necessary, are the very persons who refuse to meet him there. His unprofitable employments at home leave him no opportunity to go in pursuit of his wandering sheep. He meets with them, it is true, at stated periods, in the common fold: but it is equally true, that during every successive interval, he discovers the coldest indifference with respect to their spiritual welfare. From this unbecoming conduct of many a minister, one would naturally imagine that the flock were rather called to seek out their indolent pastor, than that he was purposely hired to pursue every straying sheep.
(10.) The most powerful nerve of the sacred ministry is ecclesiastical discipline. But this nerve is absolutely cut asunder by the method of which we now speak. When a pastor withdraws fatigued from his study, imagining that he has honourably acquitted himself with regard to his people, he is too apt to neglect that vigilant inspection into families, upon which the discipline of the Church depends. Such a spiritual instructer may justly be compared to a vain-glorious pedagogue, who, after drawing up a copy, and adorning it, for several days together, with all the embellishments of his art, should yet imagine that he admirably performed his part, in preparing it, at length, for his scholars, without any visible defects. And what could reasonably be expected from the pupils of such a teacher, but that, fearing neither scholastic discipline, nor particular inspection, they should neglect to transcribe what their master, with so much unprofitable toil, had produced?
(11.) Since the orator’s art has taken place of the energy of faith, what happy effect has it produced upon the minds of men? Have we discovered more frequent conversions among us? Are formal professors more generally seized with a religious fear? Are libertines more universally constrained to cry out, “Men and brethren, what shall we do?” Acts 2:37. Do the wicked depart from the Church to bewail their transgressions in private; and believers to visit the mourners in their affliction? Is it not rather to be lamented, that we are at this day equally distant from Christian charity and primitive simplicity?
(12.) Reading over a variety of approved sermons is generally supposed to be preaching the Gospel. If this were really so, we need but look out some school boy of a tolerable capacity, and after instructing him to read over, with proper emphasis and gesture, the sermons of Tillotson, Sherlock, or Saurin, we shall have made him an excellent minister of the word of God. But if preaching the Gospel is to publish among sinners that repentance and salvation which we have experienced in ourselves; if it is to imitate a penitent slave, who, freed from misery and iron, returns to the companions of his former slavery, declaring the generosity of their prince, and persuading them to sue for mercy;—if this is to publish the Gospel of peace, then it is evident that experience and sympathy are more necessary to the due performance of this work, than all the accuracy and elocution that can possibly be acquired.
(13.) When this sacred experience and this generous sympathy began to lose their prevalence in the Church, their place was gradually supplied by the trifling substitutes of study and affectation. Carnal prudence has now for many ages solicitously endeavoured to adapt itself to the taste of the wise and the learned. But while “the offence of the cross” is avoided, Galatians 5:11, neither the wise nor the ignorant are effectually converted. The Gospel is abundantly better suited to the “poor in spirit,” than to those who value themselves as men of sagacity and science. “I thank thee, O Father,” said the lowly Jesus, “that thou hast hid these things from the wise and the prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes,” Matthew 11:25. These babes, however, in the language of Christ, are the very persons who have been usually neglected by us, for the mere gratification of reputed sages. Alas! how many thousand proofs do we require to convince us, that the wisdom of this world will continue to trample under foot the pearl of the Gospel, though, in order to secure its reception, it should be presented among the artificial pearls of a vain philosophy?
(14.) In consequence of the same error, the ornaments of theatrical eloquence have been sought after with a shameful solicitude. And what has been the fruit of so much useless toil? Preachers, after all, have played their part with much less applause than comedians; and their curious auditors are still running from the pulpit to the stage, for the pleasure of hearing fables repeated with a degree of sensibility which the messengers of truth can neither feel nor feign.
Notwithstanding the above remarks have been expressed in the most pointed manner, we mean not to insinuate that the errors already exposed are the only mistakes to be guarded against. Extremes of every kind are to be avoided with equal care. We condemn the carnal prudence of Christian orators; but we as sincerely reprobate the conduct of those enthusiasts who, under pretence that Christ has promised to continue with his disciples to the end of the world, exhibit the reveries of a heated imagination for the truths of the Gospel. Too many of these deluded fanatics are found, who, taking their slothfulness and presumption for the effects of a lively faith, and an apostolical confidence, repeatedly affront the Almighty, and justly offend those candid hearers who are least disposed to take offence. Offences will undoubtedly come; but it behooves us to make a just distinction between the real offence of the cross, and that which is given by an unlicensed presumption on our own part.
If we are honoured with the pastoral office, let us consider the Holy Scriptures as an inexhaustible mine of sacred treasures. In the law of the Lord let us meditate day and night. Before we attempt to deliver evangelical truths in public, let it be our first care to penetrate our hearts in private with an adequate sense of those truths. Let us arrange them in the most suitable order; let us adduce and compare the several passages of Sacred Writ, which appear to support or explain the particular doctrines we mean to insist upon. But, above all, joining faith and prayer to calm meditation, after becoming masters of our subject, let us humbly ask of God that warrhsia, that lively and forcible elocution, which flows from the unction of grace.
And here, instead of resting contented with barely requesting, we should labour to acquire what we seek, by frequently stirring up the gift that is in us. Let us embrace every opportunity of exhorting both believers and catechumens. Let us carry, with unwearied constancy, instruction to the ignorant, and consolation to the afflicted. Let us be faithful in reproving sinners of every class, and diligent in training up the children of our parish. It is necessary indeed to be scrupulously cautious, lest we abuse the liberty of preaching from meditation, by becoming followers of those who are more worthy of censure than imitation. There are pastors of this kind who, having acquired a good degree of spiritual knowledge, and a wonderful facility of expression, unhappily begin to pique themselves upon appearing before a numerous assembly without any previous study. Conscious of their own ability, these self-sufficient preachers make little or no preparation for one of the most solemn duties that can possibly be discharged. They hasten to a crowded auditory without any apparent concern, and coming down from the pulpit with an air of the same easy confidence with which they ascended it, contentedly return to that habitual listlessness, which had been interrupted by the external performance of a necessary work. Alas! if these presuming pastors could be prevailed upon to write over their sermons, to how much better purpose might they thus employ their hours, than by heedlessly trifling them away in frivolous conversation and shameful inactivity!
It is not to imitate examples of this nature that we solicit the ministers of Christ to recover those hours which are usually employed in composing their weekly discourses. How many are the important occupations of which the faithful pastor has his daily choice! The wicked are to be reclaimed, and the righteous established. Hope must be administered to the fearful, and courage to the tempted. The weak are to be strengthened, and the strong to be exercised. The sick must be supported, and the dying prepared for dissolution. By frequent pastoral visits to hamlets, schools, and private houses, the indefatigable minister should continually be moving through the several parts of his parish; discovering the condition of those intrusted to his care, and regularly supplying the necessities of his flock; diffusing all around instruction and reproof, exhortation and comfort. To sum up his duties in a single sentence, he should cause the light that is in him to shine out in every possible direction, before the ignorant and the learned, the rich and the poor; making the salvation of mankind his principal pursuit, and the glory of God his ultimate aim.
Thus, after having faithfully performed the work of an evangelist, when he is about to be removed from his charge by death, or by any other providential appointment, he may take an affectionate leave of his people, and say, “Remember, my children, that while I have sojourned among you, I have not ceased to warn every one of you,f4 night and day; and if my word has not always been accompanied with tears, Acts 20:31, yet it has constantly flowed from the truest sincerity and affection.”