people till the next sermon? Does not carnal prudence control our fervour, and make our discourses lifeless on subjects the most piercing? How gently we handle those sins, which will so cruelly handle our people's souls! In a word-our want of seriousness about the things of heaven, charms the souls of men into formality, and brings them into this customary careless hearing, which undoes them '-'I know not what others think,' (says he in another place) but for my own part, I am ashamed of my stupidity, and wonder at myself, that I deal not with my own and others' souls, as one that looks for the great day of the Lord; and that I can have room for almost any other thoughts or words, and that such astonishing matters do not wholly absorb my mind. I marvel, how I can preach of them slightly and coldly; and how I can let men alone in their sins; and that I do not go to them, and beseech them for the Lord's sake to repent, however they take it, or whatever pains or trouble. it should cost me! I seldom come out of the pulpit, but my conscience smites me, that I have been no more serious and fervent in such a case. It accuses me not so much for want of human ornaments or elegancy-but it asketh me- How couldst thou speak of life and death with such a heart?' The God of mercy pardon me, and awaken me with the rest of his servants, that have been thus sinfully negligent. O Lord, save us from the plague of infidelity and hard-heartedness ourselves; or else how shall we be fit instruments of saving others from it.'1 1 Reformed Pastor. SECTION V. DILIGENCE-THE SPIRIT OF SCRIPTURAL PREACHING. How instructive is the constant eyeing of our Divine Pattern,1 with his whole heart, his whole time, engaged in his Father's work! His greatest diligence, however, was 'concentrated in his public Ministry. "He taught," when at Jerusalem, "daily in the temple;" and wherever else a concourse was gathered, he was ready to open his mouth for hortatory, didactic, or illustrative instruction. The first labourers of the Gospel, and the Fathers of the early church closely followed their Master's example.3 The Apostle contemplated far greater danger from sloth than from excessive activity in preaching the word. He adjures therefore his beloved Timothy by the solemn view and anticipations of the day of account-to "be instant in season and out of season; not only regular in the routine of preaching seasons; but under the guidance of an enlightened conscience, embracing opportunities that might appear unseasonable, and ready to improve every unlookedfor call to service. And what is there in the present day, that renders this diligence less necessary, less binding, or less effectual? Is not the mass of unconverted hearers as large with us, as in the primitive church? And how can Christ's sheep among them "hear his voice" without a Preacher ? 5 No other 3 Acts v. 42. xix. 9. xxviii. 23. and notices in the Homiletical writings of the Fathers. Comp. Jer. xxvi. 5. Hag. ii. 10, 20. 4 2 Tim. iv. 1, 2. 5 John x. 16, 27. with Rom. x. 14. U medium will supersede this appointed channel of Divine communications.1 The frequency of Sabbath preaching must depend upon physical strength and other circumstances, over which there can be no control. Where the heart is really engaged in the work, the willingness of the spirit will be in general only restrained by the weakness of the flesh. A double exercise of our duty begins to be called for by the concurrent voices of our Diocesans. A familiar repetition of one of these exercises would profitably and popularly furnish a third service, should this addition be found either desirable or practicable. Few minds could long support the labour and excitement of bringing forth three successive subjects. Nor indeed could the digestive powers of our people healthfully receive so large a quantity of food; whereas the system of repetition assists instead of loading the digestion. Much more is implied in this diligence, than the formal routine of a Sabbath address. Such an infrequent and mechanical exhibition ill represents the parental obligations subsisting between a pastor and his flock. Would a father be satisfied with this feeble periodical admonition, when his beloved son was in continual and most imminent danger? The annals of our Hierarchy will furnish exciting examples of preaching diligence. Hooper was not one of the unpreaching prelates,' who excited honest Latimer's indignation and remonstrance. He would say, 'that no Bishop ought to complain of one sermon a-day.' 2 2 Probably his own custom exceeded these 1 The apostle, though keeping up intercourse with the Thessalonians by his pen, still desired to see their face, for their better advantages of Christian instruction. 1 Thess. iii. 10. 2 Fifteen masses a day did not suffice for the priests of Baal; and yet one sermon a day seems more than a good Bishop or bounds. Fox informs us, that, being Bishop of two dioceses (Gloucester and Worcester), he yet so ruled and guided either of them and both together, as though he had in charge but one family. No father in his household, no gardener in his garden, nor husbandman in his vineyard, was more or better occupied, than he in his diocese among his flock, going about his towns and villages in teaching and preaching to the people there.' Bishop Jewell's saying- A Bishop ought to die preaching '-was strikingly confirmed in his own death, which appears to have been hastened, if not to have been caused, by the ardour of his Episcopal zeal.1 Of Bishop Matthew (Bishop of Durham in Queen Elizabeth's day's, and subsequently translated to York) it was said, that it was easy to trace his journies by the churches he preached at.' The most inveterate haters of prelacy were silenced by the example of this Apostolic Bishop. Preaching he used to call his beloved work,' from which he did not consider himself to be discharged even by the government of the province of York, so that a challenge was thrown out to Popery That Tobias Matthew, the Archbishop of York, though almost Evangelical Pastor can bear.'-Hooper's Confession delivered to the King and Parliament, 1550. Daily preaching was Chrysostom's rule for a Bishop (doubtless with application to subordinate Ministers.) De Sacer. Lib. vi. 4. If the letter of the rule be impracticable, let us at least endeavour to approximate to its standard and spirit. 1 The motto at the bottom of a curious portrait of Jewell preserved in Salisbury Palace is—' Væ mihi, si non evangelizavero!' This was also the motto of Usher's own selection for his Archiepiscopal seal-illustrated by his increasing constancy in preaching, subsequent to his elevation. These instances (with that cited below) exemplify Augustine's just views of the Episcopal office'Episcopatus nomen est operis, non honoris-Intelligat se, non esse Episcopum, qui præesse dilexerit, non prodesse.' Aug. de Civit. Dei. Lib. xix. c. 19. No mention of Archbishop Matthew occurs in Prynne's celebrated work of invective against prelates. eighty years of age, preacheth more sermons in a year, than you (the Popish party) can prove have been preached by all your Popes from Gregory the Great's days.'1 The examples of Grimshaw and Wesley, in days nearer our own time, may well serve to stimulate to greater devotedness to our public employ. Twelve or fourteen preaching engagements were included in Mr. Grimshaw's idle week. The number was doubled, in what he called his working week. Wesley is calculated to have preached upwards of forty-thousand sermons (exclusive of a large number of exhortations) during a course of itinerancy of nearly fifty years, and an average annual ratio of travelling four thousand five hundred miles. Whatever irregularity or enthusiasm belonged to their unprecedented labours, the large success with which they were honoured, displayed the main-spring of their exertion-"the love of Christ constraining them. " 3 Let not our censure of their irregular system hinder us from transferring an impulse of zeal, self-denial, and self-devotedness, to a more chastised course of Ministration. But preaching diligence includes not only frequency of employ, but constant repetition of truth. The workman is more anxious to fasten one nail by reiterated blows, than slightly to fix many upon the outward surface. To preach "the same things is not grievous" to the Christian Minister; and for his people it is often "safe." 4 The fruitfulness of the earth arises from its " drinking in the rain that cometh oft upon it." The constant repetition,-not the weight-of the heavenly showers makes impressions on the hardest 1 Granger's Biog. Hist. Vol. i. P. 343. |