the Lord in every age of the church were to be formed on this model, (and very sure it is among the Lord's faithful ones, more or less, there can be no other) the Korahs who in the confidence of their own holiness, assume the service of the sanctuary, would never be heard of, but when worldly profit, and worldly honour blaze to the view of carnal men, the pursuit will still be kept up from age to age, and the camp in Israel be acted over again in modern times, of these engulphed and earthed, like Korah and his company.

One feature more, which uniformly marks the Jeremiahs of all generations in the Lord's ministers, who like him have been sanctified from the womb for the Lord's service, is, that they not only feel reluctant when first called to the work, but continually through life, in all the after stages, require the quickenings of the Holy Ghost, to lead them on in the exercise. "I said," said the prophet, "I will not make mention of him, nor speak any more in his name; but his word was in my heart as a burning fire, shut up in my bones, and I was weary with forbearing, and I could not stay." Jer. xx. 9. It is not merely the opposition which the servant of the Lord meets with from men of the world, which induceth such effects as the prophet here mentions. True indeed the Pashurs and the Hananiahs were sources of trial to him, as men of the same complexions are now to the faithful like him, nevertheless such opposition the Lord overrules for good. They give an edge to the weapons of warfare, and they minister in this way, as the Philistines did to Israel, when they "sharpened for them their share, and their coulter, their axe, and their mattock, against the day of battle." 1 Sam. xiii. 19, 20. But the chief source of discouragement the servant of God meets with to depress his spirit in the arduous work of the ministry, is the coldness and deadness of his own heart. A spiritual work requires a spiritual frame. And very blessed it is,

when like the beloved apostle, he that ministers in holy things can and doth invite the spiritual household to partake of that which he himself is spiritually eating. "That," said he, "which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled of the word of life; that which we have seen and heard declare we unto you." 1 John i. 3. This spiritual enjoyment which the preacher hath himself, gives a life and encouragement to what he recommends to others; and as one coal is kindled by another coal when both are blown upon, so when the Holy Ghost hath breathed upon both minister and people, what comes warm from one heart will warm the other. But when things are out of tune, and the harp is hung upon the willow, there will be no promptness to sing the love song upon Alamoth! All faithful ministers of the Lord, like Jeremiah, not only feel a diffidence at the entering upon the Lord's service, but are continually exercised in the same through the whole of life, and watch for the souls of the people as they that must here give account; so that with the apostle, they can say to their people, we were with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling: and our speech and our preaching was not with enticing words of men's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit, and of power; that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God." 1 Cor. ii. 3-5.

In the prosecution of this subject, our next view of the prophet will bring us to his ordination. God the Holy Ghost hath shewn in the example of Jeremiah, that the setting apart for the Lord's ministry, is like the predestination of the church herself, even from everlasting for the Lord's glory; and we have also seen in the character of this prophet, that humbleness, diffidence, and a conscious sense of inability, to the Lord's service, are among the first, and most prominent features

of the Lord's servants. In attending to what is recorded of the ordination service of Jeremiah, we shall be led to discover, from whom all qualifications can alone come, and that the same Almighty God, who before he formed him in the womb marked him for his own, and sanctified him to his service, when he called him by his grace to his ministry, what he had set him apart to, then fitted him for.

The ordination service is but short, but it is very sweet. We cannot be sufficiently thankful to God the Holy Ghost, for so precious a portion preserved to us in his word; "then the Lord (saith Jeremiah) put forth his hand and touched my mouth; and the Lord said unto me, behold! I have put my words in thy mouth. See, I have this day set thee over the nations, and over the kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, to build, and to plant.

I detain the reader to call his attention to similar cases in the old testament days, Jer. i. 9, 10. of the method the Lord the Holy Ghost was pleased to adopt in the consecration of his prophets. In this instance of Jeremiah, the Lord "put forth his hand and touched his mouth." In the ordination of Isaiah, the sign or symbol used, was that of "a live coal taken from the altar, and laid upon the prophet's mouth," Isa. vi. And when Ezekiel was set apart for the ministry, the Lord caused him to eat a roll which the Lord gave him, to intimate that what the Lord would cause the prophet to speak, "were the Lord's words, and not his own," Ezek. iii. 1-4. but however different the sign, the thing signified was one and the same. By taking a comparative statement of the whole together, and calling into our meditation, what the Lord hath taught of the same in other scriptures, we discover, that in the ordination of each, the whole persons of the Godhead were engaged. God the Father set apart from everlasting his chosen. All grace and gifts, are in the Person of

God the Son, in nature, from whom as the live coal taken from the altar, or the roll eaten by the prophet are taken; and God the Holy Ghost, the glorifier of the Lord Jesus, and by whose baptism and unction the whole ministry is ordained, Isa. vi. with Acts xxviii. 25.

But I should hope that without any intimation from me, the mind of the reader will be at once led away from the ordination of those prophets and every other, to behold the Lord God of the prophets in his call to the divine ministry in his church. Was there ever a sweeter note sung to the church, than what God the Holy Ghost by Paul sung in that lovely scripture, when speaking of no man taking the honour of God's ministry to himself, uncalled and unanointed of God, said, “so also Christ glorified not himself to be made an high priest; but he that said unto him, thou art my Son, to-day have I begotten thee! as he saith also in another place, thou art a priest for ever, after the order of Melchizedec," Heb. v. 4, 5, 6. And Oh! how blessed is it to see this call of God the Father and his anointing of God the Holy Ghost, so beautifully blended in the Person of our great High Priest! And how blessed to trace through both testaments, the Son of God in our nature, coming forth in this gracious character "to preach the gospel to the poor, and to heal the broken in heart," Isa. xlii. 1-7. and lxi. 1. and with Luke iv. 18, &c.

But to return to the ordination of Jeremiah. The solemn service opened, as we have seen, in acts of grace, and in qualifying the man for the ministry of the Lord; to this succeeded his mission. "See, (saith the Lord) I have this day set thee over the nations, and over the kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, to build, and to plant!" I beg the reader to observe, that there are here the two great branches, which more or less dis

tinguish a faithful ministry in all ages of the church, namely, the rooting out heresy and the planting the truth; the detection of error, and the building up the Lord's people in their most holy faith. And the best comment upon these words of the Lord to the prophet, is given by the Lord himself by his servant the apostle. The doctrine is one and the same, only old testament words brought home to the church in new testament language. “For we are, saith Paul, (speaking of himself and his companions in the ministry) unto God a sweet savour of Christ, in them that are saved, and in them that perish. To the one we are a savour of death unto death, and to the other the savour of life unto life. And who is sufficient for these things?" 2 Cor. ii. 15, 16. Observe, the Lord's servants when ordained by the Lord, are always a sweet savour of Christ. For although there is nothing in themselves savoury, being men of like passions with those among whom they minister; yet being regenerated, and made partakers of Christ, and being anointed to the service of the ministry, they carry in their message the Person and glory of the Lord Jesus Christ, and therefore are a sweet savour of Christ; the church in her love song to her beloved declares his name to be, Song i. 3. Indeed there is, there must be, a savour of Christ, wherever his name, like the ointment of the temple, is poured forth. That blood and righteousness which hath perfumed all heaven, is an everlasting odour in the church, and comes up before God with unceasing fragrancy, "for a sweet-smelling savour," Ephes. v. 2. And I pray the reader not to overlook the particularity of the expression, when the apostle saith, "for we are unto God a sweet savour in Christ." Yes! it is to God, in his Trinity of Persons, that the church in Christ is what it is. The persons of the Lord's people, and both the persons and services of the Lord's ministers, be they ever so great or laborious, can have no acceptation before