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SERMON VI.

Of the Minifterial Function.

T

2 COR. ii. 16.

Who is fufficient for these
Things?

HE Apoftle in the Words of the SERM.
Text fets forth the Dignity and VI.
Excellency of the minifterials

Office, and the wonderful Suc

16.

cefs, which the Preaching of it found through the whole World: Now Thanks be 2 Cor. ii. unto God, which always caufeth us to triumph 14, 15, in Chrift, and maketh manifeft the Savour of his Knowledge by us in every Place. For we are unto God a fweet Savour of Chrift, in them that are faved, and in them that perish; to the one we are the Savour of Death unto Death, and to the other the Savour of Life unto Life; but, left any one should

attribute

SERM, attribute this wonderful Succefs of their VI. Preaching to the Excellency of their natural Parts, or the Influence of acquired Learning, the Apoftle prefently adds that this was the Effect of the extraordinary Affiftance of the Holy Ghoft, and that no Person, of himself, how well qualified foever, was fufficient for fo great a Work, Who is fufficient for thefe Things? That this is the plain and genuine Senfe of the Words may appear from the fifth and fixth Verses of the next Chapter where St. Paul, treating of the fame Subject, declares, that we are not fufficient of ourselves, to think any Thing as of ourselves, but our Sufficiency is of God, who alfo hath made us able Minifters of the New Teftament, not of the Letter, but of the Spirit. Which will appear more evident by confidering,

I. THE Dignity of. And,

II. THE Difficulty in executing the Minifterial Office. And,

I. OUR natural Infufficiency will appear, if we confider the Dignity of the Minifterial Office: And, if the Dignity of this facred Function is to be taken from that Value and Efteem which has ufually

been

VI.

been fet upon it in the World, it will SERM. be no hard Matter to make it appear, that it always has been held in the highest Efteem, and looked upon by the best of Men, and in the best of Times, as facred and venerable as the regal Authority itfelf.

In the first Ages of the World, when every Family was a Commonwealth, and the Father of the Family, a Prince over his own Children and Servants, all facred Rites were performed by him: Thus Cain and Abel are thought to have brought their Sacrifices to Adam. Abraham offered up a Ram, instead of his Son Ifaac. Job offered Sacrifices for his Seven Sons; and, during the first two thousand Years, the Priesthood was annexed to the Primogeniture, even till the Law given by Mofès, when God efpoufed a peculiar People, and was himself their King, and then the Le- Num. iii. vites were fubftituted to represent them in 45, the facerdotal Office.

IF you go on to peruse the holy Records, you will find Melchizedeck a King and a Prieft; David a King and a Prophet; and Solomon, the wifeft of Men, preferring the Name of Preacher, before all those glorious Titles which the Eaftern Monarchs were fo fond of; nay, even

Jefus

SERM. Jefus Chrift, the King of Kings, and eVI. ternal Son of God, leaving the Bosom of his Father, that he might preach the Gofpel to Mankind, and perform the Office of a Prieft, in offering himself a Sacrifice to attone for the Sins of the whole World.

BUT because those, who are the chief Contemners of the Clergy, pay very little Deference to the Holy Writ, and have unlearned Religion and good Manners together, it may be useful to make it appear, that this is confirmed by the common Confent of moft People and Nations, which, as Tully tells us, is the Voice of Nature itself.

AND, here, it would be an endlefs Tafk to turn over the voluminous Hiftories of Kingdoms, and to make an Abstract of what we find recorded there on this Subject, it may fuffice to give you a Taste, and to enquire what those excellent Perfons have thought, who have treated on those Matters.

I SHALL begin with Tacitus, who tells us, that, amongst the old Germans, Sacerdotibus juxta ac Regibus honor habitus eft: And, Servius on the third Æneid of Virgil, Majorum hæc erat confuetudo, ut Rex effet etiam Sacerdos vel Pontifex. The greatest Potentates in the World did not

think the Priesthood below their Dignity, SERM, but joined the Scepter and the Crofier to- VI. gether. Thus Midas, King of Phrygia, was confecrated a Prieft to Orpheus, as Justin tells us; and the Lacedemonian Kings did always facrifice in Perfon. Xenophon records the fame of Cambyfes; Curtius of Alexander; Halycarnaffeus of Romulus, that, as to all thofe Things which concerned the Gods, he took Care of them himfelf: In Imitation of whom Julius, Auguftus, and all the fucceeding Emperors, both Pagan and Chriftian, even till Gratian's Days, retained the Title of Pontifex Maximus: Amongst the Mahometans, the Sultan pays the most distinguishing Marks of his Reverence and Efteem to the Mufti, and there is no Divan in which his Prefence is not required.

BUT to come nearer Home, if we inquire what Honours our Ancestors paid to the Clergy, we shall find, that they have often mingled with the Royal Blood, and that the Sons and Brethren of our Princes have been confecrated Bishops; nay, that feveral of our Kings have exchanged their Sceptres for the Paftoral Staff. It is evident that, in the Times the Saxons bore Rule, they were ranked amongst the greater Thanes; and, in the Norman Days,

efteemed

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