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SERMONS,

&c.

SERMON I.

THE GREAT THEME OF PREACHING.

2 COR. iv. 5.

For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake.

THE duties of the Christian ministry are many and various. They are sufficient to occupy all the time, to engross all the thoughts, to engage all the affections and to employ all the powers of those who are intrusted with its sacred functions. A consideration of all the obligations involved in the pastoral care, would open upon us a field too extensive for our limited time. We shall confine ourselves to a single, though a prominent part of the duties of the sacred office,

-that of public preaching, the great instrument, that has ever been used by the Holy Spirit in the conversion of the world. For it hath pleased God, by the foolishness of preaching, to save them that believe.

Next to the great Preacher of righteousness, there are no better and safer models for ministers of the gospel to imitate than the apostles, particularly the apostle Paul. This truly great and holy man, this devoted and laborious servant of Christ, was eminently distinguished as a preacher. For strength of reasoning, for knowledge of the human heart, for commanding eloquence, his discourses are unrivalled. No man had clearer views of divine truth, and no one preached the gospel with greater fidelity or more success. He was instant in season and out of season. He labored more abundantly than any of his colleagues. He did not hesitate to declare the whole counsel of God. He was faithful unto death, and has long since received a crown of life that fadeth not away. Who then can be better qualified to teach ministers how to preach, than he, who was himself such an accomplished, powerful, and successful preacher?

In the context the apostle attributes the want of success of the ministry to the influence of

the god of this world, and not to the doctrines preached by himself and his associates. But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: in whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake. In the antithetical language of the text, preaching ourselves is contrasted with preaching Christ.

In order therefore rightly to comprehend the spirit of the contrast, we shall attempt to show, I. What is implied in preaching ourselves. II. What is implied in preaching Christ Jesus the Lord, and

III. The light in which preachers of the gospel ought to regard themselves as the servants of the church for Jesus' sake.

To preach ourselves implies,

First, that we preach our own speculations. There is a natural disposition in the human heart to rely more upon the results of human reasoning than upon the simple declarations of the word of God. The pride of intellect is too often a besetting sin of ministers of the gospel.

From the nature of their profession, they are often led to the investigation of subjects, that involve the most abstruse and metaphysical reasoning. We do not intend, by this remark, to discourage metaphysical speculations in their proper place, which we would, with deference, beg leave to say, is in the study rather than the pulpit. Although it may be desirable, in order to a well disciplined and informed mind, that a minister of the gospel should be a profound metaphysician, it is by no means necessary that he should endeavor to make his congregation adepts in the science of metaphysics by learned lectures on intellectual and moral philosophy; and much less necessary is it that he should perplex their understandings by attempting to systematize by human art, what God has wisely left unexplained in his holy word. This disposition to reduce every thing to a system, is, in our apprehension, one of the evils of our times, and necessarily leads to that kind of preaching, which is calculated rather to defend a favorite hypothesis than to exhibit those plain, and wholesome, and vital truths which the Spirit of God delights to bless in the awakening and conversion of sinners. Is it wise, is it benevolent, while so many precious souls are perishing all around us

for want of the bread of life, for ministers to spend their time in preaching the distinctions of the schools, in advocating or impugning some favorite or repulsive system of theology? Is not this preaching ourselves, and not Christ Jesus the Lord?

But secondly we remark, we preach ourselves when we exalt reason above revelation. This error has the same source with that which we have already considered-the pride of the human heart, although it leaps over the bounds which many, who preach their own speculations, sacredly prescribe to themselves. The speculating or metaphysical preacher, though he greatly misjudges in giving too great a prominence to the results of his own reasonings, yet bows with reverence to divine revelation. Not so the man, who exalts reason above revelation. Instead of submitting his reason to the standard of the divine will, as revealed in the word of God, he pertinaciously refuses his credence to that part of revelation which he presumes to consider as inconsistent with his reason. He preaches just so much of the Bible as his unsanctified reason approves.—Is not this preaching ourselves, and not Christ Jesus the Lord?

To preach ourselves implies, thirdly, that we

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