they not reason to hope that he has gained unspeakably more, than they have lost? They may sorrow for themselves, but not for him. He has exhibited an example both of living and of dying, from which they may and ought to derive both consolation and benefit. If they follow him as he followed Christ, they will soon be with him, and with Christ; where there shall be no more sorrow or crying, but all tears shall be for ever wiped from their eyes.

"The fathers, where are they? and the prophets, do they live for ever?" God is rapidly putting out one burning and shining light after another, in his golden candlesticks. There has been of late an uncommon mortality among ministers, in various places, and especially in this vicinity. Whether the Lord of the vineyard has called off these servants from their labors, in mercy to them, or in judgment to others, we have no right to say; but this we know, that the language of his word and providence to us is, "Be ye also ready." Brethren, our time is short, and our work is great. It is an evil day, and we need to redeem our time and employ every moment of it to the best advantage. Have we been like minded with that faithful servant of Christ, who has just finished his course, and given up his account? It concerns us most seriously to reflect upon the past, and to resolve upon the future. Let us work while the day lasts; that when the shadows of a long night shall reach us, we may be prepared to rest from our labors, and enjoy the rewards of the faithful. Has God given us the charge of our people? Have they committed their spiritual interests to our care? Have we solemnly bound ourselves to watch for their souls, as those who must give account? Are our eternal interests and theirs inseparably connected together; and the great interests of both inseparably connected with the infinitely more important interests of Christ? In the view of these mighty motives, can we be so unwise and so unfaithful, as to suffer any of our people to perish, by caring for our own things, and neglecting the things which belong to their everlasting peace? May it be our hearts' desire, and prayer to God, that we may save both ourselves and them that hear us.

This subject, I trust, applies with propriety, to the church and people in this place, on the present truly mournful occasion. They have received, and they have lost, an invaluable blessing in their late pastor. But few ministers have been like minded. None, perhaps, have felt and expressed a more sincere and tender regard for the good of their people, than Mr. Cleaveland uniformly felt and expressed for your highest good. He took you by the hand, when you were in peculiar need of such a kind and faithful guide. He has been willing to spend and to

be spent, for your salvation. He has lodged in your minds an irresistible evidence of his fidelity, through the whole course of his ministry among you. Having loved you at the first, he loved you to the end. You never stood higher in his affections, nor he higher in your esteem, than when he closed his eyes in death. You have abundant reason of gratitude to the great Bishop of souls, that he sent you such a faithful watchman; that he continued him so long among you; and that he crowned his labors with so much success. You have a right to mourn, but not to murmur, under your sore bereavement. The divine Redeemer, to whom it belongs to thrust forth laborers into his vineyard, may give you another amiable and faithful pastor, who shall be like minded, and care for your state. But this, in a measure, will depend upon your views, and feelings, and conduct, in your present bereaved and afflicted situation. You are now called to exercise a strong and lively faith in Him, who is the repairer of breaches. The instructions, the prayers, and the preaching of your deceased pastor, lay you under great and endearing obligations to pursue the great interests which he pursued; and to consider, that your interests and his are still connected, and never will be separated. His joy will be your joy, his crown your crown, and the crown and joy of both will be the crown and joy of Him in whom ye have believed. Christ says to this little flock, "Because I live, ye shall live also." The cause of Christ here is now confided to his friends in this place. O may they be faithful to him, to themselves, and to them that are without! Soon you must follow him, who is gone and will never return. Live as he lived, and you may hope to die as he died, and to meet him at the right hand of your Judge in peace. But how will any who have hated instruction and despised reproof, be able to meet their deceased and faithful pastor at the last day? Unless they repent and believe, they must be for ever separated from him, and from all good, and lie down in everlasting sorrow. And let me ask this whole assembly, whether you are prepared to meet your faithful ministers at the bar of Christ; for you must give account how you hear, as well as they, how they preach. Be entreated then to "obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves; for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy, and not with grief; for that is unprofitable for you." "He that hath an ear to hear, let him hear."

SERMON XXVI.

JOY OF A FAITHFUL MINISTER IN VIEW OF ETERNITY.

FUNERAL OF REV. TIMOTHY DICKINSON, HOLLISTON, WHO DIED JULY 6, 1813,

AGED 52.

FOR I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord the righteous Judge shall give me at that day; and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing. -2 TIMOTHY, iv. 6, 7, 8.

He was

Ir appears very probable, that this second epistle to Timothy was the last letter which the apostle Paul ever wrote. now a prisoner at Rome, and had every reason to expect to fall a victim to the implacable malice of his mortal enemies. In ▾ this solemn situation, he was divinely moved to write once more to Timothy, whom he greatly loved and esteemed; and to exhort him, in the most serious and affectionate manner, to perform every part of his great and arduous work, under an habitual sense of his future and final account. After giving him a variety of useful cautions and directions, he proceeds to say, "I charge thee therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom: Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with all long suffering and doctrine." And to impress this charge the more deeply on his heart, he assures him, from his own happy experience, that great consolation may be derived from the due discharge of the gospel ministry." For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course; I have kept the faith: Hence

forth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord the righteous Judge shall give me at that day; and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing." While Paul the aged was thus waiting for death and looking into eternity, he found great peace and joy flowing from a consciousness of having faithfully performed the duties of his sacred office. We have, therefore, his dying testimony to this plain and important truth:

That a faithful minister may have good reasons to rejoice, in the nearest views of eternity.

To illustrate this subject, it seems proper, in the first place, to delineate the character of a faithful minister; and then mention some of the good reasons he may have to rejoice, in the nearest views of eternity.

In delineating the character of a faithful minister, the first thing to be observed is, that he loves the gospel which he preaches. Ministers, like all other men, are by nature morally depraved, and entirely destitute of love to the gospel, which displays the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Paul, before his conversion, was a bitter enemy to Christ, and to all his peculiar and humiliating doctrines. But after he knew the grace of God in truth, he sincerely loved that Saviour whom he had before persecuted; that gospel which he had before hated; and that cause which he had before endeavored to destroy. This appears from his own account of himself. "I thank Jesus Christ our Lord, who hath enabled me, for that he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry; who was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious. But I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief." "I am the least of the apostles, that am not meet to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am." Though one who is destitute of grace may understand and preach the peculiar doctrines of grace, yet he is by no means a faithful minister of the gospel. Paul puts and decides this case in respect to himself. "Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing." It was supreme love to Christ, which qualified Peter to feed his flock with fidelity. "Jesus saith to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I

love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my lambs. He saith to him again the second time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my sheep. He saith unto him the third time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me ? Peter was grieved because he said unto him the third time, Lovest thou me? And he said unto him, Lord, thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I love thee. Jesus saith unto him, Feed my sheep." Love lies at the foundation of all ministerial fidelity. Love to God, love to Christ, love to the gospel, and love to the souls of men, is the most prominent trait in the character of a faithful minister.

Secondly: A faithful minister does not shun to declare all the counsel of God, but endeavors to preach the gospel as fully and as plainly as possible. He keeps back nothing, which he thinks will be profitable to his people, through fear of displeasing the enemies of truth. He means to exhibit human depravity, divine sovereignty, special grace, and every other peculiar and essential doctrine of the gospel, in the clearest and strongest light. And it is by preaching those truths plainly which he knows to be the most important, though most disagreeable to the corrupt heart, that he gives the best evidence of his sincere love to God, and to the souls of men. Paul considered it as a peculiar mark of his own faithfulness, that he plainly and boldly inculcated the most profitable and most disagreeable doctrines of the gospel. He said to the Corinthians, "We are not as many which corrupt the word of God; but as of sincerity, but as of God, in the sight of God, speak we in Christ." "As we have received mercy, we faint not; but have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor handling the word of God deceitfully; but by manifestation of the truth, commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God." He said to the elders of Ephesus, "Ye know, from the first day I came into Asia, after what manner I have been with you at all seasons, serving the Lord with all humility of mind, and with many tears, and temptations, which befell me by the lying in wait of the Jews. And how I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you; but have showed you, and have taught you publicly, and from house to house, testifying both to the Jews and also to the Greeks repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ. Wherefore I take you to record this day, that I am pure from the blood of all men. For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God." And he still more solemnly declared to the Galatians, "I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ, unto another gospel;