ministry. Let the infidel and profane account it a burden, not a bleffing to fociety: but do you admire the goodness of God in an inftitution fo wifely calculated to promote your best interefts. Were it not for public teaching, ignorance and vice would foon grow to fo prodigious a height, that not even the form of religion would remain.-Receive with becoming affection him who is this day ordained your paftor. Confider the dignity of the office with which he is invefted, and entertain him with fuitable refpect. Minifters are men of God; they minifter in his name, and by his appointment; fee, then, that your paftor be with you without fear; becaufe he worketh the work of the Lord. Efteem him highly in love for his work's fake. Minifters would labour with better fuccefs, if they lived more in the hearts of their people. Add not; therefore, to your paftor's difficulties, by an undutiful carriage. Rather affift and ftrengthen him to bear up under them. Put the beft conftruction on his words and actions which they can poffibly bear; and treat him not rudely; and vent not your fpleen againft him,. though in his doctrine or life leffer blemishes fhould appear. Curb fuch an infolent intempe-rate zeal, by reflecting on the apostle's direction: "Rebuke not an elder, but intreat him as a "father." Contempt caft upon faithful minifters, and injuries done them, Chrift will refent as done to himfelf.

Forfake not the affembling of yourselves together,,

together, as the manner of fome is. Withdraw not from ordinances difpenfed by your paftor, though his fentiments in leffer matters fhould differ from yours. I fay, in leffer matters for if an angel may be lawfully accurfed, furely a minifter may be lawfully deferted, who preaches another gofpel, who lays another foundation for the hopes of guilty finners than God hath laid. But bring not against him unjustly fo heavy a charge. Remember, in this imperfect state, leffer miftakes are unavoidable, and will not vindicate your feparating from him. And where a cafe is not extremely clear, you owe confiderable deference to his judgement, as he has greater leisure than most of you for studying, and greater advantages for understanding the facred oracles. Let therefore your paftor ever find you humble and teachable, fwift to hear, flow to fpeak, flow to wrath. Come not to church with a captious quarrelfome difpofition. With what heart can minifters. preach, when hearers are ftill upon the catch, eager to pick up fomething with which to find fault? Act a worthier part: laying afide all malice, and guile, and hypocrify, and envying, and evil-fpeaking, hearken with meeknefs to that ingrafted word which is able to fave your fouls: like the noble Bereans, receive the inftructions of your teacher with all readiness of mind; not yielding them, however, an implicit faith, but fearching the fcrip-. tures daily, whether thefe things are fo. In

fo

fo far as they ftand the teft of that infallible touchstone, regard them not as the word of man, but as they are in truth, the word of the living God.

See that you reject not Chrift, when by his minifters he fpeaketh to you from heaven. When he calls, do not refufe; when he ftretcheth forth his hand, do not difregard it. Be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own fouls. While you have the light, walk in the light, left darkness come upon you. It is but for a little minifters can be useful; ere long they must ceafe to preach, and you to hear. Thofe fervants of God who now how to you the way of falvation, muft in a while refign their places; and the eye that now fees them, muft fee them no more. Comply, then, with their wholefome counfels while yet you enjoy them, left you mourn at the laft, and fay, How have I hated inftruction, and my foul defpifed reproof? I have not obeyed the voice of my teachers, nor inclined mine ear to them that inftructed me.

Second the labours of your minifter, by private endeavours, fuitable to your several flations, for the good of fouls. Train up your children in the way that they fhould go, and encourage any serious impreffions made upon. them. When difcipline is exercifed against open offenders, fhow that the honour of God, and the happiness of precious fouls, lie nearer your hearts, than the eafe and reputation of any man. The efficacy of church-cen

fures

fures will much depend on your conduct towards thofe who fall under them. Have no company with fuch, that they may be afhamed and if they will not hear the church, let them be to you as Heathen men and pu

blicans.

And when you are allowed the nearest access to a throne of grace, and feel your hearts in the most devout and heavenly frame, wrestle and make fupplication for your minifter, that his own foul may profper and be in health, that the presence of God may accompany him in all his ministrations, and that when he plants and waters, God himself may give the increafe.

May his doctrine drop as the rain, and his fpeech diftil as the dew: and may the foul of every one of you be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water whofe waters fail

not.

SER.

252

SERMON

VII.

The Gospel preached to the Poor.

By PATRICK CUMING, D. D.

Preached before the Society in Scotland for prepagating Chriftian Knowledge, Feb. 4. 1760.

MATTH. xi. 5.

The blind receive their fight, and the lame walk, the lepers are cleanfed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raifed up, and the poor have the gofpel preached to them.

-And the poor have the gospel preached to them.

HE ancient prophets had predicted the

THE

coming of the Meffiah, had pointed out the time and place of his birth, and defcribed his character in the moft diftinct manner. John the Baptift, the fon of a prieft and prophetefs, appeared as his forerunner. The character that he bore, the peculiar doctrines which he taught, and his auftere life, drew great multitudes after him. He was fo extraordinary a perfon, that many believed him to be the Meffiah; but he was at pains to undeceive them, and declared himfelf to be only his harbinger, affuring them, that he who was to come after him was to be greater than he; fo great, that he was not worthy to be employed