fast in the Lord*. You will not, I persuade myself, grieve him by any personal unkindness; God grant that none of you may distress his soul, by undoing your own! God grant that none of you may send him back to his great master with lamentation, on account of your refusing to accept of that message of pardon and life he brings! I do indeed hope Better things of you, and things that accompany salvation † ; and conclude with my hearty prayer, that he may rejoice in every soul of you in the day of the Lord, That he has not run in vain, nor laboured in vain 1. Amen. * 1 Thess. iii. 8. + Heb. vi. 9, Phil. ii. 16. SERMON III. A CHARGE Delivered at Norwich, on June 20, 1745, at the Ordination of the Rev. Mr. Abraham Tozer. MY DEAR BROTHER, WHEN I consider the rational and edifying manner, in which the solemnities of ordination-days amongst us are adjusted and conducted, and recollect what I hope I may justly call the various and delightful tokens of the divine presence in our assemblies on such occasions, I cannot but esteem it my happiness to have been an attendant on so many of them. My memory goes back with joy to many former years, in each of which providence has given me, in one part of our country or another, to see young ministers, who have a Good report of all men, and of the truth itself*, after having approved themselves to christian societies, generally by some considerable series of probationary labours, unanimously chosen by the respective churches, and invited to the pastoral office over them without one dissenting voice. With delight have I heard their faithful and affectionate testimony to the great truths of the gospel, in judicious summaries of the christian religion, drawn up by them in such expressions as they freely chose, without the imposition of human forms; summaries, which, in this connection, I must acknowledge to have been in the number of the most affecting and edifying public discourses. If I have ever known the spirit of prayer poured forth, as in a kind of celestial torrent, to add at once dignity, sanctity, and transport to our assemblies, it has been on such occasions: And the exhortations of my brethren in their sermons and charges, have often been the means of humbling, of melting, and of animating my soul. The present pleasure attending these sacred hours, the religious improvement received from what has passed in them, the *3 John, ver. 12. cheering prospect which they give relating to the church in future years, and even in generations yet to come, do all concur to demand my thankfulness, that I have so often on such seasons been called to Go with the multitude to the house of God*. But I will freely own, the enjoyment has often been abated by the obligation I have been under to officiate, not only in some public work, but especially in the part which is now devolved upon me. Nor should I, after having delivered so many charges, as well as opened my heart so fully to you, dear Sir, in a more private manner, on almost every subject relating to the ministry, know how to set myself with any spirit to what must be in a great measure a repetition of former things; if I did not recollect, that what is immediately addressed to one's self, in the midst of such peculiar solemnities, may have some singular weight, beyond what the same thing would have in a more private address, or if thus publicly offered to another person. And therefore I persuade myself, you will hear me with all attention and regard, while I give a little vent to the fulness of my heart, in such fraternal congratulations, admonitions and encouragements, as may suit the present occasion, and may, by the divine blessing, be of some service to you, and my other beloved and honoured brethren, who are sharing in the honours, the labours, and the burdens of this evangelical ministry, to the full exercise of which you have now been solemnly called and set apart. I. Let me most cordially and affectionately congratulate you, my dear brother, that you have now been thus publicly called and devoted to the ministerial and pastoral office. Paul esteemed it matter of most joyful reflection, when he said, I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, that he hath counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry†. And I thank him from my soul, as the great head of the church, that he is still raising a succession of those who are to bear it, and that you, dear Sir, are numbered among them. I most heartily congratulate you, on the honour, the pleasure,—and the usefulness of that station of life, on which you now enter. - 1. I congratulate you on the honour of your office. For with whatever contempt ignorant and profane men may treat it, it is highly honourable in its simplest forms; and needs none of the external ornaments which men can bang about it, to render it so. If it be honourable, to be, though confessedly in a lower sense, than the title was applicable to the apostles, An *Psal. xlii. 4. +1 Tim. i. 12. ever: embassador of Christ, and a man of God, you have that honour. If it be honourable, to sustain the highest trust, that can, in the methods of common providence, be reposed in mortal man, even to have The glorious gospel of the blessed God committed to our charge*, and to be made guardians of souls which are to exist for -If it be honourable, to bear an office which was sanctified by Christ, who himself bore it, and by bearing it has dignified it for ever; an office, which is mentioned in the sacred oracles, as the great gift of Christ to his church; as the immediate, though not the ultimate end of the most visible and extraordinary effusion of his Spirit:For When he ascended up on high, and led captivity captive, he gave gifts unto men; and distributed the royal donative, giving first apostles, then prophets, then evangelists, then pastors and teachers; that by it holy men might be perfectly fitted for the work of the ministry, that so the body of Christ, that is, his whole church, might be edified +, or built up‡:· -Rejoice, that your name is now, as it were, inserted in the catalogue of these his servants, and reflect frequently on the honour; not to be exalted above measure, but to be awakened and animated to a dignity and sanctity of behaviour correspondent to it. 2. Let me also congratulate you on the pleasures of that office, on which you are entered. For pleasures mingle themselves amidst all its labours and difficulties, all its reproaches, and its persecutions; yea, when duly executed, it is a series of pleasures. Pleasures will meet you in your secret retirements; they will attend you here in the house of your God; they will follow you to the house of your friends: They will crown all your days, and above all your sabbaths: And these, rational, pure, sublime pleasures, which the man may approve, the christian relish, and which, did angels dwell in human flesh, they surely would pursue. Must it not necessarily be pleasant to a devout heart, and God forbid, that any other should here be in question! to give itself up in secret to the contemplation of divine things, to search the rich mines of scripture, to investigate the glorious mysteries with which they are pregnant, and Which angels stoop down that they may look into §? to compare one part of the sacred oracles with another, that each may be illustrated by the comparison? to discover, I will not say new doctrines of importance, for I *1 Tim. i. 11. + Eph. iv. 8, 11, 12. † This version I think the original words will bear; προς τον καθαρισμον των αγιών εις έργον διακονια;, εἰς οικοδομην τα σώματος τα Χριζε. § 1 Pet. i. 12. persuade myself, God has not left his christian church to learn them in these last days, but new illustrations of the great and acknowledged truths of his gospel, new beauties in the arrangement and expressions of particular texts, new methods of touching the hearts of men, by truths already familiar to their ear? What can be more delightful also, than to rise up to lead the public devotions of a worshipping assembly? to spread before the blessed God, in their name, and our own, prayers and supplications, intercessions and thanksgivings? to remind them of the divine mercy? to proclaim among them the everlasting gospel; animated with a secret hope, (while meditating in private, while speaking in the assembly,) that by the divine blessing, the knowledge and love of God in a Redeemer may be shed abroad on some ignorant and wretched soul, hitherto des titute of it; and in many other instances, that truly christian sentiments may be kept alive, in hearts that have already receiv ed them, and be transmitted from the present to the next gene ration. Nor can any subjects of conversation administer a nobler delight in the houses of your friends, than those which will naturally fall before you, as a minister. For if religion add so much sweetness and endearment to friendship, when contracted between persons of the most private characters, it must much more do it in such instances; where past ministerial services may be recollected, where the fruits of them may be made apparent, and the man of God more abundantly furnished for the future discharge of his office, in the most suitable and therefore the most edifying manner. Which naturally leads me, 3. To congratulate you on that prospect of usefulness, which this happy day may open upon you. It is true, that how well so ever we may be furnished for the ministry, and how agreeable so ever we are placed in it, we must not hope, that our success will be universal: Hardly can we flatter ourselves, that it will be general. What are we Better than our fathers *? Or how comparable to our master? That we should never complain with them, and even with him, that we Labour in vain, and spend our strength for nought +? Yet we can ourselves witness, from what we have seen, and from what we have felt, the blessing that hath attended the ministry of others. And I trust, that even those of us, who are least advanced in life, least experienced in the work, have al |