00.4. PREFACE

PREFACE Modernized and annotated by William H. Gross www.onthewing.org April 2013 INTRODUCTORY ESSAY by Daniel Wilson, D.D. The name of Baxter is too well known, to require anything to be said by way of introduction to such a work as the following. It is one of the best of his invaluable practical treatises. In the whole compass of divinity there is scarcely anything superior to it in close, pathetic appeals to the conscience of the minister of Christ, upon the primary duties of his office. The main object is to press the necessity of his bringing home the truths of the Gospel to every individual of his flock, by affectionate, catechetical instruction. Some account of the work will be found in the Preface to the present edition, from the pen of the excellent writer, who has, with extraordinary success, prepared it for the public eye. The Treatise is now adapted for the clergy of every confession. The passing controversies, the digressions, the long Latin quotations, the local matters, are omitted; but all that is native and vigorous, all that is spiritual and holy, all that is of general use, and belongs to every age, is retained, and placed in a better light. A few phrases and sentiments, indeed, will still be found, which partake of Baxter’s particular character, or arise vi. from his habits of thinking on controverted matters. These are inseparable from human infirmity; and he is unworthy the name of a Christian, who can allow such trifling considerations to lessen the full effect of the general truths of the Work on his own heart and conscience. The writer of these lines rejoices, for his own part, to bear his testimony to the high value of this powerful book. It is particularly gratifying to him, as an Episcopal clergyman, to introduce the manly and eloquent pages of this great Non-conformist divine. The ministers of every church should desire to have their errors boldly exposed, and the standard of the apostolic and primitive ages placed full before their eyes. Till we can bear this, we are not likely to see any considerable revival of religion among us. To be firm in our own conviction of duty, and act consistently with our vows to our several divisions of Christ’s church is, indeed, a paramount obligation. But to rise above the mere details of a particular discipline, and enter into the high and spiritual designs of the ministry generally, as founded on the authority, and governed by the Spirit, and dedicated to the glory of Christ, is the only method of really promoting our several interests. We best advance the prosperity of our various bodies when we seek the honour of our great Master, and the salvation of souls; and make our ecclesiastical platforms entirely subservient to these high ends. The writer now ventures to appeal to the ministers, then, of all churches, and especially the Protestant churches of Europe and America. Wherever, indeed, the name of Christ is preached in every part of the world by the clergy of every confession, vii. there he would direct his voice. Being called on to recommend “The Reformed Pastor” by some introductory observations, he would endeavour to make it the occasion to excite the most pungent grief, and the most entire reformation; and would thus urge his brother ministers to follow up in the present day, what Baxter began among his contemporaries nearly two centuries since. What is done in one period must be repeated in another — every age needs to be stirred up afresh. Baxter was preceded, and has been followed, by writers on the same argument. Gildas and Salvian,1 the names on his original title-page, were two distinguished writers who, in the fifth and sixth centuries, alarmed a careless church by the thunders of their denunciations. Immediately before our Author’s own time, the divine Herbert, as he is called, delineated his “Country Parson,” with a tenderness and skill unique to himself.2 Sixty years afterwards, the mild and persuasive exhortations of the “Pastoral Care” were addressed, by Bishop Burnet, to the whole body of the English clergy.3 But for much more than a century since that time, no first-rate book on this subject has appeared. The publisher of the present edition has therefore done well, in bringing forward this incomparable Treatise of Baxter, in his series of “Select Christian Authors” — this is to make the energy and pathos of the seventeenth century bear on the feeble Christianity of the nineteenth. viii.

Such is the opportunity which the writer of these introductory pages seizes for addressing his appeal to his honoured brethren of every name, and more especially to the clergy of his own church, with the view of carrying on Baxter’s great design, and reviving the power of true religion among them. May he open his heart in all simplicity? May he at least, after thirty or forty years’ observation, suggest to his younger brethren something which may tend, under the blessing of God, to promote a return to primitive zeal and love among the clergy? May he be permitted to admonish and rouse his own conscience, while he attempts to excite others? And O, blessed Spirit of Christ! Descend upon the writer and the readers of these pages! Vouchsafe success! Fulfil your gracious office as the Comforter of the Church, by touching our hearts, and reviving your work effectually among us! Let your ministers be open to your reproofs and “hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’” In the first place, then, your attention, honoured and beloved brethren in Christ, shall be directed to some topics of humiliation; in the next, to some grounds of hope; and, lastly, to several points of duty, as subservient to a revival of pure Christianity among us.

I. In the first place, permit me to ask, do we not have great cause for humiliation before our God, when we look back on our ministry? This is the first topic. If Baxter had occasion to lament the worldly-mindedness, the party spirit, the time-serving, ix. the cowardice, the neglect of individual catechizing, the pride, formality, and lukewarmness of the ministers of his own day, and in his own order; then we have cause to lament these and similar evils among ourselves! Look, brethren, into the apostolic epistles, and read the remonstrances and reproofs which were required in the first age; and say if they are not even more necessary now. ‘ Call to mind the state of the seven churches of Asia, at the close of the Inspired Canon; weigh every sentence of our Lord’s rebukes; and say whether we are not now in the condition of those churches — whether the Laodicean lukewarmness, especially, has not crept over us. Reflect only on the corruption of our nature; the artifices of Satan as illustrated by the whole stream of ecclesiastical history; and the uniform operation of long external peace upon the purity of the faith; and say whether, from the necessary course of things, we are not in danger of a declining state in a day like the present. But let us come to facts. Let us look back to our first entrance, each of us, upon the sacred ministry, and examine what were our motives. Were we duly sensible of the importance of the office? Had we any competent understanding of the doctrine of Christ? Did we feel as we ought to, the value of souls? Alas! How many of us rushed into the vineyard, without any of the views and feelings most essentially required! And those of us who hope we were moved, in some measure, by the Holy Spirit, how faint was our love to Christ! How narrow the limits of our knowledge, and faith, and zeal! How imperfect our devotedness of heart to the one object, the salvation of souls! x. And since we have been in the sacred office, what have we been about? How have our hearts been towards our Saviour? How have we studied our Bibles? How have we persevered in the spirit of prayer? How have we watched against the world? How have we sought to overcome the wicked one? How have we honoured the Holy Ghost? How have we glorified Christ our Lord? What have we done with our time, our talents, our opportunities, our influence, our various means of doing good to ourselves and others? I do not speak of infirmities and smaller errors merely, from which none are exempt, nor of the effects of momentary temptations; but I speak of the strain and course of our ministry, of our character and spirit. O what cause we have for the deepest humiliation before our God! But let us enter still further into details, that our hearts may be filled with godly compunction.

1. What has been the state of our hearts during the course of our ministry? Have there been no declines there? Have we been advancing in love to Christ, in humiliation, in prayer, in communion with God, in devotional study of the Bible, in self-examination? Have we been “growing in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ?” Have we been “in the love of God?” -Have we felt as the ministers of Christ? Alas! Brethren, if one may speak for another, we have too much departed in heart from the Lord! There has often been a mortal coldness, a decay in the springs of life. The source of all our failures has been in a spiritual torpor and indifference as to Christ, and salvation, and the divine life, within ourselves. We xi. have sunk too much into the creature, into selfishness, into human wisdom, into the world. God has not had our hearts. . We have not loved our Lord Jesus Christ in fervour and sincerity. Hence our other evils.

2. What have been the style and character of our public preaching? Has it been, in the full sense of the terms, evangelical, close, affectionate, appropriate, searching? Have we preached “Jesus Christ, and him crucified?” Have we pleaded with souls? Have we aimed simply, intensely at their salvation? Have we followed the model of the holy Apostles? Have we been “instant in season, out of season?” Have we been earnest, affectionate, importunate, with our hearers? On all these points, God knows what sins we have been committing! God knows how we have “preached ourselves, instead of Christ Jesus the Lord.” God knows what tame subordinate topics, what human inventions, what commandments and opinions of men, have sometimes weakened and deformed our public ministry!

3. Our private diligence among the families and individual members of our flocks, what has it been? This is the question which Baxter thought he had the greatest occasion to press in the year 1655; and is it not much more applicable in 1829? Have we been as shepherds among their flocks? Have we looked after each individual sheep with an eager solicitude? Have we denied ourselves, our own ease, and pleasure, and indulgence, in order to “go after Christ’s sheep, scattered in this naughty world, that they might be saved in Christ forever?” What do the streets and lanes of our cities testify concerning us? What do the xii. highways and hedges of our country parishes say as to our fidelity and love to souls? What do the houses, and cottages, and sick-chambers of our congregations and neighbourhoods speak? Where have we been? What have we been doing? Has Christ, our Master, seen us following his footsteps, and “going about doing good?” Brethren, we are truly faulty concerning this. We have been content with public discourses, and have not urged each soul to the concerns of salvation. We have not brought Christ and his offers, and placed them full before the view of each perishing sinner. We have not pressed these offers upon their acceptance, with the frequency, the affection, the importunity, which the case demanded.

4. But let us enter our studies, and remember all our sins in our private duties; in our preparation for our public work, in our prayers, in the devotional and close application of truth to our own consciences. O, what do our libraries, and closets, and places of study and preparation say! What has become of all those hours which we professed to spend in prayer before God, with the Bible in our hands, and our ministry in our hearts! How much time have we frittered away in vain reading; in the gratification of curiosity; in pursuing “oppositions of science falsely so-called;” in reading the last new book on divinity; in examining the last new criticism; in amusing our minds with the last review, the last piece of history, the last philosophical dissertation! I do not speak against any department of sound and manly knowledge; in its place and to certain ministers at certain times, each is indispensable. But have we kept these things in their places? Have they not superseded xiii. other more immediate duties? Has our reading not been too governed by inclination rather than conscience and a sense of duty? And in preparing our sermons, alas! How cold, how formal, we have often been! Prayer has been the last thing we have thought of, instead of being the first. We have made dissertations, not sermons; we have consulted commentators, not our Bibles; we have been led by science, not by the heart: and therefore our discourses in public, and our instructions in private, have been so tame, so lifeless, so uninteresting to the mass of our hearers, so little savouring of Christ, so little like the inspired example of St. Paul.

5. Suffer yet further the word of exhortation, brethren; and let us review our walk before men, our general carriage, our conduct in our families, our behaviour in the sight of others, our arrangement of our days and hours, our diligence and perseverance in the several branches of our calling. Can we answer before God the questions arising from topics like these? Have we been “wholesome examples of Christ” to our people? Have we been separate from the spirit, fashions, maxims of the world? Have we shown our people “the more excellent way?” Have we lived, as well as preached, the Gospel of Christ? Have we given an assurance to everyone of sincerity in our doctrine by our habitual walk? Has our “conversation been in heaven?” Have we led the way for others in heavenly-mindedness, humility, self-denial, spiritual affections, superiority to the frowns and allurements of the world? Have we been willing to bear reproach for Christ? Have we followed our crucified Saviour to his glory, with our xiv. cross upon our shoulders? Blessed Jesus! You know the guilt of your ministers in this respect above all others! We have been divines, we have been scholars, we have been disputants, we have been students — we have been everything but the holy, self-denying, laborious, consistent ministers of your despised Gospel! We have been courting the world; we have been trying to serve God and mammon; we have loved the praise of men more than the praise of God. The state of our hearts has been cold; our public preaching has been defective; our duties among our flock, our studies, have been full of evil; but our walk before men, when compared with the spirituality of your holy example, and the standard of our profession, has been worst of all. It is into this sewer and receptacle that all our secret corruptions have been flowing; it is here they have been poured out. And now, in the review of these instances of our departure from you — O our God! — we would humble ourselves in an unaffected abasement of soul! But we would not stop here: we would go on to confess before You the sad effects of these evils in the general condition of your church.

6. For our humiliation, beloved brethren, will be far from complete unless we look our whole state full in the face. Let us consider what have been the consequences of the above more private and personal evils. Let us look back, each of us, on our past history. Let us remember those times of particular guilt and backsliding which have dishonoured our God; when Satan has come in like a flood; when we have shamefully yielded to temptation — disgraced our sacred profession — grieved, and almost caused xv. the Holy Spirit to forsake us — laid waste our consciences and weakened the whole simplicity and energy of our subsequent ministry. Why is it that things are at the low ebb with many of us which we have pointed out in the preceding pages? Is it not because of some great sins which, though known to few of our fellow-creatures, have been well-known to our God and Saviour? The dregs of an outraged piety can never suffice for the right discharge of the sacred office. If the writer may freely speak, he would put it to every minister’s conscience to say whether, in some cases, temptation and secret iniquity, particular departures in heart from the Lord, and scenes in former years which memory too faithfully records, have not left the traces and associations of evil so strongly imprinted on the habits — have not corrupted so deeply the first principles of faith and love in the heart — as to mar and injure the simplicity of the soul, and produce that weak, vacillating, inefficient ministry of which our flocks have so long had reason to complain? O that these wounds may be effectually healed by the application of the blood and Spirit of Christ! O that a deep humiliation may bring us back to our God! O that the rest of our ministry may be honoured by the full measure of the divine grace and communications! Backsliding, and apostacy of heart, too often leading to open sin, are the offence of the present day.

7. Again, how much should we be abased before our God, for the fearful errors and heresies which have risen up in the spiritual church! This is another consequence of general lukewarmness. We do not speak of occasional mistakes, of a greater or lesser xvi. degree of accuracy and clearness; but of open error, and departure from the faith of Christ. On the one hand, how much has been written and preached to weaken the doctrine of the fall; of the grace of Christ; of the merciful will of our heavenly Father as the first source of our salvation; of the “righteousness of God which is by faith in Jesus Christ, upon all and unto all them that believe;” of the operations of the Holy Spirit; of the promises of persevering grace; of the spirituality and extent of Christian obedience; of the joy and delight of communion with God, and the anticipations of heaven! God knows how many of us have erred in these respects! For example, on the one doctrine of regeneration and the new creation by the Holy Spirit, how much error has infected the Protestant churches! Can we wonder that the Holy Spirit has withdrawn from us when his gracious work has been explained away, denied, opposed by unscriptural statements on the nature and efficacy of the sacraments? And have not many fatal misapprehensions and mis-statements appeared verging, on the other hand, towards Antinomian licentiousness, and the abuse of the grace of Christ? Have not frightful over-statements respecting the decrees of God been made? Have not omissions, almost as fatal, of practical exhortations, and direct appeals to the consciences of sinners, enervated the whole force of the Gospel? Have not writings been published on prophecy and the doctrine of assurance, which directly lead to spiritual presumption? Have not errors appeared on the doctrine of pardon and on the immediate blessedness of the believer after death? O brethren! Humiliation before God indeed becomes us in such a time as this. xvii.

8. From these and similar evils, and from the state of mind from which they spring, have not bitter controversies, uncharitable disputes, heat, accusation, alienation of heart, a spirit of party, arisen in the church? Does not even the world notice the animosity of our controversies? Do we not cause the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme? Do we not harden the consciences of the ungodly? Do we not prevent and defeat much of the success of the Gospel? O what a scene our great religious societies have presented in recent years! O how much of the spirit of party still lurks in our minds — that spirit within us “which lusts to envy,” as the Scripture speaks!

Let each one, brethren, examine his own heart, his own circle, his own congregation and church; and see the various evils and corruptions which reign there, in these and similar respects. Let him yield to the deep conviction of conscience; let him humble his soul in the dust before God, for his own share in these provocations, and for the share which others have borne in them. We can never expect a return of divine grace till our deep penitence gives glory to God in confession and supplication. While we keep silent and justify ourselves, all stands still. When the floodgates of grief are thrown open, then and not before, may we hope for the Lord to pour in the full tide of his Holy Spirit.

9. And remember, brethren, that our lack of success in our ministrations is to be traced back to the same causes, and is a further call to contrition and humiliation in the sight of our God. We all complain of the little fruit which attends our labours. A dew of the divine grace falls indeed here and there; xviii. but there is scarcely any place where an abundant shower of blessing falls. A few are converted in our several parishes and neighbourhoods, and we collect a little circle around us; and we should bless God for the least measure of success: but we seldom see any great signals of divine power — a general awakening of souls — a holy and overwhelming influence on ministers and people, which bears them above the world, and leads them to live and walk closely with God. The evangelical fisherman does not cast out a wide net and enclose a great multitude of fishes; and our converts do not, in general, go on consistently and steadily; they often turn aside — often decline — often “fall into temptation and a snare, and many foolish and hurtful lusts,” — often divide into sects and parties. And why is all this? Because we have forsaken our God, grieved the Holy Spirit, and corrupted the Gospel of Christ; because our own hearts, and lives, and prayers, prepare so little for great success; because we expect so little, exercise so little faith in the divine power, and seldom, if ever, feel an eager and insatiable desire for the conversion of souls.

Now, the first step to a better state of things, is real and unaffected shame and confusion before God for our past negligence: “He that confesses and forsakes his sins, shall find mercy.” The remarkable confessions of Moses, Ezra, and Daniel; the striking humiliations of the prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel; the penitential psalms of the holy David; the whole strain of the Bible, both in the Old and the New Testament; direct xix. us to this great duty. One day spent in fasting and prayer to God, is worth a thousand days of complaint and lamentation before men. Believe me, brethren: it is not in a spirit of censoriousness, or self-exaltation, that the most unworthy of the Lord’s servants thus addresses you. He must, alas! take his full share of guilt and sorrow in the general humiliation. But he speaks from love to souls; from zeal for the glory of Christ; from a deep conviction of duty, on being called to write on this subject. He cannot — dare not — will not keep silent. He will call himself and others to that unreserved and penetrating sense of sin and demerit which, by the grace and power of the Holy Spirit, may lead to penitence, to confession, to real and abiding amendment and reformation. Do not let our lay brethren misinterpret the strong language of humiliation used here. It is not about what are called open sins, notorious inconsistencies, gross vices, that for the most part we speak; but about those secret and hidden evils which, under a virtuous and pious carriage, may yet be eating, as does a cancer, into the life of spiritual religion and ministerial energy. Nor is it of all ministers that we speak, nor of any ministers at all times and in all respects; but it is of some at some times, and of all only as to some or more particulars. Do not, therefore, misapprehend these pages. Do not pervert the intent of them to corrupt purposes. Do not despise your ministers. Do not apply to individuals what belongs only to some of a general class. Remember that it is partly in chastisement for your own sins, as private Christians, that these evils have been permitted to spread. xx. The corruption is general: you must join in the general humiliation. You have not prayed for your ministers as you ought. You have not assisted them in their labours. You have not been docile and fruitful under their instructions. You have frowned on them and put them in fear, when they were disposed to be most faithful. You have enticed and allured them into sin by your worldliness, your vanity, your lax example and spirit. The priests, indeed, are called to the deepest humiliation; they are the first in the procession of penitence; but the people must follow after them. They need to confess and lament their own sins and those of their families. They must join with their pastors in seeking the Lord, and imploring his grace upon the whole church. But to return. It is not to topics of humiliation that this address must be confined: we pass on to a more cheering part of our subject.

II. There are many grounds of hope in the present day, which may encourage us in our reformation and repentance.

1. For God is at work. There is a movement in men’s minds towards salvation. There are numerous events in providence concurring to aid the spiritual church. Satan, indeed, is raging; infidelity belches forth her blasphemies; opposition to truth increases in many quarters; men’s hearts are failing them for fear; the public press is an instrument of incalculable mischief in various ways, especially that part of it which is known by a name — itself a reproach to a Christian people — The Sunday Press. Still, God is at work. Mighty things seem to be preparing. Bishops, and pastors, and ministers, and missionaries, xxi. and catechists, and schoolmasters, and authors, and translators, are rising up in the churches. The power committed to our own Protestant country stretches over the greater divisions of the globe. The spirit of commerce, and enterprise, and discovery, carries our vessels to every shore. Our foreign bishops and governors, for the most part, favour spiritual religion. The Heathen and Mahommedan nations are moving, inquiring, rousing themselves from the slumber of ages. Popery is shaken to its base by the spirit of inquiry, and the diffusion of the Scriptures and of education. Such a time encourages the church to examine herself, and lie low before her God in dust and ashes; to separate from what provokes the Lord, and prepare for his further blessings.

2. Then the machinery of religious dissemination is erected and in operation; and it is ready to receive from the Lord, and extend to the utmost corners of the earth the richest blessings, whenever he may be pleased to “cause his face to shine upon us, that we may be saved.” Consider, beloved brethren, what preparation has been made during the last thirty years for the ultimate diffusion of the Gospel. Whether it may seem fit to Almighty God to use the present societies chiefly in this work, we do not know. The purifying process, however, through which many of them have passed, is far from being unfavourable to the hope of their final most enlarged success. When the members and leading conductors of all our institutions are duly humbled, and led more feelingly and unreservedly to ascribe every measure of success to God alone; when the din of applause and flattery is silenced, and there xxii. is room for God to be glorified, then may we hope that the present machinery will be filled and animated with the Holy Spirit, and carried on to the most blessed results. At all events, we may rejoice at the various plans which they are adopting for the diffusion of the Gospel. What is the spread of education and knowledge among the lower orders of every part of the world, but the materials of divine knowledge and love – when God shall descend, as it were, and impregnate it with his grace? What is the public press, with its immense rapidity of production, but a servant waiting for the divine Master’s orders? What are the churches and other places for the worship of Almighty God, recently erected in our own country and in other lands, but temples ready to be filled with the divine glory? In our own national English establishment, recollect only the two hundred new churches, and the equal number of enlarged old ones, with their five or six hundred thousand new sittings — half of them for the poor — all subserving the glorious Gospel of the blessed God. Remember, also, the equal amount of accommodation in other classes of the Christian communities. Conceive of eleven or twelve hundred thousand additional hearers, as all prepared for the faith and love of Christ; and then tell me how immense and rapid may be the result of the blessing. We know, indeed, that at present much positive evil exists, in the way in which education is conducted, the press is employed, and new as well as old churches administered. But Hope looks upward to the God of all grace; and Penitence abhors herself and lies abased in the dust; and humble and fervent Prayer addresses itself to the throne of mercy for the necessary gift of the Holy Spirit. xxiii. With regard to our missions, what a machinery has been put together; what preparations have been made; what a conflict has begun against the prince of darkness in his own dominions; what a footing has been obtained in the centre of the Heathen and Mahommedan lands for planting the camp, and preparing the way, and bringing in the hosts of Messiah’s armies! And does not the measure of success already obtained — the schools established in Heathen countries — the churches founded — the converts made — the holy communion of saints established — the happy and triumphant deaths witnessed — the moralizing and humanizing effects of Christianity on uncivilized man, acknowledged by governors and statesmen — and the native teachers and missionaries, raised up and sent forth among the heathen — do not these dawnings of grace foretell the bursting forth of the meridian day? Is this twilight not the herald and harbinger of the full rising of the Sun of Righteousness?

What, especially, does the movement among the ancient people of God, the success of the societies for the conversion of the Jews — the spirit of inquiry awakened among that remarkable people — the serious discussions going on — the converts made — the diffusion of the New Testament in Hebrew and various other languages among them — the education of their children — what is all this but machinery standing ready for a divine hand to give it the full impulse? And is not the conversion of the Jews connected inseparably with that of the Gentiles? What will the fulness of the Jews be, but as life to a dead and unregenerate Gentile world? xxiv.

3. But to pass from the hopes beaming upon the framework and instrumentality of religious exertions, what encouragement to a penitent return to God does the wide dissemination of the holy scriptures without human additions furnish! This is more than machinery — this is truth itself, and in the purest form, actually diffused. The honour thus put upon the revelation of Almighty God — the solemn and impressive reverence excited for the authoritative standard of truth — the separation of all the infirm and mingled productions of men from the pure and unmixed Inspirations of the Holy Ghost — the direct means and source of divine instruction made accessible to the whole human race — the best refutation given of all material errors and corruptions of the faith of Christ — the spring of consolation and joy opened widely to a sorrowful world — the peaceful Interpreter of salvation speaking in its gentle tones to the miserable child of man in all nations — the foundation of civilization, and morals, and humanity, laid in every country — the court of equity and appeal, as to religion, erected and thrown open to mankind — these are the things which God has done by the four or five thousand Bible institutions scattered over the world. What a preparation is thus made imperceptibly in every part of the visible church for a return to the simple and commanding doctrines of a crucified Saviour! Just as all corruption, controversy, and separation, spring from a departure from the Bible, may we not hope that purity, peace, and unity of heart will arise in due time from a return to it? And what an inestimable and most abundant storehouse these Bible institutions open for all other societies and agents for religious improvement, xxv.

— for schools, for missionaries, for infant churches, for converts, for travellers in every part of the world? Join to this noble and magnificent society, the deep personal humiliation which our sins and provocations demand — unite with it supplications and prayers for the supply of the Holy Ghost — and what is there, brethren, which we may not hope to receive from our gracious God and Saviour? Let us, as the ministers of the sanctuary, begin with ourselves in a hearty and spiritual subjection of soul before the Lord, and there is nothing which we may not hope for in such a period as the present.

4. Nor is it a slight ground of further encouragement, that we live in a day when so many of the temptations of the great adversary have already been detected and laid bare, by the growing experience of the church. Nothing can be more important than knowledge of his stratagems, as likely to be directed against a revival of religion. “We are not ignorant of his devices,” said the blessed Apostle in the first age. For eighteen centuries since, the spiritual church has been learning to discover the arts of the subtle foe. Each age has varied as to the features of the combat. But the church has laid up the lessons which her Saviour has taught her, and pondered them in her heart. We are still, indeed, but babes in this warfare. We still have need to watch daily, to pray without ceasing. The seed of the woman has not yet crushed the poisonous head of the serpent. The deepest humility, and self-distrust, are essential to our safety. But each class of Satan’s temptations which has spent itself and revealed its true character in former times, is xxvi. of invaluable experience, laid up for those who now lead the Christian armies under the great Captain of Salvation. They are so many stratagems detected; they are so many exhausted mines. These self-same artifices are not likely to be successful again, if we only profit by past experience.

Persecution does not extinguish, but feed and enlarge the church. — We have been learning this lesson for eighteen hundred years; and the Christian martyr and confessor is bold for the cause of God. Satan will work in vain on this ground if we are firm in faith.

Departures from the Scripture, superstitions, following the commandments of men, sap the faith of Christ. — The lesson has been taught by twelve centuries of incredible apostacy:4 the church is on its guard.

Love, union, and enlightened benevolence, strengthen the foundations of each particular church; bigotry, dissension, exclusion, and a proud, ambitious, domineering temper, divide and weaken it — every page of ecclesiastical history attests the truth. Satan cannot triumph again in this way as he has done before.

Uniformity in opinion and external discipline, even in a single nation, is hopeless considering the infirmity of man: but unity of heart on all essential points, with liberality and charity as to non-essential points, produces all the good consequences of such uniformity, besides many others specific to itself. The voice of universal experience has made this the persuasion of every considerate mind. Satan will surely be baffled here, in the present day, after having gained his point by it for a thousand years. xvii.

It is the same way as to great and fatal heresies. Can our spiritual adversary ever rouse again the combat of Arianism, and throw the whole church into confusion concerning it, while we bear in mind the controversies of the fourth, and two following centuries, and the scourge of Mahommedanism in the seventh? Could Apollinarius, or Valentinus, or Nestorius, or Donatus, or Abelard, make any way now in the teeth of the records which have exhibited, for our warning, the tares which the enemy sowed by their means? Can the Pelagian heresy be reinstated by any artifices, after the writings of St. Augustine? And may we not add, dearest brethren, that errors of less moment than these (what we may call over-statements) — either on the side of the divine decrees, or the free agency of man — will not again be permitted to distract and alienate the hearts of Christians, if we only call to mind the endless feuds and excesses which they occasioned for more than two centuries after the Reformation? Has the synod of Dort been described and delineated in vain? Can Satan again drive us off from the plain, solid, scriptural ground of the grace and power of Christ, into the thorny labyrinth of metaphysical subtilties? And as to the too-general spirit of the present age, scepticism, infidelity, and Socinianism which follows so close upon their heels, can the great adversary make any way by these daring impieties, after the experience of the French philosophy,5 and the German Neologism,6 for nearly half a century now? Is it not, then, a source of hope for the future, that Satan has been so frequently defeated in his various schemes? xviii. Has the Lord not treasured up for us the remembrance of our former causes of failure in order to put us on guard against the appearances of similar snares? Shall we not, do we not, profit by past observation? And is this not an encouragement to us to return to God with earnest supplication, that he would “bruise Satan under our feet shortly?” Yes beloved, upon us “the ends of the world have come.” The gradual experience and admonitions of each preceding age will guide us if we seek divine grace amidst the snares of the great adversary, whether he presents himself as a roaring lion, or instills his poison as a serpent, or attempts to dazzle us with the robes of an angel of light.

5. Once more, may we not consider it as a most favourable circumstance in the present day, that prayer for the grace of the holy spirit has been most earnestly and solemnly implored in almost every part of the universal church? During the last seven years, thousands and tens of thousands of prayers have been offered to the Father of mercies, for the outpouring of grace. Courses of sermons have been delivered, friendly conferences have taken place, books and tracts have been published, the attention of individual Christians has been fixed on this one great blessing. Believers everywhere have met to plead, in the exercise of simple and steadfast faith, the explicit promise that “God will give his Holy Spirit to those that ask him.” This has been done from the conviction which long experience has forced upon the minds of leading ministers. The wisdom gained by a knowledge of Satan’s devices, has turned men’s solicitude xxix. from controversies and dispute, to prayer for the descent of the heavenly Dove to brood upon the spiritual chaos, just as he moved upon the face of the waters in the first creation. This duty of prayer has not, indeed, been carried to anything like the fervour and perseverance which the immense urgency of the case demands; but still, so far as it has gone, it is the most hopeful of all indications — it speaks of the revisiting of the churches by the blessed Saviour — it augurs7 times of greater grace — it prepares the heart to use all the means which may be proposed, of diffusing Christianity with more simplicity and vigour —it teaches us to honour and magnify God in every instance of success — it enables us to direct aright the young affections of our converts. It is impossible to reflect upon the growing attention to the doctrine of the Holy Ghost in every part of our own country, in the various churches of the Continent, and in the rising and important nations of the new world, without blessing God from the bottom of our hearts for his goodness, and without anticipating a large and abundant shower of grace. This, then, is the very moment to approach our God with prostrate hearts. This is the very moment not to be confident, not to trust in present appearances, not to rely on man, or machinery, or the letter of the Bible, or past experience; but to humble ourselves deeply before our God, and seek him with fasting, and weeping, and mourning.

6. And to this duty we are yet further encouraged by considering the revivals of religion which are actually commencing. For, are there not sufficient indications of a powerful operation, already xxx. begun by the Spirit of God in the church, to inspire the warmest hopes as to the future? Are not the authentic accounts from our American brethren, enough to warm the most fearful heart? Is not our God awakening multitudes there to a concern for their salvation, by the instrumentality of truth? Is not a cry raised for pardon and grace by numbers pricked to the heart for sin? Do not their holy consistent walk, their sincere love to Christ, their activity in every good word and work, testify to the reality as well as the Author of the change? And have not these revivals been granted in the path of duty and by the use of means; especially by what is the subject of these pages: arousing ministers to humiliation, diligence, and zeal? Has not this awakened state of the minds of ministers led to a new strain of preaching, a new fervour in proposing Christ in all his glory to a sinful world, a new boldness in applying truth with penetrating discrimination to the consciences of each class of hearers? And is it not in this way that God has granted his special grace? And in our own country, what does it mean, this new anxiety about the holy ministry, this new attention to the state of our flocks, this new spirit of confession and humiliation, this new inquiry as to the best means of reviving primitive Christianity and promoting a union of hearts among us, which has been gaining ground now for some time? What does it mean, above all, that a particular season for fasting and prayer has been fixed by large numbers for the ensuing day of the commemoration of our Saviour’s passion? Can any signs be more full of hope than these? xxxi.

Yes, dear friends, it is no uninteresting duty, to which I would invite you and myself — it is to a duty called for by the mercies of God as much as by our own sins. Humiliation for the past, consideration of the best means of increasing our ministerial usefulness for the future, are demanded of us as by a voice from heaven. What had Richard Baxter at the time when he lived, to encourage him in his address to the clergy, compared with what invites and impels us? What was there in the close of the seventeenth century, to animate the attempt to convert the world, compared with what we see in the nineteenth century?

7. And this is the last topic of hope to which we may refer; for the position of everything in the church and the world, when compared with the word of prophecy, indicates expectation: the promise of new blessings, the accomplishment of all the glorious predictions of the divine mercy and grace. The times are assuredly drawing on. The fated apostacies have hung over the eastern and western nations for twelve centuries, with all that energy of spiritual delusion which the Scriptures describe. Divine prophecy, shining as a lamp in a dark place, concurs with the indications which we have already noticed in the church and in the world, to excite expectation, to animate to effort, to humble in confession of sin, and to lead to determined reformation of life and conduct in the ministers of religion. The times in which we are cast speak for themselves. All is movement. All is big with expectation. All portends divine judgments upon the wicked, and uncommon blessings upon the church. xxxii.

We live in no ordinary period. Unusual circumstances of encouragement demand unusual duties. If God is at work, if the machinery of religious dissemination is prepared, if the Holy Scriptures are diffused, if the artifices of the great enemy are known, if the grace of the Holy Spirit has already begun to be implored, and revivals of religion are being granted; and if the whole aspect of the world is like “fields already white for the harvest;” then, surely, this is a time when “the priests, the ministers of God should weep between the porch and the altar;” and should afterwards address themselves to the specific duties of the new and important period at which they have arrived. For things are in suspense. Hope is not possession. The present appearances may die away and expire after a transient excitement. God may roll everything back if we do not heartily repent as a people.

III. Let us consider as the last general topic some points of duty tending immediately to promote a revival of religion among the ministers of the sanctuary. For we must begin with ourselves. A revival of Christianity must take its rise with the ministers of Christianity. The work must be first entered upon at home, in our own bosoms, before it can animate our sermons, and shine forth in our example, and make us a pattern to our flocks.

1. And, therefore, the first duty we would urge upon you, dear brethren, is a deeper and more fervent personal piety before God. Our ministry is as our heart is. No man rises much above the level of his own habitual godliness. xxxiii.

Let us then each determine, by the grace of God, on a new course. Let us not be contented with our present low standard. Let us imbibe more of the grace of Christ as the source of life and salvation. O let the few main elements of truth be forcible, energetic, vivid, and operative within us. The infinite evil and defilement of sin, the holiness of God, the value of the soul, the near approach of death, judgment, and eternity; the free mercy and love of God in redemption; the inestimable riches of Christ in his Deity, offices, and grace; the personality and work of the Holy Ghost; the emptiness of the world, the fulness and blessedness of heaven — these are primary, essential truths. All the parts of Revelation are important, all its precepts are important; but the vivifying, nourishing, elevating points are these first simple ones — Heaven and hell, Christ and salvation, the soul and eternity, absorb everything else. Let these points really fill our minds, possess our affections, sway our judgment, awaken our conscience, and govern our conduct. Let these things be sought of first importance, be renewed upon the heart by much meditation and daily prayer, and be ever before our eyes and attention as the great and most interesting of all concerns. Let the other parts of Christianity be made to bear upon these. Let us constantly return, as it were, from all other religious studies and discoveries, to these first elements. Everything is speculation unless it is made to nourish the mighty matters between God and the soul. Let, then, prayer for the Holy Spirit, the devout reading of the Bible, and the diligent examination of the heart, all be directed to elevating xxxiv. our personal piety, our personal contrition for sin, our personal faith and affiance8 upon Christ, our personal love to God our merciful Father, our personal watchfulness, humility, meekness, diligence, and joy. Let spirituality and entire devotedness to God be at the foundation of our religious character. To be “spiritually minded,” to be “constrained by the love of Christ,” this is religion. A life of dependence on the Holy Ghost — a walk with God — a crucifixion with Christ — a death to all creature-good, all creature-reliance, all creature-love — a life hidden and secreted with Christ in God, this is religion. O brethren, the writer of these lines speaks here with shame and sorrow. The source of all evil with himself, is a low state of personal religion. We may allege other things— and no doubt other things are not without their influence; but the main cause of our ministerial defects and unfaithfulness is our own hearts. A revival must begin with ourselves, with our own souls, or our people will never rise up generally, even to our standard. If, therefore, our own piety is weak, our own love cold, our own faith uncertain, our own devotedness to Christ partial, our own self-denial slight, our own impression of eternity languid, our own care for our souls faint, then what can we expect our people’s to be? How can we preach and pray for a revival of religion generally throughout the church, unless it first appears in ourselves?

2. Solemn seasons for fasting and prayer should be set in our several neighbourhoods, parishes, and congregations so that God may be honoured by ingenuous9 confession; that the Divine Spirit may be publicly implored; that the arm of man xxxv. and the help of creatures may be renounced, and the power and grace of God invoked; that pride, and self, and vanity, and display, and human gifts, and agency, may be laid in the dust, and God alone exalted. The anniversary of his ordination is a time which each one should seize for these holy purposes. The return of Good Friday in every year is another period when special humiliation may well be mingled with our penitent meditations on the sorrows of our Lord. If this latter solemn season could indeed be employed by the church universal in the present and following years for this important purpose, then unspeakable blessings might follow. The whole body of the faithful would then be prostrate in the dust at the same time before the God of mercy — pouring out their prayers for the grace of the Holy Spirit, and confessing their sins, and the sins of their fathers. Never have any great revivals taken place without special fasting and prayer. Humiliation is the very soul of religion. What a blessing it would be if the bishops and pastors of the churches were led to take the foremost place in directing and encouraging such holy exercises! Our sins have been public; our penitence should likewise be public. Our provocations have been national; so should our sorrow be national. Our evils have flowed from a negligent and worldly state of mind in the ministers of Christ; thus our repentance should begin in the same quarter.

3. Higher views of the true dignity and importance of the Christian Ministry is a further duty which would naturally flow from increasing personal piety and genuine humiliation of heart. Notions of false dignity are indeed as common xxxvi. as they are pernicious. Ambition, secular dominion, “lording it over God’s heritage,” spiritual pride, are the gangrene of the church. But a right conception of the unparalleled importance of the office of the Christian minister, as appointed by Christ himself, as the instrument of grace, as the ambassador of reconciliation, as representing and standing in the place of the Saviour, as the depositary10 and pillar of the Truth, as the messenger of the Lord of Hosts, the steward of the mysteries of God, the watchman and herald and leader of the army, and the shepherd of the flock of Christ — such a conception of the ministerial office is essential to any great revival of religion. There is no surer mark of spiritual decay, than a low esteem of the sacred function. Contempt for God and salvation first appears in contempt for his appointed servants and ministers. In the primitive church, the dignity of a pastor of the flock of God was considered to be so high, so responsible, so sacred, as to deter men from coveting its more difficult and responsible appointments. Ambrose, Chrysostom, and Augustine were almost compelled to assume the episcopal office. At the Reformation, again, the importance of the office of the priesthood rose in the estimation of the awakened church. Its dignity of truth and grace put to flight the spurious glory of external pomp and appearances. Men acknowledged in the unassuming, meek, and devout leaders of the Reformation, the revival of the primitive church, and the true character and elevation of the pastoral employment. Yes, brethren, we must abase our selves indeed; but we must magnify our office. We must rise to the high and elevated character xxxvii. which it impresses upon the spiritual pastor. We must no longer think it is an ordinary matter, a thing of course, an affair which may be done at any time, a concern secondary to our ease, our indulgence, our scientific and literary pursuits — no; it must take the lead of everything. It must occupy all our care, all our time, all our diligence, all the best and most persevering efforts of our minds and affections — all our exertion, self-denial, and study. The Gospel is an unspeakable gift. It touches on eternity. It concerns both worlds. It involves the glory of God, the honour of Christ, the welfare of souls. It is founded in the unutterable agonies of the cross, and it does not cease till it has brought the penitent sinner and landed him safely in heaven. The blessings we have to offer are the greatest; the woe we have to denounce is the most fearful. Everything connected with our office partakes of the incomprehensible importance of the gifts of the Saviour and the Holy Spirit. Till our whole souls are filled with our sacred calling, animated, elevated, absorbed — till we see nothing to be as important as compared with our work — till nothing satisfies, or can satisfy us, but success in it — till we look at the affairs of human pursuit, and human wisdom, and human power, and human glory, as the toys of children in comparison — till we draw all our studies, all our affections, every faculty of our minds, and every member of our bodies to this one point — till the salvation of souls is the one thing we aim at, the one object of desire, the ruling passion of our souls, we can never expect a general revival of that religion which can only spring under the blessing of God, from such principles and impressions. xxxviii.

4. Allied to this part of our duty is a deeper consideration of the particular design of the Christian ministry — which is to furnish a succession of men to expound and apply truth. This follows upon a high and exalted view of the importance of the office generally. The special design must be far better understood and acted upon than it is at present, if grace is to revisit first the pastors, and then the flock. Dear brethren, is not the great end of the ministry to exhibit and enforce truth upon the hearts and consciences of men with all those means of living, feeling, powerful appeal, heart-felt seriousness, sympathy, alarm, invitation, promise, threatening, which are calculated to move a creature like man, and which God has appointed as the ordinary channel for conveying the blessings of his grace? The success is from God alone. Whoever plants, whoever waters, it is God that gives the increase. But as our all-wise and gracious God has condescended to use the instrumentality of man in dealing with man, in awakening man, in converting man; it is of the last importance for us to rise up to the special design of this dispensation. If God uses man, he uses the understanding, the affections, the conscience of man, to work upon the understanding, the affections, and the conscience of his fellow-men. The minister is a living organ, and instrument, and herald of truth. The minister is to give life, as it were, to the Book, to the written Revelation, to the forgotten or perverted record. The ministry, in its addresses and appeals to men, is the prophetic voice continued, the apostolic doctrine continued, the life of Christ continued, the discourses of our Lord continued, the miracles xxxix. continued, the warnings, invitations, promises, the whole doctrine continued, inspired with new life, and exhibited in their first vigour. The Gospel, indeed, is left us in the Scriptures; but its success is dependent on the Holy Spirit and the holy ministry— the divine Spirit within; the sacred Word without. The Holy Spirit effectually to secure the heart, to apply and render operative the truth of Christ, to glorify him before men, justify his office, fulfil his promises, accomplish his designs — and the ministry of the Word, instrumentally, to address the understanding and heart, to divide truth to each class of persons, to vindicate it from perversions, to raise it from neglect and indifference, to present it as the means by which the Spirit is pleased to work. Therefore, all this living and oral teaching is subordinate — in itself it is utterly feeble and inefficient; but in its place, it is of incalculable moment. It is the link between the written Word and man’s salvation. To preach aright is not to discuss a topic coldly; it is not to indulge in metaphysical statements; it is not to court human applause; it is not to move the passions by earthly eloquence — it is a much higher thing — it is to give a tongue to Prophets and Apostles; it is to speak as the blessed Saviour and St. Paul spoke; it is to make truth intelligible, forcible, triumphant; it is to clear away from the Bible false glosses, and present it in its native purity, and clothe it with all the attributes of a living Instructor; it is to give to the written doctrine the tenderness and pathos, the authority and force, with which it was first clothed by the Inspired Authors. Silence the ministry, and the Bible is misunderstood, perverted, and xl. closed — legends of saints, commandments of men, and superstition will usurp its place, or else vapid reasonings of philosophers and abortions of human “wisdom”, falsely so-called. Silence the ministry… — but what am I saying? I appeal, brethren, to your own experience and observation — what has brought on the lukewarmness from which none of us are sufficiently aroused? What has made the garden of the Lord a desert? What has, in many places, nearly extinguished Christianity? Is it not the unscriptural, heartless preaching, which has mocked the miseries of man, and betrayed the cause of God? And where, then, is a revival to show itself if not in a new strain of pulpit instruction? Who are first to reform, if not the ministers of the sanctuary? And in what are they to amend their ways, if not in the preaching of the Word? O beloved brethren, if our God revisits us, we shall have other sermons than those too often heard in these latter ages. We shall have our Chrysostoms, our Austins, our Luthers, our Latimers, our Baxters, revived among us. A fashionable Essay will pass for nothing; a reputable discourse will no longer be the standard; the Bible will no longer be deserted for the ethics of heathenism, or the refinements and fastidiousness of an enervated11 Gospel — but the ministry will represent and urge truth in its pristine simplicity upon the hearts of men — the Saviour will again be known in all his glory; the Bible will be studied in the light of the Spirit, its true meaning seized, its great designs understood; the state of man acknowledged and felt; the errors of human corruption refuted; the subterfuges of the human heart exposed; and truth brought xli. home irresistibly to the conscience. Things will no longer be left in the mere letter of Scripture, but taken out from the record, clothed with living feelings, cleared from essential error, and applied boldly and affectionately to the cases of men. The state of our national Protestant churches has been a portent — our sermons are an evasion — our doctrine a mere form — our views of the whole essential design of a living instrumentality in the church, low and inefficient. May God awaken our consciences, brethren, to a due consideration of these things, and to an immediate return to this part of our duty!

5. But this topic naturally leads on to what Baxter, in the following work, most insists on, the necessity of individual, catechetical instruction: bringing home truth to the cases of each member of our congregation and flock in private — the discharge, in a word, of the pastoral duties. For what have we been doing as ministers? Lamentably, just as we have failed in a general estimate of the vast importance of our office, and in a view of its special design, so we have failed as lamentably in all those parts of it which regard personal inspection and vigilance over our flocks. We have confined ourselves to preaching, to ecclesiastical duties, to occasional visits to the sick, to the administration of the sacraments, to the external and secular relation in which we stand to our parishes. But what have we done in personal care and direction, in affectionate catechetical conferences, in going from house to house, in visiting every family and individual in our districts, in becoming acquainted with the character, the wants, the state of heart, the habits, the attendance on public xlii. worship, the observation of the Sabbath, the instruction of children and servants, the family devotions of each house. And yet, all this ought to have been done, and must be done, if a general revival of religion is to be expected. Nothing short of this can come up to the ends of our calling, or fulfil the commands of God, or accomplish the will of the Holy Ghost, or satisfy that system of means which the Saviour has established in his church. For the public ministry is not sufficient, not adequate to the urgency of the case. In a crowded congregation, numbers do not understand, do not give attention, and do not apply. It is when we come to them in private and individually — with all the influence which affection, character, and official station give, that we touch the conscience. And consider, brethren, how many there are in every neighbourhood, who never come to the public church — consider the masses of people in our larger towns who must be sought out by the minister of grace — consider the numbers who are detained at home by illness and infirmity, or by the bad arrangement of family concerns — consider that almost every victim of gross vice or scepticism is withdrawn from your sermons — consider, in short, that in your churches you collect only the better sort of people, those in whom some good habits, some parental care, some force of conscience operates; but that those who most need your instruction, lie hidden in the retirement and insensibility which can only be reached by direct and personal inquiry. National schools, Sunday schools, local schools, infant schools do much; but these only prepare the young for the very catechetical instruction and care which we are now emphasizing. Every family xliii. who will receive you — and almost all will — should be visited, and that every year if possible. On the details of these duties, the following work will be an admirable guide. Baxter was himself a pattern in these respects. The immediate good effects of such labour will be incalculable. You will be able to apply and drive home your public sermons to the conscience of each person. You will induce them to attend church with more constancy and more interest, as expecting to be catechised afterwards. A congregation assembled to hear the minister who sees them all in private, is a family under the eye of a father — there is a quickness, a mutual sympathy, an interest, which nothing else can awaken. Then the minister thus rapidly acquires knowledge of the human heart— collects materials — the best materials — for his sermons — learns simplicity in his style — is enabled to divide and apportion out the Word of Truth with more discrimination — and nourishes his own heart and his personal religion — his private studies and meditations are made more fruitful, more devotional. While he is engaged in composing and preaching, he is giving out to others; but while he is occupied with familiar conferences, he is taking in for himself — the first is the pump, exhausting the reservoir — the second is the native spring, drinking in supplies from its parent earth. One half hour’s practical study of the human heart in personal visits gives an impulse to ten hours’ speculative meditation from books and authors.

It is in this way, also, that agents and teachers from among our people will be found out, and xliv. animated and directed in labour. If we are at work ourselves, others will rise up to work with us. Lay-agency is of incalculable moment. A minister cannot undertake everything himself; he must not fritter away his time, he must not widen too much his field of personal effort — he must concentrate, he must influence, he must be the centre to a hundred hands and minds moving around him. This is more especially the case in populous places, where the actual efforts of any one or two ministers would be lost in detail, and his public instructions would be hasty and undigested effusions if he attempted individual instruction. Wisdom, therefore, must be exercised. Others must be set to work, and a machinery be erected, of which he takes only the general guidance. Cases also occur, in which the department of a minister’s duty may be writing books, directing public societies, travelling in order to animate others – each must judge for himself before God — there must be secretaries, and speakers, and visitors of our great religious societies, as well as pastors of particular flocks. But these considerations only increase the importance of the great body of ministers giving their whole souls to the particular inspection of their people, partly by themselves, and partly by the agency of others. Nothing will so immediately tend to a revival of grace, and the real power of Christianity. Nothing will promote personal religion so much in our own hearts. Nothing will promote more the spirit of prayer. Nothing will more quicken and aid in the practical understanding of the Holy Scriptures. Nothing will more rouse us to the redemption of time. Nothing will more separate and sever the heart xlv. from the vanities of the world, the calls of human folly, the impertinence of visiting, and the corruptions of pleasure. Nothing will tend more to sound and solid success in our ministry. Our estimate of what constitutes a real blessing will rise. Our excessive reliance on mere preaching will be moderated. Our hasty conclusions that good is being done because people will crowd to a popular sermon, will listen to an intellectual and manly discussion, will be moved by fervid appeals, will yield to the affection of a preacher’s manner, will assume an orthodox profession, entertain ministers at their table, admire and defend them in private, follow many parts of their advice, subscribe to societies at their suggestion, and range themselves on their side — hasty conclusions, from such equivocal marks, will be corrected. We shall estimate success by solid conversion, by a change of heart and character, by the love of Christ, by a regard to eternal things, by the crucifixion of the old man, and a consistent obedience to the will of God. These effects have the stamp of heaven. And when the Holy Spirit begins to extensively grant these to us, a revival of religion is begun, and all the highest ends of the ministry are accomplished. And this can only be expected as our views of the importance of our office, our apprehension of its special design, and our following it out into catechetical and affectionate application, lead us to the full use of that system of means to which our Divine Lord has promised a blessing.

6. But in the next place, a conscientious adherence to the doctrine of the Holy Ghost, as contained in the whole body of the Scriptures, xlvi. must accompany the above directions, or all will fail. Nothing sanctifies and saves but Truth. The Holy Bible is the only storehouse of religious doctrine. An implicit and silent submission of the whole soul of a minister to the Revealed Will of the eternal and incomprehensible God, is indispensable to any enlarged success. Inspired men, speaking as they were moved by the Holy Ghost — handing down to a lost world all the Revelation which Infinite Wisdom saw needful and best, and in the manner and form which was most suitable to the designs of God and the state of man — delivering to the church unmixed and absolutely pure truth, without any defect, any omission, any superfluity, any exaggeration, any mistake — leaving us the standard of all doctrine, the rule of all practice, the example of all holiness — such is the Bible — the interpretation of which, and the application to the cases of men, is left as a solemn trust with the stewards of Christ’s mysteries. Brethren, a revival of religion must spring from a revival of the authority of the Bible, a revival of the unlimited sovereignty of the Inspired Book in over ruling all the errors of men, in swaying every heart, in governing and curbing every imagination, in deciding every controversy, in being itself the element and matter of all our instructions in public and private. The Divine medicine must not be adulterated and weakened by the admixtures of man; or our maladies will never be cured. The cup of salvation must not be corrupted with “the wine of Sodom, and the grapes of Gomorrah;” or the wounds of men will remain unhealed. We must return to our Bibles. When the language and terms of this blessed Book are perverted xlvii. by heresies, we must indeed draw up forms of belief; when truth is calumniated, we must publish our confessions of faith; and when schism and division abound, we must have public models of doctrine and discipline for the guidance of pastors and people; but these are not the Bible — by these we express our solemn opinion in brief upon particular points of truth, and protect the flock from the incursion of hirelings and false teachers — but what fills up these outlines is to be taken from the Bible — we are to preach and expound, not the fallible summaries of man, but the infallible Word of God. And in doing this, three things are of the last importance. We must, first, seize the main commanding truths of Scripture, as the Apostles have summed them up in the concluding and finishing part of Revelation. In every work, consisting of so many parts, this would be necessary; but in the Bible, the inspired penmen have not left it in doubt, but have told us that Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God, is the centre and cornerstone of Revelation. The glory of Christ, then, and the work of that Holy Spirit whom he has left with us as his representative, and the great teacher of the church — these are the governing points around which all other truths are arranged, and to which they are subordinate. If the minister does not seize this commanding discovery, he will languish about other matters in vain. Once he is brought by personal contrition and faith, to receive Christ Jesus the Lord, and to rejoice in him, he will soon find that he is possessed of the key to all the Bible, that he has discovered the pearl of unknown price, xlviii. that he is enriched with unsearchable treasures of wisdom and knowledge. This doctrine of Christ, however, is not the mere repetition of the term, Christ; it embraces, of course, all those truths, which prepare the hearts of men for receiving him, and which teach them how to walk in him, and adorn his Gospel. This doctrine lays hold upon the fall and corruption of man, and the infinite evil of sin; it immediately holds by the person and operations of the Holy Ghost; and it leads the experienced Christian to refer every blessing to the choice and merciful will of God his heavenly Father. But still the prominent figure in our representations of Christianity must be Christ himself, in all his attributes and grace. A revived Christianity is a revived exhibition of the glorious person of Christ.

But, in connection with this main discovery, it is most important, secondly, to give their due place to all the other truths, even to the most slight and apparently inconsiderable ones which the same inspired records contain. There is not a verse in the Bible that does not have its weight. All the history, all the devotional parts, all the prophecies, all the biographies, all the examples, all the moral maxims, all the precepts, will demand and amply repay our attention. Things are not stated abstractedly, but in life and action, as they are to be applied to practice. The Bible is not a theoretical, speculative system; it is a system embodied, personified, exhibited, softened down, and moulded to actual life and experience. We shall make the greatest mistakes if we take out the main doctrines of Revelation, and then presume to fashion, expound, and apply them after xlvix. our own notions. No; we must gather our manner of teaching Christ, the subordinate doctrines dependent upon him, the way of avoiding errors, the spirit and purpose for which he is to be preached, the different dispensations and various degrees of light which have attended his doctrine as the appointed Messiah and Saviour, the method of addressing the consciences of men which Patriarchs, and Prophets, and Apostles adopted — in short, we must gather all our knowledge from the Bible. Our ministry must, in all its parts, be the Bible expounded, amplified, and applied. The greatest success of the pastor is uniformly found where there is most of God and least of man. Even the simplest principles of natural religion, the plainest moral maxims, the mere institutes of judicial legislation, the slightest ceremony, the very enumeration of genealogies, have some beneficial effect.

Add a third observation, brethren. Let us beware of human passion mingling with our expositions of the main doctrines of Scripture, and with the subordinate topics which arise from them. Human passion will mingle; but let us beware. Let us over-state nothing; let us not exaggerate, magnify, or strain matters; let the word of Christ dwell in us richly in all wisdom. It is heat and controversy which inflame and divide the church. Wide differences of judgment must exist on a multitude of points gathered by the feeble reason of man from the Holy Scriptures. But these are of little moment if the commanding doctrines and the true spirit of Christianity are chiefly enforced, and if non-essential matters are not dogmatically and fiercely urged. l.

Dear brethren, let the Bible be our religion, our rule, and our standard — the Bible in all its parts — the Bible in its unutterable mysteries — the Bible in every subordinate statement — the Bible, softly and graciously yielded to and imprinted on a spirit of wisdom and meekness. When this is done, surely our God will descend upon us; the Spirit of grace will glorify his own truth; and the elements of the conversion of the world, accumulated in the diffusion of Bibles, and Missionaries, and Teachers, will be ready to burst into life and efficacy at the Divine command. Let the Holy Saviour, the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Scriptures, be our motto and rallying-word in all we undertake or hope for.

7. A decided superiority to the world and all secular considerations, is another point of duty essential to any hopes of a revival of religion. We live in a day of external peace. We live in a time of much evangelical profession. The Gospel is, in a certain way, fashionable. Our danger, therefore, lies specifically on the side of the world: of ease, indulgence, pride, conformity to the opinion of others; display in dress, in furniture, in houses; a life of external propriety without much self-denial or spirituality. We must, then, maintain a decided superiority to all secular considerations if we would fulfil the duties already suggested, and glorify Christ. We must despise the frowns, and shun the smiles, and avoid the maxims, and dread the benumbing influence of the world. We must be well-aware of the surprising tendency there is in every human heart to lukewarmness, to the love of praise, to secular importance, and the gratification of the flesh. We are li. walking as if upon enchanted ground. There is a stream and course of this present world, flowing forwards in every age, and swollen with human concupiscence and the arts of Satan, which is ever ready to carry us away. No man can keep his standing without constant prayer and watchfulness. And all these dangers are augmented in a time of toleration and peace, and when many faithful and enlightened bishops and pastors give a currency to truth. In such a day, Satan’s whole force is directed to seduce and to flatter. In such a day, ambition, love of power, sordid covetousness, lording it over God’s heritage, the complacency of a public situation, the secret delight in considering our works, our congregations, our parishes, and our influence, steal upon the heart unperceived. The world, in all its forms, is in direct hostility with the spiritual church. “Filthy lucre” is again and again condemned by St. Paul, as the special snare of the clergy. Pride, and dominion over the faith of the people, is again and again held forth by him for our warning. In two ways, all the mischief of the world is increased tenfold. It seduces under the guise of lawful things. It assumes the garb of prudence and foresight. It hides itself under the mask of benevolence. It appears, as the management of our concerns, living on terms of friendly intercourse, the relaxation and cheerful society which our severer studies demand, the attention to our friends and patrons, the care of our health, seizing opportunities for doing good and removing prejudice. Thus, under the semblance of what is lawful, ministers step over the boundary, verge towards doubtful indulgences, lii. and compromise their character, their influence, and their usefulness. Thus they abridge their time and weaken their inclination for solid study, the visits to the poor, and the duties of devotion; and thus still further declines from God are brought on. For another specific danger of the world arises from its debauching the understanding, and biasing the decisions of the judgment. The maxims which appeared to us the most clear, become doubtful. The practices which we loudly condemned are tolerated, excused, or defended. The marks of a lukewarm spirit, which we had laid up in our hearts, are no longer conclusive. The interpretation which we put on the scriptural definition of the world, and the scriptural danger arising from it, slips out of our memory. The resolutions we made in early life, appear harsh and impracticable. We are now of the opinion that this and that thing is lawful; we now judge such and such practices expedient; we now conclude and resolve that there is no harm in this and the other indulgence. Thus Satan gains a footing in the heart; earthly things obtain possession, Christ and his doctrine are enfeebled, the pity we once felt for souls has lost its tone, our self-denial is gone, and we are like salt which has lost its savour. Brethren, let us awake to our danger before it is too late. Let us shake ourselves from the slumbers of a worldly state. Let us dread the magical enchantment of earthly objects. Let us take heed, and beware of covetousness, and surfeiting,12 and the pleasures of this life. If a revival of religion is our object and our desire, then we must begin at home; we must cultivate a spiritual, a retired, and a heavenly religion. Never can liii. we call our people to leave that world to which we are looking back ourselves. But we must not further extend these suggestions. If, dear brethren, these things are as we have been describing them; if the causes of humiliation are such as we have stated; if the grounds of hope and encouragement are so cheering; if the duties which should be earnestly attended to are so numerous and important: then may the writer be permitted to address, in conclusion, several classes of his brethren in the sacred ministry?

1. Are any readers of these pages astonished at the general topics which have been emphasized? Does the whole thing appear to you new, extravagant, or unnecessary? Do you look at the whole complexion and colour of the statement as unnatural? Then examine, we entreat you, whether this does not arise from your own wrong state of heart. Perhaps you have never felt your sins as an individual penitent, personally accountable to God. Perhaps you have never once wept over them in deep contrition. Perhaps you have never seen the spiritual glory of Christ as the incarnate Saviour, sacrificing himself on the cross for your redemption. Perhaps you have never known what prayer, and meditation, and communion with God, and love to Christ, and hatred of sin, and the denial of self, and the joy of pardon, mean. The consequence is that you have had no care of the souls committed to your charge — you have never taught them their need of salvation — you have never shown them a Redeemer —you have never held out to them the Holy Spirit, liv. as the Author of life and grace: how then can topics such as these we have been discussing, be intelligible to you? It would be strange if you did not startle at them. You are not merely in need of being aroused to greater diligence; you want to be quickened from a death in trespasses and sins. Awake, then, dear friend to your awful state. An unconverted minister is dragging all the souls of his people with him to perdition. He is a blind leader of the blind. He is building up the sinner in his rebellion, his self-righteousness, his negligence. O repent then, and turn to God, and do works fit for repentance. We do not speak to you of a revival of religion among others; we deal with you for your own salvation. We plead with you for the sheep, scattered and wandering and having no shepherd. We adjure you by the vows of your ordination, by the blood of Christ, by the grace of the good Spirit of God, by the value of souls, by the unutterable importance of eternity, to awake and return to God!

2. You say you are moral, diligent, and anxious for the good of your parish. But is this all? So may a magistrate be — so a statesman — so a landlord. But you are called to be the minister of Christ. You are called to spiritual duties. You are called to bring men to salvation, to expound the doctrine of grace, to prepare a lost world for heaven. And does a little common morality, such as Seneca or Epictetus might have taught; or some general benevolence gathered from the unavoidable improvements introduced into society by the Christian spirit, serve to discharge these high and unique obligations? It is not of morality, but of Christianity, that you are the minister. lv.

It is not of benevolence, but of salvation, that you are the herald. Mere decency, mere kindness of heart, mere common uprightness in a minister of the Gospel, is treachery to the unique trust reposed in him. Nothing which he does can be indifferent. He is the instrument and cause of the condemnation of his people, unless he is positively employing all his powers for their salvation. A pilot that allows his vessel to dash upon the rocks is guilty of the consequences of the shipwreck.

3. But you are not merely an ordinary decent minister, living a quiet and benevolent life; you tell me you are active, studious, fond of literature, diligent in reading works of science, the patron of the arts, the author of criticisms, and poems, and dissertations — but is all this the appropriate work of a minister of religion? Consider, dear reader, can anything be more opposed to the simple character of a herald of Christ, than a mere taste for elegant literature, the mere labour of a scientific student, the mere ardour of the philosopher or the historian? Was it for this you undertook the care of souls? Is it for this that you desert your [prayer] closet, your sick chambers, your private devotional duties? Believe it: the pride of human knowledge indisposes more to the humbling truths and precepts of the Christian ministry than almost any other passion. The soul is barren, the heart is filled with vanity, the habits are worldly. A literary spirit in a minister of Christ, is direct rebellion against the first claims of his high office. The spirit of the servant of God is not literature, but piety; not vanity and conceit, but lowliness of heart; not idle curiosity, but sound lvi. and solid knowledge; not philosophy, but the Bible; not the pursuit of natural discoveries, but the care of souls, the glory of Christ, the progress of the Gospel; not science, but salvation.

4. But objections may be advanced to the statements of this Essay by the theological inquirer, who has made divinity his study, who has examined Fathers and Commentators, who has weighed opposite arguments and systems of religion, and has imbibed the strongest prejudices against the principal statements which have been advanced. He does not understand what revival of piety can be necessary in such circumstances as ours in this country. He objects to this ardour, this over-statement as he terms it, on the subject of spiritual religion. He condemns it as feverish; he imputes it to a spirit of party; he charges it with “enthusiasm;” he complains of it as impracticable and intolerant; he dismisses it with a name of reproach. To such general insinuations, the plain answer is that the Holy Scriptures speak most decidedly, and in every part, the language we have been holding. Every page of the Bible demands the whole heart of man. Every epistle of St. Paul is far more exalted in doctrine and spirituality, than any statement we can make. The very last accusation brought by the Saviour against a falling church, was that of lukewarmness — being “neither cold nor hot.” Let the objector read his Bible over again; let him pray for the guidance and illumination of the Holy Spirit; let him enter upon religion as a practical matter between God and his own soul, and he will soon form a totally different judgment from that which lvii. he now entertains. Lay aside only, beloved reader, all prejudices of every kind; lay aside the opinions of divines and disputants; lay aside the censure and applause of a mistaken world, and enter upon the question of religion as if before the divine Saviour, and you will soon find that the very doctrines you reject are the centre-point of Revelation — the element of salvation — the means of pardon and grace to man. Oh the power which our wicked hearts give to the idlest excuses and prejudices on the subject of the Gospel! The very language and objections you bring forward, are a proof of the need of that revival of Christianity for which we plead. The cold external orthodoxy of the present day evaporates all the life of the divine doctrine, leaves man to his natural powers, fills him with pride and self-conceit, is content with a dead faith and a worldly life, neglects the care of souls, and builds up a proud self-righteousness on the foundation of human merit. This lukewarm temper is an enemy to spiritual religion and to the revival of it, because such topics condemn the lukewarmness of the age, as the greatest provocation that can be offered to God. Oh if it should please the Almighty Saviour to revive his work among the clergy, the very first effect would be the detection of the evils of this disputatious, self-confident, worldly spirit. We appeal to this Saviour to defend the cause of his own truth. We appeal to this Saviour to testify to his real Gospel by making it the means of conversion in men. We appeal to this Saviour to support us in our earnest endeavours to maintain his cause in a gainsaying13 age, to grant us his Spirit, and to make every opponent a happy partaker of the grace which he has previously condemned! lviii.

5. But are there not many young and well-disposed ministers who may take up these pages, and may sincerely desire to act upon the advice given, who may yet need some further encouragement? They are pressed with difficulties. They are discountenanced.14 They are impeded. They are, in their own minds, far from being strongly built up in the faith of Christ. To such interesting persons we would say, Go on, young friends, in simplicity and prayer. Keep your hearts with all diligence. If you are sincere, and persevere in the use of means, God will assuredly guide you into all truth. “If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doc trine.” The weakest Christian shall overcome through the might of his glorious Captain. Study your Bible. Act on what you know. Be much in prayer. Ask advice in great difficulties from pious and judicious friends. Read the lives of eminently holy ministers and missionaries.15 Despair of nothing in a good cause. Go much among the sick and dying. Compare what you see and feel with the Holy Scriptures. Do not fear the face of man. Your difficulties and discouragements will lessen. “The path of the just is like the shining light, which shines more and more unto the perfect day.”16 6. Remember, finally, dear brethren, for I would conclude with this admonition, lvix. that Satan our great adversary will particularly resist all attempts at a revival of Christianity. It is death to his kingdom. He can bear with a cold orthodoxy. He can turn a literary spirit to his own purposes. He retains a merely decent, benevolent person with the name of a clergyman, safely in his power. But to arouse an indiffereent age, to sound the trumpet among the teachers of religion, to call on them to awake from spiritual torpor, and then arouse their people, this kindles all the wrath of the wicked one.

Yes, beloved brethren, we must calculate on the bitterest hostility, and the most subtle artifices of Satan, as we proceed in our holy course. But do not be deterred. “Greater is he that is for us, than he that is in the world.” Let us repose in the might of the Captain of our salvation. Let us draw close the bonds of mutual love. Let us be prepared to ascribe all the glory to Him who has done all things for us; and we need not fear discomfiture. The power of Christ will rest upon us — the tie of united affections will bring us near to each other for aid and succour — the high aim of the glory of God will engage all the divine attributes in our behalf. We do not trust in ourselves — we do not seek any selfish object — we do not desire our own praise. We are, indeed, but unprofitable servants, even after we have done all. To Him, therefore, who has loved us, be all the honour and majesty ascribed — in his name let us go forth, making mention of his righteousness, even of his only — and in him let us be united in the bond of charity and love! In this spirit, and lx. with these ends, a revival of Christianity, first among the clergy of all our churches, and then among the laity, may be humbly hoped for. All the topics of humiliation, if duly felt, will inspire confidence of this great result — all the sources of hope, from the circumstances of the times, will fall into the same general feeling — while every duty which we have pointed out, directly tends to the same result. The strength of Christ for the combat with Satan — the temper of love for the efforts of the church — the glory of God for the ultimate end of all, form a combination which will conduct to the greatest results — for they agree, and are identified, with the very song which angels chanted at the birth of the Saviour, “Glory to God in the highest, on earth peace, good-will towards men.”

D. W.;

Islington, March, 1829. THE REFORMED PASTOR by Richard Baxter

PREFACE BY THE Editor of this Edition

WILLIAM BROWN The title of this work as published by the Author was “Gildas Salvianus: The Reformed Pastor, showing the nature of the Pastoral work; especially in Private Instruction and Catechizing; with an open CONFESSION of our too open SINS: Prepared for a Day of Humiliation kept at Worcester, December 4, 1655, by the Ministers of that County, who subscribed the Agreement for Catechizing and Personal Instruction at their entrance upon that work, By their unworthy fellow Servant, Richard Baxter, Teacher of the Church at Kederminster.”

It is scarcely possible to speak in too high terms of the excellence of this work. It is not a directory relative to the various parts of the ministerial office; and in this respect, it may be considered by some as defective. But, for being a powerful, sympathetic, pungent, heart-piercing address, we know of no work on the pastoral office to compare with it. We suppose that if it were read by an angel, or by some other being possessed of an unfallen nature, the reasonings and expostulations of our author would be felt to be altogether irresistible; and the heart of any minister who can read it without being moved, melted, and overwhelmed, under a sense of his own shortcomings, must be hard; his heart must be hard if he is not mused to greater faithfulness, diligence, and activity in winning souls to Christ. It is a work worthy of being printed in letters of gold: it deserves, at least, to be engraven on the heart of every minister.

But, with all its excellences, the “Reformed Pastor”, as originally published by our author, labors under considerable defects, especially as regards its usefulness in the present day. With respect to his works in general, he makes the fol lowing candid, yet just acknowledgment : — “Concerning almost all my writings, I must confess that my own judgment is, that fewer, well studied and polished, had been better; but the reader, who can safely censure the books, is not fit to censure the author, unless he had been upon the place, and acquainted with all the occasions and circumstances. Indeed, for the Saints’ Rest, I had four months’’ vacancy to write it (but in the midst of continual languishing and medicine); but, for the rest, I wrote them in the crowd of all my other employments, which would allow me no great leisure for polishing and exactness, or any ornament; so that I scarce ever wrote one sheet twice over, nor stayed to make any blots or interlinings, but was glad to let it go as it was first conceived. And when my own desire was, rather to stay long upon one thing, than run over many, some sudden occasions or other extorted almost all my writings from me; and the apprehension of present usefulness or necessity prevailed against all other motives.”17 The Reformed Pastor appears to have been written under the unfavourable circumstances here alluded to — amidst disease and languishment — and to have been hurried to the press, without that revision and correction which were of so much importance to its permanent usefulness. The arrangement is far from logical: the same topics, and even the same heads of discourse are repeated in different parts of the work. It is interlarded, according to the fashion of the age, with numerous Latin quotations from the Fathers, and other writers ; and the controversies and history of the day are the subject of frequent reference, and sometimes of lengthened discussion. To this it may be added that the language, though powerful and impressive, is often remarkably careless and inaccurate. With the view of remedying the imperfections of the original work, the Rev Samuel Palmer, of Hackney, published, in 1766, an Abridgement of it; but though it was scarcely possible to present the work in any form, without furnishing powerful and impressive appeals to the consciences of ministers, he essentially failed in presenting it in an improved form. In fact, the work in its original state was, with all its faults, to be greatly preferred to Palmer’s abridgement: if the latter was freed from some of its own defects, it would also have lost much of its excellence. We may often, and with advantage, throw out extraneous matter from the writings of Baxter; but there are few men’s works which less require abridgement. This sacrifices their fullness and richness of illustration, enervates their energy, and evaporates their power and pathos. The work which is now presented to the public, is not, strictly speaking, an abridgement. Though considerably shorter than the original, it has been reduced in size chiefly by omitting extraneous and controversial matter, which, however useful it might have been when the work was originally published, it is for the most part inapplicable to the circumstances of the present age. I have also in some instances changed the order of particular parts. Our author placed “Motives to the Oversight of the Flock” in his Application. I have introduced it in that part of the discourse to which they refer. Likewise, we have placed “Motives to the Oversight of Ourselves” in the preceding part of the treatise. Some of the particulars which he had under the head “Motives”, I introduced in other parts of the body of the discourse to which they appeared to belong more naturally. But though I have used some freedom in the way of transposition, I have been anxious not to sacrifice the force and fullness of our author’s illustrations to mere logical arrangement. Many of the same topics which occurred in the body of the discourse, and are there touched with a master’s hand, for instance, are still retained in the Application. They would have lost much of their appropriateness and energy if I had separated them from that particular connection and instead introduced them in a different part of the work. I also corrected the language of our author; but I have been solicitous not to modernize it. Though to adopt the phraseology and forms of speech employed by the writers of that age would be a piece of silly affectation in an author of the present day; yet there is something simple, venerable, and impressive in it, as used by the writers themselves.

While I have made these changes from the original, I trust I have not injured the work. On the contrary, I hope I have improved it, so that the spirit of its great author is so much preserved, that those who are most familiar with his writings would scarcely notice the alterations had I not stated them here.

Having long been anxious to present to the public an edition of the ‘Reformed Pastor,’ I began to prepare it a considerable time ago; and having offered it to the present publisher, he informed me that the Rev. Daniel Wilson of London, had previously agreed to write an Introductory Essay to that work. In this arrangement I feel peculiar pleasure, as I have no doubt his recommendation will introduce it to the notice of many, by whom otherwise it might have remained unknown.

Before I conclude, I cannot help suggesting to the friends of religion, that they could not perhaps do more good at less expense, than by presenting copies of this work to the ministers of Christ throughout the country. There is no class of the community on whom the prosperity of the church of Christ so much depends as on its ministers. If their zeal and activity languish, the interests of religion are likely to languish in proportion. On the other hand, whatever is calculated to stimulate their zeal and activity, is likely to promote, in a proportional degree, the interests of religion. They are the chief instruments through whom good is to be effected in any country. How important it must be, then, to stir them up to holy zeal and activity in the cause of the Redeemer! A tract given to a poor man may be the means of his conversion; but a work such as this, presented to a minister, may, through his increased faithfulness and energy, prove to be the means of conversion of multitudes. Ministers themselves are not perhaps sufficiently disposed to purchase works of this kind: they are more ready to purchase books which will assist them in their work than those which will stimulate them in it. If, therefore, any plan could be devised for presenting a copy of it to every minister of the various denominations throughout the United Kingdom, what incalculable good might be effected! There are many individuals to whom it would be no great burden to purchase twenty, fifty, or a hundred copies of such a work as this, and to send it to ministers in different parts of the country; or several individuals might unite together for this purpose. I can scarcely conceive any way in which they would be likely to be more useful. To the different Missionary Societies, I trust I may be allowed to make a similar suggestion. To furnish every missionary, or at least every Missionary Station, with a copy of the Reformed Pastor, would, I do not doubt, be a powerful means of promoting the grand object of Christian Missions. I am sure of this: there is no work so much calculated to stimulate a missionary to holy zeal and activity in his evangelistic labors.

WILLIAM BROWN Edinburgh March 12th 1829