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SERMON 
 
 ON THE 
 
 CHARACTER, THE COMMISSION, AKD THE MESSAGE 
 
 OP TH£ 
 
 GOSPEL MINISTRY'. 
 
 DELIVERED AT THE OPENING Of A 
 
 General Convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church, 
 
 Ift St. Paul's Church, in the City of Baltimore, 
 on the iSth t)ay of May, A. D. 1808. 
 
 BY THE RIGHT REVEREND 
 
 WILLIAM WHITE, D. D. 
 
 iilSHOP or THE PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHURCH IN 
 THE COMMONWEALTH OE PENNSYLVANIA. 
 
 NEW-YORK: 
 
 'niNTtD Br T. y 7. SWOUDS, 
 W«. 160 Pcarl-streer. 
 
 1808 
 
In General Convention of the Frotestant Episcopnl Church in tie United States 
 of America, at Baltimore. 
 
 House of Clerical and Lay Deputies, Wednesday, May 18, 1803, A. M. 
 
 " On motion, Resolved unanimously. That the thanks of the Conven- 
 tion be returned to the Right Rev. Bishop White for his sermon preached 
 before the Convention this morning, and that he be requested to furnish a 
 copy for publication. 
 
 " The House of Bishops concurred in this resolution, and informed this 
 House that the Right Rev. Bishop White would furnish a copy of his ser- 
 mon for the purpose aforesaid." 
 
 Extract from the journals. 
 
 ;OHN HENRY HOB ART, Secretary 
 of the House of Clerical and Liy Dtf>:ttirs 
 
A SERMON 
 
 2 CORINTHIANS v. 20. 
 
 Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God 
 did beseech you by us ; we pray you in Christ* s stead, be 
 ye reconciled to God, 
 
 XT may seem inconsistent, that the Apostle appears to 
 address the members of the Church of Corinth, as if, at the 
 time of his writing this epistle, they stood in need of the 
 reconciliation spoken of. Certainly, the sentiment does not 
 seem agreeable to the usual manner of St. Paul, in his epis- 
 tles to the churches ; for, however he may have occasion to 
 set things in order among them, in some respects; and even 
 to reprove them in others ; yet he acknowledges them, 
 under the name of " Saints," or of the " elect of God," or 
 of " the sanctified in Christ Jesus ;" or in some such de- 
 scription of the Christian character. The last of these ex- 
 pressions is applied by him to the Corinthians, in his former 
 epistle. In the epistle now before us, he considers them 
 as " partakers with him in the sufferings and in the con- 
 solations" of the Christian calling; and, in a strong figure, 
 he tells them, *' ye are the Epistle of Christ, written, not 
 with ink, but with the spirit of the living God." Why then, 
 it may be said, does he address them in the text as if they 
 were still " dead in trespasses and sins ;" and accordingly 
 had still need of " the ministry of reconcihation ?" 
 
 This difficulty is done away, by the fidelity with which 
 the translators of the Bible have noted in italic characters 
 such words as tliey did not find in the original ; but which ^ 
 ihey thought might be usefully added for amplification. The 
 word "you," t'.vice used in the text, is printed in italics: 
 
{ * ) 
 
 and if, by a »08t strict translation, we omit it, the effect 
 of the alteration will be a description to the Corinthians in- 
 deed, of the gospel ministr\' ; but the speaking of its mes- 
 sage, as addressed to unbelieving and to apostate persons. 
 For then the reading will be — *' As though God did beseech 
 by us, and we pray in Christ's stead" — meaning, we beseech 
 and pray those who are strangers to the covenant of pro- 
 mise, " be ye reconciled to God." 
 
 I have introduced what I think a just criticism, merely 
 because it makes the text in form, as it is, according to 
 either translation, in matter, agreeable to the general tenor 
 of holy writ. And I shall consider the words as setting be- 
 fore us the following particulj^rs concerning Gospel i^i'misters : 
 
 I. Their characters. 
 
 II. Their commission. 
 
 III. Their message. 
 
 1. We have here the character of Gospel Ministers; which 
 15, indeed, involved in the second head proposed : and my 
 only reason for making it a separate branch of this discourse, 
 is to say a few words to vindicate from reproach the title 
 thus given to the Ministers of Christ. For it has been a fa- 
 vourite topic of infidelity, to represent this title as a cover of 
 spiritual pride i which, taken in connection with the stain 
 of that black passion sometimes defiling the clerical pro- 
 fession, may make it the dictate of mistaken modesty in the 
 minister of Christ, to decline a dignity with which he is 
 vested by the word of God. 
 
 Z-et it then be, in the first place, remarked, that arro- 
 gancy, where it exists, has its origin in causes \try distinct 
 from mere names; and that where those causes lurk, there 
 are no names wliich may not be a cover of their baseness. 
 What name more humble than that of servant of servants ? 
 And yet it has been l)ome by those who have trampled on 
 the sovereignties of kings and states, and usurped a domi- 
 ?iion over the whole Christian Church. 
 
( 5 ) 
 
 But, mdependently on this, the whole question turns on a 
 fallacy, by too rigid an application of a word, which being 
 taken from dealings among men, and here connected with 
 dealings of God to men, should be interpreted on the same 
 principle, as an allusion or metaphor ; in regard to which, it 
 is not necessary that the comparison should hold in many 
 points ; but it is sufficient, that this ground of comparison be 
 conspicuous in the single point which the allusion is intended 
 to illustrate. 
 
 Now, the property of the Christian ministry especially in 
 view, in its being compared to an embassy, is simply its 
 being founded on the appointment of another, with the trust, 
 the dependence, and the responsibility involved in that idea ; 
 all which tend, not to arrogance, but to self abasement. 
 
 The sentiment that it is under the appointment of another 
 has this operation, by pointing out to the minister, that not 
 his own glory, but his Master's, should be the end of his 
 ministry : a circumstance always to be kept in view, while 
 there shall be those infirmities of human nature, which lead 
 so many who consider the peace of the church of less im- 
 portance, than the pre-eminence with their respective par- 
 ties J and with the most plausible and imposing pretensions, 
 to " speak perverse things, that they may draw away disci- 
 ples after them." 
 
 As the recollection of such a supereminent authority h^s 
 the effect ascribed to it, so also has that of the trust thence 
 derived : a trust, obliging to the delivery of a will revealed ; 
 than which nothing more effectually imposes restraint on the 
 human imagination ; and checks natural inclination to " esta- 
 blish for doctrines the commandments and the suggestions 
 of men." 
 
 Of the same important use, is the dependence which the 
 doctrine suggests ; a dependence on a '* strength without 
 which we can do nothing ; and which is to be made perfect 
 in our weakness." 
 
( 6 ) 
 
 The same too may be said of our responsibility to God, 
 concerning what is fitly called a stewardship, which we must 
 give an account of; and talents, of which we must render the 
 returns. 
 
 All these things are included in the comparison of the 
 Christian ministry to an embassy ; and surely they must all 
 be seen as motives of " fear and trembling," and not as in- 
 ducements to " think of ourselves more highly than we 
 ought to think." 
 
 If, after all, the objection should be directed not at the 
 name, but at the thing referred to by the allusion; not at the 
 apprehension of assumed importance to the persons, but at 
 the deriving of the authority from a divine source ; I answer, 
 that this is to be defended on other grounds; being a claim 
 founded on the word of God, and not to be relinquished 
 without a desertion of our station and of our trust. 
 
 2. And, therefore, I remarked, as the second particular 
 in the text, the commhsion under which the gosptl ministry 
 is instituted. 
 
 We have the more occasion to insist on this, because of 
 two opposite errors, of vtry mischievous tendency. 
 
 The first is that which degrades the minist(.ri;d office to 
 be the creriture of discretion, and altogether subject to its 
 operations. For there are some, who, acknowledging the 
 expediency of an order of men to be set apart for this pur- 
 pose, yet deny that it is any thing more ; which subjects it 
 to human will, as well in the administration of the sacra- 
 ments as in discipline : and this may not only furnish politi- 
 cians with pretexts for so controling the gospel by tiie force 
 of law, as to mnke it subservient to wicked purposes; but in 
 a variety ol ways, mav subject the most important interests 
 of the Church to the caprices and the local prejudices of 
 diose who, from time to time, bear a sway in her concerns. 
 
 The other error is the setting up of a private call as the 
 gfround of ministerial authority. I'or it being admitted that 
 
I. 'i ) 
 
 this is the way in which the minister derives his commission 
 to occupy himself in ecclesiastical olfices ; it follows, that the 
 higher power is not to be limited by the lower; and so fare- 
 well to all obligation of ecclesiastical determinations, whe- 
 ther for the regulating of public prayer and preachings, or for 
 the governing of private conduct. 
 
 In opposition to these two errors, the former of which 
 will alwa\s have an alliance with infidelity, and the latter 
 with fanatioism, it is to be held up as a scriptural truth, that 
 the true ground of a right to exercise the ministry is, as our 
 Church article expresses it, " the being called and chosen to 
 the work by men who have public authority given unto them 
 in the congregation, to call and send ministers into the Lord's 
 vineyard :" this authority, to call and send, knowing of no 
 other source than by derivation from^.the authority given by 
 our blessed Saviour himself, when he said to his Apostles, 
 " As my Father hath sent me, even so send I you." 
 
 None will deny that an express commission was given to 
 the Apostles themselves, to " go and teach all nations, bap- 
 tizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and 
 of the Holy Ghost ;" and if any should pretend, that the 
 commission was restrained to them, and not to be handed 
 in succession, such an opinion does not consist with the pro- 
 mise accompanying the command — "And, lo, I am with yoii 
 alway, even unto the end of the world !" Which implies, 
 that the commission was not to them only, but also to all 
 who should come after them, in the Ministry. 
 
 So it was understood by the Apostles: For except in the 
 case of Matthias, who was divinety designated by lot, and 
 in that of St. Paul, v/ho " neither received the gospel of 
 man, neither was taught it, but by the Revelation of Jesus 
 Christ;" all admission to the ministry was by ordination; as 
 in the instance of Timothy, who is said to have been re- 
 ceived to it I)y " the laying on of the Aposde's hands." And 
 then, for indubitable testimony, that the power of ordination 
 
( 8 ) 
 
 Was to go further than the hand which first conveyed it, he 
 tells Timothy, *' the things which thou hast heard of me, 
 the same commit thou unto faithful men, who shall be abl^ 
 to teach others also." And in like manner he reminds Titus 
 — " For this cause left I thee in Crete, that thou shouldest 
 act in order the things that are wanting, and ordain elders in 
 every city, as I appointed thee." 
 
 In short, it appears that a succession in the ministry was 
 provided by the same high authority which first declared the 
 gospel itself. Whether in that succession there were a dis- 
 parity, limiting the power of handing it down to an order 
 supereminent to the others, has been a question much agi- 
 tated ; a question which it will be inconsistent with the pre- 
 sent limits to discuss ; and which, therefore, should not have 
 been mentioned, were it not that the very cases here adduced 
 of Timothy and Titus, are actual instances of there being 
 some of that higher order, in addition to the Apostles 
 themselves. The more the subject is canvassed, the more 
 the fact will be evident, of there never having been a period 
 in the Christian Church without an order of the clergy 
 cloathed with certain authorities, including this of ordina- 
 tion, not committed to the other orders. 
 
 And now, if this circumstance of regular admission to 
 the ministry were matter of mere form, we might acknow- 
 ledge that no extreme danger need be apprehended from 
 omitting it, however ancient. But far from this, it will be 
 impossible to detach it from its duties, so as to give up the 
 divine appointment of the former, without subjecting the 
 obligation of the latter to be lessened, or even entirely re- 
 jected, as changing; interests or inclinations may prompt. 
 When the Apostle charges Timothy, "before God and the 
 Lord Jesus Christ, to preach llie word," and to do the other 
 duties of his callir.g ; when, in another place he tells him — 
 *^ O Timothy, keep that which is committed to thy trust;" 
 and when he sav? of himself, *' a dispensation is committe<< 
 
( 9 ) 
 
 unto me ; and woe be unto me if I preach not the gospel ;" 
 is it not evident that these, and all such weighty injunctions, 
 presume other ground than the ministry's resting on mere 
 opinion of usefulness or of expediency ; or than its being an 
 occupation to be engaged m, or abandoned, as private motives 
 may prompt ? Yes ; they are connected with the belief of 
 tliere being a divine commission, given in the infancy of the 
 Church, and to be coeval with it ; designating a certain order 
 of men who are empowered and enjoined to publish the gos- 
 pel of truth; to declare and defend its evidences; to open 
 and explain its doctrines ; to press, by argument and by per- 
 suasion, its precepts; to administer its ordinances; and to 
 give assurances of its consolations. All this is scripture 
 truth. If it have been mixed with error, it becomes us to 
 separate the chaff from the wheat, and not to confound and 
 reject the whole. If some, prompted by selfish passions, 
 have " preached themselves, and not Christ Jesus the Lord ;" 
 if others, by personal insolence, have ** lorded it over God's 
 heritage ;" and if an enormous power, designated in scrip- 
 ture, has seated itself in the temple of God, with the boast 
 of being clothed with his attributes, the way to counteract 
 these evils is not to give up the ministrj^'s divine origin. 
 On the contrary, they are thus the more confirmed ; because 
 the advocates of them will always appeal to the authorities 
 v;hich they have perverted and misapplied. No; let the 
 truth be declared, as deducible from scripture ; and this can 
 never, by fair interpretation, or by consequences naturally 
 arising from it, justify any thing unworthy of that gospel, 
 the professed object of which is to promote " peace and good 
 will among men." 
 
 After all; whatever there subsists of divine sanction in 
 the ministerial character and commission, it is with a view 
 to and for the enforcing of the message to which they are 
 attached. 
 
( ^0 ) 
 
 3. And to state to you the Icnrllnj^ properties of this ;;?«- 
 i(agt\ was to be the third head of this discourse. 
 
 Here, before we enter into the message itself, let us take 
 notice of the gracious and winning nianner in which it is to 
 be tendered. Gospel ministers are to " beseech in God's 
 name," and to '* pray in Christ's stead." God, who has the 
 supreme right to command, draws his creatures with the 
 cords of love. Christ, to whom. all power is given in h( aven 
 and in earth, yet condescended, in the days of his flesh, to 
 invite and to entreat. Well, therefore, may their ministers 
 appear for them in the least assuming guise, and make their 
 appeal to the affections. For the treasure is to pass through 
 earthen vessels, and will alwa} s be in danger of being tinc- 
 tured by its defilements. The message is to be delivered by 
 men, and may, therefore, be hindered by their frailties : and 
 it is even well if it meet with no impediment from their 
 passions. Hence they have, in regard to some duties of 
 their ministry, a call to the strictest vigilance, lest they dis- 
 charge them in such a manner as to show that " they know 
 not what manner of spirit they are of." But not so in the 
 leading duty of all, the laying open of the offers of redeem- 
 ing love; the laying of them open in such a manner as is 
 inconsistent with any other object than the salvation of the 
 persons addressed ; and, accordingly, by the pressing of their 
 duty principally by such motives as arc a call on their grati- 
 tude and their honour. 
 
 It is true, there are other considerations which the Chris- 
 tian minister is to bring before his hearers : for the laws oi 
 God have the sanction of punishments as well as of rewards; 
 and the scriptures direatcn *•' tribulation and anguish to every 
 soul of man that docth evil." Yes ; this is the way in which 
 they denounce vice ; but it is not the way in which they in- 
 vite to virtue, to that holv and sul)rtmc virtue which is the 
 essence of the Christian system. 'I'o this, the uniform mear 
 
( n ) 
 
 in scripture is persuasion; and, accordingly, the very mes= 
 sage put into the mouths of the ministers of the gospel, in 
 the very place too where it was intended to delineate the 
 most descriptive trait of their office, is, '* as though God did 
 beseech you by us ; and we pray you in Christ's stead.'* 
 
 If from this we go on to the consideration of the message 
 itself, the first particular occurring is, that reconciliation sup- 
 poses preceding enmity. And here it may seem absurd, that 
 an individual of the whole race of mankind, much less that 
 all of them, in their natural state, should be represented as 
 bearing an hatred to God ; to that good Being *' who holdeth 
 our feet in life ;" who '^ giveth us all things to enjoy ;" at 
 whose word arose the whole beautiful frame of the universe, 
 by whose providence it is preserved, and by whose presence 
 it is blest. My brethren, this is not the meaning j as if the 
 being, or the perfections, or the works of God, were objects 
 of disapprobation or disesteem with many : but the tone of 
 the sentiment consists in an alienation from his image, and a 
 repugnancy to his laws. He is essentially holy; and, there- 
 fore, every thing impure is opposed to his perfections. Be- 
 nevolence is his most distinguished attribute ; and, of course, 
 injurious and uncharitable dispositions are a defacing of that 
 likeness, which all moral agents should bear to him, their 
 great original. It is a duty stamped on our condition of 
 creatures, to be grateful for his mercies, and continually to 
 feel and to confess our dependence on his good providence ; 
 and, accordingly, our reluctance to all this implies a contrast 
 to his amiable nature. Now, when the scriptures speak of 
 us as being naturally at enmity with God, it is partly on ac- 
 count of the breach of the original condition of our creation ; 
 and partly because of that repugnancy to good, and that bias 
 to evil, with which we were born ; and which, unless cor- 
 rected and restrained by divine grace, evidences itself in 
 neglect, discontent, and rebellion towards Godj in envy, 
 
( 12 ) 
 
 hatred and injuries to our fellow creatures; and in sensual 
 depravity and excess. And herein consists the renovating 
 influence of Christianity ; that, to destroy the bitter fruit of 
 this deadly tree, it does not prune the branches, but corrects 
 it at the root; that, to recover men from a state of sin, it first 
 destroys that enmity against God, which is its origin and its 
 support. 
 
 Hence the reconciliation spoken of in the text ; that is, 
 submission, penitence, and the beginning of reformation, on 
 the part of man ; and on the part of God, pardon, accept- 
 ance, and the covenanted aids of grace ; all through the 
 atoning merits of Christ, than whom " there is none other 
 name given under heaven, wherebv we can be saved." This 
 is the high and leading sense of revelation, on which hang 
 all its truths, its promises, and its obligations. Accordingly, 
 the Apostle, just before the text, had declared, •"' God was 
 in Christ," that is, manifesting himself by. this Son of his 
 love — '' reconciling the world unto himself," meaning, by 
 his acceptance of the atonement offered for it. Reconcilia- 
 tion being thus offered by the party where sovereignty had 
 been offended, the Aposde might well make the Gospel 
 message to consist in an invitation to the oflcnder, to be re- 
 conciled unto God by a renouncing of the ground of oflfence, 
 in opposition to his transcendent goodness. 
 
 Having availed ourselves of the ground of reconciliation 
 thus given, we become reconciled to the attributes of C'od ; 
 even in the relation in which we stand to them ; reconciled 
 to his holiness, to his omniscience, and to his moral govern- 
 ment ; all which, however amiable in themselves, are con- 
 templated by us in a state of alienation and enmity, as being 
 full of terror and of danger. 
 
 We become reconciled also to his laws. These, however, 
 in themselves holy, just and good, are, to the natural man, 
 forbidding and severe. But not so when we have been 
 
( 13 ) 
 
 ^' brought near to God by the blood of the cross ;" for then 
 his service is perfect freedom ; and all that he requires is not 
 more our duty than our happiness. 
 
 And we are reconciled to the dispensations of his provi- 
 dence ; the severer of which will always be occasions of 
 murmur or of despondency ; until, being contemplated as the 
 visitations of a Father, they are taken in connection with their 
 intended use, of bringing us nearer and nearer to himself. 
 
 Such is the reconciliation spoken of: and as it implied 
 a retrospect to a past state of enmity, so it also looks for- 
 ward to a future living in that " peace with God which 
 passeth all understanding." Instead of a state of rebellion 
 against him, there succeeds another warfare, the weapons 
 of which are " mighty to the pulling down of the strong 
 holds of sin within us." That mercy which has " relieved 
 us from the curse of the law," does not dispense with obe- 
 dience to it in future ; but, on the contrary, binds us to it 
 by new obligations and by extraordinary promises. 
 
 The gospel message being thus opened, I will take occa- 
 sion, before I apply it to the present circumstance of our 
 being assembled, to tender it to all who can be supposed the 
 objects of it. You, if there be any present, who have never 
 been within Christ's visible fold ! you too, of whom a 
 stranger may presume that there are some who have been 
 brought within it by the rite of baptism, but have denied its 
 obligation by a life of sin ! " to you is the word of this 
 ^Ivation sent." We contemplate you, for so we are re- 
 quired by the oracles of God, as in a state of alienation from 
 him. Yet we address you, not in the threatnings of Sinai, 
 but in the persuasive voice of gospel love. '^ We beseech 
 you in God's behalf, we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye 
 reconciled unto God." Be ye reconciled to him, by re- 
 nouncing whatever is offensive to his holy eye ; by giving up 
 your hearts to the inspirations, and your actions to the guid- 
 
t H. ) 
 
 ance ol his spirit; by making a worthy profession of his 
 name, and by living as the heirs of a belter world. 
 
 'Jo my Clerical Brethren, now making a part of our assem- 
 bled General Convention, I will take the opportunity of sug- 
 gesting the improvement of the doctrine — that the principal 
 property of their office is its being entrusted with the minis- 
 try of reconciliation ; that is, with the drawing of nrven to it 
 by persuasion, and the sealing of it to them by the sacra- 
 ments. 
 
 For with us, my Reverend Brethren, as vou know, the 
 principal field of labour is not that referred to in the text, in 
 the strict and obvious letter of it — the proclaiming of the good 
 news of grace to persons who, by the condition of their birth, 
 have been " strangers to the covenants of promise, and with- 
 out God in the w^orld ;" but it is partly to cherish the Chris- 
 lian state of persons who have been brought to Chribt in 
 baptismal regeneration ; and partly to recover to grace those 
 who have fallen from it ; being '■^ taken in the snare of the 
 devil, and led captive by him at his will." These are a 
 work of greater difficulty than the other, as must be per- 
 ceived on an attention to the common impediment of both, 
 which is the corruption of the human heart, resisting alike 
 an admission of the evidences of tl^ gosjiel, and a submis- 
 sion to its guidance. The former, however, mav find oj>- 
 j)ortunitles in moments of cool reflection, or in these of a 
 l^roper view of the unsiUisfying enjoyments of ihe world, 
 or of sensibility to the despotic tvr.mny of sin. But to 
 persuade men to walk in that continual fear of God, which 
 alone can secure against the temptations meeting them in 
 all the enp;agcmcnts of life; and this not always in the open 
 danger of avowed hoslilitv, but sometimes in the deceitful 
 guise of pretended friendship ; and not this only, but occa- 
 sionally under the lalse -ippei'Tances of duty, by which satan 
 •5 said to *' transform himself into an angel of light ;" in 
 
( 15 ) 
 
 short, to aid our hearers in a warfare, the formidable nature 
 of which is strikingly figured to us by an Apostle, when he 
 describes it as calling for " the girdle of truth, the breast- 
 plate of righteousness, the sandals of peace, the helmet of 
 salvation, and the sword of the spirit" — This is a work to 
 be aimed at in our discoiu'ses from the pulpit, and in such 
 private advice as opportunity may be given for; which can 
 be exceeded in difficulty only by that other branch of our 
 ministry referred to, the calling of sinners back, through the 
 pains of repentance, to the mercies from which they have 
 wandered. For, Brethren, we justly complain of being mis- 
 understood by those who, from the doctrine of our Church 
 of being in grace in baptism, infer that we make light of the 
 repentance dive from those hosts of baptized sinners who live 
 continually exposed to the judgments of God ; the more so 
 from having been within his holy covenant, and from having 
 rejected the benefits pledged on his part, and the stipulations 
 made on theirs. The scriptures observe a manifest distinc- 
 tion between persons of this description, and those to whom 
 the word of salvation is in the first instance sent. These 
 are, indeed, called to repentance, the essence of which is a 
 change of mind ; and this will always imply sorrow for sin ; 
 because, " what man is there who liveth and sinneth not?" 
 But when the same scriptures speak of sinning after grace 
 received, they contemplate it as quite another subject. It 
 is then " the crucifying of the Son of God afresh, and the 
 putting of him to an open shame," It is then declared ex- 
 ceedingly difficult to " renew them again to repentance," on 
 account of the impossibility of any new motives to that effect; 
 which I take to be the sense of the impossibility spoken of 
 in the passage here alluded to. And there is then held our 
 to them in awful warning, that " there remaineth no more 
 sacrifice for sin ;" meaning no other besides that which tliev 
 have ceased to look to ; and to which the^• would of course 
 
( 10 ) 
 
 be more reluctant to rctum, than to lay hold of some new 
 hope, if any such there were, not subjecting them to shame 
 and self-reproach for past apostac}'. 
 
 This being their deplorable condition, let us not judge so 
 strictly of the persuasion with which the gospel is armed in 
 the point of view in which it is exiiibited in the text ; as if 
 there were not that other point of view alluded to bv the 
 same Apostle, where he says — *^ Knowing the terrors of the 
 Lord, we persuade men." And there is something well 
 deserving our attention in the manner in which these more 
 awful motives are here stated, as to be addressed bv us to the 
 conscience, i'hey may be so improperly brought forward, 
 as if the authority on which they rest were principally that of 
 the speaker ; and as if his dignity were offeuded, and his 
 control resisted, by a disregard of the dreadful penalty dis- 
 played. But, says the Apostle, we know, and, as is im- 
 plied, we preach the terrors of the Loid ; yet in such a man- 
 ner as shows that not ourselves in anv shape, but our hearers 
 and their best interests are the object. And this is a dis- 
 tinction which is well exemplified to us in a well known ex- 
 hortation attached to one of the offices of our Church, in 
 which, after the public reader of it has set before delinquents 
 the awful judgments of an offended God, yet this hinders 
 him not from afterwards *M:)idding them in the name of God, 
 from calling them in Christ's behalf, and from exhorting 
 them as they love their own salvation," to the opposite of 
 what had been so fearfully set before them. 
 
 But, Brethren, in respect to this and every other branch 
 of the ministerial duty, there will be no danger of falling 
 short, if our consciences be duly impressed by what the 
 text more directly sets before us, so as that it shall recur 
 frequend} ar.d ahva} s when dutv is at stake — It is the trust, 
 the dependence, the responsibilitv characteristic of our 
 ministerial calling. In how many ways did our blessed 
 
( ly ) 
 
 Saviour vary this very sentiment, in order to present it con- 
 ^nually to our recollection? In one place, it is a talent, 
 given to trade with: in another, it is a stewardship, of which 
 an account is to be rendered : and, in another, it is a mis- 
 sion to compel men, doubtless by the suitable means of con- 
 viction and persuasion, to come within the Gospel pale. If 
 in our Lord's commission to his Apostles, and in their mea- 
 sures under it, there were any room, as indeed there is not, 
 to balance on the question of a divine designation of the Mi- 
 nistry and a Succession under it, the matter might be deter- 
 mined by what have been here referred to, of preceding de- 
 clarations ; showing it to have been an object in contempla- 
 tion from the beginning. It is indeed surprising, that any, 
 who acknowledge the reasonableness and the utility of an in- 
 stituted Ministry, should not perceive at once the propriety 
 of resting it on the ground here taken, rather than on the 
 will of man ; whether as the dictate of expediency, agree- 
 ably to some, or as of personal persuasion, agreeably to 
 others: the one making all duty dependent on present 
 feeling, and the other moulding the work after the change- 
 able standard of human opinion or caprice. But if the case 
 have been provided for, by an authority infinitely higher, 
 and by a directory far more explicit — what stable ground of 
 obligation is there to the duties of the Christian Ministry, 
 when we are invited to them by an Apostle, where he savs 
 -— " I charge thee before God and the elect Angels;" by an- 
 other Apostle, in the address, '* the Elders among you I 
 exhort, who am also an Elder ;" and by our Lord in person, 
 where he admonishes-.—"' Let your loins be girded about and 
 your lights burning." In these, and in many similar inti- 
 mations, our duties come to us with an authority, with which 
 no human law can clothe them, and widi a certainty which 
 no self-persuasion can ensure. 
 
 However, therefore. Brethren, the sentiment may have 
 
 3 
 
( 18 ) 
 
 been disgraced by some, and however, on this account, it 
 may appear in a suspicious shape to others, let there be no 
 hesitation in any Clergyman to claim to his office the title of 
 heavenly origin, which will tlie more impress him with the 
 sense of the account he is to render of his stewardship. 
 
 If^ however, under a charge which should make him litde 
 in his own eyes, he should be, as the Apostle says, " vainly 
 puffed up with his fleshly mind ;" it is one of the ways in 
 which *^ that which should be for men's health becomes to 
 them an occasion of falling." And in this event, dreadful 
 will be the issue. For as the Angels who *' kept not their 
 estate appointed to them," are " reserved to the judgment 
 of the great day ;" so we may well look for the same to those 
 who make a sacred character a covering for passions the most 
 opposed to the graces which it was given to inculcate. Some 
 frailties are so imposing in their nature, that it is difficult to 
 judge how far they may conceal themselves from a mind 
 otherwise assimilated to the spirit of the Gospel. But pride, 
 and especially pride founded on the clerical character, is what 
 seems to Imply an entif^ absence of its holy influence ; and 
 the practice of the person tainted with it will be a contradic- 
 tion of the most important instructions which it will be his 
 duty to deliver. 
 
 Be assured, Brethren, that in being far removed from this 
 dark and depraved spirit, you will give one of the best proofs 
 of your being worthy servants of that Master, who was 
 " meek and lowly in heart," and who, though in his pre- 
 existcnt dignity divine, ^et, for the example of all mankind, 
 "made himself of no reputation, and toqj: upon him the form 
 of a ser\'ant, humbling himself, and becoming obedient unto* 
 death, even the death of the cross." 
 
 As well to my Lay Brethren of the Convention as to thd 
 Clerical, 1 will take tlie opportunity of mentioning, that while 
 J have been engaged in opening the session at their desire. 
 
( ly ) 
 
 thei*e has often recurred to me the painful recollection, that 
 I am supplying the place of a deceased brother,* in the dis- 
 charge of a duty undertaken by him, at our last triennial meet* 
 ing. If from present health and strength there were any con* 
 tinuance of them to be counted on, little could it at that time 
 have been supposed, by those of us who beheld him entering 
 on the Episcopacy, and who entertained expectations justi- 
 fied by known talents and an established reputation, that he 
 was so soon to be removed from his works to his reward. 
 My first acquaintance with him, except that of correspon- 
 dence held some short time before, was nearly twenty-three 
 years ago, at the first Convention held for the organizing of 
 our Church. My opinion formed of him on that occasion, 
 and confirmed by whatever I have since known of him, was 
 iis possessing of a capacity much above the common standard ; 
 . and his being furnished, as with all the endowments which 
 could qualify him to serve the Church, so especially with that 
 which the crisis of her situation particularly called for-^a de- 
 termination of mind equally resisting innovation in whatever 
 could be deemed essential to her system; yet conforming to 
 cxistbg circumstances, in matters confessedly subject to dis- 
 cretion. And besides this, there was something in his de- 
 portment, in whatever was interesting to iha Church, which 
 forbade all apprehension of there being any reference to self. 
 Doubdess, all who knew him counted on his filling of his 
 new station with dignity, and with benefit to the Church. 
 But the ways of God, although unsearchable, must be wise : 
 and while we bow in submission to his sovereign will, I am 
 confident that all m^ Episcopal brethren will join me in the 
 ♦sentiment, that the greater the loss of the Church in the de- 
 cease of oyr respected brother, the more desirable to those 
 who remain will be the prayers of their Clerical and thevr 
 
 * Right Rev. Bishop Parker, of Massachusetts, 
 
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