gospel, he obtained for them, in substance, the illumination which he himself possessed, for the successful exercise of it.

2. But is it sufficient to possess superior illumination, in order to the honorable and useful exercise of the Christian ministry? Is it sufficient to speak with the tongues of men and of angels? Is it sufficient to be endowed with the gift of prophecy; to understand all mysteries; to have all knowledge, 1 Cor. xiii. 1. Ah! how fruitless are the most pathetic sermons, if the preacher himself pretends to exemption from the obligations which he would impose upon other men ! Ah! how the

most dazzling and sublime eloquence languishes, when tarnished by the vices of the orator! This position, my brethren, admits not of a doubt; and let the reflection, however humiliating, be ever present to our thoughts; one of the most insurmountable obstacles to the efficacy of preaching, is the irregular life of preachers.

If this reflection, at all times, rests on a solid foundation, it was particularly the case with regard to those ministers whom God set apart to the office of laying the very first foundations of his church, and to be themselves the pillar and ground of the truth, 1 Tim. iii. 15. With what dreadful suspicions must not our minds have been perplexed, had we seen in the persons whom Jesus Christ himself immediately chose to be his successors, the abominations which are visible in many of those who, at this day, pretend to fill his place in the church? What dreadful suspicions would agitate our minds, had St. Peter lived in the manner of some of those who have called themselves the successors of St. Peter? If out of the same mouth, from which issued those gracious maxims which the Holy Spirit has preserved for our instruction, there

had proceeded, at the same time, those iniquitous sentences, those sanguinary decrees, those insolent decisions, which have fulminated from the mouths of certain pontiffs bearing the Christian name? If these same apostles, who preached nothing but superiority to the world: nothing but humility, but charity, but patience, but chastity, had been, like some of their pretended successors, addicted to the spirit and practice of revenge, of ambition, of simony; magicians, fornicators; men polluted with abominations, which the majesty of this place, and the sanctity of the pulpit, hardly permit me to insinuate? What must not have been the infamy of committing such things, when the bare idea of them puts modesty to the blush?

O how much better has Jesus Christ, our great leader and commander, provided whatever was necessary for the good of his church! During the whole course of his life, he presented a model of the most pure and consummate virtue. One of the great ends of his devotedness to death, was to engage his beloved disciples thence to derive motives to the practice of holiness. This is the sense which may be assigned to that expression in the prayer, which he here addresses to his Father: For their sakes I sanctify myself, that they may be sanctified, ver. 19. For then 1 sanctify myself: The meaning may be: "I labor incessantly to excite thy love within me to a brighter and a brighter flame, not only because it is a disposition of soul the most becoming and intelligent creature, but that I may serve as a model to them who are to diffuse the knowledge of my gospel over the world."

Or, according to the interpretation of others: for them I sanctify myself, that they may be sanctified: that is, I devote myself to death for my disciples, to the end that, beholding in my sacrifice

the horrors of sin, which I am about to expiate, and the overflowings of my affection for those in whose place I am substituting myself, they may be engaged to exhibit an inviolable attachment to thy holy laws." Which ever of these two senses we affix to the words of our blessed Lord, they strongly mark that intense application of thought by which he was animated, to inspire his disciples with the love of virtue.

This is not all he is expressing an earnest wish, that assistance from heaven might supply what his absence was going to deprive them of: For them I sanctify myself, that they may be sanctified. But now I leave the world. My disciples are going to lose the benefit of my instructions and of my example. May a celestial energy, may divine communications of resolution and strength occupy my place: I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil. ... Sanctify them through thy truth; thy word is truth. As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world: and for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth.

3. Finally, Jesus Christ asks, in behalf of his disciples, a participation in the dominion of which he himself had taken possession. He had already in part, conveyed to them that dominion: The glory which thou gavest me, I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one, ver. 22. What is that glory, which the Father had given to Jesus Christ, and which Jesus Christ had given to his apostles? Among a variety of ideas which may be formed of it, me must, in a particular manner, understand it as implying the gift of miracles. In virtue of this power, those sacred ministers were

enabled to carry conviction to the human mind, with an energy of eloquence altogether divine. The resurrection of one who had been dead is the great exordium of their sermons. This argument they oppose to all the sophisms of vain philosophy: This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses: therefore being by the right hand of God exalted.... he hath shed forth this which ye now see and hear: Acts ii. 32, 53. They confound those who continue proof against conviction. They call down the most formidable strokes of celestial indignation on some of those who had dared to trifle with the oath of fidelity plighted to their divine Master. Ananias and Saphira fall dead at their feet. Acts v. 9. The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God, to the pulling down of strong holds: casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ: and having in a readiness to revenge all disobe dience, 2 Cor. x. 4-6.

But this is not the whole of that authority, and the whole of that power which Jesus Christ wishes to be conferred on his disciples. He asks, in their be half, that when they had, like him, finished the work which they had given them to do, they should be exalted to the same glory: that after having turned many to righteousness, they might shine as the brightness of the firmament, and as the stars for ever and ever: Dan. xii. 3. This is what he had promised them: I appoint unto you a kingdom, as my Father hath appointed unto me, that ye may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom, and sit on thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. This is what he asks for them: Father, I will that they also whom thou hast given me be

with me where I am; that they may behold my glory which thou hast given me : for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world. . . . that they all may be one, as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee: that they also may be one in us, ver. 24. 21.

We conclude this head with a reflection of no small importance: namely this, That among the graces which Jesus Christ prays for in behalf of his apostles, must be comprehended those which were necessary to the persons who were after them to exercise the gospel ministry. Whatever difference there may be between these two orders of ministers, they are the objects of the same prayer. Their talents were to differ only in degree, and God, at this day, limits the measure of them, only because circumstances have varied, and miracles are no longer necessary to the church. But as the apostles had, in substance, the same gifts with Jesus Christ, the ministers of the gospel likewise partake in the gift of the apostles, because they have received the same commission, and are called to build up the church, of which those holy men laid the foundations.

Lofty idea of the apostleship! lofty idea of the office of the gospel-ministry! The apostles entered with Jesus Christ into the plan of the redemption of mankind, as Jesus Christ entered into it with God. And the ministers of the gospel, to this day, enter into the same plan with the apostles, as the apostles entered into it with Jesus Christ. The eternal Father, before the foundation of the world, Matt. xxv. 34. foreseeing the deplorable misery in which the wretched pregony of Adam were to involve themselves, traced the plan of redemption: from that period he provided the victim: from the period he set apart for us a Redeemer: from that pe