ART. V.-CRIMINALITY IN MINISTERS OF SUPPRESSING OR OPPOSING THE DOCTRINES OF THE GOSPEL.

THAT it is the duty of those who enter the sacred ministry, to make the word of God the sole guide of their instructions, and impartially to declare all its counsels; that to deny or suppress its doctrines for the purpose of pleasing men, or advancing the interests of ambition, is to act the part of a traitor to the office, in place of discharging its obligations, would seem to be too plainly true to be overlooked, and too important to be forgotten by any who have made the Scriptures their study. They are ambassadors for God; commissioned to make known to men his will. Their authority to speak in his name is solely derived from him ; and the revelations of his word are the message, and the sole message, which they are appointed to declare. To discharge that duty, they must of course deliver and enforce every part of that message, without reserve and without partiality.

It can scarcely, however, escape attentive observers that by not a few of those now in the ministry, very different views are entertained of their duties; that they regard it as far from being clear that they are implicitly to follow the word of God in their teachings; neither rejecting or suppressing any of its doctrines, nor substituting others in their place. They publicly assert, indeed, that the Scriptures are not of paramount authority in religion; that they have in the decisions of reason at least an equal, if not a superior. They boldly claim also, that no necessity exists of a coincidence of the belief which they profess with the views which they entertain; that they may without guilt assert their conviction of the truth of that which they do not hold; and hold and teach that which they disown. Beyond these, there is a still more numerous class who appear to regard themselves as invested with the right of consulting a worldly expediency in preaching the doctrines of the gospel, and manifesting their assent to them; and are accustomed accordingly to suppress the one in the desk when they seem likely to give offence; and conceal the other when in the presence of those with whom the avowal of their faith might render them unpopular.

That this disowning, however, of the truths of the gospel, as the hope of popularity, power and wealth may happen to prompt, is deeply guilty, is manifest from the source from which it emanates, and the consequences to which it gives birth.

The principle in which it has its origin is atheistic. They who in that manner disavow or conceal the truth, proceed on the assumption, either that God is not the author of those injunctions in the Scriptures which prohibit it, or that he has no right to impose such a law. They manifestly act on the ground that it is not obligatory; that they have another and higher rule of conduct; and treat the Most High, therefore, as having no right to prescribe their course. Such is the import of their conduct, the only construction it can bear. To claim that it can be otherwise, were to admit their practice to be wholly inexcusable. If God has a right to impose on his ministers such a law as is enjoined on them in the Scriptures, and is the author of that law, it then is obligatory, and to disregard it is open and formal rebellion. In claiming their course then to be justifiable, they arrogate a superiority to his commands, and with all the emphasis which the most significant actions can express, deny his right to prescribe their duty, or require their obedience in the sacred office:-a course most grossly solecistical, as well as impious. It is absurd to assume that the ministers of the gospel are the ambassadors of God-messengers commissioned by him to declare his will, the whole of whose official work and authority is of his appointment and gift-and yet to claim that he has no authority over their office; no right to determine what message they shall deliver. It renders their whole official work and pretence to a divine commission, a farce also. On what ground can they claim his sanction to their office, if they deny his right to determine its duties? or that their hearers are bound to submit to their instructions, as of divine authority, while denying that he has a right to enjoin those instructions? In wresting from him that right, they divest their ministry of his sanction, and sink it into an unauthorized assumption.

But the impiety of their course is equally manifest. As they cannot attempt to justify their disavowal or suppression of the truth, except by assuming that they are not bound to teach it, and cannot assume that, except on the ground that God has no absolute authority over them; they are guilty in

every instance in which they disown or conceal the doctrines of his word, of a formal denial of his authority; and that is a denial of his perfections, relations, and rights as God. And what more fearful spectacle of presumption and impiety can creatures exhibit, than that which they thus present, when the office which he instituted for the vindication of his perfections and rights, and manifestation of his truth, is perverted to their denial, and the subordination of his interests and will to the lawless wishes of mortals ;-the caprices of vanity, ambition and avarice! The principle from which this suppression of his truth emanates, is thus manifestly antichristian; the soul and substance of atheism.

As the source in which it has its origin is atheistic in its denial of his authority, so it is in its preference of worldly good above the blessings of salvation. The motive from which they act, who thus set aside his will, is one of mere wealth, power or popularity; and they proceed in it, on the ground, that these are of greater value than those; they place on them a higher estimate, and treat them as better entitled to their choice. They act, therefore, on the assumption, either that the blessings of salvation have no existence, or that the representations given of them in the Scriptures are not true. They exhibit not only a want of perfect faith in them, but offer them the most emphatic denial in their power. In thus exalting the objects of worldly ambition. above the blessings of redemption, and disregarding the promises and threatenings of God, they cast on them all the slight, and offer to his authority all the injury, which they would by a formal denial of his rights or existence. They act, therefore, the part of infidelity; or, in the just and terrific language of the sacred word, " make God a liar ;”—a sin of the greatest guilt in those who are set apart to the work of vindicating his authority, and persuading men to obey it. What more dreadful spectacle can be imagined than they exhibit when they thus deny the rights which it is their business to maintain, and depreciate instead of exalting the work of Christ; acting the part of a treacherous Judas who betrays, and ambitious priests who crucify, in place of disciples who forsake all and follow him. If the inordinate love of worldly good by those out of the sacred office be idolatry, how much more is it in his ministers, who heighten their guilt by making his temple the scene of their apostate worship, and offer sacrifice upon his altars to their idols.

Such are the principles on which they proceed. But the guilt of their course is manifest also by the fruits to which it gives birth, as well as the false views from which it springs. It naturally leads to erroneous representations of the whole system of the gospel, and gives rise thereby to a false religion.

It were a contradiction to suppose that they will teach the pure gospel, who consult in their preaching the dictates of a mere worldly policy, and accommodate their doctrines to the tastes of their hearers. It were to assume that the doctrines and injunctions of the sacred word coincide with their passions and prejudices, and exhibit the motives, and exert the influences which are most congenial to a selfish temper. But in place of that, where worldliness, pride and ambition preside in the sacred desk, its instructions will be found as hostile as those affections themselves are to the gospel. The perfections and claims of God will be denied, or kept out of sight; the most essential truths of his word discarded, conscience lulled into insensibility, and the heart flattered with false reliances and deceptive hopes. The religion inculcated will, in short, be such as meets the wishes of an unsanctified mind; the homage it exacts will be the homage of self, and not of God.

It were in vain, also, to expect a just exhibition of the sacred word from those who make the selfish passions their guide in the sacred office. How can they vindicate the rights or assert the authority of God over others, while rejecting them in respect to themselves; or rebuke forbidden passions, or dissuade from a worldly temper, while making them the law of their own lives? How can they impress their hearers with the superior claims of heavenly things, while acting in the most momentous concerns of life, in opposite views; while, by sacrificing the interests of eternity to those of time, they treat the latter as of infinitely the highest worth? How excite a just sense of the Redeemer's work, while disparaging and rejecting its blessings for the low enjoyments and worthless acquisitions of this life? It were solecistical to expect it from them. They who deliberately disown or suppress the doctrines of revelation to subserve the ends of a worldly ambition, cannot have those views of God and his truth which are essential to a just exhibition of any part of the gospel; nor, if they entertained them in theory, are their affections such as are requisite to

that work. None but they who see the beauty and feel the power of truth, can exhibit to others its attractions and enforce its claims. None but they who have been led by the spirit of grace to a just discernment and sense of the glory of Christ's work, can present it to others in its true relations; exhibit it in its transcendant majesty. To expect the gospel in its due proportions, its genuine character from a worldly ambitious minister, who is ready under the promptings of selfishness and impiety, deliberately to disown and conceal its doctrines, were to expect light to emanate from darkness; to look for grapes from thorns and figs from thistles.

But not only may it be expected, that they will exhibit false representations of many parts of the gospel, and inadequate apprehensions of others which they do not intentionally misrepresent, and thereby give birth to false hopes in their hearers; but the selfishness by which they are prompted may be expected to lead them to direct efforts to propagate a spurious piety, and multiply false converts as a means of advancing their reputation and influence. As power, popularity and wealth are the supreme objects of their aim, and as the direct means of gaining them are the repute of a successful ministry, and the multiplication of those who are placed under their immediate charge, those means will, as a matter of course be above all others chosen. Let the regions be examined where those ministers have labored, who made their office the instrument of their pride and love of power, and they will be found to be the scenes where illegitimate excitements have been fomented and cherished, false conversions multiplied, and the Church filled with the unsanctified and self-deceived. The corruption of the Church by the introduction of false doctrines, and false disciples, is then the natural result of such a ministry.

Another evil usually attendant on the policy in question, is the formation and nurture in the Church of a zealous and active party for the support of its authors, and the promotion of their interests. The minister who disowns and traduces the truth for the purpose of advancing his selfish aims, will naturally be inclined to avail himself of other means, if in his power, to subserve those ends; and as one of the readiest methods of acquiring and exerting an influence is the organization of a party, in which large numbers can be made to act with promptness and ardor in subservience to VOL. V. 72