SERMON I. ON THE DUTY AND CHARACTER OF A CHRISTIAN PREACHER. Preached August 23. 1795, at the Author's admission to the West Church, Aberdeen. 2 CORINTHIANS iv. 6. We preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves, your servants, for Jesus' sake. RM, IN the beginning God created the heavens and S ER M. the earth. He said, Let there be light, and there was light. He filled the waters, the A bleffing. 1. SER M. bleffing *. God saw every thing that he had made, and behold it was very good †. I. The last and most noble part of the creation retained not the ftamp of beauty impreffed on it by the Creator. That excellence and dignity, which were the prerogatives of human nature, were loft in the degradation of fin. That peace with God, which passeth all understanding ‡, and is the natural recompence of innocence, was exchanged for that enmity with him § which is the effect, as well as the punishment of guilt. Confufion fucceeded to order, deformity to beauty, the mifery of transgresfion to the happiness of obedience. To remedy this disorder; to restore the moral creation to rectitude; to reconcile man to his Creator; to open again the gates of mercy which his apoftacy had shut; to disclose to him a prospect far brighter than primitive innocence could have entertained; to place before him every adequate motive to perfeverance in duty; to fupply him with I. with all neceffary affiftance for the discharge SER M. of it; in a word, to lead him through the pilgrimage of this world, to a state of endless and confummate felicity,-Christ Jesus the Lord affumed human flesh, and acted in the capacity of the Inftructor, the Guide, and the Saviour of the human race. The work which he performed, is, in fome respects, more ftupendous than creation itself. For, it seems easier to produce what is excellent and beautiful, than to rectify deformity, or to regenerate corruption. When peace, therefore, on earth, and good will towards men, were proclaimed, glory was transcendently due to God in the highest*. The grand business of the preachers of righteousness, of the ministers of religion, is to unfold and recommend to their fellow Chriftians the plan of falvation which Christ announced and accomplished, as well as to inculcate on them the facred obligations to purity of heart, and integrity of conduct, which it impofes. All their inftructions muft flow from the pure fource of the facred oracles, and all their admonitions, exhortations, 2 A * Luke ii. 14. SER M. hortations, and remonftrances, must be di I. rected to the present welfare, and to the future falvation of their brethren. We preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves, your servants, for Jesus' sake. Called to preach to you, my brethren of this congregation, I judge it not unprofitable, either to you or to myself, to confider the full import of the Apostle's declaration in the text. It confifts of two parts: First, We preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord. Secondly, We preach ourselves, your servants, for Jesus' sake. When I fhall have confidered both these divifions of the general fubject, you will learn what are, in my opinion, the principal objects which a Christian preacher ought to keep in view. I fhall also, in this difcourfe, draw to myfelf a general line of public inftruction which. it fhall be my endeavour, in reliance on divine aid, to pursue, on every occafion, as far as my weak abilities will permit. I. We preach not ourselves, but Christ |