an incongruity with such a recreation, that it is difficult to place its abandonment upon any less ground than of positive duty.

It may be asked-What virtue is there in abstaining from things indifferent? Why, if convinced of their innocence, may we not act according to our own convictions, rather than according to the superstitions of others? But "no man”—especially no Minister“liveth to himself?" The "strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, not to please themselves.”? Will not an honest self-scrutiny detect a criminal fondness for pleasure, as the principle of indulgence? For what other principle could allow the habit of self-gratification at so serious a cost to the interests of others? To affect, by our conduct, to despise what appears to us weakness, scrupulosity, or prejudice, is the way rather to confirm the evil than to cure it; while the sacredness of the Ministerial standard is lowered, with equal injury to ourselves, and to the dignity and fruitfulness of our work.

The sum of what the Writer has ventured to offer for the consideration of his brethren on this subject is simply this-Whatever experience has proved to chill our fervour, to dissipate our mind, to divert our attention, or to occupy a large portion of time or interest, is the “right eye," that we are called to “ pluck out and cast from us."3 Farming—as an amusement or or business (from its necessary entanglement with worldly anxieties) seems wholly inconsistent. Gar

1 Rom. xiv. 7.

2 Ib. xv. 1.

3 Matt. v. 29. He that is appointed to minister in holy things must not suffer secular affairs, or sordid arts, to eat up a great portion of his employment. It was a great idleness in Theophylact, the patriarch of Constantinople, to spend his time in his stable of horses, when he should have been in his study, or in his pulpit, or saying his holy offices.' Bishop Taylor.

4 See 2 Tim. ii. 4.

dening, accomplishments, literature, and even theology itself-except as it is made a spiritual study-must be "kept under, and brought into subjection" to the main design. Far be it from the Writer to advocate any tone of ascetic austerity. He would not render the bow useless by keeping it always bent. He would not forget that we are men as well as ministers, servants and not slaves. But do we not warn our people, that the love of any created object, predominant above our Saviour's claims to supreme affection, ruins their hopes of salvation for eternity? And ought not we to remind ourselves, that the attraction of mind to any one subject of interest, diverting our minds from our consecrated employment, involves it in the positive guilt of unfaithfulness to our Master, must bring a curse instead of a blessing upon our Ministry, and may well lead us to tremble for our ultimate safety? Let the heart be habitually in the work, and it will be found in a great measure to furnish its own relaxation, and sufficient variety for renewed refreshment in the midst of its more painful exercises. For whatever else may be needed, an ample range is left for well-disciplined and Christian enjoyment; which tends to strengthen rather than to enervate the love of the spiritual character.

CHAPTER V.

THE SPIRIT OF COVETOUSNESS.

COVETOUSNESS in Ministers has almost grown to a proverb. Judas is an awful example of its consistency with the highest Ministerial gifts. It is not the fault of any Ecclesiastical system, but the natural principle of a corrupt and selfish heart. It readily appended

itself to Popery from the transfer of the aggrandizing spirit of the system to individuals. But Judas and Demas had been its victims long before "the Man of sin" sprang up in the church. It has attached itself to Protestant establishments, in the higher departments, from the influx of wealth arising from their alliance with the temporal power; and, in the lower departments, from the want of sufficient means to meet the present demands and future exigencies of their situation. In this latter view especially, it allies itself to every system of Protestant dissent, with an influence as habitual and destructive, as in any established systems in the Christian church.

The frequent scriptural connexions of this selfish principle with the sacred office, were probably intended to warn the servant of God of a most prevalent temptation. Our Church, without any express mention, has pointedly alluded to it in each of her Ordination services. She warns her deacons from the word of God, that they be "not greedy of filthy lucre." She exhibits to her priests the awful picture of “an hireling ; " at the same time instructing them "how they ought to forsake and set aside (as much as they may) all worldly cares and studies;" and questioning them again more closely, upon their diligence and readiness in "laying aside the study of the world

1 The description of the Jewish teachers, Isaiah lvi. 11. Jer. vi. 13. Ezekiel xxxiv. 1-3. Micah iii. 11. Matt. xv. 5, 6. xxiii. 14— the Apostle's contrast of Timothy with the teachers in the Christian Church, (Phil. ii. 20, 21.) the frequent warnings of Ministers against filthy lucre "-1 Tim. iii. 3, 8. vi. 9-11. Tit. i. 7. 1 Pet. v. 2. illustrate this point. Compare also 2 Pet. ii. 3. Jude 11.

Hireling not one, who performs the office or duty of a Minister for hire or reward, (for the Apostle, or rather our blessed Lord himself says-The labourer is worthy of his hire, or reward, 1 Tim. v. 18. Luke x. 7.) but one who endeavours to make a gain of godliness,' &c. Brewster, quoted in Bishop Mant's Prayer Book.

2

and the flesh." She deems it necessary to give to her highest order of ministers this solemn charge-" Be to the flock of Christ, a shepherd, not a wolf; feed them; devour them not.” 1 It was a blot upon the celebrated heathen moralist, that, while he declaimed with vehemence against covetousness, he was, throughout his life, a slave to the base traffic of usury. And how discreditable is earnest preaching against the influence of covetousness, if our personal habits, or family appurtenances, should exhibit its pollution! When we warn our people against "the love of money, as the root of all evil," 3 they will look into our own garden for this destructive weed, which may possibly be growing there, even while we are seeking to root it out of every garden in our parish.

Covetousness is very distinct from frugality, which is a real duty-implying a well-directed and very moderate use of the things of this life--" owing no man any thing"-" using the world as not abusing it "like a good steward, making such provision for our families, as will answer the present necessity, and prevent them from becoming burdensome to the church. This, with contentment upon Evangelical principles, forms a right Christian character.

But

1 See the Ordination and Consecration Services. 'Colligimus, neminem probum verbi Ministrum, quin non idem sit pecuniæ contemptor.' Calv. in Acts xx. 33. 'The moment a strong and governing desire of accumulating property takes possession of a Minister's mind—preach with orthodoxy, and some degree of animation, he may-visit his parishioners to a certain extent, he may; but a devoted labourer in the vineyard, who has one object in view the extension and glory of his Master's kingdom-and who makes all his pursuits subservient to that object, he will not be. It is just as impossible for a man to be a great accumulator of property, and at the same time a faithful devoted Minister of Christ, as it is to establish a fellowship between light and darkness, Christ and Belial.' Professor Miller's Letters, pp. 433, 434. 31 Tim. vi. 10.

2 Seneca.

covetousness is an inordinate thought of, desire after, and employment in, the care of this world. The palpable exhibition of this principle is seen in a habit of saving-or a watching too closely over what we have, and a rooted unwillingness to part with it. This is too often connected with a want of consideration and sympathy for the calls of distress, and enlarged consecration of our substance to the extension of our Redeemer's kingdom. We cannot but be concerned, in casting our eyes over the Reports of our Religious Societies to mark the average of subscriptions from those, whose capabilities are so widely disproportionate. This may arise in many instances, from the great variety of channels, amongst which our benevolent fund is distributed; but are there no cases, where it originates in a want of economy, in selfindulgence, or covetousness?

Specious forms of this principle often belong to those who are highly connected in the world; and though the individuals themselves may be unconscious of injury, yet it is too often exhibited to intelligent Christians in a lowered standard of separation from the world, in an unspiritual cast of mind, walk, and conversation, and in a want of Divine power and refreshment upon their Ministrations. In Mr. Cadogan of Reading, the dignity of the Ministerial character rose superior to the adventitious circumstances of elevated rank, without any degradation of his personal claim to respect; and the spirit of simplicity and holiness, maintained throughout his Ministration, was honoured with peculiar tokens of his Master's approbation.'

1 Massillon has a remarkable sermon on the temptation of Christ, which he transfers to the temptations of the Ministry. It is hoped that the instruction (unsuitable indeed to the gravity of the pulpit) will not be rejected on account of the eccentric form of deduction in which it is given. I. A scheme to live like gentlemen-" Com.