er of
the whole catholic Church. Ordination made men _presbyters_ and
_deacons_, which were not so before. If a person be destitute of the
distinguishing ministerial gift, or any other essential qualification,
ten thousand elections or ordinations cannot render him a minister of
Christ. But solemnly tried and found qualified, he is to be set apart to
the ministry, by prayer, fasting, and laying on of the hands of the
presbytery.

Nowhere in the heavenly volume do we find either precept or example that
Christian people have a whit more right to ordain their pastor, than
midwives have to baptize the children they assist to bring forth.
Ordination appears to have been performed by apostles, by evangelists,
and by a presbytery, Acts vi. 6, and xiv. 23; Tit. i. 5; 1 Tim. v. 22,
and iv. 14: but never by private Christians. Could these ordain their
pastors or other ecclesiastic officers, to what purpose did Paul leave
Titus at Crete to _ordain elders in every city_? or why did he write
never a word about ordination to the people, in any of his epistles, but
to their rulers?

Thus regularly ordained, the Christian pastor must enter upon his
important work. Endowed with spiritual wisdom and understanding;
possessed of inward experience of the power of divine truth; inflamed
with zeal for the glory of God, love to his work, and compassion to the
perishing souls of men, he is to endeavor to acquaint himself with the
spiritual state of his flock; and to feed them, not with heathenish and
Arminian harangues, but with the gospel of Christ, the sincere milk of
the word, diligently preaching and rightly dividing it, according to
their diversified state and condition, 1 Pet. v. 3; 2 Cor. v. 11; 1 Cor.
ix. 16. Assiduously growing in the knowledge and love of divine things,
he is to instruct and confirm his hearers therein. Every divine truth he
is to publish and apply, as opportunity calls for: chiefly such as are
most important, or, though once openly confessed, are in his time
attacked and denied, 1 Tim. vi. 20, iii. 15. Painfully is he to
catechize his people, and in Jesus' name to visit and teach them from
house to house. To awaken their conscience, to promote the conversion of
sinners, to direct and comfort the cast down, perplexed, tempted, and
deserted; to ponder the Scripture, and his own and others' experience,
to qualify him for this work, must be his earnest care. Faithfully is he
to administer the sacraments to such (only)