LECTURE XXXIX.

1852.

2 CORINTHIANS, iii. 4-18. "And such trust have we through Christ to God-ward :· Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God; - Who also hath made us able ministers of the New Testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life. But if the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not steadfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance; which glory was to be done away :- How shall not the ministration of the spirit be rather glorious? - For if the ministration of condemnation be glory, much more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory. For even that which was made glorious had no glory in this respect, by reason of the glory that excelleth. For if that which was done away was glorious, much more that which remaineth is glorious. Seeing then that we have such hope, we use great plainness of speech: - And not as Moses, which put a vail over his face, that the children of Israel could not steadfastly look to the end of that which is abolished:- But their minds were blinded for until this day remaineth the same vail untaken away in the reading of the Old Testament; which vail is done away in Christ. But even unto this day, when Moses is read, the vail is upon their heart. Nevertheless when it shall turn to the Lord, the vail shall be taken away. Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord."

THE third chapter of the Second Epistle to the Corinthians is one long digression, and arose out of the necessity of explaining the apparent self-sufficiency and boasting of the seventeenth verse of the second chapter; so it is not till the beginning of the fourth chapter that the subject of the second is taken up again.

The beginning of the third chapter seems but a reiteration of this boasting; for St. Paul appeals to his work in proof of his ministry. True Christian work, according to him, was something written on human Men the hearts and spirits which he had

souls.

trained

;

these were his Epistles to the nations: so that, if the world wanted to know what St. Paul meant to say, he replied "Look at the Corinthian Church that is what I have to say: their lives are my writings.' The first three verses, then, are only a re-statement of his vaunt. But, then, he explains: The Corinthians are our Epistle, yet not ours, but rather Christ's. Christ is the Author, I am but the scribe. Not I, but the Spirit of the living God, made them what they are: I have only been the minister.

Hence he infers that there was no vanity in his assertion, though it looked like a boast. For the trust he had was not in himself— the writer- but in Christ, the Spirit, the Author of the work: "Such trust have we through Christ to God-ward: not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God: Who also hath made us able ministers of the New Testament." Then it is that from these words "able minister" he breaks off into a digression, which occupies all the chapter, and is descriptive of the Christian ministry in contradistinction to the Jewish.

Our subject now is the principle of the Christian ministry; that is, the exposition and application of the Word of God. There are two modes in which this is done:

I. That of the Letter. II. That of the Spirit.

Orto use more modern equivalents - we distinguish between the formal ministry and the spiritual one, between the teaching of the Old Testament and that of the New.

Let us make, however, one preliminary remark : Ours is an exposition; and therefore we take the subject broadly. Our object is rather to get a comprehensive view of the Apostle's argument, than to pursue it into every particular. Each separate sentence might be the text of a rich sermon; but, omitting detail, we

will confine ourselves to the main scope of the chapter; that is, to the contrast we have spoken of above:

I. The ministry of the Letter.

The ministry of Moses was one of the Letter; it was a formal ministry—a ministry of the Old Testament for a formal ministry, a ministry of the letter, and a ministry of the Old Testament, have all the same meaning. It was the business of Moses to teach maxims, and not principles; rules for ceremonial, and not a spirit of life. And these things — rules, ceremonials, maxims, laware what the Apostle calls here the "letter." Thus, for instance, Truth is a principle, springing out of an inward life; but Moses only gave the rule: "Thou shalt not forswear thyself." It is impossible not to see how plainly inadequate this rule is to all that truth requires; for he who scarcely avoided perjury may have kept, nevertheless, to the letter of the law! Again, love is a principle; but Moses said sim"Thou shalt not kill, nor steal, nor injure.' ply: Again, Meekness and subduedness before God these are of the Spirit; but Moses merely commanded fasts. And, further, Unworldliness arises from a spiritual life: but Moses only said, "Be separate, circumcise yourselves;" for, under the Jewish law, it was separation from the surrounding nations which stood in the place of Christian unworldliness.

It was in consequence of the superiority of the teaching of principles over a mere teaching of maxims, that the ministry of the letter was considered as nothing; and this for two reasons: first, because of its transitoriness, "it was to be done away with."

Let us, then, look at this in a real, practical way. We say the Law was superseded by the Gospel. But why? By an arbitrary arrangement of God? No: but on an Eternal principle. And this is the principle: - All formal truth is transient: no maxim is intended to last for ever. No ceremony, however glorious, however beautiful, can be eternal; so that, though for the time it is a Revelation, yet it cannot last, because it is

less than the whole truth. Thus, when Christ came, instead of saying, "Thou shalt not forswear thyself," He said, "Let your yea be yea, and your nay, nay: so that the same truth which Moses had given in a limited form was stated by Christ in all its fulness, and the old form was superseded by the principle; and instead of saying, "Thou shalt not say, Fool, or Raca," Christ gave the principle of Love; and instead of commanding the devotion of the seventh part of time to God, Christianity has declared "the sanctification of all time; and instead of a command to sacrifice, that is, to give of your best, Christ says, "Give yourself a living sacrifice to God." In all these things, observe how the form was superseded: because the higher Truth had come, the Letter was "done away."

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The second reason for the inferiority of the Letter was that it killed: partly because, being rigorous in its enactments, it condemned for any non-fulfilment. In the ninth verse, it is called a ministration of condemnation." The Law had no mercy-it could have none; for its duties were done or not done; there were in it no degrees of goodness or evil: "He that despised Moses' law died without mercy." And partly it killed, because technicalities and multiplicities of observance necessarily deaden spiritual life. It was said by Burke, that "no man comprehends less of the majesty of the English constitution than the Nisi Prius lawyer, who is always dealing with technicalities and precedents." In the same way none were so dead to the glory of the law of God as the scribes, who were always discussing its petty minutia. While they were disputing about the exact manner in which a sacrifice should be slain, or the precise distance of a Sabbath day's journey, or the exact length of a phylactery, how could they comprehend the largeness of the Spirit which said, “I will have mercy, and not sacrifice?"

This surely we can understand. Obedience is a large, free, glorious feeling; Love is an expansion of the whole heart to God; Devotion is an act of the heart, in which thought is merely silent. But could anything

dull the vigor of Obedience more than frittering it away in anxieties about the mode and degree of fasting? Could aught chill Love more than the question, "How often shall my brother offend, and I forgive him?" Or could anything break Devotion - an exercise of mind where heart should be all in all-more into fragments, than multiplied changes of posture, and turnings from side to side? Such were the deficiencies of the "letter,' or the ministries of the Old Testament.

Now observe: No blame was attributable to Moses for teaching thus. St. Paul calls it a "glorious ministry;" and it was surrounded with outward demonstrations with thunders and mighty signs- to prove

it so.

The reason is, that maxims, rules, and ceremonies have truth in them: Moses was commissioned to teach truth so far as the Israelites could bear it; not in substance, but in shadows; not principles by themselves, but principles by rules, to the end of which the Church of Israel could not as yet see. In St. Paul's symbolic expression, a veil was before the lawgiver's face; it was truth he gave, but it was veiled; its lineaments were only dimly seen. These rules were to hint and lead up to a Spirit, whose brightness would have dazzled only the Israelites into blindness then.

II. We have now to consider the Ministry of the New Testament.

1. It was a "spiritual " ministry The Apostles were "ministers of the spirit," and by this St. Paul means ministers of that truth which underlies all forms, whether of word or ceremony. He does not say that it was the Holy Spirit, but "the spirit," that is, the essence of the Law, that the Apostles were to minister. Precisely such was Christ's own description of a wise expounder of the Word, when He compares him to a householder bringing out of his treasures "things new and old," declaring old principles under new forms. The mistake men make is this: they would have for ever the same old words, the same old forms, whereas these are ever transient: intended