to know and obey them in Truth First The first and greatest is love love and spiritual Affections are the holy Cords that tye the hearts souls and judgments of Believers one to another This is that which together with the fear of God makes them avoid all things whatever may give just offence or Administer griefe to one another and that which provokes them to follow after the things that make for Peace and the things that tend to Edification Love is the Bond of Peace Eph. 4.2 3. 'T is that which together with Divine light and truth causes Church-members to draw together as in one yoke and unanimously as with one heart and soul to design aim at and carry on mutual and common good in the Church Phil. 2.1 2. 1 Cor. 13.5 Without this love one to another they cannot will not Cement nor long abide and live together as a Church in Peace and Unity nor promote any good work among themselves without heart knitting-love one to another in the fear of God they will receive and entertain Jealousies and Suspicions one of another and put the worst construction on whatever is said or done and they cannot walk together comfortably and profitably to and with one another where and when they are entertained Therefore it is absolutely needful and necessary for all Church-members to be firmly United and constantly joyned together in cordial love and charity which is the Bond of Perfectness to and in all other Duties Col. 3.14 God highly commends and strictly commands this love one to another and puts it into the hearts of his peculiar People that they may do what he commands 1. God highly commends it wherever he finds it in Act and Exercise 1 Thes 4.10 And indeed sayes he ye do it towards all the Brethren Col. 1.4 8. 2 Cor. 8.7 1 Thes 1.3 to which Duty and to manifest his high approbation of it God hath promised a great Reward Heb. 6.10 2. God commands it and vehemently exhorts to and urges it on them almost every where in the Gospel Oh! how importunately did the Lord Jesus enjoyn it and frequently press it on his Disciples when he was on Earth Joh. 13.34 A new Commandment give I unto you what is that new Commandment why that ye love one another as I have loved you that ye also love one another And in Joh. 15.12 17. This is my Commandment that ye love one another as I have loved you That is take the Pattern of my Love to you for your love to or in loving one another I have and do love you 1 with great love Joh. 15.13 so do you likewise 2 My love to you is free without any desert in you let yours be free love without carnal Respects one to another also 3 My love to you is real hearty and unfeigned So let yours be to one another also Rom. 12.9 1 Pet. 1.22 4 My love towards you is an exceeding fruitful love I loved you so as to labour toyl sweat and dye for you I loved you so as to humble and debase my self for you and all to do you good so must you love one another with a fruitful profiting love For as I have loved you so you must love each other 5 My love to you is a pitying sparing and forgiving love a forbearing and tender hearted love so must yours be to one another likewise Col. 3.12 13. 6 I love you with a warm and fervent love so do you love one another with pure hearts fervently 1 Pet. 1.22 7 I love you with a holy spiritual love not as you are Men and have reasonable Souls but as new Men who have my Image stampt on and my holy Nature in you and as you are made perfect by the comeliness and beauty that I have put upon you Ezek. 16.14 2 Pet. 1.4 So do you love one another with a holy spiritual love namely because you are a lovely and a holy People unto me 8 I love you with a constant and unchangable love and that with a notwithstanding all your weaknesses yea unkindnesses to and unworthy walkings before me Whom I once love with a special and peculiar love I continue to love for ever Joh. 13.1 And I have engaged that not any thing shall separate you from me and my love Rom. 8. ult Thus you are bound to love one another even as I have loved and shall alwayes love you And as the Lord Jesus commanded and enjoyned this by the word of his own mouth So likewise by his Apostles They do frequently and vehemently urge and press this Duty on Church-members every where and back all their Commands from Christ with most strong and cogent Arguments Rom. 12.9 Rom. 13.8.9 10. Eph. 4.2 15 16. Eph. 5.2 1 Thes 5.8 1 Pet. 1.22 1 Pet. 3.8 1 Joh. 3.23 Chap. 4.7 These are a few of the many places where you may find this great Duty enjoyned on Believers and Church-Members which they are indispensibly bound to observe and obey And therefore God sheds this love into their hearts and Teaches them to improve and use it in loving one another 1 Thes 4.9 Rom. 5.5 For he gives his People and enables them to do that which he commands and requires of them and therefore the business of such Stewards is to use their Trust well and all lies on their diligence and faithfulness in Stewarding of it as good Stewards of Gods Grace Oh! That Church-members and all other Christians would seriously sincerely diligently and constantly mind and practise this great and indispensible Duty to one another in all their wayes and doings and not lay it aside as a little useless or indifferent matter which they may neglect and dispense with the omission of at their own will and pleasure Secondly As we are indispensibly bound to love one another as you have heard so we are as peremptorily absolutely and indispensibly bound to walk lovely and encouragingly towards one another that by our unlovely and unworthy walkings we lay not stumbling-blocks in the way of love or discourage such from loving us by our unlovely carriages as do conscientiously aim at and endeavour so to love us as Christ commands them to do But that our Behaviours be such in all things as to invite all to love us as holy humble and blameless Saints and Brethren in Christ Very many Professors expect much love from their carnal and spiritual Relations and are greatly displeased at them if they fancy they are denyed it and cast the blame on them whilest they mind not care not how unlovely and discouragingly they walk and carry themselves towards them But believe it the Lord Jesus expects and he hath made it their Duty to walk lovely towards one another as well as to love one another Church-members are bound to love one another as holy spiritual and lovely Objects which they cannot do unless they see or have good grounds to believe them to be such indeed When they walk carnally how can they love
14 15 16. Ministers of the Gospel are given for and commanded to be examples to their Flocks 1 Tim. 4.12 1 Pet. 5.3 They are indispensibly bound to imitate their Master and to teach lead and conduct them in holiness to Heaven as well by their walkings and Conversations as by their Ministry that they may safely and comfortably follow them Be ye followers of me even as I also am of Christ 1 Cor. 11.1 1 Cor. 4.16 2 Thes 3.7 Surely such as Christ hath set in his Churches to feed nourish comfort strengthen instruct and build up his people to conduct lead and guide them in the way of Gospel-holiness to everlasting happiness should be singular in practical Godliness themselves They should be singular in knowledge faith patience self-denyal Goodness meekness charity humility tenden-heartedness faithfulness and usefulness in the World They ought to live out their own Doctrine and confirm it by conforming their carriages words and actions thereunto They must be clear of all Vices and eminent in all Vertues that they may adorn the Doctrine of God our Saviour in all things and encourage men to follow their steps For they are not set in the Churches only to teach and verbally to Minister to them but to be Patterns of Piety also Tit. 2.7 They must carry themselves gravely soberly wisely seriously and holily towards and before all men that those who seek occasion against them may find none but on the contrary they may be convinced of and report that God his fear love faith and spirit is in them of a Truth 1 Cor. 14.25 And as they must seriously mind and practice the matter of their work and duty or what they are to do and set in the Churches for so they must carefully mind the manner of it too 1 In all their Ministrations and Walkings they must regard and have their eye on their Lords will and appointment Teaching them to observe what ever I command you Math. 28. ult They must not impose their own Wills and Dictates and thereby make themselves Lords over God's Heritage 1 Pet. 5.3 They are the Servants and Stewards of Christ not to make Laws for and impose them on his Houshold but to acquaint them with their Master's Laws exhort and perswade them to keep and observe them as he commands and to execute them on Offenders 2 They must be diligent and constant in their Work They must not be Loyterers but Labourers be examples to their Flocks by shewing all diligence and faithfulness in their work Act. 18.25 1 Tim. 5.17 Prov. 27.23 3 They should attend too and perform their work readily willingly and chearfully not grudgingly 1 Pet. 5.1 2. 1 Cor. 9.17 They must be apt to Teach â— Tim. 3.2 and willing to Communicate If all Believers should so perform all their works much more should Ministers They should account their Ministerial work their priviledge not their burden and carry themselves accordingly in it 4 They must alwayes have in their eye the ends of their work and office and prosecute intend and design them with all Gospel sincerity They must not take their office on them nor do their work for filthy Lucre 1 Tim. 3.8 1 Pet. 5.2 nor to honour and exalt themselves but to honour please and serve Christ their Lord and to profit and edifie his people and that with all possible integrity and uprightness of heart 2 Cor. 2. ult For if these ends be not upper-most in their eyes and hearts in their desires choice aimes and intentions in their Ministrations it is certain they are not called of Christ nor qualified for Church-work and they shall not prosper in it be owned and blessed by him nor profit his people Thus briefly of the work and duty of teaching Elders or Pastors to the Churches over which the Holy Ghost makes them Overseers Now I shall briefly shew you the work and duty of Churches to their Pastors or Elders who faithfully and diligently labour in the word and Doctrine among them CHAP. VI. Wherein the Duties of Church-Members to their Pastours or teaching Elders are clearly opened and declared from Scripture Q. HOw ought Church-Members to behave themselves towards their Pastours or teaching Elders or what are their works and duties towards them Answ It is the will and appointment of the Lord Jesus the King head of his Churches that they should carry and behave themselves towards them in heart and practise as to his Ministers and Embassadors who come to them in his name by his Mission Authority and Commission with his Gifts and Grace upon his Errand and Business as also for their Souls profit They bear his Image wear his Livery do his work and serve his Interests in the Churches And therefore he that slighteth or despiseth them slights and despiseth him and his Father too Luk. 10.16 and he or they that receive them that love honour carry it well to them because they are his sent of him Commissioned and qualified by him to serve and honour him in the Churches they do thereby receive honour and love Christ himself Gal. 4.14 They receive honour and love Jesus Christ in and by receiving honouring and loving them as such and whatever good they do them or whatever respect they shew them as such the Lord Jesus takes it as done to himself Matth. 10. ult Matth. 25. Therefore all Church-members ought to carry and behave themselves well towards them and amongst other things in these particulars 1. They ought to love them I say to love them and that with all cordial tender affection They must not love them as they do other Saints of God only but they must have singular love for and shew special love unto them as Christs Embassadors and their Ministers 1 Thes 5.12 13. And we beseech you Brethren to know them which labour among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you And to esteem very highly in love for their works sake They must be loved on several accounts 1. As good men and living Members of Christ and so we are to love them as fellow-Brethren as we do other private Members 2. It is the will and appointment of Christ that they be loved as his Embassadors and Commissioners as his Stewards and Officers gifted and sent forth by him about his concerns in his Churches to do his work and business and as representing him by officiating in his Name by his Authority and doing his Message 3. They ought to be loved as your Ministers Guides Feeders and Overseers as sent unto you from Christ and dispensing the bread of life and the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven to you declaring the Counsel of God and administring his holy appointments to you for your present comfort establishment and growth in grace and for your eternal happiness hereafter esteem them very highly in love for their works sake These are some of the Reasons why they should be loved more than any other Believers namely because
them as spiritual Heavenly persons and when they walk and carry themselves proudly in their Words and Deportments how can they love them as the meek and humble Members of Jesus Christ If their love must be holy and spiritual then undoubtedly the Persons or Objects of it must be such also For is it possible or doth God require me to love a Proud Churlish Touchy Peevish and Cross-grained Professor as much and with that complacency I can or may love an humble sweet meek and patient one Can I or is it my Duty so to love a sowre crabbed contentious and quarrelling Relation as a peaceable quiet affable and courteous one Is it possible for me to love a vain frothy worldly Professor and one who cares not how unlovely undesirable yea and in many things how contrary he walks to me and my love as I do or may do another Professor who is Spiritual Grave Serious and Heavenly surely we cannot love persons as holy spiritual humble useful and Heavenly persons are to be loved unless they appear to be so in their words deeds and carriages towards us neither doth God require us so to do Therefore we ought to be as careful of and see that we walk lovely towards one another as to love one another that so we may as much as possible provoke and encourage each other to love one another Heb. 10.24 and remove out of the way of love all such stumbling-blocks as may any way Impede or Obstruct it that so we may encourage all to love us really strongly sincerely fervently holily spiritually and constantly freely easily and that with delight and complacency For otherwise as it will be most absurd and irrational for us to expect it from them so it will be impossible for them so to love us And by our own contrary walkings and carriages we wrong our selves of their love to us and tempt them to sin against God and injure their own Souls We shall grieve their hearts and tempt them to withdraw their love and kindness from us and thereby offend God grieve and vex his holy Spirit and by little and little to withdraw his loving Countenance from us Thirdly Christ hath charged and strictly commanded all Church-members to live in Peace to be at Peace among themselves and to follow Peace with all men and as much as in them is to live peaceably with all men Oh! how often and with what vehemency doth the Lord Jesus and the Holy Ghost by the Apostles press enjoyn this Duty especially among Church-members every where in the Gospel see some Texts Psal 34.14 1 Pet 3.11 Rom. 14.19 2 Cor. 13.11 1 Thes 5.13 Heb. 12.14 Eph. 5.3 And the Apostle tells us that God hath called us to Peace not only to the Peace of God in our own Souls and amity with him but with one another 1 Cor. 7.15 such walkings and carriages one to another when in love and Obedience to God are pleasing to him but strife discord and contention and such like practices are most hateful and abominable to him Pro. 6.16 17 18 19. These Six things doth the Lord hate yea Seven are an abomination to him And what is the Seventh why sowing discord among Brethren This wickedness is so hateful to God as the words cannot sufficiently declare his abhorrency of it Hence we often find the Holy Ghost by Paul earnestly dehorting Church-members from all debates strifes and contentions one with or against another especially in their Church-meetings Phil. 2.3 Let nothing be done through strife or vain glory and vers 14. Do all things without murmurings and disputings Rom. 13.13 And the word of God doth every where condemn it as a most accursed Weed and venomous Plant a Cockatrice egg and devilish Serpent Pride is that Womb that bears it Pro. 13.10 and the lusts of the heart Gal. 5.20 and the Devil is the Father and Authour of this accursed strife and contention Jam. 3.14 15. Blessed Paul was much afflicted to see any of it in the Churches of Christ as knowing from whence it sprang and what the fruit and end of it would be what wrong it would do their Souls and what Reproach it would lay them under How it would reflect on Christ and his wayes and render them all contemptible How it would hinder their profit and produce many vile Monsters among them As Envy Wrath Railing evil surmisings Hatred Back-bitings Swellings and Divisions And therefore labours to prevent the growth of them and to pull up by the Roots these pernitious Weeds and that by Counsels Reproofs Cautions Instructions and Dehortations from them and presses them and us by all cogent Arguments to avoid contention and strife and follow after Peace to the utmost of their power David tells us that it is a most pleasant and lovely thing for Brethren to dwell together in vnity Psal 133.1 2. Then how much more pleasant and lovely is it for spiritual Brethren to live and worship God so together Christ came into the World and lived here a Peace-maker and charged all his followers to follow his steps pronounces them blessed that do so Math. 5.9 and accursed who do the contrary He is a lover of Peace and Concord especially in his holy Temples where he will not have a Hammer heard but he is an implacable hater of Strife and Discord and will not endure it in them much less will he winck at such as are the first sowers of these Seeds The truth is strivers and contenders in the Churches are the Devils Agents and notorious Mischief-makers They do a world of mischief to a Church where they are and are real Plagues to or in it They greatly hinder Edification and spoil the Order Beauty and Harmony there Contenders and Disputers in a Church are the proud self-conceited men who are vainly puft up with high thoughts of themselves and their own abilities and that because they have gotten some light and notions into their heads with a volubility of speech but without spiritual wisdom and humility in their hearts and therefore they conceit that they are wiser than the Church and more able to Manage and Order Church Affairs than their Elders Their Pride and self-conceit makes them slight and contemn their Teachers and to raise up in a Rebellious contention with and opposition against them As the Prophet complains Hosea 4.4 For this people are as they that strive with the Priest They think nothing can be well done unless they have the doing of it and therefore when any good work is upon the Wheel they will do all they can to hinder it as some Churches can sadly experience Well then take heed of strife and contention and follow Peace and Concord one with another especially in your assembling together about Church-work Get humble hearts and then you will not be contentious but peaceable Fourthly Sympathize with and help to bear each others burdens as need requires You are not to live to and for your selves in a
Righteousness of God in him 2 Cor. 5. ult Now that God and the Mediatour have so Covenanted promised and engaged for and in the behalf of Believers that Christ came and finished all the work that the Father gave him to do that Christ hath obeyed and suffered the Father satisfied and well pleased and that Peace Friendship and Reconciliation for men is obtained and that God is faithful who hath promised Heb. 10.23 and that he will not fail to perform the Truth to Jacob and Mercy to Abraham Micah 7. ult is continued and ratified unto Believers in and by the Lord's Supper For there is held forth a clear proof and confirmation of it This is my body that is broken and my blood that is shed or given 1 Cor. 11.23 24 25. These are the first objects and matters our faith eyes and fixes on in the Lord's Supper and these are the first things that it seals unto 〈◊〉 us namely that God hath covenanted and promised these mercies upon Christ's dying that Christ hath dyed done the Fathers whole will and finished his work and that God the Father hath accepted his Mediation in our behalf justified his Son Jesus and is well-pleased with him and with us in him that God is faithful who hath promised and that he is able and will perform his promises made to Christ for and given down to us On these things our faith must fix and then this Ordinance of the Supper will confirm them us 2. As the Lord's Supper seals or ratifies and confirms to our faith the truth and reality of the Covenant and promises the death of Christ the faithfulness of God and his being satisfied and well pleased with Christ's mediation for us and that he will perform his Covenant and Promises unto the Heirs of promise so it seals ratifies and confirms Believers interest and propriety in them It ratifies and confirms to their own Consciences that they are interested in Christ that they are Christs and Christ is theirs that they are regenerated and redeemed that their sins are pardoned and their persons accepted in the Beloved Eph. 1.6 7. This Ordinance seals to them the fruits of Christ's death and to the truth sincerity and peculiarity of his grace in them that they are united to him and that he is their head and they are his Members That he loves them and they love him with special and peculiar love This Ordinance seals to them their Adoption and their right unto the eternal Inheritance and it assures them as a means of Christ's appointing for that end that God is their Father and they are his Children that Christ is their Husband and they are his Spouses and that they shall live and reign with him in glory But yet know that though there be a kind of a natural aptness in this holy Ordinance thus to seal the love of God to you as it is Christs Ordinance and instituted by him for this end yet it cannot doth not do it of or by its self or its own power but it seals as an Ordinance in the hand of the spirit or as a fit medium and means whereby and wherewith the holy spirit seals the Souls of Believers It is the proper work of the holy Ghost to seal ratifie and confirm his own work in Believers hearts Eph. 1.13 Eph. 4.30 And this great work he doth especially in and by the Lord's Supper on the hearts of good men For as the matters he seals to are his own works in their hearts so he onely can confirm them to their Faith and Consciences The love of God is said to be shed abroad into our hearts by him Rom. 5.5 and to this he sets his seal and gives in his Testimony Rom. 8.16 namely that he hath shed abroad the love of God in our hearts that God loves us we love him with special love and that he hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the Resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead 1 Pet. 1.2 He first writes his Lawes and creates his grace in our hearts puts the Lord Jesus into the possession of them forms saith Repentance and all other graces of Christ in them and then he seals ratifies and confirms all to us Cant. 8.6 2. Cor. 1.22 Job 33.16 So that now we know that we are passed from death to life Joh. 3.14 and are sure that we are of God that the Lord Jesus is ours and we are his Cant. 2.16 And can say with Thomas my Lord and my God and with David I am thine and with Paul and others if our earthly house be dissolved we have a building of God an house not made with hands eternal in the Heavens 2 Cor. 5.1 Thus you see how this Ordinance seals up the love of God and the work of his grace in our Souls And therefore when ever you receive it be sure to look for and expect it and make use of it for though not only for this end and purpose And in order thereunto be careful and diligent in preparing and fitting your selves for the reception of this seal on your hearts and then you need not doubt of your obtainment of it 3. This Ordinance is instituted and given to inchurched Saints to bring the Lord Jesus and them together into the nearest clearest and closest fellowship and communion that can be in this lower state The Lord Jesus and they do greatly love one another and delight in communion with each other Cant. 4. ult Cant. 5.1 Believers in their holy obediential and orderly walking are Christs dearly beloved Spouses and he is their dearly beloved Husband Cant. 2.16 Jer. 12.7 They do greatly love and rejoyce in one anothers company and Society their speeches are pleasant and their countenances sweet and lovely to each other Zeph. 3.17 Cant. 1.4 Cant. 2.7 10 13. Cant. 2.14 There is a holy fondness and a heart-ravishing friendliness between Christ and his Beloved they lye deep in each others hearts and are so knit to one another in warm affections as that they cannot patiently bear each others absence Hence we find the Lord Jesus and his people inviting one another and importunately solliciting each other to come to them yea and proffering themselves and as it were inviting or pressing themselves upon or into one anothers company Cant. 2. â—0 13 14 7. Cant. 4.8 ult Cant. 5.1 Cant. 6. ult Cant. 7.11 12. Rev. 3.20 Joh. 14.21 23. Therefore hath glorious Jesus instituted Churches and gathered up his people into spiritual housholds formed them into holy Societies and made them his walled Gardens Therefore hath he brought them into a holy Band knit them together into bodies and given to them this Feast of fat things this Pledge and Token of his distinguishing love and this holy sign and seal that he may invite and bring them together to take and eat and that himself may come and be with them there He is the matter and the great master of the Feast and he is the King
that comes in to see his Guests and that bids them be merry yea and to eat and drink abundantly with an O Beloved Cant. 5.1 In the last verse of the 4th chapter the Church importunatly invites and sollicites the Lord Jesus to come into his Garden and eat his pleasant fruits namely when they were congregated together and waiting on and for him The Lord Jesus comes and tells them so Chap. 5.1 I am come into my Garden my Sister my Spouse I have gathered my myrrh with my Spice then he chears them up and bids them welcome be merry and eat and drink not sparingly but freely and abundantly O Beloved His holy Temples and this heavenly Feast are appointed and ordained for his Reception and Entertainments with his Beloved Rev. 2.1 2 Cor. 6.16 There are theâ— most joyful meetings and there do they hold and enjoy the most comfortable and heart-satisfying communion together as holy hearts can and do often experience For this end hath he instituted and for this end should all Church-members receive this Ordinance 4. As it is appointed for Communion between Christ and his inchurched-members so likewise for their Communion among themselves 1 Cor. 10.16 17. Good men have heart-dividing and love-separating lusts self-Interests world and Devil and therefore they need all proper means to unite and knit their hearts together in Brotherly Love Communion Col. 2.2 The Lord Jesus hath commanded and strictly charged his people to love one another as he hath loved them Joh. 13.34 Joh. 15.12 15. and that they love one another with pure hearts fervently 1 Pet. 1.22 That they walk in love and endeavour to keep the unity of the Spirit in the Bond of peace Eph. 4.1 2 3. Eph. 5.1 2. Now in order to the obtainment of it and that Believers may be encouraged to mind and do his will herein the Lord Jesus hath by his own Laws and Authority formed them up into holy Temples and united them into spiritual Societies and given them occasion and opportunity to meet together and feast themselves at his Table at his cost and charges and that as Guests of his own bidding There they may often meet sit down and feed together of his dainties There they see and taste feel and smell and there they may speak of hear him and of his grace and love There they may see that they are all bought with the same price and redeemed with the same blood There they may see that they are members together of the same head and body that they are all Plants of his planting Trees of his watering Subjects of the same Grace and Spirit and the same objects of his care and protection There they may see that they are all bone of his bones and flesh of his flesh and that he hath fellowship and communion with them all That they are heirs together of the grace of life 1 Pet. 3.7 and that they are all entitled to an eternal inheritance There they may see that they are all partakers of the same life and that the Lord Jesus hath made the same provisions for the everlasting happiness of all their Souls There they may see that they have the same faith and hope and that the covenant and promises belong to them all That there is a mutual Interest amongst them and that they are concerned in and with each other That they are engaged in one common cause with Christ and that they are not their own but one anothers All which things and considerations are of great use towards the knitting and endearing of their hearts one to another in spiritual love holy peace and Brotherly affection For by their sitting down altogether as one body at one Table of the Lord eating and drinking the same Bread and Wine and by faith the same body and blood of the Lord by beholding and believing their mutual interest in Christ and in all the benefits of his death and that they are all alike invited to the feast and all alike welcomb'd and entertained by their Lord and King they are much induced thereby to love one another to seek desire and rejoyce in the good of each other and to walk together as Heirs of the Kingdom of Glory keeping the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace And likewise in joyning hearts and hands together as one body in celebrating the worship and in magnifying the name and glory of Christ 5. An other great use and end of this Ordinance is to knit and endear the heart to Christ himself And it is a powerful means to effect it He is a most full and glorious Object of Love a most lovely Object indeed He is the fairest of Ten thousands and altogether lovely or altogether loves Cant. 5.10 ult He hath all glorious excellencies in him and is the perfection of beauty Psal 50.2 All ye glories of the Heavens and the Earth of Angels and men are but dark shadows unto this Son of Righteousness The Lord Jesus is most lovely glorious and beautiful in his love and grace to us in his obedience and death for us and in all his Laws and Promises to us But especially his Person is most beautiful glorious and lovely Psal 45. 1 Cor. 2.8 his most transcendant and glorious excellencies will be the eternal wonderment of Saints and Angels and they shall be for ever employed in adoring and praising him He is an Object too high for us now to reach and a Sun too bright and glorious for our dim eyes to behold only some Raies and Beams of his Glory he causes to shine on us and enables us to take them in in some degree Psal 63.1 2. But of all means the Lord's Supper is the most full and proper for the opening and representing unto us unto our faith the beauty glory and loveliness of Christ in his love and grace in his death and sufferings There we may read wonderful Stories and see glorious Mysteries indeed There we may read and see his love and grace to us streaming forth by his heart blood and there we may see the greatness freeness profitableness purity sweetness and the transcendant excellency of his love and loveliness There we may see the eternal Fountain of love and the inexhaustible-Treasures of his heart of his grace and kindness opened and running down to us and there we may see a bottomless Sea of mercies and affections discovered There we may read Christ loving us and giving himself for us unto an accursed death Gal. 2.20 Gal. 3.13 And Oh! my Brethren what an attracting Soul drawing heart-knitting object of love is the Lord Jesus represented to be to us in that Ordinance It is a Glass that represents and shews us nothing else but love and Christs loveliness It is an Ordinance that Preaches and Seals love to Believers and thereby provokes enflames and drawes out their love to him Love will be drawn and not driven and what drawes it into warm and strong Acts but lovely persons
cure the Offenders 5. Labour to shine as Lights in all manner of holy Conversation and Godliness 2 Pet. 3.11 Declare whose you are and what you are to all men by your fruits of Holiness and Righteousness Matth. 5.16 Phil. 2.15 16. O remember that you are the Living Witnesses of Jesus Christ in the World Isa 43.10 12. Isa 44.8 9. Rev. 11.3 and therefore you should endeavour all you can negatively and positively by words deeds and carriages to make full proof of and give in your good Testimony to the holy Name and to the Excellency of the Grace and good ways of Jesus Christ The Churches of Christ in the World are as Beacons set on Hills which attract and draw the eyes of all men to them They watch for your halting and are very curious in marking your steps and that will be made a fault in you which is not in others Psal 27.11 12. Therefore you must be a singular People before all men and so walk as to shame your Enemies and that they may have no evil thing justly to say of you 1 Pet. 3.16 And you must not only be good negative Professors and Walkers but you must also shine and be fruitful in every good work and in gracious words and carriages You should be excellent living Witnesses to Christ and his ways by shining in Humility Meekness Temperance Love Charity Kindness Self-denyal Justice and Righteousness in Seriousness and Gravity in Sweetness and Affability and in all Holiness Heavenly-mindedness Zeal and Spirituality in Goodness Peaceableness or in what-ever Grace or Virtue may adorn the Doctrine of God our Saviour in all things These are some of the things I do request of you for God and your King As likewise that you lay to heart his Love and Grace to you and endeavour to affect your hearts with them stir them up to all cordial thankfulness and oblige them to live and love forth praises to his holy Name Remember that you are under Electing Redeeming Regenerating Quickening Teaching and Comforting Love and Grace and that you are entrusted with and have the enjoyments of many glorious priviledges in your hands for the filling you with all the fulness of Christ and nourishing you up unto eternal Life in your Church-state Joh. 1.16 Eph. 4.11 16. Psal 92 Psal 132. I have some Requests to you for and in the behalf of your own Souls Indeed all the other things desired of you already have respect and relation unto the good and profit of your own Souls as well as to my good and God's Glory But that which I shall now desire of you respects your Soul directly and immediately and therefore I hope you will easily and readily grant them for your own sakes although Jesus Christ and my self are concerned in them also 1. Endeavour to profit by your means and priviledges and to grow in all Grace in your Church-state and enjoyments therein Do not rest satisfied with your Church-state and Priviledges but make serious enquiry after your gettings and what good what spiritual profit you find in them make use of them all to the gracious and holy ends for which they are given to you Namely to Teach and Instruct you to Feed and Nourish you to Arm and Strengthen you to Comfort and Refresh you to Confine and Establish you in the Faith of Christ to Purge and Sanctifie you to Confirm and Seal you up unto the day of Redemption and to convey the Spirit and Grace of Christ into your hearts To acquaint you with your selves and enable you to know and discern the worst and best of your selves what God hath done for you what sin the world and Devil have done against you To acquaint you with Jesus Christ his Love Grace Truth Providences and Benefits and to bring him into your Hearts and into Fellowship and Communion with you Therefore look after these Ends and other of like Import and see that you do indeed and in Truth prosecute and obtain them and take not up short of them Oh! be you sure to mind your Earnings in all your Enjoyments and God's Ordinances 2. Take hold of such Counsels Reproofs and Instructions as your Brethren shall give you in time of need to prevent your Sinning or to reduce and turn you back from Sin to Duty O remember that it is a choice means and one of God's Holy Ordinances to do you good yea to do you a great deal of good and an unexpressible Pleasure And therefore if you love your Souls turn not a deaf Ear to them slight them not nor harden your Hearts against them But hearken to and close up with them Embrace them as choice Mercies to you bless God exceedingly for them and love and thank your Counsellors and Reprovers heartily For it is an invaluable mercy to have such true Friends at hand who will express so much love to and care of us as that when they see us in danger of falling shall give us their preventing succouringhand to support and hold us up or when they see us fall and need their help they shall not Ham-like Gen. 9.22 go and tell others of it but seasonably give us their hands to help us up again Oh! be not angry with them but love and thank them and take receive and reverence their Voice as the Voice of God And know that if you reject and slight it or are displeased with them for their Work and Labour of Love to you you do thereby reject and slight the Voice of God and are displeased at his Merciful dispensation to you for your good For your Instructors and Counsellors were sent to you by God himself and it was he that inclined their Hearts to go and opened their Mouths to speak to you and do for you so great an office of Love Therefore be you of that wise sort of Men who will hear Reproof from their Friends Prov. 1.5 Prov. 9.8 9. Prov. 10.8 Prov. 12.15 Prov. 25.12 and own it as the Voice of God 3. Be careful that you stay not or take up in Ordinances but go to and have your eye on Christ in them We are exceeding apt to stick fast in the way of coming to God and to sit down short of the end of the God and grace of the means and without great heedfulness and circumspection in this matter we may easily run our selves deep in sin and thereby wrong our Souls as also by the want of the God and grace of the means Mind that Text in Esa 64.5 Thou meetest him that remembers thee in thy wayes namely such as seek God in his wayes and pass thorow them unto himself But observe that by sticking in and taking up with Ordinances you greatly sin against God by making a God of Ordinances setting up his Creatures in his place and Throne giving unto them his Honour and Glory and robbing him of his due You neglect the fountain of living waters and hew out to your selves broken Cisterns that can hold no
to the Churches and there the Lord Jesus comes and observes how they are received and obeyed Rev. 2.23 5. God hath Instituted and formed up Believers into Churches that he may feed and nourish them there as his flocks that he may water them as his Gardens support them as his Houses order and govern them as his Familys Housholds and that by his Spirit Ministers They are appointed to water them 1 Cor. 3.6 7. to feed and nourish them Act. 20.17 23. 1 Pet. 5.1 2 3. and to rule govern and take the over-sight of them Heb 13.7 17. 1 Thes 5.12 They are to teach and instruct them to warnand caution them to reprove and exhort them to comfort them and build them up with the milk and strong meat of Spiritual sound Doctrine 1 Cor. 3.1 2. Heb. 5.12 13 14. and that by their speaking unto them as to their own flocks and peculiar Churches and charges from and under Christ the Truths of Christ in Love they may grow up into him in all things Eph. 4.15 So also for Believers regular and orderly walking Col. 2.5 God is a God of Order and he loves to see his People walking orderly and regularly conforming themselves to his Laws and Government And if earthly Governours by the Light of Nature are careful to set up and give unto their Subjects Laws and Orders for their regular and orderly walking and love greatly to see them so to walk under their Laws and Government in their Cities and politick Bodies how much more careful is Jesus Christ to set his People in order and method and how pleasing and delightful must it needs be to Jesus Christ to see his Subjects walk orderly and regularly in his Cities and Spiritual Bodies that are of his own appointment These are some of the ends of God in instituting and erecting of Churches Many other might be named and insisted on but that I may not exceed my Intentions Fourthly The Churches of Jesus Christ must consist of new-Creatures and sincere-hearted Believers Because they can and will answer and prosecute these aforesaid and such like holy ends of God in and by his Churches I say these can and will because they are fitted and qualified in measure by the grace and Spirit of Christ to aim at and effectually to prosecute these holy ends of God but so cannot others neither would they if they could because they have not the saving Knowledge nor practical Wisdome of Christ in them they are strangers in Heart to Jesus Christ and the Power of Godlyness All others at the best have but a name to live but are dead at the Root Rev. 3.1 Matth. 8.22 neither are they made a willing People to joyn Issues and comply with the holy ends of God Psal 110.3 because God hath not by reason of their wickednesse and obstinacy wrought in them to will and to do as he hath in his peculiar people they are not yet wrought by God for this self same thing as real Saints are Phil. 2.13 2 Cor. 5.5 they are not renewed in the Spirit of their minds after the Image of Him that Created them as Saints are Col. 3.10 But now real and peculiar Believers are fitted and framed moulded and pollished by the Holy Ghost for their growing up into a holy Temple in the Lord Eph. 2.21 and so by the constant and promised guidance and conduct of their living head Jesus Christ with their Spiritual qualifications they are enabled to answer and perform the great ends of God in erecting and building them up in Churches When a wise man builds a House he will propound some ends to himself in his so doing and accordingly he will make use of and lay in such materials and so form and build it as that it may effectually answer his ends if he be able Now if he build it with hay and stubble or with rotten wood althought it may stand a while yet be sure it will not stand long nor answer his ends So the great master builder who is the Alsufficient and only wise God propounded great and holy ends to himself in Instituting and building of Churches and Temples and these such as should irrefrustrably be obtained notwithstanding all possible contingencies Interveniencies whatsoever for says God my purpose shall stand and I will do all my pleasure Isa 46.10 I will build Churches and Temples for my Glory to dwell in them and walk in them to have peculiar Love homage and service from them to have their free hearty and chearful obedience and Respects that I might enrich them with my Grace build them up in Faith and Godlyness delight in an refresh my self with them make them a praise in the Earth and Glorify the Houses of my Glory Isa 60.7 That there I may set my ministery and Officers and that among them I may set my Laws Rules and Ordinances But hypocrites and formalists will never answer nor prosecute these ends as I found by experience among the Old-Church-Members of the Jews I cannot look for it nor expect it from them for they are a people of an other Spirit they slight my Grace and reject my easy yoke and therefore they shall not be honoured with membership in my Churches in my particular Gosspel Churches but if they creep in as many will do I will loath and abhor their presence I will root them up cast them out and that into everlasting fire for whatever they profess to be yet I know that they are not for my Turn and will stand me in no stead there but to provoke me to wrath with their Hypocrisy and make fuell for the fire of my Jealousy Therefore my New-Testament-Churches shall be built only of Holy and Spiritual materials not of dead but living Stones 1 Pet. 2.5 Eph. 2.1.5 such as my Word and Spirit shall pollish and prepare for that work and Service that so by them I may obtain my Holy ends and carry on my great designes I know that my peculiar People will receive submit unto and obey my Laws that they will Love and honour me that they will shine as lights in the World and that they will give me kind and cordial entertainment and that will cleave to and not forsake me Therefore they shall be my Churches Fifthly Because all the Laws Ordinances and Works of Church-Members are holy Spiritual and Heavenly They are such as the natural Man understands not cannot discern what they are and that because they are such and they that are not taught of God savingly and powerfully to understand and make a Judgment of them do think and Judge of them carnally and vainly 1 Cor. 2.9 end But Believers have them written in their Minds and Hearts beforehand they have them not without Book I mean they have the same Laws of Christ written in the books of their hearts which they find in the Bible Jer. 31.33 Heb. 8.10 11. Heb. 10.16 by which they are capacitated and in some measure enabled to
and endeavour the having of Christ upon the hardest Terms and do you desire c. that all may go for Christ his Person his Blood and Righteousness his Grace Love Life and Spirit for the pardon of your sins and Justification of your Persons that you may be found in him not having your own Righteousnesse but the Righteousnesse of Christ by Faith Phil. 3.9 and do you go and present your selves naked and as condemned Sinners to him and to God the Father in and by him that you may be cloathed with the Righteousness of Christ and that God may pardon justify and accept you for his sake only 3. Do you seriously and heartily desire chuse and endeavour to have Christ Jesus for your Lord and Ruler too Col. 2.6 that he may Rule in you and over you and that your Lusts and your selves your Interests and your all may be subject unto him and be all at his command and disposal continually Is Christ the Lord as acceptable unto you as Christ Jesus the Saviour and are you willing to obey him and subject to his Authority and Lordship as well as to be saved by him Would you have him destroy your Lusts make an end of Sin and bring all under his Obedience 4. Do you seriously and heartily desire chuse and endeavour never to sin more but to walk with God unto all well pleasing continually Col. 1.10 and do you pray earnestly that God would work in you that which is well-pleasing in his sight Heb. 13.21 that you may in all your waies honour and glorify him as the end of your living in this World 2 Cor. 5.15 Would you indeed live to the praise of his glorious Grace and be an Ornament unto his Name and Gospel and would you be fruitful in every good Word and Work Are these things the Scope aim and intendment of your hearts and Souls in some good measure and degree daily in duties and Ordinances and at other times 5. Do you seriously and heartily chuse and desire communion with Christ and do you indeed and in truth endeavour so as to obtain it and keep it do you so seek for it in the way of Gospel obedience and in observing your duty and keeping Christs commands and do you prefer it before and above earthly carnal things do your hearts breathe and pant after it and are you willing to deny self and carnal Interests to get it Are you glad when you find it and sad when by your own carelesness you lose it doth it when obtained quicken your love to and zeal for Christ doth it warm your hearts and cause them for a time to run your race in Gospel obedience cheerfully doth it lead you unto and lodge your hearts in Christ and doth it oblige and bind them faster unto him and doth it stir you up to thankfulnesse 6. Do you seriously and heartily desire chuse and endeavour to be filled with Gospel sincerity towards God and men and had you rather be sincere and real hearted towards God than seem to be so towards Men had you much rather have the Praise of God than of men and to be approved of by him than extolled by men Is it your care aim and endeavour to carry your selves sincerely before him and to approve your selves unto him under the fear conviction of his all seeing Eye Is it the great thing you mind and aim at in your profession and practice namely sincerity and uprightnesse of Heart do you make conscience of drawing near to God with it and to season every duty with this divine Salt do you indeed desire chuse and endeavour to be after Gods own Heart as David was and Nathaniels indeed in whom is no Guile although you cannot get clear nor rid your selves of all Hypocrisy as you should Is Integrity and uprightnesse of Heart in your Eye resolutions and Intentions and is all Hypocrisy hateful and abominable unto you do you love sincerity and labour after it indeed Are you afraid of Hypocrisy and do you watch and strive against it as against an Enemy to God and your own Souls and are you grieved indeed when you find it in you 7. Do you desire and chuse Jesus Christ for the great object of your Love Delight and Joy and do you find him to be so in some Measure do you desire and endeavour to make him the object of your strongest and warmest affections and to love him Sincerely Heartily Spiritually fervently and constantly and do you express your Love to him by keeping his commandements and doing the things that are wel-pleasing in his sight Joh. 14.15 1 Joh. 3.22 Are you grieved and afflicted in Spirit because you can love him no more and do you earnestly pray unto him to Circumcise your hearts to love him Deut. 30.6 and to Shed abroad his love into your hearts by the Holy Ghost that you may love him as you should Rom. 5.5 Are you glad and do you rejoyce when you find your hearts Knit to him in love and is it your trouble when it is otherwise with you doth his Love and Lovelyness attract and draw your hearts to him and doth the Love of Christ in your hearts move and draw you to obey his commands Is it so indeed do you find it so sometimes with you 8. Is it the desire choice and endeavour of your Hearts and Souls to have all sin purged out of your Hearts and to have them filled with Christ Grace Truth and Holyness and do you hate your sin watch and arm against it and endeavour to keep it under do you indeed aim at desire labour and strive to be holy in Heart and Life and conformable unto Jesus Christ in all things Are your Lusts your heaviest Burdens and your greatest afflictions and do you intend and endeavour their utter ruine and destructions will no degree or measure of Grace satisfy you but you must and will be perfect to the utmost as Christ is Are you so much concerned with Christs honour your Souls holyness and happiness as that you dare not knowingly sin against them for a World or do in word or deed directly or indirectly by omision or commission that which may dishonour grieve or wound them Are these things so indeed 9. Have you a measure of Spiritual knowledge and discerning of Spiritual things do you a little understand the nature and concernments of a house of God and the work and duties the priviledges and enjoyments thereof and what you have to do there have you studied and learnt these matters and do you in measure understand them and can you make a right and competent Judgment of the ends of God in Instituting and erecting of Holy Temples and Spiritual Churches 10. Do you intend purpose and resolve in the light Life and power of Christ to seek for and endeavour unfainedly to obtain and prosecute the ends of Church fellowship when you shall be accepted among them and do you desire and aim at the
water it for his use that it may bring forth fruit to his Glory And intending to imploy and make such use of them there he enriches all that he sends with his own Ministerial Gifts Eph. 4.8 10 11 12. When he ascended up on high he led Captivity Captive and gave Gifts unto men He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all Heavens that he might fill all things And he gave some Apostles and some Pastours and Teachers for the perfecting of the Saints for the work of the Ministery for the edifying of the body of Christ Here is an account of his Gifts and the person receiving them and also the end for which To the same purpose the Apostle speaks in Rom. 12.6 and 1 Cor. 12. as you may read there at large from the beginning to the end Where you have an account of the several Gifts themselves which are called Spiritual vers 1 2. The Authour or immediate Doner of them 7. as also the end of the Spirits giving them unto men and the place where they should be exercised and laid out 7 28. and in other verses there These Ministerial Gifts are not given to all Believers because they are not intended nor called to the work and Office of the Ministery in the Church but they are intended and given to them whom Jesus Christ sends into his Church and enclines the Churches hearts to call and accept them for their Officers and Ministers Secondly As they must be gifted with ministerial Spiritual Gifts so they must be graced also with special saving Grace for the spiritual and evangelical discharge of their Ministerial work in the Church or else they will never be able Ministers of the New Testament although they may be of the Letter 2 Cor. 3.6 They must be called out of darknesse into the marvellous saving light of Christ 1 Pet. 2.9 and be the Children of Light Eph. 5.8 before they can hold forth indeed the light of the Gospel and grace of Christ unto others They must be first taught of God themselves before they can spiritually teach others and be tutored in Christs School before they will be wise Builders up of the Body of Christ in the Mysteries of his Kingdome Mark 4.11 They must first have the Spirit of God in their own hearts to make them wise unto Salvation before they can make others wise unto Salvation They must not learn their Lessons without in mens or Gods Books but they must also experience and be able to read the Gospel within that they preach to others They must first learn and be acquainted themselves with and in the right way to Heaven before they can be good Pilots and Guides of others thither They must first be quickened and enlivened themselves by with the Life of Jesus before they can claim a right to the Ministry of Christ in his Church or hold forth and rightly communicate the word of Life to others Many think that Grace is not necessary in a Minister or for the Ministry where are ministerial Gifts and as they say a blamelesse conversation but surely the special Grace and Spirit of Christ are the only necessary and useful things if I may so speak for the fitting and qualifying a Gospel-Minister a Church-Officer and Guide But undoubtedly it is a mistake for how can they bring out of their Treasury things new and old for the profit of men if there be none laid in A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things Matth. 12.35 And men cannot gather Grapes of Thornes and figs of Thistles Matth. 7.16 And what are Hypocrites but such Are they not in darknesse and doth not the Lord Jesus call the Scribes and Pharisees and Doctors of the Law Fools and Blind notwithstanding their great Gifts Are not all unregenerate and gracelesse persons ravening Wolves although covered with Sheeps-skins and doth not Christ caution his Sheep against them and charge them to take heed and beware of them Mat. 7.15 And when Christ sends forth labourers into his Vineyard says he to them I send you forth as Sheep in the midst of Wolves Matth. 10.16 Christ doth not say I send forth Wolves in Sheeps cloathing to convert nourish and build up my Sheep unto eternal life Moreover Ministers must not only preach to men from the head the subject of meer Gifts but from their hearts also from strong affections tender bowels of compassion and sincere Love to Souls which they cannot do until they are made new Creatures holy and gracious men For how can they love and pity others Souls who have no love and pity for their own and how can they affectionately perswade men who know not experimentally the terror of the Lord 2 Cor. 5.11 How can such open the Mystery and spirituality of the Gospel unto men who were never taught it themselves and how can they so preach the Gospel of Life who are yet dead in Sins themselves as to enliven others Therefore all the Ministers that Jesus Christ impowers and sends into his Churches in special love and mercy he first graceth with his special light life joyns and unites them to himself and puts some of his own Image Nature and qualities upon them before he sends them or will be with them and blesse them Can or will such take care of the Church of Christ as such to water and break the Bread of Life unto them who take no care about their own Souls nor care what becomes of them And if Jesus Christ will have none but real hearted Believers and living Members of his Body in his Churches as hath been shewed then certainly he will not allow or approve of Gracelesse and unregenerate Guides and Overseers in them and if his Churches are holy Temples appointed for his presence and residence his Glory and delight as they are as hath been shewed then assuredly he will not have carnal and unbelieving Stewards in them to manage all the affairs and concernments of them And if all his Laws and Ordinances which he hath given to his Churches be holy and spiritual as they are and Church-Officers I mean the Pastors and Elders are to be his mouths to them and the Churches mouths to him and to administer his holy and Spiritual matters and things in his Name to his Glory and the Churches Spiritual profit then surely they ought to be holy and spiritual Men. For will he own such for his Ministers as have no acquaintance with him or Relation to him who have no peculiar love for him nor dependance on him who have not hearts to obey him and make him the great end of their work and who never received the Truth in the love of it into their own hearts Will the holy and loving Head and Husband of his Church set over them Christlesse lifelesse and gracelesse men as all unregenerate persons are who neither
what they please 2. Be tender of your Ministers good Names and endeavour to preserve them in Credit and Reputation to the utmost of your power as you have opportunity For this is the will of Christ and your duty If you are charged to honour them and highly to esteem them for their works sake 1 Tim. 5.17 1 Thes 5.12 13. as aforesaid then you are bound by the same Laws to keep up and maintain their honour credit and reputation among your own selves and with others and not hear them villified slighted and contemned by Back biters behind their backs while you are lookers on and hearers of it and hold your Tongues and speak not for their vindication as too many do But rather joyn with them and justifie such wretches by their silence and connivence if not positively fall in with them then shew their indignation against them respect to honour of and zeal for their Ministers and their Ministry It is well known that when their good Names suffer the Ministry of Christ in their hands suffers with them and proves a great hindrance to the Gospel and we cannot be ignorant of Satans devices and his industry and design to obstruct the Gospel and the profit of Souls by stirring up evil Tongues to blast their Reputation who labour in the Gospel And the more faithful diligent sincere and successful they are the more industriously will Satan by his evil Instruments pursue them with Reproaches That so their labours may be rendred useless Witness Jeremy Paul yea Christ himself who were exceeding faithful diligent and useful in the World to men Yet how were they bespattered with evil Tongues and rendred unworthy Inhabitants of the World And the same Spirit is still working and like Instruments ready to do the same work against your Ministers now Therefore you must do as Peter did Acts 2.12 13. when he heard the mouths of men open against them namely stand up stoutly for their vindication and sharply reprove their Back-biters and wicked slanderers and by no means give them any encouragement by your harkning to or silence at them Christ vindicated Joshua against the Devils accusation and Reproaches Zach. 3.1 2 3 4. so do you your Ministers But especially do not you who are Church-Members receive or entertain an accusation against your Teachers at all behind their backs nor under two or three credible witnesses before their faces nor be Whisperers against or Back-biters of them your selves one to another For that is such horrible wickedness as God and their Lord and Master will most certainly revenge and arise in due time to plead their cause against you although he may seem to wink at it for a time And know that if your Ministers know not your doings yet God takes special notice of them and will declare his abhorrence of them to your shame and sorrow at last Blessed Ezekiel had his Whisperers and Back-biters by the Walls unknown to him but God detected them Ezek. 33.30 31 32 33. read the words at large They were a Generation that carried it smoothly and fairly to his face but cruelly snarled at him behind his back and set their venomous Teeth in his flesh as too many Professors do now deal with their Teachers Many Church-members do greatly please themselves now with talking to one another against their Teachers behind their backs and blame them for this and that and so wipe their mouths and say they have done no evil They can with delight hear them villified receive and entertain false accusations against them from their bitter Enemies yea and report what they have heard to others also and bless themselves in their so doing But let such know that they have done very abominably and unrighteously and their sin will assuredly find them out in Gods time The Lord Jesus charges you that you receive not an accusation against an Elder under two or three witnesses 1 Tim. 5.19 and yet they dare do it upon the back-biting accusation of one malitious Accuser God charges you to honour your Ministers and to uphold and maintain their Credit and Reputation in the Church and World for his name and Gospels sake and the good of Souls But you dare stand by and by your silence countenance their back-biting Reproachers while you hear them discredit and dishonour them and that which is yet worser you give your positive consent to their wickedness and joyn Issues with them by receiving crediting and entertaining of what they say God peremptorily charges you not to Whisper against back-biters nor speak evil of any man nor be a Tale-bearer Levit. 19.16 Tit. 3.2 Jam. 4.11 Eph. 4.31 2 Cor. 12.20 and particularly of Teaching-Rulers Exod. 22.28 Act. 23.5 But you dare to do it as it were in spight of God and your own Consciences of and against your Elders Oh! let your Ministers good Names be of great esteem with you and near and dear unto you Be you very cheary and tender of them and do not in any way by any means either by Omission or Commission dishonour or discredit them For by your so doing you disobey the will of God and dishonour him and declare that you hate your Ministers although you pretend to love honour them that you contemn them although you pretend the contrary never so much Yea you are guilty of real Murder as I have abundantly proved from Scripture in a book entituled The evil Tongue tryed and found guilty c. 3. Visit your Ministers often and be not strange or strangers to them for that will much discourage them in their work There is a near Relation between Pastors and their Churches which calls for frequent visits and your frequent visits if free and voluntary and the fruits of your love to them and esteem of them especially if well improved will be very refreshing comforting and encouraging to them If they are freely willing to give you loving and profitable visits then so should you to them your Elders love your Company and glad to see you free and open hearted in your converses with them about your concernments when seriously and meekly managed and the contrary is very grievous and offensive to their Souls For how can they think you love and esteem them when you will not vouchsafe it may be to give them a visit in a whole year together or how can they believe you profit by and value their labours when you are so exceeding shy of their Company and strange in your carriages towards them your voluntary visits might be improved to great profit to both and I am perswaded that the neglect of this is sinful and not a little detrimental or injurious to their Souls As their work will not permit it so 't is unreasonable that your Teachers should alwayes go to you if they will speak with you Therefore you should come to them as well as they go to you Well then encourage them by your so doing and you will reap the profit of it as
and receive more of the Grace that is in Christ Jesus for them to convince them of and shew them more clearly the evil of sin the deceits of their hearts the power of in-dwelling lusts the Wiles and Methods of Satan the necessity of Christ and his blood and of his Ordinances and Institutions To shew and convince them of the Excellency Beauty and Loveliness of Christ and the love and grace of God to them in him To Preach and hear their hearts and souls into clearer knowledge of the three persons and one eternal living God and into more acquaintance with them so likewise into more cordial and unfeigned more strong and fervent pure and constant love to him To acquaint themselves with the nature usefulness and proper life of faith perswade and work their hearts to it practically and dutifully to love it in all things works duties and conditions To arm and sence them against Satans fiery Darts and Temptations and the worlds snares and allurements To discover and detect self lusts and whatever warrs against our souls and to mortifie and destroy them and in order thereunto to know and be able expert and accurate in the use of our spiritual Weapons and Armour of proof which Christ hath sanctified and given unto us in Eph. 6. and elsewhere in the Gospel To sanctifie them throughout in soul body and spirit keep them from deadness coldness lukewarmness and indifferency of spirit and to prevent sleepiness and back-sliding from God neglect of duties and careless performance of them This Ordinance is intended for the further informing them of the holy will and mind of Christ and their duties to God and men to sweeten and dispose the heart to love and practice them and to enable them to persist in so doing without weariness and fainting grudging or disputing and with joy and delight To call back persons from their wanderings and to give them Repentance unto life These are some of Gods holy and blessed ends in setting up this Ordinance in the Church which all are indispensibly bound to aim at intend and endeavour in all their use of it See Eph. 4.10 11 12 17. Esa 30.20 21. Eph. 5.25 26 27. Eph. 3.18 19. Micah 2.7 1 Thes 4.10 Heb. 10.38 Rom. 1.16 17. 2 Pet. 3.18 1 Thes 5.23 Phil. 3.13 18. Joh. 17.17 19. Thirdly Prayer Prayer to God is a Church-Ordinance It is true that all men are bound to pray to God both publickly and privately the neglect whereof is severely threatned Jer. 10. ult It is a part of natural or moral Worship which all men ought to practise continually For as God is their Creator and they his reasonable Creatures he their Sovereign and they his Subjects and as such Creatures are to live and alwayes to have their dependency on him for their subsistence in this world so they are to express and manifest their so doing by their asking such things as they want of him For it is a Duty and Homage they owe him as him in whom they live move and have their being Acts 17.28 and profess him to be their God Protector and maintainer and expect all things from him They ought in all their wayes to acknowledge him Prov. 3.6 although they know him not in the face of Christ by any Gospel-Revelation But notwithstanding this is a Church-Ordinance also that is they are appointed to pray publickly in their meetings as a Church and that not as it is a moral Duty and agreeable to reason and mens natural principle but as it is a Gospel-Ordinance of Christ appointed for them and they commanded by him to observe it among themselves This the Church of Jerusalem was commended for Act. 2.42 And they continued in the Apostles Doctrine and fellowship and breaking of bread and in prayers and in Acts 12.5 't is said that prayer was made without ceasing of the Church unto God Now this Ordinance in the Churches of Christ must be observed and practised as an Ordinance of his appointing who is Lord and Head of them and because it is his Sovereign will they should so do without which they cannot in the doing of it approve themselves unto him as his obedient Children and Subjects in his house For whatever work they do and whatever Ordinance they observe in the Church they are indispensibly bound to respect his will and have their eye on his Authority therein as the ground and reason of what they do and because he hath so commanded and appointed therefore they do it Moreover to the well performance of this Duty and right observance of this Ordinance in the Church there is required a peculiar Ministerial gift in the Teachers or Overseers of the Church For they cannot rightly perform this part of their work in and for the Church by their natural and common acquired gifts and parts but in and by the spirit and his Ministerial gifts and grace conferred on them for their profitable and right performance of their Works and Duties in the Church Rom. 8.26 27. 1 Cor. 12.6 7 12. Fourthly Baptism water-Baptism is another Church-Ordinance to be holily reverendly dutifully and spiritually observed The power of administring this holy Ordinance of Christ is given to Pastors and Teachers and only to such as are authorized and called to administer other Ordinances and perform other parts of the work of the Ministry Authoritatively by virtue of their Commission from Christ received Any Disciple of Christ may not administer it but such as are set 〈◊〉 part for and appointed to the work For they must do it and it must alwayes be done by men in office-power Matth. 28.18 19 20. And Paul tells us Eph. 4.11 12. That Christ gave some Pastors and Teachers for the work of the Ministry and edifying of the body of Christ And we never read in Scripture of any other than such as were called to the work of the Ministry that did Baptize any This Ordinance is instituted and appointed in Matth. 28.18 19. and it was confirmed by the constant practice of the Apostles and Teachers afterward Act. 9.18 Act. 10.47 48. 1 Cor. 15. Baptism is a Sign Token and Seal of the Gospel-Covenant as Circumcision was Rom. 4.11 for the assuring and confirming Believers of the reality of the Covenant and the gracious purposes of God to perform it and convey unto them all the Grace and blessings of it in his time To raise and strengthen their hope in Christ and God the Father by him that God is and will be their God and also the God of their Seed according to that glorious grant and engagement of God in Gen. 17.7 I will establish my Covenant between me and thee and thy Seed after thee in their Generations for an everlasting Covenant to be a God to thee and to thy Seed after thee To which Covenant God set his Seal vers 10. This general sum or head of the Covenant given to Abraham and his Seed in their Generations we have produced and brought in
to nourish strengthen and refresh the City of God by which they are or may be made fat and fruitful The Springs Treasures and Fountain of love and grace is opened in and to the Churches and there Christ Jesus causes the Horn of his Davids to flourish Psal 132.17 In a Church-state Believers live in the streams of all Gospel-Ordinances and therefore they may grow there as Willows by the Water-courses Esa 44.4 for there they may with joy draw water out of these Wells of Salvation Esa 12.3 The more obedient Believers are to the will of their King the more he will bless them and communicate of himself and his Grace to them Joh 14.13 14 15 16 21 23. Joh. 15.7 10. Now in a Church-state they do give up themselves in Universal professed and avowed obedience to the whole will of Christ and put themselves under all the Ordinances of Christ and so under all the blessings of the Covenant of Grace which are to be communicated to their Souls by them 3. God hath promised to impart his loves and favours to his people in their walking with him in a Church-state and Relation in a especial manner Cant. 7.12 Let us get up early to the Vineyards the Churches and Ordinances of God in them there will I give thee my loves Psal 92.12 13 14. The righteous shall flourish like the Palm-Tree he shall grow like a Cedar 〈◊〉 Lebanon But where shall they thus grow and flourish see the 13.14 verses Those that be planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the Courts of our God They shall still bring forth fruit in old age they shall be fat and flourishing Well might David say Blessed are they that dwell in thy house Psal 84.4 For great and glorious are their provisions priviledges and advantages to help and encourage them in their journey towards Heaven God hath also promised to bless yea abundantly to bless his Churches provisions and to satisfie their poor with Bread that is to fill and impower his Ordinances and their Ministry with his Presence Grace and Spirit that they may greatly profit their Souls and nourish them up to eternal life Psal 132.15 16. 4. God loves delights most in his Churches or in Believers walking together in the faith and order of the Gospel in an inchurched state Psal 87.2 3. The Lord loveth the Gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob. Glorious things are spoken of thee O City of God Selah Eph. 3.17 The Lord thy God in the midst of thee viz Zion vers 16. â—is mighty he will save he will rejoyce over thee with joy he will rest in his love he will rejoyce over thee with singing Where men love and delight most there they are most free and liberal to such they are most bountiful and open handed so is God to his Churches because they are in their holy walking the greatest objects of his love and delight of his joy and rejoycing therefore I say they are the subjects of his abundant grace and favours 5. Churches or Believers in a Church-state do Christ more service than when they walk singly and out of that Gospel-way and order They are now his living publick witnesses his Candlesticks that hold up his burning Candles and they are his shining lights in the World They are the seats and subjects of all his Gospel-Ordinances and the ground and pillars of truth They do publickly and openly own and profess him to be their Lord and King and to be subject to his Laws and Authority and declare themselves his true and loyal friends and subjects and that before all men They manifest in the face of the Sun that they are not ashamed of his yoke nor his so much despised word and ways but own them cleave to them and walk in them as the only good holy and safe ways Many spiritual Diamonds orderly set in one gold Ring Church form do cast their lustre and reflect their glittering light and beauty on each other and so make a more lovely and glorious sight to Beholders There they do or may wait on God their Father and Christ their Head and King with their praises and melodious Harps and that with one heart and soul Psal 65.1 Their harmonious consent in breathing forth their oneness love faith hope and delight into one anothers hearts doth greatly raise heat and animate one another in powring out their joynt love affections and praises into the ears and heart of Christ which is most lovely and pleasant unto him Cant. 2.14 6. They expose themselves to greater trouble from the World in a Church-state than in walking singly A Church is as a Beacon set on a Hill which is visible to all beholders and by their publick practical and avowed separation from the World and walking by themselves they lay themselves open thereby to their adversaries wrath and vengeance They are the Buts of their invenomed Arrows of Reproach Scorn and Contempt of their Malice Hatred and Persecution The World takes more notice of a hundred Saints walking in close and intimate communion in a Church-state than of five thousands of others who walk singly This is so obvious to all as that it needs no further proof to confirm it Now then the more Believers expose themselves to sufferings in the Lords ways and for his sake the more of his presence and blessings they shall have Esa 43.1 2. Esa 41.10 Joh. 14.15 16. chapters 1 Pet. 3.14 1 Pet. 4.12 13 14. Thirdly As Believers inchurched are priviledged with more of the presence of God and the Communications of his love and favours so likewise with mutual help and assistance from one another Their nearness in Union Fellowship and Communion their knowledge of and acquaintance with each other together with the Laws of Christ among them enjoyning them thereunto and brotherly love resulting from all capacitates enables quickens and encourages them to more and constant usefulness to one another than otherwise they could or would be Their holy and spiritual Intimacy and Communion begets and preserves warm hearty and strong love and affection one to another which inclines their hearts to mind and do their external duties to each other It prompts and puts them upon sympathising one with another on watching over one another on exhorting comforting and provoking one another to love and to good works Heb. 10.24 25. to reprove admonish and endeavour to heal each other when need requires Gal. 6.1 2. to edifie one another warn the unruly and support the weak 1 Thes 5.11 14. And is not this a great priviledge and advantage to our Souls to have such seasonable assistance one from another Is it not a great priviledge when I am tempted and burdened to have my Brethrens hands under me to support and strengthen me when by my heedlesness I have fallen and broken my bones wounded and weakned my Soul to have such a spiritual Physician to give me Physick such a good Samaritan at
to him for his love and grace to us to hold and enjoy Communion with him to grow in grace and to be filled with all the fulness of God to be warm lively and strong in our duties and performances and for such holy ends as God requires Thus you see that all Gods people are bound in duty to joyn themselves to and walk in spiritual fellowship with the Churches of Christ as also for what ends and to what purpose they should do so CHAP. XI Shewing how Church-members ought to walk and what Sins and Temptations they are obnoxious to in their Church-state with Rules and cautions against them Arguments and motives to perswade to practice the one and avoid the other Quest HOw ought Believers to walk in Church-fellowship Answ I have shewed already what their duties are and how they should carry themselves towards their Officers and towards one another in a Church-state and therefore shall not mention them here but shall answer the question in these following particulars First Church-members must walk exemplarily they should be like so many Stars in the Firmament of the Church They of all persons in the world ought to be burning and shining lights Their graces gifts words deeds and carriages should shine so clear and bright so gloriously and conspicuously as that they should have the force and prevalency of Laws on the minds of beholders so as that they may safely securely imitate follow them The Churches of Christ in the world are as so many Sea-marks Pilots Guides to Men they live more in the glory of Heaven as the Church is called in Rev. 13.6 in the beams of the glorious Son of Righteousness than others do and therefore they should give better and clearer light than others can They are much more eyed minded and observed than others are and men expect and look for more good in and choice fruits from them than they do from other men They do or may converse more with Christ and Christ with them than other men do and they are partakers of greater things from him than other men are and therefore they must be a singular People in all manner of holy Conversation and Godliness Church-members are highly dignified and greatly priviledged their holy Profession gives out bespeaks them to be a peculiar Treasure unto God and therefore they must declare before all men that they are such indeed and not in pretence only Their frames of heart words deeds and deportments must speak for them manifest them to be the same in Truth which they pretend to be Church-members words works and carriages must praise them in the Gate 1. They should be shining lights in Humility and Meekness Col. 3.12 Put on therefore as the Elect of God humbleness of mind meekness 1 Pet. 5.5 and be Cloathed with Humility Phil. 2.3 But in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves Matth. 11.29 Learn of me for I am meek and lowly in heart Church-members must not be high proud and lofty they may not think highly of themselves Rom. 12.3 nor cloath and deck themselves as others do They may not carry themselves strangely or disdainfully towards men but be meek and humble towards their Brethren and all men in their Apparel Words Deeds and Carriages for if this part of Christ's Image do not appear in some good measure on them they cannot have any at all A meek spirit carriage and deportment is one of their Ornaments It is in the sight of God of great price 1 Pet. 3. 2. They must shine in Zeal Fervency of spirit this holy fire should burn among them They must not be of dull stupid heavy and lumpish spirits worship God appear before him and hold Communion one with another indifferently coldly dully regardlesly and heavily as if they were rather driven to their work and duty against their wills than with their choyce love and desire but they must be fervent in spirit serving the Lord Rom. 12.11 for which some of the Corinthians were commended 2 Cor. 7.11 and Phinchas Numb 25.11.13 and David Psal 69.9 To this they are redeemed and for it they are purchased Tit. 2.14 not only to do good works but to be Zealous in and for them The Lord Jesus charges his Churches to be Zealous Churches Rev. 3.19 in imitation of himself whose Zeal to God did eat him up Joh. 2.17 Much holy Zeal governed and guided by much spiritual Wisdom makes a man an excellent shining useful acceptable and desirable man indeed This should be another of the Churches beauties and comely Ornaments wherewith they should still be cloathed decked and adorned in this world If this Diamond do not shine if they are not adorned with this rare Jewel what are they worth and what are they good for They will be like fire without heat and light as to their duty work and usefulness They will be like Drones or like Bees without stings namely of no considerable use in the world All that they do for God Men and their own Souls will be of little or no esteem and account 3. They must shine in Love and Charity too Love is the bond of perfectness Col. 3.14 the ligament and sinew the cord and instrument that tyes us fast to God and to one another See that ye love one another with pure hearts fervently 1 Pet. 122. and let Love be without dissimulation Rom. 12.9 Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart soul and strength Matth. 22.37 The internal motive or moving cause of all obedience and service to God must be love to him and our duty Joh. 14.15 1 Joh. 5.3 It is true that men cannot certainly discern this Love to God in one another but God and our own Consciences may and must Churches of Christ must be Churches of Love they should be acted and animated drawn and constrained to every good work by Love 2 Cor. 5.14 All the ways and workings of Jesus Christ to us all that he doth to or for us is Love Doth he instruct us or doth he correct us it is all in and from love Love to us is the bottom spring and cause of all his dispensations towards us His anger is provoked Love Love should knit our hearts fast to our God and Head to our duties and services and to one another in Church-fellowship But of this already else-where 4. Churches must shine in that great work and duty of Self-denyal when need requires He that will be my Disciple saith Christ must deny himself Mark 8.34 Matth. 16.24 Luk. 9.26 They should be eminent and singular in Self-denyal or in denying themselves of many things for Christ for their Brethren and for their own souls sakes Their Lord Jesus is the great copy pattern and examplar of Self-denyal and that for them to serve them and promote their happiness Phil. 2.5 6 7 8. Acts 20.28 and without this we cannot be his Disciples If we will not deny our selves
things and actions love and lovely objects irritates and drawes forth love to them and the more lovely beautiful and glorious they are the more forceably and powerfuly they draw as experiences shews and we all know But then are such objects and things most attractive and powerful when they are our own or when we know that we have a right unto and an interest in them Now in the Lord's Supper you have these glorious objects and things handed out to you and sealed to you in particular Take cat this is my body that was broken and this is my blood that was shed for you 1 Cor. 11.23 24 25. It speaks to sound-hearted Believers thus Here is your glorious Head and King your Redeemer and Saviour Here is the body that was broken and the blood that was shed for you Here is your Covenant and here are your promises sealed ratified and confirmed and here is free eternal and distinguishing love and grace shewed and given to you Oh! how strongly must this draw their love and how powerfully must this enflame their affections to Jesus Christ For this end it is appointed and this it doth in measure effect in holy hearts 6. It is instituted and appointed to strengthen and nourish inchurched Believers and to make them fat and flourishing in the house of God Psal 92.13 14. Psal 132.13 14 15. Psal 84.4 7. Believers have many grace-weakning and heart-wasting-lusts Snares and Temptations and therefore they have need of such strengthning heart-chearing and grace-nourishing means that they languish not but thrive and prosper in the inner man I have spoken somewhat of this before when I shewed you the priviledges of the Churches and the end for which all Believers should walk in Church fellowship and therefore shall not insist on it here Only let me add that you may find in this Ordinance both Food and Physick Here is as in the hand of an Ordinance food for your Souls and nourishment for your Graces and here is Physick for them also Here is the bread of Life and here is the water and wine of Life to feed and comfort you to fatten and nourish you to build you up and establish you and to make you strong men in Christ to encourage and help you and to make you fruitful in every good work Joh. 6. Col. 1.10 And here is not only food but Heavenly and spiritual Physick too Here you may have Purging and cleansing-Physick and here you may have comforting and refreshing Physick also And you do and still you will need both You need Lusts-purging and Heart-purifying Physick and behold here it is for you Christ gave himself and shed his blood that it might purge cleanse and heal us and that it might in and by his own means be conveyed to us I mean the vertue and efficacy of it for that end Eph. 5.25 26 27. Tit. 2.14 1 Joh. 1.7 9. Now in this Ordinance the purging cleansing and heart-purifying virtue of this blood is handed out and conveyed to the Faith of Believers which the Spirit in Christ's behalf applys and which we for our selves are to apply also The Spirit doth it powerfully and efficasiously and we by Faith are to do it dutifully and so it obtains its Ends on us And as it is purging cleansing and heart-purifying Physick to our Souls so it is Cordial Physick also to refresh and comfort to revive and chear our drooping sad and disconsolate Souls Of this Blood and for this End we may drink freely and constantly Here we may have our fill and drink abundantly according to our needs Here you may Augment your Light Faith Peace Hope Joy Courage Zeal Meekness Love and Patience and here you may obtain a measure of all spiritual good Here you may enrich your Souls with Christ Grace Assurance Experiences and Consolations and here you may obtain the destruction of your Lusts Here you will have the Spirit to feed you with the Bread of Life and here you may grow like a Cedar in Lebanon Psal 92.12 13. Therefore make use of this Ordinance for this blessed End also 7. It is appointed to shew and represent unto us the evil of sin also The great God represents sin to us in many glasses and shews it in and by several means He assures us that it is the Evil of Evils the Plague of Plagues and that it is the root and fountain the sink and sum of all Mischiefs that it is unexpressibly and transcendantly evil Rom. 7.13 That it is the object of his loathing abhorrence and hatred as being that which hath turned glorious Angels into hateful Devils and thrown them out of Heaven into Hell as that which hath defaced and marr'd his Image in men and made them Enemies unto and Rebels against God This he declares to us in and by his Word his Law and Gospel as also by the Judgments he executeth in the Earth on Sinners yea the whole Creation here below do loudly proclaim it But the clearest glass wherein God opens and manifests the odiousness and exceeding sinfulness of sin is Christ's Death and Sufferings which the Lords Supper plainly declares unto us and where we may see it displayed in all its most hateful and abominable colours Here you may by Faith see the exceeding great Evil of it and be provoked and stirred up to Hate and abhor it to eschew and avoyd it For by beholding the Curse and Wrath of God poured out on the Soul and Body of his dear Son Gal. 3.13 and by seeing him Reproached Buffetted Contemned Despised Crucified Hanged Nailed to the Cross Cruelly handled Tortured Tormented Pierced Murdered and above all the weight of divine Vengance pressing his precious Soul and wringing out Bloody Sweats and he pouring out his Soul to Death and all for and under the weight of our Sins and Guilt Surely the sight of this by Faith will greatly raise our hatred of all sin and disswade us from it 8. It is appointed and given to encrease and strengthen our Gospel-Repentance too Here we may look on Him whom we by sin have pierced and mourn and be in bitterness of Soul Zach. 12.10 for here is the Blood of the Scape Goat that is able to break the most stony hearts in the world And we stand in daily need of it for we are in danger every day of being hardened through the deceitfulness of sin and the world Heb. 3.13 But the Lord's Supper presents to us a heart-melting Object yea many such Objects There we may see heart-melting Love and there we may behold heart-breaking Grace There we may perceive the Lamb of God making Attonement for our sins and there we may understand that the Lord of Glory hath taken off from us our Sins Guilt and Punishment There we may discern him standing in our stead and between the living God and us Condemned dead men with the Censor of the Sanctuary full of his precious Blood making satisfaction for us to divine Justice There we
fear or love him or his Church sincerely to watch over them and impart his secrets and counsels to them surely no. And therefore they must be fitted and qualifyed with saving Graces as well as Ministerial Gifts for office power and work in the Church of Christ I might argue this point very largely and copiously did I intend a large discourse as I do not but to use all possible brevity in all things I shall mention and present to consideration in the whole of the discourse 3. And therefore Thirdly they should not only have and be qualified with spiritual Gifts and special Grace but with the holy Ghost also It is not such Gifts and Grace that will sufficiently qualifie and enable men to discharge their ministerial work in the Church without the Spirit They will not be willing ready nor apt to teach without the Spirit 1 Pet. 5.1 2. 1 Tim. 3.2 Neither will they be able to divide the word aright without the Spirit 2 Tim. 2.15 And therefore hath Jesus Christ promised to be with them in an especial manner in their Ministerial work who are his Ministers Mat. 28.18 20. Joh. 14.15 and 16. chapters They must preach and pray by the Spirit watch over feed and water the Church by the Spirit for their Gifts and Graces can do nothing in this matter but by the Spirit And therefore the holy Spirit is promised to help them to teach warm strengthen and quicken them to comfort lead and Guide them and whenever Christ sends any Shepherds into his Sheepfold in love and mercy he sends them and they come there with the holy Ghost in their hearts Look over Pauls Epistles to Timothy and Titus and to the particular Churches and you may find this Truth confirmed Thus God promised his New Testament Churches long before they subsisted or had a being in the World Jer. 3.15 And I will give you Pastors according to mine own heart which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding It is the Spirit that makes men able Ministers of the New Testament and Spirit 2 Cor. 3.6 not created Grace and Gifts only The Apostles spake the word of God as the Spirit gave them utterance Acts 2.4 and as they were moved or carried forth by the holy Ghost 2 Pet. 1.21 A Temple of God is built by the Spirit for the habitation of God Eph. 2.21 22. all the Laws and Ordinances of the Temple are given forth by the Spirit from Christ Joh. 16.13 14 15. all the Grace and Gifts bestowed on men are by the Spirit their Life strength and successe is by and from the Spirit their work and authority in the Church is given them by the Spirit and therefore the holy Spirit will accompany and abide with his own Ministers there Fourthly They must be qualified and adorned with singular Spirits with excellent and choice Spirits and frames of Heart they should excel others in such qualities and virtues as these First they should be singular and excelling in knowledge and Spiritual understanding to discern the difference of things that differ and to judge of Spiritual things Spiritually 1 Cor. 2. They should abound in heavenly wisdome and prudence in conformity to their Lord Christ Secondly They should be eminent and singular in Gospel simplicity and sincerity too 2 Cor. 1.12 2 Cor. 2.17 Thirdly They should be eminent and singular in Humility in all meekness humbleness of mind and conversation 1 Pet. 5.1 6. Of all men in the world they must not be proud and lofty in their hearts and carriages but meek and lowly Mat. 11.29 2 Tim. 2 25. Fourthly They must be eminent and singular in Gentlenesse and peaceablenesse they must not brawl nor strive 2 Tim. 2.24 1 Tim. 3.3 Fifthly They must be eminent in Self-denial and curbing the Flesh keeping under carnal worldly self and crossing the desires of the Flesh and of the Mind 1 Cor. 9. ult Sixthly They must be eminent and singular in patience and contentation they must not be soon angry or moved to passion and wrath 1 Tim. 3. Seventhly They must be eminent and singular in a sober serious holy chearfulnesse and sweetnesse pleasantnesse and affability they must not be of vain and frothy Spirits nor of froward sullen lumpish and sad carriages and deportments for these things are hateful in all Christians much more are they so in such as are set in the Church for lights and Examples to them This is a part of that good behaviour the Apostle says they must be endued withal 1 Tim. 3.2 Eightly They must be eminent and singular in zeal and fervency also For if private Christians should abound in it Rom. 12.11 2 Cor. 7.11 then much more should the Ministers of Christ Tit. 2.14 Rev. 3.19 Ninthly They must be eminent and singular in Love pity and bowels of compassion to Souls they must not be of hard and insensible Spirits but full of tender earning bowels towards their flocks Col. 3.12 1 Pet. 3.8 Rom. 12.15 So was Jesus Christ and so was Paul towards all sorts of men they had to do withall excepting obstinate Sinners who trampled pearles under their feet and so must Ministers be now Be ye kind one to another tender hearted says Paul Eph. 4. ult Tenthly They must be eminent and singular in Heavenly mindednesse they must not be covetous nor greedy after worldly things which the Apostle calls filthy lucre 1 Tim. 3.3 Tit. 1.7 1 Pet. 5.2 They must declare as much as possible that in the midst of earthly enjoyments they are heavenly minded and live above them They are holy men of God and therefore must flee those things 1 Tim. 6.11 2 Pet. 1. ult and follow after heaverly Eleventhly They must be singular and eminent in gavity and solidity they must not be vain light and frothy talkers and of foolish jesting Spirits and carriages but grave and serious 1 Tim. 3. Twelfthly They should be apt to teach set forward and entertain holy and profitable discourses as they have opportunity which will not now be easily found I fear amongst professors However they should be alwaies ready apt and willing to do their duty although others are not to do theirs 1 Pet. 5.2 1 Tim. 3.2 Eph. 4.29 Col. 4.6 Thirteenthly They should be well armed with Wisdome Faith and Patience to endure and stand fast against all oppositions and Temptations and to bear up under all the great discouragements they may meet withall from friends and foes for they will be tryed by both Hence the Apostle charges Timothy to follow after Faith and Patience 1 Tim. 6.11 and in 1 Tim. 4.12 says he be thou an Example to the Believers in Faith c. Therefore they should come to their work well armed and fenced with Faith and Patience for it will be tryed to the utmost as sad experience shews Fourteently They should be eminent and singular in setting up high and noble ends in their eies and hearts in their office and work in the Church The great