power 2. Pray for me Heb. 13.18 and that with all possible importunity and constancy For the more you do so pray to God for me the more profitable he will make my labours to your Souls Pray for me in your Closets and wrestle with God for me for you especially you who walk with God may do much for me in your Closets I do remember you in mine Oh! let me be remembred by you in our Closets also For a stock of Prayers of hearty believing fervent Prayers kept a-running one for another will bring in a great Revenue of grace from Heaven to us You cannot expect that I should Preach warmly profitably and powerfully to you unless you so Pray for me Therefore in obedience to the will of God and for your own profit do you continue in fervent Prayer unto God for me Entreat him to pour out much of the Spirit of grace and the grace of the Spirit upon me fill me with Ministerial gifts and make me an able Minister of the New Testament That God may give me the door of utterance and enable me to speak as I ought to speak Eph. 6.20 That God may work in me whatever is wel-pleasing in his sight Heb. 13.21 fulfill in me all the good Counsel of his will and the work of faith with power 2 Thes 1.11 that the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in me and by me Oh! Pray for me that I may be kept faithful to Christ and you that I may labour and not faint run and not be weary that I may be able to bear up under all Burdens and Temptations and be able to overcome and conquer them all That I may rightly divide the word of Truth and administer the holy Ordinances of Christ according to his will so as that he may be magnified and your Souls profited That my heart may stand clear off the World and that I may not be taken and entangled with any snares and that I may perfect holiness in the fear of God 2 Cor. 7.1 and for whatever else you may rationally judge I may stand in need of as your Minister 3. I do request you that if at any time you do certainly see and undoubtedly know any failing or miscarriage in or by me that you will speedily seriously meekly humbly and as you ought to do enform me of it It is your duty to do so if you do it as you ought and may do it I shall through grace assisting receive it thank you and bless God for it and account it my mercy But I shall desire you to take heed and beware of these three evils towards me in this matter 1 That you do not fancy and make evils or miscarriages for me and then charge them on me as mine when in truth they are not so It is a very dangerous thing to condemn the Righteous and justifie the wicked as you know Prov. 17.15 and it is most dangerous and abominable in the sight of the Righteous God to condemn or falsly to charge his Embassadours because they stand in his stead bear his Image of Authority and do his Ministerial work in his Churches And yet how common is this evil among Professors as I can testifie 2 Do not take up a Report from others against me and take it for granted because you hear some Professors of the good wayes of God tell you so For the World yea and the Churches also are too full of slanderous and back biting Tongues They are not aware of this evil but hug and embrace it in their bosoms practise it without fear and commit this abomination with both hands as the Prophet speaks Remember that Jesus Christ hath strictly charged you in 1 Tim. 5.19 that you do not so much as receive an Accusation against an Elder under two or three witnesses and that on their certain knowledge of the Fact not upon their conjectures and feigned Circumstances For God is very curious and tender of their good Names Credit and Reputations and he knows and all wise and holy men do know that they are more obnoxious to the Envy and that they lye more open to the wrath and hatred of men than other men do Therefore I say God hath set a higher mound about their good Name for their security than about others 3 Do not take up my real or supposed miscarriages and spread them before others Oh! my Brethren let not this filthy devilish wickedness be found in you let not others hear of my faults before I do my self be not you Back-biters and Whisperers against him who loves you so much as that he could spend and be spent in the service of your Souls and who seeks your good all he can Requite not his love to you with such mischief and wickedness against him for the Lord's sake You may do him much wrong thereby but you will much more wrong Christ and your own Souls And let none of you think that Jesus Christ is an idle Spectator of what you do herein that he observes you not or that because you imagine you intend him no hurt in what you say of him that therefore he will hold you guiltless No no be not deceived for God will not be mocked what a man soweth that shall he reap Gal. 6.7 God doth not say you may speak evil of his Ministers or other men if you intend not to hurt them thereby no but he deth expresly forbid you to back bite or speak of their evils though real at all behind their backs until they prove incorrigible and have rejected your reproofs and endeavours to convince and convert them Levit. 19.16 17. Jam. 4.11 Tit. 3.2 Rom. 1.30 31. Psal 15.3 2 Cor. 12.20 But in truth this excuse or pretence is but a carnal blind and diabolical delusion to shut the eyes of men and harden their hearts against the evils of it that they may commit it with the more peace and satisfaction that neither men nor their own Consciences may reprove or controul them and cry shame on them for their sins and that they may not be obstructed or any way impeded in their doing of that wherein they find pleasure Neither indeed can they prove that they do not hate them or intend their hurt For it is infallibly certain that they do not really love such and that they are prejudiced against them and do not in truth seek their good For can I perswade any reasonable man by the rules of Reason that I love him and seek his good in the dark as to him by doing or speaking that which experience shews will inevitably tend to his hurt to his shame and reproach and to the alienating of others affections from him Well then tell me of my real faults to my face that I may mend and do so no more for that is the Will of Christ Matth. 18.15 4. I do request you to Visit me and let me have your good Company as often as conveniently you can and
20. And there are many Reasons for it I will but name a few 1 Because the work they have to do is the Lords not their own and what have they to do to medle with it until their Lord calls sends them otherwise he may say unto them friends what do you here in my Vineyard about my work and concernments did I call or send you hither or rather did you not come upon your own will and pleasure 2 Because the Churches in which they work are the Lords and he will have his own appointed and designed servants in his own families and housholds and none else he alots and appoints the several works of his servants and the places where they shall work and leaves it not to their own wills choice but as directed and guided moved and carried forth by him As God sent Paul to the Gentiles and Peter to the Jews so doth God now send such a man to such a Church and another to another Church to administer there and if the great Lord and Master should find such a Servant here as he did intend for an other place how will he answer his being out of his own place 3 Because their going forth and labouring in the Vineyard must be obediential Acts. They must do it not because it is their own will and choice but the Lords and that in obedience unto him And how can they do that except they have some good assurance that the Lord hath sent and called them How can they obey the voice of the Lord when they are not well satisfied that they have heard and felt the Lord speaking to their hearts in answer unto prayers 4 Because they must go forth and labour in dependence on and expectation of him to be with them to help and assist them to blesse and prosper them to crown and succeed their endeavours and to provide for them Now how can they do so unlesse they know that God hath sent and imployed them in his work 5 They must go forth and labour in hope and expectation of divine acceptance also For God hath promised to accept the commanded work and service of his people in obedience to his holy will Therefore they must know that they are doing of or about to do their Lords work when and where he would have them 6 Because they are promised a reward and they ought to believe and look for it onely in the way of their duty and no where else And how can any expect a reward for doing that which for ought they know is not their duty at such a time in such a place in such a way 7 Because they ought to blesse thank and praise God for imploying them in his so great work and service 1 Tim. 1.12 which they cannot do unlesse they are sufficiently satisfied of the Lords calling them to it Tenthly As they should be satisfied in their own Souls of the Lords calling and sending them into his Vineyard so the Church to which they are sent should be satisfied of the same likewise and they should find great and real acceptance in each others hearts The Church should own and receive them as sent by and from Jesus Christ unto them to do his work and administer his holy Laws and Ordinances to them and that as great and promised mercies and blessings for their good Their union communion and Spiritual Relation must be founded in Love and strong affections one to another and grounded upon real satisfaction in and cordial acceptance one of an another as married together by Jesus Christ and so make one intire body and Temple These are no light and insignificant matters but very great and weighty matters indeed They put themselves into each others hands and become one anothers in the Lord in which state and condition they must abide and live together until the Lord shall separate them by some extraordinary providence For till then they cannot part one from another nor leave each other no not with mutual consents at their own will and pleasure because they were joyned together by the will of God as the chief and principal doer of it and therefore no lower will and power can dissolve the knot then that which at first did knit it These Ministers must go and take up with the Church as sent to them by Jesus Christ and the Church must own and receive them as Christs choice and gracious gift unto them And therefore they should be fully satisfied in each other and find deep real Love cordial acceptance and room in one anothers hearts resolving to live walk and continue together in Love and Faithfulness and in the constant practice of all duties to God and one another before they do unite and engage together in a Church-Relation For if they do not become one Holy Church and Communion upon the account of Jesus Christ his joyning them or calling them to own accept and chuse one another in that Relation If they be not congregated and united together by and upon the principle of Gospel-Love and Affection and if they enter not into and continue in that state and Relation Union and Communion together in pursuance of the will and call of Christ and in obedience to his command they are never likely to continue long together in peace and comfort to have God dwell in and walk with them or to thrive and prosper They may be able to make a comfortable Judgment of the Lords calling and joyning them together in love and mercy thus or by these things First if the Glory of the Lord Jesus their own Spiritual profit and edification lay deep in their hearts and are their great and only ends in their uniting and joyning together 2. If they have unfainedly and importunately asked counsel and conduct of God committed the whole to his choice and disposal to make up or hinder the match between them as he pleased and did indeed resign up their wills and concernments wholly unto his Wisdome and Sovereign pleasure to order and determine them and for them as he should think fit in order to the said ends and in their Prayers together and apart have stood in an even ballance waiting and expecting what the Lord would say and do in the case to and for them 3. And if after they have so done they find their hearts more and more enclined and knit one to another though still with a free and holy submission to the Will of God and they find providence working for them without by removeing obstructions and making the way plain for them I think they may comfortably conclude that God hath sent and called them to joyn themselves together and become a holy Temple in the Lord. For when all these things do concurr and fall in as it were together undoubtedly it is of God and by his special ordering and direction It was God that set up those holy ends and designs in their hearts It was God that stirred up and moved
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
are mistaken for there is no work in the world so full of care and trouble as a consciencious Minister is nor any that requires more diligence circumspection watchfulness and faithfulness than his They work and labour in Divine Mysteries and they work for Christ and Souls Their matters lye above the reach of carnal and meer rational understandings above the reaches of humane Arts and Sciences and they are alwayes consulting and conversant about new matters and things Oh what need have they of the Churches prayers 3. Because the Churches profit and Souls benefit is much concerned in their Teachers Administrations For God ordinarily speaks to the Churches hearts through or by their hearts as well as by their mouths The more they have of Christ Grace Truth and the Spirit of Christ the more powerful spiritual and profitable they will be in prayer Preaching and in all other Ministrations unto them Act. 14.1 Fourthly It is the will of Christ and their indispensible duty to know obey and submit themselves to their Teaching Elders or Pastours Authority Teaching Government and to all their regular and orderly Ministrations in the Lord. The Church owes them subjection and obedience and that as they are set over them by Christ and by him made their Teachers and Rulers and sent by him to take the charge and oversight of them and to Administer his holy Ordinances to them in his name for their good Heb. 13.7 17. Remember them that have the Rule over you or are Guides unto you as the words also signifie Obey them that have the Rule over you and submit your selves for they watch for your Souls as they that must give account that they may do it with joy and not with grief for that is unprofitable for you Without Government and Governours power and Authority Laws and Orders and without subjection and obedience in and of the Members of all sorts of Corporations and Societies of men in the world whether civil or Ecclesiastical they will be but confused Routs and Babels There will be can be nothing but confusion and every evil work as James speaks Chap. 3.16 If they are Rulers and have Authority from the Lord Jesus to appoint order and command as 't is clear they have or they are but shadows or cyphers 2 Thes 3.4 6. 1 Tim. 4.11 Tit. 2. ult then they may yea they ought to appoint order and command as they see occasion for the profit and well being of the Church in pursuance of their work and trust And if so then the Church and all the Members thereof are indispensibly bound to yield all free hearty willing and chearful subjection and obedience to them without grudging quarrelling or irregular gain-saying that is they are to eye the will and authority of Christ in and expressed by them and so to conform to it as it is Christs not theirs They must obey them not as gifted men but as the Embassadours Ministers and Officers of Christ and it is Christ and his will and Authority in them that must be the object of their obedience and subjection The neglect whereof is when through carelesness or wilfulness no less than disobedience too yea Rebellion against the Lord Christ himself Luk. 10.16 17. Col. 3.23 24. Great was the love and care of Christ as the head and King of his Churches in providing Lawes Rules and Orders as also in Authorizing and sending some to execute them for their spiritual good and his glory And therefore when Church-Members do slight neglect disobey and practically despise them they do thereby slight contemn and despise the love care and Authority of Christ and Christ accounts it so although those teaching Rulers are not Apostles but ordinary Officers as Luk. 10.16 17. shews when the Lord Jesus went to Heaven he gave gifts to men viz. Ministers and Ministerial abilities to them for the work of the Ministry for the perfecting of the Saints c. Eph. 4.10 11 12. Then he delegated his Ministerial power to men promised to provide such for his Saints and to furnish them with his own gifts yea to be with them himself unto the end of the world Math. 28.18 19 20. Wherefore then the Churches of Christ should receive submit to and obey them in a sense even as Christ himself as they are Authorized gifted granted and sent by him in and about his message work and service in all their lawful commands and appointments and regular Ministrations in and for the Churches He that receiveth you receiveth me says Christ of the 70. Disciples he sent to Preach Luk. 10.16 Math. 10.40 And Paul commends the Galatians for receiving him as an Angel of God even as Christ himself Gal. 4.14 15. and the same Apostle charges Titus to speak and act in the Church with all Authority charging all the Members also not to despise or slight him for or in his so doing Tit. 2.15 If not to despise or slight him then to honour submit to and obey him as Christs and their Minister Well then do the Elders or Pastours of Churches carefully mind and diligently labour in the Word and Doctrine 1 Tim. 5.17 then all the Members of Churches are bound to obey them to submit to and wait on their Ministry and not despise them and it by deserting and withdrawing from it in whole or in part But more of this anon 2. Do they appoint meetings or call their Churches to assemble together for the celebration of any Ordinance of God or to consult about the matters and concernments of the Church for their profit and Christs glory they are bound in duty to do so excepting in extraordinary cases that hinder them as they will answer the contrary contempt to Christ at their peril They must not look on their practical conformity to it as an indifferent matter and stay at home or come at their own will and pleasure but actually obey such a call or summons as Christ's not dispute it but obey it not in the pride of their hearts disdain it but readily and chearfully subject to it Obey them that have the rule over you for they watch for your Souls Heb. 13.17 and be sure when they appoint such meetings it is for the Churches advantage 3. Do they appoint or require speech or silence in the Church or any good Orders and Rules to be observed and kept in the name of Christ and by his Authority they are bound to obey them without loading them and obstructing their proceedings with Jangling disputes and oppositions And as in these so in all other matters wherein the honour of Christ the profit of the Church or any Members thereof consists Rulers must see that they command and appoint order and rule wisely and faithfully and keep close to their Commission design and carry on Christ's holy ends in all and as they must rule well so all the Members ruled by them must obey well too And when both do their duties in their places the Lord Christ is
and a more Indispensible dury is not imposed upon you who are able in the Gospel and therefore you cannot plead ignorance for the breach or neglect of it And if you do not obey your God and King in this as well as in other things how can you be called obedient Children 1 Pet. 1.14 and how shall Christ commend you as he did Zachary and Elizabeth for walking in all his Commandments and Ordinances blamelesly Luk. 1.6 Or how can you expect that Christ should say unto you well done good and faithful servants You have done that which was your duty to do when you know that you lived in the wilful neglect of a known and easie duty 3. Consider that God takes special notice of your doings and carriages towards his Embassadors and your Teachers He is privy to all your wayes and will abundantly reward all your kindnesses and unkindnesses to them and that because they are his and yours Therefore be careful to demean and carry your selves towards them so as that the Lord Jesus may say to you well done good and faithful Servants you have been kind and good respectful and dutiful to my Ministers and to me in them And therefore I will recompence all your work of faith and labour of love to them For what you did to them as they were my Ministers you did to me I take all as done to my self enter into the joy of your Lord. These are some and but some of the Churches duties towards their Pastors or Teaching-Elders For although I have been larger on this head than I intended yet I forbear speaking any more lest some should think I say too much CHAP. VI. Of meer Ruling-Elders and Deacons of their Office Work and Power in the Church How they ought to do their Work and for what ends they are set in the Church As also the Churches duty to them with the necessary qualifications of such Officers Quest WHat other Officers hath Christ appointed for and set in his Church or Churches in the New Testament besides Teaching-Elders Answ The Lord Jesus hath set in his New Testament-Churches Ruling-Elders and Deacons Ruling-Elders or Elders whose chief if not only work is to rule in the Church and to help to Mannage the Discipline thereof with the Teaching-Elders seems to be warranted in the Gospel The Texts that speak most clearly in the case are in the 1 Tim. 5.17 Rom. 12.8 1 Cor. 12.28 In Timothy they seem to be expresly distinguished from Teaching Ruling-Elders Let the Elders that Rule well be counted worthy of double honour especially they who labour in the Word and Doctrine This especially refers to such Ruling-Elders whose work and main business is to Teach and who are especially therefore worthy of double honour for that they have a double work and Office namely Teaching and Ruling But the first part of the words speaks of meer Ruling-Elders who in the faithful diligent and conscientious discharge of their Office and Trust in the Church are counted worthy of double honour and ought to be honoured and respected as such by the Church not as they are Elders but Elders who mind their business and perform their work well and faithfully as becomes Stewards of the house of God In the Romanes the words are these He that Ruleth with diligence In the 6. and 7. verses we have the Apostle speaking to another sort of Officers namely Teachers whose greatest work is to Prophesie Minister and Teach And therefore says he let such wait on that part of their work Then he comes to another sort of Officers and these sayes he are to Rule with diligence Not to attend to Teaching as the others were to do but to Ruling and that with diligence whereby he distinguisheth the one from the other and shews that they are distinct persons and Officers from the Teachers before mentioned In like manner the Apostle seems to me to point out this sort of Office and Officers in the 1 Cor. 12.28 God saith he hath set some in the Church first Apostles Secondarily Prophets Thirdly Teachers then Helps Governments Now what should these helps Governments be as here and elsewhere distinguished from teaching Ruling-Elders but this sort of Ruling-Elders I am speaking of For as every Church of Christ needs Teaching so also Government and Discipline for their order and well being But because the Teaching Elders cannot attend continually to their Ruling work because their Teaching and Ministring other Ordinances diverts them from it so often as need requires therefore hath God set in his Churches meer Ruling Elders that they as Moses his 70. Elders may help to bear the burden and assist the Teaching-Elders in the Discipline and Government of the Church And therefore they are in the Corinths joyned to the Teaching Ruling-Elders and also in the Romanes and they are expresly called Helps Governments for that they are given of God to help their Teachers or Pastors in the Government of the Church And truly it hath its weight with me namely the necessity of such Officers in the Churches to help their Pastors in the Government thereof For as Satan is more busie and vigilant in the Churches to cause disorders therein than in any other Societies of men So there is the more need of diligent and careful Government and Inspection to keep all in order And as was said before the Teaching-Elders cannot so constantly attend to the work of Discipline because of their other work as need requires therefore there is a kind of nenessity of meer Ruling-Elders to help and assist them in the well Ordering and Governing the Church Thus we see that there are such Officers and such an Office in the word of God Quest For what ends hath God set Ruling-Elders in his Church and what is their Office Work and Power there Answ Although the Scripture seems to speak but little of thiâ— matter namely of their work use and ends for which they are set in the Church particularly yet if it be clear that such an Office and Officer distinct from the Teachers are given to and set in the Church by the Lords appointment and that they are Authorized and Empowred by Christ to Act and Officiate there in his Name then I say it is certain they have their special work to do there for they are not set there to have a Name and signifie nothing else but they have their work there as such which they are diligently to attend unto for the benefit of the Church and the glory of Christ their Lord. Now what their work and business is I shall search out and discover as well as I can and that with all possible brevity First then they are expresly called Ruling-Elders or Elders that Rule in the Scripture 1 Tim. 5.17 Now what doth their Name and Office signifie and imply but that they are to assist their Teachers in the orderly Government of the Church as was said before And I think their work lies chiefly in these
Spirit They ought to be men of Courage fearing God like Moses his 70 Elders Exod. 18.21 and be free from notorious and apparent Coveteousness and worldly mindednesse They should be eminent in humility and meekness and in other Graces of the Spirit and they should be men of pitty compassion of bowells and mercies as the Apostle speaks They must not be angry passionate persons or men of sower froward and peevish Spirits and carriages for these abominations will very much blemish them and cause prejudices in the minds of Observers They must not be Tattlers Medlers nor Busy-bodies in other mens matters neither should they be slothful negligent or careless of their own These are some of their necessary qualifications Quest What are the Duties of Church-members and how ought they to demean and carry themselves towards their Ruling Elders Ans When they do rule well and use their office power diligently faithfully and profitably for the peace wellfare and prosperity of the Church the encouragement of the Ministry propagation of the Gospel and the honour and Glory of Christ as they are indispensibly bound to do they are worthy of double Honour Love and respect from the Church and they ought to give it to them heartily and sincerely in obedience to Christ who injoyns and requires it 1 Tim. 5.17 as also for their work and office sake and for the Lord Christ his Sake whose Officers they are whose Image they bear and whose work and service they do and are employing themselves in They must have not only simple honour love and respect from you but double They must have much more then any private brethren have when they rule well and that upon a twofold account 1. As they are Christ's and your Elders and Officers and in a sense do represent the Lord Jesus Christ to you in and by their work and office-power in the Church 2. As or because they rule well and use their office-power for your profit and benefit Do they carefully diligently and industrously attend to and follow their work and seek your good then remember that you owe them double honour love and respect and see you give it to them Moreover Church-members should yield them their chearful subjection and obedience to all their Lawfull commands and appointments for their good and give them all possible encouragement in their work and not weaken their hands and make their work heavy and burdensome to them but do all they can to make it easy and sweet to them that so they may do it with Joy and not with Grief You should also pray importunately for them that God would make them able willing and faithfull to and in their work and blesse and prosper their labours with success Do they mind their work and labour for your good why then it is most reasonable that you should mind them and give them their dues that they may be encouraged in their work and diligence by your duty to them In a word you should carry your selves towards them in all things as to Spiritual Magistrates and Christ's Officers to you for your Good As Paul speaks of civil Magistrates Rom. 13.4 for says he they are God's Ministers to thee for good so your ruling Elders are the Ministers of Christ to you for good Therefore behave your selves towards them and do for them as such Not as they are Elders among you but as they are good Elders to you and such as rule well for your profit Do they rule well mind and attend to their work and duty Why then love honour and respect them as such Do they labour with and take pains among you and are they diligent serious and faithfull in their office then pray much for them blesse and thank God for them acknowledge accept and esteem of them carry your selves submissively obediently to them strengthen their hands and encourage their hearts to and in their work and do all you can and ought to do for them Do they walk holyly humbly wisely zealously and fruitfully do you follow their examples imitate their steps and as much as possible write after their Copy and by so doing you will honour Christ and comfort them Quest What other Officers hath Jesus Christ set in his Church Ans Deacons The Lord Jesus hath in his great love to and care of his Church appointed and given to them this sort of officers also for their comfort profit and well being and they need them likewise For as the Teaching Elders may not attend mostly to their ruling work but to Study Reading Doctrine and Exhortation and then not to serve Tables Act 6. so the Ruling Elders leave their work to attend two which is not to serve Tables neither but to look after other Church-matters and concernments as you heard before And therefore I say that Deacons are necessary and usefull Officers in the Church and are distinguished from other Officers by their name and work there The Institution of this sort of Officers in the Church as also their work use and qualifications we have an account of in Acts 6.3 4 5 6. 1 Tim. 3.8 9 10 11 12 13. Phil. 1.1 so that we see there is such an Office and such Officers are appointed for and set in the Church Quest What manner of persons should deacons be or what are their qualifications by divine Appointment Ans They must be men of honest Report full of the holy Ghost and wisdome Acts 6.3 They must be grave not double-tongued not given to much wine not greedy of filthy Lucre holding the Mystery of Faith in a pure Conscience Even so must their Wives be grave not slanderers Sober Faithful in all things Ruling their Children and their own houses well 1 Tim. 3.8 9 11 12. These are some of the necessary qualifications of Deacons in the Church You that are Deacons mind these things and consider seriously if you are so qualified for that Office in the Church of God If you are not so qualified humble your selves before the Lord entreat him to qualify you with his holy Spirit and labour in the use of all good means to obtain what is yet wanting in you for the well and profitable performance of your work as becomes such Officers in a holy Church of Christ's Quest What are the Deacons works in the Church Ans In general their work is to serve Tables Acts 6. But more particularly 1. They are to provide for and distribute to the poor of the Church according to their necessities Act. 6. and not to suffer any of them to want through their negligence And therefore they ought to enquire what poor there are in the Church and what their wants are and accordingly to supply them In order to which they should receive the Churche's contributions and wisely consider if what they do receive from them will supply the wants of the poor and satisfy other emergencies in the Church And in case they do not to acquaint one of the Elders that
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-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
Brethren dwelling together in Vnity Psal 133.1 2. and united in a holy Band. I have spoken somewhat of this else-where under another head And therefore shall only at present say that if it be so that Believers may more honour Christ by walking together in Gospel or Church-fellowship than otherwise that then they are bound in duty so to walk For if it be their duty to exalt and honour Christ all they can as certainly it is then they are bound to use the means whereby they may be enabled to do it Now Christ hath given to and set in his Churches many Ordinances of worship and out of every one of them he expects a Revenue of Glory by his people therefore the more of his Ordinances you have in your hand and spiritually observe the more is Christ glorified by you Besides this you are in a better capacity to provoke one another to love and to good works Heb. 10.24.25 and to inflame one anothers love to Christ to preserve each other from sinning against him and reproaching his holy Name and ways by sin in a Church-state than out of it You will likewise be capacitated to honour the Lord Jesus more in a Church-state than otherwise by growing in grace and getting more Talents into your hands to Trade withall and employ for him in the Church and world as you heard before Therefore do you no longer stand off but joyn your selves to some Gospel-Church for the Lord Jesus sake Sixthly You that are true Believers ought to joyn your selves to some true Church of Christ for your fellow-Members and Brethren's sakes too You know that we are bound to do all the good we can to one another Gal. 6.10 to further each other in the way of holiness to eternal happiness We need each others helping hand and are set in this World to be useful and helpful one to another Now by joyning our selves one to another and walking together in mutual love peace and concord and in the same judgment though not so in all things way and order in the same Communion Ordinances and Worship we do greatly strengthen the hands chear and quicken the hearts of one another in our duties under our burdens and Temptations and help to make our yoke â—asie We animate and stir up one another and put as it were new courage life and spirit into each other But by our neglect to joyn in fellowship with our Brethren by being strange to and keeping at a distance from them we do very much weaken their hands sadden grieve and discourage their hearts and lay them under many Temptations troubles and disquietments as experience shews We ought to bear each others burdens and so fulfill the Law of Christ Gal. 6 2. But we may not burden one another either by Omission or Commission We are debtors to one another by vertue of Christ's Command and our spiritual Relation to each other we live not from or by our selves therefore must not live for and to our selves I am my Brother's and he is mine as to help comfort service and usefulness one to another Such as carelesly or wilfully abide out of Church-fellowship do in a sense condemn those who walk in it We ought to know and be acquainted with one another that we may be thereby the more serviceable to each other I am my Brother's Keeper Teacher Comforter Reprover and Admonisher and he is mine I cannot well live nor ordinarily live well without his help and assistance nor he without mine We have our work and business to do for one another as well as for our selves The nearer and faster Brethren are link't and knit together the warmer and stronger their love will be to and the more care and tenderness they will have for and towards one another Now though Church-fellowship be not the ground of Brethrens love and service one to another but their oneness with Christ and fellow-membership in him their head as also his revealed will yet it is certain in experience that their near and close Communion together in Church-fellowship doth greatly provoke irritate strengthen and draw forth their love one to another Distance and strangeness weakens love but nearness and intimacy strengthens it Church Communion is a spiritual bond that tyes spiritual men together and greatly knits them into one when otherwise in their walkings they are divided and like bones out of joynt Therefore let all true-hearted Brethren joyn in Church-fellowship with their Brethren and declare their oneness in Christ in spirit faith and love by their so doing Let them strengthen each others hands and encourage one anothers heart in their work and duty in their priviledges and mercies and know that you are indispensibly bound so to do You have Christ himself and his spirit calling you you have your own and your Brethrens Souls calling you you have the practice of the Apostles and Primitive Saints calling you and in a sense you have the World calling you into Church-fellowship Why then do it and make no longer delay for while you neglect to do it you neglect your duties to God to your Brethren and to your own Souls yea you do practically slight your purchased priviledges and dear-bought mercies do it speedily for Christ's sake and for your own peace comfort growth and security Seventhly You that are true Believers ought to walk in Church-fellowship that you may be and live under Church promises You heard before that there are many promises made and given to Churches or to Believers in that capacity which they cannot claim to themselves while they walk alone as individuals and strangers to one another God told Solomon that his eyes and heart should be perpetually in his Temple 2 Chron. 7.16 But David's Gold Silver Brass and other Materials that he had provided to build it had not such a promise until they were formed up into a house for God So it is now with living or lively materials that are hewn and pollished for to build him Gospel-Temples They may not expect the good of all the promises but in the wayes of God's Appointments and their own duties Although their being in Christ united and married to him by faith be the ground and foundation of their right to the promises and all the good of them yet the Great God gives out and imparts the Juice and fatness of them unto their Souls in the wayes of his Gospel precepts and appointments that such as expect to be partakers of them may seek all in those wayes I have in the last chapter instanced in several promises that belong unto Churches or unto Believers walking with God in that state and capacity As that in Rev. 2.1 2 Cor. 6.16 Psal 92.12 13. Psal 132.12 13 14. Eph. 2. the three last verses with several others of like import Now then if you will partake of the good of Church-promises you must become holy and orderly Church-members Surely it is your duty to look after and earnestly to seek for
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
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
may know in measure how dearly He loved us and how dear we have cost There we may see our sins Pardoned persons Accepted God Reconciled and Well-pleased there we may hear him saying Deliver them out of Prison for I have found and accepted a Ransom Surely there is not a more powerful means in the World to produce and provoke to Repentance yea pure Gospel-Repentance in Believers than the Lord's Supper is For here are presented to us all the greatest and strongest Gospel-motives to unfained Spiritual and Gospel-Repentance to melt soften the heart It is Love Grace the hopes of Pardon and Acceptance and of being sanctified and saved that provokes and produces Repentance unto Life not Fear and Dread of Divine Wrath and Vengeance Not the bare sight and Conviction of Sin and the Apprehension of future punishment no but 't is the sense or hope at least of our persons being loved and accepted into favour with God and of our being acquitted and justified through the blood of the Covenant that doth it 9. To stir us up to Admire Adore and Praise the great and free Love and Grace of God and Jesus Christ our Lord. They do in and by this Ordinance set off and commend their free eternal and distinguishing Love and Grace unto Believers and thereby give them occasion of Praising Admiring and Adoring it These are some of God's Holy and Gracious Ends in appointing this Ordinance for and giving it unto them and these and what-ever other uses and ends there are of it should be diligently sought out and understood by all Believers And being sound out they should be carefully diligently and faithfully aimed at and pursued by them Well then do you joyn Issues with God aim at and carry on the holy Ends of Jesus Christ in this Gospel Ordinance and by your so doing you will please and honour him and greatly profit your own Souls Quest What are the necessary qualifications and preparations of all worthy Receivers of the Lords Supper or what is required of and ought to be found in them Ans There qualifications and preparations are two-fold 1. A State qualification or worthiness 2. A habitual and practical or actual fitness 1. A State-worthiness or qualification which in brief is this or consists of these two things 1. Regeneration 2. Vnion with Christ by Faith 1. Regeneration or a New Creature 2 Cor. 5.17 This is absolutely necessary as to Salvation Joh. 3.3 5. so to fit and qualifie men to and for every good work Without Regeneration or being Born again we cannot Believe Repent or Obey the Gospel in a right and acceptable manner Without this change of Nature we cannot love God nor fear God we cannot know him rightly nor worship him Spiritually Joh. 4.23 24. Phil. 3.3 for we cannot Worship him with Reverence and Godly fear until we are partakers of the Divine Nature and of his special Grace to do it withal 2 Pet. 1.4 Heb. 12 28. In our Unregenerate States we are blind and dark Eph. 5.8 Dead in sins Eph. 2.1.5 Enemies to God and Strangers to the Lord Jesus Christ Rom. 5.10 Eph. 2.12 We are Carnal and Vain Hard-hearted and Impenitent Sinners and are shut up in Unbelief Yea we are Haters of God and the power of Godliness and excessive Lovers of Sin and the World and altogether voyd of the Love of God and of real love and pitty to our own Souls Now then it is absolutely necessary that we be Regenerated and Created in Christ Jesus unto good Works Eph. 2.10 for till then we are utterly uncapable of doing them according to the Will of God How then can we receive and partake of the Lords Supper worthily until we are Regenerated and made New Creatures How can we discern the Lords Body 1 Cor. 11.29 and how can we understand the mystery and take in the profit of Christ his Death to our Souls until we are taught of God How can we receive it in Faith and in Obedience to his Will until the Grace of Faith be formed in our hearts and until our hearts are bowed and melted by Grace into the Holy Will of God How can we Worship God and Celebrate this Ordinance with lively hearts whilst we are dead in sins And how can we apply the Seal to that Grace which we have not Therefore I say it is absolutely necessary that all that receive this holy Seal be Regenerated and made New Creatures For how can that Ordinance feed and nourish that which is not in Being namely the New Creature 2. They must be Vnited to Jesus Christ by Faith also They must be in him and have relation to him as living Members to their Head 2 Cor. 5.17 Col. 2.6 Christ must be theirs and they must be his by Faith or they cannot claim him as theirs nor receive any benefit by his Death for else how can they joyn with Christ in his saying Take eat this is my Body which is broken for you 1 Cor. 11.23 24. But I must hasten 2. They must have an habitual worthiness or meetness for the right Receiving and due Celebration of this Ordinance likewise I mean a holy and spiritual ready and accurate frame and disposition of heart to for it they must have their Sight Faith and Love ready in act and exercise or they are not cannot be meet partakers of the Lord's Table It is not only necessary that they be in a State of Justification and Regeneration but they must be also in or qualified with a habitual frame posture and disposition of heart to receive and celebrate it to the Glory of Christ and profit of their own Souls Tit. 3.1 Their Hearts and Graces must be ready fixed and tuned for the work that they be not to seek of them or at a loss concerning them when they should honour Christ with and get the Seal of the Spirit to them Psal 57.7 Psal 108.1 Psal 112.7 This habitual meetness or worthiness qualification or preparation call it which you will is a matter of great weight and moment especially in this matter and therefore you must labour all you can to obtain it 2. There is a practical and actual meetness and preparedness for the worthy and acceptable receiving of the Lords Supper also That is there is something more than ordinary to be done by them in order to their worthy participating of it This practical preparation I shall briefly present to you in some particulars 1. You must examine your selves 1 Cor. 11.28 But let a man examine himself and so let him eat of the Bread and drink of the Cup. And here 1. You must examine your States and try if you be in the Faith or no If you are indeed at least in a well grounded hope and perswasion in a justified and regenerate state and condition 2 Cor. 13.5 2 Pet. 1.10 and to know whether the Lord Jesus and his special Grace be formed in your hearts Gal. 4.19 This must be effectually done
A GOSPEL-CHURCH OR GOD'S Holy TEMPLE OPENED Wherein is shewed from the Scriptures 1. What a Gospel-Church is 2. That such a Church is of Divine Institution 3. With what Materials such a Church should be formed 4. The Form of such a Church and how it should be built 5. The several Officers and Offices in the said Church and their respective Works and Dutys there 6. The Duties of Church-Members to their Officers 7. Their Duties to one another 8. Their Church-Priviledges and several other matters and concernments which may not here be mentioned but may be found in the Epistle all intended for the spiritual profit of Church-Members By Stephen Ford Preacher of the Gospel in London These things I write unto thee that thou may'st know how thou oughtest to behave thy self in the House of God 1 Tim. 3 14 15. Blessed are they that dwell in thy House they will be still praising thee They go from strength to strength every one appearing before God in Zion Psal 84.4.7 London Printed in the Year 1675. THE EPISTLE DEDICATORY To my entirely beloved the Elders Deacons and to the rest of the Church of Christ over whom the Holy Ghost hath made me an Overseer Friends I Am yours and I hope you are Christ's 1 Cor. 3.22 23. You are exceeding dear to me and ly deep in my heart 1 Thes 2.8 Phil. 1.7 and you are my joy and crown of rejoycing especially some of you 1 Thes 2.19 20. Phil. 4.1 Your welfare and happiness is mine your thriving and growing in Grace and in the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ 2 Pet. 3.18 is mine and your standing fast in the Lord and bearing much fruit is my comfort 1. Thes 3.7 8 9. your Tryals and Afflictions are mine and your witherings and languishings are my great afflictions and sorrows 2 Cor. 11.29 Rom. 12.15 whatever some of you may think or say of me yet I can boldly say if I know any thing of my heart that God is my Record how greatly I long after you all in the bowels of Jesus Christ Phil. 1.8 how thoughtful and studious I am to serve you and to promote your present and eternal Blessedness and that by all the wayes and means I can And if I am not succesful in my designs and endeavours it is my burden and I cannot help it I know that Ministers may and ought to plant and water but 't is God that giveth the increase 1 Cor. 3.7 I know that I am weak and I know also that the happy success of good mens labours lies not in or proceeds not from their Abilities but from the Power of God and his Spirit working with and by them or else even a great Prophet Isaiah may say I have laboured in vain Isa 49.4 yet I say my Conscience is my witness that it is my desire aim and endeavour to be faithful to Christ and you and to give all diligence to my work and your service to Preach the word in season and out of season 2 Tim. 4.2 to feed you with the Bread of sound Doctrine and to give to every one their portion of meat in due season I know and believe that the all-seeing-eye of my great Lord and Master is still on me and that I must shortly give unto him an account of my Stewardship Luk. 16.2 how I have performed my work and discharged my Trust to you and therefore I dare not but endeavour to be faithful in my Duty to Him and You. Should any of you suffer loss by any neglect or unfaithfulness of mine the sight and conviction of it would exceedingly afflict me for I do greatly love you I would be eminently Instrumental in nursing educating and building you up in Christ in knowledge faith love peace joy holiness and spiritual consolation unto eternal life and am really afflicted that I can do no more towards the attainment of it and that I am no more successful in what I do I hope you have some clear proofs and evidences of what I have said of my self and endeavours from my practises among you For what other ends can I have in all my labours and spendings but to serve Christ and your Souls especially in and by those that are extraordinary what should I aim at and design in the Monthly Lecture to and with you onely in my Lords dayes fortnights Lecture and in writing this and some other books but your good you know that I have spent my strength in a more than ordinary manner to convince regenerate and educate your Families your Children Servants and other Relations of yours For as I have told you It was for their sakes that I set it up and have continued it many years but how you have esteemed and encouraged it and how your Relations have improved it I leave to all your Consciences to judge But however I have given you a sufficient proof of my love to you and care of them by spending my strength and spirits with and for their good and all unprejudiced persons cannot but acknowledge it I could have sit down as others do with Preachi g to you twice every Lords day and one Lecture in the week-days had I not seen a necessity of doing more and had not my cordial Love to your Souls constrained me to the taking of extraordinary pains with you and for you My ends and designs in the said Monthly Lecture were 1 To acquaint you with and convince you of your duties in the Church and that every one of you might know how to behave your selves in the house of God 1 Tim. 3.15 and what duties were or are incumbent on you there 2 To acquaint you with your Church-priviledges and spiritual advantages that you might value and esteem them own and imbrace them improve and walk worthy of them and that you might be thankful for them 3 That you might know on what bottom you stand in your Church-state and that you might stand there unmovably 4 That you might know your miscarriages in your Church-state and Relation and be humbled for and repent of them in Dust and Ashes 5 That you might know the Evils and Temptations you are lyable to in a Church-state and that you might watch against and avoid them 6 That you might be enabled to answer Gain-sayers and refell their objections 7 That you might look for and expect all the promised good in your Church-state and endeavour the obtainment of it 8 To quicken and provoke you to move and perswade you to all possible diligence care and faithfulness to and in your own Jesus Christ's and one anothers concerns in your Church-state That you might be pleasing to God and profitable to your own and each others Souls in the Ordinances of Christ and in your Vnion and Communion one with another These were some of my ends in setting up that Lecture and which I have with some measure of sincerity of heart carried on though under no small discouragements from within and without And in
much is given much is required and expected and you know how to apply it to your selves 8 Consider what you shall be hereafter and what is now preparing for you in Heaven You have your Race to run and you have a great prize to win 1 Cor. 9. You have a Wilderenss to go thorow and a Heavenly Canaan to possess You are now to fight the good Fight of Faith 1 Tim. 6.12 and you shall be Crowned in the end 2 Tim. 4.7 8. Now you are to Sow in Tears that you may Reap in Joy and now you are to sow and gather Fruit unto Eternal Life Joh. 4.36 and hereafter you shall Reap Life everlasting Gal. 6.8 Your Head and King is gone to Heaven to take possession for you and make ready Mansions of Glory for your Reception and Entertainment Joh. 14.2 3. He will not fail to come again in glorious State and Triumph to fetch you home unto himself and to present you spotless and glorious before his Father with exceeding joy Because he lives namely at his Fathers right hand in eternal glory you shall live there also and you shall be ever with the Lord Joh. 14.3 19. Math. 25.32 33 34. 1 Thes 4.16 17. Eph. 5. Jude 24. You are now of the Church Militant shortly you shall be of and with the Church Triumphant You are intitled to an Eternal Inheritance and shortly you shall be put into the peaceable and joyful possession of it as soon as you are of full Age. Your Names are now enroled among the general Assembly of Believers and Church of the First-born written in Heaven Heb. 12.23 But it will not be long e're you shall be taken in among that Heavenly and Glorious Society where you shall see and know as you are known 1 Cor. 13. 1 Joh. 3. Oh that you would now apply these things unto your selves and rejoyce in the faith and hope of them 1 Pet. 1.8 Oh that you would be looking for and hastening to that blessed Hope and glorious Appearance of your great God and Saviour Jesus Christ Tit. 2.13 2 Pet. 3.12 Oh that you would be stedfast and unmovable and always abounding in the work of the Lord for as much as your labour shall not be in vain in the Lord 1 Cor. 15. ult Now is your working-time hereafter you shall have a rewarding and resting time The one is very short the other Eternal Oh consider how fast your glass is running out and how near you may be at your Journeys end how gray hairs are coming on you and what a great change Death will shortly make among you The Lord Jesus is at work for you in Heaven and you lye deep in his heart and dearest Affections He will send you many Love-Letters by the holy Spirit that shall ravish and greatly rejoyce your hearts if you carry your selves dutifully to and walk pleasantly before him He will open the richest Treasures of his Love and Grace unto you and cause his fountain of pleasures to flow in upon your Souls and after a little while he will instate you into and give you an Eternal weight of glory 2 Cor. 4.17 Oh that I might so run as to obtain so Preach Walk and Minister unto you as to make you fat and flourishing in the House of God and approve my self a faithful Steward of the mysteries of God to you Oh that you who are Ruling Elders and Deacons and are honoured with noble Works and Offices in his House would carefully diligently faithfully and profitably mind your work and do your duty there and that all the Members would mind and practise their works and duties also O what a happy and renowned Church would you then be and what peace you might obtain to your selves thereby Oh! what advantages and opportunities have you all to honour Christ convince the World profit your own Souls and be useful to one another which I do once more entreat you to consider and lay to heart and so walk as to obtain the ends of your Church-state and priviledges And in order thereunto pray read this Book over and over again and that with a single eye and unprejudicate minds Read and ponder welâ— what you read Read and pray for a Blessing from Heaven on your hearts and Read that you may know and practise your Duties therein held forth not that you may find matters to cavil at and except against Receive and use this Book as a Pledge and Testimony of my true and unfeigned Love Respects to you an evidence of my Cordial desires and intentions to promote the everlasting welfare of your Souls Brethren I call Heaven and Earth to witness That in all my ministrations to you in all my writings and doings for and with you I do heartily earnestly and unfainedly seek and design your present and eternal Good your Peace and Vnity your Comfort and Holiness your Growth and Stability in the Grace and Truths of Christ and that you may be a Glorious Temple of God and a Church of Renown for Fruitfulness and Spirituality for Peace Concord and true Holiness Oh! how do I desire it and long to see it And know that what is wanting in my Ability to do you Service shall be made up in Diligence Love and Faithfulness while I live And now Brethren I commend you to God and to the Word of his Grace which is able to build you up and to give you an Inheritance among all them that are Sanctified And shall remain for ever Yours in the Lord Jesus to Love and Serve to his power S. F. ERRATA Candid Reader Thou wilt find many faults committed by the Press which I do entreat thy Wisdom to Correct and thy Charity to pardon seeing they are not the Authors The chief are these PAge 17. line 2. read suffragia p. 20. l. 19. f. either r. other p. 29. l. 34. f. now r. own p. 41. l. 17. r. rooted p. 44. l. 9. f. that r. yet p. 45. l. 5. f. if r. that p. 63. l. 12. put out with p. 64. r. Chapt. 4. p. 88. l. 35. r. gravity p. 121. l. 18. r. and p. 124. l. 34. f. them r. you p. 145. l. 31. r. back-bite p. 150. l. 32. after in r. and p. 177. l 8. r. have p. 201. l. 1. r. handed p. 226. put cause out of l. 7. and r. it in l. 9. p. 236. l. 14. f. in r. about before to r. is p. 238. l. 6. f. and r. as p. 243. l. 2. r. and p. 249. l. 7. r. careless p. 258. l. 1. r. and p. 270. l. 1. f. to r. for p. 271. l. 35. f. but r. for p. 308. l. 10. f. of r. and p. 310. l. 11. after and put in that p. 314. l. 23. r. the l. 35. f. continued r. confirmed p. 315. l. 19. r. to p. 320. l. 9. r. smell A GOSPEL-CHVRCH OR GOD'S Holy Temple A brief Discourse of A New-Testament CHURCH from Ephes 2.19 20 21 22. Now therefore ye are
then the stony Ground would be in as good and safe a condition as the good Ground but the contrary is apparent Matth. 13. and Matth. 7. But it is certain that they are not built on Christ by faith but are vocted in themselves and build their vain hopes on a sandy Foundation Job 8. Matth. 7. and in many other Scriptures is manifest Therefore if there persons are not built on Christ their Church-state is not but upon the Sand. Hence then it follows that only sound Believers are built on Christ and so they are the persons only that Christ will have built up into Holy-Temples because the Churches that Christ builds he himself says he will build upon himself that they may stand inpregnably in all weathers and that is only of such as are united unto him by Faith and have chosen him for their only Rock and Foundation by a lively Faith and not of such as do secretly reject him Obj. If it be said that the Text in Matth. 16. speaks of the invisible Catholick Church I Answer And I am speaking too of the Members of the Catholick Church and say that all particular congregated Churches of Believers are or ought to be such as are united unto and built upon Christ by Faith and that these ought to congregate and become Churches of God and none else and that according unto the directions of the Gospel of Christ and then if they be indeed such that promise in Matth. belongs to them and they shall be secured by it as well as the Catholick Church although they be formed up according to Christs his Institution into particular congregational Churches And although after they are thus formed they may be broken in a Sense and scattered as the Church at Jerusalem was Act. 8.1 yet they are still secured by that promise and have communion with each other in Faith Love tears and Prayers in Judgment and affection The Lord Jesus suffers in name and Glory by the fall of his Churches or such as pretend to be so as he that built his house on the sand is called a foolish man by Spectators Matth. 7. and if Churches should be so built either for want of a good Foundation or good matter or wise and carefull cementing and forming up the materials how greatly will the Wisdom and care of Christ suffer by the Tongues of his Enemies because such Churches took upon themselves the name of Christ and pretended to be his people and to walk by his Laws And as the fall of them will be a Reproach to Christ so it will be matter of grief and scandal to the weak Members of Christ also whether they were in or out of those Churches thus fallen and it will greatly harden the hearts of Sinners against the good ways of God and cause them to think that there is no reality in his Gospel Religion and therefore Christ cannot endure to see his houses fall to the ground but takes care that all that he builds by his Word and Spirit be so built and secured as that the Gates of Hell shall not overthrow them nor by any means prevail against them to destroy them and that because they are founded secured supported by his promise and Spirit I might produce many other Reasons for the proof and confirmation of this Truth that none but real Believers ought to be formed up into a Church of Christ As concerning the priviledges and promises that belong to a Church of Christ There are many of them which may be spoken of on an other head which are two high and glorious for the Inglorious professing Hypocrities and therefore they must be entayled only on the true heirs of them viz. the living Members of Christ and Children of God Hypocrites who refuse to have Christ on his own Terms and who preferr their Lusts before him and their own Righteousnesse before Christs and daily make him a Lyar 1 John 5. have nothing to do with them There is a little Remnant called out of the World to whom they do onely belong and they and only they may claim them as their own Again because only Believers are Christs willing subjects such as have freely put their necks under his Yoke and given up themselves in universal obedience to him and that have heartily chosen him for their Lord and Governour and his Laws for their Rule and practice But it is well known that all other men do reject him and yeild obedience unto the Devil and their Lusts They will have the Lord Jesus bow down to their Terms but they will not come up to his They say as those in Joh. 6.60 this is a hard Yoke who can bear it and therefore although we will professe him that we will not have him rule over us And therefore he doth not call them to partake of the Children of the Kingdomes Bread or to his true Subjects priviledges and Blessings whilest they continue such Moreover only true Believers are Clean and Pure all others are unclean They are strangers to him and his People unwashed and uncircumcized in Ears and Hearts They are not Justifyed nor Sanctifyed nor purged from their uncleannesse by the blood of the Lamb and therefore they may not come near to or touch the holy things of his Church which are holy pure things and sanctifyed unto the holy use of his enchurched-members I would not be tedious and therefore shall wave all further consideration of this matter although I could multiply Reasons to prove that only real true Believers should be Church-Members But I shall speak a few words for the removing of an objection advanced against this Truth which is this But we read of Tares in the field amongst the good wheat good and bad fishes caught in the neet of the Gospel and brought into the Kingdome which is the Church of God as also many evil members in several of the Congregational Churches mentioned in the Scripture and therefore Churches may consist of good and bad men All this may be true and yet the Truth insisted on not at all touched or weakened thereby It is true if there were evil members in those Gospel Churches and they proved evil Members indeed and great afflictions to blessed Paul and the good Members of them But what then ought they to have been there or were they known to be such indeed to the Apostles and other good men when they admitted them were they there by Christs call and with his approbation and allowance although he permitted them to creep in among his People Now unlesse it can be proved that they ought to be there that they were admitted when known to be such as afterward they appeared to be that it was their duty and priviledge while such and that Christ approved there being there I say until that be proved by the word of God we must conclude that they were Vsurpers and had nothing to do in the Churches of Christ I do not discourse of who were in the
save them and that of his meer Grace and Love Joh. 6.37 40. Joh. 10. Joh. 17. Eph. 2.4 That God the Father gave and set his Son the second person in the Trinity to mediate peace between God and Men and to reconcile men to God by his active and passive Obedience That Jesus Christ gave himself and became a propitiation for their Sins That he assumed our nature and took it up into a personal Union with himself whereby there are two natures in one Person by which he was made capable of his Mediatorship That he being God-man in one Person took upon himself our guilt and punishment obeyed the whole Law of God that men had broken and did always do the things that pleased God That when he had finished his active obedience he became obedient unto the death of the Crosse to the wrath of God and curse of the Law Gal. 3.12 Phil. 2. That he really dyed and was buried lay in the Grave and rose again the third day and after forty days he went up into Heaven and sate down on the right Hand of God and that he will come again to Judge the Quick and Dead That he is King Priest and Prophet A King to give Laws unto men and command their obedience to them to rule and Govern his Subjects and to reward the obedient and punish the disobedient That all power in Heaven and Earth is committed unto him and that he is coequally and coeternally God with the Father and holy Spirit As a high priest he dyed and made Atonement for the Sins of his People and sits in Heaven to make Intercession and appear in the presence of God for them Heb. 7.25.9.24 That there are three persons in the God-Head but one God That the Holy Ghost is eternall God was sent into the World came from the Father Son for the elect sake that it is he that regenerates Persons works effectually in their Hearts applies Jesus Christ and all his benefits to men and savingly Convinces his Elect of Sin Righte ousness and Judgment Joh 3.5 Joh. 16.1 8.13 14 15. That all that rightly Believe in Christ shall be saved but those that believe not shall be damned and that all that believe in Christ must be careful to do good Works That Believers are made righteous with the Righteousness of Jesus Christ and that they have none of their own to commend them unto God That God hath made Jesus Christ unto his chosen Righteousnesse wisdome sanctification and Redemption 1 Cor. 1.30 and that they are made the Righteousnesse of God in him 2 Cor. 5. ult That God imputed their sins to Christ and imputes the blood and Righteousnesse of Christ to them and that they are justified thereby and not by inherent holynesse and Righteousnesse That God Loves Pardons Justifyes and Saves men Freely without any respect to their good Works as any cause thereof but all the moving cause without himself is Jesus Christ and his mediation That the Ground and reason of their obedience and doing Good works is the revealed will and pleasure of Christ commanding them and the ends of them are to expresse their thankfulness to God for his Grace and Love to please and honour Him to meet with God and enjoy communion with him to receive of his Grace and the good of many promises To shine as lights in the World and be useful unto men to declare whose and what they are and to lie up for a reward in another World to keep their Lusts under and their graces in use and exercise and to manifest their Respect and Subjection to Jesus Christ his Authority and Law That the Law for the matter of it as qualified by Christ is the Rule and Law of all obedience that all are bound to yield obedience subjection to it That there shall be a Resurrection of the just and unjust That Regeneration is absolutely necessary to Salvation and that without it none can enter into the Kingdome of Heaven Joh. 2.3 5 7. That the Scriptures of the Old and New-Testament contain and hold forth unto men the whole revealed will of God and are sufficient to make the man of God perfect thorowly furnished to every good Work 2 Tim. 3.16 17. and that whatsoever you are to believe and do is contained therein and that it is the ground of their Faith Hope and Practice That Jesus Christ hath instituted and appointed many Ordinances of Worship for his own Glory and his Peoples profit and that all are bound to observe and waite on God in them That all persons are indispensibly bound to mind and carefully to observe the principal manner and end of all their duties and to see that they be right holy and Spiritual indeed and not please themselves with the matter of duty without them That no men can serve God or do any acceptable work unto him until they are regenerate and put into a state of Grace These are some of the matters of Faith that they should rightly in measure understand and believe that are admitted into full membership in the Churches of Christ And these and other Truths must not be notionally lightly and in the general known and believed but heartily powerfully and particularly not for others but themselves or else their faith and knowledge will no way profit their Souls to Salvation 3. They must be qualified also with blameless conversations Their Conversations must become the Gospel Phil. 1.27 or else they are not meet for membership with Gospel-Churches Carnal walkings will not suit spiritual Temples For they will greatly pollute and defile them stain and darken their beauty and Glory Therefore they must not be brawlers or contentious Persons they must not be coveteous and worldly minded vain and frothy Persons They must not be froward and peevish Persons neither must or may they be Defrauders or such as detain others dues carelessy from them nor such as slight the worship of God in their Families or are carelesse of Governing and educating them in good manners and the things of God They may not be such as are known to neglect duties and ordinances in their times and seasons or to have vitious families through their neglects nor any other such kind of persons whose stinking Spirits and conversations are odious to God and his People And therefore whatever their profession be they may not be accepted or received into the holy Temples of God until they have repented of these or any other hateful and scandalous evil in their carriages and walkings 4. If they are such as have chosen the Lord Jesus Christ for their King and head given up and made over themselves to Jesus Christ to live in him and to him have singled him out and set him apart as it were to be the object of their trust Love and delight of their service and obedience If they have chosen and closed up with him upon his own Terms as they hope renounceing and rejecting all their own
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
evil spoken of 13. Be sure to make good and perform all your peremptory promises to men and take heed and beware of breaking them or failing and disappointing men of their just expectations from you for that also will be scandalous and offensive 14. Take heed of taking into a marriage-bond such as are apparently in an unbelieving and carnal state and condition For that also is very offensive to holy serious men although some make light of it 15. Take heed of idleness and slothfulness in your Callings For that will prove a pernitious and scandalous sin to others and your own souls too 16. Take not up a Report against one another that is scandalous nor give an ear unto Tatlers and busie-bodies nor be you busie-bodies in other mens matters your selves For if you do you will give great offence These are some and but some of the scandalous evils that you must carefully avoid as a duty that you owe to God to your Brethren and to your own souls I could have named many more but I find these the most common amongst Professors Now as you must avoid these and other evils mind and practise the said Duties as Church-Members one to another so you must seriously mind the manner reasons and ends of doing them also The reason of your so doing must be the will of Christ your Head and King because he hath so commanded you And the principle of all you do must be love to him and to the souls of your Brethren The ends must be to please honour and exalt the Lord Jesus and to profit and benefit your Brethrens souls and maintain the Credit and Reputation of the Church and the Worship and Ordinances of God therein and to preserve Peace and Purity among your selves The manner must be thus namely wisely dutifully chearfully obediently freely willingly humbly holily seriously diligently sincerely and perseveringly For you should be as careful of doing your Duties to men in a right manner as you are of performing your Duties immediately to God so I can but mention these things because I have exceeded my intentions in others The Lord God bless them to you all CHAP. VIII Of the Ordinances and Worship of God in a Gospel-Church Quest WHat Ordinances of Divine Worship hath God given to and appointed for a Gospel-Church to be observed by them Answ First walking together in constant Cordial Communion and Gospel Order in a Church-state in Brotherly love peace and oneness of spirit in the frequent and joynt Celebration of all the worship and appointments of Christ is certainly an Ordinance of Christ and their Indispensâ—ble Duty as hath been already shewed Believers may not enter their names among Christ's Disciples and then take liberty to do what they please omit or neglect their place and duty there when and how they will and content themselves with having their names enrolled in a Church come among them and go from them at their own will and pleasure No but it is the will and Ordinance of our Lord Jesus that they should constantly and conscientiously in obedience to his holy will abide and continue there holding Communion or Fellowship together as a united and entire body or spiritual Corporation and joyntly with one mind heart and soul observe and celebrate his Ordinances and Worship Heb. 10.24 25. Acts 2.42 44 46 47. Rom. 15.6 1 Cor. 1.10 Secondly Preaching and hearing the Gospel It is true that this is not a special Church-Ordinance or an Ordinance appointed for and given to Churches or to Believers exclusive of all others For it is the great Ordinance of God for the converting quickning and bringing sinners to Christ Rom 1.16 1 Thes 1.5 By this Ordinance God conveys his special Grace and the spirit of Grace into sinners hearts By it he opens blind eyes unstops deaf cars enlivens dead Souls and convinces carnal men of sin Righteousness and Judgments Acts 26.18 Joh. 5.25 Joh. 16.7 8. And by it he turns them from the power of Satan unto God and works them to and for his own use makes them Vessels of Honour and translates them out of the Kingdom of darkness and the Devil into his own Kingdom Col. 1.13 The great Ordinance of Preaching and hearing the Law and Gospel is given and appointed to make fit and prepare sinful men for Membership with Christ his holy Gospel-Churches For until they are moulded and qualified by the word and spirit they are no way capable of either considering what condition all men are in by sinful nature namely dead blind filthy vile hateful enemies to God Children of Satan under the Law the curse and wrath of God strangers to and ignorant of God Christ Grace Duty and Gospel-holiness But although hearing and preaching the word of God be an Ordinance of God to others namely such as are not en-Churched to prepare them for that State and the Duties and Priviledges thereof yet I think it may be called a Church-Ordinance also For the Lord Jesus hath by his soveraign Authority set this Ordinance in his Gospel-Churches and committed the Preaching of it unto men there namely to such as he is said to impower and send to give unto and set among them for the work of the Ministry 1 Cor. 12.28 Acts 20.28 Eph. 4.10 18. Act. 14.23 1 Tim. 5.17 The Ministry of their Pastors and Teachers is their own Ministry and these Officers being given to them by Christ and set in his Churches for their sakes they may call the Ordinance their Ordinance such Officers theirs and their Ministry theirs as having a peculiar Relation to them which is one of the Churches peculiar priviledges and which they ought highly to prize and bless God for Now as some men are gifted impowered and sent out by Christ to convert and turn men to Christ who may not have any Relation to Churches as their Pastors or Teachers so there is the special and peculiar Ministry of Pastors and Teachers given to and set in the Churches whose work and business lyes there and but occasionally else-where to other men Take heed sayes the Apostle to the Flock over which the holy Ghost hath made you Overseers to feed the Church of God Act. 20.28 The ends of these Officers and their Ministry in the Church is not intended for the calling and regenerating of Church-Members for as was shewed they must be effectually called and regenerated before they can be meet Members of a Holy Temple of God but to build up and carry on the work of Grace in their hearts holiness and fruitfulness in their lives and walkings towards God and men To confirm and establish them in the Truth and Faith of Christ which they have received and to instruct and enlighten them further in all Christ's and their own souls concernments This Ordinance of God is intended and designed by the Lord Jesus and it should be so used and managed by all Teachers and Hearers continually to carry on the work of Grace to convey
warm and teach them to melt and soften them to arm and strengthen them to comfort and chear them to water make them fruitful yet how sinfully and shamefully do many of them neglect to come and take to accept and make use of their love and goodness to them but they will rather stand in the streets complaining than come into their Fathers Temples where they may have supplies of wholesome food for their souls The Lord Jesus Christ keeps House in his Churches where he is very liberal in his distributions In them are his Magazins his Treasures of Grace and Love opened There He gives forth his Loves and causes the Fountain to flow for the enriching of the Poor filling the Hungry and satisfying the Thirsty There Souls shall find Food for the Belly and Cloathing for the Back There the weary soul shall rest and the troubled soul shall find peace There the fainting shall find Cordials and the diseased Soul shall find Physick to heal him There the pained Soul shall find case and the weak shall find strength There broken bones shall be set in joynt and doubting souls resolved There they may find the good things they want and desire and there they may obtain satisfaction to their Souls Would they see Zions King and their beloved Lord and Husband in his beauty and glory There they may obtain their desires Would they grow in Grace and increase with the increase of God why there they may obtain it Would they be sealed up to the day of their Redemption and have a clear Earnest of their eternal Inheritance why in a Church-state they may have it In a word there good men may find all good to their souls For God will with-hold no good thing from them who walk uprightly in a Church-state and in all the Commandments and Ordinances of God therein blamelesly Well then if it be your duty to look after to mind and industriously to seek the welfare of your own souls as all will readily acknowledg it is then it will undeniably follow that you ought to seek it in all the ways and means God hath appointed and given to you for that end and purpose Now what other spiritual means have you to expect and seek for such mercies and soul-blessings in where can you expect and hope to find them but in the Temples Houses Walks Palaces and Housholds of your God and King That you need them you know and that there you may find and experience them you may believe Oh! that you would be perswaded to come and see come and tast to come and prove the Truth of what I say If you will not but continue and abide as you are practically slight and neglect the rich provisions that your God and Father hath made for you in his Churches you are never like to thrive and prosper but to continue in and under your Wants Barrenness Ignorance Weakness Doubts and Fears under your Faintings Sadnesses Witherings Troubles of spirit If you will still refuse the means and neglect to come and take the mercies of the New Covenant you will grieve the holy Spirit and provoke him to depart from you and carry away his blessings with him It is your present and eternal good that I seek and intend in what I say and the same end had your Lord God in appointing this condition and making such provisions for you I wonder how Believers can and that they dare live one day out of a Church-state and in the wilful neglect of so many precious and soul-enriching Ordinances and Duties how they can satisfie themselves in their ways and walkings and with what confidence they can draw near to God whilst under so much guilt I wonder how they can call God Father apply the Promises and appropriate to themselves the good of them while they walk so irregularly and disobediently as they do Surely they little mind their own souls concernments or the Name and Honour of Jesus Christ whilst htey neglect to observe so many of his good Laws and Ordinances and to make use of their own purchased Priviledges and that whilst their Souls stand in great need of them Object But we are afraid that we are not fitted and qualified for Church-membership and that we have no right to the Childrens Bread there and therefore we dare not joyn our selves unto the holy Churches of Christ Answ This may be indeed a great case with some and it may be a stumbling block in their way of walking as they ought to do They love Christ and his People his ways and Ordinances but dare not walk in the nearest Fellowship and Communion with them because they think themselves unworthy of their Society and the Ordinances of God among them Now where it is so indeed they sin not as others do who neglect not their duties and priviledges on this account but on other All that I shall say to this sort of Neglecters is 1. That this pretence will not wholly excuse them either before God or Men. For 1. They are no where dispensed with their neglect of duty upon that account or they have no dispensation to neglect to do their duty and wait on God for his grace to better them in his ways and means on that account For if they might on that account be dispensed withal in the omission of their duty and using God's means to better them by the same rule they may neglect and claim a dispensation for the omission of Prayer and other Duties and Ordinances under this pretence that they cannot worship God in Spirit and Truth as God requires all to worship him Joh. 4.23 24. Heb. 10.22 and therefore they may not will not worship him at all 2. It is probable that their fears and scruples arise from the Devils temptations and wiles and from their own guilty Consciences They know that they do not walk with God subdue their Lusts deny themselves and endeavour to know their own states and conditions They carry about accusing and condemning Consciences which the Devil sets in with and works them to his will and design and so they are afraid of God of their duties and priviledges for they might prevent these evils and know in some degrees their states if they would 3. One use and end of Church-fellowship and the Ordinances of Christ therein is to convey into Believers hearts the assurance of their good states and conditions They are appointed and ordained for them to wait for it in them and for the holy Spirit to give and impart it to their Souls there And therefore until they seek for it there they may not expect to find it for if we use not the means how can we hope to obtain the ends of them 4. If their scruples and objections arise from real darkness of mind and tenderness of Conscience without guilt then I advise them to consider and examine what are indeed the necessary qualifications of Church-members and enquire if they are not in
unfruitful under them connive at and indulge any of the said Sins or others like them and dally with Temptations you will certainly rue for it and pull on your heads and hearts many evils troubles sorrows and disquietments many fears and distresses incumberances and confusions You will drive God from you cause him to shut up his loving Countenance from you in displeasure and to write bitter things against you Your own souls are very much concerned in your exact holy diligent faithful and circumspect walking with God in all his ways and Gospel-precepts in your Church-state Therefore do you aim at and seek their good and do you so walk and carry your selves towards God and one another as to promote their happiness 5. Consider call to mind and lay to heart the ends for which you joyned your selves to the Churches of Christ as also the solemn profession and engagement you then made to and before God Angels and Men. Remember that they are all Witnesses for you to what you did when you entred in among them and took on you the serious diligent faithful and constant observation of all the Laws and Ordinances of Jesus Christ in them when you took hold of his Covenant owned the Lord Christ for your Head King and Law-giver and promised to yield him all faithful subjection and obedience For if you forget these things neglect your duties or walk contrary unto God know for certain that he will remember all and will testifie against you yea he will make your own Consciences Witnesses against you Oh consider did you not joyn in Church-fellowship that you might be enriched with Grace be filled with the Spirit built up in Gospel-holiness and that you might perfect holiness in the fear of God 2 Cor. 7.1 Ask your Hearts and Consciences did we not joyn our selves together in a holy band and bind our selves to walk with God unto all well-pleasing in our Church-state and Gospel-relation one to another surely we did Well then do we now indeed keep these things warm on our hearts aim at and prosecute them in good earnest or do we not Did we not aim at intend and engage to get more Acquaintance and Communion with Christ more Acquaintance with our selves and with the Laws Waies and Promises of Jesus Christ and did we not intend and promise to obey him wait on him honour and glorifie him in and by our so doing Did we not intend and aim at the profit of our own souls the good of one another and of all men and that we might be made fruitful in every good work Col. 1.10 Heb. 13.21 That Lusts might be mortified Sin subdued Grace magnified and our Hearts cleansed and purified 6. Consider and lay to heart the many and great encouragements you have to further you to strengthen your hands and animate your hearts to your duty and so walking in your Church-fellowship You have very many helps and inducement to encourage and quicken you so to do Some are past some are present in your hands and some are yet to come O remember how great things the Lord hath done for you that you might be his People and walk as you have heard When you were accursed and condemned to everlasting Destruction 2 Thes 1. He redeemed you He gave himself a Ransom for you took on him your sins and punishment your work and shame your wrath and reproach to take off the Sentence that was past on you remove the Curse from you and bring you out of Prison from the bondages in which you were Isa 5.3 2 Cor. 5. ult Zach. 9.11 He became your Surety took on him your Debts was arrested and cast into Prison Isa 53. and paid the utmost farthing for you and thereby obtained a general Release for you He found you in your blood and then he washed you Ezek. 16. and he found you miserable and pittyed you He found you naked and cloathed you dead and quickened you sick and he healed you He found you blind and he enlightned you fallen and he lifted you up You were weak and he strengthned you in pain and he eased you sorrowful and he comforted you When you were wandring out of the way of peace and happiness he sought you out and brought you back unto himself he set your feet in the right way and spake peace unto you Ever since you were new-born he hath succoured supported supplied and cared for you He hath entrusted and enriched you with Gospel mercies for your maintenance and comfortable subsistance You have had and still have many of his choise Talents in your hand and he never denyed you any good thing But this is not all that you have to encourage you in the practise of holiness but you have many of his Bonds in your hands for your security of what he will further be to you and do for you You have many Earnests Pawns and Pledges of greater things that he will yet do for you He hath engaged to you that he will abide with you and that he will never wholly leave or forsake you Joh. 14.21.23 Heb. 13.5 That he will care for and water you protect exalt and honour you Isa 27.3 Psal 37.34 and make you perfectly holy That he will supply all your wants Phil. 4.19 guide you by his Spirit fill you full of joy and peace by believing perfect the Marriage-Union come again and receive you to himself and instate you in eternal Glory CHAP. XII Of the Lords Supper wherein several questions are answered concerning the nature use and end of it and the necessary qualifications and preparations of all worthy Receivers of it with several other things relating to the Lords Supper I Shall now give you a brief account of the Lords Supper commonly called the Sacrament of the Lords Supper by Learned Men but I shall call it as the Gospel doth the Lords Supper 1 Cor. 11.20 and breaking of Bread Luk. 24.35 Acts 2 42. Acts 20.7 This holy and spiritual Ordinance this great Seal of the Covenant the Lord Jesus hath appoi ted for and given to his Gospel Churches for their souls profit and the manifestation of the glory of his Love and Grace to them Quest What is the Lords Supper Answ 〈◊〉 is a Heavenly Feast or a spiritual Gospel Ordinance instituted and appointed by Jesus Christ for and given to his inchurched Saints to be to them a constant Memorial Sign and Seal of his death and sufferings for them 1. It is a Feast yea it is a Feast of fat things Isa 25.6 and a Heavenly Banquet Cant. 2.4 It is the Spiritual Wedding-Supper made appointed by Jesus Christ for his Spouses where he comes furnishes the Table sits down and eats with them invites them to sit down with him and bids them welcome bids them eat and drink abundantly Rev. 3.20 Cant. 5.1 2 It is a Spiritual Gospel-Ordinance not a Civil or a Carnal and Legal Ordinance such as were ordained for the Jewish Church of old but
it is a Spiritual Gospel-Ordinance for and respecting spiritual things 3. The Institutor of it and that is Jesus Christ him to whom the Father had committed all power and Authority and into whose hand he had given all things Joh. 3.35 Matth 11.27 Matth. 28.18 I say it is an Ordinance instituted by Jesus Christ himself Matth. 26.26 27. 1 Cor. 11.23 For I received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you that the Lord Jesus the same Night in which he was betrayed took bread and when he had given thanks he brake it and said Take eat this is my body which is broken for you this do ye in remembrance of me And mark it it is an instituted and a positive Ordinance and duty not a natural or moral one It is not founded on or put in and among the moral precepts or natural Laws of God but it is meerly an Institution of Christ appointed for and given to his inchurched members and none else And therefore it is not an Ordinance for and the use of it a duty incumbent on Unbelievers and persons dead in sins while they remain in that condition but 't is only appointed and intended for Believers in their orderly walkings with God All men as they are reasonable Creatures are bound to pray to God and to hear his Word preached because they are though not meerly and only so Ordinances and duties of moral worship and not meerly of divine Institution as Baptism and the Lords Supper are but all men are not so bound to participate of the Lords Supper and water Baptism 4. It is said that this Ordinance is appointed for and given to inchurched Saints that is that persons in Christ may and they only can partake of it in the way and order of the Gospel For although their relation to Christ and interest in the Covenant of Grace gives them a fundamental right unto it yet it is their orderly walking together in Church-fellowship under the discipline of Christ the care inspection and government of his Church-Ministers that gives them an immediate and orderly right unto it For we never read of any of the Apostles or other Ministers in their days that did or were allowed to receive it but such as were inchurched That it was by the Apostles direction administred and received in the Churches we often find but never that it was so else-where or by Believers out of a Church-state Acts 2.42 ult Acts 20.6 7. 1 Cor. 11.23 24. compared with 1 Cor. 1 2. And Paul tell the Church at Corinth That the Cup of Blessing which we bless is it not the Communion of the Blood of Christ the Bread that we break is it not the Communion of the Body of Christ For we being many are one Bread and one Body for we are all partakers of that one Bread 1 Cor. 10.16 17. 5. The Matter of this Ordinance is Bread and Wine Luk. 22.19 Matth. 26.26 1 Cor. 11.23.24 Mark 14.25 Matth. 26.29 It is true that it is but carnal matter and that which is common food among men but it is more than Bread and Wine by Christ's Authority and Appointment when they are set apart by the word of Prayer and by Faith dedicated and sanctified to this use and service in the name and by the Authority of Jesus Christ Quest Why is this Ordinance called the Lords Supper 1 Cor. 10.20 Ans 1. It is called a Supper because it was instituted and celebrated at or about Supper-time The Lord Jesus chose that time rather than another as of his Soveraign Authority will and pleasure who may make appoint and change times and seasons as he will so likewise with respect to the Paschal Lamb or the Passover and the time of the Israelites eating thereof which was done in the Night Exod. 12.8 and also that he might abolish and put an end to that Ordinance at that time of its observation by setting this up in the place and room thereof 2. It is called the Lords Supper 1. Because he did personally and immediately institute it administer and eat it himself Matth. 26.26.27.29 2. Because it is appointed and ordained by him to be a constant memorial pledge of his Death and Sufferings Luk. 22.20 But more of this anon 3. Because it is to be received and celebrated in his Name and to his Glory 1 Cor. 11 2â— We read of several things called by his Name as his Day or the Christian Sabbath Rev. 1.10 The Laws and Commands of Christ are so called Joh. 15.10 So likewise we read of the Table and Cup of the Lord 1 Cor. 10.21 So are the Churches and the Teachers of them called by his Name for the reasons before mentioned Quest What is the nature use and end of the Lords Supper or wherefore is it instituted and given to inchurched Saints as it appears it is Ans I shall answer this question in many particulars only in the general I may say that it is instituted ordained and given to the Churches for Christs glory and their spiritual profit 1. But more particularly 1. To be to them a constant sign and memorial of Christs Death and Sufferings for them We are exceeding prone and very apt to forget the Love of Christ and what he hath done and suffered for us which should be matter of shame and sorrow to us But the Lord Jesus in his great love and care to and of his Churches hath provided proper Remedies for these Maladies and hath appointed his Gospel and the Preaching thereof and also Baptism and the Supper to keep alive in their minds and hearts his Death and Sufferings and to be continual signs tokens and memorials of them unto their Souls Rom. 4.11 Luk. 22.19 1 Cor. 11.24 25 26. And as God told Noah Gen. 9.11 17. This is the Token of the Covenant which I have made between me and you I do set my Bow in the Cloud and it shall be for a Token of the Covenant So says Jesus Christ I have entered into Covenant with God in your behalf and in your names to dye and suffer the shameful Death of the Cross for you to redeem you from all Iniquity Tit. 2.14 to wash and cleanse you from the guilt and filth of sin to reconcile you unto God and make you acceptable to him Eph. 5.25 26. 2 Cor. 5.18 19. Eph. 1. This I have done for you I took your sins and guilt your death and punishment on my self by assuming your Nature and substituting my self in your stead and I have paid your Debts made you Righteousness 2 Cor. 5. ult have brought you nigh to God by the Sacrifice of my Life And you may not forget it but have it still in your eyes and hearts Behold I have given you this sign token and memorial thereof Here you shall see by Faith your great high Priest sacrificing and offering up himself to attone divine Justice to appease the wrath of God and here you may see how I was
handled by God and Men for you Here you may see how I was Tortured Reproached Buffetted Scourged Crowned with Thorns Spit upon Hanged Nailed and Crucified Here you may see by Faith my Blood gushing out my Groans Sighs and Tears my Agonies and bloody Sweats and my soul made an Offering for your Sins Here you may see what a horrible and an exceeding great evil Sin is how infinitely God hates it And here you may see my Travels and Torments my Griefs unexpressible Sorrows for you I Dyed that you might Live I was made a Curse that you might be for ever blessed and I was put to Shame that you might be honoured I was made a Man of Sorrows that you might rejoyce and I was punished that you might be released I was debased that you might be exalted and I was scourged that you might be crowned I was condemned that you might be justified and I was slain that you might be saved In this Ordinance you may see a Righteous Man dying and yet under more guilt and punishment than ever man was here you may see a holy man dying as a great yea the greatest of Sinners Here you may as in a glass behold one put to the worst of Deaths for Sin and yet never sinned and here you may see the Lord of Glory murdered by the hands of wicked men In this Ordinance you may see by Faith as in a glass amazing and astonishing wonders the offended Person the Sufferer and the Offender set free The Innocent Surety taken and cast into Prison and the Necent released and set at liberty In a word here you may see the Prison doers sâ—t open for Prisoners to come forth freely Isa 61.1 2. and here you may see all Debts discharged Here you may see Divine Justice satisfied and God reconciled Isa 53. And here you may see sins pardoned and the Book crossed Here you may see the fountain of eternal Love opened to Sinners and God well pleased and here you may hear God saying Deliver them for I have found a Ransom Here you may see Truth and Mercy Justice and free Grace meet in that one Glorious Mediatour and here you may see God and Men in perfect peace and friendship Here you may see the everlasting Love of God streaming forth to you and here you may see the Grace of Christ flowing out to you Here you have a Token Sign and Memorial of it before your eyes that you may look on these things with great delight with joy and rejoycing and with admiration and thanksgiving Here you will read heart-ravishing matters and here you may see adorable objects This Ordinance sets forth the Love of God the Misery of Man the Grace of Christ and a Crucified Jesus to the life In it you may be even swallowed and lost for it holds out to you heights depths breadths and lengths of infinite free and adorable Love and Grace 2. The Lords Supper is a seal and pledge to inchurched Believers also It is not appointed for and given to them to be a sign token and memorial of God's Love and of the Grace and Death of Christ only but to be a seal and pledge to them too So the Apostle Paul tells us that the Ordinance of Circumcision was a Seal of the Righteousness of Faith that is of Christ the great object of Faith Rom. 4.11 Circumcision and the Passoever were the Isralites Seals and Baptisme and the Lords Supper are the believing Gentiles Seals Seals are appointed and made use of among men to ratifie and confirm their Contracts Covenants and Promises to men whereby they are made firm and irreversible Now the great God in allusion to the practises of men is pleased in his abundant Grace and Mercy not only to covenant and promise his greatest mercies to men but for their satisfaction and encouragement to seal them and thereby to ratifie and confirm them He need not to have done so upon his own account but he doth it only for our sakes Now I judge the Lords Supper Seals thus 1. First to the truth and reality of the Covenant and to the Blood of it namely Christ's which is called the Blood of the everlasting Covenant Heb. 13.20 and 2. To the Faith and Consciences of particular Saints That is it seals to them their right unto and interest in the Covenant of Grace the Blood of Christ and to all the benefits of his mediation and mercies of the Covenant But the first thing or matter it seals to is the truth and reality of the Covenant on God's part if I may so express it It pleased God to determinate and chuse to save men by Covenant or in a Covenant-way And this good pleasure of his took place in the bosom of his eternal Counsels before all time which Covenant of Grace was made with Jesus Christ in Eternity Tit. 1.2 2 Tim. 1.9 Prov. 8. Eph. 1.4 but was made manifest in time unto men 2 Tim. 1.10 To them he gave Copies and Transcripts of it at first to Adam in Paradise Gen. 3.17 and afterwards to Noah Abraham and others until the promised Seed came when the whole of it was opened and unfolded In this Covenant God promised to give his Son Jesus Christ to and for men Isa 42.1.6 to make his Soul an offering for sin that he should see his Seed and of the travail of his Soul and that the pleasure of the Lord should prosper in his hand Isa 53.10 11. And the Lord Jesus he engaged to come and fulfil all the will of his Father for them that were given to him For so David and Paul bring him in speaking of himself in Psal 40.6.7 8. Heb. 10.6 7 8 9. In Burnt-offerings and Sacrifices for sin thou hadst no pleasure then said I Lo I come to do thy Will O God and a Body hast thou prepared me c. David spake of him as to come but Paul as already come and all in pursuance of the old Contract and Agreement in Heaven but I cannot inlarge on this But I say that Christ came and did the Will of his Father by virtue of the eternal Covenant between the Father and Him as I could shew at large had I room and time to do it Hence he tells us by Solomon in Prov. 8. that his delights were with the Sons of men from the beginning That he came down from Heaven to do the Will of him that sent him Joh. 6.38 That he kept his Fathers Commandments Joh. 15.10 That He finished the work the Father gave him to do Joh. 17.4 And appeals to his Father in the case yea to his Righteousness and demands of him his promised Reward Joh. 17.4 5 24. God the Father promises to be well pleased with him and his Offerings and in him with those he mediated for That they should be pardoned healed justified washed and sanctified and that they should be accepted Eph. 1.6 That if Christ would be made sin for them they should be made
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
his Glory Isa 46.13 and that because they were a Church of his own planting and a Covenant people and for Abraham Isaac and Jacob and the little Remnant sake of Believers that were amongst them and who glorify him indeeed in Truth God bestows his Grace stamps his Image and infuses his Holynesse into men to meeten them for his Temple and Temple-work and then formes and sets them up in his own beauty and Glory in a Church-state that there as a Body compact they may shine forth to his Glory and praise in the World As many glittering daimonds in a gold Ring do shine more gloriously upon a mans hand than a hundred times so many more scattered up and down here and there would do so a company of men which are made pretious stones fitted for a House of God being well and orderly set in a Church-state or in a House of God do shine more gloriously there than many more can do in a single and individual capacity and standing alone to the honour and glory of God 3. God Institutes and builds Believers into Spiritual Houses for his peoples Spiritual profit and advantage that God may there Impart his Loves Cant. 7.12 and communicate his grace Truths and Counsels unto them as to his avowed and publique houshold and family Eph. 2.19 Christ Walkes and God the Father Dwells there the Holy Spirit Speaks to them in an especial and frequent manner Rev. 2.1 2 Cor. 6.16 Rev. 2.7.11 c. And assuredly Jesus Christ does not walk nor God the Father dwell there empty handed but distributes plentifully of their Love and fullness As great princes where they go and lodge they will give like themselves unto the houshold Servants and much more will God as some can and more may experience The Church-enjoyments of serious holy men are the fairest fullest clearest and strongest of all they have at any times and that because God dwells there as in his holy and delightful Temple and walks there as in his pleasant Gardens and Walks and where God mostly Dwells and Walks and takes most pleasure there he imparts most of his Love and Grace It is said in 1 Kings 8.10 11. That the Glory of the Lord filled the House of the Lord so that the Priest could not stand to Minister because the glorious presence of God was so exceeding great there and his distributions of Love and Grace to Solomon and other Saints so many and great as that the people went home joyfull and glad of Heart vers 66. and in the 2 Chron. 7.16 says God speaking of the Temple mine Eyes and mine Heart shall be there perpetually Now if God did so now that material Temple made of Wood and Stone as to manifest his Glory so much there impart so richly of his Love and Grace to his people and promised to dwell there continually how much more will he do so unto his New-Testament Churches of Believers They shall find that prophetical promise made good to them in Psal 102.16 When the Lord shall build up Zion he shall appear in his Glory Besides a Church-state is a safe as well as a thriving comfortable state for a Church of Christ rightly and duely formed and made up is a Garden enclosed Cant. 4.12 a Spring shut up a Fountain sealed or barr'd Whilst Wood and Stones lie scattered abroad they may be stollen and carried away from the owner so while Believers walk apart and lie up and down scatteringly they are in great danger of being seduced and lead away from Christ with some of the errors of the wicked and so in measure full from the Truth of Christ 2 Pet. 3.17 but now in a Church-state or formal House of God they are safer and more secure because there they are hedged in with the discipline of Christ there they are watched over by their fellow-members and by the Officers of Christ who are their overseers and watchmen there they are as in the orderly Instituted Family or houshold of Christ in the way and walks of Christ and under the Eye and with the special presence of Christ Whilst an Army of Souldiers walk as single and individual Persons scattered abroad they lie open to destruction by their Enemies but when they are formed up and walk together under officers and military discipline every one knowing his place and keeping it knowing the commands of their General and observing them they are safe and ready to defend themselves and offend their Enemies Particular and rightly constituted Churches of Believers are like an Army with Banners Cant. 6.4 10. marching under the constant conduct of Jesus Christ their Captain General Eph. 1.22 23. Heb. 2.10 4. They are formed and set up by Jesus Christ to be the only Seats and Subjects as of his glorious presence so of his Laws Ordinances Power and Authority that they might receive observe and obey his Laws declare before all men their owning of him for their Lord by their open and publique profession of and subjection unto him as such and that by their distinct and singular following of him in incorporated Bodies they might manifest to all men that they are his Subjects and disciples that they have chosen him for their Lord and King and his Law for their Rule and Obedience that they are not their own but his and that they have taken up in him as in their happiness and eternal Blessedness Col. 2.6 1 Cor. 6.19 20. 2 Cor. 5.15 That they are called out of the World Joh. 15.19 and set apart by his Grace for himself to live unto him and that they have taken upon themselves his holy Yoke and the observation of all his Laws So likewise that his subjects might with one mind and mouth together present their service and homage unto him as their only Lord Head and King For Churches as Churches or Believers walking according to his appointment and direction in Churches are capable of his holy Supper that glorious Pledge and Seal of his Love and Grace to them it is called the Communion of the Body and Blood of Christ 1 Cor. 10.16 and says the Apostle to the particular congregated Church at Corinth we being many are one Bread and one Body vers 17. That great ordinance of the Lords Supper is not given to Believers as such only but unto Believers as in a Church-state or incorporated into a Body or Communion together having the name form and order of a Church of Christ and House of God The Israelites were not to permit any to Eat the passover until they became members of their Church Exod. 12.47 48. Neither will Christ Jesus have any to Eat his Supper out of a Church-State where and when they may have it in a Church-State And as was noted before it is observable that almost all the principal Doctrines and Laws of the New-Testament are given and directed unto the Churches or to Believers as inchurched as also Teachers and Ruling Elders are provided for and given
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
their hearts so to pray and wait Psal 10.17 Rom. 8.26.27 or they could never have so done it It was God that enabled them to lie down and submit their wills and judgments to his It was God that enclined their hearts to one another and that knit them together in Love so as to chuse and accept of each other in that holy Relation and it was God that made their way plain before them And now what hinders why they should not freely unite and joyn together in the Lord and walk together as heirs of the Kingdome Eleventhly All things and matters in order to their Union and Communion together and becoming a house or Church of God and walking together as Officers and Members in that State and Relation being thus prepared and made ready for it They should now appoint and mutually agree to set apart a day to perfect and compleat what is so well begun And first they should call in the help and assistance of some other Church or Churches especially the Elders of them if they can that they may see and be satisfied of their proceedings and give them the right hand of fellowship Gal. 2.9 and assist them in the solemn setting apart of their Elders and help them with their Prayers 2. They should seek the Lord by fasting and prayer and entreat him in an extraordinary manner to be with them guide and direct them bless and prosper them in their proceedures and in an especial manner for the Elder or Elders they are about to chuse and in the Lord to set over themselves to feed them and take the oversight of them That God would give them a double portion of his Spirit and furnish them more abundantly with his gifts and special grace and make them able Ministers of the New-Testament That God would knit their hearts so fast together in the bond of love as that they may for ever live together in hearty love and peace and that they may freely constantly and chearfully perform their respective duties to one another according to the will of Christ And this being done they should now proceed to chuse and set apart their Elders I mean the Church should appoint one of their Brethren to express and declare that they have and now in a more solemn manner do elect and chuse out such a person or persons from among themselves Acts 6. to be their Elders and Teachers to rule seed watch over and Minister to them in the name of the Lord as persons fitted and sent to them by Jesus Christ for that end and purpose as they humbly judge and further they may declare that they do thankfully and cordially receive and accept them for their Elders as the gift of Christ unto them for those ends and services And when the said Elders are thus chosen and set apart as also ordained then they may declare their hearty acceptance of the choice and of the Church as their charge And for their mutual satisfaction and strengthning their hope and expectation of and confidence in each other as also for the faster knitting the Church and Elders together I think it convenient if not necessary that they do mutually promise and covenant to one another before God and men that they will really and unfeignedly perform their respective works and duties one to another Namely such as Jesus Christ requires of them according as he requires And when these things are done it may be convenient that the Officers or Messengers of other Churches that are present do declare that they approve of what is done by them and own them as a Church of Christ and their Elders now set over them as the Elders and Officers of Christ Now that the Church Congregated by the will of God have power to chuse and approve of all the Officers that Jesus Christ hath given them hath been shewed before and therefore I shall say nothing of it here but proceed Quest What is the work of Pastors Teachers or Elders in a Church of Christ or for what ends and purposes hath Christ set them there Answ First Their work is and they are set in the Church by Jesus Christ to Preach his word and to open and make known his mind and will unto them and as they have opportunity and ability to reveal the whole Counsel of God Acts. 20.27 28. They are to Preach the word of God not their own or others fancies and conceits and that diligently sincerely frequently and faithfully 1 Pet. 2.2 2 Cor. 2.17 Prov. 27.23 Acts. 18.25 Math. 24.45 This they must do in season and out of season 2 Tim. 4.2 They are to feed Babes with Milk and men or grown Christians with strong Meat Heb. 5.12 13 14. 1 Cor. 3.1 2. That is to Administer and apply suitable and proper Truths to them according to their capacities and conditions They must earnestly beseech and entreat as they see occasion 2 Cor. 5.20 2 Cor. 6.1 Reprove and rebuke Transgressors with all Authority 2 Tim. 4.2 Tit. 2. ult They are to comfort the feeble-minded and support the weak 1 Thes 5. They must study the Word and their Churches Souls cases and conditions that they may rightly divide and present unto them seasonable food and physick cordials and corrisives for they will need all 2 Tim. 2.15 and thereby make full proof of their Ministry 2 Tim. 4.5 This they must do publickly and privately as they have opportunity and ability and that with all possible patience wisdom and meekness 2 Tim. 2. ult Secondly As they must so attend to their Preaching work in the Church so likewise to their ruling work They have the Office power of Preaching and ruling from Christ not from the Church or any other persons whatsoever for they only elect call and set them apart to the exercise of that Power and Authority that Jesus Christ hath given them all which they are to exercise and make use of in the Church for their spiritual benefit and the glory of Christ That they have the power of rule as well as of labouring in the word and Doctrine is clear 1 Tim. 5.17 Let the Elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honour especially they namely such as have the ruling power also who labour in the word and Doctrine Which said ruling power consists in requiring attention in charging commanding appointing rebukeing and reproving in calling together the Church and dismissing them in requiring speech and silence in ordering and disposing of matters in the Church in an authoritative way examining matters and calling persons to an account and in admitting Members and executing the Laws of Christ on offenders in the Church c. 1 Tim. 4.11 2 Tim. 4.2 Titus 1.13 Tit. 2.15 Math. 24.45 To this part of their work office and power they must attend in the wise seasonable exercise of it as occasion is or may be offered without this authority of ruling from Christ they will be but lame Ministers and never able to carry on
they are sent Authorized Graced Gifted and qualified by Christ do his work represent him stand in his stead 2 Cor. 5.20 and as they are his Ministers for good to you Well then mind your duty and the will of Christ in this matter and love them sincerely and heartily strongly and fervently fruitfully and constantly for they love you study pray and labour to do you good And know that if you do not love them you do not love Christ whose they are whom they represent and serve And if you hate slight and despise them you do hate slight and despise Christ himself in them Secondly It is the will and appointment of Christ your duty to honour and respect to reverence and esteem them in their faithful diligent discharge of their Trust and performance of their work amongst you They are the Embassadors and Commissioners of your great Lord and King and sent by him from Heaven to you as was shewed 2 Cor. 5.20 Eph. 4. and that about most high and honourable work yea the highest work and service that Creatures are capable of in this World They come from and are sent to you by the King of Kings from Heaven and therefore they must be honoured They are his Embassadors and Commissioners and therefore you must honour them They are sent and come to you as with his Image of Authority so of Grace Gifts and Holiness and therefore you must honour them They are sent by Christ to you on and for the service of your Souls and therefore you must honour them and they represent Christ and stand in his stead to you and therefore you must honour them They do give up themselves to be your servants and thereby do honour you 2 Cor. 4.5 and they chearfully serve the interest of your Souls as your spiritual servants and therefore you must honour them Christ requires you to esteem them and that is not all but to esteem them highly yea very highly too 1 Thes 5.13 and therefore you must do it Christ will not suffer you to slight or despise them no more than Kings will endure that any should slight or despise their Embassadors If you have low base thoughts of them in your hearts you slight and despise them If you slight and despise their labours and administrations you despise them If you villifie and speak slightingly of them behind their backs and devulge their supposed or real weaknesses you despise them If you carry your selves saucily and imperiously before their face in words deeds or deportments you slight and despise them and if you controul them and disregard their Judgments Censures Admonitions or Reproofs you slight and despise them when you turn a deaf ear to their Counsels Instructions and Exhortations you slight and despise them and when you disregard their power Authority and their exercise thereof in the name of Christ you slight and despise them In these and many other wayes and instances Church-Members do not only neglect their indispensible duty of honouring their Teaching-Elders but they do slight and despise them also And they do not only slight and despise them but as was said the Lord Jesus his Laws Image work and Authority also For he that despiseth you despiseth me says Christ Luk. 10.16 And by these and such like slighting and contemptible words and carriages towards them they do greatly provoke and discourage them they weaken their hands and distract their minds and so hinder them in their work They are honoured by Christ and honourable in his eye and he strictly charges and commands his Churches to esteem them most or very highly and to give them double honour 1 Tim. 5.17 Let the Elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honour especially they who labour in the word and Doctrine Give says the Apostle to every man his due fear to whom fear honour to whom honour Rom. 13.7 It is their due by the Law of Christ and he expects you should give it to them not as they are such or such men but as his Embassadors Ministers c. Thirdly It is the will and appointment of Christ that Churches should pray for their Pastours or Teaching Elders and that in a more than ordinary manner and measure I mean more than they do or are bound to do for others 1 Thes 5.25 Heb. 13.18 Rom. 15.30 you must be earnest and importunate wrestlers with God at the Throne of Grace for them that God would pour out abundance of his holy spirit on them and by his teachings quicknings and anointings make them able Ministers of the New Testament not of the Letter only but of the spirit 2 Cor. 3.6 That they may open their mouths boldly have the gift of utterance and speak the Truth sincerely clearly impartially and constantly make known the mystery of the Gospel Eph. 6.18 19. Col. 4.3 That they may be kept from Snares and Temptations or be enabled to encounter them and with the Sword of the spirit to overcome and conquer them and that they may be eminent shining lights in the world That they may be able to divide the word aright diligent in and faithful to their Trust That they may be wise zealous and glorious Patterns of Piety all Godliness and be kept unspotted of the world and that they may abound in all grace gifts works of holiness and righteousness That they may Preach powerfully and profitably and in all their wayes words and carriages adorn the Gospel of Christ Tit. 2.10 That they may be found in the faith of the Gospel and hold fast the profession of the faith without wavering Preach sound Doctrine clearly plainly and closely Tit. 2.1 and in all things approving themselves the true Ministers of Christ That God would give them the spirit of Discipline and Government for the order and well being of the Churches and the orderly management of their concerns and that they may in all things walk by their Lords Rules and aim at design and uprightly intend his glory and the profit of his people and all others that hear them There are many reasons inforcing this duty on them to your Pastours I le name a few 1. Because it is the will of God that you should do so as the aforesaid Scriptures shew 2. Because they stand in need of your earnest prayers If the Apostles themselves did stand in need of the Churches prayers much more must ordinary Teachers need them Their work is hard and difficult who is sufficient for it 2 Cor. 2.16 Their discouragements are many and great and their Temptations many strong and powerful They have mysteries to unfold continually and they have stronger Temptations to grapple with all than others have therefore they should have your strongest and most importunate prayers Little do Churches know what they see feel and experience in their work and therefore are apt to imagine that their Teachers have an easie and sweet life of it and stand in little need of their assistance But surely they
well as they Let your love to them and esteem of them be seen in this as well as in other expressions of them For it is your duty so to do as it is your duty to forbear whatever may discourage them and do all you can to encourage and forward them in their work But be sure that your visits be not in vain but to spiritual profit And that they are indeed the fruits of your cordial love to and esteem of them or else they are no better than painted Images and whited Sepulchres and you will appear to be no better than Ezekiels hearers were to him who with their mouths did shew much love but their hearts were of another mould Ezek. 33.30 ult 4. Stand by them and help to bear their burdens when you know them and they require your assistance Bear ye one anothers burdens and so fulfil the Law of Christ Gal. 6.2 If you know them fall into or under any Sin or Temptation set your hand to lift them up again If they fall under afflictions help to bear them for them Be like the good Samaritan in this matter Luk. 10. and not like the cruel Priest and Levite who saw the wounded man lay weltring in his blood and crying out of his wounds and left him to shift for himself 31.32 verses no but shew your selves good Samaritans who simpathized with and actually helped him in his distress according to his need If your Ministers must simpathize with you and help you in your needs then you must do the same to them Shew bowels of love and pity to them and set your hands and shoulders too to help them under their Sins Temptations and other Tryals and Afflictions and if possible to lift them out of them Are they reproached help to bear their burdens Are they persecuted by men help to bear their burdens And do the like in all other weighty cases for them Oh! how many are there who pretend highly for Heaven but care not what becomes of their painful Ministers Who can hear of their troubles and sorrowes and Galio like care for none of these things nor seriously mind whether they sink or swim but like Pauls pretended friends who when they saw him in deadly danger forsook him 2 Tim. 4.16 and left him to stand or fall by himself 5. Blame not their Ministry to one another especially behind their backs neither slight and undervalue their gifts graces or any of their endeavours and labours in and for the Church although they may not in all things suit or please your humours thoughts or opinions For they are bound in their Administrations to please Christ and follow their own light and judgments their perswasions and consciences in all things for the Churches edification and not to walk according to the judgments will and pleasure of their Church-Members either in their Doctrine or Discipline And those Churches that will impose their own apprehensions and opinions on their Pastors or Elders and load them with burdens of work and duty which the Lord Jesus never commanded them are in their so doing no less than Tyrannical-Usurpers over them For if Elders may not impose any thing or matter on the Churches but the yoke and will of Christ much less may the Churches impose their own opinions on their Elders We say that it is too hard a matter for any man to please all men and experience shews that it is as hard a matter for any Elders of Churches to please all their Members but that one or other will be offended at this another at that and then divulge their dislike of this or that in them unto others and endeavour to bring them into dislike of it also And then to make it their business to tattle and talk of it one to another until they have run themselves into further mischiefs Therefore Ministers may no further seek to please their Churches then in and by their so doing they may please Christ their Lord. And what that is I should think that their Elders should understand as well if not better than they Paul sought not to please men but God in his Ministry Gal. 1.10 Some Professors do delight themselves in this evil work namely in seeking matters and making faults against their Elders and then possess others with their own inventions and if they do not gratifie and please them in all things they shall be sure to please them in nothing All their works are blame-worthy in their account But as this shews that they are acted by a Spirit of Pride and prejudice against their Elders so they do thereby declare their own folly and lay open their own nakedness with a witness yea they dishonour Christ hinder the profit of their own and others Souls by their so contemning his and their Ministry and greatly grieve and stumble their Teachers and cause them to walk up and down with sad hearts Therefore do you take heed and beware of this evil for the Devil will tempt you to it that he may hurt your Souls afflict your Teachers and hinder the Gospel you should commend and esteem whatever is their vertue whatever you may see lovely in them and if you see any defects or unavoidable weaknesses in them to cast a mantle of love over them and by all means endeavour to keep up in each others hearts a due esteem of and respect unto them and their Ministry that the Gospel be not hindred but furthred and encouraged by your means 6. Joyn with your Teachers and that by affording them your Concurrence and utmost assistance in their endeavours to promote good things in for the good of the Church and do not hinder or load such overtures designs and endeavours of your Ministers by your absence groundless disputes or by your sullen silence there When they propound any matter to you for your profit and the welfare of your Souls the peace and prosperity of the Church or the benefit of others then weigh and ponder well the reasons which they give for what they do or desire should be done or omitted by themselves or the Church or altogether and if you cannot null and answer them or bring better for the contrary then you should quietly thankfully and peaceably accept of theirs acquiesce in them and encourage them in their design and not put difficulties in the way by some singular notions of your own Do as Nathan did when David propounded a case to him and told him that it was meet God should have a house built for his Name and Worship and gives him some reason for his proposition Nathan replyes Go do all that is in thy heart 2 Sam. 7. He saw it a most reasonable and useful an undertaking and freely complyed with David and encouraged him to go on and proceed WHy should not you comply with your Teachers when they design and propound some good work to be carried on for the glory of Christ and benefit of his Church or other men and
body as may be seen in the primitive Churches Now Discipline is appointed by Christ to heal and cure them and without it the body cannot be healthful and continue in a good condition but botches and plague-sores will break forth 2 Cor. 10.8 Mat. 18.15 16 17 18 19. Rom. 12.6 7 8. 1 Cor. 5.4 5 7 13. Gal. 6.1 2. These are some of the principal Institutions or Ordinances of Christ in his Gospel-Churches which they should seriously mind diligently and faithfully observe continually to the glory of Christ and their Souls profit CHAP. IX Of the priviledges of a Gospel-Church or the singular priviledges and spiritual advantages Believers have or may enjoy in a Church-state and Relation Quest WHat are Believers priviledges and spiritual advantages in a Church-state or as enchurched and embodied together Answ There are many and great priviledges and Soul-advantages for Believers in a Church-state which they may enjoy and improve to the promoting of their present and eternal happiness Solomon tells us That two are better than one Eccles 4.9 10 11 12. So many knit together in a holy Band for mutual profit are in a far better condition than when they walk singly and alone In Gen. 2.18 it is said that it is not good for man to be alone I will says God make him a help meet for him So God knowing our frame Psal 103.14 and what need we have of spiritual Union and Communion one with another he hath in love and mercy in his great pity tenderness and compassion to us appointed and ordained a Church-state and Relation for us that we might walk together in holy Brotherly love and oneness of heart serve him with one consent Eph. 3.9 and carry on a common mutual interest together in his fear First Believers in a Church-state shall have much more of the presence of Christ with them than while they walk in a single capacity as so many individual persons without a near Church Union and Communion without their holy Band and perfect joyning together in the same mind heart and affection 1 Cor. 1.10 How often doth the word of God inform us of this pray read and mind consider and lay to heart these Texts Rev. 2.1 unto the Angel of the Church of Ephesus write these things saith he that holdeth the Seven Stars in his right hand who walketh in the midst of the Seven Golden Candlesticks Mark it he doth not say that he calleth and looketh into them noâ— but he walketh in his Churches in their walking with him And Paul tells us in 2. Cor. 6.16 That God hath said I will dwell in them and walk in them namely in the particular Gospel-Church at Corinth formed of Saints and Sanctified in Christ Jesus 1 Cor. 1.2 2 Cor. 1.1 which is undoubtedly the priviledge of all other Gospel-Churches of the Saints Psal 9.11 Sing praises to the Lord which dwelleth in Sion And in Psal 132.13 14. says David for the Lord hath chosen Sion he hath desired it for his Habitation This is my rest for ever here will I dwell for I have desired it To which last recited Texts with many other of like import the Apostle alludes Eph. 2. ult In whom you also are builded for a Habitation of God For what end are they built up together why it is for God to dwell in These are a few of the many Texts that speak of and plainly declare this to be one of the great priviledges of Gospel-Churches And it is no small one but very great and full of inviting and encouraging force and efficacy to draw and perswade all true hearted Nathaniels to joyn themselves to them and walk in and with them and to provoke and stir up all Church-members to walk and carry themselves so towards God Christ their head and towards one another as to enjoy and experience the good and sweetness of it and cause not to obstruct and hinder God and by unworthy carriages to God to withdraw himself from them and deprive themselves of so great and glorious a priviledge 2 Chron. 15.2 It is not enough that you are in a true Gospel-Church to possess you of this priviledge but you must walk and demean your selves in that state according to his will you must walk therein as becomes the Gospel of Christ and in heart and practise Conform unto his Laws and appointments that your Father head and King may delight to dwell with and walk among you as in his holy Temple For he is in his holy Temple Psal 11.4 Eph. 2.21 Oh! remember that God is great and greatly to be feared in the Assembly of his Saints and to be had in reverence of all that are about him Psal 89.7 and consider how great a priviledge this is Secondly A true Gospel-Church or Believers inchurched are and shall be priviledged with more of Christ his Graces Spirit and benefits than others Christ will impart and distribute more fully and richly to them of his riches of love and grace when they carry themselves obediently to him in a Church-state than when they walk as individual and single persons His hand and heart shall be opened wider to them and he will abundantly bless them when orderly walking in his holy Temples They may hope expect and wait for great things from him in his holy walkes Gardens and Galleries And that First because he dwells there There he dwells and walks as you heard before and be sure where the King of glory keeps his Court and place of residence where he makes his abode and that with greatest delight and complacency as he doth in his Gospel-Churches there he will communicate and impart most of his riches and choicest loves and favours The consideration of which made David so earnest and importunate in his desires and prayers to be in the house of God which he preferred much above and beyond all other good in the world Psal 63.1 2 3 5. Psal 84.1 11. Psal 27.4 There he knew that God would meet him and he should meet God There he expected to find the fullest clearest comfortablest and the most constant presence of God and there he expected to obtain and enjoy his love and favours also for God is great in Zion Psal 99.2 namely great in glory praise renown and in the distributions of his favours 2. Because they ly in the way of them and wait at wisdoms gate and at Bethefda's-Pool Believers in a Church-state are waiting on and for their Lord and King and for his favours and blessings in the way and ways he hath commanded them and appointed to bless them in And therefore their receivings must needs be more abundant from him Psal 133. ult As the dew of Hermon and as the dew that descended upon the Mountains of Zion for there the Lord commanded the blessing even life for evermore Every Ordinance of Christ is as a full Brest golden Pipe and Honey-Comb which conveys and yields abundance of Milk and Honey of Cordials and water of life
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
respected by us This General includes many particular and subordinate ends which in pursuance and obtaining of the General we must have in our eyes and hearts in our walking in this state and relation I shall not mention them here but refer you to the next foregoing Chapter where you may find several of them Onely I shall add that you must sincerely and unfainedly keep these and all other Gods holy Ends in your eyes and hearts and pursue them with all your might until you have obtained them to the highest degree you may You must hold Communion together for these ends and you must discourse one with another hear the Word Preached Pray Sing and receive the Lords Supper together for these ends You must wrestle with God in secret quicken and provoke one another and prepare your hearts that you may so enjoy Ordinances and worship God together as to obtain them in the House of God Thirdly Church-members must walk humbly with God Micah 6.8 They must have a watchful eye against Heart-pride and being great in their own eyes because of their greatr Piviledges high Dignities their nearness to God and the distinguishing Character that is upon them All your glorying must be in God not in your selves or Priviledges 1 Cor. 1. ult for all you have is but lent you A humble heart and lowly spirit is a Jewel of great account in Heaven To such a person God looks with delight and complacency Isa 66.2 To him he gives more grace and fills his soul with good things 1 Pet. 5.5 Luk. 1.53 The meek and humble-hearted he will teach Psal 25.9 The lower any are in their own eyes the higher is God there The more humble-hearted any man is the more excellent and glorious he is the more like the most renowned Worthies in Scripture yea the more like Christ himself Matth. 11.29 The more humble and lowly any man is the more capable he is of Communion with God and of being enriched with his Grace and Truth If you indulge the Pride of your hearts or countenance Self-conceitedness in your selves you will grieve the holy Spirit and cause him to forsake you For as a humble heart gives God his due so a proud heart robs him of it and takes it to himself A humble heart is a growing thriving and profiting heart it will make happy earnings of all Gods Dispensations He that is of a meek and humble spirit is a gainer by all Providences is bettered by all Occurrences He gains by the Rod and also by the Word he gains by Losses Crosses Tryals Temptations Poverty Reproaches so likewise by Prosperity Honour Riches and all other smiling Providences If he loose without he gains within therefore you ought to put on as the Elect of God holy and beloved humbleness of mind towards God 1 Col. 3.12 as well as humble carriages towards men as you heard before For God loves to keep company with humble persons Fourthly Live by Faith on your God and Father on your Head and King and expect in the way of your duty and obedience to his Commands all the fulness of Christ and blessings of the Covenant Do not give place to distrusts doubts and fears or imagine that God will forget you or deny you that which he hath promised because of your personal unworthiness Consider that he hath called you into fellowship and formed you into holy Corporations put you under his Ordinances and made you his Housholds brought you into Order and set you near unto himself that he might visit you and walk with you that he might impart his Counsels to you distribute his Covenant-favours to your souls perform his Promises and fill you with all the fulness of himself Therefore do you hang about him and cleave to him for he is faithful that hath promised Heb. 10.23 and is able to perform all his Promises Rom. 4.21 yea and he is most freely willing to do it also Micah 7. ult Remember that God hath not brought you into his House to famish you or deal severely with you No but to nourish and feed you to strengthen and sanctifie you to comfort and refresh you to teach you build you up care for you and prepare you for eternal life God is ever mindful of his Covenant therefore do you remember to make him your stay and trust live upon him and expect all promised good from him He would have you do so he hath commanded it and therefore do it in obedience to his will Psal 37.3.5.7 Rom. 1.17 Heb. 11.38 1 Pet. 5.7 His hand and heart will be open to you and from his Fountain of Love Graces shall flow Rivers of living waters into your souls Zach. 13.1 He will always care for and watch over you for good he will water you every moment he will keep you night and day Isa 27. 3. Oh! then trust in him at all times and in all your ways acknowledge him and he will not fail to direct your steps Prov. 3.6 cast all your care on him for he careth for you and the peace of God shall keep you Phil. 4. Expect and look for your purchased and promised portions in your Fathers House in walking in his Family-order and under the Government thereof under the Laws and inspection of the great and gracious Lord thereof In all your waitings on him in every Ordinance of his be sure to believe hope and wait for his Presence and Blessings When-ever you ascend the Mountain of the Lords House to meet the God of Jacob and to present your King with a Thank-offering be sure to carry Faith with you go with much Faith and Hope unto him and do as Children do whilst in their Fathers House they live on their Father for Food Raiment and all other bodily supplys So do you in your Fathers spiritual House live on him for all provisions mind your duty and trust him with your promised all Fifthly Let your Praise wait for your God and King in Zion Psal 65.1 and do not neglect to go up to his Temples with your Sacrifices when the Tribes go or are called up thither then I say do you be sure to go up with them stay not behind nor tarry at home when others go up go with your Brethren when they go that it may be said as in Psal 84.7 Every one namely of the Church appeareth before God in Zion and be sure that when you go you go not empty-handed Exod. 23.15 Exod. 34.20 If you cannot present your King with a Lamb for a Thank-offering carry him two Turtle Doves with you if not able to carry two Doves then carry with thee two Mites as the Widdow the poor Widdow did Mark 12.42 43 44. But if thou hast not two Mites to carry with thee to present to thy God for a Free-will or Thank-offering then go abegging to him for one but in any wise go to your Church-meetings with your Brethren tarry not behind them For if you do neglect to
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
by you or you may be undone For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily eateth and drinketh his own Damnation 1 Cor. 11.29 And if you should eat and drink this holy Supper in an unregenerate and unjustified state be you sure that you will eat and drink damnation to your selves for the Lord hath spoken it This is not a matter to be dallied with 2. Examine your selves if you allow not of some sin and if there be not one lust carnal-self or some one or more Idols indulged and connived in at and by you For should you carelesly overlook this matter and sit down at the Kings Table with any of them in you and wink at it be you assured that the Lord Jesus will not accept and bless you visit you and smile on your Souls but he will loath your offering and hide his face from your Souls Therefore search and see what you can find of any of them in your hearts or hands within or without you For your great Lord searches and tryes you Rev. 2.23 Make an impartial and diligent enquiry into this matter and that with all possible integrity of heart that God may see that you are willing to know the worst of your selves And do as David and others have done in this weighty matter Psal 77.6 make diligent search and entreat the Lord to help you Psal 139. ult Ask your selves and try to purpose do I not wink at and practically allow of Anger Passion Wrath yea of Hastiness Rashness Peevishness and Frowardness Do not I wink at my Pride worldly-mindedness vanity of mind and frothy discourses Do not I hearken to Tatlers and take up Reproaches against the Righteous and do not I Reproach them also by telling to others what I hear Do not I worship God carnally and in a formal and Hypocritical manner and do not I live in the careless neglect of many Religious and Relative duties day after day Am not I a Peace-breaker among my Relations and others by a peevish and quarrelsome Spirit instead of a Peace-maker Am I not guilty of very much luke-warmness and indifferency of spirit in all Duties as also of much idleness and mispending of pretious time Do I not live as a stranger to God and his holy will and in an unacquaintedness with my self and do not I slight my Gospel-mercies and undervalue the good things that God gives me Do I not leave my eternal concerns in doubt and at a great uncertainty and live year after year in the dark about my spiritual state although I have sufficient means to enable me to make a right judgment of them and am enjoyned so to do 2 Pet. 1.10 2 Cor. 13.5 3. Examine your selves and try if you do act and move in duties by the Spirit of God with and from Divine and Gospel principles Doth the life of Christ animate and quicken you the love of Christ constrain and draw you the light of Christ lead and conduct you and the faith of Christ strengthen and encourage your hearts in them Do you act and worship God with your own Spirit or the holy Spirit of God And do you worship him with special light love faith and sincerity or with common For it is possible you may be mistaken and take the one for the other So likewise you should examine your Aims and Ends what you Intend and Design in receiving of the Lords Supper And you must also enquire what Earnings and Improvements you make of it and what your Spiritual profit is what you meet withall in it and what good you receive from it 2. Whatever Evil you find in your Hearts or Hands you must throw out and Repent of it You must not think it enough and that your Work is done when you have found out the Plagues of your own Hearts 1 Kings 8.38 But you must endeavour the speedy removal of them and thorowly amend your Wayes Jer. 7.3 5. You must confess them to God unfeignedly humble your selves and Repent in Dust and Ashes Job 42.6 2 Chro. 7.14 yea you must also Hate and Abhor them forsake and Mortifie them and resolve to have no more to do with them 3 You must also prepare your selves by emptying the Heart of Carnal-self and the World for else these things will greatly Obstruct your Holy and Profitable receiving of this Ordinance The more the Heart is emptied the more it will Hunger and Thirst after it and the good and profit of it the stronger your Desires will be after Christ and the benefits of his Death the clearer you will see them and the Sweeter they will be unto your Taste The emptier you are of these Heart suffocating Evils the more Desirable Beautiful Acceptable and Pleasant they will be unto your Souls and the greater and more apparant will your Earnings and Advantages be to your Souls As you will abundantly Experience if you make proof of it 4. Prepare for the Worthy and Profitable receiving of this Holy and Soul enriching Ordinance by possessing your Hearts with the Excellency and Goodness the Priviledge and Profit of it Get as clear Apprehensions and Conceptions as you can of the Person the Love Grace and Benefits it holds forth unto you and who it is you go to meet withall there For the clearer your sight is of these things and the more the Heart is possessed and affected with them the more they will stir up and provoke your Faith enflame your Love and draw your Hearts to them The clearer they lye in your Heads your Minds and the warmer they lye on your Hearts the more Influential and forceable they will be on all your Affections and Graces to quicken raise and draw them forth into act and Exercise 5. Prepare by getting a due sight and sense of your own Wants and Weakness your own personal Vileness and Vnworthiness and of your own Sins and Iniquities That the due sight and sense of these Evils may make you Vile in your own Eyes debase and humble your Hearts That you may be truly Base and Vile in your own Eyes and draw nigh to him with a Holy fear and Trembling Esa 66.2 Psal 2.11 That you may go to him and make use of this Ordinance for the supply of your Wants and strengthening your Weaknesses and that you may be sensible of the worth and necessity of Christ's Death for you 6. Get high and great Expectations raised in your Hearts of seeing enjoying and receiving a measure of all the fulness of Christ and his benefits or the fruits of his Death The Lord Jesus will be most free and open handed there to all worthy Receivers and therefore you must not go to it and him with dejected fearful and low Spirits and Hopes But you must go to them with high and great Hopes and Expectations of finding him and receiving high and great things from him Be sure that he would have you do so that it is your Duty and that you shall find him a liberal and noble Benefactor
to you Yea that he will far exceed your highest regular Expectations from him in his Princely favours and glorious distributions to your Souls CHAP. XIII Where are several Questions Answered and Resolved Quest WHether a Church-member may withdraw or absent himself from the Lord's Supper upon any Sin or Offence given him by one or more of his Fellow-members in the Church Answ The offended Member may not withdraw nor by any means absent himself on that Account Too many indeed are apt to think and they Act accordingly that they have a Dispensation to neglect their Duty and practically to slight their Priviledge because others are not so good as they should be and have given them Offence But that which gives them such a Dispensation is their own Pride Ignorance Prejudice and wilfulness not Jesus Christ their Head But I say you may not absent your selves or neglect that great Ordinance upon such Accounts 1 Because it is your Duty to receive it and wait on Christ in it as hath been shewed and it is not anothers Sin that can discharge you of your Duty 2 If thy Brother hath sinned and thereby incapacitated himself for a worthy receiving and celebrating of this holy Ordinance thou hast the greater Reason offered thee to come and receive it worthily to the honour of Christ For it is most unreasonable that he should be deprived of the Glory of his Grace and thy Duty because thy Brother hath sinned against him and dishonoured him already 3 Hast thou rebuked thy sinning Brother and laboured to bring him to Repentance and art thou mourning and praying for him and waiting on God for his Recovery as thou art bound to do 1 Cor. 5.2 Why then his Sin shall not be laid to thy Charge neither may it impede or hinder thy Reception of this Ordinance 4 It is thy Prejudice and Wrath against if not thy Loathing and Hating of the offending Person that causes thy Neglect or the Guilt thou hast contracted to thy own Soul and Conscience that makes thee forbear coming to the Lord's Table and not a dutiful and conscientious Forbearance because God would have it so For it is contrary to his holy Will 5 Allow of this and you will never want occasions but the Devil and your own Lusts will still supply you with enough to provoke and perswade you to a total neglect of this Duty Quest Suppose I find my self unfit and indisposed to receive the Lord's Supper may not I neglect it Answ No for thy waiting on Christ at his Table is thy Duty as hath been proved And therefore thou maist not think of neglecting it but the more unfit and indisposed thou findest thy self to be the more seriously diligently and vigorously thou shouldst labour to prepare thy self and get the removal of thy Indispositions To obtain and put on the Wedding-Garment that thou maist worthily partake of this Ordinance If the Iron be blunt the harder you must strike Eccl. 10 10. The more unprepared you are the more and greater diligence you must use to prepare I know that Church-members are subject to this Temptation which if yielded to will bring on many Mischiefs upon their Souls as some have sadly experienced But what hinders that you endeavour not the removal of these Evils presently you may not alwayes live so but one time or other you must get rid of them unless you will perish And when will you find a fitter time for the doing of it than now Therefore know that you have two great and indispensible Duties lying before you 1. To use all means for the removing all Obstructions and to get your Hearts in a ready meet posture for God and your Duties Amos 4.12 2 To wait on Christ at his Table on the next opportunity 1 Cor. 1â— 28 and not to add Sin to Sin by neglecting either of them Quest What do you think of those Members who do wilfully neglect to come to the Lord's Table very often and for a long time together or of such as will ride out of Town such dayes as they are called to partake of it Answ First either they are dead rotten Members such as are mentioned in Matth. 13.20 21. Joh. 15.2 6. Heb. 6. and Heb. 10. or else they have fouly back sliden from God and contracted much guilt and hardness of Heart You may be sure that matters go very ill with them at home and that they are in a withering and dying condition that they have wickedly forsaken God and God hath forsaken them 2 Chron. 15.2 They have most horribly sinned against Knowledge and Conscience grieved the holy Spirit and alienated their Hearts from God They have lost the savour of Christ that was on their Hearts the Conscience of and love to their Duties all care of and respect to their own and their Brethren's Souls and have with Ephraim cast off the thing that is good and therefore Evil pursues them Hosea 8.3 and they are under the Temptations of the Devil For were it not thus with them they could not durst not do as they do in this great and weighty matter The sight of their Duty the sense of their own wants and their love to Christ their Brethren and their own Souls would in no wise permit or dispense with such wilful neglects of so great a Duty and Priviledge and to keep at a distance from their God And if you mind them and have close discourse with them about spiritual things you may find them neglecters and slighters of other Duties of Carnal Vain Sottish and Stupid Spirits and that their Hearts and Souls are in a sad and miserable condition They desire not care not for your Company nor to hear you talk with them about their Soul's concernments And if they pretend any excuse or offer to defend their â—â—glects be sure they will cast all or most of the blame or cause off from themselves on others which argues a vile wicked Spirit They neglect the Lord's Table not because their own Hearts Wayes are very evil and abominable if any will believe them no but because their Ministry the Church or some particular Members of it are not good enough for their Communion And herein they blaspheme or scandalize them and offer violence to their own Consciences for the clearing of themselves and in belying their Teacher or Brethren Quest Is not Excommunication an Ordinance of Christ in his Church Answ Yea it is a great and useful Ordinance which may not be neglected when need requires on any pretence whatsoever because the Lord Jesus the King and Head of his Churches hath instituted and commanded it to be done and hath thereby made it their indispensible Duty Matth. 18.15 16 17. 1 Cor. 5.4 5 11 12 13. 2 Thes 3.6 14. Quest For what ends must the Church use this Ordinance and why hath Christ appointed it and commanded the Administration of it Answ For these Six ends 1. To remove Offence from the Church For a scandalous
them and that where God hath promised and you may find them There you may obtain the milk and honey of the promises of Christ's presence of making you fat and flourishing of a blessed Ministry and the blessings of it of Divine loves and sweet provisions and of peace and security I could have perswaded you to joyn unto and walk in the Churches of Christ by other Reasons but I think these may suffice such as are of willing hearts and of meek and humble soft and holy spirits Quest What ends should all men aim at and have in their eye in joyning with and walking in Church-fellowship or to what ends and purposes should they become Church-members Answ 1. To please and honour the Lord Jesus Christ their Lord and King in his Churches and to shew their Respect unto him Obedience to his Commands and declare their dependance on him for all things and their subjection to him in all things Christ the Lord hath done many good works to pleasure them exalt honour them and therefore they ought to do his will and their duty to please exalt and honour him Esa 56.4 Col. 1.10 This glorious end every Church-member must have in his eye and heart in walking in Churches 2. To express their high Resentment of his savours to them and their cordial thank fulness for them They are greatly priviledged and highly dignified in the Churches by their membership there and they can no otherwise express their gratitude to their head and King but by accepting them dutiful and faithful improvement of them to the ends for which they were given Good men do shew how they value them by their accepting and using them Churches and their priviledges are not small matters in their accounts or light matters in their esteem but they are high and honourable in their hearts and so are their works and duties there likewise Psal 27.4 Psal 63.1 2 3. Psal 84. 3. They should aim at and design to have and hold Communion with God and Jesus Christ the Lord. God is known in these Palaces Psal 48.3 and to be seen in these Galleries There he opens himself and breaks opens the Treasures of his love and grace unto his people and there he stands holding out his Golden Scepter There he waits to meet his Spouses to kiss and embrace them to entertain and speak friendly to them He meeteth them that rejoyce and work Righteousness and remember him in his wayes Esa 64.5 The wayes and walks of the Lord God are in his Churches there he dwells keeps house manifests himself unto his Houshold and rests himself takes his delight and shews forth his glory to them and thither they should go to meet him 2 Cor. 6.16 Rev. 2.1 Joh. 14.21 23. 4. Believers should enter into and walk with God in Church-fellowship to encrease and augment their grace and to better their hearts to grow in grace and in the knowledge of Christ 2 Pet. 3.18 and that they may perfect holiness in the fear of God that they may receive of his fulness grace for grace Joh. 1.16 and be filled with all the fulness of God Eph. 3.19 that they may eat of their Fathers Bread and drink of his Wine be made fat and flourishing and fruitful in every good work Psal 92. Psal 132. Col. 1.10 5 To keep their hearts warm strong and lively for God his work and service and that they may obtain and enjoy all encouragements for and in their works tryals and difficulties To fence and arm themselves against all their Enemies assaults on them and be enabled to fight against and conquer them in the Lord Jesus That they may be enabled to run their holy Race chearfully and couragiously and finish their course with joy Act. 20.24 1 Cor. 9.24 Rom. 8. The Son of Righteousness shines warmest on Believers Souls in the Churches of Christ and there are more springs of joy and harvests of profit than are or can be found elsewhere There is a River the streams whereof make glad the City of God the holy place of the Tabernacles of the most high Psal 46.4 There are no springs like the Churches springs nor any harvests like the Churches harvests The fullest clearest and most fatning streams of living waters flow from the fountain Christ on the Churches and the most comely and fruitful branches are or may be found in them They may be the warmest sweetest strongest liveliest chearfullest fruitfullest and the most spiritual men in the World And that they may be such they should joyn themselves to and walk in the Churches of Christ 6. That they may adorn the Gospel convince the World encourage their Brethren and witness to the Truths Wayes Authority and Headship of Christ This is no small thing but they are all matters of the highest moments and of greatest concernment and therefore and for these ends they should walk in Church-fellowship 7. To augment and encrease your experiences to obtain more acquaintance with your selves the operations of the holy Ghost for you and in you and that you may be more clearly and firmly sealed up to the day of Redemption 8. To pay your vows and make good your promises to Perform your Covenant and discharge your work to God the Father and Christ your head You owe them personal and Church-homage and service you are bound and engaged to observe and do all things whatsoever your God commands and appoints you to observe and do according to your opportunities and abilities Matth. 28. ult Joh. 14.15 which you do not cannot do unless you walk in some Church of Christ and put your selves under all his Laws Ordinances and Institutions But that you may so do you put or ought to put your selves under them by joyning your selves to and walking with God and his people in Church-fellowship These are some of the holy ends all believers should have in their eyes and hearts in their aims and designs They must take heed and beware of carnal self-ends in this and all other matters of Religion which will certainly croud in and carry a great stroke in this matter For the Lord Jesus abhors them and cannot endure to have his holy and spiritual matters and concernments subjected and made to serve mens carnal Interests He will have no other aims and ends in Church-members hearts but his own whereby he may be glorified and our Souls profited and others encouraged to do their duty to him We have no dispensation or allowance given us to aim at and design to augment and encrease our Trades and worldly profits or to be maintained by the Churches Benevolence in and by our walking with them or to greaten our names and encrease our friendship and acquaintance among men unless it be to capacitate us to do the more good to men to have larger opportunities to serve Christ our Brethren and our own Souls But our aims ends and designs must be the Lord's namely to please and honour God to express our thankfulness
do so you rob God break your Covenant offend your Brethren and wrong your own souls You must go up because you are called to go and that you may meet God in Zion and receive his blessings for there he commands them Psal 133. ult Oh! it is sad indeed when persons shall pretend to enter into Churches take upon them the observation of all the Laws and Ordinances of Christ there solemnly and publickly promise and engage to walk in all the Commandments and Ordinances of God with his people and yet shall dare wilfully to neglect their place and duty therein and to pay their Vows to their God and King Psal 65.1 Psal 61.5.8 Such as are good Governours of Families and Corporations will carefully mind if all within them do answer to their calls and perform their duties when called so to do So doth the Lord Jesus Christ in his Churches He summons them by his Ministers to appear before him wait on and worship him together and bring him a Church-offering and service and narrowly observes who comes and who neglects it how thy come and with what frames of hearts to what ends as the 2. 3. Chap of Rev. shew And if he find any wanting that might come or see them come carelesly and superficially he accounts himself slighted disobeyed and his Love and Grace contemned and undervalued God expects that you should be constant in Church-meetings and not decline them at any time but when his hand obstructs and impedes you but that there you should come with your Free-will offerings and do your Duty Homage to him as he commanded you Believe it this is a matter of great moment and not to be slighted or disregarded by you Sixthly You must walk with God in Church-fellowship in Sincerity and with Vprightness of heart to Without this all your performances are in vain The Lord Jesus is very curious and critical in searching your hearts in your Church-state Rev. 2.23 And all the Churches shall know that I search the reins and the heart And in Jer. 17.10 saith God to the inchurched Jews I the Lord search the heart I try the reins Then surely it must very much concern you to see that you draw night to God continually with true hearts Heb. 10.22 and that without all allowed Guile and Hypocrisie A little of this Leaven will quickly leaven the whole lump of duties Gal. 5.9 It will so corrupt and sowre them as that they will be all stark naught and good for nothing but to kindle and encrease the flames of God's Wrath and Vengeance against you Therefore take heed and beware of Hypocrisie and do not connive or wink at the least grain of it in your hearts or duties but be sure to walk with God in the performance of all duties in Integrity and Uprightness Be sure that your God expects it from you and requires it of you Joshua 24.14 Gen. 17.1 The Eyes of the Lord run to and fro through-out the Churches to see whose heart is perfect with him and whose is hypocritical 2 Chron. 16.9 He requires Truth in the inward parts Psal 51.6 and that all Church-members should walk before him in Truth and with perfect hearts 2 King 20.3 You must worship God and serve him with your all for your little all is but too little for him Prov. 23.26 Math. 22.37 Psal 119.10 You must not leave one hoof behind when you do any thing for God nor put God off with a part of your abilities for the whole for if you do you will lose the acceptance and reward of all Bless the Lord O my soul and all that is within me bless his holy Name saith David Psal 103.1 Seventhly See that you worship God and observe all his Ordinances in the Church in spirit or spiritually Remember that you are his holy spiritual Temples the Temples of the Holy Ghost Eph. 2.21 1 Cor. 3.16 that all the Ordinances of worship in them are holy and spiritual Ordinances stampt with the Image of God's Holiness and Authority and that he will be worshipped in spirit or spiritually Joh. 4.23 24. You must be very careful that you take not up with the external part and outside of your duties and priviledges that you settle not your selves and stay as it were in and upon Ordinances and your enjoying and observing them but get within the Vail seek and look for God and Christ for Heaven and glorious things in them Let your Faith conduct you by the hand of the Spirit into the bosom and heart of Christ that there you may read his Love Grace and glorious Excellencies have intimate and close Communion with him and be ravished and refreshed with his Person and Love Get into his Galleries and see the King of Glory in his beautys and transcendant sweetnesses and get into the Sanctum Sanctorum into the most holy place for the way is opened and the vail drawn off and removed by your Head for you to come and meet him there Heb. 10.19 20 Therefore do not stand and worship in the outer Court of the Temple but go and pass through Ordinances to Christ into the holiest of all and when-ever you go and enter in be you sure that you carry all Graces the Spirit with you to meet your Lord and honour him with them Endeavour all you can to see and feel him to get your hearts ravished with his Person and Love that thereby they may be raised up to great delight joy chearfulness adoration admiration and praise that they may be filled with his Savours warmed with his Love drawn by his Beauty be by all knit and united tyed and bound fast to him Then we worship him in spirit or spiritually when we worship him go to meet him with all our Graces in the Holy of Holies when our Hearts Graces do close up with and hold Communion with him in these Beauties of Holiness Psal 110.3 I am affraid that very few Church-members are experimentally acquainted with this matter for if they were so acquainted with it indeed they could not do as they do They could not neglect the worship and Ordinances of Christ nor cry up a Cephas and cry down a Paul as they do 1 Cor. 3. They could not be so careless and formal in them as they are nor carry about such dead lumpish and heavy hearts and minds as they do Well but however it hath been with you let it be so no more Do you for time to come learn so to worship God as you have heard that so you may please and honour him and he may delight to meet with and bless you Eightly You must walk in Church-fellowship chearfully comfortably and joyfully You must not be Whiners and Complainers you must not be sad lumpish and melancholly in your Father's House No for that will greatly reflect on your Father and on your Head and Husband You will raise suspicions in the minds of men on the good ways of God
and in a sense you will contradict his Gospel his Truth and Faithfulness his Love and Care to and over his Churches For God hath promised to make his People joyful in his House of Prayer Isa 56.7 and to satisfie them with Bread Psal 132.15 But by the sad and heavy walkings of his People in his House they declare that they are not satisfied nor find such Provisions in his House as he promised and they expected Such sad lumpish and melancholly Church-members do greatly dishonour Christ and his good ways offend their Brethren and scandalize the World For when they see them walk so what will they think and say of the waies and Ordinances of God will they not falsely accuse and condemn them despise and loath them yea and harden their hearts against Religion it self or else they will judge and censure such for Hypocrites and Dissemblers We ought to commend Religion and the good wayes of God wherein we walk to the Conviction and Acceptance of all that behold us and that in one thing or way as well as another We should walk with a holy serious chearfulness and pleasantness and be joyful chearful and pleasant before and towards all men and that for Christ's Religion's our own and others sakes that by this carriage we may honour God commend his Gospel-Religion and holy wayes his easy sweet and pleasant yoke and wayes Matth. 11. ult Prov. 3.17 encourage and strengthen the hearts and hands of our Brethren and convince the world of the Goodness Pleasantness and Profit of them and perswade them to fall in love with and imbrace them You must so walk also because God hath inchurched you and put you under his Ordinances and promised to make you joyful pleasant and chearful yea he charges and commands you to be and do so Phil 3.1 Phil. 4.4 Psal 32. ult Remember and lay to heart how many Causes Objects you have to make you chearful pleasant and joyful Therefore make use of them for the enabling you to walk joyfully Quest What are the Evils Sins and Temptations that Church-members are Subject to pray shew us them that we may know and avoid them Answ Church-members are subject or lyable to many Evils Sins and Temptations in their Church-state For Believers being formed up together in one body profess to be one and to be entirely concerned and included with and in one another so are said to be one Lump Gal. 5.9 and one House or Temple The Devil doth set on them the more furiously and with greater strength and diligence that so he may wound and mischief many with his fiery Darts together and kill a whole Church by stabbing one or two Members thereof For he knows that if he can tempt one to sin openly and scandalously he may thereby reproach the whole body and put them to grief and shame For a little Leaven leavens the whole Lump 1 Cor. 5.6 Gal. 5.9 Therefore I say he will be more busy with Church-members than with others in this matter which should greatly provoke them to arm the more carefully watch the more diligently and fight the more manfully that they be not deluded and conquered by him to the grief and shame of their Fellow-members It is true that Church-members have more helps and advantages against Sin and Temptation than others have as I have elsewhere shewed and it is as true that they shall be mostly assaulted and tryed and yet if they will they are and will be on the advantage ground against all these Evils as they will find by experience if they will mind their duty I will name a few of the Evils they will be tempted to 1. To take up and entertain evil Surmisals of one another 2 Cor. 12. 1 Tim. 6.4 They will be greatly tempted to keep groundless Jealousies and Suspicions one of another which tends and leads to 2. Harsh and severe Censurings and uncharitable Judgings one of another which is a most hateful sin in the sight of God and which is expresly forbidden and condemned Matth. 7.1 2. Rom. 14.10 13. 3. They will be tempted to Envy one another which is one of the devilish sins so often mentioned and condemned in the Scripture and frequently forbidden Gal. 5. ult 2 Cor. 12.20 1 Pet. 1.1 They will be tempted to be envious at that in their Brethren for which they ought to thank God and rejoyce Rom. 12.15 They must not envy the prosperity of the wicked much less that of their Brethren Psal 37.1 Enviers eyes are evil because God is good Matth. 20.15 Luk. 15.25 26 27 28 29 30. here you have the Pourtraiture and express Image of Envy and of an envious Person what draws it forth or what is the Object of their Envy 4. They will be tempted to be proud and lifted up with their Church-state with the Priviledges and Dignity thereof to think highly of themselves vilely of others Rom. 12.3 Phil. 2.3 They are very subject to be lifted up with their Gifts and Attainments and to affect vain-glory as Paul speaks Gal. 5. ult and to be too great in their own eyes which is a most hateful and pernitious Evil. 5. They will be tempted to Wrath Strife and Schisms to cause and raise Divisions Debates Contentions and Disputings which is a real fruit of Pride Prov. 13.10 1 Tim. 6.4 5. and very pernicious to the glory welfare and comfort of the Church And although this Evil be expresly forbidden and greatly condemned yet many Church-members can too boldly and confidently practise it and pretend that they have reason or cause so to do yea and that they do well in it But take heed and beware of it and let such know that it is a most hateful and devilish Sin and a most infectious Plague-fore that will destroy the Authours and Practisers of it if not timely repented of 6. They will be tempted to Formality and taking up with the form of Godliness without the power thereof 2 Tim. 3.5 To take up with and settle themselves on the Lees of Ordinances and external Duties and Enjoyments with the neglect of the Heart Soul Life and Power of them and heart-warming heart-sanctifying and heart-teaching Communion with God Oh! how many Church-members are there who do indulge themselves comply with the natural Genius of their own hearts and joyn issues with Satan in this matter who eye not nor look mostly unto the Spirit Christ Grace and good of the means they use nor bring their hearts and graces to God in them but rest and satisfy themselves with a cold sapless and lifeless form or out-side of Religion and therefore they do not cannot thrive and prosper but they wither and decay within while they are in the Courts of God 7. They will be tempted to the great sin and evil of Reproaching and Back-biting one another to vilifie defame and speak evil one of another and blast each others good Names and Reputations This is another mischievous and abominable Sin which