Minifters, elders, or bishops, in this, as in all other things wherein they prefide among the Chriftian people, "are to teach them to obferve what Chrift has commanded them, and to go before them as their leaders, by doctrine and example, in the way of faith and obedience to the word of Chrift contained in the fcriptures. They have no power to separate any man to that office whom God has not called. His law gives them only the power of obedience, in feparating the men who are called by him, according to his word: and in this they are not lords over his heritage, but enfamples to the flock which is among them, of obedience to their only Lord. No people have right to elect any whom God has not called, or to reject those whom he calls; but they must obey. him, in receiving and doing all that he requires of them in his word toward them that are by him qualified according to the description given in his law. If they be not capable to difcern, by that defcription, who are called of God to the miniftry of the word, they are not capable to give obedience to the Chriftian law on that head. The only part of the character as to which they are fuppofed incapable to judge, is that of aptnefs to teach, or holding faft the faithful word, as he hath been taught, that he may be able, by found doctrine, both to exhort and convince the gainfayers. If paftors be to judge of this by their fkill in the wisdom of words, or the wisdom of the fcribe and difputer of this world, which cannot be brought down to the capacity of the Christian people, how can they perfuade the people, that any man is called of God to the miniftry of the word? Or, how can the people perceive, that their pastors are leading them in the way of obedience to Chrift, in feparating a man to that office whom they cannot know that Chrift has called? In this cafe it is impoffible for them to profess obedience to Jefus Chrift, in receiving one of his minifters according to his law: they muft inevitably give a blind obedience to their paftors instead of Chrift, if these pastors do not inftruct them in that wildom of words, fo far as to enable them to perceive that a man is thereby apt to teach. But the New Teftament makes the wideft diftinction betwixt that wisdom of words, and the faithful word, which he that is feparated to the ministry of the gofpel must be holding faft, that he may be able both to exhort in found teaching, and to convince the gainfayers; fo that a man may be very learned in the one, and very unlearned in the other. And fince the Chriftian law plainly fets afide this wisdom of the fcribe and difputer of this world, as 3 L 2 being being no part of the defcription it gives us of a minifter of the word of faith, neither paftors nor people have any more to judge of on this head, but the foundness of the doctrine, and aptnefs to communicate it to others for their inftruction, conviction, and comfort. If the people may err, and be miftaken as to this, fo may minifters: and what error is there among the people, that has not been maintained by minifters? But ftill, if they be not able to know this in any measure, they are in no measure capable to obey Jefus Chrift, in receiving and fubmitting themselves to the overfight of his mi nifters. : The people cannot take impreffions made on them by the doctrine, for their rule of judging in this cafe: for there are wrong as well as right impreffions, and these must be judged of by the fcriptures, and the faithful word contained in them. There are various impreffions, according to the variety of the fituations of the people, yea, and oft times according to their humours: fo that it is fearce poffible they can agree in judging by this rule, as they can in perceiving that a man brings found doctrine to them and if the faith once deli vered to the faints be preached to them, whose fault is it that they are not edified? Yea, and if they were to judge by impreffions in this matter, they might come to reject that part of the fcripture-doctrine that they did not find impressed on them, as well as the minifter that holds faft the faithful word; at least this could not mifs to produce the same thing that the Apostle condemns in the Corinthians, that went into parties and factions on their experiences, by means of dif ferent preachers of the fame doctrine. A people cannot pretend to be obeying Christ in this thing, who are not fhewing a regard to all his commands, nor living in fubjection to the difcipline exprefsly inftituted in the fcrip tures. Zeal for the good work of obedience to one of his laws, while there is no respect fhewed to other as plain laws of his, is utterly inconfiftent with the fcripture-character of a Christian people. And how can a people pretend a regard to the word of God, in contending for their right of election, who fhew not the fame zeal for as clear a right of theirs, even the profeffion of fubjection to Chrift, in contributing of their fubftance for the maintenance of their pastors, that fo they who preach the gospel may live of the gospel, as they that ministered about holy things eated of the temple, and they that waited at the altar partaked with the altar? Why do they fuffer this right to be wrung out of their hands, and yield it up peaceably to any that please to take it from them, while they are fo jealous of the leaft incroachment on the other right? And as no people can pretend to be obeying Christ in this matter, but they who are studying an univerfal conformity to the description of a Chriftian people in the New Testament, fo no minifters of the gospel can act in it as pastors, but among a flock hearing the voice of the chief fhepherd Jesus Chrift. Their commiffion beyond that is only to preach the gofpel to every creature: neither can they pretend to be the representatives of the people in the part that the Christian law calls them to act here; and as little can any part of the people represent another in their obedience to Christ, as to which every one of thein must give an account of himself to God. And why may not the people be as well represented in all the other parts of their obedience to the laws of Jesus Chrift? When a people studying conformity to the scripture-defcription of a Chriftian people, fhall happen to want pastors, and have the Chriftian law, this want cannot render them incapable of obeying that law, in receiving and submitting to any as their minifters that are evidently qualified according to that law. For they have the apoftles; and though they want elders, they should hear them, and fo have elders. The turning of the part that men have to act in the ordination of minifters, out of the channel of humble obedience to the plain word of God, has been the fpring of all the confufion and disorder that has taken place in the world about the ordination of ministers. When the wisdom of man made bold to make the least alteration in one point of the divine inftitution, it was for this end, to recommend Christianity more to the world: and this end was fteadily purfued by the covetousness and ambition of the clergy, and the carnal zeal of the people for the worldly honour of Chriftianity, and their own ease, till it became a worldly religion. One alteration in this point, as well as on other heads, made way for another to fupport that, and fo on, till the world was filled with usages, regulations, conftitutions, and laws, which came to be more attended to than the word of God, that was in effect made void by the keeping of these And while fuch wife regulations came in, upon pretence of unity, order, and decency, but ferved mainly to the worldly exaltation of the clergy, and carnal ease of the people, they have filled the world with fuch envying and ftrife, fuch wars and fightings, as could never have happened to them that contented themselves with the fcripture-rule. Yea, these regu. lations have plainly appeared at length to be proper engines of war to parties contending for the pre-eminence in this world. And therefore, if men be in earneft to reform in this matter, they must lay afide every invention of human wisdom, and give over proudly contending for a right that clergymen, who cannot prevail in ruling the church, are perfuading the people that they have, and their fuperiors are taking from them; even as the mob is enraged continually against the government in the ftate by them that cannot prevail at court; and they must return to the old course of humble subjection and obedience to the plain word of God, the word of eternal life, without adding thereto, or diminishing from it. "And this is the right of the Christian "people, and the power of their pastors." While the confufion remains that has flowed from a falling away from the scripture-rule, and has come, by mens pretending to be mafters, inftead of obedient fervants to the Lord Chrift, we ought not to deny their miniftry, who, in any tolerable measure, anfwer the fcripture-description of a minifter; nor need we be afraid to difown the miniftry of any fort of men, of the greatest name, who do not, in any tolerable measure, bear a conformity to that description. This is a far furer footing to go upon, than that of the manner wherein a man comes into the poffeffion of the stipend in a parish, and becomes the public teacher there. It cannot be told, where the New Teftament fpeaks fo clearly of parifhminifters, and of ftipends provided by law, and of elders not apt to teach ruling the people, and reprefenting them in the election of a parish-minister, or of the majority of heads of families or communicants chufing a minifter to all the reft of the parish, and to the ftipend, as it fpeaks of the characters of a minifter of the gofpel, and calls us to receive fuch. Neither can it be fo well told, where the New Testament fays, that it is my election that makes a man my minister, as where it forbids me to reject a minister of Christ, and obliges me to receive a man because he is one, according to the defcription of a minifter in the Chriftian law. But if men will not thus live at ease, in a disorderly corrupted state of things, and want to fee a true reformation, then let them feriously deliberate on the following propofals. L 1. Let the holy fcriptures be attended to, and held fast, in oppofition to every other rule that men walk by; as, the imaginations of their own hearts, the courfe of this world, the traditions of the fathers, and commandments of men, and feducing fpirits, speaking beside the scriptures, speaking of the world, and denying directly or indirectly that Jefus Chrift is come in the flesh. This is what Paul recommends to Timothy as a preservative against the perilous times in the laft days, 2 Tim. iii. He fets before him the things he had learned of him, his doctrine and manner of life, now written to us in the New Teftament, and this, with the fcriptures of the Old Testament, which, he fays, Timothy had known from a child, he points out to him as fufficient to ma nifeft the folly of them that resist the truth, and to make the man of God perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works. And, by what he there fays, their folly may be manifeft, who, for the fake of other rules that they would have us to walk by, reflect on the holy fcriptures, as dark and of doubtful interpretation, as the common refort of heretics, and as fitted only to the firft times of Christianity; and not proper for the times we live in. And yet by fuch like infinuations as thefe, from men profeffing that the scriptures are the only rule of Chriftianity, are poor people frighted from searching the fcriptures, and cleaving clofs to them in their practice, left they should fall under delufion, against which the fcriptures are not, it seems to them, fo proper a prefervative as other rules that they are called to walk by. The Apoftle, forewarning the Theffalonians of the man of fin, and of the ftrong delufion that God was to fend on profeffors of Chriftianity that received not the love of the truth, gives them this direction against the beginnings of this evil, "stand "faft, and hold the traditions which ye have been taught, "whether by word or our epistle,” 2 Theff. ii. These tra ditions which he calls them to hold, were partly written in his epiftle, and partly delivered to them by word of mouth : for the New-Teftament fcripture was not then completed; but they had the whole counsel of God declared to them by the Apoftle, which is now fo fully declared in the writings of the New Teftament, whereof the epiftle to the Theffalonians is a part, as nothing can be added to it. If therefore we would escape the corruption of Christianity that was then beginning to work, and the ftrong delufion there foretold, we must firmly hold the things delivered to us in the New Teftament, without adding to them or taking from them. We must not |