Church Preaching is is without dispute a part of the Office of Pastors But it is a great mistake to think that God has appointed them only to Preach for they are entrusted besides with the Government of the Church and this part of their Employment is at least as essential as Preaching It is remarkable that the Scripture speaks of Pastors in divers Places and that the Titles it gives them and the Functions it ascribes to them relate chiefly to the Government of the Church This is implyed in the Name of Bishops Priests or Elders Guides and Pastors St. Paul has writ concerning the Duties of the Ministry if we examine what he says of the Functions of that Charge and of the Qualifications of those who are to be admitted into it we shall find that he is much larger upon the Government of the Church than upon Preaching To this purpose the Epistles to Timothy and Titus may be consulted But further all Church-men are not called to Preaching The Apostles distinguish their Functions they tell us * See 1 Cor. XII 4 5 6. 28 29 30. Act. VI. 2 c. Rom. XII 6 7 8. 1 Tim. V. 17. That all are not Doctors that all do not Interpret that all do not administer the Word that all do not Teach and Exhort that some are appointed to Instruct to Exhort and to Expound the Scriptures others to Govern and others to do works of Charity Tho' we should suppose that there is nothing in this which relates to the extraordinary Gifts conferred upon the first Ministers of the Gospel and to the Order which was then observed yet it is plain that these Places are to be understood of the Gifts and Functions of ordinary Pastors This is confirmed by the Practice of the Primitive Church The principal and the most general Function of Pastors then was the Inspection and Governing of the Church Preaching was not neglected but all Church-Men were not Preachers this Province was committed to those who were fit for it Would to God this Distinction was still observed The Church would be better governed and the Gospel better Preached than it is There are Talents requisite to Preach the Gospel which every Body has not and others are necessary for the Conduct of the Church and all these Gifts seldom meet in one Person If then no regard is had to different Gifts and Functions if without distinction ever thing is committed to one Person it is visible that the Church will be ill Edified Besides that I have shewed in the First Chapter of this Second Part that it is a dangerous Notion which restrains the Ministry to Preaching But to remove this Inconveniency it would be necessary that a competent Number of Ecclesiasticks should be had in every Church 1. To express my Thoughts more particularly concerning the Office of Pastors with relation to the Government of the Church I observe First that Discipline is worn out of use as I have shewn at large in a Chapter upon that Subject It is true that this Defect is not wholly to be imputed to Pastors If they do not Govern the Church by a good Discipline it is because they have been deprived of their Authority Many of them are sensible of this Disorder and lament it But what can they do when they Exercise their Ministry in Places where their Hands are tyed up where they dare not refuse the Sacrament to an Adulterer and where they should bring themselves into great troubles and perhaps be Deposed if they took upon them to observe the Apostolical Discipline They are forced to confine themselves to Preaching which when it is not backed with Discipline can never have that Effect which it would produce in conjunction with it There was nothing left to Pastors but what could not be taken from them without abolishing the whole Ministry All that remains is only Preaching and Administring the Sacraments And yet for all that a great part of the Clergy may justly be charged with that Fault we complain of and with that Corruption of the People which is a consequence of it since there are those among them who oppose the restoration of Discipline and look upon it as an indifferent Order and others who are placed in Churches where some Form of Discipline is left render the Exercise of it ineffectual either through Imprudence and excessive Severity or through a shameful Remisness and a cowardly Indulgence 2. Beside the Publick there is a Private Discipline which consists in Inspecting the Lives of Private Persons in Visiting Families in Exhortations Warnings Reconciliations and in all those other Cares which a Pastor ought to take of those over whom he is Constituted For neither general Exhortations nor publick Discipline can answer all the Occasions of the Church There are certain Disorders which Pastors neither can nor ought to repress openly and which yet ought to be remedied by them In such Cases Private Admonitions are to be used The Concern of Mens Salvation requires this and it becomes the Pastoral Carefulness to seek the the straying Sheep and not to let the Wicked perish for want of Warning But these are Cares to which some Pastors do not so much as think themselves obliged they content themselves with Admonishing Sinners from the Pulpit There is very little Intercourse between Pastors and those who are committed to their Charge Private Persons live without being accountable for their Conduct to any Body and except they commit the greatest Enormities they fancy no Man has a Right to enquire into their Actions Nothing reaches them but Sermons and these they mind as much and as little as they please this must needs produce Licentiousness The visiting of sick and dying Persons is one of the most important Functions of the Office of Pastors but when it is not performed with exactness and zeal it contributes as much as can be imagined to the keeping up of Security Every one must needs see of what Consequence this part of the Ministry is if he considers that it is at the end of Life that we are to be judged and that our eternal state depends upon the condition we dye in And if we reflect at the same time upon what the Scripture tells us * 2 Cor. V. 10. that we shall receive in the World to come according to the good or evil we have done in this we will easily apprehend what Ministers ought to do when they visit sick and dying Persons Their chief business should be to discover what state those Persons are in that they may suit their Exhortations to it Then is it that they ought to speak to the Conscience of Sinners and to perswade them by all possible Means to examine their Lives and the disposition they are in in reference to their Salvation And when a Minister meets as it happens too frequently with sick Persons who are engaged and hardned in vitious Habits or whose Repentance may justly be questioned it is then that
all those disorders which may happen in the Church and particularly to Scandals And surely it is evident that if we may proceed in the Methods here enjoined when the Case is only concerning some differences between private Men we have much more right to do so relation to with public Sins since they are Cases which Concern the whole Church and that directly and which do yet more properly belong to her Cognisance than the quarrels of private Men. The Meaning of Christ is then that there must be an Order in his Church for the removing of Scandals He supposes that the Church has a right to interpose upon those Occasions and he commands that those who shall refuse to hear the Church be looked upon as if they were her Members no longer and that Communication with them should be avoided This is the import of these words Let him be unto thee as an Heathen Man and Publican 2. The V. Chapter of the first Epistle to the Corinthians ver 2 3 4. decides this matter St. Paul having been informed that there was a Man among the Corinthians who lived in Incest he writes about it to that Church and first he reproves them for not having cut off from their Communion the person who had committed so Infamous an Action In the next place he does himself Excommunicate that Man and deliver him up to Satan I know that perhaps this Power of delivering up to Satan belonged only to the Apostles and it is likely that this was one of those extraordinary Punishments which they had a Power to inflict upon Prophane and Rebellious Persons But as for Excommunication it is the common and ordinary Right of the Church This Right or rather this Duty of the Church is clearly asserted by the Censure which the Apostle addresses to the Corinthians because they had not taken that Incestuous Person from among them and because they had not observed the Order he had given them before not to suffer Fornicators * Ver. 4. I wrote unto you already not to company Fornicators He repeats this Order in these Words which contain an express and general Law against all Scandalous Sinners †Ver. 12. I write it unto you again not to keep company if any man that is called a Brother be a Fornicator or Covetous or an Idolator or a Railer or a Drunkard or an Extortioner with such a one no not to eat This is positive And what the Apostle adds Do not ye judge them that are within is a confirmation that the Church has a Right to do so with relation to her Members Lastly he concludes with these Words * Ver. 13. Therefore put away from among your selves that wicked Person for thus this Verse is to be rendred as the Drift of the whole Chapter of which this is the Conclusion shews it evidently I desire the force of this Proof may be considered It is not one single Passage which I here produce it is a whole Chapter it is a Thread of Arguments and of express and reiterated Injunctions St. Paul describes those whom the Church ought not to suffer in her Bosom he appoints what is to be done in reference to them which is that they ought to be cut off from the Body of Christians and that their Company is to be avoided There cannot be a clear and express Law if this is not so 3. There are some other Places which have no ambiguity in them 2 Thess III. 6. We command you in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ this Preface is Remarkable here is a Law in due Form which the Apostle is going to deliver he proposes it by way of Command and he interposes the Auhority of our Lord Jesus Christ We command you in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ that ye withdraw your selves from every Brother that walketh disorderly and not after the Tradition which he received of us This Law is repeated ver 14. If any man obey not our word by this Epistle note that man and have no company with him that he may be ashamed 4. The 1st Epistle to Timothy affords us Proofs unanswerable The design of St. Paul in this Epistle is to establish Order and Discipline in the Church To this purpose he gives several Precepts to Timothy he Instructs him exactly how Pastors ought to proceed about Information Censures and the Principal Offices of Church-Government * Chap. V. Rebuke not an Elder but instruct him as a father and the younger men as brethren the elder women as mothers the younger as sisters with all purity †1 Tim. I. 20. 2 Tim. III. 5. Against an Elder or a Priest receive not an accusation but before two or three witnesses Them that sin rebuke before all that others also may fear I charge thee before God and the Lord Jesus Christ and the Elect Angels that thou observe these things without preferring one before another doing nothing by partiality I might add other Places out of this Epistle and the following and out of that to Titus | Tit. III. 10. Here is then again a whole Thread of Discourse prescribing the Order according to which the Church is to be Governed Here are particular Rules and St. Paul uses an Adjuration to oblige Timothy to observe them These Laws do not concern Timothy in particular but St. Paul speaks here of the Episcopal Function and of the Duty of the Pastors of the Church in general We need but read the Epistles to Timothy and the beginning of that which he writes to Titus to be satisfied that he intends this Order should be settled in all the Churches Either there is nothing plain in Scripture or it appears from all these Places That Discipline is Instituted of God that the exercise of it is committed to Pastors that scandalous Sinners are not to be tolerated in the Church that private Men ought to avoid their Company and that the Governors of the Church are bound to proceed against them by private and publick Censures and even by Excommunication If the Passages I have cited do not prove all this we may wrangle about every thing and all Arguments from the Sacred Writings may be eluded The Institution of the Sacraments is not more express or positive III. But tho' these Places were not so positive and so clear as they are yet we may be asssured that this is their true meaning because this is the sense in which the whole Primitive Church understood them The Practice of the First Ages in conjunction with the Laws of Christ and of his Apostles amounts to a Demonstration which cannot be withstood besides that we are to presume that what has been practised from the Foundation of the Church and in the time of Her Purity was settled by the Apostles themselves or by Apostolical Men so that we ought as much as possible to conform our selves to it Now we know that Discipline was observed in the Primitive Church notwithstanding the
uncertainty and obscurity in a Religion where there is nothing but Controversy and different Opinions The want of Union is then a most considerable Imperfection in the present State of the Church It were to be wished that some Remedy might be applied to so great an Evil and that those Controversies which produce and cherish it might be turned out of Doors The way to compass this would be to endeavour in good earnest the Reforming of Manners and the restoring of Order This great and noble Design will no sooner be pursued but Men will be ashamed of all these Contentions they will look upon them as trifling Amusements and find no relish in those Disputes which to say the truth do only employ such Persons as are conceited with vain Learning and narrow-spirited Men who are not capable of larger and higher Views IV. If we examine the present State of the Church with relation to Order there we must ingenuously confess that great Defects are to be found In Matters of Order and Discipline Christians ought to Regulate themselves First by the Laws which Christ and his Apostles have set them and then by the Example of the Primitive Church and of the Purest Antiquity it being evident that what has been practised in the First Ages of Christianity and does besides agree with the Rules and the Spirit of the Gospel should have a great regard paid to it by all Christians Now it cannot be denied but that most Churches have considerably departed from that Ancient Order To prove this by some Instances it is certain in fact that the Ecclesiastical Order and Government which obtains in many Places is not such as it ought to be None caâ—n be ignorant of this but those who are altogether unacquainted with Antiquity or who being full of Prejudices find what they please in Scripture and Church-History Can it be said that the Elections of Bishops or Pastors are Canonical as they are managed in many Places arid that the Practice and Order established by the Apostles and the Primitive Christians are observed every where It is certain likewise that all Churches are not furnished with a sufficient Number of Persons to perform Divine-Service and to Instruct and Edify the People When we look back upon the Primitive Church we find that tho' it was poor and persecuted yet it had its Bishops its Priests its Catechists and its Widows At this time we see yet in several Places that one single Town maintains a great Number of Church-men who indeed for the most part are very insignificant but elsewhere it is quite otherwise one single Man does often perform all the Ecclesiastical Functions nay sometimes many Churches have but one Pastor This Disorder as well as many others proceeds partly from the want of necessary Means and Funds to supply the occasions of all Churches Here it might be proper to speak of the Pastoral Functions and of the Administration of Discipline but these Two Heads being important I reserve what I have to say about them for the Two next Chapters We ought here not to omit the want of Union and Correspondence among Churches If they had more Communication and Intercourse one with another great Advantages would follow from thence Right Measures might be taken for the Edification of the People and for the Redressing of Abuses and Scandals that Uniformity which is so necessary both in Worship and in Church-Government and Discipline might be established And that would contribute much to the Honour and Safety of Religion in general The Church would appear then like a well-ordered Society and like One Body of which all the Parts should maintain a relation to and a strict dependance upon one another On the other hand it is a great unhappiness when Churches have little or no Intercourse or Communication one with another so that every one orders its Matters and Customs the Form of its Worship and Government within it self Thus in many respects it would be easie to shew that Things are not altogether Regulated in the Church as they ought to be with relation to Order Men are not sensible of these Defects because they are apt to judge of Religious Matters by the Practice of the present Time and by the Customs of their respective Countries besides that Antiquity is but little known And yet these Defects contribute more than is commonly imagined to the decay of Piety and Zeal The want of Order in any Society does most certainly bring Confusion and Licentiousness into it V. The Worship of God being the end and the essence of Religion we cannot but inquire whether all things are well regulated with relation to that To speak here only of the publick Worship it would be very necessary that it should be performed every where in such a manner that the People might understand the most essential parts of Religion and Divine Worship to be Adoration Praise and the invocation of God and that the discharging of these Duties is the end of Publick Assemblies I remark this particularly because in many places Devotion is placed only in the hearing of Sermons Churches are properly nothing else but Auditories People fancy that Sermons are the chief thing they meet for and that preaching is the principle Function to be exercised by Ministers in the Church The Prayers and the Psalms are looked upon only as Preliminaries or Circumstances to a Sermon This is a dangerous Notion because on the one hand it makes Christians neglect Divine Service and on the other it renders Religion contemptible when Sermons are not so edifying as they should be which happens but too often And therefore it would not perhaps be amiss if as it is practised in several Churches Divine Service was distinguished from Sermons by some circumstances of times or persons so that it might be one thing to celebrate Divine Service and another to hear Sermons Several Reflections might be offered here concerning the principal things relating to Publick Worship such as Forms of Prayers Liturgies the Manner of praising God and Sacred Hymns It would be a question worth the examining whether we ought in Christian Churches to use only Psalms and Canticles out of the Old Testament among which tho' some are most edifying and full of excellent expressions of Piety yet there are many which relate altogether to some particular passages of those times or if they speak of Christ it is only in a Prophetical style very obscure to the People One would think that Christian Hymns which should be sung to the honour of God and Jesus Christ chiefly to celebrate the Wonders of our Redemption might be extraordinary useful to nourish Piety and to stir up Devotion as well as more agreeable to that which the Apostles prescribe and which the Primitve Christians practised in their Assemblies Would it not likewise be necessary to agree about giving the Holy Sacrament to sick and dying Persons and to restore the more frequent use of the Eucharist acpording to the
unknown Facts She only proceeds against Notoriously Scandalous and Impenitent Sinners and she receives them as soon as they express their Repentance And is there any thing of Tyranny or danger in this It is proper to observe here especially with reference to Excommunication which is thought the severest part of Discipline that when the Church proceeds to that extremity she does not properly speaking act by way of Authority as if she had an absolute power to punish a Sinner and to cut him off from her Body But that Sinner has already by his Life cut himself off from the Communion of Christ he is no longer a Member of the Church so that the Church only declarâ—s that which is done and determined already tho' she should not declare it Neither is there any Cause to fear that the Publick Peace should be disturbed by the exercise of Discipline On the contrary Society will be the better Regulated for it For Discipline does not touch Civil Matters Excommunication it self does not hinder a Man from being still a Member of the Common-wealth nor that all the Duties of Justice and Humanity should be discharged towards him As for the Authority of Civil Powers it is no ways injured by this as evidently appears from the first Christians exercising Discipline openly in the fight of the Heathen Magistrates without any opposition from them Christ did not come into the World to Erect a Temporal Kingdom nor to draw Men off from their Submission to the Authority of Kings and Magistrates It is the Principle of a true Christian * Mat XXII To render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's and to God the things which are God's This Principle will not deceive a Man and as long as we adhere to it all things will be in order Religion is so far from giving any just umbrage to Princes that on the contrary it strengthens their Authority Submission to the higher Powers is recommended by the Apostle in the most earnest manner The Christians of the first Ages who were very strict observers of Discipline distinguished themselvs by their Loyalty to Princes Nay it is observable that their Discipline which was so severe against Sinners was as strict against those who were wanting in the Fidelity and Respect due to Superiors witness that Cannon * Can. Apost 84. which enjoins the Deposition of those Bishops and Clergy-men who should offer an Affront to the Prince or his Officers Whosoever will take the pains to weigh this Matter will acknowledge that Discipline is a distinct thing from the Civil Power Each of these has its bounds and limits The Church does not touch the Body nor Civil Matters and it is not the Magistrate's business to regulate things relating to Conscience and Salvation Indeed if Magistrats imagine that they have a right to Govern the Church as they think fit and that they hold the same Rank in it which they hold in the Civil Society so that the Ministers of Religion are but their Officers Discipline may seem to them to lessen their Authority But let those who entertain such thoughts see how they can reconcile them with the Gospel and with the Nature of the Christian Religion Notwithstanding all this it will be said that Church-men have been known to usurp a Dominion over Consciences and over Kings It is true Church-men have abused their Authority but because a thing has been abused is it therefore to be abolished Wise Men will rather say that things ought to be restored to their natural State and to their lawful Use Else the whole Authority of Kings and Magistrates might be pulled down and we might argue thus Monarchical Governments liable to great Inconveniences Kings have been Tyrants and Usurpers therefore there must be no more Kings Magistrates and Judges have been unjust Covetous Cruel and therefore no Magistrates are to be endured Would not this Argument be extravagant and impious And yet the like Argument is used against Discipline In Church as well as in State Government there will be always some inconveniency to be feared this Evil is almost unavoidable there being no Form of Government which the Malice of Men may not abuse But those Abuses are without comparison a less Evil than Anarchy which is the most dangerous State of all But let us clear the Matter of Fact upon which the Objection I am now Confuting is founded It is supposed that Discipline did introduce Tyranny but on the contrary it was upon the Ruins of Discipline that Tyranny was erected This is known to all those who have any knowledge of Antiquity When did Bishop and Clergy-men usurp that excessive Authority over mens Estates Persons Consciences It was when the Observation of the Ancient Discipline was slackned when Discipline began to wear out of use when Sinners and especially great Men were exempted for Money when that which should have been transacted by the whole Church was referred only to the Clergy and when publick Confession was changed into a private one It was by these means and not by the due Exercise of Discipline that Church-men made themselves Masters of all What we ought to do then is this First to enquire what is of Divine Institution in Discipline and to restore that in the next place to consider what the Salvation of Sinners and the Honour of the Church require and what was good and edifying in the practice of the Primitive Church in order to conform to it and lastly to provide by good Laws that no Man may exceed the bounds of his Calling particularly that in restoring to the Clergy their lawful Authority all just measure may be taken to prevent their abusing it If Christian Princes are bound to preserve the Rights of the Church they ought likewise to take care that nothing be done against their own Authority and to punish those who oppose it or who disturb the Civil Society whether Ecclesiasticks or Lay-men This we are to treat of in another place Besides when we speak for the re-establishment of Discipline we mean that Pastors should be subjected to it as well as their Flocks and that if there is an Order in the Church to regulate the Manners of Christians there should be one also to regulate the Clergy and to lay strict Obligations on them to discharge their Duty in all its parts And that according to the Ancient Practice Discipline ought to be more severe against the Ecclesiasticks who fail in their Office than against the People But as we have complained in this Chapter of the want of Discipline with Relation to the Church in general so we are going to shew in the next that this want is neither less observable nor less fatal in those things which concern the Governors of the Church I conclude with saying that in Order to remedy the Corruption of Manners among Christians it is absolutely Necessary to restore the use of Discipline This is what has been and is still heartily wished for