are the Ministers of Christ Be professed and resolved Enemies to the Ministers and Ministrations of Antichrist take part with Christ and follow him upon white Horses clothed in fine linnen white and clean Rev. 19.14 Say not a confederacy to all them to whom this people shall say a confederacy Isa 8.12 But remember that charge Put you selves in array against Babylon round about all ye that bend the Bow shoot at her spare no Arrows for she hath sinned against the Lord Jer. 50.14 Ye Angels of Christ Pour out the Vials of the Wrath of God upon the Earth even upon this Babylonish Earth Pour out your Vials filled not with yours but the Lord's wrath Rev. 16.1 'T is just work to destroy Babylon For she hath sinned and hath corrupted the Kings and the Inhabitants of the Earth and hath made even all Nations drunk with the Wine of the Cup of her Fornications Rev. 18.3 Strip her and make her naked as in the day she was born for in her will be found the blood of the Prophets and of Saints and of all that were slain upon the Earth Rev. 18.24 Discover by a light of Scripture her Adulteries and lay open the filthiness of her Skirts the beastliness of her Power the earthliness of her Church and Members Chap. 13.12 13 14 16. Shew and discover the nature and vileness of her Locusts or Clergy-Men Chap. 9. Discover their even killing Wormwood or bitterness of her Waters or Doctrine Chap. 8.10 11. Shew that she is the great Whore great Cheat and greatest Enemy that ever the Lord Jesus or his People had or shall have even the same power of unrighteousness which put our Lord them and his Saints now to death Bid defiance to her and to all her Power and all her Romish Trinkets and cry aloud to all the people of God to have neither more nor less to do with her but speedily to obey that voice Come out of her my people partake not of her sins lest that ye partake also of her plagues Chap. 18.4 Never think of her Repentance for Repentance is and shall be hidden from her eyes She is none of those Whores that know how to be ashamed or repent as Chap. 9.21 22. She is the great Traytor against the Crown and Dignity of our Sovereign Lord King Jesus no such Treason hath been hatched or plotted against the Lord Jesus throughout all the World as in and by the Roman Church and Synagogue Therefore plead you Worthies of the Lord with her and against her and pray without ceasing Down with her down with her down with her as a Mill-stone into the bottom of the Sea and let her never rise any more and set Faith and Patience to work in this case for is it not written And they overcame him by the Blood of the Lamb and the word of their Testimony and they loved not their lives unto the death and he that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity he that killeth with the Sword must be killed with the Sword Here is the Faith and Patience of the Saints Rev. 12.11 and Chap. 13.10 O therefore to conclude Let all the Gospel-Ministers of the Lord Jesus this day in the World be Antipasses men for Christ but against Antichrist and whatsoever is truly of Antichrist both Root and Branch So much for the first part of this Exhortation which was to the Ministers of Jesus Christ Let me now close with a few closing words to the Churches and Servants of Christ If Christ's Ministers spring from him and both they and their Ministrations depend upon him and are given of him for the good of you his People then let me exhort you who are the Churches and Servants of Christ to two or three things and so I shall conclude this Doctrine and the Text because I would not be too prolix First Be you Christ's Porters and the Instruments of making Christ's Servants his Ministers Be very careful and circumspect to whom you open the Door or a Door of Entrance or Admittance in any Office of Ministry under the Lord Jesus Be sure you consult diligently your Charter the New-Testament Institution concerning Ministers and when you are to chuse any be sure you ask Wisdom of God who giveth liberally and upbraideth not James 1.5 Secondly Set your thoughts and choice onely upon such men as are of honest report and full of the Holy Ghost and Wisdom Acts 6. Thirdly Chuse men competently and sufficiently endued with such Gifts as may truly enable and furnish them unto Ministry yea unto that particular sort of Ministry whereunto you ordain and appoint them whether it be to the Office of Teacher Pastor Elder or Deacon do not chuse idle Shepherds into the place of Christ's Shepherds such as may wear the Name of Christ's Ministers but want the Gifts of Christ's Ministers such will exercise the Instruments of foolish Shepherds among you rather than of Wise Ministers or Preachers and be like neither Goads or Nails to you Yea further be very circumspect that you mistake not the Gifts of your Ministers and appoint them to that Ministry in particular which though they have Gifts for Ministry yet may not have the proper Gift of that Ministry you chuse them for for every one hath his proper Gift of God that fits and disposes Persons for some one or other particular work not for every or all the works to be performed in his Church It were to make your Ministers lying Signs and like tinkling Brass and a sounding Cimbal to appoint them to one Ministry when their Grace and Gift propenses and disposes them to another Therefore as you would honour Christ or have him honoured by his and your Ministers be careful and wary in this particular Concern Fourthly Watch over your Ministers that watch over you in the Lord that they make full proof of their Ministry and fulfil it in the Lord lest your watchlesness over them make them presume to be watchless over themselves their Ministry and you also and so you partake of other mens sins 1 Tim. 5.22 Fifthly You that want such and may enjoy them neglect not so great a Mercy neither hinder Christ of so great a Glory as the Glory of his own Ministry in his own Church through your want of Zeal and forwardness to promote his and your own concern but I shall hope I need not enlarge here Sixthly If Christ's Ministers flow from him and depend upon him then when you enjoy them bless and magnifie him for them who hath not left you Orphans or as Sheep without a Shepherd Wise Gospel-Ministers such as we have all along been discoursing of are very great blessings to a People that enjoy them Wherefore when God loves a People he promiseth them that he will set Watchmen upon their Walls which shall never hold their peace day nor night and also that their Teachers shall no more be removed into Corners Isa 62.6 30 20. Therefore you that enjoy wise
oâ—â— Ministry and our own proper and peculiar Work 'T is I fear a cause of the wantingness of many even Gospel-Ministers That they are too much ignorant of this thing even the Nature Property and Duty of their Office and Ministry like persons newly entered into the World or the Affairs thereof make more haste to get into than wisely to consider their Duty therein Even so I fear is it with too many of us Preachers or Ministers of the Lord Jesus They make more haste to be Christ's Ministers than to consult the great Duty of that Office and Ministry But Secondly Let me offer this sense We are Christ's Ministry or Ministers and the Treasure in our Earthen Vessels is his and none of ours Then let us be careful of giving away any of Christ's our Sovereigns Right and Priviledges who ever they be that demand it Be like Moses and Israel who would not part with nor leave in Egypt any thing of God's Portion as we read in that passage Exod 9.16 There shall not an Hoos be left behind us And thus did Israel deal with the Kings of Canaan So whomsoever the Lord our God shall drive out before us them will we possess Judg 11.24 Even so give not away to any the right of your Sovereign Lord King Jesus whose Ministers we are divide not the living Child to please the Harlot I mean mingle not Christ's and Antichrist's Ordinances together Plow not with an Ox and an Ass together nor wear Linsey-Woolsey Garments but remember it is written Thou shalt not sow thy Vineyard with divers Seeds much less may we sow God's Vineyard with divers Seeds Deut. 22.9 10 11. For the Ark and Dagon Christ our Lord and Belial cannot agree together 1 Sam. 5.3 4. with 2 Cor. 6.14 15. But remember the Lord our God is a Jealous God and he will not hold him guiltless that taketh his Name in vain Though there are some whose Prudence Moderation and Zeal to Preaching will permit them to do otherwise namely to mingle the Holy Seed and do that they otherwise would not do namely to conform to men that they may preach Christ to the People Administer Prayer and Sacraments by a formal Service-Book Baptize all Children even the Seed of the Adulterer and the Adulteress though God of old said Such Seed shall not enter into the Congregation of the Lord to the tenth Generation Deut. 23.2 Nay more if all this was too little they rather then stand out will spread the Lord's Table for that Troop which his Soul abhors even a People that neither have nor can examine themselves or discern the Lord's Body yet these must be Communicants and pay for it or else be Excommunicants Yea to make the measure full they dare meddle with Civil Actions and deceive the People as if to Marry and Bury the Dead were part of the Administrations committed by Jesus Christ into the hand of his Ministers then which nothing is more false For if it were unfit for some of Christ's Ministers to tend the Tables of the Living 't is much more unmeet for any of Christ's Ministers to tend the Dead or intermmeddle with Civil Concerns and Marry the living but these pass for pious sober peaceable men but let them remember who said of two evils they must chuse the least 'T is not to be taken of sins of clear and real sins for here we must chuse nor take neither for it is written Thou shalt not do evil that good may come thereof for if we do damnation is just Rom. 3.18 'T is not wisdom but folly to conform against Conscience to man's Inventions though to preach the Gospel 'T were better to say with Paul If I must sin and unwillingly and against Knowledge Conform that I may Preach I will chuse rather never to Preach than to Conform and so to Preach These sober men are unsober men wise beyond sobriety of Scripture and drunken with the intoxicating Wine of the Whore of Rome's Cup that thus stagger and reel up and down from one thing to another even to whatsoever is uppermost in their dayes Whether the men that thus do be pious I shall not determine onely this I may safely conclude Such mens practices which we have hinted are not pious practices but impious and ungodly as not being warranted and founded upon the Word of God Lastly 'T were well if this Zeal of theirs for Preaching be not but a blind Zeal and a bad Zeal a Zeal rather to preach out themselves and preach in themselves than to preach out Christ to or into the People But because I hope this Leaven of the Scribes and Pharisees neither hath nor shall leaven many of you that are wise even Spiritually-wise Preachers I shall add no more to this but that word of Peter Repent therefore of this thy wickedness and pray God if perhaps the thought of thine heart may be forgiven thee Acts 8.22 O Conforming Ministers if possible repent of this your wicked conformity and you my dearly Beloved who have yet escaped the corruption that is in the World through lust O take you heed lest you also be led away with the dissimulations of such But once more If you are Christ's Ministers and derive Office and Administration from him then let me intreat you to provide for the Cross and be neither afraid nor ashamed of it for if they of the World called the Master of the House Beelzebub how much more shall they call them of his Houshold Mat. 10.25 Think not much in such a day as this is to be evil spoken of traduced and slandered knowing that these afflictions are already accomplished in your Brethren and the best of Christ's Ministers have met with no better usage from the men of the Throne of Iniquity as Paul witnesseth saying I think that God hath set forth us the Apostles last as it were appointed to death for we are made a spectacle unto the World and to Angels and to Men We are Fools for Christ's sake we are weak we are despised Even unto this very hour we both hunger and thirst and are naked and are buffeted and have no certain dwelling places and labour working with our hands Being reviled we bless being persecuted we suffer it being defamed we intreat We are made as the filth of the World and are the off-scouring of all things unto this day 1 Cor. 4.9 10 11 12 13. O start not from your Ministry or Ministrations of the holy things of Christ because of such things as these knowing that in and from the World you must have persecution if you be the Ministers of the Lord Jesus John 16.33 But say with Paul None of these things move me neither count I my life dear unto my self so that I might finish my course with joy and the Ministry which I have received of the Lord Jesus to testifie the Gospel of the Grace of God Acts 20.24 And Lastly Let me offer this to your consideration that
have scattered my Flock and driven them away and have not visited them behold I will visit upon you the evil of your doings saith the Lord vers 1 2. Thus much for this first Use of Reproof The second Vse is of Exhortation Secondly This may be for Exhortation to all such as are wise Preachers and are called to the Work of Preaching Be exhorted still teach the people knowledge go on to your and their perfection and do not begin a good Work in the World and in the hearts of the Children of God and then leave it unwatched over or unwatered but still be teaching the people knowledge I remember this is made a note of folly in the Ostrich That she leaveth her Eggs in the Earth and warmeth them in the dust and forgetteth that the foot may crush them or that the wild Beasts may break them She is hardned against her young ones as though they were not hers Her labour is in vain without fear because God hath deprived her of wisdom neither hath he imparted to her understanding Job 39.13 14 15 16 17 18. Oh! you that Preach the Gospel-Wisdom and either are or would be counted wise Preachers be exhorted not to be like the Ostrich leave not your Eggs in the Dust nor to a foot that will crush them but look well to your Seed sown and secure your Conceptions and lose not or endanger your labours but watch and pray that you fall not into temptations but still teach the people knowledge If you decline to teach the people knowledge the Devil and his Brokers will still teach your people error and folly as you have it Mat. 13.25 But while men slept his enemy came and sowed Tares among the Wheat and went his way Now will not this grieve a wife Preacher that sincerely Preaches for the good of the people that through his negligence ease and idleness that not still teaching the people knowledge the people should be all over-grown with Tares and Errors Therefore my dear Brethren who labour in the Word and Doctrine still teach your people knowledge The good Husband-man went to Plow last season and will not forbear and lose this season and the good Merchant-man ventures to Sea his Goods in one Ship and another to one part of the World and another in another season so should a wise Preacher plow up the fallow-Ground this year the next send out his Commodity to this and the other good Port in one and another good Ship take Fraight send thy Winter and thy Summer-Adventures remembring Eccles 11.4 5 6. Oh! he that observeth the Wind shall not sow and he that observeth the Wind shall not reap As thou knowest not what is the way of the Spirit nor how the Bones do grow in the Womb of her that is with Child even so thou knowest not the Works of God who maketh all In the morning sow thy Seed and in the evening with-hold not thy hand for thou knowest not whether shall prosper either this or that or whether they both shall be of like good Oh therefore be exhorted who are wise Preachers still to teach the people knowledge And to this Work let me give you a few Motives still to teach the people knowledge For Motive 1. First It will much argue and evidence your love and affection to the Lord Jesus that you love his Flock and feed his Lambs John 21.14 'T is the greatest evidence of love to Christ and to the Lambs of Christ to be diligently and constantly teaching and feeding the Flock of God with the Word of Knowledge And if there be any Preacher that would have or carry a black and visible badge of neither loving Christ nor Saints then and not else forbear to teach the people knowledge Motive 2. Secondly Let this move Preachers even every wise Preacher still to teach the people knowledge Because the more you teach others the more Jesus Christ will teach you If you would have much of the Teachings of the Lord Jesus be much in the teaching of them that are Christ's For he that watereth shall be watered and he that disperseth abroad and giveth to the poor his Righteousness remaineth for ever Prov. 11.25 with 2 Cor. 9.9 Now consider not only the people need to be Preached unto by you but you and I have great even abundant need to have Jesus Christ Preach unto us therefore still teach the people knowledge Motive 3. Thirdly Still teach the people knowledge because 't is most honourable to be most diligent in this Work and honour is much taking in these dayes when every one seeks the Rulers favour Now this is the Preacher's way to honour by diligent Preaching as skill comes by diligence so honour and deserved reputation comes by frequent and painful Preaching Look how Solomon commends the diligent Woman Prov. last vers last Even so shall the diligent Preacher be commended also Prov. 11.30 He that winneth Souls is wise with chap. 22.22 Seest thou a man that is diligent in his business he shall stand before Kings he shall not stand before mean men Therefore though we may not seek the honour that cometh of men yet we may seek that which cometh of God John 5.44 Oh! How beautiful are the feet of them that Preach the Gospel of Peace and bring glad-tydings of good things Rom. 10.15 Motive 4. Fourthly My dear Brethren it will be very comfortable in a dying hour to have Preached diligently in the dayes of Life And when have we so much need of comfort as in dying hours When will sin guilt shame and scorn lie so heavy upon us as in a dying hour Therefore still teach the people knowledge that God may still continue your comforts and cause your comforts to abound in dying hours Thus should a wise Preacher strive to Preach that with Samuel he may look a dying hour with joy in the face 1 Sam. 12.2 3 5. So Paul comforted himself in the day of his departing because he had finished his course and made full proof of his Ministry 2 Tim. 4.5 6 7 8. therefore still teach the people knowledge Yea our Lord Jesus useth this as a means to support him under the sting of Death by this Consideration That he had finished the Work his Father committed him to do in John 17.4 5. where our Lord saith I have glorified thee on earth I have finished the Work thou gavest me to do And now O Father glorifie thou me with thy own self O! here is the way for a Preacher to find assured comfort in a day of Death that he hath finished his Work in a day of Life and still taught the people knowledge O! therefore ye that are appointed to be Lights to men in a dark World let not I beseech you your Light be put under a Bushel or at best but shine in a dark Lanthorn but receive this Exhortation and let me leave it as universal advice for every Preacher that hath ears to hear what the