it with joy and not with grief for that is unprofitable for you And 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 I 'll not meddle with that Controversie whether in the Church there be such an Officer distinct from the Pastor as the Ruling Elder I have told my poor thoughts about it elsewhere 't is certain the Pastor is a Ruler in the Church of God no Civil Officer he is a Spiritual Officer not a Magistrate but a Minister we Preach our selves your Servants for Christ's sake we are not the Lord 's of your Faith but the Helpers of your Joy our Ministery is not a Saecular Magistracy But tho' we be Spiritual Fathers your Shepherds and Elders in Office in the House of God who are more slighted disesteemed and disobeyed So far are Church-members from giving their Pastors their double that they deny them their single Honour Brethren the honour of our Ministery and Office must be vindicated We have received it for your Edification We encroach not upon your just Liberties but take you heed of invading ours of overthrowing God's establisht Mound and ancient Landmarks That Eminent Godly Minister of the Lord Jesus old Mr. Wilson of Boston in New-England called this sin Koraism For lying upon his Death-bed and being visited by the Preaching Elders of that Famous Colony they desired that he would solemnly declare unto them what he conceived were those sins which provoked the displeasure of God against the Countrey he then told them That among others Corahism was none of the least which he thus explained When people rise up as Corah against their Ministers or Elders as if they took too much upon them when indeed they do but rule for Christ and according to Christ yet said he 't is nothing for a Brother to stand up and oppose without Scripture or Reason the Doctrine and Word of the Elder saying I am not satisfied Oh! what a sad account shall we give of such Children Sheep and Members of ours unto the Lord Jesus when in the day of Judgment we shall be askt by him for we must give an account as for our selves so for you also How fare my Sheep committed to your Care and Charge in yonder Wilderness How did you leave them when you left the World My Brethren what answer do you think we shall return unto our Lord and Judge concerning you We tremble to think the truth the sad truth we must then relate unto him of the Pride and Self-conceitedness of the Stubbornness Perverseness and Untractableness of the Unbelief and Disobedience of a multitude of our Hearers and Church-Members I speak it Brethren with Tears that I fear we shall cry as the Prophet did Lord who hath believed our report Isa 53.1 Chap. 65.2 And to whom hath the Arm of the Lord been revealed And all the day long have we stretched out our hands to a Gain saying and Rebellious People They have despised both our Persons and Doctrine As soon as negligent Hearers are admonished by us of their Duty and delinquent Members reproved by us for their sins they fly in our Faces leave our Communion rail at us and revile us vomiting out the worst of Lies against us as if we were the worst of Men. To whom shall we speak and give warning that they may hear Behold their Ear is uncircumcised Jer. 6.10 and they cannot hearken Behold the Word of the Lord is unto them a reproach they have no delight in it I know this hath sate near the Hearts of several of God's Ministers both formerly and of later times and filled them with unspeakable grief to the shortning of their days If you stand fast in God and the practice of Godliness we live we have the end and design and desire of our Life for this we wish and labour for even your perfection Our Hearts Desire and Prayer is that you may be saved And we preach warning every Man and teaching every Man in all Wisdom that we may present every Man perfect in Christ Jesus But if instead of this you will retain your old sins and slight our Counsels and render our poor Labours ineffectual and unsuccessful tho' this will pierce our Souls to the quick and over-whelm us with grief to the shortning of our Lives yet let me be bold to tell you such wicked ones shall answer for it unto the Supream Judge and the Judge is now at the Door Vse 2. Are Godly Ministers Mortal Creatures Then serve your selves of them whilst you have them Jesus Christ hath given us to you for the service of your Souls As I said but now so I repeat it again we preach our selves your Servants for Christ's sake make use of us then for your Souls good God hath tinded us up poor Lamps poor Candles in the Golden Candlesticks of our Churches receive Light and Heavenly Instruction from us We desire to guide you by the Divine Councils and to feed you with the Coelestial Manna and do bring unto you the best news in the World the glad-tydings of Salvation O! let our Persons our Message be acceptable to you How beautiful are the Feet of them that publish the glad-tydings of Salvation You should say unto us as Laban did to Abraham's Servant for we come unto you upon the like Errand to Espouse and Marry you unto Christ Come in ye blessed of the Lord wherefore stand you without When the Jesuites first came into Portugal they were called the Apostles of Portugal and entertained with all imaginable honour Strange that a Crew of self-seeking and deceiving Idolaters should be caressed and Embraced and the Ambassadors of Christ stand waiting and weeping without at your Doors We are Sirs Christs Ambassadors and we come upon this Errand to you and beseech you to listen to it to reconcile you unto God You are by nature his Enemies and 't is very dangerous for you O! become his Friends Be you reconciled unto God And the rather do this because you shall not have us always with you We are Mortal we are dying now whilst we are living and preaching to you My Race is well nigh run my Work is well nigh finished the Sands in the Glass of my Life are almost out Walk in the Light whilst you have the Light The Prophets don't live for ever Quest But how shall we use and serve our selves of our Ministers Answ 1. Be swift to hear slow to wrath God hath made us Preachers and you Hearers we should not preach to empty Houses and naked Walls Church-members should be ordinarily Hearers of their own Ministers Neglect no opportunities that you can conveniently have and spare for this Duty If we are to preach in season and out of season to be instant in Exhortation and Doctrine you must lend us your Ears Blessed are they that watch at Wisdoms Gates and wait daily at the Posts of her Doors 2.
and rejoiced at their Death and Calamity sending Gifts to one another and Feasting each other because these their Tormentors were now dead tho' yet 't was but a civil death a Bartholomew Act that disabled them from their Work which was their Life yet the voice of God bids them in the sight and hearing of their very Enemies to come up unto him into Heaven Come up hither my dear Saints my faithful Witnesses Come up unto your God in Glory The World is weary of you That Dunghil is not worthy to have you Come up unto your God in Glory 2. As soon as their Work is done God will call them home After Work Rest after Labour VVages There remaineth a Rest an Everlasting Sabbatism for God's Saints VVe have a little Type and Shadow a poor Picture-pledge and Earnest of it in this holy day of rest O! but when all our VVork is done then an Eternal rest then God will call upon his Servants Come enter into your Rest into your Master's Joy my dear Saints There is a Twofold VVork that God's Ministers have to do 1. A VVork of Conviction and Condemnation This is a very sad burdensome and uncomfortable VVork that instead of Preaching Souls out of their sins we shall only shew them to them make them see them but not leave them Our Sermons shall awaken and startle them but not renew nor reform them we shall give them a Pisgah view of Heaven but they shall nevertheless because of their unbelief never enter into it To some we shall be the savour of death unto death They shall be convinced of their sins hardned in their sins and by those self-same Sermons condemned for their sins Noah that Preacher of Righteousness did thus convince and condemn the old World Heb. 11.7 O! Sirs it affrights me to think I should Preach any of you into Hell and that my self and Sermons should witness to your condemnation in the last day 2. There is a Work of Conversion and Edification God sometimes sends us about this Work this is pleasing delightful and exceeding comfortable Go saith God to Paul and preach at Corinth for I have much people there Acts 18.10 Seedsman saith Christ unto his Minister go scatter the good Seed of my Word in such a Soyl and it shall yield thirty sixty and an hundred fold Fisherman let down thy Net in yonder Pool and thou shalt take many a Fish a multitude of precious Souls O! Sirs if we can but gain you to Christ and as his Ambassadors reconcile you to God we have our ends we have done our Work our Masters Work to our great Joy and Consolation Now when we have done this Work fill'd up our number of Converts as Spiritual Fathers begotten many a Child for God and built them up in Faith and Holiness we shall hear our Great Lord say unto us Well done good and faithful Servants enter into your Masters Joy 3. The sins of their Hearers of their people do oftentimes shorten the days of their Ministers and many Churches are real Murderers of their most Faithful Pastors You will say possibly this is an hard word and who can bear it How do Churches Murder their Ministers Why Sirs 1. Not only by exacting Work from them above their Ability 2. Nor only by denying them due incouragement and a competency for their subsistance Nor yet 3. By downright killing of them in Persecution as both the Zachary's were and an infinite number of other Faithful Prophets of the Lord were But 4. By your sins The sins of the Hearers are our Murderers But what sins I answer 1. Your Non-proficiency by our Ministry You be God's Husbandry and Garden we are to Manure and Dress you you be God's Building and Temple we are to repair beautifie and adorn you 'T was said of Augustus Caesar that he found Rome Brick but left it Marble O! what a comfort will it be to our Souls to have found you Earthly and left you Heavenly To have found you Sinners and leave you Saints We have digg'd about you we have manur'd and drest you studied for you preached to you admonished you in publick and private and what Shall we have labour'd in vain When you have been a sleeping in your Beds and Sins at midnight possibly your Faithful Ministers have been upon their Knees weeping and mourning for you strugling and wrestling with God in Fervent Prayers for your Souls and shall all these Pains and Labours be lost Shall we Meditate and Study Preach and spend our Spirits in Prayer in vain and not for your good Shall the Lord say unto us as to Moses in another case Speak to me no more move me no more in this matter for these Souls for these Sinners They be Reprobate Silver dross and lost Creatures whom the Lord hath rejected for their unprofitableness under all the Means of Grace Brethren this cutts us to the quick and helps to break our Heart Your Eternal Happiness would be our Life The fear of your being undone Eternally is as death unto us it is killing to us 2. The Pragmaticalness of Church-members who take upon them to contradict and controul their Ministers Preposterous courses God hath made us Teachers and our People will teach their Instructors God hath made us Guides and Lights unto you in the way to Heaven but pragmatical Hearers take upon them Magisterially enough to direct dictate and prescribe unto their Ministers what Doctrine they shall Preach and what not The Lord takes notice of these by the Prophet Isa 30.8 9 10 11. Now go write it before them in a Table note it in a Book that it may be for the time to come for ever and ever That this is a Rebellious people lying Children Children that will not hear the Word of the Lord which say to the Seers see not and to the Prophets prophesie not right things unto us speak unto us smooth things prophesie deceits When a Godly Minister had preach'd of Hell unto his Parishioners a great Lady takes him up sharply enough What! Do not you know that my Lord cann't indure to hear speak of death and are you so unwise as to preach of the Torments of Hell unto him Pray learn more wit next and deliver in publick a Doctrine that shall be more edifying and pleasing to him Again Christ hath made us by vertue of our Pastoral Office Rulers in the House of God and committed the Keys of Doctrine and Discipline to us but sorry Mechanicks take upon them to over-rule and correct their Pastors We be Watchers for your Souls and some watch for our failings Jesus Christ hath positively commanded you Heb. 13 7. to remember them which have the rule over you who have spoken to you the Word of God to follow their Faith considering the end of their Conversation And again 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
Rejoice in our Light Doctrine and Conversation Herod heard John the Baptist with delight His Person and Preaching was very sweet and pleasing to him yea and to the Jews also for he was a burning and shining Light and they rejoiced in his Light for a time John 5.35 3. Frequently consult with your Pastors in private about your Souls and your Estate to God-ward When you find inward struglings and perplexities within you as to your Everlasting condition do as Rebekah did go and consult with God by us Ask the counsel and mind of God for you from us There should not be that strangeness that is between Pastor and People but a sweet intimacy and holy familiarity as between Children and their Fathers Come to us with such questions as these Oh! Sirs What shall we do to be saved Is this work that is wrought in me a saving or a common work Inform and direct me that I may not miscarry in Conversion nor be mistaken as to my Right and Title to Heaven and Glory 4. Never let us go out of your Houses without leaving our blessing with you The old Puritans would not let their Pastors go without praying with them and praying for them Vse 3. Are Godly Ministers and Ungodly Hearers both all alike dying Creatures Then look to it that you be not number'd in your Deaths with Godless Hearers O! saith Balaam Let me die the death of the Righteous and my latter end like unto theirs A young Man seeing the happy end of St. Ambrose Bishop of Millain turning to his Boon Companions I would said he fain live with you but die with Ambrose There had been some picks and quarrels between Maccovius Professor of Divinity at Franequer in Friseland and our Pious Learned Ames which made our Reverend Countryman to quit that University But when Maccovius heard of his death he cries out May my Soul when it leaves this Body be where Blessed Dr. Ames is O! Sirs 't will be your happiness to be with all the Holy Prophets Apostles and Evangelists with the Glorious Company of innumerable Angels and with the Blessed Spirit 's of God's Ministers those just men made perfect That Blessed Society which is in Heaven is the sweets of Heaven I shall only change my place not my Company said dying Dr. Preston He left imperfect for perfect Saints The Communion of Saints in Glory next to the Eternal Injoyment of God is the Paradise of Heaven O! Labour for it Quest But how shall we get our selves among them in Death Answ 1. Consider their Faith and the end of their Conversation God hath made your Ministers your Examples both in Life and Death Be you Followers of them as they be of Christ Whatsoever things are true whatsoever things are honest whatsoever things are just whatsoever things are pure whatsoever things are lovely whatsoever things are of good report If there be any vertue and if there be any praise thinks on these things Those things which ye have both learned and received and heard and seen in me do And the God of peace shall be with you 2. Let not our Sermons be buried with us in our Graves Let not those hundreds of Sermons you have heard from your two Learned and Faithful Ministers die with them Have them always in remembrance Let them live in your minds and memories 2 Pet. 1.12 15. 3. Let our Word which yet is not our's but God's ever live in your Hearts and Affections O! how do I love thy Word 't is my Meditation all the day long said that Royal Prophet Psal 119.97 103 113 127 140. If you will love and live God's Word do and practise it you will be guided by the best of Counsels and infallibly brought unto Glory 4. Let our Sermons be copied out in your Conversations hold you forth in them the Word of Life unto all that see and observe you This renders God's Word on your part and as much as in you lyeth Immortal and fitteth you for blessed Immortality Tho' the Preachers die yet in this manner God's Word never dies and the Preacher's themselves will seem to be alive I 'le shut up all with these words of the Apostles 2 Cor. 3.1 2 3. Do we begin again to commend our selves Or need we as some others Epistles of Commendation to you or Letters of Commendation from you Ye are our Epistle written in our Hearts known and read of all men For as much as ye are manifestly declared to be the Epistle of Christ ministred by us written not with Ink but with the Spirit of the Living God not in Tables of Stone but in Fleshly Tables of the Heart And if you are thus the Epistle of Christ and our Ministery unto your Souls is the Ministery of the Spirit of Life you may rest assured that Godly Ministers and Godly Hearers shall be as Saul and Jonathan lovely in their Lives nor shall they in Death be divided I have done with my Sermon yet I cannot but speak something of your late Reverend and now Glorified Pastor tho' by reason the time is past it will be but very little 1. He was a Man of singular Moderation and of a very peaceable Spirit If the Peace-makers are blessed and shall be called the Children of God then Blessed is Mr. Faldo who had an especial hand in the healing of our Breaches which Glory be unto God's Holy Name are to the Mutual Joys of all the Saints now composed and those two great divided Parties in this Nation and that had been so for above Forty years are now once again United and become one and we shall no more for the future hear of those unhappy Terms of Distinction and Separation Presbyterian and Independent but we shall be called as the Primitive Church of Antioch by his Name who hath Redeemed us and Anointed us with his Holy Spirit even Christians 2. He was a stout Assertor of Ancient Primitive Truths in Doctrine and Worship He contended earnestly for the Faith once delivered unto the Saints and was a Zealous Champion for it against the Impious Errors and Damnable Opinions of a Deluded Seduced Party in this Land His Learned Labours Polemical with them Practical and Devotional for the use of others do praise him in the Gate and by these as Righteous Abel tho' dead he yet speaketh 3. He was a constant Labourer and very painful in his Lord's Vineyard and the very first that entered publickly upon it before the last Indulgence by King James the Second And his Great Master found him in his Work There the Gripes and Stone assaulted him which at last killed him Blessed is that Servant whom when his Lord comes he finds so doing I cannot but condole your loss and the Churches loss and pardon these Tears my own particular loss I have been so unhappy as to loose in your two Successive Holy and Reverend Pastors two very Worthy and Dear Friends I pray God my Brethren that as you had a Learned and Pious Faldo to succeed your Blessed Mr. Partridge so you may have another who may Excel them both in Gifts and Graces in all Ministerial Indowments and Pastoral Abilities But my Dear Brethren such a Pastor as Reverend Mr. Faldo is Forty years a making However I beseech you be not too long in making your Choice and filling up your Vacancy Either Incorporate with some other Church or call in speedily another Pastor There be some young Men of great Hopes of Eminent Parts and Piety that are yet unimployed If any one ask why they are idle this time a-day they will reply Because none hath hired us Pray get one of them some One may be had The Lord God of Wisdom Lead Guide and Direct you in your way And give you a Pastor after his own Heart that may feed you with Knowledge and Understanding Amen FINIS