Selected quad for the lemma: love_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A53095
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Ultimum vale, or, The last farewell of a minister of the Gospel to a beloved people by Matthevv Nevvcomen ...
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Newcomen, Matthew, 1610?-1669.
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1663
(1663)
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Wing N914; ESTC R8564
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50,710
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82
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dearly ought every Minister of the Gospel to love the People to whom he is sent they are his Brethren and how dearly ought the People of God to love and reverence every Minister of God that is sent among them he is their Rrother their Elder Brother As it is in the Conjugal Relation so it is in this There are some duties proper to the Husband some proper to the Wife but Love is a duty equally incumbent upon them both So it is here There are Duties indeed proper to the Preacher as a Preacher some proper to the People as Hearers but Love is a Duty equally incumbent upon them both as they are Brethren the Preacher must love the People dearly as his Brethren So Paul professeth abundance of Love to the Corinthians 2 Cor. 2.4 And so to the Philippians Phil. 1.8 God is my Record how greatly I long after you all in the Bowels of Christ Jesus So acknowledging their love to him 2 Cor. 8.7 Ye abound in your Love to us And Col. 1.8 Who also declared unto us your Love in the Spirit I am not come hither this day to justifie or commend my self for my Love to you of this place though I think I might with modesty say I nave given some proof of my Love unto you not only by my constant Ministry among you but by denying so many and so great Preferments as I have done for your sakes neither is it my design to commend you or to praise you to your faces for your Love to me for that mutual and reciprocal Love that hath been between us blessed be God for what hath been wanting on either side let us be humbled Thirdly This may let us see that where there is this Brother-like mutual affection between Minister and People there the taking away of Minister and People one from another cannot but be very grievous What a lamentation doth David take up over Jonathan upon this account 2 Sam. 1.26 I am greatly distressed for thee my brother Jonathan there is the root and bottom of his grief his brother Jonathan was snatched away from him by death I am greatly distressed for thee my Brother Jonathan very pleasant wast thou unto me there was David's love to Jonathan thy love to me was wonderfull passing the love of women there was Jonathan's love to David there was no love lost between the one and other and where there is such love there cannot but be grief at partting Methinks I hear some Congregations though it may be not many in England thus bewailing their Ministers that are now civilly slain We are greatly distressed for thee O Brother very pleasant wert thou to us thy words were pleasant words for the Preacher sought to find out acceptable words and that which was written was upright even words of truth Eccles 12.10 They that have had such Preachers may well say very pleasant hast thou been unto us and some may adde further Thy Love was wonderful passing the love of Women and here certainly there must be a heavy parting Fourthly If Preachers and People are Brethren Here then behold how good and pleasant a thing it is for Ministers and People to dwell together in Unity As it is said of Brethren Psal 133. and therefore must be true here And on the contrary how unprofitable how unpleasing and how unbecoming Jarrs and Divisions between Minister and People are Their contentions are like the bars o sa Castle saith the holy Ghost of the contentions of Brethren Prov. 18.19 what then are the Contentions of Ministers and People Fiftly That Ministers and People are Brethren only Ministers they are the Elder Brethren they are the first born of Brethren This may serve as a glass to let us see the sad aspect of the present Judgment that is upon this Nation There are two thousand Ministers in England smitten and stain at once as to their Ministerial Office and Relation Methinks this Judgment seems to be like the last and sorest Judgment that God brought upon Egypt when He slew all the first born in Egypt in one night so here God hath slain not one or a few but many indeed of the First-born in England in one day there God did it Immittendo here Permittendo there by way of Immission here by way of Permission upon this occasion saith the Text there was a great cry in Egypt Exod. 12 30. And methinks there should be no small cry in England at this time And yet behold and remember But I forbear and go on And now Brethren I commend you to God Paul being now to take his last leave of these precious People making account never to to see them nor speak unto them more what doth he do He commends them to God And now Brethren I commend you unto God Whence observe That it becomes Ministers especially when they are to leave their People and foresee they shall leave them in danger of Wolves to commit and commend them unto God It is true it is the Duty of Ministers to be alwayes commending their People unto God So Paul Rom. 1.9 God is my witness whom I serve with my spirit in the Gospel of his Son that without ceasing I make mention of you alwayes in my prayers So Eph. 1.16 I cease not to give thanks for you making mention of you in my prayers So 1 Thess 1.2 We give thanks unto God alwayes for you making mention of you always in our prayers Thus Ministers must alwayes do but especially when they are leaving of them and know withal they shall leave them in danger of Wolves If there were no other proof of this in Scripture the Practice and Example of the cheif Shepherd and Bishop of souls the Lord Jesus Christ is enough to inforce this unto us for you find that when Jesus knew that his hour was come that he should depart out of this world unto the Father having loved his own which were in the world he loved them to the end Joh. 13.1 and as the last act of his Love he commends them to the Father at his departure in that comfortable and heavenly Prayer of his which we have recorded John 17.11 And now I am no more in the world but these are in the world Holy Father keep through thine own Name those whom thou hast given me And so again ver 15. I pray not that thou shouldst take them out of the world but that thou shouldst keep them from the evil or from the evil one Thus we see our Saviour commended his Disciples to his Father and so should we do And that First To testifie our faithfulness to God Secondly To testifie our love to the People First To testifie our faithfulness to God and that for two Reasons 1. Because they are primarily and originally God's Flock His peculiar People and by him committed to our Trust and Care To whom therefore should we commit them when we leave them rather than to him to whom they do belong and from
Master Necdum effusum erat venenum in Ecclesiam But the Apostles of Christ walked in the steps of their Lord and Master being meek and lowly of heart Matth. 11.29 and thereby approving themselves to be the true Ministers of Christ Whereas Pride and disdain of others is a property and badge not of the Servants of Christ but of Antichrist It is a notable Story that which Beda tels in the second Book of his Ecclesiastical History and the second chapter that when Austin the Monke whom some are ambitious to make the Apostle of England When he was sent by Pope Gregory the great to preach to the Angles or Saxons that dwelt in this Land he found a considerable company of the Britans the ancient and native Inhabitants of this Country professing the Faith of the Lord Jesus Christ and living religiously and devoutly only differing from the then Church of Rome in some Circumstances as in point of the keeping of Easter and some Ceremonies used in Baptism the like whereupon he called a Council or a Synod and invites the Britans thither and accordingly divers of the most Learned and Religious among them applied themselves to the journey but in the way they judged it convenient to take the advice of one that was of great Eminency for Prudence and Holiness of life et Anachoreticam ducebat vitam and to enquire of him whether they should be perswaded by Austin to leave their ancient Customs and follow his or no. His answer to them was Si Homo Dei sit sequimini eum If he be a man of God follow him But say they How shall we be sure of that Why saith he again Our Lord saith Take my Yoke upon you and learn of me for I am meek and lowly of heart If therefore saith he this Austin be meek and lowly of heart it is a sign that he hath taken the Yoke of Chrict upon him and offers no other yoke to you but if he be superbus immitis if he be haughty and proud Constat eum non esse de Deo it is manifest that he is not of God neither are ye to regard what he saith But say they again How shall we know this how shall we know whether he be proud or lowly Why saith he order it so that He and his Party may come first to the place of meeting and if when you come in he riseth up to you know that he is the Servant of Christ and hear him obediently But if he despise you and will not so much as rise off his seat to you do you despise him Fecerunt ut dixerat They did as he directed them and Austin not rising up to them at their coming in they concluded him a proud man and set themselves the more to oppose him But if we enlarge the Persons and take in not only the Elders but the rest of the Church supposing them present upon the place as I have shewed before we have probable cause to do than the term Brethren may afford unto us this Observation Obs That there is a near relation even the relation of Brethren between Preachers and People founded upon the account of Religion and Grace This near relation is sometimes expressed under the notion of Father and Children I speak unto you as unto my Children 2 Cor. 6.13 My little Children with whom I travel in birth Gal. 4.19 I have no greater joy than to hear that my Children walk in Truth 3 John 14. Sometimes this near relation is expressed under the notion of a Nurse and Children so 1 Thess 2.7 But we were gentle among you even as a Nurse cherisheth her Children But most ordinarily and frequently it is expressed by this notion of Brother or Brethren this is the Compellation wherewith the Apostle and other Ministers of the Gospel do ordinarily salute their People both in their Preaching and in their Writings to them as is obvious to all that reade the Acts of the Apostles and their Epistles Ministers and People they are Brethren and that upon the account of Religion and Grace They have the same Father even God who is pleased to own the one and the other for his Children For we are all the Children of God by Faith in Jesus Christ Gal. 3.26 They have all one Mother not Rome nor Antioch nor any other Church upon Earth but the Jerusalem which is above the Mother of us all Gal. 4.26 They have all sucked the same breasts Isa 66.11 That you may suck and be satisfied with the breasts of her Consolation They all feed at the same Table they eat the same Spiritual Bread and drink the same Spiritual Drink 1 Cor. 10. They all are Heirs of the same Promises and wait for the same Inheritance I say Ministers and People that are true Believers in all these respects therefore are Brethren Only look as it is in a Family where there are many Children many Brothers and Sisters one of these is the first-born and he though a Brother yet he is an Elder-Brother and he hath some Priviledges above the rest So it is here In the first Ages of the World the Priviledges of the first-born consisted in these three things 1. That the Publick and Solemn Worship of God was administred in the Family and for the Family by the First-born he was Priest and Prophet of the Family 2. That next unto the Father himself the First-born was the Prince and Governour of the Family 3. That a double Portion of the Estate went to the First-born as his Inheritance And all these Priviledges were founded upon that claim which God made unto the first-born as his right upon which they were consecrated and set apart to God Exod. 13. Afterwards all these Priviledges in the Church of the Old Testament were devolved upon the Levites whom God took instead of all the first-born of Israel Numb 3.12 And now in the Church of the New-Testament this Honour and these Priviledges are conferred upon the Ministers of the Gospel whom God hath set in the place of the Levites under the Law Isa 66.21 I will take of them for Priests and Levites saith the Lord. So that now the Ministers of the Gospel they are as it were the first-born Brethren Now the Use of this may be First To inform us that the Authority and Power of Ruling which Ministers have in the Church of God which is the House of God it is not Despotical or Lordly or Magisterial such as Superiours have over those that are absolutely and every way their Inferiours but it is rather Social such as one Brother hath over another importing rather a Priority of Order than an Imparity of Degree The Apostle disclaims all such Power 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Cor. 1.24 We are not Lords over your Faith but Helpers of your Joy Secondly That Ministers and People Preachers and Hearers are all Brethren this shews what endeared affections Ministers and People ought to bear each to other How