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A51323 The wise Gospel-preacher his praise and practice, duty and dignity, opened in a sermon on Eccles. 12. 9. By S.M. minister of the Gospel More, Stephen. 1650 (1650) Wing M2687; ESTC R213884 133,568 256

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That of these men that have companied with us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us beginning from the Baptism of John unto the same day that he was taken up from among us must one be ordained to be a witness with us of his Resurrection Vers 22. And thus they chose Ministers Acts 6. according to Apostolical Direction who said Wherefore Brethren look you out from among your selves seven men of honest report full of the Holy Ghost and Wisdom whom we may appoint to this business vers 4. Again ask those who profess themselves Christ's Ministers Who put them into their Ministry the Church or any particular sort of men distinct from the Congregation whose Ministers they are For none but the Church I mean a particular Church can make a Man a Minister of any of Christ's particular Churches or Golden Candlesticks It was the Church not the Apostles chose accepted and admitted those into the Office of Deaconship which we read of Act. 6.5 6. And they chose Steven a man full of Faith and of the Holy Ghost and Philip and Prochorus and Nicanor and Timon and Parmenos and Nicolas a Proselyte of Antioch whom they set before the Apostles And if the Churches of Christ should not have this power to give the Beeing and Ordination to their own Servants and Ministers without dependance on others then should the power and priviledges of Christ's Churches be less than of civil Corporations or private Families which were absurd to imagine Not to grant this to every individual and particular Church and Congregation were to maintain That Christ's Churches are in Bondage and not Free States or Politick Bodies which were derogatory both to Christ and to his Church Further either the Church or persons less than the Church must make Ministers but the Text tells us The lesser must be blessed of the greater Therefore every Church of Christ and not any distinct sort of Persons there-from must make Ministers for themselves Heb. 7.7 we read And without all contradiction the less is blessed of the greater yea and subjected to the greater even every Gospel-Minister to his Congregation who may not only when occasion requires say to Archippus Take heed to the Ministry thou hast received of the Lord to fulfil it Col. 4.17 But likewise if Archippus will not here reform and obey them as they gave him admittance into their Fellowship and into his Ministry they also may take from him both the one and the other and let him be unto them as an Heathen and a Publican Mat. 18.17 Again ask these what Ministers of Christ they are Apostles Evangelists and extraordinary Prophets they cannot be who-ever they be for they ceased with Foundation-work and Dayes and as they were raised up and filled with Gifts and Grace suiting such who were to lay the Foundation of Faith Church-Worship Ministry and Ministrations according to commission from Christ Mat. 28.19 20. So they were to be but twelve in number as Acts 1. with Rev. 21. where it is said And the Wall of the City had twelve Foundations and in them the names of the twelve Apostles of the Lamb Vers 14. The last Vision John saw and the most glorious City that upon Earth the Saints shall ever see will have but twelve Apostles names in the Foundation thereof wherefore try them that say they are Apostles and they will be found lyars Rev. 2.2 And for Evangelists to assist Apostles in writing Scripture and such like Services there being now no Apostles to assist or Scripture to write or fill up there is no need of these as no way to attain these for all these extraordinary Officers came not into the Church by the Door or Way that ordinary Ministers or Officers do but by a more immediate way from Heaven as Paul witnesseth Gal. 1.1 Paul an Apostle not by man nor of man but by Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised him from the dead And for extraordinary Prophets as we have none so all that are acquainted with the Scripture know they were immediately made Prophets by the Lord All therefore that say they are Christ's Gospel-Ministers must profess or acknowledge themselves to be either Pastors or Teachers or Elders or Deacons and Deaconnesses Now he that is a Pastor cannot at the same time be a Teacher that is an official Teacher whose Work and Office is distinct as well as his name from the Pastor and the Elder or Ruler is distinct in Name and Work from both the former and the Deacon from all the rest as the formentioned Scriptures declare Now if they have neither Name nor Gifts of Christ's Ministers then can they be none of Christ's but another sort of Ministers I do not say that a bare assuming or owning a Man's self to be a Pastor or Teacher or Elder will prove him one of Christ's Ministers but try what men are called into the Office and Ministry of Objection And if any should Object and say But are not these common names viz. Pastors Elders Teachers Bishops and the like Answer I Answer In a common acceptation and use of the term they are and may be so improved but yet these names are properly the names of Christ's distinct and peculiar Ministers and answerable to their proportionableness thereunto are they to be chosen into that very Ministry they are mostly fitted and adapted for As he whose Gift and Spirit mostly disposes him to Exhortation and Application of Principles received and believed ought to be chosen into the Pastor's Office and he whose Gifts and Qualification bends most to Expound Interpret and open the sense and meaning of the Word is meetest to be chosen into the Office of a Teacher and so he that is wise zealous grave vigilant and most disposed to see the Churches Affairs done decently and in order is most meet for the Office of ●uling-Elder or Governor in the Church of Christ And he that is most inclined to mercy kindness charity bountifulness liberality and giving is meetest of all the Church for the Office of Deaconship in the Church For as Adam called every thing by its proper name even so would the Second Adam have his Ministers called by their proper not improper names from their fitness and sutableness to their Work chosen and called either Pastors Teachers Elders or Deacons But lastly Would you know whether Persons pretending to be Christ's Ministers be so or no ask them whose Servants they are and whom they obey Christ and his Will or Man and his Will For you know who said it His Servants ye are to whom ye yeeld your selves obedient Rom. 6.16 Now try whose Will and Mind Ministers obey Christ's or Man's whose Word they walk by Christ's or Man's whose Worship they offer up Christ's or Man's For by their Fruits saith our Lord you shall know whether men are true or false Prophets Mat. 7.15 16. Christ's Ministers offer no strange Fire nor make any composition to anoint God's
good will and wisdome of the Lord Jesus 3. In what sense I intend they are freely given 4. and lastly why I say freely given for the good of his Church and People First Let me speak to the first By Ministers I mean all and only all such persons as are in the Church of Christ admitted into Ministry or Office in the Church and so are disterenced and distinguished from the Memoral part thereof or such who are only Members therein I speak not here of Ministers or Officers Civil or belonging to the Commonwealth nor of Antichristian or National Ministers but only of such as are or pretend to be Christ's Ministers I say all these must spring from him Whom God hath made both Lord and Christ and holdeth the seven stars in his right hand Act. 2.36 with Revel 2.1 By Ministries I mean not Officers but Offices or those Institutions and Appointments for making of Ministers Secondly These also spring from the Headship Authority Will and Wisdom of the Lord Jesus only It is not allowable in any Kingdom Free-State or Common-Wealth that any but the Head and Supream Power thereof should assume the appointing or making Offices or Ministries therein Even so none save the Lord Jesus is allowed to institute and appoint what Offices and Ministries shall be in the Church that is in his Church and Kingdom For although the Father hath given all Authority and Power to the Son to appoint Ministries for his Church yet hath not the Son given or committed any such power as to institute or appoint any Office or Ministry in the Church to any sort of Persons under the Sun but hath written Thou shalt not make Exod. 20. And this was the great sin of Jeroboam that he made Priests 1 Kings 12.31 But Thirdly Let me open what I mean or intend by a Ministration or by Ministrations to wit such Acts or Works as Persons made Officers over the Church of God are to perform in and for the Church of God Now I say that as none can appoint Christ a Minister or determine by what Ministry he shall be served but himself no more can or ought any but the Lord from Heaven heavenly to appoint what Work or Ministration these shall perform to Christ but the true Alpha and Omega the beginning and end of all things Rev. 22.13 But as all Ministries come from him even so from him must proceed all Gospel-Ministration or Performances But again when I say in the Doctrine that they spring from the alone good Will and Wisdom of the Lord Jesus I intend not to exclude God considered as the Father who is God over all blessed for ever-more but onely I would exclude all the Children of men from having any part or portion in the begetting or giving beeing to any Gospel Ministry or Ministration This under the Father proceeds from the Lord Jesus Christ who when he ascended up on high gave Gifts unto Men for the Work of the Ministry Ephes 4. 'T was good Will none could have constrained him so to have done and 't was his own Wisdom without the wisdom of the flesh contrived and concluded the mode and manner of his own Service Mat. 28.18 19 20. with Acts the first abundantly declare And further when I say Ministers Ministries and Ministrations are freely given I intend that as the Church had never been purchased by Christ but that he freely gave himself for it so no more had the Church ever attained or enjoyed any Ministry or Institution and Appointment about Gospel-Ministers and Gospel-Ministrations but onely through the good Will and good Pleasure of him that dwelt in the Bush for indeed all Institutions spring onely from the Will and Pleasure of the Institutor as not being moral but instituted Beeings Further I mean no man can come to be one of Christ's Ministers but by the free will of Christ He can neither attain Grace or Gifts to qualifie and fit him nor choice into any Ministry under Christ but by the free-will and good-pleasure of Christ as Paul acknowledgeth saying Whereof I was made a Minister according to the Gift of the Grace of God given unto me by the effectual working of his power Ephes 3.7 8. And as to Choice Solomon tells us The Lot is cast into the Lap but the whole disposition thereof is of the Lord Prov. 16.33 But further I mean by this Expression freely of the Lord that when such a People attain such a Ministry and such a Minister such a Congregation this is or ought to be of the Lord. And Lastly When I tie up all Ministries Ministrations or Ministers onely to the Church and People of God as given and provided for them I mean exclusively They are neither instituted nor appointed for the use and service of the World but of the Church and Elect of God further then accidentally and by way of redundancy as Paul tells us in 1 Cor. 14.24 25. I say further then accidentally 'T is Childrens Bread and ought not to be given to Dogs Mat. 15.26 Thus much for Explication Let me now confirm this by Argument or Reason to wit that all Ministers Ministries and Ministrations meet to be owned for Christ's or Evangelical do all spring from the alone Will and Authority of the Lord Jesus and are freely given for the service of himself and People Reason 1. First This must needs be thus because it is said of Christ That God hath highly exalted him and given him a Name which is above every Name That at the Name of Jesus every knee should bow of things in Heaven and things in Earth and things under the Earth and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is the Lord to the glory of God the Father Phil. 2.9 10 11. But this could not be affirmed of Christ if he had not this Priviledge and Prerogative which Princes on Earth are not denyed even to give a beeing to his own Ministers and their Ministrations That this Priviledge earthly Powers have assumed and been allowed witness Pharaoh Gen. 41.38 39 40 41. The like we read done by Solomon 1 Kings 2.35 Thus did Ahasuerus Hester 10.2 3. And the like did Darius Dan. 6.1 2. with many others that might be produced And shall not the King of Kings and Lord of Lords be allowed the same priviledge which other subordinate and inferior Princes are allowed even to institute nominate and appoint his own Servants or Ministers and their Ministrations Yes doubtless for as the Text alledged tells us He is exalted to a Name above every Name and David speaking of the Lord Christ tells us This must be his priviledge That God the Father will make him his first born higher than the Kings of the earth Psal 89.27 Therefore this Prerogative must needs be allowed him Reason 2. Secondly I conclude this must be the Prerogative of Christ to give the Rise and Beeing to his own Ministers and their Ministrations because none of the Children of men are wise