or convince those who are not ashamed of Impertinencies Non-sense or most gross Absurdities But when the Truths of God are to be vindicated The Faith which was at once delivered to the Saints to be contended for and Holiness to be propugned the good Minister of Jesus Christ should be bold as a Lion and pray earnestly to God for that Grace which was promised to the Prophet Ezekiel Chap. 3. ver 8 9. Behold I have made thy Face strong against their Faces and thy Forehead against their Foreheads as an Adamant harder than a Flint have I made thy Forehead Fear them not neither be dismaid at their Looks though they be a rebellious House This may suffice for the active Sense and this way doth the Syriac Version look Shew thy self a Work-man without Confusion and many of the Greek Commentators are reported to concur therein But there is also a passive Sense which may well be admitted and that our own Translators do prefer and as I think doth best sute with the Contexture of the Apostle's Discourse That a good Minister should so carry it in all his Ministerial Work that he need not be ashamed The Apostle doth apparently insist upon that Antithesis which is between a contentious Sophister who strives about Words that are unprofitable and vain and a Work-man that needeth not be ashamed When the Design and Management of a fallacious fiery Disputation is detected the Work-man hath abundant cause to be ashamed for his Folly will be made manifest to all Men. But when the good Minister's Work is most narrowly searched and sifted he may hold up his Face without spot yea his Infirmities being graciously covered and pardoned he may have confidence and not be ashamed before Christ at his Coming This may suffice for the third Property of a good Minister of Jesus Christ He is a Work-man that needeth not to be ashamed 4thly The Character of a good Minister of Jesus Christ is concluded with this Property That he is one who rightly divides the Word of Truth For the clearing of this two Things are to be attended unto which may be dispatched with convenient Brevity 1. What is the Subject or Matter about which his principal Study and Labour is to be employed and that is The Word of Truth 2. What is incumbent upon him with respect to the Word of Truth and that is That he rightly divide it 1. It is the Word of Truth in and about which the Thoughts and Studies of a good Minister of Jesus Christ are to be exercised Not in doubtful Disputations nor in the bare Opinions and Dictates of Men though of great Reputation and Authority Much less in framing cunningly devised Fables or golden Legends which may raise in the Ignorant and Credulous Admiration Superstition and Rapture but in the Considerate and Prudent Disdain and Indignation The Apostle hath informed us How the great Apostacy from the Christian Faith was to be managed and carried on 1 Tim. 4. 1 2. By giving heed to seducing Spirits and Doctrines of Devils speaking Lies in Hypocrisy but the good Minister must firmly and entirely adhere to the Word of Truth The great Repository whereof is the Holy Scripture which bears upon it that glorious Inscription The Scripture of Truth Dan. 10. 21. and the VVord of Truth the Gospel of Salvation Eph. 1. 13. and again The VVord of the Truth of the Gospel From hence must the good Minister derive confirm and improve all his Doctrine For the whole Scripture is given by Inspiration of God and is profitable for Doctrine for Reproof for Correction for Instruction in Righteousness That the Man of God may be perfect throughly furnished to all good VVorks They then offer an intolerable Affront to the Divine Majesty who speak wickedly for God or talk deceitfully for him Job 13. 7. 2. What is the proper Work of a good Minister of Christ wherein he is to be occupied with reference to this Word of Truth and that is rightly to divide it which cannot be understood in a literal but in a metaphorical Sense The Conjectures of Men about the explicating of the Metaphor have been various Some think it spoken in way of Allusion to the Priest's cutting abroad and dividing the Sacrifices into their several Parts in which they were very curious and exact Others conceive that the Apostle hath respect to those Sections into which the Book of the Law was divided by the Jews in order to their reading of it in their Synagogues Others think the Metaphor to be taken from Mothers or Nurses who cut the Meat which they give their Children into small pieces that they may the better receive and digest it But not to insist upon the Critical Part I think the Sense and Meaning is well expressed by the vulgar Latin Rightly handling the VVord of Truth and by the Syriac Rightly preaching But if we expect something instructive from the Metaphor made use of I suppose it may afford us some light if compare these Passages of Scripture together 1. The Apostle doth stile the Ministers of Christ Stewards of the Mysteries of God 1 Cor. 4. 1. 2. Our Saviour assigns this as one Property of a good and faithful Steward who is set over the Houshold that he may give to every one their portion of Meat in due season Luk. 12. 42. distributing to every one their proper Dimensum or Allotment as Exod 16. 16. Every Man according to his Eating Herein then lies much of the good Minister's Prudence Care and Tenderness so to divide the Word of Truth that every one may have their proper Portion He must provide Milk for Babes and strong Meat for them that are of full Age Heb. 5. 13 14. accommodating his Teaching to the Necessities and Capacities of the Hearers In this their Lord and Master Christ went before them and hath left them an Example For he spake the Word as the People were able to hear i. e. to understand and profit by it Mar. 4. 33. It is a singular Grace or Mercy that God bestows on his Ministers The Tongue of the Learned that they should speak a Word in season A Word in season to the Weary that they may be refreshed A Word in season to the Sorrowful that they may be comforted A Word to the Doubting that they may be setled and established A Word to the Secure and Impenitent that they may be awakened and convinced and so to others as their Case and Condition may require for then is the Word of Truth rightly divided And thus I have endeavoured to represent before you the Delineation of a good Minister of Jesus Christ according to those four Properties which are suggested in and from the Text. And now if ye have attended unto and duly considered that Character which hath been given of a good Minister I presume that many of you will be apprehensive that it was not without reason that I intimated in the
Gospel of his Son Jesus Christ. And great Reason there is why a good Minister of Jesus Christ should study to approve himself unto God 1. Because it is God who entrusts and employs him in the Ministration of the Gospel And to him he must give an account of his Stewardship If the Office of the Ministry were merely an Humane Constitution and the Instructions Rules and Measures which Ministers were to be determined by in the Execution of their Office were all of Man's Appointment then would it be sufficient for them so to demean and carry themselves therein as to gain the Approbation of Men But if the Office Work and Rule be from Heaven and not of Men then it is their Concernment as well as their Duty to seek the Approbation of God The Apostle's Way of Reasoning in another like Instance will I think guide us to what we are to conclude in this Case 2 Tim. ii 4. No Man that warreth entangleth himself with the things of this Life that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a Souldier And may we not argue à Minori ad Majus He that is bound to the Lord Christ the Captain of our Salvation under his Sacramentum Ministeriale ought not to entangle himself in Matters of a foreign Nature especially when they are obstructive to his proper Work much more if inconsistent with it but he should bend all his Thoughts Cares and Endeavours to please him who hath chosen him to be a Minister When I say the Office is from God yet that leaves room enough for Men who have a delegated Power from Christ in the ordinary Way to try the Persons who are to be admitted to the Execution of that Office And having found them fit to ordain them with Fasting Prayer and Imposition of Hands and so solemnly to invest them therewith Yet still it must remain unshaken That Man doth not make the Ministry neither may Man by his proper Authority appoint the Minister his Rule nor apportionate his Work For that belongs to the Lord Christ only Eph. 4. 8 to ver 14. When he asscended up on high he led Captivity captive and gave Gifts unto Men And he gave some Apostles some Prophets and some Evangelists and some Pastors and Teachers for the perfecting of the Saints for the Work of the Ministry for the edifying of the Body of Christ. 2. A good Minister of Jesus Christ should study to approve himself unto God because from him alone he is to receive his full and ultimate Reward Sad and miserable would be the Lot of a good Minister of Jesus Christ if the Favour of Men and earthly Preferments were all that he might look for after his greatest Sedulity and Fidelity The Apostle Paul had certainly more in his Eye for he professeth that it was something else which kept him from fainting and sinking under all the Burdens of his Services and Sufferings and that was That he looked not at the things which are seen but at the things which are not seen because the things which are seen are temporal but the things which are not seen are eternal And a great and precious Promise they have to encourage them in their Labours and to support them under their Burdens 1 Pet. 5. 2 3. Feed the Flock which is among you or in as much as in you lies and when the chief Shepherd shall appear ye shall receive a Crown of Glory that fadeth not away This may suffice to have been said touching the second Property of a good Minister of Jesus Christ He is one who studies to approve himself unto God 3dly His third Property is That he is a Work-man that needeth not to be ashamed There are two Branches in this Part of his Character 1. If you look upon him absolutely so he is a Workman 2. If ye look also upon the Modification adjoined so he is a Workman that needeth not to be ashamed 1. A Workman he must be and that Work which he is called unto is no easy Employment but very laborious for the Word used in the Text is translated a Labourer Matth. 9. 37. The Labourers are few And Ver. 38. Pray ye therefore the Lord of the Harvest that he would send forth Labourers into his Harvest Neither is his Labour like to some kinds of Recreation in which Men do but play while they take a great deal of Pains But it is hard Labour even to Laffitude and Weariness to the wasting of their Strength and exhausting of their Spirits For so doth the Scripture set forth the Working and Labouring of the good Ministers of Jesus Christ 1 Thess. 5. 12. Know them that labour among you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Tim. 5. 17. especially they who labour in the Word and Doctrine This ye may find exemplified in two Instances The Former is of Christ when he was spent and tired out with his Journey Joh. 4. 6. Jesus therefore being wearied with his Journey sat thus on the VVell The Latter is of the Disciples who had toiled out themselves all night Luke 5. 5. Master we have toiled all night These places are produced to shew That a good Minister of Jesus Christ is a Work-man whose Employment requires very hard Labour so that he hath no time allowed him for Idleness or Remissness though some time be indulged to him for his Relaxation through his Master 's tender Compassion Mark 6. 31. And he said unto them Come your selves apart and rest a-while for there were many coming and going and they had no leisure so much as to eat However God may deal with such as stand all the day idle in the Market-place yet doubtless he will not endure any Loiterers in his Vine-yard in which even the Fig-tree which was barren would not be allowed to have a Standing much less might the Dresser of the Vine-yard expect to be tolerated if he brought forth no Fruit. Our Saviour told his Apostles that he had ordained them that they should bring forth Fruit and that Fruit was their converting of Souls to God as the Apostle explains it Rom. 1. 13. That I may have some Fruit among you also as among other Gentiles The Ministers of Christ may intercede for the Enlargement of the time of God's Patience toward an unfruitful People but then it is upon their Engagement to use double Diligence in cultivating of them Luke 13. 8. Lord let it alone this year also that I may dig about it and dung it Thus ye have one of the Apellations by which a good Minister of Jesus Christ is denominated that he is a Work-man But because I told you that my Design in this Discourse would be to give you some distinct Representation of such an one I think it necessary to add some other Titles by which the Spirit of God doth notify him to us that ye may see him in a clearer Light and form more perfect conceptions of him The good
Office of a Pastor The Shepherd's Work in the literal Sense is very busy and toilsom Jacob who had been long exercised in it gives this account of it Gen. 31. 40. Thus was I in the day the Drought consumed me and the Frost by night and my Sleep departed from me Neither can we suppose that a Shepherd in the Metaphorical Sense should exonerate himself of all Care and indulge himself in his Ease It was never known that a Title to an Office should discharge a Man from his proper Work and Employment We may infer what God requires and expects from those whom he constitutes Shepherds whether in a Political or in an Ecclesiastical Sense by the sharp Reproofs and severe Menaces which he useth against the Negligent Ezek. 34. 2 3 4. Son of Man prophesy against the Shepherds of Israel prophesy and say unto them Thus saith the Lord against the Shepherds VVo to the Shepherds of Israel that feed themselves Should not the Shepherds feed the Flock The Diseased have ye not strengthened neither have ye healed that which was sick neither have ye bound up that which was broken neither have ye brought again that which was driven away neither have ye sought that which was lost but with Force and with Crueley have ye ruled them I should desire no more of any Man that thinks a Pastor's Life to be a Life of Ease and Divertisement than to make experiment though it be but among a few and those well-disposed People and he shall quickly find how much his Work will daily grow upon his hands To satisfy the Doubting and Scrupulous To set in joint the Bones which have been dislocated or broken by the Falls of such as have been overtaken or surprized by Sin To bear with the Infirmities Slowness of Capacity and Untowardness of such as he labours to instruct To apply sutable Remedies to their various Spiritual Distempers To look after and bring back such as have gone astray either through their own Levity or the Craftiness of Seducers With Patience Pity and Compassion to bear with those that oppose themselves And besides all this meekly to treat the Petulant and Exorbitant and to cicure or tame such as have altogether broken the Yoke and burst the Bonds 3. They are called Servants or Ministers Sometimes with respect to the Subject or Matter of their Ministration and so they are stiled Ministers of the Word Luk. 1. 2. Even as they delivered them to us which from the beginning were Eye-witnesses and Ministers of the Word Sometimes to set forth their Relation to their Lord and Master to whom or in whose Service they do minister So they are the Ministers of Christ 1 Cor. 4. 1. Let a Man so account of us as of the Ministers of Christ The Word made use of in the original Greek translated Minister doth primarily signify a Rower one that doth tug and sweat at the Oar The Poet could say That they who handle the Oar stand in need of two things Of God to help them with a good Wind and of their own Labour The Appellation then of a Rower being in a Metaphorical Sense applied to a Servant or Minister of Christ may admonish him to continue his Care and Industry without any intermission for ordinarily the Wind and Tide are against him And when it is so if the Rower sit still but a little his Vessel may be carried far backward and he may lose more in one Hour than he can recover in many If a Minister be remiss when false Doctrines or Immoralities in Practice like a Tempest bear down all before them such Disorders will quickly follow as will not soon or easily be rectified or reformed Let him therefore animate himself with the Apostle's Spirit and Resolution Gal. 2. 5. To whom we gave place by Subjection no not for an hour that the Truth of the Gospel might continue with you 4. They are frequently stiled Ministers or Servants but by a Word differing very much in the Original from the former which also doth engage them to much Diligence and hard Labour and that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This Word is used sometimes in the strict Acceptation and then it is rendred a Deacon as 1 Tim. 3. 8. Likewise also must the Deacons be grave The occasion of erecting that Order in the Church ye may find recorded in Acts 6. and their proper Work was To take care of and to manage the Stock of the Church and this in ver 2. is set forth by their serving of Tables but the Use of the Word in the larger Acceptation is far more frequent to denote A Minister of the New-Testament 2 Cor. 3. 6. The Minister of God 2 Cor. 6. 4. A Minister of Jesus Christ 1 Tim. 4. 6. That which I intend by adding this Appellation is as a farther Demonstration That the Calling of a good Minister requires much Industry and Diligence in those who will discharge their Duty with Fidelity for the Verb from which the Word which we render Minister is derived doth signify to make haste or to work Thus ye have had an Account of this Property of a good Minister of Jesus Christ That he is a Workman To which I have added four Titles more of the same import because this seems most conspicuous and eminent in that Character which the Text sets upon him And there remains a little more to be spoken touching that Adjunct which is added concerning him For the Apostle did not satisfy himself with calling him a Work-man but in a way of Illustration or Amplification he subjoins That he is a Work-man that need not be ashamed The Text hath it in one Word unashamed and this leads Interpreters into several ways of explaining the Sense and Meaning of it For some understand it actively A good Minister must be a well-resolved Person that no Shame Disgrace or Reproaches of Men should daunt or discourage him from professing or preaching the Gospel The Apostle Paul was well fortified against those Impressions which Shame might make upon weaker Minds for he saith Rom. 1. 16. I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ and often mentioneth his Parrhesia His speaking openly with Liberty and Confidence as Acts 9. 29. And he spake boldly in the Name of the Lord Jesus Acts 13. 46. Then Paul and Barnabas waxed bold and said Neither could all the Calumnies raised against him nor Injuries done him make him ashamed 2 Tim. 1. 12. For which Cause I also suffer these things nevertheless I am not ashamed Impudence is indeed most hateful in an evil Matter and draws down the Wrath of God upon brazen-faced Sinners Jer. 6. 15. Were they ashamed when they had committed Abomination nay they were not at all ashamed neither could they blush therefore they shall fall among them that fall He hath an hard Province who is diepute with Ignorance when it is patronized by Impudence For how shall he instruct
entrance upon this Discourse that I should hold up before you a Glass or Mirror wherein ye might see the Portraicture of that good Minister whose Funeral we this Day solemnize to be reflected It would be no difficult Undertaking to draw the Parallel and shew the Correspondence in every Particular But that Performance would require near as much time as that which has been already filled up Ye must therefore be contented with such short Recollections as I can recover upon the hasty Exercise of my Thoughts The reverend and worthy Minister of Jesus Christ Mr. Richard Steel was born in Cheshire near Nantwich on the tenth Day of May Anno Dom. 1629 and left this World November the 16th Anno Dom. 1692 so that he died in the 64th Year of his Age. Where he had his Education in his younger Years hath not come to my notice but I find in the Fasti Oxonienses That Richard Steel was Master of Arts of St. John's College in Cambridg and was Incorporated into the University of Oxford March the 27th 1656. He is there mentioned among the Oxford-Writers and several of his Printed Works are recited When he entred into the sacred Ministery is unknown to me but after that he was invested therewith I am informed that he did exercise it in divers places as the Providence of God disposed of him until he came to London which as I conjecture was about 24 or 25 Years ago and here he hath continued preaching the Gospel in and about the City as God gave him Liberty and Opportunity until he put a period both to his Labours and Life That he did eminently discharge the Duty of a good Minister will appear by some few Remarks whereby it will be made evident that he wrote very fairly after that Copy which I have been decyphering unto you e. gr 1. Our Apostle the more to recommend a good Minister doth shew How unlike he is to a contentious wrangling Sophister which lives in the fire of Disputing and Dividing But it may be truly said of our worthy Brother as it was of Caleb He was a Man of another Spirit He hated Contentions and Divisions he greatly bewailed them and used his uttermost Endeavour to promote Union and Concord That this was his Temper is clearly demonstrated by his Discourse against uncharitable Contentions in the Church of God Which Discourse is printed in the 4th Volume of the Casuistical Morning-Exercises preached in October 1689 wherein he shewed a deep Judgment and a very prudent pacifick Spirit 2. The Apostle describes a good Minister of Jesus Christ by his Studiousness and Diligence In which it must be concluded that our deceased Brother was very exemplary For his Sermons were composed and written with mature Digestion though with much Brevity which manifest them to have been the Product of many serious Thoughts and considering his Constancy in Preaching must needs require very hard Study His Manuscript Notes of his Sermons are exceeding many and deserve to be carefully preserved When we compute the time that must necessarily have been spent about his ordinary Labours we may judg that a Person of more than common Attainments had filled it up very well Yet he redeemed so much besides as enabled him to compose and publish several pious and profitable Treatises Of which I think it may be of good use to annex a Catalogue As 1. An Antidote against Distractions Or An Endeavour to serve the Church in the daily Case of Wandrings in the Worship of God This Treatise came to my hands before I ever saw the Face of the Author and I have heard many to bless God for it and to profess that they were greatly edified by it What Acceptance this Book hath found with such as are serious in Religion may be estimated by the several Impressions of it There is one Circumstance more that relates to it which may not be passed over viz. That it was written by Mr. Steel when he was in Prison in Wales for Non-conformity Here we find that exemplified which was once the Case of St. Paul 2 Tim. 2. 9. VVherein I suffer Trouble as an Evil-Doer even unto Bonds but the VVord of God is not bound And as while he was in Prison he endeavoured to edify the Church of God by his Writings so he did also by his Preaching while he was under Confinement seek the Salvation of those who came to hear him And it is to be hoped that it may be said of some of them as Paul did of Onesimus that they were begotten again by him while he was in Bonds 2. The Husband-man's Calling shewing the Excellencies Temptations Graces and Duties of the Christian Husband-man 3. A plain Discourse of Uprightness shewing the Properties and Privileges of an upright Man 4. The Trades-man's Calling A Discourse concerning the Nature Necessity Choice c. of a Calling in general and Directions for the right managing of the Tradesman's Calling in particular 5. A Discourse of Old-Age Tending to the Instruction Caution and Comfort of Aged Persons 6. A Scheme and Abstract of the Christian Religion Comprized in fifty two Heads with the Texts of Scripture on which they are grounded And some short Indications How they were more largely handled 7. Besides his Discourse against uncharitable Contentions printed among the Sermons in the 4 th Volume of the Casuistical Morning-Exercises there are also other Sermons of his printed As 1. The Duties of Husbands and VVives toward each other in the Supplement of the Morning-Exercise at Cripple-gate 1674. 2. Believers Right to the Cup in the Lord's Supper In the Morning-Exercise against Propery 1675. 3. VVhat are the Hindrances and Helps to a good Memory in spiritual Things In the Continuation of the Morning-Exercises Questions and Cases of Conscience 1683. These are the Books which were published by our Reverend Brother by the diligent Reading whereof private Christians may by God's Blessing be much improved in their spiritual Growth 3. A good Minister of Jesus Christ will study to approve himself unto God And to do so we may be assured was the constant Care and Endeavour of our deceased Brother For he was circumspect unblameable and exemplary in the whole Course of his Conversation and the Exercise of his Ministry who might through Grace have taken up the Apostle's Words 2 Cor. 1. 12. Our rejoyoing is this the Testimony of our Conscience that in Simplicity and godly Sincerity not with fleshly VVisdom but by the Grace of God we have had our Conversation in the VVorld And now we doubt not but that God's Approbation of him is perfectly assured by his actual Admission of him into his Presence where there is fulness of Joy and at whose Right-hand are Pleasures for evermore 4. A good Minister of Jesus Christ is a Work-man that need not to be ashamed His abundant Labours do manifest that he was a constant and diligent Work-man and the Lord Christ did so assist and help him in his Work that upon an