Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n
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A61666
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Poimnē phylakion, The pastors charge and the peoples duty a sermon (for the most part) preached at the Assembly of ministers at Exon, June 7, 1693 / by Samuel Stoddon.
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Stoddon, Samuel.
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1694
(1694)
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Wing S5714; ESTC R645
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61,189
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172
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very honourable to him whose Servant he pretends to be especially considering that they could not but know and foresee how tender all Men naturally are in the matters of Honour and Maintenance and of what mischievous consequence the leaving such a Question as this in the dark and undetermined would be That it would involve the Church in endless strifes and quarrels and confusions But will the Lay-Elder lay his Claim to a Maintenance from that word in the Text viz. double Honour taking it for the Honour of Maintenance Let him then read on the next verse there For the Scripture saith Thou shalt not muzzle the Oxe that treadeth out the Corn And the labourer is worthy of his reward The first of these Scriptures you have Deut. 25.4 which the Apostle makes use of 1 Cor. 9.9 And you may see how he there applies it only to the Ministers of the Gospel Those that sow unto the People spiritual things v. 11. That minister about holy things and wait at the Altar v. 13. The other Scripture you have Matth. 10.10 The work-man is worthy of his meat Which are Christ's own words to the Twelve when he sent them forth to Preach the Gospel Here 's never a word of the Ruling Elder in all this nor any provision made for him And this one thing is enough to clear the sense of the precedent verse that there is no such thing as the Ruling Non Preaching Elder intended in it but the double Honour is for those that tread out the Corn and labour in the LORD's Harvest in Word and Doctrine And these are the only Persons spoken of in that 1 Tim. 5.17 So then The Rulers of the People are their Pastors who are to Rule every one over his own particular Flock or Congregation in the things of God and of their Souls who for the ease of their Government and the advantage of their Ministerial work have warrant from Scripture to ordain and appoint Deacons under them and other necessary servile Officers who derive their power immediately from their Pastor are accountable to him and may and ought to be despos'd by him in case of Male-administration as every Captain in an Army Every Mayor in a Corporation every Master in a Family have the proper power over their own Companies Burroughs and Families and all the inferiour Officers in them to dispose and govern them for their good according to the known and common Laws of that Superiour Government under which they live and unto which they themselves are accountable 2. The Rulers of the Pastors or Officers of the Church I am very apprehensive that this is a tender Point wherein I even tremble to think that I must be either sinfully silent or declare my dissent from so many of my dear Brethren whom I know to be otherwise Orthodox Learned Pious and with whom I dare not compare my self But I have said and O that daisy and doleful Experience did not proclaim it to the World to the grief of some and the shame of others that there is no Company or Society of Men in the World that have more need of the strictest Government than the Men of our Function without which we are of all Mankind in this respect the most miserable and the poor Church of Christ in the forelornest case of any of God's Creatures upon Earth But certainly he that hath so provided for the Government of the Kingdoms of the World hath not left his own mystical Kingdom wherein so much of his special interest lies without such a Government as is every way adequate to all the parts and concerns of it He that hath taken such care to inclose and fence out the wild Commons of the World hath not design'd to leave his own Garden uninclos'd Nor his Vineyard without a Hedge about it and a Wine-press and a Tower in it How weak and insatisfactory is this to say that we are all the Ministers of Jesus Christ and Brethren to one another that we have our Commission as Ministers of the Gospel from him tho' not immediately from him which indeed if it were so would alter the case who is the Supream Legislator That we have our Bibles in our hands and therein the unalterable Rules of our administration both in Doctrine Worship and Discipline the Laws by which we are to Govern both our selves and the Churches that we have the promise of the Holy Spirit to guide us into all truth and an Unction from the Holy One and know all things that our Office and Work is Sacred and Divine of God and not of Men alas will all this make us Infallible or Absolute and Independent exempt from all Laws and Bonds of an Ecclesiastical Polity were we made the Ministers of Christ to rule and not to be rul'd O that men would consider the dismal consequents of such an Hypothesis which I delight not now to aggravate But if there must be a Government among Pastors consider'd as a distinct Body from the People then it will be said there cannot be an equality the Notion of Co-ordination of Pastors and Churches is subverted this being inconsistent with Government But let wise Men consider what that is that must needs lye at the bottom of this Levelling Principle And yet Government doth not destroy the Equality and Co-ordination of Pastors or Churches as such or per se but only secundum quid or in respect of Order e. g. All the Captains in an Army as Captains are equal so are all the Collonels and all the other Officers that are of one and the same Order but between a Captain and a Collonel there is an inequality And as it is in a well Regimented Army so it is in the Church of Christ which is as an Army with Banners Cant 6.10 And 't is supposed too that this subordination of Pastors and Churches will conclude a necessity of a Supream Papal Head and Governour This I take to be the great stumbling-block the plain sense whereof is but this That if every Minister be not allowed to be a Pope over his own Congregation then there must be one Pope over all the Congregations and Pastors in the Christian World Both which extreams are equally wide from the Truth and perhaps equally pernicious to the Church But to defend the Truth from both the Horns of this Dilemma we will examine what is the true Scripture notions of a Church We find in Scripture that the Churches which the Apostles planted are reckoned by the great Towns or Cities which they chose to begin to gather their Churches in as appears both by the names that are given them and by comparing Act. 14.23 with Tit. 1.5 where the ordinary Elders in every Church is the same with Ordaining Elders in every City Neither do we find any Organical Church of the Apostles founding any where mention'd in the New Testament but it bears the name of the Town or City in which it was besides those Domestick Churches of
our Brains Tho' those that are under their first Convictions and are young in the Faith may improperly be called Lambs yet these are they who in Scripture Language are said to be with Young and are plainly distinguished from the Lambs Isa 40.11 'T is strange that any but the Devil should quarrel at this part of our Work 2. As part of our Charge let us take all proper and rational Methods that lye within our reach and their capacity to teach and instruct them in all the necessary points of the Christian Religion both Doctrinal and Practical This was the Command of God by Moses and the constant practice of the Conscientious in that Church And herein the first and purest the best settled and most thriving Churches of the Gentiles have been exemplarily diligent and eminently successful nor was there ever any Age more plentifully furnished with such helps and plain Catechistical Systems of sound words to this purpose than is the Age we live in which if diligently and duely improv'd may yet save us a Remnant and be as a Nail given us in his Holy Place a happy presage of a work of Reformation if not in this yet in the next Generation But here these five words of caution may be necessary 1. That their memories be so imploy'd as not to be over burden'd a due regard being had to that insuperable difference which Nature hath made in the distribution of this Faculty Tho' sloth or dullness ought not to excuse yet the burden should not be made too heavy We must drive as Jacob did Gen. 33.13 as the weak and tender of the Flock can bear Prudence must be applied here 2. That they do not rest in the bare exercise of Memory as Children are exceeding apt to do but that our best endeavours to be used to conveigh the Notions of Divine Truths as they are capable into their Understandings which will be no little help and advantage to a weak Memory And herein should our skill and condescension appear in plainness and familiarity of expression yet with that seriousness sweetness and gravity as doth become our Persons and Office And in order hereto an account should be taken of them by such other easie questions as are not formally learnt but plainly included in and may readily be answered by what is so learnt for the trial and exercise of their Intellectuals Of which kind also we have made ready to our hands the useful labours of divers who have travell'd in this Province on that excellent Compendium of Theology compos'd by the Reverend Assembly of Divines at WEST MINSTER and which hath deservedly obtain'd the general acceptance of all the Orthodox in the Protestant Churches 3. Because we know that the Devil will be Catechizing the Heart in these Young Ones while we are Cathechizing the Ear and the common Understanding and will be digging his Countermines against us in the hidden parts of the Soul and doubling his Fortifications on the Ground of a depraved Nature we should endeavour with all our Holy Art to make them sensible of their particular and real concern in these things of God and of their Souls so that their Consciences may be awaken'd and rouz'd and the happy Foundations of a serious as well as early Religion be laid in them And perhaps we may find greater success herein than we are aware of or are apt to hope for Conscience is as natural to them as Reason and should be nourish'd up with it and as we find in all other things the younger the more tender and easie to be wrought upon Tho' Fear be said by the Atheistical Philosopher to be that which first made that it in their sense fancied and imagined God in the World yet were it not for this Connatural Principle of Conscience Fear would not make that clear and abiding Impression on the Rational Nature as it doth Unless we manage our work with them so as is proper to effect the grand Design of their Conversion we do nothing to any good purpose but lose our properest and most acceptable time of doing their Souls that good for which they may bless God for us in the upper World 4. We should rest with them in the Doctrinal or Theoretical part but especially insist on the Practicals of Religion and with such plain and suitable applications as are more obvious to their weak Understandings that so they may come to perceive the end and use of their Instruction and Knowledge and a Harmony may be form'd in them betimes abovo between their Principles and their Practices Which is the most hopeful way to obviate that common Cavil of the World against Early Piety grown into a Proverb A young Saint and an old Hypocrite 5. Our Carriage towards them and Care for them should in all respects be such as may engage their Affections which are naturally more early and readily exerted than acts of Judgment and Understanding that they may as soon as possible come to taste the sweetness of the ways of God By such an advantage as this you know it is that our Enemy the Devil is wont to be before-hand with us by inflaming the sensual Appetite and engaging the Affections and corrupting the Will with the carnal pleasures of Sin and the Lusts of the Flesh before the Judgment is enlightned or the Conscience awaken'd to discern and to resist the Temptations wherewith he is too hard for them Herein then it is good policy to prevent him When we have gotten the Hearts of our Little Ones with what pleasure and zeal and innocent emulation will they go on in their work which will make it much the easier both to themselves and to us I could enlargehere but that I know to whom I am speaking Verbum satis sapientibus 2. The other part of our Charge are the Sheep and here as I have said is double work These must both be Fed and Rul'd 1. They must be Fed. 'T is my comfort that I am now speaking to such as God hath made both able and apt so to do and who I hope have no need of my Directions in it or Spurs to it Wherefore I shall only hint at some few more general heads of the things you much better understand than my self 1. They must be fed with wholesome Food The sincere Milk of the Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sound pure and inadulterated Doctrine Divine and Scripture Truths the Bread of Life of Heavens preparing and not the visions of our own Hearts Unwholesome Food breeds Diseases and sometimes ends in Death The Shepherd were as good starve his Flock as poison it O how dangerous then is blindness or giddiness or self-will in a Spiritual Guide What need have we with unprejudiced minds to study the Holy Scriptures to take heed of rashness or singularity in the â—otions that we espouse To Watch and Pray for that Spirit of Truth which is promised us of God to guide us into all Truth that we do