the French King employed in that great Empire of China to convert them to Christianity in those parts He observes that he found more good done by those occasional Discourses than by his studied Performances People were more affected and wrought upon by what was said to them in particular concerning a future State the day of Judgment than of what he had said with more strength of reason in the Congregation Fourthly Let us then deliver and look after the success of that Message that God hath sent by us a faithfull Messenger ought to deliver the whole Message First let us deliver our Message with all faithfulness and without Partiality and respect of persons Say to the wicked it shall go ill with him say to the righteous it shall go well with him Have we a care of mincing the matter Matth. 28.20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I command you Our Saviour as sent of God kept within the bounds of his Commission John 12.49 I have not spoken of my self but the Father which hath sent me he hath given Commandment what I shall say and what I should speak And therefore surely Ministers should take heed that we may be able to say with our Saviour my Doctrine is not mine but his that sent me Secondly And yet we should not only deliver but look after the success of our Message and to take care to do every thing that may promote and not hinder the success of our Ministry Coloss 1.28 Warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus And this we should endeavour First By a Life suitable to our Calling Surely our Relation to God as sent by him doth oblige us to take heed of our selves that our Ministry be not blamed for if we do not live well not only we in our Persons but our Ministry will be blam'd 2 Cor. 6.3 'T is true it should not be so why should the Ministry be blam'd for the faults of some men And yet because men will do it therefore we should take the more heed to our ways The people should not have abhorr'd the Lord's Offerings because Eli's Sons were wicked lewd men and yet it was an Aggravation of their Sin that they gave the people that occasion The Apostle saith to Timothy let no man despise thy youth 1 Tim 4.12 He doth not say it to the people because generally when we are despis'd the fault is in our selves and the way to prevent that the people may not despise such of us as are young or upon any other account is to do what the Apostle there exhorts Timothy to Be thou an example to believers in word in conversation in spirit in faith in purity The greatest Gifts of Ministers will never do that good as their bad example will do hurt The people not only that are ignorant but such as fear God will take bad Impressions and many times will be led away by the example of Ministers especially in things that are disputable the Apostle observes that many were carried away by the Dissimulation of Peter so that he was constrained to reprove him openly before the Church Gal. 2.14 In a word we should be the more carefull to give in all things a good example for they that scruple to hear us will be quick-sighted to observe what is amiss in us Secondly We should not only deliver but endeavour the success of our Message from God to the people by our incessant Prayers for 't is Prayer that renders our endeavours in the Ministry fruitfull and successfull Paul may plant and Apollos may water but 't is God that must give the increase Let a Minister be never so rational and convincing in his Discourses all his labour will be fruitless without divine Grace succeeding it A Key that is exactly fit to all the Wards of the Lock cannot open it without an hand to turn it Let the most proper and powerfull motives to work upon the heart be represented in the proper light and evidence to the utmost advantage they cannot open the heart this is God's work and this we should pray for It is observable that Abraham's Servant would not deliver the Message for which he was sent till he had first prayed to God to succeed it Gen. 21.12 And then just as he prayed so it fell out Thus when Nehemiah was to make his Request to the King he darted up a short Prayer to the God of Heaven before he would speak to the King Neh. 2.5 6. For what dost thou make thy request So I prayed to the God of Heaven and said to the King Let us do the like The Gospel is the power of God to Salvation but still Prayer is requisite to obtain the holy Spirit by whose influence the word proves effectual What is more worthy of our constant Prayers than precious immortal Souls I do remember what I read in the Life of that most eminent Man of God Mr. Walsh a Minister of Scotland who being to preach in the Afternoon he tarried so long at his house that the Congregation thought fit to send the Clerk to see what the matter was that Mr. Walsh staid beyond his usual time the Clerk drawing near the room where he was heard a very loud Voice and standing still he heard him with great importunity oft repeating those words of Moses to God If thy presence go not with me I will not go from hence as if he had determined not to preach till God should hear his Prayers for the success Accordingly it fell out he had never that success as at that time and yet none had greater at other times Lastly As for you the people that are assembled together upon this occasion I have a word or two to speak and I have done If Ministers thus dispos'd and qualified thus approv'd of and invested in the Ministry are sent of God your duty is to own them and receive them as such Pray consider two things viz. First Who it is that hath sent them We Ministers are in all other respects as you are but we are in God's stead 2 Cor. 5.19 We pray you in Christ's stead be ye reconciled to God God in this matter dealeth wisely in dealing familiarly with you he doth not speak immediately to you from Heaven that the terrors of his Majesty may not make you afraid but sendeth men men of like Passions with our selves who if they deceive you they must deceive their own Souls Take heed therefore of despising the methods of the Almighty that it is by the foolishness of Preaching or that it is by men that the Message of the Almighty is brought unto you In other matters the Messenger is received according to the respect we have to him that sent him Our Saviour doth much insist upon this that he came not in his own name but in the name of him that sent him And he tells his Disciples as the Father sent me into
spend the remainder of our time in drawing some practical Inferences from the Discourse APPLICATION First therefore It appears from hence that they that nullifie the Ministry of such persons who have all that is necessary to prove their Mission are no real Friends to the Reformation Our first Reformers though they differed from the Foreign Protestant Churches acted from Catholick Principles that comprehended the Foreign Ordinations chusing rather to assert the Identity of Bishops and Presbyters than to expose those Churches that had thrown out our English Prelacy And though they pleaded for Episcopacy they acknowledged that it was not necessary to the being but only ad bene esse of the Church And it was not till our Reformation went backward by an endeavour to bring in a Coalition with the Church of Rome that Reordination was required of them that had been ordained before by Presbyters Peter Martyr at Oxford Martin Bucer at Cambridge had Ecclesiastical Preferments in the Church of England Cranmer that invited them hither never required Re-ordination of them Whittingham was made Dean of Durham though it was known that in his Exile in Queen Mary's time he had been ordain'd by Presbyters only Mr. Travers ordain'd by a Presbytery beyond the Sea was suffered quietly to hold the place of a Centurer at the Temple Mr. Camero ordain'd in France had the like liberty by the Permission of King James the First when that King was about to set up Episcopacy in Scotland it was argued whether the Bishops intended for Scotland should not be ordain'd first Ministers because they had not received Ordination by a Bishop and it was carried in the negative by the means of Bishop Boncroft Thus this matter went till Archbishop Laud whose great design it was to bring about a Reconciliation between the Church of England and the Church of Rome made it his business to please the Romanists and it could not but please them to see those that had the management of our Church affairs here in England declare a Nullity in our Ministry and Ministrations they knew it would be a good step towards Popery This design dying with him was reviv'd again upon the coming in of King Charles II. Surely those learned Men and Bishops that had been with that King in his Exile beyond the Seas must be supposed to know that King's Religion and what his designs were these were they that among other hard things that they imposed upon us to the exercise of our Ministry brought a necessity of Re-ordination Secondly Seeing the sincere desire of doing good to Souls is so necessary to prove Ministers to be sent of God I beg of you that are to be ordain'd this day to look to your Aims and Ends that they be such for Purity of intention is absolutely required to the acceptance of what we do so that though we do what is commanded but not because it is commanded it is as if we had not done it nay 't is in some respect as if God had not commanded it Remember the words of the Prophet concerning Jehu He was command-to destroy the house of Ahab and yet because he did what he was commanded but not with that Purity of Intention as was necessary to his acceptance not to destroy Idolatry as he pretended but to establish himself in the Kingdom therefore saith God I will avenge the blood of Jezreel upon the house of Jehu Hos 1.3 4. The more entirely we aim at this the doing of good the turning men from the evil of their ways and doings the more contented we shall be in our present circumstances in which though we have not that encouragement as we could desire yet we have more than the Primitive Preachers of the Gospel obtain'd for the space of three hundred years we have more encouragement than we expected or indeed could rationally expect enough therefore to make us thankfully to acknowledge it is the Lord 's doing and it is marvellous in our eyes Thirdly Seeing the Gifts of Knowledge and Utterance are so highly necessary to the Ministry let us more endeavour to qualifie our selves with those Gifts that may evidence it to the People that we are sent of God and not trust to the Ceremony of Ordination which when it is applied to men utterly destitute of those Gifts may be a mere Nullity A Mute or an Idiot is no Minister though ordain'd Our care therefore should be ours that are in the Ministry and yours that stand as Candidates for the Ministry to keep and increase those Gifts that may enable us to the performance of all Ministerial Duties First We are the mouth of the people to God What! should a Minister look no further to accomplish himself for that part of his Ministry but to read out of the Book what he hath to pray for in behalf of the people God commandeth Christians to pray with all Prayer and Supplication in the Spirit Eph. 6.18 And is the Ministry exempted should he not be able to do that which every private Christian is required to do A Minister should not be confin'd to the Fetters of other mens narrow defective Words and Books whatever may be said on behalf of such as need the help of a composed Form I wonder that men should think it necessary that all should be confin'd to them It can't be supposed that all do need them Let us not be affrighted out of our duty by a pretence that the thing is not attainable on a sudden to express our desires Remember the words of the Apostle Rom. 8.26 Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our Infirmities for we know not what we should pray for as we ought The Apostle doth not say the Book will tell you for then there was none for ought appears but the Spirit helpeth our Infirmities So that Spiritual Prayer was in the Church before the Jesuits brought it in This Gift of the Spirit all ought to pray for Ministers especially that they may not only desire graciously and acceptably things necessary but express these desires on behalf of the people that they by joyning with us may make them their own desires And we should endeavour to excell in this Gift that we may avoid all those Indecencies which those that idolize Forms are apt to take notice of and expose viz. a foolish Loquacity pouring out as one saith tumultuous indigested thoughts We are not rashly to utter any thing before the Lord Eccles 5.2 We should also avoid vain Repetitions for we shall not be heard for much speaking Matth. 6 7. We should also avoid affected Words and Phrases for certainly the more plain and familiar our words are the better they suit with the nature of Prayer In a word we should endeavour to observe the general rule of our Saviour not to be as the hypocrites Thus let us all endeavour to accomplish our selves for this part of our Ministry and if our Brethren out of a fondness to their own way of Devotion will ridicule our
Performances and expose us to their people let us patiently bear it 't is no new thing for men to pretend that there are Barbarisms and Solecisms in the Prayers of Ministers This St. Austin takes notice of in his time Ita enim non irredebunt se aliquos autestetes ministros ecclesiae forte animadveniunt vel cum barbarismis solecismis deum invocare So they will not jeer if perhaps they take notice that some Bishops and Ministers of the Church do invocate God with Barbarisms and Solecisms to such as feared this he saith God mindeth not so much the Expression as the inward Affection This passage by the way proves that such Prayers were then used in which some might pretend there were Barbarisms Surely they could not be Forms prescribed by the Church However if we meet with the same usage the same Language that St. Austin in his time observ'd let us not wonder at it it seems it is no new thing and therefore we should the more patiently bear it and watch our own Spirits that we do not expose and make their way of Devotion worse than it is because they expose ours For the Spirit of Prayer and true Devotion may be in those that confine themselves to a Form And they that use no Forms may be as formal as other Men. There is as one saith and I think he saith well in it a particular Gust as to Spiritual things that may differ as much as men do as to Meat and Drink In which one liketh and is nourished by that which another loatheth and it may be would do him hurt if it were impos'd upon him I do believe that the true Spirit of Prayer may be in those that do not well rellish our way and they ought and I doubt not but many of them do think so of ours Let every one have what he liketh and let no man be drench'd with what he loatheth It is but a few of that way and they I doubt none of the most devout Persons that will dare to impose upon any but especially upon such frivolous pretences Christians have more need to be rebuk'd for the neglect of Prayer in Secret and in their Families than for praying without or with a Form However it should quiet us to consider that if the Controversie be as for ought we know it is who shall do best it is the more pardonable provided it be done on both sides with that Reverence and Unweariedness as it ought to be done but woe be to that Hypocrite that shall be found in the Omission of that great Duty for which he was such a Stickler They eat up my people as they eat Bread and call not upon the Name of the Lord Psalm 14.8 To conclude this particular it doth seem to me whatever is pretended to the contrary that our first Reformers who composed the Liturgy were far enough from the mind of those that plead for its Imposition they compos'd those Forms to assist Ministers that coming newly out of Popery must be suppos'd to need those helps not with an intent to exclude and run down extempore conceiv'd Prayer There is one passage in the Office of Ordination that makes me think so it is immediately after the Sponsions and in these words viz. After this the Congregation shall be desir'd secretly in their Prayers to make their humble Supplications to God for all these things for the which Prayers there shall be silence kept for a space By this passage it appears that the Compilers of our Liturgy as being sensible of the defect of a Form of Words thought it necessary to give the Congregation a space of time that every person might abound in his own way of conceived Prayer Secondly Being we are to speak from God to the people in which respect a Minister is as God's Mouth to declare the whole counsel of God to them we should endeavour to accomplish our selves for this work that we may do this according to the direction that St. Paul gives Titus chap. 2. v. 1 8. With soundness of Doctrine and with Speech that cannot be blam'd First Let us endeavour to do it with Soundness of Doctrine v. 1. Speak thou the things which become sound Doctrine Now to do this there is need of skill the Christian Religion is baited with many Controversies and that in some material points The Enemy hath sown his Tares Books that strike at all reveal'd Religion are in all parts of the Nation Ministers whose Calling it is to look into Books should be able to discern that they may do their part to prevent the spreading of those opinions 1 Tim. 4.16 Take heed to thy self and to thy Doctrine Secondly Soundness of Speech that cannot be blam'd v. 8. That not only the matter we deliver be agreeable to the Analogy of Faith but we should be able to express our Thoughts so as that the wording of our matter be not despis'd The English Tongue is much refin'd of late years I confess we should avoid on the one hand quaintness of Speech that which the Apostle calls the words of man's wisdom 1 Cor. 2.4 In the use of this it is possible for those that affect a florid Stile to preach to the people to as little purpose almost as if we preach'd in another Language he no doubt is the best Preacher that can make every thing that he preacheth to the people easie to be understood And yet we should take heed of falling into an extreme this way and fill mens ears with an empty Sound of Words nauseous Repetitions and for want of Matter say over and over the same thing and deliver words without Matter Having gotten these Gifts let us see to it that we don't lose them The way to have the continuance and increase of these is to use them to the end for which they are given The way to pray better is to pray more the way to preach better is to preach more Every one learneth by teaching and gets at least a more orderly digested knowledge Let every one do his best and stir up the Gift that is in him and by this means he will attain to do better and his profiting will appear God threathens the Idol-shepherds that their arm should be dried and their right eye darkned Zech. 11.17 This is a Judgment to be feared by all men Ministers especially even the darkning withering Operations of God's Spirit In a word we should endeavour in a particular manner to accomplish our selves for occasional Discourses I confess 't is more natural for some men all have not a presence of Mind and Thought nor a command of words to express their own thoughts and yet 't is that which Ministers especially should endeavour after that upon all occasions we may be able to speak a word in season suited to the occasion I could not but take particular notice of what I lately met with in a Book written by a Jesuit one of the Missionaries that