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A61666 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. Stoddon, Samuel. 1694 (1694) Wing S5714; ESTC R645 61,189 172

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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