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B20783 A sermon preached at the ordinatoin [sic] of an elder and deacons in a baptized congregation in London by N.C. Coxe, Nehemiah. 1681 (1681) Wing C6718 25,157 47

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enforce it but what are obvious to every one's Eye in the reading of them And he deserves not the Name of a Minister Pastor or Bishop that labours not herein It will not I suppose be expected that I should here lay down Rules for Preaching or enter into a Discourse about the Method of Theological Studies in order thereunto Only give me leave at present to recommend three things to those that are under so strict and solemn a Charge to preach the Gospel 1. Let your Care be to deal with the Souls and Consciences of Men as knowing that it is the Salvation of Souls which you are to labour after a Care of Souls that is committed to you and an account of them that you must make to God It is not your Business to gratify the itching Ears or wanton Fancies of Men Jerome complains of some in his Time That Id habent curae non quomodo Scripturarum medullas ebibant sed quomodo aures Populi declamatorum flosculis mulceant but to speak to their Hearts and by manifestation of the Truth to recommend your selves to every Man's Conscience in the sight of God 2 Cor. 4. 2. Lay out your pains in a solid explaining of the Principles of Religion and a judicious accommodation of them to practice that sincere Piety and the power of Godliness may be promoted by your Ministry Press the particular Duties of Men in every Relation and Capacity upon them warn them of the sleights of Satan rebuke their Errors and Disorders that go astray comfort the Afflicted and broken in Heart And in these things let no Zeal Diligence Boldness Industry or Labour be wanting 2. That this may be accomplished Be sure that you speak as the Oracles of God and deliver that 1 Pet. 4. 11. Doctrine to the People which is drawn from the pure Fountain of God's Word It is no less than the Evidence of Divine Authority that will work upon the Soul and command the Conscience of a Man whether it be by way of Comfort Exhortation or Reproof it is the stamp of Heaven upon the Things delivered by you that renders them powerful Let it therefore be your principal care in Preaching clearly to open and pertinently to apply the Scriptures that your Hearers may bear away this Conviction from your Sermons That you have the Mind of Christ It is not enough that the things you speak be true but you must manifest them to be so by strong and convincing Proofs Make Conscience of giving what in you lies the very sence of the Holy Ghost in the Scriptures that you speak to and weaken not excellent Truths by wringing them out of such Texts as intend another thing The word of God is Sacred and must be handled with all religious respect and reverence Divine Things will admit of no trifling 3. Remember that the Duty of your Place is Not to preach your selves but Christ Jesus the 2 Cor. 4. 5. Lord His Glory must be the Mark aimed at by all your Labours and his Grace the principal Subject of all your Discourses It is not a Philosophick Harangue that will save the Souls of Men but the preaching of Christ Crucified His 1 Cor. 1. 23. Gospel is the Power of God unto Salvation to them Rom. 1. 16. that believe and his Holy Name is the Ointment that perfumes all Religious Exercises Therefore I will not only say Let there be Aliquid Christi something of Christ in every Sermon but let Christ be the beginning middle and end of your Discourses for in him are hid all the Treasures of Colos 2. 3. Wisdom and Knowledg in him is the Fountain and Head-spring of all true Comfort and Holiness So much for the first Thing 2dly Unto the publick Work and Charge of a Bishop or Elder belongs also the Administration of the Sacraments or Ordinances of positive Institution in the Church as Baptism and the Lord's Supper This appertains to that Dispensation of the Mysteries of God that is committed to him and to that feeding of the Sheep of Christ which is required of him And then 3dly It is his Duty to take care of the due exercise of Discipline in the Church and the right ordering of all things pertaining to the Government thereof He is the Overseer of God's House Heb. 13. 17. and is to rule therein not in a despotical or lordly Way but by the Testament of Christ as becomes a Minister and as one set over the Lord's Heritage who are a voluntary People and to be governed not with force and rigor but with their own consent All the Brethren have an Interest in the management of Church-Affairs in the admission and ejection of Members yet this denies not a peculiar Concernment of the Elder in these things and a neglect of their due Administration will especially be charged upon him if guilty thereof And in these things great Prudence Tenderness Diligence and Impartiality is required of him It is a Matter of great importance that the Gates of the Lord's House the goings out and comings in thereof be well look'd to If Members be not received with due caution our Number may be increased but not our Joy and if any be precipitantly and without just grounds ejected the scandal and inconvenience will be as great And in all these things an Elder must endeavour so to demean himself that in the whole course of his Ministry there may be kept up a very lively representation of the Love Care Wisdom Compassion Faithfulness and Patience of the Lord Jesus Christ whom he serves I shall say no more of those Duties that are incumbent on a Pastor in the publick Exercise of his Ministry But in the next place Secondly There are also Duties of great importance to the Souls of Men which an Elder is bound diligently to attend the discharge of in a more private and particular way He is obliged to a constant watchfulness for and over his People and ought diligently to enquire and search into the state of his Flock That those who are in danger to err for want of counsel may be directed the unruly warned and rebuked feeble and dejected Souls strengthened comforted and encouraged and those that are beset with Difficulties and Temptations succoured and relieved Unto an unwearied diligence in these things Paul excites the Elders of the Church at Ephesus by his own Example You know saith he how I kept Act. 20. 18 c. back nothing that was profitable for you but have shewed you and have taught you publickly and from House to House The like he doth to those of Thessalonioa 1 Thess 2. 10 11 12. Ye are Witnesses and God also how holily and justly and unblameably we behaved our selves among you that believe As you know how we exhorted and comforted and charged every one of you as a Father doth his Children That you would walk worthy of God c. And again Col. 1. 28 29. Whom viz.
And the disadvantage of this will at last fall to the share of the People that he ministers to He that considers that the Holy Scriptures are originally written in Hebrew and Greek must have a hard Forehead if he deny the usefulness of Learning to a Minister besides many other things there are that call for it in reference to the opening of the Scriptures which I cannot now insist upon And it is not without diligent and continual study that the deep Things of God can be searched out and so proposed to you as to enrich your Minds with the clear and solid knowledg of them I confess a little Learning and less Study may furnish a Man with such a Discourse as may please some weak Persons that judg of a Sermon by the loudness of the Voice and affectionate Sentences or that can fancy themselves to be fed with the Ashes of jingling Words and Cadency of terms in a Discourse But alas the seeming warmth of Affection that is stirred by such means is as short-liv'd as a Land-Flood that has no Spring to feed it He that will do the Souls of his People good and approve himself a Pastor after Jer. 3. 15. God's Heart must feed them with Knowledg and Vnderstanding and endeavour to maintain a constant Zeal and Affection in them by well-informing their Judgments and such an opening of the Mind of God from the Scriptures as may command their Consciences And this is not to be expected but from him that labours in his Study as well as in his Pulpit Mistake me not I know the success and Fruit of all the studies and labours of him that preacheth the Gospel is from the Grace and Power of the Holy Ghost but the assistance of the Spirit is to be expected by us in the way of our Duty These things might be yet applied more home to my present purpose but perhaps some will think there is too much said already tho' I heartily wish more were not needful and my Time calls me to put a period to this Exercise And therefore I will only add a word for the enforcement of this and the other Duties which I have laid before you by accommodating the same things to you that were before touched for the encouragement and quickning of your Pastor in his Duty First Remember that your Pastor is the Minister of Christ one that dispenseth the Mysteries of God to you in his Name and therefore he acting in his Place according to his Duty the Lord Jesus will account that done to himself that is done to his Minister He that receiveth you Mat. 10. 40. with Luk. 10. 16. saith he receiveth me and he that despiseth you despiseth me c. If the Name and Authority of Christ will beget an awe in you or his matchless and unspeakable Love influence you there is no want of Motives to those Duties that have been prest upon you If you acknowledg a religious Respect and Reverence due to the Son of God exercise it in humble obedience to his Word And if you love him and value his Gospel treat not his Ministers in an unworthy manner and forget not That he who gave his Life a Ransom for you well deserves a return of the greatest love from you and to be honoured by you not only with good words but with your Substance and the Prov. 3. 9. first Fruits of all your Increase Secondly 'T is the Business of your Salvation and the Concern of your precious and immortal Souls that a Minister is imployed in and therefore it is much more your own Interest than his that you should make Conscience of your Duty with this Argument the Apostle enforces his exhortation Heb. 13. 17. For they watch for your Souls as they that must give an account that they may do it with Joy and not with Grief for that is unprofitable for you The Ministry can never be effectual to the saving of your Souls if you be not sincere in Obedience under it And will you be less careful for your Souls and their eternal Welfare than you are for your Bodies and the Comforts of a Temporal Life Can you be content to lay out your Strength and Substance to provide for these and neglect the other It is sad to consider how many there are among Professors that live in this World as if there were no truth in the Report of that which is to come and have the meanest esteem of the most necessary means of Salvation viz. the Word and Ordinances of Christ and a Gospel-Ministry Many there are that besides a Provision of Necessaries can expend perhaps an hundred pounds per annum more or less for the Convenience Ornament or Delight of a frail Carcass that will grudg half so much for the Poor or the support of Gospel-Worship If their Bodies be afflicted it is not five ten or twenty pounds that they think too much for a Physician in recompence of his skill and care about them when it may be they can scarce afford half so much to him that continually studies and travels to promote the Cure and Salvation of their sick Souls But when Men come to be thro'ly possest That Eternity is no Fiction and the Gospel is the only means of escaping the Wrath to come and inheriting Eternal Glory they will take other measures about these things To conclude We have seen something of those gracious Provisions that Christ in his Wisdom and Faithfulness hath made for his Church in the appointment of Deacons for the refreshing of the Bowels of the Poor and Pastors for the guidance and nourishment of your Souls unto Eternal Life We have heard something also of the Duty he expects both from the Officers and Members in his Church to the end of the World What now remains But that we all in our places make Conscience of living over his Commands for if we know these things happy are we if we do them and practically acknowledg his Love and Faithfulness with a constant admiration of his Grace and the return of hearty Praises to him for all these Fruits of it Which that you may do The God of Peace that brought again from Heb. 13. 20 21. the Dead our Lord Jesus that great Shepherd of the Sheep thro' the Blood of the Everlasting Covenant Make you perfect in every good Work to do his Will working in you that which is well-pleasing in his sight thro' Jesus Christ to whom be Glory for ever and ever Amen FINIS These Books following are printed for Thomas Fabian at the Sign of the Bible in St. Paul 's Church-Yard THe Works of Josephus with Cuts Folio The Packet of Letters Quarto The Gentleman's Recreation with Cuts Octavo Drummond's History of Scotland Containing the Lives and Reigns of James the First the 2 d the 3 d the 4th the 5th with several Memorials of State during the Reigns of James the Sixth and Charles the First with their Effigies Octavo A Discourse of Friendship Octavo Vincent's Discourse of Christ's certain and suddain appearance to Judgement Octavo Flavell's Navigation Spiritualized Octavo Esop's Fables in English 12 s. The downfal of several Great Men or Popish Plottings not to be parallel'd in former Ages being a Seasonable Warning for the Times 12 s. Robinson's Learning-Foundation teaching to Spell and to Read English 12 s.