be excellent But then he tells him there is a far more ancient prophetical saying which preceded this many Ages teaching Men briefly and at once not only to desire nothing but to be made good men but also how they may be made truly good viz. Love the LORD thy God with all thy heart and with all thy Soul and with all thy mind and thy Neighbour as thy self To him who can be perswaded to do this Non ei reliquam facilem sed eam totam esse doctrinam duntaxat utilem salubrem I do not say as Socrates did that all the rest will be easy but that this is the whole only profitable and wholesome Doctrine and there needs no more Epist XX. Keep this therefore perpetually in your Heart which contains in it all things else Love the Lord your God and love your Neighbour and you have done all you need to do for all is included in this You will not be wanting in your Duty to either of them if you heartily Love them SECT III. My next Advice shall be in the words of the blessed Apostle St. Paul who hath left us a wonderful Example of most tender affection to mens Souls read 1 Thes 2 7 8 11. Whatsoever ye do in word or deed do all in the Name of the Lord Jesus giving thanks unto God and the Father by him III Coloss 17. That is when you are going to perform any part of your Office pray him to be present with you and assist you So St. Chrysostom and out of him Theophylact Expounds these words in the Name of Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 calling upon him to be thy Helper 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 First making thy prayer to him and so go about thy business When you put on your Surplice for instance think with your selves that you are going to offer up the Prayers of the People to God in the Name of Jesus Christ And then with what Solemnity with what Reverence will you perform that Sacred Office Especially when you have besought him to be with you and believe that he is nigh to all them that call upon him in Truth In like manner when you go up into the Pulpit consider with your selves that you are going to speak in the Name of Christ unto his People beseeching him to assist you and to carry home the Truths you shall deliver to their Hearts and Consciences For dexteriùs loquentur cùm hominibus qui prius tota mente cum Deo fuerunt collocuti as Erasmus excellently speaks they will speak with Men more dextrously who have first of all with their whole Soul spoken with God The like I might say of other parts of your Duty which will then be most successfully discharged when you have engaged our Lord by solemn Prayer to him to go along with you and accompany you Theodoret hath another interpretation or rather a further improvement of the sense of these words which is this adorn all your words and actions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with the remembrance of the Lord Christ That is haveing invoked his blessed presence to be with you think what he would do how he would behave himself and with what Spirit he would perform such things as you are going about For example when you are going to compose a Sermon it would be of great use and efficacy if you would think with your selves what Christ would say to your People if he were to speak to them what he would require of them with what Motives he would excite them and what Compassion he would express to their Souls It would be inpossible then for any Man if he had Christ in his mind to say any thing but what he hath well considered and will tend to make Men good He will not Preach for his own glory but for the glory of Christ pursuing things profitable rather than plausible not affecting in his discourse lenocinia sed remedia such things as may tickle the ears of idle People but such as will cure their Diseases and Distempers They are the Words of Salvian in his Preface to his Book de Gubernatione Dei Which are agreeable to the old Rule which Rittershusius there mentions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Give me not Spruce things but such as the City needs They that interpret the words to this sense be so mindful of Christ that you do nothing indecorous nothing unbeseeming the relation you have to him nothing that may dishonour him differ not much from the former And therefore I conclude this Advice as the Apostle doth his Admonition As we ought to begin every thing with a devout remembrance of Christ whose blessing upon us we ought to implore so we ought to end all by giving thanks to God through him That 's as acceptable to him as our Prayers nay is a powerful Prayer for more of his Grace For none are so likely to receive more as those who thankfully acknowledge what they have received already And therefore let all your doings be thus begun and ended in the Name of Christ Whereby you will be preserved in his Love and Favour and partake still more of his grace SECT IV. Especially if you do all this in Sincerity of heart Which is that good Soil wherein if the Seed of the Word be not sown and received it brings forth no Fruit to Perfection and which our Saviour more particularly required in his Apostles who were to sow that good Seed in Mens hearts Such Persons it is manifest he sought for as were plain simple and honest hearted having no worldly end to serve but wholly bent to know the way to Eternal Salvation Andrew and Peter who were first called to follow him it is evident were of this Spirit for they left all they had to attend him and next to them Philip who finding Nathaniel and telling him they had found the MESSIAH Jesus of Nazareth to whom he pray'd him to go along with him as soon as our Saviour saw him he said to shew what kind of Men he delighted in Behold an Israelite indeed in whom is no guile I John 47. which was a surprising Character of him after Nathaniel had made this objection against our Saviour can any good thing come out of Nazareth But as Theophylact well observes those were not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 words of unbelief but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of a mind that accurately weighed things and was well studied in the Law which taught him that Christ was to come out of Bethleem in Judaea not out of Nazareth in Galilee By this our Saviour judged of his Sincerity which appeared also in that notwithstanding this seeming prejudice he went along with Philip to be better informed of our Saviour This is one great part of that Sincerity which I am now recommending to you to have your minds free from the power of Prejudice and partial Affections being desirous only to know the truth and understand what the will of the Lord is So St.
in Optatus lib. 1. Which Name the very Heathen had learnt it was so common as appears by the enquiries they made after Bibles to burn them this being an usual question in the examination of the Martyrs Libros Deificos habetis Which we should look upon therefore as they did as an invaluable Treasure and let the word of Christ dwell in us richly in all wisdom as the Apostle S. Paul speaks III Colossi 16. Such wisdom as will not indeed make us Philosophers or Rhetoritians c. to use the words of Justin Martyr 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. But gives such instructions that of Mortals it makes us immortal of Men it makes us God-like from the Earth it translates us above the top of Olympus Exhort 2. ad Graecos p 40. And the very same in effect the Holy Scriptures speak concerning themselves when they tell us they are able to make such a Man as Timothy was wise unto salvation being profitable for doctrine for reproof for correction for instruction in righteousness that the Man of God may be perfect throughly furnished unto all good works 2 Tim. III. 15 16 17. which should move us to follow his Exhortation in the foregoing Epistle 1 Tim. IV. 13 15. Give attendance to reading c. Meditate on these things give your selves wholly to them that your profiting may appear to all or in all things For this end you must joyn with this such other Studies as tend to lead you into a right understanding of the Holy Scriptures Of this you were admonished also at your Ordination when you promised to be diligent in reading the Holy Scriptures and in such studies as help to the knowledg of the same laying aside the study of the World and of the Flesh And chiefly you are to study to understand the Language in which the Holy Scriptures were Originally delivered to the Church especially the New Testament in which we ought to be as perfect as Lawyers are in Littleton's Tenures For this is our standing Rule of Faith and Manners in which if we be not well skilled our selves we shall never be able to direct others And next to this it is necessary to study diligently some approved Commentator upon the Bible especially Dr. Hammond on the New Testament which is not only to be read over but to be digested so that you may be Masters of the sense of our Saviour and his Holy Apostles I shall not lanch out into any further directions about the study of the Fathers and the Church-History which are necessary to accomplish a compleat Divine for that would swell this Book to a much greater bulk than I design it should have To conclude this Section let Ezra that Restorer of Religion among the Jews be your pattern who tells us himself that he was a ready Scribe in the Law of Moses VII Ezra 6. Such we should be well versed in the Holy Scriptures especially in the Laws of Christ so as to have them ready at hand for our purpose And in the 10th Verse he tells us how he came to deserve this Character First he had prepared his heart to seek the Law of the LORD i. e. understand it and then Secondly it follows he prepared his heart to do it that is to act according to his knowledg and so to teach Israel statutes and judgments SECT II. Which that we may be able to do with good success we ought as the Psalmist speaks most emphatically give our selves unto prayer CXIX Psal 4. This is a duty incumbent upon all private Christians whom our Saviour and his Apostles command to pray alway and to pray without ceasing and to watch unto prayer but the Ministers of Christ ought more especially to be instant and incessant in it because they have need of a special assistance and blessing from above upon their labours to make others good Christians Which cannot be done without the blessed presence of God's Holy Spirit with us which must constantly and earnestly be implored to give us a right judgment in all things to fill us with a lively sence of Divine Matters and to enable us to convey it into the Minds and Hearts of others Of this also we are put in mind at our Ordination and therefore should never forget it For in that admirable Exhortation which goes before the Questions to which we are to make Answers the great excellence and the great difficulty of our Office is represented to us to make us sensible what need we have to pray earnestly for God's Holy Spirit without which it is impossible for us to have either a will or ability to perform it as we ought And accordingly this is one of the things which immediately after we promise to God and to his Church That we will be diligent in Prayers as well as in reading the Holy Scriptures Let us therefore as it follows in the forenamed Exhortation Pray continually to God the Father by the Mediation of our only Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ for the heavenly Assistance of the Holy Ghost For as the Holy Scriptures are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Door whereby the good Shepherd enters to the performance of his Office as Theophylact I observed before Expounds our Saviour's words X John 1. So the Holy Spirit of God in the opinion of the same Father is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mentioned in the third Verse of that Chapter which we translate the Porter or the Door-keeper who opens the Door for us and lets us into the sense of the holy Scriptures So his words are because by the Holy Spirit the Scriptures being opened and understood Christ is made known to us therefore it is called the Door-keeper 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. By whom he being the Spirit of Wisdom and Knowledg the Scriptures are opened unto us and by that means our Lord the good Shepherd enters to take us into his care and conduct To be Strangers then to this Holy Duty is to be Strangers to God and to all that is good who as He is nigh to all those that call upon him faithfully so he withdraws himself from those who neglect him Of which we cannot be guilty if we remember in what need we stand above all other Men of his blessed Presence with us to guide and strengthen and further us in the discharge of our weighty trust for his Honour and the Salvation of Men. This will stir us up not only to ask and seek but knock also as our Saviour Speaks that is pray with the greatest importunity for the Holy Spirit which our Heavenly Father is more ready to give than Parents are to give food to their hungry Children Let us be awakened by the example of King David who prevented the morning light to pray to God and to meditate in his Statutes as he tells us CXIX Psal 147 148. Though he was a man that had abundance of Cares upon him and was engaged in many Warrs as Theodoret glosses upon
Chrysostom upon these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 His judgment was uncorrupt and unbyassed and pronounced nothing either out of Favour and Affection or out of dislike and hatred Another token of which Sincerity there follows in that after this high commendation which our Lord gave him he was not at all elated by it nor ran away with these Encomiums as the same Father speaks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. but continues enquiring and searching more exactly being desirous of this alone to be more perfectly satisfied in the Truth As he was upon his next Question and our Saviour's Answer to it By this is appears that sincerity of heart is the best Disposition to understand the mind of Christ and to be employ'd by him in the Ministry of the Gospel as the Apostles were Who had regard to Nothing in this World but only to the Glory of God and the Salvation of Men in which also they found the highest Satisfaction or rather Rejoycing and Glorying For so St. Paul saith 2 Corinth I. 12. Our rejoycing or glorying or boasting is this the Testimony of our Conscience that in simplicity and Godly sincerity c. We have our Conversation in the World He served our Lord that is with pure intention designing nothing but to win Souls to him by delivering his mind sincerely to them and seeking no greater Satisfaction than to have it believed and obeyed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. as St. Chrysostom glosses on those words There was nothing deceitful in him No Hypocrisy no Simulation no Flattery no Craft or Fraud or any thing of that kind but he acted with all freedom in Simplicity in Truth in 〈◊〉 pure uncorrupt Judgment and clear intention having nothing concealed and hidden undernaeth nothing rotten at the bottom Thus he explains himself in the Second Chapter of the First Epistle to the Thessalonians v. 3 4 5. For our Exhortation was not of deceit nor of uncleanness nor of guile But as we were allowed of God to be put in trust with the Gospel even so we speak not as pleasing Men but God which trieth our hearts For neither at any time used we flattering words as ye know nor a cloak of covetousness God is witness Nor of men sought we glory neither of you nor yet of others This admirable Spirit let us imitate endeavouring after such a degree of this Vertue as to be glad if Men could look into our Hearts and see our secret intentions and designs as we are sure God doth Who as he is witness to them as the Apostle speaks so will judge us according to our uprightness and integrity in seeking to do him honour and to promote the Salvation of Souls Thus the Fathers of the Church particularly St. Gregory Nazianzen distinguish a Political Christian from a Spiritual 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. A Political Person or a Man of this Worlds business is to do and to say all things whereby he may do himself credit and be honoured by others designing no happiness beyond this present Life But a Spiritual Mans business is to take care of his Salvation and highly to esteem what contributes unto that but to look upon that which doth not as nothing worth In short To esteem those things above all others 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. By which he himself may be made most worth and he may draw others by himself to the best and most excellent things Orat. XIX p. 300. SECT V. There are some other qualities that make up the Character of a good Minister of Jesus Christ of which I have not room in this little Treatise particularly to discourse For he ought to serve the Lord with all humility of mind XX Acts 19. with Patience also 2 Tim. II. 24. and with Meekness 2 Tim. II. 25. All which St. Paul hath commended to us together with the foregoing qualities in that admirable description he makes of himself 2 Corinth VI. 3 4 5 6. c. which was part of the Epistle I observed for the First Sunday in Lent Where he first of all saith that they took care to give no offence in any thing that the Ministry might not be blamed Of which I shall briefly speak a little when I have first laid before you what follows But in all things approving our selves as the Ministers of God Not merely shewing themselves saith Oecumenius on the place but more than that approving or commending themselves which signifies a demonstration 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by real Works and Deeds to be truly Christ's Ministers Which demonstration saith he they gave first of all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Patience nay he adds much Patience 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 generously bearing all that was said of them that is Mens Censures Reproaches and Calumnies yea and all the sufferings and miseries they pleased to heap upon them Which he expresses in the next words in afflictions in necessities in distresses in stripes in imprisonments in tumults in labours in watchings in fastings Upon which I cannot enlarge nor upon what he saith of their Pureness and Knowledge i. e. their Divine Wisdom whereby they approved themselves God's Ministers not by Humane Philosophy as the same Oecumenius expounds it and all the rest But only take Notice of what he saith v. 7. by the armour of righteousness on the Right hand and on the Left As if he had said would ye know how we come to perform such things as the same Author expounds it give ear then to what follows it was by being armed on both sides on the right and on the left which are not so contrary but the Armour of Righteousness fitted both By the right hand saith he the Apostle understands 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 prosperous things such as honour and esteem among Men which did not make us swell nor puff us up with Vain Glory and therefore were the Armour or Weapons of Righteousness On the left hand were the things contrary to these Temptations Persecutions Reproaches and Injuries by which we were not dejected nor cast down as by the other we were not elated As if he had said in other words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 neither lifted up by good things nor disheartned by evil A proof of which immediately follows by honour and by dishonour by evil report and good report In which words saith that Author he recounts the right hand and the left hand things And in this Spirit we ought to serve the Lord Christ not minding the vain praise of Men nor their dispraise but only endeavouring to approve our selves to our Blessed Lord and Master with an equal mind in all Conditions Before I end this I cannot but a little reflect upon those words wherewith the Apostle begins this discourse giving no offence in any thing that the Ministry be not blamed Which admonishes us cautiously to avoid every thing at which Men may take just exception for this very reason least the Gospel of Christ should be hindred