92SermonsofJonathanEdwards (continued)
teachers, to answer one another. And therefore the charge is mutual. The charge is not only to teachers to set good examples, but the charge is to the church to regard and follow their good examples. Heb. 13:7, "Remember them which have the rule over you, which have spoken unto you the Word of God, whose faith follow, considering the end of their conversation." It is with respect to the good examples of the teachers of the Christian church, as it is with their words, their instructions and exhortations. We ought to hear good instructions and good counsels of anyone, let him be whom he may. But yet we are under special obligations to hearken to the good instructions and examples of those whom God has made our teachers. For that is the very office to which God has appointed them to teach and to counsel us.
Second, there are two things that are to be observed in particular of the apostle Paul which, from the foregoing general observation, will show that we are under very special obligations to regard and follow his good example.
1. God has appointed the apostle Paul not only to be a greater teacher of the Christian church in that age in which he lived, but the principal teacher of his church of any mere man in all succeeding ages. He was set of God not only to teach the church then, when he lived, but God has made him our teacher by his inspired writings. The Christian church is taught by the apostle still, and has been in every age since he lived. It is not with the penmen of the Scriptures, as it is with other teachers of the Christian church. Other teachers are made the teachers of a particular flock in the age in which they live. But the penmen of the Scriptures has God made to be the teachers of the church universal in all ages. And therefore, as particular congregations ought to follow the good examples of their pastors, so the church universal in all ages ought to observe and follow the good examples of the prophets and apostles, that are the penmen of the Scriptures, in all ages. So the apostle James commands us to take the ancient prophets for our example, because they have been appointed of God to be our teachers, and have spoken