Section 9
MEMOIR OF DR JOHN TYLSTON.
directed his reading into this channel, in the year 1684 he removed to London, where he applied himself very closely to that study under the direction of that eminent physician, the honour of his profession, Dr. Biackmore, now Sir Richard Blackmore. After some time the learned Dr. Sydenham, (to whose ingenuity the faculty is thought to owe a great deal of its modem improvement,) hearing of him and of his character, sent for him, and was so well pleased with him, that he took him into his house, and gave him all the advantages imaginable, of acquainting him with the best methods of practice. Read what he himself had occasion to write concerning these happy instruments of his learning, in a letter to a friend, not long before he died.
I have ever looked upon my obligations to those to whom my education was committed as inexpressibly great, andtieyond all possibility of return. My tutor, the Rev. Dr. Sykes, was alvrays to me as a father, and as such I still love and honour him. I love the very name of Sir Richard Blackmore, who first encouraged me to the study of physic, gave me the first invitation to London, recommended me to several good friendships there, took care of me in the small-pox, put me in a way of acquainting me with the city practice, and honoured me with the freedom of his own most ingenious and instructive conversation, as well as the use of his library. As for the great Dr. Sydenham, who received me into his house, carried me with him to his patients, led me into the mysteries of the faculty, and with a most generous freedom, and perpetual expressions, both verbal and real, of a true affection, treated me not only as a son, and disciple, but as a friend and companion, interesting himself with a paternal kindness in all my concerns : I cannot think of him otherwise than as a father, a friend, and benefactor; and as such his memory must ever be sacred to me. He often told me, tliat if it were possible for him to get loose from his engagements at London, he could gladly come and spend the remainder of his days with me in the country. All this was the effect of his own generous temper of mind; for which way could I either desire such a degree of friendship, or make any suitable returns?"
It was a very great kindness which Dr. Sydenham retained for him while he lived. Thus he expresseth himself concerning him, in one of his letters: ** I do assure you, upon the word of an old man, I have a very entire love for you, and if it lay in my power, I should be more glad to do you service, than any one in the world, next my own children." Such an interest he had in the affections of that ingenious roan, who in his last sickness gve him this character, that he was the most grateful man in the world. Those who knew any thing of Dr. Sydenham's principles of religion, ought to know likewise, that Dr. Tykton was his disciple in physic, but far from being so in divinity. Dr. Sydenham taught him, that the study of physic was not the framing of a curious hypothesis, and being able to support and contend for it; but learning by experience, and the observations of others in practice, how to cure diseases by assisting nature in its struggles with them. Every one knows how far to seek a lawyer wosld be in his profession, that should spend many years in reading books, and descanting upon them, and never attend the courts, nor acquaint himself with the methods of practice; and a physician that would take the same course, would be no less at a loss in his profession. It is ill trusting a guide that knows no more of the road but what he hath learned by the ^ap.
The Doctor was soon aware of the quickness and ingenuity of his pupil, which made him very free in communicating to 1^ the arcana of his practice; so that in a f&v months he became master of that treasure of observations, which that great man by many years large practice had gathered. This made his way at the first setting out very plain, and enabled him to proceed with very great assurances ; which was a mighty advantage to one, whose natuial temper was very far from being confident and daring, and who never knew how to boast of a false gifto as the vrise man expresseth it, Prov. xxviii. 14. nor to pretend to that knowledge, which certainly be had not
In the beginning of the year 1687, by the advice of Dr. Sydenham, in company with the Doctor's son, he took a journey to the university of Aberdeen, in Scotland, which gave him an opportunity of enlarging his acquaintance, and there they both took the degree of Doctor in Physic, which that universitj conferred on them with particular marks of respect
His great readiness to ad rise and assist sick people, wherever he came occasionally, his care never to give any thing that might occasion abortion, and strict caution, never to reveal any of his patients' secrets, were three instances of his careful observance. Soon after his return to London, Dr. Sydenham very much pressed him to launch out into the business of his profession. Accordingly, in May, 16S7, he came down into the country, and settled in his native soil, at Whitchurch : nor did any ask, as men usually do of a prophet, in his own country, whence hath this man this wisdom and these mighty worhs ? for his early genius had promised something great and considerable, and had anticipated the prejudice. When some of his friends at London had offered him their interest in some of the country gentlemen, to whom they would recommend him, be very thankfully declined making use of their kindness, saying, his practice he hoped could recommend him; nor did it fail to do so, for be quickly fell into very good business, and that which was I useful to many; and without any great difficulty he
MEMOIR OF DR. JOHN TYLSTON.
961 got over the prejadices which people oommonly have against a yoang physician, and gave experimental proof, that though days should speak, and maltitnde of years should speak wisdom, yet neither skill nor success are tied to age.
Jane dOth, 1687, he married Katharine, the second daughter of Mr. Philip Henry, of Broad Oak, by whom he had six children, three sons and three daughters: one of his sons died of the small-pox, the other five be left behind him.
In the beginning of the year 1690 he removed to Chester; earnestly invited there by many of his friends, among whom he had given occasionally such proof of his abilities, as were sufficient to make a way for his advantageous settlement there, where there were several other physicians; and the event, both in the city and country about, rather outdid than fell short of expectation. Having thus brought down the story of his life to his settlement at Chester, where he spent the last nine years of it, we come to consider his character, which, in many particulars of it, was very exemplary and instructive. And we shall take a view of him,
I. As a scholar. While he lived he continued very industrious in the pursuit of knowledge; though his attainments in learning were very great, yet he was still pressing forward, and redeemed the time he could spare from practice, for study. His closet and books were to him what the tavern and glass of wine are to many men of business, a diversion from the cares, and the filling up of the vacancies, of business. Few new books came within his reach, but he found time to make himself master of their notions; but his delight was mostly in the writings of the ancients. Cicero, Seneca, and Plutarch he much admired, and made them very familiar to him. Pliny's epistles be took great pleasure in. These, and other the like, he did not only look into, or cast an eye upon, now and then; but read them through and through, digested their dis-coorses, and was able to give a good account of their reasonings. The passages he met with, which he tho Qgbt useful to illustrate any text of Scripture, he transcribed at large, into his interleaved Bible, or some other repository. He likewise marked in his ^k what was most considerable, that he might review them with more ease, and advantage. Some of the ancient writers of the Christian church he likewise acquainted himself with, as Tertullian; and not long before his death, he spent a great deal of time in Lactantius's works, much to his satisfaction. Oat of these also he selected many things, as before, and was communicative of what he read, in discourse with his friends. In natural philosophy, he ^as somewhat sceptical, and though he was well able to discourse of the history of nature, yet he was always ready to own himself unable to determine oo Qceming the secret springs and causes. Of this
3q he thus expresseth himself in a letter to a friend, upon occasion of his inquiry into or concerning the causes of muscular motions.
" I think it more ingenuous (and cheaper I am sure it is) for a man to confess his ignorance, than be at a great deal of pains to discover it; for my own part, I hope I can employ my time better than in such disquisitions as, after all my search and thought, will afford me no good satisfaction; it is as good to be unsatisfied at first as at last, when I find that a progress in the search does not lessen the difficulty."
Let us view him,
II. As the master of a family. In this capacity, his conversation was exemplary, ,
1. For prudence and virtue in his carriage towards his family and relations, as a husband, a father, and master. A very happy mixture of authority and love I have often observed in his domestic conduct, and such as renders parents and masters both easy to themselves and their families. He managed his children with great wisdom and tenderness, having them in subjection, with all gravity, as the apostle speaks, 1 Tim. iii. 4. and yet without harshness or severity, but on the contrary, with a discreet indulgence.
2. For piety and devotion in his family worship ^ in the discharge of which he was conscientious. Though his business hindered him often from observing a constant time for it, yet the morning and evening sacrifice of prayer and praise, and that most commonly with reading the Scriptures in course, and singing psalms, were duly offered up in his family. He furnished his house vrith several of Mr. Tate's new translation of the Psalms, ahd sung them over in order, without reading the lines. I have observed it, as an evidence of his careful and profitable reading of the Scriptures, that in discourse, he would frequently mention what he had particularly taken notice of in that course of his reading.
The sermons he heard on the Lord's day, he constantly wrote, and diligently repeated them to his family at night, that they might give the more earnest heed to the things which they had heard. Upon occasion of any special providence, merciful or afflictive, in the family, he frequently desired the assistance of some of his relations, with his family, in prayer and praise. For some years before he died, he kept an annual thanksgiving to God in his house, for the recovery of his eldest son from a dangerous fever.
III. As a physician. The calling wherein he was called is confessedly needful and honourable, and a great blessing to mankind ; and all that knew him, could not but look upon him as an ornament to it. Some of his own profession were pleased to say, they doubted not but If he had lived he would
MEMOIR OF DR. JOHN TYLSTON.
have been one of the emineotest physicians in all these parts of England. In the study of physic he was constant and indefatigable, and even after he had obtained a considerable reputation by bis practice, he continued as diligent in study as if he were again to lay the foundation. He read and collected many things out of the writings of the ancient physicians, Hippocrates, Galen, and others, and few of the modern improvements that were considerable escaped his notice. He laid out himself very much to procure books that might be helpful to him, and oft complained of his distance from London and Oxford, where he might have the advantage of large libraries. Of the writers in physic, he generally valued those most who wrote by way of narrative, and of matters of fact, and observations upon them, rather than those that raised hypotheses, and built upon them. Dr. Sydenham's works he had justly a great value for, and after he had often read them over, that he might yet more thoroughly acquaint himself with them, he drew a very large and complete index to them, alphabetically.
He had, for some years before he died, laid the scheme of a great project, which, if God had spared him to carry on and finish, would no doubt have been very acceptable to the learned world. It was a universal history of epidemic diseases, digested in the order of time, through all the ages and places of the world that we have any record of, to be collected out of the most authentic historians and best physicians. From such a collection as this, he thought many useful hints might be taken, not only for the discovery of the changes of the constitution of acute distempers, but also for their cure; for what is there of which it may be said. See this is netr, Eccl. i. 10. He laid the plan of this design, and proceeded in it as far as his own library and his friends would furnish him with materials, but let it stand for want of such books as were necessary to the conducting of it, but could not possibly be procured. What he knew, he was very willing to impart to others, that were like to do good with it. *' I hate concealment (saith he in a letter to a friend) and monopoly, especially in a faculty that is conversant with the lives of men."
In the practice of physic, be was exemplary for three things:
1. His diligence, faithfulness, and concern for bis patients, whose case he did naturally care for. He took pains to study such cases as had difficulty in them, and consulted his books about them. He was more frequent in his visits than most physicians are, and was very industrious in his personal attendance, to prevent any mistake in making up or administering what he prescribed; in either of which an error may be fatal. He would never (unless in a very plain and common case) prescribe any thing till he himself saw the patient, for he looked upon the right understanding of the case (which is scarcely to be obtained but by personal view and examination) to be half the cure. In many acute diseases, he found it necessary to be much with the patient, that he might be aware of every curative indication, and observe which way nature strove to help itself, and might immediately come to its assistance. His labour and pains in travelling early and late, was not so much a fatigue to him, as his great care and concern of his patients, even those that were strangers to him, and those he got nothing by. One might see by his countenance, when he had a patient under his hand in perilous circumstances, and where life hung in doubt. Such cases often broke his sleep, and drew from him complaints, wbat a heavy burthen it was to him, to have the lives of people in his hands; but the cat success he frequently had in the most difficult cases, yielded bin a pleasure and satisfaction proportionable to the exigency of the case.
He was not very apt to give a patient over in despair of a recovery, but while there was any room left for the use of means, he would continue tbem ; complaining that many were lost by being said to be so; and yet, where he apprehended the case very dangerous and desperate, he made conscience of letting the patients or their friends know it. He admonished them if the house were not set in order, to do it immediately. He had so great a tenderness for them that were under his care, that some of his patients have said, that he was to tbem no less a true friend, than a skilful physician.
2. In his charity to the poor. This be was veiy eminent for; as in other things, so particularly in the business of his profession. I believe I mar safely say, that his patients whom he gave his advice to freely were many more than those be received fees from, for he was the poor man*s doctor. He has sometimes travelled many miles to advise a poor body gratis, with as much kindness and cheerfulness as ever he visited the most generous and wealthy of his patients, and never neglected any for their poverty ; nay, he not only gave his adiice freely to the poor, but frequently gave them their physic too, to his great expense, and often lamented it, that so little care is taken of those poor, when they are sick, who, when they are well, make shift to subsist without being troublesome, and mucb desired that some liberal things might be devised for the support of such. To excite himself to all acts of kindness and beneficence, he wrote two Seripture-s in Greek in the beginning of his pocket dispensatory, which he always carried about with bim ; one speaking the example of our Lord Jesus, Acts x. 38. He went about doing good; the other, Uie words of our Lord Jesus, Acts x. ^5. It is more blessed to girt than to receive. And because he was sometimes kind to those who were so mde and ungrateful as
MEMOIR OF BR. JOHN TYLSTON.
963 not to own bis kindness, that this might not dis-coorage his charity, he wrote in the same book that remark of Pliny's, '* It is most pleasant to be kind to the gratefal, but most honoarable to be kind to the ungratefal/'
3. His piety and religion, which appeared even in the business of his profession, was sufl Scient to give the world another idea of Religio Medici, than it hath sometimes had. It was plain, that in following bis practice, he aimed at the glory of God, and doings good, more than at getting wealth, and raising an estate. I hae often heard him say, he would not take five hundred a-year to leave off his practice, (though perhaps he never got half so much by it,) such a niighty satisfaction had be in being useful and serviceable to his generation, as unto the Lord, and not unto men. It was an excellent saying, which he made his own. Let me be GotTt hand. His frequent and earnest prayers to God for his patients, and for a blessing on what he administered to them, and for direction in his prescriptions, did speak not only a tender concern for his patients, but also an active and lively belief of the providence of God, and of our dependence upon that providence, that every man's judgment prth-ceedethfrom the Lord, The observations he made of the influence which very small and minute circumstances had upon turning the event, strengthened his belief of the divine conduct, guiding the means to the end.
rv. We come in the last place, to take a view of him as a Christian. And here we find him in many particulars very exemplary.
He was a strict observer of the laws of morality and virtue, sobriety and temperance, justice and charity, which he looked upon as essential to pure religion, oft appealing to the most distinguishing character of good and bad men, 1 John iii. 7, 10. He that doth righteousnes$, is righteous, and he that doth not righteousness, is not of God. As he made it his business to do good unto all he was concerned with, so it was his care to do evil to none. He was ready in the Scriptures, and mighty in them. Some very judicious divines that have conversed with him in matters of religion, have been surprised and aitbamed, to find one whose profession led him to other studies, as well acquainted with the Scrip-tores, as most of those whose profession obligeth them to that study. He was very much in meditation upon divine things; and when his thoughts fastened upon a subject, that was more than ordinary affiecting, he committed them to writing. Many sheets of divine contemplation he has left behind him on some of the most important subjects. As, arguments to prove the being of God; another, concerning God's eternity; another, of the arguments of the truth of the Christian religion; another, of the present darkness we are in concerning
3 q2 the particulars of a future state; another, concerning the extent of divine grace; another, concerning religious joy, on 1 Thess. v. 16. Rejoice evermore; another, which he calls thoughts on human life, with divers others. Some curious and uncommon things there are in these dissertations, but all savouring of great piety and devotedness to God, and an experimental knowledge of divine things. Though he was himself thoroughly furnished for every good work, yet he was very diligent in his attendance upon public'assemblies for religious worship, and often complained of it, (as one of the greatest infelicities of his profession,) that it very often unavoidably took up a good part of his sabbath time, and hindered him from the public worship of God, which would have been an intolerable grievance to him if he had not had this to comfort him, that our Lord Jesus Christ has taught us to prefer mercy before sacrifice, whenever they are rivals.
In his profession of Christianity he was a great enemy to narrow principles, and was actuated by a spirit of catholic charity and communion; and disliked nothing more in any party than their monopolizing' of the church and ministers, and unchurching and unministering those who in matters of doubtful disputation differed from them, and forbidding those members to join at any time with such religious assemblies as could not be denied to have among them all the essentials of divine worship. He had a very great veneration for the pious and moderate divines of the church of England, no man more, and joined as seriously and reverently in the Liturgy as any man, when he was occasionally present at it, but in the c|)oice of his stated communion he was determined (though to his prejudice in secular interest) by these two rules :
1. That we should choose to attend ordinarily upon those administrations, (as far as the divine providence puts them within our reach,) which we find to be most for our edification in knowledge and faith, in comfort and holiness, and most likely to answer the end of ordinances. He particularly pleaded for himself, that he that had so little time to spare for his soul from the business of his profession, had reason to improve that little to the best advantage. What is most edifying and advantageous every man is best able to judge for himself.
2. That it is most comfortable to join with those who take all occasions to express their love and respect for those Christians that differ in their apprehensions from them, and uncomfortable to hear those upon all occasions condemned in the lump, and put under the blackest characters, some of whom we have reason to believe fear God and work righteousness, and therefore doubtless are accepted of him.
These I know to be the principles he went upon, and in his practice according to them he was
MEMOIR OF DR. JOHN TYLSTOH.
steady, uniform, and constant; and I think he was not to be called a dissenter from the church of England, but a dissenter from all parties, or a consenter to catholic Christianity. He gave this reason among others why he would have his children baptized publicly, because he would publicly own a ministry which was condemned by many as null and invalid.
He was a great promoter and encourager of works of charity and mercy, was very ready to every good work of that kind, often mentioning the rule of judgment at the great day. Matt. xxv. 36. as giving the surest rule of practice now. His generous present which he made towards the building of the new chapel at Trinity College in Oxford was one instance of his forwardness to any good work, as it was of his gratitude to the nursery of learning in which he had his education.
Two things more I shall observe as very exemplary concerning his piety in its causes and principles.
1. His good thoughts of God. He delighted to speak, and much more to think, of the infinite mercy of God; that he is a being that doth not delight in punishing his creatures, but in doing them good; and would therefore by no means admit those opinions which exclude from salvation all Gentiles and un-baptized infants. The plain and undoubted truth of God's eternal goodness to all his creatures, that have not forfeited their interest in it, must be relied upon, and nothing which divine revelation has left us in the dark about set up in contradiction to it.
In reference to the manifestly deplorable state of a great part of mankind, he pleased himself with the thought, that this earth is but a small part of the univecse, and that it is probable there are many worlds of holy and blessed beings which we know nothing of; and he was very inclinable to believe, that though in this earth they who find the way to life are comparatively few, yet taking the whole creation together, the everlasting monuments of God's mercy and love will be many more than those of his wrath and justice.
He took great pleasure in speaking of his own experience of the goodness of God to him, often mentioning with comfort that Scripture, Jcr. iii. 4. My Father J thou art the guide of my youth; and observed with pleasure, to the glory of God, and the encouragement of his friends, how the hand of divine Providence had wisely managed his aflairs to his comfort, beyond any design or foresight of his own.
2. His low thoughts of this world, which he often spoke of with great contempt, as vanity and vexation of spirit, and unworthy the afl*ections of an immortal soul. So far was he from indulging the body, that there was nothing he complained of more, than that he found it such an entanglement and encumbrance to the soul. So little love he had to this life, that he often said he did not think it worth while to live, unless it were to do good; and as to worldly wealth, what more is it (said he) than food and raiment, and having that one may be content.
Taking example from his father-in-law, Mr. Henry, (of whom he was a very gat admirer, witness the ingenious Latin epitaph he made upon him,) he interlined in his almanack each year a remark upon his birth-day, in Latin well worthy the transcribing, as speaking his thankfulness to God for the mercies of his life, his further dependence upon God's providence, and his desires and hopes of everlasting life.
On March 16th, 1096-7, he thus writes, ** Ebene-zer. I have been a sojourner and pilgrim in the earth these three-and-thirty years. I am obliged to say my days have been few. I cannot say they have been evil, for but few of the sorrows of mortality in events more afflictive, or health less constant, have happened to me. Divine Providence has afforded me a constant supply of life, and of all the happy conveniences of it, and with a tender care to aid me from the invading fury of those evils to which I have sometimes apprehended myself exposed."
" The issues of futurity set out by God in Tast eternity shall never be viewed by mortal eye.
"March 15th, 1697-S. The fifteenth of March. 1663-4, was the day of my own birth; the fifteenth of March, 1683-4, was the day of my father's funeral: on one and the same day at the distance of twenty years, my own mother, his consort, delivered me into his tender arms, and our common mother, the earth, received him into the enclosure of the grave. So that the same time was a spring of day to him, and of grief to me. God had set the one over against the other, to prevent a luxurious mirth on the one hand, and disanimating sorrow on the other; but I am still within the lines of aflliction. and that there is more occasion to lament m3rself, who am yet waiting for the goal, than him, who is safely arrived at it, is a thing indispntahle. We are bom to anguish, we die to triumph; and oh! thou happy soul, who, having piously and honourably discharged the duties and fatigues of mortality, art with endless pleasure and triumph at once got up to everlasting bliss, it remains that i follow thee. Heaven grant I may arrive at thee.''
"March 15th, 1696-9. Infancy commences at birth, and continues to the 5th year of life. Puerility begins there and goes on to tlie 18th year. The time between that and 25 affords us the style of young men. The spkce between that and the 35th year is our most flourishing time. Afterwards till we arri v e at 49 we are said to be middle aged. That being once passed we are justly declared old. 1 have therefore this very year and day entered on the last stage but one of mortality. It is most equal that now at last I abandon the vanities not only of child- i hood, but of youth too, and compose myself to designs that are manly. If human age must not be
MEMOIR OF I>R. JOHN TYLSTON.
06& reckoned beyond the 70th year, I have ran over half my coarse. What dangers have I escaped! What blessings have I enjoyed by the mercy of my most kind God I Wherefore I entirely depend on him. I entirely commit myself to him who will certainly afford me seasonable relief in this weary pilgrimage, and bestow on me a blessed immortality in the native country of my then happy soul."
AH that remains now, is to give some account of the period of his life, having seen the end of his conversation. From what he was and did it was easy to prognosticate to what an eminency he was likely to arrive, and how great a blessing his older years would prove to bis age and generation ; but this prospect was attended with melancholy prognostication that he would not be long-lived. His constitution was very tender and nice, his digestion bad, his body unable to bear much fatigue, and, in short, his soul too big and too active for it, and a lamp that burnt too fast to burn long.
Some slight fevers he had at his coming to Chester, which went off without any threatening symptoms, but left him very careful in the management of himself, which he did not in the'way of self-indulgence, but of self-denial. But what fence can there be against the messengers of death when they come with commission from the God of life. The fever that was mortal to him arrested him March 29th, 1699, about noon, immediately after he had written a long letter to his dear friend and kinsman, Mr. Benion of Malmsbary. He feared he had taken cold the night before in the bookseller's shop, where he was detained by the perusal of a new book, but he had bad a very good night and visited his patients that morning. The first invasion the disease made was very violent, in an extreme coldness and shivering, succeeded by a burning, no less violent, which after some hours went oIT in a very profuse sweat. He presently took the alarm, and apprehended it not unlikely that it might prove a summons to the grave.
He said he had now lived past half the age of man, which was longer than he had expected some years ao. Thus the arrests of death are no surprise to those who all the days of their appointed time wait till their change comes. He expressed much satisfaction in the mercy and goodness of God, and fastened upon his oath, that he hath no pleasure in the death of sinners. He likewise cheerfully resigned himself to the will of God whether for life or death, ** What we will (said he) we think is best, but what God will we are sure is best.*' He addressed himself to his dying work with great seriousness and application. " I cannot think of death (said he) without concern, but I bless God I can think of it without terror;" and frequently in his sickness he spake of dying with all the concern and satisfaction that became a wise man, and a good Christian, and one vbo very well knew both that it is a serious thing to die, and yet that death hath no sting in it to a child of God. Many excellent things he said in his illness which spake a great contempt of the world, an entire resignation to the divine will, and a cheerful expectation of the glory to be revealed, which cannot be recovered in his own words, but deserved to be written in letters of gold. The disease after the first onset (which was fierce) seemed to retreat for two days, and gave good hopes of a speedy recovery, though he himself spoke doubtfully of his case ; but on the 4th day it rallied again, and seized his spirits with such a violent assault, that he received the sentence of death within himself, and though afterwards there were some lucid intervals, yet from thenceforward he manifestly dec lined apace, and set himself very solemnly and deliberately to take his leave of this world, and to make his entrance into another; and one time or other, as his distemper gave leave, he scarce left any thing untouched that was proper to be said by a dying man. He several times said, that when he reflected upon his manifold failings and defects, he had reason enough to tremble at the thoughts of going to gve up his account to God, but (said he) with an air of courage and cheerfulness, ^* I trust to the infinite mercy of God and the all-sufiicient merits and mediation of the Lord Jesus;" and here he cast anchor, as one abundantly satisfied. Sometimes he was much enlarged in blessing God for the experience he had had of his goodness to him, which he said he could never' enough admire; particularly he thanked God that he had kept him from deism, or from imbibing any corrupt principles of religion when he was abroad; also that he had not lived altogether a useless life in the world, but that God had owned him in his profession, and given him success in it. " I cannot express (said he) how good God hath been to me all my days, and it is my comfort that I am going to a world where I shall be for ever praising him." He said if he had thought his time would have been so short, he would not have spent so much of it as he had done in the study of heathen authors, but he did it with a good design, that he might acquaint himself with the dictates of the light of nature, and know how far they went, and he had found this search a very great confirmation to him of the truth of the Christian religion, which doth so highly improve and perfect natural religion, and relieves us there where that is manifestly defective, and leaves us at a loss.
He frequently expressed a great willingness to die, though he had upon many accounts reason enough to desire to live, but (said he) '* every man must go in his order; let this be the order appointed for me, I am very well satisfied." He encouraged his relations and friends cheerfully to resign him up to the will of God, and desired they would do it without murmuring. He much delighted in prayer.
MEMOIR OF DIt JOHN TYLSTON.
and joioed with much affection in the prayers that were frequently made with him. During all his illness he seemed to hare a very great composure of mind, and settled peace, except one night when he was in a delirium, or, as he called it afterwards, a stupor, which he could give no account of; and in that he expressed a dread of God's wrath, and some amazing fears concerning his everlasting state; but in a short time (through God's great goodness) that storm passed away, and he enjoyed a constant serenity of mind till he entered into everlasting peace. He bore the pains of his distemper with an exemplary patience and easiness of mind, making the best of every thing, and seldom complaining, but very thankful to those that attended him and ministered to him. He took a solemn farewell of those about him, spoke to his dear yoke-fellow with good words and comfortable words, kissed and blessed all his children, and to them that were become capable of receiving it gave good advice. He charged his son to be sure to study the Scriptures, and make them the guide of his ways ; and, said he to him, *'Whatever new opinions thou mayst meet with in philosophy, play with them as thou wilt, but never affect new notions and new opinions in religion, but stick to the good old religion of Christ and his apostles, and that will bring thee to heaven." He desired his children might read Mr. John Janeway's Life, and Mr. Baxter's Poor Man's Family Book, which latter he had read a little before he sickened; as he had sometime before read with abundant satisfaction (and abridged) his Reasons for the Christian Religion, and particularly expressed himself greatly pleased with that summary of religion which is there in a few words, p. 227. ** Religion is nothing else, but faith turning the soul by repentance from the flesh and world, to the love and praise and obedience of God, in the joyful hope of the heavenly glory."
He called for his servants, and took leave of them with prayer and good counsel; he earnestly pressed upon them diligence in religion, and to take heed of all sin; and '* see to it (said he) that yon do that which you may reflect upon with comfort when yon come to be in my condition." He commended the ways of religion and godliness to those about him as good ways, and such as he himself had experienced to be ways of pleasantness, and paths of peace.
It was an expression, among many, of his great humility, that to one of his affectionate farewells he gave me (Mr. Matthew Henry) he added, " and I pray God that those who survive me may profit more by your ministry than I have done, abundantly, abundantly more." He remembered his love and respects to many of his friends in the country, and (said he) " I must not forget the church of God. Though it be a lime of trouble with the church in many places, yet those that are gone before, died in this belief, that God would do great things for his church in the latter days, and so do I too; Lord, do good in thy good pleasure unto Zion." He often comforted himself with the believing hopes and expectations of a better state on the other Side death, and recited many Scriptores that speak of it: " Oh the glorious mansions (said he) in our Father's house, and glorious inhabitants in those mansions; pleasures for evermore." \^nieD he had some food given to him he said, ** What a blessed state will that be when I shall hunger no more, nor thirst any more." When he was sometimes asked how he did, he answered, " I am going to another world, and I hope, through grace, to a better. I know (said he) whom I have trusted, and that he is able to keep that which I have committed to him." One present answered,'' A great truth." He replied, ** Yes, and a great trustee." He said, ** If it were the will of God, he would desire to die in the actoal contemplation of the goodness of God, and the glory to be revealed."
No advice, no help, no means that could be had, were wanting, but the weakness of his constitation came against him, and forced nature to yield to the disease; which he was himself first aware of, and spoke with much cheerfulness, and submission to the divine will. The two last days of his sickness, though he continued sensible, yet he took little notice, but lay easy, and declined gradually, and on Saturday night, April 8th, about eleven o'clock, a little before the entrance of the sabbath, he entered Into his rest, and went to keep an everlasting sah-bath within the veil. I never saw any who seemed to die so easily and quietly as he did; there was no conflict, no struggle, no agony in his death, bat he breathed his last without the least sigh, or groan, or wrestling. There was not only no sting in bis death, but no bands in his death. Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord.
The Tuesday following he was interred in Trinity Church in Chester, attended to the grave with abundance of tears and honourable testimonies; and it might be truly said at his funeral, as it was at Jacob's, " This is a grievous mourning.'' In so great a congregation there has seldom been so few dry eyes.
The Rev. Mr. Newcome of Tattenhall, his dear and intimate friend, preached his funeral sermon on Phil. i. 21. To me to live is Christ, and to die is ^tf«. and by the character of him did him honour at his death.
A SERMON,
PREACHED AT THE ORDINATION OF MR. ATKINSON,
IN LONDON, JANUARY 7th, 1712-13.
Isaiah vi. 8.
Also I heard the voice of the Lord, sayingy Whom shall I sendf and who will go for us ? Then said I, Here am I; send me.
It is no absurdity at all, at the ordination of a gospel minifltery to borrow instructions from the mission of an evangelical prophet; for the treasure is for substance the same, which is lodged in both these earthen vesiiels. And though there are diversities of gifts,* and administrations, various degrees of light, and methods of revelation, yet in all these vorketh that one and the self-same Spirit; the very same Spirit of the Lord, that both came upon the Old-Testament prophets, and remains with the New-Testament ministry.b In allusion to the Old-Testament way of revelation, gospel preaching is called prophesying, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith,^ And the prophets are called the brethren of gospel ministers. The angel says to John, I am thy fellow-servant, and of thy brethren the prophets.^ The ordinary influences and operations of the Spirit, and its plentiful effusion, in gospel timesy in the prediction and promise of it, is represented by the peculiar and extraordinary ways of discovery of the divine will then in use: I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh ; and your sons and yoftr deugkters shall prophesy,^ they shall have a clear insight into the things of God, and be able to speah dearly of them to one another.
None perhaps of all the Old-Testament prophets had a more awful and solemn mission than the prophet Isaiah ; who spake so plainly and fully of Christ, and the grace of the gospel. Ezekiel's
1 Cor. vii. 4, IL b John xiv. 16. « Rom. xlL 6.
mission was likewise very awful; whose errand chiefly was to prove and threaten, and display the terrors of the law: but the vision that introduced his mission was more dark and mystical.
We dispute not, whether this was Isaiah's first mission; it is likely it was not, the sermons in the foregoing chapters being placed before it. He had if I may so say, prophesied for some time as a candidate, that he might, first, be tried, and might himself make trial of his work; in that he was owned of God, and yet he had this solemn mission afterwards. He was, before, sent of God, spake in his name, and knew he did; but his commission was then virtual and implicit, but was now more expressly recognised, when his work grew more upon his hands, and the difficulties and oppositions he met with in it increased. Now this ambassador made \k\spuhlie entry.
If we look back to the preparatives for this solemnity, (which we have an account of in the foregoing verses of this chapter,) we shall find the prophet very deeply touched with a humbling sense of his own sinfulness, and a comfortable sense of the pardon of sin, and his acceptance with God. I take notice of these for instruction to you, brother, who are this day dedicating yourself to the service of God in the gospel of his Son, that yon may walk in the same Spirit.
1. He was much affected with a sight and sense of his own sinfulness and unworthiness. See how he cries out, upon a sight of God in his glory, and hearing his holiness praised: Woe is me, for I am undone f I am cut off, so the word is; I deserve to be cut off* from all my privileges and hopes as an Israelite; for /am a man of unclean lips unfit, unad Rev. xxii. a
• Joel ii. 28.
f Isa. Ti. 5.
ORDINATION SERMON.
ble to be employed in speaking for God: I dwell, indeed, in the midst of a people of uncleaH lips who deserve to be reproved, and need to be reformed, bat how unfit am I to be made use of as an instra-ment herein, who am myself a man of unclean lips; and never saw so much of it, nor so much of the evil of it, as now that mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.
God looks upon those ssjiltest to be honoured by him, and employed for him, who are humble and low in their own eyes. When a soul is brought to cry out, Woe is me, for I am undone, it is then in a fair way to be saved for ever. As Christ, so Christians, are first humbled, and then' exalted; like a corn of wheat, die first, and then revive.
And as to particular services, ** Before honour is humility.'' When we see ourselves utterly unworthy of the honour, and unfit for the service, we are called to, then free grace will be the more magnified in passing by our unworthiness, and making us strong out of weakness. They who abase themselves under strong convictions of their own sinfulness and vile-ness, into an entire subjection to God's grace and government, and a cheerful condescension to the meanest services, these are they whom the King of kings delights to honour. They stand fairest for preferment in the Messiah's kingdom, and are likely to be great in it, who humble themselves like little children ;r who do it naturally, and with sincerity, not artfully, affectedly, and with design.
3. He was likewise impressed with a comfortable assurance of the pardon of his sin, and his reconciliation to God. A coal from the altar was laid upon his mouth ;^ not to bum it, but to purify it, to take away the uncleanness of his lips which he complained of, for the sin that truly humbles us, shall not ruin us; and it was said to him, Lo, this hat touched thy lipt thine iniquity is tahen away,.and thy sin purged. And blessed is the man thrice blessed is the minister, whose iniquity is forgiven^^ and who knows it, by the witness of God's Spirit with his spirit. They who are thus sprinkled from an evil conscience, are best prepared to serve the living God,^ and can come boldly to and from the throne of his grace.
None are so fit to display to others the riches of gospel grace, as those who have themselves received the comfort of it. They can best preach Christ crucified, who have known experimentally the power of his death, and are themselves clothed with that everlasting righteousness, which by it he brought in. And how feelingly may they preach repentance and remission of sins to others, who have themselves tasted the bitterness of discovered guilt and the sweetness of a sealed pardon. And this is one reason why the ministry of reconciliation is comff Matt, zviil. 4. k Heb. ix. H.
b Matt vi. 7.
1 P& xxxii. 1. 1 Rom. vU. 94.
mitted to men like ourselves, who labour under the same burthens, and lie open to the same danglers, with the rest of mankind. The great prophet cries out, Woe is me, lam undone, —^the great apostle cries out, O wretched man that I am^^ that others, who make the same complaints with them, may be encouraged to hope for the same relief that they found; and that they may recommend to others the same foundation which they have themselves built npon, and comfort others with the same comforts wherewith they themselves were comforted of God.
The prophet being thus prepared to have so geat a work and so great a trust put into his hand, we have, in the text and the following verses, the committing of that work and that trust to him ; for as God sends none but those whom he has first prepared, so those whom he has by his grace prepared, he will some time or other find an opportunity to send, for God makes nothing in vain. Jeremiah, who laformtd for a prophet, shall be ordained a prophet.*
Now observe in my text the solemn treaty and transaction between God and Isaiah upon this matter. Behold a communion between God and man; as, of old, God talked with Abraham." Be astonished, O heavens, at this, and wonder, O emrtk, the Lord of life and glory converses familiarly with poor sinful dying worms of the earth, as one friend converseth with another. Isaiah hears the voice of the Lord, and understands it, returns a direct answer to it, and receives a reply; and thus a correspondence is settled between him and heaven, in order to the carrying on of the work that was before him.
This communion with God is that which all Christians must keep up by faith; both in receiving the word from God, and in lifting up their prayers to him. When thou saidst. Seek ye my face, I heard what thou saidst; understood the meaning of it, applied it to myself, and complied with it; my heart presently answered. Thy face. Lord, will I seek.* Return ye backsliding children — Behold we come taUo thee.9
And it is that which ministers, particularly, are concerned to acquaint themselves with ; for an ex-perimental knowledge of the mystery of communion with God, which the greatest part of the world are such utter strangers to, is, without doubt, a very necessary qualification for tliat office and work, which was instituted on purpose for the maintaining and carrying on of that communion. How can we expect that God should speak by us, if we never heard him speaking to us; or that we should be accepted as the mouth of others to God, if we never spoke to him intelligibly and sincerely/or ourselves? How can we cany on the treaty of peace between God and man, if we have not, by searching the Scriptures, come to know something of the mind of no Jer. i. & e Ps. xxviL 8.
■ Gen. zvii. x p Jer. iii. ss.
ORDINATION SERMON.
969
God, nor, by searching into our own hearts, come to know something of the case of man ? Moses was first well acqaainted with God himself; inquired concerning his name, and heard it proclaimed; before he was employed as a mediator between God and Israel. And Samoel was first brought to know the Lord and bis word, and then was established a prophet.^
Now, in the text we have two things concerning Isaiah's mission:
I. The counsel of God concerning it, Whom shall I send?
II. The <»nsent of Isaiah to it. Here am /, setid UK. Each of these will furnish us with some useful observations, proper to the present occasion.
I. We have here the counsel of God concerning it; and it is good to trace all divine things to the divine counsels, the streams to the springs. God is here introduced, as it were, deliberating and advising with himself whom he should send, to show tbc boose of Jacob their sins, and their misery and danger becaase of sin; as if he were considering and consulting about it, Whom shall I send? We have a like representation to Micaiah; when he saw the Lord sitting on his throne, surrounded with the host of heaven, and heard him saying, Who shall persuade Ahahy that he may go up, ami fall at Ramoth GiUad?^ Novr this is spoken avptawova Oiac — after the manner of men and therefore, according to our rule, we must take care to understand it dtonptxutc — so as heeomes Godf SO as not to derogate from the glory of any of his infinite perfections.
A.S God needs not to be counselled by others; for vho has directed the Spirit of the Lord, or being his tmtnsellor hath taught him ,** so he need not consult with himself; for deliberating supposes something of hesitation, which is not to be supposed in the Eternal Mind. As God never varies from himself, so be never wavers in himself; Knoum unto God are all his fporhs, from the beginning of the world. When Christ asked Philip, Whence shall we buy bread that these may eat ? he said it only to prove him, for he bimself knevr weU enough what he would do.^
But sometimes the wisdom of God, though never at a loss, is expressed by a solemn consultation, to show that what God does is the result of an eternal coansel. And some have observed that God is oever represented consulting with himself, but in cases wherein man was concerned, who is the parti-cQlar care of the divine providence. As, about the creation of man, Letusmaheman;"* and after the fall, Theman is become as one of us;" and when the nations were to be dispersed. Let us go and confound their languages,^ God would hereby show that there is a counsel in his whole will ;* and would teach us to ponder the path of our feet,' and to consider our ways,' and to do nothing rashly, but to make use of
1 I Sun. iii. 7,30. r 1 KingB xxli.
our own wisdom, by communing with our own hearts; and of the wisdom of others, by asking advice of them, for in multitude of counsellors there is safety.
And God*s being introduced here considering whom he should send, intimates that the sending forth of ministers, is a work not to be done but upon very mature deliberation, and with good advice. Christ did not send out his apostles to preach, till he had kept them some time with him as his pupils ; and our rule is, to lay hands suddenly on no man, lest we be partakers of other men's sins.*
Now we may here observe:
1. Who it is that is here consulting; **I heard the voice of the Lord" proposing the question : and it is God ** in his glory ;" and it is God in Three Persons.
(1.) It is God in his glory, the same that he saw in the first verse, upon his throne, high and lifted up. Not that he saw his essence, no man has seen that or can see it, but such a display of his glory in vision, as he was pleased at this time to manifest himself by, as to Moses and Israel at mount Sinai.
When God thus appeared in his glory and majesty, attended with a glorious retinue of holy angels and their adorations, then was he considering whom to send upon an embassy to man: and it tends very much to set off the condescension of God's grace to us, that he is so highly exalted, and yet so kindly takes cognizance and care of us. His goodness is his glory, and adds lustre to his greatness. And, among men, those are truly the greatest who are the best, and do most good ; as it magnifies his goodness, that though he is infinitely happy in the enjoyment of himself, was so from eternity, and would have been so to eternity, if we had never been, or had been miserable, yet he has an eye to man, and a concern for him. Though he be infinitely above the possibility of being benefited by us, yet thus he visits and regards us.^ Thus God's majesty makes his mei-cy shine the brighter; as where he says, that the same God who rides upon the heavens by his name Jab, is a Father of the fatherless, and a Judge of the widows.^ Though God be high, yet he has respect unto the lowly ; and though it be condescension to behold the things done in heaven yet his regards stoop much lower, and he dwells with men upon the earths
And methinks it puts a great honour upon the work of the ministry, that when God was about to send a prophet to speak to his people in his name, he would thus appear in the glories of the upper world, upon a throne high and lifted up, as one who is God over all, blessed for evermore; higher than the highest Though ministers are, themselves, men upon a level with you, despicable and despised, the foolish things of the world, and the weah; yet he
X Eph. 1.11. 7 Prov iv. 86. ■ Hag. i 5. • I Tim. ▼. b Ps. viii. 1, 4. • Pft. Ixviii. 4,5. d Pi. cxiii. 5. &
ORDINATION SERMON.
that tends them is enthroned, is greatly exalted. Though their original is mean, theircbaracter is truly great, they are the ambassadors of the King of kings.
Let this support and encourage faithful ministers under all the contempts that are put upon them, and the reproaches they are loaded with, that how much soeyer they are trampled upon and run down, he that sent them, and will bear them out, whose messengers they are, and whose messages they bring; who does protect them, and will reward them; is the Lord, high and lifted up. Such an honour does it put upon the gospel ministry, and such encouragement does it give to gospel ministers, that our Lord Jesus gave these gifts unto men, when he ascended on high, when he entered upon the glories of his exaltation, and rode in triumph, leading captivity captive.* Ambassadors have respect paid them according to the dignity, not of their private families, but of the prince who sends them.
(2.) It is God in Three Persons; which is plainly intimated in the plural number here used. Who will go for us? It is one God who says. Whom shall / send; and yet this one is three persons, the very same who said. Let us make man; and it is intimated in the plural termination of '* Elohim" yet joined with words of the singular number; as In the beginning itna B»mS» DII creavIT, As sometime '* Eloah" which is singular, is joined with a word plural. Where is God my Maker, ♦tnj Txhvi — God my Makers J Remember' now thy Creator, n»it'7^3— thy Creators. Which (says Coccejus) though they are not foil proofs of the doctrine of the Trinity, yet they are memorials of it, intimations of it for the present, till it should be more fully revealed in the New Testament.
The adversaries of this truth seek to avoid the force of the argument from this text, and the like, by saying, That when God says, Let us make man, and Who will go for us, he speaks more regio — in the style of kings, ** We will and command ;*" so the Socinians; but it was not so used in the Hebrew language. That it is God consulting with his house of judgment; so the Jews; but they know not, nor can tell us, what they mean by it;—with tlie angels; 80 says Grotins. But do prophets go on the service of angels ? or are they sent on their errands ? No, these are mere evasions. It is the same that says, Whom shall I send! in the singular number; and. Who will go for us? in the plural number.
And to throw more light upon, and add greater weight to, this, it is observable, that the words which follow in the two next verses, which the Lord said, Go make tke heart of this people fat,^ are, in the New Testament, applied both to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost. They are applied to the Son, where Bsaias, when he said these things, is said to have
• Eph. iv. 8. f Job XXXV. 10. f Job is. 15.
b John xii. 40, 41. i Acts xxvili. 36, iS. k Matt zzviiL 10.
seen his glory, the glory of Christ, (for of bim the evangelist is there writing,) and to have spoken ef HIM ;^ and, to the Blessed Spirit, where it is said. Well spake the Holy Ghost, by JEsaims ike prophet, utUo our fathers; saying. Go utUo this people and say. Hearing ye shall hear, and skall not mndcr-stand}
The three persons in the blessed Trinity ^lorioosly concur, as in the creating of man, so in the redeem-ing and governing of man, and particularly in send> ing messengers to the children of men, to bring them revelations of the will of God. Ministers are ordained, in the same name into which Christians are baptized, In tke natne of tke Father said of tkt Son, and of tke Holy Ghost ;^ nor could they baptize in tkat name, if they were not commissioned by the authority, and devoted to the glory, of that name. The tkree that bear record on earth; the Spirit tkt Water, and tke Blood,^ that is, the Scriptures, and the two sacraments, are derived from the three tkat bear record in keaven, tke Fatker, tke Word, and tke Spirit. And the last named of the three that bear record in heaven, is the same with the ^rst named of the three that bear record on earth ; as the nexus or bond of union between them. And the Spirit speaking to the churches:" by ministers, as expositors of the Scripture, and stewards of the mysteries of God, they may therefore be justly looked upon as sent by, and going for, the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.
2. Wkat tke consultation is, Wkom shall I send, and who will go for us ? Some think this refers to the particular message of wrath against Israel, which we have in the next verses: Who will be willing to go upon such a melancholy errand ? Who cslu be prevailed with to carry a message which they cannot but carry, as the prophet Ezekiel did, in the bitterness of their souls;" and as St. Paul, with great heaviness and continual sorrow of heart ?*
But I rather take it, more largely, for all the messages which he was intrusted to deliver in God s name to that people; the secondary effect of which was, the making of their <* heart fat, and their ear heavy,*' but it was by no means the primary INTENTION. The proper tendency of the word, was to be a savour of life unto life; but, if it prove a savour of death unto death,i that is their fault who make an ill use of it.
Wkom shall I send V Some one must be sent, this perishing self-destroying people must have fair warning given them; but it was hard to And a proper messenger. Not that God was in doubt whom to send; when he has work to do, he will not want instruments to do it by, for he can either find men fit, or make them so; but it intimates, that the business was such as required a well accomplished ukes-
11 John V. 7.8. mRev. iL7. & Ezek. iii. 14.
o Rom. iz. s. p s Cor. iL iff.
ORDINATION SERMON.
971 senger, be^^ond those whom he had hitherto employed : he must exalt to this honour one chosen oot of the people,i and qualified with uncommon abilities. " Who is a chosen man," a choice man, '♦ that I may appoint over her, and who is that shepherd that will stand before me ?"'
God now appeared attended with holy angels, bright and blessed seraphims, who had each of them six wings, and could make more haste, and deliver a message better, than any of the sons of men could; and yet he asks. Whom shall I send ? for he would send by a man like themselves. When Ahab's/fl/*e prophets were to deceive him to his destruction, it was done by a lying spirit who went forth from before the Lord.* But when gospel grace was to be prophesied of by a trne prophet, no created spirit is employed, but God's own Spirit comes upon the prophets.
Now hence we may gather three observations: (I.) It is the unspeakable favour of God to us, that he is pleased to communicate his mind to us, and to make it known by men like ourselves. Divine revelation is a signal token of the divine good will, and ought so to be accounted. Man, by reaching at forbidden knowledge, forfeited all that which would be saving and serviceable. And how well did he deser^'e to be deprived of all the light of divine revelation, who had hid his light of human reason under a bushel, and had almost buried it in darkness ; and by his ignorance had wilf'illy alienated himself from the life of God} Justly might God have said, 'that he would never speah any more to such a rebel; and then his case had been as desperate as that of fallen angels; and he must have wandered endlessly, had not God been his guide.
But in pity to poor man, and in order to his recovery and redemption, beams of divine light are afresh darted from heaven; the great Shepherd sends after this stray sheep to fetch it home; He hath showed thee O man what is good / unto man he said. Behold the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom ;* unto you, O men, I call, and my voice is to the sons of men*'* Notice is given us of the displeasure of God against us, that we may avoid it; of the kindness and good will of God to us, that we may improve it; and of the duty God requires of us, that we may perform it. He has not hid from our eyes the things that belong to our peace and welfare, but has at sundry times, and in divers manners, given us to understand them, and put us in mind of them.
These notices he sends to us by those of the same nature with us. The people of Israel were so frightened at tlie terrors of Sinai, that they desired thenceforward God would speak to them by Moses; Speah thou with us, and we will hear, but let not God speah with us, lest we die J Herein they spoke the sense
Pb. Uxxix. 19. r Jer. xlix. 19. Jer. 1.44. • 1 Kings sxii 90,23. t Epb. iv. 1& r Mic. vi. & V Job nviii. 98. « Prov. ?lil. 4.
of all mankind, and God agreed to it; and though* since then, angels have been often sen(f upon particular errands, yet the ordinary instructions of the church have been by men formed out of the clay, whose terror shall not mahe us afraid, nor their hand be heavy upon us; and they are, according to our wish, in Go(Vs stead,* And this is very agreeable to a state of probation; in which, it were not a fair trial if, by the appearance of angels, those things were made sensible, which are now the objects of faith. The Scriptures were not written by angels, but by holy men of God, and the dispensing of the gospel is committed to faithful men.
How ungrateful are those to God, who, instead of giving him thanks for the favour of divine revelation, ridicule it, and asperse it; and, under pretence of free-thinking, shake off all the sacred obligations of it, and thereby forfeit and renounce all the advantages of it. It is the greatest indignity that can be done to God, and the greatest injury to mankind. God has, in tenderness to us, sent us his mind by men lihe ourselves, and they abuse this favour, by making themselves equal with those who spake by divine authority. But if they believe not Moses and the prophets, neither would they be persuaded though one rose from the dead.*
(2.) It is a rare thing to find one that is fit to go for God, to carry his messages to the children of men. God here asks, Whom shall I send ? Where is the person who may be intrusted with such an errand ; Who is sufficient for these things ?^ A skilful, faithful interpreter of the mind of God, who shall show unto man his uprightness, is one of a thousand.^ He must be an able man indeed, who is fit to be a minister of the New Testament.**
Such a complication of gifts and graces, as are requisite to the right discharge of this great trust, is very seldom found. Such a degree of insight into the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, as is necessary to make a man skilful; and such a degree of courage for God, and concern for souls, as is necessary to make a man faithful; is hardly to be met with. Many are willing enough to go, who yet are not fit to be sent; as there are some fit to be sent, who are not willing to go. Solomon speaks of the inconvenience of sending messages by the hand of fools; they who do so, he says, cut off the feet and drinh damage. And though men have talents, it is little better if they have not application; for as vinegar to the teeth, and smohe to the eyes, so is the sluggard to him that sends him,^ Of what ill consequence is it then, to have God's messages sent by the hand of fools or sluggards ; so that considering how much folly and sloth prevail, we may well ask, as those at a loss. Who shall be sent, and who will go on God's errands ?
7 Exod. xz. 39. • Job xxsiii. 0.7. • Luke xvi. 31. b 2 Cor. it. IflL • Job szxiii. Sai d 2 Cor. iii.«. • Prov. x. 2&
ORDINATION SERMON.
(3.) None are allowed to go for God, but those who are sent by him. He will own none bat such as ho himself appoints. As the ordinances must be only such as arc of his institution, so the ministers of the ordinances must be of his designation, else they cannot expect that his presence should be witli them, or that his power should accompany their administrations. It is fit the master should nominate his own servants; he knows whom he hath chosen. When Christ would send forth apostles, he called ttnto him whom he wouldJ
We are not now to expect immediate calls, such as the prophets and apostles had; called not of men ot hy men. Ministers have no extraordinary commissions to produce, nor any miraculous ratifications ; they undertake not to foretell things to come, by the accomplishment of which to prove their mission ; those were requisite to set the wheels in motion, both in the Old Testament and in the New, but they cease when the thing is settled. Nor do we think that the mission of a minister depends upon the uncertain thread of a lineal succession from the apostles, which we cannot believe to be either requisite on the one hand, or sufficient on the other. But there is some resemblance between God's calling of ministers now, and his calling of prophets of old. Prophets were called when they were qualified for the office, when the word of the Lord came to them; and there were schools of the prophets, in which young men were trained up in preparatory exercises; so, note;, those whom God has by his Spirit qualified for the work of the ministry, have ONE considerable step toward a divine call: to which was, then added a strong inclination to this work, purely for its own sake; Jeremiah says, that God's word was as a burning fire shut up in his bones ;> and that is, stilly the other step toward a divine call,—a sincere desire to glorify God, and serve the interests of Christ's kingdom, and promote the salvation of precious souls, without regard to any secular advantage whatsoever. They in whom such qualifications for the work and such dispositions to it meet, may be accounted sent of God. And on these two the church of England seems to lay the stress of a due call to the ministry, in the question put to all who ofl*er themselves to be ordained, whether they think themselves moved by the Holy Ghost to take upon them the office of the ministry ? For it is certain, none are moved to it by the Holy Ghost, who are not in some measure fit for it, or who desire it for the sake of secular advantages. But those who are thus *' called of God," ought to have their qualifications examined by proper judges; and, then, by the word and prayer, (in which they will have to be employed, whose office it is to give themselves to the word and prayer,) they must be solemnly i Mark iii la v Jer. xx. 9. h Acts xiii.
recommended to God, and to the word of his grace; and their dedication of themselves to God, and the service of his church, must be recognized. Ther who by office mini Hered unto the Lord eis prophets and teachers, were ordered, by fasting, and prayer, and the imposition of hands, to separate Barnabas and Saul to the work whereunto God hmd called them,^
This is entering in by the door; aa all who will approve themselves good shepherds most. How shall men preach except they he thus senl?*^ God complained of those who ran, and he did not send them ^ and he tells them (which is threatening enongb) that therefore they should not profit the people at all: those who go without sending, will come back without speeding. God will own his own work, and his own appointments, but not men's usurpations. Both the external and internal call are necessary; and neither must be set up exclusive of the other. There must be an internal call, for God will be served with the spirit in the gospel of his Son; and there must be likewise an external call, for God is the God of order, and will have his own work done in his own way. And those in whom both these meet* may, with St Paul, thank Christ Jesus for puttiiig them into the ministry, and may expect that he will own them, and stand by them.
II. We have here the consent of Isaiah to this mission. When he heard God ask, Whowm shall I \ send? he readily answered, Here am /, send me. How well does it become all who love God, and have a zeal for his honour, to step in to the service of his kingdom and interest, when there is most occasion, and when the necessity of its affairs calls most for it; to be ready to go on God's errand, when none else will, and there is a failure of messengers, " Do you as you will, I will serve the Lard." It is an honour (though it cannot but be a grief) to be singular, in appearing for God; and to appear active for him, when multitudes decline his service as mean and perilons; to make offers to work for him, when others seek, by excuses and evasions, to shift it off'.
O what backwardness is there in many to a good work, when it has any thing of difficulty or disgrace attending it; or to any service for God, when other employments are more gainful and creditable in the world. Jonah is called to go to Nineveh, but he has no liking to the errand, and therefore flees to Tarshisb. The tribes of Israel are summoned to appear in defence of the public liberty and property, against Jabin king of Canaan, to come in to the help of the Lord, to the help of the Lord against the mighty ; and, while Gilead abides beyond Jordan, and Dan cautiously remains in ships,^ for the princes of Issachar, that intelligent *" as well as industrious tribe, bravely to k Jer. ixiii. SI. i Judges v. 17. m I Chroo. xil. x
ORDINATION SERMON.
973 ippear with Deborah, even Issachar and Barak; for Sebalan and Naphtali to jeopard their livet to the \tath in the high places of the field,^ in the common aose', this is thankworthy. He is the truly Chris-ian hero, who dares lay his hand to a despised ilough, and a deserted one, who has courage to iubmit to a yoke, which so many, like the nobles of fekoa, are ashamed and afraid to put their necks ioder.« Those who thus boldly appear for the keep-og up of religion's interest, are worthy of double lODOur. This was it that gained LeTi the honour »f being God's tribe, the holy tribe, that when Hoses made proclamation in the gate of the camp, Who is on the Lord's side, to avenge the quarrel /his covenant upon the makers of the golden calf,i hat tribe distinguished themselves, and came in to tfoses. Thus did Isaiah here; when every one was ihy of the office, he was eager to receive it
The errand on which Isaiah was to go, was a very nelancholy errand. Go make the heart of this people fat; and yet he offered himself to the service. When ^e are called to act or speak for God, we must not say, We would go, if we were sure we should have ^d success, and our message would be acceptable; but we must go, and leave the success to God. Lord, make what use thou pleasest of me, I mil not murmur or dispute. Though in the event oar ministry should prove contrary to what it is in the intention, —to harden people instead of softening tbem, and to aggravate their condemnation instead of preventing it, which is a very uncomfortable, discouraging consideration, yet we must go on in it, knowing that in the issue God will be glorified.
Isaiah had been himself in a very melancholy frame in the 5tb verse. Woe is me, for I am undone, mncb indisposed and burthened; yet now he has courage enough to offer himself to the work, which then he could not think of without terror; for he bad been assured that his sins were pardoned, his iniquity taken away, and then his fears are silenced, the clouds are blown over, and all is well. Many bave come to be eminently serviceable to God and bis church in their day, that at first were low-spirited, and laboured under great discouragements. When God by his Spirit speaks to the heart good words and comfortable words, those who like Daniel were fallen with their faces to the ground, are wonder-fnlly lifted up and encouraged, and are ready to say, M he did. Now let my Lord speak, for tliou hast irengthened me,'i -
Isaiah's saying. Here am I, send me, speaks three things, for direction, to those who are setting out in the work of the ministry. His readiness; his resor-lution ; and bis referring himself to God.
1- His reatliness. He does not make objections, as Moses did, O my Lord, I am not eloquent, or,
Ju'l? V. I*, 18. o Neb. ill. 5. p Exod. xxxii. S6 q Dan. x. 19. ' Kxod. It. 10.13. • Ps. ex. 3. t 2 Cor. ix. 7.
Send by the hand of him whom thou wilt send,^ any body but me; but. Behold me; I present myself to thee, to be employed as thou pleasest: Here I am, send me. He was a volunteer in the service; not pressed into it, but willing in this day of power:* in this as in other things God loves a cheerful giver,' a <;heerful offerer. My heart (says Deborah) is to wards the governors of Israel, that offered themselves willingly.^ It is recommended to the elders to feed the flock of God, not of constraint, but willingly, and of a ready mind.^ In all acts of obedience to the calls of God, and assistance to the work of God, we must be free and forward, as those who know that we serve a good Master, whose work—^not only his for us, but ours for him—^is honourable and glorious; it is its own wages. Let us be brought under the yoke of Christ, by the constraining power of his love to us, drawing out our hearts in love to him again; and that is the acceptable sacrifice, that which is bound to the horns of the altar, with these cords of a man, these bonds of love.
How ready is God to hear and answer our calls ; he says. Behold me, behold me,"* even to those who were not called by his name. Much more ready is he to say, flere I am,^ to those that call upon him. And should not we then be ready to answer his calls, though the service we are called to be never so difficult and hazardous ? Desire not to be excused, when God has work for you to do, nor let any thing keep you back from that honour.
2. His resolution. He gives not only a free consent, but he is firm and fixed in it; does not hesitate or waver, but is ready both to swear to it, and to perform it; and he will not be beaten off it, no more than the people of Israel, when they said. Nay, but we will serve the Lord;' or Buth, when she said. Entreat me not to leave thee, or to turn from following after thee.
Here am I, not only ready to go, but resolved, in the strength of divine grace, to encounter the greatest difficulties, and to abide by the service to the end. Send me, and I will adhere to it whatever it cost me, and will never draw back. Thus Christians, thus ministers, as good soldiers of Jesus Christ, should war the good warfare with courage and constancy; Who is this that engageth his heart to approach unto me, saith the Lord?* What an acceptable servant is this, that binds his soul with a bond to the work of God, and is willing to have his ear bored to God's door-posts, to serve him for ever. And good reason have we, thus, to serve Christ, for with such a steady and unshaken resolution did he undertake to save us; when it was asked, Who will be man's redeemer? who will take the book, and open the seals .'* and there was found none who would venture upon it; then said Christ, Lo I come; and finding it written of him
Jurlg. ▼. 0. * 1 Pet v. 2. w laa. Ixv. 1. > Isa. Iviii o. 7 Josh. xxiv. SI. I Jer. xxx. 21. • Rev. v. 5.
ORDINATION SERMON.
in the volume of the book, he determines, he delights to do the will of God ;^ and shall not fail or be discouraged/
We find this prophet, long after, reflecting with abundant satisfaction upon that steadiness of resolution with which he entered upon his prophetical office; and in it he was both a type of Christ, and a pattern to Christians. The Lord God, says he, hath given me the tongue of the learned, which he did by touching his lips with a coal from the altar; he hath opened mine ear, he has promised to help me, and he is near that justifieth me, and therefore I have set my face lihe a flint, I hnow that I shall not be ashamed.^ Those who thus set out with resolution, may depend upon God to bear them out
3. His referring himself to God, His expressing himself thus generally. Here am J, send me, intimates this; Lord, employ me as thou thinkest fit; cut out what work thou pleasest for mc. I will never PREscribe, but ever suBScribe. Here am I, ready to go to whom, and on what errand, thou wilt, whatever objections may be made against it. Lord, I am at thy service, entirely at thy disposal. Let the will of God be done bg me, and done concerning me.
Thus we should address ourselves to the work of the Lord; with an entire resignation of ourselves to his wisdom and sovereignty. The heart must be tabula rasa — white paper to his pen, soft wax to his seal: lethim write upon me what he pleases, and make what impressions he pleases upon me. We must enter upon the service of God, with Joshua's question. What saith my Lord unto his servant ?^ And with St. Paul's, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? And witli the implicit faith and obedience of the child Samuel, Speah, Lord, for thy servant hears, I desire nothing more but the honour of receiving thy commands, and a heart to comply with them.
The mind thus entirely referred to God, is most easy and quiet to itself, as waiting to know his mind; in dependence upon his promise, that the meek he will guide in judgment, and teach his way. If we impartially search the Scriptures, we may thence learn, what, in general, God will have us to say and do for him; and if we keep our eye upon his providence, we may by that be assisted in the application of the general rules of the word, for in it God guides us with his eye; and thus by committing our way and works to the Lord, with. Here am I, send me, we may find a leading star in all our counsels, and firm footing for all our resolves; thus we stand in an even place.' And certainly, we are most our own possessors, when we are least our own masters; and have the greatest enjoyment of ourselves, when we are most cheerfully and unreservedly devoted to God, with. Here am I, send me.
b Ps. xL 7, 8. e laa. xlii. 4. AIsBuI. 4, 5, 7. 8. e JoBh. T. 14.
Application.
Of the many observable, useful hints we have given you from these words, I shall only resume two, upon which to ground a word of exhortation; which I trust may be profitable to all of us who are ministers, and particularly to you, brother, who are now devoting yourself to the service of our great Master in this high and holy calling, for the advancinj of the common interests of his kingdom among men, and the common salvation of precious souls. We are here taught, 1. Whom we are sent by. It is God who says. Whom shall I send? and to him the prophet addresses himself. Send me. And, 2. Whom we go for; we go for God; Who will go for us ?
1. Going forth into the ministry, we must look up to God to be sent by him. It is the work of God, Father, Son, and Spirit, to send ministers, the ambassadors of reconciliation; and therefore to him our eye must be: '' Lord, send me. When tfaoa art sending abroad thy messengers, let me be one; for unless thou send me, I cannot go." At our first setting out in the service of God, and when we go forth upon any particular errand, this must be our prayer. Lord, send me.
We who have been many years engaged in this work, are concerned -to inquire, what manner of entering in we had,' and whether we looked up to God at our setting out; whether we had our eye up unto him, and a single eye;. whether our desire was toward him, and our dependence upon him? Whether we took our ministry from his hand, and devoted it to his praise? I hope we did; and we have had the comfort of it many a time, with reference to the infirmities we have laboured under, and the many difficulties we have struggled with. I am weak, I am forgetful, and meet with much discouragement from without, and from within, but, O Lord, truly I am thy servant, I am thy servant. Let us still look up to him, and derive fresh encouragements from day to day, from his promise to be with his ministers always to the end of their day, and to the end of the world.'^ If God sent us, he will stand by us, will own us, vnll carry us on, and bear us out, and will never leave us. Our Master often speaks of God, as of him that sent him, and for that reason doubted not but that he was with him; so that when all his disciples fled and left him alone, yet he was not alone. And as the Father sent him, so he sends his ministers, who, therefo|je, ought to have an eye to his hand, as he had to his Father's, which upheld him.
And you, brother, who are now to be listed under the banner of Christ, may from hence take direction; it is by prayer that you are to be set apart, not only f Ps. xxvi. -li r 1 TtaesB. i. 9.
b Matt. xzviiL 30.
ORDINATION SERMON.
975 by oars for yoa, bat by yoars for yourself. That yoo may, therefore, take God along with you, and bare him with you in this great undertaking, lift up your heart to God in this short but comprehensive petition. Lord, send me ; Lord Jesus, send me ; for it is the Son of man that holds the stars in his right hand.*
Lord, send me, that is,
(1.) Lord, {pve me a commission. The gospel we are to preach is not our own, or of our own framing, bat it* is the gospel of God, the glorious gospel of the Uetsed God,^ it is the contrivance of his wisdom, it is the proposal of his grace; and, therefore, from him we must receive our warrant to publish the covenant, to apply the seals to it, and take in subscriptions. All who are duly qualified for the work, and inclined to it, and enter regularly upon it, and obtuin mercy of the Lord to be faithful in the discharge of it, may look upon themselves as sent of God; and the honour of being of that number, is vthat you should be ambitious of
Lordy send me, is. Lord, let me know that thou seodest me, and that I am a minister not of man, or by man, but by Jesus Christ, and God the Father} Let me know it by Christ's powerful, gracious bnathing on me, and saying, Receive the Holy Ghost, Lord, let me have my credentials under the broad seal of heaven, and know myself authorized to be an ambassador, or resident, to carry on the treaty of peace and reconciliation between God and man ; let me know it by the working of the Spirit upon my beart, as an enlightening, quickening, sanctifying Spirit, and that shall be the witness of the Spirit with my heart, that I have not taken this honour to myself, nor am an intruder, but am called of God to it.
We may not now ask for sensible signs, as Gideon did, who once and again proved God with the fleece; but we may and must ask to have more abundant satisfaction concerning our call, by the bestowing of spiritual gifts upon us, and the enriching; of us with divine graces, and with strength in oar soal. That the ministry is a divine institution, appears from the Spirit in the word; that such a Viinister is of divine designation, appears by the Spint in the heart, which yet, sometimes, is such a new name, as no man knows, saving he that receives iV."*
(2.) Lord, give me the necessary qualifications for this service. Send me, that is, fit me for this work, and enable me to do it as it should be done. God never sends any, but such as he gives to be in some measnre well apprized of the errand they go upon ; bis ambassadors never have credentials without instructions. When the apostles were sent forth to prtaeh, they were told what to preach, and were filled with the knowledge of the gospel mysteries. When
' Rev. H. I.
B Rev. ii. 17.
k 1 Tim. I. U. 1 Oal. i. 1.
B Esek. X. 2, 7.
therefore we beg of God to send us, we beg of him full instructions what to say and do in pursuance of our coounission, that we may give a good account of our stewardship, when we must be no longer stewards.
Lord, send me, is. Lord, give me a mouth, and wisdom; a door of utterance, that I may speak the word boldly; a spirit of wisdom, that I may know the things which are freely given us of God. Teach me what I shall say. Put that word into my mouth, which shall reach the consciences of those who hear me. The Hebrew phrase for consecration is, filling the hand; which intimates, not only the greatness of the work of the ministry, for they who are called to it have their hands full, but its dependence upon divine aids and supplies. We have nothing to give out to God's people, but what he gives in to us; nothing wherewith to fill their hearts, unless he fill our hands; as, in Ezekiel's vision, the man clothed with linen had his hands filled with coals of fire from between the cherubim.**
God gives ministers their commission by his Son, who, when he ascended on high, conferred those gifts upon men; but he gives them their instructions by his Spirit,^ who is given to make up the want of Christ's bodily presence, and to carry on his undertaking ; and of whom Christ has said. He shall take of mine, and show it unto you.f We must therefore pray for the Spirit; all Christians must, and are encouraged to do so by that promise: He will give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him,^ Ministers have special need of the Spirit, as a spirit of revelation, that they may know the things of God ; and, as a spirit of truth, to rectify their mistakes, and to lead them into all truth.
And ministers' work being to speak not only from God to his people, but to God for his people, they have as much need of the Spirit to assist them in prayer as in preaching, and to be in them a spirit of supplication as a spirit of illumination. And for this, also, God will be inquired of; to him we must go with this request. Lord, teach me what I shall say, both in the word and in prayer, for I cannot, in either of them, order my speech by reason of darkness.' Lord, give me the heart of the upright, and the tongue of the learned, and thus, Lord, send me. Ministers are stars that shine by a borrowed light: to the fountain of light they must therefore apply themselves; and he having said to us, From him that would borrow of tkee turn thou not away, will not turn away from us, if we come to borrow of him; especially when it is to borrow a stock wherewith to trade, in his service, for his glory.
It is a very proper sign which some churches use in the investing of ministers in their office, to
• John xlv. S8. 4 Lake si. lO.
p John xvi. 14. r Job xxxvil. 19.
ORDINATION SERMON.
pat the New Testament, or Bible, into their hands; not only to signify, that they have authority to preach the word of God, bat that they mast fetch all their farniture for their work from the Scriptures; those they mast consult, those they must study. That is the rule they must go by, the model they must build by ; there is the pattern showed them in the mount; that is the card and compass they must steer by. Lord, send me, is, Lord, put the Bible into my heart. Lord, make me ready and mighty in the Scriptures, that thence I may be thoroughly furnished for every good word and work.
(3.) Lord, give me opportunity. This door also God has the key of, as well as the door of the heart, and of the lips; and our eye must be to him for the opening of it, and the making of it a wide door, and an effectual one, though there be ever so many adversaries.' Lord, send me, is. Lord, having hired mc into thy service, find me but something to do for thee; having sent me into thy vineyard, cut out work for me there, that I may not stand all the day idle, because no man has hired me.' Place me in what sphere thou pleasest, higher or lower, larger or narrower, only let me be some way serviceable to thy glory, and not thrown by as a despised broken vessel.
And in this, we must refer ourselves to God: Lord, send me whither thou pleasest, order me into what circumstances thou thinkest fit; make any use of me, so that thou wilt but make some use of me; let me have a place in the body, though it should not be a place of honour. Send me, with Jonah, to Nineveh; with St. Paul to Macedonia, to help there; to the highways and hedges, to pick up guests for the marriage, and I will cheerfully go. You must set out in the ministry, with an entire resignation of yourself to God: ** Ho shall choose my inheritance, my employment, for me." Send me whither thou wilt, send me to a pulpit; send me to a prison, (and it is good to think of that, and to provide accordingly ; we are not better than our fathers, nor know we what trying times may yet be before us,) I am ready to go, as St. Paul, bound in the spirit to Jerusalem: send me on what errand thou wilt, thongh ever sounpleasing to myself, ever so displeasing to others. Servants must go whither they are ordered, and do as they are bidden, and say what is put into their mouths, without murmuring or disputing, and so must we, as those who have no will of our own, but what is swallowed up in the will of our master, in all which we desire to stand complete.
And it is a great satisfaction to a minister in all his settlements and removals, to see God going before him, and leading him in a plain path; as it is bis duty to pray for direction, and his wisdom to follow providence, and not to force it, to do the
I 1 Cor. xvi. 9. V 2 Cor. X. 4,5.
t Mark xx. 6,7.
« ba. Iv. 10, II. Heb. iv. 18.
work of the present day and place, and leave to God what is to come: Mine eyes are ever towards ike Lord, And if we see him setting before us an open door, we may comfort ourselves in this, that no man shall shut it.
(4.) Lord, give me success. Send me, and the message by me, as the rain and snow from heaven, which returneth not thither, but accomplisheth that for which it was sent." Send me; and let the Spirit go along with me to make the word efiectnal, that it may not be as water spilt upon the grouDd; lb at I may not labour in vain, or spend my strength for nought Those whom God sends, he sends armed with such weapons as are mighty through him, to the pulling down of Satan's strong holds.* O let me be furnished with those weapons! that I aiay see of the travail of my soul to my satisfaction.
Lord, send me to their hearts, let the word be quick and powerful for that purpose; send it between the joints of the harness; send it between the joints and the marrow;* send it, and let a divine power go along with it; send the report, and with it let the arm of the Lord be revealed ;* that many may be brought to believe it, for it is the power of God to salvation to every one that believes J O that it might now appear so, as it appeared when the ward of the Lord, at first, grew and prevailed so mightily,. How can we expect that our labours should be successful, and that we should profit the people we preach to, if we do not sincerely design it, and earnestly desire it.
But we must go forth in the strength of the Lord God,' or we shall go to no purpose. If we think to succeed in the strength of our own parts or resola-tion, by our own wisdom or importunity, we do but deceive ourselves; for St. Paul himself owns he cao do nothing of himself, but all things through Christ strengthening him;* this divine strength we must pray for and depend upon, and by faith most fetch it in, whenever we have any work to do for God. And this is our comfort, that God*8 strength is often perfected, and most praised, in our weakness, for it is ordained out of the mouth of babes and sucklings.
Pray thus, pray daily thus, and you shall not seek in vain. If, when God calls to you to appear and act for him, you cheerfully say. Here am I, you may be sure, when you call to him to appear with you, and act by you, he also will say. Here am I. If you say, Lord send me, he will say. Go, and I will be with thee. If you say, as Peter, Lard, bid me come to thee upon the water; ^ he will say, Come, and will keep you from sinking.
2. Going on in the ministry, we must remember WHOM we go for. Who will go for us; as agent for God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost? Not that God has need of us, or of our services; he has angels at command ready to go on his errands, and to ft ba. liii.
PhiL Iv. la. b Miatt xiv. 98, ».
ORDINATION SERMON.
977 fly swifUy; bot he is pleased to employ as, to bid us go for him. We go for God the Father, to bring the seals which he has made to him, as their chief good, and highest end; for God the Son, to bring the soals to him he has xedeemed, as their Prophet, Pnest, and King; for God the Holy Ghost, to bring the seals he has the charge of under his conduct, and his sanctifying power and in Ouence.
Let as see how improyable this consideration is.
(I.). If we go for God, then we have no reason to be ashamed of our office, but to magnify it. Work for God cannot but be great work, and put honour upon them who are called to it The preachers of a gospel, which, to all that believe, is ike power of God unto salvationf how much reason soever they have to think meanly of themselves, as unworthy of the honour, yet have a great deal of reason to think highly of their work. St Paul, who went for God to the Gentile world, though for that he was reproached by the Jews, yet magnified his office.** The messengers of the churches are the glory of Christ," how scornfully soever they are looked upon by the children of men. If we be not a shame to our office, it is well; we have no reason to be ashamed of it.
Ministers are not common messengers ; they are ambassadors for Christ,' for the King of kings, and that is a high post of honour; in which though we pretend not, as ambassadors, to the title of Excel-Uncy, }'et we ought to approve ourselves of an excellent spirit, and labour to excel in gifts and graces. And let not any think themselves too good to be thus employed, as if the lowest of the people were as fit to be messengers for Christ, as Jeroboam thought ihem to be priests to the calves; no, it is no disparagement, to the greatest, to go for God. King Solomon valued himself upon his being a preacher.
(2.) If we go for God, then we must fait/fully de-lieerkis MIND, t» his name ; and when we do so, we may speak as having authority. If we go on his enand, that, the whole of that, and that only He ninst deliver. Ezekiel must speak God's words to the people, and speak them as his; whether they ^ill hear, or whether they will forboar.v We must deliver that which we have received of the Lord, and our doctrine must be not ours, but his that sent us.
Let this therefore imbolden us in our work, and give us a holy, humble assurance. We pretend to DO dominion over you, we are your fellow-servants; but he who sends us, and whose mouth we are to you, claims dominion over you, and commands your obedience. He is the God who gave you your being; and therefore has authority to give you law, and will not suffer his authority to be slighted, or his crown profaned.
If we obtrude that message in God's name which is not his, and say. Thus saith the Lord,^ when it is f 2Cor. V, so.
d Rom. si. 13. f Kzek. ii. 7. 3 m
Cor. viii. 23. h Jer. xxiU. 31,32.
a false dream, fancy, or forgery of our own, we cannot speak with any confidence ; (what is the chaff to the wheat?) but as long as we keep close to our instructions, we may rely upon our commission ; and as far as what we say agrees with the law and the testimony, it demands acceptance, not as the word of man, a poor, frail, dying man like yourselves, but as the word of God,* for so indeed it is; the word of a living God; a living word that abides for ever.
(3.) If we go for God, then far be it from us, that we should seek ourselves and our own things. One of the first lessons Christ will have his disciples to learn, is to deny themselves, that they make him all in all. Self will be apt insensibly to steal into the study to us, and into the pulpit with us, and as far as it is indulged, the ends of our office are perverted, and our work spoiled, and stript of its dignity and power. We are ministers of Christ; and therefore must not preach our8elv«s, but Christ Jesus the Lord,—and [declare] ourselves your servants for his sake:^ that the Lord alone may be exalted in our ministry, that he may be all in all.
We must not seek our own praise and applause, but must humble and abase ourselves ; must not aim at the making and maintaining of any secular interest for ourselves,—that is prostituting what is honourable, and profaning what is sacred. It is a sad complaint which Paul makes even of the ministers of his time, that all sought their own, not the things that were Jesus Christ's ;■ I wish we have not all of us too much reason to charge the same upon ourselves ; I am sure, we have all of us need to watch and pray against this sin. Ministers, of all people, must not live to themselves, nor please themselves, nor aim to enrich themselves; for thereby they contradict, and so depreciate, theiroffice, which is intended to bring souls from self to God. None of us, if he lives like himself, lives to himself but to the Lord.*^ Let self therefore be abased, and annihilated, that to us to live may be Christ," nothing but Christ. We are friends of the bridegroom, and are unworthy the honour, if we speak one word for him, and ten for ourselves, when we ought to be entirely devoted to him.
(4.) If we go for God, then to him we must give account of our negociation; if you send your servant on an errand, you expect when he comes back, he should tell you how he has done his errand, and how he sped. The Lord of those servants that are sent for him, will come and reckon with them, what they have done, and what they have gained by trading with the talents committed to them. Angels give account of their messages; they run and return, descend and ascend; and ministers are hastening towards their day of account.
1 1 Thca§ ii. 13. k s Cor. Iv. 5. 1 PhiL ii. ai.
» Rom. xiv. 6,7. n Phil. i. 31.
ORDINATION SERMON.
must give an account of ourselves to God; it will be inquired into, whether we have faithfully delivered our message, whether wc have declared the whole counsel of God, and whether wc have not pulled down with one hand what we built up with the other. It concerns us therefore to do our work as those who know it will be reviewed.
We must give an account likewise of those to whom we have been sent; and a heavy account it will be if they perished through our ignorance, carelessness, or treachery. If the watchman warn not the sinner of his danger, the sinner shall die in his iniquity, but his blood shall be required at the watchman's hands. How pathetically did Augustus Caesar upbraid the general, who, by his ill conduct, had lost him a brave army, Qnintili Vare redde Icgionei — Quintilius Varus, restore my legiom. Much more terribly will they be reckoned with, who by their treachery have been the ruin of precious souls. But how comfortable will the account be, of those who are the seals of our ministry, whom we have been instrumental to bring to Christ; as it was to this prophet, concerning some, of whom he said. Behold, I and the children whom the Lord hath given me f though the generality believed not his report.
If we are sent for God, we must consider, as the prophet did, what answer we shall return to him who sent us ;P as the servant who was sent to invite to l;he wedding feast, when he met with repulses and slights, came and showed his Lord all these things.^i O that this thought might quicken us to the utmost care and diligence in our work, and that we might be found watching for souls, to win them over to Christ, as those who must give account, and who know not how soon.
(5.) If we go for God, then he will certainly bear us out, and stand by us, in all we do according to our commission. If we go for God, he will go with us; as he promised to go with Moses, when he sent him to Pharaoh. Those who are God's servants he will uphold; he will strengthen, according to their day;' ho will plead their cause, and not suffer them to be wronged. Kings shall be made to know, that it is at their peril, if they do his prophets any harm.* Princes take injuries done to their ambassadors as done to themselves, and will resent and revenge them accordingly; and so does our Lord Jesus. He thtit detpiseth you, despiseth me. Mocking God's messengers and misusing them, was once and again Jerusalem's measure-filling sin.
Ambassadors have their charges borne. God has provided, that as those who served at the altar might live, and live comfortably, upoii*the altar; so those o Isa. viii. 18., p 2 Sam. xxiv. 13. q Luke xiv. 21.
r 1 Cor. X. 13. • Ps cv. ]&. 11 Cor. ix. 14.
u Jam. V. 4. ▼ Lev, xix. 13.
who as his messengers preach the gospel, ahoald he suitably maintained, that they may live of Ike gospel.' Yet sometimes the case is such, that ministers lose by their ministry: (the disciples left all to follow Christ, and preach tiie gospel:) but in that csase, confide it to him to indemnify them; one uray or other it shall be made up to them.
(6.) If we go for God, and approve ourselves true to the trust lodged in our hands, he will abandantly recompense all our services and sufferings. We shall not only be saved harmless, and have oar losses made up, but we. shall have God himself to be oar bountiful rewarder, and our exceeding great reward. St Peter encourages ministers, the under-sbepherds, to feed the flock of God, and to do it willingly, with this, that when the chief Shepherd shall appeoTy they shall appear with him in glory.
The labours of a few days shall be rewarded with everlasting pleasures and riches ; God will be sure to pay his messengers well; nor will he keep back the hire of the labourers, who have reaped down his corn-fields;° nor shall it abide with him aU nighty vr-til the morning* of the resurrection; hot when the sun of their life goes down, and the day of their service is ended, the labourers are immediately called to receive their penny; even those who came in at the eleventh hour, who died young, and so did but an hour's work, as well as those whose laboars were long, and who bore the burthen and heat of the day.* St. Paul doubts not, but that when he departs he shall immediately be with Christ;" and in the assurance of it pleases himself with the thoogbt. That he was now ready to be offered, and the time of his departure was at hand; and thenceforth was laid up for him an abundant recompence.'
Encourage yourselves, brethren, and one another, with this word : you go for God. You aim at his glory, and make his work your business; yoa lay out yourselves in sincerity to advance his name, and honour, and interest, and his kingdom amonj men. And do you so indeed ? Though Israel be not gathered, yet shall you be glorious,* and a sweet savour to God, not only in them that are saved, but in tketn that perish** And therefore be of good courage, and lift up the hands that hang down; a particular account is kept of all your travels, toils, and tears in Christ's work, and they shall all be abundantly recompensed. In due season you shall reap, if you faint not ; he not weary then in well-doing.*^ Hold out faith and patience yet a little while, and your warfare will soon be accomplished; only be faithful unto death/ and the crown of life is as sure to you as if it were already upon your heads.
w Matt. XX. 8, 9. X PbiL i. 23. ji Tim. iv. 7, 8.
I Isa. xlix. 5. « S Cor. ii. 15.
b Gal. vi. 9. c Rev. ii. 10.
THE
EXHORTATION,
AT
Mr. SAMUEL CLARK'S ORDINATION, AT St. ALBANS.
(SOMEWHAT ENLARGED.)
That which yet remains, before we part, is to address an exhortation, gve me leave to call it a charge in Christ's name, to yoo, my dear brother, who have now dedicated yourself, and have been very solemnly dedicated, t* the service of Christ in the work of the ministry ; which I trast has left such a truly indelible character and impression upon you, that yon will remember this day by a good token as long as yoa live; as the day in which year heart was more than ever fixed for God, as the Master yoa love, and resolve by his grace to live and die with ; and your ear bared to his door-post, to serve him for never to go oat free from his service, but to ever go on more and more free in it.
Think yoo hear Christ saying to you, as he did to his disciples, when he had washed their feet, and had taken his garments, and was set down again: Know ye not what I have done to you ?* I say, what Christ has done to yoa, for it is he who pats you into the ministry,** not we. Do yoa know, do you consider, what an honour he has put upon your head, what a trust be has lodged in your hand, and vhat a bond he has laid upon your soul ? And will yoa not next consider, what he expects and requires from you, in consideration of this which he has done to you ?
I hope you have such a sense of the excellency of the work to which Christ has called you, and its direct tendency to advance the honour of your Creator and Redeemer, and the true welfare of your fellow-creatures and fellow-Christians, that if we shonldoow say to you, as Elijah said to Elisha, when he had cast his mantle over him, Go, returUf for iJohnxiii 19.
4 Ruth L 17.
b 1 Tim. i. 13 3 R 2
Kingi x\x. 90. c Luke ix. 62.
what have I done to thee ?' you would reply as Ruth to Naomi, Entreat tne not to leave thee, or to turn from following after thee ^ for from the plough, to which I have this day laid my hand, I trust I shall never so much as look back.* The Lord heep it always in the imagination of the thought of your heart, and establish your way before him /' You have, as Jeph-thah, opened your mouth unto the Lord; and you cannot go back.' Go forward then, in God's name; go on and prosper, and the Lord be with you.
You have this day received a commission from the Lord Jesus, according to the true intent, and full extent, of the institution of the gpel ministry, to be an officer in his army to train up his soldiers to, and lead them on, in all the services of the Christian warfare; to be an officer in his Atfi^</om, to see that his laws be observed, hb ordinances kept, and the peace and order of his kingdom preserved, for the honour of the prince, and the protection and welfare of all his loving subjects.
The apostles, prophets, and evangelists, were extraordinary ambassadors, employed to set the treaty on foot between God and fallen man: to them first was committed the ministry of reeoneiliationJ* Pastors and teachers are, as residents or consuls, to carry on tfie treaty of peace, and to maintain all the branches of that commerce and communication between heaven and earth, which is founded upon it; their business is to negociate affairs between Christ and his church ; they are tahen from among men, and ordained for men in things pertaining to God,* as the priests under the law were; that Christ may have the rents, honours, and services, which he f I Chron. xzix. II. h 9 Cor. V. 90l f Judg. xi. 3S. i Heb. V. 1.
EXHORTATION AT
was to receive from his church, and the charch may have the favours and benefits which it is to receive from Christ.
Now, as the officers in a kingdom or corporation are commonly sworn to execute the office they are put into according to law; so you are this day sworn, as it were, to do the work of a gospel minister, according to Christ's institution.
It is therefore requisite that you rightly understand what the business of your office is, and what is the work that you are called to; that you may both prepare and apply yourself accordingly. I doubt not but you know it, and have considered it, yet I hope you will now give me leave to put you in mind of it, and myself too. This charge is given you, O Timothy keep that which it committed to thy trtut ;'' it is a great trust that is committed to you, and which you must shortly give an account of, and therefore it concerns you to be faithful, by mercy obtained from the Lord. You have accepted the trust, acquaint yourself M'ith it, and be faithful to it, that you may in the great dny give a good account of it.
I. There is a trtut committed to you, in common with all Christiant, and that is, your own precious soul. This charge therefore we are to give you, in the first place, which St. Paul gives to Timothy, Take heed to thyself that thou mayst save thyself; ' and to the elders of Ephesus, Take heed therefore to yourselves,^ Those are very unfit to take care of other people's souls who are careless of their own; and to guide others in the way to heaven, who appear not at all solicitous to find the way thither themselves, or seem as if they had found some other way than that of strict and serious godliness, which the Scripture directs all to, and to which they direct others to; who, in another sense, must join with the spouse in her confession, They made me the keeper of the vineyards, but mine own vineyard have I not kept.^
Look well to the state of your own soul, and the terms on which it stands with God, and there make sure work about your calling and election ; make it more and more sure to yourself, more and more evident, that you may be able to speak by experience, and then you will speak best, of regeneration, and the new birth; of union with Christ, and of recon«-ciliation to God, and communion with God through him; may be able to say in some measure, with the apostle. That which I have seen and heard, looked upon, tasted, and handled of the word of life, that declare I unto you, that you may have fellowship with us.""
Look well to the frame of your own spirit; that you not only approve yourself a Christian indeed, but that you always maintain a Christian temper, and evidence it. You have made it appear to us at this k I Tiro. vi. 20 m Acts XX. 28.
1 I Tim. iv. 16. n Cant i n.
time, that your judgment is rightly informed concerning the things of God; now, make it appear that there is a divine heat accompanying the divine light: for wherever the Sun of righteousness arises upon any soul, he brings both along with him ; and our Lord Jesus, in those two remarkable operations of his upon the minds of his disciples, after bis resurrection, his opening their understandings to understand the Scriptures, and his making their hearts to burn within them,^ gave a specimen of what he would do for and in all his faithful ministers.
As we should labour to understand that ourselves which we would lead others into the understanding of, so we should ourselves be affected with that wherewith we desire to affect others; for the expressions of seriousness and earnestness are but affectation, further than as they flow from true affection. Let what we say come from the heart, and then it will be likely to reach to the heart But whatever influence it has upon others, let us take care that it have a good influence upon ourselves, that we be leavened by it, and delivered into the mould of it; that one poor soul, at least, may be the better for every sermon we preach, that is our own.
I have often, with a great deal of pleasure, thought it a mighty advantage, which we who are ministers have above others for the keeping up of our acquaintance with heaven, and the carrying on of the interests of the spiritual and divine life in the soal. that the business of our profession is such as obIi>:es us to be much in converse with the Scriptures, and the things of God, to meditate on those things and yire ourselves wholly to them.^ And besides our stated devotions, in secret and in our familie», which we have more time for than those have whose business lies in the world, we have occasion to be frequent in prayer with the sick, and the afflicted, and the families of our friends; and in good discourse with them : which if it be, as it ought to be, a pleasure to us, and we be in it as in our element, it will be somethins: more, it will be a projit to us; and unless we be very much wanting to ourselves, will contribute abundantly to the prosperity of our own souls.
Yet this is not all: look well to the tenor of yoor conversation, that it be even and regular, and such as becomes your character; that by its evangelical tendency you may be preaching daily to those with whom you converse. It is not enough that it be blameless and hannless, and without rebuke, but your light must shine in every thing that is virtuous and praise-worthy. It is not enough for us who are ministers to say, none have learned any ill by us; but what good have they learned? It is part of the charge to Timothy, Be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faiths in purity J It is not enough that we do not pull down o I John i. 1, 3. q I Tim. iv. 15^
P Luke xx\y. 4&, 32. t I Tim. iv. 12.
AN ORDINATION.
081 with one hand what we build up with the other; but we must build up with both hands, both with our doctrine and with our example; then, and then only, are we burning and shining lights. The account we have of our Master is, Of what he began both to do and to teach f which is an intimation to us, that our teaching and doing should be of a piece.
II. There is a trust committed to you a$ a minuter, which you must be true to. Every servant in the bouse has his work assigned him ; but the steward is not only employed but intrusted ; there is more referred to his prudence and care than to the other servants: now the ministers of Christ are stewards of the mysteries of God,* and it is required in stewards that they be faithful; they are rulers in the household under the Master, to give them their por~ lion of meat in due season ;" and in order to the due discharge of their trust, have need to be wise as well as faithful. Now when a steward enters into his office, it is usual to give him a particular account of the things put into his hand, and the trusts committed to him ; the keys of such and such a storehouse are lodged with him, and he is to be accountable for what is in it, and what is given out of it. Perhaps Christ alluded to this, when he gave to Peter the keys of the kingdom of heaven,^—and, in him, to all faithful ministers who are intrusted to dispense the unsearchable riches of Christ, and that kingdom, according to the direction of their Lord, and for his honour.
When the Levites had their hands filled —as the Hebrew phrase is, for consecration—that is, had the charge of the sanctuary committed to them, and the parts and utensils of the tabernacles put under their castody, each of the three families had their part committed to them, and knew what they were to take care of, and account for: the Kohathites had the charge of the ark, the table, the altars, and the Tcssels of the sanctuary; the Gershonites of the tent, the curtains, and hangings, &c. the Merarites of the boards, bars, pillars, &c.* Thus care was taken, that each should know his charge; and it is said, that the instruments of the charge of their burthen were reckoned to them by name ;* that they might he engaged to the utmost circumspection in the discharge of their trust.
Give me leave, brother, in like manner to be particular in giving you an account of the holy things put into your hands, that good thing which is com-mitted to you ; to heep, not by any skill or strength of your own, but by the Holy Ghost that thoelleth in iu ;▼ and I hope you will not think we take too much upon OS, if we charge you in the sight of God who ^ftickeneth all things, and of Christ Jesus, who, before Pontius Pilate, witnessed a good confession, that you keep this commandment without spot, unrebukable
Actsi. I. » Maltxvi. 19.
i 1 Cor. I. 2:
a Luke xii. 42.
w Numb. iii. 35, 31, % x Numb. iv. 32.
until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ ;' and in the discharge of this stewardship, remember that our Master expects we should approve ourselves both faithful and wise servants, as those who, through grace, have both skill and will for our work.
1. You must, faithfully and wisely, explain and apply the oracles of God. You have declared, that you receive the Holy Scriptures as of divine authority, and the standing rule of your faith and practice, and as such we commit them to you, to be your treasury and touch-stone, the fountain whence you must derive your knowledge, and the foundation on which you must build your faith ; for by them is the man of God perfect, accomplished as a man of God, and thoroughlyy WrntVir for every good word and warh.^
The book of the law was committed to the custody of the priests ;^ and it is a very proper and significant usage in some churches, to put the Bible into the band of ministers when they ordain thera. That is one of the great things we commit to you. Keep the Bible as a sacred deposit of inestimable value, which being a light shining in a dark place, it is not strange if the powers of darkness level all their force against it, to corrupt it, to slacken the obligation, or lessen the reputation of it, to take it away from us, or, which would come all to one, to take us off from it to follow some false light. It is therefore given in charge to all Christians, but to ministers in an especial manner. To holdfast that form of sound words which we have in the Scriptures, in faith and love, and to hold to it. Let us be true to this trust, as faithful keepers both of the words and things contained in the Scriptures ; as the Masoritcs, among the Jews, were of the letter of the Old Testament, who could tell how often each letter of the alphabet was to be found in their Hebrew Bible ; and let us not come under the black character of those, who in the primitive church were called traditores — traitors, or betrayers ; because, to avoid suffering, they gavQ up their Bibles to their persecutors.
In all your preaching, keep close to the Scripture; and fetch both matter and words thence. To the law and to the testimony,^ It is Scripture philosophy, and Scripture oratory, that ministers must be masters of, and serve Christ and his church with: if they speak not according to that rule, it is because there is not that light in them that should be. You have a gospel to preach, not a gospel to make ; and then only are faithful to your commission, when you strictly pursue your instructions, and deliver all that, and that only, which you liave received of the Lord, in its native purity and simplicity, as one who dares not add thereto, or diminish from it, nor make any alteration. Study the true and genuine sense of Scripture*
Y 8 Tim. i. 34. « 1 Tim. vl. 13,14. • 3 Ttra. iii. 17. b Deut xvii. 18. e Isa. viii. 30.
EXHORTATION AT
by consalting the originals, and comparing spiritnal things with spiritual; and rest not in Scripture words and phrases, without understanding the true import and intention of them, and doing what you can that those you speak to may rightly understand it too: for what will it avail us, harere in cortiee — to worship in the outer court? Paul, when he was a Pharisee, had his Bible at his fingers' ends, and yet owns he was without the law,^ because he was a stranger to the true intent and meaning of it; and what does it profit then? Nay, if we do not take pains thoroughly and truly to understand the Scripture, we shall be in danger of handling it deceitfully, and wresting it to our own and others' destruction.* In plain texts, keep to the plain sense; in difficult ones, be modest and humble in your searches, and heep to the proportion of faith} expounding them by those that are more plain.
Accustom yourself to a Scripture language; and labour to be ready, as well as mighty, in the Scripr tures, that you may speak of divine things in the words which the Holy Ghost teaches ;b for in those words they are brought with the most power, both to convince and to comfort. Do what you can, therefore, to make them familiar both to yourselves and to your hearers. Whence can we better fetch both' strength and ornament to what we say, than from the Scripture?
In order to all this, I earnestly wish that the reading and expounding of the Scriptures were universally practised in all our congregations, as, blessed be God, it is in many. It has been, and would be, of great use to increase Scripture knowledge both in ministers and people; and some plain and obvious observations gathered out of a chapter in the exposition of it, might do as much to enlighten the mind, and direct the conscience, as a long studied train of arguments in a sermon. Duleius ex ipso fonte hibuntur aqua — Water dranhfrom the spring-head is sweet indeed.
2. You must, faithfully and wisely, administer the ordinances of Christ, according as your opportunity is. Divine institutions are to be kept pure and entire, not kept/rom the church, but kept/or it, and you are intrusted with the custody of them, and the dispensing of them, so as to serve the great ends for which they were appointed; both those which are common to all revealed religion, as the word, prayer, and the sabbath day, and those which are peculiar to the Christian economy, as baptism and the Lord's supper.
The preaching of the word is a divine institution, not only for the bringing in of those who are without the church, as if none needed to be preached to but heathens and Turks, but for the bringing up of those who are born within the church, as they come d Rom. Tli. 9. • 2 Pet iii. 16. f Rom. zii. 6.
ff I Cor. ii. U ha Tim. iv. 1,2.
Up to years of understanding, and the building up of those who are grown to maturity, who, as long as they are on this side heaven, need the constant preaching of the word, for the increasing of their knowledge, the refreshing of their memories, the assisting of their meditations and devotions, and the directing of their affections and conversations; besides the necessity there is of it, for the convictioD and conversion of sinners, even in Christtan nations: 1 charge you therefore before God and tha Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at Us appearing, and his kingdom preach the ward, the pure word of God; be constant, he instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with all long-suffering and doctrine.^ Prepare for this part of your work; it is the wisdom of the preacher, still to teach the people knowledge; let him give good heed, and seek out, and set in order, many proverbs: let him study to find out acceptable, profitable words.^ Manage it as an ordinance of Christ, instituted for the advancing of his honour and interest, and therefore preach not yourself, but Christ Jesus the Lord,^ as one who has determined to know nothing but Christ and him crucified,* and desires to acquaint others with him. '' Preach Christ, brother,'' said an aged minister, to one who asked his advice; " whatever you do, preach Christ"
Prayer is another divine institution, and you are to give yourself to that, as well as to the ministry of the word;"' and this part of your work is as necessary to be done, and to be done well, as that Yon must be the people's mouth to God, to declare all their concerns to him, as well as God's mouth to them, to declare all his counsel to them. And for this also you must prepare, by meditation and secret prayer, and acquainting yourself more and more with the Scriptures and your own heart, and the several cases both of saints and sinners. Know and observe the great intentions of this ordinance, not to prescribe to the providence of God, but to plead and put in suit his promises, to give him the honour doe to his name; and to fetch in that grace, strength, and comfort, which he has encouraged us to ask and hope for in the name of Christ: keep this in your view in every prayer.
The Lord's day is a divine institution; the religious observation of one day in seven to the honour of God, is as ancient as the world; the fixing of it to the first day of the week, in honour of Christ rising from the dead, is as ancient as the Christian church; and the thing itself is necessary to the keeping up of religion in the world; and, therefore, study to keep up the honour of the Christian sabbath* that you may keep up the power of it; call it a delight, the holy of the Lord, and honourable, and teach others to call it so too.
I Eccl. xii. 9,10. 1 1 Cor. ii. 9.
k s Cor. iv. &. m Acts vi. 4.
AN ORDINATION.
983
The two sacraments, of Baptism and the Lord's Sapper, yon are likewise intrusted with the administration of; and mast therefore stady the nature of them, and furnish yourself well with that which is pertinent and proper to be said in the administration of them, both in the word, and prayer, by which they are sanctified ; and get your heart aficcted with the great things contained in those ordinances, that you may administer them not only so as to instruct, but so as to affect others also. And in your administrations have an eye to the institution; that is your warrant on which you must depend for your authority, and, therefore, that must be your rule to which \on must adhere for your direction. See thou do all uecording to the pattern showed thee in the mount.
3. You must faithfully and wisely maintain and defend the great truths of the gospel. From the beginnin2p, the gospel was preached with much contention,* and our Lord Jesus himself endured (he contradiction of sinners; and the like must be still expected, till we come to that world where there is no pricking brier nor grieving thorn. The ministers of Christ are not only labourers in his vineyard, but advocates for him at the bar, to plead his cause; soldiers for him in the field, to fight his battles; and you must famish yourself accordingly.
There are matters in variance among good Christians and good protestants, like those of old about meats and days, in which we must study mutual forbearance, humbly and honestly walking according to the light God has given us, and charitably believing that others do so too. But there is opposition given to the gospel we are the ministers of, by atheists and deists, Socinians and papists; against whom we must contend earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints;" and to whom we must not give place by subjection, no not for an hour; that the truth of the gospel may continue with us. In controversies of this nature, you must know how to handle yonr arms, and to stand to them, those weapons of oar warfare, which, though not carnal, yet are mighty through God to the pulling down of Satan's strong holds ;* must be able to give a reason of the hope that is in you,*^ and to convince gainsay-ers in meekness, and yet with all faithfulness, instructing those who oppose themselves.^
Ordinarilyf it may be best, in your preaching, to handle the truths of the gospel as if they were never controverted; setting them before people in their true light and evidence, and rather obviating and anticipating objections than raising them; but still you must be furnished with answers, whenever there is occasion for them, to those who contradict. Know what to say, and be ready to say it, to those who question the being of God, and the dominion of his providence; who oppose the Scripture and divine i I Theas. ii. 3. » Jiide 3. a 9 Cor. x.4. » 1 Pet. ili. 15.
revelation, who set up any other light and power in competition with it; to those who deny the Trinity, the Godhead of Christ and his satisfaction; and to those who advance the pope's supremacy and infallibility, who worship images, and give that honour to creatures which is due to God and Christ only: here you must put on resolution and holy zeal, and set your face as a flint. And never betray these great truths of Christ by a cowardly silence; but in things wherein the Lord your God is jealous, be you so too. Buy the truth, and sell it not As you need not distrust your cause, so you need not distrust him whose cause it is; his advocates shall never want instructions, but if you humbly and honestly depend upon his assistance, and aim at his glory, it shall be ^iven you in that jame hour what ye shall speah.
There are some controverted things, in which we must be careful not to run into extremes; we must hold fast both the truth as it is in Jesus,i the truth which gives all the honour to Christ, and exalts free grace, and yet we must hold fast the truth which is after godliness,' the truth which strengthens our obligations to holiness in heart and life. The gospel does not make void the law, but perfects it. Duty must be done, and must be preached; but still Christ must be all in all, both for strength and righteousness. What seeming differences there may be between one Scripture and another, your business must be to accommodate them, not to aggravate them, for we are sure there are no real differences; and when we meet with difficulties that we cannot solve, let us abide by that which is plain and without controversy, and wait till God shall reveal even this unto us.
4. You must, faithfully and wisely, preside in religious assemblies; for as a minister, you are appointed to be one of the stewards of Christ*s courts, and one of the masters of those assemblies.* The holy convocation is a divine appointment Though every particular family and person, apart, might get the knowledge of God's will from his word, and praise him, and pray to him, yet he has ordained that Christians should associate at stated times for his worship, under the conduct of a gospel ministry: the Jews had their synagogues, which it was our Saviour's custom to attend in, with his neighbours, every sabbath day, to set us an example. Religious assemblies are appointed, for the glory of God and Christ, for the keeping up of the countenance of religion in the world, for the joint profession of our most holy faith and hope, and a joint concurrence in prayers and praises, and for the testifying and promoting of holy love, to be pledges of the communion of saints, and earnests of heaven.
God promises to Joshua, that if he will keep his
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charge, he shall keep his eouris:^ these coarts you are to keep, for him; in his name, and not your own ; for his honour, and not for your own ; and so as to answer the great designs of their institution. God's,tabernacles are amiable, study,to make them more and more so; his service reasonable, evidence that it is so. The assemblies of his people are both his praise and his pleasure; let us therefore preside in them, so that he may be both praised and pleased. When the sons of God come together, to present themselves before the Lord,** remember it is your business, as their mouth, to present them to him; both as learners at his feet, and supplicants at his footstool. And have this in your eye.
Let every thing in our religious assemblies be done decently, and in order, as becomes the solemnity of them; and nothing that is vain or light, that sullies the beauty of the service, interrupts the thread of it, or tends to distract and draw away the mind from it, be said, or done, or suffered in our assemblies; but let every part of the service be managed with that seriousness, and reverence, and due decorum, which becomes those that worship God in the Spirit, and know and consider who he is with whom we have to do, and what it is we have to do with him. So that if an unbeliever, or one prejudiced, should come in, he might see and say, that God is with us of a truth.^ This charge therefore we commit to you, that yon maintain the honour of religious assemblies ; for that will redound much to the honour of Christ, who has promised to be there where two or three are gathered together in his name.
5. You must, faithfully and vrisely, witness against sin, and carry on the holy war against it, for the suppressing of it, the breaking of its power, and the checking of its prevalency; for the Lord has sworn, that he will have war with that Amalek, that enemy to his church and people, that rebel against his crown and dignity, from generation to generation.* Every baptized Christian is an enlisted soldier, but every minister a commissioned officer, to fight under Christ's banner against sin, the world, and the devil. Your business, therefore, is to strive against sin ; to strive against it, in yourself, in others, in those especially who are under your charge.
Bear your testimony against all instances of Tice and immorality, all appearances of sin, and approaches toward it. That which is confessedly evil, and a violation of the law of God, faithfully reprove, and warn against it; that those who have sinned may be brought to repentance, and others may hear and fear. Here you must be zealously affected, as the angel of the church of Ephesus, that could tiot bear them which were evil, and hated, though not the persons yet the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which Christ also t Zecb. iii. 7. a Job i. 6. w i Cor. ziv. 24,25.
M. Exod. xvii. 16. r Rev. ii. 3, & ■ John ii. 19.
» Ezek. xvi. 2. b Isa. Iviii. I.
here tlie zeal of God's house should even eat us up, and make us so far to forget oaiselves, as not to fear the face of man.'
The charge given to God's prophets, vras to cause Jerusalem to know her abominations,* to show the house of Jacob their sins; and herein to cry aloud, and not to spare; ** not spare those, not spare them-selves. A minister is a reprover in the gate, a reprover by office, and, therefore, ought to speak as having authority, and to be bold for God; O that we were all more so! And had we but more boldness in the cause of Christ now, it would be a comfortable earnest to us of boldness in the day of Christ shortly. Some sinners must be rebuked sharply/ and saved with fear, plucking them out of the Terr fire.<^ And this consideration should awaken as to a holy zeal herein, that we have no other way of delivering our souls, but by warning the wicked man of his sin and danger. If we do not reprove our neighbour, we suffer sin upon him, and are in danger of bearing sin for him.*
In the difference that arose between Christ's disciples who followed him, and one who cast out devils in his name, but did not follow with them, Christ laid down this rule of charity. He that is not against me is with me ;' but in the controversy between Christ and Beelzebub, between holiness and wickedness, he laid down this rule of zeal, He that is not with me is against me,€
6. You must faithfully and vrisely separate between the precious and the vile. It was required of the priests, that they should put a difference between holy and unholy, between unclean and clean,^ and this was the condition of a prophet's acceptance with God, If thou tahe out the precious from the vile, thou shalt be as my mouth,^ Not that we must pretend thoroughly to part between the tares and the wheat, the sheep and the goats, in this world; that will never be done, till the Son of man shall sit on the throne of his glory; yet Christ has lodged with his ministers a power, according to the word, to hind and loose.
In your preaching you must distinguish, as the gospel does, that you may speak terror and comfort to those to whom they respectively belong, and may neither strengthen the hands of the wicked; nor make the hearts of the righteous sad, whom God would not have to be made sad.*^ The business of the steward, is to give to every one their portion of meat in due season ; to every one that which is appointed for them, and is fit for them; and you must do so, by dividing the word of truth aright* Suum cuique — to every man his portion: acquaint yourself with, and then accommodate yourself to, the state of the souls of those you preach to, that they may readily say. This is for me, it suits my case.
e Tit. i. 13. f Mark ix 40. i Jer. XV. 19.
d Jude 23. • fr Matt xii. 30. k Ezek xiti. 32.
In administering special ordinances, yoa mnst go by rale, and not lay them in common. Those II ho are igpfiorant or scandalous, and openly profaue and vicious, ought not to be admitted to eat of the holy things now under the gospel, any more than they who were ceremonially unclean under the law. Pracul hinc, procul inde, profani — Far hence, far away, ye profane! We cannot know men's hearts, but must be guided by a judgment of discretion, to do that which will be most for the honour of Christ and his institutions, and for the welfare of the souls of men.
7. You must faithfully and wisely comfort afflicted consciences. The great Shepherd gives the under-shepherds a particular charge to strengthen those of the flock who are diseased, to heal that which is sick, to bind up that which is broken, and to bring again that which is driven away f from him therefore take this part of your charge. Comfort ye, comfort ye my people saith your God, speak ye comfortably to Zion.^ Among those who have spiritual senses exercised, there cannot but be some who are wounded in spirit; learn how to deal with such, how to pour oil into their wounds, and to bind them up. Those have indeed the tongue of the learned, who know ho'v to speak a word in season to them who are weak.<»
Learn how to deal tenderly with them, and with a spirit of meekness; putting your soul into their soul's stead ; that you may heal their bruises, and yet not heal them slightly; may not add to their trouble, and yet may not show them the wrong way to peace. Their case is often difficult, and to be studied, but very pitiable, and not to be slighted.
Direct those who are of a sorrowful spirit, to fetch all their comfort from Jesus Christ, and to build their hope on him ; show them the way to that city of refuge; and teach them not to look for that in themselves which is to be had in Christ only, that is, a perfect righteousness; not for that on earth which is to be had in heaven only, that is, a perfect holiness ; not for that in the world, which is to be had in God only, that is, a perfect happiness.
If their souls refuse to be comforted, and they hearken not to you for anguish of spirit, yet do not give up their cause, but continue to speak comfort to them, and to pray for them; if indeed they be righteous, light and joy are sown for them,P and will come up again in due time; and we must wait for it, as the husbandman does for the harvest, with long patience. Remember it is a part of your charge, to bo a helper of the joy of the Lord's people, and to be an instrument in the hand of the Spirit as a comforter.
8. You must faithfully and wisely intercede for the church of God, and pray for all the parts of it, and for the advancement of all its interests. God m Euk. xxjaw. 4. »Pl.xc Tii. II.
nisfl. x1. 1, 2. q Isa. Ixii 6,7.
olsa. I 4. T I Tim. ii. I.
has set the watchmen upon Jerusalem's walls for this purpose, that they may cry day arid night to him, and give him no rest until he establish, and till he make Jerusalem a praise in the earth.*) Receive this charge therefore among the rest, to pray constantly and earnestly for the peace of Jerusalem; yea, and for the welfare of all men, and the fruits of divine compassion to the whole world that lies in wickedness: for so extensive must your intercessions be, not only for all saints, but, in the first place, for all men.''
Public persons must be of a jsublic spirit; which Christ intimated when he taught his disciples to pray. Our Father, as taking along with them all that can call God Father, even those to whom he is so only by creation. You are especially to bear Zion's concerns much upon your heart; as Aaron did the names of all Israel in his breastplate, when he went in to minister; hereby you must testify your love to the whole family that is named from Christ, and must keep up the communion of saints, and do your endeavour to enlarge the hearts of those among whom you minister, to a catholic concern for all that in every place call on the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord, both theirs and ours,* As in our family worship we should pray for all Christian families, so in our public worship, for all Christian assemblies, which you, as presiding therein, have the charge of.
In times of desolating, threateningjudgments, when the hand of God is gone forth against a people, it is expected that Aaron stand between the living and the dead, with his censer in his hand, to stay the plague; that the priests, the Lord's ministers, weep between the temple and the altar, saying. Spare thy people, O Lord ;* that they beseech God that he will be gracious to us." If they be prophets, says Jeremiah, and if the word of the Lord be with them, let them make intercession to the Lord of hosts," If we cannot otherwise be serviceable to the public, we may and ought to be so by our prayers: and how much the issue of the struggle between Israel and Amaiek in the valley, depends upon the constancy and faith of the intercessors in the mount, who hold up their hands to God,* we cannot tell; but it would be very sad if, by our neglect to pray for it, or by our formality and carelessness in prayer, the righteous, glorious cause of God and religion should languish and be lost.
9. You must, faithfully and wisely, transmit that good thing which is committed to you, pure and entire, to the next generation; you must not only keep it yourself, but keep it for, and leave it with, those who shall come after you, that one generation may praise God's work unto another. Timothy must commit what he has heard and received to faithful men.'' That which was commanded our fathers, is
• 1 Cor. i. 2. V Jer. xxvii. 18.
t Joel it. 17. ' Exod. xvii. II.
v Mai i. 9. «2Ti[n ii. 2.
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made known to as, that we may make it known to our children, and they to the children which shall be bom, who shall arise and declare it to their children;' such care as this must be taken (and may the grace of God make it an effectual care) to preserve the entail of religion, that that light may not die in our hands, nor that treasure be buried in our graves.
We charge you with the lambe of the flock;" have an eye to them, a tenderness for them: the first charge Christ gave to Peter was. Feed my lambs; and the same charge is given to all the under shepherds, not only by the precepts, but by the example, of the chief Shepherd, who with a particular care gathers the lambs in his arms, and carries them in his bosom, and gently leads them. If Christ have such a concern for them, he expects you should; and you may expect that, therefore your concern for them shall not be in vain.
Lead them, therefore, into the green pastures, and feed them beside the still waters; lay before them that in the word of God, which is milh for babes; let your doctrine drop upon them as the rain ; and labour to instil into their hearts, betimes, the pleasing, but commanding, principles of love to God and Jesus Christ, delight in the word and prayer, good thoughts of religion and the ways of God, and joyful prospects of the glory to be revealed, and every tiling that may invite them, and win upon them, to set their faces heavenward.
In preaching, in visiting the families under your charge, you must be a teacher of babes, for Christ is so, and a very meek and compassionate one. The catechising of youth is a very good work, either publicly or privately, and if the blessing of God go along with you in it, it vrill contribute very much to the good progress and success of all your other work. Invite, encourage, and persuade those who are young, to join themselves to the Lord in the days of their youth, and to subscribe with the hand to be his ;^ and if we do our endeavours, though we should not gain our point, it will be a comfort to us to have been found in the way of our duty.
And now, brother, you see what the trust is that is lodged in your hand, and the ministry which you have received of the Lord Jesus. You hear your charge; what do you think of it? I doubt not, but you have considered it before you came under these bonds, and have already sat down and counted the cost; and therefore, I hope, the repeating of this charge, though you see how great your work is, and what difficulties you must expect to meet with in it, yet it does not make you repent your choice, nor wish yourself at liberty again ; nor make you despair of going through with the undertaking. This' use you should make of it, To be brought to see your own utter insufficiency for it, by any ability of
J Pb. Uxviii.
your own. '' Is all this to be said ^ Ah, Lord Ged I cannot speah it, for I am but a child, unless God give me a mouth and wisdom. Is all this to be done! Ah, Lord God, I cannot do it, unless God worh m me both to will and to do of his own pood pleeumre Who is sufficient for these things ? Whoever is, I am not."
But instead of being disheartened by the greatness of your work, and the difficulties that attend it, you should rather, thereby, be animated and stirred up to set about it, and go on in it, vrith resolution such as becomes the Christian hero, the good soldier of Jesus Christ, who knows whom he has trusted, as well as what be is trusted witk and how to commit that again to Christ, which Christ has committed to him against that day.
Let me therefore say something in the close, boOi to quicken you to your work, and to encourage yon in it, and not you only, but myself and other mj brethren, who have laid our hand to this plough.
1. Let us propose to ourselves such considerations as are proper to quicken us to our work, and to the diligent, faithful discbarge of the trust reposed in us. (1.) The things we are employed about are of vast importance, and such as highly deserve our atm€»t care and application. Our business lies not in the little trifles of sense and time, in the merchandise of silver, or the gain of fine gold; no, it has reference to the upper unseen world, the world of spirits ; to the future state, the state of retribution, and to this present state, only vrith regard to that. Let us often consider, that we are dealing for an eternal God, with immortal souls, about their everlasting state, and we shall see how well worthy our business is of the whole man. What an awfol thought should that give us, which the apostle speaks, concerning the work of ministers, that they watch for souls.* It is no time to trifle, when there is a soul in the case, and its endless weal or woe.
Those who are concerned about the lives and estates of their patients and clients, have need to be both skilful and careful; much more should those be so who are concerned about precious souls, one of which is of more value tlian the whole world of inferior creatures. What greater care can lie upon a man, than the care of souls, which Christ purchased with his own blood, and thereby taught us how to put a value upon them.
Our business lies in the things pertaining to the kingdom of God ;* (his kingdom among men;) concerning those, we have received instructions; and in comparison with those things, what are all the affairs of the kingdoms of this world, but children's play ? It is the word of reconciliation that is committed to us, that word by which we must all be judged, shortly; and therefore we are concerned to be skil-