2. Personal Calling
to receive the Supper of the Lord as a pledge of His mercy and love.
We must therefore walk as those to whom the mercy and love of God pertain. Christ pronounces a woe to those that give offense (Mat
18.7).
6 And indeed it would be better for any man to be as far under the earth as he is above it, than by a bad and loose conversation, to slander the name of God, whose professed servant he is. As Christ says, It would be better if a millstone were hung about his neck, and he were thrown into the bottom of the sea.Mat 18.6 As David prays,
Lord take from me rebuke and shame, which I fear, because Your judgments are good (Psa 119.39). So must we pray, Lord take from me rebuke and shame, for Your Gospel is good. And that we may evermore walk worthy of this calling, we must,
First of all, depend by faith on the providence and mercy of God at all times.
Secondly, we must turn to Him daily by a continual renewing of our repentance.
Thirdly, we must endeavor to perform new obedience in respect of all his commandments.
So much for the General Calling common to all men as they are Christians. Now follows the second kind of calling, and that is
Personal.
2. Personal Calling A PERSONAL CALLING is the execution of some particular office arising from that distinction which God makes between man and man in every society.
First I say, it is the execution of some particular office; for example, the calling of a magistrate is to execute the office of government over his subjects; the office of a minister is to execute the duty of teaching his people; the calling of a master is to execute the office of authority and government over his servants; the office of a physician is to put in practice the good means whereby life and health are preserved. In a word, in every estate, the practice and execution of that particular office in which any man is placed, is his personal calling.
Secondly, I add that it arises from that distinction which God makes between man and man in every society, to show what is the foundation and ground of all personal callings. And it is a point to be considered by us, which I thus explain: God in His word has ordained the society of man with man, partly in the Commonwealth, partly in the Church, and partly in the Family. And it is not the will of God than man should live and converse alone, by himself.Gen 2.18
Now for maintaining society, He has ordained a certain bond to link men together, which Paul calls the bond of peace,Eph 4.3 and the bond of perfection; namely, LOVE.Col 3.14 And however He has ordained societies, and the bond of them all, yet he has appointed that there should still remain a distinction between man and man, not only in regard to the person, but also in other respects. For the whole body is not the hand, nor the foot, nor the eye; but the hand is one part, the foot another, and the eye another. And however in the body, one part is linked to another, there is yet a distinction between the members of it: by which it comes to pass that the hand is the hand, not the foot; and that the foot is the foot, not the hand, nor the eye. So it is in societies; there is a distinction between its members, and that is in two respects:
1. First, in regard to the inward gifts which God bestows on every man — giving to several men several gifts according to His good pleasure.1Cor 12.11 This distinction in regard to inward gifts, Paul treats at large in 1Cor 12, through the whole chapter, where he shows the diversity of gifts that God bestows on his Church, and so correspondingly in every society. Now look: as the inward gifts of men are severed, so are the persons distinguished in their societies accordingly.
2. Secondly, persons are distinguished by order, whereby God has appointed that in every society, one person should be above or under another — not making all equal, as though the body were to be all head and nothing else — but in degree and order, he has set a