2. There is no power in any church to choose any one whom Christ hath not chosen before; that is, no church can make a man forjnalh/ a minister, that Christ hath not made so materially, if I may so say. If Christ hath not pre-instructed and prefurnished him with gifts, it is not in the power of the church to choose or call him. And where these two things are, — where the law of Christ is the foundation, and where the gifts of Christ are the preparative, — thereupon the church calls, and persons are constituted elders by the Holy Ghost, and over- seers of the flock ; as in Acts xx. 28. Because he gave the law of the office, and because he gave these gifts to the officers, therefore are they constituted by the Holy Ghost. They were the ordinary elders of the church of Ephesus to whom the apostle gives in charge " to feed the flock of God, over which the Holy Ghost had made them overseers."
3. The way whereby the church doth call or constitute any person unto this office thus appointed, is, by giving themselves up unto him in the Lord ; which they testify by their solemn choice and election by suffrage : the way, I say, is, by submitting themselves unto him in the Lord, witnessing it by their solemn suffrage in the choice of him. 2 Cor. viii. 5, "And this they did," saith the apostle (namely, the saints of Macedonia), "not as we hoped" (much beyond our expecta- tion), " but first gave their ownselves to the Lord, and unto us by the will of God." It is the great work you have to do, let me tell you of this church, in your calling of an officer, to give up yourselves unto him by the will of God, to be led, guided, instructed, directed, — to have the work of the ministry fulfilled among you to your edifica- tion : and this submission wherein (as I could evince by arguments sufficient) the essence of the call doth consist, is to be testified by suffrage or by choice. When God ordered the Levites to be set apart unto the service of the tabernacle, in the name and on the be- half of the whole congregation, to show what weight he laid upon
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the consent and suffrage of the people, he caused all the people to come together, and to lay their hands upon them, Numb. viii. 9, 10, " Thou shalt bring the Levites before the tabernacle of the congre- gation ; and thou shalt gather the whole assembly of the children of Israel together" (all the church): " and thou shalt bring the Levites before the Lord ; and the children of Israel shall put their hands upon the Levites : " namely, to testify their consent in their solemn dedication to the Lord to minister in the tabernacle in their name, and on their behalf.
We have, in the New Testament, thirteen times mentioned the setting apart of ministers unto their office ; some of which I shall mention. The first account is in Acts i. 15, unto the end. It was while they were praying — upon a sermon of Peter's which he preached unto them — that they went about their work; "for every thing is sanctified by the word and prayer." There was an apostle to be called. But here God was to have a peculiar, sovereign interposition, and to give a special manifestation of his own divine choice; so that it could not be absolutely left unto the choice of the church. Yet thus far they went, that antecedently unto God's choice, " they ap- pointed two," verse 23. This was the first church act that ever was performed in the New Testament. There was in it a pattern to be laid for after times and ages. Let the church proceed as far as pos- sible with a reserve to the sovereignty of God. " They appointed two;" so far, I say, they went; and then God took his man. But still, to preserve the liberty of the church herein, it is added, when God had taken him, 6uyA.ari-\>'/\<pi^n, — he was by common suffrage, as the word signifies, reckoned among the apostles. There was ante- cedently allowed them the choice of two; and, consequently, their common suffrage that he should be among the number of the apostles. The next call we have is in Acts vi., which is the " call of deacons;" where the whole matter is, by the assembly of apostles, referred unto the body of the church. One would wonder how such a forgetfulness should befall a world of men who call themselves Christians, to do all these things without them, as though the church had no concern in them, when the whole body of the apostles, being assembled together (who had all the power and authority in their hands Christ had committed unto any of the children of men), direct the church to use what power Christ had intrusted them with. " Brethren," say they, " look out from among yourselves," verse 3. " And the saying pleased the whole multitude," verse 5 : " and they chose Stephen, a man full of the Holy Ghost;" and so the rest who were afterward set apart. If all the apostles were upon the earth together, where there was in truth n church of Christ, called according to his mind, they would not undertake to deprive the