Give me leave to speak one word unto you that are the church : — Know what you are to do, in reference unto those you have called and made officers this day. Pray unto God for a fresh communication of gifts unto them ; — they are capable of it. It is a renewed act of grace that prepares and opens the soul for receiving new communi- cations of God's grace, for the administration of the holy things of Christ in the congregation. Pray much for them to that end and purpose.
SERMON V.1
" And I will give you pastors according to my heart, which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding." — Jer. hi. 15.
All the names of the officers of the church under the New Testa- ment have a double signification, — a, general and more large significa- tion, and a special signification. As, for instance, didxovog, a " deacon," hath a general signification ; it signifies any minister or servant : and it hath a special signification, when it denotes that peculiar officer which was instituted in the church to take care of the poor. And so the name of a pastor bath a more general and a more special signification. In general, it signifies any teacher or officer in the church, ordinary or extraordinary ; in special, it signifies that peculiar officer in the church which, as such, is distinguished from a teacher, " He gave some to be pastors and teachers," Eph. iv. 11; for there is a distinction between pastor and teacher, not as to degree, but as to order. I do not use the distinction in the sense of those who make bishops and presbyters differ in degree, but not in order; but 1 This sermon was preached at an ordination, September 8, 16S2.
THE DUTY OF A PASTOE. 453
it is a distinction as to that beautiful order which Christ hath insti- tuted in his church. Christ hath instituted a beautiful order in his church, if it were discovered and improved. And I have wished sometimes I could live to see it; but I do not think I shall. Yet this I would recommend to my brethren as the way to discover the order of Christ in the church : — there is no way to discover it but by the harmony that there is between gifts, office, and edification. The original of all church order and rule is in gifts ; the exercise of those gifts is by office ; the end of all those gifts and offices is, edifica- tion.
Now, I believe I can demonstrate that all ordinary spiritual gifts that Christ hath given to his church, are reducible to four heads: and all of them are for the exercise of these gifts; for they must all be exercised distinctly. Herein you will find out the beautiful order of Christ in the church, and not else. I say, all gifts may be reduced to four heads. The one head of these gifts is to be exercised by the pastor; one head by the teacher; one by the ruler; and one by the deacon : and all these gifts, exercised by all these officers, answer all ends for the edification of the church. For it is a vain opinion, that the rule and conduct of Christ's church is either in one or in all. There is nothing in what I have declared but what is the design of the apostle in Rom. xii. 6-8. Let us study that harmony more, and we shall find more of the beauty and glory of it.
I shall speak of those pastors mentioned here in the text; and I shall speak of them in general, as all teaching officers in the church, — which is the general signification of the word. And all that I shall speak of them is, to remind myself, and my brethren, and you,- of somewhat of the duty of such a pastor ; — what is incumbent on him, — what is expected from him. Now, I do not design to go through all the necessary duties of a pastor or teacher; I only design to give some instances.
First. The duty of such an officer of the church,1 — a pastor, teacher, elder of the church, — is that mentioned in the text, — " to feed the church with knowledge and understanding." This feeding is by preaching of the gospel. He is no pastor who doth not feed his flock. It belongs essentially to the office; and that not now and then (ac- cording to the figure and image that is set up of the ministry in the world, — a dead idol) as occasion serves. But the apostle saith, Acts vi. 4, " We will give ourselves continually to the word." It is to " labour in the word and doctrine," 1 Tim. v. 1 7 ; — to make all things subservient to this work of preaching and instructing the church ; to do it in that frame the apostle mentions in Col. i. 28. He speaks of
1 It is proper to inform the reader, that several things in this sermon are to he found in Dr Owen's "True Nature of a Gospel Church," chap. v.
454 THE DUTY OF A PASTOR.
his preaching, and the design of his preaching : " Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus." How doth he do it? Verse 29, "Whereunto I also labour, striving according to his working, which worketh in me mightily." There is not one word in our translation that answers the emphasis of the original words, — "Whereunto I labour," — E/'s o %ai %<wr/£. Koiricb is to labour with diligence and intention, with weariness and industry. " I labour ' usque ad fatigationem' — to the spending of myself. Striving (dyw- vifyf&evog), — striving as a man that runs in a race, or striving as a man that wrestles for victory," — as men did in their public contests. And how? Kara rqv ev'ipysiav aurou, — "According to the effectual in-work- ing, or inward operation, of him (hspyou/xsv^v Iv sfiol) who does effect- ually work in me." We cannot reach the emphasis by any words in our language. And how is all this? '~Ev duvd^st, — "With mighty power." Here is the frame of the apostle's spirit (it should give dread to us in the consideration of it) : " I labour diligently, I strive as in a race, I wrestle for victory, — by the mighty in-working power of Christ work- ing in me ; and that with great and exceeding power."