The name of a pastor or shejjherd is metaphorical. It is a deno- mination suited unto his work, denoting the same office and person with a bishop or elder, spoken of absolutely, without limitation unto either teaching or ruling; and it seems to be used or applied unto this office because it is more comjDrehensive of and instructive in all the duties that belong unto it than any other name whatever, nay, than all of them put together. The grounds and reasons of this metaphor, or whence the church is called a flock, and whence God termeth him.self the shepherd of the flock; whence the sheep of this flock are committed unto Christ, whereon he becomes " the good shepherd that lays down his life for the sheep," and the prince of
48 TRUE NATURE OF A GOSPEL CHURCH.
shepherds; what is the interest of men in a participation of this office, and what their duty thereon, — are things well worth the consi- deration of them who are called unto it. "Hirelings," yea, " wolves" and " dumb dogs," do in many places take on themselves to be shep- herds of the flock, by whom it is devoured and destroyed, Acts xx. ]8, 19, etc.; 1 Pet. v. 2-4; Cant. i. 7; Jer. xiii. 17, xxiii. 2; Ezek. xxxiv. 3; Gen. xlix. 24; Ps. xxiii. 1, Ixxx. 1 ; John x. 11, 14-16; Heb. xiii. 20; 1 Pet. ii. 25, v. 4.
Whereas, therefore, this name or appellation is taken from and in- cludes in it love, care, tenderness, watchfulness, in all the duties of going before, preserving, feeding, defending the flock, the sheep and the lambs, the strong, the weak, and the diseased, with accountable- ness, as servants, unto the chief Shepherd, it was generally disused in the church, and those of bishops or overseers, guides, presidents, elders, which seem to include more of honour and authority, were re- tained in common use; though one of them at last, namely, that of bishops, with some elating compositions and adjuncts of power, obtained the pre-eminence. Out of the corruption of these composi- tions and additions, in archbishops, metropolitans, patriarchs, and the like, brake forth the cockatrice of the church, — that is, the pope.
But this name is by the Holy Ghost appropriated unto the princi- pal ministers of ^Christ in his church, Eph. iv. 11; and under that name they were promised vmto the church of old, Jer. iii. 15. And the work of these pastors is to feed the flock committed to their charge, as it is constantly required of them. Acts xx. 28; 1 Pet. V. 2.
Of pastoral feeding there are two parts: — 1. Teaching or in- struction; 2. Rule or discipline. Unto these two heads may all the acts and duties of a shei:)herd toward his flock be reduced; and both are intended in the term of "feeding," 1 Chron. xi. 2, xvii. 6 ; Jer. xxiii. 2; Mic. v. 4, vii. 14; Zech. xi. 7; Acts xx. 28; John xxi. 15-17; 1 Pet. V. 2, etc. Wherefore he who is the pastor is the bishop, the elder, the teacher of the church.
These works of teaching and ruling may be distinct in several officers, namely, teachers and rulers ; but to divide them in the same office of pastors, that some pastors should feed by teaching only, but have no right to rule by virtue of their office, and some should attend in exercise unto rule only, not esteeming themselves obliged to labour continually in feeding the flock, is almost to over- throw this office of Christ's designation, and to set up two in the room of it, of men's own projection.
Of the call of men unto this office so many things have been spoken and written b}' others at large that I shall only insist, and that very briefly, on some things which are either of the most impor- tant consideration or have been omitted by others ; as, —
THE OFFICERS OF THE CHURCH. 49
1. Unto the call of any person unto this office of a pastor in the church there are certain qualifications previously required in him, disposing and making him fit for that office. The outward call is an act of the church, as we shall show immediately ; but therein is re- quired an obediential acting of him also who is called. Neither of these can be regular, neither can the church act according to rule and order, nor the person called act in such a due obedience, unless there are in him some previous indications of the mind of God, designing the petson to be called by such qualifications as may render him meet and able for the discharge of his office and work ; for ordinary vocation is not a collation of gracious spiritual abilities, suiting and making men meet for the pastoral office, but it is the communi- cation of right and power for the regular use and exercise of gifts and abilities received antecedently unto that call, unto the edifica- tion of the church, wherein the office itself doth consist. And if we would know what these qualifications and endowments are, for the substance of them, we may learn them in their great example and pattern, our Lord Jesus Christ himself Our Lord Jesus Christ, be- ing the good Shepherd, whose the sheep are, the Shepherd and Bishop of our souls, the chief Shepherd, did design, in the undertaking and exercise of his pastoral office, to give a type and example unto all those who are to be called unto the same office under him; and if there be not a conformity unto him herein, no man can assure his own conscience or the church of God that he is or can be law^fully called unto this office.