THE OFFICERS OF THE CHURCH. 53
of the gospel, as to the preservation of them, all are committed to them. Col. iv. 17; 1 Tim. vl. 20; 2 Tim. ii. 2, 16, 23; Acts xx. 28; 1 Pet. v. 1-4; Heb. xiii. 17, "They that must give account." Nothinof can be more wicked or foolish than for a man to intrude himself into a trust which is not committed unto him. They are branded as profligately wicked who attempt any such thing among men, which cannot be done without falsification; and what shall he be esteemed who intrudes himself into the highest trust that any creature is capable of in the name of Christ, and takes upon him to give an account of its discharge at the last day, without any divine call or warranty?
(8.) There are, unto the discharge of this office, especial promises granted and annexed of present assistances and future eternal re- wards, Matt, xxviii. 1 9, 20 ; 1 Pet. v. 4. Either these promises belong unto them who take this office on themselves without any call, or they do not. If they do not, then have they neither any especial assistance in their work nor can expect any reward of their labours. If it be said they have an interest in them, then the worst of men may obtain the benefit of divine promises without any divine desig- nation.
(9.) The general force of the rule, Heb. v. 4, includes a prohibition of undertaking any sacred office without a divine call ; and so the instances of such prohibitions under the old testament, as unto the duties annexed unto an office, as in the case of Uzziah invading the priesthood, 2 Chron. xxvi. 16-21; or of taking a ministerial office without call or mission, as Jer. xxvii. 9, 10, 14, 15, having respect unto the order of God's institutions, may be pleaded in this case.
(10.) Whoever, therefore, takes upon him the pastoral office with- out a lawful outward call, doth take unto himself power and autho- rity without any divine warranty, which is a foundation of all dis- order and confusion ; interests himself in an accountable trust no way committed unto him ; hath no promise of assistance in or re- ward for his work, but engageth in that which is destructive of all church-order, and consequently of the very being of the church itself.
(11.) Yet there are three things that are to be annexed unto this assertion, by way of limitation; as, — [1.] Many things performed by virtue of office, in a Avay of authority, may be performed by others not called to office, in a way of charity. Such are the moral duties of exhorting, admonishing, comforting, instructing, and praying with and for one another. [2.] Spiritual gifts may be exercised unto the edification of others without office-power, where order and opportu- nity do require it. But the constant exercise of sjDiritual gifts in preaching, with a refusal of undertaking a ministerial office, or with- out design so to do upon a lawful call, cannot be approved. [3.] The rules proposed concern only ordinary cases, and the ordinary state
54 TRUE NATURE OF A GOSPEL CHURCH.
of the church ; extraordinary cases are accompanied with a warranty in themselves for extraordinary actings and duties.
(12.) The call of persons unto the pastoral office is an act and duty of the church. It is not an act of the political magistrate, not of the pope, not of any single prelate, but of the whole church, unto whom the Lord Christ hath committed the keys of the kingdom of heaven. And, indeed, although there be great differences about the nature and manner of the call of men unto this office, yet none who understands aught of these things can deny but that it is an act and duty of the church, which the church alone is empowered by Christ to put forth and exert. But this will more fully appear in the consideration of the nature and manner of this call of men unto the pastoral office, and the actings of the church therein.
The call of persons unto the pastoral office in the church consists of two pai-ts,-^first. Election; secondly, Ordination, as it is com- monly called, or sacred separation by fasting and prayer. As unto the former, four things must be inquired into: — I. What is previous unto it, or preparatory for it ; II. Wherein it doth consist; III. Its necessity, or the demonstration of its truth and institution; IV. What influence it hath into the communication of pastoral office-potver unto a pastor so chosen.
I. That which is previous unto it is the meetness of the person for his office and work that is to be chosen. It can never be the duty of the church to call or choose an unmeet, an unqualified, an unpre- pared person unto this office. No pretended necessity, no outward motives, can enable or warrant it so to do ; nor can it by any outward act, whatever the rule or solemnity of it be, communicate ministerial authority unto persons utterly unqualified for and incapable of the discharge of the pastoral office according to the rule of the Scripture. And this has been one great means of debasing the ministry and of almost ruining the church itself, either by the neglect of those who suppose themselves intrusted with the whole power of ordination, or by impositions on them by secular power and patrons of livings, as they are called, with the stated regulation of their proceedings herein by a defective law, whence there hath not been a due regard unto the antecedent preparatory qualifications of those who are called unto the ministry.