THE ESPECIAL DUTY OF PASTOKS OF CHURCHES. 83
over their oivn fiocks against the craft of seducers from without, or the springing up of any bitter root of error among themselves. (7.) A concurrent assistance luith the elders and 'messengers of other churches with Avhom they are in communion, in the declaration of the faith which they all profess; whereof we must treat afterward more at large.
It is evident what learning, labour, study, pains, ability, and exer- cise of the rational faculties, are ordinarily required unto the right discharge of these duties; and where men may be useful to the church in other things, but are defective in these, it becomes them to walk and act both circumspectly and humbly, frequently desiring and adhering xmto the advices of them whom God hath intrusted with more talents and greater abilities.
5. It belongs unto their charge and ofHce diligently to labour for the conversion of soids unto God. The ordinary means of conver- sion is left unto the church, and its duty it is to attend unto it; yea, one of the principal ends of the institution and preservation of churches is the conversion of souls, and when there are no more to be converted, there shall be no more church on the earth. To en- large the kingdom of Christ, to diffuse the light and savour of the gospel, to be subservient unto the calling of the elect, or gathering all the sheei^ of Christ into his fold, are things that God designs by his churches in this world. Now, the principal instrumental cause of all these is the preaching of the word; and this is committed unto the pastors of the churches. It is true, men may be, and often are, converted unto God by their occasional dispensation of the word who are not called unto office ; for it is the gospel itself that is the " power of God unto salvation," by whomsoever it is administered, and it hath been effectual unto that end even in the necessary occasional teaching of women: but it is so, frequently, in the exercise of spiri- tual gifts by them "who are not stated officers of the chui'ch, 1 Cor. xiv. 24, 25; Phil. i. 14, 15, 18; 1 Pet. iv. 10, 11. But yet this hin- ders not but that the administration of the glorious gospel of the blessed God, as unto all the ends of it, is committed unto the pastors of the church. And the first object of the preaching of the gospel is the world, or the men of it, for their conversion; and it is so in the preaching of all them unto whom that work is committed by Christ. The work of the apostles and evangelists had this order in it : — First, they were to make disciples of men, by the preaching of the gospel unto conversion; and this was their principal work, as Paul testi- fieth, 1 Cor. i. 17: and herein were they gloriously instrumental in laying the foundation of the kingdom of Christ all the world over. The second part of their work was to teach them that were con- verted, or made disciples, to do and observe all that he did command them. In the pursuit of this part of their commission, they gathered
84 TRUE NATURE OF A GOSPEL CHURCH.
the disciples of Christ into churches, under ordinary officers of their own. And although the work of these ordinary officers, pastors and teachers, be of the same nature with theirs, yet the method of it is changed in them; for their first ordinary work is to conduct and teach all the disciples of Christ to do and observe all things appointed by him, — that is, to preach unto and watch over the particular flocks unto whom they do relate. But they are not hereby discharged from an interest in the other part of the work, — in preaching the word unto the conversion of souls. They are not, indeed, bound unto the method of the apostles and evangelists; yea, they are, by virtue of their office, ordinarily excluded from it. After a man is called to be a pastor of a particular church, it is not his duty to leave that church, and go up and down to preach for the conversion of strangers. It is not, I say, ordinarily so; for many cases may fall out wherein the edification of any particular church is to give way unto the glory of Christ with respect unto the calling of all the members of the church catholic. But in the discharge of the pastoral office there are many occasions of preaching the word unto the conversion of souls; as, — (1.) When any that are unconverted do come into the assemblies of the church, and are there wrought upon by the power of the word; whereof we have experience every day. To suppose that a man, at the same time, and in the same place, preaching unto one congregation, should preach to some of them, namely, those that are of the church where- unto he relates, as a. minister, with ministerial authority, and to others only by virtue of a spiritual gift which he hath received, is that which no man can distinguish in his own conscience; nor is there any colour of rule or reason for it: for though pastors, with respect unto their whole ofiice and all the duties of it, whereof many can have the church only for their object, are ministers in office unto the church, and so ministers of the church, yet are they ministers of Christ also ; and by him it is, and not by the church, that the preaching of the gospel is committed unto them. And it is so committed as that, by virtue of their office, they are to use it unto all its ends, in his way and method ; whereof the conversion of sinners is one. And for a man to conceive of himself in a double capacity, whilst he is preaching to the same congregation, is that which no man's experience can reach unto. (2.) In occasional preaching in other places, Avhereunto a pastor of a church may be called and directed by divine providence; for although we have no concernment in the figment of an indelible character accompanying sacred orders, yet we do not think that the pastoral office is such a thing as a man must leave behind him every time he goes from home, or that it is in his own power, or in the power of all men in the world, to divest him of it, unless he be dis- missed or deposed from it by Christ himself, through the rule of his word. AVherever a true minister preacheth, he preacheth as a minis-