ordinances, Jofh. xxiv. 15.; restrain them by their authority from scandalous and finful words or deeds, as from profaning of the Sabbath, &c.; and reprove them for their fins againft God, as well as faults against themselves; and if they will not refrain they ought to turn them out of their family, Pfal. ci. 7.

Ufe 1. This may ferve to convince and humble both mafters and fervants.

Ufe I exhort fervants to be dutiful to their mafters. For motives, confider,

1. That in your fervice ye have two masters, one on earth, and another in heaven, Col. iii. 23. Your master on earth fays, Do this fo or fo; and your Master in heaven says, "Whatsoever he faith unto you do it," John ii. 5. And here know, (1.) That your Mafter in heaven has given you his orders how ye muft carry in fervice to men, as well as in praying, &c. to himself. (2.) He fees how ye obey these orders. His eye is always on you. (3.) He will call you to an account how ye obey these. (4.) He will account the fervice faithfully done, service to himself; and, on the other hand, undutifulness to men, undutifulness to himself.

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2. God himself will be your paymafter, according as ye darry yourselves in your ftation. (1.) God will reward dutiful fervants. There is a temporal reward that God ordinarily bestows on fuch, Prov. xvii. 2. "A wife servant shall have rule over a fon that causeth fhame, and fhall have part of the inheritance among the brethren." And that is what Providence lays to the hands of honeft fervants, that are not fincere Chriftians. But true Christian servants shall get the reward of the heavenly inheritance, Col. iii. 24. (2.) God will reward undutiful fervants too, ver. 25. Ordinarily God writes his indignation against their undutifulness in their lot in the world; but if they repent not, the quarrel is pursued to another world. That is a fad word, Luke xvi. 11. “If ye have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches?"

Let masters be dutiful to their fervants according to the will of God. For motives, confider,

1. Ye are as fathers to them. The fifth command fuppofeth this; and fo the fcripture elsewhere teacheth, 2 Kings v. 13. Ye are civil fathers, and instead of natural fathers to them. They are committed to your charge, as under your VOL. III. No. 22. D

roof and power. God would have all fuperiors to put on fatherly bowels towards their inferiors, as he who is fupreme Lord calls himself " Our Father which is in heaven." If mafters would thus look on themselves, it would engage them to their duty towards their fervants. When God brings a fervant into a house, especially thofe of the younger fort, either wanting parents, or leaving them to ferve you, he fays, as John xix. 26, 27. "Man, behold thy fon;" and to the fervant," Behold thy father.”

2. Ye have a master which is over you and your fervants too, to whom ye must give account, Col. iv. 1. And there is no respect of perfons with him. He has given a law to the master as well as to the fervant; and in judging of them he will not favour the mafter more than the fervant. Pride makes men imperious and oppreffive. Here is a fovereign remedy to curb it. Let us remember that we have a Master in heaven, Job xxxi. 13, 14. And fo much for family-relations.

I come now to confider the relation betwixt ecclefiaftical fathers and their children. These fathers are preaching and ruling elders. Here I fhall confider, 1. The duties of minifters and people; and, 2. Thofe of ruling elders and people. FIRST, I fhall fhew the duties of ministers and people. First, I fhall fhew the duty people owe to their ministers. 1. They owe them fingular reverence, and that because of that honourable station wherein Chrift has placed them, fending them to deal with finners in his own ftead, 1 Cor. iv. 1. 2 Cor. v. 20. This founds that debt of reverence, Rom. x. 15.; and fhould be expreffed in word and deed. They are the stars whom Chrift holds in his right-hand; and though they shine not fo clear as ye would wish, people would beware of treading them under foot, feeing Chrift holds them in his right-hand, Rev. i. 20. compare chap. ii. 4. 14. 20. &c.

2. Endeared love to them for their work's fake, 1 Theff. v. 13. Gal. iv. 14, 15. The gofpel is the greatest benefit that men can partake of; and it is very natural to love those who are the instruments by whom the Lord conveys great benefits to us. And as ministers must lay their account with the hatred of those that hate the light, fo those that get good of ordinances will as naturally love them as the child does the father and mother. But as there are unnatural children

in the family, who little regard the father that begat them, or the mother that bare them; fo it is not to be wondered, that there are unnatural children in the church, that reject those by whose means they have got any acquaintance with religion that they have, and caft reproaches on the breasts of ordinances, in fucking of which they grew up.

3. Diligent attendance on ordinances of all forts difpenfed by them, as word, facraments, catechifing, &c. Heb. x. 25. Luke x. 16. In vain do these stars fhine, if there be none to receive their light. The fame word that obliges ministers to dispense ordinances, muft needs oblige people to attend them ; and that even though they may lie at a confiderable distance from them, 2 Kings iv. 22, 23. The woman there mentioned had fixteen miles to go to the man of God.

4. Submiffion to them in things pertaining to their office, Heb. xiii. 17.; fubmitting to difcipline exercised by them in the name of Chrift; to their inftructions, cordially receiving them from the word; to their reproofs, whether public or private; to their exhortations and charges, wherein they hold forth to you the will of God, ib. Jam. i. 21. They who do otherwise, fin against their own fouls, as well as discourage ministers by their untractablenefs, and do but lay up witnesses against themselves, to be led against them at the great day. It is not the hearers of the word, but the doers thereof, that are justified. It will be no advantage to you to have heard, but never complied.

5. Praying for them, 1 Theff. v. 25. The work in which they are engaged is a great work. Who is fufficient for it? They have need of prayers for them. Your own interest may engage you to it. They may do their work, but the fuccefs of it must be fetched from heaven by prayer, 1 Cor. x. 4. We have the fword, but how fhall we get the arm? We may compass Jericho, and give the fhout; but it is the power of God that must make the walls to fall. Like Gideon's three hundred men, we may bear the lamps in our empty pitchers, blow with the trumpet, and the earthen pitchers may be broken in the cause, but God only can do the work, Judges vii.

6. People fhould be very tender of the reputation of minifters; it being a tender thing, fo much interwoven with the fuccefs of the gofpel. The Spirit of God, feeing that the devil would be very ready to mark at their reputation in a

special manner, by a wicked world and falfe brethren, has fet a double hedge about it, 1 Tim. v. 19. " Against an elder receive not an accufation, but before two or three wit neffes." So that ye ought not only not to flander them, but to be loath to receive thofe flanders vented by others against them, believing nothing therein without proof.

7. Lastly, Maintenance. This by divine right is due from people to their minifters, 1 Cor. ix. 14.

Secondly, I fhall fhew the duty of ministers to their people. 1. They owe tender love to the fouls of their people.→→ They should be full of bowels towards them, 1 Theff. ii. 7. 8. ; which fhould appear in their preaching, and all parts of their work.

2. Diligent and faithful difpenfing of all gofpel-ordinances to them, word, facraments, &c. It is a labour, and they muft take it fo, willing to spend and be spent in the fervice of their Lord, and of precious fouls. And indeed they are as lighted candles, which while they fhine waste, 2 Tim. iv 2. 1 Theff. ii. 3, 4.

3. Behaving fo as they may be examples of holiness and tenderness, Tit. ii. 7.; for precept, without example, will have little influence.

4. Watching over their flocks, that being ready to be acquainted with their state and cafe, they may be in capacity to inftruct, comfort, and admonish them, &c. as the cafe requires, Heb. xiii. 7.

5. Laftly, Praying for them, Eph. i. 15, 16.

SECONDLY, I come to fhew the duties of ruling elders and the people over whom they are appointed overfeers. And as we are this day to ordain fome to that office, I fhall difcourfe of this fubject a little more fully than I would otherwise have done, in a catechetical exercife. I propofe to discourse on this occafion, from that text.

1 TIM. v. 17.-Let the elders that rule well, be counted worthy of double honour, efpecially they who labour in the word and doctrine.

THE church is the kingdom of Chrift, and the holy fcriptures are the book of the manner of the kingdom. There the inftitution of church officers, their work, and the duties owing them by others, are only to be found. And whatever

officers of the church men pretend to be, if their office be not found there, they have no due call to their work, but are ufurpers and intruders.

In the words read, the apostle gives us the work affigned by Jesus Christ to elders of the church, and what is due for it unto them from the church: Let the elders that rule well, be counted worthy of double honour. Here he diftinguishes two forts of elders of the church.

1. Ruling elders. The word elder originally is a name of age; but here, and in many other places of fcripture, it is evident, that it is the name of an office, being the name of ruling church-officers, because ufually taken out of the elder fort, or that, though of the younger, yet they ought to be men of gravity and authority. Here confider,

(1.) The work of these elders, from whence their defignation is taken. It is to rule, and govern the church, as those who are fet over it by the Lord. For the Lord has not left his church in a state of anarchy and confufion, but appointed fome to rule, and others to be ruled.

(2.) How they ought to manage their work, well; i. e. rightly, worthily, according to the rules prescribed them by Chrift, the chief Bishop.

(3.) What is due from the church to those who fo manage it; double, i. e. abundant honour. This honour implies two things, viz. (1.) Maintenance. This is evident from ver. 18. (2.) Efteem and reputation, Phil. ii. 29.

Epifcopalians, as they have given us the prelate, an officer whom Christ never appointed, fo they rob us of the ruling elder, which the text fo plainly discovers to be a church-officer of divine inftitution. To evite the force of which, they turn this elder into various fhapes: but in vain. For by the elders that rule well, cannot be understood fuperannuated ministers, as fome fay; for it is evident that the preaching elder is to have more honour than this elder. But it is fhocking to the common sense of the people of God, to honour and esteem a young laborious minister more than an old one, who has spent his ftrength in the work. Nor by them are to be understood magiftrates, as others fay; for at this time they were not fo much as members of the church. Nor are deacons meant hereby, as others fay; for their work is not to rule the church, but to ferve tables, Acts vi. 2. Nor are we to understand by them the fixed pastors of flocks,