SERMON LVI.

OF OBEDIENCE TO OUR SPIRITUAL GUIDES
AND GOVERNORS.

HEB. xiii. 17.

Obey them that have the rule over you.

SERM. OBEDIENCE unto spiritual guides and governors is a

LVI.

Heb. xiii. 7, 17.

duty of great importance; the which to declare and press is very seasonable for these times, wherein fo little regard is had thereto : I have therefore pitched on this text, being an apoftolical precept, briefly and clearly enjoining that duty; and in it we shall confider and explain these two particulars: 1. The perfons to whom obedience is to be payed. 2. What that obedience doth import, or wherein it confifteth: and together with explication of the duty, we shall apply it, and urge its practice.

I. As to the perfons, unto whom obedience is to be performed, they are, generally speaking, all spiritual guides, or governors of the Church, (those who speak to us the word of God, and who watch for our fouls, as they are described in the context,) expreffed here by a term very fignificant and appofite, as implying fully the nature of their charge, the qualification of their persons, their rank, and privileges in the Church, together confequently with the grounds of obligation to the correspondent duties toward them. There are in holy Scripture divers names and phrases appropriate to them, each of them denoting fome eminent part of their office, or some appertenance thereto;

but this feemeth of all most comprehenfive; fo that unto SERM. it all the reft are well reducible: the term is youμsvo, LVI. that is, leaders, or guides, or captains; which properly may denote the fubfequent particulars in way of duty, or privilege, appertaining to them.

17.

12.

1. It may denote eminence of dignity, or fuperiority to others: that they are, as it is faid of Judas and Silas in the Acts, avopes nyoúμevos év ådeλpois, principal men among A&s xv. 22. the brethren: for to lead implieth precedence, which is a note of fuperiority and preeminence. Hence are they styled πposσtātes, prefidents or prelates; oi puroi, the firft, 1 Tim. v. or prime men; oi μsiles, the greater, majors, or grandees Rom. xii. 8. among us: He, faith our Lord, that will be the first 1 Theff. v. among you, let him be your fervant ; and, He that is greater Matt. xx. among you, let him be as the younger; and he that is chief, Luke xxii. as he that doth ferve ; where ὁ μείζων and ὁ ἡγούμενος (the 26. greater and the leader) are terms equivalent, or interpretative the one of the other; and our Lord in those places, as he prefcribeth humility of mind and demeanour, so he Phil. ii. 29. implieth difference of rank among his difciples: whence to render especial respect and honour to them, as to our 1 Tim. v. betters, is a duty often enjoined.

2. It doth imply power and authority: their fupecriority is not barely grounded on perfonal worth or fortune; it ferveth not merely for order and pomp; but it ftandeth upon the nature of their office, and tendeth to use they are by God's appointment enabled to exercise -acts of power; to command, to judge, to check, control, and chastise in a spiritual way, in order to spiritual ends, (the regulation of God's worship and fervice, the prefervation of order and peace, the promoting of edification in divine knowledge and holiness of life;) fo are they yμevo, as that word in common ufe (as the word yeμv, of kin to it) doth fignify, captains and princes, importing authority to command and rule; (whence the Hebrew word

27.

1 Theff. v.

13.

17.

, a prince, is ufually rendered by it; and youμevos, Matt. ii. 6. is the title attributed to our Lord, to exprefs his kingly function, being the fame with apxnyòs, the prince, or cap- A&ts v. 31.

tain :) hence are they otherwife ftyled xubepvýces (gover-1 Cor. xii.

28.

Pr. lxxviii.

71.

1 Pet. v. 2.

vii. 7.

1 Tim. iii.

SERM. nors), Tiσxoño (overseers, or fuperintendents, as St. Hierome LVI. rendereth it), pastors, (a word often fignifying rule, and atActs xx. 28. tributed to civil governors,) peσ búτepo (elders, or fenaMatt. ii. 6. tors; the word denoteth not merely age, but office and authority), o iμeλouvтes, fuch as take care for, the cu2 Sam. v. 2. rators, or fupervisors of the Church: hence alfo they are fignally and specially in relation unto God ftyled do (the fervants), diánovos (the ministers), inngéτas (the officers), Toupyoì (the public agents), oixovópos (the Stewards), Rom. xv. Guvepyol (the coadjutors, or affifiants), péσbas (the leσυνεργοί 1 Cor. iv. 1, gates), ayyɛλo (the angels, or messengers), of God; which 2. iii. 9. vi. titles imply, that God by them, as his substitutes and in2 Cor. vi. 4. struments, doth administer the affairs of his spiritual kingTit. i. 2. dom that as by fecular magistrates (his vicegerents and Apoc. i. 29. Officers) he manageth his univerfal temporal kingdom, or

5.

2 Tim. ii.

24.

16.

1. xvi. 16.

Gal. iv. 14.

1 Cor. xii. 28.

1 Tim. iii. 2.

28. ii. 2.

governeth all men in order to their worldly peace and profperity; fo by these spiritual magiftrates he ruleth his Church, toward its fpiritual welfare and felicity.

3. The word alfo doth imply direction, or instruction; that is, guidance of people in the way of truth and duty, reclaiming them from error and fin: this, as it is a means hugely conducing to the defign of their office, fo it is a Eph. iv. 11. principal member thereof: whence didáσxaλoi, doctors, or masters in doctrine, is a common name of them; and to Rom. xii. 7. be didaxTixoì, able and apt to teach, (ixavol didáky, and ρód2 Tim. ii. μo,) is a chief qualification of their persons; and to attend on teaching, to be inftant in preaching, to labour in the 13, 16. v. word and doctrine, are their most commendable performances hence also they are called Shepherds, because they feed the fouls of God's people with the food of wholefome instruction; watchmen, because they observe men's ways, and warn them when they decline from right, or run into danger; the messengers of God, because they declare God's mind and will unto them for the regulation of their practice.

1 Tim. iv.

17.

2 Tim. iv.

2.

Col. i. 28.

4. The word farther may denote exemplary practice; for to lead implieth so to go before, that he who is conducted may follow; as a captain marcheth before his troop; as a fhepherd walketh before his flock, as a guide

1 Tim. iv.

12.

Tit. ii. 7.

goeth before the traveller, whom he directeth; hence SERM. LVI. they are faid to be, and enjoined to behave themselves as patterns of the flock; and the people are charged to imi- 1 Pet. v. 3. tate and follow them. Such in general doth the word here used imply the per- Phil. iii. 17. fons to be, unto whom obedience is prefcribed: but there 2 Theff. iii. is farther fome diftinction to be made among them; there 9, 7. are degrees and fubordinations in thefe guidances; fome Theff. i. are in regard to different perfons both empowered to 6. guide, and obliged to follow, or obey.

Heb. iii. 7.

1 Cor. xi. 1, iv. 16.

Heb. iii. 1.

The Church is acies ordinata, a well marfhalled army; wherein, under the Captain-general of our faith and falva- 1 Pet. v. 4. tion, (the Head of the body, the fovereign Prince and Priest, the Arch-paftor, the chief Apofile of our profeffion, and Bishop of our fouls,) there are divers captains ferving in fit degrees of fubordination; bishops commanding larger regiments, prefbyters ordering less numerous companies; all which, by the bands of common faith, of mutual charity, of holy communion and peace, being combined together, do in their respective stations govern and guide, are governed and guided: the bishops, each in his precincts, guiding more immediately the priests fubject to them; the priests, each guiding the people committed to his charge all bishops and priests being guided by fynods established, or congregated, upon emergent occafion; many of them ordinarily by thofe principal bishops, who are regularly fettled in a prefidency over them; according to the diftinctions conftituted by God and his Apostles, or introduced by human prudence, as the prefervation of order and peace (in various times and circumftances of things) hath feemed to require: to which fubordination the two great Apoftles may feem to have regard, when they bid us oτáoσeodoy ảλλýλ015, to be fubject to one an- 1 Pet. v. 5. other a; their injunction at least may, according to their phil. ii, 3. general intent, (which aimeth at the prefervation of order and peace,) be well extended fo far.

:

- Υποτασσέσθω ἕκαςος τῷ πλησίον αὐτοῦ καθὼς καὶ ἐτέθη ἐν τῷ χαρίσματι αὐτοῦ. Clem, ad Corinth. p. 49.

Cyp. Ep.

10. 12.

SERM. Of this diftinction there was never in ancient times LVI. made any question, nor did it seem difputable in the Church, except to one malecontent, (Aerius,) who did indeed get a name in story, but never made much noise, or obtained any vogue in the world; very few followers he found in his heterodoxy; no great body even of heEp. 27. 65. retics could find cause to diffent from the Church in this point; but all Arians, Macedonians, Novatians, Donatifts, &c. maintained the diftinction of ecclefiaftical orders among themselves, and acknowledged the duty of the inferior clergy to their bishops: and no wonder, feeing it standeth upon so very firm and clear grounds; upon the reafon of the cafe, upon the teftimony of holy Scripture, upon general tradition and unquestionable monuments of antiquity, upon the common judgment and practice of the greatest faints, perfons most renowned for wisdom and piety in the Church.

fo

Reafon plainly doth require fuch fubordinations; for that without them it is fcarce poffible to preferve any durable concord or charity in Chriftian focieties, to establish any decent harmony in the worfhip and fervice of God, to check odious scandals, to prevent or repress baneful factions, to guard our religion from being overspread with pernicious herefies, to keep the Church from being fhattered into numberless sects, and thence from being crumbled into nothing; in fine, for any good time to uphold the profeffion and practice of Chriftianity itself: for how, if there be not fettled corporations of Chriftian people, having bulk and ftrength fufficient by joint endeavour to maintain the truth, honour, and interest of their religion; if the Church should only confift of independent and incoherent particles, (like duft or fand,) eafily fcattered by any wind of oppofition from without, or by any commotion within; if Chriftendom fhould be merely a Babel of confused opinions and practices; how, I fay, then could Christianity fubfift? how could the fimple, among fo difcordant apprehenfions, be able to difcern the truth of it? how would the wife be tempted to dislike it, being fo mangled and disfigured? what an object of contempt

and