SERMON

PREACHED JULY 4, 1764,

AT

THE ORDINATION

OF THE

REV. MR. EDWARD BROOKS,

TO THE PASTORAL CARE OF THE CHURCH

IN

NORTH YARMOUTH.

Rev.

BY JASON HAVEN, A. M.

PASTOR OF THE FIRST CHURCH IN DEDHAM.

BOSTON:

PRINTED BY RICHARD AND SAMUEL DRAPER, AT THE PRINTING OFFICE IN NEWBURY STREET.

SERMON.

HEBREWS xiii. 17.

"Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves; for they watch for your souls as they that must give account; that they may do it with joy, and not with grief; for that is unprofitable for you."

THE preaching of the gospel, being a principal method pitched on by divine wisdom, to bring sinful men acquainted with Jesus Christ, and his great salvation; the introduction of persons into the sacred employment, must be a very solemn and important transaction; and will always be regarded as such, by men of sober minds.

If nothing new can be said, upon an occasion which occurs so frequently; the remembrance of several things may be revived, which can hardly pass our minds, but with advantage; which are very interesting to all; especially to him, who takes the care and charge of souls upon him; and to them, who have a man set over them in the Lord.

Some articles of the duty, both of ministers and people, are obvious in the passage now read, as the foundation of the following discourse; together with the manner in which they ought to be performed; and the motives which should animate and excite us respectively to them.

What the words contain of the duty of Christ's ministers, may be first considered. And do they not evidently point out their duty, as to ruling and governing in the church-as to watching over the souls of their people-and the serious and faithful manner in which they are obliged to do it?

The words teach us, first, that something of rule and government belongs to the ministerial office. So much I think necessarily implied in the first clause." Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves."

These words, at first hearing, may sound harsh and severe; and seem to carry in them something not very agreeable to the kind and gentle nature of the gospel, and that mutual love and tenderness, which ought ever to subsist between a gospel minister and the people under his care. Some may be ready to entertain an idea of the state of those, to whom the direction is given, to obey, as being abject and servile: And that of those, who are spoken of as ruling, as being lordly and tyrannical. But no such sentiments, I imagine, are contained in these expressions. However, they evidently teach us, that some kind of rule and authority is vested in the ministerial office, and to be exercised by those that are in it: Who consequently have a right to expect an answerable kind of obedience and submission from the people of their charge. What sort of rule and authority this is, and whence derived, may be matter of our present brief inquiry.

Must it not be allowed, is it not evident, that this is to be wholly confined to matters of a religious and spiritual nature? No civil authority is, by virtue of their office, in the hands of this order of men; none relating to the persons, estates, or liberties of their people. The office is quite distinct from magistracy: Its province is the house of God, and those things which belong to Christ's spiritual kingdom.

The power which gospel-ministers have in the church of Christ, has nothing of legislation in it. The laws, necessary for the government of this spiritual body, are made and published by Him who is the head of it. It pertains not to the officers in Christ's kingdom to make laws of their own, but to interpret those already made, and apply them to particular cases. Nor is their interpretation, or method of applying, to be received with such a blind and implicit faith and obedience, as excludes examination, or supersedes the need of it, so far as the capacities and opportunities of individuals will admit. This would be very unreasonable, unless that was true, which we believe to be false; and the pretence to which we utterly condemn, namely, that infallibility is vested in the ministerial office.-Every one must search the Scriptures, the invariable standard of truth and duty, for himself, and judge of the things spoken by his teachers, according as they agree or disagree herewith. "To the law and to the testimony; if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them."

Ministers, in our constitution at least, pretend not "to be lords of their people's faith, but helpers of their joy." They disclaim all that authority which doth not consist with the right of private judgment: They disown all power to rule the consciences of men: They find not where Christ, "to whom all power in heaven and earth is committed," has parcelled out ecclesiastical