Prayer against the time of your Ordination; as you need not, so you ought not to doubt but God will then hear your prayers, and bestow His Spirit upon you, so as not only to authorize, but likewise to assist you in the administering His Word and Sacraments, and in the faithful discharge of the Office He calls you to. For which purpose it is very expedient that while the Bishop's hands are upon your heads, especially when he saith in the Ordination of Priests, "Receive the Holy Ghost," your minds be fully intent upon Almighty God, and your faith fixed upon the promises that he hath made to that purpose, in Jesus Christ our Lord: for then He will most certainly grant your desires, and you will receive the Holy Ghost for the effectual discharge of your duty, both as Ministers and Christians, that you may both shew others the way to bliss, and walk in it yourselves. Having thus considered how you ought to prepare yourselves for your Ordination, and how to carry yourselves at it, I must desire you, in the last place, to have a care of yourselves afterwards too. For which purpose, when you are ordained, always keep it in your minds, what relation you then stand in to Christ, as being his Ministers, the "stewards of the manifold mysteries of God," and behave [1 Cor. 4. 1. i Pet.4.10.] yourselves accordingly. For remember, that the efficacy of the Word and Sacraments administered by you, depends not upon your small qualification, but upon Christ's " Institu- [Art. 26.] tion, and His promises annexed" to it. And therefore you may be instruments in God's hand for the saving of others, and yet you yourselves may be damned. This St. Paul himself was very sensible of, and therefore saith, " I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection, 1 Cor. 9. 27. lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a cast-away." And what a sad thing would it be, that others should be brought to Heaven by your means, and yet yourselves shut out? For the preventing whereof, I would advise you to take this course: First, Do as St. Paul did, "keep your body under, and bring it into subjection," by fasting and abstinence. Which is every whit as necessary, after you are ordained, to the execution of your Office, as it was before in order to your IX. SERM. admission into it: and not only to the due execution of your Office, but likewise to your performance of all other duties that are required of you, in order to your eternal Salvation. For if so eminent a Saint, so great an Apostle as St. Paul, was forced to keep his body under, lest after all his care and pains in shewing others the way to Heaven, he himself should miss of it; sure you and I had need to fast and pray to some purpose, lest when we have spent our days in administering the Word and Sacraments for the Salvation of others, we ourselves should perish everlastingly. Moreover, that you may never forget the duties which your great Master, Christ, requires of you, nor yet the promises you made to Him when you were ordained; it would be very well, if you would often, especially upon fasting-days, read over the offices for making or ordering Priests and Deacons, and consider what questions were then propounded to you, and how you answered them. I need not tell you what advantage this would be to you: do but make trial of it, and you yourselves will find it by your own experience. Another thing that I would mind you of, is this, that although your Ordination respect not the Church of England in particular, but Christ's Holy Catholic Church; so that when ordained Priests or Deacons here, you are so all the world over: yet so long as you continue to execute your Office in our Church, be sure to observe punctually the Orders and Constitutions of it; which, as it is your duty, in obedience to the Church you live in, so you will find it to be your interest too. For our Church hath taken care that all the means of Grace and Salvation should be duly administered to all that live in her Communion: and you will be now in the number of those to whom the administration of them is committed. If you therefore keep close to the rules that she hath set you in it, it will ease you of a great deal of care and trouble, for you need look no further for the full discharging the trust reposed in you: for by this means you will discharge it faithfully, and will be found to have done so, when you come to stand before our Lord's tribunal at the last day. Whereas if you, through carelessness or self-merit, shall neglect, diminish, or alter any thing that the Church, out of obedience to Christ's commands, hath provided for the Salvation of those committed to your charge, or any of them by that means perish, their blood will be required at your hands. And then, lastly, as Christ is pleased to honour you so far as to admit you into His own Ministry, endeavour all you can to adorn it with an holy and good life. Adjust your actions to all the rules that He hath prescribed in His Holy Gospel. Live above the world, and make it your constant, your only care, study, and business, to serve, honour, and obey your great Lord and Master in Heaven. In short, "as He who hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all [1 Pet. 1. manner of conversation;" that so you may shew your flock the way to Heaven, both by your precept and example. Do this, and you will save yourselves, as well as them that hear you. "Which God of His infinite mercy grant we may all do, through Jesus our Lord: to whom, with the Father, and the Holy Ghost, be all honour and glory, now and for ever." 15.] SERMON X. THE EFFICACY OF FAITH ON THE MINISTRATION SERM. X. 1 THESS. ii. 13. For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because when ye received the Word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but, as it is in truth, the Word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe. "IN you that believe;" there lies the emphasis, and the foundation of all that I design at present to build upon these words. St. Paul having been at Thessalonica, and preached the Word of God to the inhabitants of that city, many of them hearkened to what he said, not as spoken by a philosopher, but by an Apostle sent from God; and therefore "received" it, not as "the word of men," which may or may not be true, but as it really was, the infallible" Word of God" Himself. For this, the Apostle here tells them," he thanked God without ceasing," ascribing it wholly to His power and goodness; and puts them withal in mind of two things: First, of the great force and efficacy which the Word they so received had upon them; "the Word of God," saith he, "which effectually worketh in you." It had, it seems, its whole effect, its end, its perfect work upon them, insomuch that, as he saith in the following words, "they were now able to suffer as much for the sake of Christ as the Churches in Judea did.” And then, secondly, he acquaints them also, how the Word of God came to have so much power upon them, even because they believed it; "which effectually worketh," saith he, " in you that believe." In you, and none else, and in you only as believing it, without which they could not have been wrought upon, nor would have received any benefit at all by it. According to that also of the Apostle to the Hebrews, where speaking of the Gospel preached to the Jews under the Law, he saith, "The Word Heb. 4. 2. preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it." But the Apostle in my text speaks only in the present tense, s vegyeira, "which effectually worketh," not which wrought only when ye heard it, but doth so now, iv i TOTS TITOU, 'in you believing,' or 'that do believe.' As if he had said, Seeing you still believe the Word you heard, it still continues to work effectually in you. I have been the more particular in explaining the words to you, that you may better see into the ground of what I would observe from them, which is, that the efficacy of God's Holy Word upon our minds depends upon our believing it; that whatsoever we hear, can make no impressions at all upon us, unless we believe it, nor any longer than we do believe it. But so long as we continue to believe what is preached to us out of God's Word, so long it will "work [Acts 26. effectually" in us, towards the "bringing us out of darkness into light, from the power of Satan unto God." The understanding of this will be of great use to shew both where the fault lies, that so many in our age are no better for having the Word of God so often preached to them, and also how we may be always the better for it: for which purpose therefore we shall first consider what we are to understand by the "Word of God," and then what by "believing" it. 18.] By the Word of God, we are to understand the whole system of Divine Revelations, as they are now contained in the Books of the Old and New Testament; "for all Scripture 2 Tim. 3.16. being given by inspiration of God;" it is all, one part as well as another, equally the Word of God: so that we have the Word of God Himself, that whatsoever is there commanded or forbidden, it is His will that we should or should not do it; that whatsoever is there threatened against impenitent sinners, or promised to the penitent, He Himself will see it fulfilled; that whatsoever is there recorded to be said or done, was accordingly said or done, just as it is there recorded; that whatsoever is there foretold, shall certainly N |