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that of Mal. ii. 7. The priest's lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek the law at his mouth; for he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts. Though I confess the words may import no more than, who shall rule you with prudence and discretion; as it is said of David, That he fed the people of Israel according to the integrity of his heart, and guided them with the skilfulness of his hand, Psalm lxxviii. 72. But this latter sense being more forced and critical, we ought, according to the most known rules of interpretation, to prefer the former, which is most natural; and then by pastors here must be understood the spiritual rulers and teachers, viz. the bishops and presbyters of the church, whose peculiar office it is to instruct the people in the knowledge of God and of religion. So then that which God here promises is this, that he will very much advance and raise the state of his church in the latter days: for so ver. 16, 17, 18. In those days, saith the Lord, they shall say no more, The ark of the covenant of the Lord: neither shall it come to mind; neither shall they remember it; neither shall they visit it; neither shall that be done any more. For then shall their ceremonial worship be utterly abolished, of which the ark of the covenant was a principal part; and they that worship shall worship in spirit and in truth. And then he tells them, At that time they shall call Jerusalem the throne of the Lord; and all the nations shall be gathered unto it, in the name of the Lord, to Jerusalem: neither shall they walk any more after the imagination of their evil heart: and in those days the house of Judah shall walk with the house of Israel, and they shall come together out of the land of the north

to the land that I have given for an inheritance to their fathers. Which glorious things, being yet for the most part unaccomplished, must be reserved for future ages. And in order to the introduction of this state of things, God promises that he will give them spiritual guides and pastors after his own heart, &c.

The words thus explained necessarily import this proposition, which shall be the subject of the ensuing discourse:

That such spiritual guides and pastors as are according to God's own heart, do very much conduce to the glory, and beauty, and perfection of the church. In prosecution of which argument, I shall endeavour,

I. To shew what those qualifications are which render men pastors according to God's own heart.

II. In what respects pastors so qualified do conduce to the glory, and beauty, and perfection of the church.

I. First, We will shew what those qualifications are which render men pastors after God's own heart. For God doth not approve nor disapprove of men in any state or capacity, out of a fond respect or partiality to their person: persons, as such, are all alike and indifferent to him; and it is only their qualifications that do distinguish them in his esteem and affection. Now there are these three qualifications necessary to render men pastors after God's own heart:

First, Their being sent and commissioned by God. Secondly, Their being thoroughly instructed in the knowledge of God's mind and will.

Thirdly, Their being exemplary in their conversa

tion of the goodness and purity of their own doctrine.

First, To qualify men for being pastors after God's own heart, it is necessary that they be sent and commissioned by him: for such as are God's pastors do act in God's stead, and are his spiritual vicegerents in the church; and hence they are said to pray men in Christ's stead to be reconciled to God, 2 Cor. v. 20. And as Christ is styled the supreme Shepherd under God, the sovereign Pastor of the church; so they under Christ are styled the overseers and shepherds in the flock, to feed the church of God, Acts xx. 28. and their office is to feed the flock of God, and to take oversight thereof, 1 Pet. v. 2. And as Christ was his Father's ambassador to the world, so they are styled the ambassadors of Christ, 2 Cor. v. 20. And seeing by their office they act in the stead of Christ, as Christ doth in the stead of God, and are his spiritual proxies and substitutes in his kingdom, it is necessary they should be commissioned by him; otherwise, instead of being his under-shepherds, they are thieves that break into his fold, and there usurp his power and authority. And accordingly you find, that in the very same sense that Christ was sent from the Father, that is, as his authorized and commissioned minister, to act for him, and in his stead, the under-pastors of his flock were sent by Christ: As the Father sent me, saith he, so send I you; that is, as my commissioned ministers, to act for me, and in my stead, John xx. 21. And to shew that this was the intention of his sending them, he tells them, He that heareth you heareth me; because you speak from me, and I by you; and he that despiseth you despiseth me; and he that despiseth

me despiseth him that sent me; because you, by virtue of this my mission, represent me, even as I, by virtue of my Father's mission, represent him, Luke x. 16. And as he sent them to act in his stead, and by his authority; so in sending them he transferred upon them all the powers of his own mission from the Father: in which is included the same authority to send others that he had to send them; that so they might derive their mission to others, as he did his to them, through all succeeding generations. For unless by sending them he gave them the same authority to propagate their mission to others, as his Father gave him to propagate his mission to them; how could he truly say, that he sent them as his Father sent him, since he must have sent them without that very authority from his Father, by virtue of which he sent them? And this it is plain the apostles did believe was included in their commission; seeing without any other authority, at least that we know of, they afterwards proceeded to ordain and commission others; and thereby to empower them still to derive the same commission to others, and so on in a continued succession to the end of the world; as is evident by innumerable instances in the New Testament, and especially in those two famous ones of Timothy and Titus, the first bishops of Ephesus and Crete. Thus Christ ordained the apostles the first bishops, and these ordained their colleagues and successors; and so through the episcopal hands have the holy orders been all along derived, in a continued succession from one generation to another; as is notorious, not only from all ecclesiastical history, but even from St. Jerom himself, (Ep. ad Evagr.) who, though he sometimes, out of a peculiar pique, endea

vours to level bishops with presbyters, is yet fain to do it with an excepta ordinatione. Seeing therefore our Saviour hath thus entailed his mission from God upon all succeeding pastors of the church, and taken such care to consign it down to all future ages; I think it is a plain case, that they who intrude themselves into the pastoral office without it, at least where it may be had, are so far from being pastors after God's own heart, that he looks upon them as so many lawless usurpers and invaders of his authority.

Secondly, To qualify men for being pastors after God's own heart, it is necessary that they should be throughly instructed in the knowledge of God's mind and will for their office is to be guides of souls; and how should they be guides to others who know not the way themselves? If the blind lead the blind, saith our Saviour, both shall fall into the ditch: and accordingly God charges the ruin of his people upon the ignorance of the priests; for which he threatens to reject them: My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: Hos. iv. 6. And it is a dreadful charge he gives against the ignorant priests of Israel; His watchmen are blind: they are all ignorant, they are all dumb dogs, they cannot bark; sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber,—and they are shepherds that cannot understand: Isa. lvi. 10, 11. But as for the pastors after God's own heart, a main part of their character, according to St. Paul, is, that they be apt, or fit to teach; which they cannot be, till they themselves be first taught and instructed, 1 Tim. iii. 2. It is true indeed, when the gospel lay hid in the eternal coun