CHA P. V.

The Ways and Methods by which our Saviour and his Apoftles commiffion'd the Officers by them appointed to teach and govern the Church Laying on of Hands, Fafting, and Prayer. The Qualifications requir'd in those who were ordain'd Bishops, Prefbyters, and Deacons, as laid down by St. Paul, and as obferv'd in the Church of England.

Acts xiii. 3. And when they had fafted and prayed, and laid their Hands on them, they fent them away.

HA

Aving difcours'd fo fully already on the Names and Offices of fuch Teachers and Governours of the Church, as are really of Apoftolical or Divine Original; and fhown how the Church of England is truly Primitive in her Constitution, as to thofe Particulars: As a farther Proof of our original Propofition, That none ought to take upon them to teach or govern the Church of Chrift, but fuch as are lawfully call'd to that Work; We fhall show,

Secondly, What Ways and Methods were made ufe of, originally by our Saviour, or by the Apoftolical Men in fending thefe Paftors and Teachers, or Bifhops, Priefts and Deacons upon that facred and important Errand. And the Methods they made ufe of were, in fhort,

1. FASTING.

2. PRAYER.

3. LAYING ON OF HANDS: And in every one of these the Apoftles had the Example of their great Lord and Master to direct them.

1. The Holy Jefus gave them an Example of Fafting before he call'd any to follow him, or sent any to preach Repentance or the Coming of the Kingdom of God: And this, indeed, was one great End of his Fafting fourty Days and fourty Nights in the Wilderness. The bleffed Jefus had no finful or unruly Lufts to mortify; He was in all things like to us, Sin only excepted. But he was now juft entring upon the Work of Reforming, as well as Redeeming, a finful World; and to that End, he did not think it enough for himself to preach Repentance; but he determin'd to call others, and to fend them with a peculiar Commiffion from himself, that they too might go thro' the Tribes of Ifrael firft, and afterwards vifit all Nations, and warn them, before it should be too late, to make hafte and fly from the Wrath to come.

So great a Meffage was not to be deliver❜d by every ordinary Perfon; nor might any take upon themselves fuch an Embaffy without a folemn Deputation from their Mafter. The Work of Reforming the particular Notion of the Jews, was of that Difficulty, that the Prophets undertaking it, were wont to retire into defart Places; there to confer with fuch as liv'd in the perpetual Exercife of Mortification: fuch as were Prophets themselves, and fit to inftruct others, called by God to that End, in the Difficulties they were to undergo, and the Difcourage

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ments they would probably meet with in fo dangerous an Enterprife; and fuch as could give them the prophetical Character, or commiffion them, in the Name of God, to preach and do every Thing which was expected from a true Prophet. Such a Man was Elias, that Man of an unparallell'd Zeal and Courage, who seems to have been buried in an Afcetic Life, and to have come forth from it with a Spirit fit to contend with the monstrous Guilt of a degenerate Age. Such a one was Elifha, who attended as a Difciple upon Elias. Elias, before he call'd him and defign'd him his Succeffor, had fafted fourty Days and fourty Nights too; He taught his pious Difciple to live as abftemioufly as himself had done, and he was retir'd with him from the World for a Time, before he receiv'd the double Portion of his Master's Spirit, or took upon him as a Prophet in Ifrael.

As the Jewish Nation was more corrupted than ever about the Time of our Saviour's Appearance; So the Perfon who was to be his Prophet and fore-runner, was to come in the Power and Spirit of Elias. A meaner Spirit than that of Elias would foon have funk under the Weight of Humane Obftinacy: Such a Spirit John the Baptift had, and it was whetted and prepared for its Work, by his being in the Defart till the time of his fhewing unto Ifrael. How fevere a Life he led there, and with what continual Faftings he fubdued himself, we may reasonably conclude by the Severity of his Life, and the Meannefs of his Habit and Diet afterwards. And the Scribes and Pharifees take notice of John's Way of Training up his Difciples, The Difciples of John faft often, fay they: And our Saviour

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Saviour speaking of him to the fame Perfons, alledges, that John came neither Eating nor Drinking: i. e. he was a Man who exercis'd himfelf very much in Fafting and Abftinence, who deny'd himself all the coveted Pleafures of a fenfual Life, and, as the holy Jefus himself did, made it his Meat and Drink to do the Will of God.

The Way of Retirement from the World for fome time, before affuming the prophetical Office, and the known Rigors of that retir'd Life, made the Prophets appear the more venerable and awful to thofe to whom they were fent. So every thing in Ifrael feem'd to bow to the Authority of Elias: And John the Baptift no fooner began to preach and to baptize than Ferufalem and all Judea came out to him, attended on his Doctrine, and were baptiz'd by him, confeffing their Sins. And as for Fafting before the giving of Orders, both by the Ordainers and thofe who were to be Ordain'd by them, the Reafon is plain enough: The beft of Men, and when call'd to the higheft Employments, have

Bloodundance of Weakneffes; and Flesh and

Blood is apt to recoil at the diftant Profpect of Hardships; and the Paftoral Care in the Church is both of the laft Importance and Difficulty. That the Perfons call'd to the Paftoral Office may be fuccefsful in their Labours, that they may not be terrifi'd from doing their Duties, that they may not bring a Scandal upon their Calling by the Mifcarriages of their Lives or Doctrines, both the Perfons Ordaining, and the Perfons Ordained must be importunate in their Prayers to God for his Bleffing upon them: But no Prayers are fo fervent, no Supplications fo importunate

importunate as thofe which are put up to God by Men of humble Souls and mortify'd Paffions: None offer fuch effectual Violence to Heaven, as thofe, who having conquer'd themselves, can wrestle the more vigoroufly with their Maker, till they obtain his Bleffing.

And here Fafting was of Ufe to the holy Jefus himself, As he was Partaker of true and real, tho' not of finful Flesh and Blood; fo tho' he could not mortify his Lufts, yet he might raife and enflame his humane Paffions and Affections. Fafting might put an Edge upon his Prayers, as the Senfe of his approaching Sufferings did, and make them more vehement for his Difciples, and indeed irrefiftible: And his powerful Interceffions were as happily answered: His Difciples were all clean, Judas only excepted; They went on in the Work of converting Sinners with undaunted Courage, and by God's continued Bleffing on their inceffant Endeavours, Multitudes were daily added to the Church of fuch as fhould be faved.

As the Mafter had done, fo did his Difciples; And therefore, when Paul and Barnabas were to be fet apart, or ordain'd to preach the Gospel to the Gentiles, by the particular Order of the Holy Ghoft; That facred Spirit iffued out his Commands at that very Time when the Difciples at Antioch were miniftring to the Lord and Fafting, a frequent Exercise in those early Days when heavenly-mindedChriftians were very fenfible of the abfence of the Bridegroom. TheHoly Ghost always discovers himself freely to Men of devout and mortify'd Tempers, as thefe Antiochian Difciples and Prophets were: But, when the Command was given, they laid no Hands Acts 13. 2, upon the Apostles till fuch Time as they had 3.

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fafted