01. INTRODUCTORY NOTE
INTRODUCTORY NOTE
Take heed therefore to yourselves, and to all the flock over which the Holy Ghost has made you overseers, to feed the church of God which he has purchased with his own blood.
Though some think that Paul’s exhortation to these elders proves he is their ruler, we who are to speak to you this day from the Lord hope that we may freely do the same, without any jealousies arising from such a conclusion. Though we teach our people as officers set over them in the Lord, yet may we teach one another as brothers, in office as well as in faith. If the people in our charge must “teach and admonish and exhort each other daily,”28 no doubt teachers may do it to one another without asserting any eminence of power or degree. We have the same sins to mortify, and the same graces to be quickened and strengthened, as our people have: we have greater works to do than they have, and greater difficulties to overcome; and therefore we have need to be warned and awakened, if not to be instructed, just as well as they have. And so I confess that I think meeting together should be more frequent, if we had nothing else to do but this. And we should deal as plainly and closely with one another as the most serious among us do with our flocks which, if only they have sharp admonitions and reproofs, will be sound and lively in the faith. I need no other proof that this was Paul’s judgment, than this rousing, heart-melting exhortation to the Ephesian elders: a short sermon, but not soon learned! Had the bishops and teachers of the Church thoroughly learned only this short exhortation, though neglecting many a volume which has taken up their time and helped them only to greater applause in the world, how happy had it would have been for the Church and for themselves! In further discussing this text, I propose to pursue the following method:
First, to consider what it is to take heed to ourselves. Secondly, to show why we must take heed to ourselves. Thirdly, to inquire what it is to take heed to all the flock. Fourthly, to illustrate the manner in which we must take heed to all the flock. Fifthly, to state some motives why we should take heed to all the flock. Lastly, to make some application of the whole.