2. Regulated; the right performance thereof being laid down, "I will sing with the spirit, and I will sing with the understanding also," 1 Cor. xiv. 15, 16. "Singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord," Col. iii. 16. "Singing and making melody in your hearts to the Lord," Eph. v. 19.
3. The public ministry of the word of God in the congregation is a divine ordinance. "We will give ourselves," said the apostles, "to the ministry of the word and prayer," Acts vi. 4. The ministry of the word is a sacred ordinance, whether read, preached, or catechetically propounded.
1. The public reading of the word is a divine ordinance, (though exposition of what is read do not always immediately follow.) For, 1. God commanded the reading of the word publicly, and never since repealed that command, Deut. xxxi. 11-13; Jer. xxxvi. 6; Col. iii. 16. 2. Public reading of the scriptures hath been the practice of God's church, both before Christ, Exod. xxiv. 7; Neh. viii. 18, and ix. 3, and xiii. 1; and after Christ, Acts xiii. 15, 27, and xv. 21; 2 Cor. iii. 14. 3. Public reading of the scriptures is as necessary and profitable now as ever it was. See Deut. xxxi. 11-13.
2. The public preaching of the word is an eminent ordinance of Christ. This is evident many ways, viz:
1. Christ hath commanded that the word shall be preached. "Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature," Mark xvi. 15. "Go ye, therefore, and disciple ye all nations; teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you," Matt, xxviii. 19, 20. "As ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand," Matt. x. 7. See also Mark iii. 14. "I charge thee," &c. "Preach the word," 2 Tim. iv. 1, 2. "Necessity is laid upon me, yea, wo is unto me if I preach not the gospel," 1 Cor. ix. 16, 17. "Christ sent me—to preach the gospel," 1 Cor. i. 17; with which compare also Acts xx. 28, and 1 Pet. v. 1-4.
2. Christ hath appointed who shall preach the word. "How shall they preach except they be sent?" Rom. x. 15. The qualifications of preaching elders see in 1 Tim. iii. 2-8, and Tit. i. 5-9.
3. Christ hath appointed how the word shall be preached. "Be instant, in season, out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long-suffering and doctrine," 2 Tim. iv. 2. "That he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and convince gainsayers," Tit. i. 9. "He that hath my word, let him speak my word faithfully: what is the chaff to the wheat, saith the Lord?" Jer. xxiii. 28.
4. Christ hath made many encouraging promises to the preaching of his word, which he would not have done, were it not his own ordinance. "Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you, and lo I am with you every day to the end of the world," Matt, xxviii. 20. "Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth, shall be bound in heaven; and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven," Matt. xvi. 19, and xviii. 18. "Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them: and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained," John xx. 23. Both these are partly meant of doctrinal binding and loosing, remitting and retaining. "Be not afraid, but speak, and hold not thy peace: for I am with thee, and no man shall set on thee to hurt thee, for I have much people in this city," Acts xviii. 9, 10.
3. The catechetical propounding or expounding of the word, viz. a plain, familiar laying down of the first principles of the oracles of God, is an ordinance of Christ also. For, 1. This was the apostolical way of teaching the churches at the first plantation thereof. "When for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God, and are become such as have need of milk and not of strong meat," Heb. v. 12. "Therefore, leaving the word of the beginning of Christ, let us go on unto perfection, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith towards God," &c., Heb. vi. 1,2. "And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, as unto babes in Christ. I have fed you with milk, and not with meat, for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able," 1 Cor. iii. 1, 2. 2. And this is the sense of pastor and people which the Holy Ghost useth, setting forth the reciprocal relation and office between them, with his own approbation. "Let him that is catechized in the word, communicate to him that catechizeth him, in all good things," Gal. vi. 6.
4. The administration of the sacraments is of divine institution.