Ministers Compared to Pillars

    MINISTERS COMPARED TO PILLARS

    "And when James, Cephas, and John, who seemed Pillars," &c., Ga 2:9.

    Ministers are like Pillars in the House of God.

    SIMILE

    I. A Pillar helps to support and bear up the Building.

    PARALLEL

    I. So Ministers help to support and bear up the Church and house of God.

    SIMILE

    II. Pillars are great ornament to a building; they serve not only for use, but for beauty. The two brazen Pillars in Solomon's temple were curiously adorned with nets of chequerwork, lily-work, and rows of pomegranates, &c.

    PARALLEL

    II. So godly Ministers are a great ornament to the Church, being gloriously adorned, many of them, with the gifts and graces of the blessed Spirit, which some think was figured forth by the Pillars of the temple, in respect of the chequer and lily-work; and by the pomegranates, the fruitfulness of their conversation, &c.

    SIMILE

    III. These Pillars stood in the porch of the temple.

    PARALLEL

    III. So the apostles, those chief Pillars of the Gospel-Church, lived in the beginning of the Church, saith Mr. Lee,[1] or entrance of the Gospel-ministration.

    [1] Mr. Sam Lee, Folio 228.