1 08 TRUE NATURE OF A GOSPEL CHURCH.
8. But this distribution mentioned of cliurcli-power is unso'ip- tural, nor is there any footsteps of it in antiquity. It is so as unto the two latter branches of it. That any one should have the power of order to preach the word, to administer the seals, to bind and loose the conscience doctrinally, or ministerially to bind and loose in the court of conscience, and yet by the virtue of that office which gives him this power not to have a right and power of rule or discipline, to bind and loose in the court of the church, is that which neither the Scripture nor any example of the primitive church doth give countenance unto. And as by this means those are abridged and deprived of their power to whom it is granted by the institution and law of Christ (as it is with all elders duly called unto their office), so in the third branch there is a grant of church-power unto such as by the law of Christ are excluded from any interest therein; the enor- mity of which constitution I shall not at present insist upon.
But inquiry must be made what the Scripture directs unto herein. And, —
1. There is a work and duty of ride in the church distinct from the work and duty of pastoral feeding by the preaching of the word and administration of the sacraments. All agree herein, unless it be Erastus and those that follow him, who seem to oppose it; but tlieir arguments lie not ao-ainst rule in general, which were brutish, but only a rule by external jurisdiction in the elders of the church. So they grant the general assertion of the necessity of rule, for who can deny it? only they contend about the subject of power required thereunto. A spiritual rule, by virtue of mutual voluntary confeder- ation, for the preservation of peace, purity, and order in the church, few of that opinion deny, at least it is not that which they do oppose ; for to deny all rule and disciiDline in the church, with all administra- tion of censures, in the exercise of a spiritual power internally inhe- rent in the church, is to deny the church to be a spiritual political society, overthrow its nature, and frustrate its institution, in direct opposition unto the Scripture. That there is such a rule in the Christian church, see Acts xx. 28; Rom. xii. 8; 1 Cor. xii. 28; 1 Tim. iii. 5, V. 17; Heb. xiii. 7, 17; Rev. ii., iii.
2. Different and distinct gifts are required unto the discharge of these distinct ivorks and duties. This belongs unto the harmony of the dispensation of the gospel. Gifts are bestowed to answer all duties prescribed. Hence they are the first foundation of all power, work, and duty in the church : " Unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ;" that is, ability for duty according to the measure wherein Christ is pleased to grant it,
Eph. iv. 7. " There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit;
but the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal," 1 Cor, xii, 4, 7-10. " Having then gifts differing according
OF THE RULE OF THE CHURCH, OR OF RULING ELDERS. 109
to tlie grace that is given to us," etc., Rom. xii. 6-8. " As every man hath received the gift, so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God," ] Pet. iv. 10. Hence are they called " The powers of the world to come," Heb. vi. 4, 5. Wherefore, differing gifts are the first foundation of differing offices and duties.
3. That differing gifts are required unto the different works of pasto7'al teaching on the one hand, and pj-actical rule on the other, is evident, — (1.) From the light of reason, and the nature of the works themselves being so different; and, (2.) From experience. Some men are fitted by gifts for the dispensation of the word and doctrine in a way of pastoral feeding who have no useful ability for the work of rule, and some are fitted for rule who have no gifts for the discharge of the pastoral work in preaching; yea, it is very sel- dom that both these sorts of gifts do concur in any eminency in the same person, or without some notable defect. Those who are ready to assume all things unto themselves are, for the most part, fit for nothing at all. And hence it is that most of those who esteem both these works to belong principally unto themselves do almost totally decline the one, or that of pastoral preaching, under a pretence of attending unto the other, that is, rule, in a very preposterous way; for they omit that which is incomparably the greater and more "worthy for that which is less and inferior unto it, although it should be attended unto in a due maunei\
But this, and sundry other things of the like nature, proceed from the corruption of that traditional notion, which is true in itself and continued among all sorts of Christians, namely, that there ought to be some oh whom the rule of the church is in an especial manner incumbent, and whose principal work it is to attend thereunto ; for the great depravations of all church-government proceed from the corruption and abuse of this notion, which in itself and its original is true and sacred. Herein also, " Malum habitat in alieno fundo;" there is no corruption in church order or rule but is corruptly de- rived from or set up as an image of some divine institution.