Question 23 — Who are the ordinary officers or ministers of Christ in the church, to be always continued therein?
John Owen A Brief Instruction in the Worship of God Now, that these officers or rulers should be of two sorts, both the nature of the thing itself required and so hath our Lord Jesus Christ appointed; for when the church was first to be called, gathered, and erected, it was necessary that some persons should be extraordinarily employed in that work, for ordinary officers antecedent unto the calling and erection of the church there could be none.
And, therefore, these persons were in an extraordinary manner endowed with all the power which afterward was to reside in the churches themselves; and, moreover, with that which was peculiarly needful unto the discharge and performance of that special duty and work that they were appointed unto. But when churches were called, gathered, erected, and settled for continuance, there was need of officers suited to their state and condition, called in an ordinary way, — that is, in a way appointed for continuance unto the end of the world; and to be employed in the ordinary work of the church,
— that is, the duties of it were constantly incumbent on it by virtue of the command and appointment of Christ.
Question 23 — Who are the ordinary officers or ministers of Christ in the church, to be always continued therein?
Answer — Those whom the Scripture calls pastors and teachers, bishops, elders, and guides.
Acts xiv. 23, xx. 17, 28; 1 Cor. xii. 28; Eph. iv. 11; Phil. i. 1; 1 Tim. iii. 1, 2, v. 17; Titus i. 5, 7;
Heb. xiii. 7, 17; 1 Pet. v. 1.
Explication — Several names are, on several accounts, partly designing their authority, partly their duty, and partly the manner of their discharge thereof, assigned in the Scripture to the ordinary ministers of the churches. Sometimes they are called "pastors and teachers," Eph. iv. 11; 1 Cor. xii. 28; — sometimes "bishops" or "overseers," Phil. i. 1; Acts xx. 28; — sometimes "elders," Titus i. 5; 1 Pet. v. 1; 1 Tim. v. 17; Acts xiv. 23, xx. 17; — sometimes "guides," Heb. xiii. 7, 17. By all which names, and sundry others whereby they are expressed, the same sort, order, and degree of persons is intended. Nor is any one of these names applied or accommodated unto any, but all the rest are also in like manner; so that he who is a pastor or a teacher is also a bishop or overseer, a presbyter or elder, a guide or ruler, a minister, a servant of the church for the Lord's sake. And of all other names assigned to the ministers of the church, that of bishop can least of all be thought to have designed any special order or degree of pre-eminence amongst them; for whereas it is but four times, or in four places, used in the New Testament as denoting any officers of the church, in each of them it is manifest that those expressed by the other names of elders and ministers are intended.
So, Acts xx. 28, the bishops are the elders of the particular church of Ephesus, verse 17. Phil. i. 1, there were many bishops in that one particular church, who had only deacons joined with them; that is, they were the elders of it, Titus i. 7. The bishops were the elders to be ordained, verse 5; which persons are also directly intended, 1 Tim. iii. 2, as is evident from the coincidence of the directions given by the apostles about them, and the immediate adjoining of deacons unto them, verse 8; so that no name could be fixed on with less probability, to assert from it a special supreme order or degree of men in the ministry, than this of bishops. Neither is there any mention in any