Part 2
And his argument lies thus: as there was an high priest then, so now; as a public worship then, s0 now; and as an house of God, and assemblies then to exercise public worship in, over which the high priest was placed, so there must be such an house now ; which, because they are not national, but parochial, thorefore he expresseth them by the synagogues of the Jews.
Now if such congregations be God's house appointed for his public worship under the New Testament, we needed particular directions how to behave ourselves in this house of God, as much as the Jews of old did in that house which God built them for public worship ; as that placo in Timothy shews, 'That thou mayest know how to behave thyself in the house of God,' 1 Tim. iii. 15.
Yea, and Christ also hath been as faithfal to God in directing us now, as Moses was in ordering all things then, as this place in the Epistle to the Hebrews shews.
Moses was faithful, as in giving a right platform of doctrine to that church, both of the law and gospel ; so in giving a perfect platform of discipline of the government of that church, and ordaining all things in the worship of it (' He made all things according to the pattern in the mount,' Exod. xxv.. 40, Heb. viii. 5), therefore, so hath Christ done also.
Faithfulness implies going exactly accordingto directions given, and Christ his faithfulness lay in giving out those directions to us his church.
Neither is it only in matters of faith and manners ; for it is spoken of building God's house under the New Testament, which is done by ministry, and the government of the church algo, as well as by faith and manners ; for the building and edification of the church is as well by the ministry and officers of the church, Eph. iv. 12, and all the ordinances of it, 2 Cor. x. 4~6, as by the doctrine of faith and good manners.
Neither is the comparison of Christ with Moses, as to giving rules for a commonwealth (and so this needs not be brought in fora disproportion), but as to the house of God only, in which Christ only did meddle, and refused to be a judge in other things.
And herein, as Moses is said to be faithful, 'Ev dip +i Gx, in the whole house ; that is, in every particular about it, a complete director of all things, in every room of it; so must Christ be also in all sorts of things, that concerned it any way as an house to God, whether as mystical, in giving doctrines to build it, or visible and constituted, in giving discipline.
He was faithfal to God in the whole house; that is, in everything wherein we are an house to God.
Neither do we fetch an argument from the particulars of Christ and Moses; but farther, from the very reasons that the apostle here suggests.
For, 1. In reason says the apostle, 'Every house is built by some man,'
And for the building of it, there must be a platform, and direction in some man's head.
A pattern there was for the tabernacle, and for Solomon's temple given by David, and that by the Spirit, as is warily put in, 1 Chron. xxviii. 12-14, and the faithfulness of him that is to build this house must lie in building it according to that pattern.
Now this house of God, neither under the Old nor New Testament, could have man for ita builder; for no man hath either power to do it, nor skill to give the , My byaarasiiecerss civ brnaymyhe lavedy, Heb. x. 25.
THE GOVERNMENT OF [Boox I. pattern; therefore, ver. 8, he says, that Moses, and all the saints of the Old and New Testament, apostles and others, were, and are but a part of the house, and so could not give of themselves directions to build it.
Therefore, as it is the house of God (both now and then), so God must be the master-builder, as then so now ; therefore, ver. 8, he both calleth Christ the builder of his house, in those words, 'he that built the house'; and adds, ver. 4, that whereas men build every other house, he that built this house is God, ' but he that built all things is God.' Men love to have the contrivance of their houses to be drawn by themselves, and are as curious in it to please themselves, as in any other thing; and so Christ likewise.
2. To build and give directions for the building of God's church, as unto Moses was given, he makes a matter of honour and prerogative due only to God and Christ, and shall man arrogate it?
Ver. 8, 'This man (meaning Christ) was counted worthy of more glory than Moses was, inasmuch as he who hath builded the house hath more honour than the house.'
Under the word building, he includes giving the'pattern, for Moses was but faithful in doing then according to the master builder's direction.
Therefore, to give but such kind of directions for the building and ordering God's house under the New Testament, as Moses by direction gave under the Old, about church officers, &c., if men should undertake it, would be to assume the glory. of that wisdom that is due only to Christ.
It was the masterpiece wherein Solomon's wisdom (Christ's type) is said to have been shewn :
2 Chron. ix. 8-5, ' When the Queen of Sheba had seen the wisdom of Solomon, and the house that he had built, the meat of his table, attendance of his servants, and so the rest of the ordering of his house, she professeth she had not heard the one half of the greatness of his wisdom.'
And certainly in God's house, which he hath built for his glory, much more of his wisdom is expected.
And if God, who built that old house of the Jewish church, shewed his own wisdom in the exact particular directions about it, surely in this new house of the New Testament, which in trae glory is to exceed that other, and which is built for the glory of his wisdom, as well as the former, he hath displayed the like, or else he hath imparted the honour to men under the gospel in the framing this better house, which he accounted part of his glory, and so reserved it to himself under the Old.
So that, to sum up this, the apostle doth here at once exclude both men's hands and skill from the building of any of God's house, both because it is
God's house, and themselves but partof thishouse. Andis it not as absurd for all men and angels to take on them to direct (otherwise than by direction first given) how any of God's house should be made and built, as it were for any part of the house to give order for the rest?
It is as much as for the clay to say to the potter, Why hast thou made me thus?
Is it fit for the whole house, or any part of it, to say, Make me this house thus? Who shall give Christ a pattern of any house he hath promised to dwell in? Who hath been his counsellor?
Men love to have the contriving their houses themselves, and are as curious in it to please themselves, as in any other thing ; so is Christ.
And the apostle withal expressly affirmeth, on the contrary, that all things in this house are to be built by God, for so I understand ra, sévra, he that built all these things is God, all those things that belong to this house, which was the thing he was speaking of.
So as Christ, not as a servant as Moses was, but as being God, built this house, and all things in it, and yet according to a pattern, in respect of which ho is
| said to be faithfal.
| We shall annex to these scriptures but one reason for the confirmation | hereof, which is this, that if the Scripture hath condescended to set down a Caap. II.] THE CHURCHES OF CHRIST. multitude of particular directions, either in examples, or in more express rales, about the ordering of government and worship, whereof some are in appearance of but small importance, and might seem to be left to discretion
(as that every man should lay aside, as God hath blessed him, on the first day of the week, rather than on another day, &., 1 Cor. xvi. 2), that then the word hath left a fall and complete direction, as to matters of greater importance.
The strength of the consequence, viz., that if the New Testament hath given particular directions for many things, then for all of like nature, appears by this.
, 1. Because the word of God is perfect in whatever it meddles with.
If it had not meddled at all with church matters, but only given in general rules, then indeed no complete pattern could' have been pleaded for; but having, to our view, set out so many pieces of this building, for any man to say,
Christ hath left other things of like nature and use unto general rule, is to argue the Scriptures to be guilty of imperfection, whereas Paul writing to Timothy an evangelist, about matters of church government(which was one main part of an evangelist's office, and one main argument of his epistles to him before), says, the word of God was given to make the man of God perfect,
2. A divine wisdom of God being manifest in these directions in view thus given, which man's wisdom in the like must not presume to imitate or come near, if God should have given some directions, and left to man's wisdom other of the same kind and use, in this man's wisdom had been made equal to God's, in matters of this nature.
8. Those many directions and appointments God hath given, have a supernatural efficacy and blessing in them, because they are his institutions over and above what is in the dictates of nature, or what reason can invent.
Now if it were left to man to add the like out of his own wisdom, to the like uses in the government of the church, then man must be supposed to have the power or promise from God, to have his ordinances accompanied with the like supernatural efficacy.
All God's institutions have for their object, men's souls and consciences ; so the dispensers of ordinances, the ministers, and therefore likewise the things dispensed:
' Obey them that rule over you, for they watch for your souls,' Heb. xiii.17.
And then for their end, they are to be for the edification of men's souls, andtoconvey the Spirit, 1 Cor. xii. 5, 7, and therefore are wholly supernatural and spiritual.
And the ministers, which are to be the means to effect those ends, should therefore not be left to the arbitration of natural reason or human wisdom, though never so much clevated, as the ordering of a family or commonwealth is, which have for their immediate object but meh's bodies and estates, and for their immediate end but men's natural and civil good.
But if the end of church ordinances be supernatural in an immediate way, then all the means should be supernatural also in their appointment and institution; for between the end and the means there must be a proportion, nothing being enabled to a spiritual effect that hath not a supernatural and spiritual original.
We could not tell how to imagine or expect that God would accompany such media or means, of what kind or rank soever, as the wisdom of man invents, with such a power.
And, therefore, the apostle speaking of all means spiritual (and by a metaphor calling these things weapons, which logicians call instraments or means), opposeth these two: 2 Cor. x. 4, 'The weapons of our warfare are not carnal (or human), but mighty through God ;' and by that negation insinuates, that they must be spiritual in their rise, if mighty in their working.
It is as proper to the Holy Ghost to sanctify any thing to a spiritual end, as it is for God the Father to create, THE GOVERNMENT OF [Book I. or the Son to redeem; and, therefore, for man to appoint any thinz to a spiritual end, is as derogatory to the Holy Ghost in his work, as the like would be to the other persons in theirs.
4. It was expressly forbidden for man to go about to make anything of his invention like unto God's, not like oil, not like days, not like-posts to God's; and, therefore, much more it is prohibited, that man should frame like institutions for the order and government of the churches under the gospel.
What power spiritual or ecclesiastical is.—Of the nature of a divine institution.
—How the knowledge of divine institutions is derived to us, that we may be assured what are truly and really such.
Power spiritual is an impress of, or an investiture with, the authority of Christ, merely out of his will, whereby men are authorised and enabled by commission from Christ, and in his name, to do that which others cannot do; and by virtue of which what they so do hath a special efficacy in it from the power of Christ, seconding and accompanying of it; which also the conscience acknowledging subjects itself to, as unto the power of Christ, for the sake of his will and institution.
An institution is that which is merely founded upon God's will, raising up a thing beyond its own natural or moral efficacy, with an efficacy beyond it.
As for men to humble themselves is a moral duty; but that God should appoint and set apart a whole day for them to do it with fasting, and so have a blessing therefrom, this is beyond the nature of the thing, end is therefore an institution.
The trampets in the wars, they had a natural efficacy to enconrage ; but that the priests should blow trumpets when the people of Israel went to war, hed a blessing beyond the natural efficacy of the thing; therefore those persons were appointed to do it.
To hear the word, it isa duty we owe to God, as we are men, whomsocever he shall appoint to preach it to us, whether he should speak it himself or by others ; but that he should appoint men rather than angels, or rather than speak himeelf, that he should single out some men for that office, and put a special efficacy upon them es sent by him, this is to raise up what hath a natural and common efficacy in it, beyond the nature of the thing; and as it dependeth merely upon his will, so it hath a special institution in it, because of a special efficacy accom- ' panying it.
| Institutions are not only express commands in the letter of them; for examples and promises, hints and implicit intimations, may hold forth the | will of Christ.
Neither is everything that is the will and command ofChrist | an institution; but it must be judged to be distinguished from other com- | mands by the matter of it.
If anything be taken out from the course of | natare, from the course of God's providence, or from the common law of nature, and be peculiarly raised up above other things of its rank, to have a special force and efficacy in it; then if the will of Christ be declared concerning such a thing, it is peculiarly an institution, although other things be commanded as well as it.
That bread and wine should signify and convey to us the body and blood of Christ, this is by special institution, because it is beyond the nature of the thing; it depends only upon God's will, to have chosen these elements to do it rather than others; and so they have a spe-* cial efficacy in them.
But to have the death of Christ set forth by way of Cuap. FV.) THE CHURCHES OF CHRIST. preaching, that is not an institution simply as such; but that there should 8 peculiar blessing go along with the apostles in preaching, or with evangelists, or with the ministers, this depends upon God's will, for he might have chosen others.
A butcher or any man could have killed the sacrifices, as well as the priests, or any of the tribes of Israel could have done it; but God singles ont the tribe of Levi, separates them to this work.
To give alms to men as men, is the command of God: 'Do good unto all,' Gal. vi. 10; but this is not an institution, because founded also upon a common ground.
To give alms to saints is founded also upon the like ground, analogous to the other, if to men as men, then especially to saints as saints ; but to make collections in the church where God is worshipped, here it becometh a sacrifice; and then to make this collection upon the first day of the week rather than upon another, this must needs be an institution.
80 that oftentimes God doth take such things as are prescribed by the law of nature, and such things as are commanded upon other common grounds, and yet annexeth some specisl and peculiar stamp of his own will upon them, as they are done thus and thus, or by such and such.
Hence is the distinction that our divines give upon the first and second commandment: that as there is culeus naturalis in tpem, as to fear God, and to love him, obey him, to hear his word, &c., so also there is cultus institutus, which is the substance of the second commandment.
§o also there are means of edification which are providential, and so occasionally will serve : if a man should walk ina charchyard and see a death's-head, it might put him in mind of death; but for a man to set ap a death's-head in his study, continually to do it, this were the imitation of an institution.
If a man went forth and hearda lark sing in this providential way, it tight stir up his mind to think of God or heaven; or if a man hears music, it may do the like; but to keep a lark in cage on purpose, that when it sings my mind should be stirred up, or to have music on purpose to stir up the mind in a constaft settled way, this were to make it as an institution, as in the temple it was, when music was there used.
So as the constant setting apart of such a thing for such an end (though providentially and occasionally it may serve for such an end), riseth up to an institution also.
We come now to consider the ways whereby institutions are delivered unto us by Christ, or made known to us.
Institutions are but the will of Christ, declared concerning such things as are exercised abovedhe common nature of them, to a further spiritual end.
Therefore the declaring the will of God about them, holds in common with the declaration of God's will in other commands.
It doth differ only in the matter, that the matter of institutions are such things as are exercised above the common nature to some spiritual end and efficacy.
In the delivery of these, Jesus Christ is as faithful as Moses was, though he hath not delivered them in the New Testament, in written Scripture, as in a body of laws formed up by themselves as Moses did; with express positive directions, by way of command, as the law of Moses is given.
There is a double reason of it.
1. Because the Jews they needed much more express holdings forth of all their laws, because they were in the infancy of the church; therefore God dealt with them accordingly, in giving here a line, and there a line, and it was necessary to that state ; and yet, even their system of laws is in many things obscure.
There are many cases which the rabbins make in the interpretation of the ceremonial law, which have a great deal of difficulty in them.
2. But the chief reason is this: because (as was hinted afore) Moses his law was given to a church and nation formed up, and that by writing from THE GOVERNMENT OF (Boos L the first.
But the apostles did not so; they delivered these rules to the churches by way of tradition, 1 Cor. xi. 1.
They converted men by preaching, and formed up churches, and settled government and order amongst them, as well as faith.
And it was the pleasure and mind of the Holy Ghost to leave to posterity those rules which the apostles expressly gave out to , churches then by word of mouth, to leave them, I say, to posterity in writing, by hinting what practices were in churches, recorded in the Epistles and in the Acts; so as what was delivered to them in a way of command positively, is traducedtous by way ofexample, how churches were then governed.*
Therefore, suitably the apostle saith, 'we have no such custom, nor the churches of God,' 1 Cor. xi. 16.
And those customs of the churches were traduced and derived down to us; and unto this day, the vestigia of them all hath (though with superadditions and perversions) remained in the church of Rome ; so as we have both the hints and practices of the primitive times, and also those footsteps remaining in the churches to this day.
1. Now, such institutions as those, they are sometimes delivered to us in promises, and we may gather them by the promises that are made to things above their natural efficacy.
And when we find such promises, although we have it not in express letter, You shall do thus or thus; yet to such things ag we find promises made, which are above the natural efficacy of them, we may warrantably argue their institution; as for the sentence the church shall give, the promise being, ' whose sins you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven,' Mat. xviii. 18, John xx. 28, which is beyond the efficacy of the sentence of men upon earth, this evidently argueth a church, and their sentence, to be by institution.
And so also when Christ saith, ' Where two or three are gathered together in my name, I will be in the midst of them,'
Mat. xviii. 20, this implies that the gathering together in his name is an institution, for there is a special promise of his being in the midst of them; and this being spoken upon occasion of his mentioning a church, is evidently, therefore, the institution of a church.
Obj. If you will make everything a promise is made to, to be an institution, we shall then have too many institutions.
| Ans. We do not make everything a promise is made to an institution.
| Promises are made to the people of God, but institutions are in this case to be distinguished from all things else by the matter. However, promises are
| the declaration of God's will, be they made to what things soever ; and if they fall upon such things as are raised up above natural and common efficacy, with promise of a supernatural power to accompany them, then they are institutions.
If that promises be made to any action, as, to 'honour thy ' father and mother, that thy days may be long,' &c., then that action is a ' duty, although there were no commandment for it, only it is not an institation, because there is not a supernatural spiritual efficacy put upon it.
So, if promises be made to the people of God, the people of God be not an institution indeed, but it argues that they are the people of God: it doth separate them from the rest of the world; but if it falleth upon actions, or ' things, or persons raising them up to have a spiritual efficacy unto others above their natures, then it is an institution.
2. These institutions are sometimes declared by implicit directions, as when the apostle saith, 'Do not ye judge them that are within?' 1 Cor. v. 12,
® Tt were a good project to add in every particular how that there is no particular | that we stand for, but there is a vestigium of it left in some of those churches, and to give instances still all along of all the particulars, and so as to prove every one first by Scripture; 2, by consonancy to spiritual reason; and, 8, by the opinion of the \ reformed churches, &v. ; 80, 4, by the footsteps of them in all churches.
| Cuap. IV.] THE CHURCHES OF CHRIST. that is, Have not you power amongst you?
It is but an implicit institution, but it holds forth that there had been an institution and commission of power given them; he takes it for granted; and so the like should be amongst us. So when he saith to the Corinthians also, ' When ye are gathered together, deliver such an one to Satan,' 1 Cor. v. 8-5, making it their sin that they did not, it implies there was therefore a law that had been given them, or else there had been no transgression.
Thus, by the same kind of arguing, we find a promise in Seripture to be argued even out of a threatening ; 80 Heb. iv. 6, 'If they shall enter into my rest.'
Hence the apostle argues "some shall enter in.'
8. When there is a commission of power given, there is a declared institation, as in those words, ' What you bind shall be bound, go and teach all nations ;' therefore there is an institution of a church in Mat. xviii. 18-20, for there is a commission given to bind.
And if apostolical power be an institution by virtue of that in John xx. 28, ' Whose sins ye remit are remitted,'
&c., then here also, by virtue of these words, ' If thy brother offend, tell the charch,' ¢ Ifthou wilt circumcise thyself and thy seed, I will bless thee' ; 'Obey them that wateh over your souls,' there is an institution
; for it doth not only hold that every Christian should obey the minister he is under, but thathe should be under his ministry, and that the minister should watch over him.
4. There are virtual institutions as well as formal; for the consequence which argues God's will, be it in one thing as well as in another, is as truly the word as in the express letter of it.
So many points of doctrine are demonstrated,as the case of the resurrection of Christ the third day, and Jesus Christ's proof of the resurrection, by the instance of God's being the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; and as one truth may be gathered out of another, go one institution may be gathered out of another, for they are both but the declarations of God's will.
And if there be a necessary consequence, that if there be such an institution there must be likewise this, that it is God's will that such a thing must be, then that is to be taken for an institution also.
When, therefore, many things that God hath instituted, being put altogether, do necessarily infer something else, then that also in an institution.
As if that God hath appointed officers and overseers, limited to a flock by a special relation, over whom God hath made them overseers, then that there should be a flock, and that that flock should have its bounds which they have relation to, must be by institution also.
If when they are gathered together they must deliver to Satan, and they must gather together to excommunicate And deliver to Satan, and this delivering to Satan be by institution, then their meeting also.
As the conclusion is rightly fetched out of a major and minor, go if there be several particulars which, put together, supposeth some fourth or fifth thing, then God hath instituted that thing ; if it be such as is not necessarily in nature, but dependeth upon the institution of his will.
As if he hath commanded men to assemble and meet, to tarry one for another till they meet, and that if any of them sin they should cast them out, and that their power reacheth to them that are within, this necessarily implies that this company thus meeting are a church by institution in relation to such meetings.
If a king did write to a town to do all such things as an incorporate town useth to do, if such and such offences fall out amongst them to jndge them that are within, would not this be evidently a charter to them to make them an incorporate town?
As lords are made lords being called up by a writ, so here ; therefore all such directions as we find in the epistles, as in 1 Cor. v., to do thus and thus, implies them to | .
THE GOVERNMENT OF [Boox I. be incorporate bodies, which incorporation depends as much upon God's will as the acts themselves which they are to do being 80 incorporated do.
And perhaps the synagogues under the Old Testament, though we do not read when they were instituted by express command or law, as for making of the temple and the like there is, yet was derived out of the general charter for their meetings in the temple, and every seventh year to read the word, as less leases are by parcels made out of a greater lease; and so they were by institution consequentially.
5. Institutions are made known by prophecies in the Old Testament concerning the times of the gospel. As that upon every assembly there should be aclond, that the day of Christ's resurrection should be the Christian Sabbath,
' This is the day that the Lord hath made,' Ps. exviii. 24. Or appointed by prophecy ; he had said, ' To-day, ifye will hear his voice,' in another psalm, and if not, that they should not enter into his rest, and this in Heb. iv. 8, 4 is by the apostle made an institution of the Christian Sabbath.
He hath appointed, saith the apostle, another day, in opposition to the seventh day, which he had spokenofin the 5th and 6thverses ; soClement answerably inhis epistle, speaking ofthe institution ofthe offices ofbishops and deacons, quoteth the prophecy in Isa. Ix. 17 out of the Septuagint, as then it was; neither, saith he, is this a new institution, but many years afore it was thus written of bishops and deacons.
§o also in the applying of types, we may discover what is an institution of God, but then we must find them so applied.*
If we find them warrantably applied by the Holy Ghost in the New Testament, or by prophecy in the Old (for the signification of a type it is by the Holy Ghost, as in Heb. ix. 8, 'the Holy Ghost thus signifying'), we may infer an institution from them.
So when it is said in Isa. Ixvi. 21, I will take of them for priests and for Levites, it implies that there should be these two ranks and sorts of officers in the New Testament, answerable to those two in the Old, for ordinary officers, as indeed there are, viz., bishops and deacons.
6. We may be assured what is of divine institution by parallel reason between things of a kind and of a like nature; as, for example, God having appointed baptism a sacrament, and the Lord's supper a sacrament, these being things of a kind.
If he hath bidden and appointed ministers by institution to baptize, the reason is good that therefore they should have power to administer the Lord's supper, although there is no instance in Scriptare for it; so ifhe have given them power to be the mouth of God in preaching to the people, then also that they should be the mouth of the people to God in prayer, we finding that public prayer is appointed as well as preaching, although we have not one instance in the New Testament that the officers of the church did perform public prayer.
§o also God hath appointed deacons, and he hath appointed elders; he hath appointed deacons to be set up by choice, and the elders to be set up by choice.
We find that the people did choose their deacons; we warrantably argue therefore they may choose their elders.
In things that are thus of a like reason, we argue from one to the other in other cases, as, for instance (since to us Christians it is not the judicial and ceremonial, but the moral law which is obligatory), how do we know, and why do we take the Levitical law for ' degrees prohibited in marriage? Lev. xviii.
Because we find in 1 Cor. vy. 1 one of those degrees forbidden in the New Testament, viz. for one to have his father's wife; and therefore all the rest, although we have no warrant in © Ka) retire ob naas' ix vag th werrey Keira lylygawee wig) Ieieniorwr, na) Bieexdver. sBrms ying wev Alyus h yQegn, Kerascien cous ievensweus ducer by Binaseocen, wal eovg Suaxdvors durin iy wieru.—Clem. epist. ad Corinth. p.55; edit. Patr. Juni. Oxon. 1633.
| Cuar. IV.] THE CHURCHES OF OHRIST.
Scripture for every particular degree.
Also in that law the letter of it only forbiddeth the aunt to marry the nephew, the popish divines have argued that yet it is lawfal for the uncle to marry the niece; whereas, on the contrary, by a parity of reason it is unlawful, for it is all of a like kind, as the same way from Thebes to Athens that is from Athens to Thebes; the one therefore being forbidden to marry because they are nigh akin, since the other is of as nigh akin, therefore the law holds in the one as well as in the other.
Sounder the New Testament we have days of fasting set apart as well as in the Old, for the same moral grounds, but we have no one instance of a day of thanksgiving in the New Testament; but these being parallel ordinances (for as thanksgiving and humbling of a man's self before God for sin are parallel duties, 80 to have a day of thanksgiving and a day of fasting are parallel ordinances), therefore since we find the one in the New Testament, and find both in the Old, we may argue the other from this one.
Butthen, that we may argue rightly, the things must be collateral, and of a kind, as the Lord's supper and baptism are both sacraments, elders and deacons are both officers of the church; they are things co-ordinate, ejusdem ordinis, and 80 We may argue from one to the other in things that may be supposed common to both, and is not upon a peculiar reason restrained to one.
But otherwise for things that are subordinate, as we may call them, and of another kind, there par ratio will not make an institution, for then it is not par ratio, because it is not inter paria, or things co-ordinate.
As we can by no means infer that because God hath set up an office of elders superior to that of deacons, because he hath set up the office of pastors and teachers saperior to that of ruling elders, that therefore upon a pretended necessity we may set up an office over all these elders, as the ancient times did a bishop.
And so neither will it follow that because God hath set up a court in a particular church to correct offending brethren, by delivering up to Satan, that therefore they may set up an higher court in like manner to correct churches by excommunicating them.
These are not things of the same order, but they are things of superiority and inferiority.
Though we may argue in the judicial Jaw, that if the aunt may not marry the nephew, likewise the uncle may not marry the niece, because they are things of the same order, yet we must not now go and make a new degree forbidden; as is the case betwixt our brethren and us in the Presbyterian controversy.
Reason will help us to i apply the same things in things collateral, but not to institute and set up Concerning the use of man's reason in this point about institutions, we only say this, that man's reason may, by way of interpretation, find out what
God hath set ap, but it cannot proceed farther.
Men mistake in thinking that if God hath set up this, that therefore they may by like reason set up another thing; as beeause that God hath made set forms of prayer, that therefore men may; or as because that God did deliver the Scriptures to be read, therefore men may appoint sermons to be read.
For in so doing man's reason becometh a judge, and takes on him God's authority, in inventing and authorising this, as God hath done another thing, whereas we should be content with God's means that he hath appointed ; but in the other, man's reason is only but as a witness, that applies a thing according to what by reason he gathers God's mind to be.
And there is this difference between doctrinal traths and institations, that one truth may be by reason, better fetched out of another, and more safely and easily than institutions. ' For one truth begets another, and truth is infinite in the consequences of it, but so institutions are not., And the reason of the difference is this, because they depend upon a promise, and upon the power and will of God immediately to concur with ,
THE GOVERNMENT OF [Boos I. them, and set them up.
They are things that are singled out by the will of God to a spiritual end, with a spiritual efficacy.
7. We may be assured what is an institution of God, by examples which we meet with in the Scriptures.
For one way by which Christ was pleased to convey his institutions to us, is by way of examples in the New Testament, without the which, being intended as a rule for us, we acknowledge, that a complete rule for all things could not be made forth.
We shall therefore endeavour to give reason and demonstration, that the example of the practices of the primitive churches are to be taken as rules to us.
It is true indeed examples then bind not, when the story is so written as there may be a supposition of error in the example, as the story of the lives of the patriarchs is.
And also those examples bind not which we find expressly contradicted by a law, or which we find blamed, as that of Peter dissembling, Gal. ii. 11; and thateof John's worshipping the angel, Rev. xix. 10.
But if an example be written as a rule, then it will bind, because there is no supposition of error.
But the apostles' ways in churches, and ordering of them, yea, and of the churches erected by them, are propounded and professed to be recorded as patterns and rules to us.
Neither needs there a particular warrant to make every one a rule, whilst the general one that propounds all to be such will sanctify all.
I shall first prove my assertion, and then shew the reasonableness of it that it should be so.
1. My first proof is from comparing the commission Christ gave his apostles at his ascending, Mat. xxviii. 20, with the Book of the Acts, the title and preface to it, and matter in it.
In Mat. xxviii. 20, this is the commission he gave to his apostles considered as common persons, as the last clause argues, 'Lo, I am with you, to the end of the world.'
His commission is, that they should teach those that were converted to observe whatever he had commanded them.
For the matter of the doctrine of the gospel, what they should preach, he had given commission for that in the verse afore, ver. 19,
"Go, teach all nations ;' which Mark interprets, chap. xvi. 15, 'Go, preach the gospel to every creature,' that is, as to matters of faith, what they are to believe; for it follows, ver. 16, 'He that believes shall be saved.'
But for matter of evangelical practices, what Christians are to do and to observe by special command from Christ, that injunction he gives in a distinction from the other, ver. 20; he speaks of matters of practice, as the word rager, observe, implies.
And their commission is precisely limited unto what Christ had commanded ; he gives them no authority to impose and cause them to observe any other thing in practice but what he commanded; they went beyond their commission if they did.
For matters of practice and observancy, apostles are to meddle with nothing else but Christ's commands; and they are enjoined to teach men to observe all that Christ commanded.
Now, the story of the Acts relating what was observed and practised by the churches founded by the apostles, and so in the Epistles, they giving many hints what were the observations and orders of churches, we finding these, and gathering them into a body together, cannot look otherwise upon them than as practices taught them by the apostles; and if so, then no other than what Christ commanded.
Observations of churches recorded, not blamed, we take to be directions from the apostles, and to that end written; and directions of the apostles we may safely take to be commands of Christ, as well in matters to be done as to be believed.
This gives us a general ground to argue from examples of the apostolical churches.
2. But, secondly, when we find the book of the Acts to contain many practices in and about churches, and the officers of them, recorded but by way of story, and hints of examples to shew us what was the order of churches in Cuap. IV.) THE OHUROHES OF CHRIST. the apostles' times, we may be well assured that these were written on purpose to shew what the apostles taught them from Christ to observe; which we gather from all these things laid together.
(1.) From the professed title of the Book of the Acts, which, as those titles to the Psalms, hath ever been acknowledged part of canonical Scripture.
It is entitled The Acts or MgéZss, practices, of the Apostles.
That book contains much of their doctrine, and yet it is not entitled the doctrine of the apostles, but their practices.
And it contains mostly the story of oneapostle, '
Paul; and yet because his ordering and settling churches (as we shall anon observe) was by the same rule that the other apostles all went by, it is called
The Acts of the Apostles, on purpose to consign and give warrant unto those practices as apostolical.
Yea, also, though many things are the practices in churches themselves, and of the elders and brethren of them, yet they are called The Acts of the Apostles, because even those practices of churches were guided by the apostles, and so they are called their acts; and they taught them but to observe what Christ commanded.
(2.) Then, secondly, after Luke had given it this title, see farther what his preface is, which farther declares this to have been the scope and drift of it.
He connects it with the story of Christ in the Gospel, as passing from all that Jesus began both to do and teach, ver. 1, from his example and doc- . trine, unto what the apostles did do, and what they did teach churches to observe by commandment from Christ; therefore he makes mention of the commands that Christ by the Spirit had given them unto the day he was taken up, ver. 2.
All which commandments, and those especially which pertained to his kingdom and government of his church on earth, he renewed after his resurrection, speaking, says he, by the space of forty days of the things of the kingdom of God, ver. 8.
The meaning of which both title and preface, and connecting it with the story of the evangelists, is evidently this, that these apostles being thus thoroughly farnished with commands from Christ, and especially about the things of his kingdom, in governing his saints (all which, whenas he was about to ascend, he gave in charge, as the evangelist Matthew tells us), that therefore they should teach those whom they converted to observe them; and that done, you have the story declaring the practices of the churches they reared, and the ways of the apostles in them, and both as such as were according to these commands of Christ given them, which he therefore mentions in the preface to give a coyntenance to them as rules.
And the language of it is as if he had said, you shall know what those special commands pertaining to the kingdom of God, and which they taught the churches to observe, were, by their ways and practices here recorded, and mentioned as practised in the first churches.
What reader, observing that charge in Matthew, given by Christ at his ascension, with tho title of, and the preface to this book of the Acts, but will acknowledge all the story of all the practices here recorded to be Scripture, written for our admonition, and think this to be the scope and intent of them?
So that although we have not aparticular warrant annexed to every example here to make it a rule, yet we have this general, which if it make out this, that they are written to let us see the commandments of Christ in the apostles' practices, it is enough.
(8.) Then add to this, thirdly, that the practices here recorded of the apostles in the first churches of Judea, were settled generally in other churches of the Gentiles also, who yet varied in language, in fashion, and manners, and government civil.
They ordain deacons in the church of Jerusalem, Acts vi., and elders, we read, mentioned chap. xi. 80, which are mentioned but historically ; and yet we read of the same kind of officers,
THE GOVERNMENT OF * [Book I. deacons and elders, in other churches of the Gentiles; at Philippi, Philip. i. 1, and in many other churches mentioned in the Acts.
Yea, and we find the same practices and officers, &c., in the churches of the Gentiles settled by Paul, that was converted and made an apostle many years after the other, and who learned not the gospel, nor any part of it, from the apostles or the churches of Judea, but had it by revelation of Jesus Christ, as himself says, Gal. i. 17, he immediately conferred not with flesh and blood, that is, with no man.
'Yea, I came not to Jerusalem (says he) to them which were apostles afore me, ver. 17; but I went into Arabia, and returned again into Damascus; and then after three years I came again unto Jerusalem to visit Peter, ver. 18, and none apostles saw I save James,' ver. 19.
And yet he set up the same practices in churches that the other apostles did, ordained elders in every city, and deacons, &c.
Now that they should so agree in the same practices ; that these all here recorded should be entitled the practices of the apostles ; that they should be the same in several churches, in that first of Judea, and the same from several apostles in those several churches, and some of these apostles not consulting each with other; how could this be, but as guided by the same Spirit, and as going by the same rule common to all, which was the commands of Christ?
(4.) Yea, fourthly, as they have thus Christ's commands (afore the recording these practices) for their warrant, so some of them that are recorded in the Acts but as historically done at the first as acts of the apostles, yet are in after times in other scriptures given by way of command.
Now this farther confirms this same, being thus warranted and consigned for the rest, to shew the like reason of all the other.
Thus the first mention of the office of deacons in the church, is but historically and by way of example set down with the occasion of it, Acts vi. As also ofbishops and elders in the Acts often, and not at all as recorded therein with any commands from the apostles
; and yet to shew that these examples are recorded for commands and rules, Paul, in his epistle to Timothy, writing to him how to behave himself in the house ofGod, mentions these offices ofdeacons and elders as the commands of Christ,
1 Tim. iii. ; and, on the contrary, that which Christ gave a precept and an institution about, Matt. xviii., namely, church censure and excommunication, you have it in a directive example given to the church of Corinth, 1 Cor. v.
(5.) And for a fifth argument, yet farther to confirm this, the apostles do in their epistles refer churches and others to their example in the churches, as roles for their imitation; and this in matters of church order.
Thus, in 1 Cor. xi., Paul, when he was to write to the church of Corinth about ordering matters of order, as ver. 84 shews, and also all the particulars in that chapter do shew it (for they are matters of that nature, as about covering and uncovering, in token of subjection, and about their love feasts
| breeding divisions, and eating in the assemblies, and the abuse in the Lord's | supper, &c.), he makes this the preface to all these, ' Be ye followers of me,
| even a8 I am of Christ,' ver. 1, commending them in other things of their | church order; such as these, they had remembered all these things, and | kept the ordinances as he had delivered them; so ver. 2.
But in these | abuses and disorders, he saith he could not but dispraise them, ver. 17.
| Now, in all matters of this nature, as well as matters of doctrine, he exhorts them to be followers of his example and practice in the churches, as he was
| of Christ: so as about all such things Christ gave a command and the apostles gava order, and by their doctrine and practices delivered them.
| We have no such custom, says he, that is, no such practice, and so con- | demns their disorder, by bringing them to that as the rule.
So also in his preface to that discourse of his about church censures to be executed upon Cuap. IV.] THE CHURCHES OF CHRIST. that incestuous member of the church, which you read of, chap. v., and other particular directions that follow in that epistle, he tells them, chap. iv., that though they may have many thousand instructors, yet he was their father,
— ver. 15; telling them, ver. 17, that he had sent Timothy, an evangelist, unto them, which should put them in remembrance of his ways in Christ, 'as I teach everywhere in every church'; the meaning whereof is plainly this, that he did bind them to no other rale than what he bound all other churches to; and that his example or way, whereof Timothy could put them in mind, was that rule he would have them and other churches follow, he teaching all churches to follow those his ways; for otherwise Timothy could not know what he taught everywhere in every church ; so as he means not his doctrine materially, but his ways which he taught every church to follow, as also he requireth them.
So in his writing to the church of the Philippians, his general cenclusion in matters of practice is, chap. iv. 9, ' Those things which you have both learned and received, and heard, and seen in me, do'; what you have received by hearing and learned by seeing.
— 1. I observe, his ways and practices in all the churches were regular and alike, and all tied to the same rule, and given by doctrine and by example also.
Look what his ways were; the same he taught, and this universally in all churches, teaching them to observe it as Christ charged them.
2. He means his ways in matters of discipline and government of the church, as well as doctrine, and indeed those matters of discipline were delivered also by doctrine to those churches.
For, 1, this is a preface to his discourse about matters of discipline, which he enters into in the following verses and following chapters.
2. Therefore he calleth them ways, not way, as being acte and 'practices of him as an apostle; things to be done, which matters of faith are not called.
And 8. They were not moral ways of the moral law, for these the Old Testament directed to, and he might refer them unto the rules there; but evangelical ways he means, which the gospel brought in, ways in Christ, given as directions in all churches.
And 4. To that end he sent Timothy, an evangelist, whose office it was to order things in church government, as appears by the matter of the epistles to Timothy
Add but this, that if anywhere he calls on them to imitate him in discipline, then in these places matters ofdiscipline are meant and included; but he doth this in many places, as in 1 Cor. xi., and the matters of this first epistle to the Corinthians are much about order:
' The rest will I order when I come,' 1 Cor. xi. 84; and so Timothy was sent to establish them therein.
Again, 8. Writing to Timothy, an evangelist, on purpose to direct him how to behave himself in the house of God (this being the chief scope of those epistles, as was noted), he calls him to his example as his rule, as one that had known his doctrine, manners, life, &c.: 2 Tim. iii. 10, 'But thou hast fully known my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, long-suffering, charity, patience.'
The word is, ragnxodovdyxac, juxta sequi, vestigiis insistere, hast followed it step by step.
1. In doctrine; 2. iv r} dywyi, in eonverse or ways in the churches, as that place, 1 Cor. iv. 17, shews, in my platform, or form, or leading, or method ; which may very well mean his institution of churches, his leading or framing them, and training them up.
4. Yea, yet farther, to shew that the practices of churches settled by the apostles are rales unto us, we find him calling upon churches then to imitate the orders of other churches in those times planted by the apostles ; therefore the practices of churches recorded, and not blamed, are intended as rales.
The customs of churches is now much urged in the world to bind others to them, because the apostles referred to them; but the argument fails and differs in this, which is not considered, that the custom of churches
THE GOVERNMENT OF [Boox I. then were apostolical ; and such customs in such churches, so directed infallibly, and recorded then when the apostles were present, we may safely account obligatory, but not customs merely haman.
Thus Paul argues from the custom of all churches, in that 1 Cor. xi. 16, ' We have no such custom, nor the churches of the saints,' that is, thus founded by apostles.
Thus, 1 Thes. ii. 14, he commends them for having become followers of the churches of God in Judea, because they being the first churches planted by the apostles, were most exact according to the pattern.
Of other churches he says, 'Came the word of God out from you?' 1 Cor. xiv. 86.
Now, from the churches of Judea it did.
And he speaks it generally of all their imitations of them, and that both in matters of order as well ag faith, they being constituted and settled in both ; for if not in all things, why puts he not the difference ?
And to shew that all churches in such matters were ordered by the same rule, one as well as another, and that therefore what we find recorded of one church was in like manner in all, the apostle sometimes, in giving directions to one church, adds, ' As I ordain in other churehes of Christ also.'
Thus, 1 Cor. xvi. 1, in the ordering of collections on the first day of the week, which is in view but an inferior matter, and might have been done any day, yet when he gives instruction about it to the Corinthians, though it had
\ been enough that he an apostle gave it, yet he puts this in, ' As I ordained in | the churches of Galatia, 80 do ye also.'
So in giving those rules about pro- | phesying, to speak one by one, and the lesser number of prophets to submit to the greater, he enforceth it by this, in 1 Cor. xiv. 88, 'as we see in all the churches of the saints ;' and ver. 87, 'let him that is spiritual acknowledge that these are the commands of God.'
To this doth that old saying agree, Constabit td esse ab apostolis traditum, quod ecclesiis apostolorum fuit sacrosanctum, That is evident to have been delivered by the apostles, which : hath been sacredly observed by the churches of the apostles.
| 6. Christ calls npon the same churches to imitate the first pattern given them, and wherein they or any swerved, he reduceth them to what they had at first received and learned from the apostles, as containing an immutable rule not to be swerved from.
.Now, if they had not liberty to swerve from them, then not we: Rev. iii. 8, 'Remember how thou hast received and heard, and hold fast and repent.'
Those epistles to the seven churches do as much concern discipline ag matters of doctrine; for the chief fault he doth find with them still is slackness of discipline, whereby they suffered men to teach or practise amiss.
Now the general reason of this, why the apostle left these things in example, is, first, because this agrees with the nature of the thing, for matters of practice and order are as well, if not better, represented in examples than rules.
Men are moved more by examples than by precepts (as Seneca said), as buildings and their platform are best set out in pictures.
And, 2. Con_ sider the manner of writing scriptures, the occasion of writing these of the | New Testament, both Acts and Epistles, and it will appear that this way of example was most suitable.
1. The manner of the Scriptures, even as to matters of doctrine, is not to write methods or harmonies, traths ordered, but scattered, and often left to us to pick them out by intimations and coherences, and this as to many great truths.
And 2. Let us consider when it was they were written.
The work was not first to write scriptures, as having churches constituted to their hands.
Though Moses' case was otherwise, who had a people already gathered, the nation of the Jews, which were in one place, whom he could therefore deliver a law unto, in precepts, yet the apostles dispersed themselves to several places; and their first work was
Cuap. IV.] THE CHURCHES OF CHRIST. to convert men in all nations, and so to build them up into churches, and so earry their directions with them in their breasts.
Thus they did first in Judea, then among the Gentiles; and every one of them (when apart) was led with an infallible Spirit in so doing, and all with one spirit agreeing and conspiring in the same, as by the churches set up by them doth appear.
And many years after this were the Scriptures written to those churehes (a8 Oceasion was) whom they had first ordered and disciplined, and this for the direction of times to come ; and 80, in Writing to them, they hint relations of what was done and constituted among them historically (for the rule was already put in practice, and they were framed and reared).
And so Luke writes an historical relation (after the apostles ha@ set many churches) of their acts and practices; and it was not comely to write a law to such churches, to have sueh and such officers, &c., when already they had them ; bat rather they maintain their officers as existing among them already, and shew their diversity, by exhorting them to their several duties, as Rom. xii., and elsewhere ; which yet, because they were erected hy apostolieal direction, is hint enough to us to have the like.
If they had written to any company in a place that had not been gathered into church fellowship, to ecclesia constituenda, a church that was to be constituted, then it had been meet to have written the laws and rules of it how to order themselves.
But the apostles had already, afore writing the Scripture, cast all churches into that order which Christ had appointed, and by example and precept, in word of mouth, delivered them the traditions, as the apostle speaks, 1 Cor. xi. 2.
And after upon occasion, writing to some of them as churches already constituted, he mentioneth matters of discipline, but either historically, as already settled among them, or by way of precept, in such particulars as they were amiss in; yet so as divine providence, that took care for after times, hath given a complete direction, either in hints and records of those examples, of what was already constituted in some churches, er in such those occasional precepts.
And farther, in general, that examples recorded in Scripture are intended as rules, and so are understood by divines, appears by these instances.
1. It is evident in the matter of the Sabbath ; for which, sappose that we have no positive command given in the New Testament (and the command in the Old was evidently pitched on the seventh day from the creation in the letter of the command), yet because we have mention of it by way of practice, and administration of holy meetings on that day,—as in that of collection of saints upon the first day of the week ; and Acts xx. 7, of breaking bread on the first day of the week, &.,—our divines have warrantably concluded the alteration of it.
And therefore we do alike wonder at those that are for church ways, that they should be against the Lord's day, and that those that are for the Sabbath should be against the form of examples in the New Testament.
2. This is evident also in matters of contract afore marriage ; but a hint, by the by, in a rale given concerning adultery, and in the example of Joseph and Mary, confirms the obligation of it.
8. The same appears in many particular explications of the moral law.
All that write upon the commandments, though for greater things of the law they follow the express rules, yet the lesser explications are but from examples of holy men.
Now allow but the same liberty in these evangelical precepts, that for the great things there are express precepts; as for the sacraments, for institution of churches, Mat. xviii. ; for officers, in Timothy and Rom. xii. ; for censures, Mat. xviii; but for many branches, for matter of carriage in these, we must have them out of the examples and hints in the New Testament, and it is all that we ask.
THE GOVERNMENT OF [Boos I.
"4, We find our Saviour Christ, and the apostles, arguing from examples of first patterns, thas: 1. To prove what is lawful, Mat. xii. 8, Christ argues from David's example in breaking a law, in eating when he was hungry the shew-bread (which was not otherwise lawful for him to eat, Exod. xxix. 88), to prove it lawful to pull ears of corn on the Sabbath day, and eat them.
And so, from the example of the priests profaning the Sabbath, and being blameless, Mat. xii. 5, that is, not found fault with ; and though Christ annexeth a ground out of one of the prophets, 'I will have mercy, and not sacrifice ;' yet consider that that law came long after, and these examples were in force long before this law, for Hosea wrote long after.
2. Examples are urged, not only to prove what is lawful, bat also what-is a duty.
Thus the apostle Peter, 1 Peter iii. 8, 4, exhorts wives that their ' adorning should not be that of putting on apparel, but the ornament of a meek spirit,' for, ver. 5, 'after this manner in the old time, the holy women who trusted in God adorned themselves.'
Thus also in the matter of praying twice a day, morningand evening, says Paul: 2 Tim. i.8, 'Whom serve frommy forefathers without ceasing, having them in remembrance in my prayers, day and night.'
This custom to pray so often was from the forefathers, who in the temple did so, and in their houses ; and this is argued not so much from an express command as from their examples.
8. Especially when the first institution is founded upon an example, then the example is the great argument for it :
As primum in quolibet genere est menewra reliquorum, the first in every kind is the measure ofthe:rest, so in this case too.
Thus the law of marriage is founded upon the example of Adam's marriage, and so argued from, both by the prophet Malachi-:and by:Christ also, both that a man should have but one wife, and not put her away.
Thus Malachi argues from the very creation of but one woman for Adam, as a rule for us: Mab. ii. 15, 'And did he not make one?
'Yet had he a residue of spirit'
(namely, to have made more), 'that he might have a lawful and godly seed ;' for which cause adultery and unlawful marriages are not sanctified from the first institution, And so our Saviour Christ, Mat. xix. 4-8, 'In the be- | ginning it was not so,' argues from the practice then.
| If it be said that there was a law, ' Therefore shall » man leave his father and his mother,' &., yet still the law is founded upon the example ofAdam and Eve, the first pattern, that because God made but two at firet, therefore no more should be joined together, as Christ reasoneth, Mat. xix. 4, ' Have
| ye not read, that he that made them at the first, made them male and | female ?'
He argues frem that very instance.
Yea, and he made the first woman of Adam's fiesh, so'as Adam said, ' She is bone of my bone, and flesh of my flesh,' and therefore, or for this cause (as Christ and the apostle interprets it), was the law given, yet so as Adam's example is made the foundation of it, because primum in isto genere, what Adam did then by God's appointment is a rule for ever.
Only to prevent a mistake, we will add these cautions as limitations.
1, That for the great and more essential parts of church order and worship, we have express and direct rules.
As for the institution and constitution ofa church, Mat. xviii. ; for the administration of censures by admonition, . excommunication; for the chief officers thereof, bishops and deacons; for.the sacraments, public prayers, preaching, &.
The examples do only mostly concern the limite, order, and administration of all these.
And in such things, Scripture examples should be admitted for rules, for so it is in interpreting the moral law.
The great things of each commandment concern the grosser sins, and, mainest general duties, for which you have express rales and commands; but for all the particular branches and cases about ; Caar. IV.] THE CHURCHES OF CHRIST. particular sins and duties, it will be hardto fetch express rules to direct men's consciences, but men take the help and benefit of examples unblamed in Seripture, for a decision of them. Look all interpreters of the ten commandments, and their quotations, and you will find it so.
Now why should not as great a liberty be left us to find out God's politics as God's ethies, it being as necessary, if not more, that men should have directions to guide their converse in the house of God as in their own houses and private affairs ?
2. We must be careful that we take.such. examples as are written gnd are not blamed, supposing this to be the rule, that what is not blamed or contradicted by a rule doth bind us. Christ, arguing from an example of the priests, allegeth that for a warrant ;you read (saith he), ' how that.the priests profaned the Sabbath, and are blameless,' Mat. xii. 5.
Henea, because apostolical examples in the converse-in churches are recorded as rules, therefore such examples. of theirs as were faulty are blamed, and took. notice of, as Peter's example in a church matter at Antioch, Gal. ii.; Paul reproved him to. his face, and that upon this ground, because his example, being an apostle, 'compelled men,' Gal. ii. 14, it had the force of an argument in it.
8. We must get characters to distinguish between extraordinary and ordinary examples, recorded of churches and the apostles.
As we do make a distinction of Christ's own example, and of Philip's baptizing out of a.church (he being an evangelist, and carrying ehurch power about with him, and the person's case requiring present departure into a far country), and of Christians selling their estates in the first churches of the Jews, when there were many poor, and of the apostles being maintained. and sent into all the world.
If you ask how we shall distinguish them? we answer; even as you do other things that are extraordinary, promiscuously recorded with ordinary; for the things. distinguish themselves, as 1 Cor. xii., speaking of gifts,he promiscuously reckons up ordinary and extraordinary, vers. 8-10, 'To one is given a word of wisdom; to another a word of knowledge; to another the gifts of healing; and to another working of miracles; to another divers tongues;" here is no greater matter of distinction put for the things, than what themselves afford.
The gifts that remain still in the church are ordinary, they that do-not are extraordinary.
§o for officers: ver. 28, 'God hath set in the churoh, first, apostles; secondarily, prophets; thirdly, teachers; after that miracles; then helps in government.'
How can we distinguish here, and know that we have teachers and government, and not apostles, &c., but by this, that the necessity of gifts for teaching and government still remains, not the other?