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, Ephes. 4.11. 1 Cor. 12.28. Sometimes Bishops or Overseers, Phil. 1.1. Act. 20.28. Titus 1.5. Sometimes Elders, 1 Pet. 5.1. 1 Tim. 5.17. Act. 14.23. Act. 20.17. Sometimes Guides, Heb. 13.7, 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 ⟨p. 121⟩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 Lords 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 preeminence 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 Act. 20.28. the Bishops are the Elders of the particular Church of Ephesus verse the 17. Phil. 1.1. there were many Bishops in that one particular Church, who had only Deacons joined with them; that is they were the Elders of it. Tit. 1.8. the Bishops were the Elders to be ordained vers. the 5. which persons are also directly intended, 1 Tim. 3.2. as is evident from the coincidence of the directions given by the Apostle about them, and the immediate ⟨p. 122⟩adjoining of Deacons unto them vers. 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 Ministry, than this of Bishops. Neither is there any mention in any place of Scripture, of any such preeminence of one sort of these Church-Officers or Ministers over another; not in particular in those places where the Officers of the Church are in an especial manner enumerated, as 1 Cor. 12.28. Eph. 4.11. Rom. 12.5, 6, 7, 8. Nor is there any mention of any special office that should be peculiar unto such Officers, or of any gifts or qualifications that should be required in them;
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, Ephes. 4.11. 1 Cor. 12.28. Sometimes Bishops or Overseers, Phil. 1.1. Act. 20.28. Titus 1.5. Sometimes Elders, 1 Pet. 5.1. 1 Tim. 5.17. Act. 14.23. Act. 20.17. Sometimes Guides, Heb. 13.7, 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 applyed ⟨p. 121⟩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 Lords 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 preheminence 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 Act. 20.28. the Bishops are the Elders of the particular Church of Ephesus verse the 17. Phil. 1.1. there were many Bishops in that one particular Church, who had only Deacons joyned with them; that is they were the Elders of it. Tit. 1.8. the Bishops were the Elders to be ordained vers. the 5. which persons are also directly intended,
