A53732:157
The true nature of a Gospel church and its government
The true nature of a Gospel church and its government ... by the late pious and learned minister of the Gospel, John Owen ...
London: printed for William Marshall, 1689
Title page typeset from the transcription.
Chapter 3: Of the Polity, Rule, or Discipline of the Church in General.
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
THAT which hereon we must enquire into, is, How or by what means, or by what acts of his Sovereign Power, the Lord Christ doth communicate Office-Power, and therewith the Office it self unto any persons whereon their Authority is directly from him; and what are the Acts or Duties of the Church in the collation of this Authority.
THE Acts of Christ herein may be reduced unto these Heads.
1. HE hath instituted and appointed the Offices themselves, and made a grant of them unto the Church for its Edification. As also, he hath determined and limited the Powers and Duties of the Officers. It is not in the power of any or of all the Churches in the World, to appoint any Office or Officer in the Church, that Christ hath not appointed. And where there are any such, they can have no Church Authority properly so called; for that entirely riseth from, and is resolved into the institution of the Office by Christ himself. And hence, in the first place all the Authority of Officers in the Church proceeds from the Authority of Christ in the institution of the Office it self; for that which gives being unto any thing, gives it also its essential properties.