The true nature of a Gospel church and its government

THE distinction between the Elders themselves, is not like that between Elders and Deacons, which is as unto the whole ⟨p. 44⟩kind or nature of the Office; but only with respect unto Work and Order, whereof we shall treat distinctly.

THE first sort of Officers in the Church are Bishops or Elders; concerning whom there have been mighty contentions in the late Ages of the Church. The Principles we have hitherto proceeded on, discharge us from any especial interest or concernment in this Controversy. For if there be no Church of Divine or Apostolical constitution, none in Being in the Second or Third Centuries, but only a particular Congregation, the foundation of that contest which is about Preeminence and Power in the same Person over many Churches, falls to the ground.

THE first sort of Officers in the Church are Bishops or Elders; concerning whom there have been mighty contentions in the late Ages of the Church. The Principles we have hitherto proceeded on, discharge us from any especial interest or concernment in this Controversy. For if there be no Church of Divine or Apostolical constitution, none in Being in the Second or Third Centuries, but only a particular Congregation, the foundation of that contest which is about Preheminence and Power in the same Person over many Churches, falls to the ground.

INDEED, strife about Power, Superiority, and Jurisdiction over one another, amongst those who pretend to be Ministers of the Gospel, is full of scandal. It started early in the Church; was extinguished by the Lord Christ in his Apostles;¹ rebuked by the Apostles in all others; yet through the Pride, Ambition and Avarice of Men, hath grown to be the stain and shame of the Church in most Ages. For neither the sense of the Authority of Christ forbidding such ambitious designings, nor the proposal of his own example in this particular case; nor the experience of their own insufficiency for the least part of the work of the Gospel-Ministry, have been able to restrain the minds of Men from coveting after and contending for a prerogative in Church-Power over others. For though this Ambition, and all the fruits or rewards of it, are laid under a severe interdict by our Lord Jesus Christ, yet when Men (like Achan) saw the wedge of Gold, and the goodly Babylonish Garment, that they thought to be in Power, Domination and Wealth, they coveted them, and took them, to the great disturbance of the Church of God.