The true nature of a Gospel church and its government

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.

1. 1Matth. 18.1, 2, 3, 4. Chap. 23.7, 8, 9, 10, 11. Luke 22.24, 25, 26, 27. 1 Pet. 5.1, 2, 3, 4, 5. 2 Joh. 9.10.

IF Men would but a little seriously consider, what there is in that care of Souls, even of all them over whom they pretend Church-Power, Rule or Jurisdiction; and what it is to give an Account concerning them before the Judgment Seat of Christ, it may be it would abate of their earnestness in contending for the enlargement of their Cures.