A53732:406
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 6: Of the Office of Teachers in the Church, or an Enquiry into the State, Condition, and W…
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.
THE Lord Christ hath given unto his Church Pastors and Teachers, Ephes. 4.11. He hath set in the Church, First, Apostles, Secondarily, Prophets, Thirdly, Teachers, 1 Cor. 12.28. In the Church that was at Antioch there were Prophets and Teachers, Act. 13.1. And their Work is both described and assigned unto them, as we shall see afterwards.
BUT the thoughts of learned Men, about those who in the Scripture are called Teachers, are very various; nor is the Determination of their State and Condition easy or obvious, as we shall find in our Enquiry.
BUT the thoughts of learned Men, about those who in the Scripture are called Teachers, are very various; nor is the Determination of their State and Condition easie or obvious, as we shall find in our Enquiry.
IF there were originally a distinct Office of Teachers in the Church, it was lost for many Ages: But yet there was always a Shadow or Appearance of it retained, First in public Catechists, and then in Doctors or Professors of Theology in the Schools belonging unto any Church. But this, as unto the Title of Doctor or Teacher, is but a late Invention. For the occasion of it rose about the year of Christ, 1135. Lotharius the Emperor having found in Italy a Copy of the Roman Civil Law, and being greatly taken with it, he Ordained that it should be publicly Taught and Expounded in the Schools. This he began by the direction of Imerius, his Chancellor at Bononia; and to give encouragement unto this Employment, they Ordained, that those who were the public Professors of it should be solemnly created Doctors, of whom Bulgarus Hugolinus, with others, were the First. Not long after, this Rite of creating Doctors was borrowed of the Lawyers by Divines, who publicly taught Divinity in their Schools. And this imitation first took place in Bononia, Paris and Oxford. But this Name is since grown a Title of Honour to sundry sorts of Persons, whether unto any good use or purpose, or no, I know not; but it is in use, and not worth contending about, especially, if as unto some of them, it be fairly reconcilable unto that of our Saviour,