A53732:465
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.
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.
3. THAT differing Gifts are required unto the different Works of Pastoral Teaching on the one hand, and practical Rule on the other, is evident, (1.) From the Light of Reason, and the nature of the Works themselves being so different. And, (2.) From experience; Some Men are fitted by Gifts, for the Dispensation of the Word and Doctrine in a way of Pastoral Feeding, who have no useful Ability in the Work of Rule; And some are fitted for Rule, who have no Gifts for the discharge of the Pastoral Work in Preaching. Yea, it is very seldom that both these sorts of Gifts do concur in any eminency in the same Persons, or without some notable defect. Those ⟨p. 133⟩who are ready to assume all things unto themselves, are for the most part fit for nothing at all. And hence it is, that most of those who esteem both these Works to belong principally unto them, do almost totally decline the one, or that of Pastoral Preaching, under a pretence of attending unto the other, that is, Rule, in a very preposterous way; for they omit that which is incomparably the greater and more worthy, for that which is less and inferior unto it, although it should be attended unto in a due manner.
3. THAT differing Gifts are required unto the different Works of Pastoral Teaching on the one hand, and practical Rule on the other, is evident, (1.) From the Light of Reason, and the nature of the Works themselves being so different. And, (2.) From experience; Some Men are fitted by Gifts, for the Dispensation of the Word and Doctrine in a way of Pastoral Feeding, who have no useful Ability in the Work of Rule; And some are fitted for Rule, who have no Gifts for the discharge of the Pastoral Work in Preaching. Yea, it is very seldom that both these sorts of Gifts do concurr in any eminency in the same Persons, or without some notable defect. Those ⟨p. 133⟩who are ready to assume all things unto themselves, are for the most part fit for nothing at all. And hence it is, that most of those who esteem both these Works to belong principally unto them, do almost totally decline the one, or that of Pastoral Preaching, under a pretence of attending unto the other, that is, Rule, in a very preposterous way; for they omit that which is incomparably the greater and more worthy, for that which is less and inferior unto it, although it should be attended unto in a due manner.