The Divine Right of Church Government: Wherein it is proved that the Presbyterian government, by preaching and ruling elders, in sessional, Presbyterial and synodical assemblies, may lay the only lawful claim to a divine right, according to the Holy Scriptures
Religion
The Divine Right of Church Government: Wherein it is proved that the Presbyterian government, by preaching and ruling elders, in sessional, Presbyterial and synodical assemblies, may lay the only lawful claim to a divine right, according to the Holy Scriptures
Presbyterian Church -- Government
3. _He that ruleth_ here, hath an ordinary, not an extraordinary office
of rule in the church. For he is ranked and reckoned up in the list of
Christ's ordinary standing officers, that are constantly to continue in
the church, viz. pastors, teachers, deacons. Commonly this place is
interpreted to speak of the ordinary church officers, and none other;
consequently he that ruleth is such a one.
4. _He that ruleth_ here, is an officer distinct from all other ordinary
officers in the Church of Christ. For in this place we have a full
enumeration of all Christ's ordinary officers, and he that ruleth is a
distinct officer among them all. 1. Distinct in name, he only is called
_he that ruleth_, the rest have every one of them their several distinct
name, ver. 7, 8. 2. Distinct in his work here appropriated to him; the
doctor teacheth; the pastor exhorteth; the deacon giveth; this elder
_ruleth_, as the very name signifieth, ver. 8. Compare 1 Tim. v. 17, 1
Cor. xii. 28. As the elder ruleth, so he is distinct from the deacon
that hath no rule in the church; and as he only rules, so he is distinct
from both pastor and teacher, that both teach, exhort, and rule; they
both have power of order and jurisdiction, the ruling elder hath only
power of jurisdiction. 3. Finally, he is distinct among and from them
all in the particular direction here given these officers about the
right discharge of their functions. The teacher must be exercised _in
teaching_; the pastor _in exhortation_; the deacon must _give with
singleness_; and the elder, he must _rule with diligence, studiousness_,
&c. Now what other solid reason can be imagined, why _he that ruleth_
should here have a distinct name, distinct work and employment, and
distinct direction how to manage this work, than this, that the Holy
Ghost might set him out unto us as an ordinary officer in the church,
distinct from all the other standing officers here enumerated?
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