_Minor_. But the officers of Christ peculiarly stand in such relations to the Church of Christ as imply and comprehend in themselves authority and power for the government of the church. This assumption or minor proposition will be evident by a due induction of some of their particular relations that have such power enstamped on them; as for instance, Christ's officers stand in these relations of power to the Church and people of God. 1. _They are pastors_, Eph. iv. 11. The church is the _flock_, John x. 16; 1 Cor. ix. 7; _flock_, Acts xx. 28, 29; 1 Pet. v. 2, 3. Hath not the _pastor_ power to rule and govern his _flock_? 2. They are _stewards_. "Who is that faithful and wise steward?" Luke xii. 42. "Stewards of the mysteries of God," 1 Cor. iv. 1, 2. "Stewards of God," Tit. i. 7. The Church and people of God are the Lord's _household_, over which these stewards are set, &c., Luke xii. 42. _God's house_, 1 Tim. iii. 15; Heb. iii. 6. Have not stewards power to govern and order those _families_ over which they are set, and wherewith they are intrusted? Gal. iv. 1. 3. They are _bishops_ or _overseers_, Phil. i. 1; 1 Tim. iii. 2; Tit. i. 7. The Church and people of God are that _charge_ which the Lord hath committed to their inspection. "Over which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers," Acts xx. 28. Have not _overseers_ power over that which is _committed to their inspection_? 4. They are _catechizers_ and _teachers_, Rom. xii. 7, 8; Eph. iv. 11. The Church and people are _catechized_, Gal. vi. 6; _taught_. Hath not he that _catechizeth_ power for government of him that is _catechized_? He that _teacheth_ of him that is _taught_? 5. They are _co-workers_ with God, 1 Cor. iii. 9; 2 Cor. vi. 1. _Architects, builders_, &c., 1 Cor. iii. 10; some of them _laying the foundation, others building thereupon_. The Church and people of God are God's building. "Ye are God's building," 1 Cor. iii. 9. Have not _builders_ power of disposing and ordering affairs appertaining to the _building_? 6. Finally, to add no more, the officers of Christ in the Church are not only as _nurses_; "We _were_ gentle among you, even as a nurse cherisheth her children," 1 Thess. ii. 7: and as _mothers_; "My little children, of whom I travail in birth again," Gal. iv. 19: but also as _fathers_, 1 Thess. ii. 11; 1 Cor. iv. 15, spiritual fathers in Christ: and the Church and people of God, they are the _sons_ and _daughters_, the spiritual _babes_ and _children_, begotten, brought forth, and nursed up by them, 1 Thess. ii. 7, 11; Gal. iv. 19: and have fathers no authority nor power of government over their children? See Eph. vi. 1-3; 1 Tim. iii. 4.