Part 5 (1/2)

As the Scripture is the rule of church government, so Christ is the sole root and fountain whence it originally flows; therefore, it is said in the description, church government is a power or authority, derived from Jesus Christ our Mediator. Take it in this proposition, viz:

Jesus Christ our Mediator hath all authority and power in heaven and in earth, for the government of his Church, committed unto him from G.o.d the Father. This is clearly evident,

1. By plain testimonies of Scripture, declaring that the government of the Church is laid upon his shoulder, to which end the Father hath invested him with all authority and power. ”The government shall be upon his shoulder,” &c., Isa. ix. 6,7. ”All power is given me in heaven and in earth: go, disciple ye all nations,” &c., Matt, xxviii. 18, 19. ”He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest, and the Lord G.o.d shall give unto him the throne of his father David; and he shall reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there shall be no end,” Luke i. 32, 33. ”The Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment to the Son; and hath given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of man,” John v. 22, 27. ”The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all things into his hand,” John iii. 35. ”It is he that hath the key of David, that openeth and no man shutteth, and shutteth and no man openeth,” Rev. iii. 7. ”G.o.d raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, far above all princ.i.p.ality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come: and hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the Church, which is his body,” Eph. i. 20-23,

2. By eminent princely t.i.tles, attributed unto Jesus Christ our Mediator, having such authority, power, rule, and government legibly engraven upon their foreheads, in reference to his Church.

”A Governor which shall feed” (or rule) ”my people Israel,” Matt. ii. 6.

”That great Shepherd of the sheep,” Heb. xiii. 20. ”That Shepherd and Bishop of our souls,” 1 Pet. ii. ult. ”One is your master, Christ,”

Matt, xxiii. 8, 10. ”Christ as a son over his own house,” Heb. iii. 6.

”The Head of the body the Church,” Col. i. 18; Eph. v. 23. ”Head over all things to the Church,” Eph. i. 22. ”To us but one Lord Jesus Christ,” 1 Cor. viii. 6. ”Made of G.o.d both Lord and Christ,” Acts ii.

36. ”Lord of lords,” Rev. xix. 16. ”He is Lord of all,” Acts x. 36.

”G.o.d's King set on his holy hill of Zion,” Psal. ii. 6. ”David their king,” Jer. x.x.x. 9; Ezek. x.x.xiv. 23, and x.x.xvii. 24; Hos. iii. 5. ”King of kings,” Rev. xix. 16.

3. By those primitive, fundamental, imperial acts of power, and supreme authority in the government of the Church, which are peculiarly ascribed to Jesus Christ our Mediator, as appropriate to him alone, above all creatures, e.g.

1. The giving of laws to his Church. ”The law of Christ,” Gal. vi. 2.

”Gave commandments to the apostles,” Acts i. 2. ”There is one Lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy,” James iv. 12. ”The Lord is our judge, the Lord is our lawgiver,” (or statute-maker,) ”the Lord is our king,” Isa. x.x.xiii. 22.

2. The const.i.tuting of ordinances, whereby his Church shall be edified: as _preaching the word_, Matt. x. 7; 1 Cor. i. 17; Matt, xxviii. 18-20; Mark xvi. 15. _Administering of the sacraments. Baptism_, John i. 33, with Matt. iii. 13, &c., and xxviii. 18, 19. _The Lord's supper_, 1 Cor.

xi. 20, 23, &c.; Matt. xxvi. 26, &c.; Mark xiv. 22, &c.; Luke xxii. 19, 20. _Dispensing of censures_, Matt. xvi. 10, with xviii. 15-18, &c.

3. The ordaining and appointing of his own church officers, by whom his ordinances shall be dispensed and managed in his Church. ”He gave gifts to men; and he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers,” Eph. iv. 7, 8, 11; compare 1 Cor. xii. 28; 1 Thess. v. 12; Acts xx. 28.

4. The dispensing of Christ's ordinances, not in the name of magistrates, ministers, churches, councils, &c., but in Christ's own name. The apostles did ”speak and teach in the name of Jesus,” Acts iv.

17, 18. ”Whatsoever ye ask in my name,” John xiv. 13, 14, and xvi. 23.

”Baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son,” Matt, xxviii. 18, 19. ”They were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus,” Acts xix. 5. ”In the name--with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, to deliver such a one to Satan,” 1 Cor. v. 4. Yea, a.s.semblies of the Church are to be in Christ's name: ”Where two or three are gathered together in my name,” Matt, xviii. 20.

CHAPTER VI.

_Of the Special Kind, or Peculiar Nature of this Power and Authority._

Having viewed what is the rule of this authority, viz. the holy Scriptures, and what is the fountain of this authority, viz. Jesus Christ our Mediator; now consider the special kind or peculiar nature of this authority, which the description lays down in two several expressions, viz: 1. It is a spiritual power or authority. 2. It is a derived power, &c.

1. The power or authority of church government is a spiritual power.

Spiritual, not so perfectly and completely as Christ's supreme government is spiritual, who alone hath absolute and immediate power and authority over the very spirits and consciences of men; ruling them by the invisible influence of his Spirit and grace as he pleaseth, John iii. 8; Rom. viii. 14; Gal. ii. 20: but so purely, properly, and merely spiritual is this power, that it really, essentially, and specifically differs, and is contradistinct from that power which is properly civil, worldly, and political, in the hand of the political magistrate. Now, that this power of church government is in this sense properly, purely, merely spiritual: and that by divine right may be evidenced many ways according to Scripture; forasmuch as the rule, fountain, matter, form, subject, object, end, and the all of this power, is only spiritual.

1. Spiritual in the rule, revealing and regulating it, viz. not any principles of state policy, parliament rolls, any human statutes, laws, ordinances, edicts, decrees, traditions, or precepts of men whatsoever, according to which cities, provinces, kingdoms, empires, may be happily governed: but the holy Scriptures, that perfect divine canon, wherein the Lord Christ hath revealed sufficiently how his own house, his Church, shall be ruled, 1 Tim. iii. 14, 15; and all his ordinances, word, sacraments, censures, &c., shall therein be dispensed, 2 Tim. iii.

16, 17. (See chap. IV.) Now this Scripture is divinely breathed, or inspired of G.o.d--holy men writing not according to the fallible will of man, but the infallible acting of the Holy Ghost, 2 Tim. iii. 16, with 2 Pet. i. 20, 21.

2. Spiritual in the fountain or author of this power, whence it originally flows; it being derived, not from any magistrate, prince, or potentate in the world, not from any man on earth, or the will of man; but only from Jesus Christ our Mediator, himself being the sole or first receptacle of all power from the Father, Matt. xxviii. 18; John v. 22: and consequently, the very fountain of all power and authority to his Church, Matt. xxviii. 18-20, with John xx. 21, 23; Matt. xvi. 19, and xviii. 18-20; 2 Cor. x. 8. See this formerly cleared, chap. III. and V.

3. Spiritual in the matter of it, and the several parts of this power: therefore called the _keys of the kingdom of heaven_, not the keys of the kingdoms of earth, Matt. xvi. 19, (as Christ professed his _kingdom was not of this world_, John xviii. 36; and when one requested of Christ, that by his authority he would speak to his brother to divide the inheritance with him, Christ disclaimed utterly all such worldly, earthly power, saying, ”Man, who made me a judge or a divider over you?”

Luke xii. 13, 14.) Consider these heavenly spiritual keys in the kinds of them, whether of doctrine or discipline; or in the acts of them, whether of binding or loosing, in all which they are spiritual: e.g. the doctrine which is preached is not human but divine, revealed in the Scriptures by the Spirit of G.o.d, and handling most sublime spiritual mysteries of religion, 2 Pet. i.; 2 Tim. iii. 16,17. The seals administered are not worldly seals, confirming and ratifying any carnal privileges, liberties, interests, authority, &c., but spiritual, _sealing the righteousness of faith_, Rom. iv. 11; the death and blood of Jesus Christ, with all the spiritual virtue and efficacy thereof unto his members, Rom. v. 6; Gal. iii.; 1 Cor. x. 16, 17, and xi. 23, 24, &c.