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He saith, For an Independent to have given this instance had been something; but it seems strange to him that “I should have given an instance of the power and efficacy of government, as it is presbyterial, and contradistinct to congregational.” This is a calumny against presbyterial government, which is neither privative nor contradistinct, but cumulative to congregational government; and the congregational is a part of that government which is comprehended under the name of presbyterial.
If pastors are to be understood by this term governors, as contradistinct from teachers, formerly enumerated in the text; doth not this seem to devolve the matter of government so wholly upon the pastor, as that the teacher hath nothing to do with it? and hereby both pastor and teacher are wronged at once: the teacher, while power of governing is denied him, which belongs to him as well as to the pastor; the teacher being a minister of the word, hath power of administration of the sacraments and discipline, as well as the pastor: the pastor, while he consequently is deprived of the necessary and comfortable assistance of the teacher in point of government.
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.
Guide, leader, conductor, captain, governor, signifies them all, and is given to church officers, as contradistinct from the church and saints, Heb. xiii. 7, 17, 24. It is also attributed to civil rulers to set forth their power, in Deut. i. 13; Micah iii. 9, 11; 2 Chron. v. 1; Ezek. xliv. 3, and xlv. 7; Dan. iii. 2; Acts vii. 10. Steward, dispenser.
Secondly, In that same epistle to the Parliament, p. 4, he hath this passage: “Will-worship is unlawful, I mean in matters that are essential to God’s worship, which are matters of duty; as for circumstantials of time and place, except the Sabbath, which are matters of liberty, in these the commonwealth may vote, &c.; and this is your Christian liberty, that in matters of liberty ye make rules and laws to yourselves, not crossing the ends that you are tied to in duty.” And is the Sabbath only a circumstantial of time contradistinct from matters of duty?
Membership is not enough, unless that power of rule be superadded thereto; for the whole office of the ruling elder is contained in the matter of rule; take away rule, you destroy the very office. Now, rule belongs not to every member: "Salute all them that have the rule over you, and all the saints," Heb. xiii. 24, where rulers and saints are made contradistinct to one another.
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