_Of the Subject Described, viz. Church Government, the terms being
briefly opened._
Touching the thing defined or described, it is church government. Here
two terms are to be a little explained: 1. What is meant by church? 2.
What is meant by government?
1. Church is originally derived from a Greek word,[23] which signifies
to call forth. Hence church properly signifies a company or multitude,
called forth; and so in this notation of the word, three things are
implied: 1. The term from which they are called. 2. The term to which
they are called. 3. The medium or mean by which they are brought from
one term to another, viz. by calling. And these things thus generally
laid down, do agree to every company that may properly be called a
church. Now, this word translated church, never signifies one particular
person, but many congregated, gathered, or called together; and it hath
several acceptations or uses in the New Testament: 1. It is used in a
common and civil sense, for any civil meeting, or concourse of people
together: thus that tumultuous and riotous assembly is called a church,
Acts xix. 32, 39, 40. 2. It is used in a special religious sense, for a
sacred meeting or assembly of God's people together: and thus it
signifies the Church of God, either, 1. Invisible, comprehending only
the elect of God, as Heb. xii. 23, "and Church of the first-born," Eph.
v. 23, &c., "Even as Christ is the head of the Church." 2. Or, visible,
comprehending the company of those that are called to the visible
profession of the faith in Christ, and obedience unto Christ, according
to the gospel, as Acts ii. 47, and v. 11, and viii. 3, and xii. 1, 5; 1
Cor. xii. 23, and often elsewhere. Now in this description, church is
not understood of a civil assembly; for such assemblies are governed by
civil power. Nor of the invisible Church of Christ; for, as the Church
is invisible, (to speak properly,) it is invisibly governed by Christ
and his Spirit, Rom. viii. 14; Gal. ii. 20. But of the visible Church of
Christ, for which Christ hath provided a visible polity, a visible
government, by visible officers and ordinances, for the good both of the
visible and invisible members thereof, which is that church government
here spoken of.
2. Government is the translation of a Greek word, which properly
signifies the government of a ship with chart, &c., by the pilot or
mariner, and thence metaphorically is used to signify any government,
political or ecclesiastical. But the word is only once used in all the
New Testament, viz. 1 Cor. xii. 28: _Governments_, h.e. ruling elders in
the church; the abstract being put for the concrete, governments for
governors. But whatever be the terms or names whereby government is
expressed, government generally considered seems still to signify a
superiority of office, power, and authority, which one hath and
exerciseth over another. This is the notion of government in general. So
that church government, in general, notes that pre-eminence or
superiority of office, power, and authority, which some have and
exercise over others in spiritual matters, in church affairs. And here
we are further to consider, that church government is either, 1.
Magisterial, lordly, and supreme; and so it is primitively and
absolutely in God, Matt. xxviii. 18. Dispensatorily and mediatorily in
Jesus Christ our Mediator only, whom God hath made both Lord and Christ,
Acts ii. 36; Matt, xxiii. 8, 10; 1 Cor. viii. 6, and to whom God alone
hath dispensed all authority and power, Matt, xxviii. 18, 19; John v.
22. Now church government, as settled on Christ only, is monarchical. 2.
Ministerial, stewardly, and subordinate; and this power Jesus Christ our
Mediator hath committed to his church guides and officers in his Church,
2 Cor. x. 8, and xiii. 10; and church government, as intrusted in the
hands of church guides, is representative. This ministerial church
government, committed by Christ to his officers, may be considered
either, 1. As it was dispensed under the Old Testament, in a Mosaical,
Levitical polity; in which sense we here speak not of church government;
(that polity being dissolved and antiquated.) 2. Or, as it is to be
dispensed now under the New Testament, in an evangelical Christian
polity, by Christ's New Testament officers; and this is that church
government which is here described, viz. not the supreme magisterial
government of Christ, but the subordinate ministerial government of
Christ's officers; and this not as it was under the Old Testament, but
as it ought to be now under the New Testament.