roposition thus explained and stated; consider
these few arguments:

_Argum_. I. The community of the faithful, or body of the people, have
no authentic commission or grant of proper spiritual power for church
government; and therefore they cannot possibly be the first subject or
the proper immediate receptacle of such power from Christ. We may thus
argue:

_Major_. Whomsoever Jesus Christ hath made the immediate receptacle or
first subject of proper formal power for governing of his Church, to
them this power is conveyed by some authentic grant or commission.

_Minor_. But the community of the faithful, or body of the people, have
not this power conveyed unto them by any authentic grant or commission.

_Conclusion_. Therefore Jesus Christ our Mediator hath not made the
community of the faithful, or body of the people, the immediate
receptacle or first subject of proper formal power for governing of his
Church.

The major proposition is evident in itself: For, 1. The power of church
government in this or that subject is not natural, but positive; and
cast upon man, not by natural, but by positive law, positive grant: men
are not bred, but made the first subject of such power; therefore all
such power claimed or exercised, without such positive grant, is merely
without any due title, imaginary, usurped, unwarrantable, in very fact
null and void. 2. All power of church government is radically and
fundamentally in Christ, Isa. ix. 6; Matt, xxviii. 18; John v. 22. And
how shall any part of it be derived from Christ to man, but by some fit
intervening mean betwixt Christ and man? And what mean of conveyance
betwixt Christ and man can suffice, if it do not amount to an authentic
grant or commission for such power? 3. This is evidently Christ's way to
confer power by authentic commission immediately upon his church
officers, the apostles and their successors, to the world's end. "Thou
art Peter; and I give to thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven," &c.,
Matt. xvi. 18, 19. "Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth," &c., Matt,
xviii. 19, 20. "As my Father sent me, so send I you; go, disciple ye all
nations; whose sins ye remit, they are remitted--and lo, I am with you
always to the end of the world," John xx. 21, 23; Matt, xxviii. 19, 20.
"Our power, which the Lord hath given us for edification," 2 Cor. x. 8,
and xiii. 10: so that we may conclude them that have such commission to
be the first subject and immediate receptacle of