power from Christ, as
will after more fully appear. 4. If no such commission be needful to
distinguish those that have such power from those that have none, why
may not all without exception, young and old, wise and foolish, men and
women, Christian and heathen, &c., equally lay claim to this power of
church government? If not, what hinders? If so, how absurd!

The minor proposition, viz: But the community of the faithful, or body
of the people, have not this power conveyed to them by any authentic
grant or commission, is firm. For whence had they it? When was it given
to them? What is the power committed to them? Or in what sense is such
power committed to them?

1. Whence had they it? _From heaven or of men?_ If from men, then it is
a human ordinance and invention; _a plant which the heavenly Father hath
not planted_; and therefore _shall he plucked up_. Matt. xv. 13. If from
heaven, then from Christ; for _all power is given to him_, Matt, xxviii.
18, &c.; Isa. ix. 6. If it be derived from Christ, then it is derived
from him by some positive law of Christ as his grant or charter. A
positive grant of such power to select persons, viz. church officers,
the Scripture mentions, as was evidenced in the proof of the major
proposition. But touching any such grant or commission to the community
of the faithful, the Scripture is silent. And let those that are for the
popular power produce, if they can, any clear scripture that expressly,
or by infallible consequence, contains any such commission.

2. When was any such power committed by Christ to the multitude of the
faithful, either in the first planting and beginning of the Church, or
in the after establishment and growth of the Church under the apostles'
ministry? Not the first; for then the apostles themselves should have
derived their power from the community of the faithful: now this is
palpably inconsistent with the Scriptures, Which tell us that the
apostles had both their apostleship itself, and their qualifications
with gifts and graces for it, yea, and the very designation of all their
particular persons unto that calling, all of them immediately from
Christ himself. For the first, see Gal. i. 1: "Paul, an apostle, not of
men, nor by man, but by Jesus Christ," Matt, xxviii. 18-20. For the
second, see John xx. 22, 23: "And when he had said this, he breathed on
them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost; whose soever sins
ye remit, they are remitted unto t