community was
never intended to be the first subject of church government.

_Major_. Whomsoever Christ makes the first subject of the power of
church government, to them he promises and gives a spirit of ministry,
and gifts necessary for that government. For, 1. As there is diversity
of ecclesiastical administrations (which is the foundation of diversity
of officers) and diversity of miraculous operations, and both for the
profit of the Church; so there is conveyed from the Spirit of Christ
diversity of gifts, free endowments, enabling and qualifying for the
actual discharge of those administrations and operations. See 1 Cor.
xii. 4-7, &c. 2. What instance can be given throughout the whole New
Testament of any persons, whom Christ made the receptacle of church
government, but withal he gifted them, and made his promises to them, to
qualify them for such government? As the apostles and their successors:
"As my Father sent me, even so send I you. 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 them; and whose soever sins
ye retain, they are retained," John xx. 21-23. And, "Go ye therefore,
and disciple ye all nations, &c.--And lo, I am with you alway," (or
every day,) "even to the end of the world," Matt. xxviii. 19, 20. 3.
Christ being the _wisdom of the Father_, Col. ii. 3, John i. 18, and
_faithful as was Moses in all his house_; yea, _more faithful_--_Moses
as a servant_ over another's, he _as a son over his own house_, Heb.
iii. 2, 5, 6--it cannot stand with his most exact wisdom and fidelity,
to commit the grand affairs of church government to such as are not duly
gifted, and sufficiently qualified by himself for the due discharge
thereof.

_Minor_. But Christ neither promises, nor gives a spirit of ministry,
nor necessary gifts for church government to the community of the
faithful. For, 1. The Scriptures teach, that gifts for ministry and
government are promised and bestowed not on all, but upon some
particular persons only in the visible body of Christ. "To one is given
by the Spirit the word of wisdom, to another the word of knowledge,"
&c., not to all, 1 Cor. xii. 8, 9, &c. "If a man know not how to rule
his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God?" 1 Tim. iii.
5. The hypothesis insinuates that all men have not gifts and skill
rightly to rule their own houses, much less to govern the church. 2.
Ex