ust _rule with diligence, studiousness_,
&c. Now what other solid reason can be imagined, why _he that ruleth_
should here have a distinct name, distinct work and employment, and
distinct direction how to manage this work, than this, that the Holy
Ghost might set him out unto us as an ordinary officer in the church,
distinct from all the other standing officers here enumerated?

5. God himself is the author and giver of this office of him that
ruleth, as well as of all the other offices here mentioned. For, 1. All
gifts and endowments in the church in general, and in every member in
particular; they are from God, it is he that gives and divides them as
he will, _as God hath dealt to every one the measure of faith_, Rom.
xii. 3. 2. All the special offices, and gifts for these offices in
special, are also from the same God, _we having therefore gifts
according to the grace given unto us, differing; whether prophecy_, &c.,
Rom, xii. 6, 7, &c. Here it is plain that he distinguished betwixt grace
and gifts. By grace here we are to understand that holy office or charge
in the church, which is given to any man by the grace and favor of God.
And in this sense the apostle in this very chapter, ver. 3, useth the
word _grace: For I say through the grace given to me_, i.e. through the
authority of my apostleship, which by grace I have received, &c. By
gifts, we are to understand those endowments wherewith God hath freely
furnished his officers in the church for their several offices. Now both
these gifts and this grace, both the endowments and the office, are
originally from God, his grace is the fountain of them; and both the
grace of each office, and the gifts for such office, relate to all these
ordinary offices here enumerated, as is evident by the current and
connection of the whole context, see ver. 6-8; consequently the grace,
i.e. the office of ruling, which is of divine grace, and the gifts for
that office, arise from the same fountain, God himself.

6. Finally, God himself is the guider and director of him that ruleth,
here prescribing to him how he is to rule, viz. _with diligence, with
studiousness_, &c., ver. 8. Now we may receive this as a maxim, That of
divine right may be done, for which God gives his divine rule how it is
to be done: and that office must needs be of divine right, which God
himself so far approves as to direct in his word how it shall be
discharged.

Now, to sum up all, he that ruleth here, 1. Is