d to modern: Tradition of elders, Matt. xv.
2, i.e. of them of old time, see Matt. v. 21. 2. For elders in age now
living; so it is opposed to younger, 1 Tim. v. 1; 1 Pet. v. 5. 3. For
elders in function or office, opposed to private men not in office, as
Acts xiv. 23; and in this last sense it is to be taken in this place, an
office of ruling being here ascribed to these elders. They are called
elders, say some, because for the most part they were chosen out of the
elder sort of men: others better, from the maturity of knowledge,
wisdom, gifts, gravity, piety, &c., which ought to be in them. This name
elder seems to have rule and authority written upon it, when applied to
any church officer; and it is by the Septuagint often ascribed to rulers
political, _elders in the gate_, Judges viii. 14; Ruth iv. 2, 3; 1 Sam.
v. 3; 1 Chron. xi. 3. In this place (as it is well noted by some[66])
the word elders is a genus, a general attribute, agreeing both to them
that rule well, and also to those that labor in the word and doctrine:
the one sort only rule; the other sort both rule and preach; but both
sorts are elders.

2. The officers here mentioned are not only styled elders, but invested
with rule in the church. For it is plain both by the text and context
duly considered, and the apostle's scope in writing of this epistle, 1
Tim. iii. 15, that these elders are officers in the Church. And that in
the church they are vested with rule appears not only by their name of
elders, which when applied to officers, imports rule, authority, &c., as
hath been said; but also by the adjunct participle _that rule_, or
_ruling_, annexed to elders--_Let the elders ruling well_. So that here
we have not only the office, the thing, but the very name of ruling
elders. The word seems to be a military term, for captains and
commanders in an army, _foremost slanders_, (as the word imports,) that
lead on and command all the rest that follow them: hence metaphorically
used for the foremost-standers, rulers, governors in the church. It
noteth not only those that go before others by doctrine, or good
example: but that govern and rule others by authority. For, 1. Thus the
word is used in Scripture: "One that ruleth well his own house, having
his children in subjection with all gravity," 1 Tim. iii. 4: where it
plainly notes an authoritative ruling. Again, "If a man know not how to
rule his own house," 1 Tim. iii. 5. And again, "Ruling their children
and