Therefore the community of the faithful are not the first subject, or immediate receptacle of the power of the keys from Jesus Christ.

Argum.  III.  Jesus Christ hath not given nor promised to the community of the faithful a spirit of ministry, nor those gifts which are necessary for the government of the church:  therefore the 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.  Experience tells us, that the multitude of the people are generally destitute of such knowledge, wisdom, prudence, learning, and other necessary qualifications for the right carrying on of church government.