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 a member of Christ’s organical body. 2.  Hath an office of ruling in this body. 3.  This his office is not extraordinary but ordinary, standing, and perpetual. 4.  He is an officer distinct from all other ordinary officers in the Church. 5.  God himself is the giver and author of this office. 6.  And God himself is the guider and director of this office:  and then see if we may not clearly conclude,

Conclusion.  Therefore, he that ruleth, mentioned in Rom. xii. 8, is the ruling elder we seek, and that by divine right.

The adversaries of ruling elders muster up divers exceptions against the alleging of Rom. xii. 8, for proof of the divine right of their office, the weakness of which is to be discovered ere we pass to another argument. Except. 1.  This is an arguing from a general to a special affirmatively.  It doth not follow, because the apostle here in general mentioneth him that ruleth, therefore in special it must be the ruling elder.[49]

Ans.  This exception is the same with first exception against the second argument hereafter laid down.  There see.  For the same answer appositely and satisfactorily is applicable to both.