duty to such a
ministry) punished with such political penalties, &c. But the donation
of the office and spiritual authority annexed thereunto, is only derived
from Jesus Christ our Mediator. He alone gives all church officers, and
therefore none may devise or superadd any new officers, Eph. iv. 7, 8,
10, 11; 1 Cor. xii. 28. And he alone commits all authority and power
spiritual to those officers, for dispensing of word, sacraments,
censures, and all ordinances, Matt. xvi. 19, and xxviii. 18-20; John xx.
21-23; 2 Cor. x. 8, and xiii. 10: and therefore it is not safe for any
creature to intrude upon this prerogative royal of Christ to give any
power to any officer of the Church. None can give what he has not.

CHAPTER VII.

_Of the several Parts or Acts of this power of Church Government,
wherein it puts forth itself in the Church._

Thus far of the special kind or peculiar nature of this authority; now
to the several parts or acts of this power which the description
comprehends in these expressions, (in dispensing the word, seals,
censures, and all other ordinances of Christ.) The evangelical
ordinances which Christ has set up in his church are many; and all of
them by divine right that Christ sets up. Take both the enumeration of
ordinances and the divine right thereof severally, as followeth.

Jesus Christ our Mediator hath instituted and appointed these ensuing
administrations to be standing and perpetual ordinances in his church:
which ordinances for method sake may be reduced into two heads,
according to the distribution of the keys formerly laid down, (chap.
III.,) viz., ordinances appertaining, 1st, To the key of order or of
doctrine; 2d, To the key of jurisdiction or of discipline.

1. Ordinances appertaining to the key of order or doctrine, viz:

1. Public prayer and thanksgiving are divine ordinances: for 1st, Paul
writing his first epistle to Timothy, "that he might know how to behave
himself in the house of God," 1 Tim. iii. 14, 15, among other directions
in that epistle, gives this for one, "I exhort therefore that first of
all supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made
for all men," 1 Tim. ii. 1, 2, "for this is good and acceptable in the
sight of God our Saviour," verse 3. 2. The apostle, regulating public
prayers in the congregation, directing that they should be performed
with the understanding, takes it for granted that public prayer was an
ordinance of Christ. "If