iah, &c., yet hath he no proper, inward,
formal power in sacred things, nor is it lawful for him to exercise the
same; as Korah, Num. xvi.; King Saul, 1 Sam. xiii. 9-15; Uzzah, 2 Sam.
vi. 6-8, 1 Chron. xiii. 9, 10; and King Uzziah, 2 Chron. xxvi. 16-22,
did to the provoking of God, and to their own destruction. (But see what
power is granted, and what denied to the civil magistrate in matters of
religion, and why, Part 2, Chap. IX. Sect. 1.) 2. Not any officer of
man's mere invention and setting up in the church, whether papal, as
cardinals, &c., prelatical, as deans, archdeacons, chancellors,
officials, &c., or political, as committees, commissioners, &c. For who
can create and institute a new kind of offices in the church, but Jesus
Christ only, who alone hath the lordly magisterial power as Mediator
appropriated to him? Eph. iv. 8, 11; Rom. xii. 5-8; 1 Cor. xii. 28; and
therefore how can such acts be sufficiently excused from bold usurpation
upon Christ's own prerogative? 3. Nor the deacons themselves, (though
officers of Christ's appointment, as was formerly proved;) for their
office is not to rule and govern, but _to serve tables_, &c., Acts vi.
2, 3. None of these are the church guides which Christ hath committed
his proper power unto. But affirmatively understand all these church
guides extraordinary and ordinary, which Christ hath erected in his
Church, vesting them with power and authority therein, viz. apostles,
prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers, governments, or ruling
elders, mentioned together in Eph. iv. 8, 11; 1 Cor. xii. 28; 1 Tim. v.
17; Rom. xii. 6-8. These are Christ's own church officers, these Christ
hath made the immediate receptacle and first subject of the keys, or of
ecclesiastical power derived from himself.

3. What is meant by Christ's committing this stewardly power first and
immediately to the church guides? _Ans_. There is, 1. A priority and
immediateness of the donation of the power of the keys: thus Christ
first and immediately gave keys to his own officers, whom Scripture,
therefore, calls _the ministers of Christ_, (not of the Church,) 1 Cor.
iv. 1, not first and immediately to the community of the faithful, or
Church, and then by the Church secondarily and mediately to the
officers, as her substitutes and delegates, acting for her, and not in
virtue of their own power from Christ. 2. A priority and immediateness
of designation of particular individual persons to the office of