§. I.
Hitherto I have treated of those Things which relate to the Christian Faith and Christians, as they stand each in his private and particular Condition, and how and by what Means every Man may be a Christian indeed, and so abide. Now I come in order to speak of those Things that relate to Christians, as they are stated in a joint Fellowship and Communion, and come under a visible and outward Society, which Society is called the Church of God, and in Scripture compared to a Body, and therefore named the Body of Christ. The Church of God is the spiritual Body of Christ.As then in the natural Body there be divers Members, all concurring to the common End of preserving and confirming the whole Body, so in this spiritual and mystical Body there are also divers Members, according to the different Measures of Grace and of the Spirit diversly administered unto each Member; and from this Diversity ariseth that Distinction of Persons in the visible Society of Christians, as of Apostles, Pastors, Evangelists, Ministers, &c. That which in this Proposition is proposed, is, What makes or constitutes any a Minister of the Church, what his Qualifications ought to be, and how he ought to behave himself? But because it may seem somewhat preposterous to speak of the distinct Offices of the Church until something be said of the Church in general, though nothing positively be said of it in the Proposition; yet, as here implied, I shall briefly premise something thereof, and then proceed to the particular Members of it.