And the eye cannot say unto the hand
Every member of the natural body is useful and necessary. The
eye, the seat of the sense of seeing, cannot say to the
communicating and working hand, I have no need of
thee:
I can do without thee: so the seers and overseers of the church,
the ministers of the Gospel, cannot say to the liberal and
munificent hands, we have no need of you; for as the one stand in
need of the light, instruction, comfort, advice, and direction of
the other, so the other stand in need of communication from them;
and as God has made it a duty, that he that is taught in the word
should communicate to him that teacheth in all good things; and
as it is his ordinance that they which preach the Gospel should
live of it; so he has generally ordered it in his providence,
that they that teach should need such assistance: nor again
the head to the feet,
I have no need of you. The head, which is the seat of the senses,
and is superior to, and has the command and government of all the
members of the body, cannot say to the lowest and most distant
parts of it, the feet, you are needless and useless; so those
that are set in the first place in the church, are over others in
the Lord, and have the rule over them, cannot say to those that
are under them, and submit unto them, even the lowest and meanest
of them, that they are of no use and service to them; they can no
more be without them, than the head can be without the feet, or
than princes can do without subjects, or magistrates without
citizens, or generals without soldiers.