2. From the plenty of ministers and preachers in the church of Corinth,
it is evident it was a presbyterial church, and not only a single
congregation; for to what end should there be many laborers in a little
harvest, many teachers over one single congregation? &c. That there were
many preachers at Corinth is plain: For, 1. Paul himself was the
master-builder there that laid the foundation of that church, 1 Cor.
iii. 10, their spiritual father; "In Christ Jesus I have begotten you
through the gospel," 1 Cor. iv. 15. And he stayed with them _one year
and a half_, Acts xviii. II. 2. While the apostle sharply taxeth them as
guilty of schism and division for their carnal crying up of their
several teachers: some doting upon one, some upon another, some upon a
third, &c. "Every one of you saith, I am of Paul, and I of Apollos, and
I of Cephas, and I of Christ," 1 Cor. i. 12. Doth not this intimate that
they had plenty of preachers, and these preachers had their several
followers, so prizing some of them as to undervalue the rest? and was
this likely to be without several congregations into which they were
divided? 3. When the apostle saith, "Though ye have ten thousand
instructors in Christ, yet have ye not many fathers," 1 Cor. v. 15;
though his words be hyperbolical, yet they imply that they had great
store of teachers and preachers. 4. We have mention of many prophets in
the church of Corinth: "Let the prophets speak two or three, and let the
other judge--And the spirits of the prophets are subject to the
prophets," 1 Cor. xiv. 20, 31. Here are _prophets_ speaking _two or
three_; and prophets judging of their doctrine, which sure were more
than they that were judged; it being unreasonable for the minor part to
pass judgement upon the major part. And though these prophets had
extraordinary gifts, (as the church of Corinth excelled all other
churches in gifts, 1 Cor. i. 7,) and were able to preach in an
extraordinary singular way; yet were they the ordinary pastors and
ministers of that church of Corinth, as the whole current of this