He does it by his law constituting the office,—the law in the gospel, which is an everlasting ordinance;—he does it by his Spirit, communicating gifts unto persons;—he does it by his church calling of them, and by a submission to them according to the will of God, and testifying that submission by then suffrage;—he does it by his ordinance of solemnly setting them apart with fasting and prayer. And these, my brethren, are things that we are come together about this day.
This is our faith, this is our warrant; wherein we do not pursue our own imaginations, nor the inventions of other men, nor follow cunningly-devised fables, but, from first to last, have our warrant from Christ. The good Lord pardon us wherein we come short of the preparation of the sanctuary, and accept us according to the desire of our hearts, to do the service of his house and tabernacle!
~John Owen
from a sermon entitled The Ministry, The Gift of Christ; volume 9 of Works, page 435
The Essential Owen 