3.  For my present position is due, my good people, not to inexperience and ignorance, nay indeed, that I may boast myself a little, 2 Cor. xi. 16. neither is it due to contempt for the divine laws and ordinances.  Now, just as in the body there is One member.  The Ben. editors object to this translation (which is that of Rufinus, Billius and Gabriel) as inconsistent with the following allusion to the relation of the soul to the body.  It seems, however, more in harmony with the figure of S. Paul, who compares the arrangement of the members of the body to the hierarchy of the Church. one member Rom. xii. 4; 1 Cor. xii. 12. which rules and, so to say, presides, while another is ruled over and subject; so too in the churches, God has ordained, according either to a law of equality, which admits of an order of merit, or to one of providence, by which He has knit all together, that those for whom such treatment is beneficial, should be subject to pastoral care and rule, and be guided by word and deed in the path of duty; while others should be pastors and teachers, Eph. iv. 11. for the perfecting of the church, those, I mean, who surpass the majority in virtue and nearness to God, performing the functions of the soul in the body, and of the intellect in the soul; in order that both may be so united and compacted together, that, although one is lacking and another is pre-eminent, they may, like the members of our bodies, be so combined and knit together by the harmony of the Spirit, as to form one perfect body, 1 Cor. xii. 20; Eph. iv. 15. really worthy of Christ Himself, our Head. Eph. iv. 15.