In his excellent collection of essays and papers on the Puritans, J.I. Packer offers the following succinct account of spiritual authority:-

‘Spiritual authority is hard to pin down in words, but we recognise it when we meet it. It is a product compounded of

• • • conscientious faithfulness to the Bible;
    • vivid perception of God’s reality and greatness;
    • inflexible desire to honour and please him;
    • deep self-searching and radical self-denial;
    • adoring intimacy with Christ;
    • generous compassion manward; and
    • forthright simplicity, God-taught and God-wrought, adult in its knowingness while childlike in its directness.’

Among God’s Giants, Kingsway, 1991, 99f. (Reformatted)