Church-Catholike consist only of the elect redeemed ones called out of the world into a supernatural estate and yet the particular Churches which are similar and constituent parts of it consist of members that are 〈◊〉 of them only Saints in appearance and not in truth yea some whole Churches erring schismatical 〈…〉 maâ—tâ—â— as the particular visible Churches which are the members of the Catholike consist of such must the Church Catholike consist of which is the similar integral And though such as are only Saints in appearance and not in truth are said by M. Norton in his answer to Apollonius p. 87. to be equivocal members of particular Churches yet are they as truly members of the whole as they are of the parts and they are so for true as that their external communion and administrations if any such be Officers are true and valid both in respect of the particular Churches and the Catholike quond 〈◊〉 â—â—â—station And it is his own rule Resp p. 88. Quicquid inest parti inest toti that which is in the part is in the whole And again he saith Ecclesiae Catholica Ecclesiae particulares communicant essentiâ nomine Ecclesiae particulares pro varijs earum rationibus habent se ut partes ut adjuncta Ecclesiae Catholicae Ex naturâ ex ratione sunt ut res 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. similares ut mare appellatur aqua ita qualibet gutta maris appellatur aqua Resp pag. 87. therefore they must needs consist of the same kinde of matter as they are both visible A TABLE Of the chief things contained in this Tractate CHAPTER 1. The explication of the terms of the Question Page 1. Section 1. WHat is meant by Ecclesia or Church It is taken in a civil and theological sense In a theological sense 1 Primarily and properly for the whole company of the elect which is called the Invisible Church 2 2 For the company of visible beleevers 3 For the members as distinct from the Officers of the Church 4 For the Elders or governours of the Church as distinct from the body 3 5 For the faithful in some one family 4 Section 2. What is meant by visible The distinction of the visible and invisible Church opened The difference between visible visum The Churches mentioned in the N. T. were visible Churches 6 An Objection of the absurdity of wicked mens being members of the body of Christ answered by a distinction of Christs body The distinction of the Church into visible and invisible is not exact 8 The invisible members of the Church are also visible What a Church visible is 9 The description vindicated from some objections against it 10 Section 3. What is meant by Catholike universal or oecumenical 11 Four acceptations of the word Catholike and which of them suit the question What the universal visible Church is 12 Diverse descriptions of it and quotations out of Divines both ancient and modern about it 13 What a National Church is 15 Diverse proofs from Scripture for a National Church under the Gospel The description of a particular visible Church given by Gersom Bucerus scanned 17 Mr Cottons description of a visible 18 Four Quaeries about it propounded 1. Whether the matter of it consisteth only of Saints called out of the world 2. Whether every particular visible Church be a mystical body of Christ or but only a part of it seeing Christ hath but one mystical body in the same sense 3. Whether the form of a particular visible Church be a particular Covenant 19 4. Whether all the Ordinances of God can be enjoyed in a particular visible Church 20 Which for some of them seemeth very inconvenient And for others impossible M. Nortons description of a particular Church 22 A Congregational Church standing alone hardly found in the New Testament Section 4. What is meant by prima vel secundaria orta 23 The primity of the Church-Catholike in a threefold respect 24 The difference between this question and M. Parkers Chapter 2. Proofs by Scripture for a Church-Catholike visible 25 Section 1. Our Divines in answer to the Papists mean by Church-Catholike the invisible Church only 26 Yet is there also an external visible Kingdom of Christ as well as an internal and invisible M. Hookers acknowledgement of a political body or Kingdom of Christ on earth 27 D. Ames testimony of a Church-Catholike visible 28 Section 2. Diverse proofs out of the Old Testament for a Church-Catholike visible 29 Section 3. Diverse proofs out of the New Testament for a Church-Catholike visible 31 Act. 8.3 and Gal. 1.13 vindicated Act. 2.47 vindicated 33 1 Cor. 10.32 vindicated 35 Gal. 4.26 opened 37 Eph. 3.10 vindicated 38 Section 4. 1 Cor. 12.28 vindicated 39 Two answers of M. Hookers concerning this text considered 40 Diverse answers to this text by M. Ellis refuted 41 An Objection of M. Hookers about Deacons set in the same Church where Apostles were set answered 51 Section 5. 1 Tim. 3.15 vindicated 53 Diverse texts vindicated where the Church-Catholike is called the Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of heaven 55 Mr Hookers answer to those texts considered 1 Cor. 15.24 vindicated 56 Heb. 12.28 vindicated 57 Section 6. 1 Cor. 5.12 vindicated 58 Eph. 4.4 5. vindicated 59 Mat. 16.18 vindicated 60 M. Hookers acknowledgement that this text is meant of the visible Church 61 3. Ep. of John ver 10. vindicated 62 Chapter 3. Proofs by arguments and reason that there is a Church-Catholike visible 64 Section 1. 1 From Gods donation unto Christ of an universal Kingdom 2 From Gods intention in sending Christ and the tenour of Gods exhibition of Christ in his word to the whole world 65 3 From the general preaching and receiving of the Gospel 66 4 From the general Charter whereby the Church is constituted Section 2. 5 From the generality of the Officers of the Church and general donation of the Ministry 67 6 From the general vocation wherewith and general Covenant whereinto all Christians are called 68 7 From the generality of the initial seal admittance and enrowlment 69 8 From the external catholike union between all visible Christians 70 Section 3. 9 From the individual system or body of laws proceeding frrm the same authority whereby the whole is governed 10 From the general external communion intercourse and communication between all Christians 71 11 From the general extension of excommunication 73 12 If there be parts of the Church-Catholike there is a whole Section 4. Many metaphors in Scripture setting forth the whole Church under an unity 74 Chapter 4. That the Church-Catholike visible is one Integral or Totum integrale Section 1. First Negatively that it is not a Genus 77 1 Because a Genus is drawn by mental abstraction of species but the Catholike visible is made up by conjunction or apposition of the several members 2 A Genus hath no existence of its own which the Church-Catholike visible
Where the word Church cannot signifie the Elect only nor any particular Congregation or Kingdom but indefinitely it reacheth the whole body though in never so remote parts M. Hooker excepteth against this proof because saith he the Church here spoken of is contra-distinct to the Jews and therefore cannot comprehend the whole company of beleevers through the whole world because some beleevers were of the Jews Surv. c. 15. p. 270. Answ It is true I finde Beza in his large notes upon the place interpreting the Jews here spoken of to be the beleeving Jews and the Gentiles to be the beleeving Gentiles Partibus subijcit totum But then he crosseth M. Hooker in making the Church an integrum and Jews and Gentiles to be the integrant parts Yet he adds as the more probable meaning Nisi malimus istud Iudais Graecis de extrancis intelligere quorum etiam nobis sit habenda ratio c. And all others that I have met withall interpret the words of the unbeleeving Jews and Gentiles in opposition to Christians Or else of the beleeving Jews and Gentiles making one Church but most in the first sense So Calvin Iudaeos Gentes nominat non tantum quia duobus illis generibus constabat Dei Ecclesia sed ut doceat nos omnibus etiam alionis esse debitores ut eos si fieri potest lucrifaciamus So Paraeus on the vers Also Amb. Thomas Aqu. Goran and the English Annotations on the place And the reason divers of them render is because the unbeleeving Jews abhorting Idols might be beat off from Christ by seeing Christians eating things sacrificed to Idols which is the particular offence here mentioned by the Apostle and the unbeleeving Gentiles might be confirmed in their Idolatry thereby and the beleevers both of Jews and Gentiles take offence at it Again saith M. Hooker that Church is here meant whom a man may offend by his practice in the particulars mentioned but he cannot offend the whole company of believers through the whole world because a scandal must be seen or known certainly c. Answ All indefinite negative precepts as against murder adultery theft c. as they are general for the time binding semper ad semper so concerning place and persons though no one man is ever like to have opportunity or possibility to commit them in every place and upon every person So is this prohibition Some might give offence in one place some in another and some one in many places in those travelling times and the whole was liable to offence though haply not by one man and therefore the object is set down indefinitely to comprehend the whole Yea the word comprizeth not the Church Entitive but Organical and combined for they may so be offended and we are not to affront or offend them the greater the part of the whole body is and the more compleated the greater respect is to be had to it that we give no offence thereunto Also Gal. 4.26 But Ierusalem which is above is free which is the mother of us all By Ierusalem is meant a Church because it is that which brings forth children to God which sometime may be desolate and in sorrow because of the paucity and dispersion of them sometime is bidden to rejoyce for the multitude and prosperity of them as vers 27. It â—s also an Evangelical Church freed from the ceremonies of the Law because it is called Ierusalem answering to Ierusalem that was in Pauls time and was in bondage with her children vers 25. i. e. to the Church of the Jews that were under the ceremonial Law and would not forsake it which was soon after destroied The Apostle changeth the manner of this speech from the person of Sarah who was the type of the Evangelical Covenant to Ierusalem which is the Church wherein the Evangelical doctrine and Covenant is preached and this Ierusalem is the seed of Sarah i. e. the Evangelical Church is the seed and offspring of the Evangelical Covenant This Evangelical Church is called Ierusalem and Sion in Heb. 12.22 which text is parallel to this and Rev. 21.1 2. the New Ierusalem The legal ceremonial service did beget all under it to an external bondage and brought them up under bondage especially hypocrites which were not led by the Law to Christ but rather hindred from him they were in external and internal bondage It cannot be the Church Triumphant for that is not the mother of the Church militant that hath no Orrdinances to beget children And though it be called Ierusalem which is above yet that is meant because it hath its Original from heaven as Rev. 21. the New Jerusalem is said to come down from heaven and we are said to be begotten from above 2. Because their conversation is in heaven Phil. 3.20 3. Because they shall in the end be brought thither It cannot be the invisible Church as so considered but must be a visible organical Church because it doth no otherwise become a mother of children but by the use of Ordinances and keys committed to her It is by the preaching of the word that children are begotten in her womb the seed is the word and by the same word as milk and the use of the Sacraments they are nourished in their mothers house and as a mother she educates and rules them by discipline And this cannot be a particular Church but must be the general because the Apostle saith it is the mother of us all the Apostle puts in himself and all beleevers And the 27 vers makes it more plain because the Apostle confirms and explains himself by a quotation out of Isa 54. f. 2 3. which sheweth the calling in of the Gentiles to be of this Church And thus all the protestant Expositours that I have met with expound it Calvin on the place saith Caelestem vocat non qua calo sit inclusa non quae sit quaerenda extra mundum est enim diffusa Ecclesia per totum orbem in terra peregrinatur Luther also saith This heavenly Ierusalem which is above is the Church i. e. the faithful dispersed throughout the whole world which have one and the same Gospel faith Christ holy Ghost and Sacraments It is the Church which is now in the world and not the Triumphant Church To be the mother of us all it is necessary that this our mother should be on earth among men as also her generation is This spiritual Jerusalem which took her beginning in corporeal Jerusalem hath not any certain place but is dispersed throughout the whole world This free mother is the Church it self the spouse of Christ of whom we are all gendred So Musculus Perkins Baldwin and Bullinger Loquitur de Ecclesia in terris ex omnibus gentibus collecta It is another body which is correspondent to Sarah viz. the Christian Church Beza and Calvin on Hebr. 12.22 a text parallel to this hath these words Caelestem Ierusalem intelligit
acknowledgeth Primarily therefore these canons concern the whole Church The manner also of the Apostles speech is to be attended he doth not say the Churches houses pillars grounds to be ordered pari rattoni but in the singular number house church pillar ground 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as if there were but one Church one house whereof Ephesus was but one room and that already furnished one seat one large pillar that hath the same truth written on every side of it which holdeth it forth unto others both Jews and Gentiles within the Church and without more forensi And as Timothy being an Evangelist conversed with many Churches so it is like did the members of the Church of Ephesus The English Annotations on this place are these As the Catholike Church is as it were the whole house of God so every particular Church as this of Ephesus was in which Timothy resided was a part thereof and by a Synecdoche totius may be called the house of God c. The words also of the following verse will lend us some light Great is the mystery of goâ—linesse God manifested in the flesh justified in the spirit seen of Angels preached unto the Gentiles beleeved on in the world received up into glory This is the truth supported by this seat and holden forth by this pillar Doth this concern Ephesus solely or particularly or primarily Is there not a larger subject expressed viz. Gentiles and the believing world All these are the family and houshold of God Eph. 2.19 and 3.15 Again it is the Catholike visible Church that is so often in Scripture called the Kingdom of God Mat. 4.26 30. And the Kingdom of heaven Mat. 13.24 31 33 47. Christ cals them not Kingdoms but the Kingdom And compares this Kingdom to a field of wheat mingled with tares This must be the Church visible in this world because it is where the sower ordinarily soweth his seed visibly and audibly vers 8. which is the preaching of the word And because here are good and bad wheat and tares and the tares visibly discerned after the wheat And it is the Catholike Church for Christ himself expounds it so the field is the world not of the Jews only but of the Gentiles also Joh. 3.16 and 17.11 15. And this must be the Christian world for the other is a field of tares only where there could be no danger of plucking up of wheat because none grew there They shall fever the wicked from among the just And in this field particular Churches are but as particular ridges enjoying the same tillage seed fencing watering It is a barn floor with wheat and chaffe It is a draw net gathering together good and bad It is a marriage where wise and foolish virgins some had oil and some only lamps of profession It is a feast where some had wedding garments some had none Now these things cannot be spoken solely or primarily of any particular Congregation but they agree to the Church-Catholike visible this Kingdom is here spoken of as one and to particular Churches as parts thereof and this is also an organical body therefore called a Kingdom Here are servants sowing and viewing this field proffering to weed it And this weeding must be by Ecclesiastical censures not the civil sword they were not so void of reason as to go ask whether they should kill all the world besides the godly with a civil sword then these tares must be members of the Church else they were not capable to be cast out if never in Here were fishermen officers that cast this net and servants that invited these guests every where in high waies and hedges Luk. 14.23 indefinitely without respect of Countrey or Town That which is objected against this by M. Hooker is that the Kingdom of heaven beside other significations as the Kingdom of glory c. it doth by a metonymy imply the word of the Kingdom and the dispensation and administration of the Gospel in the Churches and the special things appertaining thereunto And citeth these parables for that sense Answ I deny not the several significations of those words the Kingdom of heaven in â—everal places But they cannot signifie so in the fore-ceited places For it is said the Angels shall gather out of his Christs Kingdom all things that offend and them which do iniquity and shall cast them c. can this be meant of the word or Gospel Is there any thing that offends therein or doth iniquity that shall be cast c. Is there any tares any chaff any rubbish there Or can it be meant of the dispensation thereof Should sinful or erroneous dispensations of Gods Ordinances be suffered to the end of the world for fear of plucking up good dispensations Why do we then endeavour a reformation Doth not Paul say false teachers mouths must be stopped and wisheth such cut off It is clear the texts speak of a Kingdom consisting of persons the tares chaffe rubbish foolish virgins and evil guests are the children of the wicked one man that offend and doe iniquity that shall be gathered out of Christs Kingdom therefore they were in it And the wheat good fish wise virgins and good guests are the children of the Kingdom without respect to any particularities of Town or Countrey much lesse of any Congregation And when we say Thy Kingdom come we pray not only for the conversion of the elect nor only for the coming of the Kingdom of glory but also for the Church-Catholike visible that it might be enlarged and have freedom and purity of Ordinances which are things that concern it as a visible organical Kingdom because the dispensations thereof are by Officers Again in 1 Cor. 15.24 it is said Then shall Christ deliver up the Kingdom to God his Father This is not the natural or essential Kingdom which he hath with the Father and holy Ghost as God for that he shall never deliver up Neither is it the Kingdom of grace which he by his Spirit exerciseth in the hearts of the Elect for that shall continue for ever and be more perfect in heaven For the Kingdom of grace here and of glory afterward differ only gradis communionis as Ames tels us here the degree is imperfect then it shall be perfect both in graces and joyes But it is the Kingdom exercised in the visible Church-Catholike in the Ordinances of worship and discipline wherein our communion is mediate with God which shall then cease For as the Evangelical external service and manner of communion with God thrust out the legal and ceremonial so shall the heavenly immediate thrust out the Evangelical But this Kingdom saith M. Hooker cannot be the Catholike visible Church because that consisting of sound-hearted Christians and false-hearted hypocrites these are not delivered up into the hand of the Father that he might be all in all to them Surv. p. 276. Answ I do not conceive by Kingdom to be meant the children of the Kingdom but the
which I much doubt yet he shall come again visibly as the Sonne of man at the end of the world and take account of the managing of these Ordinances and of the carriage both of Officers and private Christians and the elect shall be gathered together into heaven and enioy him visibly to all eternity and he shall visibly condemn the reprobates and every eye shall see him So that this is but an interval wherein Christ though he be now visible in himself yet appears not to us visibly ordinarily though he did to Paul and Steven even after his ascension Yet now he affords visible communion to his people by his Ordinances and they do visible service unto him though he resideth not with them If the absence of the King make the kingdom invisible then Ireland is an invisible kingdom M Hooker affirms this opinion to be not only untrue but very dangerous to hold that Christ as meer man consisting of body and soul is a visible head of his Church And thereupon citeth Whitakers words that Christ did not reside in the Church as a visible Monarch nor came into the world to set up a visible Monarchy Answ I do not conceive that Christ as meer man consisting of body and soul is the head of the Church either invisible or political but as God-man yet that person was visible though but in one of his natures and in but half of that neither viz. his body The visibility of one nature makes visibility to be predicated of the whole person else no man is visible for his soul is invisible It is the meanest half of him that is visible and so no earthly King should be visible Christ is called God manifested in the flesh 1 Tim. 3.16 And the word became flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory the glory as of the only begotten of the Father Joh 1.14 We were eye-witnesses of his majesty 1 Pet. 1.16 That which was from the beginning which we have heard which we have seen with our eyes which we have looked upon and our hands have handled of the word of life 1 Joh. 1.1 I hope these speeches are neither untrue nor dangerous And for his donative power and authority Christ saith of himself Joh. 5.27 that the Father hath given authority to execute judgement because he is the son of man The Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sinnes and that was a kingly action And the Apostle saith Act. 17.31 God hath appointed a day wherein he will judge the world in righteousnesse by that man whom he hath ordained It is true indeed all the vertue and power come from the deity to gather and perfect the Saints forgive sinnes raise the dead judge the world and by his deity only he is present with us now yet as man also he is head of his Church and not as God only for had he been only God he could not have been a sutable head or second Adam but that he became by becoming man and taking our nature upon him The seed of the woman must break the Serpents head The governing power and wisedom of a King is in his invisible soul yet he is a visible King It is true also that Christ came not in the daies of his flesh as a visible temporal Monarch in Davids civil throne yet Christ confesseth then unto Pilate that he was a king though his kingdom was not of this world i. e. civil to oppose Caesars yet it is in this world and external in this world also God over-ruled Pilate to set a true title over Christ on the Crosse Jesus of Nazareth king of the Jews As a King he had all power in heaven and earth given hem Mat. 28.10 19 and immediatly thereupon as a King he issues out his Commission to his Apostles Go ye therefore and teach all Nations c. It is not because Christ died for all as a Priest that this commission is so general but because all power in heaven and earth was given to him therefore as a King he summons in all even the very rebels to yield obedience to his lawful authority but only such as yield obedience and come in are saved by him He set Officers and offices and gave commandment to his Apostles Act. 1.2 And appointed the form of Ecclesiastical proceedings in discipline in case of scandal Mat. 18. And this is no other doctrine then our reverend Assembly hath set out both in their larger and shorter Catechism That Christ our redeemer executeth the offices of a Prophet a Priest and a King both in his estate of humiliation and exaltation Neither can I see any reason why Christ should be denied to execute his kingly office while he was here below any more then his Priestly or Prophetical If he was then a King and had all power given him he did not suspend the execution of it while he was on earth Joh. 5.17 neither doth Beza in conf fid ob 5. art 5. cited by M. Hooker deny Christ to be head as man though he acknowledge him to be head as God also And though he saith that he communicates that degree of dignity to none else He by those words excludeth the Pope c. but not Christs own humane nature by which it is indeed that we come to our union with God All that can truly be alledged in this case is that Christ is not now visibly seen as King with our bodily eyes nor can we come to him bodily nor receive any verbal commands from his mouth as we may from an earthly King But how few subjects have that priviledge in regard of their earthly Soveraigns The legal commands are counted the Kings commands and not his verbal only nor chiefly Yet we finde that Christ after his ascention did in Rev. 2. and 3. Chapt. write a letter by John unto the 7. Churches of Asia and reproves or commends and exhorts them particularly and in the inditing of it appears as a man to John and useth arguments therein from things betiding him as man as that he was dead and is alive again and washed us from our sins in his own bloud c. Object Though there be a Church-Catholike yet it is not visible because it is the object of our faith it being an Article of our faith I beleeve the holy Church-Catholike Now faith is the evidence of things not seen Heb. 11.1 Things seen are the object of sense and knowledge not of faith For what a man seeth how can he be said to believe faith and sense are opposed each to other by the Apostle Answ If indeed we take the Catholike Church in the largest sense for the elect past present and to come as some do the Church-Catholike is invisible Also the grace of such as are invisible members is invisible but that is not the Church we are speaking of The Church we have in hand is the whole company of visible believers in the world considered as visible Secondly
not considered as their particular Officers yet Officers in general And such persons as receive the doctrine of Christ which denominates them to be beleevers are bound to receive his commands also to submit themselves to his Ministers for their edification And though they have no particular Officers yet as they look upon the Church as a society of men and fellow-members to whom they joyn themselves in the general though not as yet in any particular membership so they look upon the Ministers as Christs Ministers to whom they are to be subject in the Lord to receive their doctrine exhortations and reproofs and from whom also if they prove scandalous heretical infectious or apostates they must expect disciplinary censures though they be no particular members under a particular Minister There is a question whether the Church or the Ministers be first because the Ministers are the instrumental cause of the conversion of the Church and the Church of the choice of the Ministers which is something like that Philosophical question Whether the hen or the egge were first for as the egge comes of a hen so the hen comes of an egge And as that is resolved by the consideration of the creation and then God made the hen first so is this question by consideration of the first institution and setting up of the Evangelical Catholike Church and then we finde that Christ set up the Officers first to convert men to be beleevers and they being converted to the faith of Christ are bound to submit themselves to Christs Ministers in the Lord. And because they will stand in need of constant inspection teaching and ruling which they cannot enjoy from Ministers in general as so considered because they are dispersed into several places for habitation and take particular parts of Christs Church to watch over therefore they are to desire and endeavour to have some of Christs Ministers to take the particular inspection of them But we know that at first they receive Baptism not from their own particular Minister or not as so considered for being newly converted into the Church and not baptized they cannot as I conceive be members of a particular Congregation until after baptism but they receive it as from one of Christs Ministers in general and are by him admitted into the visible body the Church and after this have liberty to choose under the inspection of what Ministers they will put themselves See more of this Qu. 2. S. 2. 4. Now before the proof of this assertion it will be needful to explain a little what I mean by one Organical body I doe not mean that there is one universal visible actual society consisting of all such as are accounted or to be esteemed Christians subjected actually to one or many universal general actual Pastors or guides from whom subordinates must derive their office and power and with whom they must communicate in some general sacred things which may make them one Church as the Jews were And which general sacred services or duties can be performed by that universal head or heads and that Church only Such an universal Christian Church Christ never ordained no not in the daies of the Apostles to whom the extraordinary care of all the Churches was committed Nor that all the whole Church should be subjected to one supream Tribunal of Officers constantly erected and continued among them Nor yet to communicate with Christ himself though in some sense he may be said to be a visible head in some worship to be performed by all joyntly assembled at some especial solemnity as the Jews at the Passeover But an habitual Politico-Ecclesiastical society body flock in one sheepfold of the militant Church in uniform subjection to the same Lord the same Laws in the same faith and under the same visible seal of Baptism performing the same worship and service in kinde and though the members be dispersed far and wide yea divided into several particular places and secondary combinations of vicinities for actual constant enjoyment of Ordinances as particular Corporations in a Kingdom which is an accidental not essential relation to them as subjects of the Kingdom yet still those Ordinances admissions ejections have influence into the whole body as it is a polity and the members indefinitely may of right communicate one with another in any place or any company of Christians though every person so meeting but occasionally may be of a several particular Church and the Minister dispensing a particular Pastor to none of them all yea though none of them all be fixed members of any particular Congregation nor the Minister dispensing fixed to no particular Congregation neither by vertue of their general membership in the visible body and kingdom of Christ and of the habitual indefinitenesse of the Ministers office and the common donation of the Ordinances by Christ to his whole visible Kingdom and to all the subjects and members thereof which have a common freedom therein And in this sense the word Church is taken in Scripture His bodies sake which is the Church whereof I Paul am made a Minister The house of God which is the Church Now because there is no such civil society or kingdom that will in every thing parallel this but there use to be some general offices and officers and some inferiour subordinate receiving power and authority by descention derivation or subordination and the inferiour Officers of lesse extent of place and power then the superiour As the Lord chief Justice of England is above inferiour Justices and his warrant can reach all persons in all the Counties of the Kingdom and there be constant Courts of Kings bench and Common Pleas for judicature for all the Subjects of the whole Kingdom though haply it was not so in the four Monarchies this make men stumble at the name and notion of a Church-Catholike visible But as in other things Christs Kingdom is neither of this world not like unto worldly polities so neither in this But every Minister of the Church in his particular place serveth the Church-Catholike visible in admitting members to general freedom in it and ejecting out from general communion prayeth publikely for the whole body and manageth his particular charge in reference to and so as may stand with the good of the whole body whereof his Congregation is but a member And the Ordinances therein administred are the Ordinances given to the whole not as to a genus which is but a notion and can have no Ordinances but as to a spiritual kinde of an habitual organical body and polity as to a sort of men so and so qualified bound up in an union and unity of the same head laws seals worship and communion Now the same arguments which prove the Church-Catholike an Integral will serve to prove it one organical body also Sect. 4. and therefore I shall take some of them into consideration again under this head and in this notion 1. It will appear by the names
A VINDICATION OF THE ESSENCE AND UNITY OF THE CHVRCH CATHOLIKE VISIBLE AND The Priority thereof in regard of Particular CHURCHES In answer to the Objections made against it both by Mr John Ellis junior and by that Reverend and worthy Divine Mr Hooker in his Survey of Church Discipline By SAMUEL HUDSON Minister of the Gospel at Capell in Suff. LONDON Printed by A. M. for Christopher Meredith at the Signe of the Crane in Pauls Church-yard 1650. TO THE Reverend Assembly of DIVINES assembled at Westminster REverend and much honoured Fathers and Brethren it is a received Maxime that publike rights and interests are to be preferred before private and particular spiritual before secular divine before humane Now as the internal spiritual goverment of Christ in the invisible Church is farre more excellent then any other so also his external visible government of the visible Church hath the preheminence above all visible civil governments and Kingdoms of this world And if it be lawful even for private persons to vindicate by humane Laws the extents and rights of their particular civil inheritances and possessions and if it be accounted the duty of good subjects to vindicate the extents and rights of their civil Soveraigns Dominions with their Estates and Lives even by the Sword then much more is it the duty of Christs Subjects by disputes and argumentations to vindicate the extents and rights of Christs external political Kingdom the one being but of civil concernment the other divine the one tending but to a civil end the other a spiritual And therefore I hope none will blame me for appearing in publike to contend for the extent and rights of Christs political Kingdom in his Church here on earth My first Thesis on this Subject was composed for the private use of my self and some few neighbour Ministers in a monethly private meeting according to our custome But being made publike at the desires of others it met with opposition from two reverend Brethren first by M. John Ellis junior who undertook to confute it with other Tractates of divers of my betters that were 〈…〉 the same subject and secondly by Reverend Mr. Hooker who is since departed out of the visible militant Church into the invisible Triumphant the losse of which burning and shining light the Church of God cannot sufficiently lament Now because some things therein set down were by them mistaken and other things not so fully cleared as I desired I thought good to set it out again more enlarged and vindicated from the mistakes and oppositions that it met withall The reasons of my so long delay herein were First because I was the least and least concerned therein though the most tartly dealt withall by M Ellis And secondly because I desired to see some of my betters go before me in vindication of their own Tractates of the same subject And thirdly because I understood by M. Ellis's book and by common fame that there was an answer to M. Rutherford coming out wherein I should finde my question discussed by that eminent and worthy Divine M. Hooker which was indeed sent over but perished in the sea and so was retarded one year longer until it could be transcribed and sent over again And since that was printed the seat of the warre by the siege of Colchester coming so near us we were all in a fear and danger so that I thought it no fit time to attend to controversies and I had indeed almost laid it quite aside but that the importunities of some and the insultings of others excited me again to take it in hand And now I finde a fourfold unhappinesse hath betided me herein First The darknesse and sublimity of the Subject which I could no way make plain so as to be understood by vulgar apprehensions because the handling thereof put me necessarily upon the use of so many latine words and logical terms of art which are not usually understood by common people And therefore despairing to be understood but by those that had some skill in the Latine tongue and in Logick I have set down the words of such Authors as I have had occasion to cite in their own languages in which I found them lest otherwise this Tractate should swell too great A second unhappinesse is that this Tenet seemeth to crosse so many of our own Divines in their writings against the Papists But indeed it doth only seem so for it is manifest that the Church Catholike which they intend is not the same with this that I have to deal about For they speak of the Church Catholike consisting only of the Elect and I consent unto them that thâ—â— Church is 〈◊〉 â—â—le but my question is about the external state of the Church containing hypocrites as well as those that are truly godly in which Church the Ordinances of worship and discipline were set A third is that I am fallen upon a subject wherein I can finde so few going before me and therefore could have the lesse help from Authours A fourth is that I being a mean Countrey-Minister want both those abilities and opportunities to enable me to write of controversies having constant employment of preaching in mine own Congregation and frequently abroad lying upon me so that I cannot attend polemical Divinity as they must that undertake such a work My principal scope in this and the former Thesis is to prove that there is one Church Catholike visible on earth and that Gods intention and donation of the Ordinances of worship and discipline was first to the whole Church and secondarily to the particular Churches as parts thereof And yet I acknowledge the ordinary and constant exercise of those Ordinances is primarily in the particular Churches and a secondary and only occasional exercise of them in greater parts thereof and a very rare exercise of them in the whole conjunctim upon some general extraordinary occasion and that can be no otherwise then by delegated Commissioners from the several parts of the whole when convenible If it be conceived by any that some of the Arguments in this Tractate are multiplied more then is needfull and are laid down more singly then was meet I will not deny it Be pleased in the reading of them to consider them together and I hope they will prove conclusive I finde also by the review of this Tractate that some things are ofter touched upon then I was aware of be pleased to impute it partly to my forgetfulnesse and partly to mine endeavour to follow the method of my former Thesis and yet to answer what was objected against it by others who followed their own methods which occasioned some coincidency And since the transcribing of it for the Presse there came to my hands two other Tractates about the same subject written from N. E. the one in Latine by that reverend and worthy M. Norton Minister at Ipswich there in answer to Apollonius the other by two reverend Ministers viz. M. Allen and M. Shepard
futurus quem praedixerant prophetae priore adventu Christi inchoatus c. Polani Syntag. l. 7. c. 7. Statuimus Ecclesiam quandam vniversalem externam per totum orbem dispersam nobis in sacris literis describi quae visibili quadam politia unicum Ecclesiasticum Organicum corpus constituit sub quo omnes Ecclesiae particulares Classicales Provinciales Nationales tanquam partes totius continentur Apollon p. 29. Vbicunque quandocunque fuerint homines Apostolicâ fide informati Christianam Electorum rem-publicam constituunt etiam fi dispersi in omnes orbis partes Sic Antoninus Philosophus civem Romanum dixit esse quicunque Romanis legibus viveret Ita quicunque Christiani◠legibus moribusque vivis ubicunque sit nihil interest civis est Christianus ad publicum de regendâ civitate Dei consilium adhibendus ut Ecclesiae Catholicae disciplina Catholica sit Ram de Eccles Against these testimonies M. E. saith pag. 5. that I bring the description of the visible Church out of several Authours none of which except Apollonius and Ramus take it in my sense Ans They all imply a Church Catholike and that to be visible and this Church Catholike visible to be one which is all I brought them for And whereas he seeks to blast Apollonius because he was pre-engaged I answer It is more then I know he is still alive and may answer for himself And against Pet. Ramus he alledgeth a clause out of Beza's ep before Aristotles Organ But I could cite much more in his commendation out of others but I write not to commend men valere quantum valere potest I am sure I have cause to blesse God for him Sometimes saith Bifield Church signifieth a company of men in one city or Province that did outwardly professe the true religion 1 Cor. 11.18 22. And so usually in the writings of Divines the company throughout the world so professing is called the visible Church Bifield on Art 9. Catholike in the most evident sense agreeth to the Church now under the Gospel since the partition wall between Jews and Gentiles was broken down and yet in some sense it may agree to the Church from the beginning Idem For particular Churches either single or combined either National Provincial Classical or Congregational it is not belonging to this question to discusse the Queries about them and therefore I shall only set down some descriptions of them positively as they are usually taken by others and give you my present apprehensions of them A National Church is where all the visible publike What a National Church is religious Assemblies of a Nation being parts of the Church Catholike living under one politick civil government are by the profossion of the same faith and communion in the same worship and government united into one body Ecclesiastick or Ecclesiastical Re-publike Two things as I conceive are required to make a National Church First National agreement in the same faith and worship Secondly National union in one Ecclesiastical body in the same community of Ecclesiastical government The Churches in Foance and the Netherlands have the same faith and worship and kinde of government but they are not in the same National community thereof See Apollonius consid cap. 3. Assert 2. Asserimus Ecclesiam visibilem in sacra Scriptura descriptam non tantum fuisse Parochialem seu particularem sed esse etiam Ecclesiam quandam Nationalem unius gentis aut regni quae constat ex diversis multis Ecclesijs Parochialibus uno regimine Ecclesiastico junctis mutuâ quadam communione societate Ecclesiasticâ visibili inter se devinctis See clear proofs for National Churches under the Gospel Isa 55.5 Thou shalt call a Nation which thou knewest not and Nations which knew not thee shall run unto thee It is spoken of Christ under the Gospel And there is set down both Gods call of a Nation and a Nations answer to that call And these two things are sufficient to make a Church Also Isa 19.24 25. In that day shall Israel be a third with Egypt and with Assyria even a blessing in the midst of the land whom the Lord of hosts shall blesse saying Blessed be Egypt my people and Assyria the work of my hands and Israel mine inheritance It is a prophecy of the times under the Gospel where Aegypt and Assyria are promised to be called in to be Churches as well as Israel and are preferred in order before Israel however it is clear those three Nations are owned and blessed by God as three sister Churches Also Psa 72.11 17. All Kings shall fall down before him all Nations shall serve him All Nations shall call him blessed i. e. Christ Mat. 21.43 The kingdom of God shall be taken from you and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof Rom. 10.19 I will provoke you to jealousie by them that are no people and by a foolish Nation will I anger you i. e. God choosing the Gentile Nations and giving them the priviledges of the Jews it should anger the Jews and provoke them to jealousie Isa 65.1 I said behold me behold me to a nation that was not called by my name The Commission of the Apostles was to go teach and baptize all Nations not Congregations only i. e. some of all Nations if they received the Christian faith and the whole Nations if the whole received it Mic. 4.2 Many Nations shall come and say Let us go up to the mountain of the Lord and he will teach us his waies and we will walk in his paths Isa 52.15 He shall sprinkle many Nations i. e. with his grace Jer. 4.2 The Nations shall blesse themselves in him and in him shall they glory And Rom. 4.17 Abraham is said to be a father of many Nations in a spiritual sense as well as a carnal In thee shall all the Nations of the earth be blessed He is said to be the father of us all Rev. 11.15 The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ The Ecclesiastical polities in converted kingdoms are said to be commensurable to the civil Rev. 21.24 The Nations of them that are saved shall walk in the light of it i. e. of the new Jerusalem Zac. 2.11 Many Nations shall be joyned unto the Lord in that day and shall be my people Whereby we see the current of the Scripture runs that God not only would convert Congregations out of several Nations but the whole Nations which also he performed and many whole Nations joyned themselves to the Lord and made Christian Kingdoms or Common-wealths though they proceeded not from the loins of one man as the Israelites did which some make the ground of the National Church of the Jews yet we know there were proselytes of all Nations that were members of that Church and had right to all the Ordinances as well as the Israelites and servants that came not out of Abrahams
probable because of the conceived smalnesse of the place yet it is not certain for it was a port Town 8. miles from Corinth as Hâ—lyoke tels us and Gualter in Rom. 16. saith it was Oppidum Corinthiorum navium statione celeberrimum ideò frequens valdè populosum The clearest evidence is from 1 Cor. 14.14 for a particular Congregational Church Let your women keep silence in the CHURCHES which word Churches seems to import several Congregations meeting in several places to enjoy publike Ordinances by the Corinthians your women and these Congregations are called Churches and yet were all one combined Church of Corinth often spoken of in the singular number But this dispute belongs noâ— to this question yet the present difference of opinions and practices have caused me a little to dilate upon this subject beyond the explication of the term And I understand by particular Churches any or all the forementioned Churches whether National Provincial Presbyterial Classical or Congregational and this last principally for those that have first moved this question mean principally if not solely the Congregational Church because as I suppose they hold no other particular Churches but such The fourth term to be opened is What is meant by Prima Sect. 4. vel Secundaria Orta This distinction or at least in these terms is not ancient for M. Parker in his Politeia Eccles was the first that sprung it as far as I know Primum in Logick is defined to be Quod est suae Originis Ortum quod oritur a primo Secundarium is properly that which is next after the first in order for it is an ordinal I do not mean strictly next immediatly but in the largest sense for that which hath not the first right or first consideration but a Posterior In the Question Primum or first is meant that which hath the priority in consideration Whether in our apprehension of Churches we are to begin at the Church-Catholike and descend to particular Churches or begin at the particular and ascend to the Church Chatholike which notion is first in distinct knowledge whether Ecclesia Vniversalis aut Particularis Whether the nature priviledges and Ordinances belong first to the Church Catholike and secondarily to the particular Churches I do not mean as M. Ellis supposeth that the power of Ordinances go by way of discention or derivation of power from the Church-Catholike indispensation of Ordinances but in consideration for I acknowledge power to be given immediatly to every particular Church therein yet under regulation of a greater part of Church-Officers in case of male-administration The properties and power of water is primarily given to the whole element of water but is immediatly yet secondarily in the particular parcels thereof But the Catholike Church is the primary in a threefold respect First as the Orthodox Catholike Church is a means or instrument by the Ordinances Ministery and members thereof in the several parts and places thereof to convert adde and bring in more new members thereunto and in continually conquering out of Satans and Antichrists Kingdom and leavening the world with the doctrine of Christ Secondly as the Church-Catholike affords matters and members to make up or constitute the particular Congregations which consist only of the members of the Catholike Church gathered up from any place of the world into particular vicinities Thirdly in regard the Ordinances and priviledges of the Church are primarily intended and given by Christ by one Charter unto the whole Church and to particular Churches secondarily as parts thereof And so they partake of the benefits and priviledges of the Church not because they are members of the particular Churches though there they have the immediate opportunity but of the Church-Catholike As a Corporation already constituted by Charter receiveth in free men continually and giveth freedome to new members which come any way to have right thereto and those members have right to the priviledges of the City not because they are of such a street or ward or company but because they are tree of the City So that though I have retained the terms of M. Parkers distinction prima and Orta sive secundaria yet my question differs much from his For he compares the particular Churches who delegate and send members or commissioners to constitute a Classis or Synod with such a ministerial Church a Church of Officers so constituted for some especial ends pro tempore which some call a representative Church and I confesse with him that such a Church may well put on the notion of Ecclesia Orta and the particular Churches out of which these members are delegated may in some sense in reference unto them put on the notion of Ecclesiae prima Yet I do not conceive that those particular Churches give either the office or the power in actu primo whereby those delegated Commissioners do act when they are met but by such delegation they do evocate and call forth the exercise of that power which Christ hath annexed to their office habitually in actum secundum to act pro hic nunc for the good of all those Churches so sending which acts of theirs binde the delegating Churches to submission in the Lord. But in my Question the whole Church Catholike visible is compared with the particular Churches and they are considered as parts thereof CHAP. II. Proofs by Scripture that there is a Church-Catholike visible NOw I have opened the terms of my Question I finde two Questions in stead of one and whether of them is the most difficult I cannot tell Whereas the subject of every Question useth to be taken for granted and the predicate only to be proved I finde the subject of my Question exceedingly questioned and opposed Chap. 2. and that by some of our own Divines and therefore though my first aim in undertaking the Question was to clear the Predicate yet I must crave leave to confirm the subject or else whatsoever I shall say of the Predicate will be as a house built on the sand or a Castle in the air for if there be no universal visible Church then it is not capable of being either Prima or secundaria In handling both these Questions I shall follow my wonted method I preferre one Divine Testimony before ten arguments and one good argument before ten humane testimonies Sect. 1. First then Whether there be a Church-Catholike visible I know that our Divines in answer to the Pontificians do deny the Church-Catholike to be visible as Zanchy Gerard Whitakers Chamier and Ames against Bellarmine and Sadeel against Turrianus and against the Monks Confession of faith and D. Willet in his Synops For they restraining the signification of the word Church to the better part of the Church the Elect only and considering them in respect of their internal communion with Christ their head and not their external communion one with another by Ordinances did deny the Church-Catholike to be visible Nec
their writings It may more truly be affirmed to be the opinion of some of our brethren of the Congregational way who put government into the body of the Congregation whether M. Ellis be of that opinion or no I cannot say and so they are a particular governing body and if all the Churches in the world were of that way as certainly they desire and these Churches might in any sense be called one Church as is confest by all that they may then they must needs be one governing body But as they are now they not only govern their own body but passe the censure of Non-communion against all persons nay whole Churches if they judge there be cause But the Presbyterians hold that governments belong to the Organs i. e. the Officers of the Church not to the body It is for good of the body but belongs not to the body to exercise The Church-Catholike is the subject in quo exercetur or cui datur non ad utendum sed ad fruendum Neither are the Officers of the Church-Catholike one constant collective governing body actually but habitually for constantly and actually they are distributed into several Congregations for the exercise of government there But if the necessity of the whole when it could be or of any great part of the body call the Officers of many particular Churches together which may be by themselves or their Commissioners then can they exercise their office collectively conjunctim yet only according to the word of God And this M. Ellis granteth in effect p. 7.8 only he saith their power being met is only consultatory and suasory not obligatory it is the acting of officers but not as Officers but I suppose he cannot think that consultatory and suasory power is sufficient to cure the Church of the malady of obstinate hereticks whose mouths saith the Apostle must be stopped And though the universal constant actual power of government was given to the Apostles only yet we see they did joyn with the particular Elders in the government of their Churches when they were among them and did also joyn them with themselves in making decrees to binde the Churches Act. 15.6 and Act. 16.4 But fearing lest he had granted something too much in his former answer he plucks away part of it in his sixt and saith that the Apostles were not one joint Ministery For besides that each had intire power some had one part committed to them and some another Thomas sortitus est Parthiam Andreas Scythiam Johannes Asiam c. Answ The Apostles did first act in Jerusalem as one joint combined ministery and did afterward disperse themselves into several parts of the world according to their commission yet retained their power of uniting and acting together jointly without any delegation or commission from any Churches and this power of their 's no ordinary Ministers lay claim to And though the planting and watering of Churches required this dispersion and several lots voluntarily yet were they fixed in no Congregation as Elders are Seventhly He denyeth the consequence of a Church-Catholike visible from that place and that he proves by a parallel supposing such like words had been said of the whole world for civil government his words are these If it follow not when we say God hath set in the world some Emperors some Kings some Princes some inferiour Officers and Magistrates therefore the world is but one governing Kingdom and all particular Kingdoms do but govern in the right of the Kingdom of the world in common the Officers whereof are the Kings of the several Kingdoms c. Neither doth it follow that because the Scripture saith God hath set some in the Church Apostles c. therefore the Church throughout the world is but one Congregation to whose Officers first as the general Officers of the whole Church not by way of distribution but as a notionally at least collected body of Officers the power of government is committed c. Answ He hath not paralleled the question rightly but it should run thus Suppose there were one Emperour over all the Kingdoms of the earth and he should set down one form of government and enrowlment for freedom in the whole world for such as will be his subjects and should first set 12 Presidents over the whole world to abide so for their life time as extaordinary Officers and for ordinary standing Officers should set in the several Provinces or Kingdoms several Officers that should rule under him or them in their several places and yet appoint that as every free member of the whole though his fixed habitation be in one place yet is free of the whole habitually and upon occasion can make use of it to trade freely in any place so the several governours though ordinarily fixedly and actually they constantly govern their own Provinces yet upon occasion of difference danger or for the good of the whole or any great part of the same they shall have power to convene either all if it may be or some of them by way of delegation to act for the good of the whole or so many Provinces as the matter concerns and their delegation is for Whether would not this prove the world one intire Empire and body politick habitually And so is the case of the Church-Catholike But take earthly monarchies as they have been on earth and we finde that the several kingdoms of the Empires did enjoy their several liberties with respect had to the whole that nothing should be prejudicial to the Empire that the Emperour should have no damage Dan. 6.2 And yet in reference to the Emperour and some certain common laws they were one monarchy Because the Emperour could send messengers and Officers of any countrey and commands to them all and all were to take care in their places for the whole though haply there was no general convention of all Officers and to keep as much as lay in them neighbour Kingdoms from rebelling even where they had no ordinary jurisdiction and to subdue them to the Emperour if they did rebel and yet not retain ordinary power over them Now these things agree to this spiritual monarchy the Church yea and much more For they are all one in the head one in all the laws and in one form of government and ought all to do what they do in reference to the whole as to admit every where into the whole by baptism to eject out of the whole by excommunication to keep any neighbour Church from defection and to reduce them if fallen off though they have no ordinary jurisdiction over them Christ can send a Minister out of any Kingdom into any not only occasionally pro tempore as a messenger but settle him there as an Officer and call back or remove him any whither else And therefore the Church-Catholike is one Kingdom in general and yet particular rights and liberties of particular Churches be preserved so far as may stand with the good of the
any Congregations were set up or setled Therefore I conceive the primary right to communion is gained by being of the visible body not by being of this or that Congregation By being within the general Covenant not by any particular Covenant And I conceive that Baptism and Excommunication run parallel herein for as by Baptism a man is admitted externally into the whole visible body and then may have fellowship with any part of the body so by Excommunication a man is cast out from communion with the whole and therefore may communicate with no part This is Apollonius his assertion Sicut per Excommunicationem legitimam excommunicatus non tantum ex hac vel illa particulari Ecclesia ejicitur sed ubicunque terrarum ligatur ex communione fraeternâ universalis Ecclesiae exeluditur Mat. 18.17 18. Ita per Sacramentum Baptismi sacrae Eucharistiae homini communio Ecclesiastica Chap. 3. non tantùm in particulari sed universali Ecclesiâ obsignatur Confid quarund contro c. 2. Art 3. And though the power of Excommunication lyeth in the particular Congregation where a person enjoies his membership under the Kingdom of Jesus Christ as M. Hooker saith yet the Officers of that particular Church dispense that censure in reference to the whole body whereof he that is so censured was a member as well as of that Congregation for being cast out of that let him be or go where he will he is under the Kingdom of Satan and all Churches should look at him as a Traitour against Christ and so deal with him as one uncapable of Church-communion Surv. c. 15. So on the contrary though Baptism be administred in a particular Congregation yet a man so admitted in any Congregation ought to be counted a subject to Christ and not to be denied fellowship in any other Congregation being a member of the visible body except he some way forfeit his right So that both admission into and ejection out of the Church though performed by Officers in a particular Congregation yet relate first to the whole body CHAP. III. Proofs by Arguments and Reason that there is a Church-Catholike visible Sect. 1. THe first Argument is from Gods donation unto Christ and it stands thus If the donation of a Kingdom by God the Father unto Jesus Christ be universal and Oecumenical then his Kingdom which is his Church is also universal and Oecumenical But the donation was of an universal Oecumenical Kingdom Therefore there is such an universal Oecumenical Kingdom or Church The major proposition is clear for whatsoever God the Father gave or promised unto Jesus Christ that he performed The minor or assumption is proved out of divers places of Scripture As Psa 2.8 Ask of me and I will give thee the heathen for thine inheritance and the utmost parts of the earth for thy possession Which is spoken of the donative Kingdome of Christ given to him at his asking and not the essential or natural Kingdom as God Psal 72.8 He shall have dominion from sea to sea and from the river unto the ends of the earth Where is mentioned the external worship and offerings given unto him The like promise we finde Isa 49.6 It is a light thing that thou shouldest raise up the Tribes of Iacob I will give thee for a light unto the Gentiles that thou maist be my salvation to the ends of the earth Also Dan. 7 14. And there was given unto him Christ dominion and glory and a kingdom that all people nations and languages should serve him his dominion is an everlasting dominion and his Kingdom that which shall not be destroyed Which is meant of the donative Kingdom given to Christ incarnate at his ascention answering to Eph. 4.8 where the officers of his Kingdom are set down And to Phil. 2 9. This is not only the internal Kingdom in the heart for that he exercised from the beginning but also an external Kingdom or Church politie over all nations after the ruine of the four Monarchies which should be exercised over those Kingdoms which formerly were subject to those Monarchies which Kingdom is that little stone cut out of the mountain without hands which became a great mountain and filled the whole earth which the God of heaven should set up visibly in the stead of those Monarchies Dan. 2.44 not in a civil power of this world but in spiritual and divine Ordinances which all Kingdoms that should be converted to the Christian faith should submit themselves unto And this one mountain filling the whole earth must needs be one Church-Catholike visible submitting visibly to Christ 2. If Gods intention in sending Christ and the tenour of Gods donation and exhibition of Christ and redemption by Christ in his revealed will be general to the whole world then the visible Church is to be Catholike But the former is true and therefore so is the latter I mean by general Generibus singulorum non singulis generum The donation of Christ and redemption by him was not to the Jews only as the Jews conceived but to the whole world Ioh. 1.29 Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sinnes of the world Joh. 3.16 God so loved the world not the Jews only that he gave his only begotten sonne that whosoever beleeveth in him should not perish but have everlasting life i. e. that whosoever in any part of the world of what nation soever should beleeve should have everlasting life That the world through him might be saved vers 17. The Antithesis is not between the elect and reprobate that whosoever of the elect beleeve as the Arminians make our sense of the words to runne ridiculously though I confesse the elect only do truly beleeve but it is between the Iew and the rest of the world So Ioh. 4.42 Ioh. 6.33.51 2 Cor. 5.19 1 Ioh. 2.2 a propitiation for the sins of the whole world 1 Ioh. 4.14 The Saviour of the world Now though many of the benefits purchased by Christ for his elect be spiritual and invisible and obtained only by the invisible company yet Christ himself and his death were visible his righteousnesse visibly performed his active and passive obedience were visible and multitude of benefits that the external Catholike Church receive thereby are visible 3. If the Gospel of the Kingdom the seed and means of converting and bringing in not only of the invisible company but the visible Church be Catholike and universally preached and received then the Church so converted and visibly brought in is Catholike also But the Gospel is a general gift and is scattered like seed indefinitely in all the world and worketh a visible conversion of the whole world in Scripture phrase Therefore the Church is Catholike also The major is clear of it self The minor is proved Mat. 24.14 This Gospel of the Kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witnesse unto all Nations Mar. 14.9 Wheresoever this Gospel shall be preached
throughout the whole world c. Rom. 10.18 Col. 1.6 The Gospel is come unto you as it is to all the world and bringeth forth fruit Also Tit. 2.11 appeared unto all men 4. If the Charter whereby the Church is constituted be Catholike then the Church constituted thereby is one Catholike body But the Charter constituting the Church is Catholike Therefore c. The major is clear of it self One charter makes one polity The minor will appear by those places of Scripture wherein the right of all Nations indefinitely is set down Mat. 28.19 Go teach all Nations baptizing them c. Mar. 16.15 Ioh. 3.16 Eph. 3.6 That the Gentiles should be fellow-heirs and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the same body and partakers of his promise in Christ by the Gospel whereof I was made a Minister When the partition wall was broken down between Jew and Gentile and then the Church began to be Catholike what second limits did God set unto his Church none except men would sever themselves by rejection of the Gospel but external vocation and submission gave right in foro Ecclesiae to be admitted members of the Church and that was universal If there be any particular Charter by which any particular Church was constituted beside the general let that be produced I know none For if there were then that particular visible Church could never fail or else a Gospel Charter must be lost But all particular Churches hold their priviledges by the general Covenant applied to themselves as all the twelve Tribes did theirs by the Covenant made with Abraham and his seed And all the several promises which are as appendices to the Covenant are made to the whole Church-Catholike and commensurable therewith respectively without any respect to any particular Congregation or membership therein 5. If there be Officers of a Church-Catholike visible Sect. 2. then there is a Church-Catholike visible But there are Officers of a Church-Catholike visible Therefore c. The major cannot be denied The minor appears by the donation of the Ministery to the Church-Catholike visible Maâ— 28.19 Go teach all Natons baptizing them c. They are not circumscribed or limited to any one place but are sent into the whole world to all Nations 1 Cor. 12.28 God hath set some in the Church first Apostles secundarily Prophets thirdly Teachers Eph. 4.11 He gave some Apostles and some Prophets and some Evangelists and some Pastours and Teachers for the perfecting of the Saints for the work of the Ministery for the edifying of the body of Christ These two last places M. Hooker himself confesseth to be meant of the external political body and Kingdom of Christ Now these extraordinary Officers Prophets Evangelists were Officers of the Church-Catholike visible for they had no limits of place but were over all the Churches and yet are said not to be set in the Churches but in the Church And this is granted by some of our brethren for Congregational Churches that they were Catholike Officers and therefore did not baptize in reference unto particular Congregations And this M. Cartwright also in his Catechism acknowledgeth The Apostles are usually called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 universal Judges M. Hooker in answer to this argument Surv. c. 15. pag. 272. First mistakes my words and meaning for whereas I proved the universality of their office from the unlimitednesse of it he conceives it of having no limits in their works and so set down but I meant no limits in regard of places And then he saith the reason of their unlimitednesse arose from their commission because it was general being immediatly called by God to preach to all nations and they had vertually all Church-power in them but this did not issue nextly from the Church in which they were firstly set Answ I confesse it did arise from their commission which commission being general made them general Officers for what more can be required to make a general Officer but a general commission it did not issue nextly from the Church I confesse neither doth the power of any particular Minister but his power is given him by Christ and not from the people but is annexed unto his office only the exercise thereof is drawn forth by the people pro hic nunc and so the necessity of the whole Church drew forth their Apostolical Office into execution and the necessity of a greater part of the Church may draw forth the exercise of any particular Ministers office beyond the limits of his Congregation occasionally 6. If there be a general external vocation wherewith all Christians are called and a general external Covenant whereinto all Christians voluntarily and externally enter and are therein bound up in an unity then there is a general external Catholike Church But there is such an external general visible vocation and external individual visible general Covenant c. Therefore c. I mean by general Catholike Universal Oecumenical in regard not only of kinde but of places The major appears by evidence of reason and experience for one Covenant with one King in any extent of compasse makes it one Kingdom So c. The minor appears as evidently For first there is but one external general vocation divine distinct from all other particular vocations not only civil buâ— Ecclesiastical which is usually called our general calling and this is external else none but invisible beleevers were members of the visible Church which is that we speak of And there is one individual expresse external Covenant not only on Gods part Act. 2.39 The promise is to you and to your children and to as many as the Lord our God shall call Which is an external Covenant and call relating to baptism which they were invited to in the former verse yet not excluding the inward Covenant or call but oft separated from the inward and yet the right to baptism remain in forâ— Ecclesiae But also it is one external visible Covenant on mens part which all Christians as Christians enter into by their professed acceptance and expresse restipulation and promised subjection and obedience though not altogether in one place or at one time 7. If the initial visible seal admittance and enrowlment be Catholike and Oâ—cumenical then so as the Kingdom into which members are so initiated But the initial seal admission and enrowlment by baptism is Catholike Therefore c. The major is clear without control be that takes up his freedom into a whole Corporation or Kingdom is free of the whole and in every part thereof and hath right to all the general priviledges and immunities thereof The minor also appears both by â—he patent for Baptism Go baptize all Nations And by the consequences and priviledges thereof they that are baptized in any Church are accounted visible subjects of Christs Kingdom in all places of the Christian world no new baptism is required of them upon any removal and also by the tenor thereof for they are not baptized into
societies in the beginning of it in the Apostles daies as I shewed before and that not as Entitive only but under the general Officers with whom they did communicate in doctrine fellowship breaking of bread and praier 2. Because the several and singular Churches do constitute and make up the Oecumenical as members of it now membrum integrum sunt relata A genus hath no members The particular Churches are integrant to the whole and the whole results out of them Hence Salmasius hath this passage Vniversum Ecclesiae corpus in majora membra divisum Apparat. 285. Every particular Congragation contains part of the matter and part of the form of the whole I mean with Ames in respect of the external state of it But a Genus hath no external state Quod habet partes extra partes est Tetum integrale sed Ecclesia universalis visibilis habet partes extra partes Ergo. The mayor is the very definition of totum integrale The minor is clear for the particular Churches are different one from another sitis ordine singulae suâ praediâ—ae sunt quantitate non se invicem permeant They are not only distinct in consideration but in existence and exist one besides another as Towns in a Kingdom 3. Nay it appears further to be an integral because it is made up not only of the particular Congregations but of individual Christians not only such as are particular members of particular Congregations but such as are not members of any particular Congregation as I suppose all Christians are not fixed members nor can be as I could give divers instances as in regard of habitation perigrination banishment want of opportunity scrupulosity If such be not members of the Church-Catholike because not fixed then the Apostles themselves and Evangelists were none for they were not fixed but we finde that they were not only members but officers and so related to the body as organical A Corporation or City consisteth not only of streets wards and companies but of persons within their liberties though dwelling alone Now if the Church-Catholike be a genus it cannot be abstracted from them both if it be abstracted from particular Congregations and so be a genus of societies and polities then it doth not contain such as are not in any societies or polities if it be abstracted from them as particular unfixed members then it is no genus of particular Churches for they are none nor of any But as the Church is an integrum it may be made up of both and result out of both 4. That which hath inherent accidents and adjuncts existing in it as its own that is an integral for a genus is not capable of them But the Church-Catholike visible hath accidents inhaering adhaering and betiding unto it and existing in it Therefore it is an integral The major is undeniable The minor appeareth by instance Beauty strength offensive defensive purity terriblenesse with banners viz. of discipline conspicuity order visibility c. are accidents that may and sometimes have been and some of them are still existing in the whole Church as belonging to the whole therefore it is an integral Again That which is capable of being majus and minus i. e. is sometimes greater and sometimes lesse in extent that is an integral but so is the Church-Catholike or Oecumenical The consequence is clear because a Genus can neither be greater or lesse then it ever was Animal was as great a Genus when there were but two men and a few beasts in the world as it is now there are many millions for the greatnesse of the genus is not measured by continuous or discreet quantity but the nearer Ens it is and the further from Individuals the greater the Genus is i. e. the more comprehensive and the further remote from Ens and the nearer the Individuals the lesse the Genus is i. e. the lesse comprehensive But the Oecumenical Church is measured by quantity continuous in regard of place wherein it is and discrete in regard of number of the Churches and members thereof sometimes the bounds thereof are enlarged and sometimes streightned There is an augmentation by addition of members a diminution by substraction and the whole resulteth out of the aggregation of the parts not by local contiguity alwaies but by political Ecclesiastical habitual consociation and union in the same external profession subjection and fraternity Again that totum which is mutable and fluxile is an integral for a Genus is immutable constant permanent aeternae veritatis But the Church Oecumenical is very mutable and fluxile sometime flourishing sometime under persecution sometimes conspicuous sometimes it may be latenâ— sometimes more pure sometimes more corrupt sometimes it hath more beauty and strength and sometimes lesse and though this be in the parts and members the particular Churches yet it may be in the whole and the beauty and strength of the parts of a natural or civil body is the beauty and strength of the whole man City Kingdom every member hath his own beauty and strength and out of them all resulteth the beauty and strength of the whole Again That totum which is measured by time and place is an integral for Genus which is a notion is capable of neither of them but so is the Church Oecumenical Hence we divide the Church into primitive and successive From the time of John the Baptist the Kingdom of Heaven suffers violence Mat. 11.12 Sometime the Church hath been planted in the Eastern parts of the world and now is more Westerly and is in likelihood still going more Westward We use to limit the Church within the pale thereof though potentially in regard of permission and haply promise it may be actually over the whole earth Amplitudo vetustas sunt accidentia Ecclesiae visibilis See Cameron de conspic Ecclesiae 5. That Totum whereinto there is admission Sect. 3. wherein there is nutrition and edification and out of which there is ejection that is an integral But there is admission into the Church-Catholike visible by Baptism nutrition and edification by the other external Ordinances and ejection out of it by excommunication Therefore it is an Integral For a Genus is capable of none of these Indeed if you consider this society in reference to other societies or religions it is a distinct kinde in regard of the Authour laws qualifications of members but in reference unto its members it is an integral If this be all that is meant by totum genericum existens it may passe without any dammage to this question So the several companies in London are distinct from other companies yet in reference to their own members they are integrals and in reference to the whole they are parts 6. That society which hath not only a head or governour in heaven of the same nature as man but Officers on earth which are indefinitely and habitually Officers to the whole that is an integral
but so hath the Oecumenical Church therefore it is an integral A Genus is not capable of Officers But the Church-Catholike had once by M. Ellis's own confession actual universal Officers and was then one governed body and still the Officers are indefinitely and habitually Officers to the whole as shall be proved in Chap. 7. And the visibility of the head in Chap. 5. Sect 6. 7. That which hath actions and operations of its own that is an integral for a Genus is not capable thereof but the Church-Catholike or Oecumenical hath or may have actions operations and effects of its own Therefore c. The minor upon which all the weight of this argument lyeth is proved thus The Church-Catholike visible may by their delegates meet in a general Councel about the affairs that concern the whole and though their power therein were but only consultative and suasive as M. Ellis grants yet it is an act of the whole as the acts of a Kingdom represented in Parliament are said to be national acts but I conceive they may do more even make decrees as well as the Synod Act. 15. They may confute and suppresse general heresies and disorders Yea and the whole Church-Catholike may yield consent submission and obedience thereunto as their acts finding them agreeable to the word of God Sect. 4. There may be a general humiliation of the whole Church-Catholike visible or a general thanksgiving as occasion may be offered There may be a general contestation with the same hereticks and renouncing of their errours a general suffering under and conflict with and conquest over the same adversaries as suppose Antichrist and Triumphing over them See Rev. 19. the 7. first verses All Gods servants both small and great are called to it I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude and as the voice of many waters and as the voice of mighty thundrings saying Allelujah This was not the act of a particular Congregation but of the Church Catholike and yet all these are vers 8. bound up in an unity and they are called the Lambs wife and unto her was granted c. The Church-Catholike visible also conquereth and subdueth spiritually the rest of the world and bringeth them into external subjection to Christ and leaveneth them with the doctrine of Christ and uniteth them to themselves in this spiritual society so that they become 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one body And though this be done by particular members and Churches yet that hinders it not from being the act of the whole as when an army of souldiers of one Kingdom conquer neighbour Kingdoms and adde them to their own as the Romans did all the world it is accounted the action of the whole nation or a national act so is this case though the conquest differ in kinde And this may serve for an answer to M. Hookers query Surv. c. 16. p. 256. 259. Whether the Church-Catholike can be considered as distinct from the particular Churches not by separation of the whole from the parts but in apprehension by presenting some distinct Officer act or operation which do not pertain to the particular Churches For as there is a head and King of the whole as visible and one systeme of laws and habitual indefinite Officers of the whole so you see there are acts and operations of the whole both by their delegates and by themselves which though they be performed by particular persons belonging haply to particular Churches as the souldiers making up an army belong to several Towns yet do not perform them as particular members of the particular Churches but of the whole neither do they convert into the particular Churches but into the whole as such souldiers fight not as members of such a Town but of such a Kingdom and conquer not to enlarge their several Towns but the Kingdom in general And for constant actual Officers and distinct services such as the national Church of the Jews had because they could meet together three times every year and oftner upon occasion they cannot be expected in the Oecumenical body it being too large for such constant meetings If the Church-Catholike can bring forth sons then it can perform operations But it can bring forth sons This M. Ellis himself confesseth by consequence for in the close of his Epistle Dedicatory before his vindiciae Catholicae he subscribes himself a sonne of the Church What other Church can he mean but the Catholike If he meaneth the particular Church whereof he is Pastour he is not a son but a father and governour of that and then he should more properly have said Sonne of a Church not Sonne of the Church for there be more Churches then this unlesse he meant the by way of eminency He cannot mean of the Church of England for he denies all National Churches therefore it must be of the Church-Catholike and yet he denies that there is any such thing visible and that which he doth acknowledge he makes a Genus which is a second notion without existence and then as himself confesseth Non existentis nulla sunt operationes The species or Individuals cannot be sonnes of the Genus And therefore he should more safely have subscribed himself a member or Minister of the Church and yet that must have proved the Church-Catholike or of a Church and then he might have meant his own 8. It will appear by the several appellations which are given to the Church-Catholike in Scripture For in Scripture it is called a Body yea 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one and the same body which hath one head or governour which hath constant influence into that body even into those that are only visible members in common works and into the invisible members in saving works and governs both by external laws Now a Genus though it hath subordinate species yet is no body nor hath any head or governour nor any influence given unto it neither is it governed by any external laws for then it must exist Yea the Church-Catholike visible is called a body fitly joyned together and compacted Sect. 3. by that which every joint supplyeth Eph. 4.16 which appears to be the external political Kingdom of Christ as M. Hooker cals it and applyeth this Chapter because here are the Officers reckoned up yea the extraordinary general Officers Vbi omnes partes existunt simul compactae ibi totum integrale existit Sed omnes partes Ecclesiae Catholicae visibilis existunt simul compactae Ergo totum integrale totius Ecclesiae Catholicae visibilis existit This M. Hooker saith is true of a Totum genericum existens but not that all particular Congregations do exist aggregated together as members of the Catholike p. 268. But how a Genus can be a body and the particular species fitly joyned together and compacted by that which every joint supplyeth I cannot understand The relation between a Genus and species cannot be compared to joynts compacting and joyning a body together
Spirit on his part and only these shall be saved yet that is not the Church that is meant in this question but the external Church of Christ consisting of true beleevers and hypocrites in which sense the Scripture oft takes the word Church I say the external political body and kingdom of Christ as M. Hooker cals it The same Church which Valle Messalinus or Salmasius Apollonius Spanhemius and Cameron de regimine Ecclesiae and Polanus de Ecclesia visibili universili and M. Rutherford M. Richard Hooker and M. Parker and divers others mean â—n their tractates of this nature wherein hypocrites as well as true beleevers are partakers of external Ordinances of worship and discipline And of this Church it in that Cameron saith Non negamus simpliciter Ecclesiam esse visibisâ—m quaestio est quomodo sit visibilis quatenus quando quibus Cam. de conspic Ec. p. 248. And he addeth that this visibility rather sheweth Quid sit Ecclesia quà m quae sit Now visible is that which may be seen Visibile est quod videri potest i. e. that which hath a capablenesse in it self to be seen herein it differs from visum for that is that which is actually seen Now as Cameron and others of this subject do distinguish things may be said to be visible either per se primariò and so only light and colour are visible or else per accidens and so figure magnitude motion and all other things which we say are visible are seen a man is not seen per se but per accidens The second kinde of visibility is meant in this question viz. per accidens per effecta as all other societies are visible Secondly a thing may be said to he visible either distinctè or confutè The Church-Catholike is visible in the second sense which Cameron also granteth p. 246. And aliquatenus aliquando aliquo modo aliquibus p. 247. Thirdly a thing may be said to be visible either uno intuitu simul or secundum partes at several aspects The first way only one side of a thing can be seen viz. one plain and small superficies The same man cannot be seen at the same view in all his external parts nor yet the Sun which is most visible The Church-Catholike cannot be seen uno intuitu but secundum partes sive membra Fourthly some things are visible only by the eye and judged of by the common sense but some other things require an act of the understanding to put those visible parts together to apprehend the unity thereof The unity of a man or a tree the very beast can discern but the unity of a society or Kingdom though it be visible they cannot discern because they want understanding to put the parts together And in this last sense the Church-Catholike is said to be visible as a Kingdom or Empire is the eye and common sense alone cannot discern the unity of it but there is requisite an act of the understanding to put the visible parts together in apprehension No man will deny an Empire to be visible because he cannot see the union of it with his eyes Again I did not take visible in the strictest sense visibile est quod radiat per medium ut luminosum coloratum but for that which is perceptible by any of the senses yea to the perceiving of which there is required an act of the understanding also to conceive of it and put the parts together yet not by logical abstraction but mental apposition and conjunction as we must do to perceive the unity of a Kingdom The nearer the parts lie the more is the visibility and the further off the lesse A Congregation is more visible in this sense then a National Church and a National then the Oecumenical The more visible the copula or bond is the more visible the thing is Having shewed you what Church-Catholike is visible and how the Church-Catholike may be said to be visible I come to prove by arguments that it is visible or perceptible But indeed the difficulty lyeth not here but in the integrality for if the Church-Catholike be an integral it will easily appear to be a visible one First If the subject matter Sect. 2. the persons of whom the Church-Catholike doth consist be visible the whole Church is visible also But they are all visible Therefore so is the whole Church That the whole Church consisteth of men and women who are visible beleevers not visible as men but as beleevers also none will deny That the visibility of the whole will necessarily follow is as undeniably true for what makes a thing visible but the visibility of the materials The essential forms of the most visible things are not visible as of a stone or a man Nothing can be said to be invisible whose materials are visible Secondly If the conversion into the whole Church be visible then the whole Church is visible But the conversion is visible Therefore c. That conversion into the visible Church is visible none can deny The Apostles made a visible conquest of the world by their preaching They were charged by Demetrius to have turned the world upside down Act. 17.6 They turn'd men from Idols to serve the living and true God 1 Thes 1.9 That this conversion was not into a particular Congregation but into the external visible body and kingdom of Christ is as clear and the gathering them into particular Congregations and setting Elders over them was a second work Chap. 5. And the consequence will follow for such as the conversion is such is the Church into which they are converted visible conversion makes no man a member of the invisible body but of the visible only invisible grace is required for that Thirdly If the profession subjection obedience and conversation of the members of the whole Church be visible then the whole Church is visible But they are visible Therefore c. The assumption none will deny It is called a professed subjection 2 Cor. 9.13 And Rom. 16.19 Your obedience is come abroad unto all Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works Mat. 5.16 It is toward God in duties of the first table and towards men in duties of the second in charity chastity equity truth humility meeknesse Phil. 1.27 2 Pet. 3.17 yea visible to them that are without 2 Pet. 3.11 Now what reference hath this profession subjection obedience conversation to the particular Congregations Do they professe subject themselves to the laws of Christ and yield obedience thereunto in a godly conversation because they are members of this or that particular Congregation or because they are entred into the general Covenant whereby they are made subjects and members of Christs Kingdom Is the particular confederation the ground and cause of their profession subjection obedience and godly conversation Were not these found in them before they were thought meet to be entred into the particular
confederation were they not judged to be subjects to Christ and visible members of his body and in external Covenant before their admittance How then could that be the ground thereof Indeed there are some particular duties and priviledges which relate in an especial manner to the particular Congregation and a particular unity of a particular Church as a member of the whole body resulteth therefrom but not the general duties priviledges or membership Suppose a man be a freeman of some Corporation as Ipswich though thereby he hath the priviledges of the particular Corporation belonging to him and particular duties belonging to the Corporation are required of him and he requires and receiveth the priviledge of a subject the execution of the laws of the Kingdom there yet he must be conceived a member of the Kingdom before he can be admitted a free man of the Corporation and he receives the general priviledges and performs the general duties in reference to that and not in reference to the particular Corporation and his membership thereof though he hath the opportunity of enjoying the one and performance of the other in that particular society And yet this doth not make the kingdom a Genus and the Corporation a species thereof but the kingdom an integral and the Corporation a member thereof So is the case between the whole Church and the particular Yet with this difference all the particular Churches are similar patts of the whole Church so are not all Corporations nor all villages they differ sometimes in kindes of Officers sometimes in particular immunities Also the similarity of the parts of the whole Church gives the same denomination to the particular Churches with the whole the particular Congregation is called a Church as well as the whole whereas no particular Corporation is called a Kingdom and this is the cause why the particular Churches are deemed to be species whereas indeed they are members of the whole viz. because of the identity of denomination but identity of denomination or similarity of parts are not sufficient to make a genus and species especially where the whole is constituted by an external Covenant 4. If the Officers which Christ hath given to the whole Church be visible then so is the Church But the Officers are visible Therefore c. That the Officers are visible none will deny because they are visibly called ordained and execute their office visibly That visible Officers argue a visible polity is as clear such as the Officers are in respect of visibility or invisibility such is the Kingdom That the ministry is given to the whole Church as the Levites were to all Israel and that they are all Officers of the whole habitual and habitually have power to dispense the Ordinances of Christ in any part of the whole Church upon a call shall be proved c. 6. s 4. 5. If the admittance into the whole Church and ejection out of it be visible then the whole Church is visible But admittance by Baptism ejection by excommunication are visible Therefore c. That admittance and ejection being publike acts before the whole Congregation are visible none will deny That such as the admittance or ejection is in regard of visibility such is the society or polity is as clear That the admittance is into the whole and ejection out of it hath been proved already and shall more fully afterward Either by Baptism men are admitted into the particular Church or the whole Church or no Church but not into the particular Congregation no man is baptized into the particular Congregation it is not the seal of the particular Covenant therefore it is into the whole or none If a heathen be converted in a Congregation first he receives baptism afterward is admitted a member of the particular confederation Sect. 3. 6. If the Doctrine Laws Ordinances Charter and Covenant of the whole Church be visible then so is the whole Church But they are visible Therefore c. That the Doctrine Laws Ordinances Charter and Covenant of the whole Church are visible none will deny for they may be seen read preached and heard That they belong to and constitute the whole is as undeniable Of the same nature that the laws and charter of a kingdom is in respect of visibility of the same nature is the kingdom Now it is not the invisible law of nature written in the heart that constitutes the visible Church for the heathens have that Rom. 2.15 nor is it the invisible law of grace promised to be written in Gods peoples hearts Jer. 31.33 for many members of the visible Church have not that but it is the visible systeme of laws and Covenant given by Christ to his visible Church And these Laws Charter and Covenant are the very copula or bond of the external body and kingdom of Christ and thereby they are bound to worship and discipline Now where the copula or bond uniting visible parts together is visible there the whole is visible But the copula or bond is visible Therefore so is the whole A visible bond cannot unite invisible members Against this it is objected by M. Hooker That divers several kingdoms may be governed by the same laws and yet remain several kingdoms Answ It is true it is possible that all the kingdoms of the earth may submit to and be governed by the same systeme of laws and many now are by the civil law and yet remain several But they arise not from the same fountain the same King or Governours nor binde not in subjection and obedience unto the same King nor to mutual duties of subjects between themselves as fellow-subjects but are embraced vi materiae or formae because found convenient and receive a several stamp of authority from the several States or Governours whereby they are obliging in the several kingdoms But these laws proceed from the same fountain the same Lord Jesus the king of the whole and are obliging from the same authority to all Christians in the whole world therefore they are one visible Church or kingdom mystical If the whole Church be a Genus it is constituted and united together by a visible external Covenant and Laws which is not consistent with the nature of a Genus as a Genus 7. If all the administrations and dispensations and operations of the whole Church be visible so is the whole Church But they are all visible Therefore c. That they are all visible being publikely done none will deny Obj. But these administrations dispensations and operations are acted in the several Congregations and are not actions of the whole Church Ans So is justice administred at Assizes and Sessions in several Counties and Corporations but is it the justice of the whole because it is administred by the same laws and by the same authority and is common to all the subjects of the kingdom A man dwelling in any part of the kingdom being tried at Suffolk Assizes may receive his sentence and
execution there if guilty So all Church-administrations are by the same laws and upon the same command and persons of any Church in the world may hear sing pray and communicate any where indefinitely upon occasion though constantly the particular members only enjoy those particular administrations from those particular Officers I answer further that the Church-Catholike may act visibly by their delegates as a Kingdom in a Parliament in a general Councel if they can convene though their power were wholly consultatory and suasory as some pleade but it is more All their debates arguings pro con all their advice and decrees are visible therefore the whole whose delegates they are is visible also The invisible Church as invisible send none 8. If it be our duty to joyn our selves visibly to the Church-Catholike then it is visible But we ought to joyn our selves to the Church-Catholike Therefore c. The Assumption none will deny As soon as the 3000. were converted by Peter they were added to the Church Christians may not stand alone independently Now that must be a visible Church that we must joyn unto for the invisible is within the visible and cannot be known God commands no impossibilities It is true indeed we must joyn to some particular Congregation as a forreigner coming over into England to inhabit being naturalized must dwell in some particular Town but to that Congregation as a member of the whole wherein we may enjoy the general priviledges of subjects of Christ first and the particular priviledges of that Congregation secondarily There is no particular command to joyn to this or that particular Congregation but the whole necessity compelleth to choose one Our particular joyning to this or that Congregation is not in obedience to the command for then had we joyned to another we had broken a command therefore that is arbitrary and limited by civil habitation necessarily 9. If the accidents of the whole Church be visible then so is the whole Church But there be visible accidents of the whole Church Therefore c. An invisible subject hath not visible accidents But so hath the whole Church as beauty strength order amplitude which may encrease or decrease and these are accidents of the whole arising and resulting from all the parts conjoyned and made up of the beauty strength order and amplitude of all the parts Also there may be general visible opposition against the whole Church not because in particular confederation but the general These persecutors are visible their actions are visibly managed by attachments prisons fire and faggot their effects visible fines imprisonments confiscation banishment and death and therefore the object hereof the whole Church must needs be visible also And all this meerly because they belong to Christ and have given up their names to him And because they will not visibly run to the same excesse of riot or worship the same Idols that they do 10. If the parts of the whole Church be visible so is the whole But the parts of the whole Church are visible Therefore c. By parts I mean not the particular persons only but particular Congregations Now none deny the particular Churches to be visible neither our brethren for Congregational Churches nor yet the separation And Gerard though he will not grant the Church Catholike to be visible yet saith Ecclesias particulares visibiles esse concedimus The consequence will necessarily follow for the visibility of the whole results out of the visibility of the parts An innumerable number of visible parts cannot make an invisible whole Against this M. Ellis vind 59. alledgeth that it is too lax a medium in so weighty a subject as this is Sect. 4. There is saith he great difference between natural and metaphysical or civil and politick bodies For in a natural body all whose parts and members are actually and naturally joyned together the whole is visible because the parts are visible but in a metaphysical body or totum or whole that is in Generals that are by the reason of man drawn from particulars the case is far otherwise Peter James and John are visible but manhood which is the universal agreeing to them all is not visible This being the same with my first Objection I set down in my Thesis one answer shall serve for both Answ M. Ellis knows I took not the Church-Catholike for a Genus but an Integral But let it be supposed a Genus for argument sake or as M. Hooker cals it Totum genericum existens which is something fairer then M. Ellis's grant for by M. Ellis's reasoning the Church-Catholike should be a Genus drawn by the reason of man and so existing only in intellectu nostro I say suppose the Church-Catholike to be a Genus and the particular Churches Species yet this is not sufficient to make the Church-Catholike to be invisible Will any man say that Animal est substantia invisibilis because it existeth only in homine bruto Indeed animality in the abstract is invisible but not animal in concreto so Ecclesietas as I may say is invisible but Ecclesia is visible Visibility is an accident belonging primarily to a higher Genus then animal viz. Corpus celoratum and though every Individual animal is visible as John and James yet not quà John or James but as coloured bodies and if a higher Genus be visible which is nearer Ens and further from Individuals then much more animal So in this case the Church-Catholike is a society of men and that M. Ellis denyeth not now every society of men is visible and therefore the Church which is a species of society must needs be so also for the visibility doth not betide it because it is a particular Congregation but because it is a society of men which is a higher Genus I mean this in a logical consideration Then he proceeds to deny a civil body or Corporation if great as an Empire Kingdom or large city to be seen in it self but in the parts Answ Here he confounds visibile and visum uno intuitu and by this reasoning he should deny the visibility of the world or any particular man for all his parts cannot be seen uno intuitu Attamen insaniat qui neget se videre hominem saith Cameron Yea the sun it self should not be visible by this reasoning because we can see but the surface of it He could not be ignorant that I did not mean that the Church-Catholike was actually seen uno intuitu And whereas I had said the whole is visible because the parts are so He saith it is untrue even in the smallest bodies but where the parts are actually united together not where they are thousands of miles asunder Answ It is true indeed in natural and artificial bodies whose being or integrality consisteth in a corporeal continuity or contiguity of parts for if that continuity or contiguity ceaseth the integral also ceaseth except in potentiâ But in political bodies joyned
shall be no member of Christs visible external kingdom or else that after he is a visible existing subject of Christs kingdom he may choose which species of Christs kingdom he will exist in and that is as absurd as if there should be an existing animal that will choose whether he will be a man or a brute who seeth not that there is a visible existence of many a visible beleever who is a subject of Christs visible kingdom before he be admitted into any of those Congregations which are by this opinion accounted species Now if we account the particular Churches members of Christs Kingdom it is not absurd for any subject of Christ to choose which part of Christs kingdom or which Ecclesiastical Corporation he will dwell in or adhere unto for the actual enjoyment of the Priviledges Laws and Ordinances of Christs Kingdom no more then for a subject of a King to choose in what part of the Kingdom he will dwell The Kingdom of England though a political body yet containeth under or in it not only all Corporations and villages but all single persons that are subject to the King and Laws though they be not fixed and though they want by their unfixednesse the particular priviledges of the particular Towns they might have inhabited and so the actual opportunity of enjoyment of the benefit of the Laws administred in such Corporations or Counties yet have an habitual right to the general priviledges by being subjects so have unfixed members of Christs external Kingdom which reacheth single visible subjects as well as combined Nay a man may better make the kingdom of England a Genus and all the Corporations and villages species thereof because they are many of them distinct and different in their constitutions then the Church-Catholike a Genus and the particular Congregations species which are of one constitution And if totum genericum existens can have any sense put upon it it will agree to the Kingdom of England or any other kingdom for it consisteth of a sort of men viz. English-men existing in several Counties and Towns but as that notion hinders not the integrality of the Kingdom so no more it will the Church-Catholike visible Obj. Yea Sect. 5. but the Church-Catholike cannot be visible because it wants an existence of its own and existeth only in the existence of the particular Churches the members thereof Answ Where there are existing visible members there must be an existing visible Integral Omne membrum habet suum integrum The same Objection lyeth as well against any aggregative body A heap of stones may as well be said to exist only in the existence of the particular stones and a particular Congregation exist in the existence of the particular families and particular families exist in the particular persons But if the members exist quà members the existence of the integral results out of their conjoyned existence and so doth the visibility An army existeth in the several brigades and regiments and they are billeted or quartered in distant places and yet having the same General the same Laws martial the same cause the same enemies although they should never be drawn up together in one body at one place yet are they one visible Army So is the Church-Catholike one and that visibly as I shewed in the beginning of this Chapter though there goeth an act of the minde to the perceivance of the unity It is a political union by the same visible Charter and laws and way under one Commander in chief and therefore visible i. e. perceivable by sense though not by sense only the very uniting bond the laws are visible yea the existence of it will more appear because it hath priviledges belonging thereunto which particulars have not or but in part and at second hand as hath been shewed in the former Chapt. and shall more fully in the second Question This Objection M. Ellis vind p. 56. undertakes to set down and marks it in the margin as if he had cited my words but misseth both my words and sense And then fals upon the Answer and saith that it amounts not to an answer for no collected body that is made up of several things hath its being in these things severally considered and apart but as united altogether it is not an heap of stones if one lie at York some at London others in France Spain c. I answer It is true in bodies made up by physical or artificial aggregation there must indeed be some contiguity or nearnesse of parts but in political aggregation and such M. Ellis acknowledgeth vind p. 5. l. 38. it is not necessary M. Ellis makes the Empire of Germany one by aggregation and yet hath not I suppose cast those several territories one upon another as the Giants are feigned to throw Pelion upon Ossa but they ly further distant then at M. Calamies door and M. Hudsons as he is pleased to make the allusion or illusion rather vin p. 35. One Kingdom may consist of divers Ilands if under the same King and laws c. and so may all the Churches in the world be one Church though farre distant and visible though not actually seen because the persons and places are visible and the things wherein and whereby they are conjoyned as Profession Laws Doctrine Seals Worship c. are external and so visible And though an aggregative body is not made up of the several parts considered severally and apart yet out of the existence and visibility of them conjoyned either physically or politically c. according as the thing is the existence and visibility of the whole will result as I said before And Sir I cannot but right my self from an injury which in your answer to this Objection vind p. 24. you offered me by intimating bitingly to delude your reader and wrong M. Calamy the licenser of that Thesis as if he were the Authour of it or partly the Authour or at the fairest the inciter thereto What other construction can these words of you bear A man-midwife may be father also And another jerk you give to the same purpose vind p. 80. in these words Moses mother was his nurse also But Sir that which is mine I am not willing should be charged upon any other I owned it in print and to put you and others out of doubt I assure you that neither M. Calamy nor any other incited me thereto neither so much as made or altered one sentence in the whole Thesis Neither was it of such a texture as that you or any man else should suppose it had any other Authour or Authours then a mean Countrey-Minister such as I acknowledge my self to be You might have known who was the Authour thereof if you would have been pleased to have come to our company at the reading of it as you were lovingly invited out of desire to enjoy your society for the learning and piety we conceived to be in you Obj. If the Church-Catholike or
Oecumenical be one visible Church it is necessary that they should all meet together at some times Answ It is not at all necessary neither to the unity nor yet to the visibility of the Church It is sufficient that the persons be visible in their several places and that they be combined together under the same head by visible laws and profession under the same visible seal and enrowlment walk visibly in the same godly conversation before men pray one for another as fellow-members rejoyce in the wel-fare and mourn for the ill-fare one of another and contribute assistance one to another as occasion is offered As therefore it is not needful to the unity or visibility of a kingdom or Empire that they should meet together sometimes so is it not needful for the whole Church indeed there may be some conveniency in both ad benè vel optimum esse sed non ad esse simpliciter This M. Ellis excepteth against vin p. 55. First he asketh whether ever there were such a kingdom in the world that the members did not meet sometimes if it be not a meer visible monarchy as under Popery If there be any liberty left to the Subjects c. Answ Let him shew that ever the four Monarchies did meet together respectively either in their persons or deputies or delegates from every Province yet that hindered not their unity nor visibility And his answer implyeth that the Ecclesiastical Monarchy under Popery did never meet He makes it but a sign of liberty to meet not a sign of visibility And for the point of liberty inherent in the subjects as their proper right distinct from what is derived and given by Christ as their head there was never any Monarchy so meerly depending on the will of the Monarch as the Church-visible on Christ for the Church deriveth all its power from Christ and hath all its laws given and imposed only by Christ without any vote of the Churches in the making of them It is probable that the kingdoms under the four Monarchies had some enjoyment of their municipal laws only might have some imperial general laws superadded but it is not so in this for the whole Church as a Church hath no laws but of Christs arbitrary donation Christians are not subdued by Christ as Englishmen were by William the Conquerour viz. on condition that he would suffer them to enjoy their former rights and the Laws of Edward the Confessor but absolutely to receive Laws from him And yet this can neither be thought tyranny in Christ nor yet slavery in us for Christs Laws are more beneficial to us then any of our own making and his service is perfect freedom And yet we reade of general Councels of the Church by their delegates which were as it were a ministerial Church-Catholike which in former times of the Church under Christian Emperours were frequent and there is no intrinsecal let in the Church that they do not meet so still but only extrinsecal and extraneous by reason of the divisions among the civil Governours but even in our daies a great part of that great body hath met as in the Synod of Dort c. by Commissioners D. Whitakers and Apollonius acknowledge the meeting Act. 1. to be a general Councel The members were the Apostles who were Pastours of the Church-Catholike and brethren out of Galilee and Jerusalem The work was to elect an Apostle who was to be a Pastor of the universal Church and they that undertake and dispatch such a businesse which concerns the extraordinary teaching and government of the whole Church should represent the whole Church-Catholike M. Ellis vin p. 25. utterly denyeth that ever there was any general Councel which might be said to be the Church-Catholike viz. ministerially But I took general in the usual sense of it and not precisely considered He knows the four Councels are known by the name of The four general Councels And so himself cals them vind p. 15. l. 37. I took the term general in the sense that we cal the four Monarchies the Monarchies of the whole world and yet we know there were many countries that were never under them And as Luke Act. 2.5 saith there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews devout men out of every nation under heaven and yet there were many Nations where Jews never dwelt some of which were discovered lately But let him look into Euseb de vita Constantini lib. 3. and Socrates Scholast lib. 1. cap. 8. and he shall finde from how many Countries the first Councel of Nice was gathered There were gathered saith he together into one the chief Ministers of God inhabiting all the Churches throughout all Europe Africk and Asia That sacred Synod framed as it were by the handy-work of God received also both Syrians and Cilicians and such as came from Phoenicia Aegypt Arabia Palaestina Thebais Lybia and Mesopotamia There was also in this Synod the Bishop of Persis of Pontus Galaâ—ia Pamphilia Cappadocia Asia and Phrygia Moreover the Thracians Macedonians Achaians Epirotes Also of the Spaniards there was an eminent man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Bishop of the imperial city 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 viz. Rome by reason of his old age absented himself yet there were present of his Presbyters which supplyed his room Divers things M. Ellis excepteth against that Councel as some extraordinarinesse in the summoning of the members of it without election and delegation of the particular Churches And that Constantine was the visible head of it and that he called for Bishops chiefly if not only which will not be pertinent here to answer Something there might be extraordinary in the summons for the civil and Ecclesiastical State not concurring together until Constantine haply there could not be a regular election In extraordinary times and cases our brethren will grant something may be done extraordinarily as there is in the calling of this present Assembly as is acknowledged by M. Gillespy There were also others besides Bishops and Ministers Neither did Constantine either sit as President of it nor presume to be head but confesseth himself to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but by his civil sanction he did confirm their decrees and send them abroad Neither is there any ground that in that or any other Councel the members acted only each for his own particular Church that sent him as M. Ellis suggesterh but the whole for the whole as far as their delegation was I acknowledge there is power given to every particular Church to rule it self and exercise the discipline of the Church for the being and well-being of it ordinarily Yet so as it is a part of the whole Church into which also the censures there passed have influence And on some great occasions there may be cause to ferch help further as Cranmer appealed to a general Councel But if that extensive power cannot be had as now it is very difficult then must the particular
us and ever will And it is observable that this thing was not learned by Moses in the pattern shewed him in the Mount but was taught by the light of nature to Iethro and by him was given in advice to Moses Exo. 18.22 and afterward was approved by God as being according to right reason and a thing common to all societies as societies not Ecclesiastical only and not a positive law only but dictated by the light of nature right reason and necessity and therefore is practised in all ages nations armies and societies though not in every particular circumstance And therefore except it were forbidden or some other way instituted to avoid those difficulties and dangers that will arise it ought to be in use also in the Church under the Gospel as well as summoning convening in fitting times and places and a moderatour or chair-man and silence obedience and respect and due order in proceedings according to allegation and probation which are things common to all Judicatories as Judicatories And surely God would not have Christians under the Gospel under a more grievous yoke and irremediable inconveniences then the Jewish Church that if any of them be oppressed by the ignorance or ill will of their Elders they should have no relief Sect. 6. Obj. If their be appeals from one Presbytery to another that is higher then must there be two kindes of Presbyteries and two kindes of Presbyters but the Scripture speaks but of one and giveth no rules for any Presbyteries but one Indeed in Universities the same men may be heads of the Colleges respectively and heads of the Universitie also but there are differing and distinguishing names relations and Statutes but it is not so for Elders of particular Congregations to be Elders of Classes and Synods c. Answ The Church is but one visible political Kingdom of Christ made up by the collection and aggregation of all visible beleevers who are called into an unity of Covenant and laws and way and all the Ministers and Officers of the Church are given to the whole primarily for the gathering and edifying of it and they are all to teach and rule and perform all their administrations respectively with reference to and the best advantage of the whole And they did serve the whole as one actually when they were convenible but their number encreasing they divided into several companies for their better ordering edification and encrease and therefore the instance is not parallel for the office of the Ministers is first to the whole and the Charter and Statutes of the whole and of every particular Church are but one and therefore the Ministers though they ordinarily act in their particular Congregations as it were in their particular Colleges being called by them to take the immediate constant particular inspection of them yet can they exercise their general office when and wheresoever they have a call thereunto Now this call is not that which giveth them their office but is proximum fundamentum exercitij only Neither is the particular Congregation the adequate correlate to an Elder for it doth not mutu◠ponere tollere but the Church-Catholike only But of this see more in the 2d question S. 4. But against this M. Ellis vind 40. brings an Objection which he ushers in with a Let it be observed by all sorts By this means saith he the power being given not to any one Church but to the whole Church as one body and not to the members with the Officers but to the Officers only there is derived a very transcendent power and authority upon every particular Minister more then any Parliament man hath yea more then a King who is limited to his dominion But I answer that the Presbyterians acknowledge that power of government is given immediatly to every Congregational Eldership or at least to such a College of Elders as may frequently and constantly meet and rule in common as they did at Jerusalem and it is not derived unto them by any superiour authority on earth by way of descention except by a Ministerial investment by Ordination And this power is to be constantly exerted for the actual Ecclesiastical regiment of that Congregation or those Congregations over whom those Elders are set in the Lord yet with reference to the rest of the body whereof they are but a parcel and they may stand in need of the help of more Elders then their own upon occasion It is true government is not given to the members with the Officers but to the Officers only not to the body of the Congregation as the subject of it either in whole or in part as they are private members distinct from the Officers much lesse are they the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or first receptacle thereof And for the inference hence of such a transcendent power and authority upon every particular Minister more then a Parliament man or a King I suppose M. Ellis is not ignorant that the office of every particular Minister in his Congregation giveth him authority to do more in administring Gods Ordinances as authoritative preaching and administring the seals of the Covenant and the Officers in administring spiritual censures then a Parliament man or a King can do Remember Vzziahs example And yet in all civil affairs they are as dutiful subjects as any else and as much subject to civil authority Because the Priests and Levites were in the matters of God set over all Israel will it therefore follow that the meanest Levite was greater then the Nobles Princes and Kings of Israel Indeed the meanest Priest might offer sacrifice which the King could not do but this was no disparagement to the Nobles or to the King No more it is to them that the meanest Physician may administer physick virtute officij and the meanest Pilot guide the Ship which the greatest Princes may not doe The office and power and honour that belong thereto is of another kinde then Parliaments and Kings it is not civil but spiritual You know Gods Ministers have power to baptize Parliament men Nobles and Kings and their children and to give them the Lords Supper and to teach admonish reprove and from God to threaten and denounce judgements against them even eternal destruction if they go on in sinful courses They do doctrinally binde and loose Princes and their whole Kingdoms and the whole world as occasion serveth And can any man say that the greatest men are by their greatnesse free from Church-censures if they be notoriously vile and yet none can impose them but Ecclesiastical Officers Suppose divers Parliament men or Noble men yea a King himself were members of a Congregational Independent Church would not the Officers of that Congregation account it their duty to administer all Gods Ordinances to them as occasion requires yea the Ordinances of discipline and censures if there be just cause Sir would you now be willing to have a retortion of your own kinde with a Let it be
it self as being a member of the whole and yet it is not notably vain to say The gift of them by God and his intention in giving them was to the whole though they never meet nor can meet together in this world So is the case of the Ministers also the Ministry is primarily given to the whole body of them and if they could meet together they might exercise the keys together conjunctim a representation or an epitome whereof is in a general councel but because they cannot meet but in parcels where they are seated and have a particular call to give especial attendance therefore they exercise them divisim yet as parts of the whole body of Organs of the Church and there they serve the whole Church and their dispensations have influence into the whole The third danger viz. the trouble and charge of appeals and the tryal of causes by them that can have no personal knowledge of the cause or persons to be tried but by information hath been answered before c. 7. s 9. Sect. 7. His third prejudice is that this opinion is Papal and Anti-Protestant And to prove this he bringeth in Bellarmines description of the Church-Catholike viz. That it is one visible Church or Congregation of men bound together by the profession of the same faith and participation of the same Sacraments under the government of lawful Pastors and especially of that only Vicar of Christ on earth the Pontiffe or Bishop of Rome This latter clause indeed is papal properly and therefore justly rejected by the Protestants But the former part if it be understood of one habitual body or Congregation is not to be accounted Papal because set down by a Papist for then all the Articles of the Creed which they hold as well as we though not on the same ground should be accounted Papal also Where they differ from the Scripture therein they erre and therein only we dissent from them Neither is it Anti-protestant unlesse as he hath stated it Calvins judgement whom he citeth here again I have shewed before and it is opposite to M. Ellis in point of the power of the ministerial office beyond one Congregation which is the very hinge of the question and in the power and use of Synods Chamier indeed makes the Church to be one general or universal yet he makes it to be aggregated of many particular Churches which strongly argues an integrality for no Genus is made by aggregation and he saith it is compounded of infinite particular Churches but no genus is made by composition Omne aggregatum compositum est integrale He makes it also to consist of many parts yea to have partes extra partes which is the Logicians definition of an integral But how all the Kingdoms in the world as he saith to make a parallel with the universal Church may be called one Kingdom in the general except by logical abstraction I understand not Certainly it cannot be by aggregation and composition and by apposition of them as parts of that general Kingdome he speaks of which yet he yieldeth in the Church-Catholike They have not all the same systeme of written Laws authorized by the same authority neither have they indefinite habitual Officers as the Church hath And for Bishop Iewel in his answer to Harding he disputes against the headship of the Pope but denyeth not Christ to be head of the visible Church And though indeed he rightly cals it a new fancy to prove the Pope to be head of the Church from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as if there were therefore but one King to rule over the whole world yet he denieth not that Christ rules over the whole Church but cals the Church One Kingdom One body One sheepfold And he citeth for the unity of the Church many sentences out of Cyprian viz. Vna est Ecclesia a Christo per totum mundum in plura membra divisa Item Episcopatus unus Episcoporum concords numerositate diffusus Cyp. l. 4. Ep. 2. Also Ecclesia una est connexa cohaerentium sibi invicem Sacerdotum glutine copulaeta Ep. 9. Quandoâ—oramus non pro uno oramus sed pro toâ—o populo quia totus populus unum sumus Cyp. in Orat. Dominic Again Hanc unitatem firmiter tenere vendicare debemus maximè Episcopi qui in Ecclesia praesidemus ut Episcopatum quoque ipsum unum indivisum probemus Cyp. l. 3. Ep. 13. Et si pastores multi sumus unum tamen gregem pascimus c. Copiosum est Corpus Sacerdotum concordiae mutua glutine atque unitatis vinculo copulatum ut si quis ex collegio nostro haeresim facere gregem Christi lacerare ac vastare tentaverit subveniant caeteri Ibid. So that Jewel was far from restraining the Ministers office or power to one Congregation or from denying the authority of Synods and Councels And for M. Rutherford in his Due right of Presbytery I marvel M. Ellis should cite him who is professedly point black against him and hath handled both parts of my question and concludes them affirmatively Due Right of Presbyteries p. 55. c. and 418. Now whose fault is it to cite authors for him that are known to be against him Sect. 8. I come now to view his greater Artillery as he cals it and his first argument is because saith he the Scriptures Christ and his Apostles are silent and speak nothing of one Catholike visible Church yea I may adde and all men else as he hath stated it But for Scripture-proofs I referre the Reader to what I said formerly and now have added Chap. 2. But my proofs from Scripture he was pleased to runne over in vind pag. 42. in 7. lines without any answer to the particulars His second argument is from the institution of Christ because saith he the keys of government were given first and fully entirely and immediatly to the particular Congregation and this he proves from the Church of the Jews to which all Church-power was given first and fully but this was saith he a particular Church not the universal unlesse by accident because there was no other Church-state in the world at that time And though he grants it to be a Type of the Church of the New Testament yet not as Catholike but as Congregational as it self was or else as mystical Vind. pag. 21. Answ It cannot be denied but there were some things peculiar to the Church of the Jews as typical Ordinances and a typical high Priest and that it was bounded within certain limits and they were bound to meet in their males three times yearly which pertain not to the Evangelical Church But in that one Church there were particular Assemblies for ordinary worship and extraordinary also and for acts of government and they had particular Officers and Ecclesiastical rulers over them and there were appeaâ—s reserved to the great Councel at Jerusalem and so it could not be a type of a
heart only and that but dimly and not apprehended by all in all the parts thereof alike through ignorance rudenesse barbarism or evil customes Secondly There are no Officers of the whole world as it is a society directed by the internal Law of nature but so there are of the visible Church and Therefore the visible Church is more then a society it is Christs external political Kingdom Thirdly There are several chief governours over the several Kingdoms of the world which are Gods vicegerents and Gods annointed ones in their Kingdoms and written municipal laws belonging to every Kingdom distinct from other Kingdoms and priviledges proper to the several Kingdoms wherein the subjects of other Kingdoms partake not But Christ hath set no such several supream annointed ones over the several Churches nor permitted the several Churches to make any different laws from his nor from those laws which are common to the whole Church And the priviledges of the Church are common to all the members of the several Churches and they have freedom to communicate together in the holy Ordinances whereever they dwell Fourthly The Law of nature is given by God as an invisible Creator the Laws of the Church are given by Christ a God man as a Mediator As he is God he hath an essential right to be governour of angels and men and all other creatures but as Mediatour he hath a donative Kingdom of grace and is a political head of an external visible Kingdom which is but one Fifthly All mankinde are not entred into one body by one external instituted sign badge enrowlment and initial seal not are entred into one explicit actual Covenant nor make an explicit actual profession of subjection to the same God or to the same systeme of written Laws And therefore that parallel which these two reverend Ministers M. Allen and M. Shepard whom I love and reverence much in the Lord endeavour to draw between mankinde and the Oecumenical Church in their Defence unto the nine questions or positions p. 79. will not suit and agree in all things 6. Yet as all men are one society though they want Officers as such yet are they bound to combine even from that internal union to preserve themselves and maintain the Law of nature Suppose there were some circumcelliones or some conjurers that sought to destroy mankinde in general not because they are of this or that Kingdom upon some particular quarrel but because they are men or that endeavoured to poison and infect the air or let in the sea to drown the earth or take away the light of the Sun if such things were possible or any kinde of wilde beast should multiply that would destroy all mankinde then all mankinde setting aside their particular immunities combinations Laws yea and quarrels ought and would unite themselves as men to preserve mankinde and oppose such common enemies of mankinde Forreign Nations will combine to vindicate Jus Gentium if it be violated All Nations combine against Pirates notwithstanding particular distinctions and oppositions yea so far as mens positive laws are general as the civil Law reacheth far over many Kingdoms if there be any oppositions or obstructions that hinder the exercise thereof for common good all that submit themselves thereunto would notwithstanding their particular distinctions joyn together to remove the same Much more then ought there to be an union and combination between the several parts of the Church which hath the same head and King over the whole of our own nature who hath given us one systeme of written laws and but one charter for the whole and made Officers for the good of the whole enduing them with an habitual power of office to administer all his Ordinances in any part of the Church upon a call And if they could meet together they might actually teach and rule the whole Church as one Congregation as M Ellis granteth and because they cannot so meet yet by the same reason if a great part of them meet together the Elders set over them may teach and rule them joyntly together as well as severally asunder For the greater number of Churches being considered as combined and consociated parts of the whole bear the same relation in a proportion to the lesse that the greater number in the same Congregation do to the lesse and therefore if the major part in the Congregational Eldership shall overrule the lesse by their votes so by proportion shall the greater number of any greater Presbytery whether Classical Provincial or National c. being in actual consociation and combination overrule the lesse if they dissent But because there are so many superstitions errours and heresies in the Asian African European and American Churches as M. A. and M. S. in their defence p 92. do take notice of which book I confesse it was mine unhappinesse not to hear of until this tractate of mine was transcribed for the presse and who have dealt exceeding candidly upon this question and seem to yield the fairest concessions toward the universality unity integrality and priority of the whole Church in some respects of reason pag. 77. though not so much as is contended for yet I say for these things sake I should be very tender in defining as the case now standeth what Churches or how farre the visible Churches may with convenience or safety enter into actual combination Quest 2. lest the truths of God or the liberties of the more sound and pure Churches should be prejudiced thereby The second Question I come now to handle the predicate of my Question which I may well call a second Question and that is Which of these two Churches is Prima or first and which Secundaria or secondary Sect. 1. BEfore I answer I desire it may be remembred that the comparison is not between the invisible and the visible Church but between the visible Catholike Church and the particular visible Churches And then I answer I conceive the Church-Catholike visible is priâ—â—a and the particular Churches are secundariae and in that sense orâ—ae as being ministerially converted and admitted by it But for our better understanding of this priority I shall first set down what kinde of priority this is and what not I doe not mean a priority of time as if the Church-Catholike should be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈…〉 antiquius quid and yet the Evangelical Church was first set up in time before there were any divisions into particular Churches but now it is divided the members that are born in the several Congregations enter into the general and particular Churches simul tempore though not ratione naturei As a freeman in London takes up his freedom of the City 〈◊〉 of such a â—all or company at once But those that are born in it and converted to it finde the Church-Catholike already constituted before them even in time Also I do not mean in regard of constitution of the whole political Kingdom of Christ by
Middleburgh and Strasburgh and other places yet because it maketh most for edification and order to have them fixed I shall think they were until the contrary shall be proved but however they ruled in common in the exercise of discipline which is the Ordinance which our brethren are most unwilling to grant should be exercised out of the particular Congregation Sect. 5. Seventhly That Church to which every Christian first bears relation and which relation continueth last and cannot be broken by him without sin is the first Church but such is the Church-Catholike visible Therefore c. The major is undenyable The minor appears because none can be admitted into a particular Congregation except he be judged first of the Church-Catholike and that not meerly Entitive but under the seal of the Covenant administred by some Officer and so stands bound to submit himself to all Christs Ordinances and Officers by one of which he receives his admission So again though he change his habitation never so often bear relation to never so many particular Congregations one after another yet in all those the general relation holdeth stil he is still a baptized visible member of the Church-Catholike and therefore to be received whereever he cometh into any particular Congregation Yea in the interim after his breaking off from one Congregation and placing in another he retains the general relation and baptism and is not an heathen or infidel he is not one without in the Apostles phrase Yea suppose a man should be a Traveller Merchant or Factor and setled in no particular Congregation yet being a Christian he is a member of the Church-Catholike yea and if he breach any errours or live inordinately he shall be accountable to the Church where he for the present resides or such crimes are committed and be liable to their censure as being a member of the Church-Catholike And this appears because the Church of Ephesus is commended Rev. 2.2 for trying strangers that came among them under the notion of Apostles and found them lyars and so would not receive them And our brethren undertake to inflict the sentence of Non-communion for so they call it a sentence of Non-communion denounced Apollog Nar. pag. 18. and 19. against strangers yea whole Churches but how it will stand with some other principles of theirs I know nor if it be a sentence denounced it is a censure and so an act of discipline exercised against those out of their particular confederation which in my apprehension is but changing an old warranted censure of the Church into a new and doubtful one but both seem to agree in the general nature of a sentence or censure Surely hereticks and false teachers are not to be left to the Magistrate only but to be referred to Ecclesiastical trial for those things come not under the cognizance of the civil Magistrate properly or he may be an heathen and will not regard an heretick nor can judge of him Act. 18.15 And if every kingdom will try murther treason or any foul crime committed in the same though by a stranger or alien because the crimes are against their laws and sovereign though their Laws pertain not to the countrey where the forreigner was born and dwelleth then much more shall every Church try those members of the Church-Catholike residing among them for their crimes or false doctrines seeing they have all the same sovereign head the same Laws and are all one habitual body Again It is no sinne for a man to remove from one Congregation to another as oft as occasion or conveniency require but for a man to remove out of the Church-Catholike either Entitive by disclaiming the doctrine and faith of Christ or organical by refusing to joyn to any Christian society or to be under and submit unto any Church-discipline is a great sinne and apostacy No man is accounted a schismatick for removing from one Congregation to another but he that shall separate himself from all Church-communion and shall rend himself from the Church-Catholike he is a schismatick he is an Apostate And therefore the several sects though they pretend because of wants or blemishes to rend from the Church of England or Scotland c. yet not from the Church-Catholike by no means because they know that were a sin Eightly That Church from which the particular Churches spring and to which they are as an additament and encrease that is the prime Church but that is the Church-Catholike Therefore c. The major is clear of it self The minor appears because they are the instrument to convert the rest and bring them into the same kingdom of Christ with themselves Act. 2.47 God added to the Church daily such as should be saved That little handful to which the Catholike charter was first given leavened the whole world and brought them in as an addition to themselves They were to be witnesses in Jerusalem and then in Iudaea and to the ends of the earth Act. 1.8 For the Law shall go forth of Zion and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem Isa 2.3 The Lord shall send the red of his strength out of Zion Psal 110.2 It was with the Church then as was said of the river of Eden Gen. 2.10 A river went out of Eden to water the garden and from thence it was parted into four heads So the water of life flowed from Zion into the four quarters of the world As there is no creek but hath its rise from and continuity with the Main and receives influence from it so there is no particular Church but hath his first rise and ministerial influence from the Church-Catholike and received the Gospel and priviledges of it from thence ministerially God cals no Evangelical Churches by inspiration only but by the ministry of those that are members of the Church-Catholike or some part of it God would not have Cornelius instructed by an Angel though he could have done it but by Peter a Minister of the Church-Evangelical and likewise the Eunuch by Philip. So that the Church-Catholike is as the Sea and particular Churches as so many creeks or arms receiving a tincture and season of her waters The Church-Catholike is as the tree Christ as the root the particular Churches as branches as Cyprian makes the comparison Shee is the mother and they as daughters born of her and receiving from her ministerially both nature and priviledges Gal. 4.26 Paul indeed was called extraordinarily from heaven by Christ himself the head of the Church and not by an Angel that he might be or some conceive a type of the second call of the Jews who as some hold shall be so called as he was by the appearing of the sign of the Son of man and therefore that Church is said to come down from God out of heaven Rev. 21.2 10. And the ground of this type they take from 1 Tim. 1.16 For this cause I obtained mercy that in me first Iesus Christ might shew forth all
Nam visibile est quod videri potest licet nunquam videtur Visible is that which may be seen though it be never actually seen Videri potest or may be seen is referred to the capability of the object to be seen not to the particular act of every agent at all times But take visible in his sense Quod uâ—o intuitu videri potest as a Kingdom representative in a Parliament Is a Parliament only visible â—o such as do actually see it and invisible to all others Is it not visible because not visum Men know it may be seen though they see it not though they exercise their knowledge only about it and not their senses yet that makes it not a genus or secunda notio It is visible though not actually seen Cameron de Ecclesiae conspicuitate pag. 245. saith the Church is visible as the world is we cannot see the whole world together but secundum partes successivè non uno obtutu attamen nulla est pars terra habitabilis quae non possit cerni Now only the invisible company have internal spiritual communion and are elect many of those that have external communion and are visible members shall perish And yet by reason of their profession are said 2 Thes 1.1 to be in God the Father and the Lord Iesus Christ as Ames also confesseth Ames med lib. 1. cap. 32. art 9. Such was the Church of Corinth and Ephesus c. wherein all were not in communion for life And of such Christ speaketh Ioh 15. â— Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he takes away And vers 6. If a man abides not in me he is cast forth as a branch and is withered and men gather them and cast them into the fire and they are burned These are said to be redeemed 2 Pet. 2.1 denying the Lord that bought them And sanctified Heb. 10.29 And hath accounted the bloud of the Covenant wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing And in Pauls exordiums to his Epistles To the Church of God to them that are sanctified in Christ Iesus called to be Saints 1 Cor. 1.2 These are called the sonnes of God Gen. 6.2 And Deut. 14.1 It is spoken of Israel in general ye are the children of the Lord your God And Gal. 3.26 Ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Iesus Now it is not to be conceived that all the members of the Churches in Galatia were true beleevers They are called the children of the Kingdom Mat. 8.12 i. e. reputed so but yet many of them were cast out into utter darknesse And Act. 3.25 Ye are the children of the Covenant which God made with our fathers Their advantage by being of the visible body was great every manner of way Rom. 3.1 2. To them pertained the adoption Rom. 9.4 and the glory and the Covenant and the giving of the Law and the service of God and the promises Which adoption is not internal adoption proper only to true beleevers for it is a priviledge belonging to the body of that people but it is the honour of being separated and reputed the children of God and so to live under the external Covenant and service of God and promises though they had not grace to improve them They are called Ro. 11.17 branches of the true olive partaking of the root and fatnesse of the Olive which were broken off and others ingraffed in their room which cannot be meant of the invisible company of elect but the visible Church God did not blot some out of his book of election and put others in or break off any true beleevers and graff others in but only out of their visible Church standing and partaking in outward Ordinances Object But is not this absurd that Christ should have wicked men who are limbs of Satan to be of his mystical body Carnal wicked men to be members of such a gracious glorious head Answ If by mystical body be meant the company of elect faithful ones that are knit to Christ by the Spirit on his part and by faith on their part and receive spiritual sap and vertue and grace from Christ internally it were altogether absurd to suppose any limb of Satan were so but mystical body is taken in opposition to a natural and civil body Now draw a word as suppose head from its natural and proper signification to a civil use and head will signifie a King who is called a civil head and then draw it to a theological use and it is called a mystical use of that word and so Christ is called a spiritual or mystical head and the Church a mystical body And in this sense mystical and organical are competible for both visible and invisible members may be said to be of the mystical body of Christ though in a different respect in regard of their communion the one visibly only the other not only vâ—sibly but also invisibly And in this sense M. Cotton in his Catechism cals a particular Church a mystical body of Christ wherein all are not of the invisible company And as the body admits of such a distinction so doth the head also for Christ affordeth spiritual communion to some inwardly as well as outwardly by Ordinances even saving graces and comforts by the Spirit of grace to others only outwardly by Ordinances and by common works of his Spirit In the same sense that a visible Church may be called a mystical body of Christ Christ may also be called a mystical head thereof As Christ terms himself a Master so he hath evil slothful unfaithful servants and stewards as a King he hath rebels that will not have him to rule over them even in his Church Mat. 25.26 Luk. 19.14 as a shepherd he hath goats as well as sheep Mat. 25.32 as a housholder he hath vessels of dishonour as well as honour 2 Tim. 2.20 Mat. 25.2 as a bridegroom he hath foolish virgins as well as wise invited to the wedding as a husbandman he hath tares among his wheat Matth. 13.25 as a fisherman he hath rubbish in his net as well as good fish Mat. 13.47 as a vine he hath unfruitful branches as well as fruitful Joh 15.6 Christ saith my people are foolish they have not known me sottish children that have no understanding that are wise to do evil but to do good they have no knowledge Ier 4.22 yea stubborn and rebellious people In the N.T. there were some in the Church of Corinth 1 Cor. 11. that had not the knowledge of God denying the resurrection guilty of drunkennesse at the Lords table guilty of fornication and uncleannesse and lasciviousnesse and had not repented And Tit. 1.16 Paul speaks of some in the Church that professed they knew God but in works denied him being abominable disobedient and to every good work reprobate And 2 Tim. 3.5 Having a form of godlinesse and denying the power thereof And Phil. 3.18 19. Enemies to the crosse of Christ whose end is destruction whose God
latent among the Idolaters who never bowed the knee to Baal nor kissed him and God might own the people for their sakes being the better part though the lesse Secondly though God doth not divorce a Church for all Idolatry yet they deserve it And at last came forth the sentence of Lo-ammi and Lo-ruhamah against the ten Tribes for it Hos 1.6.9 Thirdly I answer it may be verè Ecclesia as is said of the Church of Rome by some but not vera pura and it was needful for me as near as I could to give a description of a true Church But I will not contend with any about this description you may take a more comprehensive description A visible Church may be described to be a company of those that own or do professe the doctrine of Christ Or such as professe the true Religion The third term to be opened is Sect. 3. Catholike universal or Oecumenical The word Catholike is frequently given to such Churches as hold the true doctrine of the Apostles and in that sense it is the same with Apostolical as it is opposed to heretical and so we finde it frequently used in Eusebius Socrates and Sâ—zomen So Damasus is called Bishop of the Catholike Church at Rome and Aurelius of the Catholike Church at Carthage and Callinicus of the Catholike Church at Peleusium And the Councel of Nice cals the Bishops of the Orthodox Churches Bishops of the Catholike and Apostolical Church And in that sense I suppose M. Ellis intends it in the title of his book which he cals Vindiciae Catholicae a found or Orthodox vindication For if he means by it A general vindication against all that assert a Church-Catholike visible he is mistaken therein also for M. Rutherford hath written professedly of my question in both the branches of it that there is a Church-Catholike visible and that it is the prime Church though I confesse I knew not of it when I printed my Thesis But this signification doth not fully comprehend my meaning of the word Secondly Catholike is taken for an office in the Church next under a Patriarch that was as his Vicar general and is called in Latine Rationalis See Salmas de primat Pap. p 21â— Thirdly Catholike universal or general is taken for a logical second notion abstracted by the minde of man comprehending divers different species under it Fourthly It is taken in the same sense that we use to take Oecumenical that which is or may be all over the world The first and last sense are only pertinent to this Question viz. the Orthodox Church over all the earth and especially this latter and therefore now I have inserted the word Oecumenical into the question And in both these senses Augustine takes it who saith the Church is called Catholike Quia universaliter perfecta est in nullo claudicat per totum orbem diffusa est Aug. de Gen. ad lâ—t cap. 1. We are to know that the Church of God admits of several distinctions from several accidents As in reference to the times wherein the Church hath existed or doth exist it is distributed into the Church under the Old Testament and the Church under the New And this again is distributed into the primitive and successive So in regard of the places where the Church doth exist or persons of whom it consisteth it receiveth the distinction of universal and particular Now in this question universal is meant principally in regard of persons and places and not in regard of time The Church Catholike existing on earth at the same time is compared with particular Churches existing at the same time also What the universal visible Church is The Vniversal visible Church is the whole company of visible beleevers throughout the whole world Now whereas M. Ellis vind p. 52. saith this definition of the Church Catholike reacheth not the subject of my question but contains what is of all hands confessed I answer I aimed at no more in the first part of my question but to prove that there is a Church Catholike visible which he saith is of all hands confessed and then I have as much as I desired namely the subject of my question granted But I will further adde that which M. Ellis thinketh wanting to make it pertinent to this question viz. That this company is one visible Kingdom of Christ on earth The Evangelical Church which is so often called by Christ the Kingdom of heaven several men give several descriptions thereof I shall set down some of their sentences Ecclesia Dei vivi est columna firmamentum veritatis toto orbe terrarum diffâ—â—sa prâ—pter Evangelium quod praedicatur sicut dicit Apostolus in omni creatura quae sub coelo est Aug. Sancta Ecclesia nos sumus sed non sic dico nos quasi ecce qui hic sumus qui me modo auditis sed quot quot sunt Christiani fideles in universo terrarunt orbe quoniam a solis ortu usque ad occasum laudatur nomen Domini Sic se habet Ecclesia Catholica mater nostra Aug. Serm. 99. Adhuc habet Ecclesia quo crescat donec illud impleatur Dominabitur a mari usque ad mare Aug. in Matth. Disseminaâ—a est Ecclesia super omnem terram Iren. lib. 3. cap. 11. Non altera Romana urbis Ecclesia altera totius orbis aestimanda Gallia Bithinia Persis Oriens India omnes barbarae geâ—tes nationes unum Christum adorant unam observant regulam veritatis Si authoritas quaeritur Orbis major est urbe Jerom. ad Evanâ—r Distincti per Orbem Ecclesiarum conventus unam Catholicam faciunt Ecclesiam Beda in 1 Pet. 2. Catholica Ecclesia est illa quae diffusa est per universum orbem Cyril Hierosol Catech. 18. Quum unus sit Deus una fides unus Dei hominum mediator Jesus Christus unicum Ecclesiae caput consequitur necessariò unam quoque esse Ecclesiam Bezae conf fid cap. 5. art 2. Saepe Ecclesiae nomine universam hominum multitudinem in orbe diffusam designamus quae unum se Deum Christum colere profitetur Calv. Iustit l. 4. c. 1. s 7. Est Congregatio omnium per orbem universum qui consentifide Evangelica Bulling Est caetus hominum Christum suum regem sacerdotem prophetum profitentium Keckerm In novo Testamento vocamus Ecclesiam pro omnibus qui Christo nomen dederunt Zuingl Vniversa multitudo Christianorum quae se fidelem censet simul num fidelis populus una Ecclesia dicitur Idem Ecclesia significat totam illam omnium multitudinem qua generatim ex vocatione professione externa astimatur Trelc Ecclesia Catholica ex hominibus unius temporis est Caetus eorum omnium qui doctrinam Evangelij de Jesu Christo in carne jam manifestato per universum mundum profitentur Dicitur 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb. 2.5 i. e. mundus ille
First It is inconvenient that a Church consisting of 7.10.20 or 30. should inflict the formidable sentence of excommunication against any person to cast him out of communion not only with themselves but the whole Church-Catholike visible and deliver him up to Satan For if it be inflicted by the votes of the whole Congregation as some would have it many of the members being private men and haply altogether illiterate and unexperienced through want of age education or parts are not able to understand the nature of the allegations and probations they may be so intricate or not able to apply the rule unto the â—ase for inflicting of a just censure and may be in danger to bear particular favour or ill will unto their persons and so apt to be swayed by love pity or hopes from them or to be overâ—wed by fears or threatnings being poor men servants children workmen tenants and therefore our brethren for Congregational Churches have of late seeing this inconvenience debarred the people from votes and put it into the hâ—â—dâ— of the Elders only See M. Cottons keys of the Church Yea even the Elders of one Congregation may be in danger of the same temptations because of particular relations and their dependance on them for maintenance But suppose they were 〈◊〉 as Angels from â—â—â—gâ—tations or infirmities which they are not yet the weight masse and solemnity of the censure would require to be performed by a Colledge of Elders of a combined Pâ—â—â—bytery that so it being not passed by the votes of 3. or 4. only but by the joint advice consent and authority of a combined Presbytery may be the more dreadful to the party and be the better accepted and submitted unto without beâ—â—â— burning and grudge against the particular Elders or fears of revenge Yet I 〈◊〉 not power in the Elders of the particular Congregation with the consent of the Congregation to exercise even that sentence upon an offendor if there be a notorious clear cause but I speak in regard of conveniency in respect of the Elders or the cause or the person on whom it is to be inflicted who may be of civil eminency and degree c. It is worthy of note which Zanchy saith in this case In praecept 4. p. 388. Si Ecclesia aliqua exigua sit non multis eruditis hominibus constans non debâ—t excommunicationem ferre nisi vicinioribus consultis Ecclesijs Profectò neque Chirurgus si sit timens Dei prudens scindit alicui manum ant brachium nisi audiat prius vicinorum etiam periorum medicorum judicium atque sententiam Secondly It is impossible for one Congregation to enjoy all the Ordinances of God within themselves First Synods and Councels are acknowledged to be an Ordinance of God and particularly by that reverend Divine M. Cotton himself and he groundeth it on Act. 15. And though some of our brethren for Congregational Churches wave that place yet grant the thing and are members of one at this time and this Ordinance all men will grant cannot be had in one Congregation but sometimes requires the help of a whole Province Kingdom yea many Kingdoms Yea secondly The Ordinances that more nearly and particularly concern a particular Congregation cannot be performed by that alone For how can a Congregation of private Christians try the sufficiency of an Elder to be elected over them to labour in word and doctrine and if they have a tried man among them who shall give him imposition of hands which belongeth only unto Elders of the same kinde to perform Neither have our brethren of Congregational Churches whatever their judgement is herein ever dared as far as I have heard to permit private members to impose hands on their Elders but alwaies desired Elders of other Congregations to do it and therefore they cannot have this Ordinance within themselves And though this seemeth to some a thing of small moment yea but a complement yet it is an Ordinance of God The truth is election is but a nomination of a man which they think fit to be invested with and put into such an office and to whom so invested they are willing to submit themselves in the Lord but that giveth no power at all to execute the office nor doth it invest him with it for that is given and done by Ordination and imposition of hands which they cannot give because they are but private Christians out of office and the lesse ought to be blessed of the greater And the Apostle Heb. 6.12 reckoneth it up amongst the principles of Religion and part of the foundation Which place Hen. Jacob urgeth vehemently to overthrow the lawfulnesse and essence of all the Ministers of the Church of England because saith he they have erred in the foundation not having right and due imposition of hands of the Presbytery though by his leave he was mistaken for all those that imposed their hands on them were Presbyters But this dealing is not fair to hold imposition of hands a part of the foundation that so they may overthrow the Ministery of the Church of England and then make it but a complement that they may establish their own Now this impossibility befals a Church either in the beginning of it and first constitution or may at other times by mortality of Elders and will be frequent yea constant in small Congregations where there is but one or two preaching Elders as is the case of most if not all Congregations M. Norton a reverend Minister in N. E. in his answer to Apollonius hath a description of a particular Church much like this Ecclesia particularis est caeius fidelium visibili vinculo mutui consensus politicè unitus ad incedendum in fide observantiâ Evangelij juxta ordinem seu politiam Evangelij p. 22. But I see nothing in the description but is applicable to the Church-Catholike For they are the company of beleevers and they are politically united together under Christ a political head and they are united together by a visible bond of voluntary consent to yeeld outward subjection to the government of Christ See all these particulars yeelded by M. Hooker Survey p. 3. His own words I shall cite Chap. 2. Sect. 1. And M. Norton himself Resp p. 50. acknowledgeth thus much Omnes Ecclesiae uniuntur politicè sub eodem capite 2. Vniuntur eâdem formâ Politias cultus 3. Vniuntur relatione sororum politicarum hac unione communi sâ—â—â—datur communio Ecclesiarum inter se And because it is not rationally probable that the Churches of Jerusalem Rome Corinth Philippi Thessalonica or the seven Churches of Asia were meerly Congregational but rather Presbyterial as hath been by the Reverend Assembly the London Ministers and divers others abundantly evidenced it seemeth difficult to me to finde in the New Testament an expresse Instance or example of a Congregational Church standing and continuing so by it self The Church of Cenchrea mentioned Rom. 16 1. is the most
a quovis impio nec pio videri potest saith Whitaker And if the word Church be taken in that sense it is most certainly true it must needs be invisible But there is also an external communion as hath been shewed before which the visible members have both with Christ and one with another which is visible and makes the enjoyers thereof visible one to another and to all others also viz. their praying one with another and for another and their hearing the Word and receiving the Lords-Supper together as occasion is offered and their receiving all those as visible members of the visible mystical Kingdom and body of Christ that are admitted in any part of the Church by baptism and the avoiding of such as are any where excommunicated and the receiving again into communion those that are any where absolved So that there is an external visible Kingdom of Christ as well as an internal and invisible and the elect are of the visible Kingdom as well as of the invisible they are as Ezechiels wheels a wheel in the midst of a wheel It is true which reverend M. Hooker puts me in minde of that these 4. Questions between the Pontificians and our Divines are distinct Vtrum Ecclesia sit visibilis Vtrum Ecclesia visibilis potest deficere An sit semper frequenâ— gloriosa Vtrum Ecclesia opus habet visibili monarchâ summo Judice But they are rather marshalled so by our Divines in their answers then distinguished by themselves for they often confound visible conspicuous glorious manifest specious splendid magnifical and flourishing together yet the Church is visible when latent under persecutions and is deprived of the other properties for all the members even then are not invisible members of Christ Cameron granteth that these properties may betide the visible Church but not alwaies and so say some of the Papists also and that when they do betide the Church they rather shew Quid sit Ecclesia quam quae sit that it cannot be discerned which is the true Church by these accidents of perpetual clarity Cameron de Conspic Eccl. The Pontificians notion of the Church Catholike is very absurd for they hold the name Church-Catholike to belong to one Church viz. the Church of Rome and that being the Church-Catholike and comprizing the universality of the Church in it self all that will be members of the Church-Catholike must submit unto them and be members of that Of which Tylen in Synâ—â—g saith well Orbem urbi includunt And the necessity which they make that this one visible Church should be under one visible universal head on earth viz. the Pope as Christs vicar general is as absurd and therefore they are worthily confuted by our Divines But to deny an external Kingdome or Church of Christ upon earth or to deny the visibility or perceptibility of it or the unity of it or the univesality of it under the Gospel is as I conceive as absurd on the other side To the particulars I shall speak more fully in following Chapters I finde reverend M. Hooker in his Survey of Church-Discipline par 1. pag. 3. acknowledging Christ a political head by his especial guidance in means and dispensations of his Ordinances as well as a mystical by spiritual influence and the Church a political body as well as a mystical The political body or Church-visible saith he results out of that relation which is betwixt the professors of the faith when by voluntary consent they yeeld outward subjection to that government of Christ which in his word he hath prescribed and as an external head exerciseth by his Word Spirit and Discipline by his Ordinances and Officers over them who have yeelded themselves subjects to his headship and supream authority And pag. 25. The visible Church is truly stiled and judged by Scripture light to be the visible body of Christ over whom he is a head by political government and guidance which he lends thereunto 1 Cor. 12.12 And that it is a visible politick body appears quite through the whole Chapter but especially ver 27 28. Because in that Church God set Orders and Officers Some Apostles Teachers Helpers Governments The like to this Eph. 4.12.13 Again p. 16. The Church is the visible Kingdom in which Christ reigns by the scepter of his word and Ordinances and execution of Discipline The testimony cited out of Ames by me was this Congregationes ille particulares sunt quasi partes simulares Ecclesiae Catholica atque adeò nomen naturam ejus participanâ— And further he saith Illi qui proâ—essione â—â—ntum sunt fideles dum remaâ—ene in illa societâ—â—â— sunt membra illius Ecclesia sicut etiam Ecclesia Catholice quo ad statum exterâ—â—m Ames medul l. 1. c. 22. Sect. 11. And in his Bellarminus euerâ—atus he saith Nos fotemur Ecclesiam militantem visibilem esse quo ad formam accidentalem exteruam insuit partibus singulatim conjunctim c. Here I am taxed by M. Ellis vind p 53. for citing this authour for me who is known to be against me But I answer I dealt candidly with D. Ames acknowledging him to be against a Church-Catholike visible in some sense and yet not against it in some other sense 〈◊〉 expresse words declare Neither doth he reject iâ— terminis an universal visible Church in my sense as M. Ellis affirme but my position stands good for ought that I finde in D. Aâ—â—â— though I 〈◊〉 consent to his judgement in all things But let M. Ellis observe that Ames doth not hold the Church which is mystically one to be a genus or one generically sed quasi species specialissima vel Individuum quia nullas habet species propriè dictas Dicitur igitur Catâ—olica non ut 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 genus aut generale aliquid significat sed ut denotat aliquid significat sed ut denotut aliquid integraliter universale ut quum dicimus Orbis universus quia complectitur fideles omnium gentium omnium locorum omnium temporum Med. l. 1. c. 31. n. 18 19. Again cap. 32. n. 5. he saith Ecclesia particularis respectu communis illius naturae qua in omnibus particularibus Ecclesijâ— reperitur est species Ecclesiae in genere sed respectu Ecclesia Catholicae quae habet rationem integri est membrum ex aggregatione variorum membrorum singularium compositum atque respectu ipsorum est etiam integrum Which is as much as in this part of the question I contended for viz. that the Church-Catholike in regard of the external and accidental form is an integral and not a genus But M. Ellis makes the Church-Catholike one only in regard of the internal essential form and not in regard of any external form wherein he expresly crosseth Ames And therefore I retort it upon him again that he citeth a man for him which is expresly against him The external form is that which is visible and if the
Church-Catholike be one in the external accidental form it must needs be integrally and visibly one But I come to Scripture proofs which are the most sure Sect. 2. because they are a divine testimony And first I shall shew you that an Occumenical universal Church was frequently foretold in Scripture Psa 22.27 All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the Lord and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship be fore him Which comprehends all places all the ends of the earth and all persons that should be converted all the kindreds of the Nations and by worshipping is meant embracing the true religion and performance of religious duties So Psa 72.8 He shall have dominion also from sea to sea and from the river unto the ends of the earth It is a prophecy concerning Christ in the times of the Gospel where he is set forth by his Kingly office and the extent of his Kingdom is set out to be to the ends of the earth This is his external political Kingdom because it is set out by the external prayers and prayses and gifts that should be tendred unto him by his Subjects and by the judgement peace and flourishing estate that he shall bestow upon them So Psa 86.9 All Nations whom thou hast made shall come and worship before thee O Lord and shall glorifie thy name This is a prophecy like the former So Isa 2.2 3 4. It shall come to passe in the last daies that the mountain of the Lords house shall be established on the top of the mountains and shall be exalted above the hils and all Nations shall flow unto it and many people shall go and say Come ye let us go up to the mountain of the Lord to the house of the God of Jacob and he will teach us his waies and we will walk in his paths For out of Zion shall go forth the Law and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem and he shall judge among the Nations and rebuke many people c. Where is set down Christs call of all the Nations and the time of this call in the last daies i. e. the times under the Gospel as the Apostle Act. 2.17 expounds the like phrase in Joel 2.28 And here is the means of the call by the Law out of Zion and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem and the answer to this call All Nations shall flow unto it and there is Christs executing his prophetical office by publike teaching them in his house by his Ambassadours and his Kingly office in judging and rebuking So Isa 25.6 So Daniel 7.14 There was given unto him Christ Dominion and glory and a Kingdom that all people nations and languages should serve him And in the New Testament Matt. 28.9 Go teach all Nations baptizing them c. Rom. 15.11 12. Rev. 14.6 But because these places will be turned off with this answer that some of all Nations should embrace the Gospel and be turned unto the Lord not the whole Nations I answer that experience hath proved it true of multitudes of great Nations that wholly did embrace the Gospel and submitted unto it Neither can any of these places be avoided as some plead by the general Kingdom of Christ which is given him over all Nations whereby he is head over all things to the Church Eph. 1.2 For it is clear they are meant of that Kingdom wherein are prayers praises gifts worship service and attendance upon Gods Ordinances flowing unto Christ worshipping before him and glorifying his name as the several texts expresse and these things are proper to the visible Church So also Zech. 14.9 And the Lord shall be King over all the earth in that day shall there be one Lord and his name one which is clearly meant of one religion and way of worship of God in Christ But secondly Sect. 3. I will give you places of Scripture where the word Church is applied both indefinitely and generally which cannot be understood of any particular Churches See first Act. 8.3 Saul made havock of the Church To which may be added that of Gal. 1.13 I persecuted the Church of God and wasted it I shewed before that this must needs be a visible Church for they could not else have been persecuted persecution is a visible opposition of a visible Church And certainly Saul could not discern who were of the invisible company but persecuted promiscuously all that were that way Neither was it a particular Church for this persecution was in Jerusalem and in every Synagogue and it reached to Damascus and even to strange cities Act. 26.11 So that by Church here is meant an indefinite number of visible Churches or Congregations which were in no other community but profession of the same faith and an indefinite is equivalent to a general which axiome although it should not be stretched according to the old rule Omne indefinitum potest esse infinitum it being without limits yet it is true in suo genere it is as large as a general But this we may safely say that by the same reason that the word Church would reach all those Churches it would reach all the Churches in the world Reverend M. Hooker excepteth against these two places and affirms that the word Church is taken here by a Synechdoche for the particular Church of Ierusalem and not all that neither but only such Christians as forsook Moses ceremonial Law and not the Christian Jewish Church Surv. c. 15. p. 269. Because saith he his Commission was to pursue such as he found of that way The answer to this exception will lie in the meaning of these words all that he found of that way whether by that way be meant the forsaking the ceremonial Law or confessing Christ to be the Messiah If the former then Paul would have found but little work in Ierusalem for the Jewish Christians did generally cleave to the ceremonial Law As the Elders told Paul Act. 21.20 Thou seest how many myriads of the Jews do believe and they are all zealous of the Law and therefore he needed not persecute them for neglect thereof for they were zealous therein yea the Apostles themselves observed that in Ierusalem a long time But the persecution was such as that they were all scattered abroad except the Apostles and therefore it was for Christianism that he persecuted them It was to cause them to blaspheme as Paul himself expounds it now though reducing of them to the ceremonial Law had been an errour yet it was not a blasphemy for then the Apostles themselves should have lived in blasphemy Surely it was to cause them to blaspheme the Lord Iesus Christ and deny him to be the Messiah It is most likely that Sauls Commission was according the former decree of the chief Priests Ioh. 9.22 That if any did confesse that he was Christ he should be put out of the Synagogue And this appears by what Ananias saith to Christ concerning Paul Act. 9.14
Here he hath authority from the chief Priests to binde all that call on thy name And vers 2. If he found any that way Not all of Ierusalem or if he found any of Ierusalem that were fled thither but any Jews for the Gentiles had not yet received the Gospel For Chap. 10. Peter was charged for eating with Cornelius and his company that were Gentiles And they that were scattered abroad by Saul preached the Gospel to none but to the Iews only Act. 11.19 And some of those whom Saul persecuted were men of Cyprus and Cyrene Act. 11.20 But it was all that call on thy name not all that had forsaken the ceremonial Law for that very few Jews as yet had done if any at all And this was the reason as I conceive that the commission given to Saul by the chief Priests teached the Jews at Damascus and other cities because they were not fallen off from the ceremonial Law but kept fellowship with the Jewish Church at Ierusalem and came up to the feasts still and so were under their Ecclesiastical jurisdiction and liable to their censure and they could write to the rulers of those Synagogues to see them punished Also it is said upon the conversion of Saul Act. 9.31 Then had the Churches rest in all Iudea and Galilee and Samaria which yet were but some parts of the Church in the singular number which he persecuted Now if Saul had persecuted only the members of the Church of Ierusalem which had forsaken Moses law then they might have had rest before for all him for they should not have been within his commission but he persecuted them also So our brethren themselves expound it Except p. 17. Also it is said Act. 12.1 that Herod stretched forth his hands to vex certain of the Church and he killed Iames and attached Peter Now this was a visible Church because a Church liable to visible persecution and an Organical Church because the persecution was against the Officers and the Catholike Church for it is not said Certain of the Church of Ierusalem but indefinitely The Church and the two persons named were not Officers or members of the Church of Ierusalem but Officers of the whole Church being Apostles Also it is said Act. 2.47 God added to the Church daily such as should be saved Or saved men as some render it Not that all should be saved or were saved men that were added unto it for there were many hypocrites added but those that should be saved or were sanctified were added Which Church was not a particular Congregational Church but the Catholike Reverend M. Hooker excepteth against this and saith that it was not the Catholike Church but the Apostolical Christian Church now erected and not the whole company of beleevers in the whole world for such a company they never saw nor knew and therefore could not be added to them Surv. c. 15. p. 270. Answ It is true indeed it wa◠to the Apostolical Christian Church but not to any particular Congregational Church For first no man by conversion is added unto or made a member of a or the particular Church where he was converted but is made a member of the Catholike society of Christians by conversion and then joins himself unto some particular society of them Secondly This Apostolical Christian Church was not a Congregational Church for those 120 suppose them the 12 and 70 and some others were many of them men of Galilee and resided at Ierusalem but for a time per accidens by command until they were further endued with the holy Ghost And those 3000 that were added to them Act. 2.41 were men out of every nation under heaven ve 5. and their particular countries named ver 9 10 11. And this is our brethrens own exposition in their exceptions to the proofs from the Church of Ierusalem p. 16. Where they say they were not setled dwellers at Ierusalem but strangers commorants of the 10 Tribes which were dispersed and were but sojourners at Ierusalem coming up to the feast having their wives and children and families at home to whom they used after a time to return And that this continuing stedfastly in the Apostles doctrine and fellowship was but only while they were there at Ierusalem Yea some of them were of Iudea ver 9. and so of the countrey round about and that of them might be Churches erected in their proper dwellings is rationally supposeable And the proof M. Hooker giveth to shew it was not the Church-Catholike from Act. 2.42 They continued stedfastly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Apostles doctrine and fellowship makes much against a Congregational Church as I conceive For the Apostles were not Congregational Elders to Jerusalem but general Officers of the Church-Catholike by their Commission So that this communion of theirs with the Apostles was not a particular Church-communion but a Catholike communion of Catholike members not reduced into particular Congregations with Catholike Officers Neither might the Apostles joyn as particular Elders of the Church of Jerusalem For how could they binde themselves by an holy Covenant to the constant performance or enjoyment of all the Ordinances of God to or with them seeing their charge was to go over all the world yet such a Covenant our Brethren say is requisite in a particular Congregation Neither as yet were there any particular Elders of the particular Church of Jerusalem constituted nor do we finde it expressed how long after If it had been said that they continued in the Apostles doctrine and fellowship with the Elders of Jerusalem it had carried some probability Moreover it could not be the communion of a particular Church because they had the Lords Supper in several companies Breaking bread from house to house Gods providence ordered it so that the Christian Church should be as I may say at the very birth of it Catholike in regard of Officers and members before any reduction into particular societies under particular Officers It was so potentially from the giving of the Apostles commission and now it is actually in the members as well as Officers before their number could make up Congregations in several countries Yea but saith he it is not to the whole company of beleevers in the whole world for such a company they never saw nor knew and therefore could not be added to them p. 270. Answ It is not requisite they should see or know them all by face but know that there was or was to be such a company which was already begun It is like every member of the Church of Ierusalem did never see or know all the myriads that were of that Church nor do every member of the greatest Congregation in London know all the members thereof A forreigner that is naturalized by Parliament and so added to this Kingdom did never see nor know all the whole Kingdom Again 1 Cor. 10.32 Give no offence to the Iews nor to the Gentiles nor to the Church of God
any one will serve the turn to batter it down it matters not it seems what become of the rest He parallels this place with Eph. 4.4 5. And saith that one body or Church here and there spoken of is meant in the same sense that One faith One Baptism is viz. one in kinde and as there are many single faiths hopes baptisms though one in kinde so there is one body in kinde but many singular bodies vind p. 34. But M. Ellis might have seen that if he had run his parallel a little further he had run over shoes and boots too For there it is said that there is One Spirit one Lord Jesus one God and Father not in kinde but in number and why may not the Church in which there is one individual doctrine of faith and body of laws and into which there is one manner of inrowlment by baptism and in which only there is hope of salvation be one numerically also especially considering that as the head the Lord Jesus Christ is one in number so his body the Church can be but one in number also For Christ hath not more bodies in the same respect then one But even his granting of a mystical onenesse in Essence drives him to grant willingly that this doth imply an union visible also as much as may stand with the institution of Christ and the edification of the Church p. 34. And I think the Presbyterians desire no more Also he saith the Church is one as the worship and government is one viz. for nature and kinde in the substantials of it or that general platform of it Mat. 18. c. but as the Church is not one visible policy or corporation in number so neither in outward government of it vind 35. Answ The Presbyterians do acknowledge many distinct particular corporations of particular Churches exercising government actually and constantly by their own Officers But as this onenesse in kinde of worship and government giveth every private Christian whose constant actual exercise of publike worship is in one Congregation an habitual right to worship God and communicate in any though never so far remote Congregation if occasion serve and makes him liable to reproofs and suspension there if there be known cause why shall not the Officers also whose constant actual exercise is but in one Congregation have the like priviledge to exercise their office in any remote Congregation upon an occasion or call to it But there were two Objections vind p. 35. which played so hard upon him that they beat him from that battery and therefore he betakes himself to another mounted much higher I grant saith he the Apostle speaks of the Church whether visible or invisible universal or particular but not of it in these respects but mystically and totally as comprehending those in heaven also and this sense I will stick unto pag. 35. Now in this body or this Church as Eph. 36. or in this family in heaven and earth as vers 15 He hath set some Apostles some Pastors Though they have exercise of their functions only in that part which is on earth and in that part of it on earth which is visibles yet they are placed in the whole pag. 36. But here M. Ellis grants more then was desired I fear this opinion will prove but a novel opinion and he will have but few fellows to stand by him in managing this piece of battery For as it expresly crosseth D. Ames before-cited who saith the Church-Catholike is one in regard of its external and accidental state and not internal and essential so it crosseth himself who holdeth that the Officers of a particular Church are Officers only in their severall Churches vind p. 8. therefore not set in the Church Triumphant Certainly there they are where they were set but they are in the Church visible militant only the Church Triumphant hath no Officers This opinion will make all the Ministers notable Non-residents who never come at the place where they were set all their life time It were a happy turn for the Ministers if they were all placed in the Church Triumphant as well as militant I am sure many of them will never come there The Saints in heaven have no hand in the election of Officers here below which by his arguing they ought to have as well as the Church-Catholike in the election of every particular Officer vind p. 40. The Church in heaven have neither word Sacraments nor discipline which are counted the notes of the Church where the Ministery is placed The Ministers preach not to them pray not with them have no external communion with them watch not over them neither admonish nor censure them not perform any part of their ministerial office to them Nay the Officers are not so much as placed in the invisible Church on earth for as invisible it hath no Officers but as visible only It is true they are set for the good of the invisible Church and for the perfecting of the Triumphant but they are set only in the visible and they are altogether visible and many of them only visible and yet are true Ministers Are the gifts of tongues and of healing and Deacons set in the whole Church Triumphant as well as Militant Are all that are baptized into one body baptized into the Triumphant as well as militant I think you will not say so But how are we flown from a particular visible congregational Church to the Triumphant on a sudden from one extream to another Remember that of the Poet Ne si dimissior ibis Vnda graves pennas si celsior ignis adurat Inter utrumque vola Medio tutissimus ibis It is clear the Apostle speaks of that body wherein is suffering and rejoycing one with another But Abraham is ignorant of us and Israel acknowledgeth us not It is contrary to reâ—â—on it self that the Officers reckoned up in 1 Cor. 12.28 and Eph. 4.11 should be set in the Church essentially taken for discipline is not essential to the Church but for the â—inâ—esse or well being of it Considering also that by those Officers the Church becometh political It were a paradox to say that a King Judges Justices and Sherifs and Laws c. are given to a Kingdom essentially and not as it is a poâ—â—â—iâ— for they are the very formalis ratio and sinews of the politie thereof without which it might indeed have an essence but no politie Our brethren for Congregational Churches hold that there may be a Church entitive or essential before they choose any Officer else they were in no capacity to choose them how then can Officers aggree to them essentially But it is contrary to sense to say they are set in the Church Triumphant But fearing that he cannot keep this battery he retreats to a third and that is a double one In the general he saith should I grant which I do not that the Apostle is to be understood of the Church on earth yet
he speaks as well of in particular Church as of the general And to avoid the dirt of this Fort or Aâ—bâ—â—â—â—â— is he taâ—â— it viz. 1 Cor. 12.28 He brings in two significations of the word Apostle which worth alone saith he is the ground of the Objection And saith if we take the word for such Officers as were sent out with commission from any Church upon special occasion which is the literal signification of the word and is so taken 1 Cor. 8.23 of Barnabas and Phil. 2.25 of Epapbroditum so the Argument hence were voided Answ But there is not the least probability that the Apostle in setting down the Officers of the Church both extraordinary and ordinary should set down occasional messengers first before Prophets and Teachers And in Ephes 4.11 keeping the same Order should preferre them before Prophets Evangelists Pastours and Teachers And leave out in both places the highest office in the Church viz. Apostleship especially considering that the Apostle there doth not set down the Officers â—aptim promiscously but addeth an ordinal numeral with them first Apostles secundarily Prophets But again If it be taken properly in that he applieth his speech particularly though not exclusively to the Corinthians ye are the body of Christ to wit ye are a particular body and members in particular and so Chap. 3.21 22. All are yours whether Paul or Apollos or Cephar or life or death all are yours and ye Corinthians Christs Where all are the whole Churches and each Churches in particular as their occasions require each in their order He might also have said and each particular member So that the sense is saith he he hath given or set in the Church i. e. in this Church of Corinth and so in that of Ephesus c. Some Apostles c. as their need shall require yet not therefore making them one external society among themselves As some general Officers make not England and Scotland one Kingdom Answ M Ellis goes upon a mistake in all his book The Presbyterians say not that the Church-Catholike visible is one external constant actual society but habitual or in actu primo or constantly and actually in actu secundo sive exercite the regiment is exercised in the particular Churches or vicinities yet hath the whole Church or some great parts of it some common interests that may require to be handled in Synods and Councels by their combined or delegated Officers occasionally and those Officers therein act not as private men but as Officers and may exert their indefinite habitual power annexed to their office for the good of the whole or of so great a part of the Church-Catholike as did delegate them And as for the parallelling Apostles and Prophets in this case with life and death it is not equal for God did not set life and death as Officers in the Church but they are general accidents to the whole world over-ruled by God for the good of his people All things work together for the good of them that love him But in that he grants the word Church to extend to Corinthians and Ephesians c. he must grant it to comprehend all the Churches as well as them and that they all are one Church habitually having then some general Officers over them viz. Apostles Prophets Evangelists and Teachers and the same Apostle the same Prophet and the same Teacher if need required in any of them But fearing he could not keep that battery he retreats to a fourth and saith that though by Church were meant the Church-Catholike visible yet it follows not that because it was so then and in respect of the Apostles that therefore it was to be so to the end of the world and in it self pag. 37. Answ it is true it was not Christs minde that the extraordinary office of Apostleship should continue there were to be no more such men of extraordinary gifts and divine immediate mission of an infallible spirit that had actual regiment over the Churches of the whole world without any delegation from others but by immediate commission from Christ But how comes that which was an integrum in the Apostles daies to be now sublimated into it genus and lose the integrality and so prove a second notion existing only in intellectu nostro Did it cease to be one body as soon as the Apostles were all dead seeing the same doctrine worship laws discipline enrowlment by baptism confirmation and communion in the Lords Supper continued still and the liberty of all the members of the whole Church to communicate in these in any place of the world where they become though but occasionally continue still And by the same reason the habitual power in actu primo which the Officers have to dispense the Ordinances of God may be drawn forth in any part of the Church in actum secundum upon an occasion and call according to their measure which the Apostles had habitually and actually every where both in actu primo secundo extraordinarily Yea but saith he the Churches were not one in themselves but one in the Apostles and that by accident as England and Scotland were one in the King because he governed both Israel and Judah in David the whole world one in Nebuchadnezzar But they are not therefore one considered in themselves Vind. p. 37. Answ I grant the Church was but accidentally and temporarily one in regard of the Apostles but integrally one in it self It was not one because that they were set over it but it was one in it self integrally because Christ is set over it and therefore they by commission from Christ were set over it extraordinarily for the present good and necessity thereof An Empire being made one under one Emperour hath imperial laws and constitutions which being divided under divers governours it loseth again and ceaseth to be an Empire but the Church hath the same laws under the same head that it had then and ever shall have The world was one Empire under Darius by imperial laws not because the three Presidents were set over it neither did it cease to be so by their death or ceasing So c. But fifthly saith he though we grant that while the Apostles were living there was one body of Officers over the whole Church and so in respect of them the Church might be said to be one governed body yet it was never one governing body for whilest the Apostles lived the universal governing power was committed to the Apostles only and not with them to any other Officers or Churches no not to all the Churches together but they with their Officers were all in subjection to them Answ I acknowledge the Church-Catholike was never one governing body although M. Ellis is pleased to set down that expression in capital letters in the frontispiece of his book and upon the top of every page and in divers other places as the opinion of the Presbyterians But where doth he finde any such expression in
external donative regiment of Christ over his visible Church-Catholike dispensed by Ordinances and Officers here below which shall then cease And though the Ordinances as he alledgeth are distinct from the Kingdom in sense and signification Yet they strongly argue a Kingdom constituted and governed by them as the Kings laws argue a King and Kingdom As from helps and governments 1 Cor. 12.28 we gather the consequence of helpers and governours as officers in the Church so from the external laws of this Kingdom we necessarily conclude there is such a Kingdom commensurable to the extent of these laws and that external Organical and Catholike which is spoken of Isa 9.6 And the 25. ver makes it plain for he must reign until he hath put all enemies under his feet which reigning relates to professed Subjects as well as professed enemies and these Subjects comprehended in a Kingdom Again Heb. 12.28 Wherefore we receiving a Kingdom which cannot be moved let us have grace whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear This Kingdom cannot be meant of the internal Kingdom of grace in the heart for that was also exercised by Christ in his peoples hearts under the old Testament but it is meant of the external unalterable perpetual Ordinances of worship and government which differed from those under the Law else the Apostles antithesis of the Church under the Law and the Church under the Gospel had not been good which are the things he compares in that place Externals under the Law are opposed to externals under the Gospel It cannot be meant of the Kingdom of glory for they had not yet received that And it is plain he speaks of a Kingdom wherein we may now serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear Now these Ordinances of worship and discipline being Catholike or universal and relating to a Kingdom and therefore set down under the name of a kingdom by a Metonymy of the subject for the adjunct the Kingdom for the Ordinances of the Kingdom do strongly argue the being of the Kingdom Can we conceive that the holy Ghost would chuse to use such a metonymy of the subject where there is no such subject It is true as is alledged the unalterablenesse lyeth in the adjunct Ordinances i. e. in regard of God who will not alter them and that the subject or kingdom may be moved and shaken by persecutions or heresies and so may the Ordinances also and have been we know but that kinde of alteration moving or shaking is not meant in the text neither was intended by me I have the rather mentioned this text because I finde one of our brethren for Congregational Churches viz. M. William Sedgwick giving this Exposition of it in a Sermon of his in print which was preached before divers members of the House of Commons Sect. 6. Again 1 Cor. 5.12 The Apostle saith what have I to doe to judge those that are without The preposition or adverb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I desire to know what it doth relate unto Is it not meant 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without the Church And can we think that that Church was the Church of Corinth only Had Paul nothing to do to judge any that were out of the Church of Corinth when he was an Apostle all over the Christian world This could not be meant of the invisible company only what had Paul nothing to do to censure any but invisible members Why did he then excommunicate Hymenaeus Philetus Phigellus Hermogenes and Alexander And saith I would they were cut off that trouble you Also it must be meant of an Organical body because here are censures mentioned as belonging to all within And therefore it must be meant of the Church-Catholike visible Organical What have I to do to judge those that are not brought into the Church They are not under my power or cognizance but belong only to the civil Magistrate And we usually speak of the Countreys that are within the Pale of the Church and those that are without And we have an axiome Extra Ecclesiam non est salus which cannot be meant of any particular Congregation in the world but is true of the Church-Catholike visible typified by the Ark of Noah without which ordinarily and visibly there is no hope of salvation Extra ejus gremium non est speranda peccatorum remissio Calv. Inst l. 4 c. 1. S. 4. Again Eph. 4.4 5. The Apostle proveth the Church to be but one by divers Arguments First saith he There is one body of Christ which is therefore called Eph. 3.6 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 both of Jews and Gentiles i. e. the same body And this an Organical body because Paul addeth ver 7. whereof I was made a Minister Secondly there is but one spirit in that whole body which is as one soul in one body Thirdly there is but one hope of their calling Fourthly There is but one Lord or King over the whole Church Fifthly There is but one faith i. e. One religion doctrine worship the same Commands and Statutes for all Sixthly There is but one Baptism to admit into this Church Now if the whole world were under one King and governed by one Law and all one body and all capable of the same priviledges and all made Denizons by the same way of enrowlment it would make but one Empire yet so it is with all the Christians and Churches in the world they have the same King Law Word Sacraments of admission and nutrition which they visibly subject themselves unto and receive therefore they are all one visibly Church Upon this text ver 12. Beza in his large Annotations hath this note Being the Church is to be considered either as a Communalty of a sacred Common-wealth or as a spiritual Temple or as a mystical body the ministery of the word ought likewise to be referred to these three heads c. All which 3. considerations shew the unity and integrality of the whole And that this is meant of the visible Church and not invisible or Triumphant as M. Ellis conceiveth appeareth because it is the Church to whom Officers are given ver 11. to be edified ver 12 13. compacted together by joints ver 16. of whom mutual duties both religious and civil are required for such are set down in that Chapter and the following And so M. Hooker understands it Surv. p. 3 where he cites this text for the political body or Church visible of Christ ruled by the donative delegated power of Christ and that visibly by his Ordinances and officers It is therefore the militant visible Church which holdeth forth the truth Phil. 2.16 contending for it Jude 3. Into which the thief may possibly enter Joh. 10. Act. 20.29 30. Again Christ saith Mat. 16.18 On this rock will I build my Church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it Was this a particular Congregation No surely but the Church Catholike for any particular Church may
be prevailed against but the whole shall not The place is meant of a Church future to be built which Christ then intended to set up which was the Evangelical Catholike Church consisting of Jews and Gentiles as one body and not Catholike as some take it for the Church past present and to come for those already in heaven are out of gunne-shot of assault but it is meant de Ecclesia vivorum de militante de Ecclesia quam Christus erat aedificaturus Object O but this place is meant only of the Church invisible for they that are only visible may be prevailed against Answ It is true that any particular meerly visible member may be prevailed against yet all shall not and even the invisible members which cannot be prevailed against so many as are left in any though never so general and fierce persecution shall remain as visible For Ecclesia nunquam definit esse visibilis Therefore Satan or men shall never so far prevail as to cut off all visible members And though heresies should come that deceive all but the elect which is not supposable yet as long as the Elect are not deceived there remaineth a Church Catholike visible still in their visibility But it cannot be affirmed that all are invisible members that are left or hold out in the hottest persecutions or subtlest heresies strong enlightnings and covictions and struglings of conscience and other by-ends may do much Latent members may not be invisible But the reasons which induce me to think that this text is meant of the Church visible are these two I finde in the context First because this Church is built upon this visible or audible profession that Christ is the sonne of God which Peter made The rock there spoken of is not an indefinite Messiah to come for so the Church from the beginning of the world was built on that work but the profession and doctrine that the Messiah is already come that this Jesus is the Messiah and this Jesus the Messiah is the sonne of God It is the confessing that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh 1 Joh. 4.2 3. And the beleeving that I am he saith Christ Joh. 8.24 And therefore the Jews that believed before in an indefinite Messiah to come were upon their conversion to the Christian faith built upon this rock and by a new Sacrament admitted into this Christian Church as well as the Gentiles Secondly Because Christ immediatly in the next verse affixeth officers to this Church by promising the keys of the Kingdom of heaven unto Peter and not to him only but to the rest also as appears in other places which keys are an Ensign of office in that Church which Christ would build Thirdly Because the admission into this Evangelical Church was upon a visible profession of their belief of this doctrine and a visible receiving of a visible external badg of baptisme Fourthly Because this Church is assaulted by visible adversaries viz. persecutors and hereticks and that visibly and though they shall never wholly prevail against it yet visibly waste great part of it many times And M. Hooker himself acknowledgeth that he doth incline to this judgement of this text viz. that it is the visible Church that is there meant Surv. c. 15. p. 278. Only he objecteth against a reason which I brought of it which was to this purpose If all the visible members should fail then all the invisible must needs fail also for none are invisible in the Church I mean but must be visible also His Objection against this is because an invisible member may be justly excommunicated and so cast out of all the visible Churches in the world and so be no visible member and yet remain an invisible member still for that membership cannot be lost Answ It is very doubtful to me how far excommunication casteth a man out of the visible Church it debars him indeed from the Lords Supper because it is a seal and from familiar intimate society with Gods people because he is an infected member and so doth a notorious sinne though the man be not excommunicated But I conceive it cuts him not off totally from the visible Church For first the seal of baptism remaineth on him and therefore is not iterated at his readmission Secondly he is admitted to hearing the word and prayer and conference with Gods people He is a diseased leprous member under censure shut from the most intimate actual communion until he be cured and cleansed That which is done to him is under consideration of discipline as to a member now diseased in order to cure not as to one that is damned or to one that is under the sinne against the holy Ghost as Julian the Apostate was And if any godly person through weaknesse of judgement concerning Churches not rightly gathered refuse to be baptized as M. Hooker suggesteth he is indeed no compleat member in that regard but he being converted by visible means and making visible profession he is an incompleat visible member of the Church-Catholike Entitive Again Excommunication in 3 Ep. Joh. ver 10. is called casting out of the Church What Church is that It cannot be the invisible Church for all the censures in the world cannot cast a man out of that if once he be in therefore it is the visible Church Then I would know whether a man truly excommunicated in one Church or Congregation is not thereby excommunicated from brotherly fellowship with all Congregations yea and Christians not gathered yet into Congregations Or whether the delivering up to Satan by the Officers of a particular Congregation be only within the bounds of one Congregation or in reference to their members only so that if he remove out of such a circle or circuit of ground to another or from those members to others he be out of Satans bonds again and may communicate there de jure This M. Hooker saith is per Synecdochen generis pro Specie that particular Church where Diotrephes usurped preheminence is understood For when a person is justly excommunicated from the Congregation in which he was it follows of necessity that all that fellowship he might enjoy by vertue of communion of Churches must of that necessity be denied unto him and he justly deprived thereof because in the vertue of his fellowship with one he gained fellowship with others Answ Whether the word Church be there properly or per Synecdochen generis or Synecdochen Integri I shall not now enquire but refer it to a Chapter by it self in which shall be enquired whether the Church-Catholike be a genus or integrum But I question much whether a mans fellowship with one Congregation be the ground whereby he gaineth fellowship and communion with others For then how came the Apostles and Evangelists by right of communion with any Churches seeing they were fixed members of none And how could the 120. and 3000. converted by Peter have right of communion and breaking bread together before
the particular Congregation but into the whole visible body and into the general Covenant not into any particular Covenant 8. If there be an external Catholike union of fraternity between all visible Christians in the whole world there is one external visible Catholike Church But there is one external Catholike union of fraternity between all visible Christians in the whole world Therefore c. The consequence of the major appears because this fraternal union ariseth from the unity of the Church which is constituted by one Covenant into which they are all entred visibly They are not made brethren by being invisible believers only or in the same respect for then only invisible believers were brethren in the Scripture sense If any one that is called a brother be a drunkard railer extortioner c. 1 Corinth 5.11 Now few true believers are fornicators idolaters drunkards therefore this brotherhood is in regard of a visible profession and membership The minor appears because whereever the Apostles came if they found any visible believers they are said to finde brethren Act. 28.14 And it is the most usual term that the Christians were called by both in the Acts of the Apostles and in the Epistles not because they were of one particular Congregation but because of the Church-Catholike which are also called the houshold of faith Doe good unto all i. e. though heathens but especially to the houshold of faith Gal. 6.10 The houshold is commmensurable to the entertainment of the faith Not the invisible members only for they could not be known as such but all the visible members 9. If the same individual systeme or body of external laws under one command whereby all Churches equally should walk and be governed be Catholike then the Church is Catholike But there is the same individual systeme or body of external laws under one command whereby c. Therefore c. The major is proved by evidence of reason and experience of all bodies politick The minor is undeniable For the same individual systeme expressed in the Gospel totidem verbis governs and guides the whole Catholike Church It cannot be said the same in kinde only but the same for matter manner end method and expresse words unlesse we can say the several copies are several species and then we in England have so many species of laws as there be copies printed of our laws Neither is it the law written in the heart and put in the inward parts but the external systeme given to the Church as a body politick Neither is it the moral law quâ moral but that in the hand of a Mediatour with other positive laws added thereto Neither is this subjection unto these external laws arbitrary by the concurrent consent of divers Churches out of custome or because of the equity and conveniency of them vi materiae as divers Kingdoms now use the civil laws or for intercourse with forreign Churches but by vertue of the command of the authour of them Neither have particular Churches any municipal laws divine of their own superadded to distinguish them as England and Scotland have but are wholly ruled by this Catholike systeme 10. If there be a Catholike external communion intercourse and communication between all the members and in all the particular Churches in the world in worship doctrine and sign or seal of confirmation nutrition or commemoration of the same redemption visibly wrought by the same visible Saviour then all those members or Churches having this external communion intercourse and communication are one Catholike Church But there is such a communion c. Therefore c. The consequence appears because communion ariseth from membership there is an union presumed before there can be a communion admitted especially in the Lords Supâ—er which is a seal and if an union then a membership for thereby they are made of the body and if the communion be visible and external then so is the union from whence it floweth for qualis effectus talis est causa And though there may be an admittance of a heathen to be present at the word singing praier yet it is not an admittance into fellowship for then we should have spiritual fellowship with idolaters they may come and see what fellowship Christians enjoy with Christ and one with another but they are not admitted into that fellowship while heathens and idolaters but after conversion professed subjection and believing After the 3000. were converted by Peter and were baptized they continued stedfastly in the Apostles doctrine and fellowship and in breaking of bread and praier Act. 2.41 42. And yet were not of one particular Church not as our brethren themselves tell us as I shewed before therefore as members in general And nothing is more usual then for members of one Congregation to joyn in the fellowship of the word read and preached in singing and prayer with members of divers Congregations together as at lectures or other occasions and frequently also at the Lords table even among our brethren in New-England members of far distant Congregations do communicate occasionally Also all the visible Churches on earth pray publikely and give thanks and on occasion may fast for the welfare of the whole Church on earth As for the evasion which some of our brethren have that this communion of strangers with them is by vertue of a particular present transient membership with them I conceive it of no force nor warranted in the word of God Then should those men be members of two Churches at once then ought they to contribute to that Minister then ought that Minister to take the charge of them then by some of our brethrens positions should the whole Congregation have a hand in their admission Also if there be any Ecclesiastical admissions or censures or transactions or contributions that concern that particular Congregation they also ought being members to have their vote and consent and hand therein And then by the same reason all that came to a lecture which is a Church-fellowship in divine Ordinances of singing praier preaching and blessing the people must so many times turn members of that Congregation where such a meeting is And then is it a dangerous thing to hear a lecture in a Congregation where the Minister or people are corrupt for we thereby make our selves members of that Congregation and so put our selves under that Pastour and those Elders for the present and thereby give our allowance of them It is not a subâ—tane occasional meeting that can make a person a member of a Congregation but constancy quoad intentionem saltem saith Ames in medulâ—a lib. 1. cap. 32. Sect. 21. And for communion of Churches I shall speak of it afterward And by this that hath been said I suppose the minor is cleared also 11. If the censure of excommunication of a person in one Congregation cuts him off from the Church-Catholike visible in regard of communion which formerly he had right unto then is there a
this method rightly understood though they were not my words but only collected out of them I conceive that a man of any Nation converted to be a visible beleever is a member of the Church-Catholike entitive being within the general external Covenant and hereby hath right to all Church-priviledges that belong to the whole Church and that his particular membership which he comes to next doth not afford him his right but opportunity only But when M. Hooker comes to shew how this crosseth Gods method he only sheweth that it crosseth the method that God used in the national Church of the Jews which being in populo Israelitico must needs differ from the method in populo Catholico A person being a visible beleever must join himself to the Jewish Church before he can partake of their priviledges because the priviledges by Gods Covenant were so given but now the Covenant is Catholike it is sufficient to be in the general Covenant to make a man have right to the priviledges of the Covenant opporunity indeed cometh by joyning himself with some particular Congregations where the Ordinances are administred or some particular priviledges but not the general For my part therefore I conceive and conclude that the Church-Catholike visible is Totumintegrale and the particular Churches are partes similares or members thereof and parcels thereof As the Jewish Synagogues were of the Jewish Church though with some more priviledge for both Sacaaments And therefore Jam. 2.2 the Apostle calleth a Christian Assembly a Synagogue in the Greek If there come into your Synagogue a man with a gold ring And Heb. 10.23 The Apostle cals their assembling in Christian Congregations 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a coming together into a Synagogue So Tylenus in Syntag. de Eccl. dis 1 Thes 3. Quamvis Ecclesiae nomen usitatius sit pro Christiano caetu quà m Synagogae tamen ne hanc quidâ—m appellationem respuit Scriptura Cum enim utriusque Testamenti Ecclesia una eademque sit secundum essentiam uno eodemque nomine utrumque populum indigitare nihil vetat Neither am I averse from the opinion of such who make the several Synagogues of the Jews several depending Churches for they had there the word read and preached and praier and there they kept daies of humiliation and there they had their Officers of the Synagogue and the dispensation of discipline even of excommunication Joh. 9.22 Only the censures were with liberty of appeals in case of male administration And they are called by the Psalmist the houses of God Psal 83.12 And the Apostles separated not from them any where until they persecuted them Totum essentiale sive genericum doth not comprise the form of the species in it self but giveth the matter or common nature to the species but the Church-Catholike is made up of the matter and form of the particular Churches conjoined as a whole house of the particular rooms in it and the particular Churches have in them and consist of part of the matter and part of the form of the whole quâ—ad statum exteruum And these parts are limited and distinguished from others by prudential limits for convenience of meeting and maintenance and transacting of businesse and every Christian is or ought to be a member of the Church in whose limits he dwels being already in the general Covenant by baptism I do not hold as M. Hooker conceives from my words that meer cohabitation divolveth a Church-membership upon a man for then a Heathen Turk or Jew should be a Church member if cohabiting with a Church but I expressed the condition of being baptized and so in the general Covenant and then he ought to associate with the Church where God layeth out his habitation and they ought not to refuse him except there be sufficient cause of censure For of any Christians dwelling in any city or Town where there was a Church and he not to be a member of that Church or to be a member of another Church in another Town or City and reside in his own but per accidens as some distinguish hath neither example nor warrant in the Scripture And must imply either that he holdeth them not to be a Church and so not of the Kingdom of Christ or else such a corrupt part that he dares not joyn himself with them And as a man that comes to dwell in a Town ought not to refuse to be a member of that town but shall be ruled by the Officers thereof in civil affairs and if he like not he may yea must remove from them if he will not submit himself and if he continue with them he will be liable to punishment or restraint by those civil Officers if there be just cause so I conceive If any professed subject of Christs Kingdom shall sit down and cohabit with a Church within the civil limits allotted for such a Congregation he not only ought to associate with them but the Officers of that Church ought to take the inspection of him and if he be dangerously hererical or prophane and thereby dangerous and offensive they ought to take care of his cure and the preservation of the rest of their members by censuring of him whether he will or no in regard of his habitual general membership and their habitual indefinite office And though civil prudential limits wherein a Congregation dwels give no formality to the Church being heterogeneal yet as the limits of the particular seas and their names are from the shoars and lands they are bounded by though heterogeneal so may particular Churches well be bounded and denominated by their civil limits We finde frequently in Scripture the Church which was at Jerusalem Antioch Corinth Ephesus and Cenchrea And so it is in New-Englaad the several Churches are limited and named by the precincts and names of the civil divisions of Towns The Christians of Boston associated together make the Church of Boston if there be any not associated yet it is their duty to joyn and they ought to be received except as I said before CHAP. V. That the Church-Catholike is visible I now proceed to prove the Church-Catholike to be visible Sect. 1. which is the thing so much denied by many Divines There is indeed an invisible Church of Christ and that Catholike but if you take Catholike for Orthodoxal and also for universal and that in the largest sense of all comprehending all places and all times both past present and to come some militant some triumphant for whose sakes principally Christ died and the Ordinances were given and the visible Church was instituted Which invisible company are only known to God and are given by the Father to Christ to redeem and save And these persons though they be visible in their generations and enjoy visible communion in the visible Church whereof they are ordinarily visible members yet besides that they have invisible grace and invisible communion with Christ their head by faith on their parts and the
together by laws under one government it is otherwise the distance of place hinders not the integrality of the whole and though it cannot be seen uno intuitu by the same man at once unlesse by way of representation as in a Parliament or Common-Councel as M. Ellis saith nor yet be perceived to be one without some act of the understanding yet this maketh not the City or Empire invisible He confesseth the Church-Catholike to be visible in respect of the several parts and places where they dwell but this saith he is to prevaricate and to prove that which is not in question But he might remember that I took visible in the explication of the terms of the question to be meant in regard of visible communion in holy Ordinances â—hough the persons never congregate into one place to be seen with one mans eye but in opposition to inward invisible communion Let him grant but such a visibility of the Church-Catholike as was in any of the four Monarchies or a civil kingdom which yet are seen but in their several parts and places and I contend for no more I suppose no particular Congregation was ever seen together in all the members thereof uno inâ—uitu and yet is visibly one in regard of the particular confederation and usual meeting of most of the members Is not England a visible Kingdom though seen but in the parts of it was it not visible before there was a Parliament to represent it or doth it cease to be visible in the intervals of Parliaments The visibility of it consisteth in the visibility of the Persons Corporations Places Laws Government So is the case of the Church-Catholike whose Persons Places Laws which are the visible bond and government are as external and visible as those of the Kingdom i. e. lyable to sense and perceivable by sense though not actually seen by the same man at once I desire it might be noted that the Church-Catholike which our Divines speak of in their disputes against the Papists is not this Church-Catholike which we have now in hand but that is the whole Church or company of the elect both past present and to come It is the Church taken in the first sense in the explication of the terms of the Question not the external political mixed Church or kingdom of Christ Neither doth that Church agree with this but only nominally and equivocally in that it is called by the same name but it is not the same in nature or sense and therefore should that and this be used in a syllogism there would be 4 terms For that Church is neither external nor visible nor existent nor organical it hath no Officers it is no polity it is not that which M. Hooker cals Tâ—tum genericum existens for many of them are already in heaven and the spirits of just men made perfect many not yet born many not yet converted Now to make that the Genus of the visible external political Churches of Christ were as absurd as to make the vessels of gold to be the Genus of the silver brazen pewter wooden stony and earthen vessels of a house or a marble building to be the Genus of all the buildings of other stones brick and timber And therefore to dispute from that to this is not ad idem I suppose that neither M. Hooker nor M. Ellis meant that Church no more then I. If the genus comprehend only invisible members the species should be only of invisible members also The genus is of the same nature or predicament with the species and all that is common to all the species is found in the genus and fetched from thence There is nothing in man but it is in animal except the specifical form whereby he differs from a brute and nothing in animal but it is in man except its totality or generality whereby it comprehends man and brute If homo and brutum be visible living substances they received it from animal The genus giveth essence to the species and is symbolum causae materialis but the Church of the Elect giveth not essence nor matter to the visible Church for there are many members of this which are not invisible neither are the elect members of this quà invisible but quà existent and visible The visible and invisible Church are contra distinct branches of a distribution ex adjunctis vel 〈◊〉 communionis therefore the one cannot be the genus of the other for then genus and species should not be of the same general predication or denomination but the invisible should be genus of the visible one branch be genus of the other which is contrary to all Logick The invisibility of this genus ariseth not from a separation of the invisible members from the visible or the sheep from the goats but ariseth from a mental abstraction it is the invisibility of a notion not of the persons It is not by culling out such as have invisible grace and leaving the rest for that which is so culled out is not comprehensive of them both The Genus drawn by logical mental abstraction from the most corporeal visible substances is as invisible quà genus as a genus of incorporeal invisible substances Either that Church-Catholike which our Divines speak of is the Genus of particular visible Churches or it is not If it be then it must be an external visible polity in general notion which must comprehend all the external visible Ecclesiastical Polities on earth and so hypocrites as well as the elect The species consist of such matter and therefore so must the genus in the notion I mean but that they deny of their Church-Catholike visible If it be not then it is not the Church-Catholike which M. Hooker and M. Ellis intend for they intend a general Church which comprehends in notion all the visible Churches under it And therefore they differ from our Divines in their meaning of the Church-Catholike as much as I do And so joyn not nor concur with our Divines in the same subject neither is it adidem Now if we make the Church-Catholike an abstract general notion comprehending all particular Churches under it as a genus then we make Christs visible external Kingdom on earth only a logical non-existing notion and the particular Congregations to be the several species of the kingdom of Jesus Christ all comprehended under one logical comprehensive notion and the particular Covenant or confederation of such or such a company between themselves should constitute a kingdom of Jesus Christ And so when a man removes from one Congregation into another he should remove out of one species into another and in the interim be quite out of the kingdom of Christ because he is out of all the species of Christs kingdom and a particular member cannot exist under this genus for it is a genus of Congregations quà Congregations and not of single persons And then it will follow that many a visible beleever
national provincial classical or congregational Church rest in that intensive power that remains within its own limits or also if they stand so as that they cannot combine with neighbours or have recourse unto them Extraordinary cases cannot be regulated by ordinary rules And this I conceive is the reason why the Scripture hath not determined more particularly the Synodical Assemblies but only giveth general rules that may be drawn to particulars because all Churches and seasons are not capable of national or provincial Synods in regard of many things that may be incident In some cases also all civil power must rest in one Congregation as if it were in a wildernesse where there were no neighbour Towns or cities to which it might be joyned Yet it followeth not that it must be so in England or any other kingdom where there are Counties Shires Cities great Towns or a Parliament Yea I know not but a particular family may yea must be independent in such an extraordinary case both in Ecclesiastical and civil matters also yet it follows not that there is such an inherent right in every town or family all over the world and that therefore particular Towns and families in England are debarred of an inherent priviledge belonging to them because necessity may put such an Independency on some in an extraordinary case as by shipwrack or being cast into some Iland not inhabited Here M. Ellis chargeth me to say that the power of a general Councel or of a Church-Catholike visible is but extensive and only extensive and not intensive and the power of the particular Churches is intensive But Sir do as you would be done by It is not fair dealing to note them as my words which were none of mine nor my sense For first I never conceived a general Councel to be the whole Church-Catholike visible but only an oecumenical ministerial or representative body of Officers or Organs of the Church much lesse the prime Church to which the Ordinances and priviledges of the Church were first given of which I spake as appears in my second part Secondly I never said the power of a general Councel was only extensive for as the particular Officers have intensive power over their particular Congregations so hath a general Councel intensive power also but their power is larger in extension actually then the particular Officers is being Officers sent from a larger part of the Church-Catholike and intrusted by more and acting for more then one Congregation or one Eldership This distinction M. Parker de polit Eccl. lib. 3. p. 121. setteth down in these words Distinguo de potestate clavium quae intensiva aut extensiva est Intensivâ potestate caret nulla Ecclesia prima viz. particularis ne minima quidem extensivâ verò eâ—â— caret quam habet Synodus cum potestas ad plures Ecclesias extenditur And so it neither overthroweth my first nor second tenet as he inferreth Sect. 6. Obj. If there be a Church-Catholike visible here on earth it is fit it should have a visible head over them that so the body and head may be of the same nature Answ This was indeed used as a main argument by the Ponficians for the supremacy of the Pope The avoiding whereof made our Divines so shy of granting a Church-Catholike visible but it was not necessary that they should deny upon this ground as M. Hooker conceives Surv. p. 251. I say it is not necessary to grant a visible head to the Church-Catholike visible no more then to a particular visible Congregation which our brethren hold to be a body of Christ And though they call it a mystical and spiritual body yet that doth not imply it to be invisible The Sacraments are called mysteries and mystical and the Ordinances are called spiritual and yet are visible though the grace signified or conveyed by them to the Elect is invisible They are spiritual in respect of the authour God and the divine subject about which they are in opposition to natural and civil and so our Ecclesiastical Courts were called spiritual though indeed as they managed them they made them carnal and sinful The members of the particular Congregations are visible members and their union and confederation is visible and they are a visible body mixed of true beleevers and hypocrites as Gerard Whitakers Cameron and even M. Bartlet in his model confesseth And their communion is visible and yet there is no visible head on earth required for them and why then should there be for the Church-Catholike Such a head therefore whether visible or invisible present or absent as will serve a particular mystical body of Christ as M. Cotton cals a particular visible Congregation will serve the Church-Catholike visible I answer further that the Church-Catholike visible hath a head of the same nature consisting of body and soul who sometimes lived in this visible kingdom of grace in the daies of his flesh and did visibly partake in external Ordinances though indeed now he be ascended into his kingdom of glory yet ceaseth not to be a man and so visible in his humanity as we are though glorified and glorious yet not lesse visible in himself for that but rather more and ceaseth not to rule and govern his Church here below for it is an everlasting Kingdom Esay 9.7 As when King James was translated from Scotland to England and lived here he did not cease to be King of Scotland so neither doth Christ cease to be the head of his Church though he be translated and ascended to his other kingdom the kingdom of glory And as for a Vicar or Deputy here below it is not needful We confesse the government of the Church in regard of the head is absolutely Monarchical but in regard of the Officers it is Aristocratical This second answer is excepted against both by M. Ellis vind p. 56. and M. Hooker Sur. p. 258. It is insufficient saith M. Ellis for Christ is head invisible and thence our Divines affirm his body the Church to be mystical also and invisible taken properly I answer That Christ is not only head of the invisible company which headship and body allude to the natural head and body which is indeed the Church in the most proper and prime sense but he is head also of the visible company or Ecclesiastical body in allusion to a civil head or governour Christ not only affordeth invisible communion to his invisible members but externally by Ordinances to both invisible and visible members of the Church yet to both visibly For Christ by his Ambassadours and in his written word speaks externally to their senses and they speak externally to him in praier and singing And as he was once visibly on earth in our nature a visible head of his Church so also if the millenary opinion be true which some of this way hold he shall come again and shall sit and reign a thousand years visibly But whether that opinion be true or no
I answer it is not true that that which is in it self visible cannot be the object of faith Indeed that which is actually seen is the object of that mans sense and knowledge that seeth it but that which is visible i. e. which may be seen may be the object of faith to him that seeth it not actually I believe there is Orbis universus a whole world but I never saw it and yet it is visible I believe that there is a kingdom of Spain and Empire of Germany and they are visible but I never saw them nor am ever likely to see them I believe there are constellations about the South-pole but I never saw them and yet they are as visible as those about the North pole So I believe that the Church visible is now no longer included in the land of Canaan but is spread over many kingdoms and may be into all but I never saw it in the extent thereof and yet it is visible in it self The extent of place though it lessens the visibility yet it takes it not away I know this was an argument of an eminent Divine of ours against a Jesuite and it holds strongly against the visibility of the Church-Catholike taken in the first sense but not in our sense Yea grant the Church-Catholike to be a Genus yet the argument reacheth it not for a Genus is not the object of faith but of knowledge because the assurance thereof ariseth not from the credit of any ones word but from our own understanding CHAP. VI. That the Church-Catholike visible is an Organical yet similar body Yea one Organical body THat the particular Churches are or ought to be organized Sect. 1. It is Organical is not a thing questioned by M. Ellis or M. Hooker nor any one that I know of And therefore I shall neither trouble my self nor my reader about that It may not only be drawn from Mat. 18. Tell the Church which cannot be referred only or chiefly to the Church-Catholike for that even in a general Councel ministerially is seldom convened and cannot be informed by every one that it scandalized But also from Tit. 1.5 I left thee in Crete that thou shouldest ordain Elders in every city And Heb. 13.6 17 24. Remember obey and salute them that have the rule over you Of the Elders of Ephesus we reade Act. 20.17 And of the Angels of the seven Churches of Asia Rev. 2. and 3. Chapt. And yet many of these were combined Churches of many Congregations and might be so all for ought I know And we reade of the Elders of the Church of Jerusalem in the Acts but whether fixed to particular Congregations or no I know not to be sure they ruled in common Only we finde Rom. 16.1 Of Phaebe a servant of the Church at Cenchraea which is the most probable example of a Congregational Church as I said before but not certainly But I shall take that for granted that particular Churches ought to be organized But with what Officers whether with a Pastor and a Teacher or with preaching and meer ruling-Elders Or by whom these ought to be elected or ordained or how maintained Or whether their power be from Christ immediatly or from the Congregation the Officers being as their stewards and servants Or whether the Congregation hath votes and suffrages in the dispensing of censures and the Elders but their mouth to pronounce and execute their censures as he that sits for judge and gives the charge at a Sessions or a chair-man at a Committee is in regard of the rest of the Justices or whole Committee to propound gather their votes and passe sentence accordingly whether their work in such Ecclesiastical meetings be only to convene and dissolve Chap. 6. and to bring things into order for the hearing of the rest are different questions which are not to my purpose and therefore I will not meddle with them Now seeing every part is or ought to be organized the whole may be said to be Organical in that sense Sect. 2. It is similar If all the species be be organized supposing they were species the genus in a logical consideration must be said to be organized because it is the common nature of the species so to be Much more if we consider the several Congregations as members as indeed they are Now because I said that these particular Congregations thus organized are similar integral parts of the whole M. Ellis chargeth me with a contradiction to mine own end and scope and disagreeing with Apollonius vind 54. First he thinketh he hath caught me upon the hip of such a contradiction against my self and scope and that I can come off no otherwise then with a Veniamque damus petimusque vicissim nor any otherwise be relieved but by the charitable benevolence of my readers ingenuity But if there had been such a palpable contradiction it is a marvel that reverend judicious M. Hooker should not finde it and shew it as well as he If all the countries in the world had the same kinde of civil government both officers and laws respectively though not dependent were it a contradiction to say they were similar integral parts of the world And if all the Corporations in a Kingdom though organical bodies were of the same constitution and had the same Officers as Maiors c. would they not be similar integral parts of the kingdom yea even in physical mixed bodies as medicinal potions compounded of several ingredients yet because the mixture is alike in all parts they may be said to be similar parts of the whole Materialia componentia sunt dissimilaria partes integrales compositi constituti sunt similares So the Church-Catholike in regard of the constituent materials or essential parts viz. Officers and private Christians is dissimilar but in regard of the several Congregations constituted which are integral parts of the whole it is similar because they are similar I did not mean by similar quarto modo similare as I may say in the strictest sense as haply the pure element of fire is but such a similarity as is consistent with a mixture of ingredient materials Every Congregation in reference to other Congregation is similar being of a like constitution but in reference to it self it is dissimilar consisting of Officers and private Christians This assertion need not seem so harsh seeing D. Ames as I shewed before asserteth the same And M. Bartlet in his model p. 45. confesseth the particular Churches to be similar parts of the Church-Catholike and saith the Independents have left it upon record that they are so and for that cites Ames medul c. 32. And M. William Sedgewick in his Sermon before divers of the Parliament pag. 4. And chargeth the London-Ministers for an untruth in affirming in the preface of Jus divinum that they deny it But the charge is unjust they only set down the difference between the Presbyterians and Independents there to be in this
that the Presbyterians hold that there is one general Church of Christ on earth and that all particular Churches and single Congregations are but as similar parts of the whole and the Independents say they hold that there is no other visible Church of Christ but only a single Congregation meeting in one place to partake of all Ordinances The London-Ministers affirm only that the Independents deny one general Church of Christ on earth not the similarity of particular Congregations But it will necessarily follow that they deny them to be similar parts if they deny the whole to which the parts must relate And if they make the whole Church a genus as they do then must they make the particular Churches similar species which is little lesse then a contradiction for the formality of a species lieth in dissimilarity and difference from the opposite species Now to shew that this assertion of the similarity of particular Churches crosseth mine own scope M Ellis sets down mine opinion with a mark as if the words were mine own which neither are my words nor my sense viz. That the Church visible Catholike is an Organical ministerial governing body i. e. saith he not such a body as is the element of water and air every part whereof is of the same nature vertue and power in it self considered but such a body as a man hath which is distinguished by several members c. And such a body as all Corporations are Now this saith he contradicts plainly the former both opinion and expression for if the Church-Catholike be a similar body and all Congregations alike and the whole nothing differing in nature or constitution from the parts then the Catholike visible Church is no more the governing Church then a particular Ans To let passe his unfair dealing with my self and others in misreciting my words I said indeed the Church-Catholike was an Organical body but not a ministerial governing body For the scope of my Thesis was and is to prove the Church-Catholike as it consists of Officers and private Christians to be the prime Church to which the Ordinances are given respectively as the Officers or private members are capable and to particular Churches secondarily I spake not of the Organs or Governours only The body of Officers is indeed a governing body called a ministerial Church but the whole Church either particular or general is no governing body no more then a whole Corporation or kingdom can be said to be a governing body but they are governed bodies and so is the Church both particular and general Indeed I finde the words ministerial governing Church in M. Rutherford in his due right of Presbyt 177 178 179. c. but it is clear that he takes it not in M Ellis's sense but for a Church furnished with Officers and having discipline and government exercised in it for he was farre from making the body of the Church to be the receptacle of the keys and having power of governing He saith the keys were given for the Church but not to the Church It is only a Scottish expression not to be so expounded and strained as M. Ellis doth who bendeth his whole reply against a sense of it which I beleeve was not M. Rutherfords meaning Neither did I make the whole to differ any thing in nature constitution or power from the parts but said they have the same kinde of intensive power but in the Church-Catholike it is of larger extension Similar bodies conjoyned exert their power more intensely and extensively then when single All the water of the Sea will cool and moisten more and further then one drop a great fire will warm yea burn more and further then a spark a great heap of stones extends further and will weigh more then a little one So all Churches if they could meet have no other power when met together then a single Church but being combined the power both reacheth further in extension of places and it more august and solemn and to be the rather respected and submitted unto But this he saith crosseth Apollonius whom saith he I follow but indeed I never saw his book nor heard of it until a good while after I had composed my Thesis and then inserted I think but 2. or 3. sentences of his Apollonius saith he saith that Eph. 4.16 is meant of an organical ministerial body differing in members which M. Hudson expounds to be meant of a similar body whose parts are all alike Answ They are alike in the integrals as I said before but not in the essentials But where doth Apollonius deny the particular Congregations to be similar integrals parts of the Catholike There is therefore no disagreement among the Presbyterians in this point as M. Ellis suggesteth vin 54. that one of them would have one thing another another But the main question comes now to be discussed Sect. 3. It is one Organical body viz Whether the whole Church-Catholike visible be one Organical body which if it can be made appear will end the whole controversie The Church is distinguished into Entitive and Organical The Church visible is called Entitive not because of the inward grace which is essential to an invisible member but from the reception and embracing the Christian Catholike faith which is essential to a visible beleever And it is called Organical in reference to the Officers thereof which are the Organs of the Church or in regard of the Offices which Christ hath instituted to be in his visible Church This distinction halteth as much as that of the Church-visible and invisible for the Organical Church is also Entitive viz. it is of such as have received and embraced the Christian faith and is made up of such and only of such yet there is a difference in notion but not in persons Indeed in some sense a company of visible beleevers may be said to be a Church-Entitive and not Organical because they are not actually under any particular Officers as a company of visible Christians in New England inhabiting together to make a Congregation but as yet have chosen no Officers may in reference to other organized Congregations be said to be inorganical and entitive only but this sense is not the most proper sense of the word For if they be then but a Church-entitive then also after they have Officers if those particular Officers die they should return to be a Church-Entitive only again in the interim before they have chosen any new ones Now though in consideration we may distinguish between the essence of beleevers as beleevers embracing the Christian faith and their existence under Officers especially under particular Officers yet the existence of visible beleevers members of the Church-Catholike can hardly be without reference to Officers For the ministery of the Officers is the usual means of their conversion and to be sure they cannot be admitted to be actual members of the Church-Catholike by baptism but by some of the Officers though
and metaphors whereby the Church-Catholike is called and set out in Scripture which are taken from things which are not only each of them an Integral but each of them one Organical body and in eâ formali ratione lyeth the analogy between them and the Church It is compared unto a natural body which is an organical integral having many members and Organs which though they lie indeed in the several members yet are Organs of the whole and the several members members of the whole and doe their several actions and perform their several offices for the good of the whole and sympathize together 1 Cor. 12.12 For as the body is one and hath many members and all the members of that one body being many are one body so also is Christ This is not meant of the Church of Corinth only but of the Catholike Church because it is the whole body to which Christ is the head and Christs person as the head of the whole and this whole body is called Christ i. e. mystically the whole receiving denomination from the better part the head And so M. Bartlet takes it in his Model pag. 35. for the whole Church And so all Expositors that I have met with except some few of late who to avoid the dint of this argument would have it meant of the Church of Corinth as a particular Church But it will sound very harsh to make Christ and the Church of Corinth to be called Christ when they are but the head and a part of Christs body It is the body whereof Paul was a member v. 13. We are all baptized where Paul puts in himself and all beleevers Object But this is meant of the invisible company of beleevers Answ It is true but it is spoken of them as visible because it is brought in there to shew the diversities of gifts offices operations and administrations in the visible Church there is an eye and an ear c. mentioned and the Officers of the Church named now there are no Officers of the invisible Church as invisible nor different administrations as they are members of the invisible body they are all similar and have the same standing and operations of their general calling as Christians not as Apostles Prophets Evangelists c. And many that have these common gifts of the holy Ghost which are by the Spirit of Christ and the Offices there mentioned were not invisible members of Christ yet were not only members but Officers in this body there spoken of It is also the visible body there meant because the 2. external seals viz. Baptism and the Lords Supper are specified in v. 1◠as means and signs of this union in one body and they are visibly administred There is an invisible body of Christ and a visible the invisible is in organical the visible organical the invisible while they are in the visible Church are visible members thereof and so put on the relation of Officer and private member It is true some things are spoken of the whole in reference to the better part the invisible number and as they 〈◊〉 professed themselves to be of the invisible body so the Apostle speaks of them and to them as if they were as they ought to be and at least made a shew as if they were But that the place is meant of an organical body as one is out of question and that the analogy between the Church and such a body lay in the unity and organicalnesse is as clear The like is spoken Rom. 12.4 5. For as we have many members in one body and all members have not the same office so we being many are one body in Christ and every one members one of another It is the Church-Catholike not Roman particular Church Paul puts in himself yet had never been at Rome then It is organical for the Officers are there enumerated It is one for there is a sympathy of members spoken of To this purpose is that of Salmas Retinebitur 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 communicativa 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 inter omnia membra Dominici corporis i. e. Ecclesiae quae nisi una sit non potest esse vera Appar p. 281. Also it is set out by a political body Sometimes it is called a kingdom and the kingdom of heaven as I shewed before out of many places of Scripture Now a Kingdom is one Organical body for so many men living together within the same limits make not a Kingdom but as it is combined by the same Laws under one Governour or Government In the Heptarchy this one Kingdom since under one King and body of laws were seven Kingdoms Now if the Church-Catholike bears such an analogy to one Kingdom as to be called a Kingdom it is from this that it is one organized Integral It is also called a city and sometimes Jerusalem and as it is reformed it is called new Jerusalem and the members both of Jews and Gentiles are called fellow-citizens Eph. 2.19 Now a City is one Organical body under one common government otherwise so many houses or streets and inhabitants being together would not make them a City Sometimes the buildings and inhabitants which if under one government would make one city and Corporation being great and near and haply contiguous yet wanting a charter to make them a Corporation are none yea by difference of Charter Government and chief Governours are two Cities as London and Westminster The Church-Catholike therefore being one city is one organical body Also it is set out sometimes by one martial or military body and is called an Army terrible with banners Cant. 6. 10. which by some is interpreted Church-censures M. Cotton indeed expounds it of the Church of the Jews when they shall be called home by conversion to the Christian faith to be sure it is the Church-militant Now an Army is one organical body under one General and the same Laws martial though quartered in divers places therefore so is the Church-Catholike It is also set out by an Oeconomical body a family or houshold Eph. 2.19 Now a family is one Organical body wherein are Governours or a Governour and governed an husband father or master and therefore so is the Church-Catholike else the analogy should not hold All these metaphors and many more whereby the Church-Catholike is set out shew it one visible organical body Secondly That the Church-Catholike visible is one society virtually and habitually appears because by Baptism where-ever administred the baptized visible beleever is admitted a member not of the particular Church among whom he was baptized nor to bear any special relation to the Minister baptizing him that he must take a special inspection over him as one of his particular flock and charge but into the whole general body of Christs kingdom visible For as I shewed before there was Baptism administred as the seal of the general covenant before particular Congregations were set up See more of this Qu. 2. S. 2.
to obtain an admission into a particular Congregation or haply though visible Christians under the seal of the Covenant yet have not the inward true work of grace in them yet are neither ignorant nor scandalous but live inoffensively and willing to joyn in and submit unto all Gods Ordinances I say what shall become of them and their seed Shall they all be left without the Church in Satans visible Kingdom because they are no particular members and there is no extension of the Ministerial office beyond the particular Congregations Sect. 8. Object If every Minister be a Minister of the Church Catholike visible then what do they differ from Apostles and Evangelists for that was their especial priviledge that their commission extended it self to all Churches This Objection M. Bartlet hath in Model p. 69. Answ There is this difference Every minister hath by his Ordination power in actu primo to administer the Ordinances of God in all the Churches of the Saints yet not in actu secundo without a special call But the Apostles and Evangelists which were vicarij Apostolorum had both and the Evangelists power was called forth by the Apostles for they exercised their function where the Apostles appointed them The Apostles received their office immediatly from and by Christ The Evangelists theirs from Christ by the Apostles ordinary Ministers theirs from Christ indeed but ministerially by the Presbytery The Apostles and Evangelists were not fixed officers in any particular Congregation but itinerant from place to place ordinary Ministers are fixed in their own Congregations They served the Church-Catholike actually wheresoever they became and could draw forth the exercise of their offices without any mediate consent or call of the particular Churches or places but so cannot particular ordinary Ministers So that ordinary Ministers they are Ministers of the Church Catholike though not Catholike Ministers actually But if Ministers be Ministers only in their particular Congregations where they are fixed and to which they were called by the Congregation I marvel that our brethren of the Congregational way here in England are so desirous to have itenerant Ministers to be sent into all parts of the land that shall be fastned to no particular Congregations yea and also to have gifted men not ordained at all to be suffered to preach publikely and constantly in Congregations surely these things are not consistent with their principles CHAP. VII About Combinations of particular Congregations in Classes and of them in Synods A further question is about the combination of Congregations and Elderships in Classes and Synods Sect. 1. For though it cannot be denied but that particular Ministers in their particular Congregations do serve the Church-Catholike in their admissions ejections and other Ordinances as preaching to praying with and administring Sacraments to members of other Churches in their own meeting-houses and upon occasion in other meeting houses for the case is the same whether they come to him or he go to them yet it may be doubted whether the Ministers and Elders may combine together and jointly exercise acts of government c. And though this doth not necessarily belong to my question yet because it hath some reference to the integrality of the Church-Catholike I shall speak something of it Now there is a double Integrality of the Church-Catholike the first is Entitive whereby they are all bound together in the visible embracing profession of and subjection unto the visible doctrine covenant and laws of Christ whereby they become Christians in the genera◠whereby all Christians are bound as opportunity is offered to perform Christian duties one to another as fellow-members ex officio charitatis generali not only by vertue of the moral law but by the law of Christ and to Christ as the King and head of his Church As all dwelling within the kingdom of England are members of the Kingdom and bound to carry themselves as subjects to the governours and laws and as fellow-subjects one to another though they be fixed members of no Corporations nor Townships And this integrality is alwaies actual The second is as it is organical by combination as all the Counties and Corporations and Towns by combination make one kingdom so all the particular Christian Congregations Provinces and Kingdoms by combination make one Church-Catholike visible under Christ Chap. 7. and this is an habitual integrality Of this it is that Ames speaks the Church-Catholike in regard of the external state thereof Per combinationem habet suam integralitutem Am. med l. 1. c. 33. f. 18. There is likewise a double combination one habitual whereby all Churches and Christians are united and habitually combined into one political Kingdom under Christ and are obliged to be mutually helpful one to another as need requires as becometh fellow-subjects and fellow-members secondly there is actual combination whereby any particular Churches shall actually agree and so unite together for mutual help of each other and for transactions of businesses of common concernment And this is either a constant combination of vicinities in a Classis because there will be constant cause or occasional and more seldome as of a whole Province or Nation and may be of the whole Church-Catholike if convenible by their delegates This latter combination is fundamentum exercitij by the former they have jus adrem by this latter they have jus in re to act conjunctim for the good of those Churches so actually combined And of this second kinde of integrality and combination it is that we are now speaking which necessarily ariseth from the former as the organical integrality of a Kingdom ariseth from the Entitive For seeing all are fellow-subjects under the same Soveraign and Laws though they have particular Counties Corporations and Towns wherein they live and actually enjoy constantly the general priviledges of subjects under the King and Laws yet there will necessarily result a community and habitual integrality of the whole by coordinate combination The civil and Ecclesiastical combinations as they proceed from a parallel ground viz. subjection to the same laws and Soveraign I mean respectively so they must necessarily run parallel in things that are general and essential to combination Our brethren make them run parallel in the two first steps viz. in combining particular persons into families and particular families into Congregations of them that are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dwellers together in some vicinity which is nothing else in English but Parishioners the English word comes of the greek The Christians dwelling together made one Church at Jerusalem Ephesus Corinth c. by Ecclesiastical combination as well as one city by civil combination respectively And I doubt not but if all the Inhabitants of any one Town in New-England were judged fit to be members of the Church they would combine them as members of the Church in that Town and that Town would give denomination to them all as the Church in or of such a Town And seeing
the subjects of Christs Ecclesiastical Kingdom â—unne parallel further with the subjects of a civil Kingdom they all being Christians Why may not the combination also run parallel and the denomination be parallel for transaction of common Ecclesiastical affairs as well as civil if prudence so dictate it and the Churches in a hundred if they lie convenient combine â—to a Classis as well as into a hundred for civil transaction And the Classes into a Province as well as hundreds into a County or Shire and the Provinces into a national Church as well as the Counties into a civil Kingdom and seeing Christs Ecclesiastical Kingdom reacheth over many Kingdoms why may they not make one habitual Church-Catholike as well as many Kingdoms under the same laws and head make one Empire The actuality indeed may cease where the constant or frequent community of acting ceaseth whether at the Congregation or Classis where all the Officers are combined in frequent common acting or at the National Church where the civil community ceaseth and so the frequent occasion of common acting by delegates cease I determine not but the habituality ceaseth not in the whole Church-Catholike visible I shall first speak of the combination of particular Congregations into a Presbyterial Church Sect. 2. commonly called for distinction sake a Classis That there may be a college or body of Elders that can act conjunction as well as divisim appears from 1 Tim. 4.14 where the Presbytery are said to lay their hands on Timothy There is the name and thing and their acting conjunctim in Ordination which was not the Presbytery of a single Church or at least not so considered in their Ordination of an Evangelist an itinerant universal actual officer under the Apostles Our brethren also in New-England joyn the Elders of divers Congregations together in ordaining Elders for a new-erected Congregation and not only the erecting of new Congregations will require it necessarily but the supplying of other Congregations vacant by death for there are but few Congregations so well stored with preaching Presbyters as can ordain new ones if one or two of them die Also we finde an Eldership acting together Act. 15.6 The Apostles and Elders came together to consider of this matter Also Act. 11.30 and Act. 21.18 Christ gave the keys to the Apostles together Mat. 28.19 Go ye and teach and baptize c. who though they received their extraordinary calling of Apostleship for themselves only yet they received the ministerial office for all succeeding Ministers and we finde no other especial donation of the keys and this appears by the following words Lo I am with you alway even to the end of the world which must needs be meant of the succeeding Ministers for the Apostles were not to last to the end of the world neither their persons nor their office Therefore as the Apostles could from that donation exercise the keys conjunctim divisim in their extraordinary function so may the Presbyters exercise theirs also and some keys cannot be used but conjunctim as in Ordination and dispensing censures and if Elders of several Congregations can act together as Elders in ordination even in New-England and in censures much more thâ—â— in a greater body And if our brethren in New-England dared admit private men to lay on their hands in ordination of their Ministers doubtlesse they would appoint some of their own private members to do it that so according to their tenet they might enjoy all Gods Ordinances independently in their particular Congregations and not admit of a forreign Officer to come and act as an Officer among them That divers Congregations may combine and make one Presbyterial Church appears by divers instances in the New Testament The Congregations in Jerusalem are called one Church Act. 8.1 Act. 11.22 Act. 15.4 The Congregations in Antioch are called one Church Act. 1â— 1 and Act. 11.26 The Congregations in Ephesus are called one Church Act. 20.17 Rev. 2.1 And the Congregations in Corinth mentioned in the plural number 1 Cor. 14.34 are called one Church 1 Cor. 1.2 and 2 Cor. 1.1 Now that there were several Congregations in each of these cities appears because there were in each of them so great a multitude of beleevers as that they could not meet together to partake of all Gods Ordinances especially if we consider that they had no publike eminent buildings for meeting-houses but met privately 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Act. 2.46 in an upper room Act. 1.13 and in the house of Mary Act. 12.12 in the school of Tyrannus Act. 19.9 in the house of Aquila and Priscilla 1 Cor. 16.19 in Pauls hiâ—ed house at Rome Act. 28.30 in the house of Nymphas Colos 4.15 c. therefore called the Church in their houses And this manner of meeting continued in the times of persecution in that age and some succeeding Also it appears by the multitude of Church-Officers Elders Prophets and Teachers that were in each of them which could not busie themselves in one Congregation and sure they were not idle in those daies Also by the variety of languages especially at Jerusalem Act. 2.5 8. c. See these and other arguments of this nature more fully explained and more particularly proved and applied in Jus Div. part 2. chap. 13. And if these Churches were such as in all rational probability they were then that position That there are no other Ecclesiastical societies instituted by Christ but particular Congregational-Churches will not hold good and the Basis of the Congregational way will fail and the partition wall that seemeth thereby to be between them and the Presbyterians must fall down And this unity of these Churches was not a spiritual unity in regard of saving grace for all the members had not that nor in regard of judgement belief heart and way for that was common to all the Christianâ— in the world but a political union by an especial Ecclesiastical obligation together though we finde no mention of any explicit Covenant as the constituent form of the particular Churches nor only in regard of the administration of Word Sacraments and Praier for these were dispersed in their several Congregations and could not be jointly together in regard of their multitudes Neither were they one in reference to the Apostles general power and office only they being universal Pastors for so the universal Church over the whole world was one but in regard of the common Presbytery whereby they were governed constantly and the Apostles themselves being in these several Churches did act as co-Presbyters with their Elders and so they call themselves Elders 1 Pet. 5. â— and Joh. 2. And though indeed it cannot be peremptorily affirmed that these Presbyterial Churches had their several Elders fixed to their several Congregations yet that as I conceive varies not the question at all And yet it is very probable that the Elders in those cities did divide those cities between them for particular teaching and inspection of
suasive that is no more then a few private men may do yea one man or woman may counsel advise and perswade By M. Ellis's opinion Councels and Synods being void of all authority are but as a company of private Christians met together to advise one with another how to act in their own Congregations where only saith he they are in office it may be an act of those that are in office but not as Officers so that in that act they are to be considered as private members who by such consultation take or give private advice how to act as officers where they are Officers Which is no otherwise then if in these times of trouble and danger a company of peti-constables should meet occasionally or by appointment together at a market-town and there consult together how to act most commodiously and uniformly in their several Parishes in the pressing of Souldiers or gathering Assessements or a company of Mayors of several Corparations should meet by appointment at London and there advise together how to order their several Corporations So that a Synod whether Provincial National or Oecumenical can have no power to summon any heretick or scandalous person and if any such should voluntarily come before them or be brought before them by the civil Magistrate that should before their faces blaspheme the whole Trinity or be convicted of Sodomy yea though any of their own members should curse God himself or be convicted of a present act of whoredom or of sorcery they have no power to censure him Ecclesiastically but fraternally admonish him and send him back to his own Congregation to be censured and they themselves only go thither as witnesses against him because they are there by this opinion out of office and all censures belong to the particular Elderships as particular But suppose now this heretick or scandalous person being departed haply from the Congregation where formerly he lived or that Congregation being dissolved be a fixed member of no Congregation as ten thousands of visible Christians i. e. that have received the doctrine of Christ and are under the seal of Baptism may be if particular Churches consist only of such as can give evidence of the work of true grace in themselves shall he remain an entitive member of Christs visible kingdom a gangreened limb a rebel and traitour under the name and notion of a subject and infect the rest of the body and there be no remedy Sect. 4. But as the subject matters that Synods have to deal with are of three sorts so their power and the acts of it which they put forth are of three 〈◊〉 likewise First they are to act in reference to matters of faith i. e. doctrines to be beleeved and embraced and of divine worship i. e. duties of worship to be performed unto God not to coin or frame or adde any new articles of faith or new acts of worship or alter any that God hath instituted but to explain prove and apply those Articles of faith and rules of worship laid down in the word and to confute and declare against the contrary errours heresies and corruptions and the power they exert herein is called dogmatical Secondly they are to act in reference to external order and polity in matters prudential and circumstantial which are determinable by the true light of nature right reason and general rules in the Scripture ◠to set things in order that all things may be done uniformly decently and in order and the power they exert herein is called diatactical Thirdly they are to act in reference to errour heresie schism obstinacy contempt and scandal and to represse them and to censure such persons as are guilty of any of them and are referred over to them and the power they exert herein is called critical This is none other power then the particular Elderships in their several Congregations or Classes may exert in their sphear and precincts with submission to the superiour assemblies and all must be according to the word of God As in the natural body God hath set several senses to act upon the several sensible objects visible audible tactile c. and several faculties in reference to truth and falshood good and evil to discern and embrace the one and avoid the other so in the body Ecclesiastical hath he set several powers in the organs thereof to act diversly according to the occurrent objects and incidents in the Church both in the particular Congregations for the good of them and in greater parts of the body for the good of them and in the whole if convenible for the good of that but because remote parts cannot meet personally and generally in all their Officers therefore that trouble and confusion is avoided by delegation of particular elected choice officers and is but occasionally and pro tempore A ground and pattern of a Synod is laid down Act. 15. and 16. which is acknowledged to be a Synod and warrant for a Synod by reverend M. Cotton in his keys of the kingdom of heaven cha 6. And is called an Oecumenical Councel by Chamier in Panstrat Tom. 2. lib. 10. cap. 8. sect 2. and Whitak cont qu. 6. And generally by our Protestant Divines And is abundantly proved and explained by the London Ministers in their Jus Divinum par 2. chap 14. and 15. to which I referre the reader for satisfaction The occasion of that Synod was an errour broached at Antioch and neighbour-Churches to enforce the observation of the ceremonial Law by all Christians and this was promoted by lying as if they were sent by the Apostles and Elders at Ierusalem to preach this doctrine Hereby the Churches were much troubled and in danger to be subverted in their souls This could not be suppressed by the disputes of Barnabas and Paul hereupon the Elders of Antioch decreed and ordained 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Paul and Barnabas and some others should go up to the Apostles and Elders at Ierusalem about this question and they submitted to this order there was an authoritative mission and probably members were also sent from Syria and Cilicia for they were involved in the same danger by the same persons Act. 15.23 24 41. But if there were delegates but from two Churches it will justifie delegates from ten or twenty And as the Church of Antioch did not send Paul and Barnabas as extraordinary and infallible and authentical Oracles of God as M. Cotton noteth for then what need the advice and help of Elders that were below them being but ordinary and particular Officers of Ierusalem But as wise and holy guides of the Church who might not only relieve them by some wise counsel and holy order but also set a precedent to succeeding ages how errours and dissentions in Churches might be removed and healed And with Paul and Barnabas they joyned others messengers in the same commission So when this Synod was met the Apostles acted not by their Apostolical infallible transcendent
power or by immediate inspiration as in the penning of the Scripture but the matters were carried on in an ordinary Synodal way by disputes and discourses they deliberated about the true state of the question and the remedy thereof and after deliberation and disputes they decisively conclude and determine the matter and put forth all the three fore-named power First they exert their dogmatick power in confuting of the heresie and in vindication of the truth of justification by faith without the works of the law and their critical power in branding the false teachers with the infamous brand of troublers of the Church and subverters of souls and of belyâ—rs of the Apostles and Elders of Ierusalem and their diamctick power in ordering and framing practical rules or constitutions for the healing of the scandal They passed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Act. 16.4 they imposed them for they are said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Act. 15.28 29. yet were not all the things they imposed necessary in themselves as abstaining from things strangled and from bloud they are called necessary not intrinsecally for then they are so to us but for that time because those things were so odious to the Jews who could not be so suddenly brought from all ceremonies It is true our Divines in their writings against the Papists do cry down the infallibility of Councels and the over-high esteem they had of them and the injurious and sinful decrees of their Popish Councels but they honour the general Councels and account Synods an Ordinance of God Calv. Inst lib. 4. cap. 9. sect 13. saith Nos certè libenter concedimus siqua de dogmate incidat disceptatio nullum esse nec melius nec certius remedium quà m si verorum Episcoporum Synodus conveniat ubi controversum dogma excutiatur Multò enim plus ponderis habebit ejusmodi definitio in quam communiter Ecclesiarum pastores invocato Christi Spiritu consenserint quà m c. Whitak de consilijs cap. 2. not only alloweth but commendeth Synods and Councels from the necessity and utility of them and marvelleth that Nazianzâ—n should say he never saw a good end of a Synod alledging the good end and profit of the Councel of Nice And citeth Augustine in Ep. 118. Conciliorum in Ecclesia Dei saluberrimam authoritatem esse And addeth further Etsi Concilia non sunt simpliciter absolutè necessaria tamen multùm conferunâ— valdè utilia sunt idque propter multas causas And then reckons up the causes And divideth Synods in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And bringeth Act. 15. for an example and warrant of them And Chamier in his Panstrat tom 2. lib. 10. cap. 8. De omnium toto orbe Ecclesiarum politia sheweth the lawfulnesse and use of Synods And lib. 5. saith Ad Synodos convocatos fuisse atque admissos omnes Episcopos nemo dubitat sedisseque judices suo jure prout fieri solet in Aristocratia And M. Parker in Polit. Eccl. l. 3. p. 355. saith Fundatur haec progressio a Presbyerio ad Classem a Classi ad Synodum in instituto Christi Mat. 18.17 ex proportione And p. 123. he foundeth them upon the same Scripture Per gradationem ratiocinandi a little after he saith they follow from that place per sequelam ratiocinandi per consequentiam Innumerable might be the citations of Protestant Divines in this kinde It is confest Sect. 5. that particular Churches are endued with the power of discipline within themselves if the matter doth particularly and peculiarly concern themselves and none others or if there be no others that can joyn with them they may do much alone but that case is extraordinary It is confest also that every single Congregation is equal in power to any other single Congregation considered as a Church only one may be greater and purer then another and furnished with more and more able officers And therefore how one sister Church by its single power can non-communion another that is of equal power with it I know not for it is a censure and no lesse then a vertuâ—â— excommunication and the other Church hath as much power to non-communion them and so there is a principle laid of perpetual and frequent division and splitting asunder of Christâ— political body and kingdom Such a principle in a Common-wealth between Town and Town in civil affairs would be very dangerous and bring deadly feuds and civil wars and at last ruine to the whole And though there be a subordination of particular Churches to greater Assemblies yet it is not absolute and arbitrary but in the Lord also it is a coordination because the Officers of the particular Congregations are there and help to constitute the â—lasses or if it be a Synod they are vertually there by their delegates or Commissioners as the Counties and Corporations are in a Parliament The subordination of particular Congregations to greater Assemblies consisting so of members taken out of the particular Congregations and the authoritative power and Ecclesiastical jurisdiction of those greater Assemblies over them appears because we see the Church of Antioch was subordinate to the Synod at Jerusalem Act. 15. Also Christs direction to deal with an offending brother Mat. 18. ascends by degrees from private adâ—onition to admonition before two or three and from them if he amend not to the Church but what if the greater number of a Church or suppose a whole Church offend by the same rule of proportion they are to be brought before a higher Assembly else no remedy can be had for offending Congregations as well as offending persons But neighbour-Congregations or particular persons may be offended by a neighbour Church and there is no reason that that Church should be partee and judge also in their own case and therefore it is requisite that there should be a greater combined Assembly to complain unto And as the unity of the whole visible Church and political Kingdom of Christ requires this as the London-Ministers have well noted wherein all things are to be managed as between members and fellow-subjects and the greater part in coordination to rule the lesse in the Lord and the whole the parts so also there is the same necessity of Synods as of Classical combinations and otherwise there will be irremediable difficulties Also we may observe the like subordination and appeals in the Jewish Church the several Synagogues were subordinate to the great Assembly at Ierusalem and had their appeals thither in greater causes Deut. 17.8 12. 2. Chron. 19.8 11. Exo. 18.22 26. And this could not be a ceremonial Law for it did typifie nothing The appeals were not to the high Priest typifying Christ but to their highest Court and though it were judicial to them yet the equity of it remains and so far as it was grounded on common right it is moral Now the like difficulties and dangers that occasioned that Law then remain still as great among
observed by all sorts that by the Independent way power is given to 2. or 3. Officers in a Congregation or as others of them say if the particular Congregation joyn to censure yea excommunicate Parliament men Nobles and Kings if they judge there be cause and all the Churches in the world shall have no power to relieve them except that Congregation or those Elders please It makes saith M. Ellis every Minister one of the standing Officers of the Christian world to whom with his collegues not severally and by distribution but jointly and as one body is committed the government of the whole Christian world and managing the affairs of the son of God throughout the face of the earth And this is marked with as if these were the very words of the Presbyterians which are but his own paraphrase and collection and not their sense much lesse their words But I answer Every Ministers office is habitually indefinite but he is not actually a standing Officer of the Christian world But as a Physician by this calling profession and license is a Physician to the whole world habitually and may act upon the bodies and about the lives of men of what nation soever where and when he hath a call And as a Lawyer is a Lawyer to the whole Kingdom and hath power by his call to the bar to deal about any mans case or estate so far as the Law alloweth and his calling serveth where and when he is required and yet these are but professions not offices which would make the habitual power haply more reducible into act upon a lawful cal but Christs Ministers have an indefinite habitual office beyond their particular Congregations yet in regard of exerting and constant exercise thereof it is distributively over their own flocks which are as their constant Patients and Clients but if there be necessity just occasion and a call to be helpful to any others joyntly with them that have the same office they may exercise their power in any part of the whole body And so saith M. Ellis he is one of Christs vicars general and not particular only which I acknowledge every Minister to be in his place magnum surely memorabile nomen But this is but magnum memorabile scomma and so I passe it by M. Ellis knows that thâ—s power though habitually it belongeth to the office and so to the person that hath that office yet is not drawn forth in a general Councel for the actual immediate service of the whole Church once in many hundred years and divers generations of Ministers die and it is not called forth in their ages and when it is they are usually the most able and eminent persons that have that call and not one of many hundreds of them neither therefore that scoff might well have been spared But he confesseth every particular Minister in his place to be Christs Vicar as he terms him i. e. to act vice Christi and all distributively to be Christs Vicars general I see he is not sublimated so high as some are as to make the Ministers to be the Vicars or Stewards of the Congregation and to carry their keys for them But can they act vice Christi no where else in whose name doe they preach baptize administer the Lords Supper and blesse the people when they act abroad occasionally This ariseth from that principle disclaimed in all former ages of the Church that a Minister is a Minister but in his own Congregation and out of office to all the Church besides Sect. 7. But M. Ellis hath another Objection against it viz. If it be so saith he great reason it is that the Church of the whole world should choose these universal Officers and so the Church of a Nation the National Officers c. by whom they are to be governed in that which is dearest and of highest moment viz. the precious soul or else their condition is most sad Answ Is there not the same reason that the whole world should have a hand in the choice of every Physician and the whole Kingdom of every Lawyer And by the same reason it will follow that the whole Christian world should have a consent in the admitting of every member of the Church seeing they be members not of the particular Congregation only into which by particular association they are admitted but of the whole Church-Catholike visible But as every Minister is entrusted with the admitting of members into the whole and every Eldership with casting out of the whole so may every conjoyned Presbytery be also with the admittance of an Officer It is impossible that the whole Church should meet about admittance either of members or Officers but the particular parts are entrusted in the places where they live and if any man or woman can give in any just exception against either member or Minister that is to be admitted it shall debar their admission or procure an ejection The new Jerusalem Rev. 21. it said to have 12. gates and there was an admission into the whole city by every gate so is there admission into the whole Church by baptism in every Congregation The Temple spoken of in Ezek. 40. c. is conceived to typifie the Evangelical Church in general and the several chambers the particular Congregations now as those that were admitted into any chamber had thereby admission into the whole house so they that are admitted in any Congregation are admitted into the whole Church And though the admission of particular Officers or members is not done interventu totius Ecclesiae yet it is done intuitu totius Ecclesiae with reference and respect had to the whole But secondly I answer That when that habitual power is drawn into act in a partâ—cular Congregation as their particular Minister then that Congregation meets to give him a call and if an unworthy unskilful man get into the profession of Physick or Law for all his habitual power by license he may have patients and clients few enough to call his power into act the like may be said of an unworthy Minister if Churches have their right of calling or approving their Ministers Or if there be a call to act in a Synod so great a part of the Church as the Synod extends unto have a hand to call to that action Indeed in a Classis the whole vicinity of Officers may meet personally by their actual combination but if it be a provincial Synod every Classis in the Province chooseth the members thereof severally if in a National Synod every Province chooseth and calleth the members thereof and so there is a call of the whole Kingdom and if it be a general Councel of the whole Church all the Christian Nations elect and call the members thereof respectively and so this sadnesse he speaks of is salved And for unworthy persons intruding into the Church by a little learning to live idlely on the sweat and cost of others or that shall have a
friend patron or purse to make one and so come into the Ministery and a living which saith he is the Kings road in some Churches the Presbyterians abhor it as much as he But such an one saith he shall become a Parliament-man and joynt governour of the whole Church on earth by whose one vote all the liberties and truth of religion in them may be destroyed This is another scoff in calling every Minister though unworthily crept in a parliament man and joint governour of the whole Church on earth But Sir your passions make you forget your self much It is not to be actually such a Parliament-man and joynt governour but habitually â—â—pable to be occasionally chosen pro tempore into a Provincial National or Oecumenical Councel And is â—â— not as great danger in a kingdom that any man though of never so mean brâ—eding or vicious life if he get wealth or honour by hook or crook shall be capable to be chosen a Parliamen-man and by his vote only as it may be all the civil libeâ—â—â—â— of a kingdom may be destroyed Any Gentleman or â—â—â—ght though he hath not an habituality yet hath a potenâ—â—â—â—ty to be a Parliament-man which is reducible into act as well as if it were an habituality And proportionably there are fourty nay five hundred Gentlemen chosen to be members of Parliaments for one Minister chosen to be a member of an Oecumenical Councel A glimpse whereof saith he we have seen in the Convocations or Synods in our own Nations But when did M. Ellis see a Presbyterial Convocation or Synod in our own Nation Prelatical Convocations and Synods indeed we have seen and felt but no Presbyterial ones And therefore his second sadnesse might have been spured O but none saith he attains the honour of being an universal Officer a Parliament man but by the consent formal or vertual of all or the major part of them And therefore the condition of the Church is more sad then the condition of men in their civil liberties in this kingdom Answ I pray wherein For as the free-holders in the kingdom choose Parliament men for themselves their wives children and servants and all the copâ—holders and meaner poor people in their several Counties which are farre the greater number so the Ministers and Elders whom the Congregations have chosen and entrusted over them in the Lord doe formally or â—eâ—â—ally choose all the members of Provincial National and Oecumenical Synods and Councels And if the Laws of the Kingdom would bear it haply it would be as commodious if not more if a prime man or two in every Town had the power to 〈◊〉 and elect a Parliament man or two for the whole County O but no such agreement hath been made no not tacitely by the Church-Catholike nor no such institution of Christ hath appeared yet Answ We finde a patern of a Synod in Act. 15. consisting of delegated members with formal disputes and decrees not of the Apostles only but the Elders also And if one Church may delegate and send to a Synod then may another yea twenty And we finde that the Churches did then submit unto them to their great profit Act. 15.31 And the Churches formerly have agreed unto honoured and submitted unto Councels and received much good by them especially the first and general Councel of Nice c. And indeed the choice and sending of members to make up Synods is more then a tacite agreement to them as well as the choice of Parliament men is a vertual agreement and promise of submission to the Parliament Object But if the Ministers be Pastors to the whole Church Sect. 8. then the whole is to honour them and contribute towards their maintenance because they serve the whole ordinarily in their own Congregations and occasionally by preaching and ruling in Classes and Synods for it is due from them that are taught and ruled Gal. 6.6 1 Tim. 5.17 Answ That all men are bound to honour all the Ministers for their office and works sake is true though they cannot actually apply and give testimonies of that honour but to such as they know But for maintenance the people over whom the Minister hath the particular inspection and among whom he doth assidiously labour are ordinarily to afford it being the persons that actually partake of his continual labours and it is the most convenient way of certain and speedy raising of it as the Levites had maintenance from the several places where they dwelt both cities and gleabs and other comings in Micah giveth a stipend to Jonathan the Levite his diet and apparel Judg. 17.10 It is like the Elders of Jerusalem were maintained by the Church of Jerusalem but whether it was collected in the particular meeting-houses for such as did labour there particularly or put into one stock for the maintenance of their whole Eldership I know not But suppose one able man will maintain a Minister for the whole Congregation or a Lecturer or Minister in another Congregation or the State shall maintain a Minister in a Congregation iâ— that Congregation bound to afford him a second honourable maintenance Or suppose a Combination of Ministers having sufficient maintenance from their several Congregations will joyn together and maintain a Lecture freely may not the people hear them because they doe not maintain them I fear you will finde but few Congregations will make that scruple Obj. But the Ministers perform not their whole office to the Congregation that maintains them but part of it to the Classis and part to the Provincial or National Churches and part to the Catholike Church Answ A particular Eldership perform their whole office to their own Congregation which concerneth their Congregation only as farre as they are able But in some things the particular Congregation stands in need of the help of other Elders as in male-administration and matters of more weight and there be matters of more general concernment then can be transacted in one single Eldership and other Congregations likewise may stand in need of the help of their Eldership in the like cases and so the particular Congregation is not hindred but helped by combination And even in their greater Presbyteries they serve their own Congregations also as well as in their own Congregations they serve the Church-Catholike in admitting members in and casting them out that are scandalous and in feeding nourishing and governing the members thereof in their own Congregations Ob. But this will be too great a burthen for Ministers to meddle in the affairs of many Congregations who will have work enough in their own Answ As they shall afford help to others so they shall receive help for their own Congregation from others with whom they are combined But what greater burthen will it be to doe it in an authoritation way more then in a charitative and yet that our brethren will allow Object But then the Ministers exercise rule where they doe not ordinarily preach and so the keys
managing their own affairs and such affairs as are of general concernment and of greater weight then can be transacted in a particular Eldership or Classis or Provincial or National Assembly fall out very seldom The Apostles themselves after their dispersion kept no such general standing Court much lesse is it needful now Cogi Optimates non semper est necesse Chamier tom 2. lib. 10. cap. 8. sect 15 16. where he answers this objection fully A general Councel ought to be saith Salmas only Quoties exigit causa communis c. Apparat. 273. It is not ad esse Ecclesia nec ad benè esse Ecclesiae sed ad optimum esse Ecclesiae saith M. Rutherford The Church of Antioch had once an occasion of appeal to a Synod at Ierusalem but no such cause of constant recourse thither This Objection may be made as well about the Christian Magistrate seeing he is to be a nursing father to the Church and such were promised by God it may be marvelled that God should let the Evangelical Church want them in the infancy of it for above 300. years and many of the Emperours after they proved Christians were wasters of the Church and promoters of Arianism and Popery and not nourishers of the Church But we must not undertake to prescribe God what is best Times and seasons are in his hand Obj. If general Councels be the supream Ecclesiastical Judicatories then how dare any particular Churches at most but if National abrogate and swear against the Ordinances and government established by the Catholike Church And this Objection he bids me minde vin p. 56. I suppose he meant the Objection in reference to the National Oath and Covenant against Arch-bishops Bishops c. Answ Although Councels are very reverend and to be submitted unto in the Lord yet are they not infallible but may erre they are not regularegulans but regulata regulanda and to be tried by the word of God and if they speak not according to that they are not to be obeyed Clavis errans non ligat Yet it is safer to be guided by a multitude of Counsellors in a great yea general Assembly if it were rightly gathered which the Popish Councels were not then to stand bound by two or three Elders in a particular Congregation without relief The doctrine of that famous Councel of Nice and some others following was found and we have not departed from them therein And we know that although many Councels were corrupt and not rightly chosen nor acting uprightly according to the word but guided by factions and swayed by the Pope and the best not infallible yet the Scriptures are a constant infallible rule to walk by Nec ego Nicenam Synodum tibi nec tu mihi Ariminensem debes â—anquam praejudicaturus objicere Nec ego hujus authoritate nec tu illius detineris August advers Maximin lib. 3. Chap. 8. CHAP. VIII An answer to M. Ellis's Prejudices Probabilities and Demonstrations against an universal visible and as he cals it governing but should have said Organical Church And his wrong stating of the question rectified MR Ellis hath set down divers just prejudices as he cals them and strong probabilities vind chap. 3. pag. 10. and Demonstrations vind ch 4. p. 19. against this position or rather against an opinion of his own stating and framing for I know none that own it as he hath stated it But it is an easie thing to set up a man of straw and then beat it down at pleasure Sect. 1. Before I answer these prejudices probabilities and demonstrations it will be requisite to view what M. Ellis denyeth and what he granteth and how he stateth the question and what is the true state of it and where in the difference lyeth between him and his opponents and then we shall the better see how his prejudices probabilities and demonstrations will lie against the question in hand First he denyeth the question to be meant of the essential onenesse of the Church whereby all the Christians in the world divisins and in their several places doe visibly outwardly and openly professe for substance the same faith seals worship and government and so may be said to be one company one society one Congregation in nature and essence vind p. 7. But indeed this onenesse is included in the question and is the very foundation and ground of all we desire no other unity then will necessarily flow from this This Entitive visible unity of the whole as one society under one head in one visible Covenant under the same seal under the same laws from the same authority is enough to denominate a Church-Catholike visible and one visible kingdom of Christ here on earth And to this Church as one integral society were the Ordinances and priviledges primarily given and for their enjoyment thereof was the organicalnesse and politicalness added and it was made one habitual organical visible Kingdom of Christ on earth because all these visible subjects have one common right to and communion in the same Ordinances and priviledges indefinitely in this whole visible kingdom But I fear this will not suâ—e our brethren who make not the general Covenant which giveth the essence and entitivenesse to the Church but the particular Covenant compact and confederation to give the right to the Ordinances Their tenet as far as I can collect from their books is that a company of visible beleevers being joyned together in a particular holy Covenant have thereby right to the enjoyment of all Gods Ordinances and hence flow their right of choosing and ordaining Officers over themselves the Ordination in their sense being nothing else as I conceive but a designation or assignation of those chosen men by the imposition of hands of some men appointed by them in their name and behalf to be their particular Officers to dispense the Ordinances of Jesus Christ unto them And hence also floweth their right of censuring and ejecting those Officers again if they miscarry themselves Ejusdem est instituere destituere and if the Congregation can appoint men to lay hands on their Officers in their behalf and set them up then also if they see cause they can appoint men to lay hands on them by censures and pluck them down again or else they must go out of their Congregation to neighbour Elders for that censure which is contrary to their own tenet if it be an Ordinance of God Yea they must go out of their Congregation for discipline which is most contrary to their principles and that indeed where the greatest pinch lyeth for they do not so much startle at a Ministers dispensing the word or Sacraments to other Congregations for that is done frequently by them or at the exercise of the key of discipline and as I conceive that it is that which breedeth this difference between us And if they must go out of their Congregation for the censure of their Elders why not by
the same reason in some cases for the censure of some private members So that by their tenet their right to Gods Ordinances neither ariseth from their being in the general Covenant for so they were before their confederation nor yet from their organicalness for they have power to organize themselves and disannul those Organs again and to perform some Church-acts before and without Organs but it ariseth meerly from their particular covenant and consederation 2. Neither is the Query saith he whether the several companies or Churches of this profession as they are one in nature so also in spirit and affection and thereupon in engagement of mutual care one of another and to take notice what doctrines are dispersed what conversation used among the Churches pag. 7. If by Engagement he meaneth anâ—amicitial or fraternal Engagement as he seems by his paralleling it with the Engagement of brethren of the same family indeed it cometh not up to the question in hand but if he meaneth an Engagement not only founded upon similarity of nature and unity of Spirit and affection but upon an expresse command of Christ to his subjects in their places and Offices to uphold his honour and purity of his Ordinances and watch over their fellow-subjects to keep them from prophanesse and errour or cure them if they be fallen thereinto and this not by advice and perswasion but by Ecclesiastical censures if they be stubborn and obstinate then it comes up to the question in hand And surely the case may be so that the key of doctrine will not serve but the key of discipline which our brethren acknowledge is commensurable with it must be exerted also Stroakings and lenitives will not cure all maladies in the natural body nor good counsel all the distempers in the Common-wealth nor yet in the Church there must sometimes be corrosives of censures applied Nor 3. is it doubtful saith he whether such Churches may voluntarily as occasion shall require associate together for mutual assistance and act in many things by common and joint consent c. This the Scripture and light of nature dictates If by voluntary he doth not mean arbitrary but such a voluntary and yet necessary obedience to the dictates of Scripture and the light of nature as is in the observation of Gods commands and as the voluntary joyning of members to a particular Congregation then it is the very ground of Synodical Assemblies And though it be but occasional yet these occasions falling out frequently and constantly so ought those meetings to be as frequent and constant which is all the Presbyterians contend for And the same Scripture and light of nature that dictates this voluntary occasional meeting dictates also that they should have power to act together when they are met else to what purpose should they meet no occasion can warrant them to do that which God hath not given them power to do And whereas he saith the testimonies alledged by Crakenthop in Def. Eccl. Ang. cap 28. are meant of an obligation of charity and not of office it is utterly mistaken for they speak of their power as Bishops â—ura omnium ovium quà Episcopi sunt ad omnes spectat And Episcopi omnes quà Episcopi universalis Ecclesiae pastores sunt jure Divino sic pastores sunt Nor 4. saith he is it the scruple Whether all or most of the Churches in the world may not possibly become occasionally one by their messengers in a general Councel But as I concieve this is the highest thing that the Presbyterians aim at in such a Councel and is the thing which himself makes question of vind pag. 8. lin 1. and yet four lines further seems to yeeld it again Then M. Ellis vind p. 8. comes to state the power of associated Churches whether lesse or more Sect. 2. and especially a general Councel And there he grants an authoritative power at least virtual from Christ to act and give not only advice but directions and rules to which the conscience is bound to submit unlesse special cause disswade us And this authority is more august and solemn though not greater the greater the number is and the more publike the manner of giving forth the precepts shall be And a little further he saith in doubtful cases or upon occasion of grosser errours and scandals God hath by Ordinance virtual appointed recourse to others especially Churches whose prescriptions not disagreeing from the Word are to be obeyed not only because they are materially good but formally theirs Here he granteth almost as much as the Presbyterians doe desire yet plucks it away again in the very next words in saying That their acting in giving such directions and rules is the acting of Officers but not as Officers for such they are only in their several Churches but yet by reason of that relation they are the more fit for that work c. But hereby he overthroweth the analogy of their acting with the acting of an assembly of Lawyers or Judges or a College of Physitians convened by publike consent which he there makes the parallel of this Ecclesiastical acting for their acting conjunctim is by vertue of their office and professions respectively as much as divisim and not meerly as friends or men skilled in those subjects and sciences for it by their office and profession becometh as he confesseth authoritative and to be submitted unto not only because materially good but formally theirs who by office and profession have power and authority to give it If he would have made his parallel to run to his minde he should have resembled the actings in Councels to the advice of understanding friends and neighbours in matters of Law and Physick who have no office therein or profession thereof but have some knowledge and experience therein and thereby are fit to give friendly and neighbourly charitative advice and directions How men can have authority to make rules which are to be obeyed because they are formally their rules and yet do this as men without office I understand not The Synod Act. 15. did make decrees and give commands he confesseth but did not impose any penalty but surely the making decrees and commands implyed an authority and that conjunctim so to do and the imposing of them implyed a power of office and that a coercive also else decrees and commands are to little purpose And to passe by his second grant what power the Church-Catholike may possibly have in unusual and extraordinary cases or accidents I come to his third gram viz. what power the universal visible Church might have if possibly convenable together as it was at Jerusalem in which case saith he we grant what is coâ—tended for but the Query is What power the parts have asunder and without endeavouring the joyning with the other For even in a Kingdom though all the Corporations gathered in one have power over all particulars yet not some of these much lesse a few of them asunder
Congregational Church for there can be no appeals to that it being the lowest Church that can be The particular Synagogues were rather Types of the Congregational Churches for they are called by the same name Jam. 1.2 And the Ministers under the Gospel are called by the same names that the indefinite Officers of the Jewish Church were viz. Priests and Levites Isa 66.21 which place is spoken of the time under the Gospel And if it be granted that the Ministers of the Gospel be given to the whole Church as the Priests and Levites were indefinitely to the whole Church of the Jews notwithstanding any particular relation to the particular Synagogues and places they resided in and taught or judged in it is as much as I contend for And if by mystical he meaneth the elect only or entitively only it could not be a type of the Church-Catholike so for the Jewish Church was visible and organical His second proof is from Mat. 18. Tell the Church which saith he was a particular Congregation which was endued with entire power even to excommunication Whatsoever ye shall binde c. Answ This was not the Institution neither was there any donation of the keys but a supposal of the keys in the particular Churches which is a thing confessed by all and this power was also in the Jewish Synagogues But this is not spoken exclusively that this power is no where else If the rulers of the Synagogue had power to excommunicate to which it is like Christ alluded in that speech then much more the Sanedrim or highest Court and so I conceive it is in the Church of the New Testament If the least combination of Elders have this power given them for matters that concern that Congregation only then much more a greater company and combination for matters that concern a greater part of the Church under their combination and for matters of greater moment then can be transacted by the smaller company But the donation of the keys was to the Apostles together and they were general Officers and stood in relation to no particular Church and therefore the keys come to the particular Congregation or Ministry there as to parts of the whole company of Organs yet immediatly and not by commission from any Catholike Court. His third proof is because the first execution of the greatest act of entire power was exercised in a particular Church without consulting with the universal Church though the Apostles were then surviving 1 Cor. 5. Answ For ought that I know the Church of Corinth was a Classical Church and not a meer Congregational one for there were Churches in it 1 Cor. 14.34 Besides the probability that Cenchrea was a member thereof But Sir who requires the consulting with the Church-Catholike in admitting or ejecting members Or did the particular Synagogues consult with the Sanedrim or the whole Church of the Jews when they excommunicated any man Surely they had work enough to do then His fourth proof or argument is Because entire power was committed to particular men viz. the Apostles severally and to all jointly and therefore not to one visible governing Church Vind. p. 23. Answ By this argument it appears the power is given not to the Congregation but to the Ministers whose representatives the Apostles were in receiving the keys severally and jointly which is as much as the Presbyterians require viz. that the Ministers have power to exercise their ordinary power jointly together upon a call as well as severally in their particular Congregations as the Apostles did their extraordinary Their receiving the keys together signifyed their representation of the Ministers not multiplyed only as M. Ellis would evade it but conjoyned His fifth argument is from the reproofs given by Christ to the 7. several Churches in the Revelation and not to the combination of them though near one another Answ For ought appears they might be all Presbyterial Churches and not Congregational only The Church of Ephesus was one and that was of more Congregations then one as hath been shewed before But how doth this prove these Churches were nor or might not actually have been in combination if civil authority would have permited Were not the Elders of the several Churches worthy of blame for not doing their duty in their several Churches Or will combinations of Congregations now in Classes or Provinces free their Ministers from blame in neglecting their duâ—â—es in their particular Congregations A Classis or Synod is not to be blamed for the faults in a particular Congregation which ought to be censured in the particular and not there neither indeed can be except they had been brought before them The several Churches there had their several faults and therefore though the Epistle is written to the seven yet it was needful the reproofs should be applied to rhem severally And yet some think that the whole Epistle was writeen and sent to all the 7. Churches from Rev. 1.4 11. His second sort of Arguments are from the matter and members of the Church Sect. 9. and he makes it necessary that the whole Church should be gathered together into one place as the Jewish Church was and Corporations in their hals and Kingdoms in their Parliaments And this he saith I deny against all experience and reason Vind. p. 24. Answ This hath been answered before among the Objections I adde further that though usually it is so that there are some general meetings in worldly polities that are several actual governments yet it is not alwaies so as hath been shewed and where it is so it is a fruit and effect and token of liberty but ariseth not meerly from unity because there have been polities that had them not for this Kingdom was one a good while before there were any Parliaments and after they were granted they were but occasional and so there may be occasional meetings in general Councels only the vastnes of the Church and diversity of civil governments and governours render them very difficult in our daies But he saith that such an oneness as is in regard of kinde and nature in all the Churches and in relation to the same head and in order to and dependance upon one rule or Law the word of God is no actual or real onenesse but in imagination and conceit Ans It is not actual indeed but habitual as hath been said many times over yet it is real as well as the four monarchies were real monarchies and not in imagination only and conciet He might as well make the head of the Church and the Laws of the Church and the Covenant of grace and the seals of the Covenant to be but imaginary and in conceit as the Church-Catholike for they are the bonds of the unity and real visible bonds make not an imaginary integral but a real And where I pray is this onenesse denyed by the brethren as you alledge Vin. p. 24. The enlargement and confirmation of this argument A non existentiâ
aggregation and combination as M. Hooker understands me for the particular Congregations must exist before they can be combined and aggregated Neither do I 〈◊〉 in regard of operation for now the Church is constituted and divided into particular combinations the particular Churches are first in their ordinary operations And yet the Evangelical Church did put forth operations at first before any such divisions and without any reference to them But positively I mean the Church-Catholike is before the particular 1. Intentione divinâ in Gods intention as Nature intends first the whole man and not any part of man although the parts are in some sense before the whole in consideration for the whole is made up of them 2. Institutione divinâ in regard of Gods institution God did first institute the whole by one Charter Covenant and systeme of Laws and the particular Congregations secondarily for convenient communication of persons and transactions of businesse Go teach all Nations was the first Commission after Christs resurrection 3. Donatione divinâ for the Ordinances and priviledges of the Church were first given to the whole and secondarily to the particular Congregations as the priviledges of any Kingdom and Corporation are 4. The Church-Catholike is prior dignitate in dignity a Kingdom is of more dignity and honour then any particular town and a city then any street or ward The whole hath more dignity then any part Yea and I may say also in authority for the authority of the whole is greater in divers respects then of the parts 5. Perfectione for the perfection of the whole is made up of the perfection of the parts a whole Kingdom of the parts of it and any whole comprizeth the perfection of the parts of it a particular street or ward is an imperfect incompleat thing and not consistent alone but as a part in reference to the whole and as a member in reference to the whole body The particulars may have the perfection of parts and some be more perfect then others but the whole is most perfect and the perfections of the parts concurre in the perfection of the whole 6. Entitivè or essentialiter the Church-Entitive is before the Organical for the organical is made up of the members of the Church Entitive and the Church-Entitive affords materials to the Church-organical And in this respect the particular Churches are properly ortae arising out of the Entitive and so also is the whole Church-organical for it ariseth out of the combination of the particular Congregations and both it and they consist only of members of the Church Entitive And herein I consent unto M. Parker in this sense but not that the habitual power of Elders should arise from the particular Congregations to act in Synods but only in regard of their evocation and exciting of their power to act in reference to them pro hic nunc 7. Causalitate efficientis Ministerialis For the Church-Catholike already converted is a means of converting more unto them as opportunity is afforded and of admitting ministerially into the Church-Catholike both entitive first and then organical both private members and also Officers into their habitual office 8. Cognitione sive noscibilitate perfectâ For though this or that Congregation be proprior ad sensum and so notior respectu nostri which is cognitione confusâ yet the Church-Catholike is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 noscibilior simpliciter Distincta enim cognitio sequitur ordinem naturae in se in mente benè dispositâ As universalia sunt notiora minus universalibus species infima individâ—â—â— The Kingdom of England as a Kingdom is propius ad 〈◊〉 and so noscibilius distinctâ ratione but particular towns are propiora ad sensum The notion of an English man comes first upon a subject of this Kingdom before of a Suffolk man A man may have knowledge of England as a Kingdom and be well skilled in the polity laws and priviledges thereof and yet by sense have but little or no knowledge of particular Towns so a man may know much of the Church as Christs Kingdom and be well skilled in the Laws Ordinances and priviledges thereof and yet know but few particular Churches So that the priority of the Church-Catholike visible in respect of the particulars is like the priority of a Kingdom to the parts of it or of a Corporation in respect of the parts of it which is not meant in a mathematical or techtonical consideration for so the particular buildings are prima and the whole city ortae yet so M. Hooker understood me in his acute arguing about integrale Surv. pag. 255. But in regard of intention institution donation of priviledges dignity perfection essence instrumental efficiency and perfect cognition of it There is also a difference between ortum secundarium for every ortum is secundarium but every secundarium is not ortum But I principally meant secundarium or secundary yet in regard the particular Churches arise and spring out of the Church-Entitive and are converted and admitted ministerially by the Church-Catholike already in being they may truly be said to be ortae and the Catholike prima First Sect. 2. All the names that are in the Scripture given unto the Church-visible agree primarily to the Church-Catholike and secondarily to particular Congregations As 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we are first considered as called out from Idols and devoted to be the Lords people before we can be considered of this or that Congregation We know they were given even to the Jews before ever any Congregational Evangelical Churches had existence Act. 7.38 The Church in the wildernesse And the Jews are frequently called the Lords people So the Church is called the house of the living God 1 Tim. 3.15 And the ground and pillar of truth Gods vineyard Joh. 15.1 Wherein branches in Christ bearing no fruit are cut off Christs sheepfold Joh. 10.16 Barn-floor Mat. 3.12 Drag-net Wheat-field Kingdom of heaven Mat. 13.37 38. A great house wherein are vessels even of dishonour 2 Tim. 2.20 These names cannot be limited or appropriated to any particular Congregation but are first true of the whole Church and of every particular Church as a part thereof Congregationes particulares sunt quasi partes similares Ecclesiae Catholicae atque adeò nomen naturam ejus participant Ames med l. 1. c. 32. s 4. 2. That is the primary Church to which the Covenant Promises Laws and Priviledges of the Church do primarily belong but the Covenant Promises Laws and Priviledges do primarily belong to the Church-Catholike Therefore c. The minor I prove because the Covenant of grace and salvation by Christ and the first Evangelical promise that ever was made in the world was to Adam and Eve representing all mankinde and therefore consequently the whole Church of God This was before there was any division or distinction made of Churches into Jew and Gentile National or Congregational Again the main commission for gathering
the Evangelical Church was Go teach all Nations and baptize them in the name of the Father Son and holy Ghost Mat. 28. And this was before any divisions or subdivisions were appointed and they were secondarily brought in for order and convenient administration of Ordinances and communication of members and transaction of businesse and they being similar parts of the whole receive their particular distinctions from external accidental and adventitious particularities as the places where they exist the particular Officers set over them their purity or impurity eminency or obscurity multitude or paucity zeal or remisnesse antiquity or late constitution c. They all retain the general essential form and difference from heathens and among themselves as parts of a similar body are distinguished but by accidental differences And that promise that the gates of hell shall never prevail against the Church is primarily given to the Church-Catholike visible have 〈◊〉 For that in heaven is not assailed by the gates of hell but only that on earth And though it may seem to be applicable to the invisible only yet to those as visible for so they are assailed by persecutions and heresies Again He that beleeveth and is baptized shall be saved Mar. 16. This doth primarily belong to the Church Catholike and that a visible Church because capable of Baptism and though it be applicable to every member of any particular Congregation yet not as being a member of that particular society or confederation but as being in the general Covenant and so a member of the Church Catholike to which that promise was made Yea look over all the promises in the New Testament and you shall finde them under in general without the least respect or reference to the particular confederations or Congregations wherein the beleevers lived In any similar body as water the accidents doe not primarily pertain to this or that particular drop and secondarily to the whole but first to the whole and secondarily to this or that drop So the promises and priviledges of the Church do not primarily belong to this or that particular Church and secondarily to the Catholike but first to the Catholike and secondarily to this or that particular Congregation or person as being a member thereof The Laws also are given to the whole Church primarily as the Laws of England are to the whole Kingdom primarily and to the particular divisionâ— secondarily and all are bound to obedience not as Suffolk or Essex men but as Subjects of this Kingdom So the Laws of Christ binde every particular Church but not because in such a particular Covenant or confederation but because Subjects of Christs visible Kingdom The like may be said of the priviledges of the Church Two main priviledges of the Church are federal holinesse of the children of visible beleevers and right to the Ordinances on for â—â—llcclesia Now neither of both these betide any primarily as a member of a particular Congregation but as a member of the Church-Catholike For federal or covenant-holinesse whereby the children of visible beleevers are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it betideth no mans children because the parents are of this or that or any Congregation but because of the Church-Catholike yea though but entitive if under the seal of Baptism This I prove thus That which should have been though the particular relation to a particular Congregation had never been and which continueth when the particular relation ceaseth that is not a proper priviledge of that relation but such is federal-holinesse in regard of relation to any particular Congregation Therefore c. Suppose those baptized by John Baptist or by Christs Disciples before there were any particular distinctions should have had any children or the Eunuch if he were an Eunuck by office only and not in body baptized by Philip who went immediatly home into his own countrey or Cornelius and his friends baptized in Peters command should not their children 〈◊〉 Suppose â— Church dissolved by war the Minister and people slaiâ—â—ick dying by some raging pestilence and some women left with childe and haply they carried away captive should not their children be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because the particular relation is extinct Do not those women remain members of the Church But they cease to remain members of that particular Church or Integral for that inceased Therefore of the Church-Catholike or of none Are thereto he accounted without in the Apostles sense Are visible be leevest not yet joined in Church-order or fellowship by a particular Covenant to be accounted without Or is a Congregation deprived of Elders by death land in that interval 〈◊〉 of Word Sacraments and discipline to be accounted 〈…〉 joyning of a company of private Christians together without Officers before they be organized that gives them their right primarily to the Ordinances I fear too 〈…〉 to that particular conjunction and covenient 〈…〉 weight laid upon it which is a very accidental 〈…〉 to Ordinances and enters not into it 〈…〉 and extinguishible without the least impeaching of the right to Ordinances If the reason whereupon the Apostle saith the Church of Corinth was not to judge them that were without was because they were not within the Church of Corinth and so not under their particular 〈…〉 or judgement this holdeth true of them that be of another society or Congregation desiring to be admitted to the Sacrament as well as of such as are no set members desires to be received to the Lords Supper And so all 〈…〉 of 〈◊〉 society are without unto another See M. 〈…〉 But by fornicators of this world whom the Apostle pointeth into by the title of being without 1 Cor. 10.11 he means such as had not received the Covenant of grace such as 〈…〉 the Common-wealth of Israel strangers from the 〈…〉 of promise having no hope and without God in the world 〈◊〉 And 〈◊〉 right to the Ordinances it ariseth from the general Covenant 〈…〉 priviledge primarily belonging to visible beleevers though in no particular consociation the admission into the particular Congregation only affords an opportunity because thereby a particular Minister hath taken the charge of him and must administer the Ordinances to him which any other Minister may do upon occasion For Baptism it cannot be a priviledge of the particular Covenant for if a Pagan be converted he must be baptized before he can be admitted a member of the particular Congregation and this must be by some Minister Therefore baptism is a priviledge of the Church-Entitive and a Minister can yea and must sometimes exert his power of office not only beyond his own Congregation even into others but beyond the Church organical into the Church-Entitive to set Christs seal there And for the children of visible beleevers though born never so farre from the place where the particular Minister liveth which hath the actual care of his parents be it by sea or by land any Minister may administer Baptism to them because they are
holy Infantes baptizandi sunt non ut sancti sint sed quia sancti sunt Whitak The promise is to you and to your children and to all that are afar off even as many as the Lord our God shall call saith Peter Act. 2.39 This promise is that external Covenant to which Baptism doth belong for it is brought in as an argument to move them to repentance and receiving of Baptism and declareth their right and their childrens right which is nothing else but the call of God and their answer thereunto The Sacraments are not seals of the particular Covenant but the general and therefore all that are in the general Covenant have right thereto as they are capable The 5. Apologists acknowledge that some of them had children born after they were actually in this way of communion which were baptized by some of our Ministers in our Parishional Congregations Apol Narr p. 6. And some of our brethren and none of the meanest falling hence to New-England after their departure from then particular Congregations here and before their particular combination there had sea-born children which were baptized on ship-board and I my self was desired to baptize one of them before the Ship could put forth out of the channel And for the Lords Supper it is a priviledge not springing from the particular Covenant but the general and as all that were circumcised were bound to keep the Passeover whereever they dwelt so every baptized person being of age and otherwise fir is bound to receive the Lords Supper and therefore hath a right thereto though his condition of calling or other accidents hinder him from a fixed membership And in Congregational Churches the brethren of one Congregation communicate at the Lords table in other Congregations as occasion is offered but surely it cannot be by vertue of a particular Covenant entred into with their own members for that can give right no where else but it is by vertue of a Covenant that is common to all visible beleevers which is the general Covenant Can we conceive that a visible beleever having visible right to Christ and living holily should want right to the seals Can any man forbid water that these should not be be baptized that have received the holy Ghost as well as we saith Peter of Cornelius and his company So may I say can any man forbid the Lords Supper to be administred to such as have received Christ and his Spirit and are baptized as well as we See more of this Que. 2. Sect. 4. M. Norton in his answer to Apollonius p. 32 acknowledgeth the Sacraments are not signs or seals of the Ecclesiastical Covenant as he cals it but signs and seals of the Covenant of grace and yet the Sacraments are to be administred only to such as are entred into the Ecclesiastical Covenant explicitly or implicity his reason is because the Sacraments are to be administred only â—â—deratis i. e. to such as are in Covenant and so members first If M. Norton meaneth by Covenant the Covenant of grace it is true they must be in the Covenant of grace externally at least by professed yeelding themselves to the Lord or by federal holinesse 〈◊〉 they be capable of baptism but then it is nothing to his purpose but if he mean a particular Ecclesiastical Covenant whereby he is â—ade a member of a particular Congregation 〈…〉 is no way requisite unto baptism It is against the order of nature that the particular Covenant which is but humane arbitrary mutable extinguishible and accidental should precede the general which is divine necessary immutable perpetual and essential to a Christian it is as if a man should first be made a freeman of London and then a Denizon of England Indeed he is not capable of the priviledges that are peculiar to that Congregation except he be a member of it but baptism is a general priviledge of every subject of Christs Kingdom Neither have we any precept in the Scripture for the precedency of the particular Covenant before the general nor any example or intimation of any such practice in Scripture but of the contrary What particular Congregational Covenant did those that were baptized by John Baptist or Christs Disciples enter into before baptism or the Eunuch the Jaylor and his houshold or Lydia or Paul or Cornelius or the 3000. converted by Peter that were inhabitants of so many several countries True indeed some of them were members of the Jewish Church and so in the general Covenant but what is that to the making of them members of a particular Evangelical Congregational Church Infants are acknowledged to be members of the Church before baptism p. 25. and Bucer Loc. 47. cited for it yet they enter into no such Covenant before baptism M. Norton confesseth p. 25. that the Protobaptizatus could not be a member of a Church unlesse one man might be a Church or a member be without an integral It is a marvel that seeing so much weight lyeth on this particular Church-Covenant viz. the interest in the seals of the Covenant of grace the Scripture should never give any intimation of it or directions about it The like may be said of hearing the word any visible beleever may hear it whereever God giveth him opportunity not as a heathen or man without but as his rightful portion And any Christian may joyn in prayer and say Our Father c. with any Christians in the furthest parts of the world if he should come into their company in the performance of such duties The greatest Query is about the Ordinances of Discipline because they cannot be dispensed by a single Elder but in a College or Presbytery of Elders in combination and require a joynt power to be exercised in the inflicting of censures and this power it not so facil to be drawn into act as the power to administer Ordinances of worship which may be by entreaty of any single Minister in any place But first every one even as a member of the Church-Catholike yea though but entitive is bound to submit therunto by his entring by the general Covenant into the Kingdom of Christ that being one of his Ordinances and is needful and beneficial to all Christians And every Elder as he is given to the Church-Catholike as every Levite was to all Israel hath right in actu primo to dispense the Ordinances of Discipline every where if he hath a sufficient call And in consideration this Ordinance is given in the same method that the others are viz. first to the whole body and Kingdom of Christ and secondarily to the particular parts and yet as in other Ordinances the particular Churches which are last in intention are first in execution and operation so it is likewise in this and so it is in administration of justice in a Kingdom the Laws are made for the whole Kingdom and come secondarily to particular Counties and Corporations are executed primarily and immediatly in those particular Counties and
long-sufferance for a pattern 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to them that should or shall hereafter beleeve on him But these things are mysteries and I dare not be too confident in them yet should they come to passe they infringe not this truth because their conversion shall come from the head root and fountain it self of the Church as Abrahams call was And no question but Christ did convert many in the daies of his flesh when he was actually and visibly a member of the Church here below And if any be converted by secret inspiration or revelation and neither converted nor fed by any external Ordinances as haply some infants of heathens or any Philosophers as Plato if haply there were any so converted they are not to be accounted of the visible Church and so not belonging to this question There is a double rise of the particular Churches out of the general First All Congregations are made up of the members of the Church Entitive or of persons that are visible beleevers and their children which are holy being born in the Covenant Secondly Consider the Church-Catholike as Christs Kingdom or Corporation already invested with Evangelical Ordinances and Priviledges and it affords a twofold rise to those that are added to them First They are instrumental by their preaching godly conversation and sometimes by their sufferings to convert those that are aliens from the Common-wealth of Israel Secondly They give them ministerially their admittance entrance and as I may say freedom in the Church both as private members and if any of them be ordained Officers it is by such as are Officers before and not quâ Officers of the particular Churches for it is an extrinsecal act to them as so considered but of the general And in the erecting of a new Congregation in New-England there is to be the consent advice and help of the Elders of neighbour-Churches they are not only to allow thereof but also to ordain them Elders which cannot be an act of particular Officers for it is no act toward their own flocks it is extraneous to them but it is as they are are habitually general Officers and this occasion draws forth their power for the good and encrease of the whole Sect. 6. If it be asked What is sufficient to make a man a member of the visible Church I answer knowledge and belief of the main points of the Christian faith and professed subjection thereunto And this is as much as the Apostles required as in the case of the Eunuch and Simon Magus c. and if it were sufficient then it is so still for those were the purest Churches erected by infallible men and yet they went upon no other grounds So many as gladly received the word were baptized Act 2 41. And yet this is no more then may be found in an hypocrite out of novelty sudden flashes admiration at the extraordinary gifts and miracles and was found in the stony ground which received the word with joy And we have no other rule to go by in gathering Churches or receiving members into a Church then they had neither may we presume to make any other Sic omnes ferè Reformati Theologi celebres materiam visibilis Ecclesiae asserunt esse homines externè vocatos fidem Christi profitentes namque definiunt caetum hominum vocatione externa seu praedicatione verbi Sacramentorum communicatione evocatorum ad cultum Dei societatem Ecclesiasticam inter se celebrandam Apol. p. 8. Vide etiam utrumque Trelcatium in locis com Loc. de Ecclesia Professores Lâ—idenses Disp 40. Thes 3. It is true God commands true piety and no man shall see Gods face in blisse nor be of the invisible company without it But I speak what is requisite in fora Ecclesiae and what matter must be for a visible Church and then I conceive it is not absolutely requisite that the persons should be truly godly to make them members thereof For if it were otherwise no man could tell when he is in a true Church or who are true members or whose childe ought to be baptized And if the living members of Christ were the only or essential members of a visible Church then none are true essential members but they and a truly godly Minister is a more essential Minister then another and the Ordinances administred by him are more essentially administred then by another and then the vertue of the Ordinance should depend not on Christs Institution but on the worthinesse of the person administring And haply after many years living under a Minister that seemed godly that Minister by falling away shews himself that he was not so and then all those Ordinances were null being administred by one that was not only no Minister but no true member of the Church I therefore conclude with that saying of Ames in his Bellarm. Enervat Falsum est internas virtutes requiri a nobis ut aliquis sit in Ecclesia quo ad visibilem ejus statum And this M. Norton in Resp ad Apollon p. 3. acknowledgeth Potest aliquis in externa Ecclesiae communionem admitti qui reali sanctitate regenerationis justificante fide non est praeditus seu qui rigido examine exploratus signa verae fidei sanctitatis internae realis tam evidenâ—ia non dederit quae omnem conscientiam hominum convincere possint aâ— sincer á ejus fide c. Neque necessariò quaerendum an articulatim possint demonstrare evidentiae verae gratiae salutaris 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. but only they must be fideles 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as he expresseth himself in divers places they must be Ecclesiastice fidelos apparenter c. non semper 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pag. 11. In casibus Ecclesiasticis Iudas reverâ non fidelis ita aestimandus a co-Apostolis ut se gerant erga illum ac si esset fidelis p. 12. There may be a holinesse of dedication and consecration where there is no true holinesse of regeneration and sanctification Object But holinesse of dedication and consecration is founded upon holinesse of sanctification at least supposed and therefore all the Church-members ought to have supposed sanctification Answ That sanctification is commanded by God to every one that will dedicate himself unto God is clear But for the supposition of it in all it will be hard to prove God enjoyned his people of Israel to consecrate themselves unto him to be his people yet he did not suppose them all to be godly for he expresseth the contrary of them neither did Moses and Aaron suppose so of them not the Prophets for they expresse the quite contrary And if we come to the New Testament it cannot be conceived that Iohn Baptist or Christs Apostles did in their personal judgements apprehend all those to be truly godly whom they baptized and dedicated to God For Iohn called the Scribes and Pharisees a generation of
all rules of the Gospel of all Church-priviledges Surv. p. â—37 I answer the Church indeed so considered is no actual polity yet it is an integral and it is visible in regard of the persons covenant laws and profession As all the subjects of the Kingdom of England are an integral in reference to the King and Laws though they should for a time want inferiour Officers And though they be not in particular combination and so are destitute of the particular priviledges and have no particular Officers to dispense Gods Ordinances to them constantly yet have they right by reason and Scripture rules to all the Ordinances of God as well as baptism and they covenant to submit to all Gods Ordinances even those of discipline and are habitually under the habitual power of the Ministers office and are capable of censures as hath been shewed before only they want the opportunity of enjoying them constantly by particular Officers of their own The right of an English man to the priviledges of the Laws doth not arise by being actually under such and such particular Officers in a Corporation c. but by being members of the Kingdom So is the right of visible beleevers to Church-priviledges by being Christs visible subjects Secondly the particular converts are brought into Christs Kingdom by the Church-Catholike visible already in being and spiritually conquered and subdued by them to Christ they are the fruits and successe of their Ministry as Organical Christs Ministers are their spiritual fathers and they are children born to the Church and are added to the Church Thirdly The Church doth initiate them and ministerially convey the priviledges to the converts by enrowling them as free-men of the Church by baptism and ministerially ordaining officers over them and so maketh them organical also and adding them into combination with themselves and this cannot be done as they are particular Officers for so they are not to them Therefore as general and it is to be accounted an act of the Church-Catholike as hath been shewed before Ch. 1. Sect. 4. And though in a constant permanent or continuous integral whose particular members rise and fall together with the whole so that it cannot consist but of so many necessary integral individual parts whereof it is constituted There the whole and the parts whereof it doth consist as they stand in relation unto one another must be simul yet the Church-Catholike being as I may say a kinde of discreet successive indefinite integral alwaies transient and in flux some members being alwaies in their adding and some alwaies in departing so that in respect of the particular parts it is not one hour every way the same it was the former I say that in reference to the members that are to be added the whole must needs be accounted first because it is constituted and hath a being entitive and organical before the addition and the members born or converted must needs be first added to the whole before they can bear the relation of parts unto it And herein the Church is like unto a Corporation whose first members whereof it was constituted were simul natura tempore with the whole yet all the members that are added successively finde it a Corporation before their addition and so it is with the successive members of the Church-Catholike Object That which belongs to a similar body or integral quà tale it doth not arise from the integrality but from the nature which is common to the whole and so it agreeth to it primarily quâ tale nun quâ totum sive integrum so though such and such priviledges and Ordinances belong to the whole Church Catholike yet it is not primarily quà Catholike or quà an Integral but quà tale and so they may belong to the parts primarily and to the whole secondarily Answ Though the properties of a similar body do belong to it quà tale as such yet the whole being tale they agree to the whole primarily though they be found immediatly in the particular parts Secondly The priviledges and Ordinances of the Church do not belong to the Church primarily quâ tale for it might possibly have had such a nature and yet wanted such Priviledges and Ordinances but they arise ex institutione donatione divinâ and from the Covenant between Christ and his Church and flow from thence and that institution donation and covenant being first intended and given to the whole the priviledges and Ordinances belong first to the whole and secondarily to the parts though they be set immediatly in the parts also Now then seeing it is evident by the former Scriptures and Arguments that there is a Church-Catholike visible both Entitive and Organical and seeing the Names Nature and Priviledges of the Church the Promises and Ordinances of God the Offices of Christ the Signs of the true Church the Members of of the Church and Ministry of the word belong first to the Church-Catholike visible and that every particular Christian bears first and last relation thereunto which relation cannot be broken off by any removal or without sinne and that the particular Churches spring out of the members of the Church-Catholike I therefore conclude according to the light God hath given me That the Church-Catholike visible is Prima in Gods intention and by Gods institution and by Gods donation of Ordinances and Priviledges and in dignity and authority and in perfection and in nature and essence and in ministerial instrumental causality and in perfect cognition and nostibility and the particular Churches secondary or posterior in all the forenamed respects and likewise are Ortae in regard they are made up of the members of the Church-Entitive and are converted instrumentally by the Church-Catholike Organical and initiaâ—â—d and organized by them and added to them and combined with them Sect. 7. From this Thesis give me leave to propound to your further consideration these Corollaries or Conclusions Concerning Churches Catholike Particular Persons Publike viz. the Officers Private viz. the Members Concerning the Church in general 1. That there is a Church-Catholike 2. That the Church-Catholike is but one 3. That the Church-Catholike is visible 4. That though the Church-Catholike be alwaies transient and in flux by addition and substraction of the members thereof yet it shall never cease to be visible 5. That if the Church-Catholike be contracted into narrow limits yet the remaining part thereof conserves both the nature and priviledges of the Church-Catholike and puts on the notion thereof more properly then of a particular Church as a City burnt down or wasted into a few streets reserves the Charter and Priviledges of the whole and that which was accounted but a part of it before now puts on the notion of the whole 6. That the Church-Catholike is mixt of good and bad as well as particular Congregations are 7. That the Church-Catholike may be considered either as Entitive or Organical 8. That the Church-Catholike is one habitual organical body
It is that the Apostle presseth Eph. 4.3 4. Endeavouring to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace for there is one body and one spirit c. This spiritual unity is that which Christ so earnestly and often prayed for in that short praier Joh. 17.21 23. That they may be one as we are one that they all may be one that they also may be one in us that they may be made perfect in one And this was Pauls prayer Rom 15.5 6. Now the God of patience and consolation grant you to be like minded one towards another according to Christ Jesus that ye may with one minde and one mouth glorifie God c. And this was Pauls earnest request 1 Cor. 1.10 Now I beseech you brethren by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ that ye all speak the same thing and that there be no divisions among you but that you be perfectly joyned together in the same minde and the same judgement And again 2 Cor. 13.11 It is one of the last things he concludes his Epistle with Finally brethren farewel be perfect be of good comfort be of one minde live in peace and the God of love and peace shall be with you And Phil. 1.27 He presseth it as the only thing he desired of them Only let your conversation be as becometh the Gospel of Christ that whether I come and see you or else be absent I may hear of your affairs that ye stand fast in one spirit with one minde striving together for the faith of the Gospel Certainly unity of judgement is of more importance then we are aware of else the Apostle would not presse it with such solemn adjurations and entreaties so often as he doth Yea when there were but two men that differed in opinion as it is conceived the Apostle thought it beseeming Apostolical gravity and the holy Ghost judged it meet for a piece of canonical Scripture to take notice of it and compose it Phil. 4.2 I beseech Evodias and beseech Syntiche that they be of the same minde in the Lord Though it might seem but womens brabbles yet we know how great a matter a little fire kindleth a little strife and errour will encrease to more ungodlinesse Consider we that there is but one truth and that is of God and God is truth and error is of the devil Consider that the understanding is the highest and foremost faculty of the soul it is as the forehorse in the teem the leading faculty and as that is enformed so the will and conscience and affections must needs work and follow that and if that be led into errour it must necessarily misleade the whole man Consider that a chief part of the image of God in man consisteth in knowledge and so is upon the understanding which by errour is defaced Remember the solemn caveats given by the Apostle Rom. 16.17 I beseech you brethren mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned and avoid them For they that are such serve not the Lord Jesus Christ but their own belly and by good words and blessed or fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple And Eph. 4.14 That we henceforth be no more children tossed to and fro and carried about with every winde of doctrine by the slieght of men and cunning craftinesse or after the methods of errour whereby they lie in wait to deceive Christ himself tels us that false Prophets shall come that shall deceive if it were possible the very elect Behold I have told you before Mat. 20.30 31. And Paul tels us Of your selves shall men arise speaking perverse things to draw disciples after them Therefore watch Act. 20.30 31. Therefore hold fast the form of sound words which thou hast heard of me saith Paul 2 Tim. 1.13 They that coin new words and new strange expressions to amaze the people it is a sign as Calvin tels us that they have some new opinion upon the Anvil O let us labour to be of one heart seeing we are all but one body and have but one head and one spirit and because we are all brethren children of the same heavenly Father This is that which God hath promised his people Ezek. 11.19 I will give them one heart and I will put a new spirit within you And we finde Christ inculcating this exhortation Joh. 13.34 A new Commandement I give unto you that ye love one another as I have loved you that ye also love another By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples if ye love one another Joh. 13.34 35. Again This is my commandment that ye love one another as I have loved you Joh. 15.12 and vers 17. These things I command you that you love one another And this I finde practised Act. 4.31 And the multitude of them that beleeved were of one heart and one soul And this Paul exhorteth to Rom. 12.10 Be kindely affectioned one to another with brotherly love in honour preferring one another And we finde the unity both of judgement and heart exhorted unto 1 Pet. 3.8 Finally be ye all of one minde having compassion one of another love as brethren be pitiful be courteous Division is the devils musick but that which makes the devil laugh should make us cry O what a solemn obsecration is that of Paul Phil. 2.1 2. If there be any consolation in Christ if any comfort of love if any fellowship of the Spirit if any bowels and mercies fulfil ye my joy that ye may be like minded having the same love bring of one accord of one minde O that we might labour to be of one way also This is that which God promised his people Jer. 32.39 I will give them one heart and one way that they may fear me for ever for the good of them and of their children after them And Zep. 3.9 Then will I turn to the people a pure language that they may all call upon the name of the Lord with one consent or one shoulder And this was the blessing that God gave Hezekiah in his people 2 Chron. 30.12 Also in Judah the hand of God was to give them one heart to doe the commandment of the King and of the Princes by the word of the Lord. Certainly there is but one rule for doctrine worship discipline And as many as walk according to this rule peace be on them and on all the Israel of God Gal. 6.16 And this is the Apostles exhortation Roman 15.6 That ye may with one minde and one mouth glorifie God Yea though we be not of the same judgement in every thing yet as it is Philip. 3.16 Whereto we have already attained let us walk by the same rule let us minde the same things And this unity in way is that which we have sworn unto and covenanted in our late National League and Covenant in the first branch of it That we shall endeavour to bring the Churches of God in the three Kingdomes of England Scotland and Ireland to the nearest conjunction and uniformity in Religion Confession of Faith Form of Church-government Directory for Worship and Catechizing That we and our posterity after us may as brethren live together in faith and love and that the Lord may delight to dwell in the midst of us And we shall all be forsworn if we endeavour it not All the members of the same body natural agree to goe the same way Yea the strength health and beauty of the body natural consisteth in the fast knitting of all the members together to each other and to the head and the luxation thereof is dangerous so and much more it is in a body politick or Ecclesiastical And though the divisions in our civil estate be very sad and might deserve tears of bloud to bewail them yet I look upon the divisions in the Church as a matter of more sad and doleful consequence and I fear but wish I might be mistaken that when the breaches of the Common-wealth shall be closed the breaches in the Church may grow wider and the differences rise higher and such errours are sown among us as will not be plucked up again in our age which having seized upon the understandings and consciences of men cannot be composed by commands nor clubbed down by force Only here is my comfort that though our condition is such that we know not what to ask yet God is wise and knows what to bestow And this is my hope herein that he which found a way to reconcile God and man when they were at enmity can finde way to reconcile man and man though they be at difference Now the God of peace that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus Christ that great shepheard of the sheep through the bloud of the everlasting Covenant make us perfect in every good work to doe his will working in us that which is well-pleasing in his sight through Iesus Christ to whom be glory for ever and ever Amen * ⎠* FINIS