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
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
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
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
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
Priviledges primarily belong to the Catholike Church The Covenant commission for gathering the Evangelical Church the promises made to it and Laws of it proved to be universal 220 The Priviledges are also catholike First Federal holinesse is a priviledge of the Catholike Church 221 Secondly Right to the Ordinances of Christ 222 Proved in regard of Baptism 223 And the Lords Supper 224 Hearing of the word and joyning in Praier 225 The query about the Ordinances of Discipline discussed 226 1 Every member of the Church though but entitive is bound to submit thereto 2 Every Minister hath an habitual indefinite power annexed to his office to administer them 3 The Ordinances of discipline were first given to general Pastors 227 4 The censures dispensed have influence into the whole Church 5 Otherwise great inconvenience will follow 6 All polities administer justice to strangers offending within their limits And the like power must be allowed to Ecclesiastical polities Section 3. The third argument is because Christs Offices are first intended for and executed on the Church-Catholike 228 The fourth argument is because the signs to difference the true Church from a false belong primarily to the whole 229 The fifth argument is because all the members are members of the Church-Catholike primarily 230 Both those that are born members and those converted This illustrated by three similitudes 231 Section 4. The sixth argument is because the Ministers are primarily Ministers of the Church-Catholike 232 Diverse proofs hereof The absurd consequences of binding the Ministers office to his particular Congregation only 233 The Ministers office and power ceaseth not by the dissolution of his particular flock 235 An Objection against this by M. A. and M. S. taken from the ceasing of the ruling Elder or Deacons office at such dissolution answered 236 It appears because the censure of excommunication inflicted by particular Officers reacheth the whole Church-visible 237 The distinctions of formally and virtually and of antecedenter consequenter discussed 238 It appears also because particular Officers admit into the Church-Catholike by baptism 239 Baptizing is an act of the ministerial office All are baptized into one body Many examples of persons baptized without relation to any particular Congregations Though it be objected that this was done by extraordinary Officers yet this salves it not because if it be an Ordinance belonging to particular congregational members these being not so they could have no right to receive it no jus in re 240 Some are called Ministers in Scripture in regard of more Congregations then one 241 And ruled in common over more Congregations then one Section 5. The seventh argument is because every Christian bears his first relation to the Church Catholike and that relation continueth last and cannot be broken off without sin 242 Hence strangers tried where they reside for the present Ephesus commended for trying strangers Rev 2.2 Non communion is a sentence denounced against strangers Hereticks and false teachers not fixed must not be suffered It is no sin to remove from one Congregation to another 243 The eighth argument is because particular Churches spring from the Church-Catholike and are an additament thereto 244 The Church-Catholike is as the main Ocean and the particular as the arms thereof A double rise of particular Churches out of the Catholike 245 First They are made up of members of the Church-Catholike i. e. of visible beleevers Secondly They finde the Church-Catholike constituted and invested before their addition 1 The Church-Catholike is instrumental to their conversion 2 And gives them ministerially their admittance both into the Church entitive and organical Section 6. What is sufficient in foro externo to make a man a member of the Church-Catholike visible 246 The absurdities of accounting true beleevers only members of the visible Church Apollonius and Mr Norton cited Obj. Holinesse of dedication is founded on holiness of sanctification answered 247 Instances out of the Old and New Testament for the contrary Personal and Ecclesiastical judgement differ 248 The rules of the invisible Church serve not for the visible There are the same qualifications for the members of the Church-Catholike visible as for the particular Churches 249 Two Objections against the priority of the Church-Catholike answered 250 The conclusion of the premises 253 Section 7. Corollaries from the former Thesis 254 24 Corollaries concerning the Church-Catholike 12 Concerning particular Churches 255 7 Concerning the publike Officers of the Church 256 12 Concerning private members 257 Section 8. An application of the Thesis bewailing our division 258 First in judgement 259 Diverse errours reckoned up that are broached Secondly in heart and affections 260 Thirdly in way or practice 261 An exhortation to unity in all these 3. respects 262 THE ESSENCE AND VNITY OF THE Church Catholike visible c. QUEST Vtrum Ecclesia visibilis universalis sive Oecumenica sit prima vel secundaria orta a particularibus Whether the vis Ch. Cath. or the particular Churches be first CHAPTER I. The Explication of the Tearms FOR the handling of this Question here are these four tearms to be opened First What is meant by Ecclesia or Church Secondly What by visibilis or visible Thirdly What is meant by universalis sive oecumenica or universal and oecumenical Fourthly What by prima and orta or the first Church and that which riseth of it or secondary 1. First What a Church is SECT 1. The word Church is taken in a civil or theological sense In a civil sense for a company of people summon'd or gathered together for some civil affairs Acts 19.39 It shall be determined in a lawfull assembly the word in the Original is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Church Yea even the rout met together Acts 19.41 is called Ecclesia 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He dismissed the assembly or the Church as the word is in the Original Secondly In a theological sense it signifieth a company of people that are called or to be called and joyned together standing in some spiritual relation to God And so the word is taken diversly First and most properly for the whole company of the elect as they are opposed to the reprobates whether Jew or Gentile and in this sense it is taken Ephes 5.25 26. As Christ loved the Church and gave himself for it that he might cleanse it with the washing of water by the Word So vers 23 27. and 32. Again Col. 1.18 His body the Church Interdum cum Ecclesiam nominant eam intelligunt quae rever à est coram Deo in quam nulli recipiantur nisi adoptionis gratiâ filij Dei sunt spiritus sanctificatione vera Christi membra Ac tunc quidem non tantum sanctor qui in terra habitant comprehendit sed electos omnes qui ab origine mundi fuerunt Calvin Instit. lib. 4. cap. 1. sect 7. where you may see more of this subject Of these there are three sorts The first are elect uncalled
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
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
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
Church-Catholike visible But excommunication doth so c. Therefore c. The consequence appears because the ejection being a casting out of the body cannot extend it self beyond the body but ejection is general therefore so â—s the body The privation cannot extend it self beyond the habit if therefore the extent of the depriving censure be Catholike the habitual body is so also There is not only a potentiality of right to communicate every where while a man is a member but an habitual right not rising from courtesie but from membership not particular membership for then none could communicate but particular members but from a general habitual membership to which the communion belongeth So farre as the expulsion or disfranchisement reach so far the Corporation reacheth and as the particular ward or street where such a man dwelt loseth a particular member so the whoâ—e Corporation loseth a member of the whole So is it in this spiritual Corporation of the Church-Catholike visible There is not only an habitual fitnesse and capacity lost but an habitual general right lost during the censure The man is said to lose a member when the hand loseth a finger therefore the finger was a member of the whole man as well as of the hanâ— in particular So is this case of excommunication 12. If there be parts and members of the Church-Catholike visible there then there is a whole Church Catholike visible but there are parts and members c. Therefore c. The consequence is undeniable for whole and parts are relata Pars est quae continetur a tâ—to membrum ab integro The minor is proved also because particular Congregations and particular Christian families and persons are parts and members of the Church-Catholike visible Either they are parts and members or they are none and so out of the body and without in the Apostles sense If no members then no right to Ordinances for right ariseth from membership membership from qualifications The same relation that particular believing persons bear to a Christian family and which Christian families bear to a Congregation the same relation by proportion doe particular Congregations bear to the whole Church-Catholike or any great part thereof But particular persons are members of families and particular families of Congregations and therefore Congregations are members of the whole body of the Church Catholike visible The family is consisted of the persons the Congregation of the families and the Church-Catholike visible or any great part thereof of the particular Congregations A Genus cannot be said to consist of species but to give essence to species Animal rationale or humanity doth not consist of particular men but exist in particular men But whether the Church-Catholike be a genus or an integrum or both I shall handle in the next Chapter Sect. 4. I might urge also the several metaphors whereby the Scripture setteth out the whole number of visible believers under an unity As Rev. 12.1 by a woman cloathed with the Sun the righteousnesse of Christ and the Moon all terrestrial things under her feet or cloathed with the Sun the purity of doctrine and the moon as some interpret it discipline under her feet or as some others expound it Idolatry whereof Diana the Moon was chief and most general or by Moon some understand the legal ceremonial service which was guided much by the Moon under her feet i.e. now abolished So M. Mede Now this was a visible Church because it is said to be seen and is opposed either to the Jewish Church that had these ceremonies formerly on her back or to the Jewish Christian Church which could not for a long time cast them off but this Christian Church did Surely it was not a particular Congregation that John saw nor is it meant of divers particular Congregations for then it should have been women not a woman therefore it was the Church-Catholike visible bound up in an unity Also Joh. 10.16 It is set out by one sheep-fold Other sheep I have which are not of this fold them also I must bring and there shall be one fold and one Shepherd Which is by all interpreted of the union of Jew and Gentile which are the two integrant parts of the Church-Catholike And though by sheep should be meant the elect yet they are considered as visible because brought into a fold in this world and such a fold as the thief may enter possibly into as it is in the former verses yea and the wolf also Act. 20.19 Beza noteth upon that place in John that by sheepfold is not meant the flock it self but something that holds them together and makes them one flock Camerarius on the place Est Indicium Ecclesiae sanctae Catholicae in toto Orbe terrarum c. And Salmasius Vt una est Ecclesia ita unus est grex Christi vel unum Ovile Portiones gregis illius sunt greges civitatum particulareâ— Hinc grex Ecclesia idem sunt tam in generali quam speciali notione Salmas apparat 263. Also it is called the body of Christ Rom. 12.5 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 This was not meant of the particular Church of Rome for the Apostle puts in himself into this body who had as then never come at Rome therefore it is the Church-Catholike there spoken of whereof Paul was both a member and a Minister And this body is a visible body because it is Organical and organical because the Apostle thereupon reckons up the several offices in the Church as teaching exhorting giving ruling shewing mercy which some compute to be an exact distribution of Church-Offices So called also 1 Cor 10.17 1 Cor. 12.12 13. Eph. 4 4. Also the house of God as I shewed before 1 Tim. 3.15 And a great house 2 Tim. 2.20 which sets out the Church-Catholike Now had these places been meant of particular Congregations then they should have been called bodies houses sheep-folds But as many members in a body hinder not the unity of the whole and many Towns in a Kingdome and many houses in a city and many rooms in a house or in the Ark hinder not the unity thereof so many particular Congregations hinder not the unity of the Church-Catholike Est una sola Christi Ecclesia quae ob idetiam dicitur Catholica Particulares Ecclesiae non sunt impedimento quin una sit Ecclesia Zanch. de Ecclesia Chap. 4. My Dove my undefiled is but one she is the only one of her mother Can. 6.9 She is the Lilly among the thorns Can. 2.2 which is the Church militant She is called the Spouse of Christ Cant. 4.8 9 10. Again Cant. 6.4 Thou art beautiful O my love as Tirzah comely as Jerusalem terrible as an army with banners These things are spoken of the Church militant and though some things here mentioned
be drops in the whole element of water and so by consequence a hundred thousand species of water in every pail-full and as many species of wine as there are drops of wine and so many species of milk as there are drops of milk for it may be said of every drop of water wine or milk they are water wine or milk Can the variation only of situation or accidents vary the species This man is a man there is genus and species 2. This man is an English man there should be another subalternal species 3. This English is a Suffolk man there should be another inferiour species 4. This Suffolk man is of such a particular hundred there should be another inferiour species 5. This man is of such a Town in that hundred as suppose Ipswich there is another inferiour species 6. This Ipswich man is of such a Parish there is another species 7. This man of such a Parish is of such a street in the Parish there is another inferiour species 8. This man is of such a Family in such a street there in another inferiour species The like descention may be made of particular Churches By this reason man will prove a very large Genus that hath so many subalternal species under him and many more may be made by the same reason Yea the same man will vary his species as oft as he varieth his place I conceive this proposition Haec aqua est aqua will at best be but species infima individuum and the like of hic homo est homo but the predication of this man by the several particular divisions and subdivisions of the Kingdom will prove denominatio adjunctae personae à subjectis and this division of a Kingdom into more particular parts will rather prove a division of integri in membra then generis in species But suppose this should be granted which Logicians will not yet it must also be granted that as there may be such second notions of this man or this Church raised by logical abstraction so there must needs be an integrality resulting out of physical contiguity or political conjunction and aggregation of places persons and Churches But let it be supposed that by logical abstraction we may draw a notion of a genus from the similarity of all Churches or community of nature in all Churches though the Churches differ not from each other by any essential different specifical forms but only accidentally as individuals yet also it must be granted that by the unity of the Covenant and Charter wherein they are all bound up in an unity and by political combination which necessarily followeth thereupon we may raise an integrality for they are all members of the Church-militant of Christs external Kingdom on earth and so they become really and necessarily members of a political integrum And on this Integral were the priviledges of the Church bestowed primarily and on particular visible Churches but secondarily as members of the whole body Let it be granted that these priviledges are bestowed by God upon such a sort of men so and so qualified viz. visible beleevers and from their similarity of disposition may be drawn a community of nature or disposition yet the priviledges of the Church do not accrue unto them because so and so qualified but by vertue of that one external individual Covenant of God made unto such qualified persons by which external Covenant they are made externally one habitual external visible body And if the same company of men so qualified can make a Genus by abstraction though there be no specifical distinct subalternal forms and yet be an Integral because of the external visible Covenant under one head into which they are all entred which is the fountain of all their priviledges I shall yield the Church Catholike visible to be a Genus as well as an Integrum and call it with Ames Vniversaliter Integrale But if such an use can be made of that logical tenet that Individuals are species which yet most Logicians do deny that those individuals cannot be political members of one greater body I fear it will prove more prejudicial to policy then beneficial to Logick Again that which M. Hooker makes peculiar to an Integral from that which we call totum universale is that what belongs to this doth not belong to all its members Sur. c. 15. p. 256. Is true only of Integrum dissimilâ—re for it is not true of Integrum similare for as a whole pinte of water doth moisten and cool so doth every drop in its measure and proportion And so it is peculiar only to a dissimilar Integral I shall note also two things in that Chapter wherein M. Sect. 5. Hooker mistaketh my meaning First in the seventh proposition which he collects out of my Thesis set down pâ— 52 Every particular Church partaketh of part of the matter and part of the form of the whole Which p. 261. he makes use of againâ— and renders it thus Ecclesia Catholica gives part of the matter and part of the form to all particular Churches But my meaning was it doth consist of part of the matter and part of the form of the whole as a room in an house consisteth of and so in that sense may be said to partake of part of the matter and part of the form of the whole not as a species but as a member of the house A second mistake of my meaning is that he conceiveth I accounted the Jewish Church the Catholike Church because I defined the Church-Catholike to be the Whole company of beleevers in the whole world p. 263. And thereupon undertakes to prove that the Church was in populo Israelitioâ— and not in populo Catholìco But this never came into my thoughts but I acknowledge the Jews to be a national Church But my description of the Church-Catholike was of the Church as it is now since the partition wall is broken down for then it became Catholike I conceive there were beleevers of the sonnes of Keturah that did not partake of all the priviledges of the Jewish Church except they became proselytes It is the Evangelâ—cal Catholike Church which my Question is about into which the Jews themselves being converted were admitted by a new initial seal viz. Baptism and did not stand in it by their former national membership but received a Catholike membership by baptism And hereupon he undertakes to make out my method of conveyance of the right of Church-priviledges to crosse Gods method He sets down my method thus First when a man is converted to the profession of the Gospel and so becomes a visible beleever he is then a member of the Church-Catholike 2. He hath by this profession and membership with the Church-Catholike right unto all Church-priviledges 3. He then becomes a member of a particular Church but hath no right to Church-priviledges because of that but because of his former membership with the Church-Catholike I shall own
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
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
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
vipers and yet addeth I indeed baptize you with water Matth. 3.7 11. Indeed they confessed their sins and it is like promised amendment and so will the worst in our Congregations doe though they never perform it The ground therefore upon which this supposal is to be must not be any mans personal particular judgement built upon such evidence as may convince the understanding of a judicious experienced Minister or Christian that the persons are truly godly but an Ecclesiastical judgement in foro Ecclesiae raised upon such grounds as the Ministers of God directed by God have formerly gone upon which conditions if they finde they are not to deny administration of the seals unto which are the seals of the visible not invisible Church The same causes and rules are of admission that are of ejection vice versâ and as no man is to be censured and cast out of the visible Church because the Elders particular judgement makes them think the man hath not the true power of godlinesse and grace of God in sincerity except he commit that which deserves an Ecclesiastical censure so neither is admission to be denyed to any man that desires to dedicate himself unto God and will promise and professe subjection to Christ in all his Ordinances though it be suspected by judicious Christians that he hath not the true work of grace in his heart The Church of God in their Ecclesiastical judgement censureth only ignorance errour and scandal A Scholar that is admitted into a school is not admitted because he is doctus but ut fit doctus and if he will submit to the rules of the school and apply himself to learn it is enough for his admission the like may be said of the Church visible which is Christs school Iohn Baptist did not in his conscience think they had all actually really and compleatly repented and reformed themselves whom he baptized but he baptized them unto repentance Mat. 3.11 and they by receiving the same bound themselves to endeavour the practice thereof It were a sad case for Ministers if they were bound to admit none or administer the Lords Supper to none but such as were truly godly or that they judged in their conscience to be so or were bound to eject all that they judged were not so I fear the Elders in New-England do not in their consciences judge so of all their members It is not confederation that can give right to Ordinances if by Gods laws they ought not to have them There is a great difference between the visible and invisible Church the rules of the one will not serve for the other No Minister could ever administer the Sacrament without sin if he ought not to administer it to any but such as are truly godly neither hath God given us any rules to judge certainly of the truth of grace in any man but the most judicious Divine in the world may be deceived by a cunning hypocrite And to salve this by saying we ought to think in our conscience that they are godly is vain for as we have no such rule to go by in Gods word so it is very harsh to passe an Ecclesiastical censure upon that ground and the like may be said of denying admission thereupon and it is also a very doubtful rule for a Minister to go by for some men judge very well of him that others judge but slieghtly of and there will be a division among people in their communicating together according to their several judgements one of another still suspecting that they have fellowship with unbeleevers and both Ministers and peoples judgement very very much concerning the same man according to the variety of his carriage there will sometimes be hopes and sometimes fears but Ecclesiastical judgement is not guided by such uncertain variable rules neither in admission nor ejection but upon clear evidence and palpable grounds which must reach all and may be clearly known and proved There are some I finde that distinguish between the qualifications of the members of the Church-Catholike visible and of the members of particular instituted Churches For the former viz. the general membership they acknowledge that these forenamed qualifications will be sufficient and therefore will admit such and their children to baptism which say they is an Ordinance of the Church-Catholike visible and every Minister being a Minister of the Church-Catholike visible besides his particular relation to his particular Congregation may say they administer baptism to them though they be members of no instituted Churches but to make a member of a particular instituted Congregation they require evident signs of true grace and a consent and submission to the Ordinances of Discipline dispensed by the particular Officers But this distinction of qualifications I finde not grounded upon the word of God nor that any should be fit to be members of the Church-Catholike visible and not to be members of a particular visible Congregation If they be brought into Christs sheepfold they are fit to have some of Christs shepheards to take inspection of them if they be admitted into Christs Kingdom City Family they are fit to be under the regiment of some of his Officers If the Ordinances of worship yea the seal of the Covenant be administred to them I see no ground that these should be freed from the Ordinances of Discipline who in all likelihood will stand in most need thereof The great Objection which M. Hooker urgeth against this assertion that the particular Churches are ortae and whereby he would prove the Church-Catholike to be Orta is because if the Church-Catholike be an integral it is made up of the aggregation of the particulars oritur ex illis And every Integrum is in respect of the parts Symbolum effecti And the parts must have a being before the whole can result out of them Answ My main intention in the Question was to prove the Church-Catholike to be the prime Church in those respects which are enumerated in the explication of this part or the predicate of the Question to which I referre you and that the particular Churches are secondary in the same senses also And for the particular Churches being Orta I have already both in the explication of the terms of the Question Chap. 1. Sect. 4. and in this second part expressed my meaning thereof Sect. 1. c. My meaning is not in regard of the aggregation and combination of the particular Churches to make one aggregated combined integral for so indeed the Church-Catholike puts on the notion of orta But I meant it first in regard the particular Congregations are made up of and arise out of the members of the Church-Entitive or of visible beleevers which are the matter thereof And whereas it is objected against this that that Church is no political body haply never had the sight or knowledge one of another never entred into agreement of government one with another and are wholly destitute according to reason and
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