Nam per Baptismum membra in Ecclesiam universalem admittit Per Excommunicationem membra non tantum ex sua particulari sed etiam Provinciali Nationali Vniversali Ecclesia ejicit Matth. 18.18 19. Ex officio pastorali preces Deo offert pro omnibus aliis Ecclesiis laborantibus Verbum Dei in alia Ecclesia particulari praedicare potest non tantum virtute ratione donorum sed cum pastorali authoritate ita ut verbo suo liget solvat peccatores remittat retineat peccata ut legatus missus à Deo obsecret homines ut reconcilientur Deo Gul. Apollon consideratio quarundam c. pag. 86. Of Excommunication I spake before proving that it ejecteth a man out of the whole Church Catholike visible which though it be passed with the knowledge and consent of the Congregation as also is Baptisme yet it is an act of the Presbyters But because it is an act of many 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * 2 Cor. 2.6 I will therefore insist more largely and particularly upon Baptisme which is the act of a single Pastour or Minister That by Baptisme we are admitted into the Church I thinke is without doubt for if persons baptized be not members of a visible Church then the Seale of the Covenant yea the initiall Seale thereof is administred to those that are and remain out of the Church which were absurd to say Mr Ball in his Catechisme hath this passage Baptisme is a Sacrament of our ingrafting into Christ Communion with him and entrance into the Church for which he citeth Matth. 28.19 Acts 8.38 And afterward explaines himselfe It doth saith he solemnely signifie and seale their engrafting into Christ and confirme that they are acknowledged members of the Church and entred into it though it doth not make us Christian soules And that we are thereby admitted members not of a particular Congregation but the Church Catholike appeares because we are baptized into one body 1 Cor. 12.13 And this appeares further because he that is baptized in one Congregation is baptized all over the world and is not to be rebaptized but is taken as a member where-ever he becomes Now that baptizing is an act of office appeares John 1.33 He that sent me to baptize And goe teach all nations and baptize them was the substance of the Apostles Commission And though Paul 1 Cor. 1.17 saith Christ sent me not to baptize but to preach the Gospell yet that is meant not principally for he was sent also to baptize else he might not have done it And that by vertue of this office we are baptized into the Church Catholike appeares because John Baptist baptized all Jerusalem Judea and the Region round about Jordan And the Disciples of Christ made and baptized more Disciples then John and that without relation to any particular Congregations which had it been necessary they could have combined them into So Peter caused Cornelius and his friends to be baptized Act. 10.48 but no mention is made of any Congregation into which they were baptized And Philip baptized the Eunuch not into any particular Congregation And the Apostles carryed about one with them whom they called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Minister Acts 13.5 who was no Apostle and he baptized for them So Tychicus Col. 4.7 is called a beloved brother and faithfull Minister and fellow-servant in the Lord yet he was none of their Minister and Ephes 6.21 he hath the same stile given him againe certainly he could not be a peculiar Minister to both those distant Churches and I suppose he was of neither Appollos baptized at Corinth 1 Cor. 3.4 and yet was no Apostle but as a Minister and steward of the Mysteries of God as well as they 1 Cor. 4.1 Hence is this distinction of Junius in his Animadversions on Bellaerm cap. 7. nota 7. Alia est electio sive vocatio communis qua vir bonus pius doctus aptus absòlutè eligitur ad ministerium verbi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Alia particularis sive singularis quâ ad ministerium singulariter huic vel illi Ecclesiae praeficiendus eligitur 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And the truth is the Scripture alwayes calling the Beleevers in one Citie one Church even Jerusalem though there were many thousands yea myriads that is many times ten thousands of beleeving Jewes therein as James tels Paul Act. 21.20 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which were all probably of Jerusalem as appeares first because they were not such as could beare any witnesse against Paul but by hear-say they are informed of thee but the Jewes amongst the Gentiles disperst having seen and heard Paul could have testified of their own knowledge and would not be blinded with Pauls present conformity And secondly because they only of Jerusalem could receive satisfaction by Pauls conformity to the Law at Jerusalem at that time and not the others And also the Holy Ghost calling the Elders in those Cities the Elders of the Church in communi it leaveth it uncertaine to me whether the severall Elders were fixed over particular congregations or taught and ruled in communi as the Ministers do now in Middleburgh and Strasburgh and other places yet because it maketh most for edification and order to have them fixed I shall thinke they were untill the contrary shall be proved And I verily beleeve they ruled in communi though haply they did not teach so Seventhly that Church to which every Christian bears first relation and which relation continueth last and cannot be broken by him without sin is the first Church but such is the Church Catholike visible therfore Them nor appeares because none can be admitted into a particular congregation except he be judged first of the Church Catholike so againe though he change his habitation never so often and beare relation to never so many particular congregations one after another yet in all those the generall relation holdeth still he is a baptized visible member of the Church Catholike and therfore to be received where ever he becometh into any particular congregation Yea in the Interim between his breaking off from one congregation and placing in another congregation he retaines the generall relation and baptisme and is not a heathen or infidell he is not one without in the Apostles phrase Yea suppose a man should be a Traveller Merchant or Factour and setled in no particular congregation yet being a Christian he is a member of the Church Catholike yea and if he broach any errours or live inordinately he shall be accountable to the Church wherein he for the present resides or such crimes are committed and be lyable to their censure as being a member of the Church Catholike which appeares in that the Church of Ephesus is commended Rev. 1.2 ☜ for trying strangers that came among them under the notion of Apostles And finding them lyars did not suffer them now prohibition is a censure They are not to be left to the
transient and in flux by the addition and subtraction of the members thereof yet it shall never cease to be visible 5. That if the Church Catholike be contracted into the limits of a particular Congregation yet that hath the notion of the Church Catholike more properly then of a particular Congregation 6. That the Church Catholike is mixt of good and bad as well as particular Congregations are 7. That the Church Catholike is Organicall 8. That the Keyes of Discipline are Catholike as well as of Doctrine 9. That the Promises Priviledges and Ordinances of Worship and Discipline belong primarily to the Church Catholike 10. That the notes and signes of the true Church belong first to the Church Catholike visible and therefore are distinctive to that only 11. That the whole Church Catholike is the primary object of Christs Offices and particulars but as parts thereof Joh. 3.16 12. Though Christ be the only Supreme head and Ruler of his Church yet must it have immediate subordinate rulers over it Ephes 4.11 13. That the Unity of the Church Catholike requireth not a meeting of the whole body together at any time Concerning particular Churches 1. That particular Churches are made up of the members of the Church Catholike 2. That the particular Divisions of the Church Catholike visible for convenient enjoyment of publike Ordinances have the Name Church and the Priviledges thereof by participation as farre as they are capable indulged unto them 3. That particular Churches must be distinguished by particular accidentall limits and circumstances though they be heterogeneall to the Church 4. Many Congregations may be in the same community of Discipline and be ruled by their Elders in communi by co-ordination though not subordination and so be called One Church Nationall Provinciall or Presbyteriall 5. That which belongs primarily to the whole Church as Totum similare and to the least part of the whole as a part thereof belongs much more to a greater part thereof Or thus That which belongs to a little part of a similar body quâ talis belongs to a greater part much more 6. The greater the parts of the Church Catholike be and the more united by co-ordination the stronger they be and the smaller the Divisions be the weaker 7. The Division of the Church Catholike into small parcels to stand alone by themselves without co-ordination is dangerous 8. Yet necessity in regard of distance of place c. may cause a particular Church to be Independent in regard of actuall externall consociation 9. The constituting a particular Church by an explicite Covenant as the essentiall forme thereof implyeth a deniall of all other Churches to be true that are not so constituted because they must want the essentiall forme Concerning the publike Officers of the Church 1. Every Minister is an Officer of the Church Catholike and that relation is primary to him yet the particular relation he stands in to a particular congregation giveth him by the politic of the Church a more immediate charge to administer the Ordinances of God unto them 2. Any single Minister by vertue of his office hath power ministerially to admit a member into the Church Catholike visible 3. Although the Election of a Minister to a particular congregation be an act of liberty in the people yet his mission is from Christ primarily and ministerially by the Presbytery 4. He doth not administer the Ordinances of God in the name of the congregation as their servant but of Christ As a Major in a corporation though chosen by the people yet executeth his office in the Kings name 5. If he administreth any Ordinances out of his own congregation he doth it not as a gifted brother but by vertue of his office 2 Cor. 5.20 6. Although the particular flock over which a Minister was set be dissolved yet he ceaseth not to be a Minister because the Church to which he bare first relation is not dissolved which is the Catholike Concerning private members 1. Particular Converts are first converted into the Church Catholike and secondarily conjoyn'd into particular consociations 2. Every member of a particular Church is a member of the Church Catholike and that relation doth primarily belong unto him 3. Externall profession of the true Faith and subjection to Gods Ordinances is enough to make a man capable of being a member of a visible Church quoad externam formum 4. By Baptisme members are visibly and ministerially admitted into the Church Catholike visible 5. By Excommunication rightly administred an offender is cast out of the Church Catholike visible as much as out of a particular congregation 6. Federall Holinesse belongs to none primarily because borne of members of a particular congregation but of the Church Catholike 7. They that are only in the Church Catholike visible are not Without in the Apostles sense 8. Children of beleeving parents have right to Baptisme though their parents were not members of any particular congregation and are debarred of their due if denyed it 9. Every member of the Church Catholike is or ought to be a member of the particular Church wherein he dwells 10. The being in the generall Covenant gives right to the Ordinances and not any particular neither do we find any mention in Scripture of any particular explicit Covenant either urged or used at the admission of members into a particular congregation or at the constitution of the same 11. The Invisible members of the Church which have internall communion with Christ are also visible members and have externall communion in externall ordinances 12. The departure of a member from a particular congregation and removall to another for convenience or by necessity is no sinne but departing from the Church Catholike and ceasing to be a member thereof is a sinne I know it is not usuall to make uses and application to Theses of this nature and should I enter thereinto I might drowne my selfe in sorrow to bewayle the rents not in Christs seamelesse coate but in his body the Church which Christ preferred in some regards before his naturall body for he assumed his naturall body for their sakes and was willing to suffer that to be buffeted spit on whipped crowned with thornes crucifyed peirced slaine for their sakes yea he was willing to be made sinne yea a curse and to beare his fathers wrath in his humanity for his Churches sake that they might escape and be saved The divisions in the Church are of three sorts in judgement in affection and in way or practise For judgement first come the Romists and they rend away the second commandment then come the Antisabbatarians and they rend away the fourth though placed in the heart of the Decalogue and so extraordinarily fenced by God with a memento before it and so many arguments after it then come the Antinomians and they pluck away the whole law from us denying it both punitive coactive and directive power and so render it wholy dead and useles to Christians
then Whether there be a Church Catholike visible Quest 1. I know that our Divines in answer to the Pontificians doe deny the Church Catholike to be visible as Zanchy Gerard Whitakers Chamier and Ames against Bellarmine and Sadeel against Turrianus But the Pontificians state not the question as I state it and I confesse their assertions of the Church Catholike to be false For First They take visible for conspicuous glorious and manifest specious and flourishing Secondly They hold that the name Catholike Church belongs to one Church viz. The Church of Rome and that being the Church Catholike and comprizing the universality of the Church in it selfe all that will be members of the Church Catholike must submit to them and be members of that Church Thirdly They hold that it is necessary that this visible Catholike Church should be under one visible universall head which they make to be the Pope Christs Vicar Generall and in these regards our Divines doe contradict and confute them But there are passages enough in our Divines writings that may be brought to allow and approve visibility aspectability and unity in all the Churches of the Saints throughout the whole world I will give you a taste but of one of the fore-mentioned for brevity sake and he the most rigid in discipline and exact in Logicall divisions and deductions of any of them and that is Dr Ames who in his Medulla saith Ecclesia nunquam de sinit esse visibilis Which cannot be meant of any particular Church for that may faile Again he saith Congregationes illae particulares sunt quasi partes similares Ecclesiae Catholicae atque adeo nomen naturam ejus participant And further saith Illi qui professione tantum sunt fideles dum remanent in illa societate sunt membra illius Ecclesiae sicut etiam Ecclesiae Catholicae quoad statum externum And in his Bellarminus enervatus he saith Nos fatemur Ecclesiam militantem visibilem esse quoad formam accidentalem externam in suis partibus singulatim conjunctim c. Now though I have set downe these humane testimonies first yet it is not that I meane to leane upon these as my maine proofes but only to shew that our Divines in denying the Popish tenet of a Church Catholike visible in their sence yet all of the fore-mentioned deny it not in my sense if any doe But for proofe that there is a Church Catholike visible I will first give you Scripture and secondly demonstration For Scripture see Acts 8.3 Saul made havock of the Church I shewed you before that this must needs be a visible Church for they could not else be persecuted and certainly Saul could not discerne the invisible company but persecuted promiscuously all that were of that way neither was it a particular Church for this persecution was in Jerusalem and in every Synagogue and to Damascus and even to strange Cities So that by Church here is meant an indefinite number of visible Churches or Congregations which were in no other community but profession of the same faith and an indefinite is equivalent to a generall and by the same reason that the word Church would reach all these Churches it would reach all the Churches in the world The same word there is Galat. 1.13 I persecuted the Church of God and wasted it and yet it is said when he was converted then had the Churches rest throughout all Judea and Galileo and Samaria which yet were but some parts of the Church in the singular number which he persecuted Againe See 1 Cor. 10.32 Give no offence to the Jew nor Gentile nor to the Church of God Where the word Church cannot signifie the elect only nor any one particular Congregation or Kingdome but indefinitely See also 1 Cor. 12.28 God hath set some in the Church first Apostles secondarily Prophets thirdly Teachers The Church there spoken of is not the triumphant Church nor the Invisible Church only for they were visible messengers and some of them but only visible for Judas had obtained part in the Apostleship and Ministry and was sent to preach and work miracles and many Prophets were not of the invisible number for many shall say Lord Lord we have prophecied in thy name and yet shall not be saved But to be sure they were sent to afford the Saints visible communion in ordinances Again This is not meant of the Church Entitive which is a similar and as I may say an homogeniall body every member being equall and of the same capacity as a member but of the Church organicall a Heterogeniall Dissimilar body because here are set downe the officers Neither is here meant a particular Church but all collectively that were within the bounds of the Apostles commission which was the Church in the whole world Goe teach all Nations c. and all the Churches that have Pastors and Teachers over them which all the Churches in the world have or ought to have and yet all these are called but one Church one body vers 20. Now if there be officers of the Church Catholike visible then there is a Church Catholike visible but the Apostles Prophets and Evangelists were officers of the Church Catholike visible for they had no limits and yet are said to be set not in the Churches but in the Church And this is granted by our brethren for Congregationall Churches that they were officers of the Church Catholike and therefore did not baptize into particular Congregations or in refernce to them but into the generall And this Cartwright in his Catechisme granteth concerning the Church Catholike Now certainly they were not officers to the true beleevers only seeing they censured others also Also 1 Tim. 3.15 These things I write unto thee that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thy selfe in the house of God which is the Church of the living God This Church must be a visible Church where he and others must exist and converse together and carry themselves in mutuall duties Now these directions concerned not Ephesus alone or in any speciall manner but all the Churches where ever he should come It is that Church which is the ground and pillar of truth which holdeth it forth unto others more forensi which is the Church Catholike unto which Timothy was an Evangelist Againe It is the Church visible that is so often in the Scripture called the Kingdome * Mark 4 2◠30. Luk. 7.28 of God and the Kingdome †Mat. 13.24 31 33 44 45 47. of Heaven Christ calls them not Kingdomes but the Kingdome and compares this Kingdome to a field of wheate mingled with tares and himselfe expounds it that the field is the world and this must be the Christian world for the other is a field of tares only for vers 41. Mat. 13.41 49. it is said they shall gather out of the Kingdome c. In this field particular Churches are but particular ridges enjoying the
also yet it followes not that there is any such inherent right in every town or family all over the world and that therefore particular towns and familyes in England are debarred of an inherent priviledge belonging to them because necessity may put such an independency on some in an extraordinary case As by Shipwrack or being cast into some Iland not inhabited It is fit that a visible Church Catholike here on earth should Object 3 have a visible head over them that so the body and head may be of the same nature This is the maine argument of the Pontificians for the supremacy of the Pope Answ and that wich made our Divines deny them a Church Catholike visible But to the argument I answer that the Church hath a head of the same nature consisting of body and soule who sometimes lived in this kingdome of grace in the dayes of his flesh and did visibly partake in externall ordinances though indeed now he be ascended into his kingdome of glory yet ceaseth not to be a man as we are though glorifyed and ceaseth not to rule and govern his Church here below for it is an everlasting kingdome Isa 9.7 As when King Iames was translated from Scotland to England and lived here he did not cease to be King of Scotland so neither doth Christ cease to be the head of his Church though he be translated to his other kingdome of glory and as for a vicar or deputy here below it is not needfull We confesse the government of the Church in regard of the head is absolutely monarchicall but in regard of the officers it is Aristocraticall Object 4 Yea but the Church-Catholike cannot be visible because it wanteth a proper existence of its own and existeth only in the existence of particular Churches on the members thereof this objection is somewhat like a former onely there the existence was said to be in the Species here in the members Answ So we may say of every aggregative body A heape of stones existeth only in the existence of particular stones the whole element of water existeth only in particular dropps By this objection you may deny particular visible Churches because they exist not but in particular families and particular families exist not but in particular members but as I said before if the parts do exist the existence of the whole resulteth thereof An army existeth not but in the severall brigades and regiments and they are billeted in distant places and yet having one Generall the same lawes martial the same cause the same enemies though they should never be drawn up together into one body yet are one army So is the Church Catholike one though it never meet bodily because the union is not corporeall but an unity of profession of chief governour of lawes Spirit way and hope Yea the existence of it will the more appeare because it hath priviledges belonging thereunto which particulars have not or but in part and at second hand as shall be shewed in the second question Object 5 But that which you call the Church Catholike visible may by persecutions warres heresies be brought into a very little roome and haply to one congregation or a few persons Answ It is possible yet all the essence Priviledges of the Church Catholike visible are contracted and reserved therein and from them conveyed and derived to those whom they shall convert and so shal dilate it self again And while the Church is but one cōgregation that hath the notion of the Church Catholike more properly then of a particular Church Yea though it be but in one family as it was in the Arke in the dayes of Noah Second Question I come now to handle the predicate of my Question which I may well call a second question and that is Which of these two Churches is Prima and which Orta Before I answer I desire you to remember that the comparison is not between the Invisible and the visible Church but between Churches of the same kinde viz. The Catholike visible and the particular visible Churches And then I answer I conceive the Church Catholike is Prima and the particular Churches are Ortae For First all the names that are in Scripture given unto the Argument 1 Church visible agree primarily to the Church Catholike 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 And for priority of time we know they were given to the people of the Jewes before ever any Congregationall Churches had existence Acts 7.38 The Church in the wildernesse And the Jewes 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 The Citie of God Isai 1.21 Gods vineyard John 15.1 wherein branches in Christ bearing no fruit are cut off * John 10.16 Christs Sheepfold a Matth. 3.12 Barn-floore b Matth. 13.37 38. Drag not Wheat-field Kingdome of Heaven a great house wherein were vessels even of dishonour 2 Tim. 2.20 These names cannot be limited to or impropriated by any particular Congregation but are first true of the whole Church and of every particular Church as a part thereof I must here remember you againe of that saying of Dr Ames in his Medulla Congregationes particulares sunt quasi partes similares Ecclesiae Catholicae atque adeo nomen naturam ejus participant Where he grants the Church Catholike to have the first right to the name and nature of a Church and the particulars only by participation Secondly that is the primary Church to which the Promises Argument 2 and Priviledges of the Church doe primarily belong but the Promises and Priviledges of the Church doe primarily belong to the Church Catholike Therefore c. The minor I prove because the first Evangelicall 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 Nationall or Congregationall Againe the maine commission for gathering the Evangelicall Church was generall Goe teach all nations and baptize them in the Name of the Father Sonne and Holy Ghost And this was before any divisions or subdivisions were appointed and they were secondarily brought in for order and better edification and being parts of the whole receive particular distinction from the places where they lived and other particularities They all retaine the generall forme and essentiall difference from heathens and among themselves as parts of a similar body are distinguished but by accidentall differences And that Promise that the gates of hell shall never prevaile against the Church is primarily given to the Church Catholike visible here on earth for that in Heaven is not assailed by the