precious in more Nations than One. A Discussion c. Or A DISPUTE Upon these Two Questions Question I. WHether a Pastor of the Church at Corinth may Administer the Lord's Supper in the Church at Cenchrea Question II. Whether may a Member of the Church at Cenchrea partake of the Lord's Supper administred there by a Pastor of the Church at Corinth himself not being clear whether this act of the Pastor of the Church at Corinth be not unwarrantable Answer I conceive neither the one nor the other to be according to the Rule but both the administration of the Pastor of Corinth in the Church of Cenchrea and the communicating of such a Member of the Church of Cenchrea in the Supper so administred there to be sinful I shall first enquire into the lawfulness of the Pastor of Corinth's Administration of the Supper in the Church of Cenchrea There are Three Points the Consideration whereof will not be impertinent for the clearing of the presert Case viz. I. Concerning Office and Office-Power in the Church II. Concerning Communion of Churches III. Concerning the strict invariableness of the Rule given by Christ to his Churches about all the affairs and walking thereof and the indispensible obligation that lies upon them in no Case to swerve therefrom POINT I. Touching Church-Office and Power To be an Officer in the Church is to be Christ's Substitute and in his Stead not only by the Dispensation and Disposal of Providence but by a special Constitution and Commission from Christ in the way of an Instituted Ordinance It is I say to be the Substitute and in the stead of Christ unto the Church for such things as are within the Officer's Commission Hence Office and Office-power is not a thing of a simple absolute Nature and thence is not an indelible Character imprinted on him that is an Officer which he carries ingraven on him go he where he will This is a Mysterious nothing devis'd and much argued about by the idle and curious Brains of those that reaped Profit by the Fiction But it is a Spiritual Relation to which the Institution of Christ gives a Being and a Right Authority or Power correspondent thereunto And hence it hath a double Object by which it is limited and terminated namely the Church and the Acts proper to the Office First The Officer as an Officer is a correlate to that Church over which the Holy Ghost hath set him but beyond that Church his relation as an Officer extendeth not at all to others over which the Holy Ghost hath not set him The nature of Relates is such as that they mutually give and receive Being from each other and thence the one is not a Relate but with reference to the other And hence remove that Reference and you take away its being and consequently cut off and intercept all its Operations as such for that which hath no Being can put forth no Operation Hence it follows That the Officer of a Church hath no being as an Officer but in the Church and wholly with reference to it The Language of the Holy Ghost concerning ordinary Officers is constantly such as holds forth this They are said to be set in the Flock Acts 20.28 And they are to look to the whole Flock that they have relation to as Officers All the Flock ibid. So Heb. 13.7 17. Your Guides your Rulers not others that have rule over you not over others Both the Officer's power and person as an Officer relate to that particular Flock or Church in which the Holy Chost hath set him Even as the Eye or the like Organ in the Body which is both a Member and an Organ that hath a particular Office in the Body whereof it is a Member but hath neither Membership nor Office out of its own body in another The Eye in Socrates's Head hath no Office nor is it a Member in Plato's Head nor can it see there And thence as the Body may possibly be without the Eyes but then it is so far an un-organized body yet the Eye hath no subsistence as an Organ much less any action out of the Body So we read of Churches that sometimes were without Officers Acts 14.23 but never of ordinary Officers without Churches or that put forth any act of Office save in those particular Churches in which they were both Members and Officers For Office in the Church is super-induced and ingrafted as I may say upon Membership Rom. 12.4 and thence my Office-Relation and Power cannot be extended to others than my Member-Relation toucheth and claspeth hold upon But the Pastor of the Church of Corinth is no Fellow-Member with the Members of any Church but that at Corinth for by them only can he be Censured Secondly office-Office-power corresponds to the Relation and is limited according to it as to the acts in which as well as the persons over whom it is to be exerted A Pastor of a Church hath no Authority at all by virtue of that his Office to Fine or Imprison or the like These are acts of Civil Authority his is spiritual for such is his relation and thence his power is limited to spiritual acts Therefore to imagine Office power where there is no Office Relation or to allow acts of Office and yet to deny office-Office-power is to build Castles in the Air and frame an imagination that overthrows it self Again All Church Offices are alike as to the extent of their power for their power ariseth from their Office-relation to the Church therefore one Officer is related to no more Churches than another he hath no more Office-power in other Churches than another Officer hath The Deacon of the Church at Corinth is related as Deacon to that Church and none else but that Even so is the Pastor The difference between the Offices of the Church lieth not at all in the extent of one to other persons more than the other but in the different work that the different Officers have alotted to them with respect to the same persons The Ruler is to attend with diligence to the Rule of the same Persons or Church and the Deacon to receive and faithfully dispose the Temporal things committed to him of the same Church that the Pastor is to administer a Word of Wisdom to and the Teacher a Word of Knowledge The Scripture no where gives any the least intimation of a Difference between them in this regard To issue this Point about Church-Office The whole of the power of Office is of equal extent with any one part thereof as to the Persons over whom it is to be exercised If Archippus may put forth one act of his Office to all the Church at Coloss or to other person besides he may also put forth other acts If he may as a Pastor feed all or any with a Word of Wisdom none of those who are under his Charge for that may be exempted from under his power as to Rule If he may rule more Churches
than one he may administer the Lord's Supper to more than one If the Lord Jesus hath put the Church of Cenchrea in the Commission of the Pastor of the Church of Corinth for one act proper to his Office he hath also for all other Office-acts Yea and then all the Churches of Achaia are no more exempted than the Church of Cenchrea And where we shall stop I know not till we have made him an Vniversal Pastor or Bishop Oecumenical and so set him up to justle with the Old Gentleman at Rome who of the two hath the better Title to it having both Phocas his Grant and actual possession some Years above a Thousand Of the foregoing Premises before I pass on to the Second Point to be considered I shall make a double Improvement I. Briefly deduce some Arguments concluding the Question II. Return an Answer to some Objections First Some Arguments concluding the Question Argument I. That comes first to Hand which was last touched upon The Pastor of the Church at Corinth may not administer the Lord's Supper where he may not Rule or Govern But he may not Govern in the Church of Cenchrea And therefore not administer the Supper there I know no colour for it in the Word That in administring the Lord's Supper Archippus should be Christ's Substitute and in Christ's stead to the Church of Cenchrea but in nothing else In all other matters pertaining to Office-power having no Authority over them from Christ If he be Commissioned and Deputed from Christ for the one he is and must be also for the other Argum. II. Where he may not put forth the power of a Member he may not put forth the power of an Officer But in the Church of Cenchrea the Pastor of the Church of Corinth may not put forth the power of a Member Suppose in Voting Judging Admitting Calling an Officer or the like It seems unreasonable and incongruous that where he is not subject as a Member he should have the Priviledge to exert the power of a Member And if not the power of a Member much less the power of an Officer But in Administring the Lord's Supper he puts forth the power of an Officer doing that which none but an Officer may do Arg. III. Ruling Elders may as lawfully and with as much Right put forth the acts of their Office as a Pastor do any acts of his Office in other Churches besides that to which they have special Office-Relation for they are both set in the body alike he that ruleth and he that Exhorteth Rom. 12. But the Ruling-Elders of Corinth may not rule over the Church of Cenchrea and therefore neither may the Pastor of Corinth administer the Lord's Supper there Arg. IV. Where a Man hath no Office-power he may do no Office-acts He is else a Busie-body 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Pet. 4.15 There is such a necessary and innate alliance and connexion between Office power and Office acts as that the latter cannot be orderly put forth but by virtue of the former But the Pastor of the Church of Corinth hath no Office power in the Church of Cenchrea for he is none of their Officer for he was never Called or Chosen by them they never submitted themselves to him the Holy Ghost never set him over them None but Members in Cenchrea can have any Office there Rom. 12.4 'T is only Members that have any Office so we render it the Greek Word signifies also action or operation in the Body But the Pastor of the Church of Corinth is no Member in the Church of Cenchrea He is no more a Member there than any other Member is for the Pastor's Membership and a private Members Membership are not at all different The Members of Corinth are not Members in Cenchrea for the Members make up the whole contributing and containing in them all the essential causes viz. both matter and form of the whole If therefore the Members of the one were Members of the other the Churches must be both one and not two distinct Churches And then when Sardis is dead and Laodicea luke-warm Philadelphia is so too If the Limbs and Members of Alexander be the Members of Aristotle when Alexander rides Aristotle is in the Saddle too The Pastor therefore of Corinth is no Member in Cenchrea and if no Member no Officer and if no Officer he hath no office-Office-power and therefore may do no office-Office-act there such as administring the Lord's Supper is Arg. V. If the Pastor of the Church of Corinth may administer the Lord's Supper in the Church of Cenchrea he hath a right or authority to do it If he have Authority to do it he may require the Church to receive it at his hands and the Church may not refuse it Yea and this though the proper Pastor of Cenchrea were living and present with them For the Death or Absence of the Pastor of the Church of Cenchrea gives the Pastor of the Church of Corinth no more power or right in the Church of Cenchrea than he had before Right to put forth an act of Office and Authority to require submission to that act are inseparable He that may grant a Warrant hath Authority to require Obedience to it The Church of Cenchrea may refuse ever to receive the Supper administred by the Pastor or the Church of Corinth and not sin in so doing and therefore he hath no Authority to require it And if no Authority to require their receiving he hath no right himself to administer it to them For Right to Administer supposeth him to be Christ's Substitute Commissioned from him for such Administration But to be Christ's Substitute Commissioned by him must needs infer an Authority and Power to require in Christ's Name attendance upon such an Administration whereto he is by Christ Commissioned Arg. VI. Without Power given him from Christ the Pastor of the Church of Corinth may not administer the Supper in the Church of Cenchrea For no Man should bless and separate the Elements so as from Common to make them Sacramental unless he have Power or Authority given him from Christ so to do for whatever is done of this kind must be done in the Name of Christ whose Work alone it is by his poor Minister as his Substitute and Instrument to produce and really effect that Special Union which there truly is in the Sacrament between the Elements and his Body and Bloud Christ doth not now separate and bless the Bread and Wine amongst us immediately in his own Person If it be done therefore it should be done by one that is Christ's substitute and Commissioned by him thereunto If therefore a Man have not Commission and Authority from Christ to do it he may not do it But the Pastor of the Church of Corinth hath no Power or Authority given him from Christ to administer the Supper in the Church of Cenchrea He can have none from Christ but what he hath by the Church but he hath
none by the Church and therefore none from Christ He hath none by the Church of Corinth for they can give him no power for any action in another Church He hath none by the Church of Cenchrea for they do not Call him to Office amongst them And therefore he hath none at all for these are the two only Churches from whom any thing can be pretended in this Case Arg. VII If he may Administer the Supper to and in the Church of Cenchrea he must also fulfil his Ministry towards that Church in all the other acts of his Ministry wherein the Church needs his help For right to administer the Supper supposeth Office but Office-relation inferreth Office-Bonds Office being not a Power or Licence only but carrying in it a Charge Command and Duty But it is evident the Pastor of the Church of Corinth is not bound to fulfil his Ministry towards the Church of Cenchrea he is not bound to Watch there Rule there Guide there Labour in the Word and Doctrine there The other Officers of the Church of Corinth are bound to fulfil their Offices in doing the respective work thereof to the Church of Cenchrea as much as the Pastor and both they and he are as well bound to the other Churches in Achaia as to that at Cenchrea Arg. VIII If this administring the Supper in the Church of Cenchrea by the Pastor of the Church of Corinth be Lawful and Warrantable I demand What is it that makes it so It is plain he doth a special act which none but Persons impower'd and priviledged thereto may do such special acts must have something for the ground of them indeed all acts must else they are unlawful But there is nothing that can impower the Pastor of the Church of Corinth for thus acting in the Church of Cenchrea It must be either his Gifts or his Grace or his Election or his Ordination But none of these can give him power to administer the Lord's Supper in Cenchrea Not his Gifts nor Grace For then a Non-Officer might do it Grace gives ability only to do a thing acceptably to God as to the inward frame of the heart with which it is done not any right to do lawfully any external act which otherwife might not be done Gifts only furnish with ability for doing such a thing whereto the Gifts are suited unto others Edification but confer not a Right or Authority whereby it may lawfully be done for then every one that hath equal Gifts must have equal Authority Neither Gifts nor Grace make a Man Christ's Substitute to bless and sanctifie Elements in his Name and make them Sacramental Signs of Christ and his Benefits Private Members yea Women have both Gifts and Grace yet are not Christ's Substitutes for such an Administration Not his Election The Church that chooseth him chooseth him only for themselves not for other Churches to be in Christ's stead amongst them not amongst others For Christ hath not given them power to confer such power on any Man with respect to any others than themselves But each Church is betrusted with it by the Lord Christ for it self The Church of Corinth cannot subject the Church of Cenchrea to their Pastor and therefore cannot give him either Office power or power for any Office act in the Church of Cenchrea they may as well make him an Universal Pastor over all the Churches in the whole World Not his Ordination For this presupposeth is grounded upon and relates wholly to his Election and thence gives not power of a larger extent than he was called to in his Election He is Ordained to no other than he was Chosen to and therefore if in his Election he be not Chosen to act as an Officer in other Churches his Ordination impowers him not at all thereunto He is not Chosen to one thing and Ordained to another Ordination be it a Solemn investiture of him with Office-power or be it a Solemn Separation of him with supposed due Rites and in due manner to his Work yet it so necessarily and wholly relates to his Election that he can receive no power thereby of larger extent than in his Election he was called unto In sum therefore If neither his Gifts nor Grace nor Election nor Ordination be a just and sufficient ground for the Pastor of the Church of Corinth his administring the Lord's Supper in the Church of Cenchrea there is no sufficient ground at all for it But in none of these is there a sufficient ground for it therefore there is none at all As to what may be pleaded by vertue of Communion of Churches it shall be considered in the next Point This shall serve for Arguments concluding the Question There are some Objections that may receive their Answer from the Premises and these come next to be considered Obj. 1. He is a Pastor every where and abides still vested with that Relation and the Authority of it even when he is in Cenchrea and not only when he is acting as a Pastor in Corinth 'T is not with a Church-Officer as with the Elements in the Sacraments which remain Sacred and Sacramental only while they are using in that Ordinance but afterwards and out of that use what is left of the Bread or Wine is common Ans True he doth abide clothed with the Office of a Pastor even while he is at Cenchrea even as the Lord Mayor of London abides Lord Mayor though he go into Westminster yet he can put forth none of his power as Mayor whilst he is there So is the Pastor of the Church of Corinth limited in the acts of his Office as to the object of it unto the particular Church of Corinth Elsewhere and unto others he is but as a Private Person as to any office-Office-Authority or Power As a Father abides a Father when he is in another Man's House yet hath no Paternal Authority over any Children but his own Yea I will grant further that the Pastor of the Church of Corinth is to be honoured with singular esteem by the Church of Cenchrea not only for his eminent excelling in spiritual Gifts and Grace but also because the Lord Jesus hath put honour upon him in calling him to such a place and vesting him with such an Office in one of his Churches Nay I will moreover yield the Pastor of the Church of Corinth to be an Ordinance of God for good to all the Members of the Church of Cenchrea So indeed he is in his feeding of the Church of Corinth with a Word of Wisdom to all the Inhabitants of that City being a Vessel that carries precious Treasure and holds forth unto all that hear his Preaching the Word of Life And so is the Church it self of Corinth it being the Pillar of Truth and an Ordinance provided and set up on purpose by the great God in the dark World for this very end to display his manifold Wisdom in the Gospel and direct the lost Sons of Men
Cor. 8.1 2 3. 4. If the Church of Cenchrea through extream Poverty cannot of themselves provide a Pastor of their own the Lord hath not left them without direction and relief in this case In which they ought both to search the Word themselves and also to consult other Churches whose Duty it is not only to hold forth Light to a Sister-Church in the dark but also to yield forth outward Supplies to a Sister-Church in distress which is a lovely exercise and fruit of mutual Charity and Communion between Sifter-Churches and that which hath unquestionable Warrant in the Word whereas this of borrowing and lending an Officer to do a Cast of his Office in another Church besides his own is a thing unheard of in the Scripture and never practised by the Primitive Churches under the Apostles direction Obj. 3. Difficult times produce unusual Cases and Extremities and that which in an ordinary case would not be lawful is allowable in such Cases and Times Answ 1. Difficult times do indeed produce unusual afflictions on Churches and make their Temptation to depart from the the Rule so much the greater yea too too often cause breaches and miscarriages amongst them But no difficulty or severity of the Times can alter the Rule given by Christ unto his Churches 2. The Primitive Churches of the New Testament were under as much difficulty as any Churches in this Land can pretend to be in yet they kept close to the Rule nor do we find in them any such practice as this nor any thing that may countenance it in the Sacred Records concerning them 3. Difficulty of the Times calls indeed for the exercise of suitable Graces and also of Prudence But Prudence hath its scope only in such things in Church-Worship as are no part of the Worship but only circumstances thereof related to Worship not as it is Worship but as an action performed by Men all whose actings must have time and place for them And thence the things wherein Prudence may interpose to vary are such things about which there is no positive Divine Institution When Place and Time come under an Institution as for Example the Temple and their Feasts under the Old Testament and the First Day of the Week in the New there Prudence may not alter them nor may we on such an account swerve from the Rule for they become Parts of Worship 4. The Administrator of the Supper is more than a common circumstance of the Worship performed in that Ordinance For he sanctifies the Elements as the Temple or Altar did their Sacrifices and Gifts being the Substitute of Christ in the administration of that Ordinance appointed thereunto by the institution of the Lord. And of this there seems to be an acknowledgment and sense in the practice pleaded against in this Dispute For why else doth the Church of Cenchrea seek fot the Officer of the Church of Corinth and not take any of their own private Members for this work 5. 'T is most true Affirmative Commands do not bind us to be always actually fulfilling of them yet Negative Commands restrain us at all times from transgressing of them And therefore tho the Church be not bound to be every day celebrating the Lord's Supper yet they are bound when-ever they do do celebrate it to do it in no other manner than according to the Rule given them by Christ the Lord whose Rule is that their own and not another Churches Officer administer it amongst them I shall add no more on this Question only that I know not that I am singular in any thing that I have written sure I am that in the sum and main of the case I have the generality of the Ministers and Churches of the Congregational Persuasion concurring with me As an evidence thereof let me direct to one Testimony and transcribe another not doubting but had I my Books and Papers about me I could easily add many more The first Testimony is Dr. Owen in his Brief Instruction in the Worship of God c. by way of Question and Answer Quest 26. page 118 119 120 121 122 123. Where he is most express against it and gives sundry Arguments to confirm his Judgment The other Testimony is of all the Officers and Messengers of the Congregational Churches in the Declaration of their Faith and Order agreed on and Published Anno 1658. The 16th Proposition concerning the Institution of Churches c. runs thus A Church furnished with Officers according to the mind of Christ hath full power to administer all his Ordinances and where there is want of any one or more Officers required that Officer or those which are in the Church may administer all the Ordinances proper to their particular Duty and Offices But where there are no Teaching Officers none may administer the Seals nor can the Church authorize any so to do QUESTION II. May a Member of the Church at Cenchrea partake of the Lord's Supper administred there by the Pastor of the Church of Corinth especially himself not being clear whether the practice of the Pastor of Corinth in this particular be Warrantable Ans No Whether lie be satisfied or scrupulous about the Warrantableness of the act of the Pastor of Cornith he may not participate of the Lord's Supper administred by him in the Church of Cenchrea 1. There is such a near alliance and necessary connexion by the appointment of God between the person administring and the orderly administration of this Ordinance that I cannot partake of it but I contract upon my self the guilt of his unlawful administration If a Justice of the Peace in Middlesex send out his Warrant to fetch me before him in Essex and it being there served upon me I submit to it and suffer my self to be carried before him by vertue of it I become hereby guilty of compliance with his arrogating Authority which the King hath not given him So it is in this case and the reason thereof is that necessary connexion which there is in both cases between the act that is done and the person 's rightful authority that doth it 2. My communicating evidently holds forth an approbation of his power or right to administer And so it is a Sin against that Charity which I owe to him for I confirm and strengthen him in that his Error It is also a Sin against the Charity that I owe to the Church by a nearer and special Bond being in Fellowship with them and one of them for this my communicating doth also incourage them in the Error of their way It is true indeed if his acting were such as might be lawfully done by him and desired by them on some other grounds then tho the true and justifying grounds of it were mistaken both by them and him then I say my bare Presence and communicating with them could not be justly interpreted as a sinful incouraging of them but there being no ground that renders his act lawful the case is otherwise Obj. But sundry holy Saints have experienced the gracious presence of Christ speaking peace and Strengthening their Faith and Grace in the Lord's Supper so administred and therefore it is his Ordinance and rightly administred and I may communicate in it Answ 1. Tho the error of the Administration argued against in these Papers should not be so deep as to make it no Ordinance of Christ yet it may be such and doubtless is as to make my communicating therein unlawful The Cross joined to Baptism doth not make it Null yet it makes it unlawful for me to receive it so administred Kneeling at the Supper destroys it not from being Christ's Ordinance yet makes it unlawful for me to receive the Supper at all if I cannot receive it otherwise than Kneeling In the case under debate neither the lawfulness of the Pastor of Corinth's administring in Cenchrea nor the lawfulness of a Member of Cenchrea's communicating in the Supper so administred can be made good tho it should be granted to remain Christ's Ordinance notwithstanding the Error that is in the Administration 2. Christ may be experienced graciously present to a Believer's Soul in an administration which it is not lawful for the Believer to partake of yea which indeed is no Ordinance of Christ Doubtless many good Souls who in former Times have through infirmity and want of Light conscientiously used Common-Prayer or observed the Holy-days have had experience of special and sweet communion with Christ both in the one and in the other yet neither are Christ's Ordinance nor will thit Experience warrant the lawfulness of the use and observation on thereof For the Lord therein had not any respect to the one or the other as any Ordinance of his but of his great Goodness over-look'd the infirmity and accepted the sincerity of his Servants having respect to the Graces in their Hearts that were stirred up and awakened to exercise by the apprehension thoa mistaken one of an Ordinance of his He being so abundant in Goodness and Truth that he oftentimes does that for us in a way of Grace which we could not challenge from him by vertue of any express Promise of his He then by the greatness of our Error magnifying his own Grace the more 3. The design of these Papers is not to bereave any of their precious Experiences nor call them in Question yet we should not build more on them than they will bear but to lave us from an Error in Opinion and Practice of a very sad aspect and evil consequences if it should once sind general entertainment in the Churches But I had rather leave them to the Reader 's own Thoughts than put my self to the trouble of declaring them FINIS Books Newly Printed for Nath. Hiller at the Princes Arms in Leaden-Hall Street over against St. Mary Ar. THE Divine Institution of Congregational Churches Ministry and Ordinances Asserted and Proved from the Word of God To which is added A Discourse concerning Unction and Washing of Feet Proving That they be not Instituted Sacraments or Ordinances in the Churches Both by Haac Chauncy M.A. Pietas in Patriam The Life of his Excellency Sir William Phips Knt. Late Captain General and Governour of New-England Containing the Memorable Changes undergone and Actions performed by him