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A49800 Politica sacra & civilis, or, A model of civil and ecclesiastical government wherein, besides the positive doctrine concerning state and church in general, are debated the principal controversies of the times concerning the constitution of the state and Church of England, tending to righteousness, truth, and peace / by George Lawson ... Lawson, George, d. 1678. 1689 (1689) Wing L711; ESTC R6996 214,893 484

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it only at the second hand as he himself confesseth I will not examine his many arguments because there is none of them ad idem and to the purpose or point in hand and they all and every one as he misapplies them presuppose an errour For they all should be limited to the Fundamental Power in Constitution but here Power of Constitution and of Administration are confounded as also the power of the Church with the power of Officers section 2 After the examination of all these Titles I proceed to deliver mine own judgment and to make good the Title of my Mother the Church For I believe this to be the truth in this point That the primary subject of the Power of the Keyes is the whole Church For order sake I will. 1. Explain the proposition 2. Confirm the same In the Explication I will inform the Reader 1. What I mean by the power of Keyes 2. What by the whole Church 3. How and in what manner I understand the whole Church to be the primary subject of this power 1. This power is not the power of Civil Soveraigns nor of Officers as Officers Civil or Ecclesiastical in foro exteriori or of Ministers as Ministers nor the Universal Power of Christ nor the Extraordinary power of Apostles or any other Extraordinary Officers but it is an Ordinary power of making Canons of constituting Officers of Jurisdiction and other Acts which are necessary for the outward Government of an Ecclesiastical Community committed unto and conveyed upon the Church by Christ. 2. By the whole Church is not to be understood the Universal Church militant and triumphant nor the whole Church mystical nor the whole Church militant and visible of all times nor of the visible Church of all Nations existent in one time but a whole particular Church visible in some certain place and Vicinity that shall be fit to manage the power of the Keyes independently as the Church of Jerusalem of Antioch of Corinth of Ephesus of Smyrna c. Those who determine the Series or order of appeals to ascend from a Congregation to a Classis from a Classis to a Provincial Synod from a Provincial to a National of one Nation to a National of several Nations or from that unto an Oecomenical or General Council extend the whole Church far further than I do As for the Papal party they presuppose all particular Churches to make but one visible Church not only for Doctrine and Worship but for outward Discipline too and the Church of Rome must be the Mother and Queen of all other Churches in the World yet they differ about the primary subject of the power of the Keyes Some determine the Pope as Peters Successour to be the visible Head and Universal Monarch of this Church Others as the Councils of Constance and Basil Cameracensis Gerson and the faculty of Paris give this power to the whole Church to be exercised in general Councils Mr. Ellis doth charge some of our own who affirmed this power to be in the Universal Church with Popery and Mr. Hooker conceives he hath demonstrated Learned and Judicious Mr. Hudson to be guilty of the same but he is mistaken as since is made evident These two cannot possibly be reconciled whilest they proceed upon contrary principles Mr. Hooker of New-England understands by a visible Church such a Church as is under a form of external Discipline and subject unto one independent Judicatory but neither Mr. Hudson nor others of his mind understand any such thing There is an Universal visible Militant Church on Earth this Church is truly Totum integrale and also an Organical body the Head and Monarch is Christ all Ministers Officers all Believers Subjects the Word and Sacrament priviledges and every Christian either by Birth or Baptism according to Divine Institution is first in order of nature a Member of this Universal or Organical Body before he be a Member of any particular Church or Congregation and is so to be considered And many if not all the places of Scripture alledged by Mr. Hudson are truly understood to speak of this Universal Church though some of them seem to be affirmed only of the Church mystical as such yet so that in divers respects they may agree to both This cannot be Popery neither doth it presuppose any point of Popery or other errour The grand errour of the Papist in this particular is to affirm that one Church particular is above all Churches in the World not only in dignity but in power so that all particular Churches must be subject unto her and her Bishop invested with universal Jurisdiction To subject the Universal Church Militant in one body to Christ can have no affinity with this And to subject every particular Church to the Universal exercising her power in a Representative is no such errour nor so dangerous as that of the Soveraignty of Rome And though there be no such thing because the distance is so great that the Association is impossible yet the Pope and his party did abhor to think of it That Question about visible and invisible is but a toy to this The Church therefore which is the subject of the Question is a Church a particular Church a whole particular Church Yet there is a particular Church primary and secundary primary is the Church considered as a community and a secondary Church by way of Representation The primary is the proper subject of real power the Representative of personal Whether this Church be Congregational or of larger extent shall be examined hereafter 3. Thus you have heard 1. What the power is 2. What the subject is Now 3. We must consider in what manner this power is in this primary subject It s not in it Monarchically nor Aristocratically nor Democratically or any pure way of Disposition but in the whole after the manner of a free State or Polity For there Universi praesunt singulis singuli subduntur universis so it s here All joyntly and the whole doth rule every several person though Officer though Minister though Bishop if there be any such is subject to the whole and to all joyntly And in this Model the power is derived from the whole to the parts not from the parts to the whole though this Community should consist of ten thousand Congregations This power is exercised in the highest degree by a Representative general in an inferiour degree by Officers or inferiour Assemblies Upon this principle though in another manner the Councils of Basil and Constance did proceed against the Pope as being but a part though an eminent part as the times were then of the Church Yet this proposition is not so to be understood as though this Church were the first Fountain and Original of this power for she is not she derives and receives it from Christ as Christ from God. But she is the primary subject in respect of her parts and members section 3 For the confirmation of this