if that holy men of God M. Hooker were alive I doubt not but he would passe the same judgement upon this Book which he did upon the former The truth is The Question is full of difficulty and intricacy the path in which he walks is an untrodden path and the pains which he hath taken in the compiling of this work and the learning which he hath discovered herein is so great as I am very confident That whosoever reades the Book will commend the Authour and his abilities though he should not in every thing resent his opinion The Scope of the Book is to contend for the extents and rights of Christs political Kingdom in his Church upon earth and to demonstrate the unity of it and thereby to lay a foundation of unity between particular Churches which is as necessary for the preservation of them as purity and verity For a Church divided against it self cannot stand Sad it is to consider That whereas Jesus Christ hath left two waies for the uniting of Christians in faith and love the devil should make use of both of them to disunite and divide us The first is The Sacrament of the Lords Supper which was instituted to be a Feast of Love and a Band of Vnion between Christians but by Satans cunning it hath proved an apple of strife and of great contention not only between the Papists and the Protestants the Lutherans and the Calvinists but between us also and our dissenting brethren The second is The Government of the Church which was ordained by Christ to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and as a golden chain to link them together in purity verity and unity to heal breaches and to make us minde the same things and to be perfectly joyned together in the same minde and in the same judgement But by the devils policy whose property it is to bring evil out of good it is become the great bone of contention and a middle wall of partition between Christians and Christians This is a lamentation and shall be for a lamentation But my comfort is That Jesus Christ came into the world to remove the wall of partition that was between Jew and Gentile and to make both one and he is not only a foundation 〈…〉 his people to build their faith and hope upon but also a corner stone to unite beleevers one to another He it is that will shortly remove all these Wals of partition between brethren and will become not only our Redeemer but our Peace-maker For he hath praied for all those that should beleeve in him That they may be one as thou Father art in me Joh. 17.21 22 and I in thee that they also may be one with us that the â—â—â—â—ld may beleeve that thou hast sent me And the glory which thou hast given me I have given them that they may be one even as we are one This Praier will in due time be fulfilled together with those three soul-comforting Prophecies concerning the times of the New Testament Ier. 32.39 Zeph. 3.9 Zach. 14.9 In the mean time it is our duty to study unity as well as purity To this the Apostle exhorts us with great earnestnesse and affection 1 Cor. 1.10 Phil. 2.1.2 3. Eph. 4.3 4 5 6. This the present times call for with a loud voice And this shall be the care and praier of Your unworthy servant in the work of the Ministry EDMUND CALAMY Errata PAge 10. line 16. for priatively reade privatively p. 14. l. 36. for vale e quantums valeat quantum p. 1â— l. 24. for Foance r. France p. 18. l. 5. for Catechism r. Doctrine of the Church correct the like fault p. 7. l. 10. p. 18. l. 37. put a â—â—ddlepoint after these words Members for your part p. 29. l. 5. blot 〈…〉 â—at aliquid significat p 545 l. 34. for or r. for p. 59. l. 31. for visibly r. visible p. 7â— l. 5. blot out not p. 73. l. 32. blot out there p. 74. l. 11. is consisted r. consisteth p. 87. l. 13. for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p 91. l 4. for for a particular r. of a particular p. 103. l. 34. for set p. 107. l. 18. for chough r. though p. 127. l. 5. for it r. is l. 16. for integrals r. integral p. 136. l. 17. for as well as r. as well as p. 144. l. 20. for to what r. in what p 163. l. 31. for presbyterio r. presbyterio p. 168. l. 5. for no more it is r. no more then it is p. 176. l. 6. for pâ—stors r. pastors p. 191. l. 16. for and Israel r. in Israel p. 194. l. 1â— for diutâ—s r. diuitâ—s p. 201. l. 14. for good r. goods p. 231. l. 1. for Christ r. Christian p. 238. l. 13. for primally r. primarily p. 260. l. 2. for folds r. fields p. 262. l. 5. for two men r. two women This Leaf being forgotten to be inserted in the former part of this Thesis it was thought fit to adde it here M. Norton a reverend Minister in N. E. in his Treatise of the Doctrine of Godlinesse printed since his answer to Apollonius defineth the Church-Catholike to be the number of the elect and redeemed whom God hath called out of the world unto a supernatural estate and communion of grace and glory with himself in Jesus Christ And affirms that there is but one Catholike Church because there is but one faith And then comes to distinguish this Catholike Church in respect of its adjuncts into invisible and visible And then defines a visible Church to be a similar part of the Catholike Church consisting of a competent number knit together by way of visible Covenant to exercise an holy communion with God in Christ and so one with another according to the order of the Gospel And then distinguisheth this visible Church into pure and impure impure into 3. branches viz. Simply erring Schismatical Heretical And then makes the matter of this visible Church to be Saints i. e. visible beleevers From whence we have these concessions 1. That there is a Church-Catholike which is but one 2. That this Church Catholike is visible yea let me adde further out of his answer to Apollonius Politica visibilitas est adjunctum respectu Ecclesiae Catholicae pag. 87. i. e. political visibility is an adjunct in respect of the Church-Catholike 3. That this Church-Catholike is an integral 4. That the particular Churches are similar parts of that integral 5. That these particular Churches consist of visible beleevers which as himself in his answer to Apollonius confesseth are not all Saints in truth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but many of them only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in appearance 6. That some of these visible Churches may be impure not only simply erring but schismatical yea heretical But saving my honourable respect to so worthy a man I cannot see how these things are consistent with his definition of the Church-Catholike for how can the
the particular Congregation but into the whole visible body and into the general Covenant not into any particular Covenant 8. If there be an external Catholike union of fraternity between all visible Christians in the whole world there is one external visible Catholike Church But there is one external Catholike union of fraternity between all visible Christians in the whole world Therefore c. The consequence of the major appears because this fraternal union ariseth from the unity of the Church which is constituted by one Covenant into which they are all entred visibly They are not made brethren by being invisible believers only or in the same respect for then only invisible believers were brethren in the Scripture sense If any one that is called a brother be a drunkard railer extortioner c. 1 Corinth 5.11 Now few true believers are fornicators idolaters drunkards therefore this brotherhood is in regard of a visible profession and membership The minor appears because whereever the Apostles came if they found any visible believers they are said to finde brethren Act. 28.14 And it is the most usual term that the Christians were called by both in the Acts of the Apostles and in the Epistles not because they were of one particular Congregation but because of the Church-Catholike which are also called the houshold of faith Doe good unto all i. e. though heathens but especially to the houshold of faith Gal. 6.10 The houshold is commmensurable to the entertainment of the faith Not the invisible members only for they could not be known as such but all the visible members 9. If the same individual systeme or body of external laws under one command whereby all Churches equally should walk and be governed be Catholike then the Church is Catholike But there is the same individual systeme or body of external laws under one command whereby c. Therefore c. The major is proved by evidence of reason and experience of all bodies politick The minor is undeniable For the same individual systeme expressed in the Gospel totidem verbis governs and guides the whole Catholike Church It cannot be said the same in kinde only but the same for matter manner end method and expresse words unlesse we can say the several copies are several species and then we in England have so many species of laws as there be copies printed of our laws Neither is it the law written in the heart and put in the inward parts but the external systeme given to the Church as a body politick Neither is it the moral law quâ moral but that in the hand of a Mediatour with other positive laws added thereto Neither is this subjection unto these external laws arbitrary by the concurrent consent of divers Churches out of custome or because of the equity and conveniency of them vi materiae as divers Kingdoms now use the civil laws or for intercourse with forreign Churches but by vertue of the command of the authour of them Neither have particular Churches any municipal laws divine of their own superadded to distinguish them as England and Scotland have but are wholly ruled by this Catholike systeme 10. If there be a Catholike external communion intercourse and communication between all the members and in all the particular Churches in the world in worship doctrine and sign or seal of confirmation nutrition or commemoration of the same redemption visibly wrought by the same visible Saviour then all those members or Churches having this external communion intercourse and communication are one Catholike Church But there is such a communion c. Therefore c. The consequence appears because communion ariseth from membership there is an union presumed before there can be a communion admitted especially in the Lords Supâ—er which is a seal and if an union then a membership for thereby they are made of the body and if the communion be visible and external then so is the union from whence it floweth for qualis effectus talis est causa And though there may be an admittance of a heathen to be present at the word singing praier yet it is not an admittance into fellowship for then we should have spiritual fellowship with idolaters they may come and see what fellowship Christians enjoy with Christ and one with another but they are not admitted into that fellowship while heathens and idolaters but after conversion professed subjection and believing After the 3000. were converted by Peter and were baptized they continued stedfastly in the Apostles doctrine and fellowship and in breaking of bread and praier Act. 2.41 42. And yet were not of one particular Church not as our brethren themselves tell us as I shewed before therefore as members in general And nothing is more usual then for members of one Congregation to joyn in the fellowship of the word read and preached in singing and prayer with members of divers Congregations together as at lectures or other occasions and frequently also at the Lords table even among our brethren in New-England members of far distant Congregations do communicate occasionally Also all the visible Churches on earth pray publikely and give thanks and on occasion may fast for the welfare of the whole Church on earth As for the evasion which some of our brethren have that this communion of strangers with them is by vertue of a particular present transient membership with them I conceive it of no force nor warranted in the word of God Then should those men be members of two Churches at once then ought they to contribute to that Minister then ought that Minister to take the charge of them then by some of our brethrens positions should the whole Congregation have a hand in their admission Also if there be any Ecclesiastical admissions or censures or transactions or contributions that concern that particular Congregation they also ought being members to have their vote and consent and hand therein And then by the same reason all that came to a lecture which is a Church-fellowship in divine Ordinances of singing praier preaching and blessing the people must so many times turn members of that Congregation where such a meeting is And then is it a dangerous thing to hear a lecture in a Congregation where the Minister or people are corrupt for we thereby make our selves members of that Congregation and so put our selves under that Pastour and those Elders for the present and thereby give our allowance of them It is not a subâ—tane occasional meeting that can make a person a member of a Congregation but constancy quoad intentionem saltem saith Ames in medulâ—a lib. 1. cap. 32. Sect. 21. And for communion of Churches I shall speak of it afterward And by this that hath been said I suppose the minor is cleared also 11. If the censure of excommunication of a person in one Congregation cuts him off from the Church-Catholike visible in regard of communion which formerly he had right unto then is there a
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
Section 3. Concerning Synods 158 The authours that handle this subject The nature kindes and authority of Synods 159 Section 4. A threefold power of Synods Dogmatical Diatactical Critical 160 A ground of a Synod in Scripture acknowledged by our Protestant Divines 161 The Synod Act. 15. exerted all those three kindes of power 162 Section 5. About the equality of power of single Congregations 163 Their subordination to the combined 164 This subordination is also a coordination Scripture-proofs for this subordination And reasons for it 165 The like subordination found in the Jewish Church And is dictated by light of nature and common to all societies Section 6. Divers Objections answered As 166 Obj. Then there must be 2. kindes of Presbyteries Then every particular Minister hath a very transcendent power and authority 167 Then they are standing-Officers of the Christian world 168 Then they are Christs Vicars general 169 Section 7. Then the Church of the whole world should choose every Officer 170 Divers exceptions of M. Ellis's 171 Section 8. Then the whole is to honour and contribute to the maintenance of of every Minister 173 Then the Ministers perform not their whole office to the Congregation that maintains them 174 This will be too great a burthen for Ministers to meddle in the affairs of many Congregations Then Ministers exercise rule where they do not ordinarily preach so the keys should not be commensurable 175 Section 9. This was a grand objection formerly against the Bishops that they ruled where they preached not 176 Then great and stubborn persons will never be brought to censure This will occasion much trouble and charge to the partie grieved Synods are in danger of erring as well as particular memberships 177 Section 10. The liberty of appeals proved But why then should Christ let his Church want general Councels so long 178 But how then dare particular Churches abrogate the decrees of general Councels 179 Chapter 8. An answer to M. Ellis's Prejudices Probabilities and Demonstrations against an universal visible and as he cals it governing but should have said organical Church And his wrong stating of the Question rectified 180. Section 1. What M. Ellis denyeth to be the question 1. He saith it is not meant of the essential onenesse Answ But this is meant and is the foundation of the other 2 It is not saith he meant of engagement to mutual care one of another 182 Answ Not amicitial or fraternal only but authoritative the greater part to regulate the lesse 3 Nor is it meant saith he of a voluntary association as occasion requires for mutual assistance Answ Their association though it be necessary yet it is voluntary but not arbitrary 4 Nor is it meant saith he whether all or most Churches may occasionally become one by messenger in a general Councel 183 Answ This is the highest effect this unity produceth Section 2. What M. Ellis grants in this question 1 An authoritative power from Christ to make directions and rules to which the conscience is bound to submit and which are to be obeyed not only because materially good but because formally theirs Answ This is even as much as the Presbyterians desire But this he denies to be done by Church-Officers as Officers 184 2 If the universal Church were convenible he grants what is contended for Answ The parts may rule themselves being similar as well as the whole the whole 185 Section 3. M. Ellis's corrupt stating of the question in divers places 186 Apollonius and the London-Ministers vindicated 187 The particular Churches act not by commission from the general 188 The whole company of Christians on earth are not in their ordinary setled Church-constitution one single actual Corporation but habitual 189 Yet there may be causes to draw the Officers of many Congregations together yea haply some Officers from the whole Church if it could be occasionally 190 The Ministers are not actually Ministers of the whole Church but habitually They are given to the whole Church as the Levites to the whole house of Israel 191 Section 4. Answers to M. Ellis's prejudices probabilities and demonstrations 192 His Objection of novelty answered That the Church is one habitually and that the particular Churches bear the relation of members to it is not novel That the Ministers are Ministers beyond their own Congregations and can perform duties authoritatively is not novel Divers instances given thereof out of Scripture Divers Canons regulate Ministers in the exercise of their functions abroad but none deny them power 193 Divers instances out of antiquity 194 Frequent coventions of Synods and Councels anciently and their acting authoritatively 196 Five answers of M. Ellis's hereunto considered of 197 Section 5. M. Ellis's witnesses against the unity and integrality of the Church considered viz Chrysostome Clemens Alexandrinus Cyprian Augustine Eucherius and the Councel of Trent 198 That it is not novel in respect of Protestant Divines 201 Some quotations out of Calvin c. 202 Section 6. M. Ellis's prejudice from the dangerous consequences of this opinion answered 203 Section 7. Another prejudice that it is Papal and Antiprotestant answered 205 Section 8. M. Ellis's arguments answered 206 His first argument from the silence of the Scripture herein 2 From the institution of Christ 207 3 From the first execution of the greatest act of intire power exerciseâ— in a particular Congregation 1 Cor. 5. 208 4 Because entire power was committed to particular men viz. the Apostles severally and to all joyntly 5 From the reproofs given by Christ to the 7. Churches of Asia in the Revelation Section 9. His second sort of arguments from the matter and members of the Church answered 209 Section 10. A third sort of arguments is from the form and nature of all bodies and corporations which consist of superiour and inferiour answered 210 Six pretended inconveniences answered 211 Section 11. A fourth sort of arguments from the authours of this opinion answered 212 An objection That the whole world is one humane society and yet this makes them not one Kingdom politically answered 213 The second Question Whether the Church-Catholike visible or the particular Churches be first Section 1. What kinde of priority is meant here 216 First Negatively not a priority of time 2 Not in regard of constitution by aggregation and combination 3 Not in regard of ordinary operation But positively the visible Church-Catholike is prime 1 In Gods intention 217 2 In regard of Gods institution 3 In regard of Gods donation of Ordinances and priviledges 4 In regard of dignity 5 In regard of perfection 6 In regard of the essence or entitivenesse 7 In regard of efficient ministerial causality 218 8 In regard of distinct and perfect knowledge or noscibility The difference between ortum and secundarium Section 2. The first argument for the priority of the visible Church-Catholike from the names that are given to the Church in Scripture 219 The second argument is because the Covenant Promises Laws and
Church-Catholike be one in the external accidental form it must needs be integrally and visibly one But I come to Scripture proofs which are the most sure Sect. 2. because they are a divine testimony And first I shall shew you that an Occumenical universal Church was frequently foretold in Scripture Psa 22.27 All the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the Lord and all the kindreds of the nations shall worship be fore him Which comprehends all places all the ends of the earth and all persons that should be converted all the kindreds of the Nations and by worshipping is meant embracing the true religion and performance of religious duties So Psa 72.8 He shall have dominion also from sea to sea and from the river unto the ends of the earth It is a prophecy concerning Christ in the times of the Gospel where he is set forth by his Kingly office and the extent of his Kingdom is set out to be to the ends of the earth This is his external political Kingdom because it is set out by the external prayers and prayses and gifts that should be tendred unto him by his Subjects and by the judgement peace and flourishing estate that he shall bestow upon them So Psa 86.9 All Nations whom thou hast made shall come and worship before thee O Lord and shall glorifie thy name This is a prophecy like the former So Isa 2.2 3 4. It shall come to passe in the last daies that the mountain of the Lords house shall be established on the top of the mountains and shall be exalted above the hils and all Nations shall flow unto it and many people shall go and say Come ye let us go up to the mountain of the Lord to the house of the God of Jacob and he will teach us his waies and we will walk in his paths For out of Zion shall go forth the Law and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem and he shall judge among the Nations and rebuke many people c. Where is set down Christs call of all the Nations and the time of this call in the last daies i. e. the times under the Gospel as the Apostle Act. 2.17 expounds the like phrase in Joel 2.28 And here is the means of the call by the Law out of Zion and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem and the answer to this call All Nations shall flow unto it and there is Christs executing his prophetical office by publike teaching them in his house by his Ambassadours and his Kingly office in judging and rebuking So Isa 25.6 So Daniel 7.14 There was given unto him Christ Dominion and glory and a Kingdom that all people nations and languages should serve him And in the New Testament Matt. 28.9 Go teach all Nations baptizing them c. Rom. 15.11 12. Rev. 14.6 But because these places will be turned off with this answer that some of all Nations should embrace the Gospel and be turned unto the Lord not the whole Nations I answer that experience hath proved it true of multitudes of great Nations that wholly did embrace the Gospel and submitted unto it Neither can any of these places be avoided as some plead by the general Kingdom of Christ which is given him over all Nations whereby he is head over all things to the Church Eph. 1.2 For it is clear they are meant of that Kingdom wherein are prayers praises gifts worship service and attendance upon Gods Ordinances flowing unto Christ worshipping before him and glorifying his name as the several texts expresse and these things are proper to the visible Church So also Zech. 14.9 And the Lord shall be King over all the earth in that day shall there be one Lord and his name one which is clearly meant of one religion and way of worship of God in Christ But secondly Sect. 3. I will give you places of Scripture where the word Church is applied both indefinitely and generally which cannot be understood of any particular Churches See first Act. 8.3 Saul made havock of the Church To which may be added that of Gal. 1.13 I persecuted the Church of God and wasted it I shewed before that this must needs be a visible Church for they could not else have been persecuted persecution is a visible opposition of a visible Church And certainly Saul could not discern who were of the invisible company but persecuted promiscuously all that were that way Neither was it a particular Church for this persecution was in Jerusalem and in every Synagogue and it reached to Damascus and even to strange cities Act. 26.11 So that by Church here is meant an indefinite number of visible Churches or Congregations which were in no other community but profession of the same faith and an indefinite is equivalent to a general which axiome although it should not be stretched according to the old rule Omne indefinitum potest esse infinitum it being without limits yet it is true in suo genere it is as large as a general But this we may safely say that by the same reason that the word Church would reach all those Churches it would reach all the Churches in the world Reverend M. Hooker excepteth against these two places and affirms that the word Church is taken here by a Synechdoche for the particular Church of Ierusalem and not all that neither but only such Christians as forsook Moses ceremonial Law and not the Christian Jewish Church Surv. c. 15. p. 269. Because saith he his Commission was to pursue such as he found of that way The answer to this exception will lie in the meaning of these words all that he found of that way whether by that way be meant the forsaking the ceremonial Law or confessing Christ to be the Messiah If the former then Paul would have found but little work in Ierusalem for the Jewish Christians did generally cleave to the ceremonial Law As the Elders told Paul Act. 21.20 Thou seest how many myriads of the Jews do believe and they are all zealous of the Law and therefore he needed not persecute them for neglect thereof for they were zealous therein yea the Apostles themselves observed that in Ierusalem a long time But the persecution was such as that they were all scattered abroad except the Apostles and therefore it was for Christianism that he persecuted them It was to cause them to blaspheme as Paul himself expounds it now though reducing of them to the ceremonial Law had been an errour yet it was not a blasphemy for then the Apostles themselves should have lived in blasphemy Surely it was to cause them to blaspheme the Lord Iesus Christ and deny him to be the Messiah It is most likely that Sauls Commission was according the former decree of the chief Priests Ioh. 9.22 That if any did confesse that he was Christ he should be put out of the Synagogue And this appears by what Ananias saith to Christ concerning Paul Act. 9.14
Here he hath authority from the chief Priests to binde all that call on thy name And vers 2. If he found any that way Not all of Ierusalem or if he found any of Ierusalem that were fled thither but any Jews for the Gentiles had not yet received the Gospel For Chap. 10. Peter was charged for eating with Cornelius and his company that were Gentiles And they that were scattered abroad by Saul preached the Gospel to none but to the Iews only Act. 11.19 And some of those whom Saul persecuted were men of Cyprus and Cyrene Act. 11.20 But it was all that call on thy name not all that had forsaken the ceremonial Law for that very few Jews as yet had done if any at all And this was the reason as I conceive that the commission given to Saul by the chief Priests teached the Jews at Damascus and other cities because they were not fallen off from the ceremonial Law but kept fellowship with the Jewish Church at Ierusalem and came up to the feasts still and so were under their Ecclesiastical jurisdiction and liable to their censure and they could write to the rulers of those Synagogues to see them punished Also it is said upon the conversion of Saul Act. 9.31 Then had the Churches rest in all Iudea and Galilee and Samaria which yet were but some parts of the Church in the singular number which he persecuted Now if Saul had persecuted only the members of the Church of Ierusalem which had forsaken Moses law then they might have had rest before for all him for they should not have been within his commission but he persecuted them also So our brethren themselves expound it Except p. 17. Also it is said Act. 12.1 that Herod stretched forth his hands to vex certain of the Church and he killed Iames and attached Peter Now this was a visible Church because a Church liable to visible persecution and an Organical Church because the persecution was against the Officers and the Catholike Church for it is not said Certain of the Church of Ierusalem but indefinitely The Church and the two persons named were not Officers or members of the Church of Ierusalem but Officers of the whole Church being Apostles Also it is said Act. 2.47 God added to the Church daily such as should be saved Or saved men as some render it Not that all should be saved or were saved men that were added unto it for there were many hypocrites added but those that should be saved or were sanctified were added Which Church was not a particular Congregational Church but the Catholike Reverend M. Hooker excepteth against this and saith that it was not the Catholike Church but the Apostolical Christian Church now erected and not the whole company of beleevers in the whole world for such a company they never saw nor knew and therefore could not be added to them Surv. c. 15. p. 270. Answ It is true indeed it wa◠to the Apostolical Christian Church but not to any particular Congregational Church For first no man by conversion is added unto or made a member of a or the particular Church where he was converted but is made a member of the Catholike society of Christians by conversion and then joins himself unto some particular society of them Secondly This Apostolical Christian Church was not a Congregational Church for those 120 suppose them the 12 and 70 and some others were many of them men of Galilee and resided at Ierusalem but for a time per accidens by command until they were further endued with the holy Ghost And those 3000 that were added to them Act. 2.41 were men out of every nation under heaven ve 5. and their particular countries named ver 9 10 11. And this is our brethrens own exposition in their exceptions to the proofs from the Church of Ierusalem p. 16. Where they say they were not setled dwellers at Ierusalem but strangers commorants of the 10 Tribes which were dispersed and were but sojourners at Ierusalem coming up to the feast having their wives and children and families at home to whom they used after a time to return And that this continuing stedfastly in the Apostles doctrine and fellowship was but only while they were there at Ierusalem Yea some of them were of Iudea ver 9. and so of the countrey round about and that of them might be Churches erected in their proper dwellings is rationally supposeable And the proof M. Hooker giveth to shew it was not the Church-Catholike from Act. 2.42 They continued stedfastly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Apostles doctrine and fellowship makes much against a Congregational Church as I conceive For the Apostles were not Congregational Elders to Jerusalem but general Officers of the Church-Catholike by their Commission So that this communion of theirs with the Apostles was not a particular Church-communion but a Catholike communion of Catholike members not reduced into particular Congregations with Catholike Officers Neither might the Apostles joyn as particular Elders of the Church of Jerusalem For how could they binde themselves by an holy Covenant to the constant performance or enjoyment of all the Ordinances of God to or with them seeing their charge was to go over all the world yet such a Covenant our Brethren say is requisite in a particular Congregation Neither as yet were there any particular Elders of the particular Church of Jerusalem constituted nor do we finde it expressed how long after If it had been said that they continued in the Apostles doctrine and fellowship with the Elders of Jerusalem it had carried some probability Moreover it could not be the communion of a particular Church because they had the Lords Supper in several companies Breaking bread from house to house Gods providence ordered it so that the Christian Church should be as I may say at the very birth of it Catholike in regard of Officers and members before any reduction into particular societies under particular Officers It was so potentially from the giving of the Apostles commission and now it is actually in the members as well as Officers before their number could make up Congregations in several countries Yea but saith he it is not to the whole company of beleevers in the whole world for such a company they never saw nor knew and therefore could not be added to them p. 270. Answ It is not requisite they should see or know them all by face but know that there was or was to be such a company which was already begun It is like every member of the Church of Ierusalem did never see or know all the myriads that were of that Church nor do every member of the greatest Congregation in London know all the members thereof A forreigner that is naturalized by Parliament and so added to this Kingdom did never see nor know all the whole Kingdom Again 1 Cor. 10.32 Give no offence to the Iews nor to the Gentiles nor to the Church of God
throughout the whole world c. Rom. 10.18 Col. 1.6 The Gospel is come unto you as it is to all the world and bringeth forth fruit Also Tit. 2.11 appeared unto all men 4. If the Charter whereby the Church is constituted be Catholike then the Church constituted thereby is one Catholike body But the Charter constituting the Church is Catholike Therefore c. The major is clear of it self One charter makes one polity The minor will appear by those places of Scripture wherein the right of all Nations indefinitely is set down Mat. 28.19 Go teach all Nations baptizing them c. Mar. 16.15 Ioh. 3.16 Eph. 3.6 That the Gentiles should be fellow-heirs and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of the same body and partakers of his promise in Christ by the Gospel whereof I was made a Minister When the partition wall was broken down between Jew and Gentile and then the Church began to be Catholike what second limits did God set unto his Church none except men would sever themselves by rejection of the Gospel but external vocation and submission gave right in foro Ecclesiae to be admitted members of the Church and that was universal If there be any particular Charter by which any particular Church was constituted beside the general let that be produced I know none For if there were then that particular visible Church could never fail or else a Gospel Charter must be lost But all particular Churches hold their priviledges by the general Covenant applied to themselves as all the twelve Tribes did theirs by the Covenant made with Abraham and his seed And all the several promises which are as appendices to the Covenant are made to the whole Church-Catholike and commensurable therewith respectively without any respect to any particular Congregation or membership therein 5. If there be Officers of a Church-Catholike visible Sect. 2. then there is a Church-Catholike visible But there are Officers of a Church-Catholike visible Therefore c. The major cannot be denied The minor appears by the donation of the Ministery to the Church-Catholike visible Maâ— 28.19 Go teach all Natons baptizing them c. They are not circumscribed or limited to any one place but are sent into the whole world to all Nations 1 Cor. 12.28 God hath set some in the Church first Apostles secundarily Prophets thirdly Teachers Eph. 4.11 He gave some Apostles and some Prophets and some Evangelists and some Pastours and Teachers for the perfecting of the Saints for the work of the Ministery for the edifying of the body of Christ These two last places M. Hooker himself confesseth to be meant of the external political body and Kingdom of Christ Now these extraordinary Officers Prophets Evangelists were Officers of the Church-Catholike visible for they had no limits of place but were over all the Churches and yet are said not to be set in the Churches but in the Church And this is granted by some of our brethren for Congregational Churches that they were Catholike Officers and therefore did not baptize in reference unto particular Congregations And this M. Cartwright also in his Catechism acknowledgeth The Apostles are usually called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 universal Judges M. Hooker in answer to this argument Surv. c. 15. pag. 272. First mistakes my words and meaning for whereas I proved the universality of their office from the unlimitednesse of it he conceives it of having no limits in their works and so set down but I meant no limits in regard of places And then he saith the reason of their unlimitednesse arose from their commission because it was general being immediatly called by God to preach to all nations and they had vertually all Church-power in them but this did not issue nextly from the Church in which they were firstly set Answ I confesse it did arise from their commission which commission being general made them general Officers for what more can be required to make a general Officer but a general commission it did not issue nextly from the Church I confesse neither doth the power of any particular Minister but his power is given him by Christ and not from the people but is annexed unto his office only the exercise thereof is drawn forth by the people pro hic nunc and so the necessity of the whole Church drew forth their Apostolical Office into execution and the necessity of a greater part of the Church may draw forth the exercise of any particular Ministers office beyond the limits of his Congregation occasionally 6. If there be a general external vocation wherewith all Christians are called and a general external Covenant whereinto all Christians voluntarily and externally enter and are therein bound up in an unity then there is a general external Catholike Church But there is such an external general visible vocation and external individual visible general Covenant c. Therefore c. I mean by general Catholike Universal Oecumenical in regard not only of kinde but of places The major appears by evidence of reason and experience for one Covenant with one King in any extent of compasse makes it one Kingdom So c. The minor appears as evidently For first there is but one external general vocation divine distinct from all other particular vocations not only civil buâ— Ecclesiastical which is usually called our general calling and this is external else none but invisible beleevers were members of the visible Church which is that we speak of And there is one individual expresse external Covenant not only on Gods part Act. 2.39 The promise is to you and to your children and to as many as the Lord our God shall call Which is an external Covenant and call relating to baptism which they were invited to in the former verse yet not excluding the inward Covenant or call but oft separated from the inward and yet the right to baptism remain in forâ— Ecclesiae But also it is one external visible Covenant on mens part which all Christians as Christians enter into by their professed acceptance and expresse restipulation and promised subjection and obedience though not altogether in one place or at one time 7. If the initial visible seal admittance and enrowlment be Catholike and Oâ—cumenical then so as the Kingdom into which members are so initiated But the initial seal admission and enrowlment by baptism is Catholike Therefore c. The major is clear without control be that takes up his freedom into a whole Corporation or Kingdom is free of the whole and in every part thereof and hath right to all the general priviledges and immunities thereof The minor also appears both by â—he patent for Baptism Go baptize all Nations And by the consequences and priviledges thereof they that are baptized in any Church are accounted visible subjects of Christs Kingdom in all places of the Christian world no new baptism is required of them upon any removal and also by the tenor thereof for they are not baptized into
societies in the beginning of it in the Apostles daies as I shewed before and that not as Entitive only but under the general Officers with whom they did communicate in doctrine fellowship breaking of bread and praier 2. Because the several and singular Churches do constitute and make up the Oecumenical as members of it now membrum integrum sunt relata A genus hath no members The particular Churches are integrant to the whole and the whole results out of them Hence Salmasius hath this passage Vniversum Ecclesiae corpus in majora membra divisum Apparat. 285. Every particular Congragation contains part of the matter and part of the form of the whole I mean with Ames in respect of the external state of it But a Genus hath no external state Quod habet partes extra partes est Tetum integrale sed Ecclesia universalis visibilis habet partes extra partes Ergo. The mayor is the very definition of totum integrale The minor is clear for the particular Churches are different one from another sitis ordine singulae suâ praediâ—ae sunt quantitate non se invicem permeant They are not only distinct in consideration but in existence and exist one besides another as Towns in a Kingdom 3. Nay it appears further to be an integral because it is made up not only of the particular Congregations but of individual Christians not only such as are particular members of particular Congregations but such as are not members of any particular Congregation as I suppose all Christians are not fixed members nor can be as I could give divers instances as in regard of habitation perigrination banishment want of opportunity scrupulosity If such be not members of the Church-Catholike because not fixed then the Apostles themselves and Evangelists were none for they were not fixed but we finde that they were not only members but officers and so related to the body as organical A Corporation or City consisteth not only of streets wards and companies but of persons within their liberties though dwelling alone Now if the Church-Catholike be a genus it cannot be abstracted from them both if it be abstracted from particular Congregations and so be a genus of societies and polities then it doth not contain such as are not in any societies or polities if it be abstracted from them as particular unfixed members then it is no genus of particular Churches for they are none nor of any But as the Church is an integrum it may be made up of both and result out of both 4. That which hath inherent accidents and adjuncts existing in it as its own that is an integral for a genus is not capable of them But the Church-Catholike visible hath accidents inhaering adhaering and betiding unto it and existing in it Therefore it is an integral The major is undeniable The minor appeareth by instance Beauty strength offensive defensive purity terriblenesse with banners viz. of discipline conspicuity order visibility c. are accidents that may and sometimes have been and some of them are still existing in the whole Church as belonging to the whole therefore it is an integral Again That which is capable of being majus and minus i. e. is sometimes greater and sometimes lesse in extent that is an integral but so is the Church-Catholike or Oecumenical The consequence is clear because a Genus can neither be greater or lesse then it ever was Animal was as great a Genus when there were but two men and a few beasts in the world as it is now there are many millions for the greatnesse of the genus is not measured by continuous or discreet quantity but the nearer Ens it is and the further from Individuals the greater the Genus is i. e. the more comprehensive and the further remote from Ens and the nearer the Individuals the lesse the Genus is i. e. the lesse comprehensive But the Oecumenical Church is measured by quantity continuous in regard of place wherein it is and discrete in regard of number of the Churches and members thereof sometimes the bounds thereof are enlarged and sometimes streightned There is an augmentation by addition of members a diminution by substraction and the whole resulteth out of the aggregation of the parts not by local contiguity alwaies but by political Ecclesiastical habitual consociation and union in the same external profession subjection and fraternity Again that totum which is mutable and fluxile is an integral for a Genus is immutable constant permanent aeternae veritatis But the Church Oecumenical is very mutable and fluxile sometime flourishing sometime under persecution sometimes conspicuous sometimes it may be latenâ— sometimes more pure sometimes more corrupt sometimes it hath more beauty and strength and sometimes lesse and though this be in the parts and members the particular Churches yet it may be in the whole and the beauty and strength of the parts of a natural or civil body is the beauty and strength of the whole man City Kingdom every member hath his own beauty and strength and out of them all resulteth the beauty and strength of the whole Again That totum which is measured by time and place is an integral for Genus which is a notion is capable of neither of them but so is the Church Oecumenical Hence we divide the Church into primitive and successive From the time of John the Baptist the Kingdom of Heaven suffers violence Mat. 11.12 Sometime the Church hath been planted in the Eastern parts of the world and now is more Westerly and is in likelihood still going more Westward We use to limit the Church within the pale thereof though potentially in regard of permission and haply promise it may be actually over the whole earth Amplitudo vetustas sunt accidentia Ecclesiae visibilis See Cameron de conspic Ecclesiae 5. That Totum whereinto there is admission Sect. 3. wherein there is nutrition and edification and out of which there is ejection that is an integral But there is admission into the Church-Catholike visible by Baptism nutrition and edification by the other external Ordinances and ejection out of it by excommunication Therefore it is an Integral For a Genus is capable of none of these Indeed if you consider this society in reference to other societies or religions it is a distinct kinde in regard of the Authour laws qualifications of members but in reference unto its members it is an integral If this be all that is meant by totum genericum existens it may passe without any dammage to this question So the several companies in London are distinct from other companies yet in reference to their own members they are integrals and in reference to the whole they are parts 6. That society which hath not only a head or governour in heaven of the same nature as man but Officers on earth which are indefinitely and habitually Officers to the whole that is an integral
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
that the Presbyterians hold that there is one general Church of Christ on earth and that all particular Churches and single Congregations are but as similar parts of the whole and the Independents say they hold that there is no other visible Church of Christ but only a single Congregation meeting in one place to partake of all Ordinances The London-Ministers affirm only that the Independents deny one general Church of Christ on earth not the similarity of particular Congregations But it will necessarily follow that they deny them to be similar parts if they deny the whole to which the parts must relate And if they make the whole Church a genus as they do then must they make the particular Churches similar species which is little lesse then a contradiction for the formality of a species lieth in dissimilarity and difference from the opposite species Now to shew that this assertion of the similarity of particular Churches crosseth mine own scope M Ellis sets down mine opinion with a mark as if the words were mine own which neither are my words nor my sense viz. That the Church visible Catholike is an Organical ministerial governing body i. e. saith he not such a body as is the element of water and air every part whereof is of the same nature vertue and power in it self considered but such a body as a man hath which is distinguished by several members c. And such a body as all Corporations are Now this saith he contradicts plainly the former both opinion and expression for if the Church-Catholike be a similar body and all Congregations alike and the whole nothing differing in nature or constitution from the parts then the Catholike visible Church is no more the governing Church then a particular Ans To let passe his unfair dealing with my self and others in misreciting my words I said indeed the Church-Catholike was an Organical body but not a ministerial governing body For the scope of my Thesis was and is to prove the Church-Catholike as it consists of Officers and private Christians to be the prime Church to which the Ordinances are given respectively as the Officers or private members are capable and to particular Churches secondarily I spake not of the Organs or Governours only The body of Officers is indeed a governing body called a ministerial Church but the whole Church either particular or general is no governing body no more then a whole Corporation or kingdom can be said to be a governing body but they are governed bodies and so is the Church both particular and general Indeed I finde the words ministerial governing Church in M. Rutherford in his due right of Presbyt 177 178 179. c. but it is clear that he takes it not in M Ellis's sense but for a Church furnished with Officers and having discipline and government exercised in it for he was farre from making the body of the Church to be the receptacle of the keys and having power of governing He saith the keys were given for the Church but not to the Church It is only a Scottish expression not to be so expounded and strained as M. Ellis doth who bendeth his whole reply against a sense of it which I beleeve was not M. Rutherfords meaning Neither did I make the whole to differ any thing in nature constitution or power from the parts but said they have the same kinde of intensive power but in the Church-Catholike it is of larger extension Similar bodies conjoyned exert their power more intensely and extensively then when single All the water of the Sea will cool and moisten more and further then one drop a great fire will warm yea burn more and further then a spark a great heap of stones extends further and will weigh more then a little one So all Churches if they could meet have no other power when met together then a single Church but being combined the power both reacheth further in extension of places and it more august and solemn and to be the rather respected and submitted unto But this he saith crosseth Apollonius whom saith he I follow but indeed I never saw his book nor heard of it until a good while after I had composed my Thesis and then inserted I think but 2. or 3. sentences of his Apollonius saith he saith that Eph. 4.16 is meant of an organical ministerial body differing in members which M. Hudson expounds to be meant of a similar body whose parts are all alike Answ They are alike in the integrals as I said before but not in the essentials But where doth Apollonius deny the particular Congregations to be similar integrals parts of the Catholike There is therefore no disagreement among the Presbyterians in this point as M. Ellis suggesteth vin 54. that one of them would have one thing another another But the main question comes now to be discussed Sect. 3. It is one Organical body viz Whether the whole Church-Catholike visible be one Organical body which if it can be made appear will end the whole controversie The Church is distinguished into Entitive and Organical The Church visible is called Entitive not because of the inward grace which is essential to an invisible member but from the reception and embracing the Christian Catholike faith which is essential to a visible beleever And it is called Organical in reference to the Officers thereof which are the Organs of the Church or in regard of the Offices which Christ hath instituted to be in his visible Church This distinction halteth as much as that of the Church-visible and invisible for the Organical Church is also Entitive viz. it is of such as have received and embraced the Christian faith and is made up of such and only of such yet there is a difference in notion but not in persons Indeed in some sense a company of visible beleevers may be said to be a Church-Entitive and not Organical because they are not actually under any particular Officers as a company of visible Christians in New England inhabiting together to make a Congregation but as yet have chosen no Officers may in reference to other organized Congregations be said to be inorganical and entitive only but this sense is not the most proper sense of the word For if they be then but a Church-entitive then also after they have Officers if those particular Officers die they should return to be a Church-Entitive only again in the interim before they have chosen any new ones Now though in consideration we may distinguish between the essence of beleevers as beleevers embracing the Christian faith and their existence under Officers especially under particular Officers yet the existence of visible beleevers members of the Church-Catholike can hardly be without reference to Officers For the ministery of the Officers is the usual means of their conversion and to be sure they cannot be admitted to be actual members of the Church-Catholike by baptism but by some of the Officers though
And should such private man passe the censure against a scandalous brother that the Elders would do yet it is not Ecclesiastical binding yea though such a scandalous person should referre himself to them as arbitrators and promise to submit to their censure yet they cannot Ecclesiastically excommunicate him or restore him no more then private men in an arbitration can condemn and execute a malefactor or absolve him though he be innocent if indited Many times private men standing by and hearing the evidence at the Assizes against a malefactour will say he is but a dead man yet that is no judicial condemnation of him though it be materially according to the law of the land yet it is not formally for so is the act of the Judge only who is in office for that purpose Fifthly If private Christians bear a double relation Sect. 7. one to the Church Catholike visible as members thereof and another to the particular Congregation where they are particular members then so do the Ministers also The universality of private Christians membership necessarily requires an universality of the ministerial office for dispensing the Ordinances to them though but occasionally As particular members agree with other particular members in Christianity so particular Ministers agree with other particular Ministers in the ministerial office If particular private members can joyn with any Congregations in the Word Sacraments and praier and are bound to contribute to them as members of the same general body if there be need though in forreign countries then may also particular Ministers dispense the Ordinances of Jesus Christ as generally if there be necessity or occasion Epiphanius Bishop of Cyprus ordained a Deacon and Presbyter at Bethlehem in monasterio Bethlemitico in the jurisdiction of John Bishop of Jerusalem when they were almost destitute of spiritual food and defended his action thus Oh Dei timorem hoc facere compulsi sumus maximè quum nulla sit diversitas in sacerdotio Dei ubi utilitati Ecclesia providetur Nam et si singuli Ecclesiarum Episcopi habent sub se Ecclesias quibus curam videntur impendere nemo super alienam mensuram extendatur tamen praeponitur omnibus charitas Christi It seems he accounted his office habitually generaâ— and though the order of the Church required him to keep within his own bounds ordinarily yet necessity the profit of the Church and the love of Christ might draw forth the execution of his office further He addeth further Non considerandum quid factum sit sed quo tempore quo modo in quibus quare factum sit i. e. if it be not done to make a schism in the Church as he expresseth himself afterward ne que feci quicquam ut Ecclesiam scinderem Afterwards he adds Multi Episcopi communionis nostrae presbyteros in nostrâ ordinaverunt Provincia Ipse cohortatus sum beata memoriae Philonem Episcopum S m Theopropum ut in Ecclesiis Cypri quae juxta se erant ad meae autem paraeciae Ecclesiam vide bantur pertinere ordinarent presbyteros Christi Ecclesiae providerent Epiph. Epist ad Johan Hierosol quam Hieronymus lutinam fecit Extat in Hieron Ep. T. 2. in Ep. Hieron ad Paumachum T. 2. Vide Baronium Anno Christi 392. Sect. 42. c. The universal pastoral care which lieth on all Bishops as Bishops saith Crakanthorp puts forth it self both in general Councels yea and out of Councels this universal care of the Church lyeth upon all Ministers that they provide for the safety of the Church as much as lieth in them consulendo hortando monendo arguendo increpando scriptis simul voce alios omnes instruendo cum vel hâ—resis ulla vel schismain Ecclesia grassari caeperit velut incendium publicum illud restinguendo ne latiùs serpat providendo Def. Eccl. Angl. c. 28. Sixthly There will follow divers great absurdities if the office of a Minister stands only in relation to his own Congregation For then he cannot preach any where as a Minister but in his own Congregation nor yet to any that come to his own Congregation occasionally much lesse administer the seals of the Covenant to them though they come never so well approved by testimonials or by their own knowledge of them which yet hath been the ancient custom of the Church and is practised still among our brethren in New-England by vertue of communion of Churches as they say but this being an act of office cannot be done except there be an habitual indefinite power of the ministerial office which by this desire of strangers and their testimonial is drawn forth into act Also hereby a Minister is rendred but as a private Christian to all the Christian world except his own Congregation and if his Congregation be any way dissolved he is but a private man again Also the censore of excommunication which hath been inflicted by such Officers in such a Congregation can never be taken off by any other Officers in any other Congregation after the dissolution of that for no Congregation can receive an excommunicated person to be a member before absolution and absolve him they cannot because he is none of their members Ejusdem est ligare solvere yea and if he be wronged by censures in any particular Congregation no Church in the world can relieve him except there be an indefinite habitual power of office which by such occasions can be drawn forth into act It maketh way also for any private man to preach publikely if he be able for Ministers themselves by this opinion should preach but as private men if they preach out of their own Congregation Also it necessarily implyeth that a Minister cannot remove from his particular Congregation though for the great advantage of the Church unlesse he will divest himself of his former Ordination which was in reference only to his particular Congregation by this opinion and take a new Ordination to his Ministerial office again as if he had never been ordained before And all acting in Councels must be the actings of private Christians And all the Lectures that are kept by neighbour-Ministers in combination or singly except by the particular Ministers of that Congregation where the Lecture is kept are performed by private men for so by this opinion they are to all the world except their own Congregations And so if any of their own members come and hear them preach at any such Lectures Funerals Marriages or Baptizings it is authoritative preaching indeed to them because of their particular relation to him but only a charitative exercising of gifts as a private man out of office to all men else And if this opinion be true what shall become of all the unfixed visible Christians in New-England who by reason of their unresolvednesse where yet to fix their civil habitations or of scrupulosity or want of ability utterance and boldnesse to expresse themselves so as
is seated properly in the eye or reason is given to the whole man and yet is seated in the understanding Christ hath given all his Ordinances to his visible Church for the publike dispensation of which he hath instituted Church-Officers to whom he hath committed that power respectively these officers are distributed among and setled in their several Congregations and there actually and constantly dispense their Ordinances to them as by their office they are enabled according to the word and yet because there are some things of common concernment with other Congregations and of greater moment and difficuly then can be transacted by a few Elders in a particular Congregation therefore upon such occasions they make act conjunctim with the Elders of other Congregations and may also dispense both Word and seals occasionally to other Congregations upon a call by opportunity want or desire of other Congregations Yet do not the Presbyterians hold that the particular Churches or Officers act by authority of and commission from the one entire single Common-wealth Corporation and Congregation of the whole company of Christians on earth as M. Ellis is pleased to set it down to render their tenets odious but they hold that every Minister by vertue of his office hath an immediate habitual power from Christ to dispense his Ordinances but the conâ—tant exerting and exercise of this power is called forth into act by that parcel of the Church-Catholike which hath given him a call to take the particular immediate inspection and care over them in the Lord yet upon occasion for the honour of God the vindicating of his truth the suppressing of more general errours and scandals the propagating of the Gospel and the good of others as God gives opportunity it may be exerted and exercised in other places and to other persons so confusion and disorder be avoided Neither do the National Churches act by commission from the Catholike nor the Provincial from the National nor the Classis from the Provincial nor the Congregational from the Classis but every Minister acts by commission from Jesus Christ by vertue of his Office And the Congregational Eldership is first in acting though last in Christs intention in instituting the office Every drop of water is similar to the whole element and is cold and moist but receive not those qualities from the whole Element but hath them immediatly in its self and though it actually exerts them only where it is placed and applied yet hath an habitual power to exert them any where else if applied So the Church-Officers have their powder neither from the Church Catholike nor from their particular Congregation but from their office which they receive from Christ though ministerially admitted thereto by the Presbytery which power though ordinarily and constantly they exert in their own Congregation yet can elsewhere upon a call Neither do the Presbyterians say that the Church-Catholike or the whole campary of Christians on earth are in their ordinary and setled Church-constitution one entire single Common-wealth Corporation and Congregation actually but one habitual Common-wealth and Corporation made up by the aggregation of all the single actual Congregations of Christians in the world as an Empire of all the Provinces and Kingdoms under it and that beside the particular actual constant affairs of the Congregations which are properly to be managed by such as are the particular actual Officers thereof there are some things that concern more then themselves and those are to be transacted as such occasions arise by the Officers of so many Congregations as they concern they belonging properly to the cognizance of Officers as Officers and if those matters be of more general concernment then that all the Officers concerned therein can meet without confusion to transact them then they are to delegate some choice Officers from the several vicinities to transact them as hath been shewed before and as the call of the Congregation draweth forth the power of the Officers to act among them constantly so this delegation cals forth their power to act occasionally pro tempore in this greater meeting The case was once that Totus mundus ingemuit sub Arianisino this concerned the whole or the greater part and could not be cured by particular Officers as particular in their several Congregations divisim and therefore required a more general meeting of Officers to whom by reason of their office it did appertain to consider of it and suppresse it conjunctim by confutations and censures and these having done the work they were called forth unto then are to return to their particular charges again for this work is but occaâ—ional and these occasions fall out very rarely This makes not the whole Church-Catholike under one actual constant regiment Yet because in Churches that are near together in a vicinity matters of common concernment or that require the help of more Elders then one or two Congregations can afford will frequently and constantly occurre and if there be not a set time and place appointed by consent for a certain number of Officers of that vicinity to meet they will be drawn together with much difficulty charge labour trouble and confusion and with lesse certainty as appears by the case of M. Ward in the Netherlands who being unjustly cast out of his place could not under two years get a meeting of neighbour-Elders to hear and right his cause and when he had obtained a meeting it was â—ut of very few viz. the Elders of Aruheim as I have been enformed therefore it is conceived that there should be a certain time and place appointed for the Elders of such a vicinity as are in combination for mutual assistance to meet in M. Ellis mistakes the state of the question in saying the Ministers and Elders of the Catholike Church not taken severally but jointly as one entire College or Presbytery have the charge severally and jointly of the whole and every particular Church committed to them vind pag. 9. For they are not actually Ministers and Elders of the Church-Catholike nor actually one entire College and Presbytery nor have not actually the charge of the whole and every particular Church but habitually only by reason of the indefinitenesse of their office They have power in actu primo by vertue of their office but not in actu secundo sive exercito they have jus ad rem every where but not in re any where without a call They are the Ministers of Jesus Christ and thereby have right and power to perform the acts belonging to their office but for the execution of it either in a particular Church constantly or conjunctim occasionally with others there is required a call thereunto And the not observing of this distinction is the cause of this difference in this question The Levites were by their office consecrated to do the service of the Tabernacle and to stand before the Congregation to minister unto them Numb 16.9 And the Priests to offer sacrifice and
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
dead and buried risen again and ascended into heaven c. for so do all the Church-Catholike but we must give other notes to distinguish any of them for these are not distinctive because common That which is primary to any thing is distinctive to that thing but that which is secondary and common is not distinctive from other particulars of the like kinde or from other parts of a similar integral Fifthly All the members of the particular Churches are members of the Church-Catholike yea that relation belongs first unto them If they be born within the pale of the Church they have federal holinesse and are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not because members of this or that Congregation but because born of parents within the general external Covenant and so within the Church-Catholike If they be converted from heathens they are not first converted into this or that particular Church but converted first into the Church-Catholike and then secondarily admitted members of this or that particular Congregation after they be baptized A man may dwell it one City and hear the word of God by accident in another city and thereby be converted but he is not converted to be a member of the Church where he was converted but into the Church-Catholike So that particular Congregations are made up of members of the Catholike and therefore most properly in that sense are said to be Ortae For such a convert may joyn himself after his conversion to what Congregation he pleaseth to inhabit among If a man comes into a Parish that is an heathen he is not a member of that particular Church though he shall be a civil member of the Town because be is not a member of the Church-Catholike but if he be a Christian then he is a member of that particular Church where he resideth or fit so to be and ought not to be denied admission or communion if no just exception lieth against him though he had never been a member of any other Congregation The particular companies in London are made up only of free-men that are joyned together in some particular body or society belonging to such or such a Hall now the first notion that comes upon any such persons or companies is that they are free-men of London and secondarily that they are distinct from other free-men by being of this or that particular company belonging to such a Hall So it is for all Churches first of all the members are conceived to be free of the Church-Catholike and secondarily distinct by their societies in this or that particular Assembly And though haply this similitude holdeth not in every thing as the not removing from one company to another and being received in there because he is a free-man yet it is free for any Christ to change his particular relation from one Congregation to another because he is a Christian and takes not up his first freedom into a particular Congregation or company but into the Catholike They are made members of the whole body and kingdom of Christ by conversion to the faith and initiated by the Sacrament of Baptism but are secondarily made members of a particular Congregation by cohabitation or consociation He that is free of one Corporation may not thereupon remove to another and set up his trade as a free-man there because they are constituted by several charters but the whole Church-Catholike hath but one charter and by that a Christian is free in any Ecclesiastical Corporation whereever he please to inhabit and may not by them be inhibited As he that was free of Rome was free whereever he became in all the Romane Empire Suppose a man had abundance of sheep as Abraham Isaac and Jacob and Job who had 14000. and these sheep had all one brand of the owners upon them and these sheep were divided into several flocks unister several shepheards in several sheep-walks of the same owners according to his appointment the primary consideration of any of these sheep or flocks is not that they are under such a keeper in such a sheep-walk but the first consideration of them is they are such a mans sheep bearing his brand and fed by his servants on his ground and then the more particular and secondary consideration and notion is that they are under such a particular shepheard in such a walk And the like may be said in a civil respect the first consideration of a man is that he is an English man and so a subject of this kingdom and the secondary that he is a Suffolk man or an Ipswich man So the first consideration in a spiritual respect of a man or a Congregation is that they are the Lords people that they belong to Christ and are his subjects born or converted to him fed and nourished and ruled by his Ordinances and Officers and then the particular secondary notion is that they are fed and ruled by such Elders in such a place or society It is an usual similitude on all hands to compare the Church to the Sea or Ocean which though it be one yet as it washeth upon this or that Countrey receiveth the name and distinction of the Germane Spanish Irish or British Seas And so when it puts in at any creek because it is continuous with the Sea we call it the Sea And we say the sea comes up at Harwich Ipswich Mâ—â—itras Colchoster now it were absurd for any man to think that the particular Seas were the prime Seas and the main is Mâ—râ—secundarinus or ortum Or because the name Sea iâ— indâ—â—â—ed to this or that arm or Creek that therefore that should monopolize the name Sea to it self that there should be no Sea but such Creeks or that any such Creeks should arrogate the came and priviledges of the Sea first to themselves and leave them but secondarily to the main So it is for particular Congregations which have the name and priviledges of the Church indulged to them as second or third hand because they are members and similar parts of the whole to usurp and challenge the name and priviledges given by God to the Church-Catholike primarily to themselves and leave them secondarily to the Church-Catholike Sect. 4. Sixthly The Ministers are primarily Ministers of the Church-Catholike secondarily of this or that particular flock or Congregation and therefore the Catholike is the prime Church And this appears thus That Church to which the donation of the Ministry was first made is the first subject thereof but that was the Church-Catholike Therefore c. For proof hereof see Mat. 28.19 and 1 Cor. 12.28 29. God hath set some in the Church first Apostles secondarily Prophets thirdly Teachers Now this Church was the Church-Catholike and not any particular Congregation for it is the Church to which God gave Apostles Note also from hence that the same Church to which God gave Apostles and Prophets to the same he gave Teachers also though not with general actual power as to the
which are not actually the Church but in potentiâ and in Gods decree the second sort are militant warring with principalities and powers with flesh world and devil being actually justified and sanctified persons the third sort are triumphant in Heaven having finished their course and are now the spirits of just men made perfect For the fourth which the Papists make viz. Ecclesia dormiens in Purgatory we acknowledge not Secondly The word Church sometimes signifyeth more then the elect viz. the multitude of beleevers whether truly or in shew only So Act. 8.3 Saul made havock of the Church Act. 12.1 Herod stretched out his hands to vex certain of the Church Now it is certain that neither Herod nor Saul knew who were elect but as himself expounded it He persecuted this way unto the death And he desired letters to Damascus that if he found any of that way he might binde them Act. 9.2 So Act. 5.11 Fear came upon all the Church Now it cannot be conceived that they were all elect that feared that judgement of God So 1 Tim. 5.16 Let not the Church be charged with them that it may relieve widows indeed Now we cannot conceive that only the elect gave collection but the whole number of professors which yet are called the Church In Ecclesia plurimi sunt permixti hypocritae qui nihil Christi habent praeter titulum speciem Calvin Institut lib. 4. cap. 1. sect 7. Thirdly The word Church is sometimes taken for the members of the Church as distinct from the officers Act. 15.22 Then pleased it the Apostles and Elders with the whole Church And ver 4. They were received of the Church and of the Apostles and Elders And this was before their convention in the Synod And Act. 14.23 Fourthly The word Church sometimes signifyeth the Governours of the Church to whom of right it belongeth to administer and dispense the censures of the Church Matt. 18.17 If he will not hear them tell it to the Church i. e. the Ministerial Church where Christ seemeth to me to speak of a Church that was in present being among the Jews because he applies his speech to the capacity of the Jews present Let him be to thee as an heathen and Publican who might not have communion with Heathens and would not with Publicans but Christians might eat and drink with both and the same course by analogy was to be taken by Christians when they had Churches set up as it followeth ver 18 19. Whatsoever ye shall binde on earth c. Now we know that matters of complaint were not among the Jews brought unto the Assembly or body of the people but to their Elders and Rulers And the word Kahal which signifieth Ecclesia or Church is frequently used in the Old Testament for a Court of Elders not only Ecclesiastical but even civil See 1 Chron. 13.1 2 4. And 1 Chron. 29.1 10 20. And 2 Chron. 29.28 31 32. And 2 Chron. 30.2 4. called Psal 82.1 The Congregation of the Gods Compare also Num. 35.12 24 25. and Deut. 19.12 with Iosh 20.4 6. By Congregation in one place is expounded Elders in the other Also Exod. 12.3 with v. 21. Deut. 31 28. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 gather me the Elders or make a Church of Elders The same word we finde 1 Kin 8.1 of Solomons assembling the Elders of Israel And 1 Chr. 28.1 of Davids assembling the Elders The Septuagint translate Kahal Ecclesia or Church by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Prov. 26.26 His wickednesse shall be shewed before the whole Congregation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Compare also Deu. 23.1 2 3 8. No bastard Ammonite Moabite c. might enter into Kahal the Congregation which is rendred by the best Divines to be Consessus Iudicum the Congregation of Iudges For by Exo. 12.48 49. and Num. 15.14 15. and 9.14 and Lev. 22.18 All strangers upon circumcision were admitted into the Congregation of the people to offer to God as well as Israelites Chap. 1. Demosthenes useth the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pro concione maguntum saith Pasor It is very frequent in the Scripture to speak of executing of judgement and justice and putting away of evil from the Congregation indefinitely by ye and thou as if it were spoken to the whole Congregation which was done by the Elders and Judges only judicially Levit 19.15 35. Deut. 16.19 Ier. 7.5 Amos 5.15 24. Zach. 7.9 16. 1 Câ—â— 5.4 7 12. Fifthly The word Church is sometimes used to signifie the faithful in some one family Philem. 2. c. To the Church in thy house Unlesse those families were the meeting places for the Christians that dwelt about to enjoy the Ordinances of God in because there were no publike meeting-houses built And to this I confesse I incline The second acceptation of the word Church sutes best with this question Sect. 2. The second 〈◊〉 to be opened is what is meant by Visible The Church is distinguished into visible and invisible which yet are not two distinct Churches or species of Churches but it is a distribution of the Subject by the Adjunct viz. a duplici modo communion is externo interno Such as have spiritual communion with Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 inwardly are said to be invisible members which are only known to God and not to men having this seal The Lord knoweth who are his Such as have external communion in outward Ordinances 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they are called visible members because their communion is visible and apparent I grant the internal communion is invisible but the external is as visible as of any civil society and Gods Ordinances are as visibly administred as justice at the Sessions or Assizes and the profession of Christianity is as visible as the profession of any tratle the general calling to be Christians by profession is as visible as the particular calling and trade of life The inward grace is indeed invisible but the outward administration of the Ordinances and communion in them is visible i. e. perceptible by the senses And this external communion in the Ordinances though it were distributively in the several places where men live which is confessed by all would serve my turn for this question which I have in hâ—â—â— But visible taken in the sense which M. Ellis takes it in in his Vindiciae Catholicae for that which Vno intuitu videtur is seen with one view was not my meaning and therefore to expound it so which he knows I did not is to prevaricate as he chargeth me pag. 59. If visible i. e. that which may be seen and visum that which is seen actually be the same then is not the world visible But when we say the whole world is visible there is required an act of the minde we conceive that all countries are visible as well as our own and if we were there we might see them They cannot be said to be invisible because we see them not actually
whole There is one Objection which M. Hooker in Surv. c. 15. p. 273. hath against this proof in this text which is of some difficulty vix That Church where Deacons are set is not an unlimited Church But ordinary Deacons were set in the same Church wherein the Apostles were set as in the place 1 Corinth 12. it is affirmed jointly and indifferently of them both Therefore that Church doth not argue an unlimited power Answ It is not affirmed that the Church-Catholike hath an unlimited power but unlimited extent of the power given them by Christ in regard of place within the compasse of the Christian world and so I conceive M. Hookers meaning is But to the Objection itself First I premise that Deacons were not primarily set in a particular Congregational Church but 7 of them were at the first institution of the office set in the Church of Jerusalem over Jews and Grecians where there were many Congregations and therefore a Classical Presbyterial Church divided into many Congregations necessarily at least for some Ordinances as the Lords Supper c. yet governed by one common Presbytery and yet alwaies called one Church But whether their Officers were fixed in the several Congregations or no I know not neither do I think it can be proved Secondly The subject about which their office was exercised was not the Ordinances of worship or discipline as the other offices were but about alm◠which in their own nature are or ought to be and were then voluntary And in regard those alms come not by divine dispensation as the immediate gift of Christ to the Church though they be commanded indeed by Christ but out of mens purses by contribution being a money matter in which the Congregation hath or had propriety there may be something said for the limitation of that office in their act of ordinary distribution to the members of that single or combined Church contributing that it may be performed according to the will of the donors to whom also the Deacons are to render an account Thirdly I desire the manner of the Apostles speech in setting down Deacons and governours may be considered not adding an ordinal numeral unto it as to Apostles Prophets and Teachers but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 deinde and 2ly interposing 2 extraordinary endowments of miracles and gifts of healing and 3. the change of speech from the concrete to the abstract helps governments Which though they imply men by whom they are to be exercised viz. helpers and governours yet are not so set down what the meaning of the holy Ghost is herein I cannot affirm but I conceive that the office of Apostles Prophets Teachers is of somewhat more large extent then the other two because they were executed as well without the Church though set in it as within it viz. among heathens for their conversion And in Ecclesia constituendâ the other in constitutâ only and the exerting of the Deacons office not so usually and frequently out of the limits of their particular Churches as theirs that are intrusted with the preaching of the word nor yet their call thereunto so facil as the others for to the exerting of government there is required a voluntary combination of many instituted Churches and for distribution to other Churches there is required a more then ordinary necessity and the consent of the particular Church contributing but no such solemn call is required to the preaching the word in any other Church or Churches But fourthly more directly to the Objection Though alms which is the subject of the Deacons office be not reckoned among the Ordinances given by Christ but are the gift of particular men in particular Congregations as the rest of them yet the necessity command and distribution of them may extend further then the particular Church and in that regard the office of Deacons which is to collect and distribute extends it self equally We are bidden to do good to all but especially to the houshold of faith i. e. as we have occasion and ability which is as extensive as the Church-Catholike Any forreign Church may stand in need of our contribution and distribution And even the Law of our land enjoyneth that if any Congregation cannot maintain their poor there should be help by collections from other neighbouring Congregations And the maimed souldiers of the whole County are maintained by constant collection from every town in the County and there are County Treasurers that receive it which are as it were County-Deacons And if a great Town be visited with the plague or suffer losses by fire c. it is frequent to make collections for them in many Countries Yea for whole Counties as the whole Kingdom hath lately done for Lancashire yea for a whole Kingdom as for our own Kingdom under war yea for forreign Kingdoms as England yea and the Netherlands though under another civil regiment have done for Ireland And we reade what the Churches of Asia did for the Churches of Jerusalem And we have had contribution to redeem captivated Christians under the Turk and not only of our own Nation but other Nations sometimes Grecians Now though these contributions and collections run among us in another channel viz. through the hands of Church-wardens Overseers Constables Collectors yet this is the proper work of the Deacons and therefore that office in regard of the extent of their possible object may well be said to be habitually Catholike or given to the Church-Catholike though their constant distribution should be limited to their own Congregations Another proof is from 1 Tim. 3.15 Sect. 5. These things I write unto thee that thou maist know how thou oughtest to behave thy self in the house of God which is the Church of the living God the pillar and ground of the truth This Church must be the visible Church where he and others must exist and converse together and carry themselves in mutual duties Also it must be an organical Church for the Epistle containeth directions about Bishops and Deacons yea even in the context Neither can the directions be solely concerning Ephesus for they are written to Timothy an Evangelist the limits of whose office are commensurable to the Apostles though under them Neither do they concern Ephesus in any especially manner but all Churches where ever Timothy should come Therefore not to it particularly For he prescribeth canons concerning publike praier and the habit and carriage of women in the Church concerning the office of Bishops and Deacons concerning the censuring and reproof of all degrees the Ordination and maintenance of Elders the choice and provision for widows concerning the duties of servants and a charge to rich men not of Ephesus particularly or only but every where Neither did they concern Ephesus primarily for the Officers were already set in that Church Paul found Elders there Act. 20.17 in his visitation of them and had lived there three years vers 31. as himself
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
external donative regiment of Christ over his visible Church-Catholike dispensed by Ordinances and Officers here below which shall then cease And though the Ordinances as he alledgeth are distinct from the Kingdom in sense and signification Yet they strongly argue a Kingdom constituted and governed by them as the Kings laws argue a King and Kingdom As from helps and governments 1 Cor. 12.28 we gather the consequence of helpers and governours as officers in the Church so from the external laws of this Kingdom we necessarily conclude there is such a Kingdom commensurable to the extent of these laws and that external Organical and Catholike which is spoken of Isa 9.6 And the 25. ver makes it plain for he must reign until he hath put all enemies under his feet which reigning relates to professed Subjects as well as professed enemies and these Subjects comprehended in a Kingdom Again Heb. 12.28 Wherefore we receiving a Kingdom which cannot be moved let us have grace whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear This Kingdom cannot be meant of the internal Kingdom of grace in the heart for that was also exercised by Christ in his peoples hearts under the old Testament but it is meant of the external unalterable perpetual Ordinances of worship and government which differed from those under the Law else the Apostles antithesis of the Church under the Law and the Church under the Gospel had not been good which are the things he compares in that place Externals under the Law are opposed to externals under the Gospel It cannot be meant of the Kingdom of glory for they had not yet received that And it is plain he speaks of a Kingdom wherein we may now serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear Now these Ordinances of worship and discipline being Catholike or universal and relating to a Kingdom and therefore set down under the name of a kingdom by a Metonymy of the subject for the adjunct the Kingdom for the Ordinances of the Kingdom do strongly argue the being of the Kingdom Can we conceive that the holy Ghost would chuse to use such a metonymy of the subject where there is no such subject It is true as is alledged the unalterablenesse lyeth in the adjunct Ordinances i. e. in regard of God who will not alter them and that the subject or kingdom may be moved and shaken by persecutions or heresies and so may the Ordinances also and have been we know but that kinde of alteration moving or shaking is not meant in the text neither was intended by me I have the rather mentioned this text because I finde one of our brethren for Congregational Churches viz. M. William Sedgwick giving this Exposition of it in a Sermon of his in print which was preached before divers members of the House of Commons Sect. 6. Again 1 Cor. 5.12 The Apostle saith what have I to doe to judge those that are without The preposition or adverb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I desire to know what it doth relate unto Is it not meant 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without the Church And can we think that that Church was the Church of Corinth only Had Paul nothing to do to judge any that were out of the Church of Corinth when he was an Apostle all over the Christian world This could not be meant of the invisible company only what had Paul nothing to do to censure any but invisible members Why did he then excommunicate Hymenaeus Philetus Phigellus Hermogenes and Alexander And saith I would they were cut off that trouble you Also it must be meant of an Organical body because here are censures mentioned as belonging to all within And therefore it must be meant of the Church-Catholike visible Organical What have I to do to judge those that are not brought into the Church They are not under my power or cognizance but belong only to the civil Magistrate And we usually speak of the Countreys that are within the Pale of the Church and those that are without And we have an axiome Extra Ecclesiam non est salus which cannot be meant of any particular Congregation in the world but is true of the Church-Catholike visible typified by the Ark of Noah without which ordinarily and visibly there is no hope of salvation Extra ejus gremium non est speranda peccatorum remissio Calv. Inst l. 4 c. 1. S. 4. Again Eph. 4.4 5. The Apostle proveth the Church to be but one by divers Arguments First saith he There is one body of Christ which is therefore called Eph. 3.6 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 both of Jews and Gentiles i. e. the same body And this an Organical body because Paul addeth ver 7. whereof I was made a Minister Secondly there is but one spirit in that whole body which is as one soul in one body Thirdly there is but one hope of their calling Fourthly There is but one Lord or King over the whole Church Fifthly There is but one faith i. e. One religion doctrine worship the same Commands and Statutes for all Sixthly There is but one Baptism to admit into this Church Now if the whole world were under one King and governed by one Law and all one body and all capable of the same priviledges and all made Denizons by the same way of enrowlment it would make but one Empire yet so it is with all the Christians and Churches in the world they have the same King Law Word Sacraments of admission and nutrition which they visibly subject themselves unto and receive therefore they are all one visibly Church Upon this text ver 12. Beza in his large Annotations hath this note Being the Church is to be considered either as a Communalty of a sacred Common-wealth or as a spiritual Temple or as a mystical body the ministery of the word ought likewise to be referred to these three heads c. All which 3. considerations shew the unity and integrality of the whole And that this is meant of the visible Church and not invisible or Triumphant as M. Ellis conceiveth appeareth because it is the Church to whom Officers are given ver 11. to be edified ver 12 13. compacted together by joints ver 16. of whom mutual duties both religious and civil are required for such are set down in that Chapter and the following And so M. Hooker understands it Surv. p. 3 where he cites this text for the political body or Church visible of Christ ruled by the donative delegated power of Christ and that visibly by his Ordinances and officers It is therefore the militant visible Church which holdeth forth the truth Phil. 2.16 contending for it Jude 3. Into which the thief may possibly enter Joh. 10. Act. 20.29 30. Again Christ saith Mat. 16.18 On this rock will I build my Church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it Was this a particular Congregation No surely but the Church Catholike for any particular Church may
be prevailed against but the whole shall not The place is meant of a Church future to be built which Christ then intended to set up which was the Evangelical Catholike Church consisting of Jews and Gentiles as one body and not Catholike as some take it for the Church past present and to come for those already in heaven are out of gunne-shot of assault but it is meant de Ecclesia vivorum de militante de Ecclesia quam Christus erat aedificaturus Object O but this place is meant only of the Church invisible for they that are only visible may be prevailed against Answ It is true that any particular meerly visible member may be prevailed against yet all shall not and even the invisible members which cannot be prevailed against so many as are left in any though never so general and fierce persecution shall remain as visible For Ecclesia nunquam definit esse visibilis Therefore Satan or men shall never so far prevail as to cut off all visible members And though heresies should come that deceive all but the elect which is not supposable yet as long as the Elect are not deceived there remaineth a Church Catholike visible still in their visibility But it cannot be affirmed that all are invisible members that are left or hold out in the hottest persecutions or subtlest heresies strong enlightnings and covictions and struglings of conscience and other by-ends may do much Latent members may not be invisible But the reasons which induce me to think that this text is meant of the Church visible are these two I finde in the context First because this Church is built upon this visible or audible profession that Christ is the sonne of God which Peter made The rock there spoken of is not an indefinite Messiah to come for so the Church from the beginning of the world was built on that work but the profession and doctrine that the Messiah is already come that this Jesus is the Messiah and this Jesus the Messiah is the sonne of God It is the confessing that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh 1 Joh. 4.2 3. And the beleeving that I am he saith Christ Joh. 8.24 And therefore the Jews that believed before in an indefinite Messiah to come were upon their conversion to the Christian faith built upon this rock and by a new Sacrament admitted into this Christian Church as well as the Gentiles Secondly Because Christ immediatly in the next verse affixeth officers to this Church by promising the keys of the Kingdom of heaven unto Peter and not to him only but to the rest also as appears in other places which keys are an Ensign of office in that Church which Christ would build Thirdly Because the admission into this Evangelical Church was upon a visible profession of their belief of this doctrine and a visible receiving of a visible external badg of baptisme Fourthly Because this Church is assaulted by visible adversaries viz. persecutors and hereticks and that visibly and though they shall never wholly prevail against it yet visibly waste great part of it many times And M. Hooker himself acknowledgeth that he doth incline to this judgement of this text viz. that it is the visible Church that is there meant Surv. c. 15. p. 278. Only he objecteth against a reason which I brought of it which was to this purpose If all the visible members should fail then all the invisible must needs fail also for none are invisible in the Church I mean but must be visible also His Objection against this is because an invisible member may be justly excommunicated and so cast out of all the visible Churches in the world and so be no visible member and yet remain an invisible member still for that membership cannot be lost Answ It is very doubtful to me how far excommunication casteth a man out of the visible Church it debars him indeed from the Lords Supper because it is a seal and from familiar intimate society with Gods people because he is an infected member and so doth a notorious sinne though the man be not excommunicated But I conceive it cuts him not off totally from the visible Church For first the seal of baptism remaineth on him and therefore is not iterated at his readmission Secondly he is admitted to hearing the word and prayer and conference with Gods people He is a diseased leprous member under censure shut from the most intimate actual communion until he be cured and cleansed That which is done to him is under consideration of discipline as to a member now diseased in order to cure not as to one that is damned or to one that is under the sinne against the holy Ghost as Julian the Apostate was And if any godly person through weaknesse of judgement concerning Churches not rightly gathered refuse to be baptized as M. Hooker suggesteth he is indeed no compleat member in that regard but he being converted by visible means and making visible profession he is an incompleat visible member of the Church-Catholike Entitive Again Excommunication in 3 Ep. Joh. ver 10. is called casting out of the Church What Church is that It cannot be the invisible Church for all the censures in the world cannot cast a man out of that if once he be in therefore it is the visible Church Then I would know whether a man truly excommunicated in one Church or Congregation is not thereby excommunicated from brotherly fellowship with all Congregations yea and Christians not gathered yet into Congregations Or whether the delivering up to Satan by the Officers of a particular Congregation be only within the bounds of one Congregation or in reference to their members only so that if he remove out of such a circle or circuit of ground to another or from those members to others he be out of Satans bonds again and may communicate there de jure This M. Hooker saith is per Synecdochen generis pro Specie that particular Church where Diotrephes usurped preheminence is understood For when a person is justly excommunicated from the Congregation in which he was it follows of necessity that all that fellowship he might enjoy by vertue of communion of Churches must of that necessity be denied unto him and he justly deprived thereof because in the vertue of his fellowship with one he gained fellowship with others Answ Whether the word Church be there properly or per Synecdochen generis or Synecdochen Integri I shall not now enquire but refer it to a Chapter by it self in which shall be enquired whether the Church-Catholike be a genus or integrum But I question much whether a mans fellowship with one Congregation be the ground whereby he gaineth fellowship and communion with others For then how came the Apostles and Evangelists by right of communion with any Churches seeing they were fixed members of none And how could the 120. and 3000. converted by Peter have right of communion and breaking bread together before
execution there if guilty So all Church-administrations are by the same laws and upon the same command and persons of any Church in the world may hear sing pray and communicate any where indefinitely upon occasion though constantly the particular members only enjoy those particular administrations from those particular Officers I answer further that the Church-Catholike may act visibly by their delegates as a Kingdom in a Parliament in a general Councel if they can convene though their power were wholly consultatory and suasory as some pleade but it is more All their debates arguings pro con all their advice and decrees are visible therefore the whole whose delegates they are is visible also The invisible Church as invisible send none 8. If it be our duty to joyn our selves visibly to the Church-Catholike then it is visible But we ought to joyn our selves to the Church-Catholike Therefore c. The Assumption none will deny As soon as the 3000. were converted by Peter they were added to the Church Christians may not stand alone independently Now that must be a visible Church that we must joyn unto for the invisible is within the visible and cannot be known God commands no impossibilities It is true indeed we must joyn to some particular Congregation as a forreigner coming over into England to inhabit being naturalized must dwell in some particular Town but to that Congregation as a member of the whole wherein we may enjoy the general priviledges of subjects of Christ first and the particular priviledges of that Congregation secondarily There is no particular command to joyn to this or that particular Congregation but the whole necessity compelleth to choose one Our particular joyning to this or that Congregation is not in obedience to the command for then had we joyned to another we had broken a command therefore that is arbitrary and limited by civil habitation necessarily 9. If the accidents of the whole Church be visible then so is the whole Church But there be visible accidents of the whole Church Therefore c. An invisible subject hath not visible accidents But so hath the whole Church as beauty strength order amplitude which may encrease or decrease and these are accidents of the whole arising and resulting from all the parts conjoyned and made up of the beauty strength order and amplitude of all the parts Also there may be general visible opposition against the whole Church not because in particular confederation but the general These persecutors are visible their actions are visibly managed by attachments prisons fire and faggot their effects visible fines imprisonments confiscation banishment and death and therefore the object hereof the whole Church must needs be visible also And all this meerly because they belong to Christ and have given up their names to him And because they will not visibly run to the same excesse of riot or worship the same Idols that they do 10. If the parts of the whole Church be visible so is the whole But the parts of the whole Church are visible Therefore c. By parts I mean not the particular persons only but particular Congregations Now none deny the particular Churches to be visible neither our brethren for Congregational Churches nor yet the separation And Gerard though he will not grant the Church Catholike to be visible yet saith Ecclesias particulares visibiles esse concedimus The consequence will necessarily follow for the visibility of the whole results out of the visibility of the parts An innumerable number of visible parts cannot make an invisible whole Against this M. Ellis vind 59. alledgeth that it is too lax a medium in so weighty a subject as this is Sect. 4. There is saith he great difference between natural and metaphysical or civil and politick bodies For in a natural body all whose parts and members are actually and naturally joyned together the whole is visible because the parts are visible but in a metaphysical body or totum or whole that is in Generals that are by the reason of man drawn from particulars the case is far otherwise Peter James and John are visible but manhood which is the universal agreeing to them all is not visible This being the same with my first Objection I set down in my Thesis one answer shall serve for both Answ M. Ellis knows I took not the Church-Catholike for a Genus but an Integral But let it be supposed a Genus for argument sake or as M. Hooker cals it Totum genericum existens which is something fairer then M. Ellis's grant for by M. Ellis's reasoning the Church-Catholike should be a Genus drawn by the reason of man and so existing only in intellectu nostro I say suppose the Church-Catholike to be a Genus and the particular Churches Species yet this is not sufficient to make the Church-Catholike to be invisible Will any man say that Animal est substantia invisibilis because it existeth only in homine bruto Indeed animality in the abstract is invisible but not animal in concreto so Ecclesietas as I may say is invisible but Ecclesia is visible Visibility is an accident belonging primarily to a higher Genus then animal viz. Corpus celoratum and though every Individual animal is visible as John and James yet not quà John or James but as coloured bodies and if a higher Genus be visible which is nearer Ens and further from Individuals then much more animal So in this case the Church-Catholike is a society of men and that M. Ellis denyeth not now every society of men is visible and therefore the Church which is a species of society must needs be so also for the visibility doth not betide it because it is a particular Congregation but because it is a society of men which is a higher Genus I mean this in a logical consideration Then he proceeds to deny a civil body or Corporation if great as an Empire Kingdom or large city to be seen in it self but in the parts Answ Here he confounds visibile and visum uno intuitu and by this reasoning he should deny the visibility of the world or any particular man for all his parts cannot be seen uno intuitu Attamen insaniat qui neget se videre hominem saith Cameron Yea the sun it self should not be visible by this reasoning because we can see but the surface of it He could not be ignorant that I did not mean that the Church-Catholike was actually seen uno intuitu And whereas I had said the whole is visible because the parts are so He saith it is untrue even in the smallest bodies but where the parts are actually united together not where they are thousands of miles asunder Answ It is true indeed in natural and artificial bodies whose being or integrality consisteth in a corporeal continuity or contiguity of parts for if that continuity or contiguity ceaseth the integral also ceaseth except in potentiâ But in political bodies joyned
Oecumenical be one visible Church it is necessary that they should all meet together at some times Answ It is not at all necessary neither to the unity nor yet to the visibility of the Church It is sufficient that the persons be visible in their several places and that they be combined together under the same head by visible laws and profession under the same visible seal and enrowlment walk visibly in the same godly conversation before men pray one for another as fellow-members rejoyce in the wel-fare and mourn for the ill-fare one of another and contribute assistance one to another as occasion is offered As therefore it is not needful to the unity or visibility of a kingdom or Empire that they should meet together sometimes so is it not needful for the whole Church indeed there may be some conveniency in both ad benè vel optimum esse sed non ad esse simpliciter This M. Ellis excepteth against vin p. 55. First he asketh whether ever there were such a kingdom in the world that the members did not meet sometimes if it be not a meer visible monarchy as under Popery If there be any liberty left to the Subjects c. Answ Let him shew that ever the four Monarchies did meet together respectively either in their persons or deputies or delegates from every Province yet that hindered not their unity nor visibility And his answer implyeth that the Ecclesiastical Monarchy under Popery did never meet He makes it but a sign of liberty to meet not a sign of visibility And for the point of liberty inherent in the subjects as their proper right distinct from what is derived and given by Christ as their head there was never any Monarchy so meerly depending on the will of the Monarch as the Church-visible on Christ for the Church deriveth all its power from Christ and hath all its laws given and imposed only by Christ without any vote of the Churches in the making of them It is probable that the kingdoms under the four Monarchies had some enjoyment of their municipal laws only might have some imperial general laws superadded but it is not so in this for the whole Church as a Church hath no laws but of Christs arbitrary donation Christians are not subdued by Christ as Englishmen were by William the Conquerour viz. on condition that he would suffer them to enjoy their former rights and the Laws of Edward the Confessor but absolutely to receive Laws from him And yet this can neither be thought tyranny in Christ nor yet slavery in us for Christs Laws are more beneficial to us then any of our own making and his service is perfect freedom And yet we reade of general Councels of the Church by their delegates which were as it were a ministerial Church-Catholike which in former times of the Church under Christian Emperours were frequent and there is no intrinsecal let in the Church that they do not meet so still but only extrinsecal and extraneous by reason of the divisions among the civil Governours but even in our daies a great part of that great body hath met as in the Synod of Dort c. by Commissioners D. Whitakers and Apollonius acknowledge the meeting Act. 1. to be a general Councel The members were the Apostles who were Pastours of the Church-Catholike and brethren out of Galilee and Jerusalem The work was to elect an Apostle who was to be a Pastor of the universal Church and they that undertake and dispatch such a businesse which concerns the extraordinary teaching and government of the whole Church should represent the whole Church-Catholike M. Ellis vin p. 25. utterly denyeth that ever there was any general Councel which might be said to be the Church-Catholike viz. ministerially But I took general in the usual sense of it and not precisely considered He knows the four Councels are known by the name of The four general Councels And so himself cals them vind p. 15. l. 37. I took the term general in the sense that we cal the four Monarchies the Monarchies of the whole world and yet we know there were many countries that were never under them And as Luke Act. 2.5 saith there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews devout men out of every nation under heaven and yet there were many Nations where Jews never dwelt some of which were discovered lately But let him look into Euseb de vita Constantini lib. 3. and Socrates Scholast lib. 1. cap. 8. and he shall finde from how many Countries the first Councel of Nice was gathered There were gathered saith he together into one the chief Ministers of God inhabiting all the Churches throughout all Europe Africk and Asia That sacred Synod framed as it were by the handy-work of God received also both Syrians and Cilicians and such as came from Phoenicia Aegypt Arabia Palaestina Thebais Lybia and Mesopotamia There was also in this Synod the Bishop of Persis of Pontus Galaâ—ia Pamphilia Cappadocia Asia and Phrygia Moreover the Thracians Macedonians Achaians Epirotes Also of the Spaniards there was an eminent man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Bishop of the imperial city 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 viz. Rome by reason of his old age absented himself yet there were present of his Presbyters which supplyed his room Divers things M. Ellis excepteth against that Councel as some extraordinarinesse in the summoning of the members of it without election and delegation of the particular Churches And that Constantine was the visible head of it and that he called for Bishops chiefly if not only which will not be pertinent here to answer Something there might be extraordinary in the summons for the civil and Ecclesiastical State not concurring together until Constantine haply there could not be a regular election In extraordinary times and cases our brethren will grant something may be done extraordinarily as there is in the calling of this present Assembly as is acknowledged by M. Gillespy There were also others besides Bishops and Ministers Neither did Constantine either sit as President of it nor presume to be head but confesseth himself to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but by his civil sanction he did confirm their decrees and send them abroad Neither is there any ground that in that or any other Councel the members acted only each for his own particular Church that sent him as M. Ellis suggesterh but the whole for the whole as far as their delegation was I acknowledge there is power given to every particular Church to rule it self and exercise the discipline of the Church for the being and well-being of it ordinarily Yet so as it is a part of the whole Church into which also the censures there passed have influence And on some great occasions there may be cause to ferch help further as Cranmer appealed to a general Councel But if that extensive power cannot be had as now it is very difficult then must the particular
and metaphors whereby the Church-Catholike is called and set out in Scripture which are taken from things which are not only each of them an Integral but each of them one Organical body and in eâ formali ratione lyeth the analogy between them and the Church It is compared unto a natural body which is an organical integral having many members and Organs which though they lie indeed in the several members yet are Organs of the whole and the several members members of the whole and doe their several actions and perform their several offices for the good of the whole and sympathize together 1 Cor. 12.12 For as the body is one and hath many members and all the members of that one body being many are one body so also is Christ This is not meant of the Church of Corinth only but of the Catholike Church because it is the whole body to which Christ is the head and Christs person as the head of the whole and this whole body is called Christ i. e. mystically the whole receiving denomination from the better part the head And so M. Bartlet takes it in his Model pag. 35. for the whole Church And so all Expositors that I have met with except some few of late who to avoid the dint of this argument would have it meant of the Church of Corinth as a particular Church But it will sound very harsh to make Christ and the Church of Corinth to be called Christ when they are but the head and a part of Christs body It is the body whereof Paul was a member v. 13. We are all baptized where Paul puts in himself and all beleevers Object But this is meant of the invisible company of beleevers Answ It is true but it is spoken of them as visible because it is brought in there to shew the diversities of gifts offices operations and administrations in the visible Church there is an eye and an ear c. mentioned and the Officers of the Church named now there are no Officers of the invisible Church as invisible nor different administrations as they are members of the invisible body they are all similar and have the same standing and operations of their general calling as Christians not as Apostles Prophets Evangelists c. And many that have these common gifts of the holy Ghost which are by the Spirit of Christ and the Offices there mentioned were not invisible members of Christ yet were not only members but Officers in this body there spoken of It is also the visible body there meant because the 2. external seals viz. Baptism and the Lords Supper are specified in v. 1◠as means and signs of this union in one body and they are visibly administred There is an invisible body of Christ and a visible the invisible is in organical the visible organical the invisible while they are in the visible Church are visible members thereof and so put on the relation of Officer and private member It is true some things are spoken of the whole in reference to the better part the invisible number and as they 〈◊〉 professed themselves to be of the invisible body so the Apostle speaks of them and to them as if they were as they ought to be and at least made a shew as if they were But that the place is meant of an organical body as one is out of question and that the analogy between the Church and such a body lay in the unity and organicalnesse is as clear The like is spoken Rom. 12.4 5. For as we have many members in one body and all members have not the same office so we being many are one body in Christ and every one members one of another It is the Church-Catholike not Roman particular Church Paul puts in himself yet had never been at Rome then It is organical for the Officers are there enumerated It is one for there is a sympathy of members spoken of To this purpose is that of Salmas Retinebitur 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 communicativa 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 inter omnia membra Dominici corporis i. e. Ecclesiae quae nisi una sit non potest esse vera Appar p. 281. Also it is set out by a political body Sometimes it is called a kingdom and the kingdom of heaven as I shewed before out of many places of Scripture Now a Kingdom is one Organical body for so many men living together within the same limits make not a Kingdom but as it is combined by the same Laws under one Governour or Government In the Heptarchy this one Kingdom since under one King and body of laws were seven Kingdoms Now if the Church-Catholike bears such an analogy to one Kingdom as to be called a Kingdom it is from this that it is one organized Integral It is also called a city and sometimes Jerusalem and as it is reformed it is called new Jerusalem and the members both of Jews and Gentiles are called fellow-citizens Eph. 2.19 Now a City is one Organical body under one common government otherwise so many houses or streets and inhabitants being together would not make them a City Sometimes the buildings and inhabitants which if under one government would make one city and Corporation being great and near and haply contiguous yet wanting a charter to make them a Corporation are none yea by difference of Charter Government and chief Governours are two Cities as London and Westminster The Church-Catholike therefore being one city is one organical body Also it is set out sometimes by one martial or military body and is called an Army terrible with banners Cant. 6. 10. which by some is interpreted Church-censures M. Cotton indeed expounds it of the Church of the Jews when they shall be called home by conversion to the Christian faith to be sure it is the Church-militant Now an Army is one organical body under one General and the same Laws martial though quartered in divers places therefore so is the Church-Catholike It is also set out by an Oeconomical body a family or houshold Eph. 2.19 Now a family is one Organical body wherein are Governours or a Governour and governed an husband father or master and therefore so is the Church-Catholike else the analogy should not hold All these metaphors and many more whereby the Church-Catholike is set out shew it one visible organical body Secondly That the Church-Catholike visible is one society virtually and habitually appears because by Baptism where-ever administred the baptized visible beleever is admitted a member not of the particular Church among whom he was baptized nor to bear any special relation to the Minister baptizing him that he must take a special inspection over him as one of his particular flock and charge but into the whole general body of Christs kingdom visible For as I shewed before there was Baptism administred as the seal of the general covenant before particular Congregations were set up See more of this Qu. 2. S. 2.
and S. 8. And also because by excommunication a person is not cast out of that Congregation only where the censure was past but out of general communion with all other Churches in the world even the whole visible body of Christ Certificates indeed we finde in Scripture to others of their excommunication that so others might avoid communion with them As of the excommunication of Hymeneus and Alexander 1 Tim. 1.20 And so we reade also of certificates of Apostates who it is like were excommunicated As of Phigellus and Hermogenes 2. Tim. 1.15 And of Hyntentus and Philetus a Tim. 2.17 The former of which was encommunicated and it is probable the latter also by the same reason The like certificate we finde again of Alexander 2 Tim. 4.14 15. But no new act of excommunication past upon them any where else Alexander Bishop of Alexandria having excommunicated Eusebius Bishop of Nicomedia an Arian writes an Epistle to certifie it to all other Ministers Charissimis honoratissimisque fratribus qui ubique gentium sunt nobiscum in Ecclesiae ministerio conjuncti 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cum in sacris literis sit unum corpus Ecclesiae Catholicae nobis traditum c. therefore he signifyeth by letters what he had done 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Socrat. lib. 1. cap. 3. Nine Bishops excommunicated Jovius and Maximus and that excommunication by Cyprian and others was approved as valid The like we finde of Novatus excommunicated at Rome by Cornelius and a Councel there and it was certified to Fabius Bishop of Antioch and approved by him and by Dionysius Bishop of Alexandria to whom the Epistles came Euseb lib. 6. cap. 35. And Santo satenus excommunicated at Antioch was so accounted of the whole world Niceph. 6.28 The Novatians excommunicated in Africk are so held at Rome Cyp. l. 1. Ep. 3. and 13. Thirdly It appears to be one organical body by the identity of the external Covenant charter promises and laws of the whole Church The Covenant charter and promises are but one grant not one Covenant in kinde and many species thereof but one individual Covenant of grace granted to the whole Church This is not the Covenant whereby particular Congregations are said to be constituted but the whole body The Churches constituted by particular Covenants are alterable divisible extinguishible as M. Norton confesseth p. 30. which this is not they are many and particular Covenants this one and general they are accidental humane arbitrary and superadded this essential divine necessary and prime And though this Covenant may seem but to belong to the Church as Entitive yet the Laws which are also one visible systeme argue it to be organical because they relate to Officers and discipline and they binde all not only vimateriae but as proceeding from the same fountain and authour the King of the whole Church not quà particular members but quà members of the whole Fourthly It appears by the general right of communion that all the members have habitually and indefinitely to joyn in as providence offereth opportunity though not cast into a Congregational combination as all cannot be Any visible beleever under the seal of Baptism only hath an inherent right to worship with any other visible Christians in confession petition thanksgiving and praise and to prophecy with them in the Apostles sense i. e. joyn with them in partaking of that Ordinance to sing with them and receive the Lords Supper with them and to be entreated by any Minister as an Ambassadour of Christ to be reconciled 2 Cor. 5.20 and is bound to submit to the doctrinal admonitions and reproofs of any Minister according to the word and the reason why any Minister may not passe a judicial censure also if there be cause seeing the keys are commensurable is not because he wants habitual power in discipline at well as doctrine but because that is to be performed in a Court of Elders and a strange Minister wants a call to joyn with any such Court to bring his habitual power into act yet our brethren will non-communion or deny communion with a stranger if they have any thing against him which is virtually a suspension of him yea if they have not positive assurance by testimony not of his being in the general Covenant for that is requisite but of his being a fixed member of some other Congregation which they approve of not only for having the essentials of a Church but as a pure Church for upon that ground they deny the communion to some members of our Churches that go over with certificates though not to members of their own Churches because they judge us as impure Indeed certificates are requisite from strangers to notifie their general right by being in the general Covenant and to notifie their personal innocency from errour or scandal which might debar them But they only declare a right they give none neither doth their right proceed from the membership of the particular Congregation from whence they come but from the general which is implyed in their particular membership because Congregations consist only of such and they are witnesses of his godly conversation he having lived with them As for judicial Ecclesiastical censures I confesse it is most orderly to turn the accused person and his accusations to his own Congregation where an Eldership hath taken the particular inspection of him and have power in actu secundo already called forth to deal with him but suppose they will not or neglect it or he will not return but abide still in another place or suppose he be not a fixed member in any Congregation but a wandring star and yet is a baptized person and is very scandalous or very erroneous and fit to infect the persons among whom he converseth shall there be no remedy for that Congregation For ought I know they may put their general habitual power into act and upon sufficient witnesse proceed against him and finding him obstinate may excommunicate him as well as a civil Officer will keep the kings peace in his own Town by clapping an unruly riotous or traiterous stranger by the heels if he take him within his limits Fifthly I might argue also from the opposition of the adversaries of the Church both Satan and persecutours who oppose it not essentially only but politically their spite being against the Officers and Organs of the Church not only quà Christians but quà Ministers not quà Ministers of this or that particular Congregation but quà the Ministers of the Church and not only as dispensers of Word and Sacraments but as dispensers of censures especially for they do most usually gaul men and move their anger They look upon the Church as one body and upon Ministers as Officers of the Church in a general consideration and so may we Sixthly Sect. 5. It appears by the indefinitenesse of the office of Ministers which I reserved for the last because I shall dilate a little more upon it then
the former And indeed upon this hinge hangeth the whole question of the Organical integrality of the Church Catholike visible And turn the question which way you will it will rest on this center viz. Whether a Minister be a Minister to any but his own Congregation I finde M. Ellis affirming that a Minister is an Officer only to his own Congregation vind p. 8. And the answer of the Elders of several Churches in New-England unto 9. Positions p. 8. Their words are these If you mean by Ministerial act such an act of authority and power in dispensing of Gods Ordinances as a Minister doth perform to the Church whereunto he is called to be a Minister then we deny that he can so perform any Ministerial act to any other Church but his own because his office extends no further then his call So M. Best in his Church-Plea p. 30 saith Officers of Churches may be helpful to other Churches as Christians but not as Ministers To the same purpose M. Bartlet in his model p. 69. Hereby it appears they suppose the Ordination of a Minister to his office is limited to the particular Congregation that call him Indeed the call of the people exerts or cals forth the exercise of his office unto them in particular constantly but his Ordination to his office is more general and giveth him habitual power in actu primo to exercise and perform the acts belonging to his office elsewhere upon a call Christ giveth the office and hath annexed power of dispensing his Ordinances the Presbytery ministerially admit this or that man into it not as a Presbytery of that particular Congregation for they may none of them belong unto it but as a Presbytery of Christs Ministers having a call to give that Ordination in a regular way and the particular Congregation by desire and election give a call to the exercise of this power among them pro his nunc Habitu potestate omnes Episcopi sunt Episcopi cujusvis in orbo vel paraecia vel provinciae quia in quavis apti sunt habiles idonei exercere Episcopalia sua munera quando illuc legitimè vocantur ac mittamtur Actu verò quoad legitimum exercitium ibi solummodò Episcopi sunt ubi per missionem vocationem illam modiatam Dei c. huic illive Paraeciae c. praeficiuntur Crakenthorp Def. Eccl. Aug. c. 28. Now that a Minister is a Minister and so habitually in office to more then his own Congregation and therefore indefinitely to all the whole Church will appear by these proofs First because the donation of the keys and the institution and commission of the Evangelical Ministery was in reference to the whole Go teach all Nations and baptize them Whenas yet there was no distinction of Congregations God set some in the Church first Apostles secondarily Prophets thirdly Teachers 1 Cor. 12.28 So Eph. 4.12 As God gave the Levites to the whole house of Israel and they did at first in the wildernesse serve all the Tribes conjunctim as one body of Officers over one combined large Congregation but afterwards when the Tribes were dispersed in Canaan the Levites were dispersed among all the Tribes and exercised their office of teaching and judging in the several places where they dwelt yet this divested them not of their general habitual power this made not their office to stand in relation to the particular city or Synagogue vvhere they did constantly exercise and when they removed from place to place as the wandring Levite Jud. 17.8 did they still retained their habitual office and power and needed no new consecration but by vertue of their office did exercise the acts belonging to it where they had their particular station and call So is it with the Evangelical Ministery of the New Testament a Minister of the Gospel bears a double relation one to the Church-Catholike indefinitely another to that particular Congregation over which he is set for the constant exercise of his office And if he removes to another place he needs no new Ordination for that continueth and abideth still upon him it being to the essence of his office and not in reference either to the place from whence he cometh or to which he goeth only A Physician or Lawyer needeth no new license or call to the Bar though they remove to other places and have other patients and clients The Justice of peace who is in commission for the whole County though he exercised it in one part of the County while he lived there yet if he removes to the other end of the County he needeth no new commission to execute his office there where he never did before because it was habitual to the whole County though actually exercised where he lived so though a Minister removes he needeth no new Ordination but a new call to the exercise of his office there no more then a private Christian by removing into another Congregation needeth a new Baptism because neither Ordination nor Baptism stand in relation to the particular Congregation but the Church-Catholike As he that is admitted a freeman in any Hall of any Company in London is admitted a freeman of the whole City as well as of that Company and he that by reason of his birth hath right to be baptized in any Congregation is admitted a member of the whole society of the Church-Catholike visible as well as of that Congregation so he that is ordained a Minister as by the occasion of the call of a particular Congregation he is ordained their particular Minister so also is he ordained a Minister of Christ and the Gospel and Church in general Ordination saith M. Rutherford maketh a man a Pastor under Christ formally and essentially the peoples consent and choice do not make him a Minister but their Minister the Minister of such a Church he is indefinitely made a Pastor for the Church Ruth peaceab plea. 263. And to the same purpose it is that M. Ball saith A Minister chosen and set over one society is to look unto that people committed to his charge c. but he is a Minister in the Church universal for as the Church is one so is the Ministery one of which every Minister sound and Orthodox doth hold his part And though he is a Minister over that flock which he is to attend yet he is a Minister in the Church-universal The function or power of exercising that function in the abstract must be distinguished from the power of exercising it concretely according to the divers circumstances of places The first belongeth to a Minister every where in the Church the latter is proper to the place and people where he doth minister The lawful use of the power is limited to that Congregation ordinarily the power it self is not so bounded In ordination Presbyters are not restrained to one or other certain place as if they were to be deemed Ministers there only though they be set over a
the dust of their feet for a witnesse against them They are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 under-suitors for the Bridegroom Joh. 3.19 to woo such as are of themselves unwilling and to make motions for Christ to such as either heard not before of him or had not before consented unto Christ Fourthly It appears from the actions which every particular Minister doth perform both in his own Congregation and out of it Every Minister doth in his own Congregation serve the Church-Catholike by admitting members into the Church-Catholike and by preaching the word to strangers that come to his Congregation both fixed members of other Congregations and such as are not fixed in any and administring the Lords Supper to members of other Congregations and in other Congregations by preaching or administring the seals there upon a desire And by excommunication they eject not only out of their own but out of the whole They also can keep lectures in other Congregations frequently If it be objected That this is occasionally done and a charitative act and not an act of office I answer indeed charity and necessity may be the occasion of the performance thereof pro hic nunc but that cannot enable them to do it if their office did not give them right and power habitually thereunto no more then to private Christians It is observable what M. Ball in his Trial of the new Church-way saith p. 80. That to suppose a Minister to be a Minister to his own Congregation only and to none other society whatsoever or to what respect soever is contrary to the judgement and practice of the universal Church and tendeth to destroy the unity of the Church and that communion which the Church of God may and ought to have one with another For if he be not a Minister in other Churches then are not the Churches of God one nor the Ministry one not the flock which they feed one nor the communion one which they had each with others Again p. 90. he saith If a Minister may pray preach and blesse another Congregation in the name of the Lord and receive the Sacrament with them we doubt not but he being thereunto requested by consent of the Pastor and the Congregation he may lawfully dispense the seals among them as need and occasion require That distinction of preaching by office and exercising his gifts only when it is done by a Minister and desired of none but Ministers and that in solemn set constant Church-Assemblies we cannot finde warranted in the word of truth and therefore we dare not receive it The Ministers are the light of the world and though they stand like a light upon a particular Candlestick yet are occasionally to enlighten all that they can either that come to them or that they occasionally go among Reverend M. Norton in his answer to Apollonius saith this is mediantibus candelabris Ecclesiarum His words are these cap. 7. pa. 91. Nobis ergo judicibus Ministri ordinarij virtute muneris Ecclesiastici sunt pastores certis Ecclesijs mediantibus candelabris Ecclesiarum ministri omni creaturae pro occasione data c. But this concession is too narrow for every Minister giveth light to others not only as he standeth in his own Candlestick viz. when others come to him but also out of his Candlestick when he goeth to them And when he preacheth or administreth Sacraments abroad he doth it not as the Minister of such a particular Congregation but of the Church-Catholike for the particular Congregation hath nothing to do to send an Officer to exercise his office in another Church if it be confined and peculiar to that particular Congregation only no more then a Corporation can send their Mayor to exercise his office in another Corporation no not charitativè It is therefore mediante officio sive munere by reason of the indefinitenesse of his office not of his particular station and relation that he can dispense the Ordinances to other Congregations M. Norton p. 80. acknowledgeth that a Minister hath potestatem exercendi actus officij charitativè modo debito in aliis Ecclesiis and that this ministerial power whereby he exerciseth such acts in an Ecclesiastical power p. 81. and that it is Ecclesiastical not only in regard of the dispenser and administrer as it is when he preacheth to heathens but in regard of the receivers or people to whom he doth dispense and that Churches non tantum sub ratione Christian â exercent communionem Christianam sed etiam quâ Ecclesiae exercent communionem Ecclesiasticam inter seipsas in seipsis ad invicen quare etiam Ministri praecipuè cum sint partes ejusdem totius organici etiam quà Ministri actus ministeriales officii in Ecclesiiâ— non exercerent And even from this concession of his as I conceive will necessarily follow that every Minister hath an indefinite habitual Ecclesiastical power by vertue of his office in the whole Church-Catholike visible in toto eodem organico which if it may be brought into act and exercise by charity then much more by necessity combination mission or delegation and if for the exercise of one key why not of another so it be in a due manner They are the Stewards of the mysteries of God 1 Cor. 4.1 and though by particular assignment they dispense the Ordinances to a particular company of Christs family yet may not deny them to others of the family that have the same right thereto They are spiritual fathers and do not only beget their own people to Christ ministerially but strangers also They are Christs shepheards and are to neglect none of Christs sheep as opportunity is offered though they have a particular charge of a set flock When M. Ellis preached before the Parliament did he preach as a private Christian a gifted brother or as a Minister Surely they summoned him as a Minister and heard him as a Minister for they could have found many able Gentlemen members of Parliament Lawyers or Citizens who could have spent an hour or two in praier and exposition and exhortation but they never summoned any such to perform that work Or had they summoned him to have been a member of the Reverend Assembly would he have acted there as a private man or as a Minister Or do the dâ—ssenting brethren sit there as private men or keep Lectures in London as private men Indeed skill fitting endowments and willingnesse give a capacity to be called to the office but Ordination and mission giveth habitual power and a call giveth occasion of exercise thereof and of drawing forth that power and office into act A private souldier may have as much skill to leade a Troop as a Captain but he cannot do it authoritatively without a commission so haply many private Christians are able to preach and govern in the Church by reason of their skill knowledge wisedom and faithfulnesse but cannot do it authoritatively having no commission by office thereunto
to obtain an admission into a particular Congregation or haply though visible Christians under the seal of the Covenant yet have not the inward true work of grace in them yet are neither ignorant nor scandalous but live inoffensively and willing to joyn in and submit unto all Gods Ordinances I say what shall become of them and their seed Shall they all be left without the Church in Satans visible Kingdom because they are no particular members and there is no extension of the Ministerial office beyond the particular Congregations Sect. 8. Object If every Minister be a Minister of the Church Catholike visible then what do they differ from Apostles and Evangelists for that was their especial priviledge that their commission extended it self to all Churches This Objection M. Bartlet hath in Model p. 69. Answ There is this difference Every minister hath by his Ordination power in actu primo to administer the Ordinances of God in all the Churches of the Saints yet not in actu secundo without a special call But the Apostles and Evangelists which were vicarij Apostolorum had both and the Evangelists power was called forth by the Apostles for they exercised their function where the Apostles appointed them The Apostles received their office immediatly from and by Christ The Evangelists theirs from Christ by the Apostles ordinary Ministers theirs from Christ indeed but ministerially by the Presbytery The Apostles and Evangelists were not fixed officers in any particular Congregation but itinerant from place to place ordinary Ministers are fixed in their own Congregations They served the Church-Catholike actually wheresoever they became and could draw forth the exercise of their offices without any mediate consent or call of the particular Churches or places but so cannot particular ordinary Ministers So that ordinary Ministers they are Ministers of the Church Catholike though not Catholike Ministers actually But if Ministers be Ministers only in their particular Congregations where they are fixed and to which they were called by the Congregation I marvel that our brethren of the Congregational way here in England are so desirous to have itenerant Ministers to be sent into all parts of the land that shall be fastned to no particular Congregations yea and also to have gifted men not ordained at all to be suffered to preach publikely and constantly in Congregations surely these things are not consistent with their principles CHAP. VII About Combinations of particular Congregations in Classes and of them in Synods A further question is about the combination of Congregations and Elderships in Classes and Synods Sect. 1. For though it cannot be denied but that particular Ministers in their particular Congregations do serve the Church-Catholike in their admissions ejections and other Ordinances as preaching to praying with and administring Sacraments to members of other Churches in their own meeting-houses and upon occasion in other meeting houses for the case is the same whether they come to him or he go to them yet it may be doubted whether the Ministers and Elders may combine together and jointly exercise acts of government c. And though this doth not necessarily belong to my question yet because it hath some reference to the integrality of the Church-Catholike I shall speak something of it Now there is a double Integrality of the Church-Catholike the first is Entitive whereby they are all bound together in the visible embracing profession of and subjection unto the visible doctrine covenant and laws of Christ whereby they become Christians in the genera◠whereby all Christians are bound as opportunity is offered to perform Christian duties one to another as fellow-members ex officio charitatis generali not only by vertue of the moral law but by the law of Christ and to Christ as the King and head of his Church As all dwelling within the kingdom of England are members of the Kingdom and bound to carry themselves as subjects to the governours and laws and as fellow-subjects one to another though they be fixed members of no Corporations nor Townships And this integrality is alwaies actual The second is as it is organical by combination as all the Counties and Corporations and Towns by combination make one kingdom so all the particular Christian Congregations Provinces and Kingdoms by combination make one Church-Catholike visible under Christ Chap. 7. and this is an habitual integrality Of this it is that Ames speaks the Church-Catholike in regard of the external state thereof Per combinationem habet suam integralitutem Am. med l. 1. c. 33. f. 18. There is likewise a double combination one habitual whereby all Churches and Christians are united and habitually combined into one political Kingdom under Christ and are obliged to be mutually helpful one to another as need requires as becometh fellow-subjects and fellow-members secondly there is actual combination whereby any particular Churches shall actually agree and so unite together for mutual help of each other and for transactions of businesses of common concernment And this is either a constant combination of vicinities in a Classis because there will be constant cause or occasional and more seldome as of a whole Province or Nation and may be of the whole Church-Catholike if convenible by their delegates This latter combination is fundamentum exercitij by the former they have jus adrem by this latter they have jus in re to act conjunctim for the good of those Churches so actually combined And of this second kinde of integrality and combination it is that we are now speaking which necessarily ariseth from the former as the organical integrality of a Kingdom ariseth from the Entitive For seeing all are fellow-subjects under the same Soveraign and Laws though they have particular Counties Corporations and Towns wherein they live and actually enjoy constantly the general priviledges of subjects under the King and Laws yet there will necessarily result a community and habitual integrality of the whole by coordinate combination The civil and Ecclesiastical combinations as they proceed from a parallel ground viz. subjection to the same laws and Soveraign I mean respectively so they must necessarily run parallel in things that are general and essential to combination Our brethren make them run parallel in the two first steps viz. in combining particular persons into families and particular families into Congregations of them that are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dwellers together in some vicinity which is nothing else in English but Parishioners the English word comes of the greek The Christians dwelling together made one Church at Jerusalem Ephesus Corinth c. by Ecclesiastical combination as well as one city by civil combination respectively And I doubt not but if all the Inhabitants of any one Town in New-England were judged fit to be members of the Church they would combine them as members of the Church in that Town and that Town would give denomination to them all as the Church in or of such a Town And seeing
us and ever will And it is observable that this thing was not learned by Moses in the pattern shewed him in the Mount but was taught by the light of nature to Iethro and by him was given in advice to Moses Exo. 18.22 and afterward was approved by God as being according to right reason and a thing common to all societies as societies not Ecclesiastical only and not a positive law only but dictated by the light of nature right reason and necessity and therefore is practised in all ages nations armies and societies though not in every particular circumstance And therefore except it were forbidden or some other way instituted to avoid those difficulties and dangers that will arise it ought to be in use also in the Church under the Gospel as well as summoning convening in fitting times and places and a moderatour or chair-man and silence obedience and respect and due order in proceedings according to allegation and probation which are things common to all Judicatories as Judicatories And surely God would not have Christians under the Gospel under a more grievous yoke and irremediable inconveniences then the Jewish Church that if any of them be oppressed by the ignorance or ill will of their Elders they should have no relief Sect. 6. Obj. If their be appeals from one Presbytery to another that is higher then must there be two kindes of Presbyteries and two kindes of Presbyters but the Scripture speaks but of one and giveth no rules for any Presbyteries but one Indeed in Universities the same men may be heads of the Colleges respectively and heads of the Universitie also but there are differing and distinguishing names relations and Statutes but it is not so for Elders of particular Congregations to be Elders of Classes and Synods c. Answ The Church is but one visible political Kingdom of Christ made up by the collection and aggregation of all visible beleevers who are called into an unity of Covenant and laws and way and all the Ministers and Officers of the Church are given to the whole primarily for the gathering and edifying of it and they are all to teach and rule and perform all their administrations respectively with reference to and the best advantage of the whole And they did serve the whole as one actually when they were convenible but their number encreasing they divided into several companies for their better ordering edification and encrease and therefore the instance is not parallel for the office of the Ministers is first to the whole and the Charter and Statutes of the whole and of every particular Church are but one and therefore the Ministers though they ordinarily act in their particular Congregations as it were in their particular Colleges being called by them to take the immediate constant particular inspection of them yet can they exercise their general office when and wheresoever they have a call thereunto Now this call is not that which giveth them their office but is proximum fundamentum exercitij only Neither is the particular Congregation the adequate correlate to an Elder for it doth not mutu◠ponere tollere but the Church-Catholike only But of this see more in the 2d question S. 4. But against this M. Ellis vind 40. brings an Objection which he ushers in with a Let it be observed by all sorts By this means saith he the power being given not to any one Church but to the whole Church as one body and not to the members with the Officers but to the Officers only there is derived a very transcendent power and authority upon every particular Minister more then any Parliament man hath yea more then a King who is limited to his dominion But I answer that the Presbyterians acknowledge that power of government is given immediatly to every Congregational Eldership or at least to such a College of Elders as may frequently and constantly meet and rule in common as they did at Jerusalem and it is not derived unto them by any superiour authority on earth by way of descention except by a Ministerial investment by Ordination And this power is to be constantly exerted for the actual Ecclesiastical regiment of that Congregation or those Congregations over whom those Elders are set in the Lord yet with reference to the rest of the body whereof they are but a parcel and they may stand in need of the help of more Elders then their own upon occasion It is true government is not given to the members with the Officers but to the Officers only not to the body of the Congregation as the subject of it either in whole or in part as they are private members distinct from the Officers much lesse are they the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or first receptacle thereof And for the inference hence of such a transcendent power and authority upon every particular Minister more then a Parliament man or a King I suppose M. Ellis is not ignorant that the office of every particular Minister in his Congregation giveth him authority to do more in administring Gods Ordinances as authoritative preaching and administring the seals of the Covenant and the Officers in administring spiritual censures then a Parliament man or a King can do Remember Vzziahs example And yet in all civil affairs they are as dutiful subjects as any else and as much subject to civil authority Because the Priests and Levites were in the matters of God set over all Israel will it therefore follow that the meanest Levite was greater then the Nobles Princes and Kings of Israel Indeed the meanest Priest might offer sacrifice which the King could not do but this was no disparagement to the Nobles or to the King No more it is to them that the meanest Physician may administer physick virtute officij and the meanest Pilot guide the Ship which the greatest Princes may not doe The office and power and honour that belong thereto is of another kinde then Parliaments and Kings it is not civil but spiritual You know Gods Ministers have power to baptize Parliament men Nobles and Kings and their children and to give them the Lords Supper and to teach admonish reprove and from God to threaten and denounce judgements against them even eternal destruction if they go on in sinful courses They do doctrinally binde and loose Princes and their whole Kingdoms and the whole world as occasion serveth And can any man say that the greatest men are by their greatnesse free from Church-censures if they be notoriously vile and yet none can impose them but Ecclesiastical Officers Suppose divers Parliament men or Noble men yea a King himself were members of a Congregational Independent Church would not the Officers of that Congregation account it their duty to administer all Gods Ordinances to them as occasion requires yea the Ordinances of discipline and censures if there be just cause Sir would you now be willing to have a retortion of your own kinde with a Let it be
managing their own affairs and such affairs as are of general concernment and of greater weight then can be transacted in a particular Eldership or Classis or Provincial or National Assembly fall out very seldom The Apostles themselves after their dispersion kept no such general standing Court much lesse is it needful now Cogi Optimates non semper est necesse Chamier tom 2. lib. 10. cap. 8. sect 15 16. where he answers this objection fully A general Councel ought to be saith Salmas only Quoties exigit causa communis c. Apparat. 273. It is not ad esse Ecclesia nec ad benè esse Ecclesiae sed ad optimum esse Ecclesiae saith M. Rutherford The Church of Antioch had once an occasion of appeal to a Synod at Ierusalem but no such cause of constant recourse thither This Objection may be made as well about the Christian Magistrate seeing he is to be a nursing father to the Church and such were promised by God it may be marvelled that God should let the Evangelical Church want them in the infancy of it for above 300. years and many of the Emperours after they proved Christians were wasters of the Church and promoters of Arianism and Popery and not nourishers of the Church But we must not undertake to prescribe God what is best Times and seasons are in his hand Obj. If general Councels be the supream Ecclesiastical Judicatories then how dare any particular Churches at most but if National abrogate and swear against the Ordinances and government established by the Catholike Church And this Objection he bids me minde vin p. 56. I suppose he meant the Objection in reference to the National Oath and Covenant against Arch-bishops Bishops c. Answ Although Councels are very reverend and to be submitted unto in the Lord yet are they not infallible but may erre they are not regularegulans but regulata regulanda and to be tried by the word of God and if they speak not according to that they are not to be obeyed Clavis errans non ligat Yet it is safer to be guided by a multitude of Counsellors in a great yea general Assembly if it were rightly gathered which the Popish Councels were not then to stand bound by two or three Elders in a particular Congregation without relief The doctrine of that famous Councel of Nice and some others following was found and we have not departed from them therein And we know that although many Councels were corrupt and not rightly chosen nor acting uprightly according to the word but guided by factions and swayed by the Pope and the best not infallible yet the Scriptures are a constant infallible rule to walk by Nec ego Nicenam Synodum tibi nec tu mihi Ariminensem debes â—anquam praejudicaturus objicere Nec ego hujus authoritate nec tu illius detineris August advers Maximin lib. 3. Chap. 8. CHAP. VIII An answer to M. Ellis's Prejudices Probabilities and Demonstrations against an universal visible and as he cals it governing but should have said Organical Church And his wrong stating of the question rectified MR Ellis hath set down divers just prejudices as he cals them and strong probabilities vind chap. 3. pag. 10. and Demonstrations vind ch 4. p. 19. against this position or rather against an opinion of his own stating and framing for I know none that own it as he hath stated it But it is an easie thing to set up a man of straw and then beat it down at pleasure Sect. 1. Before I answer these prejudices probabilities and demonstrations it will be requisite to view what M. Ellis denyeth and what he granteth and how he stateth the question and what is the true state of it and where in the difference lyeth between him and his opponents and then we shall the better see how his prejudices probabilities and demonstrations will lie against the question in hand First he denyeth the question to be meant of the essential onenesse of the Church whereby all the Christians in the world divisins and in their several places doe visibly outwardly and openly professe for substance the same faith seals worship and government and so may be said to be one company one society one Congregation in nature and essence vind p. 7. But indeed this onenesse is included in the question and is the very foundation and ground of all we desire no other unity then will necessarily flow from this This Entitive visible unity of the whole as one society under one head in one visible Covenant under the same seal under the same laws from the same authority is enough to denominate a Church-Catholike visible and one visible kingdom of Christ here on earth And to this Church as one integral society were the Ordinances and priviledges primarily given and for their enjoyment thereof was the organicalnesse and politicalness added and it was made one habitual organical visible Kingdom of Christ on earth because all these visible subjects have one common right to and communion in the same Ordinances and priviledges indefinitely in this whole visible kingdom But I fear this will not suâ—e our brethren who make not the general Covenant which giveth the essence and entitivenesse to the Church but the particular Covenant compact and confederation to give the right to the Ordinances Their tenet as far as I can collect from their books is that a company of visible beleevers being joyned together in a particular holy Covenant have thereby right to the enjoyment of all Gods Ordinances and hence flow their right of choosing and ordaining Officers over themselves the Ordination in their sense being nothing else as I conceive but a designation or assignation of those chosen men by the imposition of hands of some men appointed by them in their name and behalf to be their particular Officers to dispense the Ordinances of Jesus Christ unto them And hence also floweth their right of censuring and ejecting those Officers again if they miscarry themselves Ejusdem est instituere destituere and if the Congregation can appoint men to lay hands on their Officers in their behalf and set them up then also if they see cause they can appoint men to lay hands on them by censures and pluck them down again or else they must go out of their Congregation to neighbour Elders for that censure which is contrary to their own tenet if it be an Ordinance of God Yea they must go out of their Congregation for discipline which is most contrary to their principles and that indeed where the greatest pinch lyeth for they do not so much startle at a Ministers dispensing the word or Sacraments to other Congregations for that is done frequently by them or at the exercise of the key of discipline and as I conceive that it is that which breedeth this difference between us And if they must go out of their Congregation for the censure of their Elders why not by
the subjects of Christs Ecclesiastical Kingdom â—unne parallel further with the subjects of a civil Kingdom they all being Christians Why may not the combination also run parallel and the denomination be parallel for transaction of common Ecclesiastical affairs as well as civil if prudence so dictate it and the Churches in a hundred if they lie convenient combine â—to a Classis as well as into a hundred for civil transaction And the Classes into a Province as well as hundreds into a County or Shire and the Provinces into a national Church as well as the Counties into a civil Kingdom and seeing Christs Ecclesiastical Kingdom reacheth over many Kingdoms why may they not make one habitual Church-Catholike as well as many Kingdoms under the same laws and head make one Empire The actuality indeed may cease where the constant or frequent community of acting ceaseth whether at the Congregation or Classis where all the Officers are combined in frequent common acting or at the National Church where the civil community ceaseth and so the frequent occasion of common acting by delegates cease I determine not but the habituality ceaseth not in the whole Church-Catholike visible I shall first speak of the combination of particular Congregations into a Presbyterial Church Sect. 2. commonly called for distinction sake a Classis That there may be a college or body of Elders that can act conjunction as well as divisim appears from 1 Tim. 4.14 where the Presbytery are said to lay their hands on Timothy There is the name and thing and their acting conjunctim in Ordination which was not the Presbytery of a single Church or at least not so considered in their Ordination of an Evangelist an itinerant universal actual officer under the Apostles Our brethren also in New-England joyn the Elders of divers Congregations together in ordaining Elders for a new-erected Congregation and not only the erecting of new Congregations will require it necessarily but the supplying of other Congregations vacant by death for there are but few Congregations so well stored with preaching Presbyters as can ordain new ones if one or two of them die Also we finde an Eldership acting together Act. 15.6 The Apostles and Elders came together to consider of this matter Also Act. 11.30 and Act. 21.18 Christ gave the keys to the Apostles together Mat. 28.19 Go ye and teach and baptize c. who though they received their extraordinary calling of Apostleship for themselves only yet they received the ministerial office for all succeeding Ministers and we finde no other especial donation of the keys and this appears by the following words Lo I am with you alway even to the end of the world which must needs be meant of the succeeding Ministers for the Apostles were not to last to the end of the world neither their persons nor their office Therefore as the Apostles could from that donation exercise the keys conjunctim divisim in their extraordinary function so may the Presbyters exercise theirs also and some keys cannot be used but conjunctim as in Ordination and dispensing censures and if Elders of several Congregations can act together as Elders in ordination even in New-England and in censures much more thâ—â— in a greater body And if our brethren in New-England dared admit private men to lay on their hands in ordination of their Ministers doubtlesse they would appoint some of their own private members to do it that so according to their tenet they might enjoy all Gods Ordinances independently in their particular Congregations and not admit of a forreign Officer to come and act as an Officer among them That divers Congregations may combine and make one Presbyterial Church appears by divers instances in the New Testament The Congregations in Jerusalem are called one Church Act. 8.1 Act. 11.22 Act. 15.4 The Congregations in Antioch are called one Church Act. 1â— 1 and Act. 11.26 The Congregations in Ephesus are called one Church Act. 20.17 Rev. 2.1 And the Congregations in Corinth mentioned in the plural number 1 Cor. 14.34 are called one Church 1 Cor. 1.2 and 2 Cor. 1.1 Now that there were several Congregations in each of these cities appears because there were in each of them so great a multitude of beleevers as that they could not meet together to partake of all Gods Ordinances especially if we consider that they had no publike eminent buildings for meeting-houses but met privately 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Act. 2.46 in an upper room Act. 1.13 and in the house of Mary Act. 12.12 in the school of Tyrannus Act. 19.9 in the house of Aquila and Priscilla 1 Cor. 16.19 in Pauls hiâ—ed house at Rome Act. 28.30 in the house of Nymphas Colos 4.15 c. therefore called the Church in their houses And this manner of meeting continued in the times of persecution in that age and some succeeding Also it appears by the multitude of Church-Officers Elders Prophets and Teachers that were in each of them which could not busie themselves in one Congregation and sure they were not idle in those daies Also by the variety of languages especially at Jerusalem Act. 2.5 8. c. See these and other arguments of this nature more fully explained and more particularly proved and applied in Jus Div. part 2. chap. 13. And if these Churches were such as in all rational probability they were then that position That there are no other Ecclesiastical societies instituted by Christ but particular Congregational-Churches will not hold good and the Basis of the Congregational way will fail and the partition wall that seemeth thereby to be between them and the Presbyterians must fall down And this unity of these Churches was not a spiritual unity in regard of saving grace for all the members had not that nor in regard of judgement belief heart and way for that was common to all the Christianâ— in the world but a political union by an especial Ecclesiastical obligation together though we finde no mention of any explicit Covenant as the constituent form of the particular Churches nor only in regard of the administration of Word Sacraments and Praier for these were dispersed in their several Congregations and could not be jointly together in regard of their multitudes Neither were they one in reference to the Apostles general power and office only they being universal Pastors for so the universal Church over the whole world was one but in regard of the common Presbytery whereby they were governed constantly and the Apostles themselves being in these several Churches did act as co-Presbyters with their Elders and so they call themselves Elders 1 Pet. 5. â— and Joh. 2. And though indeed it cannot be peremptorily affirmed that these Presbyterial Churches had their several Elders fixed to their several Congregations yet that as I conceive varies not the question at all And yet it is very probable that the Elders in those cities did divide those cities between them for particular teaching and inspection of