three Yachts which may do better Service but it 's folly to make one that would reach from Calais to Dover which must lie like a Log unmeet for Sailing and the Ends for which all Ships are Built Which he mentions to shew that the extending a particular Church beyond the Bounds of a single Congregation doth frustrate the End of its Institution or as Mr. Baxter has it makes the Impossibility of Christ's Discipline in our Churches undeniable §. 9 5. This Point being with much earnestness stated by this Learned Person he declares in the Narrative he wrote of his own Life P. 339. That one Charge which the Nonconformists brought against our Prelacy is That it destroyeth the Species or Form of Particular Churches Instituted by Christ The Churches Instituted by Christ are Holy Societies Associated for PERSONAL Communion under their Particular Pastors But all such Societies are Destroyed by the Diocesan Frame Ergo It is destructive of the Form of Particular Churches Instituted by Christ They viz. the Nonconformists distinguish between Personal Local Communion of Saints by Pastors and their Flocks and Communion of Heat only we have Heart-Communion with all the Catholick Church throughout the World But a Holy Communion of Souls or Individual Persons as Members of the same Particular Church for Publick Worship and a Holy Life is ESPECIALLY distinct from the former as is apparent by the Distinct End 2. The Distinct Manner of Communion yea and the Matter of it And in his Treatise of Episcopacy more fully We cannot Subscribe to that Form of Church Government as God or Lawful which in its Nature Excludeth or Destroyeth the ver Specifical Nature of the Particular Churches which were Instituted by the Holy Ghost and settled in the Primitive Times But such we take the present Diocesan Form to be Ergo The Major will be denied by very few that we have to do with The Minor I thus prove The Species of a Particular Church which the Holy Ghost did Institute was One Society of Christians united under one or more Bishops for PERSONAL COMMUNIONâ—… in Publick Worship and Holy Living The Diocesan English Frame is Destructive of or Inconsistent with the Species of a Particular Church Ergo The Diocesan English Frame is Inconsistent with or Destructive of the Species of the Holy Ghost's Institution In the Major 1. By Bishops I mean Sacred Ministers Authorized by Divine Appointment to be the STATED Guides of the Church by Doctrine Worship and Discipline By Personal Communion I mean That the said Churches were no more numerous than our English Parishes nor had more Assemblies or no more than could have the same Personal Communion and that there were never any Churches Infimae vel primae Speciei which consisted of many such Stated Assemblies I shall therefore now Prove That the Churches of the Holy Ghost's Institution were no more Numerous or were such Single Congregations 1. From the Holy Scriptures 2. From the Confession of the Diocesans 3. From the Testimony of Antiquity All proving fully That the Ancient Episcopal Churches were but such single Societies or Congregations as I have described §. 10 6. What Mr. B. here affirms respects chiefly the Communion of the Church and upon this account he doth from the Specifical Difference there is between Catholick and Particular Church Communion and from the Inconsistence there is between Diocesan and Parish or Congregational Churches and the Destructive Nature of the Diocesan Government as 't is framed to destroy Congregational Churches from these Topicks he brings those Arguments by which he defends our Non-conformity to the Church of England which he could never have done were he not full well assured that the Nonconformists generally held Particular Churches to be Congregational And §. 11 7. That he was satisfied his Arguments were as much against Classical as they were against Diocesan Churches evidently appears by what he hath in his Treatise of Episcopacy Part 1. C. 7. P. 120. when he saith That by a Diocesan Church WE mean all the Christians within that Circuit who have but one Bishop over them tho' they be of MANY PARISH CHURCHES yea FEW PRESBYTERIANS take the Word so Narrow as this For I think too many of them do with Rutherford Distinguish between a Worshipping Church and a Governing Church and SADLING THE HORSE FOR PRELACY TO MOUNT ON do Affirm that many about Twelve usually of these Worshiping Churches like our Parishes may make but one Governed or Presbyterial Church §. 12 What more directly belongs to the Government of the Church we shall consider if God will elsewhere and will only Note in this place That whoever will consult Mr. Baxter's Treatise of Episcopacy and what he saith of the Ministry and Discipline of Christ's Instituted Churches will find that the English Presbyterians whom he describes were as much against the Classical Presbytery as the Congregationalists are We will in the next propose the Sentiments of those English Presbyterians who entered into an Union with their Congregational Brethren SECT V. The Difference between the Classical Presbyterian and the Congregationalist stated The Design of the late Union and the Principles upon which 't was founded consistent with the Established National Chuch Form and such as Justifie the Separation of the First Reformers from Rome The Classical odel Destructive of them and therefore Rejected §. 1 THAT it may be the more easily understood what Principles the Presbyterians who were Men of Sense and Integrity must be supposed to be of when they Vnited with their Congregational Brethren I will give an Impartial State of the Controversie about the Nature and Power of Instituted Churches as discuss'd by them who were for the Classical Church Government and by the Independents forty or fifty Years ago §. 2 This Controversie as to that part of it which concerns my present Purpose may be reduced to these Heads 1. Whether there be a Catholick-Visible-Political-Church 2. Whether there be a Particular Church Essential Vnorganiz'd vested with a Power to choose their own Officers Or An Ecclesia Institute sit Genus An Integrum §. 3 In the Writings of Cawdrey Hudson Hooker Stone Allen Sheppard and the Dissenting Brethren of the Westminster Assembly there being an Impartial State of this Controversie I will out of their Writings set it in as clear a Light as I can §. 4 1. The Learned Mr. Cawdrey who agreeth in Opinion with the Judicious Mr. Hudson and the London Ministers in their Jus Divinum doth in his Vindiciae Vindiciarum and Review of Mr. Hooker's Survey declare not only for a Visible Catholick Church but That this Visible Catholick Church may in a fair and candid Sense be said to be POLITICAL and that the Notion of CHURCH-ESSENTIAL or HOMOGENOUS is but the Modus or State of a Church applicable both to the whole Chuch and every compleat Congregation consisting of Visible Saints and Officers But it is not possible there should be an Essential-Church existing without Officers If
we would speak exactly neither a Classis of Officers Assembled nor a Company of Visible Saints combined can properly be called a Church They viz. the Independents deny a Classis of Officers to be a Church and We who are for Classes deny a Company of Saints combined without Officers to be a Church being both of them but PARTS of a Church part of the Matter of a Church and therefore PROPERLY no Church The Truth is tho' both a Classis and a Company of Saints combined without Officers have by Custom obtained to be called Churches yet PROPERLY they are but Parts or Members of the whole Church diversly combined But we add If we will speak exactly a Particular Congregation consisting of Officers and Members is not PROPERLY a Church but a Member of the Catholick Visible POLITICAL Church And if they much more some Members of that Member Visible Saints without Officers are Improperly called a Church Again here lies one of the great Mistakes in the Independent way That they imagine a Church without and before any Officers and then give them Power to make Officers So far the Learned Mr. Cawdrey §. 5 2. The Judicious Mr. Hudson states the Controversie after the same manner but more elaborately and with greater Logical Exactness and expresly affirms the Catholick Church Visible to be a Totum Integrale or POLITICAL Society to be a Corporation or Body Politick in which there is a Governing and Governed Part. And on the Supposition that the Catholick Church Visible is a Totum Integrale 't will unavoidably follow as Learned Mr. Calamy hath happily expressed it in his Preface to Mr. Hudson that the Congregational Government is not right The Truth is saith he the Position there held forth would utterly overthrow the Grounds and Pillars of the Congregational Government for if there be a Catholick Church Visible and this Church be not only a Church Entitive but a Church Organical and a Totum Integrale having all Church Powers habitually seated in the Officers of it which they have Commissions from Christ to Exert and put into Act upon a Lawful Call and if particular Congregations are Integral Parts and Members of the Church Catholick as the Jewish Synagogues were of the Jewish Church and if the Ministry Orders and Censures were given by Christ first to the Church General Visible and secondarily to the Church Particular then 't will follow that the particular Congregation is not the First Receptacle of Church Power and that all Church Power is not Entirely and Independently in a particular Congregation So far Mr. Calamy to whom I add That according to this Notion Visible Saints combined for Church Communion without Officers are not a Church Essential and have not a Power to choose Officers c. For upon this Principle it 's manifest yea 't is owned That to the Catholick Church Visible which is a Totum Integrale or an Organized Body a POLITICAL Church the Administration and Immediate Participation of Government and all other Ordinances are firstly and immediately given yea further it must be granted that particular Churches whether Congregational or Classical Provincial or National are not Properly Churches but Integral Parts of the Catholick Visible POLITICAL Church that whoever is a Visible Christian has an Immediate Right to all Ordinances and that the Relation of every Minister is firstly and habitually unto the Catholick Church Visible and secondarily to this or that Particular Church which is not Properly a Church that where-ever any single Christian comes he is a Member of the Particular Church in that Place and has a Right to all Ordinances tho he never joyn'd himself to any and whoever is ordained he is a Pastor of the Catholick Church may Administer all Ordinances whither soever he comes and Excommunicate Delinquents Tho' for Order sake his Power is not exercised yet the Power remains Entire in every Ordained Minister even in them who are called to take the Charge of any particular Church §. 6 1. On the other hand the First Reformers of all Perswasions subverted this Notion in their Opposition unto the Papists by denying such a thing as a Visible Catholick Church Sublato Fundamento tollitur opus And they who now own that the many Visible Christians scattered through the World may be called the Catholick Church Visible yet do strenuously oppugn its being a Political Church And these Congregationalists affirm the Church Catholick Visible to be Totum Vniversale Genericum or as they sometimes express it a Totum Essentiale that this Totum Genericum gives Essence unto its Species or Parts and is its Cause and in order of Nature before its Species as a Cause is before its Effects But then it must to prevent mistake be carefully observ'd that by Church Universal Visible they mean a Congregational or a Particular Church Essential which including the General Nature of a Church they call General or Vniversal but such as hath where the Combination is its Essentials existent antecedently to the Consideration of its being an Integrum or a Body Politick and as such is dressed with a Power of choosing its Officers and of becoming thereby a Totum Integrale or an Organick Body §. 7 2. Fit Matter Combined before formed into an Organick Body is with them the Church Essential the only immediate Seat of Church Power or to express it in the Words of Mr. Allen and Mr. Sheppard Def. of the Nine Proposit p. 88. The true Form of all Church Societies Instituted by Christ to which he hath given the actual Administration and Immediate Participation of Church Government and all other Instituted Ordinances as the Subject thereof is Congregational §. 8 These two Reverend Brethren do not I confess think themselves obliged to encumber this Controversie with those Logical Niceties of a Totum Genericum a Totum Integrale yet do they hold That the true State of this Controversie lies here concerning the NATURE ORDER and FORM of such Visible Societies as Christ Jesus by Divine Institution in the Gospel hath reduced his Visible Members unto for the Actual and Immediate Injoyment of all his Instituted Ordinances And the Chain of their Principles lies thus First There is a Particular Church Essential which is Congregational this Congregation is made up of Visible Saints who upon their Mutual Consent and Agreement to walk together according to Gospel Rule have an Immediate Right to Stated Communion in all the Special Ordinances of the Gospel that as they have Power to Combine together as aforesaid so being combined they have a Power of choosing their own Officers as being furnished with such have received Authority from Jesus Christ to Exercise Government and of enjoying all Ordinances of Worship within themselves §. 9 These then are the Points wherein Mr. Cawdrey Hudson and others who were for the Classical Churches and Government differed from the old Nonconformists and the English Presbyterian and Congregationalist For the Ecclesiastical Presbyterians held the Catholick Church
fourth Reason for it is this If the contrary Opinion should be admitted we cannot say they see what may be the Consequences thereof with respect to those Difficult Controversies with the Papists about the Perpetual Succession of the Churches some Years before Luther about their Separation from Rome about the first Gathering and Constituting Reformed Churches and calling of Ministers before with at and since the Reformation §. 20 The Strength of what they offer on this Occasion lieth here namely in case Visible Saints combin'd for Communion in the Ordinances of the Gospel have Power by Virtue of Jesus Christ's Institution to call and choose their own Officers The first Reformers in combining thus and choosing their own Officers acted in pursuance of the Authority given 'em by Jesus Christ and are Justified But had they not such a Power their Case is not easily defended These Great Divines therefore in Answer to the second Enquiry affirm That a Church Essential has a Power belonging unto it to call a Pastor So that these Learned Men have urged Arguments sufficient to justifie what the Vnited Brethren have done in defining a Church Essential and in shewing how it becomes an Integral Organical Political Body And what they have urged from the Consideration of the Fatal Consequences of the contrary Doctrine with respect to the First Reformation hath enough in it to satisfie any considering Mind about the Reasons that have Influenced the Vnited Brethren to fix their Foot on this Principle about a Particular Church Essential in the framing the Heads of their Agreement Once more §. 21 As the Vnited Brethren have Asserted Particular Churches to be Congregational so it 's evident they have confined the Power of their Officers to their own Churches For in the Section of Communion with other Churches Art 2. it is agreed That none of our Particular Churches shall be Subordinate to one another each being endow'd with Equality of Power from Jesus Christ and that none of the said Particular Churches their Officer or Officers shall Exercise any Power or have any Superiority over any other Church or their Officers So clear it is that this Article by denying unto one Officer singly and to many Officers collectively any sort of Power or Superiority over one another doth lay an impregnable Bar against the setting up of Classical Provincial or National Assemblies invested with a Power to govern Congregational Churches For it must be acknowledged that in forming the late Heads of Agreement special care was taken to convince them of the Church of England that there was no place for us to make the least Incroachments on the Established National Church Form That the Mounds and Barriers we raised to keep all within the Confines of the Tolleration granted us were such that no sincere Approver of the Vnion can have any Hand in erecting any thing like a National Church Form and therefore can never be for Classical Provincial or National Assemblies of Ministers Their going about any such thing is a breaking down the strongest Mounds a violating the most Solemn Engagements and a tearing up the very Foundation on which the late Union was built which can never be answered to our Countrey Brethren nor to their own Consciences much less unto a Holy and Jealous God For §. 22 By the Heads of Agreement as all that Church Power we claim is confined to Particular Congregational Churches and a Superiority of Power denied to any one Officer or Officers of Churches so Particular Churches were no further concern'd to give any account of their own Actings beside what the Civil Magistrate requires but what on some special Occasions might be needful in a Brotherly way to Neighbour Congregations when desired and 't was for the removal of Scandals or the rectifying Mistakes But for stated Classical Provincial or Natural Assembles and the coming under the Obligation of making a Diligent Observation and a Faithful Report of the State of their Congregations unto any of those larger Assemblies there is not one Word in our Agreement Nor can any of our Number consent that our Ministers should take upon 'em the Office of stated Inquisitors or Informers For as such an Imploy is as likely to Ruine as it is to serve its chiefest Contrivers so it 's Vnworthy of Men in so Holy a Function and contrary to that Work Christ Jesus has called his Ministers unto which lying in strenuous Endeavours to further the Salvation of them committed to their care cannot be faithfully performed but by keeping within the Pale of their Single Congregations And seeing this is what is granted to us by the Toleration to which we have hitherto confined our selves we declare it to be our Firm Resolution always to do so being as much Dissatisfied with that Church-Form which endangers the Established Church as any in that Church can be For §. 23 That very Form of Church Government which alone can give just Ground of Suspicion is as Destructive of those Churches we believe to be of Divine Institution as it can be of the Established Church Form The Jure Divino Classical Government that Rivals it with the Episcopal doth as really destroy Congregational Churches by making them but Parts of a Proper Church as it would subvert the Diocesan were it set up amongst us Yea if we more closely look into this Matter we shall find the Classical Government more Hurtful to our Church way than it can be to theirs seeing it allows of Diocesan under the Name of Classical and strikes only at their Rulers and not at their Church-state whilst it Vn-churches all our Congregations and Divests the Officers of that Power which we think Christ has given them and are therefore more Formidable unto and Dreaded by us than by the Church it self which Consideration will we hope satisfie our Superiours and every thoughtful Person of the Church That they are in no Danger from us §. 24 That they destroy our Church way is farther evident in that they bring every Paroch and Congregation under the Government of their Classical and other Larger Assemblies by the Obligation of a Divine Law and that they may to their own greater Satisfaction prove thus much they make the Catholick Church Visible to be one Govern'd Society or Body Politick which must necessarily be under a Governed Head either of One single Person or of many Collectively whereby they run so far as to destroy not only Congregational Churches but to subvert that very Principle upon which the Reformation was begun in this Land and do lay a Foundation for that Papal anti-Anti-christian Power which in its Exercise hath shed the Blood of Thousands who are now under the Altar crying How long Holy and True dost thou not Avenge c. and against which we have by the Oath of Supremacy Sworn So that tho' we agree with our Classical Brethren of Scotland in affirming Bishops and Presbyters to be of the same Order which only is against the Divine not