their judgment absolutely in any case and in many their determinations may be so doubtful as not to affect the Conscience of him who is Censured But such a Person is not only a Member of that particular Church but by virtue thereof of the Catholick Church also It is necessary therefore that he should be heard and judged as unto his Interest therein if he do desire it And this can no way be done but by such Synods as we shall immediately describe 6. SYNODS are Consecrated unto the use of the Church in all Ages by the Example of the Apostles in their guidance of the First Churches of Jews and Gentiles which hath the force of a Divine Institution as being given by them under the Infallible conduct of the Holy Ghost Act. 15. which we shall speak farther unto immediately HAVING seen the Original of Church Synods or their Formal Cause we consider also their Material Cause or the subject matter to be treated of or determined in them And this in general is every thing wherein Churches are obliged to hold Communion among themselves when any thing falls out amongst them which otherwise would disturb that Communion And hereof some Instances may be given 1. CHURCHES have mutual Communion in the profession of the same Faith. If any doubts or differences do arise about it any Opinions be advanced contrary unto it either in any particular Church which they cannot determine among themselves or among sundry Churches the last outward means for the preservation of the Rule of Faith among them and of their Communion in the condemnation of Errors and Opinions contrary unto the form of wholesome Words is by these Synods or Councils The care hereof is indeed in the first place committed unto the Churches themselves as was at large before declared But in case through the subtilty prevalency and interest of those by whom damnable Doctrines are broached the Church it self whereunto they do belong is not able to rebuke and suppress them nor to maintain its profession of the Truth or that by suffering such things in one Church others are in danger to be infected or defiled this is the last external Refuge that is left for the preservation of the Communion of Churches in the same Faith. We have multiplied Examples hereof in the Primitive Churches before the degeneracy of these Synods into Superstition and Domination Such was eminently that gathered at Antioch for the condemnation of the Heresies of Paulus Samosatenus the Bishop of that Church 2. IT is so with respect unto that Order Peace and Vnity wherein every particular Church ought to walk in it self and amongst its own Members There were Schisms Divisions Strife and Contentions in some of the Churches that were of Apostolical planting and watering So there was at Antioch and afterwards at Corinth as also of some of the Churches in Galatia The Duty of Remedying and Healing these Divisions and Differences from what cause soever they arise is first incumbent on each particular Member in every such Church Unto them it is given in charge by the Apostle in the first place and if every one of them do perform their Duty in Love an end will be put unto all strife In case of failure therein the whole Church is charged in the exercise of its Power Authority and Wisdom to rebuke and compose such Differences But in case it is not able so to do as it fell out in the Church at Antioch then an Assembly of other Churches walking in actual Communion with that Church wherein the Difference is arisen and thereon concerned in their Prosperity and Edification by their Messengers and Delegates is the last outward means for its Composure 3. WHERE there hath been any Male Administration of Discipline whereby any Members of a Church have been injured as suppose they are unduly cast out of the Church by the Power and Interest of some Diotrephes or that any Members of the Church make a Party and Faction to depose their Elders as it was in the Church of Corinth when the Church at Rome gave them Advice in the case It is necessary from the Communion of Churches and the Interest the Persons injured have in the Catholick Church whose Edification is the end of all Church-Administrations that the proceedings of such a Church be renewed by a Synod and a Remedy provided in the case Nor was it the mind of the Apostle that they should be left without Relief which were unduly cast out of the Church by Diotrephes nor is there any other ordinary way hereof but only by Synods but this case I suppose I shall speak unto afterwards 4. THE same is the case with respect unto Worship as also of Manners and Conversation If it be reported or known by Credible Testimony that any Church hath admitted into the exercise of Divine Worship any thing superstitious or vain or if the Members of it walk like those described by the Apostle Phil. 3.18 19. unto the Dishonour of the Gospel and of the ways of Christ the Church it self not endeavouring its own Reformation and Repentance other Churches walking in Communion therewith by virtue of their common Interest in the Glory of Christ and Honour of the Gospel after more private ways for its Reduction as Opportunity and Duty may suggest unto their Elders ought to Assemble in a Synod for Advice either as to the use of farther means for the Recovery of such a Church or to with-hold Communion from it in case of Obstinacy in its evil ways The want of a due attendance unto this part of the Communion of Churches with respect unto Gospel Worship in its Purity and Gospel Obedience in its Power was a great means of the Decay and Apostacy of them all By reason of this Negligence instead of being helpful one to another for their mutual Recovery and the Revival of the things that were ready to die they gradually infected one another according as they fell into their Decays and countenanced one another by their Examples unto a continuance in such Disorders THE Image which in late Ages was set up hereof in Diocesan and Metropolitical Visitations and those of lesser districts under Officers of Anti-christian Names hath been useful rather unto Destruction than Edification But so it hath fallen out in most things concerning Church-Order Worship and Discipline The Power and Spirituality of Divine Institutions being lost a Machine hath been framed to make an appearance and representation of them to divert the minds of Men from enquiring after the Primitive Institution of Christ with an experience of their Efficacy CONSIDERING what we have learned in these later Ages by woeful experience of what hath fallen out formerly amongst all the Churches in the World as unto their Degeneracy from Gospel Worship and Holiness with the abounding of Temptations in the days wherein we live and the spiritual decays that all Churches are prone unto it were not amiss if those Churches which do walk in express
THE TRUE NATURE OF A Gospel Church AND ITS GOVERNMENT WHEREIN These following particulars are distinctly handled I. The subject Matter of the Church II. The formal Cause of a particular Church III. Of the Polity Rule or Discipline of the Church in general IV. The Officers of the Church V. The Duty of Pastors of Churches VI. The Office of Teachers in the Church VII Of the Rule of the Church or of Ruling Elders VIII The nature of Church Polity or Rule with the Duty of Elders IX Of Deacons X. Of Excommunication XI Of the Communion of Churches The Publishing whereof was mentioned by the Author in his Answer to the Vnreasonableness of Separation By the late Pious and Learned Minister of the Gospel JOHN OWEN D. D. LICENSED June 10. 1688. LONDON Printed for William Marshall at the Bible in Newgate street MDCLXXXIX THE PREFACE TO THE READER THE Church of Christ according as it is represented unto us or described by the holy Spirit of God in the Old and New Testament hath but a twofold Consideration as Catholick and Mystical or as Visible and Organized in particular Congregations The Catholick Church is the whole Mystical Body of Christ consisting of all the Elect which are purchased and redeemed by his Blood whether already called or uncalled Militant or Triumphant and this is the Church that God gave him to be head unto which is his Body and his Fullness and by union with him Christ Mystical Ephes. 1.22 23. and this is that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the only word most fully expressing the Catholick Church used in Scripture the Church of the First-born whose Names are written in Heaven Heb. 12.23 i. e. in the Lamb's Book of Life and shall all appear one Day gathered together to their Head in the perfection and fullness of the New Jerusalem-state where they will make a glorious Church not having Spot or Wrincle or any such thing but Holy and without Blemish The day of Grace which the Saints have passed in the respective Ages of the Church was but the days of its Espousals wherein the Bride hath made her self ready but then will be her full married state unto Christ then will be the perfection not only of every particular Member of Christ but of the whole Body of Christ called a perfect Man and the measure of the Stature of the Fullness of Christ to which we are called Edifying and building up by the Ministry and Ordinances of Christ whilst we are in Via in our passage unto this Country a City with a more durable fixed Foundation which we seek In order therefore unto the compleating this great and mystical Body Christ hath his particular Visible Churches and Assemblies in this World wherein he hath ordained Ordinances and appointed Officers for the glorious forementioned Ends and Purposes There is no other sort of Visible Church of Christ Organized the subject of the aforesaid Institutions spoken of but a particular Church or Congregation either in the Old or New Testament where all the Members thereof do ordinarily meet together in one place to hold Communion one with another in some one or more great Ordinances of Christ. The first Churches were Oeconomick when the Worship of God was solemnly performed in the large Families of the Antidiluvian and Postdiluvian Patriarchs where no doubt all frequently assembled to the Sacrifices as then offered and other parts of Worship then in use After the descent of a numerous Progeny from Abraham's Loins God takes them to himself in one Visible Body a National but Congregational Church to which he forms them Four hundred and thirty Years after the Promise in the Wilderness and although all Abraham's Natural Posterity according to the External part of the Promise made to him were taken into visible Church-Fellowship so that it became a National Church yet it was such a National Church always in the Wilderness and in the Holy Land as was Congregational for it was but one Congregation during the Tabernacle or Temple-state first or second they were always bound to assemble to the Tabernacle or Temple thrice at least every Year hence the Tabernacle was still called the Tabernacle of the Congregation They were to have but one Altar for Burnt-Offerings and Sacrifices what others were at any time elsewhere called High-Places were condemned by God as Sin. Lastly when Christ had Divorced this People Abolished their Mosaical Constitution by breaking their Staff of Beauty and their Staff of Bonds he erects his Gospel Church calls in Disciples by his Ministry forms them into a Body furnisheth them with Officers and Ordinances and after he had suffered rose again and continued here Forty days in which time he frequently appeared to them and acquainted them with his Will ascends unto his Father sends his Spirit in a plentiful manner at Pentecost whereby most of them were furnished with all necessary miraculous Gifts to the promoting the Glory and Interest of Christ among Jews and Gentiles Hence the whole Evangelical Ministry was first placed in the Church of Jerusalem so far as extraordinary or such a part of it as was to descend to Churches of after Ages neither were they placed as abiding or standing Officers in any other Church as we find In this Church they acted as the Elders thereof and from this Church they were it 's very likely solemnly sent by Fasting and Prayer to the Exercise of their Apostolick Function in Preaching Healing and working Miracles gathering Churches and setling Officers in them even so as Barnabas and Paul were sent forth by the Church of Antioch Their distinguishing Apostolick Office and Charge from which the Evangelist differed but little was to take care of all the Churches not to sit down as standing Pastors to all or any particular Congregation but at the first planting to gather to direct and confirm them in practice of their Doctrine Fellowship breaking Bread and in Prayer Wherefore this Apostolick Care committed to them proves nothing either of the Catholick Authority claimed by an Oecumenick Pastor or that charge of many Congregations claimed by Diocesan Bishops Whence it 's most evident That all Church Officers so far as they had any Pastoral or Episcopal Office was given to a particular Congregation as the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We read of no Pastors of many Congregations nor of no Church made up of many Congregations to which Officers were annexed nor of any representative Church as some would have That Apostolick Power did descend to Successors we utterly deny it being not derivable for none after them could say They had been Eye Witnesses of our Lord before or after his Resurrection none since so qualified by an extraordinary measure of the Spirit for Preaching and working Miracles and none but the Pope challenges such an extensive Care for and Power over all Churches That which descends from them to the ordinary Ministry is a Commission to Preach and Baptize and why not to Head it being always in the
to be fit Matter of a visible Church before he can challenge Church Privileges or they can be allowed him 3. It 's not many professing Believers that make a particular Church For though they are fit Matter for a Church yet they have not the Form of a Church without a mutual Agreement and Combination explicite or at least implicite whereby they become by vertue of Christs Charter a spiritual Corporation and are called a City Houshold House being united together by Joints and Bonds not only by internal Bonds of the Spirit but external the Bonds of Vnion must be visible as the House is by profession This is a Society that Christ hath given Power to to choose a Pastor and other Officers of Christ's Institution and enjoy all Ordinances The words Sacrament and Prayer as Christ hath appointed Hence a visible Church must needs be a separate Congregation Separation is a proper and inseparable adjunct thereof the Apostle speaks of Church Membership 2 Cor. vi 14 Be not unequally yoked together 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 yoked with those of another kind the Plowing with an Ox and Ass together being forbidden under the Law with Vnbelievers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Visible Vnbelievers of any sort or kind for what participation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hath Righteousness with Vnrighteousness what 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Communion or Fellowship hath Light with Darkness Vers. 13. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what harmony hath Christ with Belial Men of corrupt Lives and Conversation or what part 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hath a Believer i. e. a visible Believer with an Vnbeliever it ought not to be rendred Infidel but it was done by our Translaters to put a blind upon this place as to its true intention and to countenance Parish Communion for why did they not here Vers. 14. and every where else render 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an Infidel Vers. 16. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 what consistency hath the Temple of God i. e. the Gospel Church with Idols c. I take this place to be a full Proof of what is before spoken That a Gospel Church is a Company of Faithful professing People walking together by mutual Consent or Confederation to the Lord Jesus Christ and one to another in Subjection to and Practice of all his Gospel-Precepts and Commands whereby they are separate from all Persons and Things manifestly contrary or disagreeing thereunto Hence as it's separate from all such impurities that are without so Christ hath furnished it with sufficient Power and means to keep it self Pure and therefore hath provided Ordinances and Ministers for that end and purpose for the great end of Church-Edification cannot be obtained without Purity be also maintained in Doctrine and Fellowship Purity cannot be maintained without Order a disorderly Society will corrupt within it self for by Disorder it 's divided by divisions the joints and bands are broken not only of Love and Affection but of visible Conjunction so that roots of bitterness and sensual Separation arising many are defiled It 's true there may be a kind of Peace and Agreement in a Society that is a stranger to Gospel-Order when Men agree together to walk according to a false Rule or in a supine and negligent Observation of the True Rule There may be a common Connivance at each one to walk as he list but this is not Order but Disorder by Consent Besides a Church may for the most part walk in Order when there is Breaches and Divisions Some do agree to walk according to the Rule when others will deviate from it It 's orderly to endeavour to reduce those that walk not orderly though such just Vndertakings seem sometimes grounds of Disturbance and causes of Convulsion in the whole Body threatning even its breaking in pieces but yet this must be done to preserve the whole The Word Translated Order Colos. ij 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a Military Word it 's the Order of Souldiers in a Band keeping Rank and File where every one keeps his place follows his Leader observes the Word of Command and his Right-hand Man. Hence the Apostle joys to see their close Order and Stedfastness in the Faith their Firmness Valour and Resolution in fighting the good Fight of Faith and the Order in so doing not only in watching as single Professors but in Marching Orderly together as an Army with Banners There is nothing more comly than a Church walking in Order when every one keeps his place knows and practiseth his Duty according to the Rule each submitting to the other in the performance of Duty When the Elders know their places and the People theirs Christ hath been more Faithful than Moses and therefore hath not left his Churches without sufficient Rules to walk by That Order may be in a Church of Christ the Rules of the Gospel must be known and that by Officers and People They that are altogether Ignorant of the Rule or negligent in attending it or doubtful and therefore always contending about it will never walk according to it Hence it 's the great Duty of Ministers to study Order well and acquaint the People with it It 's greatly to be bewailed that so few Divines bend their Studies that way They content themselves only with Studying and Preaching the Truths that concern Faith in the Lord Jesus and the meer Moral part of Holiness but as to Gospel-Churches or Instituted Worship they generally in their Doctrine and Practice let it alone and administer Sacraments as indefinitely as they Preach care not to stand related to one People more than another any further than Maintained by them Likewise many good People are as great Strangers to Gospel Churches and Order and as their Ministers have a great Adversness to both and look upon it as Schism and Faction and this is the great reason of the readiness of both to comply with Rules of Men for making Churches Canons established by humane Laws being carried away if they would speak the Truth by corrupt Erastian Principles That Christ hath left the Church to be altogether Guided and Governed by Laws of Magistratick Sanction Reformation from the gross Idolatrous part of Antichristianism was engaged in with some Heroick Courage and Resolution but the coldness and indifference of Protestants to any further progress almost ever since is not a little to be lamented Many think it enough that the Foundation of the House is laid in Purity of Doctrine and it 's well if that were not rather written in the Books than preached in Pulpits at this Day but how little do they care to set their Hands to Building the House Sure a great matter is from that Spiritual Sloathfulness that many are fallen under as likewise being ready to sink under the great Discouragements laid before them by the Adversaries of Judah when they find the Children of the Spiritual Captivity are about to Build a Gospel Church unto the Lord. And how long hath this great Work ceased
as the best Treasure to be preserved and ensured by all that would be Happy here and hereafter By Bartholomew Ashwood late Minister of the Gospel Price bound 2s 6d Another Book of the same Authors Entituled The heavenly Trade or the best Merchandize the only way to live well in impoverishing Times A Discourse occasioned from the decay of Earthly Trades and visible waste of practical Piety in the Day we live in Offering Arguments and Counsels to all towards a speedy revival of dying Godliness and timely prevention of the dangerous issues thereof hanging over us Very necessary for all Families Price 2 s. 6 d. Some other Books Printed for and Sold by William Marshal CAryl's Exposition on the whole Book of Job In Two Volumes in Folio Pool's Synopsis Criticorum In V. Volumes Latin. 's Synopsis on the New Testament In Two large Volumes in Latin with the Index are to be sold very cheap In Quires both Volumes for 20 s and both Vol. well bound for 30 s. Pool's Annotations in English. Two Volumes Index's to the Old and New Testament to be sold alone Price 5 s. Dr. Owen on the Hebrews In Four Volumes Owen on the Spirit Clark's Martyrology Mellificium Chirurgiae or the Marrow of Chirurgery An Anatomical Treatise Institutions of Physick with Hippocrates's Aphorisms largely Commented upon The Marrow of Physick shewing the Causes Signs and Cures of most Diseases incident to humane Bodies Choice experienced Receipts for the Cure of several Distempers The Fourth Edition enlarged withm any Additions and purged from many Faults that escaped in the former Impressions Illustrated with Twelve Copper Cuts By James Cooke of Warwick Practitioner in Physick and Chirurgery There is also a very useful Book of the same Authors for those That are desirous of being their own Physicians Entituled Select Observations of English Bodies of Eminent Persons in desperate Diseases To which is now added an Hundred rich Counsels and Advices for several honourable Persons With all the several Medicines and Methods by which the several Cures were effected With Directions about Drinking the Bath Water Price bound 2 s. 6 d. Clarkson's Primitive Episcopacy Octavo Price bound 1 s. 6 d. Owen of Justification 's Brief and Impartial Account of the Nature of the Protestant Religion THE TRUE NATURE OF A Gospel Church AND ITS GOVERNMENT CHAP. I. The Subject Matter of the Church THE Church may be considered either as unto its Essence Constitution and Being or as unto its Power and Order when it is Organized As unto its Essence and Being its constituent parts are its Matter and Form. These we must enquire into By the Matter of the Church we understand the persons whereof the Church doth consist with their Qualifications And by its Form the reason cause and way of that kind of Relation among them which gives them the Being of a Church and therewithal an Interest in all that belongs unto a Church either privilege or power as such Our first Enquiry being concerning what sort of Persons our Lord Jesus Christ requireth and admitteth to be the visible Subjects of his Kingdom we are to be regulated in our Determination by respect unto his Honour Glory and the Holiness of his Rule To reckon such persons to be Subjects of Christ Members of his Body such as he requires and owns for others are not so who would not be tolerated at least not approved in a well Governed Kingdom or Commonwealth of the World is highly dishonourable unto him But it is so come to pass that let Men be never so notoriously and flagitiously wicked until they become pests of the earth yet are they esteemed to belong to the Church of Christ. And not only so but it is thought little less than Schism to forbid them the Communion of the Church in all its sacred Privileges Howbeit the Scripture doth in general represent the Kingdom or Church of Christ to consist of persons called Saints separated from the World with many other things of an alike nature as we shall see immediately And if the Honour of Christ were of such weight with us as it ought to be if we understood aright the nature and ends of his Kingdom and that the peculiar Glory of it above all the Kingdoms in the World consists in the Holiness of its Subjects such an Holiness as the World in its wisdom knoweth not we would duly consider whom we avow to belong thereunto Those who know ought of these things will not profess that persons openly profane vicious sensual wicked and ignorant are approved and owned of Christ as the Subjects of his Kingdom or that it is his will that we should receive them into the Communion of the Church But an old opinion of the unlawfulness of separation from a Church on the account of the mixture of wicked men in it is made a scare-crow to frighten men from attempting the Reformation of the greatest Evils and a covert for the composing Churches of such Members only Some things therefore are to be premised unto what shall be offered unto the right stating of this Enquiry As 1. That if there be no more required of any as unto Personal Qualifications in a visible uncontroulable profession to constitute them Subjects of Christs Kingdom and Members of his Church but what is required by the most righteous and severe Laws of Men to constitute a good Subject or Citizen the distinction between his visible Kingdom and the Kingdoms of the World as unto the principal causes of it is utterly lost Now all negative Qualifications as that Men are not Oppressors Drunkards Revilers Swearers Adulterers c. are required hereunto But yet it is so fallen out that generally more is required to constitute such a Citizen as shall represent the righteous Laws he liveth under than to constitute a Member of the Church of Christ. 2. That whereas Regeneration is expresly required in the Gospel to give a Right and Privilege unto an entrance into the Church or Kingdom of Christ whereby that Kingdom of his is distinguished from all other Kingdoms in and of the World unto an Interest wherein never any such thing was required it must of necessity be something better more excellent and sublime than any thing the Laws and Polities of Men pretend unto or prescribe Wherefore it cannot consist in any outward Rites easie to be observed by the worst and vilest of Men besides the Scripture gives us a description of it in opposition unto its consisting in any such Rite 1 Pet. 3.21 And many things required unto good Citizens are far better than the meer observation of such a Rite Of this Regeneration Baptism is the Symbol the Sign Expression and Representation Wherefore unto those who are in a due manner partakers of it it giveth all the external Rights and Privileges which belong unto them that are Regenerate until they come unto such Seasons wherein the personal performance of those Duties whereon the continuation of
of the people yet they were suited to promote them as well as to countenance them which they did effectually Hence it came to pass that the Reformation of the Church as unto the matter of it or the Purity and Holiness of its Members was not in the least attempted until Calvin set up his Discipline at Geneva which hath filled the World with clamours against him from that day to this In most other places Churches in the matter of them continued the same as they were in the Papacy and in many places as bad in their Lives as when they were Papists But this Method was designed in the Holy Wise Providence of God for the good and advantage of the Church in a progressive Reformation as it had made a gradual Progress into its decay For had the Reformers in the first place set themselves to remove out of the Church such as were unmeet for its Communion or to have gathered out of them such as were meet Members of the Church according to its Original Institution it would through the paucity of the number of those who could have complied with the Design have greatly obstructed if not utterly defeated their endeavour for the Reformation of Doctrine and Worship This was that in the Preaching of the Gospel and the Profession of it which God hath since made effectual in these Nations especially and in other places to turn Multitudes from Darkness to Light and from the Power of Satan unto Himself translating them into the Kingdom of His dear Son. Hereby way is made for a necessary addition unto the work of Reformation if not to the closing of it which could not at first be attained unto nor well attempted namely the Reduction of Churches as unto their matter or the Members of them unto their Primitive Institution The sum of what is designed in this Discourse is this only We desire no more to constitute Church Members and we can desire no less than what in judgment of Charity may comply with the Vnion that is between Christ the Head and the Church 1 Cor. 12.27 Eph. 2.22 1 Cor. 3.16 17. 2 Cor. 11.1 18. 1 Thess. 1.1 2 c. that may in the same judgment answer the way of the beginning and increase of the Church according unto the Will of God who adds unto the Church such as shall be saved Act. 2.47 the Rule of our receiving of them being because he hath received them Rom. 14.1 2. that may answer that Profession of Faith which was the Foundation of the Church which was not what flesh and blood but what God himself revealed Matth. 16.16 and not such as have a form of Godliness but deny the Power thereof 2 Tim. 3.5 We acknowledge that many Church Members are not what they ought to be but that many Hypocrites may be among them that the judgment which is passed on the Confession and Profession of them that are to be Admitted into Churches is charitative proceeding on evidence of moral Probability not determining the reality of the things themselves that there are sundry measures of Light Knowledge Experience and Abilities and Readiness of Mind in those that are to be Admitted all whose Circumstances are duly to be considered with indulgence unto their weaknesses And if the Scripture will allow us any further Latitude we are ready to embrace it Our present Enquiry yet remaining on these considerations is What is our Duty in point of Communion with such Churches as are made up or composed of Members visibly unholy or such as comply not with the Qualifications that are by the Rules of the Gospel indispensably required to give unto any a Regular entrance into the Church with a participation of its Privileges For it is in vain to expect that such Churches will Reform themselves by any Act Duty or Power of their own seeing the generality of them are justly supposed averse from and enemies unto any such Work. I answer therefore 1. It must be remembred that Communion with particular Churches is to be regulated absolutely by Edification No Man is or can be obliged to abide in or confine himself unto the Communion of any particular Church any longer than it is for his Edification And this liberty is allowed unto all persons by the Church of England For allow a Man to be born in such a Parish to be baptized in it and there educated yet if at any time he judge that the Ministry of the Parish is not useful unto his Edification he may withdraw from all Communion in that Parish by the removal of his Habitation it may be to the next door Wherefore 2. If the corruption of a Church as to the matter of it be such as that 1. It is inconsistent with and overthroweth all that Communion that ought to be among the Members of the same Church in love without dissimulation whereof we shall treat afterwards 2. If the scandals and offences which must of necessity abound in such Churches be really obstructive of Edification 3. If the ways and walking of the generality of their Members be dishonourable unto the Gospel and the Profession of it giving no Representation of the holiness of Christ or his Doctrine 4. If such Churches do not can not will not Reform themselves Then It is the Duty of every Man who takes care of his own present Edification and the future salvation of his Soul peaceably to withdraw from the Communion of such Churches and to join in such others where all the ends of Church Societies may in some measure be obtained Men may not only do so because all obligation unto the use of means for the attaining of such an end doth cease when the means are not suited thereunto but obstructive of its attainment but also the giving of a Testimony hereby against the Declension from the Rule of Christ in the Institution of Churches and the dishonour that by this means is reflected on the Gospel is necessary unto all that desire to acquit themselves as Loyal Subjects unto their Lord and King. And it cannot be questioned by any who understand the nature use and end of Evangelical Churches but that a relinquishment of the Rule of the Gospel in any of them as unto the practice of Holiness is as just a cause of withdrawing Communion from them as their forsaking the same Rule in Doctrine and Worship It may be some will judge that sundry inconveniences will ensue on this Assertion when any have a mind to practise according unto it But when the matter of Fact supposed is such as is capable of an uncontrollable evidence no inconvenience can ensue on the practice directed unto any way to be compared unto the mischief of obliging Believers to abide always in such Societies to the ruine of their Souls Two things may be yet enquired into that relate unto this part of the state of Evangelical Churches As 1. Whether a Church may not ought not to take under its Conduct Inspection and Rule
Office are vain whence it is that the whole Work of it is much neglected 2. TO be ready and willing to attend unto the especial cases that may be brought unto them and not to look on them as unnecessary Diversions whereas a due Application unto them is a principal part of their Office and Duty To discountenance to discourage any from seeking relief in perplexities of this nature to carry it towards them with a seeming moroseness and unconcernedness is to turn that which is Lame out of the way to push the Diseased and not at all to express the care of Christ towards his Flock Isa. 40.11 Yea it is their Duty to hearken after them who may be so exercised to seek them out to give them their Counsel and Directions on all occasions 3. TO bear patiently and tenderly with the weakness ignorance dulness slowness to believe and receive satisfaction yea it may be Impertinencies in them that are so tempted These things will abound amongst them partly from their natural Infirmities many being weak and perhaps froward but especially from the nature of their Temptations which are suited to disorder and disquiet their Minds to fill them with perplexed Thoughts and to make them jealous of every thing wherein they are spiritually concerned And if much patience meekness and condescention be not exercised towards them they are quickly turned out of the way IN the discharge of the whole Pastoral Office there is not any Thing or Duty that is of more importance nor wherein the Lord Jesus Christ is more concerned nor more eminently suited unto the nature of the Office it self than this is But whereas it is a Work or Duty which because of the Reasons mentioned must be accompanied with the exercise of Humility Patience Self-denial and Spiritual Wisdom with Experience with wearisome Diversions from other occasions those who had got of old the conduct of the Souls of Men into their management turned this whole part of their Office and Duty into an Engine they called Articular Confession whereby they wrested the Consciences of Christians to the promotion of their own Ease Wealth Authority and oft-times to worse ends 7. A compassionate suffering with all the Members of the Church in all their trials and troubles whether internal or external belongs unto them in the discharge of their Office. Nor is there any thing that renders them more like unto Jesus Christ whom to represent unto the Church is their principal Duty The view and consideration by Faith of the Glory of Christ in his compassion with his suffering Members is the principal spring of Consolation unto the Church in all its Distresses And the same Spirit the same Mind herein ought according to their measure to be in all that have the Pastoral Office committed unto them So the Apostle expresseth it in himself Who is weak and I am not weak Who is offended and I burn not 2 Cor. 11.29 And unless this compassion and goodness do run through the discharge of their whole Office Men cannot be said to be Evangelical Shepherds nor the Sheep said in any sense to be their own For those who pretend unto the Pastoral Office to live it may be in wealth and pleasure regardless of the Sufferings and Temptations of their Flock or of the poor of it or related unto such Churches as wherein it is impossible that they should so much as be acquainted with the state of the greatest part of them is not answerable unto the institution of their Office nor to the design of Christ therein 8. CARE of the Poor and visitation of the Sick are parts of this Duty commonly known though commonly neglected 9. THE principal care of the Rule of the Church is incumbent on the Pastors of it This is the second general head of the Power and Duty of this Office whereunto many things in particular do belong But because I shall treat afterwards of the Rule of the Church by it self distinctly I shall not here insist upon it 10. THERE is a Communion to be observed among all the Churches of the same Faith and Profession in any Nation Wherein it doth consist and what is required thereunto shall be afterwards declared The principal care hereof unto the Edification of the Churches is incumbent on the Pastors of them Whether it be exercised by Letters of mutual advice of congratulation or consolation or in testimony of Communion with those who are called to Office in them or whether it be by convening in Synods for consultation of their joint concernments which things made up a great part of the Primitive Ecclesiastical Polity their Duty it is to attend unto it and to take care of it 11. THAT wherewith I shall close these few instances of the Pastoral Charge and Duty is that without which all the rest will neither be useful unto Men nor be accepted with the great Shepherd Christ Jesus And that is an humble holy exemplary conversation in all Godliness and Honesty The Rules and Precepts of the Scripture the Examples of Christ and his Apostles with that of the Bishops or Pastors of the Primitive Churches and the nature of the thing it self with the Religion which we do profess do undeniably prove this Duty to be necessary and indispensable in a Gospel Ministry It were an easie thing to fill up a Volume with ancient Examples unto this purpose with Testimonies of the Scripture and first Writers among Christians with Examples of publick and private miscarriages herein with evident demonstration that the ruine of Christian Religion in most Nations where it hath been professed and so of the Nations themselves hath proceeded from the Ambition Pride Luxury Vncleanness Profaneness and otherways vitious Conversations of those who have been called the Clergy And in daily observation it is a thing written with the Beams of the Sun that whatever else be done in Churches if the Pastors of them or those who are so esteemed are not Exemplary in Gospel Obedience and Holiness Religion will not be carried on and improved among the people If Persons light or prophane in their Habits Garbs and Converse corrupt in their Communication Unsavoury and Barren as unto Spiritual Discourse if such as are Covetous Oppressive and Contentious such as are negligent in holy Duties in their own Families and so cannot stir up others unto diligence therein much more if such as are openly sensual vitious and debauched are admitted into this Office we may take our leave of all the Glory and Power of Religion among the people committed unto their charge TO handle this property or adjunct of the Pastoral Office it were necessary distinctly to consider and explain all the Qualifications assigned by the Apostle as necessary unto Bishops and Elders evidenced as previously necessary unto the orderly Call of them unto this Office 1 Tim. 3.2 3 4 5 6 7. Tit. 2.6 7 8 9. which is a Work not consistent with my present design to engage in THESE are
The present offence and scandal may be provided against by an Act of Rectoral Prudence in causing the offending Person to abstain from the Lords Table for a Season V. IT is Enquired Fifthly Whether such as voluntarily causlesly and disorderly do leave the Communion of any Church whereof they are Members though not guilty of any scandalous immoralities maâ— and ought to be Excommunicated Answ. 1. WHERE Persons are esteemed Members of Churches by external causes without their own consent or by Parochial cohabitation they may remove from one Church unto another by the Removal of their Habitation according unto their own Discretion For such cohabitation being the only formal Cause of any Relation to such a Church in particular upon the ceasing of that cause the Relation ceaseth of its own accord 2. WHERE Persons are Members of Churches by mutual confederation or express personal consent causless departure from them is an evil liable unto many Aggrevations 3. BUT whereas the principal end of all particular Churches is Edification there may be many just and sufficient Reasons why a Person may remove himself from the constant Communion of one Church unto that of another And of these Reasons he himself is judge on whom it is incumbent to take care of his own Edification above all other things Nor ought the Church to deny unto any such Persons their Liberty desired peaceably and according unto Order 4. IT was declared before that where any Persons guilty of and under Admonition for any scandalous Sin do withdraw from the Communion of any Church their so doing is no impediment unto a farther procedure against them 5. WHEREAS there are amongst us Churches or those who are so esteemed in the Consciences of Men so far differing in Principles and Practices as that they have not entire Communion with one another in all parts of Divine Worship it may be Enquired Whether if a Man leave a Church of one sort to join with one of another as suppose he leave a select Congregation to join in a Parochial Church constantly and totally he may be justly Excommunicated for so doing without the consent of the Church whereunto he did belong Answ. 1. IT is certain on the one hand that if any Man leave the Communion of Parochial Assemblies to join himself unto a Select Congregation those who have Power over those Parishes will make no question whether they shall Excommunicate him or no in their way But 2. SUPPOSING Persons so departing from particular Congregations 1. To be free from scandalous Sins 2. That they depart quietly without attempting Disorder or Confusion in the Church 3. That they do actually join themselves unto the Communion of some Church whose Constitution Principles and Worship they do approve whereby their visible Profession is preserved the Church may not justly proceed unto their Excommunication It may suffice to declare that such Persons have on their own accord forsaken the Communion of the Church are no more under its Watch or Care neither is the Church further obliged towards them but as unto Christian Duties in general 6. AS for those whose departure is as voluntary and causless so accompanied with other evils such as are Revilings Reproaches and false Accusations as is usual in such Cases they may be proceeded against as obstinate Offenders VI. THE Sixth Enquiry is What Time is to be given after solemn Admonition before actual Excommunication Answ. 1. THE manner of some to run over the Words I Admonish you a First Second and Third time so immediately to make way for the Sentence of Excommunication is that wherein Men are greatly to be pitied for their Ignorance of the nature of those things which they take on themselves to Act Order and Dispose of that we ascribe it not unto worse and more evil Causes 2. THE nature of the thing it self requires a considerable Season or space of Time between solemn Admonition and Excommunication For the end and design of the former is the Repentance and Recovery of the Offender Nor doth its Efficacy thereunto depend on or consist in the actual giving of it but as other moral Causes which may Work gradually upon occasional Advantages Want of Light some present Exasperation and Temptation may seem to frustrate a present Admonition when they do but suspend its present Efficacy which it may afterwards obtain on the Conscience of the Offender 3. IT being a Church Admonition that is intended it is the Duty of the Church to abide in Prayer and waiting for the Fruit of it according to the appointment of Christ. And herein the case may possibly require some long time to be spent 4. NO present appearance of Obstinacy or impenitence under Admonition which is usually pleaded should cause an immediate proceedure unto Excommunication For 1. It is contrary unto the distinct Institution of the one and the other wherein the former is to be allowed its proper Season for its Use and Efficacy 2. It doth not represent the patience and forbearance of Christ towards his Church and all the Members of it 3. It is not suited unto the Rule of that Love which hopeth all things beareth all things c. 4. All grounds of hope for the Recovery of Sinners by Repentance are to be attended unto so as to deferr the ultimate Sentence Nulla unquam de morte hominis cunctatio longa est 5. IF new Sins are added of the same or any other kind unto former scandals whilst Persons are under Admonition it is an Indication of the necessity of a proceedure VII IT may be farther Enquired Whether a Man may be Excommunicated for Errors in matters of Faith or false Opinions about them Answ. 1. THE Case is so plainly and positively stated Rev. 2.2 6 15 16 20. 1 Tim. 1.19 20. Tit. 3.10 11. and other places that it needs no farther Determination Wherefore 2. IF the Errors intended are about or against the Fundamental Truths of the Gospel so as that they that hold them cannot hold the Head but really make Shipwrack of the Faith no pretended usefulness of such Persons no peaceableness as unto outward deportment which Men guilty of such Abominations will frequently cover themselves withal can countenance the Church in forbearing after due Admonition to cut them off from their Communion The nature of the evil the danger that is from it unto the whole Church as from a Gangrene in any Member unto the Body the Indignation of Christ expressed against such pernicious Doctrines the opposition of them to the building of the Church on the Rock which in most of them is opposed to render a Church altogether inexcusable who omit their Duty herein 3. FALSE Opinions in lesser things when the foundation of Faith and Christian Practice are not immediately concerned may be tolerated in a Church and sundry Rules are given unto this end in the Scripture as Rom. 14.1 2 3 c. Phil. 3.15 16. Howbeit in that low ebb of Grace Love and Prudence which we
cases Dubious and Disputable wherein Right and Wrong are not easily determinable unto all unprejudiced persons that know the Will of God in such things Nor is it to be admitted when the matter of Fact stands in need of Testimony and is not proved by Two Witnesses at the least 2. ALL Prejudices all Partiality all Provocations all Haste and Precipitation are most carefully to be avoided in this Administration for the Judgment is the Lords Wherefore 3. WE are continually in all things that tend unto this Sentence and eminently in the Sentence it self to charge our Consciences with the Mind of Christ and what he would do himself in the case considering his Love Grace Mercy and Patience with instances of his Condescension which he gave us in this World. 4. THERE is also required of us herein a constant Remembrance that we also are in the Flesh and liable to Temptation which may restrain and keep in awe that forwardness and confidence which some are apt to manifest in such cases In all these things a watchful Eye is to be kept over the methods of Satan who by all means seeks to pervert this Ordinance unto the Destruction of Men which is appointed for their Edification and too often prevails in that Design And if by the Negligence of a Church in the management and pursuit of this Ordinance he gets advantage to pervert it unto the Ruine of any it is the fault of that Church in that they have not been careful of the Honour of Christ therein Wherefore 1. AS Excommunication by a cursed Noise and Clamor with Bell Book and Candle such as we have instances of in some Papal Councils is an horrible Anti-christian Abomination So 2. IT is an undue Representation of Christ and his Authority for persons openly guilty of profaneness in sinning to Excommunicate them who are blameless in all Christian Obedience 3. ALL Excommunication is Evangelically null where there is wanting an Evangelical frame of spirit in those by whom it is Administred and there is present an Anti-evangelical Order in its Administration 4. IT is sufficiently evident that after all the Contests and Disputes about this Excommunication that have been in the World the Noise that it hath made the horrible Abuses that it hath been put unto the wresting of all Church-Order and Rule to give countenance unto a corrupt Administration of it with the needless Oppositions that have been made against its Institution there is nothing in it nothing belongs unto it nothing required unto its Administration wherein Mens outward Interests are at all concerned and which the smallest number of sincere Christians in any Church-Society may not perform and discharge unto the Glory of Christ and their own Edification IT is the Mystery of Iniquity that hath traversed these things into such a state and posture as is unintelligible unto spiritual Wisdom unpracticable in the Obedience of Faith and ruinous unto all Evangelical Order and Discipline CHAP. XI Of the Communion of Churches CHURCHES so appointed and established in Order as hath been declared ought to hold Communion among themselves or with each other as unto all the ends of their Institution and Order For these are the same in all Yea the general end of them is in Order of Nature considered antecedently unto their Institution in particular This end is the Edification of the Body of Christ in general or the Church Catholick The promotion hereof is committed jointly and severally unto all particular Churches Wherefore with respect hereunto they are obliged unto mutual Communion among themselves which is their consent endeavour and conjunction in and for the promotion of the Edification of the Catholick Church and therin their own as they are Parts and Members of it THIS Communion is incumbent on every Church with respect unto all other Churches of Christ in the World equally And the Duties and Acts of it in all of them are of the same kind and nature For there is no such disparity between them or subordination among them as should make a difference between the Acts of their mutual Communion so as that the Acts of some should be Acts of Authority and those of others Acts of obedience or subjection Where ever there is a Church whether it be at Rome or Egubium in a City or a Village the Communion of them all is mutual the Acts of it of the same kind however one Church may have more Advantages to be useful and helpful therein than another And the abuse of those Advantages was that which wrought effectually in the beginning of that disorder which at length destroyed the Catholick Church with all church-Church-Communion whatever For some Churches especially that of Rome having many Advantages in Gifts Abilities Numbers and Reputation above many above most Churches for usefulness in their mutual Communion the Guides of it insensibly turned and perverted the Addresses made unto them the Advises and Assistances desired of them in way of Communion or their pretences of such Addresses and Desires into an Usurpation first of a primacy of Honour then of Order then of Supremacy and Jurisdiction unto the utter overthrow of all Church-Order and Communion and at length of the whole nature of the Catholick Church as stated and subsisting in particular Churches as we shall see ALL Churches on their first institution quickly found themselves indigent and wanting though not as unto their Being Power and Order yet as unto their well-being with their preservation in Truth and Order upon extraordinary Occurrences as also with respect unto their usefulness and serviceableness unto the general end of furthering the Edification of the Church Catholick The care hereof and the making provision for this defect was committed by our Lord Jesus Christ unto the Apostles during their Lives which Paul calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Cor. 11.28 The care of all the Churches For what was only a pressing care and burden unto them was afterward contended for by others as a matter of Dignity and Power the pretence of it in one especially being turned into a cursed Domination under the Stile and Title of Servus Servorum Dei. BUT if a Thousand pretences should be made of supplying Churches defects after the decease of the Apostles by any other Order Way or Means besides this of the equal Communion of Churches among themselves they will be all found destitute of any Countenance from the Scripture Primitive Antiquity the nature use and end of Churches yea of Christian Religion it self Yet the pretence hereof is the sole foundation of all that disposal of Churches into several stories of Subordination with an Authority and Jurisdiction over one another which now prevails in the World. But there is no place for such Imaginations until it be proved either that our Lord Jesus Christ hath not appointed the mutual Communion of Churches among themselves by their own consent or that it is not sufficient for the preservation of the Vnion and furtherance of the
Edification of the Church Catholick whereunto it is designed WHEREFORE our Lord Jesus Christ in his infinite Wisdom hath constituted his Churches in such a State and Order as wherein none of them are able of themselves always and in all instances to attain all the ends for which they are appointed with respect unto the Edification of the Church Catholick And he did it for this end that whereas the whole Catholick Church is animated by one spirit which is the bond of Union between all particular Churches as we shall see every one of them may Act the Gifts and Graces of it unto the Preservation and Edification of the whole HEREIN then we acknowledge lieth the great difference which we have with others about the state of the Church of Christ in this World we do believe that the mutual Communion of particular Churches amongst themselves in an equality of Power and Order though not of Gifts and Usefulness is the only way appointed by our Lord Jesus Christ after the Death of the Apostles for the attaining the general end of all particular Churches which is the Edification of the Church Catholick in Faith Love and Peace Other ways and means have been found out in the World for this end which we must speak unto immediately Wherefore it behoveth us to use some Diligence in the consideration of the Causes Nature and Vse of this Communion of Churches BUT it must be moreover premised that whereas this Communion of Churches is Radically and Essentially the same among all Churches in the World yet as unto the ordinary actual exercise of the Duties of it it is confined and limited by Divine Providence unto such Churches as the natural means of the discharge of such Duties may extend unto That is unto those which are planted within such Lines of Communication such precincts or boundaries of Places and Countries as may not render the mutual performance of such Duties insuperably difficult Yet is not the World it self so wide but that all places being made pervious by Navigation this Communion of Churches may be visibly professed and in some instances practised among all Churches from the rising of the Sun even unto the going-down of the same where the Name of Christ is known among the Gentiles wherein the true nature of the Catholick Church and its Union doth consist which is utterly overthrown by the most vehement pretences that are made unto it as those in the Church of Rome WHEREFORE such a Communion of Churches is to be enquired after as from which no true Church of Christ is or can be excluded in whose actual exercise they may and ought all to live and whereby the general end of all Churches in the Edification of the Catholick Church may be attained This is the true and only Catholicism of the Church which whoever departs from or substitutes any thing else in the room of it under that Name destroys its whole nature and disturbs the whole Ecclesiastical Harmony that is of Christs Institution HOWEVER therefore we plead for the Rights of particular Churches yet our real Controversy with most in the World is for the Being Union and Communion of the Church Catholick which are variously perverted by many and separating it into Parties and confining it to Rules Measures and Canons of their own finding out and Establishment For such things as these belong neither to the internal nor external Form of that Catholick Church whose Being in the World we believe and whose Vnion we are obliged to preserve And whoever gives any Description of or Limitation to the Catholick Church besides what consist in the Communion of particular Churches intended doth utterly overthrow it and therein an Article of our Faith. BUT this Communion of Churches cannot be duly apprehended unless we enquire and determine wherein their Vnion doth consist For Communion is an Act of Vnion that receives both its Nature and Power from it or by virtue of it For of what Nature soever the Vnion of things distinct in themselves be of the same is the Communion that they have among themselves IN the Church of Rome the Person of the Pope as he is Pope is the Head and Center of all Church Union Nor is there allowed any Vnion of particular Churches with Christ or among themselves but in and through him An Universal subjection unto him and his Authority is the original spring of all Church Vnion among them And if any one Soul fail herein if as unto things of Faith and Divine Worship he do not depend on the Pope and live in subjection unto him he is reputed a Stranger and Forâ—â—â—ner unto the Catholick Church Yea they affirm that be a Man never so willing for and desirous of an Interest in Christ he cannot have it but by the Pope THE Communion of Churches congenial and suited unto this Union proceeding from it and exercised by virtue of it ariseth from a various contignation of Order or the erection of one story of Church Interest upon another until we come to the Idol placed on the top of this Babel So is this Communion carried on from the obedience and subjection of the lowest rubbish of Ecclesiastical Order unto Diocesans of them to Metropolitans of them to Patriarchs or Cardinals of them to the Pope or an ascent is made from Diocesan Synods by Provincial and National to those that are called Oecumenical whose Head is the Pope YET Two things must be farther observed to clear this Communion of the Roman Catholick Church as 1. That there is no ascent of Church-Order or Power by a vital Act of Communion from the lower Degrees Orders or Consociations and by them to the Pope as though he should receive any thing of Church-Power from them but all the plenitude of it being originally vested in him by these several Orders and Degrees he communicates of it unto all Churches as the Life of their Conjunction and Communion 2. That no Man is so jointed in this Order so compacted in this Body but that he is also personally and immediately subject to the Pope and depends on him as unto his whole profession of Religion AND this is that which constitutes him formally to be what he is that is Antichrist and the Church-State arising from its Union unto him holding him as its Head subsisting in a Communion by virtue of power received through various Orders and Constitutions from him to be Anti-christian For he and it are set up in the room of and in direct opposition unto the Lord Christ as the Head of the Catholick Church and the Church state thereon depending This we have described Ephes. 4.15 16. Speaking the Truth in Love may grow up c. As also Col. 2.19 Where there is a Rejection of them who belong not unto the Church Catholick taken from its Relation unto Christ and the nature of its dependance on him not holding the Head c. WHEN Men shall cease to be wilfully blind or when the powers of
the strong Delusion that begin to abate shall expire they will easily see the direct Opposition that is between these two Heads and two Churches namely Christ and the Pope the Catholick Church and that of Rome I KNOW well enough all the Evasions and Distinctions that are invented to countenance this Anti-christianism As that there is a double Head one of internal influence of Grace which Christ is and the Pope is not the other of Rule and Authority which the Pope is But this also is two-fold Supream and Remote or Immediate and Subordinate the first is Christ the latter is the Pope And there is yet farther a two-fold Head of the Church the one invisible which is Christ the other visible which is the Pope NOT to insist on these gross and horrible Figments of a twofold Head of the Catholick Church in any sence which are foreign to the Scripture foreign to Antiquity whereof never one word was heard in the Church for Six hundred Years after Christ deforming the beautiful Spouse of Christ into a Monster we will allow at present that the Pope is only the immediate visible subordinate Head of all Rule and Authority to their Church which is what they plead for Then I say that the Church whereof he is the Head is his Body that it holds him as its Head that it is compacted together by the Officers and Orders that depend on him and receive all their influence of Church-Power and Order from him which though he communicates not by an internal influence of Grace and Gifts alas poor wretch yet he doth it by Officers Offices Orders and Laws so giving Union and Communion unto the whole Body by the effectual working of every joint and part of the Hierarchy under him for its Union Communion and Edification This I say is the Anti-christ and the Anti-christian Church-State as I shall be at any time ready to maintain LET any Man take a due prospect of this Head and this Body as related and united by the Bond of their own Rules Constitutions and Laws acting in worldly Pomp Splendor and Power with horrid bloody Cruelties against all that oppose it and he will not fail of an open view of all the Scriptural Lineaments of the Apostate Anti-christian State of the Church I SAY again This assigning of the original of all Church Order Union and Communion unto the Pope of Rome investing him therewith as an Article of Faith constituting him thereby the Head of the Church and the Church thereon his Body as it must be if he be its Head so as that from him all power of Order and for all Acts of Communion should be derived returning all in Obedience and Subjection unto him doth set up a visible conspicuous Anti-christian Church State in opposition unto Christ and the Catholick Church But with this sort of Men we deal not at present THERE is a pretence unto an â—nion of Churches not derived from the Papal Headship And this consists in the Canonical subjection of particular Churches unto a Diocesan Bishop and of such Bishops to Metropolitans which though de facto it be at present terminated and stated within the bounds of a Nation yet de jure it ought to be extended unto the whole Catholick Church ACCORDING unto this Principle the Vnion of the Catholick Church consists in that Order whereby particular Churches are distributed into Deanaries Arch-Deaconries Exempt Peculiars under Officials Diocesses Provinces under Metropolitans and so by or without Patriarchs to avoid the Rock of the Papacy issuing in a General-Council as I suppose But 1. TO confine the Vnion and Communion of the Catholick Church hereunto is at present absolutely destructive both of the Church and its Communion For all particular Churches when they are by a coalescency extended unto those which are Provincial or National have both Politically and Ecclesiastically such bounds fixed unto them as they cannot pass to carry on Communion unto and with the Church as Catholick by any Acts and Duties belonging unto their Order And hereby the Union and Communion of the Church is utterly lost For the Union of the Catholick Church as such doth always equally exist and the Communion of it is always equally in exercise and can consist in nothing but what doth so exist and is so exercised Where-ever is the Catholick Church there is the Communion of Saints But nothing of this can be obtained by virtue of this Order 2. WE enquire at present after such an Vnion as gives particular Churches Communion among themselves which this Order doth not but absolutely overthrows it leaving nothing unto them but subjection to Officers set over them who are not of them according to Rules and Laws of their appointment which is foreign to the Scripture and Antiquity 3. THIS Order it self the only bond of the pretended Union having no Divine Institution especially as to its extent unto the whole Catholick Church nor any intimation in the Scripture and being utterly impossible to be put in execution or actual exercise no Man can declare what is the Original or Center of it whence it is deduced and wherein it rests HAVING removed these pretences out of our way we may easily discern wherein the Vnion and consequently the Communion of â—ll particular Churches doth consist and in the due observation whereof all that Church-Order which the Lord Christ hath appointed and doth accept is preserved I SAY then that the true and only Vnion of all particular Churches consists in that which gives Form Life and Being unto the Church Catholick with the Addition of what belongs unto them as they are particular And this is that they have all one and the same God and Father one Lord Jesus Christ one Faith and one Doctrine of Faith one hope of their calling or the promised Inheritance one Regeneration one Baptism one Bread and Wine united unto God and Christ in one Spirit through the bond of Faith and Love. THIS Description with what is suited thereunto and explanatory of it is all the account which is given us in the Scripture of the constituting form of the Catholick Church and of the Vnion of particular Churches among themselves What Church soever fails in the essential parts of this Description or any of them it is separated from the Catholick Church nor hath either Union or Communion with any true Churches of Christ. TWO things concurr unto the compleating of this Vnion of Churches 1. Their Vnion or Relation unto Christ. 2. That which they have among themselves 1. THE Lord Christ himself is the Original and Spring of this Vnion and every particular Church is united unto him as its Head besides which with or under which it hath none This Relation of the Church unto Christ as its Head the Apostle expresly affirms to be the foundation and cause of its Union Ephes. 4.15 16. Col. 2.19 the places before quoted Hereby it is also in God the Father 2 Thes. 1.1 Or hath God as its Father
And unless this Union be dissolved unless a Church be disunited from Christ it cannot be so from the Catholick Church nor any true Church of Christ in particular however it may be dealt withal by others in the World. FROM Christ as the Head and Spring of Union there proceedeth unto all particular Churches a bond of Vnion which is his Holy Spirit acting it self in them by Faith and Love in and by the ways and means and for the ends of his appointment THIS is the Kingly Royal Beautiful Vnion of the Church Christ as the only head of Influence and Rule bringing it into a Relation unto himself as his Body communicating of his Spirit unto it governing it by the Law of his Word enabling it unto all the Duties of Faith Love and Holiness FOR unto the compleating of this Vnion on the part of the Church these things are required 1. Faith in him or holding him as the Head in the sincere belief of all things concerning his Person Office and Doctrine in the Gospel with whatever belongs thereunto 2. Love unto him and all that is his 3. That especial Holiness whose foundation is Repentance and Effectual Vocation 4. The Observance of his Commands as unto all Duties of Divine Worship These things are essentially requisite unto this Union on the part of the Church The Reality and Power of them is the internal form of the Church and the profession of them is its external form 2. THERE concurreth hereunto an Vnion among themselves I mean all particular Churches throughout the World in whom the Church Catholick doth Act its Power and Duty And the Relation that is between these Churches is that which is termed Relatio aequiparentiae wherein neither of the Relata is the first foundation of it but they are equal It doth not arise from the Subordination of one unto another they being all equal as unto what concerns their Essence and Power And the bond hereof is that especial Love which Christ requireth among all his Disciples acting it self unto all the ends of the Edification of the whole Body TAKE in the whole and the Union of Churches consists in their Relation unto God as their Father and unto Christ as their only immediate Head of Influence and Rule with a participation of the same Spirit in the same Faith and Doctrine of Truth the same kind of Holiness the same Duties of Divine Worship especially the same Mysteries of Baptism and the Supper the observance of the same Rules or Commands of Christ in all Church-Order with mutual Love effectual unto all the ends of their Being and Constitution or the Edification of the Church Catholick THERE may be failures in them or some of them as unto sundry of these things there may be differences among them about them arising from the Infirmities Ignorance and Prejudices of them of whom they do consist the best knowing here but in part but whilst the substance of them is preserved the Union of all Churches and so of the Catholick Church is preserved THIS is that blessed oneness which the Lord Christ prayed for so earnestly for his Disciples that they might be one in the Father and the Son one among themselves and made perfect in one Joh. 17.20 21 22 23. without any respect unto that horrid Image of it which was set up in the latter days of the Church which all Men were compelled to bow down unto and Worship with the fire of Nebuchadnezzars Furnance Of any other Union there is not the least mention in the Scripture THIS Union of the Catholick Church in all particular Churches is always the same inviolable unchangeable comprehending all the Churches in the World at all times not confinable unto any State or Party not interruptible by any external form nor to be prevailed against by the Gates of Hell and all such Disputes about a Catholick Church and its Vnion as can be so much as questionable among them that profess to believe the Gospel are in direct opposition unto the Prayers and Promises of Jesus Christ. Whilst Evangelical Faith Holiness Obedience unto the Commands of Christ and Mutual Love abide in any on the Earth there is the Catholick Church and whilst they are professed that Catholick Church is visible other Catholick Church upon the Earth I believe none nor any that needs other things unto its Constitution THESE things being premised I proceed unto that which is our present Enquiry namely Wherein the Communion of particular Churches among themselves doth consist THE Communion of Churches is their joint actings in the same Gospel Duties towards God in Christ with their mutual actings towards each other with respect unto the end of their Institution and Being which is the Glory of Christ in the Edification of the whole Catholick Church AS unto the actings of the first sort the ground of them is Faith and therein is the first Act of the Communion of Churches And this Communion in Faith among all the Churches of Christ is two-fold 1. General in the belief of the same Doctrine of Truth which is according unto Godliness the same Articles of Faith and the publick profession thereof so that every one of them is the Ground and Pillar of the same Truth This the Primitive Church provided for in Creeds and Symbols or Confessions of Faith as is known But as never any one of them was expresly owned by all Churches so in process of time they came to be abused as expressing the sence of the present Church whether true or false Hence we have as many Arian Creeds yet extant as those that are Orthodox But unto the Communion of all particular Churches in the World there is nothing required but a belief of the Scripture to be the Word of God with a professed assent unto all Divine Revelations therein contained provided that no Error be avowed that is contrary to the principal or fundamental Doctrines of it For although any Society of Men should profess the Scripture to be the Word of God and avow an Assent unto the Revelations made therein yet by the conceptions of their Minds and misunderstanding of the sence of the Holy Spirit therein they may embrace and adhere unto such Errors as may cut them off from all Communion with the Catholick Church in Faith. Such are the denial of the holy Trinity the Incarnation of the Son of God His Divine Person or Office the Redemption of the Church by his Blood the necessity of Regeneration by his Spirit and the like And they may also add that of their own unto their professed Belief as shall exclude them from Communion with the Catholick Church Such are the Assertion of Traditions as equal with the written Word of another Head of the Church besides the Lord Christ of another Sacrifice besides what he once offered for all and the like But where any are preserved from such Heresies on the one hand and the other there is no more required unto Communion with
the whole Church as unto Faith in general but only the Belief before described 2. THIS Communion in Faith respects the Church it self as its material Object For it is required hereunto that we believe that the Lord Christ hath had in all Ages and especially hath in that wherein we live a Church on the Earth confined unto no Places nor Parties of Men no Empires nor Dominions or capable of any confinement as also that this Church is Redeemed Called Sanctified by him that it is his Kingdom his Interest his concernment in the World that thereunto and all the Members of it all the Promises of God do belong and are confined that this Church he will save preserve and deliver from all oppositions so as that the Gates of Hell shall not prevail against it and after Death will raise it up and glorify it at the last day This is the Faith of the Catholick Church concerning it self which is an Ancient fundamental Article of our Religion And if any one deny that there is such a Church called out of the World separated from it unto which alone and all the Members of it all the Promises of God do appertain in contradistinction unto all others or confines it unto a Party unto whom these things are not appropriate he cuts himself off from the Communion of the Church of Christ. IN the Faith hereof all the true Churches of Christ throughout the World have a comforting refreshing Communion which is the spring of many Duties in them continually 3. THIS Communion of Churches in Faith consists much in the principal Fruit of it namely Prayer So is it stated Ephes. 2.18 For through Christ we have an Access by one Spirit unto the Father And that therein the Communion of the Catholick Church doth consist the Apostle declares in the following Verses 19 20 21 22. Now therefore c. For Prayer in all Churches having one object which is God even the Father God as the Father proceeding in all from one and the same Spirit given unto them as a Spirit of Grace and Supplications to make Intercession for them and all of them continually offered unto God by the same High-Priest who adds unto it the Incense of his own Intercession and by whom they have all an access unto the same Throne of Grace they have all a blessed Communion herein continually And this Communion is the more express in that the Prayers of all are for all so as that there is no particular Church of Christ in the World not any one Member of any of them but they have the Prayers of all the Churches in the World and of all the Members of them every day And however this Communion be invisible unto the eyes of Flesh yet is it glorious and conspicuous unto the eye of Faith and is a part of the glory of Christ the Mediatour in Heaven This Prayer proceeding from or wrought by one and the same Spirit in them all equally bestowed on them all by virtue of the Promise of Christ having the same object even God as a Father and offered unto him by the same High-Priest together with his own Intercession gives unto all Churches a Communion far more glorious than what consists in some outward Rites and Orders of Mens devising BUT now if there be any other Persons or Churches who have any other Object of their Prayers but God even the Father and as our Father in Christ or have any other Mediators or Intercessors by whom to convey or present their Prayers unto God but Christ alone the only High-Priest of the Church or do renounce the Aid and Assistance of the Holy Spirit as a Spirit of Grace and Supplications they cut themselves off from all Communion with the Catholick Church herein 4. THE Vnity of Faith in all Churches affecteth Communion among them in the Administration of the same Sacraments of Baptism and the Supper of the Lord. These are the same in unto and amongst them all Neither do some variations in the outward manner of their Administration interrupt that Communion But where-ever the continuation of these Ordinances is denied or their nature or use is perverted or Idolatrous Worship is annexed unto their Administration there Communion with the Catholick Church is renounced 5. THEY have also by Faith Communion herein in that all Churches do profess a subjection unto the Authority of Christ in all things and an obligation upon them to do and observe all whatsoever he hath Commanded OTHER instances of the like nature might be given but these are sufficient to manifest how unscriptural the Notion is That there is no proper Communion with or among Churches but what consists in a compliance with certain Powers Orders and Rites the pressing whereof under the Name of Vniformity hath cast all thoughts of real Evangelical Church Communion into Oblivion SECONDLY Churches Ordained and Constituted in the way and manner and for the Ends declared in our former Discourse on this Subject and by virtue of their Union unto Christ and among themselves living constantly in all places of the World in the actual exercise of that Communion which consists in the performance of the same Church-Duties towards God in Christ unto their own Continuation Encrease and Edification have also an especial Vnion among themselves and a mutual Communion thence arising THE Bond of this Vnion is Love not the common regulated Affection of Humane nature so called not meerly that Power and Duty which is engraven on the Hearts of Men by the Law of Creation towards all of the same kind and blood with themselves but an especial Grace of the Holy Spirit acting in the Church as the Principle and Bond of its Union unto its self whence the command of it is called a New Commandment because in it self as unto the only Example of it in the Person of Christ the Causes and Motives unto it with its peculiar Ends and proper Exercise it was absolutely New and Evangelical An Explanation of the Nature of it belongs not unto this place although it be a Grace and a Duty of so much importance wherein so much of the Life Power and peculiar Glory of Christian Religion doth consist and is either so utterly lost or hath such vile Images of it set up in the World that it deserves a full Consideration which it may receive in another place I SAY the Holy Spirit of Grace and Love being given from Christ the Fountain and Center of all Church-Union to dwell in and abide with his Church thereby uniting it unto himself doth work in it and all the Members of it that mutual Love which may and doth animate them unto all those mutual Acts which are proper unto the Relation wherein they stand by virtue of their Union unto Christ their Head as Members of the same Body one with another HEREIN consists the Union of every Church in it self of all Churches among themselves and so of the whole Catholick Church their Communion consisting
Communion would frequently meet in Synods to enquire into the spiritual state of them all and to give advice for the correction of what is amiss the due preservation of the purity of Worship the exercise of Discipline but especially of the Power Demonstration and Fruit of Evangelical Obedience 2. HENCE it is evident what are the ends of such Synods among the Churches of Christ. The general end of them all is to promote the Edification of the whole Body or Church Catholick And that 1. To prevent Divisions from differences in iudgment and practice which are contrary thereunto The First Christian Synod was an Assembly of the two First Churches in the World by their Delegates The First Church of the Jews was at Jerusalem and the First Church of the Gentiles was at Antioch to prevent Divisions and to preserve Communion between them was the First Synod Celebrated Act. 15. 2. To avoid or cure offences against mutual love among them 3. To advance the light of the Gospel by a joint Confession and Agreement in the Faith. 4. To give a concurrent Testimony against pernicious Heresies or Errors whereby the Faith of any is overthrown or in danger so to be 5. To relieve such by advice as may be by any Diotrephes unduly cast out of the Church WHAT are the ends whereunto they have been used may be seen in the Volumes written concerning them and the numberless Laws enacted in them whereof very little belongs unto the Discipline of the Gospel or real Communion of Churches 3. THE measure or extent of them ariseth from concernment and convenience All unprejudiced Persons do now acknowledge that the pretence of Oecumenical Councils wherein the whole Church of Christ on the Earth or all particular Churches should be represented and so obliged to acquiesce in their Determinations is a fond Imagination And it were easie to demonstrate in particular how every one of them which hath in vulgar esteem obtained that Title were openly remote from so being Such Councils never were and as it is improbable never will nor can be nor are any way needful unto the Edification of the Church THEIR due measure and bounds as was said before are given them by concernment and convenience wherein respect also may be had unto the Ability of some Churches to promote Edification above others Such Churches as are in the same instances concerned in the causes of them before declared and may be helpful unto the ends mentioned are to convene in such Synods And this concernment may be either from some of those causes in themselves or from that Duty which they owe unto other Churches which are immediately concerned So it was in the Assistance given by the Church at Jerusalem in that case which was peculiar to the Church of Antioch WITH this interest or concernment there must be a concurrence of natural moral and political Conveniences Some Churches are planted at such distances from others that it is naturally impossible that they should ever meet together to advise by their Messengers and some at such as that they cannot assemble but with such difficulties and hazzards as exempt them from the Duty of it And whereas they are placed under different Civil Governments and those oft-times engaged in mutual enmities and always jealous of the actings of their own Subjects in conjunction with them that are not so they cannot so convene and preserve the outward peace of the Churches Hence the largest of the Councils of old that are called Oecumenical never pretended farther than the single Roman Empire when there were innumerable Churches planted under the Civil Jurisdiction of other Sovereigns WHEREFORE in the Assembling of Churches in Synods respect is to be had unto the convenience of their meeting that it may be so far as is possible without trouble or danger And this with respect unto the causes or occasions of them will determine what Churches which or how many may be necessary on such occasions to constitute a Synod And it is useful hereunto that the Churches which are planted within such a circumference as gives facility or convenience for such conventions should by virtue of their mutual Communion be in express readiness to convene on all occasions of common concernment AGAIN in the assistance which in the way of Advice and Counsel any one Church may stand in need of from others respect is to be had in their desire unto such Churches as are reputed and known to have the best ability to give Advice in the case on which account the Church at Antioch addressed themselves in a peculiar manner unto the Church at Jerusalem which was far distant from them BUT in all these cases use is to be made of Spiritual Prudence with respect unto all sorts of Circumstances which although some would deny as the privilege of even matters of Fact and the Application of general Scripture Rules unto Practice because we require Divine Institution unto all parts of Religious Worship yet we must not decline from using the best we have in the service of Christ and his Church rather than comply with any thing which in the whole substance of it is foreign to his Institution IT was the Roman Empire under one Monarch in its Civil Distributions for Rule and Government which gave the first rise and occasion unto a pretended visibly Ruling Catholick Church under one Spiritual Monarch distributed into those that were Patriarchal Diocesan Metropolitical and others of inferior kinds For retaining the people in their Civil Distributions whereinto they were cast according to the Polity and Interest of the Empire there were Ecclesiastical Officers assigned unto each distribution answerable unto the Civil Officers which were ordained in the Polity of the Empire So in answer unto Deputies Exarchs Praefects Governours of Provinces and Cities there were found out and erected Patriarchs Metropolitans Diocesans in various Allotments of Territories and Powers requiring unto their compleat State one visible Monarchical Head as the Empire had which was the Pope And whereas the Emperors had not only a Civil Rule and Power but a Military also exercised under them by Legates Generals Tribunes Centurions and the like so there was raised an Ecclesiastical Militia in various Orders of Monks Friars and Votaries of all sorts who under their immediate Generals and Praefects did depend absolutely on the Sovereign Power of the New Ecclesiastical Monarch So was the visible professing Church moulded and fashioned into an Image of the old Roman Pagan Empire as it was foretold it should be Revel 13 14 15. And although this Image was first framed in compliance with it and for a resemblance of it yet in process of time it substituted it self entirely in the room of the Empire taking all its Power unto it self and doing all its Works FROM this distribution of various sorts of new-framed Churches in the Roman Empire arose a constitution of Synods or Councils in subordination one unto another until by sundry degrees of Ascent they
arrived unto those which they called general under the conduct of the Pope whose Senate they were BUT these things have no countenance given them by any Divine Institution Apostolical Example or practice of the First Churches but are a meer product of Secular Interest working it self in a Mystery of Iniquity SINCE the Dissolution of the Roman Empire Nations have been cast into distinct Civil Governments of their own whose Sovereignty is in themselves by the event of War and Counsels thereon emergent Unto each of these it is supposed there is a Church-State accommodated as the Church of England the Church of Scotland the Church of France and the like whose Original and Being depends on the First event of War in that Dissolution Unto these new Church-States whose Being Bounds and Limits are given unto them absolutely by those of the Civil Government which they belong unto it is thought meet that Ecclesiastical Synods should be accommodated But in what way this is to be done there is not yet an agreement but it is not my present business to consider the differences that are about it which are known unto this Nation on a dear account Yet this I shall say that whereas it is eminently useful unto the Edification of the Church Catholick that all the Churches professing the same Doctrine of Faith within the Limits of the same Supream Civil Government should hold constant actual Communion among themselves unto the ends of it before mentioned I see not how it can be any abridgment of the Liberty of particular Churches or interfere with any of their Rights which they hold by Divine Institution if through more constant lesser Synods for Advice there be a communication of their mutual concerns unto those that are greater until if occasion require and it be expedient there be a general Assembly of them all to advise about any thing wherein they are all concerned But this is granted only with these Limitations 1. That the Rights of particular Churches be preserved in the free Election of such as are to be Members of all these Synods 2. That they assume no Authority or Jurisdiction over Churches or Persons in things Civil or Ecclesiastical 3. That none are immediately concerned in this proper Synodal Power or Authority which what it is we shall enquire who are not present in them by their own Delegates FOR that kind of Synods which some call a Classis which is a convention of the Elders or Officers of sundry Parochial Churches distinguished for Presential Communion ordinarily in some acts of it by virtue of their Office and for the exercise of Office-Power it is the constitution of a new kind of particular Churches by a combination of them into one whose Original distinction is only in the Civil Limits of their Cohabitation which probably may be done sometimes and in some places unto Edification 4. THE Persons of whom all sorts of Ecclesiastical Synods are to consist must be enquired into And there is nothing of meer humane prudential constitution that hath longer obtained in the Church than that those should be Officers of the Churches only And whereas after the days of the Apostles we have no Record of any Synods of more Churches than one until after the distinction was made between Bishops and Presbyters they were made up of both sorts of them But afterwards those who were peculiarly called Bishops enclosed this Right unto themselves on what grounds God knows there being no one Tittle in the Scripture or the Light of Reason to give them countenance therein IT must therefore be affirmed that no Persons by virtue of any Office meerly have Right to be Members of Ecclesiastical Synods as such Neither is there either Example or Reason to give colour unto any such pretence Farther is no Office-Power to be exerted in such Synods as such neither conjunctly by all the Members of them nor singly by any of them Officers of the Church Bishops Pastors Elders may be present in them ought to be present in them are meetest for the most part so to be but meerly as such it belongs not unto them The Care Oversight and Rule of the Churches whereunto they do belong the Flock among them distinctly is committed unto them and for that they are instructed with Power and Authority by virtue of their Office. But as unto their conjunction in Synods which is a meer act and effect of the Communion of Churches among themselves it is not committed unto them in a way of peculiar Right by virtue of their Office. If it be so without respect unto the power of the Magistrate in calling them or of the Churches in choosing them then it belongs unto them all for that which belongs unto any of them as such by virtue of Office belongs equally unto all and if it belongs unto all then it belongs unto all of one sort only as for instance Bishops or unto all of all sorts as for instance Presbyters also If it be stated in the latter way then every Presbyter as such by virtue of his Office hath Right and Power to be present in all Ecclesiastical Synods equal with that of the Bishops For although it be supposed that his Office is not equal unto theirs yet it is so also that this Right doth equally belong unto his Office. If the former be avowed namely that this Right belongs unto Bishops only such as are pleaded for by virtue of their Office as such then 1. I desire that any tolerable proof of the confinement of this Right unto such an Office be produced either from the Scripture or Reason or the Example of the First Churches which as yet I have never seen 2. I fear not to say that a false presumption hereof was one principal cause and means of introducing Tyranny into the Churches and the utter ruine of their Liberty CONCERNING the composition that is made herein that some should convene in Ecclesiastical Synods by their own personal Right and in virtue of their Office and others by a kind of Delegation from some of their own Order it being a meer political constitution which I shall immediately speak unto it is not here to be taken notice of THERE is nothing therefore in Scripture Example or the Light of Natural Reason with the principles of all Societies in Union or Communion that will lead us any farther than this that such Synods are to be composed and consist of such Persons as are chosen and delegated by those Churches respectively who do act and exert their Communion in such Assemblies So was it in the First Example of them Act. 15. The Church of Antioch chose and sent Messengers of their own number to advise with the Apostles and Elders of the Church at Jerusalem at which Consultation the Members of that Church also were present And this is the whole of the nature and use of Ecclesiastical Synods It is on other accounts that they make up so great a part of the History
Commission that Christ gave a Pastoral Relation or Presbytership which was included in their Apostleship and Exercised toward the Church of Jerusalem Such Presbyter-ship John and Peter both had Hence there remains no other Successors jure to the Apostles but ordinary Pastors and Teachers These are relative Officers and are always in and to some particular Congregations we know of no Catholick visible Church that any Pastors are ordained to 1. The Scripture speaks of no Church as Catholick visible 2. The thing it self is but a Chimaera of some Men's Brains it 's not in rerum naturâ for if a Catholick visible Church be all the Churches that I see at a time I am not capable of seeing much more than what can Assemble in one place And if it be meant of all the Churches actually in being how are they visible to me where can they be seen in one place I may as well call all the Cities and Corporations in the World the Catholick visible City or Corporation which all rational Men would call Nonsence Besides if all Organized Churches could be got together it 's not Catholick in respect of Saints Militant much less of Triumphant for many are no Church Members that are Christs Members and many visible Members are no true Members of Christ Jesus Where is any such Church capable of Communion in all Ordinances in one place and the Scripture speaks of no other Organized visible Church Again to a Catholick visible Church constituted should be a Catholick visible Pastor or Pastors for as the Church is such is the Pastor and Officers to the Mystical Church Christ is the mystical Head and Pastor he is called the chief Bishop and Shepherd of our Souls 1 Pet. 2.25 hence the uncalled are his Sheep as John 10.16 but to all visible Churches Christ hath appointed a visible Pastor or Pastors and where is the Pastor of the Catholick visible Church he is not to be found unless it please us to take him from Rome To say that all individual Pastors are Pastors to the Catholick Church is either to say that they are invested with as much Pastoral Power and Charge in one Church as in another and then they are indefinite Pastors and therefore all Pastors have mutual Power in each others Churches and so John may come into Thomas his Church and exercise all parts of Jurisdiction there and Thomas into John's or a Minister to the Catholick Church hath an universal Catholick Power over the Catholick Church if so the Power and Charge which every ordinary Pastor hath is Apostolick Or lastly he is invested with an Arbitrary Power at least as to the taking up a particular Charge where he pleaseth with a non obstante to the Suffrages of the People for if he hath an Office whereby he is equally and indisputably related to all Churches it 's at his liberty by virtue of this Office to take where he pleaseth But every Church-Officer under Christ is a visible relate and the correlate must be such whence the Church must be visible to which he is an Officer It 's absurd to say a Man is a visible Husband to an invisible Wife the relate and correlate must be ejusdem naturae It 's true Christ is related to the Church as mystical Head but it 's in respect of the Church in its mystical Nature for Christ hath substituted no mystical Officers in his Church There is a great deal of difference between the mystical and external visible Church though the latter is founded upon it and for the sake of it It 's founded upon it as taking its true spiritual Original from it deriving vital Spirits from it by a mystical Vnion to and Communion with Christ and his Members and it 's for the Sake of it all external visible Assemblies Ministers Ordinances are for the sake of the mystical Body of Christ for calling in the Elect and the Edifying of them to that full measure of Stature they are designed unto But the different consideration lies in these Things 1. That the mystical Church doth never fail neither is diminished by any Shocks of Temptation or Suffering that in their visible Profession any of them undergo whereas visible Churches are often broken scattered yea unchurched and many Members fail of the Grace of God by final Apostasy Likewise Christ's mystical Church is many times preserved in that State only or mostly when Christ hath not a visible organized Church according to Institution to be found on the Face of the Earth so it was with his Church often under the Old Testament-Dispensation as in Aegypt in the Days of the Judges when the Ark was carried away by the Philistins in the Days of Manasseh and other wicked Kings and especially in Babylon In such times the Faithful Ones were preserved without the true Sacrifices the teaching Priest and the Law. So hath it been in the days of the New Testament in divers places under the Draconick Heathen Persecutions and afterward in the Wilderness-state of the Church under the Anti-Christian Vsurpations and false Worship Which mystical State is the place prepared of God to hide the Seed of the Woman in from the Dragons Rage for the space of One thousand two hundred and sixty Days Again Vnto this Mystical Church is only essentially necessary a mystical Vnion unto the Lord Jesus Christ by the Gift of the Father Acceptation and Covenant-undertaking of the Son the powerful and efficacious Work of the Spirit of the Father and the Son working true saving Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and sincere Love to him and all his True Members Whereby as they have a firm and unshaken Vnion so they have a spiritual Communion though without those desirable Enjoyments of external Church Privileges and means of Grace which they are providentially often hindred from Visible Churches being but Christ's Tents and Tabernacles which he sometimes setteth up and sometimes takes down and removes at his Pleasure as he sees best for his Glory in the World. But of these he hath a special regard as to their Foundadation Matter Constitution and Order he gives forth an exact pattern from Mount Zion as of that Typical Tabernacle from Mount Sinai of Old. The Foundation part of a visible Church is the credible Profession of Faith and Holiness wherein the Lord Jesus Christ is the Corner Stone Eph. ij 20 Matth. xvi 18 This Profession is the Foundation but not the Church it self It 's not Articles of Faith or Profession of them in particular individual Persons that make an organized visible Church We are the Houshold of Faith built upon the Foundation c. 2. It 's Men and Women not Doctrine that are the Matter of a Church and these professing the Faith and practising Holiness The Members of Churches are always called in the New Testament Saints Faithful Believers They was such that were added to the Churches neither is every Believer so as such but as a professing Believer for a Man must appear
the estate of visible Regeneration doth depend is required of them Herein if they fail they lose all privilege and benefit by their Baptism So speaks the Apostle in the case of Circumcision under the Law Rom. 2.25 For Circumcision verily profiteth if thou keep the Law but if thou be a breaker of the Law thy Circumcision is made uncircumcision It is so in the case of Baptism Verily it profiteth if a Man stand unto the Terms of the Covenant which is tendered therein between God and his Soul for it will give him Right unto all the outward Privileges of a Regenerate State but if he do not as in the sight of God his Baptism is no Baptism as unto the real communication of Grace and acceptance with him so in the sight of the Church it is no Baptism as unto a participation of the external Rights and Privileges of a Regenerate State. 4. God alone is judge concerning this Regeneration as unto its internal real principle and state in the Souls of Men whereon the participation of all the spiritual advantages of the Covenant of Grace doth depend The Church is judge of its evidences and fruits in their external Demonstration as unto a participation of the outward Privileges of a Regenerate State and no farther And we shall hereon briefly declare what belongs unto the forming of a right judgment herein and who are to be esteemed fit Members of any Gospel Church-State or have a Right so to be 1. Such as from whom we are obliged to withdraw or withhold Communion can be no part of the matter constitūent of a Church or are not meet Members for the first constitution of it But such are all Habitual Sinners those who having prevalent habits and inclinations unto Sins of any kind unmortified do walk according unto them Such are profane Swearers Drunkards Fornicators Covetous Oppressors and the like who shall not inherit the Kingdom of God. 1 Cor. 6.9 10 11. Phil. 3.18 19. 2 Thess. 3.6 2 Tim. 3.5 as a Man living and dying in any known Sin that is habitually without Repentance cannot be saved so a Man known to live in Sin cannot regularly be received into any Church To compose Churches of Habitual Sinners and that either as unto Sins of Commission or Sins of Omission is not to erect Temples of Christ but Chapels unto the Devil 2. Such as being in the fellowship of the Church are to be admonished of any scandalous Sin which if they repent not of they are to be cast out of the Church are not meet Members for the Original Constitution of a Church This is the state of them who abide Obstinate in any known Sin whereby they have given offence unto others without a professed Repentance thereof although they have not lived in it habitually 3. They are to be such as visibly answer the Description given of Gospel Churches in the Scripture so as the Titles assigned therein unto the Members of such Churches may on good grounds be appropriated unto them To compose Churches of such persons as do not visibly answer the character given of what they were of old and what they were always to be by virtue of the Law of Christ or Gospel-constitution is not Church Edification but Destruction And those who look on the things spoken of all Church Members of old as that they were Saints by calling lively stones in the house of God justified and sanctified separate from the World c. as those which were in them and did indeed belong unto them but even deride the necessity of the same things in present Church Members or the Application of them unto those who are so are themselves no small part of that woful Degeneracy which Christian Religion is fallen under Let it then be considered what is spoken of the Church of the Jews in their Dedication unto God as unto their Typical Holiness with the Application of it unto Christian Churches in real Holiness 1 Pet. 2.5 9. with the Description given of them constantly in the Scripture as Faithful Holy Believing as the House of God as his Temple wherein he dwells by his Spirit as the Body of Christ united and compacted by the communication of the Spirit unto them as also what is said concerning their ways walkings and duties and it will be uncontrolably evident of what sort our Church Members ought to be nor are those of any other sort able to discharge the Duties which are incumbent on all Church Members nor to use the Privileges they are intrusted withal Wherefore I say to suppose Churches regularly to consist of such persons for the greater part of them as no way answer the Description given of Church Members in their Original Institution nor capable to discharge the Duties prescribed unto them but giving evidence of Habits and actions inconsistent therewithal is not only to disturb all Church Order but utterly to overthrow the Ends and Being of Churches Nor is there any thing more scandalous unto Christian Religion than what Bellarmine affirms to be the judgment of the Papists in opposition unto all others namely that no internal Vertue or Grace is required unto the Constitution of a Church in its Members Lib. 3. de Eccles. cap. 2. 4. They must be such as do make an open profession of the subjection of their Souls and Consciences unto the Authority of Christ in the Gospel and their readiness to yield Obedience unto all his Commands This I suppose will not be denied for not only doth the Scripture make this Profession necessary unto the participation of any benefit or privilege of the Gospel but the nature of the things themselves requires indispensably that so it should be For nothing can be more unreasonable than that Men should be taken into the privileges attending Obedience unto the Laws and Commands of Christ without avowing or professing that Obedience Wherefore our Enquiry is only what is required unto such a Profession as may render Men meet to be Members of a Church and give them a Right thereunto For to suppose such a confession of Christian Religion to be compliant with the Gospel which is made by many who openly live in Sin being disobedient and unto every good work reprobate is to renounce the Gospel it self Christ is not the High-Priest of such a Profession I shall therefore declare briefly what is necessary unto this Profession that all may know what it is which is required unto the Entrance of any into our Churches wherein our Practice hath been sufficiently traduced 1. There is required unto it a competent knowledge of the Doctrines and Mystery of the Gospel especially concerning the Person and Offices of Christ. The Confession hereof was the ground whereon he granted the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven or all Church Power unto Believers Matth. 16.17 18 19. The first Instruction which he gave unto his Apostles was That they should teach Men by the Preaching of the Gospel
an Head of spiritual and vital influence yet are they meet Members of that Body of Christ unto which he is an Head of Rule and Government as also meet to be esteemed Subjects of his Kingdom And none are excluded but such as concerning whom Rules are given either to withdraw from them or to cast them out of Church Society or are expresly excluded by God himself from any share in the Privileges of his Covenant Psal. 50.16 17. Divines of all sorts do dispute from the Scripture and the Testimonies of the Ancients that Hypocrites and persons unregenerate may be true Members of Visible Churches And it is a matter very easie to be proved nor do I know any by whom it is denied But the only Question is That whereas undoubtedly Profession is necessary unto all Church Communion whether if Men do profess themselves Hypocrites in State and Unregenerate in Mind that Profession do sufficiently qualify them for Church Communion And whereas there is a double Profession one by Words the other by Works as the Apostle declares Tit. 1.16 Whether the latter be not as interpretative of the Mind and state of Men as the former other contest we have with none in this matter Belarmine de Eccles. lib. 3. cap. 2. gives an account out of Augustine and that truly from Brevec Collat. Col. 3. of the state of the Church It doth saith he consist of a Soul and Body The Soul is the internal Graces of the Spirit The Body is the Profession of them with the Sacraments All true Believers making Profession belong to the Soul and Body of the Church Some as believing Catechumens belong to the Soul but not to the Body Others are of the Body but not of the Soul namely such as have no internal Grace or true Faith and they are like the Hair or the Nails or evil Humours in the Body And thereunto adds That his Definition of the Church comprizeth this last sort only which is all one as if we should define a Man to be a Thing constituted and made up of Hair Nails and ill Humours and let others take heed that they have not such Churches There is nothing more certain in matter of Fact than that Evangelical Churches at their first constitution were made up and did consist of such Members as we have described and no other Nor is there one Word in the whole Scripture intimating any Concession or Permission of Christ to receive into his Church those who are not so Qualified Others have nothing to plead for themselves but Possession which being malae fidei ill obtained and ill continued will afford them no real advantage when the time of trial shall come Wherefore it is certain that such they ought to be No Man as I suppose is come unto that profligate sense of Spiritual things as to deny That the Members of the Church ought to be visibly Holy. For if so they may affirm that all the promises and privileges made and granted to the Church do belong unto them who visibly live and die in their Sins which is to overthrow the Gospel And if they ought so to be and were so at first when they are not so openly and visibly there is a declension from the Original Constitution of Churches and a Sinful Deviation in them from the Rule of Christ. This Original Constitution of Churches with respect unto their Members was for the substance of it as we observed preferred in the Primitive Times whilst Persecution from without was continued and Discipline preserved within I have in part declared before what great care and circumspection the Church then used in the Admission of any into their Fellowship and Order and what trial they were to undergo before they were received and it is known also with what severe Discipline they watched over the Faith walking conversation and manners of all their Members Indeed such was their care and diligence herein that there is scarce left in some Churches at present the least Resemblance or Appearance of what was their State and manner of Rule Wherefore some think it meet to Ascend no higher in the imitation of the Primitive Churches than the times of the Christian Emperours when all things began to rush into the fatal Apostasie which I shall here speak a little farther unto For Upon the Roman Emperours Embracing Christian Religion whereby not only outward Peace and Tranquility was secured unto the Church but the Profession of Christian Religion was countenanced encouraged honoured and rewarded the Rule Care and Diligence of the Churches about the Admission of Members were in a great measure relinquished and forsaken The Rulers of the Church began to think that the Glory of it consisted in its numbers finding both their own Power Veneration and Revenue encreased thereby In a short time the Inhabitants of whole Cities and Provinces upon a bare outward Profession were admitted into Churches And then began the outward Court that is all that which belongs unto the outward Worship and Order of the Church to be trampled on by the Gentiles not kept any more to the measure of Scripture Rule which thenceforth was applied only to the Temple of God and them that Worshipped therein For this corruption of the Church as to the matter of it was the occasion and means of introducing all that corruption in Doctrine Worship Order and Rule which ensued and ended in the great Apostacy For whatever belonged unto any of these things especially these that consist in practice were accommodated unto the state of the Members of the Churches And such they were as stood in need of superstitious Rites to be mixed with their Worship as not understanding the Power and Glory of that which is Spiritual such as no interest in Church Order could be committed unto seeing they were not qualified to bear any share in it such as stood in need of a Rule over them with Grandeur and Power like unto that among the Gentiles Wherefore the Accommodation of all Church concerns unto the state and condition of such corrupt Members as Churches were filled with and at length made up of proved the Ruine of the Church in all its Order and Beauty But so it fell out that in the Protestant Reformation of the Church very little regard was had thereunto Those great and worthy Persons who were called unto that Work did set themselves principally yea solely for the most part against the false Doctrine and Idolatrous Worship of the Church of Rome as judging that if they were removed and taken away the people by the Efficacy of Truth and Order of Worship would be retrived from the evil of their ways and Primitive Holiness be again reduced among them For they thought it was the Doctrine and Worship of that Church which had filled the people with Darkness and corrupted their Conversations Nor did they absolutely judge amiss therein For although they were themselves at first introduced in compliance with the ignorance and wickedness
such as are not yet meet to be received into full Communion such as are the Children and Servants of those who are compleat Members of the Church Answ. No doubt the Church in its Officers may and ought so to do and it is a great evil when it is neglected For 1. They are to take care of Parents and Masters as such and as unto the discharge of their Duty in their Families which without an inspection into the condition of their Children and Servants they cannot do 2. Housholds were constantly reckoned unto the Church when the Heads of the Families were entred into Covenant Luk. 19.9 Act. 16.15 Rom. 16.10 11. 1 Cor. 1.16 2 Tim. 4.19 3. Children to belong unto and have an Interest in their Parents Covenant not only in the promise of it which gives them Right unto Baptism but in the Profession of it in the Church Covenant which gives them a Right unto all the Privileges of the Church whereof they are capable until they voluntarily relinquish their claim unto them 4. Baptizing the Children of Church Members giving them thereby an Admission into the visible Catholick Church puts an Obligation on the Officers of the Church to take care what in them lieth that they may be kept and preserved meet Members of it by a due watch over them and instruction of them 5. Though neither the Church nor its Privileges be continued and preserved as of old by carnal generation yet because of the nature of the Dispensation of Gods Covenant wherein he hath promised to be a God unto Believers and their Seed the advantage of the means of a gracious Education in such Families and of conversion and edification in the Ministry of the Church ordinarily the continuation of the Church is to depend on the addition of Members out of the Families already incorporated in it The Church is not to be like the Kingdom of the Mamalukes wherein there was no regard unto natural Successors but it was continually made up of Strangers and Foreigners incorporated into it Nor like the beginning of the Roman Common-weal which consisting of Men only was like to have been the matter of one Age alone The Duty of the Church towards this sort of persons consists 1. In Prayer for them 2. Catechetical Instruction of them according unto their Capacities 3. Advice to their Parents concerning them 4. Visiting of them in the Families whereunto they do belong 5. Encouragement of them or Admonition according as there is occasion 6. Direction for a due preparation unto the joining themselves unto the Church in full Communion 7. Exclusion of them from a claim unto the participation of the especial Privileges of the Church where they render themselves visibly unmeet for them and unworthy of them The neglect of this Duty brings unconceivable prejudice unto Churches and if continued in will prove their Ruine For they are not to be preserved propagated and continued at the easie rate of a constant supply by the carnal baptized posterity of those who do at any time justly or unjustly belong unto them But they are to prepare a meet supply of Members by all the spiritual means whose administration they are intrusted withal And besides one end of Churches is to preserve the Covenant of God in the Families once graciously taken thereinto The neglect therefore herein is carefully to be watched against And it doth arise 1. From an ignorance of the Duty in most that are concerned in it 2. From the paucity of Officers in most Churches both Teaching and Ruling who are to attend unto it 3. The want of a Teacher or Catechist in every Church who should attend only unto the instruction of this sort of persons 4. Want of a sense of their Duty in Parents and Masters 1. In not valuing aright the great privilege of having their Children and Servants under the inspection care and blessing of the Church 2. In not instilling into them a sense of it with the Duties that are expected from them on the account of their Relation unto the Church 3. In not bringing them duly unto the Church Assemblies 4. In not preparing and disposing them unto an actual entrance into full Communion with the Church 5. In not advising with the Elders of the Church about them And 6. Especially by an indulgence unto that loose and careless kind of Education in Conformity unto the World which generally prevails Hence it is that most of them on various accounts and occasions drop off here and there from the Communion of the Church and all Relation thereunto without the least respect unto them or enquiry after them Churches being supplied by such as are occasionally Converted in them Where Churches are compleat in the kind and number of their Officers sufficient to attend unto all the Duties and occasions of them where whole Families in the conjunction of the Heads of them unto the Church are Dedicated unto God according unto the several capacities of those whereof they do consist where the Design of the Church is to provide for its own successive continuation in the preservation of the Interest of Gods Covenant in the Families taken thereinto where Parents esteem themselves accountable unto God and the Church as unto the Relation of their Children thereunto there is provision for Church Order Usefulness and Beauty beyond what is usually to be observed 2. The especial Duty of the Church in Admission of Members in the time of great Persecution may be a little enquired into And 1. It is evident that in the Apostolical and Primitive Times the Churches were exceeding careful not to admit into their society such as by whom they might be betrayed unto the rage of their Persecuting Adversaries Yet notwithstanding all their care they could seldom avoid it but that when Persecution grew severe some or other would fall from them either out of fear with the power of Temptation or by a discovery of their latent hypocrisie and unbelief unto their great trial and distress However they were not so scrupulous herein with respect unto their own safety as to exclude such as gave a tolerable account of their sincerity but in the discharge of their Duty committed themselves unto the care of Jesus Christ. And this is the Rule whereby we ought to walk on such occasions Wherefore 2. On supposition of the establishment of Idolatry and Persecution there or in any place as it was of old under first the Pagan and afterwards the Antichristian Tyranny the Church is obliged to receive into its Care and Communion all such as 1. Flee from Idols and are ready to confirm their Testimony against them with suffering 2. Make profession of the truth of the Gospel of the Doctrine of Christ especially as unto his Person and Offices are 3. Free from scandalous Sins and 4. Are willing to give up themselves unto the Rule of Christ in the Church and a subjection unto all his Ordinances and Institutions therein For in such a
Spiritual Gifts in Preaching with a refusal of undertaking a Ministerial Office or without design so to do upon a lawful Call cannot be approved 3. The Rules proposed concern only ordinary cases and the ordinary state of the Church extraordinary cases are accompanied with a warranty in themselves for extraordinary Actings and Duties 12. THE Call of Persons unto the Pastoral Office is an Act and Duty of the Church It is not an Act of the political Magistrate not of the Pope not of any single Prelate but of the whole Church unto whom the Lord Christ hath committed the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven And indeed although there be great differences about the nature and manner of the Call of Men unto this Office yet none who understand ought of these things can deny but that it is an Act and Duty of the Church which the Church alone is impowered by Christ to put forth and exert But this will more fully appear in the consideration of the nature and manner of this Call of Men unto the Pastoral Office and the actings of the Church therein THE Call of persons unto the Pastoral Office in the Church consists of Two Parts 1. Election 2. Ordination as it is commonly called or sacred Separation by Fasting and Prayer As unto the former Four things must be enquired into 1. What is previous unto it or preparatory for it 2. Wherein it doth consist 3. It s necessity or the demonstration of its Truth and Institution 4. What influence it hath into the communication of Pastoral-Office-Power unto a Pastor so chosen 1. THAT which is previous unto it is the Meetness of the Person for his Office and Work that is to be chosen It can never be the Duty of the Church to call or choose an unmeet an unqualified an unprepared Person unto this Office. No pretended necessity no outward motives can enable or warrant it so to do nor can it by any outward act whatever the Rule or Solemnity of it be communicate Ministerial Authority unto Persons utterly unqualified for and uncapable of the discharge of the Pastoral Office according unto the Rule of the Scripture And this hath been one great means of debasing the Ministery and almost ruining the Church it self either by the neglect of those who suppose themselves entrusted with the whole power of Ordination or by Impositions on them by Secular Power and Patrons of Livings as they are called with the stated Regulation of their Proceedings herein by a defective Law whence there hath not been a due regard unto the antecedent preparatory Qualifications of those who are called unto the Ministry TWO ways is the Meetness of any one made known and to be judged of 1. By an evidence given of the Qualifications in him before-mentioned The Church is not to call or choose any one to Office who is not known unto them of whose frame of spirit and walking they have not had some experience not a Novice or one lately come unto them He must be one who by his ways and walking hath obtained a good Report even among them that are without so far as he is known unless they be enemies or scoffers and one that hath in some good measure evidenced his Faith Love and Obedience unto Jesus Christ in the Church This is the chief Trust that the Lord Christ hath committed unto his Churches and if they are negligent herein or if at all-adventures they will impose an Officer in his House upon him without satisfaction of his Meetness upon due enquiry it is a great dishonour unto him and provocation of him Herein principally are Churches made the Overseers of their own Purity and Edification To deny them an Ability of a right judgment herein or a liberty for the use and exercise of it is Error and Tyranny But that Flock which Christ purchased and purified with his own blood is thought by some to be little better than an Herd of brute Beasts Where there is a defect of this personal knowledge for want of opportunity it may be supplied by Testimonies of unquestionable Authority 2. By a trial of his Gifts for Edification These are those Spiritual Endowments which the Lord Christ grants and the Holy Spirit Works in the Minds of Men for this very end that the Church may be profited by them 1 Cor. 12.7 And we must at present take it for granted that every true Church of Christ that is so in the matter and form of it is able to judge in some competent measure what Gifts of Men are suited unto their own Edification But yet in making a judgment hereof one Directive means is the Advice of other Elders and Churches which they are obliged to make use off by virtue of the Communion of Churches and the avoidance of offence in their walk in that Communion 2. AS to the nature of this Election Call or Choice of a Person known tried and judged meetly qualified for the Pastoral Office it is an Act of the whole Church that is of the Fraternity with their Elders if they have any For a Pastor may be chosen unto a Church which hath other Teachers Elders or Officers already instated in it In this case their concurrence in the choice intended is necessary by way of common suffrage not of Authority or Office-Power For Election is not an Act of Authority but of Liberty and Power wherein the whole Church in the Fraternity is equal If there be no Officers stated in the Church before as it was with the Churches in the Primitive Times on the first Ordination of Elders among them this Election belongs unto the Fraternity 3. THAT therefore which we have now to prove is this That it is the Mind and Will of Jesus Christ that meet Persons should be called unto the Pastoral Office or any other Office in the Church by the Election and Choice of the Church it self whereunto they are called antecedently unto a sacred solemn separation unto their respective Offices For 1. UNDER the Old Testament there were three ways whereby Men were called unto Office in the Church 1. They were so extraordinarily and immediately by the nomination and designation of God himself So Aaron was called unto the Priesthood and others afterwards as Samuel to be Prophets 2. By a law of Carnal Generation so all the Priests of the Posterity of Aaron succeeded into the Office of the Priesthood without any other call 3. By the choice of the people which was the call of all the ordinary Elders and Rulers of the Church Deut. 1.13 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Give to your selves It was required of the people that they should in the first place make a judgment on their Qualifications for the Office whereunto they were called Men known unto them for Wise Understanding Righteous walking in the Fear of God they were to look out and then to present them unto Moses for their separation unto Office which is Election It is true that Exod. 13.15 It is
Cyprian speaks See Matth. 7.17 Joh. â—5 39 Gal. 11.9 1 Thess. 5.19 20 21. 1 Joh. 4.1 2 Joh. 10.11 WHAT is objected hereunto from the unfitness and disability of the people to make a right judgment concerning them who are to be their Pastors and Rulers labours with a three-fold weakness For 1. It reflects dishonour upon the Wisdom of Christ in Commanding them the observance and discharge of such Duties as they are no way meet for 2. It proceeds upon a supposition of that degenerate state of Churches in their Members as to Light Knowledge Wisdom and Holiness which they are for the most part fallen into which must not be allowed to have the force of Argument in it when it is to be lamented and ought to be reformed 3. It supposeth that there is no supply of Assistance provided for the people in the discharge of their Duty to guide and direct them therein which is otherwise seeing the Elders of the Church wherein any such Election is made and those of other Churches in Communion with that Church are by the common advice and declaration of their judgment to be Assistant unto them THIRDLY The Church is a voluntary Society Persons otherwise absolutely free as unto all the Rules Laws and Ends of such a Society do of their own Wills and free Choice coalesce into it This is the Original of all Churches as hath been declared They gave their own selves to the Lord and unto us by the Will of God 2 Cor. 8.5 Herein neither by Prescription nor Tradition nor Succession hath any one more Power or Authority than another but they are all equal It is gathered into this Society meerly by the Authority of Christ and where it is so Collected it hath neither Right Power Privilege Rules nor Bonds as such but what are given prescribed and limited by the Institution and Laws of Christ. Moreover it abides and continues on the same Grounds and Principles as whereon it was Collected namely the Wills of the Members of it subjected unto the Commands of Christ. This is as necessary unto its present continuance in all its Members as it was in its first Plantation It is not like the Political Societies of the World which being first established by force or consent bring a necessity on all that are born in them and under them to comply with their Rule and Laws For Men may and in many cases ought to submit unto the disposal of temporal things in a way it may be not convenient for them which they judge not well off and which in many things is not unto their advantage And this may be just and equal because the special good which every one would aim at being not absolutely so may be out-balanced by a general good nor alterable but by the prejudice of that which is good in particular But with reference unto things Spiritual and Eternal it is not so No Man can by any previous Law be concluded as unto his interest in such things nor is there any General Good to be attained by the loss of any of them None therefore can coalesce in such a Society or adhere unto it or be any way belonging unto it but by his own free choice and consent And it is enquired how it is possible that any Rule Authority Power or Office should arise or be erected in such a Society We speak of that which is ordinary for he by whom this Church-State is erected and appointed may and did appoint in it and over it extraordinary Officers for a season And we do suppose that as he hath by his Divine Authority instituted and appointed that such Societies shall be that he hath made grant of Privileges and Powers to them proper and sufficient for this end as also that he hath given Laws and Rules by the observance whereof they may be made partakers of those Privileges and Powers with a Right unto their Exercise ON these suppositions in a Society absolutely voluntary among those who in their conjunction into it by their own consent are every way equal There can but three things be required unto the actual constitution of Rule and Office among them And the First is That there be some among them that are fitted and qualified for the Discharge of such an Office in a peculiar manner above others This is previous unto all Government beyond that which is purely natural and necessary Principio rerum gentium nationumque imperium penes Reges erat quos ad fastigium hujus Majestatis non popularis Ambitio sed spectata inter bonos moderatio provehebat Just. So it was in the World so it was in the Church Praesident probati quique seniores honorem istum non pretio sed testimonio adepti Tertull. This preparation and furniture of some Persons with Abilities and meet Qualifications for Office and Work in the Church the Lord Christ hath taken on himself and doth and will effect it in all Generations Without this there can be neither Office nor Rule nor Order in the Church 2. WHEREAS there is a new Relation to be made or created between a Pastor Bishop or Elder and the Church which was not before between them a Bishop and a Church a Pastor and a Flock are Relata's it must be introduced at the same time by the mutual voluntary acts of one another or of each party For one of the Relata can as such have no being or existence without the other Now this can no otherwise be but by the consent and voluntary subjection of the Church unto persons so antecedently qualified for Office according to the Law and Will of Christ. For it cannot be done by the Delegation of Power and Authority from any other Superiour or Equal unto them that do receive it Neither the nature of this Power which is uncapable of such a Delegation nor the Relation unto Christ of all those who are Pastors of the Church will admit of an Interposition of Authority by way of Delegation of Power from themselves in other Men which would make them their Ministers and not Christs nor is it consistent with the nature of such a voluntary Society This therefore can no way be done but by free Choice Election Consent or Approbation It cannot I say be so regularly How far an Irregularity herein may vitiate the whole Call of a Minister we do not now enquire NOW this Choice or Election doth not communicate a Power from them that choose unto them that are chosen as though such a Power as that whereunto they are called should be formally inherent in the choosers antecedent unto such choice For this would make those that are chosen to be their Minister only and to act all things in their Name and by virtue of Authority derived from them It is only an Instrumental Ministerial means to enstate them in that Power and Authority which is given unto such Officers by the Constitution and Laws of Christ whose Ministers thereon they
are These Gifts Offices and Officers being granted by Christ unto the Churches Ephes. 4.12 where-ever there is a Church called according to his Mind they do in and by their Choice of them submit themselves unto them in the Lord according unto all the Powers and Duties wherewith they are by him intrusted and whereunto they are called 3. IT is required that Persons so chosen so submitted unto be so solemnly separated dedicated unto and confirmed in their Office by Fasting and Prayer As this is consonant unto the Light of Nature which directs unto a solemnity in the susception of publick Officers whence proceeds the Coronation of Kings which gives them not their Title but solemnly proclaims it which on many accounts is unto the advantage of Government so it is prescribed unto the Church in this case by especial Institution But hereof I shall speak farther immediately THIS Order of calling Men unto the Pastoral Office namely by their previous Qualifications for the Ministry whereby a general designation of the Persons to be called is made by Christ himself the orderly Choice or Election of him in a voluntary subjection unto him in the Lord according to the Mind of Christ by the Church it self followed with solemn Ordination or setting apart unto the Office and discharge of it by Prayer with Fasting all in obedience unto the Commands and Institution of Christ whereunto the communication of Office-Power and Privilege is by Law-constitution annexed is suited unto the light of Reason in all such cases the nature of Gospel Societies in Order or Churches the ends of the Ministry the Power committed by Christ unto the Church and confirmed by Apostolical Practice and Example HEREIN we rest without any further dispute or limiting the Formal Cause of the Communication of Office-Power unto any one Act or Duty of the Church or of the Bishops or Elders of it All the three things mentioned are essential thereunto and when any of them are utterly neglected where they are neither formally nor virtually there is no lawful regular Call unto the Ministry according to the Mind of Christ. THIS Order was a long time observed in the Ancient Church inviolate and the foot-steps of it may be traced through all Ages of the Church although it first gradually decayed then was perverted and corrupted until it issued as in the Roman Church in a Pageant and Shew instead of the Reality of the things themselves For the Trial and Approbation of spiritual Endowments previously necessary unto the Call of any was left unto the Pedantick Examination of the Bishops Domesticks who knew nothing of them in themselves the Election and Approbation of the people was turned into a mock-shew in the sight of God and Men a Deacon calling out That if any had Objections against him who was to be Ordained they should come forth and speak Whereunto another cries out of a corner by compact He is learned and worthy and Ordination was esteemed to consist only in the outward sign of Imposition of Hands with some other Ceremonies annexed thereunto whereby without any other consideration there ensued a flux of Power from the Ordainers unto the ordained BUT from the beginning it was not so And some few Instances of the Right of the people and the exercise of it in the Choice of their own Pastors may be touched on in our Passage Clem. Epist. ad Corinth affirms That the Apostles themselves appointed approved Persons unto the Office of the Ministry 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by or with the consent or choice of the whole Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is to enact by common consent which makes it somewhat strange that a learned Man should think that the Right of the People in Elections is excluded in this very place by Clemens from what is assigned unto the Apostles in Ordination IGNAT Epist ad Philadelph 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 writing to the Fraternity of the Church It becomes you as a Church of God to Choose or Ordain a Bishop TERTVLL APOL Praesident probati quique Seniores honorem istum non pretio sed Testimonio adepti The Elders came unto their Honour or Office by the Testimony of the people that is by their suffrage in their Election ORIGEN in the close of his last Book against Celsus discoursing expresly of the Calling and Constitution of Churches or Cities of God speaking of the Elders and Rulers of them affirms That they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chosen to their Office by the Churches which they do Rule THE Testimony given by Cyprian in sundry places unto this Right of the People especially in Epist. 68. unto the Elders and People of some Churches in Spain is so known so frequently urged and excepted against to so little purpose as that it is no way needful to insist again upon it Some few things I shall only observe concerning and out of that Epistle As 1. IT was not a single Epistle of his own more ordinary occasions but a determination upon a weighty Question made by a Synod of Bishops or Elders in whose Name as well as that of Cyprian it was written and sent unto the Churches who had craved their advice 2. HE doth not only assert the Right of the people to choose worthy persons to be their Bishops and reject those that are unworthy but also industriously proves it so to be their Right by Divine Institution and Appointment 3. HE declares it to be the Sin of the People if they neglect the use and exercise of their Right and Power in rejecting and withdrawing themselves from the Communion of Vnworthy Pastors and choosing others in their room 4. HE affirms that this was the Practice not only of the Churches of Africk but of those in most of the other Provinces of the Empire Some passages in his Discourse wherein all these things are asserted I shall transcribe in the Order wherein they lie in the Epistle NEC sibi plebs blandiatur quasi immunis esse a contagio delicti possit cum sacerdote peccatore communicans ad injustum illicitum Praepositi sui Episcopatum consensum suum commodans Propter quod plebs obsequens praeceptis Dominicis Deum metuens a peccatore praeposito separare se debet nec se ad Sacrilegi Sacerdotis Sacrificia miscere quando ipsa maxime habeat potestatem vel eligendi dignos sacerdotes vel indignos recusandi quod ipsum videmus de Divina Authoritate descendere FOR this cause the people obedient to the Commands of our Lord and fearing God ought to separate themselves from a wicked Bishop nor mix themselves with the Worship of a Sacrilegious Priest. For they principally have the power of choosing the worthy Priests and rejecting the unworthy which comes from Divine Authority or Appointment as he proves from the Old and New Testament Nothing can be spoken more fully representing the Truth which we plead for He assigns unto the people a Right and Power of separating
of the Truth which they have so learned and comprehended Unless we look on Truth as a Pearl as that which is valued at any rate bought with any price as that which is better than all the World we shall not endeavour its preservation with that diligence which is required Some are ready to part with Truth at an easie rate or to grow indifferent about it whereof we have multitudes of examples in the days wherein we live It were easie to give instances of sundry important Evangelical Truths which our fore-fathers in the Faith contended for with all earnestness and were ready to seal with their Blood which are now utterly disregarded and opposed by some who pretend to succeed them in their Profession If Ministers have not a sense of that Power of Truth in their own Souls and a taste of its Goodness the discharge of this Duty is not to be expected from them 3. A consciencious care and fear of giving countenance or encouragement unto novel Opinions especially such as oppose any Truth of whose Power and Efficacy Experience hath been had among them that believe Vain curiosity boldness in conjectures and readiness to vent their own conceits have caused no small trouble and damage unto the Church 4. Learning and ability of Mind to discern and disprove the oppositions of the Adversaries of the Truth and thereby to stop their Mouths and convince gain-sayers 5. The solid confirmation of the most important Truths of the Gospel and whereunto all others are resolved in their Teaching and Ministry Men may and do oft-times prejudice yea betray the Truth by the weakness of their Pleas for it 6. A diligent watch over their own Flocks against the crafts of Seducers from without or the springing up of any bitter root of error among themselves 7. A concurrent Assistance with the Elders and Messengers of other Churches with whom they are in Communion in the declaration of the Faith which they all profess whereof we must treat afterwards more at large IT is evident what Learning Labour Study Pains Ability and Exercise of the rational Faculties are ordinarily required unto the right discharge of these Duties And where Men may be useful to the Church in other things but are defective in these it becomes them to walk and act both circumspectly and humbly frequently desiring and adhering unto the Advice of them whom God hath entrusted with more Talents and greater Abilities 5. IT belongs unto their Charge and Office diligently to labour for the Conversion of Souls unto God. The ordinary means of Conversion is left unto the Church and its Duty it is to attend unto it Yea one of the principal ends of the Institution and Preservation of Churches is the Conversion of Souls and where there are no more to be Converted there shall be no more Church on the Earth To enlarge the Kingdom of Christ to diffuse the Light and Savour of the Gospel to be subservient unto the Calling of the Elect or gathering all the Sheep of Christ into his Fold are things that God designs by his Churches in this World. Now the principal instrumental cause of all these is the Preaching of the Word and this is committed unto the Pastors of the Churches It is true Men may be and often are Converted unto God by their occasional dispensation of the Word who are not called unto Office for it is the Gospel it self that is the Power of God unto Salvation by whomsoever it is Administred and it hath been effectual unto that end even in the necessary occasional teaching of Women But it is so frequently in the exercise of Spiritual Gifts by them who are not stated Officers of the Church 1 Cor. 14.24 25. Phil. 1.14 15 18. 1 Pet. 4.10 11. But yet this hinders not but that the Administration of the Glorious Gospel of the blessed God as unto all the ends of it is committed unto the Pastors of the Church And the First Object of the Preaching of the Gospel is the World or the Men of it for their Conversion And it is so in the Preaching of all them unto whom that Work is committed by Christ. The Work of the Apostles and Evangelists had this Order in it First they were to make Disciples of Men by the Preaching of the Gospel unto Conversion and this was their principal Work as Paul testifieth 1 Cor. 1.17 And herein were they gloriously instrumental in laying the foundation of the Kingdom of Christ all the World over The Second part of their Work was to teach them that were Converted or made Disciples to do and observe all that he did command them In the pursuit of this part of their Commission they gathered the Disciples of Christ into Churches under ordinary Officers of their own And although the Work of these Ordinary Officers Pastors and Teachers be of the same nature with theirs yet the Method of it is changed in them For their first ordinary Work is to conduct and teach all the Disciples of Christ to do and observe all things appointed by him that is to Preach unto and Watch over their particular Flocks unto whom they do relate But they are not hereby discharged from an interest in the other part of the Work in Preaching the Word unto the Conversion of Souls They are not indeed bound unto the Method of the Apostles and Evangelists yea they are by virtue of their Office ordinarily excluded from it After a Man is called to be a Pastor of a particular Church it is not his Duty to leave that Church and go up and down to Preach for the Conversion of Strangers It is not I say ordinarily so for many cases may fall out wherein the Edification of any particular Church is to give way unto the glory of Christ with respect unto the calling of all the Members of the Church Catholick But in the discharge of the Pastoral Office there are many occasions of Preaching the Word unto the Conversion of Souls As 1. When any that are Unconverted do come into the Assemblies of the Church and are there wrought upon by the Power of the Word whereof we have experience every day To suppose that a Man at the same time and in the same place Preaching unto one Congregation should Preach to some of them namely those that are of the Church whereunto he relates as a Minister with Ministerial Authority and to others only by virtue of a Spiritual Gift which he hath received is that which no Man can distinguish in his own Conscience nor is there any colour of Rule or Reason for it For though Pastors with respect unto their whole Office and all the Duties of it whereof many can have the Church only for their Object are Ministers in Office unto the Church and so Ministers of the Church yet are they Ministers of Christ also and by him it is and not by the Church that the Preaching of the Gospel is committed unto them And it is so committed
in judging of them in times of necessity and great penury of able Teachers so that Persons in holy Ministry design the Glory of God and the Edification of the Church according to their Ability But otherwise there is a nullity in the pretended Office. 2. WHERE any such are admitted through ignorance or mistake or the Usurpation of undue Power over Churches in imposing Ministers on them there is not an absolute nullity in their Administrations until they are discovered and convicted by the Rule and Law of Christ. But if on evidence hereof the people will voluntarily adhere unto them they are partakers of their Sins and do what in them lies to Vn-Church themselves 3. WHERE such Persons are by any means placed as Pastors in or over any Churches and there is no way for the Removal or Reformation it is Lawful unto it is the Duty of every one who takes care of his own Edification and Salvation to withdraw from the Communion of such Churches and to join with such as wherein Edification is better provided for For whereas this is the sole end of Churches of all their Offices Officers and Administrations it is the highest folly to imagine that any Disciple of Christ can be or is obliged by his Authority to abide in the Communion of such Churches without seeking Relief in the ways of his Appointment wherein that end is utterly overthrown 4. WHERE the generality of Churches in any kind of Association are headed by Pastors defective in these things in the matter declared there all publick Church-Reformation is morally impossible and it is the Duty of private Men to take care of their own Souls let Churches and Church-men say what they please SOME few things may yet be enquired into with reference unto the Office of a Pastor in the Church As 1. WHETHER a Man may be ordained a Pastor or a Minister without Relation unto any particular Church so as to be invested with Office-Power thereby IT is usually said that a Man may be Ordained a Minister unto or of the Catholick Church or to Convert Infidels although he be not related unto any particular Flock or Congregation I SHALL not at present discuss sundry things about the power and way of Ordination which influence this Controversy but only speak briefly unto the thing it self And 1. IT is granted that a Man endowed with Spiritual Gifts for the Preaching of the Gospel may be set apart by Fasting and Prayer unto that Work when he may be orderly called unto it in the Providence of God. For 1. Such an one hath a Call unto it materially in the Gifts which he hath received warranting him unto the exercise of them for the Edification of others as he hath occasion 1 Pet. 4.10 11. 1 Cor. 14.12 Setting apart unto an important Work by Prayer is a moral Duty and useful in Church Affairs in an especial manner Act. 13.12 2. A publick Testimony unto the Approbation of a Person undertaking the Work of Preaching is necessary 1. Unto the Communion of Churches that he may be received in any of them as is occasion of which sort were the Letters of Recommendation in the Primitive Church 1 Cor. 16.3 2 Cor. 3.1 3 Joh. 9. 2. Unto the safety of them amongst whom he may exercise his Gifts that they be not imposed on by false Teachers or Seducers Nor would the Primitive Church allow nor is it allowable in the Communion of Churches that any Person not so testified unto not so sent and warranted should undertake constantly to Preach the Gospel 2. SUCH Persons so set apart and sent may be esteemed Ministers in the general notion of the Word and may be useful in the calling and planting of Churches wherein they may be instated in the Pastoral Office. This was Originally the Work of Evangelists which Office being ceased in the Church as shall be proved elsewhere the Work may be supplied by Persons of this sort 3. NO Church whatever hath power to Ordain Men Ministers for the Conversion of Infidels Since the Cessation of extraordinary Officers and Offices the care of that Work is devolved meerly on the providence of God being left without the verge of Church-Institutions God alone can send and warrant Men for the undertaking of that Work. Nor can any Man know or be satisfied in a Call unto that Work without some previous guidance of Divine Providence leading him thereunto It is indeed the Duty of all the ordinary Ministers of the Church to diffuse the knowledge of Christ and the Gospel unto the Heathen and Infidels among whom or near unto whom their Habitation is cast and they have all manner of Divine Warranty for their so doing as many worthy Persons have done effectually in New England And it is the Duty of every true Christian who may be cast among them by the providence of God to instruct them according unto his Ability in the knowledge of the Truth But it is not in the power of any Church or any sort of ordinary Officers to Ordain a Person unto the Office of the Ministry for the Conversion of the Heathen antecedently unto any designation by Divine Providence thereunto 4. NO Man can be properly or compleatly Ordained unto the Ministry but he is Ordained unto a determinate Office as a Bishop an Elder a Pastor But this no Man can be but he who is Ordained in and unto a particular Church For the contrary practice 1. WOULD be contrary to the constant practice of the Apostles who Ordained no ordinary Officers but in and unto particular Churches which were to be their proper charge and care Act. 14.23 Tit. 1.5 Nor is there mention of any ordinary Officers in the whole Scripture but such as were fixed in the particular Churches where-unto they did relate Act. 20.28 Phil. 1.1 Revel 2.3 Nor was any such practice known or heard of in the Primitive Church Yea 2. IT was absolutely forbidden in the Ancient Church and all such Ordinations declared null so as not to communicate Office-Power or give any Ministerial Authority So it is expresly in the First Canon of the Council of Chalcedon and the Council Decrees That all Imposition of Hands in such cases is invalid and of no effect Yea so exact and careful were they in this matter that if any one for any just cause as he judged himself did leave his particular Church or Charge they would not allow him the Name or Title of a Bishop or to Officiate occasionally in that Church or any where else This is evident in the case of Eustathius a Bishop of Pamphilia The good Man finding the discharge of his Office very troublesome by reason of Secular Businesses that it was incumbred withal and much opposition with Reproach that befell him from the Church it self of his own accord laid down and resigned his Charge the Church choosing one Theodorus in his room But afterwards he desired that though he had left his Charge he might retain the Name Title
and Honour of a Bishop For this end he made a Petition unto the Council of Ephesus who as themselves express it in meer commiseration unto the Old Man condescended unto his desire as unto the Name and Title but not as unto any Office-Power which they judge related absolutely unto a particular Charge Epist. Can. Ephes. 1. ad Synod in Pamphil. 3. SUCH Ordination wants an essential constitutive Cause and part of the Collation of Office-Power which is the Election of the people and is therefore invalid See what hath been proved before unto that purpose 4. A BISHOP an Elder a Pastor being terms of Relation to make any one so without Relation unto a Church a People a Flock is to make him a Father who hath no Child or an Husband who hath no Wife a Relate without a Correlate which is impossible and implies a contradiction 5. IT is inconsistent with the whole nature and end of the Pastoral Office. Whoever is duly Called set Apart or Ordained unto that Office he doth therein and thereby take on himself the Discharge of all the Duties belonging thereunto and is obliged to attend diligently unto them If then we will take a view of what hath been proved before to belong unto this Office we shall find that not the least part scarce any thing of it can be undertaken and discharged by such as are Ordained absolutely without Relation unto particular Churches For any to take upon them to commit an Office unto others and not at the same time charge them with all the Duties of that Office and their immediate attendance on them or for any to accept of an Office and Office-Power not knowing when or where to exert the Power or perform the Duties of it is irregular In particular Ruling is an essential part of the Pastoral Office which they cannot attend unto who have none to be ruled by them 2. MAY a Pastor remove from one Congregation unto another THIS is a thing also which the Ancient Church made great Provision against For when some Churches were encreased in Members Reputation Privileges and Wealth above others it grew an ordinary practice for the Bishops to design and endeavour their own removal from a less unto a greater Benefice This is so severely interdicted in the Councils of Nice and Chalcedon as that they would not allow that a Man might be a Bishop or Presbyter in any other place but only in the Church wherein he was Originally Ordained And therefore if any did so remove themselves Decreed that they should be sent home again and there abide or cease to be Church-Officers Council Nicea Can. 15 16. Chalced. Can. 5 20. Pluralities as they are called and open contending for Ecclesiastical Promotions Benefices and Dignities were then either unknown or openly condemned YET it cannot be denied but that there may be just causes of the Removal of a Pastor from one Congregation unto another For whereas the end of all particular Churches is to promote the Edification of the Catholick Church in general where in any especial instance such a removal is useful unto that end it is equal it should be allowed Cases of this nature may arise from the consideration of Persons Places Times and many other Circumstances that I cannot insist on in particular But that such removals may be without offence it is required that they be made 1. With the free consent of the Churches concerned 2. With the advice of other Churches or their Elders with whom they walk in Communion And of Examples of this kind or of the Removal of Bishops or Pastors from one Church to another in an orderly manner by Advice and Counsel for the good of the whole Churth there are many instances in the Primitive Times Such was that of Gregory Naz. removed from Casima to Constantinople though I acknowledge it had no good success 3. MAY a Pastor voluntarily or of his own accord resign and lay down his Office and remain in a private Capacity THIS also was judged inconvenient if not unlawful by the First Synod of Ephesus in the case of Eustathius He was as it appears an Aged Man one that loved his one peace and quietness and who could not well bear the Oppositions and Reproaches which he met withal from the Church or some in it and thereon solemnly upon his own judgment without advice laid down and renounced his Office in the Church who thereupon chose a good Man in his room Yet did the Synod condemn this practice and that not without weighty Reasons whereby they confirmed their judgment BUT yet no general Rule can be established in this case nor was the judgment or practice of the Primitive Church precise herein Clemens in his Epistle to the Church of Corinth expresly adviseth those on whose occasion there was disturbance and divisions in the Church to lay down their Office and withdraw from it Gregory Nazianzen did the same at Constantinople and protesteth openly That although he were himself innocent and free from blame as he truly was and one of the greatest Men of his Age yet he would depart or be cast out rather than they should not have peace among them which he did accordingly Orat. 52. vit Nazian And afterward a Synod at Constantinople under Photius concluded that in some cases it is lawful Can. 5. Wherefore 1. IT seems not to be lawful so to do meerly on the account of weakness of Work and Labour though occasioned by Age Sickness or Bodily Distempers For no Man is any way obliged to do more than he is able with the regular preservation of his Life and the Church is obliged to be satisfied with the conscientious discharge of what Abilities a Pastor hath otherwise providing for it self in what is wanting 2. IT is not lawful meerly on a weariness of and despondency under opposition and reproaches which a Pastor is called and obliged to undergo for the Good and Edification of the Flock and not to faint in the warfare wereto he is called THESE two were the Reasons of Eustathius at Perga which were disallowed in the Council at Ephesus But 3. IT is lawful in such an incurable decay of Intellectual Abilities as whereon a Man can discharge no Duty of the Pastoral Office unto the Edification of the Church 4. IT is lawful in case of incurable divisions in the Church constantly obstructing its Edification and which cannot be removed whilst such a one continues in his Office though he be no way the cause of them This is the case wherein Clemens gives advice and whereof Gregory gave an Example in his own practice BUT this Case and its Determination will hold only where the Divisions are incurable by any other ways and means For if those who cause such Divisions may be cast out of the Church or the Church may withdraw Communion from them or if there be Divisions in fixed Parties and Principles Opinions or Practices they may separate into distinct Communion in
judgment who have most weighed and considered the nature of these things do assert the necessity of many Elders in every particular Church which is the common judgment and practice of the Reformed Churches in all places 13. AND some there are who begin to maintain That there is no need of any more but One Pastor Bishop or Elder in a particular Church which hath its Rule in its self other Elders for Rule being unnecessary This is a Novel Opinion contradictory to the sence and practice of the Church in all Ages And I shall prove the contrary 1. THE pattern of the First Churches constituted by the Apostles which it is our Duty to imitate and follow as our Rule constantly expresseth and declares That many Elders were appointed by them in every Church Act. 11.30 Chap. 14.23 Chap. 15.2 4 6 22. Chap. 16.4 Chap. 20.17 c. 1 Tim. 5.17 Phil. 1.1 Tit. 1.5 1 Pet. 5.1 There is no mention in the Scripture no mention in Antiquity of any Church wherein there was not more Elders than One nor doth that Church answer the Original Pattern where it is otherwise 2. WHERE there is but one Elder in a Church there cannot be an Eldership or Presbytery as there cannot be a Senate where there is but one Senator which is contrary unto 1 Tim. 4.14 3. THE continuation of every Church in its original State and Constitution is since the ceasing of extraordinary Offices and Powers committed to the Care and Power of the Church it self Hereunto the Calling and Ordaining of ordinary Officers Pastors Rulers Elders Teachers do belong And therein as we have proved both the Election of the People submitting themselves unto them in the Lord and the solemn setting of them apart by Imposition of Hands do concurr But if there be but One Elder only in a Church upon his Death or Removal this Imposition of Hands must either be left unto the People or be supplied by Elders of other Churches or be wholly omitted all which are irregular And that Church-Order is defective which wants the Symbol of Authoritative Ordination 4. IT is difficult if not impossible on a supposition of One Elder only in a Church to preserve the Rule of the Church from being Prelatical or Popular There is nothing more frequently objected unto those who dissent from Diocesan Bishops than that they would every one be Bishops in their own Parishes and unto their own People All such pretences are excluded on our principles of the Liberty of the People of the necessity of many Elders in the same Church in an equality of Power and the Communion of other Churches in Association But practically where there is but One Elder one of the extreams can be hardly avoided If he Rule by himself without the previous Advice in some cases as well as the subsequent consent of the Church it hath an eye of unwarrantable Prelacy in it If every thing be to be Originally Transacted Disposed Ordered by the whole Society the Authority of the Elder will quickly be insignificant and he will be little more in point of Rule than any other Brother of the Society But all these Inconveniencies are prevented by the fixing of many Elders in each Church which may maintain the Authority of the Presbytery and free the Church from the Despotical Rule of any Diotrâ—phes But in case there be but one in any Church unless he have Wisdom to maintain the Authority of the Eldership in his own Person and Actings there is no Rule but Confusion 5. THE nature of the Work whereunto they are called requires that in every Church consisting in any considerable number of Members there should be more Elders than One. When God first appointed Rule in the Church under the Old Testament he assigned unto every Ten Persons or Families a distinct Ruler Deut. 1.15 For the Elders are to take care of the Walk or Conversation of all the Members of the Church that it be according unto the Rule of the Gospel This Rule is eminent as unto the holiness that it requires above all other Rules of moral Conversation whatever And there is in all the Members of the Church great Accuracy and Circumspection required in their walking after it and according unto it The Order also and Decency which is required in all Church-Assemblies stands in need of exact care and inspection That all these things can be attended unto and discharged in a due manner in any Church by One Elder is for them only to suppose who know nothing of them And although there may be an appearance for a season of all these things in such Churches yet there being not therein a due compliance with the Wisdom and Institution of Christ they have no present Beauty nor will be of any long continuance THESE considerations as also those that follow may seem jejune and contemptible unto such as have another frame of Church-Rule and Order drawn in their Minds and Interests A Government vested in some few Persons with Titles of Preheminence and Legal Power exercised in Courts with Coercive Jurisdiction by the Methods and Processes of Canons of their own framing is that which they suppose doth better become the Grandeur of Church-Rulers and the State of the Church than these Creeping Elders with their Congregations But whereas our present enquiry after these things is only in and out of the Scripture wherein there is neither shadow nor appearance of any of these practices I beg their pardon if at present I consider them not 10. WE shall now make Application of these things unto our present purpose I say then 1. Whereas there is a Work of Rule in the Church distinct from that of Pastoral Feeding 2. Whereas this Work is to be attended unto with diligence which includes the whole Duty of him that attends unto it And 3. That the Ministry of the Word and Prayer with all those Duties that accompany it is a full Employment for any Man and so consequently his principal and proper Work which it is unlawful for him to be remiss in by attending on another with Diligence And 4. Whereas there ought to be many Elders in every Church that both the Works of Teaching and Ruling may be constantly attended unto 5. That in the Wisdom of the Holy Ghost distinct Works did require distinct Offices for their discharge all which we have proved already our enquiry hereon is Whether the same Holy Spirit hath not distinguished this Office of Elders into those two sorts namely those who are called unto Teaching and Rule also and those who are called unto Rule only which we Affirm THE Testimonies whereby the Truth of this Assertion is confirmed are generally known and pleaded I shall insist on some of them only beginning with that which is of uncontroulable evidence if it had any thing to conflict withal but prejudices and interest and this is 1 Tim. 5.17 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is Praesum Praesidio to Preside to Rule Praesident
Talents whether in things Spiritual or Temporal which they have received Some are Rich and some are Poor some are Old and some are Young some in Peace some in Trouble some have received more spiritual Gifts than others and have more opportunities for their Exercise It belongs unto the Rule of the Church that all be Admonished Instructed and Exhorted to attend unto their respective Duties not only publickly in the preaching of the Word but personally as occasion doth require according to the observation which those in Rule do make of their Forwardness or Remissness in them In particular and in the way of instance Men are to be warned that they contribute unto the Necessities of the Poor and other occasions of the Church according unto the Ability that God in his Providence hath intrusted them withal and to admonish them that are defective herein in order to their Recovery unto the discharge of this Duty in such a measure as there may be an Equality in the Church 2 Cor. 8.14 And all other Duties of an a-like nature are they to attend unto 4. THEY are to watch against the beginnings of any Church-Disorders such as those that infested the Church of Corinth or any of the like sort with remissness as unto the Assemblies of the Church and the Duties of them which some are subject unto as the Apostle intimates Heb. 10.25 On the Constancy and Diligence of the Elders in this part of their Work and Duty the very Being and Order of the Church do greatly depend The want hereof hath opened a door unto all the Troubles Divisions and Schisms that in all Ages have invaded and perplexed the Churches of Christ from within themselves And from thence also have Decays in Faith Love and Order insensibly prevailed in many to the dishonour of Christ and the danger of their own Souls First one grows remiss in attending unto the Assemblies of the Church and then another first to one degree then to another until the whole Lump be infected A diligent watch over these things as to the beginnings of them in all the members of the Church will either heal and recover them that offend or it will warn others and keep the Church from being either corrupted or defiled Heb. 3. Chap. 12. 5. IT belongs unto them also to visit the Sick especially such as whose inward or outward conditions do expose them unto more than ordinary trials in their Sickness that is the Poor the Afflicted the Tempted in any kind This in general is a moral Duty a Work of Mercy but it is moreover a peculiar Church-Duty by virtue of Institution And one end of the Institution of Churches is that the Disciples of Christ may have all that Spiritual and Temporal Relief which is needful for them and useful to them in their Troubles and Distresses And if this Duty were diligently attended unto by the Officers of the Church it would add much unto the Glory and Beauty of our Order and be an abiding reserve with Relief in the Minds of them whose outward condition exposeth them to straits and sorrows in such a season I ADD hereunto as a Duty of the same nature the visitation of those who suffer unto Restraint and Imprisonment upon the account of their Profession adherence unto Church-Assemblies or the Discharge of any Pastoral or Office-Duties in them This is a case wherewith we are not unacquainted nor are like so to be Some look on this as the Duty of all the Members of the Church who yet enjoy their Liberty and so it is as their Opportunities and Abilities will allow them provided their discharge of it be useful unto those whom they visit and inoffensive unto others But this Duty diligently attended unto by the Elders representing therein the care and love of the whole Church yea of Christ himself unto his Prisoners is a great Spring of Relief and Comfort unto them And by the Elders may the Church be acquainted what yet is required of them in a way of Duty on their account The care of the Primitive Churches herein was most eminent 6. IT belongs unto them and their Office to advise with and give direction unto the Deacons of the Church as unto the making Provision and Distribution of the Charity of the Church for the Relief of the Poor The Office of the Deacons is principally Executive as we shall see afterwards Inquisition into the state of the Poor with all their circumstances with the warning of all the Members of the Church unto Liberality for their Supply belongs unto the Elders 7. WHEN the State of the Church is such through Suffering Persecution and Affliction that the Poor be multiplied among them so as that the Church it self is not able to provide for their Relief in a due manner if any Supply be sent unto them from the love and bounty of other Churches it is to be deposited with these Elders and disposed according to their advice with that of the Teachers of the Church Act. 11.30 8. IT is also their Duty according to the advantage which they have by their peculiar inspection of all the Members of the Church their ways and their walking to acquaint the Pastors or Teaching-Elders of the Church with the State of the Flock which may be of singular use unto them for their Direction in the present Work of the Ministry He who makes it not his business to know the State of the Church which he ministers unto in the Word and Doctrine as to their Knowledge their Judgment and Understanding their Temptations and Occasions and applies not himself in his Ministry to search out what is necessary and useful unto their Edification he fights uncertainly in his whole Work as a Man beating the Air. But whereas their obligation to attend unto the Word and Prayer confines them much unto a retirement for the greatest part of their time they cannot by themselves obtain that Acquaintance with the whole Flock but that others may greatly assist therein from their daily Inspection Converse and Observation 9. AND it is their Duty to meet and consult with the Teaching-Elders about such things of importance as are to be proposed in and unto the Church for its consent and compliance Hence nothing crude or indigested nothing unsuited to the sence and Duty of the Church will at any time be proposed therein so to give occasion unto contests or janglings disputes contrary unto Order or Decency but all things may be preserved in a due regard unto the Gravity and Authority of the Rulers 10. TO take care of the due Liberties of the Church that they be not imposed on by any Diotrephes in Office or without it 11. IT is incumbent on them in times of Difficulties and Persecution to consult together with the other Elders concerning all those things which concern the present Duty of the Church from time to time and their preservation from violence according unto the will of Christ. 12. WHEREAS there
may be and oft-times is but One Teaching-Elder Pastor or Teacher in a Church upon his Death or Removal it is the Work and Duty of these Elders to preserve the Church in Peace and Unity to take care of the continuation of its Assemblies to prevent Irregularities in any Persons or Parties among them to go before to direct and guide the Church in the Call and Choice of some other meet Person or Persons in the room of the deceased or removed THESE few instances have I given of the Work and Duty of Ruling Elders They are all of them such as deserve a greater enlargement in their Declaration and Confirmation than I can here afford unto them And sundry things of the like nature especially with respect unto Communion with other Churches and Synods But what hath been spoken is sufficient unto my present purpose And to manifest that it is so I shall add the ensuing Observations 1. ALL the things insisted on do undoubtedly and unquestionably belong unto the Rule and Order appointed by Christ in his Church There is no one of them that is liable unto any just Exception from them by whom all Church Order is not dispised Wherefore where there is a Defect in them or any of them the Church it self is defective as unto its own Edification And where this Defect is great in many of them there can be no Beauty no Glory no Order in any Church but only an outward shew and appearance of them And that all these things do belong unto the Duty of these Elders there needs no other Proof nor Confirmation but that they all undoubtedly and unquestionably belong unto that Rule and Order which the Lord Christ hath appointed in his Church and which the Scripture testifieth unto both in general and particular For all the things which belong unto the Rule of the Church are committed to the care of the Rulers of the Church 2. IT is a vain Apprehension to suppose that one or two Teaching Officers in a Church who are obliged to give themselves unto the Word and Prayer to labour with all their might in the Word and Doctrine to preach in and out of season that is at all times on all opportunities as they are able to Convince Gain-sayers by Word and Writing pleading for the Truth to assist and guide the Consciences of all under their Temptations and Desertions with sundry other Duties in part spoken to before should be able to take Care of and attend with Diligence unto all these things that do evidently belong unto the Rule of the Church And hence it is that Churches at this day do live on the Preaching of the Word the proper work of their Pastor which they greatly value and are very little sensible of the Wisdom Goodness Love and Care of Christ in the Institution of this Rule in the Church nor are partakers of the Benefits of it unto their Edification And the supply which many have made hitherto herein by persons either unacquainted with their Duty or insensible of their own Authority or cold if not negligent in their Work doth not answer the end of their Institution And hence it is that the Authority of Government and the Benefit of it are ready to be lost in most Churches And it is both vainly and presumptuously pleaded to give countenance unto a neglect of their Order that some Churches do walk in Love and Peace and are Edified without it supplying some defects by the prudent Aid of some Members of them For it is nothing but a preference of our own Wisdom unto the Wisdom and Authority of Christ or at best an unwillingness to make a venture on the warranty of his Rule for fear of some disadvantages that may ensue thereon 3. WHEREAS sundry of the Duties before-mentioned are as unto the substance of them required of the Members of the Church in their several stations without any especial Obligation to attend unto them with Diligence to look after them or power to Exercise any Authority in the discharge of them to leave them from under the Office-Care of the Elders is to let in Confusson and Disorder into the Church and gradually to remove the whole advantage of the Discipline of Christ as it is come to pass in many Churches already IT is therefore Evident that neither the Purity nor the Order nor the Beauty or Glory of the Churches of Christ nor the Representation of his own Majesty and Authority in the Government of them can be long preserved without a Multiplication of Elders in them according to the proportion of their respective Members for their Rule and Guidance And for want hereof have Churches of old and of late either degenerated into Anarchy and Confusion their self Rule being managed with vain Disputes and Janglings unto their Division and Ruine or else given up themselves unto the Domination of some Prelatical Teachers to Rule them at their pleasure which proved the bane and poison of all the Primitive Churches and they will and must do so in the neglect of this Order for the Future CHAP. IX of DEACONS THE Original Institution Nature and Vse of the Office of Deacons in the Church are so well known as that we need not much insist upon them Nor shall I treat of the Name which is common unto any kind of Ministry Civil or Sacred but speak of it as it is appropriated unto that especial Work for which this Office was ordained The remote foundation of it lieth in that of our Saviour The poor you have always with you Joh. 12.8 He doth not only foretel That such there should be in the Church but recommends the care of them who should be so unto the Church For he maketh use of the words of the Law Deut. 15.11 For the poor shall never cease out of the Land therefore I command thee saying Thou shalt open thy hand wide unto thy Brother to thy poor and to thy needy This Legal Institution founded in the Law of Nature doth the Lord Christ by his Authority transferr and translate unto the use of Gospel Churches among his Disciples AND it may be observed that at the same instant Hypocrisie and Avarice began to attempt their Advantage on the consideration of this Provision for the Poor which they afterwards effected unto their safety For on the pretence hereof Judas immediately condemned an eminent Duty towards the person of Christ as containing a cost in it which might have been better laid out in Provision for the Poor The Ointment poured on our Saviour he thought might have been sold for Three hundred pence it may be about Forty or Fifty Pound and given to the Poor But this he said not that he cared for the Poor but because he was a Thief and had the Bag out of which he could have made a good prey unto himself Joh. 12.6 And it may be observed that although Judas malitiously began this murmuring yet at last some of the other Disciples were
got a pretence of its Power administred by such ways and means as wherein the Consciences of Men neither of those by whom it is Administred nor of those unto whom it is Applied are any way concerned with respect unto the Authority or any Institution of Jesus Christ. FROM an observation hereof and a desire to vindicate as well Christian Religion from such a scandalous Abuse as Mankind from Bondage to such a monstrous fiction as is the present power and exercise of it some have fallen into another extream denying that there is any such thing as Excommunication appointed or approved by the Gospel But this neither is nor ever will be a way to reduce Religion nor any thing in it unto its Primitive Order and Purity To deny the Being of any thing because it hath been abused when there could have been no abuse of it but upon a supposition of its Being is not a rational way to reprove and convince that abuse And when those who have corrupted this Institution find the insufficiency of the Arguments produced to prove that there never was any such Institution it makes them secure in the practice of their own Abuses of it For they imagine that there is nothing incumbent on them to justify their present possession and exercise of the Power of Excommunication but that Excommunication it self is appointed in the Church by Christ whereas the true consideration of this Appointment is the only means to divest them of their power and practice For the most effectual course to discharge and disprove all corruptions in the Agenda or Practicals of Religion as the Sacraments publick Worship Rule and the like is to propose and declare the things themselves in their Original simplicity and purity as appointed by Christ and recorded in the Scriptures A real view of them in such a Proposal will divest the minds of Men not corrupted and hardened by Prejudice and Interest of those erroneous conceptions of them that from some kind of Tradition they have been prepossessed withal And this I shall now attempt in this particular of Excommunication THERE hath been great enquiry about the nature and exercise of this Ordinance under the Old Testament with the Account given of it by the latter Jews For the Right and Power of it in general belongs unto a Church as such every Church and not that which is purely Evangelical only This I shall not enquire into it hath been sifted to the bran already and intermixed with many Rabbinical conjectures and mistakes In general there is nothing more certain than that there was a doublâ— Removal of Persons by Church-Authority from the communion of the whole Congregation in Divine Worship The one for a Season the other for Ever whereof I have given Instances elsewhere But I intend only the consideration of what belongs unto Churches under the New Testament And to this end we may observe 1. THAT all lawful Societies constituted such by voluntary confederation according unto peculiar Laws and Rules of their own choice unto especial Duties and Ends have a Right and Power by the Light of Nature to receive into their Society those that are willing and meet ingaging themselves to observe the Rules Laws and Ends of the Society and to Expel them out of it who wilfully deviate from those Rules This is the life and form of every lawful Society or Community of Men in the World without which they can neither coalesce nor subsist But it is required hereunto 1. THAT those who so enter into such a Society have Right or Power so to do And many things are required unto this end As 1. That those who enter into such a Society be sui Juris have a lawful Right to dispose of themselves as unto all the Duties and Ends of such a Society Hence Children Servants Subjects have no power in themselves to enter into such Societies without the interposition of and obligation from a power Superior unto that of Parents Masters or Princes namely that of God himself 2. That the Rules Laws and ends of the Society be lawful good and useful unto themselves and others For there may be a confederation in and for evil which is a combination that gives no Right nor Power over one another or towards others that enter into it 3. That it contains nothing that is prejudicial unto others in things Divine or Humane 4. Nor oblige unto the omission or neglect of any Duty that Men by virtue of any Relations Natural Moral or Political do owe unto others Nor 5. Is hurtful unto themselves in their Lives Liberties Names Reputation usefulness in the World or any thing else unto whose preservation they are obliged by the Law of Nature Nor 6. Can be or are such Persons obliged to forsake the conduct of themselves in things Divine and Humane by the Light of their own Consciences by an Ingagement of blind obedience unto others which would render every Society unlawful by the Law of God and Light of Nature 7. Least of all have any Persons Right or Power to oblige themselves in such Societies unto things Evil Sinful Superstitious or Idolatrous THESE things are plain and evident in themselves and every way sufficient to divest all the Religious Societies and Fraternities that are erected in the Church of Rome of all that Right and Power which belongs unto lawful Societies constituted by voluntary confederation And if any thing inconsistent with these principles of Natural Light be pretended in Churches it divests them of all Power as to the exercise of it by virtue of any compact or confederation whatever 2. IT is required that a Society by voluntary consent vested with the Right and Power mentioned do neither give nor take away any Right Privilege or Advantage to or from any Members of the Society which belong unto them Naturally or Politically but their Power is confined unto those things alone wherein Men may be benefited and advantaged by the Society And this is the foundation of all political Societies Men for the sake and benefit of them may and ought to forego many particular Advantages which without them they might make unto themselves But they cannot forego any of those Rights which in their several Relations are inseparably annexed unto them by the Law of Nature nor give power over themselves in such things unto the Society So is it with Churches the power of expulsion out of their Society extends only unto the Benefits and Advantages which the Society as such doth afford and communicate Now these are only things Spiritual if Churches be an institution of him whose Kingdom is not of this World. The power then that is in Churches by virtue of their being what they are extends not it self unto any outward concernments of Men as unto their Lives Liberties Natural or Political Privileges Estates or Possessions unless we shall say that Men hold and possess these things by virtue of their Relation unto the Church which is to overthrow
all Natural and Humane Right in the World. De facto Men are now compelled whether they will or no to be esteemed to be of this or that Church and to be dealt withal accordingly But if they had not been divested of their natural Liberty they know not how without their own consent and should be taught that by entering into a Church they must come under a new Tenure of their Lives Liberties and Estates at the Will of the Lords of the Society according to the Customs of their Courts there would not be so many Wise Men in Churches as now there are thought to be BUT this is the true State of things in the Church of Rome and among others also Christians are esteemed to be of them and belong unto them whether they will or no. Immediately hereon all the Rights Liberties Privileges Possessions which they enjoy by the Law of God and Nature and by the just Laws and Constitutions of Men in Civil Governments under which they live come to depend upon and be subject unto the especial Laws and Rules of the Society which they are adjudged to belong unto For upon expulsion out of that Society by Excommunication according unto the Laws and Rules which it hath framed unto it self all their Rights and Titles and Liberties and Enjoyments are forfeited and exposed to Ruine Some indeed do earnestly and learnedly contend that the Pope of Rome hath not Power to Excommunicate Sovereign Kings and Princes and that if he do they make no forfeiture of Life or Dignity thereby And there are good Reasons why they do so But in the mean time they deal with other poor Men after the same manner For if a poor Man be Excommunicated immediately he loseth the free Tenure of his Life Liberty and Goods by the Law of the Church and the Land and is Committed to the Gaol without Bail or Mainprize So that by this Artifice all Men hold their Natural and Civil Rights by the Rules of the Church Society whereto they are supposed to belong And as this utterly overthrows the foundation of all that Property according to the Laws of the Land which is so much talked of and valued so indeed it would be destructive of all Order and Liberty but that the Church is wise enough not to employ this Engine unto Great Men and Men in Power who may yet deserve Excommunication as well as some of their poor Neighbours if the Gospel be thought to give the Rule of it But those that are poor helpless and friendless shall in the pursuit of this Excommunication be driven from their Houses cast into Prisons and kept there until they and their Families starve and perish And it is apparent that we are beholding unto the Greatness Authority and Wealth of many whom the Ecclesiastical Courts care not to conflict withal that the whole Nation is not actually brought under this new Tenure of their Lives Liberties and Estates which on this presumption they are obnoxious unto AND all this evil ariseth from the neglect and contempt of this fundamental Rule of all Societies apparent unto all in the Light of Nature it self namely that they have no Power in or over any Thing Right Privilege or Advantage but what Men are made Partakers of by virtue of such Societies their Rule and Laws whereunto they are obliged But of this sort are not the Lives the Liberties the Houses and Possessions of Men with respect unto the Church They receive them not from the Church and a Man would certainly think that the Church could not take them away YEA we live and subsist in Order upon the good Nature and Wisdom of Men who judge it best neither to exert their Power nor act their Principles in this matter For whereas they esteem all the Inhabitants of the Land to belong unto their Church if they should in the first place Excommunicate all that ought to be Excommunicated by the Rule and Law of the Gospel and then all that ought to be so according to their own Laws and Canons both which a Man would think they were obliged in point of Conscience unto and in pursuit of their Sentence send out the Capias for them all I very much question whether any of them would go to Prison or no and then in what a fine case would this Government be and if they should all go to Gaol I am perswaded the King would be in an ill State to defend his Realms against his Enemies 3. EVERY Society hath this Power towards those who are incorporated in it by their own consent and not towards others For whence should they have such a Power or who should commit it unto them Nor can any be cast out from those Privileges which they never had an Interest in nor a Right unto The Apostles Rule holds in this case especially with respect unto Churches What have we to do to judge them that are without And as unto the exercise of this Power they are all to be esteemed to be without who are not rightly incorporated into that particular Church by which they may be ejected out of it A Power of Excommunication at Random towards all that those who exercise it can extend force unto hath no foundation either in the Light of Nature or Authority of the Scripture And it would be ridiculous in any Corporation to disfranchise such as never belonged unto it who were never Members of it 4. THE only Reason or Cause for the expulsion of any Person out of such a Society is a wilful deviation from the Rules and Laws of the Society whose observance he had engaged unto upon his entrance into it Nothing else can be required unto the Preservation of a Mans Interest in any Right or Privilege but what he took upon himself to perform in his Admittance into it And if the great Rule of every Church-Society be That Men observe and do whatsoever the Lord Christ hath commanded none can be justly ejected out of that Society but upon a wilful disobedience unto his Commands And therefore the casting of Men out of Church Communion on light and trivial occasions or for any Reasons or Causes whatever but such as essentially belong unto the Rules and Laws whereon the Church doth originally coalesce into a Society is contrary unto Natural Light and the Reason of the Things themselves THUS far I say is every lawful confederate Society enabled and warranted by the Light of Nature to remove from its Communion and from a participation in its Rights and Privileges any of its number who will not walk according to the Rules and Principles of its Coalescency and Constitution Whereas therefore the Rule of the Constitution of the Church is That Men walk together in holy Obedience unto the Commands of Christ and the observance of all his Institutions without giving Offence unto one another or those that are without by any sinful miscarriage and do abide in the Profession of the Truth if any one
shall wilfully and obstinately transgress in any of these things it is the Right and Duty and in the Power of the Church to remove him from its Society BUT this is not the entire nor the next immediate Ground Reason or Warranty of Ecclesiastical Excommunication For this natural Equity will not extend it self unto cases that are in things Spiritual and Supernatural nor will the actings of the Church thereon reach unto the Consciences of Men for the proper ends of Excommunication Wherefore it was necessary that it should have a peculiar Institution in the Church by the Authority of Jesus Christ. For 1. THE Church is such a Society as no Men have Right or Power either to enter into themselves or to exclude others from but by virtue of the Authority of Christ. No warranty from the Light of nature or from the Laws of Men or their own voluntary confederation can enable any to constitute a Church-Society unless they do all things expresly in obedience unto the Authority of Christ. For his Church is his Kingdom his House which none can constitute or build but himself Wherefore it is necessary that the power of Admission into and Exclusion from the Church do arise from his Grant and Institution Nor is it in the power of any Men in the World to admit into or exclude from this Society but by virtue thereof 2. EXCOMMVNICATION is an act of Authority as we shall see afterwards But no Authority can be exercised in the Church towards any person whatever but by virtue of the Institution of Christ. For the Authority it self however ministerially exercised by others is his alone and he exerts it not but in the ways of his own appointment So in particular the Apostle directs that Excommunication be exerted in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ that is in and by his Authority 1 Cor. 5.4 3. THE Privileges from which Men are excluded by Excommunication are not such as they have any Natural or Civil Right unto as hath been proved but meerly such as are granted unto the Church by Jesus Christ and Men cannot by virtue of any Agreement among themselves without a Warranty from him by his Institution Expel others from the Privileges which are meerly of his Grant and Donation He alone therefore hath given and granted this Power unto the Church namely of Excluding any by the Rules and Ways of his Appointment from the Privileges of his Grant which is the peculiar Power of Excommunication inquired after 4. THERE is such an Efficacy assigned unto Excommunication in binding the Consciences of Men in retaining their Sins in the Destruction or Mortification of the Flesh in the Healing and Recovery of Sinners as nothing but the Authority of a Divine Institution can give unto it By virtue of natural Light and mutual Consent Men may free themselves from the Company and Society of those who will not walk with them according to Rules of Communion agreed upon among them but they cannot reach the Minds and Consciences of others with any of these Effects 5. THAT Excommunication is an express Ordinance of our Lord Jesus Christ in his Churches is fully declared in the Scripture For 1. The power of it is contained in the Authority given by Christ unto the Church under the Name of the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven For the Power expressed therein is not meerly Doctrinal and Declarative as is the preaching of the Gospel the consequent whereof upon the Faith or Unbelief of them that hear it is the Remitting or Retaining of their Sin in Heaven and Earth but it is Disciplinary also as it is appropriated unto the House whose Keys are committed unto the Stewards of it And seeing the design of Christ was to have his Church Holy Vnblamable and without offence in the World that therein he might make a Representation of his own Holiness and the Holiness of his Rule and whereas those of whom it is constituted are liable and subject unto Sins scandalous and offensive reflecting dishonour on himself and the Church in being the occasion of sinning unto others that design would not have been accomplished had he not given this Authority unto his Church to cast out and separate from it self all that do by their Sins so give offence And the neglect of the exercise of this Authority in a due manner was the principal means whereby the Glory Honour and usefulness of the Churches in the World were at length utterly lost 2. It hath a direct Institution Matth. 18.15 16 17 18 19 20. If thy Brother shall Trespass c. tell it unto the Church but if he neglect to hear the Church let him be unto thee as an Heathen Man and a Publican Verily I say unto you whatsoever ye shall bind on Earth shall be bound in Heaven and whatsoever ye shall loose on Earth shall be loosed in Heaven c. After all the Learned and Unlearned Contests that have been about this place the sence of it is plain and obvious unto such as whose Minds are not clouded with prejudices about such Churches and such Excommunications as are utterly foreign unto the Scripture But that by Trespasses in this place Sins against God giving scandal or offence are intended hath been proved before as also that by a Church a particular Christian Congregation is intended This Church hath the cognizance of the scandalous offences of its Members committed unto it when brought before it in the due Order described Hereon it makes a Determination designing in the first place the Recovery of the Person offending from his Sin by his hearing of its Counsel and Advice But in case of Obstinacy it is to remove him from its Communion leaving him in the outward condition of an Heathen and a Publican So is he to be esteemed by them that were offended with his Sin and that because of the Authority of the Church binding him in Heaven and Earth unto the punishment due unto his Sin unless he doth Repent The Rejection of an offending Brother out of the Society of the Church leaving him as unto all the Privileges of the Church in the State of an Heathen declaring him liable unto the Displeasure of Christ and Everlasting Punishment without Repentance is the Excommunication we plead for and the Power of it with its Exercise is plainly here granted by Christ and Ordained in the Church 3. According unto this Institution was the practice of the Apostles whereof we have several Instances I might insist upon the Excommunication of Simon the Magician a baptized professor by Peter who declared him to have neither part or lot in the Church upon the discovery of his wickedness Act. 8.13 20 21 22 23. Yet because it was the single Act of one Apostle and so may be esteemed extraordinary I shall omit it However that fact of the Apostle is sufficiently declarative of what is to be done in the Church in like cases and which if it be not done it cannot be
preserved in its purity according unto the mind of Christ. But that which was directed by the Apostle Paul in the Church of Corinth towards the incestuous Person is express 1 Cor. 5.1 2 5 6 7. 1. He declares the Sin whereof the Person charged was guilty with the Ignominy and Scandal of it Ver. 1. 2. He blames the Church that they had not been affected with the Guilt and Scandal of it so as to have proceeded to his Removal or Expulsion out of the Church that he might be taken away or cut off from them Ver. 2. 3. He declares his own judgment in the case that he ought to be so taken away or removed which yet was not actually effected by that Judgment and Sentence of his Ver. 3. 4. He declares the causes of this Excision 1. The Supream efficient cause of it is the Power or Authority of the Lord Jesus Christ instituting this Ordinance in his Church giving Right and Power unto it for its administration In the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ and with his Power 2. The declarative cause of the Equity of this Sentence which was the Spirit of the Apostle or the Authoritative Declaration of his judgment in the case with my Spirit 3. The Instrumental Ministerial cause of it which is the Church do it in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ when you are gathered together Ver. 4. and thereby purge out the old Leaven that you may be a new Lump Ver. 7. whence the punishment of this Sentence is said to be inflicted by many 2 Cor. 2.6 that is all those who on his Repentance were obliged to forgive and comfort him that is the whole Church Ver. 7. 5. The nature of the Sentence is the delivering of such an one to Satan for the destruction of the Flesh that the Spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus Ver. 5. Not the destruction of his Body by Death but the through mortification of the Flesh whereby he was shortly afterwards recovered and restored into his former condition The whole of what we plead for is here exemplified as 1. The cause of Excommunication which is a scandalous Sin unrepented of 2. The preparation for its execution which is the Churches sence of the Sin and Scandal with Humiliation for it 3. The warranty of it which is the Institution of Christ wherein his Authority is engaged 4. The manner and form of it by an Act of Authority with the consent of the whole Church 5. The effect of it in a total separation from the Privileges of the Church 6. The end of it 1. With respect unto the Church its purging and vindication 2. With respect unto the Person Excommunicated his Repentance Reformation and Salvation IT is usually replied hereunto that this was an extraordinary act of Apostolical Power and so not to be drawn by us into Example For he himself both determines the case and asserteth his presence in Spirit that is by his Authority to be necessary unto what was done Besides it was a delivery of the Man to Satan that is into his power to be afflicted and cruciated by him to be terrified in his Mind and punished in his Body to the destruction of the Flesh that is unto Death Such was the Delivery of a Man to Satan by the Apostle mentioned here and 1 Tim. 1.9 20. in the judgment of many of the Ancients But there is no such Power in any Church at present to deliver an offender unto Satan nor any appearing effects of such a pretence Wherefore this is a matter which belongs not unto Churches at present I ANSWER 1. What the Apostles did in any Church whether present or absent by their own Authority did not prejudice the Right of the Churches themselves nor their Power acted in Subordination unto them and their guidance So it is evident in this place that notwithstanding the exerting of any Apostolical Power intimated the Church it self is charged with its Duty and directed to exercise its Authority in the Rejection of the Offender 2. There is nothing extraordinary in the case 1. It is not so that a Member of a Church should fall into a scandalous Sin unto the dishonour of Christ and the Church giving offence unto Persons of all sorts 2. It is an ordinary Rule founded in the Light of Nature confirmed here and elsewhere by express Divine Commands that such an one be rejected from the Society and Communion of the Church until he give satisfaction by Repentance and Reformation 3. It is that without which the Church cannot be preserved in its purity nor its being be continued as both Reason and Experience do manifest 4. The judgment both of the Fact and Right was left unto the Church it self whence it was afterwards highly commended by the Apostle for the diligent discharge of its Duty herein 2 Cor. 2. In brief it is such a Divine Order that is here prescribed as without the observance whereof no Church can long subsist 5. There is no difficulty in the other part of the Objection about the Delivery unto Satan For 1. It cannot be proved that hereon the Offender was delivered so into the power of Satan to be cruciated agitated and at length killed as some imagine nor can any instance of any such thing be given in the Scripture or Antiquity though there be many of them who upon their rejection out of the Church were enraged unto an opposition against it as it was with Simon Magus Marcian and others 2. Yea it is evident that there was no such thing included in their delivery unto Satan as is pretended For the design and end of it was the Mans Humiliation Recovery and Salvation as is expresly affirmed in the Text and this effect is actually had for the Man was healed and restored Wherefore this Delivery unto Satan is an Ordinance of Christ for the exciting of Saving Grace in the Souls of Men adapted unto the case of falling by scandalous Sins peculiarly effectual above any other Gospel Ordinance Now this cannot be such a Delivery unto Satan as that pretended which can have no other end but Destruction and Death 3. This Delivery unto Satan is no more but the casting of a Man out of the visible Kingdom of Christ so giving him up as unto his outward condition into the state of Heathens and Publicans which belonged unto the Kingdom of Satan For he who by the Authority of Christ himself according unto his Law and Institution is not only debarred from a participation of all the privileges of the Gospel but also visibly and regularly devested of all present Right to them and Interest in them he belongs unto the visible Kingdom of Satan The gathering of Men by Conversion into the Church is the turning of them from the Power of Satan unto God Act. 26.18 a delivery from the Power of Darkness that is the Kingdom of Satan and a translation unto the Kingdom of Christ Col. 1.13 Wherefore after a
Man hath by Faith and his conjunction unto a visible Church been translated into the Kingdom of Christ his just rejection out of it is the Redelivery of him into the visible Kingdom of Satan which is all that is here intended And this is an act suited unto the end whereunto it is designed For a Man hereby is not taken out of his own Power and the conduct of his own Mind not acted or agitated by the Devil but is left unto the sedate consideration of his present state and condition And this if there be any spark of ingenuous Grace left in him will be effectually operative by shame grief and fear unto his Humiliation especially understanding that the design of Christ and his Church herein is only his Repentance and Restauration HERE is therefore in his instance an Everlasting Rule given unto the Church in all Ages the ordinary Occurrences of the like cases requiring an ordinary Power for Relief in them without which the Church cannot be preserved That it is the Duty of the Church enjoined unto it by the Lord Jesus Christ and that necessary unto its Glory it s own Honour and Edification to reject scandalous Offenders out of its Communion is evidently declared in this place And to suppose that to be the Duty of the Church which it hath no Power or Authority to discharge seeing without them it cannot be discharged is a wild imagination 4. THE Duty of the Church herein with such other particular Duties as suppose the Institution hereof are in many places directed and enjoined It is so in that insisted on 1 Cor. 5. The foundation of the whole Discourse and practice of the Apostle there Recorded lies in this That Churches ought to cut off from among them scandalous Offenders and that to the End they may preserve themselves pure and that this they ought to do in the Name of Christ and by virtue of his Authority Vers. 2 4 7. And this is the whole of that Excommunication which we plead for The manner of its Administration we shall consider afterwards 2 Cor. Chap. 2.6 7 8. The Apostle commends the Church for what they had done in the Excommunication of the Incestuous person calling it a Punishment inflicted on him by them Vers. 6. He gives also an account of the Effect of this Sentence against him which was his Humiliation and Repentance Vers. 7. And hereon gives direction for his Restauration by an Act of the Church forgiving him and confirming their Love unto him Men may fansie to themselves strange Notions of Excommunication with reference unto its Power the Residence of that Power its Effects Extent and Ends and so either on the one hand erect it into an Engine of Arbitrary Domination over the Church and all the Members of it or deny on the other that there is any such Institution of Christ in force in his Churches But we can be taught nothing more plainly of the Mind of Christ than that he hath given Power unto his Church to cast out of their Communion obstinate scandalous Offenders and to restore them again upon their Repentance enjoining it unto them as their Duty And it is an Evidence of a woful degeneracy in Churches from their Primitive Institution when this sentence is so administred as that it hath an effect by virtue of Humane Laws or the outward concerns of Men but no influence on their Consciences unto Humiliation and Repentance which is the principal End of its appointment The Apostle treats of the same matter Gal. 5.7 8 9 10 11 12. He speaks of those false Teachers who opposed and overthrew what lay in them the Fundamental Doctrine of the Gospel These at that time were in great Power and Reputation in the Churches of the Galatians whom they had corrupted with their false Opinions so as that the Apostle doth not directly enjoin their immediate Excision yet he declares what they did deserve and what was the Duty of the Church towards them when freed from their Delusions Vers. 12. I would they were even cut off that trouble you Men have exercised their Minds in curious conjectures about the sence of these Words altogether in vain and needlesly The curiosity of some of the best of the Ancients applying it unto a forcible Eunuchism is extreamly fond No other Excision is intended but that which was from the Church and to be done by the Church in obedience unto the Truth Neither the Subject Matter treated of the nature of the Crime condemned nor the state of the Church or design of the Apostle will admit of any other Exposition 2 Thessal 3.7 The Apostle gives command unto the Brethren of the Church and that in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ to withdraw from every Brother that walketh disorderly What it is to walk disorderly he declares immediately namely to live in an open disobedience unto any of the commands of Christ not after the Tradition which he received of us that is the Doctrine of the Gospel which he had delivered unto them This withdrawing is as unto church-Church-Communion which cannot be done but upon some act of the Church depriving them of the Rights of it For if every Member of the Church should be left unto his own judgment and practice herein it would bring all things into confusion And therefore Vers. 14. he requires that a note be set on such a Person by the Church that is a Sentence be denounced against him before the Duty of withdrawing from him by the Brethren be incumbent on them See to the same purpose Tit. 3.10 11. 1 Tim. 5.20 Revel 2.2 14 15 20 21. IT is therefore evident that this Censure Judgment Spiritual punishment is an Institution of Christ for whose Administration he hath given Authority unto his Church as that which is necessary unto its Edification with its preservation in Honour Purity and Order THERE have been many Disputes about it as unto its Order and Kinds Some suppose that there are two sorts of Excommunication the one they call the lesser and the other the greater Some three sorts as it is supposed there were among the Jews There is no mention in the Scripture of any more sorts but one or of any Degrees therein A segregation from all participation in Church-Order Worship and Privileges is the only Excommunication spoken of in the Scripture But whereas an offending Person may cause great disorder in a Church and give great scandal unto the Members of it before he can be regularly cut off or expelled the Society some do judge that there should a Suspension of him from the Lords Table at least precede total or compleat Excommunication in case of Impenitency And it ought in some cases so to be But this Suspension is not properly an especial Institution but only an act of prudence in Church-Rule to avoid offence and scandal And no Men question but that this is lawful unto yea the Duty of the Rulers of the Church to require any
one to forbear for a season from the use of their Privilege in the participation of the Supper of the Lord in case of scandal and offence which would be taken at it and ensue thereon And if any Person shall refuse a Submission unto them in this Act of Rule the Church hath no way for its Relief but to proceed unto the total Removal of such a Person from their whole Communion For the Edification of the whole Church must not be obstructed by the Refractoriness of any one among them THIS Excommunication as we have proved before is an act of Church-Authority exerted in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ. And if so then it is an act of the Officers of the Church namely so far as it is Authoritative for there is no Authority in the Church properly so called but what resides in the Officers of it There is an Office in the Church which is meerly Ministerial without any formal Authority that is of the Deacons But there is no Authority in exercise but what is in the Elders and Rulers of the Church And there are two Reasons which prove that the power of Excommunication as to the Authoritative Exercise of it is in the Elders of the Church 1. Because the Apostles by virtue of their Office-Power in every Church did join in the Authoritative Excommunication as is plain in the case insisted on 1 Cor. 5. And there is no Office-Power now remaining but what is in the Elders of the Church 2. It is an Act of Rule But all Rule properly so called is in the hands of Rulers only We may add hereunto that the care of the preservation of the Edification of all its Members of the Correction and Salvation of Offenders is principally incumbent on them or committed unto them as we have declared as also that they are best able to judge when and for what this Sentence ought to be denounced against any which requires their best skill in the Wisdom of Spiritual Rule And therefore the omission of the exercise of it when it was necessary is charged as a neglect on the Angels or Rulers of the Churches as the due execution of it is commended in them And therefore unto them it doth belong with respect unto their Office and is thereon an Office-Act or an Act of Authority HOWBEIT it cannot be denied but that the Interest yea the power of the whole Church in the Fraternity of it is greatly to be considered herein For indeed where-ever the Apostle Treats of it he doth not any where recommend it unto the Officers of the Church in a peculiar manner but unto the whole Church and the Brethren therein This is evident in the places before quoted Wherefore the whole Church is concerned herein both in point of Duty Interest and Power 1. In point of Duty for by virtue of the mutual watch of all the Members of the Church over each other and of the care incumbent on every one of them for the Good the Honour the Reputation and Edification of the whole it is their Duty jointly and severally to endeavour the purging out from among them of every thing that is contrary unto those ends And they who are not concerned in these things are dead and useless Members of the Church 2. In Interest they have also a concernment therein They are to look that no root of bitterness spring up amongst them lest themselves are at length defiled thereby It is usually said that the good are not defiled by holding Communion with them that are wicked in a participation of holy Ordinances And there is some Truth in what is said with reference unto wicked undiscovered Hypocrites or such as are not scandalously flagitious But to promote this Perswasion so as to beget an opinion in Church-Members that they are no way concerned in the scandalous Sins and Lives of those with whom they walk in all Duties of Spiritual Communion openly avowing themselves Members of the same Body with them is a Diabolical Engine invented to countenance Churches in horrible security unto their ruine But yet besides that defilement which may be contracted in a joint participation of the same Ordinances with such Persons there are other ways almost innumerable whereby their Example if passed by without Animadversion may be pernicious unto their Faith Love and Obedience Wherefore they are obliged in point of Spiritual Interest as they take care of their own Souls to concurr in the ejection out of the Church of obstinate Offenders 3. In point of Power For the Execution of this Sentence is committed unto and rests in the Body of the Church According as they concurr and practise so it is put in Execution or Suspended for it is they who must withdraw Communion from them or the Sentence is of no use or validity this punishment must be inflicted by the many who also are to restore him who is so rebuked Wherefore Excommunication without the consent of the Church is a meer nullity BUT if any one shall say that Excommunication is not an Act of Authority nor of Office but of Power residing in the community resulting from their common suffrage guided and directed by the Officers or Elders of the Church I shall again take up this Enquiry immediately and speak unto it more distinctly lest what is here spoken should not be sufficient unto the satisfaction of any OUR next Enquiry is concerning the object of this Church Censure or who they are that ought to be Excommunicated And 1. THEY must be Members of that Church by which the Sentence is to be denounced against them And this as we have proved before they cannot be without their own consent One Church cannot Excommunicate the Members of another They are unto them as unto this matter without and they have no power to judge them The foundation of the Right to proceed against any herein is in their own voluntary engagement to observe and keep the Rules and Laws of the Society whereunto they are admitted The offence is given unto that Church in the first place if not only And it is an Act of the Church for its own Edification And there is a nullity in the Sentence which is ordained decreed or denounced by any who are not Officers of that Church in particular wherein the Sin is committed 2. THESE Church-Members that may be justly Excommunicated are of Two sorts 1. SUCH as continue obstinate in the practice of any scandalous Sin after private and publick admonition The process from the first Offence in Admonition is so stated in ordinary cases Matth. 18. that there is no need farther to declare it The Time that is to be allotted unto the several Degrees of it shall be spoken unto afterwards And unto a right judgment of obstinacy in any scandalous Sin it is required 1. That the Sin considered in it self be such as is owned to be such by all without doubting dispute or haesitation It must be some Sin that is
unto such mistakes where they are not under the guidance of the holy Spirit which is to be obtained by Prayer only 2. In or together with the Administration of it that what is done on Earth may be ratified in Heaven by the approbation of Christ and be made effectual unto its proper End. 3. It must be followed with the Prayer of the Church unto the same purpose all with respect unto the Humiliation Repentance Healing and Recovery of the Offender 2 ly IT is to be accompanied with Lamentation or Mourning So the Apostle reproving the Church of Corinth for the omission of it when it was necessary tells them That they had not mourned that the offender might be taken away from among them 1 Cor. 5.2 It is not to be done without mourning And himself calls the Execution of this Sentence from this Adjunct his bewailing of them I shall bewail many that have sinned already 2 Cor. 12.2 Compassion for the person offending with respect unto that dangerous condition whereinto he hath cast himself the Excision of a Member of the same Body with whom they have had Communion in the most holy Mysteries of Divine Worship and sate down at the Table of the Lord with a due sense of the Dishonour of the Gospel by his fall ought to ingenerate this Mourning or Lamentation in the Minds of them who are concern'd in the Execution of the Sentence Nor is it advisable for any Church to proceed thereunto before they are so affected 3 ly IT is to be accompanied with a due sence of the future Judgment of Christ. For we herein Judge for Christ in the matters of his House and Kingdom And woe to them who dare pronounce this Sentence without a perswasion on good grounds that it is the Sentence of Christ himself And there is a Representation also in it of the future Judgment when Christ will Eternally cut off and separate from himself all Hypocrites and impenitent Sinners This is well expressed by Tertullian Ibidem etiam Exhortationes Castigationes Censura Divina speaking of the Assemblies of the Church nam judicatur magno cum pondere ut apud certos de Dei conspectu summumque futuri judicii praejudicium est si quis ita d liquerit ut a Communicatione Orationis Conventus omnis sancti commercii relegetur Apol. cap. 39. Were this Duty observed it would be a preservative against that inter-mixture of corrupt Affections and corrupt Ends which often impose themselves on the Minds of Men in the exercise of this Power Lastly THE Nature and End of this Judgment or Sentence being Corrective not Vindicative for Healing not Destruction what is the Duty of the Church and those principally concerned in the pursuit of it to render it effectual is plainly evident Of what use a Significavit and Capias may be in this case I know not they belong not unto Christian Religion much less do Fire and Faggot do so Prayer for the person cut off Admonition as occasion is offered Compaâ—sion in his distressed Estate which is so much the more deplorable if he know it not forbearance from common Converse with readiness for the Restauration of Love in all the fruits of it contain the principal Duties of the Church and all the Members of it towards them that are justly Excommunicate WHAT farther belongeth unto this Head of Church-Rule or Order shall be spoken unto in the Resolution of some Cases or Enquiries wherein also some Things only mentioned already shall be more fully explained I HAVE made some enquiry before whether Excommunication be an act of Authority and Jurisdiction in the Officers of the Church or an act of Power in the Fraternity of the Church But for the sake of some by whom it is desired I shall a little more distinctly enquire after the Truth herein though I shall alter nothing of what was before laid down And 1. IT is certain it hath been proved and I now take it for granted That the Lord Christ hath given this Power unto the Church Wherefore in the exercise of this Power both the Officers and Members of the Church are to act according unto their respective Interests For that Exercise of Power in the Church towards any which is not an act of Obedience unto Christ in them that exercise it it is in it self null There is therefore no Distinction or Distribution of Power in the Church but by the interposition of especial Duty 2. THE Institution of Christ with respect unto a Church as it is a peculiar Society for its especial Ends do not deprive it of its natural Right as it is a Society There is in every Community by voluntary Confederation a natural Right and Power to expel those from its Society who will not be ruled by the Laws of its Constitution And if the Church should by the Institution of a Power new as unto the way manner and ends of its Exercise be deprived of its Original radical Power with respect unto the general End of its own Preservation it would not be a gainer by that Institution It may be easily understood that the Lord Christ should in particular appoint the Way and Manner of the Exercise of this Power or Administration of this Sentence committing the care thereof unto the Officers of the Church But it cannot be well understood that thereby he should deprive the Church of its Right and forbid them their Duty in preserving their Society entire and pure Neither can it be so in an especial manner committed unto any as that upon their neglect whereby those who by the Law and Rule of Christ ought to be cast out of the Churches Communion are continued in it unto its Sin and Defilement the Church it self should be free from guilt Wherefore the Apostle expresly chargeth the whole Church of Corinth with Sin and neglect of Duty in that the incestuous person was not put away from among them This could not be if so be the Power of it were so in the Hands of a few of the Officers that the Church had no Right to act in it For none can incurr a Guilt meerly by the defect of others in the Discharge of their Duty 3. THE Church essentially considered is before its ordinary Officers for the Apostle ordained Officers in every Church But the Church in that State hath Power to put away from among them and their Communion an obstinate Offender They have it as they are a Society by voluntary confederation Wherein this comes short of Authoritative Excommunication will immediately appear 4. WHERE a Church is compleat and Organized with its stated Rulers as the Church of Corinth was yet Rules Instructions and Commands are given expresly unto the Fraternity or Community of the Church for their Duty and Acting in the Administration of this Sentence and the cutting off an Offender 1 Cor. 5.2 4 6 7. 2 Cor. 2.7 8. Yea the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or infliction of the Sentence is
ascribed unto them Ver. 5. All these things do suppose a Right and Duty thereon to Act according to their Interest in Excommunication to reside in the whole Church Wherefore 5. THERE are some Acts belonging hereunto that the Church it self in the Body of the Fraternity cannot be excluded from without destroying the nature of the Sentence it self and rendring it ineffectual Such are the previous cognizance of the Cause without which they cannot be blamed for any neglect about it preparatory Duties unto its Execution in Prayer Mourning and Admonition which are expresly prescribed unto them and a Testification of their consent unto it by their common Suffrage Without these things Excommunication is but a Name with a noise it belongs not unto the Order appointed by Christ in his Church 6. HENCE arise the Duties of the Church towards an Excommunicated Person that are consequential unto his exclusion from among them Such are Praying for him as one noted by the Church and under the Discipline of Christ avoiding Communion with him in publick and private that he may be ashamed and the like all which arise from their own voluntary actings in his exclusion and such as without a judgment of the cause they cannot be obliged unto 7. YET on the other side unto the formal compleatness of this Sentence an Authoritative Act of Office-Power is required For 1. There is in it such an Act of Rule as is in the hands of the Elders only 2. The Executive Power of the Keys in binding and loosing so far as it comprizeth Authority to be acted in the Name of Christ is entrusted with them only 8. WHEREFORE I shall say no more in answer unto this Enquiry but that Excommunication is an act of Church-Power in its Officers and Brethren acting according unto their respective Rights Interests and Duties particularly prescribed unto them The Officers of the Church act in it as Officers with Authority the Brethren or the Body of the Church with Power yet so as that the Officers are no way excluded from their Power Consent and Suffrage in the acting of the Church but have the same Interest therein with all other Members of the Church but the Community of the Church have no Interest in those Authoritative actings of the Officers which are peculiar unto them Where either of these is wanting the whole Duty is vitiated and the sence of the Sentence rendred ineffectual I. IT is Enquired Whether Excommunication justly deserved may and ought to be omitted in case of trouble or danger that may ensue unto the Church therein IT is usually granted that so it may and ought to be which seems in general to have been the judgment of Austin THE Troubles and Dangers intended are three-fold 1. From the Thing it self 2. From the Persons to be Excommunicated 3. From the Church 1. TROUBLE may arise from the Thing it self For there being an exercise of Authority or Jurisdiction in it over the Persons of Men not granted from the Civil Magistrate by the Law of the Land those that execute it may be liable unto Penalties ordained in such cases 2. THE Persons to be Excommunicated may be Great and of great Interest in the World so as that if they receive a provocation hereby they may occasion or stir up Persecution against the Church as it hath often fallen out 3. THE Church it self may be divided on these considerations so as that lasting differences may be occasioned among them which the omission of the Sentence might prevent FOR Answer hereunto some things must be premised As 1. HERE is no supposition of any thing sinful or morally evil in the Church its Officers or any of its Members by refusing to omit the pronouncing of this Sentence Whether there be any Sin in giving occasion unto the troubles mentioned to be avoided by an omission of Duty is now to be enquired into 2. WE must suppose 1. That the cause of Excommunication be clear and evident both as unto the merit of the Fact and the due Application of it unto the Person concerned so as that no Rational indifferent Man shall be able to say that it is meet that such an one should be continued a Member of such a Society as it ought to be where-ever Excommunication is administred 2. That sufficient Time and space of Repentance and for giving satisfaction unto the Church whereof afterwards hath been allowed unto the Person after Admonition 3. That the Church doth really suffer in Honour and Reputation by tolerating such a scandalous Offender among them I ANSWER On these suppositions I see no just Reason to countenance the omission of the Execution of this Sentence or to acquit the Church from the guilt of Sin in so doing For 1. THE first presence of Danger is vain There is not the least shadow of Jurisdiction in this Act of the Church There is nothing in it that toucheth any thing which is under the Protection and Conservation of Humane Laws It reacheth not the Persons of Men in their Lives or Liberties nor their Estates or the least Secular Privileges that they do enjoy it doth not expose them to the Power or Censures of others nor prejudge them as unto Office or Advantage of Life There is therefore no concernment of the Law of the Land herein no more than in a Parents disenheriting a Rebellious Child 2. AS unto danger of Persecution by the means of the Person provoked I say 1. The same may be pleaded as unto all other Duties of obedience unto Jesus Christ wherewith the World is provoked and so the whole profession of the Church should give place to the fear of Persecution To testify against Sin in the way of Christs appointment is a case of Confession 2. The Apostles were not deterred by this consideration from the Excommunication of Simon Magus the seducing Jews Hymeneus and Alexander with others 3. The Lord Christ commandeth and reproveth his Churches according as they were strict in the observation of this Duty or neglective of it notwithstanding the fear of Persecution thereon Revel 2.3 And 4. He will take that care of his Church in all their obedience unto him as shall turn all the consequents thereof unto their advantage 3. AS unto danger of Differences in the Church there is nothing to be said but that if Rule Order Love and Duty will not prevent such Differences there is no way appointed of Christ for that end And if they are sufficient for it as they are abundantly they must bear their own blame who occasion such Differences II. BUT it may be said What if such an Offender as justly deserves to be Excommunicated and is under admonition in order thereunto in case of Impenitency should voluntarily withdraw himself from and leave the Communion of the Church is there any necessity to proceed against him by Excommunication Answ. 1. SOME say it is enough if it be declared in the Church that such an one hath cut off himself from the
Church and is therefore no longer under their watch or care but is left unto himself and the World. And this is sufficient with them who own no Act of Office-Power or Authority in Excommunication but esteem it only a noted cessation of Communion which destroys a principal Branch of the Power of the Keys Wherefore 2. WHERE the offence is plain open scandalous persisted in where Admonition is despised or not complied with it is the Duty of the Church to denounce the Sentence of Excommunication against such a Person notwithstanding his voluntary departure For 1. NO Man is to make an Advantage unto himself or to be freed from any Disadvantage Censure or Spiritual Penalty by his own Sin such as is the voluntary Relinquishment of the Church by a Person under Admonition for scandalous Offences 2. IT is necessary unto the Church both as unto the Discharge of its Duty and the vindication of its Honour as also from the Benefit and Edification it will receive by those Duties of Humiliation Mourning and Prayer which are necessary unto the Execution of this Sentence 3. IT is necessary for the good and benefit of him who so deserves to be Excommunicated For 1. The end of the Institution of the Ordinance is his Correction not his Destruction and may be effectual unto his Repentance and Recovery 2. It is to be followed with sharp Admonition and Prayer which in due time may reach the most profligate Sinner 4. IT becomes not the Wisdom and Order of any Society entrusted with Authority for its own preservation as the Church is by Christ himself to suffer Persons obnoxious unto Censure by the fundamental Rules of that Society to cast off all respect unto it to break their Order and Relation without Animadverting thereon according to the Authority wherewith they are intrusted To do otherwise is to expose their Order unto contempt and Proclaim a Diffidence in their own Authority for the Spiritual punishment of Offenders 5. ONE end of the Appointment of the Power and Sentence of Excommunication in the Church is to give Testimony unto the future final judgment of Christ against impenitent Sinners which none of them can run away from nor escape III. A THIRD Enquiry may be Whether in case of any great and scandalous Sin the Church may proceed unto Excommunication without any previous Admonition Answ. 1. PERSONS may be falsly accused of and charged with great Sins the greatest of Sins as well as those of a lesser Degree and that both by particular Testimonies and publick Reports as it was with the Lord Christ himself which daily Experience confirms Wherefore all haste and precipitation like that of David in judging the Case of Mephibosheth is carefully to be avoided though they are pressed under the pretences of the greatness and notoriety of the Sin. 2. THERE is no individual actual Sin but it is capable of great Aggravation or Alleviation from its Circumstances These the Church is to enquire into and to obtain a full knowledge of them that all things being duly weighed they may be affected with the Sin in a due manner or after a goodly sort which is essential unto the right administration of this Ordinance 3. THIS cannot be done without Personal Conference with the Offender who is to be allowed to speak for himself This Conference in case guilt be discovered cannot but have in it the nature of an Admonition whereon the Church is to proceed as in case of previous solemn admonition in the Order and according to the Rule which shall be immediately declared IV. FOURTHLY Whether on the first knowledge of an Offence or scandalous Sin if it be known unto the Church that the offending Party is penitent and willing to declare his Humiliation and Repentance for the satisfaction of the Church may the Church proceed unto his Excommunication in case the Sin be great and notorious Answ. 1. IT is certain that in an orderly Progress as unto more private Sins a compliance by Repentance with the First or Second Admonition doth put a stop unto all further Ecclesiastical proceedure 2. BUT whereas the Enquiry is made concerning Sins either in their own Nature or in their Circumstances great and of disreputation unto the Church I Answer IF Repentance be evidenced unto the Consciences of the Rulers of the Church to be sincere and proportionable unto the Offence in its outward Demonstration according unto the Rule of the Gospel so as that they are obliged to judge in Charity that the Person sinning is pardoned and accepted with Christ as all sincerely penitent Sinners are undoubtedly the Church cannot proceed unto the Excommunication of such an Offender For 1. IT would be publickly to reject them whom they acknowledge that Christ doth receive This nothing can warrant them to do yea so to do is to set up themselves against Christ or at least to make use of his Authority against his Mind and Will. Yea such a Sentence would destroy it self for it is a Declaration that Christ doth disapprove them whom he doth approve 2. THEIR so doing would make a misrepresentation of the Gospel and of the Lord Christ therein For whereas the principal design of the Gospel and of the Representation that is made therein of Christ Jesus is to evidence that all sincerely Penitent Sinners that Repent according unto the Rule of it are and shall be Pardoned and Accepted by the Rejection of such a Person in the face of his sincere Repentance there is an open contradiction thereunto Especially it would give an undue sence of the Heart Mind and Will of Christ towards Repenting Sinners such as may be dangerous unto the Faith of Believers so far as the Execution of this Sentence is Doctrinal For such it is and declarative of the Mind of Christ according unto the judgment of the Church The Image therefore of this Excommunication which is set up in some Churches wherein the Sentence of it is denounced without any regard unto the Mind of Christ as unto his Acceptance or Disapprobation of those whom they Excommunicate is a Teacher of Lyes 3. SUCH a proceedure is contrary unto the nature and end of this Sentence For it is Corrective and Instructive not properly punishing and vindictive The sole end of it with respect whereunto it hath its Efficacy from Divine Institution is the Humiliation Repentance and Recovery of the Sinner And if this be attained before the infliction of this Sentence is contrary to the nature and end of it IT will be said that it hath another end also namely the preservation of the purity of the Church and the vindication of its Honour and Reputation wherein it suffers by the scandalous offences of any of its Members Whereunto I say 1. No Church is or can be made impure by them whom Christ hath purged as he doth all those who are truly penitent 2. It is no Dishonour unto any Church to have Sinners in it who have evidenced sincere Repentance 3.
in regular Acts and Duties proceeding from this Love and required by virtue of it THIS account of the Vnion and Communion of Churches may seem strange unto some who are enamoured on that Image which is set up of them in the World in Canons Constitutions of Rites and outward Order in various Subordinations and Ceremonies which are most remote from making any due Representation of them THE Church in its dependance on Christ its Head being by his Institution disposed unto its proper Order for its own Edification or fitly joined together and compacted this Love working effectually in every Office Officer and Member according as unto its disposal in the Body for the receiving and communicating Supplies for Edification gives the whole both its Vnion and Communion all the actings of it being regulated by Divine Rule and Prescription INSTEAD hereof to erect a Machine the Spring and Center of whose motions are unknown any other I mean but external force compacted by the Iron joints and bands of humane Laws edifying it self by the power of Offices and Officers foreign unto the Scripture acting with Weapons that are not Spiritual but Carnal and mighty through him whose Work it is to cast the Members of the Church of Christ into Prison as unto an outward Conformity is to forsake the Scripture and follow our own Imagination THE outward Acts of Communion among Churches proceeding from this love and the obligation that is on them to promote their mutual Edification may be referred unto the Two Heads of Advice and Assistance CHURCHES have Communion unto their mutual Edification by Advice in Synods or Councils which must in this place be considered SYNODS are the Meetings of divers Churches by their Messengers or Delegates to consult and determine of such things as are of common concernment unto them all by virtue of this Communion which is exercised in them 1. THE necessity and warranty of such Synods ariseth 1. From the Light of Nature For all Societies which have the same Original the same Rule the same Interest the same Ends and which are in themselves mutually concerned in the good or evil of each other are obliged by the power and conduct of Reason to advise in common for their own good on all Emergencies that stand in need thereof CHURCHES are such Societies they have all one and the same Authoritative Institution one and the same Rule of Order and Worship the same ends as we have declared and their entire Interest is one and the same When therefore any thing occurs amongst them that is attended with such Difficulties as cannot be removed or taken away by any one of them severally or in whose Determination all of them are equally concerned not to make use herein of common Advice and Counsel is to forsake that natural Light which they are bound to attend unto in all Duties of Obedience unto God. 2. THE Vnion of all Churches before described in one Head by one Spirit through one Faith and Worship unto the same ends doth so compact them into one Body mystical as that none of them is or can be compleat absolutely without a joint acting with other Members of the same Body unto the common good of the whole as occasion doth require And this joint acting with others in any Church can be no otherwise but by common Advice and Counsel which natural Circumstances render impossible by any means but their convention in Synods by their Messengers and Delegates For although there may be some use of Letters missive and was so eminently in the Primitive Churches to ask the Advice of one another in difficult Cases as the first instance we have of the Communion of Churches after the days of the Apostles is in the Letter of the Church of Corinth unto that of Rome desiring their Advice about the composing of a difference among them and the Answer of the Church of Rome thereunto yet many Cases may fall out among them which cannot be Reconciled or Determined but by present Conference such as that was Recorded Act. 15. No Church therefore is so Independent as that it can always and in all Cases observe the Duties it owes unto the Lord Christ and the Church Catholick by all those Powers which it is able to act in it self distinctly without conjunction with others And the Church that confines its Duty unto the Acts of its own Assemblies cuts it self off from the external Communion of the Church Catholick nor will it be safe for any Man to commit the Conduct of his Soul to such a Church Wherefore 3. THIS acting in Synods is an Institution of Jesus Christ not in an express Command but in the nature of the thing it self fortified with Apostolical Example For having erected such a Church-State and disposed all his Churches into that Order and mutual Relation unto one another as that none of them can be compleat or discharge their whole Duty without mutual Advice and Counsel he hath thereby ordained this way of their Communion in Synods no other being possible unto that end And hereby such Conventions are interested in the promise of his presence namely that where Two or Three are gathered together in his Name there he will be in the midst of them For these Assemblies being the necessary effect of his own constitution in the nature and use of his Churches are or may be in his Name and so enjoy his presence 4. THE end of all particular Churches is the Edification of the Church Catholick unto the Glory of God in Christ. And it is evident that in many Instances this cannot be attained yea that it must be sinfully neglected unless this way for the preservation and carrying of it on be attended unto Truth Peace and Love may be lost among Churches and so the Vnion of the Catholick Church in them be dissolved unless this means for their Preservation and Reparation be made use of And that particular Church which extends not its Duty beyond its own Assemblies and Members is fallen off from the principal end of its Institution And every Principle Opinion or Perswasion that inclines any Church to confine its Care and Duty unto its own Edification only yea or of those only which agree with it in some peculiar practice making it neglective of all due means of the Edification of the Church Catholick is Schismatical 5. THERE is direction hereunto included in the Order and Method of Church-Proceedings in case of offence prescribed unto it by Christ himself The beginning and rise of it is between two individual Persons thence is it carried unto the cognizance and judgment of two or three others before unconcerned from them it is to be brought unto the Church and there is no doubt but the Church hath Power to determine concerning it as unto its own Communion to continue the Offender in it or reject him from it This must abide as unto outward Order and the Preservation of Peace But no Church is Infallible in
from the Scripture in Doctrine or giving Counsel as unto practice Synodically unto them whose proper Representatives are present in it whose Decrees and Determinations are to be received and submitted unto on the evidence of their Truth and Necessity as recommended by the Authority of the Synod from the promised Presence of Christ among them is suitable unto the Mind of Christ and the Example given by the Apostles Act. 15. HENCE it is evident that in and after such Synods it is in the power of Churches concerned humbly to consider and weigh 1. The evidences of the Presence of Christ in them from the manner causes and ends of their Assembling and from their Deportment therein 2. What regard in their Constitutions and Determinations there hath been unto the Word of God and whether in all things it hath had its due preheminence 3. How all their Determinations have been educed from its Truth and are confirmed by its Authority WITHOUT a due exercise of judgment with respect unto these things none can be obliged by any Synodical Determinations seeing without them and on the want of them many Assemblies of Bishops who have had the outward Appearance and Title of Synods or Councils have been Dens of Thieves Robbers Idolaters managing their Synodical Affairs with fury wrath horrible craft according to their Interests unto the Ruine of the Church such were the Second Ephesine the Second at Nice and that at Trent and others not a few HENCE nothing is more to be feared especially in a state of the Church wherein it is declining in Faith Worship and Holiness than Synods according to the usual way of their calling and convention where these things are absent For they have already been the principal means of leading on and justifying all the Apostasy which Churches have fallen into For never was there yet Synod of that nature which did not confirm all the Errors and Superstitions which had in common practice entred into the Church and opened a Door to a progress in them nor was ever the pretence of any of them for outward Reformation of any use or signification 2. THE Authority of a Synod determining Articles of Faith constituting Orders and Decrees for the conscientious observance of things of their own appointment to be submitted unto and obeyed on the Reason of that Authority under the penalty of Excommunication and the trouble by Custom and Tyranny thereto annexed or acted in a way of Jurisdiction over Churches or Persons is a meer Humane Invention for which nothing can be pleaded but prescription from the Fourth Century of the Church when the progress of the fatal Apostasy became visible THE proof of both these Assertions depends on what was before declared of the nature and use of these Synods For if they are such as we have evinced no other Power or Authority can be ascribed unto them but that here allowed Yet the whole may be farther illustrated by some brief considerations of the Assembly at Jerusalem in the nature of a Synod Recorded Act. 15. 1. THE occasion of it was a difference in the Church of Antioch which they could not compose among themselves because those who caused the Difference pretended Authority from the Apostles as is evident v. 1. and 14. 2. THE means of its convention was the desire and voluntary reference of the matters in debate made by the Church at Antioch where the difference was unto that at Jerusalem whence as it was pretended the cause of the difference arose unto the hazzard of their mutual Communion to be consulted of with their own Messengers 3. THE Persons constituting the Synod were the Apostles Elders and Brethren of the Church at Jerusalem and the Messengers of that Antioch with whom Paul and Barnabas were joined in the same Delegation 4. THE matter in difference was debated as unto the mind of God concerning it in the Scripture and out of the Scripture On James's proposal the determination was made 5. THERE was nothing imposed a new on the practice of the Churches only direction is given in one particular instance as unto Duty necessary on many accounts unto the Gentile Converts namely to abstain from Fornication and from the use of their Liberty in such instances of its practice as whereon scandal would ensue which was the Duty of all Christians even before this determination and is so still in many other instances besides those mentioned in the Decree only it was now declared unto them 6. THE Grounds whereon the Synod proposed the Reception of and compliance with its Decrees were Four 1. That what they had determined was the mind of the Holy Ghost It pleased the Holy Ghost This mind they knew either by Inspiration or immediate Revelation made unto themselves or by what was Written or Recorded in the Scripture which on all other occasions they alledged as what was the Word and spoken by the Holy Ghost And it is evident that it was this latter way namely a discovery of the mind of the Holy Ghost in the Scripture that is intended However it is concluded that nothing be proposed or confirmed in Synods but what is well known to be the mind of the Holy Ghost in the Scripture either by immediate Inspiration or by Scripture Revelation 2. The Authority of the Assembly as convened in the Name of Christ and by virtue of his Presence whereof we have spoken before It pleased the Holy Ghost and us 3. That the things which they had determined were necessary that is antecedently so unto that determination namely the abstaining from the use of their Liberty in things indifferent in case of scandal 4. From the Duty with respect unto the Peace and mutual Communion of the Jewish and Gentile Churches Doing thus say they ye shall do well which is all the Sanction of their Decree manifesting that it was Doctrinal not Authoritative in way of Jurisdiction 7. THE Doctrinal Abridgement of the Liberty of the Gentile Christians in case of scandal they call the imposing of no other Burden in opposition unto what they rejected namely the imposing a yoke of Ceremonies upon them v. 10. So as that the meaning of these Words is That they would lay no Burden on them at all but only advise them unto things necessary for the avoidance of scandal For it is impious to imagine that the Apostles would impose any yoke or lay any burden on the Disciples but only the yoke and burden of Christ as being contrary to their Commission Matth. 28.19 20. HENCE it will follow That a Synod convened in the Name of Christ by the voluntary consent of several Churches concerned in mutual Communion may declare and determine of the mind of the Holy Ghost in the Scripture and Decree the observation of things true and necessary because revealed and appointed in the Scripture which are to be received owned and observed on the evidence of the mind of the Holy Ghost in them and the Ministerial Authority of the Synod it self FINIS ERRATA PAge 16. line 31. for to read do p. 23. l. 34. r. state p. 27 l. 2. r. believers be p. 31. l. 11. r. Mat. 20. p. 40. l. 23. r. if so be p. 41. l. 25. r. we enquire not p. 47. l. ult r. these p. 53. l. 6. Ephes. 4.7 p. 71. l. 33. r. Light. p. 72. l. 8. r. mere p. 103 l. 33. r. Auricular p. 112. l. 29. r. Conc. p 117. l. 9. after publickly add Read. p. 119. l. 22 r. their mixed p. 129. l. 5. for 18 r. 28. p. 132. l. 9. for 9. r. 3. p. 141. l. 30. read over you p. 147. l. 25. for 39. r. 38. p. 168. l. 20. for 24. r. 21. p. 186. l. 20. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p 192. l. 14. r. will fully p 205. l. 35 r. this p. 228. l. 21 r. do p. 244. l. 9. r. furnace p 256. l. 15. r. probable Psal. 15.1 2 3 4 5. Psal. 24.3 4. Psal. 93 5. 2 Cor. 8.23 Ephes. 5.27 2 Tim. 3.1 2 3 4 5. Ezek. 22.26 Joh. 3.3 Tit. 3.3 4 5. Joh. 3.5 Act. 2.38 1 Pet. 3.21 Phil. 3 18 19. Tit. 1.15 16. Act. 15.8 Revel 2.23 Act. 8.13 1 Cor. 6.9 10 11. Phil. 3.18 19. 2 Thes. 3.6 2 Tim. 3.5 Rom. 9.6 7. Tit. 1.16 Mat. 18.16 17 18. 1 Cor. 5.11 Rom. 10.10 2 Cor. 8.5 Chap. 9.13 Matth. 10.32 33. Luke 9.16 2 Tim. 2.12 Rom. 15.9 Joh. 12.42 1 Joh. 4.2 3 15. Matth. 28.18 19 20. 2 Cor. 8.5 Matth. 10.37 38 39. Mar. 8.34 38. Luke 9.23 Phil. 3.18 Act. 4.10 11 20. Act. 24.14 Matth. 28.19 20. 1 Cor. 10.32 Phil. 1.10 ☞ ☞ Matth. 18.1 2 3 4. Chap. 23.7 8 9 10 11. Luke 22.24 25 26 27. 1 Pet. 5.1 2 3 4 5. 2 Joh. 9.10 Act. 20.18 29. 1 Pet. 5.2 3. Cant. 1.7 Jerem. 13.17 Chap. 23.2 Ezek. 34.3 Gen. 49.24 Psal. 23.1 Psal. 80.1 Joh. 10.11 14 16. Heb. 13.20 1 Pet. 2.25 Chap. 5.4 ☜ ☞ Jam 5.16 Joh. 17.20 Exod. 32.11 Deut. 9.18 Levit. 16.24 1 Sam. 12.23 2 Cor. 13.7 9. Ephes. 1.15 16 17. Ch. 3.14 Phil. 1.4 Col. 1.3 2 Thess. 1.11 ☞ ☜ ☞ ☞ ☜ ☞
such cases this Remedy by the Pastors laying down his Office is not to be made use of otherwise all things are to be done for Edification 5. IT may be lawful where the Church is wholly negligent in its Duty and persists in that negligence after admonition in providing according to their Abilities for the outward necessity of their Pastor and his Family But this Case cannot be determined without the consideration of many particular Circumstances 6. WHERE all or many of these causes concurr so as that a Man cannot cheerfully and comfortably go on in the discharge of his Office especially if he be pressed in point of Conscience through the Churches non-compliance with their Duty with respect unto any of the Institutions of Christ And if the Edification of the Church which is at present obstructed may be provided for in their own judgment after a due manner there is no such grievous yoke laid by the Lord Christ on the necks of any of his Servants but that such a Person may peaceably lay down his Office in such a Church and either abide in a private station or take the care of another Church wherein he may discharge his Office being yet of Ability unto his own Comfort and their Edification CHAP. VI. Of the Office of Teachers in the Church or an Enquiry into the State Condition and Work of those called Teachers in the Scripture THE Lord Christ hath given unto his Church Pastors and Teachers Ephes. 4.11 He hath set in the Church First Apostles Secondarily Prophets Thirdly Teachers 1 Cor. 12.28 In the Church that was at Antioch there were Prophets and Teachers Act. 13.1 And their Work is both described and assigned unto them as we shall see afterwards BUT the thoughts of learned Men about those who in the Scripture are called Teachers are very various nor is the Determination of their State and Condition easie or obvious as we shall find in our Enquiry IF there were originally a distinct Office of Teachers in the Church it was lost for many Ages But yet there was always a Shadow or Appearance of it retained First in publick Catechists and then in Doctors or Professors of Theology in the Schools belonging unto any Church But this as unto the Title of Doctor or Teacher is but a late Invention For the occasion of it rose about the year of Christ 1135. Lotharius the Emperor having found in Italy a Copy of the Roman Civil Law and being greatly taken with it he Ordained that it should be publickly Taught and Expounded in the Schools This he began by the direction of Imerius his Chancellor at Bononia and to give encouragement unto this Employment they Ordained that those who were the publick Professors of it should be solemnly created Doctors of whom Bulgarus Hugolinus with others were the First Not long after this Rite of creating Doctors was borrowed of the Lawyers by Divines who publickly taught Divinity in their Schools And this imitation first took place in Bononia Paris and Oxford But this Name is since grown a Title of Honour to sundry sorts of Persons whether unto any good use or purpose or no I know not but it is in use and not worth contending about especially if as unto some of them it be fairly reconcileable unto that of our Saviour Matth. 23.8 BUT the custom of having in the Church Teachers that did publickly explain and vindicate the principles of Religion is far more Ancient and of known usage in the Primitive Churches Such was the Practice of the Church of Alexandria in their School wherein the famous Panlaenus Origen and Clemens were Teachers an imitation whereof was continued in all Ages of the Church AND indeed the continuation of such a peculiar Work and Employment to be discharged in manner of an Office is an evidence that Originally there was such a distinct Office in the Church For although in the Roman Church they had instituted sundry Orders of Sacred Officers borrowed from the Jews or Gentiles which have no resemblance unto any thing mentioned in the Scripture yet sundry things abased and corrupted by them in Church-Officers took their occasional rise from what is so mentioned THERE are Four Opinions concerning those who are called by this Name in the New Testament 1. SOME say that no Office at all is denoted by it it being only a general Appellation of those that taught others whether constantly or occasionally Such were the Prophets in the Church of Corinth that spake occasionally and in their turns 1 Cor. 14. Which is that which all might do who had ability for it v. 5.24 25. 2. SOME say it is only another name for the same Office with that of a Pastor and so not to denote any distinct Office of which mind Hierom seems to be Ephes. 4. 3. OTHERS allow that it was a distinct Office whereunto some were called and set apart in the Church but it was only to Teach and that in a peculiar manner the Principles of Religion but had no Interest in the Rule of the Church or the Administration of the Sacred Mysteries so the Pastor in the Church was to Rule and Teach and Administer the Sacred Mysteries The Teacher to Teach or Instruct only but not to Rule nor Dispense the Sacraments and the Ruling Elder to Rule only and neither to Preach nor Administer Sacraments which hath the appearance of Order both useful and beautiful 4. SOME judge that it was a distinct Office but of the same nature and kind with that of the Pastor endowed with all the same Powers but differenced from it with respect unto Gifts and a peculiar kind of Work allotted unto it But this Opinion hath this seeming disadvantage that the difference between them is so small as not to be sufficient to give a distinct denomination of Officers or to constitute a distinct Office. And it may be such a distinction in Gifts will seldom appear as that the Church may be guided thereby in their choice of meet Persons unto distinct Offices But Scripture-Testimony and Rule must take place and I shall briefly examine all these Opinions 1. THE First is That this is not the name of any Officer nor is a Teacher as such any Officer in the Church but it is used only as a general Name for any that Teach on any account the Doctrine of the Gospel I do not indeed know of any who have in particular contended for this Opinion but I observe that very many Expositors take no farther notice of them but as such This seems to me to be most remote from the Truth IT is true that in the First Churches not only some but all who had received Spiritual Light in the Gifts of knowledge and utterance did teach and instruct others as they had opportunity 1 Pet. 5.8 9 10 11. Hence the Heathen Philosophers as Celsus in particular objected to the Christians of old that they suffered Sutlers and Weavers and Coblers to teach among them which they