may by the eyes which are given to it for that end 2. The Confirmation or proof that such a Church is the first and proper subject of this power shall be double 1. By Scripture 2. By Reasons 1. By Scripture it may be proved from sundry Texts 1. This in hand clearly confirmeth it if that good ancient rule of expounding Scripture be received Dictorum intelligentia ex causis dictorum sumenda est For Christ's question to the Disciples which was the cause of Peter's confession here was only concerning the Faith common to the Church Whom say ye that I am Hereupon Peter in the name of the Disciples made this confession of Faith Quia Christus Petra Petrus populus Christianus August in Matth. de verbis Domini Ser. 13. Christ testified his approbation of it by calling him Peter not so much in respect of his Office as of his Faith thus publickly professed whence also visible Believers are called lively stones 1 Pet. 2.4 5. and Christ added to this praise of Peter a twofold promise 1. Of edifying and stablishing the Church upon this Rock 2. Of affording it sufficient means for the attainment of those ends viz. the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven c. Where the Kingdom of Heaven or visible Church of Christ on earth is compared to a City or House the Door or Gate whereof is Christ the Keys are all instituted means whereby an entrance into Christ and his Kingdom visibly is opened and shut the subordinate power whereof is here given to the Church immediately The second Text is in Mat. 18.17 18. Tell the Church if he hear not the Church let him be as an Heathen and a Publican For what you shall bind on Earth shall be bound in Heaven c. This cannot be meant of Elders assembling together and acting apart from the Brethren For no such assembly is called the Church in the New Testament much less is this power given to them for in case of scandal given by them they are under the power of the whole Church as well as other Members to be censured by them though when they keep the Rule they are as Elders Rulers in the Church It must therefore be meant of a Congregational-Church The third Text is in 1 Cor. 5. where Paul exhorted the Church at Corinth to exercise this their power which he calls the power of the Lord Jesus v. 4. whereby they were to deliver unto Satan that incestuous person v. 5. and were to purge out the old leaven v. 7. and were to judge those that are within v. 12. and to put away that wicked person from among them v. 13. and this Paul calls a punishment inflicted by many 2 Cor. 2.6 Thus he establisheth their power to bind and teacheth them how to use it and in like manner he exhorteth them upon the mans repentance to turn the Key and to open the Door of Christian liberties to him and to loose him from the former censure by forgiving him in a legal or judicial sense 2 Cor. 2.7 10. And that this Church at Corinth was a meer Congregational-Church it may be evinced from hence that the whole Church was no larger then was wont to meet together in one place 1 Cor. 14.23 for the ordinary worship of God 2. By Reasons 1. Because in such a Congregational-Church are all the causes of this power 1. Efficient the Institution and Ordinance of Christ who delegateth this subordinate power to whom it pleaseth him by his own appointment 2. The material cause visible Believers 3. The formal cause Covenanting together to walk in all the Ordinances of Christ and to submit mutually one to another in the Lord to be reclaimed if they err from the rules or to be censured by the power of the whole if they be found obstinate 2. Because there is no former subject of this power from whence a Congregational-Church might derive it but it is communicated by means of the Church to all that partake of it and it remaineth in the Church when others are removed They choose their own Elders therefore they had this power virtually in them before they had Elders and so could not derive it from them 2. All particular Churches are of equal power within themselves not one of them subordinate to another Therefore they derive it not from other particular Churches 3. Synods both lesser and larger are made up of the Elders and Messengers sent from particular Churches and have their being from them nor do they send them to them to borrow any Church-power but only light from them as the Church at Antioch did from the Church at Jerusalem Acts 15. Therefore they derive no Church-power from them Again when the Elders of particular Churches are dead or censured or rejected by the power of the whole for obstinacy in scandalous evils the Church still retaineth its power to choose others as a Corporation hath its full power still though the Magistrates be dead or cast out The same holds in Churches in Islands by their own confession when they cannot have the help of Synods Thus we prove Fire to be the first subject of heat because if it be in other things as in Water or Wood it is there by the means of Fire and when they are removed yet still it remains in Fire The like reason holds in this as you see to prove such a Church as this of which we speak to be the first subject of Church-Power or of the Keys 3. Because all the acts done immediatly by the Church in opening and shutting in binding and loosing flow from this power of the Keys given them by Christ and hold it forth 1. Their admitting Members is an act of this Power and holds it forth for till the Brethren be satisfied and approve ones fitness he cannot be received into their fellowship Act. 9.26 and 10.47 2. Their choosing Officers is an act of this Power which the Apostles would not violate in adding Deacons Act. 6.3 5. and Ruling-Elders to the Church Act. 14.23 and the same holds much more concerning Pastors and Teachers This power Cyprian acknowledged to be in the * Plebs obsequens praeceptis Dominicis Deum metuens ipsa maximè habet potestatem vel eligendi dignos sacerdotes vel indignos recusandi Quod ipsum videmus de Divinâ authoritate descendere Cypr. l. 1. ep 4. People principally to accept or refuse Ministers as they judged them worthy or unworthy 3. Their Ordination of Officers by deputing some chosen out of their own Body thereunto in the want of Officers is an act of this Power of the Keys residing in them For though the Offices of Elders in general and the Authority of their Office as they are Rulers is from Christ immediately yet the investing of this or that elect person with this Office Authority in relation to this or that Church by application of it to him in particular rather than to another this is by the
That therefore it may be effectual for their eternal good it is their duty when the sentence proceeds either according to the eighteenth of Matthew upon their not hearing the Church in less hainous offences or according to 1 Cor. 5. and Rev. 22.15 upon the hainous nature of scandals given by them against common light to humble themselves under the mighty hand of God that he may exalt them in due time 1 Pet. 5.6 and to cry mightily to him to add efficacy to his Ordinance by his Spirit that their spirits may be duly and truly humbled their corruptions powerfully mortified and their souls eternally saved Be sure that you take not part with your sin against the Ordinance but take part with the Ordinance against your sin and account it your honour to honour God and exalt his Rules and let others learn hereby to fear not joyning with the Church but persisting obstinately in sin 2. Corollary Then a Congregational Church such as hath been described is the highest Ecclesiastical Tribunal under Christ in its own matters This was revealed to John as that frame of Church-Government which should continue from the Apostles time unto the end of the World when he saw a Throne set in Heaven the Trinity sitting upon it and the four living Creatures between it and the four and twenty Elders who sate round about the Throne Rev. 4.1 -9. Thither appeals must be made according to Christ his Ordinance by an offended Brother after the first and second step or by any Member that finds himself over-rigorously dealâ— with by his Brethren in these steps Matth. 18.17 18. that there the Cause may be scanned and Sentence proceed according to Christ If the Church want sufficient light or consent for the sentence they are to seek help from others by their Light and Counsel but still preserving the power of Censure intirely in the Church where Christ hath placed it The wisdom of Christ the good of the Church and of every Member and the nature of the thing require that there be some chief Tribunal in the exerciâ—â— of Church-Government unto which Appeals must be last made Juridically and from which no Appeal may be granted and expected 2. That this chief Tribunal must have no Ecclesiastical Power above it and 3. That it may not be judially censured by any Power of the same kind All the question is which is the chief Tribunal That say some must be the Classes under which such Churches stand and the Synods under which the Classes are subordinate and they give this Reason Because the end for which the Keys are given to the Church is that all offences may be removed Mat. 18.15 16 c. Which they say cannot be done if you put the chief Power of Judgment into a Congregational Church For what if an Elder what if the whole Edership yea what if the whole Church offend The Church cannot censure their Elders for that were to rule their Rulers and to judge their Judges nor will they censure themselves But a Classis or Synod of many Elders may and will reform all by judicially censuring all Answ 1. This Argument is built upon a mistake or error in the foundation of it For the Rule prescribed in Matth. 18. is â—â—t for removal of all offences but of such private and less hainous offences as grow publick and notorious only by the obstinacy of the Delinquent For if offences be publick and heinous in themselves the Apostle doth not direct Churches to proceed by those steps 1 Cor. 5.11 Rev. 22.15 2. Nor doth it make the People Rulers of their Rulers or Judges of their Judges when we say that the Church hath a power over them in case of Delinquency For Excommunication is not an act of the highest Rule or Authority but of the highest Judgment and therefore the Power of it may well be in the whole Church as their Priviledge without any intrenchment upon the Rule and Authority of Elders wherein as Officers they are above the Brethren whilst they act according to Rule But if they become Delinquents then as Members they are under the Power of the whole The Church must submit to them as Rulers whil'st they rightly exercise the Authority of their Office in Preaching Administring the Seals holding forth light from Scripture to guide them in censure ordering Speech and Silence according to Rules of Order and Edification and in other Official Acts But they must submit to the Church questioning or proceeding to censure them with good advice of Neighbour-Churches and Elders who as they concurred in giving them the right hand of fellowship in their Ordination so they should concur in approving this Censure as justly inflicted by the Church from parity of reason The Mayor in a free City or Corporation is in the right Administration of his Office above the Court none but he can perform the Acts peculiar to his place yet if he corrupt the People pervert Justice or be any way grosly and scandalously delinquent the Court can censure and despose him For the whole hath Power over any Member to preserve its purity and peace and safety against any in the Body that would corrupt disturb or destroy the same And the Covenant binds every Member to be subject to the Power of the whole either to be reformed or removed from communion of it thereby 3. Their Plaister is not suitable to heal the Sores of the Church but it is either too broad when offences of Brethren may be healed by Church-censure within themselves or it is too narrow For 1. Those Assemblies are too seldom and cannot sit together long enough to remove the many offences that fall out frequently in Churches 2. Non can they Excommunicate a Church nor any Officer or Member of a particular Chuch by warrant from Christ 3. Classes and Synods and general Councils may be under just offences as well as Churches and who shall censure them 4. This Plaister hinders the healing of the Sores of Churches For Appellatio est jus per quod prima sententia tantisper extinguitur donec de causae cognitione ad superiorem devolutâ fuerit pronunciatum if a Delinquent disliking the Churches proceeding appeals from the sentence of the Church to the Classis and for the same reason from the sentence of the Classis to a Provincial Synod then to a National Synod then to an Oecumenical Council which may not assemble in an Age while the Appeal depends he shall stand as uncensured For this is the Law of Appeals Now how can that heal which is cross to the prescription of our Lord Jesus Christ the only wise Physician He saith Tell the Church and if he neglect to hear the Church let him be unto thee as an Heathen Publican But he who appeals from the Church doth not hear the Church Therefore he that so doth deserves to be cut off by the sentence of Christ which this Tradition of Appeals from Churches in re propriâ
together with the blessed right unto all the outward good things of this life 1 Tim. 4.8 and a remote or mediate right unto Church-priviledges These all Believers have from Christ by the Covenant of Grace as they are Believers in sincerity and truth in the sight of God 2. External viz. Church-fellowship and power of the Keys c. These visible Believers have from Christ through the Covenant of Grace as they are confederates and joyned with the Church by taking hold of the Covenant This difference is between them The former are limited to the persons of true Believers in the sight of God Hab. 2.4 The latter are given to a society of true Believers in the account of the Church and are extended to their seed also Exod. 20.6 2. Though the Covenant of Grace received by us binds us to all Christian duties required in the Gospel yet it bindes us also to do them in the due order for God is the God of â—rder and not of confusion Therefore such duties as issue from voluntary relations must be done only by those who stand in such relations Will any Man or Woman infer from his or her being in the Covenant of Grace that therefore there is no need or use of a conjugal Covenant but that he hath right to all Women and she to all Men to perform conjugal duties with them where ever they come though they are not joyned to any of them by a conjugal Covenant The like reason is of all other duties which are founded in other voluntary relations as between Masters and Servants Pastor and People Corporations and the Members of them particular Churches and their Members Therefore the Covenant of Grace binds all Believers to such mutual covenanting together as is necessary for the orderly discharge of the several duties that are to be performed by vertue of such a state and relation Thus the conclusion is proved Coral ∣ lary 1 Hence it will follow that it is not sufficient to make one a visible member of this or that Church that he is joyned to it in hearty affection or in neighbourhood of habitation or in ordinary hearing the Word preached among them For 1. the members of several Churches may be so joyned yea 2. they that are members of no particular Church may so joyn with Church assemblies All these might be affirmed of those who durst not joyn as members to the Church at Jerusalem Act. 5.13 And of that Heathen Corinthian 1 Cor. 14.24 25. 3. All these may be found in an excommunicate Coral ∣ lary 2 Then Baptism and profession of the doctrine of Faith with freedom from publick scandal do not formally constitute a Church nor make one a visible member of the Church 1. Not Baptism 1. because the form must be before the formatum not after it but the Congregational-Church is before Baptism For 1. Baptism cannot ordinarily be orderly administred but by a Minister called unto Office by the Church 2. Because Baptism sealeth the Covenant and incorporation of a Believer and his seed into the visible Church 1 Cor. 12 13. Therefore Baptism is not before but after the Church Because where the form is there the formatum must be also But visible Church-membership may cease by excommunication or desertion or by the dissolution of a Church yet Baptism remaineth 2. Not profession of the Doctrine of Faith though accompanied with freedom from scandalous sins For general profession cannot appropriate a man particularly to any one Church without particular ingagement to that particular body 2. Nor doth it bring any one under the power of this or that Church which it hath over its own Members and other Churches have not 3. If that were sufficient a man should become a member of any particular Church whether it will or no. Coral ∣ lary 3 Then a Member of one particular Congregation is not thereby a Member of all visible Congregations on earth For though a Church-covenant be common to all Churches in its general nature yet there is a speciall combination which gives a peculiar being to one Congregational-Church and its members distinct from all others Else how could one Church have that power over its own Members which another hath not And in all voluntary covenants the only difference between them is the peculiar interest which one hath in another by a particular ingagement that passeth between party and party Covenants of Corporations of Marriages of Service and the like are in general common to all that are in those and the like relations Yet in particular appropriation bind them only to this or that individual No man can claim a memberlike right in all Corporations because he is in covenant with one upon this plea that Corporation-covenants are common to all Societies nor can an Husband plead that he hath a conjugal right in all Wives because conjugal-covenant is common to all married persons The same holds in Churches which are distinguished one from another by their respective Covenants Other absurdities that proceed from this Tenet I shall pretermit Coral ∣ lary 4 Then the Children of the Church notwithstanding their membership which they had during their menority by their Parents covenant yet they must when they are grown up joyn themselves to the Church by their voluntary taking hold of the Covenant publickly with the Church in their own personal right before they may be admitted to exercise all acts of Church-communion and to partake of all Church-priviledges for themselves and before their Children may be Baptized 1. I say before they may be admitted to exercise all acts of Church-communion and to partake of all Church-priviledges for themselves For in their minority they were Members in their Parents and were Baptized to seal the Covenant made with them in their Parents or with the Parents for themselves and their children But when they come to years they must take hold of the Covenant with the Church for themselves because now they are capable of Church-priviledges in that way which they were not before If any oppose against this that Church-membership non recipit magis et minus that argueth only that one of the confederates is no more engaged to the other than the other to him But otherwise in Confederacies some are allowed greater liberties than others be according to the diversity of the subjects and their capacities So it is in Civil Societies and Corporations the Child of the free-man of London hath all the benefit of a free-mans Child under age he may trade for himself with and under his Father in his Fathers right But being of years he may not set up shop nor trade in his own right till he first take up his freedom and by oath voluntarily submit himself to all the orders of that Society and duty of a Citizen Some think that the Children of Confederates are so compleat members that they should be excommunicated in case of demerit I cannot easily assent thereunto for that would imply that they
Church The Church may by communion of Churches upon orderly recommendation receive the members of other Churches unto fellowship of such Ordinances as are for the comfort and strengthning of the Saints as the Seals are and the Officers may administer them to such being accepted by the body for we have a warrant for so much from the Rule Rom. 16.1 3 Joh. 9. but not to act in judgement For the Church hath this priviledge proper to be judged by and to judg only those that are within 1 Cor. 5.12 whereas I alledged this Text against Mr. Paget to prove that Church-Ordinances belong only to the Members of some particular Church Mr. Rutterf meeting with that expression saith Mr. D. will have Pastors so far strangers to all Congregations save their own that he saith other Churches are without and have nothing to do to judge them and alledgeth for this 1 Cor. 5.12 But by those that are without Paul meaneth not those that were not of the Congregation but he meaneth Infidels and Heathen as in other Scriptures For Paul judged and excommunicated Hymeneus and Alexander 1 Tim. 1.20 who were without the Church at Corinth Had Mr. Rutt been pleased to cast his eye upon my own defence of that passage In my Apolog Reply pag. 312 313. printed sundry years before he put pen to paper in these disputes about Church affairs he might have found that written by me touching the sense and my application of that Text which might have prevented his exagitating that matter Nor doth he with any congruity argue from Pauls Excommunicating Hymeneus and Alexander who he saith were without the Church at Corinth to prove that Pastors have any thing to do to judge judicially or excommunicate the members of other Congregations For Paul was an Apostle an extraordinary Officer had an illimited commission and a fulness of delegated power both in every Church and to administer Church-Ordinances without the fellowship of a particular Church when it could not be had and to execute all Offices in any Church where Officers were wanting But Pastors are ordinary Officers have a limited commission to do only the acts of the Pastoral Office and those only to that particular Church by which they are called unto Office Act. 20.28 1 Pet. 5.2 Therefore though Paul might excommunicate one that was not of that particular Church at Corinth yet the Pastor to the Church at Corinth might not Yet Paul could not excommunicate one that was no member of any Church but without as Infidels and Heathen are For that implies a contradiction To conclude The Apostle doth so appropriate Church-judgment to those that are within that particular Church 1 Cor. 5.12 Ye judge them that are within that he exempts from it in a due proportion all that are not members of that Congregation though there are degrees of being without some being totally without all Church-communion as Infidels and Heathen others though in Church-communion else-where yet not in communion of membership of that Church to whom he wrote to put away from them not one that was a member of another Church but him that was a member of that Church And in this sense Mr. Rutt saith Hymeneus and Alexander were without the Church at Corinth though members of some other Church for which cause the Church at Corinth could not excommunicate them yet Paul might and did by his Apostolical Power Thus by his own confession some are without a particular Church who yet are not Heathen or Infidels To conclude one may be said to be without this or that particular Church two ways 1. Simply and absolutely so Infidels and Heathen that are of no Church 2. Comparatively so the Members of other Churches compared with those that are of this Body 4. Corollary Then Churches gathered and Officers ordained in these days without Apostles are true Churches and true Church-Officers according to Christ and Churches thus Organized according to the Rules of the Word are true and intire Churches and the first subject of all Church-power as well as those Primitive Churches planted by the Apostles For the concurrence of the Apostles is not put into this Charter whereof we speak as a conditional Clause which might not have been omitted if Christ had intended that it should be always necessary He doth not say upon this Rock my Apostles shall build my Church and to my Church built by them I will give the Keys of the Kingdom but upon this Rock I will build my Church viz. by such Instruments as Christ will raise and use and bless in that work in every Age and to this Church thus built he gives the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven Object But Christ gave the Commission of gathering Churches to his Apostles in Matth. 28.18 19. And when he ascended up on high he gave some Apostles and some Prophets and some Evangelists and some Pastors and Teachers for the perfecting of the Saints for the work of the Ministry and for the edifying of the Body of Christ Ephes 4.8 11 12. Answ Those and the like Texts of Scripture do indeed shew that God used Apostles principally in this work but not only For as to Teach and Baptize is common to other Teaching-Officers as well as Apostles so the gathering of Churches by making men Disciples of Christ was done by others besides Apostles even in the Apostles days Act. 11.20 21. The dispersed Disciples planted the Church at Antioch the Members whereof were first called Christians a Church whose planting Barnabas approved ver 23. 2. They shew that God would use Apostles herein for a time but not alwayes which I prove 1. From the proper work committed to them which was to make the first Models and Patterns of planting and gathering Churches which ordinary Instrumentts are bound to attend in the gathering and constituting of Churches 1 Cor. 3.6 10. and in that sense their work continues to the end of the World though their manner of working viz. from an immediate Call Inspiration and Infallible assistance proper to Apostles in making those Patterns was extraordinary and ended with their Office in the first Age since when there never have been Apostles in the World For though Matthias succeeded in the place of Judas by Gods Election Act. 1.26 yet after James was beheaded no Apostle was chosen to succeed him though the Apostles lived long after 2. The Apostle John who lived longest of the Apostles describeth by Revelation from Christ all the Officers that should be by Gods Ordinance in Christian Churches after that Age under four sorts of living Creatures which note the four sorts of ordinary Officers to continue in the Church after that Age viz. Pastors Teachers Ruling-Elders and Deacons Revel 4.1 6 7. Vers 19. And whatsoever thou shalt bind on Earth shall be bound in Heaven Whatsoever thou shalt loose on Earth shall be loosed in Heaven THese words hold forth the Ratification of Christ's grant of the Keys unto a Congregational-Church with the chiefty