Selected quad for the lemma: church_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
church_n	heathen_a	let_v	publican_n	2,742	5	10.9981	5	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A88943	Church-government and church-covenant discussed, in an answer of the elders of the severall churches in New-England to two and thirty questions, sent over to them by divers ministers in England, to declare their judgments therein. Together with an apologie of the said elders in New-England for church-covenant, sent over in answer to Master Bernard in the yeare 1639. As also in an answer to nine positions about church-government. And now published for the satisfaction of all who desire resolution in those points.	Mather, Richard, 1596-1669.; Mather, Richard, 1596-1669. Apologie of the churches in New-England for church-covenant.; Peters, Hugh, 1598-1660.; Davenport, John, 1597-1670.	1643 (1643)	Wing M1270; Thomason E106_8; Thomason E106_9; ESTC R18913	104,756	140

carry matters justly and according to the Rules of the Word The power of the Keyes Matth. 16. 19. among other things noteth Ministeriall or delegated power of Government and this power is committed by Christ unto the Church as may appeare if wee consider first to whom Christ directed his Speech in that place of Scripture not to Peter alone but to all the Disciples also for to them all the Question was propounded by Christ vers 15. And ●eter answered in all their names Secondly that he and they were not then looked upon as Apostles or generall officers of all Churches for that Commission was not yet given them but as Disciples and Beleevers believing with the heart and confessing with the mouth Jesus Christ the rocke upon whom the Church is built wherein as they did represent all Believers so in Peter and the rest the Keyes are committed to all Believers that shall joine together in the same confession according to the order and ordinance of Christ And therefore afterward this power of Government is expresly given to the Church Matth. 18. 17. according hereunto in that description of the visible Church as it is instituted by Christ in the new Testament Rev. 4. The members of the Church are seene by John in a vision sitting on thrones cloathed with white rayment having on their heads Crownes of Gold vers 14. Now Thrones and Crownes are ensignes of authority and power to note unto us that authority and governing power which is committed by Christ unto the Church Doctor Fulke hath this saying The Keyes of the Kingdome of Heaven whatsoever they are be committed to the whole Church and not to one person onely as Cyprian Augustine Chrysostome Jerome and all the ancient Doctors agreeably to the Scriptures doe confesse against the Popes pardons chap. 3. P. 381. And elsewhere he saith The authority of Excommunication pertaineth to the whole Church although the judgement and execution thereof is to be referred to the Governours of the Church which exercise that authority as in the name of Christ so in the name of the who●e Church whereof they are appointed Governours to avoid confusion against the Rhemists on 1 Cor. 5. Sect. 3. And Doctor Whitaker hath these words Hoc est quod nos dicimus Petrum gessisse personam omnium Apostolorum quare hanc promissionem non uni Petro sed toti Ecclesiae factam esse totam Ecclesiam in illo claves accepisse De pontif Roman Q. 2. c. 4. Sect. 17. And in that Booke hee is pregnant and plaine in this that by the Keyes is meant all Ecclesiasticall power and Jurisdiction and that these Keyes are given in Peter to the whole Church The same is also taught by Master Parker Polit. Eccles l. 3. c. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5 6. where he proves by many Arguments that every visible Church which hee acknowledgeth to be no other but a particular congregation hath the power of all Ecclesiasticall Government and Jurisdiction commited to it by Christ Jesus and answereth many Objections to the contrary And page 2 of that third Book making mention of foure Opinions concerning those words of the Keyes and power of binding and loosing Matth. 16. 19. the first of them that understand the Pope onely to be meant thereby as Peters successour the second of them that understand it of the Diocesan Bishop The third of them that understand those words as meant of the Ministers but the Ministers alone The fourth of them that understand Peter to represent the Church in that place and therefore that that promise is made unto the Church Of these he refuseth the three first as unsound and maintaines the fourth as onely agreeing to the truth And Master Baine saith Every Church by Christs institution hath power of Government Dioces Tryall Quest 1. p. 8. And hee tells us page 11. what hee meant by Church The word Church saith he wee understand here not figuratively tataken Metonymically for the place Syn●cdochecally for Ministers administring ordinances but properly for a body politicke standing of People to be taught and governed and of Teachers and Governours So that in his judgement every Church properly so called hath power of Government within it selfe and by these words of his it may also be concluded that all power of Government is not in the Elders alone for the power of Government by Church institution is in every Church properly so called But Ministers are not a Church in propriety of speech but onely figuratively by a synecdoche And therefore all power of Government is not in the Ministers alone but a Church properly so called is the Body politique consisting of people and Ministers But of this more may bee said in the next Question Fourthly for the matters of Independency whereof this Question also makes mention We doe confesse the Church is not so independent but that it ought to dep●nd on Christ both for direction from the rules of his holy Word Ioh. 10. 27. Act. 3. 23. and for the assistance of his holy Spirit to discerne those rules and to walke according to them when they shall be discerned Ioh. ●5 5. and 16. 13. but for dependency upon men or other Churches or other subordination unto them in regard of Church Government or power Wee know not of any such appointed by Christ in his Word Our Saviours words are plaine If a man heare not the Chu●ch let him beto thee as an Heathen or Publican And his promise unto his Church is plaine also that whatsoever they shall binde on earth shall be bound in Heaven c. Mat. 18. 17. c. And the Apostle bids the Church deliver the impenitent sinner unto Satan 1 Cor. 5. 4. 5 6. Now when the man upon the Churches censure comes to be in case as an Heathen or Publican yea becomes bound in Heaven as well as bound in earth and also delivered unto Satan this seems to us to be such a firme ratification of the Churches censure as leaves no roome for any other Ecclesiasticall power on earth to reverse or disanull the same and so takes away that kinde of dependency and subordination of Churches Nos plane dicimus ●cclesias initiò regi solitas esse à suis pastoribus sic quidem ut nullis essent externis aut Ecclesi●s aut Episcopis subditae non Colossensis Ephaesi●ae non Philippensis Thessaloniensi non h● Romanae non Romanae cuiquam se● paris omnes inter se juris essent id est sui omnes juris et mancipij Whitak de Pontif. Roman Question 1. Chapter 1. Section 3. That is in summe The Churches were not dependent and subordinate to others but all of them absolutely free and independent Wee affirme saith Master Baine that all Churches were singular Congregations equall in dependent each of other in regard of subjection Diocesse tryall Q 1. pag. 13. The twentieth Chapter of Mr. Parker his third Booke of Eccles Politie hath this Title De summitate Ecclesiae particularis And

the said Church in particular in Church fellowship 4. And not to depart from the said Church afterward without the consent thereof or how doe you hold and practise in these things 9. Whether doe you hold all or the most of our Parish assemblies in Old-England to be true Visible Churches of Christ with which you may lawfully joyne in every part of Gods true worship if occasion served thereto or if not all or the most then what ones are those of which you so account and with which you durst so partake or joyne and in what respects And why be not the rest such as well as they 10. If you hold that any of our parishionall Assemblies are true Visible Churches and that the Members thereof are all or some of them at least members of true visible Churches then whether will you permit such members at least as are either famously knowne to your selves to be godly or doe bring sufficient Testimoniall thereof from others that are so knowne or from the Congregation it selfe whereof they were members here to partake with you in all the same Ordinances and parts of Gods true worship in any of your Congregations as by occasion they may be there in the same manner and with the like liberty as you would permit any that might happily come unto you from any of the Churches of Geneva France the Low-Countreyes or yet from any one Church to another among your selves Suppose from some Church about Connecticut or that of Plimouth c. Vnto the Church at Boston New-Towne Dorchester c. Or if not what may be the Reason thereof 11. Whether doe you hold our present standing in our Parish Assemblies here in Old ENGLAND to bee lawfull and safe to be continued in or how f●rre it may be so 12. Whether doe you hold that every Believer is alwayes bound to joyne himselfe as a fixed Member to some one particular Congregation so as if he doe not and so oft and so long as he doth it not so oft and so long he is without the Church in the Apostles sence 1 Cor. 5. as an Heathen or Publican out of the Kingdome of Christ and possibility of salvation according to that maxime in divinity Extra Ecclesiam non est salus 13. VVhether doe you thinke it lawfull and convenient that a company of private and illitterate persons into a Church body combined should themselves ordinarily examine elect ordaine and depose their owne Ministers of the word without the asistance of any other Ministers of other Churches where the same may be had 14. Whether doe you hold that every small Company of seaven or nine or twenty or fourty persons combined into a Church body be such a Church as by the ordinance of Christ hath and ought to have all power and exercise of Church Government So as they may transact all Ecclesiasticall businesses independently amongst themselves 15. Whether do you give the exercise of all Church power of Government to the whole Church or to the Presbiters thereof alone and if to those then we desire to know what act of Government and Superior authority properly so called may the Presbiters doe more then any other member may doe or without the particular consent of the rest wee crave to have those particular Acts mentioned and how and over whom in those Acts the Presbiters doe rule in propriety of speaking more then the rest of the Congregation doe 16. Whether doe you not permit Women to Vote in Church matters 17. Whether in Voting doe the Major part alwayes or at any time carry Ecclisiasticall matters with you or in what things doth it in what not 18. What meanes have you to preserve your Churches in Vnity and Verity or to correct or reduce any Church erring in Doctrine or practice As 1. Whether you have any plat-form of Doctrine and Discipline agreed upon or if you have not whether meane you to have one and when and thinke you it lawfull and expedient so to have 2. Whether have you combined your selves together into Classes or purpose so to doe so as to doe no weighty matter without their counsell and consent 3. Or give you any power to Synods and Councells to determine and order things that cannot otherwise be ended so as that their determination shall bind the particular Churches so assembled to due obedience in case they decree nothing but according to Truth and right and to peaceable suffering in case they should doe otherwise Or what other course you have or intend to have for that end aforesaid 19. Whether hold you that each particular Church may lawfully make such Laws or Orders Ecclesiasticall for the Government of it selfe and the Members thereof for decency order and Edification as shall oblige all her Members and may not be omitted without sinne 20. Wherein hold you that the whole Essence of a Ministers calling doth consist As 1 whether is Election by the People it yea or no Or 2. is it so Essentiall as that without it the Ministers calling is a meere nullity Or 3. is Ordination as Essentiall a part thereof as the Peoples Election Or 4. is it but a meer formality and solemnity of their calling 21. Whether doe you hold it lawfull for meer lay or private men to ordaine Ministers in any case 22. What Essentiall difference put you between the Office of Pastor and Teacher and doe you obser●●e the same difference inviolably and do not your Teachers by vertue of that Office give themselves usually to application of doctrine as well as your Pastours and do they not also usually apply the Seales 23. What authority or Eminency have your Preaching Elders above your sole Ruling Elders or are they both equalls 24. VVhether may a Minister of one congregation being thereto requested do as a Minister any act of his Ministery as Preach Baptize Administer the Lords Supper Ordain c. in and unto other Congregations besides his owne 25. Whether hold you that a Minister of a Congregation leaving or loosing his place suppose without his fault doe withall lose both Nomen and Esse of his ministery and do become a meere Lay or private man untill he be a new elected and ordained 26. Whether doe you allow or thinke it lawfull to allow and settle any certain stinted maintenance upon your Ministers 27. Whether doe you permit and call upon meer Lay and private men neither being in the ministerie nor intended to it ordinarily to preach or Prophecie publiquely in and before the Congregation and whether thinke you that prophecying mentioned 1 Cor. 14. be to be understood of such and be an ordinary and standing order of God in the Church 28. Whether doe you allow and call upon your people publiquely before all the Congregation to propound Questions move doubts argue with their ministers of matters delivered either by them or others either at the same or some other time 29. Whether hold you that the conversion of sinners to God is ordinarily

sinne for that censure puts him away from the Communion of the Church 1 Cor. 5. 2. 13. and makes him as an Heathen or Publican Mat. 18. 17. So that in that case he can have no right to Sacraments by his Member-ship though he still continue a Baptised Person 2. By his voluntary departing from the Church and the communion of the same when it is unjustly done 1 Ioh. 2. 19. Iude 19. Heb. 10. 25. In which case Dr. Ames resolves such Schismaticks to be no Members of the visible Church Cas Cons Lib. 5. c. 12 Q. 4. Resp. 3. 3. By the dissolution of the Church of which he was a Member for Church Member-ship is in relation to a Church and therefore if the Church cease the Membership must cease also Relatum correlatum Quâ ●alia sunt simul adeoquese mutuoponunt et tollunt Now a Church may be dissolved 1. By Apostacie and Gods giving them a bill of Divorce thereupon Ier. 3. 8. When yet there may be in such a Church some particular person or persons deare to God who in such a case are bid to come out from such an Apostate Church Rev. 18. 4. Hose 2. 1 2. 4 15 17. 2. By death as by some grievous Pestilence or Masacre c. in which case one particular person surviving cannot be counted a Member of a Church when that Church is extinct of which he was and yet he remaines a person Baptised if he were Baptised afore 3. If that be true which is taught by Dr. Ames Cas Cons Lib. 5. c. 12. Q. 3. Resp 2. that in some cases it is lawfull and necessary to withdraw from the communion of a true Church which seemes to be agreeable to grounds of Scripture Ephes 5. 11. 2 Chr● 11. 14. then that will be another case wherein Church Membership is disanulled for how a man can be counted in that state a Member of a Church when hee hath lawfully and necessarily withdrawn himselfe from the communion of the Church we do not understand And this shall suffice for Answer unto this Point whether Baptisme make men Members of a visible Church which as we conceive is the scope and drift of this Question Yet before we proceed to make Answer to the next something also may be said concerning some passages in your Amplification of this fourth Question As first concerning those words wherein you aske Whether they that are Baptised have not right quoad nos to all the priviledges of the visible Church so farre as they are otherwise fit concerning which words we may say 1. That those words of your Parenthesis so farre as they are otherwise fit doe plainely imply that in your judgement though one hath received Baptisme yet this doth not give him right to the priviledges of the visible Church unlesse other things do concurre to make him fit wherein we consent with you Now if this be so then this seemes to be an Answer to that which as we conceive is the maine intent of the Question For how can it be that Baptisme alone should give men right to the priviledges of the Church as Members thereof as the Question seemes to import when in the Amplification of it it is granted that Persons Baptised have no such right except other things doe concurre to make them fit we doe not see how these things doe stand together Secondly those words as farre as they are otherwise fit as they seeme to imply that which contradicts the maine scope of the Question so they are so generall and of such a latitude as that when the Question is Answered the Reader is still left at uncertainty For if such a Parenthesis may be annexed so farre as men are otherwise fit then the like Question may be applied to many other things besides Baptisme and would receive the very same Answer as in case of Baptisme it would receive As for example if one should aske whether Morall honestie or litterall knowledge in the Scriptures or Historicall Faith or the use of Reason whether any of these doe not give men right to Church priviledges so farre as they are otherwise fit You know the Answer would be Yea. For though none of these be sufficient alone to give men right to the priviledges of the Church yet they are such as they that have them have right so farre as they are otherwise fit and so if it were granted that they that have received Baptisme have right as you say to all the priviledges of the Church so farre as they are otherwise fit yet as this doth not prove that Baptisme alone doth give men such a right so still it remaines to be considered and more particularly declared what those other things are that besides Baptisme must concurre to make one fit and unlesse those things be expressed in particular the Question with such a generall Qualification as is here set down may be Answered affirmatively and yet the Reader will be still in the darke and as much to seeke as before Lastly those words in the latter end of this Question had need to be further cleared wherein you aske Whether Baptised persons have not right to all the priviledges of the Church quoad nos untill they be cast out by Excommunication For suppose an open Blasphemer a Sabath-breaker an Adulterer a Drunkard c. that deserves to be Excommunicated be not proceeded against according to rule but be suffered to continue in the Church through bribery or other corruption of the times would you say that such a person had right either before God or quoad nos to all the priviledges of the Church onely because hee is Baptised Surely your words doe import so much unlesse that Parenthesis so far as they are otherwise fit may be any helpe in this case And yet we hope you doubt not but such Doggs and Swine have no right either quoad nos or otherwise to the priviledges of the Church as long as they continue in that State although they have received Baptisme and although through the sinfull neglect of men they be not cast out by Excommunication as they doe deserve For if grosse sinners have such right to Church priviledges onely because they are Baptised then by what right can the Church cast them out by Excommunication as you seeme to confesse that she may for can she castimen out from such priviledges whereunto they have right doubtlesse such proceedings were not right unlesse the Church have such a Transcendent power as the Apostles never had for they could do nothing against the truth but for the truth nor had they any power for destruction but for Edification 2 Cor. 13. 8. 10. Wherefore we dare not say such men have right to Church priviledges quoad nos untill they be actually cast out because before they be cast out it must be cleare to the Church that they have no such right or else she can have no lawfull Right to cast them out 1. Infants with us are Admitted Members in