any one will serve the turn to batter it down it matters not it seems what become of the rest He parallels this place with Eph. 4.4 5. And saith that one body or Church here and there spoken of is meant in the same sense that One faith One Baptism is viz. one in kinde and as there are many single faiths hopes baptisms though one in kinde so there is one body in kinde but many singular bodies vind p. 34. But M. Ellis might have seen that if he had run his parallel a little further he had run over shoes and boots too For there it is said that there is One Spirit one Lord Jesus one God and Father not in kinde but in number and why may not the Church in which there is one individual doctrine of faith and body of laws and into which there is one manner of inrowlment by baptism and in which only there is hope of salvation be one numerically also especially considering that as the head the Lord Jesus Christ is one in number so his body the Church can be but one in number also For Christ hath not more bodies in the same respect then one But even his granting of a mystical onenesse in Essence drives him to grant willingly that this doth imply an union visible also as much as may stand with the institution of Christ and the edification of the Church p. 34. And I think the Presbyterians desire no more Also he saith the Church is one as the worship and government is one viz. for nature and kinde in the substantials of it or that general platform of it Mat. 18. c. but as the Church is not one visible policy or corporation in number so neither in outward government of it vind 35. Answ The Presbyterians do acknowledge many distinct particular corporations of particular Churches exercising government actually and constantly by their own Officers But as this onenesse in kinde of worship and government giveth every private Christian whose constant actual exercise of publike worship is in one Congregation an habitual right to worship God and communicate in any though never so far remote Congregation if occasion serve and makes him liable to reproofs and suspension there if there be known cause why shall not the Officers also whose constant actual exercise is but in one Congregation have the like priviledge to exercise their office in any remote Congregation upon an occasion or call to it But there were two Objections vind p. 35. which played so hard upon him that they beat him from that battery and therefore he betakes himself to another mounted much higher I grant saith he the Apostle speaks of the Church whether visible or invisible universal or particular but not of it in these respects but mystically and totally as comprehending those in heaven also and this sense I will stick unto pag. 35. Now in this body or this Church as Eph. 36. or in this family in heaven and earth as vers 15 He hath set some Apostles some Pastors Though they have exercise of their functions only in that part which is on earth and in that part of it on earth which is visibles yet they are placed in the whole pag. 36. But here M. Ellis grants more then was desired I fear this opinion will prove but a novel opinion and he will have but few fellows to stand by him in managing this piece of battery For as it expresly crosseth D. Ames before-cited who saith the Church-Catholike is one in regard of its external and accidental state and not internal and essential so it crosseth himself who holdeth that the Officers of a particular Church are Officers only in their severall Churches vind p. 8. therefore not set in the Church Triumphant Certainly there they are where they were set but they are in the Church visible militant only the Church Triumphant hath no Officers This opinion will make all the Ministers notable Non-residents who never come at the place where they were set all their life time It were a happy turn for the Ministers if they were all placed in the Church Triumphant as well as militant I am sure many of them will never come there The Saints in heaven have no hand in the election of Officers here below which by his arguing they ought to have as well as the Church-Catholike in the election of every particular Officer vind p. 40. The Church in heaven have neither word Sacraments nor discipline which are counted the notes of the Church where the Ministery is placed The Ministers preach not to them pray not with them have no external communion with them watch not over them neither admonish nor censure them not perform any part of their ministerial office to them Nay the Officers are not so much as placed in the invisible Church on earth for as invisible it hath no Officers but as visible only It is true they are set for the good of the invisible Church and for the perfecting of the Triumphant but they are set only in the visible and they are altogether visible and many of them only visible and yet are true Ministers Are the gifts of tongues and of healing and Deacons set in the whole Church Triumphant as well as Militant Are all that are baptized into one body baptized into the Triumphant as well as militant I think you will not say so But how are we flown from a particular visible congregational Church to the Triumphant on a sudden from one extream to another Remember that of the Poet Ne si dimissior ibis Vnda graves pennas si celsior ignis adurat Inter utrumque vola Medio tutissimus ibis It is clear the Apostle speaks of that body wherein is suffering and rejoycing one with another But Abraham is ignorant of us and Israel acknowledgeth us not It is contrary to reâ—â—on it self that the Officers reckoned up in 1 Cor. 12.28 and Eph. 4.11 should be set in the Church essentially taken for discipline is not essential to the Church but for the â—inâ—esse or well being of it Considering also that by those Officers the Church becometh political It were a paradox to say that a King Judges Justices and Sherifs and Laws c. are given to a Kingdom essentially and not as it is a poâ—â—â—iâ— for they are the very formalis ratio and sinews of the politie thereof without which it might indeed have an essence but no politie Our brethren for Congregational Churches hold that there may be a Church entitive or essential before they choose any Officer else they were in no capacity to choose them how then can Officers aggree to them essentially But it is contrary to sense to say they are set in the Church Triumphant But fearing that he cannot keep this battery he retreats to a third and that is a double one In the general he saith should I grant which I do not that the Apostle is to be understood of the Church on earth yet
A VINDICATION OF THE ESSENCE AND UNITY OF THE CHVRCH CATHOLIKE VISIBLE AND The Priority thereof in regard of Particular CHURCHES In answer to the Objections made against it both by Mr John Ellis junior and by that Reverend and worthy Divine Mr Hooker in his Survey of Church Discipline By SAMUEL HUDSON Minister of the Gospel at Capell in Suff. LONDON Printed by A. M. for Christopher Meredith at the Signe of the Crane in Pauls Church-yard 1650. TO THE Reverend Assembly of DIVINES assembled at Westminster REverend and much honoured Fathers and Brethren it is a received Maxime that publike rights and interests are to be preferred before private and particular spiritual before secular divine before humane Now as the internal spiritual goverment of Christ in the invisible Church is farre more excellent then any other so also his external visible government of the visible Church hath the preheminence above all visible civil governments and Kingdoms of this world And if it be lawful even for private persons to vindicate by humane Laws the extents and rights of their particular civil inheritances and possessions and if it be accounted the duty of good subjects to vindicate the extents and rights of their civil Soveraigns Dominions with their Estates and Lives even by the Sword then much more is it the duty of Christs Subjects by disputes and argumentations to vindicate the extents and rights of Christs external political Kingdom the one being but of civil concernment the other divine the one tending but to a civil end the other a spiritual And therefore I hope none will blame me for appearing in publike to contend for the extent and rights of Christs political Kingdom in his Church here on earth My first Thesis on this Subject was composed for the private use of my self and some few neighbour Ministers in a monethly private meeting according to our custome But being made publike at the desires of others it met with opposition from two reverend Brethren first by M. John Ellis junior who undertook to confute it with other Tractates of divers of my betters that were 〈…〉 the same subject and secondly by Reverend Mr. Hooker who is since departed out of the visible militant Church into the invisible Triumphant the losse of which burning and shining light the Church of God cannot sufficiently lament Now because some things therein set down were by them mistaken and other things not so fully cleared as I desired I thought good to set it out again more enlarged and vindicated from the mistakes and oppositions that it met withall The reasons of my so long delay herein were First because I was the least and least concerned therein though the most tartly dealt withall by M Ellis And secondly because I desired to see some of my betters go before me in vindication of their own Tractates of the same subject And thirdly because I understood by M. Ellis's book and by common fame that there was an answer to M. Rutherford coming out wherein I should finde my question discussed by that eminent and worthy Divine M. Hooker which was indeed sent over but perished in the sea and so was retarded one year longer until it could be transcribed and sent over again And since that was printed the seat of the warre by the siege of Colchester coming so near us we were all in a fear and danger so that I thought it no fit time to attend to controversies and I had indeed almost laid it quite aside but that the importunities of some and the insultings of others excited me again to take it in hand And now I finde a fourfold unhappinesse hath betided me herein First The darknesse and sublimity of the Subject which I could no way make plain so as to be understood by vulgar apprehensions because the handling thereof put me necessarily upon the use of so many latine words and logical terms of art which are not usually understood by common people And therefore despairing to be understood but by those that had some skill in the Latine tongue and in Logick I have set down the words of such Authors as I have had occasion to cite in their own languages in which I found them lest otherwise this Tractate should swell too great A second unhappinesse is that this Tenet seemeth to crosse so many of our own Divines in their writings against the Papists But indeed it doth only seem so for it is manifest that the Church Catholike which they intend is not the same with this that I have to deal about For they speak of the Church Catholike consisting only of the Elect and I consent unto them that thâ—â— Church is 〈◊〉 â—â—le but my question is about the external state of the Church containing hypocrites as well as those that are truly godly in which Church the Ordinances of worship and discipline were set A third is that I am fallen upon a subject wherein I can finde so few going before me and therefore could have the lesse help from Authours A fourth is that I being a mean Countrey-Minister want both those abilities and opportunities to enable me to write of controversies having constant employment of preaching in mine own Congregation and frequently abroad lying upon me so that I cannot attend polemical Divinity as they must that undertake such a work My principal scope in this and the former Thesis is to prove that there is one Church Catholike visible on earth and that Gods intention and donation of the Ordinances of worship and discipline was first to the whole Church and secondarily to the particular Churches as parts thereof And yet I acknowledge the ordinary and constant exercise of those Ordinances is primarily in the particular Churches and a secondary and only occasional exercise of them in greater parts thereof and a very rare exercise of them in the whole conjunctim upon some general extraordinary occasion and that can be no otherwise then by delegated Commissioners from the several parts of the whole when convenible If it be conceived by any that some of the Arguments in this Tractate are multiplied more then is needfull and are laid down more singly then was meet I will not deny it Be pleased in the reading of them to consider them together and I hope they will prove conclusive I finde also by the review of this Tractate that some things are ofter touched upon then I was aware of be pleased to impute it partly to my forgetfulnesse and partly to mine endeavour to follow the method of my former Thesis and yet to answer what was objected against it by others who followed their own methods which occasioned some coincidency And since the transcribing of it for the Presse there came to my hands two other Tractates about the same subject written from N. E. the one in Latine by that reverend and worthy M. Norton Minister at Ipswich there in answer to Apollonius the other by two reverend Ministers viz. M. Allen and M. Shepard
external donative regiment of Christ over his visible Church-Catholike dispensed by Ordinances and Officers here below which shall then cease And though the Ordinances as he alledgeth are distinct from the Kingdom in sense and signification Yet they strongly argue a Kingdom constituted and governed by them as the Kings laws argue a King and Kingdom As from helps and governments 1 Cor. 12.28 we gather the consequence of helpers and governours as officers in the Church so from the external laws of this Kingdom we necessarily conclude there is such a Kingdom commensurable to the extent of these laws and that external Organical and Catholike which is spoken of Isa 9.6 And the 25. ver makes it plain for he must reign until he hath put all enemies under his feet which reigning relates to professed Subjects as well as professed enemies and these Subjects comprehended in a Kingdom Again Heb. 12.28 Wherefore we receiving a Kingdom which cannot be moved let us have grace whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear This Kingdom cannot be meant of the internal Kingdom of grace in the heart for that was also exercised by Christ in his peoples hearts under the old Testament but it is meant of the external unalterable perpetual Ordinances of worship and government which differed from those under the Law else the Apostles antithesis of the Church under the Law and the Church under the Gospel had not been good which are the things he compares in that place Externals under the Law are opposed to externals under the Gospel It cannot be meant of the Kingdom of glory for they had not yet received that And it is plain he speaks of a Kingdom wherein we may now serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear Now these Ordinances of worship and discipline being Catholike or universal and relating to a Kingdom and therefore set down under the name of a kingdom by a Metonymy of the subject for the adjunct the Kingdom for the Ordinances of the Kingdom do strongly argue the being of the Kingdom Can we conceive that the holy Ghost would chuse to use such a metonymy of the subject where there is no such subject It is true as is alledged the unalterablenesse lyeth in the adjunct Ordinances i. e. in regard of God who will not alter them and that the subject or kingdom may be moved and shaken by persecutions or heresies and so may the Ordinances also and have been we know but that kinde of alteration moving or shaking is not meant in the text neither was intended by me I have the rather mentioned this text because I finde one of our brethren for Congregational Churches viz. M. William Sedgwick giving this Exposition of it in a Sermon of his in print which was preached before divers members of the House of Commons Sect. 6. Again 1 Cor. 5.12 The Apostle saith what have I to doe to judge those that are without The preposition or adverb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I desire to know what it doth relate unto Is it not meant 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without the Church And can we think that that Church was the Church of Corinth only Had Paul nothing to do to judge any that were out of the Church of Corinth when he was an Apostle all over the Christian world This could not be meant of the invisible company only what had Paul nothing to do to censure any but invisible members Why did he then excommunicate Hymenaeus Philetus Phigellus Hermogenes and Alexander And saith I would they were cut off that trouble you Also it must be meant of an Organical body because here are censures mentioned as belonging to all within And therefore it must be meant of the Church-Catholike visible Organical What have I to do to judge those that are not brought into the Church They are not under my power or cognizance but belong only to the civil Magistrate And we usually speak of the Countreys that are within the Pale of the Church and those that are without And we have an axiome Extra Ecclesiam non est salus which cannot be meant of any particular Congregation in the world but is true of the Church-Catholike visible typified by the Ark of Noah without which ordinarily and visibly there is no hope of salvation Extra ejus gremium non est speranda peccatorum remissio Calv. Inst l. 4 c. 1. S. 4. Again Eph. 4.4 5. The Apostle proveth the Church to be but one by divers Arguments First saith he There is one body of Christ which is therefore called Eph. 3.6 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 both of Jews and Gentiles i. e. the same body And this an Organical body because Paul addeth ver 7. whereof I was made a Minister Secondly there is but one spirit in that whole body which is as one soul in one body Thirdly there is but one hope of their calling Fourthly There is but one Lord or King over the whole Church Fifthly There is but one faith i. e. One religion doctrine worship the same Commands and Statutes for all Sixthly There is but one Baptism to admit into this Church Now if the whole world were under one King and governed by one Law and all one body and all capable of the same priviledges and all made Denizons by the same way of enrowlment it would make but one Empire yet so it is with all the Christians and Churches in the world they have the same King Law Word Sacraments of admission and nutrition which they visibly subject themselves unto and receive therefore they are all one visibly Church Upon this text ver 12. Beza in his large Annotations hath this note Being the Church is to be considered either as a Communalty of a sacred Common-wealth or as a spiritual Temple or as a mystical body the ministery of the word ought likewise to be referred to these three heads c. All which 3. considerations shew the unity and integrality of the whole And that this is meant of the visible Church and not invisible or Triumphant as M. Ellis conceiveth appeareth because it is the Church to whom Officers are given ver 11. to be edified ver 12 13. compacted together by joints ver 16. of whom mutual duties both religious and civil are required for such are set down in that Chapter and the following And so M. Hooker understands it Surv. p. 3 where he cites this text for the political body or Church visible of Christ ruled by the donative delegated power of Christ and that visibly by his Ordinances and officers It is therefore the militant visible Church which holdeth forth the truth Phil. 2.16 contending for it Jude 3. Into which the thief may possibly enter Joh. 10. Act. 20.29 30. Again Christ saith Mat. 16.18 On this rock will I build my Church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it Was this a particular Congregation No surely but the Church Catholike for any particular Church may
this method rightly understood though they were not my words but only collected out of them I conceive that a man of any Nation converted to be a visible beleever is a member of the Church-Catholike entitive being within the general external Covenant and hereby hath right to all Church-priviledges that belong to the whole Church and that his particular membership which he comes to next doth not afford him his right but opportunity only But when M. Hooker comes to shew how this crosseth Gods method he only sheweth that it crosseth the method that God used in the national Church of the Jews which being in populo Israelitico must needs differ from the method in populo Catholico A person being a visible beleever must join himself to the Jewish Church before he can partake of their priviledges because the priviledges by Gods Covenant were so given but now the Covenant is Catholike it is sufficient to be in the general Covenant to make a man have right to the priviledges of the Covenant opporunity indeed cometh by joyning himself with some particular Congregations where the Ordinances are administred or some particular priviledges but not the general For my part therefore I conceive and conclude that the Church-Catholike visible is Totumintegrale and the particular Churches are partes similares or members thereof and parcels thereof As the Jewish Synagogues were of the Jewish Church though with some more priviledge for both Sacaaments And therefore Jam. 2.2 the Apostle calleth a Christian Assembly a Synagogue in the Greek If there come into your Synagogue a man with a gold ring And Heb. 10.23 The Apostle cals their assembling in Christian Congregations 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a coming together into a Synagogue So Tylenus in Syntag. de Eccl. dis 1 Thes 3. Quamvis Ecclesiae nomen usitatius sit pro Christiano caetu quà m Synagogae tamen ne hanc quidâ—m appellationem respuit Scriptura Cum enim utriusque Testamenti Ecclesia una eademque sit secundum essentiam uno eodemque nomine utrumque populum indigitare nihil vetat Neither am I averse from the opinion of such who make the several Synagogues of the Jews several depending Churches for they had there the word read and preached and praier and there they kept daies of humiliation and there they had their Officers of the Synagogue and the dispensation of discipline even of excommunication Joh. 9.22 Only the censures were with liberty of appeals in case of male administration And they are called by the Psalmist the houses of God Psal 83.12 And the Apostles separated not from them any where until they persecuted them Totum essentiale sive genericum doth not comprise the form of the species in it self but giveth the matter or common nature to the species but the Church-Catholike is made up of the matter and form of the particular Churches conjoined as a whole house of the particular rooms in it and the particular Churches have in them and consist of part of the matter and part of the form of the whole quâ—ad statum exteruum And these parts are limited and distinguished from others by prudential limits for convenience of meeting and maintenance and transacting of businesse and every Christian is or ought to be a member of the Church in whose limits he dwels being already in the general Covenant by baptism I do not hold as M. Hooker conceives from my words that meer cohabitation divolveth a Church-membership upon a man for then a Heathen Turk or Jew should be a Church member if cohabiting with a Church but I expressed the condition of being baptized and so in the general Covenant and then he ought to associate with the Church where God layeth out his habitation and they ought not to refuse him except there be sufficient cause of censure For of any Christians dwelling in any city or Town where there was a Church and he not to be a member of that Church or to be a member of another Church in another Town or City and reside in his own but per accidens as some distinguish hath neither example nor warrant in the Scripture And must imply either that he holdeth them not to be a Church and so not of the Kingdom of Christ or else such a corrupt part that he dares not joyn himself with them And as a man that comes to dwell in a Town ought not to refuse to be a member of that town but shall be ruled by the Officers thereof in civil affairs and if he like not he may yea must remove from them if he will not submit himself and if he continue with them he will be liable to punishment or restraint by those civil Officers if there be just cause so I conceive If any professed subject of Christs Kingdom shall sit down and cohabit with a Church within the civil limits allotted for such a Congregation he not only ought to associate with them but the Officers of that Church ought to take the inspection of him and if he be dangerously hererical or prophane and thereby dangerous and offensive they ought to take care of his cure and the preservation of the rest of their members by censuring of him whether he will or no in regard of his habitual general membership and their habitual indefinite office And though civil prudential limits wherein a Congregation dwels give no formality to the Church being heterogeneal yet as the limits of the particular seas and their names are from the shoars and lands they are bounded by though heterogeneal so may particular Churches well be bounded and denominated by their civil limits We finde frequently in Scripture the Church which was at Jerusalem Antioch Corinth Ephesus and Cenchrea And so it is in New-Englaad the several Churches are limited and named by the precincts and names of the civil divisions of Towns The Christians of Boston associated together make the Church of Boston if there be any not associated yet it is their duty to joyn and they ought to be received except as I said before CHAP. V. That the Church-Catholike is visible I now proceed to prove the Church-Catholike to be visible Sect. 1. which is the thing so much denied by many Divines There is indeed an invisible Church of Christ and that Catholike but if you take Catholike for Orthodoxal and also for universal and that in the largest sense of all comprehending all places and all times both past present and to come some militant some triumphant for whose sakes principally Christ died and the Ordinances were given and the visible Church was instituted Which invisible company are only known to God and are given by the Father to Christ to redeem and save And these persons though they be visible in their generations and enjoy visible communion in the visible Church whereof they are ordinarily visible members yet besides that they have invisible grace and invisible communion with Christ their head by faith on their parts and the
which are not actually the Church but in potentiâ and in Gods decree the second sort are militant warring with principalities and powers with flesh world and devil being actually justified and sanctified persons the third sort are triumphant in Heaven having finished their course and are now the spirits of just men made perfect For the fourth which the Papists make viz. Ecclesia dormiens in Purgatory we acknowledge not Secondly The word Church sometimes signifyeth more then the elect viz. the multitude of beleevers whether truly or in shew only So Act. 8.3 Saul made havock of the Church Act. 12.1 Herod stretched out his hands to vex certain of the Church Now it is certain that neither Herod nor Saul knew who were elect but as himself expounded it He persecuted this way unto the death And he desired letters to Damascus that if he found any of that way he might binde them Act. 9.2 So Act. 5.11 Fear came upon all the Church Now it cannot be conceived that they were all elect that feared that judgement of God So 1 Tim. 5.16 Let not the Church be charged with them that it may relieve widows indeed Now we cannot conceive that only the elect gave collection but the whole number of professors which yet are called the Church In Ecclesia plurimi sunt permixti hypocritae qui nihil Christi habent praeter titulum speciem Calvin Institut lib. 4. cap. 1. sect 7. Thirdly The word Church is sometimes taken for the members of the Church as distinct from the officers Act. 15.22 Then pleased it the Apostles and Elders with the whole Church And ver 4. They were received of the Church and of the Apostles and Elders And this was before their convention in the Synod And Act. 14.23 Fourthly The word Church sometimes signifyeth the Governours of the Church to whom of right it belongeth to administer and dispense the censures of the Church Matt. 18.17 If he will not hear them tell it to the Church i. e. the Ministerial Church where Christ seemeth to me to speak of a Church that was in present being among the Jews because he applies his speech to the capacity of the Jews present Let him be to thee as an heathen and Publican who might not have communion with Heathens and would not with Publicans but Christians might eat and drink with both and the same course by analogy was to be taken by Christians when they had Churches set up as it followeth ver 18 19. Whatsoever ye shall binde on earth c. Now we know that matters of complaint were not among the Jews brought unto the Assembly or body of the people but to their Elders and Rulers And the word Kahal which signifieth Ecclesia or Church is frequently used in the Old Testament for a Court of Elders not only Ecclesiastical but even civil See 1 Chron. 13.1 2 4. And 1 Chron. 29.1 10 20. And 2 Chron. 29.28 31 32. And 2 Chron. 30.2 4. called Psal 82.1 The Congregation of the Gods Compare also Num. 35.12 24 25. and Deut. 19.12 with Iosh 20.4 6. By Congregation in one place is expounded Elders in the other Also Exod. 12.3 with v. 21. Deut. 31 28. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 gather me the Elders or make a Church of Elders The same word we finde 1 Kin 8.1 of Solomons assembling the Elders of Israel And 1 Chr. 28.1 of Davids assembling the Elders The Septuagint translate Kahal Ecclesia or Church by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Prov. 26.26 His wickednesse shall be shewed before the whole Congregation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Compare also Deu. 23.1 2 3 8. No bastard Ammonite Moabite c. might enter into Kahal the Congregation which is rendred by the best Divines to be Consessus Iudicum the Congregation of Iudges For by Exo. 12.48 49. and Num. 15.14 15. and 9.14 and Lev. 22.18 All strangers upon circumcision were admitted into the Congregation of the people to offer to God as well as Israelites Chap. 1. Demosthenes useth the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pro concione maguntum saith Pasor It is very frequent in the Scripture to speak of executing of judgement and justice and putting away of evil from the Congregation indefinitely by ye and thou as if it were spoken to the whole Congregation which was done by the Elders and Judges only judicially Levit 19.15 35. Deut. 16.19 Ier. 7.5 Amos 5.15 24. Zach. 7.9 16. 1 Câ—â— 5.4 7 12. Fifthly The word Church is sometimes used to signifie the faithful in some one family Philem. 2. c. To the Church in thy house Unlesse those families were the meeting places for the Christians that dwelt about to enjoy the Ordinances of God in because there were no publike meeting-houses built And to this I confesse I incline The second acceptation of the word Church sutes best with this question Sect. 2. The second 〈◊〉 to be opened is what is meant by Visible The Church is distinguished into visible and invisible which yet are not two distinct Churches or species of Churches but it is a distribution of the Subject by the Adjunct viz. a duplici modo communion is externo interno Such as have spiritual communion with Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 inwardly are said to be invisible members which are only known to God and not to men having this seal The Lord knoweth who are his Such as have external communion in outward Ordinances 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they are called visible members because their communion is visible and apparent I grant the internal communion is invisible but the external is as visible as of any civil society and Gods Ordinances are as visibly administred as justice at the Sessions or Assizes and the profession of Christianity is as visible as the profession of any tratle the general calling to be Christians by profession is as visible as the particular calling and trade of life The inward grace is indeed invisible but the outward administration of the Ordinances and communion in them is visible i. e. perceptible by the senses And this external communion in the Ordinances though it were distributively in the several places where men live which is confessed by all would serve my turn for this question which I have in hâ—â—â— But visible taken in the sense which M. Ellis takes it in in his Vindiciae Catholicae for that which Vno intuitu videtur is seen with one view was not my meaning and therefore to expound it so which he knows I did not is to prevaricate as he chargeth me pag. 59. If visible i. e. that which may be seen and visum that which is seen actually be the same then is not the world visible But when we say the whole world is visible there is required an act of the minde we conceive that all countries are visible as well as our own and if we were there we might see them They cannot be said to be invisible because we see them not actually
Where the word Church cannot signifie the Elect only nor any particular Congregation or Kingdom but indefinitely it reacheth the whole body though in never so remote parts M. Hooker excepteth against this proof because saith he the Church here spoken of is contra-distinct to the Jews and therefore cannot comprehend the whole company of beleevers through the whole world because some beleevers were of the Jews Surv. c. 15. p. 270. Answ It is true I finde Beza in his large notes upon the place interpreting the Jews here spoken of to be the beleeving Jews and the Gentiles to be the beleeving Gentiles Partibus subijcit totum But then he crosseth M. Hooker in making the Church an integrum and Jews and Gentiles to be the integrant parts Yet he adds as the more probable meaning Nisi malimus istud Iudais Graecis de extrancis intelligere quorum etiam nobis sit habenda ratio c. And all others that I have met withall interpret the words of the unbeleeving Jews and Gentiles in opposition to Christians Or else of the beleeving Jews and Gentiles making one Church but most in the first sense So Calvin Iudaeos Gentes nominat non tantum quia duobus illis generibus constabat Dei Ecclesia sed ut doceat nos omnibus etiam alionis esse debitores ut eos si fieri potest lucrifaciamus So Paraeus on the vers Also Amb. Thomas Aqu. Goran and the English Annotations on the place And the reason divers of them render is because the unbeleeving Jews abhorting Idols might be beat off from Christ by seeing Christians eating things sacrificed to Idols which is the particular offence here mentioned by the Apostle and the unbeleeving Gentiles might be confirmed in their Idolatry thereby and the beleevers both of Jews and Gentiles take offence at it Again saith M. Hooker that Church is here meant whom a man may offend by his practice in the particulars mentioned but he cannot offend the whole company of believers through the whole world because a scandal must be seen or known certainly c. Answ All indefinite negative precepts as against murder adultery theft c. as they are general for the time binding semper ad semper so concerning place and persons though no one man is ever like to have opportunity or possibility to commit them in every place and upon every person So is this prohibition Some might give offence in one place some in another and some one in many places in those travelling times and the whole was liable to offence though haply not by one man and therefore the object is set down indefinitely to comprehend the whole Yea the word comprizeth not the Church Entitive but Organical and combined for they may so be offended and we are not to affront or offend them the greater the part of the whole body is and the more compleated the greater respect is to be had to it that we give no offence thereunto Also Gal. 4.26 But Ierusalem which is above is free which is the mother of us all By Ierusalem is meant a Church because it is that which brings forth children to God which sometime may be desolate and in sorrow because of the paucity and dispersion of them sometime is bidden to rejoyce for the multitude and prosperity of them as vers 27. It â—s also an Evangelical Church freed from the ceremonies of the Law because it is called Ierusalem answering to Ierusalem that was in Pauls time and was in bondage with her children vers 25. i. e. to the Church of the Jews that were under the ceremonial Law and would not forsake it which was soon after destroied The Apostle changeth the manner of this speech from the person of Sarah who was the type of the Evangelical Covenant to Ierusalem which is the Church wherein the Evangelical doctrine and Covenant is preached and this Ierusalem is the seed of Sarah i. e. the Evangelical Church is the seed and offspring of the Evangelical Covenant This Evangelical Church is called Ierusalem and Sion in Heb. 12.22 which text is parallel to this and Rev. 21.1 2. the New Ierusalem The legal ceremonial service did beget all under it to an external bondage and brought them up under bondage especially hypocrites which were not led by the Law to Christ but rather hindred from him they were in external and internal bondage It cannot be the Church Triumphant for that is not the mother of the Church militant that hath no Orrdinances to beget children And though it be called Ierusalem which is above yet that is meant because it hath its Original from heaven as Rev. 21. the New Jerusalem is said to come down from heaven and we are said to be begotten from above 2. Because their conversation is in heaven Phil. 3.20 3. Because they shall in the end be brought thither It cannot be the invisible Church as so considered but must be a visible organical Church because it doth no otherwise become a mother of children but by the use of Ordinances and keys committed to her It is by the preaching of the word that children are begotten in her womb the seed is the word and by the same word as milk and the use of the Sacraments they are nourished in their mothers house and as a mother she educates and rules them by discipline And this cannot be a particular Church but must be the general because the Apostle saith it is the mother of us all the Apostle puts in himself and all beleevers And the 27 vers makes it more plain because the Apostle confirms and explains himself by a quotation out of Isa 54. f. 2 3. which sheweth the calling in of the Gentiles to be of this Church And thus all the protestant Expositours that I have met with expound it Calvin on the place saith Caelestem vocat non qua calo sit inclusa non quae sit quaerenda extra mundum est enim diffusa Ecclesia per totum orbem in terra peregrinatur Luther also saith This heavenly Ierusalem which is above is the Church i. e. the faithful dispersed throughout the whole world which have one and the same Gospel faith Christ holy Ghost and Sacraments It is the Church which is now in the world and not the Triumphant Church To be the mother of us all it is necessary that this our mother should be on earth among men as also her generation is This spiritual Jerusalem which took her beginning in corporeal Jerusalem hath not any certain place but is dispersed throughout the whole world This free mother is the Church it self the spouse of Christ of whom we are all gendred So Musculus Perkins Baldwin and Bullinger Loquitur de Ecclesia in terris ex omnibus gentibus collecta It is another body which is correspondent to Sarah viz. the Christian Church Beza and Calvin on Hebr. 12.22 a text parallel to this hath these words Caelestem Ierusalem intelligit
quae per totum mundum extruenda erat quemadmodum Angelus apud Zachariam funiculum ejus ab Oriente usque in Occidentem extendit Again Eph. 3.10 To the intent that unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the Church the manifold wisedom of God This Church was not a particular Congregatian neither was it the Church of the elect neither doth Beza so expound it as is alledged for he speaks hereupon of the government of it sub variatâ Oeconomiâ neither was the Church of the Gentiles only which yet is more then one Congregation neither can the circumstances carry it so beyond control as is alledged because of the mysteries here spoken of that were kept secret since the beginning of the world and the multifarious wisedom which was now made known by the Churches but were before made known to the Church of the Jews as M. Hooker conceives p. 271. For the mysteries revealed in the New Testament were never known to the Jews before Eye never saw them nor ear heard them nor entred it into the heart of man to conceive of them But he that is least in the kingdom of the Gospel knows more then Iohn the Baptist But it was the Church-Catholike under the Gospel whereof Paul was made a Minister as it is vers 7. It is that body of Christ the Church whereof Paul was made a Minister as himself saith more fully Col. 1.24 25. which must needs be the external visible organical Catholike Church of Christ consisting of Jew and Gentile Again it is said in 1 Cor. 12.28 God hath set some in the Church Sect. 4. first Apostles secondarily Prophets thirdly Teachers The Church here spoken of is not the Church Triumphant for that hath no officers but Christ the head there shall be no Pastors and Teachers quà such yet such are in this Church vers 8. neither shall there be any gifts of healing tongues miracles Deacons or ruling Elders Neither is it the Church as invisible consisting of the elect only for the invisible Church quâ invisible hath no Officers neither For though intentionally they are indeed given for the good of the Elect yet they are set in the visible Church For both the ordinary and extraordinary Officers were visible messengers and some of them but visible beleevers only for Iudas had obtained part in the Apostleship and ministry and was sent to preach and work miracles and many Prophets were not of the invisible number for many shall say Lord Lord we have prophecied in thy name c. and yet shall not be saved But to be sure they were sent to afford the Saints visible communion in Ordinances Again This is not meant of the Church entitive which is a similar and as I may say an homogeneal body every member as a member being equal and of the same capacity but it is meant of the Church Organical an heterogeneal dissimilar body because here are set down the Officers I mean dissimilar and heterogeneal in regard of the integral parts viz. the several Congregations because they all have or ought to have the same kinde of Officers and members as so many flocks of sheep under several shepherds Therefore the several particular Churches are called by some an Epitome of the great body now the Epitome hath no other parts then the great body hath Neither is here meant a particular Church but all collectively that were within the bounds of the Apostles commission which was the Church in the whole world Go teach all nations c. and all the Churches which have teachers over them which all Churches in the world have or ought to have and yet all these are called but one Church one body vers 20. And this whole is one Organical body v. 12. As we have many members in one body and all members have not the same office so we being many are one body in Christ and every one members one of another Rom. 12.4 5. M. Hooker hath two Expositions of or answers to this place First that the Church here meant is totum universale existing and determinined in its actings by the particulars Answ That cannot be for genus quâ genus can have no officers seeing it is a second notion abstracted only in the minde therefore the Church quâ totum universale is no existing politie if it hath Officers it must be considered as an integrum existens And as for totum genenericum existens it is nothing else as I conceive but integrum similare For genus existeth not as genus but only under distinct specifical forms and is abstracted from the species or individuals by the understanding Now that which hath no existence of its own can have no existing Officers Omne conporeum existens vel est integrum vel membrum Neither will it help the cause at all to say that Apostles Prophets Evangelists were extraordinary temporary officers First here are ordinary Officers inserted also given to the same Church as Teachers ruling-Elders Deacons Secondly a genus admits of no variations in regard of time or place or any other accidents nothing extraordinary can betide a genus but an integrum or existing being Genus ut est aeternae veritatis sic est aeternae identitatis Genus is abstractum quid non concretum but the Church-Catholike is concretum quid constatum aggregatum ex membris non ex speciebus as shall be shewed more fully afterwards His second Exposition is that the Apostle points at one particular but includeth all particulars by a parity and proportion of reason Answ This cannot be for this Church here meant is the political body of Christ as M. Hooker himself expounds it as I shewed before Now all the members of a particular Church as suppose Corinth are but members of a part of that body as I shewed before Secondly God did not set all these in every particular Church Had every particular Congregation Apostles Prophets miracles gifts of healing diversities of tongues yea take the constant Officer the teacher and ordinarily one Congregation hath not teachers but only one teacher therefore this parity of reason cannot hold except all these Officers were in the plural number in every Congregation And if the Apostles Prophets Evangelists were Officers of every particular Congregation quâ particular then all those incongruities which our brethren bring against Presbyterial government of choice ordination maintenance honour from the particular Congregations to them and their constant teaching watching over and ruling of them fall directly upon these Officers I suppose many Congregations never had all these kindes of Officers among them If it be meant distributively some to one some to another then it should have been said Churches not Church This place being a main fort that stood in M. Ellis's way he laies his main battety against it and gives many answers thereunto which yet are not subordinate or subservient one to another nor yet consistent one with another but if
Church-Catholike visible But excommunication doth so c. Therefore c. The consequence appears because the ejection being a casting out of the body cannot extend it self beyond the body but ejection is general therefore so â—s the body The privation cannot extend it self beyond the habit if therefore the extent of the depriving censure be Catholike the habitual body is so also There is not only a potentiality of right to communicate every where while a man is a member but an habitual right not rising from courtesie but from membership not particular membership for then none could communicate but particular members but from a general habitual membership to which the communion belongeth So farre as the expulsion or disfranchisement reach so far the Corporation reacheth and as the particular ward or street where such a man dwelt loseth a particular member so the whoâ—e Corporation loseth a member of the whole So is it in this spiritual Corporation of the Church-Catholike visible There is not only an habitual fitnesse and capacity lost but an habitual general right lost during the censure The man is said to lose a member when the hand loseth a finger therefore the finger was a member of the whole man as well as of the hanâ— in particular So is this case of excommunication 12. If there be parts and members of the Church-Catholike visible there then there is a whole Church Catholike visible but there are parts and members c. Therefore c. The consequence is undeniable for whole and parts are relata Pars est quae continetur a tâ—to membrum ab integro The minor is proved also because particular Congregations and particular Christian families and persons are parts and members of the Church-Catholike visible Either they are parts and members or they are none and so out of the body and without in the Apostles sense If no members then no right to Ordinances for right ariseth from membership membership from qualifications The same relation that particular believing persons bear to a Christian family and which Christian families bear to a Congregation the same relation by proportion doe particular Congregations bear to the whole Church-Catholike or any great part thereof But particular persons are members of families and particular families of Congregations and therefore Congregations are members of the whole body of the Church Catholike visible The family is consisted of the persons the Congregation of the families and the Church-Catholike visible or any great part thereof of the particular Congregations A Genus cannot be said to consist of species but to give essence to species Animal rationale or humanity doth not consist of particular men but exist in particular men But whether the Church-Catholike be a genus or an integrum or both I shall handle in the next Chapter Sect. 4. I might urge also the several metaphors whereby the Scripture setteth out the whole number of visible believers under an unity As Rev. 12.1 by a woman cloathed with the Sun the righteousnesse of Christ and the Moon all terrestrial things under her feet or cloathed with the Sun the purity of doctrine and the moon as some interpret it discipline under her feet or as some others expound it Idolatry whereof Diana the Moon was chief and most general or by Moon some understand the legal ceremonial service which was guided much by the Moon under her feet i.e. now abolished So M. Mede Now this was a visible Church because it is said to be seen and is opposed either to the Jewish Church that had these ceremonies formerly on her back or to the Jewish Christian Church which could not for a long time cast them off but this Christian Church did Surely it was not a particular Congregation that John saw nor is it meant of divers particular Congregations for then it should have been women not a woman therefore it was the Church-Catholike visible bound up in an unity Also Joh. 10.16 It is set out by one sheep-fold Other sheep I have which are not of this fold them also I must bring and there shall be one fold and one Shepherd Which is by all interpreted of the union of Jew and Gentile which are the two integrant parts of the Church-Catholike And though by sheep should be meant the elect yet they are considered as visible because brought into a fold in this world and such a fold as the thief may enter possibly into as it is in the former verses yea and the wolf also Act. 20.19 Beza noteth upon that place in John that by sheepfold is not meant the flock it self but something that holds them together and makes them one flock Camerarius on the place Est Indicium Ecclesiae sanctae Catholicae in toto Orbe terrarum c. And Salmasius Vt una est Ecclesia ita unus est grex Christi vel unum Ovile Portiones gregis illius sunt greges civitatum particulareâ— Hinc grex Ecclesia idem sunt tam in generali quam speciali notione Salmas apparat 263. Also it is called the body of Christ Rom. 12.5 As we have many members in one body and all members have not the same office so we being many are one body in Christ and every one members one of another This was not meant of the particular Church of Rome for the Apostle puts in himself into this body who had as then never come at Rome therefore it is the Church-Catholike there spoken of whereof Paul was both a member and a Minister And this body is a visible body because it is Organical and organical because the Apostle thereupon reckons up the several offices in the Church as teaching exhorting giving ruling shewing mercy which some compute to be an exact distribution of Church-Offices So called also 1 Cor 10.17 1 Cor. 12.12 13. Eph. 4 4. Also the house of God as I shewed before 1 Tim. 3.15 And a great house 2 Tim. 2.20 which sets out the Church-Catholike Now had these places been meant of particular Congregations then they should have been called bodies houses sheep-folds But as many members in a body hinder not the unity of the whole and many Towns in a Kingdome and many houses in a city and many rooms in a house or in the Ark hinder not the unity thereof so many particular Congregations hinder not the unity of the Church-Catholike Est una sola Christi Ecclesia quae ob idetiam dicitur Catholica Particulares Ecclesiae non sunt impedimento quin una sit Ecclesia Zanch. de Ecclesia Chap. 4. My Dove my undefiled is but one she is the only one of her mother Can. 6.9 She is the Lilly among the thorns Can. 2.2 which is the Church militant She is called the Spouse of Christ Cant. 4.8 9 10. Again Cant. 6.4 Thou art beautiful O my love as Tirzah comely as Jerusalem terrible as an army with banners These things are spoken of the Church militant and though some things here mentioned
be drops in the whole element of water and so by consequence a hundred thousand species of water in every pail-full and as many species of wine as there are drops of wine and so many species of milk as there are drops of milk for it may be said of every drop of water wine or milk they are water wine or milk Can the variation only of situation or accidents vary the species This man is a man there is genus and species 2. This man is an English man there should be another subalternal species 3. This English is a Suffolk man there should be another inferiour species 4. This Suffolk man is of such a particular hundred there should be another inferiour species 5. This man is of such a Town in that hundred as suppose Ipswich there is another inferiour species 6. This Ipswich man is of such a Parish there is another species 7. This man of such a Parish is of such a street in the Parish there is another inferiour species 8. This man is of such a Family in such a street there in another inferiour species The like descention may be made of particular Churches By this reason man will prove a very large Genus that hath so many subalternal species under him and many more may be made by the same reason Yea the same man will vary his species as oft as he varieth his place I conceive this proposition Haec aqua est aqua will at best be but species infima individuum and the like of hic homo est homo but the predication of this man by the several particular divisions and subdivisions of the Kingdom will prove denominatio adjunctae personae à subjectis and this division of a Kingdom into more particular parts will rather prove a division of integri in membra then generis in species But suppose this should be granted which Logicians will not yet it must also be granted that as there may be such second notions of this man or this Church raised by logical abstraction so there must needs be an integrality resulting out of physical contiguity or political conjunction and aggregation of places persons and Churches But let it be supposed that by logical abstraction we may draw a notion of a genus from the similarity of all Churches or community of nature in all Churches though the Churches differ not from each other by any essential different specifical forms but only accidentally as individuals yet also it must be granted that by the unity of the Covenant and Charter wherein they are all bound up in an unity and by political combination which necessarily followeth thereupon we may raise an integrality for they are all members of the church-Church-militant of Christs external Kingdom on earth and so they become really and necessarily members of a political integrum And on this Integral were the priviledges of the Church bestowed primarily and on particular visible Churches but secondarily as members of the whole body Let it be granted that these priviledges are bestowed by God upon such a sort of men so and so qualified viz. visible beleevers and from their similarity of disposition may be drawn a community of nature or disposition yet the priviledges of the Church do not accrue unto them because so and so qualified but by vertue of that one external individual Covenant of God made unto such qualified persons by which external Covenant they are made externally one habitual external visible body And if the same company of men so qualified can make a Genus by abstraction though there be no specifical distinct subalternal forms and yet be an Integral because of the external visible Covenant under one head into which they are all entred which is the fountain of all their priviledges I shall yield the Church Catholike visible to be a Genus as well as an Integrum and call it with Ames Vniversaliter Integrale But if such an use can be made of that logical tenet that Individuals are species which yet most Logicians do deny that those individuals cannot be political members of one greater body I fear it will prove more prejudicial to policy then beneficial to Logick Again that which M. Hooker makes peculiar to an Integral from that which we call totum universale is that what belongs to this doth not belong to all its members Sur. c. 15. p. 256. Is true only of Integrum dissimilâ—re for it is not true of Integrum similare for as a whole pinte of water doth moisten and cool so doth every drop in its measure and proportion And so it is peculiar only to a dissimilar Integral I shall note also two things in that Chapter wherein M. Sect. 5. Hooker mistaketh my meaning First in the seventh proposition which he collects out of my Thesis set down pâ— 52 Every particular Church partaketh of part of the matter and part of the form of the whole Which p. 261. he makes use of againâ— and renders it thus Ecclesia Catholica gives part of the matter and part of the form to all particular Churches But my meaning was it doth consist of part of the matter and part of the form of the whole as a room in an house consisteth of and so in that sense may be said to partake of part of the matter and part of the form of the whole not as a species but as a member of the house A second mistake of my meaning is that he conceiveth I accounted the Jewish Church the Catholike Church because I defined the Church-Catholike to be the Whole company of beleevers in the whole world p. 263. And thereupon undertakes to prove that the Church was in populo Israelitioâ— and not in populo Catholìco But this never came into my thoughts but I acknowledge the Jews to be a national Church But my description of the Church-Catholike was of the Church as it is now since the partition wall is broken down for then it became Catholike I conceive there were beleevers of the sonnes of Keturah that did not partake of all the priviledges of the Jewish Church except they became proselytes It is the Evangelâ—cal Catholike Church which my Question is about into which the Jews themselves being converted were admitted by a new initial seal viz. Baptism and did not stand in it by their former national membership but received a Catholike membership by baptism And hereupon he undertakes to make out my method of conveyance of the right of Church-priviledges to crosse Gods method He sets down my method thus First when a man is converted to the profession of the Gospel and so becomes a visible beleever he is then a member of the Church-Catholike 2. He hath by this profession and membership with the Church-Catholike right unto all Church-priviledges 3. He then becomes a member of a particular Church but hath no right to Church-priviledges because of that but because of his former membership with the Church-Catholike I shall own
not considered as their particular Officers yet Officers in general And such persons as receive the doctrine of Christ which denominates them to be beleevers are bound to receive his commands also to submit themselves to his Ministers for their edification And though they have no particular Officers yet as they look upon the Church as a society of men and fellow-members to whom they joyn themselves in the general though not as yet in any particular membership so they look upon the Ministers as Christs Ministers to whom they are to be subject in the Lord to receive their doctrine exhortations and reproofs and from whom also if they prove scandalous heretical infectious or apostates they must expect disciplinary censures though they be no particular members under a particular Minister There is a question whether the Church or the Ministers be first because the Ministers are the instrumental cause of the conversion of the Church and the Church of the choice of the Ministers which is something like that Philosophical question Whether the hen or the egge were first for as the egge comes of a hen so the hen comes of an egge And as that is resolved by the consideration of the creation and then God made the hen first so is this question by consideration of the first institution and setting up of the Evangelical Catholike Church and then we finde that Christ set up the Officers first to convert men to be beleevers and they being converted to the faith of Christ are bound to submit themselves to Christs Ministers in the Lord. And because they will stand in need of constant inspection teaching and ruling which they cannot enjoy from Ministers in general as so considered because they are dispersed into several places for habitation and take particular parts of Christs Church to watch over therefore they are to desire and endeavour to have some of Christs Ministers to take the particular inspection of them But we know that at first they receive Baptism not from their own particular Minister or not as so considered for being newly converted into the Church and not baptized they cannot as I conceive be members of a particular Congregation until after baptism but they receive it as from one of Christs Ministers in general and are by him admitted into the visible body the Church and after this have liberty to choose under the inspection of what Ministers they will put themselves See more of this Qu. 2. S. 2. 4. Now before the proof of this assertion it will be needful to explain a little what I mean by one Organical body I doe not mean that there is one universal visible actual society consisting of all such as are accounted or to be esteemed Christians subjected actually to one or many universal general actual Pastors or guides from whom subordinates must derive their office and power and with whom they must communicate in some general sacred things which may make them one Church as the Jews were And which general sacred services or duties can be performed by that universal head or heads and that Church only Such an universal Christian Church Christ never ordained no not in the daies of the Apostles to whom the extraordinary care of all the Churches was committed Nor that all the whole Church should be subjected to one supream Tribunal of Officers constantly erected and continued among them Nor yet to communicate with Christ himself though in some sense he may be said to be a visible head in some worship to be performed by all joyntly assembled at some especial solemnity as the Jews at the Passeover But an habitual Politico-Ecclesiastical society body flock in one sheepfold of the militant Church in uniform subjection to the same Lord the same Laws in the same faith and under the same visible seal of Baptism performing the same worship and service in kinde and though the members be dispersed far and wide yea divided into several particular places and secondary combinations of vicinities for actual constant enjoyment of Ordinances as particular Corporations in a Kingdom which is an accidental not essential relation to them as subjects of the Kingdom yet still those Ordinances admissions ejections have influence into the whole body as it is a polity and the members indefinitely may of right communicate one with another in any place or any company of Christians though every person so meeting but occasionally may be of a several particular Church and the Minister dispensing a particular Pastor to none of them all yea though none of them all be fixed members of any particular Congregation nor the Minister dispensing fixed to no particular Congregation neither by vertue of their general membership in the visible body and kingdom of Christ and of the habitual indefinitenesse of the Ministers office and the common donation of the Ordinances by Christ to his whole visible Kingdom and to all the subjects and members thereof which have a common freedom therein And in this sense the word Church is taken in Scripture His bodies sake which is the Church whereof I Paul am made a Minister The house of God which is the Church Now because there is no such civil society or kingdom that will in every thing parallel this but there use to be some general offices and officers and some inferiour subordinate receiving power and authority by descention derivation or subordination and the inferiour Officers of lesse extent of place and power then the superiour As the Lord chief Justice of England is above inferiour Justices and his warrant can reach all persons in all the Counties of the Kingdom and there be constant Courts of Kings bench and Common Pleas for judicature for all the Subjects of the whole Kingdom though haply it was not so in the four Monarchies this make men stumble at the name and notion of a Church-Catholike visible But as in other things Christs Kingdom is neither of this world not like unto worldly polities so neither in this But every Minister of the Church in his particular place serveth the Church-Catholike visible in admitting members to general freedom in it and ejecting out from general communion prayeth publikely for the whole body and manageth his particular charge in reference to and so as may stand with the good of the whole body whereof his Congregation is but a member And the Ordinances therein administred are the Ordinances given to the whole not as to a genus which is but a notion and can have no Ordinances but as to a spiritual kinde of an habitual organical body and polity as to a sort of men so and so qualified bound up in an union and unity of the same head laws seals worship and communion Now the same arguments which prove the Church-Catholike an Integral will serve to prove it one organical body also Sect. 4. and therefore I shall take some of them into consideration again under this head and in this notion 1. It will appear by the names
one key shorter then the other It is granted also here that Councels have to do with matters of common right and joint concernment And thereby the necessity of Synods and Councels will follow seeing there are things of common right to many Churches and may be to all And this will necessarily require that they should be furnished with authority to transact those affairs of common concernment and that is as much as the Presbyterians contend for in the behalf of Synods No State saith he can take my wife from me or dispose of my children in marriage this is of peculiar right so in Churches Answ No more can the Elders of the particular Congregation nor the civil Officers of the particular Town But the civil Officers or State can dispose of mens children and good according to Law for the good and defence of the whole notwithstanding a mans peculiar right So the peculiar rights of persons and Congregations must be subservient and give way to the good of the whole or the greater part And though a master of a family ought not to yield up his family-government over wife children and servants to rule them in common with other Masters of families as M. A. and M. S. note in their Def. p. 110. yet if he abuse his government over them the wronged persons either wife children or servants may be relieved by the Magistrate who yet hath no constant actual hand in the family-government And whereas he saith all the Christians in England would be loth to stand bound to the determinations of 2. or 3. sent in their names to a general Councel I answer by retortion so would a Congregation or our Nobility and Gentry be loth to stand bound by the censures of two or three Elders in a particular Congregation without relief But it is pretended by M. Ellis to be new also relatively in reference to the Protestant Divines Calvin is brought in here vind p. 13 It is true Calvin saith Instit lib 4. cap. 1. sect 3. Ad amplexandam Ecclesiae unitatem nihil opus est Ecclesiam ipsam oculis cernere vel manibus palpare quin potius eo quod in fide sit◠est But his meaning i◠we cannot distinguish the elect from the reprobate by sense referring it to what he had spoken in the former Section Soli Deo permittenda est cognitio suae Ecclesia sect 2. Deus mirabiliter Ecclesiam suam quasi in latebris servat But here M. Ellis cites a man for him who is directly against him For Calvin makes the Ministry of man which God useth in governing the Church to be the chief sinew whereby the faithful cohere together in one body Inst l. 4. c. 3. s 2. where also he dilates upon Eph. 4.4 c. and saith it is meant of the Church militant only And in sect 7. he saith though the Minister be tied to the particular Congregation yet he may not only help other Churches but may be removed to other Churches of the publike utility require it And for Councels he saith l. 4. c. 9. s 1. That he reverenced the ancient Councels ex animo and wisheth all other men did so And saith the promise in Mat. 18.20 where two or three are gathered together in my name c. as it reacheth to particular Assemblies so also to a general Councel Sect. 2. And he giveth to Councels power dogmatical and saith there is no better remedy against errours as I cited the words upon the like occasion before Nullum est melius remedium c. and also Dialactick power c. 10. s 27. in making constitutions according to the general rules 1 Cor. 14.40 and jurisdiction c. 11. not only doctrinal binding and loosing but disciplinary by inflicting censures s 2. and c. 12. s 22. sheweth the ancient manner of yearly Synods and of appeals if any were wronged by their Bishops and not only the relief of the wronged person but the deposition of the Bishop or suspension for a time from communion And he saith that alwaies before one Synod ended the time and place for another was set and then complains that these things were now out of date So that Calvin was not against an habitual unity of the whole Church nor against the exerting of the Ministerial power beyond the particular Congregation or exerting it conjunctim in Synods and Councels Chamier also hath been alledged for it before And the difference is vast between the Church-Catholike visible which our Divines deny 〈◊〉 this as hath been shewed before Chap. 5. Sect. 4. M. Ellis's second just or rather unjust prejudice is from the dangerous consequences of this opinion But indeed they flow from his ill stating of the Question and not from the Tenet it self To the first viz. a necessity of universal and general Officers and some one above the rest to whom the particular Churches may have continual recourse hath been answered before Cha. 7. Sect. 6. To the second viz. the necessity of a continual standing Court Sect. 6. hath been already answered Cha. 7. Sect. 10. The suiting of the Church too much to worldly policy occasioneth this scruple And yet we see that Parliaments and Diets civil are not standing continual Courts no more need Councels Ecclesiastical be And whereas he saith it were notably vain to imagine that Christ hath committed the government of his Church first and chiefly to that body that should not meet six times in sixteen hundred years nay never I answer that I never affirmed a general Councel to be the first subject of the keys nor the London-Ministers that I can finde nor Apollonius that I remember But the Church-Officers in general in opposition to the caetus fidelium or the civil Magistrate c. A general Councel is but occasional yet is it Reverend and August and of more large extent by reason of the general delegation then any other meeting and is full of authority for the exerting of all Ecclesiastical power of the keys as I conceive The gift of the keys was primarily to the whole body of Officers or Organs of the Church respectively as their Offices were capable of them and as they were given to the Apostles together so they may he exercised together And secondarily to the particular Ministers or Officers as being a part of that body And though the power habitually considered be indefinite yet the constant actual exercise thereof is in their particular Congregations or Classes The Ordinances of God for the enjoyment and use of them were given to the whole visible Church for the conversion and edification of the Elect and if they could meet together as the Israelites did in the wildernesse and the Saints for ought I know shall in heaven they might partake of them together as their rightful portion but because they cannot meet but in parcels therefore they have right to enjoy them divisim by vertue of that general gift to the whole which every Congregation or parcel appropriates to