a Church within it self not an Assembly but a Society A Church as we are now to understand it is a Society that is a number of Men belonging to some Christian-Fellowship the Place and Limits whereof are certain having communion in the publick Exercise of such Duties as are mentioned Acts 2.47 As those of the Mystical Church by their inward Graces differ from all others which are not of the Body and those that are of the visible Body of the Church have the Notes of external Profession Even so these several Societies or Churches have Properties belonging to them as they are publick Christian Societies And of such Properties it may not be denied that one of the very chiefest is Ecclesiastical Policy We use the name of Policy rather than Government because Church-Policy containeth both Government and also whatsoever besides belongeth to the ordering of the publick Affairs of the Church of God In which words he asserts not each particular Church to have Government in it self but this Government as a Property or Propriety by which it 's distinguished from the Mystical as also the Catholick visible Church So that he doth not as some of late make the Catholick visible Church the first Subject of the Keys but each particular Society or Church supposing that great Body of Christians to be only and immediately under the Spiritual Government of Christ Jesus 2. Compleat and sufficient It is not to be understood of such a perfection as may not with much advantage receive help both from the Power of the Magistrate as I have shewed before as also from the Counsel and Advice of other Churches But I mean an essential Compleatness or Sufficiency not being deficient in any material requisite for Government This that learned Author expresseth in those last Words ' We use the Word Policy saith he rather than Government because Church-Policy containeth both Government and also whatever besides belongeth to the ordering of the Affairs of the Church of God Every particular Church Against Whitgist lib 3 pag. 147. saith Mr. Cartwright having an Eldership is a Catholick Church of Christ under whom Pastors Doctors and Elders are the ministerial and immediate Governors In which Words he intimateth a Compleatness in each particular Church for Government and Privileges as much as if the Catholick visible Church were Organical Rutherf Due Right or Presbyt pag. 307. and a governing Church The Power of Jurisdiction saith one is as perfect and compleat in one single Congregation as in a Provincial as in a National yea as in the Catholick visible Body All Things are yours saith Paul to a particular Church 2 Cor. 3. Parker's Polit. lib 3. cap. 13. To this purpose Mr. Parker Sicut non para c. As a particular Church is not a maimed or half but a whole and perfect Body so it is possessed with the whole and entire Church-Government and not with a part only This Oeconomick and Domestick Power is intrinsick and essential to a Family 2d Instance and is a Power derived immediatly from the Lord by the Light of Nature and hath not its original from any Power on Earth Families being much more ancient than Common-Wealths So Government or Discipline is intrinsick and inseparable from the very Essence of a Church received immediately from Christ and not the Grant or Constitution of any Secular Prince or State Jackson of the Church cap. 8. § 5. Churches are endued saith Dr. Jackson with a Judicature immediately derived from Christ and independent upon any Earthly Power or any Power whatsoever on Earth whether Spiritual or Temporal Bilson of Suprem p. 171. Bishop Bilson expresseth it thus The Things comprised in the Church and by God himself commanded to the Church these Things are specified in pag. 227. to be the Word Sacraments and Vse of the Keys or Ecclesiastical Power and Cure of Souls are subject to no mortal Creature Pope nor Prince And those of another Persuasion are to the same purpose The Church saith Mr. Rutherford hath the Keys from Christ Peaceable Plea p. 300. equally independent upon any mortal Man in Discipline as in Doctrine Due Right of Presbyt cap. 9. § 9. A Power and Right to Discipline saith the same Author is a Property essential to a Church and is not removed from it till God remove the Candlestick and the Church cease to be a visible Church Potestas ipsa de jure c. Power saith Dr. Ames is so much the Right of a Church Cas cen lib 4. cap. 24. p. 4. as it cannot be separated because necessary and immediatly floweth even from the Essence of each true Church There are Authorities enow to be produced from the Writings of the Learned for the confirmation of this particular All grant there is a Government jure divino I speak not of this or that Form and by the appointment of Jesus Christ It is denied by none but Erastus and those that follow him who may as well deny Praying Preaching or Sacraments jure divino It is as expresly ordained that Discipline be exercised in the Name of Christ as to preach pray or baptize in his Name There are certainly Things of God that are not the Things of Caesar And if those Things upon which Christ hath put his Name be not peculiarly his I know not where we shall find the Joint As we say there were Families so particular Churches before any Commonwealths were and Christian Churches and Discipline exercised many Years before any Emperors or Kings were Christian And therefore as Families have many Privileges so peculiar and by the Law of Nature so much theirs as are never touched or infringed by the Supreme Power of any Nation So likewise it is with Churches they have very many Privileges so evidently theirs from the Law of Christ and their spiritual Constitution as Christian Magistrates will do their utmost to preserve and cherish and not in the least infringe It is a part of Magna Charta Concessimus Deo hac presenti Charta confirmavimus 3 Hen. 3. cap. 1. pro nobis Heredibus nostris in perpetuum quòd Ecclesia Anglicana libera sit habeat omnia jura sua integra Libertates suas illaesas And it is mentioned in the Oath our Kings take at their Coronation that He shall keep and maintain the lawful Rights and Liberties of the Holy Church A third Particular 3d Instance or Instance of what we have supposed in the former Considerations is this The lesser Corporations Cities Families and the like have not Authority or Jurisdiction one over another It is the same with Churches each having the Fountain and Original of their own Power as before is shewed immediatly proceeding from Christ in themselves and not elsewhere or one from another cannot by any Art or Device of Man be made to rise up above it self as it doth if one Church exerciseth a Power or Jurisdiction over another There is
consisting of their Parish-Bishop and his Elders they do ascribe that sufficient immediate and independent Authority for Ecclesiastical Government for every proper visible Church That Independency of Churches was asserted by those learned men of a former Age in relation only to a superior Church-power properly spiritual and such as is claimed jure divino and not in relation to that Ecclesiastical Power which is in or exercised from the Civil Magistrate Some of them have thus described a particular Church It 's a Body Politick spiritually independent or independent in relation to a spiritual Superiority which is expressed fully by him that wrote Church-Government with the Peoples consent pag. 115. Though we affirm the Church-Government is independent and immediately derived from Christ yet we affirm also that the Civil Magistrate is even therein that is in Ecclesiastical Matters Supreme Governor civilly And though nothing may be imposed on the Christian Churches against their Will by any spiritual Authority for so only we intend yet we affirm withall that the Civil Magistrate may impose on them spiritual Matters by Civil Power yea whether they like or dislike if it be good in his Eyes that is if he judge it within his Commission from God And such an Independency hath been pleaded for also and argued by them to be much more consistent with His Majesties Supremacy than a DEPENDENCY or Subordination of Churches to any spiritual Power And it was their professed Judgments That no External Power ought to be exercised in spiritual Matters any where within that space betwixt a particular Congregation instituted by Christ and the Catholick Visible Church by any person but the Civil Magistrate or by his Appointment Take their own Words They that make claim Jure Divino of Power and Jurisdiction to meddle with other Churches than that one Congregation of which they are Members do usurp upon the Supremacy of the Civil Magistrate who alone hath and ought to have a power of Jurisdiction over the several Congregations in his Dominions c. A Protestation of the King's Supremacy made and published in Anno 1605. § 27. and in § 28. The King himself is to be General Overseer of all the Churches within his Dominions and ought o employ under him fit persons to oversee the Churches in their several Divisions visiting them and punishing whatsoever is amiss in any of them Mr. Bradshew in the Vnreasonableness of Separation against Johnson writes thus It 's their principal Honour speaking of Archbishops and Bishops to be Commissioners and Visitors in Causes Ecclesiastical under the King over the Pastors and Churches of Provinces and Diocesses In his Answer to Johnson's first Reason And in his Answer to his second He questions him thus 1. Whether the Supreme Magistrate hath not Power to oversee and govern all the several Churches within his Dominion yea whether he be not bound so to do 2. Whether for his further help and assistance herein he may not make choice of grave learned and reverent men to assist him in the same Government 3 Whether by vertue of his Power these persons thus called to assist the Supreme Magistrate may not lawfully try the Gifts of Ministers within his Dominions convent them before them examine how they have behaved themselves in their places and punish the blame-worthy In a Petition also to King James for Tolleration That your Highness would afford us and assign to us some persons qualified with Wisdom Learning and Vertue to be under your Highness our Overseers for our more peaceable orderly and dutiful carriage of our selves both in our worshiping God and in all other our Affairs at your pleasure To whom with all Readiness and Subjection we are willing to be accomptable and answerable always The opinions of learned men about Church Matters Government especially were collected together in a Treatise which was put into Latin by Dr. Ames and in an Epistle of his prefixed avouched by him who was a man much studied in those Controversies to be the Judgment of Cartwright Fenner Fulk Whitaker Rainolds Perkins Brightman and those that were more Ancient As Wichliff Tyndal Rogers Bradford Gilby Fox Moore Dearing Noel Greenham Dogmata ista c. These Tenents saith he were either their Principles or so conjunct with them as not to be denied theirs Christ Jesus saith the Author hath not subjected any Church or Congregation of his to any other Superior Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction than unto that which is within it self the Civil Magistrate alone upon Earth hath power to punish a whole Church or Congregation Cap. 2. § 3. and more fully in § 12. They hold and believe saith he that the Equality in Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction and Authority of Churches and Church Ministers is no more derogatory and repugnant to the State and Glory of a Monarch than the parity or equality of School-masters of several Schools or Masters of several Families Yea they hold the clean contrary that Inequality of Churches and Church Officers in Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction and Authority was that principally that advanced Antichrist unto his Throne and brought the Kings and Princes of the Earth unto such vassalage under him And that the Civil Authority and Glory of Secular Princes and States hath ever decayed and withered the more that Ecclesiastical Officers of the Church have been advanced and set up in Authority beyond the limits and confines that Christ in his Word hath prescribed unto them And in Cap. 6. § 6. They are said to deny a principal part of the Kings Supremacy that hold any Jurisdiction or Offices over Churches jure divino 〈…〉 will and pleasure of the King and Civil States of the 〈◊〉 And from what is said cap. 5. § 12. It is 〈◊〉 that this way is as little prejudicial to the Subjects 〈…〉 expresly there said If any Member of a Congregation 〈…〉 crime shall of himself forsake Communion with the Church that then the Ecclesiastical Officers have no authority or jurisdiction over him but only the Civil Magistrate Parents or Masters c. So that as persons are free otherwise than from conscience of duty to joyn with these Assemblies so also to leave them remaining always under the Magistrates Ecclesiasticul power and care I have made this Digression not only for the matters sake which is very sutable to our present Subject but also to vindicate the Congregational way 1. That it is not such a Novelty as is pretended This of the equality of Churches and thence an Independency from which we are reproachfully surnamed seems to be the worst of our Tenents Yet it appears to be no other but what the reverend and learned of a former age have asserted Nor do I know any other of their opinions or practices but may as easily be remonstrated to be the assertions of those holy men Nor secondly inconsistent with civil Magistracy or with their Power in Ecclesiastical Affairs And as a further Testimony hereof they take the Oaths both of Allegeance and Supremacy
otherwise that are spiritual yield Appeals but it 's upon this Supposition that the Cause at last will be brought to a Tribunal that is Infallible Licitumest saith P. de Aragon in re grave cuique causam suam defferre ad sedem Apostolicam Aragon in 2.2 q. 69. a. 3. D. Th. quando vel ex imperitia vel ex Passione inferiorum judicum qui homines sunt ac decipi possunt injuriam patitur The Pope cannot be deceived he is more than a Man 2. Matters of Fact by reason of Appeals come to be sentenced at a great distance from the place where the Crime and Offence lieth which in Worldly Concernments may with more Righteousness be done than in what is Spiritual and of Church Cognizance 1. Transgressions come under a Civil Judgment as materially considered and according to the gross Act but brought to the Church not as Sins simple but as Scandals and Offences which is a Consideration not so obvious but requires good judgment in the Witnesses as well as in the Judges The Obstinacy also or Penitency of the Person offending accordingly as Testimony shall be given of either is a more difficult matter to make out than either the Sin it self or the Scandal Repentance Godly Sorrow or the contrary is the principal thing to be regarded in Church-process Repentance I say in truth and sincerity so far as we can judge in a seeing and not blind charity It is not only the Passion Sorrow or Shame but Godly Sorrow which is more spiritual and deeper in the heart and requireth much and particular knowledge of the Person and his temper and such as cannot be attained at a distance but by frequent and familiar Converse To sit in the Stool of Repentance stand in a White Sheet or do Penance as it 's termed these are as the fruits of the flesh manifest and judged of at the greatest distance it 's not so deep Prov. 20.5 as we need much understanding to draw it out 2. The Censure whether binding or loosing is to be executed always by the particular Church where the Offender is a Member those persons above all others are to have a particular knowledge of his Crime and true Repentance they are to forgive and confirm their love 2 Cor. 2.7 Mat. 18.15 17 or otherwise to withdraw from him If THY Brother offend thee let him be unto THEE an Heathen c. The Execution of the Censure being by each Brother of that Church it is necessary the Examination of the matter be before them Spiritual Duties are not to be performed upon an implicit Faith What knowledge but by remote heresay can a Church in the Orchades have of a mans repentance or obstinacy the ultimate tryal and cognizance whereof is taken by a Synod at Edenhurgh Civil censures are for Satisfaction of the whole Nation and not the Parish or Borough only where the crime was committed but in a Church-censure the particular Assembly being only and no other Congregation or person morally leavened and charged with the offence are principally and in the first place concerned to have satisfaction of the repentance and submission of the person offending For by this means only their Lump or Church becomes again unleavened Disparity 4 4. The other End before mentioned and Vse of Appeals is that our Judges and their Sentence be censured and judged by superior Tribunals To which proceeding Vnaequaque res per quascunque res nascitur per easdem dissolvitur the Judges in Civil Judicatures are liable but there is not the like Subordination in Churches for these Reasons 1. All the Power and Authority placed in their Inferior Courts is no other but the influx of the supream Civil Powers to whom we always make our last Appeal and therefore proper to them to suspend Actings nay utterly to destroy in part or in whole what Jurisdiction is derived from them as appears in the Constitution of all Kingdoms But it is not so here a particular Church The Court we are to Appeal from hath not its Being or Jurisdiction from a Classis or Synod * Ecclesia Parochialis est Ecclesia vera essentialiter integraliter absque ulla correspondentia vel Synodo Voet. de Syn. pag. 13. Parker de Polit Eccles lib. 3. cap. 13. It is an authoritative unchurching of an obstinate Church we plead for Ruth peaceable Plea cap. 15. p. 223 and p. 222. Excommunication is an authoritative unchurching these rather derive their Power from it being Representatives only as our Brethren have formerly written Particular Churches they term Ecclesiae primae and Synods Ecclesiae ortae Again if Synods as they grant exercise over Churches a Power only cumulative not destructive How can they Excommunicate a Church seeing Excommunication renders a Society as Heathens and Publicans which is to unchurch them as Mr. Rutherford rightly affirms 2. Although whole Churches may be punished for male Administration by the Civil Magistrate yet may not an Ecclesiastical Power meerly such do the like for to destroy or save whole Societies for the Evil of a major part or a few persons is the prerogative of the Lord himself which he communicates also in some cases to Civil Magistrates his Deputies but in no case to Churches it being an Authority high and Princely and not at all sutable to such as have only a Ministry and not a Dominion Bishop Davenant tells us That a Censure is not to be drawn on the whole Body of the Church Brotherly Communion c. 9. p. 102. for as the Laws forbid to Excommunicate a Society or Corporation because it may happen that those that are innocent may be intangled in the censure So Right and Religion forbids to exclude whole Churches from the Communion of the Faithful because this cannot be done without an injury and contempt to many that be innocent What ever formerly of this same unchurching power in Synods hath been asserted yet since upon further debate we are told this same Excommunieating of whole Churches is a thing not known in the Presbyterian Government and not the Churches but particular persons in the Churches are censured Assemb disputes pag. 180. But how can we say single persons only are to be censured and not the whole Church Whenas we know the contending parties of what condition soever are both equally liable to the Censure of the Judge Now when matters are brought by Appeal to a superior Court the Court Appealed from is a Party and in this respect upon no higher terms than the pars appellans though a single person But grant it be so and that the object of a Censure from a Synod be only particular members Excommunicatio ejusque denunciatio post appellationem legitimam latam est nulla Nardus p. 53. col 2. Then 1. Churches cannot have such a remedy as in Civil States for Appeals of this Nature are not to be made to any but persons invested with such a power as may
exercised about the concernment only of a particular Congregation and therefore we may well assert with that learned Bishop B. Sanderson of Episcopacy pag. 24. It 's very hard to give a satisfactory difference betwixt such an Ecclesiastical Power and the Oeconomical both claiming by Divine Right why the one should be more injurious to Regal Power than the other We can further say the Power we claim is no other but such also as hath been always owned by our Laws and Writers of Note to be immediately from God and peculiar to his Holy Service and the Sacred Function of the Ministery with those other Parochial Duties as to Preach the Word Administer Sacraments and the like The word Sacraments and the use of the Keys saith B. Bilson are things comprised in the Church lie not open with other State-matters and by God commanded to the Church Of Supremacy p. 170. 227. Against Harding p. 6. c. 9. D. 1 2. Also D. Field of the Church lib. 5. c. 53. and are subject to no mortal Creature Pope or Prince We teach not Princes saith Bishop Jewel to offer up Incense or Sacrifice asVzziah did or to preach or administer Sacraments or to bind or to loose Each of these Duties are such and so spiritual as our Princes openly and in their Laws disown them as not depending upon their Administration or Authority In the 37th Article of the English Confession it is thus We give not to our Princes the Ministring either of God's Word or the Sacrament And in the Admonition c. Kings and Queens of this Realm Possessors of the Crown challenge not Authority and Power of Ministery of Divine Offices in the Church II. The Power or Jurisdiction exercised over these particular Assemblies or their Officers hath its station in a higher Region and such as in which all Christian Magistrates in the world judge themselves interessed and that what is done in this kind by any Person or Assembly be by a Power derived from them and subordinate to them So our Law 27 H. 8. c. 17. The Archbishops Bishops Archdeacons and other Ecclesiastical Persons have no manner of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction but by from and under the King 's Royal Majesty And in the Statute of 1 Edw. 6. c. 2. All Courts Ecclesiastical within the Realms of England and Ireland ought to be kept by no other Authority either Foreign or IN THE REALM but by the Authority of His most Excellent Majesty It is evident therefore that those Superior Powers of what Form or Denomination soever they be that are over these Congregations have their motions in Caesar's walk But the holy and spiritual Duties peculiar to particular Congregations are expresly remitted to them and their Ministers as the things of God and not of Caesar 3. Our situation is low and quite beneath those Orbs wherein the transactions of a National concernment move and are managed How Religion and Reformation thrive in a Nation and is encouraged by the Governors thereof we have a sence and form our thoughts and most effectual prayers and endeavors accordingly We are engaged hereunto as Members of the Catholick Church and particularly concerned in the welfare of our Native Countrey otherwise our Principles are to keep within our Congregational Precinct and not to give Laws or exercise Power over others or to engage our selves unless thereunto by Authority called in more publick Affairs Nor do we believe as we have jointly professed there is Power given by Christ to any Synod or Ecclesiastical Assemblies to Excommunicate Confession of Faith pag. 61. Sect. 22. or by their Publick Edicts to threaten Excommunication or other Church-Censures against Churches Magistrates or their People upon any such account And therefore we may be freed from the jealousie of being Troublers or Retarders of others in the work of Reformation or publick Settlement Or were we or could we be so in the Reformation not long since attempted otherwise than by not joining to further what our Consciences were not clear in or in not putting our neck voluntarily into a Yoke we conceived was not Christs and therefore would not be easie in the service of Christ 4. We have been blamed more than once for this Surname INDEPENDENT though a title not of our own choice as an insolent assuming Epist ad Buch. pag. 91. Miror etiam viris piis c. saith Spanhemius Truly I marvel that holy men so I judge them though dissenting from us should not themselves be dissatisfied with the very title an Independent Church which seems to me not to stand with the modesty of Christians The defects of all men through the blindness of their minds since the Fall is so great and obvious as no Person or Society can assume to it self an INDEPENDENCY in this respect without intollerable Pride Independency in respect of Power only is another thing Power simply and in it self is no Virtue though Justice Prudence and Fortitude by which it is managed are Not to be in Power is no Sin nor Moral Defect more than not to be Rich or in Honour It is not so much the Praise as the Charge of him that receiveth it the honour and glory of him that can give it of him only it hath its proportion and doth not become greater or less from any worth or industry found in those that receive it as Moral Virtues do Power doth not vary in its kind though the wisdom and ability to manage it be greater or less in him that hath it So that Power whether absolute or limited whether dependent or independent is a most inconsiderable thing in its self to be proud of or glory in If saith the Apostle there be any virtue if there be any praise Phil. 4.8 It is Virtue not Power we should be ambitious of being an excellency in it self and without it Power will be but a lifting us up to our own destruction Whatsoever Virtue or Gift is desirable for the manage of that Power Christ hath intrusted us with we further seek after in consulting other Churches and endeavour that all matters difficult and of common concernment may be proceeded in with joint consent We professedly depend upon Synods for Counsel which comes forth ordinarily from such Assemblies better digested and in a more perfect maturation their part being to advise and give Councel onely for men will not easdy spend much time to untie a knot if there be a knife at hand to out it 5. The Apostle Paul amongst other Reflections met with this from the false Apostles who gave him out in their reckoning as one that made some carnal advantage the scope of his Opinions 2 Cor. 10.2 3. with this hard measure we have met from first to last I am therefore willing to leave some account in the hand of my Friends being now aged and near my period of those Principles that have long through grace kept me and others steady in this perswasion Not only in and through these late Changes and Disputings but divers years before and when no such Encouragements were as are surmised to be our aim but the contrary The Apostle inserts in the midst of his Church-Disputes a whole Chapter in the praise of Charity and tells us in seeking our own for want hereof we are easily provoked and behave our selves unseemly 1 Cor. 13. and apt to think and surmise evil As for me to use David's words the Lord hath upheld me in mine integrity The reflecting thoughts whereof Psal 45.12 have been as the consolation of God in my Soul when I lay many days together by the Graves side Providence hath brought me back into a troublesom world where with patience and perseverance through Christ I shall wait until my Course be finished following peace with all men in the way of holiness without which no man shall see God P. NYE FINIS
Whit. Tract 3. c. 6. p. 181. in an external and visible way These visible Bodies are either greater and containing as Empires Kingdoms Provinces c. Or those that are less and contained as Cities Colledges Parishes Families and the like whether they be Civil or Ecclesiastical These lesser though they have the Compleatness of a Body or Corporation each in its kind and sufficient Power to govern it self yet not to govern one another A Church hath not Authority to govern a Church nor a Family or the chief in it to govern a Neighbour-Family The Light in the least Star is sufficient for it self but not to rule the Day or the Night as the Sun and Moon These lesser Bodies are therefore so composed in their several Regiments that many of them together may lie in the Bosom of a greater Corporation and it will be for their better and more comfortable subsisting and Government There is no external Coercive or ruling Power that falls in and fills up the space betwixt those great and Catholick Bodies the World and the Church and those lesser and lowest Regiments and Societies but what is or ought to be expected by or from the Civil Magistrate who is to be acknowledged of his Subjects whether Ecclesiastical or Civil under God to be over all Consid 3 3. These lesser Societies therefore ordinarily are found under a twofold Regiment or Discipline The one intrinsecal and peculiar which in Families is received from the Light of Nature and from the Light of Institution in Churches The other more General and Common And these lesser Bodies come under it by reason of their Situation being within the Confines of such a Republick they are under the Jurisdiction of the Princes thereof De Episc lib. 3. c. 5. Each Prince saith Mason hath Power in subditos suos ac proinde in Ecclesiam modo subditi sunt Ecclesiae If situated where there is no formed Common-wealth King or Supream Power over them they are as a Free-State each Family City and Church immediately under God and Christ and no other Power but what it hath in it self which being a Power not derived from the Magistrate but peculiar to a Family or Church remains in them though no Magistrate Such was the Family and Church-state in the time of the Patriarchs for two thousand Years Consid 4 As it is a Happiness to a People that live in Empires and Kingdoms that these are parcels of that World which hath the righteous God to govern it who is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords 2 Kings 19.15 So is it likewise to these lesser Bodies a Family or a Church that they are situated under the Wing of a Christian and well-governed Common-wealth Where their Governours may be under some Government and in Wrongs and Disorders they may have the Benefit of a Magistrate's Authority to appeal unto CHAP. V. 1. The first Objection answered 2. The Government of a particular Church hath Affinity with that of lesser Bodies more than with the Government of Empires and Kingdoms Object § 1. IT may be objected that Churches are spiritual Corporations and of a more peculiar Consideration in respect of their Government and therefore not to be reckoned with Civil at least not with Families or such mean and low Societies Answ Policy or Government in it self and all the sorts of it is from the Light of Nature and common Reason And this is generally supposed by all that tho the Subject Matter or Persons governed be of different kinds yet the Law and Forms of Government may be the same where so appointed by Christ And I rather insist on such a way of Discourse and Reasoning as most suitable to the Subject I am upon but especially because Subordination of Churches to Churches is argued from the Light of Nature and in this very Case termed by our Brethren a Divine Topick Now if we may argue and guide our selves in Church-Affairs by the Light that shineth forth from the natural Wisdom and Prudence of Man in the Government and managing of Kingdoms there is as much a Jus Divinum and ground of reasoning from the Light that appears in the prudent Constitution and Government of any other civil Society I have mentioned in the Considerations Cities Families and those lesser and contained as I term them Societies or Corporations with particulars Churches Because I humbly conceive the Policy and Government of each tho in other things different to be more proportionable and of greater Similitude in many things then between particular Churches and those greater and containing Bodies Kingdoms Empires or the like Churches thus humbly constituted and governed are most consistent with Civil Magistracy of what Form soever the Common-wealth shall be In Confirmation of this Agreement or Similitude I shall take for the most part the Concessions of the learned of each Perswasion The Instances or Particulars are these § 2. 1. Families tho contained under the National Government where they are sinuated yet are intrusted with a ruling and governing Power compleat and sufficient each in and for it self so are particular Churches 1. They are intrusted with a Government each for it self It is not sufficient saith Mr. Perkins for a Church to have the preaching of the Word Perk. on Rev. 2.20 but Church-Government This Church speaking of Thyatira is blamed because she did not use the Authority God had given her There is given to the Ministers of each particular Congregation according to Episcopal Ordination established by our Law not only a Power to preach c. Take Authority to preach the Word of God but they are made Rectors Governours in those particular Churches and it 's said to them Whose Sins thou dost remit they are remitted and whose Sins thou dost retain they are retained by which Words the Keys of Discipline are given them see Bilson Perpet Govern p. 213. By Order of the Church of England saith Bishop Vsher all Presbyters are charged to administer the Doctrine and Sacraments Reduct of Episc p. 2. and the Difcipline of Christ as the Lord hath commanded and as this Realm hath received the same And that they might the better understand what the Lord hath commanded therein the Exhortation of St. Paul to the Elders of the Church of Ephesus is appointed to be read unto them at the time of their Ordination Take heed to your selves and to all the Flock among whom the Holy Ghost hath made you Overseers to * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so taken in Mat. 2.6 and Rev. 12.5 and 19.15 Ho. Eccl. Pol. lib. 3. Sect. 1. rule the Congregation of God which he hath purchased with his Blood Mr. Hooker tells us that for Preservation of Christianity there is not any thing more needful than that such as are of the visible Church have mutual Fellowship and Society one with another In which Consideration the Catholick Church is divided into anumber of distinct Societies every of which is termed