Church The Church may by communion of Churches upon orderly recommendation receive the members of other Churches unto fellowship of such Ordinances as are for the comfort and strengthning of the Saints as the Seals are and the Officers may administer them to such being accepted by the body for we have a warrant for so much from the Rule Rom. 16.1 3 Joh. 9. but not to act in judgement For the Church hath this priviledge proper to be judged by and to judg only those that are within 1 Cor. 5.12 whereas I alledged this Text against Mr. Paget to prove that Church-Ordinances belong only to the Members of some particular Church Mr. Rutterf meeting with that expression saith Mr. D. will have Pastors so far strangers to all Congregations save their own that he saith other Churches are without and have nothing to do to judge them and alledgeth for this 1 Cor. 5.12 But by those that are without Paul meaneth not those that were not of the Congregation but he meaneth Infidels and Heathen as in other Scriptures For Paul judged and excommunicated Hymeneus and Alexander 1 Tim. 1.20 who were without the Church at Corinth Had Mr. Rutt been pleased to cast his eye upon my own defence of that passage In my Apolog Reply pag. 312 313. printed sundry years before he put pen to paper in these disputes about Church affairs he might have found that written by me touching the sense and my application of that Text which might have prevented his exagitating that matter Nor doth he with any congruity argue from Pauls Excommunicating Hymeneus and Alexander who he saith were without the Church at Corinth to prove that Pastors have any thing to do to judge judicially or excommunicate the members of other Congregations For Paul was an Apostle an extraordinary Officer had an illimited commission and a fulness of delegated power both in every Church and to administer Church-Ordinances without the fellowship of a particular Church when it could not be had and to execute all Offices in any Church where Officers were wanting But Pastors are ordinary Officers have a limited commission to do only the acts of the Pastoral Office and those only to that particular Church by which they are called unto Office Act. 20.28 1 Pet. 5.2 Therefore though Paul might excommunicate one that was not of that particular Church at Corinth yet the Pastor to the Church at Corinth might not Yet Paul could not excommunicate one that was no member of any Church but without as Infidels and Heathen are For that implies a contradiction To conclude The Apostle doth so appropriate Church-judgment to those that are within that particular Church 1 Cor. 5.12 Ye judge them that are within that he exempts from it in a due proportion all that are not members of that Congregation though there are degrees of being without some being totally without all Church-communion as Infidels and Heathen others though in Church-communion else-where yet not in communion of membership of that Church to whom he wrote to put away from them not one that was a member of another Church but him that was a member of that Church And in this sense Mr. Rutt saith Hymeneus and Alexander were without the Church at Corinth though members of some other Church for which cause the Church at Corinth could not excommunicate them yet Paul might and did by his Apostolical Power Thus by his own confession some are without a particular Church who yet are not Heathen or Infidels To conclude one may be said to be without this or that particular Church two ways 1. Simply and absolutely so Infidels and Heathen that are of no Church 2. Comparatively so the Members of other Churches compared with those that are of this Body 4. Corollary Then Churches gathered and Officers ordained in these days without Apostles are true Churches and true Church-Officers according to Christ and Churches thus Organized according to the Rules of the Word are true and intire Churches and the first subject of all Church-power as well as those Primitive Churches planted by the Apostles For the concurrence of the Apostles is not put into this Charter whereof we speak as a conditional Clause which might not have been omitted if Christ had intended that it should be always necessary He doth not say upon this Rock my Apostles shall build my Church and to my Church built by them I will give the Keys of the Kingdom but upon this Rock I will build my Church viz. by such Instruments as Christ will raise and use and bless in that work in every Age and to this Church thus built he gives the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven Object But Christ gave the Commission of gathering Churches to his Apostles in Matth. 28.18 19. And when he ascended up on high he gave some Apostles and some Prophets and some Evangelists and some Pastors and Teachers for the perfecting of the Saints for the work of the Ministry and for the edifying of the Body of Christ Ephes 4.8 11 12. Answ Those and the like Texts of Scripture do indeed shew that God used Apostles principally in this work but not only For as to Teach and Baptize is common to other Teaching-Officers as well as Apostles so the gathering of Churches by making men Disciples of Christ was done by others besides Apostles even in the Apostles days Act. 11.20 21. The dispersed Disciples planted the Church at Antioch the Members whereof were first called Christians a Church whose planting Barnabas approved ver 23. 2. They shew that God would use Apostles herein for a time but not alwayes which I prove 1. From the proper work committed to them which was to make the first Models and Patterns of planting and gathering Churches which ordinary Instrumentts are bound to attend in the gathering and constituting of Churches 1 Cor. 3.6 10. and in that sense their work continues to the end of the World though their manner of working viz. from an immediate Call Inspiration and Infallible assistance proper to Apostles in making those Patterns was extraordinary and ended with their Office in the first Age since when there never have been Apostles in the World For though Matthias succeeded in the place of Judas by Gods Election Act. 1.26 yet after James was beheaded no Apostle was chosen to succeed him though the Apostles lived long after 2. The Apostle John who lived longest of the Apostles describeth by Revelation from Christ all the Officers that should be by Gods Ordinance in Christian Churches after that Age under four sorts of living Creatures which note the four sorts of ordinary Officers to continue in the Church after that Age viz. Pastors Teachers Ruling-Elders and Deacons Revel 4.1 6 7. Vers 19. And whatsoever thou shalt bind on Earth shall be bound in Heaven Whatsoever thou shalt loose on Earth shall be loosed in Heaven THese words hold forth the Ratification of Christ's grant of the Keys unto a Congregational-Church with the chiefty
Synagogue of the infallibility of their Popes as Peter's successors and of the indeficiency of their Church as built upon Peter when as neither had Peter himself any such priviledge as to be infallible The next story in this 16th of Matthew evinceth the contrary v. 23. Nor by the Rock whereupon Christ builds his Church is meant the person of Peter or Peter's confession personally as it had relation to him but as it is considered really in it self and is common to all the Disciples and to all visible Believers which may be thus confirmed 1. Because Peters confession must have relation to the matter which he confessed But Peter confessed not himself but Christ saying Thou art the Christ the Son of the living God Therefore his confession had relation to Christ not to himself 2. Because Peter confessed no more than that which he knew the other Disciples believed before he speake For Christ's question being general What say ye Peter answered as the mouth of the rest but the Apostles before he speak believed Christ confessed and not Peter confessing 3. Because this Rock is that confession whereupon Christ saith he will build his Church But whosoever shall truly believe that which Peter confessed viz. Christ the Son of the living God and confess or profess it in due order is accordingly built on this Rock though he had never heard of Peter's name Therefore the confession rightly understood had relation unto Christ and not to the person of Peter 4. Because the Rock signifieth that which is immoveable and impregnable such as is Christ and his truth But Peter's confession was movable and shaken at one time thrice denying this confession of his Lord. Therefore this confession which Christ calls the Rock had not relation to Peter but only to Christ Coroll 2 Then they that would have a particular Church to be impregnable stable and firm against the prevailing of the gates of Hell must see that it be built upon this Rock and not upon humane formes 1. That Christ himself be the builder of it according to his own institutions not the policies or customs of men 2. * Ex quo patet quòd Ecclesia non consistit in hominibus ratione potestatis vel dignitatis Ecclesiasticae vel saecularis c. sed in illis personis in quibus est notitia vera confessio fidei veritatis Lyra in loc That the materials of which it consists be such as believe and profess their Faith in Christ publickly before the Lord and his People 3. That they be firmly joyned together in one Congregation by an holy Covenant of subjection and submission to the Lord Jesus Christ and to one another in him and accordingly walk together in obedience to Christ and his Rules resisting Satan in all his Temptations and Machinations through Christ strengthning them without whom they can do nothing Joh. 15.5 and that they improve carefully and faithfully the power which Christ hath given them viz. the Keyes of the Kingdom of Heaven in opening and shutting binding and loosing according to Christ his appointment for the preserving of his Church safe in the purity of their Faith and Order against the gates of Hell which is the next thing to be handled The Second Part. CHAP. VI. Concerning the power given of Christ unto such a Church as the first and proper subject of it THe second branch or part of the Charter is concerning the Power given by Christ unto such Churches to have and use all the means appointed by him for their establishment against the the gates of Hell Mat. 16.19 And I will give unto thee the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven and whatsoever thou shalt bind on Earth shall be bound in Heaven and whatsoever thou shalt loose on Earth shall be loosed in Heaven These words contain 1. A grant of Power 2. A ratification of that Grant We shall speak to them distinctly 1. To Christ his grant of Power and therein 1. Explicate the terms by shewing what is meant 1 by the Kingdom of Heaven 2. by the Keys of it 3 What this appropriation or application of them imports To thee I will give 1. By the Kingdom of Heaven is meant both the Kingdom of Grace Glory and that the Kingdom of Glory is also meant the following words shew when he saith What you bind on Earth is bound in Heaven c. 2. By the Keys which are a sign of Power and are put by a Metonimy for the Subject the Power it self is meant Church-power which is either Supreme and Soveraign in Christ only as Lord and Head of his Church who alone hath the Key of David which openeth and no man shutteth and shutteth and no man openeth in Rev. 3.7 or subordinate and delegate such as is in Christ's Stewards This is noted by Keys in the Plural number in this place which signifie all power delegated from Christ to dispense and administer all the holy things of his House according to Christ's will and in the order prescribed by him to that end For all power wherewith the Lord Jesus betrusteth his Church aims at this which is here expressed to open and shut to bind and loose 3. To thee I will give The Application of this Grant is to Peter in the name of the Church which Christ promised to build upon himself believed on and publickly professed as Peter did before him and his fellow-Disciples in Christs School at this time And the promise is more fitly given to Peter in the name of the Church than to the Church by name because it was not the Church that made this confession but Peter in the name of the Church But here we must make a little stand to examine the sundry claims which have been made to this Right upon several pretences from this Text. 1. Some looking at Peter as representing the Catholick visible-Church conceive that a general Council which they say is the Catholick Church representatively is the Church here meant to which Christ gives the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven But that cannot be For particular visible Churches in the Apostles dayes had and exercised the Keyes compleatly within themselves yet was there no general Council till the time of Constantine which was three hundred years after Christ 2. Others look at this Grant as peculiar to Peter considered as the Prince and chief of the Apostles and to the Popes of Rome as his successors But this Papal usurpation the Councils of Constance and Basil strongly and justly opposed shewing that the Keys which are here given to Peter are in Joh. 20.21 22 23. given to all the Apostles and that Peter himself is enjoyned in Mat. 18. to tell the Church 3. Others think that the Catholick Church considered not representatively but in it self is the first subject of the Keys Yet these differ among themselves For some affirm it of the invisible others of the visible Catholick Church As for the terms we know that visible invisible
Papam p. 565. was there burnt for denying the primacy of the Pope teaching that the Keys were given Ecclesiae toti non uni Petro to the whole Church and that the Communion should be administred sub utrâque specie and against humane Traditions and the Popes indulgencies and the wicked lives of the Cardinals and Priests and for preaching free Justification by Faith in Christ and that the Pope is Antichrist This was about the year 1499. In our own Land John Lambert in the year Fox Martyrol i' th Reign of Hen. 8th 1538 was burnt to death by the sentence of King Henry the 8th himself sitting in judgement upon him with all his Nobles and Bishops by the wicked counsel of Stephen Gardiner upon 45 Articles whereof this was the 43d Article Whether he believed the Pope was Christs Vicar and had power on earth to bind and loose He denyed that the Pope was Christs Vicar and affirmed that the Keys were given to Peter not for himself alone but in the name of the Church and proved it out of Cyprian Idem ibid. de simplicitate Clericorum and Aug. de Agone Christiano Also Sir John Borthwick a Scottish Knight in the year 1540 was condemned by the Arch Bishop of St. Andrews then Cardinal of Scotland and the Popes Legate with sundry Popish Bishops upon ten Articles of which this was the first touching the Popes Supremacy grounded upon Mat. 16. To thee will I give the Keys which he from that place confuted affirming that the Keys were given to the Church in Peter which name was given him upon his confession of Christ in the name of the whole Church and confirmed his assertion out of Cyprian and Augustine So that this is no new nor singular exposition of these words or practice taken up by some few of late Not new for Cyprian wrote about the year 250 after Christ and Augustine about the year 410 the last of them about 1200 years since and the first above 1400 years past I shall add hereunto that before Cyprian Tertullian about the year 200 shews us that Church-censures were then performed by one particular Church within it self and not in any combination of Churches Tertull. Apolog. Cap. 39. Nor singular for sundry sorts of Writers in several Ages and Countries have consented therein I will not enter into that question about which there seems to be some difference in apprehensions between some Godly learned Brethren Whether the Keys are given to Peter under several considerations as an Apostle and as an Elder and as a professing Believer all being taken joyntly together or to a single Society or condition of men under some special Relation which share alike in the equality of this Power promised unto them For in the substance of the matter they agree 1. That the Keys are promised to Peter in the name of a Congregational-Church 2. That this power of the Keys cannot be given to one single Society formally in all the kinds of it because it requires several sorts of subjects formally different viz. some Ruling some Ruled some Teaching c. 3. That til a Congregational-Church be organized and compleated with all its Officers it cannot compleatly exercise the Keys commited to it 4. That nevertheless before it be compleated it hath power of the Keys and is the first subject of them either formally or virtually whereby all the Ordinances are administred or administrable among them I shall issue this point into one Doctrinal Conclusion 6. Concl. The subordinate ordinary Power of acting Church-affairs in the Order appointed by Jesus Christ for attainment of the ends of Church-Communion is given by Christ to a visible Congregation of confederate Believers as the first and proper subject of it In the handling of this point I shall note somethings 1. For Explication 2. Confirmation of it 3. Draw some Consectaries 1. For explication of it I shall endeavour to clear five particulars 1. What I mean by Subordinate Power Subordinate Power is that which wholly dependeth on Christs Ordinance and Institution who is the Supreme and only Monarch and Head of the Church and therefore his revealed Will must be attended in all Church-Administations as the only Rule from which they may not swerve to the right hand or to the left for any humane policies or pretences whatsoever by adding ought thereto or taking any thing therefrom To this Christ limited his Apostles who were the highest Officers in the Church Mat. 28.18 19 20. And accordingly Paul strictly charged Timothy and in him all the Churches and Church-Officers to keep this Commandment without spot unrebukable until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ c. 1 Tim. 6.13 14 15. They must assume to themselves only that power which he hath allotted them and not exercise it any otherwise than he hath allowed them 2. Why I add ordinary to subordinate It is added to difference that Power which resideth in the Church for continual use in ordinary dispensations from that which was in the Apostles for a time by the gift of Christ Both Apostolical-Power and Church-Power agree in this that they are received immediately from Christ For as he said to the Apostles whose sins ye remit they are remitted c. Joh. 20.23 So he said to the Church both here in Peter and in Mat. 18.18 Whatsoever ye shall bind or loose on earth c. So that neither did the Apostles receive their Power from the Church nor doth the Church receive its power from the Apostles but both immediatly from Christ and therefore as the Apostles had their Power before visible Christian-Churches were constituted so such Churches have and hold their Power when Apostles cease to be on earth But herein these two Powers differ 1. That Apostolical Power was centred in one single Person and extended it self to the circumference of all Churches Each Apostle had the Power of the whole Church and of all the Officers of the Church when he was absent from the Churches he could administer Seals and Censures as if he had the presence and concurrence of the Church and if he was present in any Church that wanted Officers an Apostle had power to execute every Office for the Church And this their Power extended it self as much to all Churches as to any one Their Line went out into all the World Psal 19.4 with Rom. 10.18 Mat. 28.19 For as the Father sent Christ the Mediator with fulness of Soveragin Power so Christ sent his Apostles with fulness of Ministerial Power Joh. 20.21 But Church-Power is not in one man but in a Society and to be exercised variously by several persons in that society according to variety of callings Are all Teachers 1 Cor. 12.29 Hence 2. That was extraordinary and to last but for a time but this is ordinary and to continue to the end Rev. 4.1 3. What the Church-Affairs are and what the acting them imports The Church-affairs are the Ordinances of Christ called here the