Selected quad for the lemma: faith_n
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A50242
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A discussion of the lawfulness of a pastor's acting as an officer in other churches besides that which he is specially called to take the oversight of by the late Reverend Mr. Nathanael Mather.
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Mather, Nathanael, 1631-1697.
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1698
(1698)
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Wing M1263; ESTC R37635
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23,058
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187
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in the way of Communion with God by Christ and an Eternal Enjoyment of him Yet it will not at all follow from hence that the Church of Corinth may judge with Church-Censure the Men of the World that are without the Apostle 1 Cor. 5.12 13. expresly denies it or Excommunicate the Members of the Church of Cenchrea who are not of the same Lump and Body with them No more will it follow that the Pastor of the Church of Corinth may do any Office-acts in the Church of Cenchrea though he abide clothed with that Office and in his holy Administrations in the Church of Corinth be an Ordinance of God for their good as far as Providence gives them an opportunity to partake of the benefit thereof The Lord Mayor of London is the King's Officer or Ordinance for good to all the Kingdom and therefore to all the Citizens of Bristol as far as they have occasion to use his power yet the Lord Mayor of London can do no act of his Office nor put forth any of his Office-power within the City of Bristol Obj. 2. The Pastor of Corinth may as lawfully administer the Supper in the Church of Cenchrea as a Member of the Church of Cenchrea may partake in the Administration of the Supper in the Church of Corinth Ans The Cases are not parallel There is a great deal of difference between a Member's partaking and a Pastor's administring the Supper in another Church For 1. A Member in communicating is not Christ's Substitute but is considered only as a Member of a particular instituted Church whereof Christ is the Political Head 2. The Pastor of Corinth is in his proper place where the Holy Ghost hath set him when he is administring the Supper there which is more than can be said when he is administring in Cenchrea and whom the Church rightly receives to partake with them in that Ordinance he cannot put back nor may he forbear his Duty upon that account 3. There are Instances and Grounds in Scripture for a Member of one Church his being received and owned and his communicating in another Church Rom. 16.1 2. Acts 20.4 5 6 7. But there are none for a Pastor's administring the Supper out of his own Church 4. Receiving the Supper is a Priviledge Administring the Supper is an action wherein Office-power is exerted and hence agai they are vastly different and the one much more confined than the other Receiving unto the Supper each others Members occasionally being but a proper expression of Sisterly Communion between Churches when as Officers mutually acting as Officers in several Churches implies a Coalition of the Churches into one or at least that they are both equally under his Office-power Sharing in a Priviledge and putting forth of power do so much differ as that in a private Member the one is much more limited and restrain'd than the other A private Member of Corinth hath no Power or Right to Vote in another Church than that whereof he is a Member for Excommunication Admission Calling an Officer or any thing else of like nature wherein the Members of that Church are concerned to give Judgment yet a Member of Corinth may there partake of the Lord's Supper And suppose a Member or Forty Members of Corinth should Vote being present in the Church of Cenchrea when an Officer is Called or a Member Received or Cast out their Vote though concurring with the Church of Cenchrea would have no efficiency or causal inffluence at all by virtue of any Institution of Christ to instate such Person in Office-Power or to admit into or cast out from a Member-Relation If therefore a Member of Corinth's being admitted to partake of t he Supper in Cenchrea will not infer his power to Vote or pass Judgment there much less will it infer the Pastor of Corinth's power to act as an Officer there Obj. 3. The Pastor of Corinth is an Officer of the Church Catholick and he administers the Lord's Supper to the Church of Cenchrea as Members of the Catholick Church not as such a particular Churh Ans 1. The Scripture knows but two kinds of Churches viz Mystical and Instituted 2. The Mystical consisting of all and only true Believers hath neither Officers nor Ordinances seated in it though both are designed for it principally but as it is so all its priviledges are spiritual and invisible and not Dispenced by Men but by God himself Nor indeed is it possible That the Church Mystical should be the proper subject of Ordinances dispensed by Mortal Men because then no Man could in Faith dispense any Ordinance to another for no Man can make a Judgment of Faith or certain Knowledge concerning anothers belonging to the Mystical Church And hence the Members of the Church of Cenchrea supposing them all Members of the Church Mystical yet as such they are not Subjects nextly and compleatly qualified for and instituted to this Ordinance of the Lord's Supper Neither is the Pastor of the Church at Corinth an Officer over them for the Mystical Church hath no Officers And by the same reason the Pastor of Corinth may give the Lord's Supper to any that he judgeth Believers where-ever he casually lights on them 3. The Instiuted Church is no other than a Particular Congregation or Church such as that at Corinth and that at Cenchrea which are parts of the general kind and Instituted Churches themselves as Thomas and John are parts of Mankind and Men themselves But look as John's Eye is not set in Thomas's Head nor can it see there so neither is the Officer of the Church of Corinth set in the Church at Cenchrea nor can he do any acts or Office there For though all Officers in the general belong to the Church in the general as all Hands belong to the Body of Mankind in the general or Humane Body yet this and that particular ordinary Officer belongs to this and that particular Church and to them only as this and that Hand belong to this and that particular Body And therefore the Pastor of the Church of Corinth is no more nor otherwise an Officer of the Catholick Church than my Hand or Eye is an Organ of Mankind that is in short He is an Officer to the Church of Corinth and to no other Church besides that 4. If Catholick Church in this Objection be taken in another Notion than either for the Church Mystical or for all particular lar instituted Churches namely for The whole body of visible Bilievers throughout the World I Answer 1. There is no such Church For although the whole body of Believers throughout the World be so called in our common Speech and complying with Custom we may notifie them by that Name yet the Holy Ghost in Scripture tells us of no such Church 2. It was a piece of the Faith of the Congregational Churches in the times of their Liberty which they shall do well now not to depart from that Tho the whole body of visible
Believers throughout the World are called the Catholick Visible Church Declar. at the Savoy ch 26. §. 2. and may be so called yet it is not as such a Church intrusted with the administration of any Ordinances nor hath it any Officers And therefore the Pastor of the Church of Corinth cannot be an Officer to them nor have the Members of the Church of Cenchrea under that Notion as part of this Body any Right or Title to have the Lord's Supper administred amongst them 3. The same Persons say also expresly that Besides particular Churches such whose Constitution and Gathering they had before described there is not instituted by Christ any Church more extensive or Catholick Declar. at the Savoy Of the Institution of churches and their Order Prop. 6. entrusted with power for the administration of his Ordinances or the execution of any Authority in his Name If therefore there be no such Church instituted by Christ a Plea from it for the regularity of this Practice is altogether vain being wholly Founded on that which is not 4. This Notion of such a kind of Catholick Church undermines and overthrows at once all the Principles of the Congregational way and Practice As will quickly appear to any that understands and will consider it and as they well know that are any thing acquainted with the Grounds and Writings of the different Parties in those Points But this Practice impleaded in this Dispute cannot stand without entertaining such a Notion of a Church Catholick This should make us shy of it since it leads to the overthrow and renunciation of what we once believed and built up by our Profession and Practice and engageth us to the owning of that which is inconsistent with all the Principles of our Persuasion touching the Constitution of Churches and the Order to be observed by them POINT II. Touching Communion of Churches I. Tho this Communion be partly founded in and greatly suited to the Law of Nature and Light of Reason to the Principles whereof the New Testament Institutions offer no Violence yet it is to be managed by the Light of the Rules of the Word it being brought under a special Institution of Christ as many other things are which even Natural Light goes a great way in approving of and leading to Although therefore this or that particular Practice may seem a very fair and sweet fruit of the Communion of Churches yet if it be destitute of all Ground and Warrant in the Word such Practice must be look'd upon as unlawful because cause wanting a Warrant from the Holy Scriptures II. Communion of Churches is for the help preservation and building up not only of the several Saints in those Churches considered separately and singly but firstly and immediately of the Churches themselves as instituted Bodies or Societies made up and consisting of Saints for that end joined together according to the Lord. Hence it must needs follow that whatever tends to the confounding of Churches which in their Constitution are distinct and several and should be so preserved inviolably is not a right exercise and improvement of the Communion of Churches but a perverting thereof III. Hence also it follows with an high hand That though in communion of Churches there be a singular exercise of that love which all Saints and Churches ought to have and shew one to another as opportunity for it is administred yet it is altogether unwarrantable for Churches walking in mutual Communion to coalesce into and make up a new Instituted Body of which they should all be Members For tho they ought to walk in love and communion one with another yet they are therein in limited by the Lord and may not become Members one of another mutually there being no Institution of his to Warrant it as there is for Saints becoming one Body in a Church and Members one of another by virtue thereof Nor if several Churches should agree so to make up one Body would Christ be the Head of that Body as he is of every Church or Body of his own Institution IV. As notwithstanding Communion of Churches both the several Churches as Bodies and also the particular Members of each of them as Members ought to be kept distinct neither the several Churches while they continue several Churches running into one body nor the Members of each becoming mutually Members of the other So their several respective Officers and all the administrations of them ought to be kept distinct and appropriated according as the Lord hath set them Officers of Churches in Communion being no more generally or mutually Officers to those several Churches than the Members of them are mutually Members From the premised Considerations touching Communion of Churches several Reasonings concluding the Question might be deduced But all the Improvement that I shall make of them is only to answer some Objections arising from mis-apprehensions about the present Subject Communion of Churches Obj. 1. The Pastor of the Church of Corinth may lawfully administer the Supper in the Church of Cenchrea by vertue of Communion of Churches as well as act as an Officer in a Synod where the Messengers and Elders of Churches that walk in Communion meet Ans Notwithstanding Communion of Churches he may not lawfully administer the Supper in Cenchrea 1. Communion of Churches enlargeth not the object and limits of the respective Officers Power Such Communion Churches may not have it would rather be Confusion and prejudice both the Priviledges and entireness of each of them Communion of Churches extends not to the subjecting of Churches to each others Officers any more than to the subjecting of particular Members to other Churches than their own The Church of Corinth may as well by virtue of Communion of Churches Censure and Cast out a Member of Cenchrea as the Pastor of Corinth by vertue of Communion of Churches act as an Officer in the Church of Cenchrea Communion of Churches is ordained for the mutual help of Churches by the benefit and use of the Gifts that are in any of them the help whereof another may need but not for a foundation of the enlarging mutual communicating or exercising of Office-power 2. Church Officers acting in a Synod to instruct or admonish an erring Church act not any Office-power nor do any other thing than a Synod consisting of Brethren without Officers might as lawfully do Neither indeed do Officers come to or act in a Synod as Officers but as delegated or deputed or sent by their respective Churches thereunto And for such an Expression of Churches mutual communion there is a clear Warrant in the Word But for Churches to communicate their Officers to each other or for ordinary Officers to act as Officers to more Churches than that one to which they are chosen there is no Warrant at all Obj. 2. The Church of Cenchrea desires it and the Church of Corinth consents Ans 1. I still demand Where is the Warrant for the desire of the one or