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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
ground_n	apostle_n	church_n	time_n	1,642	5	3.9468	3	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A37205	The power of Congregational churches asserted and vindicated in answer to a treatise of Mr. J. Paget intituled The defence of church-government exercised in classes and synods / by John Davenport.	Davenport, John, 1597-1670.	1672 (1672)	Wing D362; ESTC R24876	69,647	176

forth such a profession of Faith as the Church may in charitable discretion conceive to be true are to be receiv'd Though some of them have been formerly scandalous yet now holding forth repentance they are to be received 1 Cor. 6.11 and though some are at present weak in Faith yet if we may conceive that the Lord hath received them the Church must receive them Rom. 14.1 3. For Christ appro●●d this confession of Peter though he was at present but weak in Faith as the following Story in this Chapter v. 22 23. clearly sheweth 6. That none but such be admitted into Church-fellowship For this Chapter limits the Church to accept only such Vpon this Rock will I build my Church i. e. Christ believed on and publickly confessed A meer verbal confession is not that Rock For the Devils made such a confession of Christ yet were not built on him Luke 4.34 But this confession of Peter was such as held forth his Faith in him as appears by Christ's three-fold Elogy or praise of it 1. From its effect Blessed art thou c as Joh. 17.3 2. From the procreant cause of it Not flesh and blood but my Father hath revealed it as Mat. 11.25 26. 3. From the title 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Peter before promised John 1.42 and now confirmed to him signifying a Stone whereby Christ not only acknowledgeth his faith and that he was thereby a living Stone and fit to have a principal place in this Spiritual Building in which sense Peter applyeth a like title to other Believers 1 Pet. 2.4 5. who yet were inferiour in degree to himself but also giveth him this Prerogative and Honour that he should be the first Planter of the Christian Church both amongst the Jews Act. 2. and the Gentiles Act. 15.7 The Conclusion may be confirmed by two Arguments in the Text. 1. From the name whereby he calleth this holy Society 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Church i. e. a company called out Whence see Joh. 15.19 To what See 1 Cor. 1.2 How Not only by active vocation by mans ministry exhorting them to repent and believe So sundry are called who are not in the least wrought upon to answer that call but put it off as they who were invited to the great Supper Luk. 14.18 with excuse Such are called but no Church Therefore more is required to qualifie for membership of a visible Church viz. passive vocation whereby they are wrought upon to answer Gods call by submission thereunto at least in outward profession though some do it but feinedly Ps 18.44 Saints by internal and invisible calling are such as answer Gods call inwardly and spiritually Saints by external and visible calling are subdued to yeeld obedience to the Word in visible profession Thus all that were called into the Vineyard had so much efficacy of the Spirit in them that they all came into the Vineyard and laboured in it though not with like sincerity Mat. 20. According to this clause of the Chapter the Churches planted by the Apostles were constituted for the materials of them else the Apostles could not have given both the † 1 Cor. 1.2 Eph. 1.2 members and * 1 Thes 1.1 1 Cor. 12.27 2 Cor. 11.2 6.16 1 Tim. 3.15 Churches such high titles as they did Nor did they by these titles describe the invisible Church only but visible Churches For to such Paul wrote his Epistles and the like expressions are applyed in other texts manifestly to visible Churches Nor do these titles describe particular Churches only according to the better sort of members but such they did in the judgement of christian charity conceive all their members to be as Paul told the Philippians Phil. 1.6 7. which he could not have said if he had not known the care of the Church in admitting persons into membership with them to be according to the conclusion noted by us Reas 2 From Christ's appropriating such a particular Church to himself owning it for his my Church q. d. I own any Church thus built by my self to be my Church according to that in Act. 2.47 The Lord added to the Church daily such as should be saved The Lord added them How Not only by giving them saving faith and so adding them to the invisible Church but also by his inclining their hearts to offer themselves unto the fellowship of the visible Church and to profess their faith before them and by bowing the hearts of the Apostles 〈◊〉 Brethren to receive them into visible ●munion of visible Ordinances as appeareth v. 41 42. Thus he added them daily to the Church which cleares it to be an act of the Lords ordinary dispensation and therefore presidential to the Churches in their ordinary practice They who were thus added are said to be such as should be saved That is they were such either in the judgment of the Lord which is infallible or in the judgment of the Church which is fallible The Church looked at them according to their fruits viz. their profession of faith and their Christian conversation observing so much in both that they saw reason in charity guided by rule to conceive them to be in a state of Salvation Such were the three thousand spoken of in v. 41. as appeared by their affectionate and submissive inquiring of the Apostles whom they mocked before what they should do to be saved being pricked in their hearts v. 37. and afterwards by their gladly receiving the Word both of promise for themselves and their Children with faith and of precept to repent and be baptized and to save themselves from that froward generation with obedience True it is that they could not in one day make so large accounts of Gods work upon them as are commonly held forth in our Churches nor do we effect too large narrations but wish such passages as are superfluous left out And at that time less was needful to be expressed than necessity calls for among us ordinarily For the Apostles had a more quick Spiritual discerning than ordinary Officers and Churches have And concerning the three thousand Act. 2. the manner of their offering themselves to Church-fellowship visibly at such a time when such visible confession of Christ was with manifest hazzard to their lives gave good ground to the Apostles and the Brethren of conceiving charitably that they were all of them in a state of Salvation and such as the Lord himself added to the Church In these places and times where Church-fellowship is an honour and drawes after it sundry outward and worldly advantages it will be necessary that the Church be satisfied as by sufficient testimony concerning their good conversation so by their holding forth their confession of faith both quae creditur and quâ creditur of the Doctrine of Faith and of the Gift of Faith how it was wrought and how it works in them As Mr. Rogers in his Treatise of Faith saith it may be known of

do not note distinct species or kindes of Churches but are only several adjuncts of the same Church which is called invisible in respect of the inward and invisible union which Members have with Christ the Head by the Spirit and Faith and visible in respect of their outward Profession of their Faith which is visible to men But in neither of these senses is the Catholick Church the first subject of the Keys 1. Not as invisible for that is not built by a visible profession such as Peter's was nor are the Ordinances dispensed or administred visibly in it to or by men in visible fellowship Add hereunto that the Keys here given to Peter can shut out of the Kingdom of Heaven even the same persons to whom they have opened the door before which cannot befal Believers in the visible Church 2. Not as visible For the Scripture doth not acknowledge a Catholick visible Church The Catholick Church is not visible as a Church and the Church that is visible is not Catholick Though the Catholick Church may be visible in its singular Members yet so they are not a Church or though it may be visible in particular Congregations See Mr. Cott. Defence of the way of Congreg Churches par 2. p. 56 yet none of them is Catholick or though all of them if they could meet together may be called a Catholick Church or general Assembly yet so it cannot be the first subject of the Keys i. e. of all Ecclesiastical power for such Assemblies See Mr. Hooker ' ● Survey part 1. ch 14 15. if possible are extraordinary and extraordinary Assemblies are not fit Judicatories to hear and censure ordinary offences or to administer the ordinary acts of Church-power 2. If the visible Catholick Church be considered as totum integrale which is such a whole as ariseth out of the aggregation of all particular Churches as an Army is made up of all the several Regiments and Troops or a Kingdom of all the Cities and Counties within it it cannot be the first subject of the Keyes i. e. of all Church-power For 1. particular Churches are the Members which give the essential causes whence the integrity of this whole is made up and therefore in nature before it as the cause is before its effect 2. Church-Officers with their Offices are set ordinarily by Christs Institution only in such a Church where they are called the Chosen but that is a particular Church Act. 14.23 Tit. 1.5 For that choice and calling is the foundation of the relation between Pastors and People and of the duties both of the Rulers and of the Ruled mutually Act. 20.28 1 Pet. 5.2 Heb. 13.17 3. If a Catholick integral Church ariseth from all particular Churches as Members of it joyned together then it must be distinct from them all as the whole Body is a thing distinct from its several Members then also there must be some Officer and Ordinance and Act belonging to it which doth not appertain to particular Churches as there is a General over an Army besides the Captains and Officers of the several Regiments and a Supreme Monarch in a Kingdom besides the Governors in the several Corporations and Counties But no such Catholick-Church distinct from all particular Churches can be shewen nor Officers or acts of it besides those which are exercised in particular Churches 4. Diocesan Bishops look at these words as giving the Keys to them as the Successors of the Apostles whence they assume the power of Ordinathon and Jurisdiction as belonging to them jure divino A claim which King James whether out of his policy which he called his King-craft or out of his insight into the Scripture would not suffer them to pretend in his time Nor indeed is there any warrant for it in Scripture as it hath been abundantly proved by sundry witnesses against that usurpation We read of Bishops in the New-Testament but what Not one Bishop over many Churches but many Bishops over one Church not Diocesan but Congregational Bishops Phil. 1.1 Those whom Luke calls Elders in Act. 20.17 Paul calleth Bishops in v. 28. The Bishops which the Apostles acknowledge to be Christs Ordinance to continue in the Christian Church are Congregational Elders 1 Tim. 3 1-8 Tit. 1.5 7. 1 Pet. 5.1 2. and all the Teaching-Elders are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fellow-Elders coequal in authority above whom Paul acknowledgeth no Rulers in the Church but rather sets these above all 1 Tim. 5.17 Euseb Eccles hist l. 6. c. 43. Cypr. Ep. l. 3. Ep. 10 l. 1. ep 3. And when after the Apostles time one of the Pastors was called Bishop by way of eminency for orders sake yet for many years he did no act of power but 1. with consent of the Presbytery 2. with consent Dr. Cudw on the Postscript to Galat. and in the presence of the People What is pleaded from Titus his ordaining Tit. 1.5 helps not their cause for he did it as an Evangelist not as a Diocesan Prelate and the Office of Evangelists together with the Apostles ceaseth The Postscript of the second Epistle to Timothy where he is called the first Bishop of the Church of the Ephesians and of that to Titus where he is called the first Bishop of the Church of the Cretians are Apocryphal as the rest are and the first consisteth not with 2 Tim. 4.5 where Timothy is called an Evangelist and therefore not tyed to personal residence to abide in one place as Bishops and Pastors are but the Evangelists were to go from place to place to set things in order and confirm the Churches planted by the Apostles The same may be said of Titus Nor is the Postscript of that Epistle of more credit than the former where the Scribe saith it was written from Nicopolis Hiperius justly disliketh the ground of that opinion in the Scribe which he saith was from Tit. 3.12 Because Paul bade Titus come to him to Nicopolis for he determined to winter there whereas if he were there at that time he would have said I purpose to winter here not there as Beza noteth 5. Others conclude from this Text that the power of the Keys i. e. the power of Ordination and Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction is given in Peter to Church-Officers only especially to Pastors and Teachers And that such only or principally are meant in this Grant they endeavour to prove by five reasons especially We will examine them severally and briefly 1. Reas Because the Keys are given to Stewards by Office 1 Cor. 4.1 2 Cor. 4.5 1 Tim. 3.15 Isa 22.12 Answ 1. The three former Texts speak of the Apostles and Evangelists Office and in them of Pastors and Teachers not of Ruling-Elders But I suppose they will not deny the Ruling-Elders to have a Key of Office also The last Text proveth only that the Key sometimes signifies Office-power given to a Steward which none deny But this toucheth not this Text Mat. 16. which means not only