Bodies Politick as Universities Corporations Counties Armies and Common-wealths This is God's way of Government which the wisest Governours did always imitate Thus Moses chose able men out of all Israel and made them Rulers over the People Rulers of thousands Rulers of hundreds Rulers of fifties and Rulers of tens And they judged the people at all seasons the hard causes they brought to Moses but every small matter they judged themselves Exod. 18.25 26. In this Text considered with the antecedent many things as proper to Government are observable 1. There must be Laws 2. Officers 3. Courts according to the tria Jura Majestatis of Legislation making Officers and Jurisdiction These presuppose a Community and a Constitution 1. There must be a power of making Laws that belongs to the Soveraign 2. Laws by this power must be made for Administration which without them must needs be arbitrary and irregular 3. Those Laws once enacted must be promulgated that they may be known 4. Once known they must regulate both the peoples obedience and the acts of Officers and judgment of the Judges After Laws once established they must be executed and that cannot be orderly and effectually done without a division of the people For 1. they must be numbred divided into tens fifties hundreds thousands tribes 2. They must be co-ordinate and equally poised tens with tens fifties with fifties hundreds with hundreds thousands with thousands 3. They must be subordinate ten to fifty fifty to an hundred and hundreds to thousands and all unto the whole When this is done Officers by whom these Laws must be executed must be made These must first be well qualified 2. The people must chuse them Deut. 1.13 3. Moses must appoint them their places assign them their circuits give them their charge 4. They must have their Courts and Sessions judge execute the Laws and be subordinate the lesser Courts to the superiour and all to the Supream For their Causes especially if difficult must ascend till they came to Moses and he brought them to God who was their Soveraign this was extraordinary But afterwards they had their Sanhedrim and Court of Appeals This subordination seems to be implied in those words of our Saviour Matth. 5.22 But I say unto you that whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgement and whosoever shall say unto his brother Racha shall be in danger of the council but whosoever shall say Thou Fool shall be in danger of hell fire One thing in all this is considerable That Moses did not make every Division nor every Court severally independent but subordinated all unto one supream Consistory A Multitude though National therefore is no impediment to good Government especially when they are numbred divided co-ordinated and subordinated and so by a certain and fixed order made one section 11 As a Multitude is no hinderance so neither is a national distance of parts For if we should enquire into the Constitution of the Chaldean or the Persian Empires of both which we might learn much out of the Holy Scriptures especially in the Books of Ezra both first and second called Nehemiah and Ester and Daniel most of all we should find 1. That the extent of them was far more than National and the distance of the parts far greater 2. That these were divided subordinated not only in the parts less to the greater but also in their Officers both for War and Peace the Revenue and the Administration of Justice and so by order united under one Head. The Empire of Rome the parts whereof were severed at a very great distance as from the River Euphrates in the East to the Ocean upon the West of France and from Aegypt Southward to the North of the Lesser Asia was according to their principles of Policy as well governed as any European petty State at this time is The Turkish Seigniory tho' of great extent is as well ordered as divers several Kingdoms Christian confined to a far more narrow compass Their order is good their strength great their Counsel which doth manage it politick their Laws for administration of Justice certain their divisions from matters of Religion few or none and their internal strength must needs be firm and the continuance of their Dominion hath been long Some attribute the excellency of their Government to their severity in punishments and their bounty in rewards yet though these add something yet these are but the least part The Dominions of Spain are many and scattered at a very great distance round about the Globe on both sides the Line within and without the Tropicks yet all these are subjected to one supream Judicatory and are tolerably governed and by a great deal of policy have been kept together till of late France indeed is stronger because divided into thirty Provinces it 's united in one Vicinity and subject to one Monarch Yet in these vast Dominions and great Empires the union of their many parts so distant did depend not only upon ordinary means but some extraordinary acts of Divine Providence From all this it 's evident that by division co-ordination subordination the supream power of one Nation nay of many Nations may be diffused through the whole Body so as to animate it and reach every part even the remotest section 12 Yet it may be objected that all the Members of a National Church can never meet together in one place and Assembly It 's true they cannot neither is it needful Joshua called and assembled all Israel when yet none but their Elders their Heads their Officers their Judges were called and convented Josh. 23.2 Upon which place Masius thus comments Cum dictum esset omnem Israelem fuisse convocatum ipsa deinde universitas ad eos deducitur qui populum omnem repraesentabant So that all Israel met in their Representative Thus David thus Solomon did use to convocate all Israel As our State hath its Wittena Gemot the Parliament which Cambden calls Pananglium so a National Church may have a general Assembly to represent the whole And this may be so composed as to be an abridgement and contraction of the quintessence of the wisdom piety and learning of a National Church This is a most excellent way for a Community to act by This may be both the terminus à quo ad quem of all these publick acts which are of weight and general concernment By this the Nomothetical Power is exercised to this by Appeal the highest causes are brought and finally determined yet here it 's to be observed that a Representative of the whole is not the whole properly but synecdochically and an Instrument whereby the whole doth so act yet if any thing be done amiss in a former particular Assembly the whole may correct it by a latter 2. That if the Constitution of a general Representative be right and the Members thereof duly qualified and act according to their qualification there will
it only at the second hand as he himself confesseth I will not examine his many arguments because there is none of them ad idem and to the purpose or point in hand and they all and every one as he misapplies them presuppose an errour For they all should be limited to the Fundamental Power in Constitution but here Power of Constitution and of Administration are confounded as also the power of the Church with the power of Officers section 2 After the examination of all these Titles I proceed to deliver mine own judgment and to make good the Title of my Mother the Church For I believe this to be the truth in this point That the primary subject of the Power of the Keyes is the whole Church For order sake I will. 1. Explain the proposition 2. Confirm the same In the Explication I will inform the Reader 1. What I mean by the power of Keyes 2. What by the whole Church 3. How and in what manner I understand the whole Church to be the primary subject of this power 1. This power is not the power of Civil Soveraigns nor of Officers as Officers Civil or Ecclesiastical in foro exteriori or of Ministers as Ministers nor the Universal Power of Christ nor the Extraordinary power of Apostles or any other Extraordinary Officers but it is an Ordinary power of making Canons of constituting Officers of Jurisdiction and other Acts which are necessary for the outward Government of an Ecclesiastical Community committed unto and conveyed upon the Church by Christ. 2. By the whole Church is not to be understood the Universal Church militant and triumphant nor the whole Church mystical nor the whole Church militant and visible of all times nor of the visible Church of all Nations existent in one time but a whole particular Church visible in some certain place and Vicinity that shall be fit to manage the power of the Keyes independently as the Church of Jerusalem of Antioch of Corinth of Ephesus of Smyrna c. Those who determine the Series or order of appeals to ascend from a Congregation to a Classis from a Classis to a Provincial Synod from a Provincial to a National of one Nation to a National of several Nations or from that unto an Oecomenical or General Council extend the whole Church far further than I do As for the Papal party they presuppose all particular Churches to make but one visible Church not only for Doctrine and Worship but for outward Discipline too and the Church of Rome must be the Mother and Queen of all other Churches in the World yet they differ about the primary subject of the power of the Keyes Some determine the Pope as Peters Successour to be the visible Head and Universal Monarch of this Church Others as the Councils of Constance and Basil Cameracensis Gerson and the faculty of Paris give this power to the whole Church to be exercised in general Councils Mr. Ellis doth charge some of our own who affirmed this power to be in the Universal Church with Popery and Mr. Hooker conceives he hath demonstrated Learned and Judicious Mr. Hudson to be guilty of the same but he is mistaken as since is made evident These two cannot possibly be reconciled whilest they proceed upon contrary principles Mr. Hooker of New-England understands by a visible Church such a Church as is under a form of external Discipline and subject unto one independent Judicatory but neither Mr. Hudson nor others of his mind understand any such thing There is an Universal visible Militant Church on Earth this Church is truly Totum integrale and also an Organical body the Head and Monarch is Christ all Ministers Officers all Believers Subjects the Word and Sacrament priviledges and every Christian either by Birth or Baptism according to Divine Institution is first in order of nature a Member of this Universal or Organical Body before he be a Member of any particular Church or Congregation and is so to be considered And many if not all the places of Scripture alledged by Mr. Hudson are truly understood to speak of this Universal Church though some of them seem to be affirmed only of the Church mystical as such yet so that in divers respects they may agree to both This cannot be Popery neither doth it presuppose any point of Popery or other errour The grand errour of the Papist in this particular is to affirm that one Church particular is above all Churches in the World not only in dignity but in power so that all particular Churches must be subject unto her and her Bishop invested with universal Jurisdiction To subject the Universal Church Militant in one body to Christ can have no affinity with this And to subject every particular Church to the Universal exercising her power in a Representative is no such errour nor so dangerous as that of the Soveraignty of Rome And though there be no such thing because the distance is so great that the Association is impossible yet the Pope and his party did abhor to think of it That Question about visible and invisible is but a toy to this The Church therefore which is the subject of the Question is a Church a particular Church a whole particular Church Yet there is a particular Church primary and secundary primary is the Church considered as a community and a secondary Church by way of Representation The primary is the proper subject of real power the Representative of personal Whether this Church be Congregational or of larger extent shall be examined hereafter 3. Thus you have heard 1. What the power is 2. What the subject is Now 3. We must consider in what manner this power is in this primary subject It s not in it Monarchically nor Aristocratically nor Democratically or any pure way of Disposition but in the whole after the manner of a free State or Polity For there Universi praesunt singulis singuli subduntur universis so it s here All joyntly and the whole doth rule every several person though Officer though Minister though Bishop if there be any such is subject to the whole and to all joyntly And in this Model the power is derived from the whole to the parts not from the parts to the whole though this Community should consist of ten thousand Congregations This power is exercised in the highest degree by a Representative general in an inferiour degree by Officers or inferiour Assemblies Upon this principle though in another manner the Councils of Basil and Constance did proceed against the Pope as being but a part though an eminent part as the times were then of the Church Yet this proposition is not so to be understood as though this Church were the first Fountain and Original of this power for she is not she derives and receives it from Christ as Christ from God. But she is the primary subject in respect of her parts and members section 3 For the confirmation of this
some Congregations in some cases may be the subject of this power in this degree nor whether every well constituted Congregation may not have and exercise Discipline within themselves for some particulars For this will be granted them For both the Presbyterian and also the Parochial Congregations and Vestries did so under the Bishops But whether their Congregations gathered in their manner be this primary Subject and this according to any precept of Christ Or if we leave out that restriction of being gathered in their manner whether by any Institution and precept of Christ the independent power of Discipline doth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 primarily belong unto a Congregation For if it do then it belongs in this manner to them and them alone as single Congregations and to no other Association of Christians And if any other Association do assume it they transgress a precept of Christ which is of universal and perpetual Obligation For to prove the affirmative Mr. Parker makes use of the words Synagoga and Ecclesia as most commonly taken in Scripture And the dissenting Brethren instance in the first Apostolical Churches Mr. Parker's first Argument is taken from the signification of the words Ecclesia and Synagoga in Scripture And 1. He presupposeth that these signifie a Congregation 2. That a Congregation is an Assembly meeting in one place 3. Hence he infers that nulla Ecclesia prima quae non Congregatio His meaning is that if the people of any Precinct as of a Diocess or Province exceed the bounds of a Congregation so that they cannot conveniently and ordinarily meet in one place they are not that first Church to which the power of the Keys doth primarily and originally agree And he alledgeth for this purpose Dr. Reynolds saying That in every place of the Old and New Testament Synagoga Ecclesia est and as well Synagoga as Ecclesia when they are said to speak of a Congregation political signifie only an Assembly meeting in one place Polit. Eccles. lib. 3. sect 3. For answer hereunto it will be sufficient to examine the signification of these words as used in the Scripture and by that we shall see whether the Argument from the signification of the word be good or no. To this end it may be observed that the word Synagoga is used by the Septuagint a hundred seventy times if not above in the Old Testament under 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we find it an hundred and twenty times and in the first eight places it signifies the Congregation of all Israel which consisted of six hundred thousand fighting men besides women and children as Exod. 12.3 6 19 47 verse and chap. 16.1 2 9 10. Judges 20.12 It 's an Assembly of four hundred thousand at least The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is 37 turned 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Congregation and in the three first places an Assembly or Congregation of Nations as Gen. 29.3.35.11.48.4 Cyrus his Army gathered out of many Nations is Kahal Synagoga Jeremy 50.9 So the vast Army of Gog and Magog is Synagoga a Congregation Ezek. 38.4 Again as Synagoga may signifie a Congregation of many thousands and a far greater number than Mr. Parker's Congregation so the word Ecclesia is used under the word Kahal seventy times as formerly upon another occasion was noted and in the first place it signifies the Congregation of all Israel both in Levit. 8.3 and also Deut. 18.16 It many times signifies the Assembly of Israel sometimes a general Representative In the New Testament Heb. 12.23 it 's the general Assembly of the first-born which are written in Heaven Eph. 4.22 it 's that body whereof Christ is Head and Chap. 2.20 that building whereof the Apostles and Prophets are the foundation and Christ the chief corner-stone From all this it 's clear that the words Ecclesia and Synagoga signifie besides Civil and Military Ecclesiastical Assemblies and the same either political or local and the place is either particular or special or general in which sence a whole Region and vast Country may be one place So that one fallacy 1. is in the word place 2. another in the word Assembly meeting in one place For 1. The Assembly and Meeting may be rare and extraordinary as the words do divers times signifie as is evident and this cannot agree to Mr. Parker's ordinary and convenient Meeting 2. They signifie Assemblies meeting in far greater numbers than in his Congregation For the number of persons which made up divers of these Assemblies were thousands nay hundreds of thousands as four hundred thousand five hundred thousand nay millions and whole Nations And if so then they who stand for a National Church will desire no more the Provincial and Diocesan party will be content with fewer Again the words sometimes signify a political Society consisting of such persons as shall never meet together in one place except at Christ's right hand and in the place of Glory So that if the former distinction used in stating the question be remembred and the question be understood thus That some Congregations such as Mr. Parker describes the Church to be may sometimes in some respect be the subject of an independent power of the Keys then these places are not much against him But if he understand it so that if any Church exceed the bounds of his Congregation of so many as may ordinarily and conveniently meet together it 's not of Christ's Institution nor can be the primary Subject of this power then his Argument a nomine ad rem from the word to the thing is no Argument But suppose the words should always signify one Congregation which may ordinarily meet in one place which yet they do not how will it follow from any of those places that such a Congregation and none other is this primary subject section 5 His second Argument is taken from the description of the Church as represented to John the Divine Rev. 4. For he takes it for granted that the Church there mentioned consisting of twenty four Elders and the four Beasts was a congregational Church or rather that the Church there was a Congregation in his sence Answ. But 1. Let it be granted that there is a description of a Church and the same Christian visible yet it will no ways agree to his Congregation For 1. There is an allusion made to the Congregation of Israel pitching in four Squadrons under four several Ensigns as the Ensign of Judah was a Lion and three Tribes under every Ensign with the Priest and Levites encamping next the Ark between it and the Squadrons This was a Congregation as you heard before of 600 000 Men besides Women and Children 2. This Congregation of the four Beasts and twenty four Elders sing a Song of praise unto the Lamb Christ and acknowledge that he was slain and had redeemed them to God by his blood out of every kindred and tongue and people and nation Rev. 5.8 9. This is a Congregation
Man or Angel or any company yet man cannot Man solitary is very imperfect and like a Body which wants some necessary parts God knows this full well therefore he so orders Multitudes of Vicinities that he inclines them by their very constitution to Society for by it they are not only stronger and more able to defend themselves and provide for their safety but also they are better supplyed with necessaries and commodities what one hath not another hath what one cannot do another can what few are not able to effect many may and all much more But that whereby God is the immediate cause of Society is voluntary consent to which he inclines their hearts when he hath once multiplied them and cast them together This consent whether tacit or express is grounded upon Love and good Affection with an intention to do good and just things one for another according to the work of the eternal Law written in their hearts The accidental original is when by divine Providence many from several Countries are cast together in one Place or part of the Earth and that upon several occasions or for several causes these in time grow familiar and acquainted one with another and for mutual Help Safety Benefit cement into one Body and according to the dictate of natural Reason join in one common Interest this some say was the original of the State of Venice at the first Thus the several distinct Communities upon the division of Languages at Babel had their beginning Thus one part of a Community seeking some new place for their habitation becomes a distinct Community of themselves section 7 The Third thing to be considered is who are Members of a Community To say nothing of Municipal Societies Colonies Plantations Provinces Titular Members who are only Cives honorarii this is a general Rule that after a form of Government once introduced whosoever are Subjects are Cives Members of that Community and continue such though the form of Government be altered or dissolved For there are degrees of them for some are virtualiter diminutè some formaliter plenè some eminenter Cives Members of a Community that is they are either imperfectly or perfectly such The lowest rank is of such as are not sui juris sed sub potestate alienâ free and in their own Power To this form are reduced Women Children Servants Strangers whether sojourning or inhabiting out of their own Common-wealth some kind of Tenants or Vassals do so much depend upon others that they are not competent Members all these are virtually included in others upon whom they depend Formally and fully Members are all such as being Males of full Age Free Independant have the use of Reason and some competent Estate such Freeholders seem to be with us These become such by Birth Election Manumission Or they are Natural Naturalized Being once such they have Jus suffragii in publicis as our Freeholders have a Vote in chusing their Knights for the Parliament and they virtually give their suffrage in that Assembly by their Representatives Eminenter Cives are such who by reason of their Descent Estates Parts Noble Acts are not once Members but somewhat more as being fit for Honour Offices and Places of Power if once a Common-wealth be constructed section 8 There be amongst others three inseparable adjuncts of a Community as a Community Propriety of Goods Liberty of Persons Equality of the Members Propriety there must needs be and the same Absolute and Independent the reason hereof is because what a Man hath justly acquired is his own by the Law of Nature which a Community doth not take away and further there is no dominium eminens as in a Common-wealth there must necessarily be Liberty of Persons there is because every compleat Member is sui juris and no ways bound by the Rules of a Civil supream Power and this is more than can be in a State once constituted wherein this Liberty is bounded by Allegiance and Laws there is Equality for there is no Superiour or Inferiour in respect of Government because there is no Government no Sovereign no Subject all are fellows Et socii quatenus socii sunt aequales inequality of Superiour and Inferiour Civil ariseth from a form of Government which is sometimes Despotical that it is destructive both of Liberty and Propriety This inequality is consistent with an imparity of Birth Parts Estate for Age for this is from Nature or Providence these Civil Societies may be less or greater both in respect of the number of Persons and extent of Place Neither can the certain number of Persons nor the particular bounds of Place be well determined If it be be too large it cannot so well unite if too little it 's insufficient to protect or provide for it self and so falls under the protection of others section 9 This Community Civil considered abstractively and antecedently to a form of Government not yet introduced or upon a dissolution of a former model or upon a failure of Succession in a time doth virtually contain a Supreme Power and hath a Liberty and Right to determine upon what Form they please so that it be good though it 's true that this Power may be taken from them by a Potent Invader or some other way and here it is to be noted that when a Form of Government is altered or dissolved any Community may remain nay under a Government it retains the nature of a Community as the matter and subject of the Common-wealth wherein every Subject must be considered first as Civis a Member of the Community before he can be conceived as subditus a Member of the Common-wealth This stricter Association of a Multitude to make a particular Community doth no way hinder their Society or Communion with other Communities or with all Mankind upon the Earth so far as is possible in things which may add unto their Happiness CHAP. III. Of an Ecclesiastical Community section 1 HItherto of a Community in general and of a Community Civil that which we call Ecclesiastical follows this in opposition to that which we call Temporal and Civil is Spiritual and is such in respect of Religion for as there are matters of this life which concern us as mortals with relation one unto another so there are matters of God spiritual divine and of a far higher allay there is no Nation or People though rude and barbarous but profess some Religion by the observation whereof they acknowledge their dependance upon a superiour Power and Providence far above that of mortal man yet many contrary to the very light of Nature either worshipped that which was not truly God or with the true God a false Deity or the true God alone without any certain rule and direction from Heaven after the invention of men or the suggestion of the Devil of these there have been many Communities which I will no further mention for these were never called Churches or
there be ingrafted so there be natural branches of these Communities as well as of the great and Universal Society for such there have been and that by divine Ordination and never any yet could evidently prove out of Scripture that this Law and Ordinance which made the Children part of the Parents and one Person with them in matter of Religion was abrogated or reversed to this day Therefore Children born of Christian Parents who were Members both of the universal and particular Communities and not disfranchised are members of a Christian Community by birth at least in Charity and they must needs be presumptuous Dictatours who exclude them It 's true that Infants born of men as men are men of such as are free are free of such as are noble are noble And so such as are born of Mahometans are Mahometans and such as are born of Jews are Jews such as are born of Heathens are by their birth Heathens and aliens to the Common-wealth of the Christian Israel and strangers from the Covenants of Promise Eph. 2.12 And shall not such as are born of Christians be Christians That Covenant which God made with Abraham though accidentally different is essentially the same with that of the Gospel as appears Rom. 4. and Gal. 3. yet in that Covenant God promised to be a God to him and his seed after him and this part of it which includes the Children with their Parents must needs remain in force if there be no clause of exception in the new Testament If there be Where is it As for the example and instance from the Apostles baptizing only such as professed their Faith. 1. It doth not follow that only such persons were baptised because that none but such are expresly named 2. When it s written that whole Houses were baptized no wit of man can prove that none of these were Infants 3. Those expresly mentioned were adult sui juris such are not Children and their Baptism was but Matter of Fact not of Law shall the children be first seminally and virtually in their Parents then after extraction by Birth part of their Parents and one person with them both by the Laws of God and Men even so far as they may be punished for the sins of their Parents and shall their Parents be bound for them and they bound in their parents in matter of Religion And shall not Gods promise extend so far as their Obligation surely it must This manner of Incorporation by birth is from God who 1. by his Divine providence brings them forth into the light of the World within the bosom of the Church so that they are born of Christian Parents who are members of a Community Christian and 2. From his Institution For though an Infant should be born of Christian Parents Members of a Christian Community yet he could not be a Christian and have any priviledge spiritual except it had been God's will and pleasure to account and judge him to be such For its the Decree the Promise the Covenant of God that makes him a Christian For as born of his immediate Parents or by them of Adam or of them as godly or ungodly he cannot be a Member of the Church And to be so is not to have actual Faith or to be justified and sanctified as believers at age but to have a right unto the promise which no Heathen or any other born out of the Church can have And as part of his Parents and included in the Covenant by the will of God he hath this priviledge The Promise saith Peter is to you and your Children and to all afar off even to as many as the Lord our God shall call Acts 2.39 where observe that the promise was not only to them at age but also to their Children Again You are the Children of the Prophets and of the Covenant which God made with our fathers saying unto Abraham In thy seed shall all the Nations of the earth be blessed Acts 3.25 Where note 1. That the Covenant was concerning everlasting bliss by Christ the seed of Abraham 2. That this Covenant includes all Nations not only Jews but Gentiles 3. That this is the Covenant of the Gospel for substance 4. That the present Jews were within this Covenant by birth and that both for the obligation to duty and the right unto the promise For they were the children of the Prophets and of the Covenant which neither the Heathens nor their children could be before they were called and their children in them From all this it appears how the Original of these Communities are from God for He 1. makes them Christians 2. Multiplies them in the same Vicinity 3. Inclines their hearts to associate and stirs up some eminent persons to motion and endeavour the association 4. By his Divine providence brings some into the world in the bosom of the Church and includes by his gracious Covenant Infants with their Parents in this spiritual Society section 8 After the Explication of the Definition the Declaration of the Original of these Societies it remains we consider the degrees and distinction of the members For though the Community in respect of a Form of outward Government be an homogenical body yet considered in it self and in the qualities of the several members there is an imparity and something organical in it For they are so qualified and the gifts of God so variously disposed in them that they are several ways disposed for to contribute according to their several graces something to the benefit of the whole and one another This the Apostle makes clear 1 Cor. 12. and 14. Chap. These distinctions and degrees are like those in the members of civil Society For 1. Some are virtualiter diminute cives incompleat members as women children and many weak Christians 2. Some are so gifted and qualified as they are fit to act and give suffrage in business which concerns the whole These are formaliter cives compleat members 3. Some are endued with more than ordinary knowledge wisdom grace above the rest and most fit to introduce a form of Government and act in the highest businesses of Administration These are eminenter cives eminently members Such as being members of another Church and yet sojourn or inhabit in a Community distant from their own before they are incorporate though upon Certificate and Letters communicatory they may partake in sacris yet they are but diminute cives members incompleat and for a time For as such they can have no vote or suffrage of any power in things publick They may indeed advise and declare their mind and their counsel may be liked and accepted section 9 This Community Ecclesiastical hath the same inseparable adjuncts with the civil except propriety of goods which they have in another respect For the members have liberty and equality and an immediate capacity of a form of Government For 1. They are free from any subjection either to any other Communities or one
of the same and Scotland vanquished In all our sad divisions which happened from first to last and are not wholly yet ended to this day Two things are worthy the serious consideration of wiser men than I am 1. What party for time past hath been most faithful to the English interest 2. What course is to be taken for to setle us more firmly for time to come For the first we must understand what the English interest is The interest of England is twofold Civil and Ecclesiastical for we are English men and Christians The Civil interest is salus populi Anglicani there is no doubt of that for the peace safety liberty happiness of our dear Country is the end whereat we are all bound both by the written and natural Laws of God to aim The interest Ecclesiastical is the Protestant Religion and the perservation of the substance thereof Prelacy Presbytery Independency much less Antipaedobaptism and other Sects are not essential but accidental to it This being the interest of England we cannot judge of the faithfulness either of the King 's or Parliaments party by the quality of the persons of either side For there were both good and bad on both sides who had their several grounds of adhering to this or that party and their several ends and neither their grounds nor ends good Nor can any man justifie all proceedings and actings of either side both had their errours Nor must we judge of them according to their protestation for both could not by such contrary means attain the same end as both sides protested to maintain the King the Parliament the liberty of the Subject the Laws and the Protestant Religion Neither in this particular must the Laws of the English Constitution and Administration be the rule for both acted not only above the Laws but contrary to the latter of them at least For no Laws could warrant the Parliament to act without the King or the King without the Parliament much less was it justifiable that there should be in one Kingdom two not only different but contrary commands supreme and from different heads and persons This was directly against the very nature of all Common-Wealths which have only one first mover and one indivisible supreme power to animate and act them section 19 The Rule therefore must be the Laws of God as above the Laws of Men and we must consider according to these divine Rules what was the state of the Controversie the justice and equity of the cause made evident and the just necessity of doing that which was done Neither must we look at the cause only as just in it self but also how it 's justly or unjustly maintained For men may use such means as shall never reach the just end intended but also such as may be destructive of the cause it self and raze the very foundation of it Besides all this before a perfect judgment can be made the secret counsels contrivances designs hidden actings of the chief Actors should be known yet these many times lie hid and are not known or if known yet to very few and some of these few cannot found the bottom Many things are charged upon the King as acting against the English interest as Civil as that he dissolves Parliaments without just and sufficient cause that he intermits Parliaments for sixteen years together that having signed the Petition of Right he acts contrary to it imposeth Ship-money calls a Parliament signs the Act of Continuance deserts it calls the Members from it calls another Parliament at Oxford challengeth a negative Voice to both the Houses raiseth a War against it though he was informed that this tended to the dissolution of the Government that whosoever should serve to assist him in such Wars are Traitors by the fundamental Laws of this Kingdom and have been so adjudged in two Acts of Parliament 11 Richard 2. and 1 Henry 4. And that such persons ought to suffer as Traitors These with other particulars charged upon him seem directly contrary unto the civil Interest of the Kingdom Again to Marry a Popish Lady upon Articles directly contrary to the Laws of England and the Protestant Religion established by Law to entertain Twenty eight Popish Priests with a Bishop to tolerate Mass in the Court to receive Three Agents from the Pope one after another Pisano Con Rosetti to maintain the Queen-mother to engage the generality of the People of England to retard the relieving of Ireland to admit divers of the Popish Irish Murtherers and Rebels into his Army to call our English Forces sent to relieve the poor distressed Protestants of Ireland out of that Nation and employ them against the Parliament of England to suffer some of the Heads of the Irish Rebels to be so near his Person to endeavour to bring in the Duke of Lorrain with his Forces into this Nation to contract with the Irish Rebels upon condition to enjoy their Religion to furnish him with Ten thousand Irish Rebels to strengthen his party in England with divers other acts like unto these is conceived to be not only inconsistent with but plainly destructive of the English Protestant Interest And if this be true it must needs be so Yet it might be said that the King endeavoured to maintain his own regal Power the Episcopacy and Liturgy established by Law and that he did not oppose the Parliament but a seditious party in the Parliament and other Sectaries whose principles were destructive both of all civil and also Ecclesiastical Government and without the judgment of able Lawyers and learned Divines he did not undertake the War either against Scotland or England or any other It 's true that of those who adhered to the King and liked not the Parliaments proceeding there were some consciencious persons who judged the King an absolute Monarch and did not like many things done by that party yet they thought it the Duty of Subjects to suffer and that it was no ways lawful to resist But the Casuists say That Ignorantia excusat a tanto non a toto their Ignorance might make their Crime less yet no ways free them from all Guilt It was not Invincible they might easily have known that the King of Enland was no absolute Monarch seeing he could not impose any Subsidy upon the Subject nor make or repeal a Law without the Parliament neither could he by his Letters or personal Command revoke the Judgment of any Court. And though they might be Civilians or read Foreign Writers which take our Kings for absolute Sovereigns yet no ancient Lawyers no Parliaments did declare them to be such Nay they might have known that they themselves obeying the King 's personal Commands disobeyed him as King and that serving him in the Wars they were guilty of High Treason against the Kingdom and against the King's Crown and Dignity Of these Royalists some have been high and cruel against their Brethren the Parliamenteers and have censured them
let us keep communion and heartily serve our God humbly imploring his Divine Majesty in the name of Christ to open our eyes and sanctifie our hearts that at length we may be united in the same Judgement and Affection and with one Mind and with one Mouth glorifie God even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. section 8 After the consideration of a Congregational extent as too narrow and of an Universal as too large I proceed to say something of a National extent as a man between The Congregationalist will censure it as too great by far the Universalist as too little by much Yet I shall willingly as in other things refer my self to the Judgement of Moderate Pious Judicious Impartial Men Let them condemn me or acquit me as they shall see just cause First it must be remembred that the subject of this whole Treatise is the Government of men by men under God and Jesus Christ our Blessed Saviour Of Gods more immediate Government I have spoken in my Divine Politicks where I shew it 's Monarchical Supream Universal and cannot be bounded to any part of the whole Universe For he being immense and not only virtually but actually present in all places at all times is only fit to govern all Nations and the whole World as the Universal Soveraign but this is far above the power not only of Men but of Angels Therefore whatsoever he doth in Heaven we know that when through his blessing mankind was multipled and especially after the Flood and had replenished the Earth they were divided into several Societies and were subject to several independent Tribunals We never find them under one neither do we in his word or works read of a Catholick King over all Nations nor of an Universal Bishop over all Churches Howsoever some have pretended such a Title yet they could never shew their Patent subscribed by the Hand of Heaven But suppose they could have acquired the possession of the whole earth which never any did yet no one Man no one Council no one Consistory had been able sufficiently to manage so vast a power and in any tolerable manner to govern all mankind at one time living upon Earth It seemed good indeed to our wise God both in former and latter times to enlarge the power of some States and especially that of the Romans Yet that very Empire of so large extent took in but a little part of the whole Earth and this appears plainly now since by Navigation some of the remote parts of the Globe and both the Hemispheres thereof have been discovered Yet in the greatest extent it was thought by some of their wisest Princes the best Policy Cogere terminos Imperii to limit and bound it because they thought the body of too big a bulk to be well ordered either by Prince or Senate or People or by all together But to return to the matter in hand the Question is Whether a national Community of Christians may not lawfully be subjected to one supream Judicatory Ecclesiastical To understand the Question the better it 's to be observed 1. That a Community of Christians may be said to be national several ways or in several respects as 1. When all the Christians of one and the same Nation do associate and unite in one body 2. When these Christians are the major part of the people 3. When the whole Nation or the generality thereof have received and do profess the same Christian Faith. I will here suppose the major part or generality to be Christians and the association and incorporation to be made by a tacit or explicit consent which sometimes may be confirmed by the Laws of the Supream Power Yet this generality may be so understood as that there may in the same Nation be found Turks or Mahumetans Pagans Atheists Jewes which cannot be of this body and that also there may be some Schisms and Separatitions amongst such as profess themselves Christians and sometimes they may be none This in my sense is a national Community of Christians and a Church-confident before any form of external Discipline be introduced 2. When I speak of subjection I do not say that they are always in all Nations bound by any Divine Precept to be so but that they may and that lawfully according unto the Scriptures 3. I understand that this subjection so as that every several member be subject not to one man or one party but to the whole and that either properly taken or virtually for a Representative of the whole which shall have power in the name of the whole body to make Canons and in Judgement to receive last Appeals 4. I understand the Question of Nations indefinitely taken for if any be of so vast extent as that one independent Court may be either insufficient or inconvenient I rather exclude then include such For suppose all Tartary should be counted one Nation or all Chinae I conceive they are too large 5. I mention only a national Community for if that be granted the Classical and Provincial must needs come in The Congregational party I know holds the Negative And here upon the by I will take the liberty for to answer Mr. Parker's seventh argument for his Congregational way It 's taken from Politicks and to this purpose That as little States are more easily and better governed then great ones so is a Congregational Church which is but of a narrow compass than a Classical Diocesan or Provincial or National which is far greater Answ. Though less Communities may be better governed than one too great yet a great one of moderate extent may be better governed and defended than one that is too little For Gods one peculiar People and Nation which was first under Judges then under Kings was subject to one Supream Tribunal for a long time above five hundred Years and afterwards it was divided into two Yet it was better governed under one than under two when subject to one individual Tribunal than when to two but of this more hereafter section 9 For the confirmation of this we must note 1. That there is no Divine Precept in the New Testament which particularly determines either the extent of place or number of persons to which a particular independent Church is confined we do not find their either the minimum or maximum quod sic Therefore some Latitude must needs be granted 2. That the History of the New Testament doth not reach those times wherein it pleased God to fulfil those Prophesies which promised That Kings should become Nursing-fathers and Queens Nursing-mothers of the Church and she should suck the breasts of Kings who should come unto her light 2. When one should become a thousand and a small one a strong Nation I saith the Lord will hasten it in its time Where one saith he alludes to the Creation which he finished in six days hastening and could not rest and keep his Sabbath till all was ended and
be so much reason and wisdom in their Determinations as that they will bind more by vertue of the matter than the authority and votes of their persons We might add that in these Independent Congregations there is neither any conveniency or necessity that all the Members should meet either for Juridical or Legislative Acts though it be expedient that all should know what is done They call women and children together for Worship but not for matters of Judgement and Discipline It 's sufficient if such as are rational and judicious have suffrage in the same matters Marsilius in his Defensor Pacis determines the Power of Legislation to be in Populo aut civium universitate Yet he grants that the Laws may be made Per valentiorem partem or their Trustees and that what is so done by them is done by all But in this particular he excludes women children servants strangers though inhabitants if not incorporated likewise Mr. Parker who gives the whole and independent Power of the Keys into a Congregation under a Democratical form yet will have the exercise of this power in the Officers in an Aristocratical mode Seeing therefore that neither multitude of persons nor distance of place nor impossibility of a vertual and sufficient Convention of all the Members being the differences between a National and Congregational Church and conceived to be the impediments of good Government are no impediments I know no reason but that all the Christians of a Nation may be as well governed by a subjection to one supream Judicatory as a Congregation independent section 13 But let us oppose this National Community under one supream Tribunal to a thousand or more Independent Congregations as hitherto we have compared it with one single Congregation and then that which was affirmed will be more apparent For 1. a National Community Christian may have the same Members the same gifted Men the same Officers and the like Assemblies for Worship as subjected unto one Tribunal which the same number of Christians in the same nature divided into a thousand or more Independent Polities may have And the same gifted Men and Officers may act more effectually for the good of the whole when they are thus united then when scattered and divided like the vital Spirits in so many several Bodies For vis unita fortior and the being more firmly orderly and regularly united may more easily animate and effectually move and direct one body though great then so many bodies independent one upon another and severed though little 2. Again in this National Body every Congregation Classis Province may act order hear and determine matters belonging to their Cognisance and within their Precincts without troubling any general Representative except in the highest most difficult businesses of general concernment which with all extraordinary matters are reserved for that highest Assembly And all this is done according to the Rules of Government allowed by God and practised by the best Polities in the World. 3. The Congregationals grant that any of their single Congregations independent in a difficult point or business may take the advice of twenty thirty forty other Congregations or more yet if the Major part of them or all should agree and give their judgment that one Congregation shall not be bound by their advice but shall have power to judge against it or subscribe unto it seeing in this case no Scripture binds this or other Congregations to be independent or perhaps allow any such thing except in some extraordinary cases it were worth the serious consideration of wise men whether it be more agreeable to the Rules of good Government and the general Precepts of Church-discipline that one of these Congregations alone should have the power to determine and that finally this difficult cause and all the rest only to advise then that joyntly with this one all the rest and most of them as good and some perhaps better should have power not only to advise but determine And whether this determination of all joyntly were not likely to prove better and more effectual and more conducing to the end of Discipline than that Determination of one But against this two things may be said 1. That all those other Congregations may err but this is but to suppose and to suppose a thing both unlikely and extraordinary that forty well constituted Churches may err and that one be free from errour 2. By this it seems to follow that in some difficult cases one National Church may not only take the advice of many others but subject themselves unto them But 1. we are bound only to submit unto the Word of God made clear unto us though it be very likely that many seeking God and making right use of the means are more likely to find out truth and understand the Word of God better than one 2. I staid at a National Church and did not expatiate further because experience hath taught us how prejudicial it hath been even to this State to suffer Appeals to be made either unto Forreign Churches or States Neither is it fit in respect of the Civil Soveraign Christian that the Church within this State should any ways depend upon any other Church whatsoever section 14 I had said before that a national Multitude of Christians associated into one Body and subjected to one supream Power of the Keys may be as easily and as well governed and edified as if they were divided into many several Communities and independent Congregations Now I add that in divers cases they may be more easily and better governed and edified This might be made manifest 1. From the many conveniences which will follow from the Multiplication of Independencies in a national Church and Christian State all which by an internal connexion and subordination may be avoided Histories read with attention and understanding will manifest this and the experience of these times in our Church and Nation 2. From the disproportion and also the difference between the Church and State in respect of the extent and the multitude of independent Polities Ecclesiastical within the bowels of one entire Civil Common-wealth Christian. I do not mean that the Constitution of the Church and State should be the same so that if the State be Monarchical the Church should be such too or if Aristocratical it should be Aristocratical For though God hath determined the model of the Church yet he hath not so particularly defined the Constitution of the State. Neither do I affirm that the Church by any Divine Precept is bound to be co-adequate to the State only this I say it will be convenient advantagious to the Church and agreeable to the general Rules of Decency and Order 1. That it be co-adequate to the State. 2. That there be but one independent Church in in one national State except there be some special impediment But not to insist so much upon these a third and greater reason to prove this is taken from the insufficiency