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A25697 An Apology for the English Presbyterians with a defence of the heads of agreement assented to by the united ministers in the year 91. 1699 (1699) Wing A3548; ESTC R17890 29,933 88

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we would speak exactly neither a Classis of Officers Assembled nor a Company of Visible Saints combined can properly be called a Church They viz. the Independents deny a Classis of Officers to be a Church and We who are for Classes deny a Company of Saints combined without Officers to be a Church being both of them but PARTS of a Church part of the Matter of a Church and therefore PROPERLY no Church The Truth is tho' both a Classis and a Company of Saints combined without Officers have by Custom obtained to be called Churches yet PROPERLY they are but Parts or Members of the whole Church diversly combined But we add If we will speak exactly a Particular Congregation consisting of Officers and Members is not PROPERLY a Church but a Member of the Catholick Visible POLITICAL Church And if they much more some Members of that Member Visible Saints without Officers are Improperly called a Church Again here lies one of the great Mistakes in the Independent way That they imagine a Church without and before any Officers and then give them Power to make Officers So far the Learned Mr. Cawdrey §. 5 2. The Judicious Mr. Hudson states the Controversie after the same manner but more elaborately and with greater Logical Exactness and expresly affirms the Catholick Church Visible to be a Totum Integrale or POLITICAL Society to be a Corporation or Body Politick in which there is a Governing and Governed Part. And on the Supposition that the Catholick Church Visible is a Totum Integrale 't will unavoidably follow as Learned Mr. Calamy hath happily expressed it in his Preface to Mr. Hudson that the Congregational Government is not right The Truth is saith he the Position there held forth would utterly overthrow the Grounds and Pillars of the Congregational Government for if there be a Catholick Church Visible and this Church be not only a Church Entitive but a Church Organical and a Totum Integrale having all Church Powers habitually seated in the Officers of it which they have Commissions from Christ to Exert and put into Act upon a Lawful Call and if particular Congregations are Integral Parts and Members of the Church Catholick as the Jewish Synagogues were of the Jewish Church and if the Ministry Orders and Censures were given by Christ first to the Church General Visible and secondarily to the Church Particular then 't will follow that the particular Congregation is not the First Receptacle of Church Power and that all Church Power is not Entirely and Independently in a particular Congregation So far Mr. Calamy to whom I add That according to this Notion Visible Saints combined for Church Communion without Officers are not a Church Essential and have not a Power to choose Officers c. For upon this Principle it 's manifest yea 't is owned That to the Catholick Church Visible which is a Totum Integrale or an Organized Body a POLITICAL Church the Administration and Immediate Participation of Government and all other Ordinances are firstly and immediately given yea further it must be granted that particular Churches whether Congregational or Classical Provincial or National are not Properly Churches but Integral Parts of the Catholick Visible POLITICAL Church that whoever is a Visible Christian has an Immediate Right to all Ordinances and that the Relation of every Minister is firstly and habitually unto the Catholick Church Visible and secondarily to this or that Particular Church which is not Properly a Church that where-ever any single Christian comes he is a Member of the Particular Church in that Place and has a Right to all Ordinances tho he never joyn'd himself to any and whoever is ordained he is a Pastor of the Catholick Church may Administer all Ordinances whither soever he comes and Excommunicate Delinquents Tho' for Order sake his Power is not exercised yet the Power remains Entire in every Ordained Minister even in them who are called to take the Charge of any particular Church §. 6 1. On the other hand the First Reformers of all Perswasions subverted this Notion in their Opposition unto the Papists by denying such a thing as a Visible Catholick Church Sublato Fundamento tollitur opus And they who now own that the many Visible Christians scattered through the World may be called the Catholick Church Visible yet do strenuously oppugn its being a Political Church And these Congregationalists affirm the Church Catholick Visible to be Totum Vniversale Genericum or as they sometimes express it a Totum Essentiale that this Totum Genericum gives Essence unto its Species or Parts and is its Cause and in order of Nature before its Species as a Cause is before its Effects But then it must to prevent mistake be carefully observ'd that by Church Universal Visible they mean a Congregational or a Particular Church Essential which including the General Nature of a Church they call General or Vniversal but such as hath where the Combination is its Essentials existent antecedently to the Consideration of its being an Integrum or a Body Politick and as such is dressed with a Power of choosing its Officers and of becoming thereby a Totum Integrale or an Organick Body §. 7 2. Fit Matter Combined before formed into an Organick Body is with them the Church Essential the only immediate Seat of Church Power or to express it in the Words of Mr. Allen and Mr. Sheppard Def. of the Nine Proposit p. 88. The true Form of all Church Societies Instituted by Christ to which he hath given the actual Administration and Immediate Participation of Church Government and all other Instituted Ordinances as the Subject thereof is Congregational §. 8 These two Reverend Brethren do not I confess think themselves obliged to encumber this Controversie with those Logical Niceties of a Totum Genericum a Totum Integrale yet do they hold That the true State of this Controversie lies here concerning the NATURE ORDER and FORM of such Visible Societies as Christ Jesus by Divine Institution in the Gospel hath reduced his Visible Members unto for the Actual and Immediate Injoyment of all his Instituted Ordinances And the Chain of their Principles lies thus First There is a Particular Church Essential which is Congregational this Congregation is made up of Visible Saints who upon their Mutual Consent and Agreement to walk together according to Gospel Rule have an Immediate Right to Stated Communion in all the Special Ordinances of the Gospel that as they have Power to Combine together as aforesaid so being combined they have a Power of choosing their own Officers as being furnished with such have received Authority from Jesus Christ to Exercise Government and of enjoying all Ordinances of Worship within themselves §. 9 These then are the Points wherein Mr. Cawdrey Hudson and others who were for the Classical Churches and Government differed from the old Nonconformists and the English Presbyterian and Congregationalist For the Ecclesiastical Presbyterians held the Catholick Church
People could be entirely for it nor could the Shadow of it find acceptance amongst us the Sober Party who Dissented from the Diocesans being for the most part English Presbyterians and Congregationalists SECT IV. The ENGLISH PRESBYTERY after the Restauration of Charles II. prevail'd again and so continued till the late Vnion commenced These things shewn out of the Writings of Dr. Collings and Mr. Baxter §. 1 WHen Charles II. was Restored soon after the Presbyterians were cast out and the Episcopal put into their Places whereupon the Nonconformists who were not of the Independent way did soon by their Practice and the several Books written in Defence of their Nonconformity convince their closest Observers that they were for those Principles which the English Presbyterians had from time to time Asserted And that thus much may with the greatest Clearness and to the most satisfaction be evinced I will refer to what Dr. Collings and Mr. Baxter have offered on this Occasion §. 2 1. Dr. Collings who laboured much and wrote well in the Controversie about Church-Government gives an Account of the main Opinions of those Ministers and People in England who go under the Name of Presbyterians and calls his Book ENGLISH PRESBYTERY §. 3 2. In the Account he gives of their Opinions he tells us That they were for a Catholick Church Visible which the Old English Presbyterians would never own but the it must be observ'd that he doth not represent them as Asserters of a Catholick Church Visible form'd into one Govern'd Society or an Organick Body For he carefully appropriates the Governing Power to fixed single Congregations in which the Ruling Officers may have the Knowledge of every Member under his Care His Words are They Believe that Christ hath Appropriated Ministers of the Gospel to this Visible Church who may Preach the Gospel and Baptize in any Parts of it but CAN ONLY Exercise an ordinary Jurisdiction in those particular Parts of it over which God hath given them a particular Oversight as Pastors and Teachers The Exercise of Acts of Jurisdiction REQUIRING A PARTICULAR KNOWLEDGE of PERSONS OPINIONS KNOWLEDGE and CONVERSATION which no single Person can have as to all the Members of the Visible Church P. 6. § 4. and in the same Page § 6. 't is added They Believe Persons thus set apart as in a foregogoing Paragraph to the Ministry are fully Authorized to Preach the Gospel and to Baptize in any Place where they are called to it AND TO ADMINISTER THE LORD'S SUPPER when they shall be FIXED IN ANY CONGREGATION that they may Administer it knowingly to Persons that are able to discern the Lord's Body and to EXERCISE ACTS OF JURISDICTION in THEIR FIXED CONGREGATION And P. 10. § 2. An Admonition which is a Church Censure is the Act of the whole Congregation or the officers of it as well in the Name of Christ as IN THEIR NAMES shewing a Person Offending his Errour from the Word of God and Exhorting and Warning him to Reform This they say may be often Repeated 4. Excommuniation being the Highest Censure they Believe ought not to be Denounced by any Persons but those whom God's Word hath appointed thereunto The Persons Decreating it must be the Church by its Officr or Officers they agreeing thereunto §. 4 3. The Doctor in these Paragraphs as he truly Represents the English Presbyterians to be of Opinion that Christ's Ministers may Preach and Baptize whenever in the Visible Church they are called so He adds That they say the Exercise of Jurisdiction belongs to the Minister as he is fixed to a Congregation that he is to Admonish Ecclesiastically in Christ's and the Churches Names that the Persons decreeing to Excommunicate must be the Church by the Officer or Officers allowwing unto the Christian Magistrate more Power in these Matters than Classical Presbyterians as in P. 8 9 and so far from making the Catholick Church Visible a Governed Society or Organnick Body that you see they Appropriate the Power of Jurisdiction unto a fixed a Congregation without mentioning a Subordination of Classical or Provincial Assemblies of the Ruling Officers unto a National or other Greater Synods But §. 5 1. The Learned Mr. Baxter who about the Nature and Constitution of Particular Churches hath been more Elaborate and Convincing than most in Desending their Non-conformity unto the Church of England doth most exactly describe the English Presbyterians fetching his Arguments from the Inconsistency there is between the Diocesan Government and the Specific Nature of Christ's Instituted Churches Ministry and Discipline And §. 6 2. That he may the more clearly shew where the Strength of his Arguments doth lie he distinguisheth between particular Instituted Churches and the Catholick Church Visible affirming that they are Specifically Distinct from each other upon the account of the different sorts of Communion that are had in a Particular and in the Catholick Church For saith he §. 7 3. Communion which is the Essentiating End of these Societies is twofold The One sort is in the same Species or kind of Worship only and the other in the same Individual Acts of Worship Adding that the Communion which is in the same kind of Worship only may be between them who are at the greatest distance from each other and consequently with every Member of the Catholick Church Visible which therefore he calleth Catholick Communion and seeing it can be only in kind it cannot be more visible as such than the Species of things are But Communion in the same Individual Acts of Worship is by joyning in the same Ordinances of the Word Prayer and Lord's Supper and they who have Communion with each other in this way must meet in the same Place at one and the same time and 't is therefore called Personal-Presential or Local Communion which is therefore Proper and Adaequate to a particular Congregational-Church This is a thing that must be Inculcated viz. Communion in the same Individual Acts can be had only in a single Congregation because there alone they can actually joyn in the same Worship whence it necessarily follows §. 8 4. That that Communion which is stretched beyond the Bounds of one single Congregation being only in the same kind of Worship is of the same sort with Catholick Communion And seeing the Members of a Diocesan or Classical Church can have no other Communion with each other than what is Catholick they want that Communion which is Essential unto those particular Churches which are of Divine Institution and specifically distinguished from the Catholick Church And on the other Hand the Asserting Diocesan or Classical to be particular Churches of the Lowest Rank and Order is quantum in se a destroying Parish or Congregational Churches and as stretching particular Churches to a larger Extent is to make the Ends of their Constitution impossible to be attained As Mr. Alsop in his Misch of Impos It is very Lawful to build a Ship or a Man of War as big as two or