Church-Catholike consist only of the elect redeemed ones called out of the world into a supernatural estate and yet the particular Churches which are similar and constituent parts of it consist of members that are 〈◊〉 of them only Saints in appearance and not in truth yea some whole Churches erring schismatical 〈…〉 maâ—tâ—â— as the particular visible Churches which are the members of the Catholike consist of such must the Church Catholike consist of which is the similar integral And though such as are only Saints in appearance and not in truth are said by M. Norton in his answer to Apollonius p. 87. to be equivocal members of particular Churches yet are they as truly members of the whole as they are of the parts and they are so for true as that their external communion and administrations if any such be Officers are true and valid both in respect of the particular Churches and the Catholike quond 〈◊〉 â—â—â—station And it is his own rule Resp p. 88. Quicquid inest parti inest toti that which is in the part is in the whole And again he saith Ecclesiae Catholica Ecclesiae particulares communicant essentiâ nomine Ecclesiae particulares pro varijs earum rationibus habent se ut partes ut adjuncta Ecclesiae Catholicae Ex naturâ ex ratione sunt ut res 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. similares ut mare appellatur aqua ita qualibet gutta maris appellatur aqua Resp pag. 87. therefore they must needs consist of the same kinde of matter as they are both visible A TABLE Of the chief things contained in this Tractate CHAPTER 1. The explication of the terms of the Question Page 1. Section 1. WHat is meant by Ecclesia or Church It is taken in a civil and theological sense In a theological sense 1 Primarily and properly for the whole company of the elect which is called the Invisible Church 2 2 For the company of visible beleevers 3 For the members as distinct from the Officers of the Church 4 For the Elders or governours of the Church as distinct from the body 3 5 For the faithful in some one family 4 Section 2. What is meant by visible The distinction of the visible and invisible Church opened The difference between visible visum The Churches mentioned in the N. T. were visible Churches 6 An Objection of the absurdity of wicked mens being members of the body of Christ answered by a distinction of Christs body The distinction of the Church into visible and invisible is not exact 8 The invisible members of the Church are also visible What a Church visible is 9 The description vindicated from some objections against it 10 Section 3. What is meant by Catholike universal or oecumenical 11 Four acceptations of the word Catholike and which of them suit the question What the universal visible Church is 12 Diverse descriptions of it and quotations out of Divines both ancient and modern about it 13 What a National Church is 15 Diverse proofs from Scripture for a National Church under the Gospel The description of a particular visible Church given by Gersom Bucerus scanned 17 Mr Cottons description of a visible 18 Four Quaeries about it propounded 1. Whether the matter of it consisteth only of Saints called out of the world 2. Whether every particular visible Church be a mystical body of Christ or but only a part of it seeing Christ hath but one mystical body in the same sense 3. Whether the form of a particular visible Church be a particular Covenant 19 4. Whether all the Ordinances of God can be enjoyed in a particular visible Church 20 Which for some of them seemeth very inconvenient And for others impossible M. Nortons description of a particular Church 22 A Congregational Church standing alone hardly found in the New Testament Section 4. What is meant by prima vel secundaria orta 23 The primity of the Church-Catholike in a threefold respect 24 The difference between this question and M. Parkers Chapter 2. Proofs by Scripture for a Church-Catholike visible 25 Section 1. Our Divines in answer to the Papists mean by Church-Catholike the invisible Church only 26 Yet is there also an external visible Kingdom of Christ as well as an internal and invisible M. Hookers acknowledgement of a political body or Kingdom of Christ on earth 27 D. Ames testimony of a Church-Catholike visible 28 Section 2. Diverse proofs out of the Old Testament for a Church-Catholike visible 29 Section 3. Diverse proofs out of the New Testament for a Church-Catholike visible 31 Act. 8.3 and Gal. 1.13 vindicated Act. 2.47 vindicated 33 1 Cor. 10.32 vindicated 35 Gal. 4.26 opened 37 Eph. 3.10 vindicated 38 Section 4. 1 Cor. 12.28 vindicated 39 Two answers of M. Hookers concerning this text considered 40 Diverse answers to this text by M. Ellis refuted 41 An Objection of M. Hookers about Deacons set in the same Church where Apostles were set answered 51 Section 5. 1 Tim. 3.15 vindicated 53 Diverse texts vindicated where the Church-Catholike is called the Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of heaven 55 Mr Hookers answer to those texts considered 1 Cor. 15.24 vindicated 56 Heb. 12.28 vindicated 57 Section 6. 1 Cor. 5.12 vindicated 58 Eph. 4.4 5. vindicated 59 Mat. 16.18 vindicated 60 M. Hookers acknowledgement that this text is meant of the visible Church 61 3. Ep. of John ver 10. vindicated 62 Chapter 3. Proofs by arguments and reason that there is a Church-Catholike visible 64 Section 1. 1 From Gods donation unto Christ of an universal Kingdom 2 From Gods intention in sending Christ and the tenour of Gods exhibition of Christ in his word to the whole world 65 3 From the general preaching and receiving of the Gospel 66 4 From the general Charter whereby the Church is constituted Section 2. 5 From the generality of the Officers of the Church and general donation of the Ministry 67 6 From the general vocation wherewith and general Covenant whereinto all Christians are called 68 7 From the generality of the initial seal admittance and enrowlment 69 8 From the external catholike union between all visible Christians 70 Section 3. 9 From the individual system or body of laws proceeding frrm the same authority whereby the whole is governed 10 From the general external communion intercourse and communication between all Christians 71 11 From the general extension of excommunication 73 12 If there be parts of the Church-Catholike there is a whole Section 4. Many metaphors in Scripture setting forth the whole Church under an unity 74 Chapter 4. That the Church-Catholike visible is one Integral or Totum integrale Section 1. First Negatively that it is not a Genus 77 1 Because a Genus is drawn by mental abstraction of species but the Catholike visible is made up by conjunction or apposition of the several members 2 A Genus hath no existence of its own which the Church-Catholike visible
Nam visibile est quod videri potest licet nunquam videtur Visible is that which may be seen though it be never actually seen Videri potest or may be seen is referred to the capability of the object to be seen not to the particular act of every agent at all times But take visible in his sense Quod uâ—o intuitu videri potest as a Kingdom representative in a Parliament Is a Parliament only visible â—o such as do actually see it and invisible to all others Is it not visible because not visum Men know it may be seen though they see it not though they exercise their knowledge only about it and not their senses yet that makes it not a genus or secunda notio It is visible though not actually seen Cameron de Ecclesiae conspicuitate pag. 245. saith the Church is visible as the world is we cannot see the whole world together but secundum partes successivè non uno obtutu attamen nulla est pars terra habitabilis quae non possit cerni Now only the invisible company have internal spiritual communion and are elect many of those that have external communion and are visible members shall perish And yet by reason of their profession are said 2 Thes 1.1 to be in God the Father and the Lord Iesus Christ as Ames also confesseth Ames med lib. 1. cap. 32. art 9. Such was the Church of Corinth and Ephesus c. wherein all were not in communion for life And of such Christ speaketh Ioh 15. â— Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he takes away And vers 6. If a man abides not in me he is cast forth as a branch and is withered and men gather them and cast them into the fire and they are burned These are said to be redeemed 2 Pet. 2.1 denying the Lord that bought them And sanctified Heb. 10.29 And hath accounted the bloud of the Covenant wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing And in Pauls exordiums to his Epistles To the Church of God to them that are sanctified in Christ Iesus called to be Saints 1 Cor. 1.2 These are called the sonnes of God Gen. 6.2 And Deut. 14.1 It is spoken of Israel in general ye are the children of the Lord your God And Gal. 3.26 Ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Iesus Now it is not to be conceived that all the members of the Churches in Galatia were true beleevers They are called the children of the Kingdom Mat. 8.12 i. e. reputed so but yet many of them were cast out into utter darknesse And Act. 3.25 Ye are the children of the Covenant which God made with our fathers Their advantage by being of the visible body was great every manner of way Rom. 3.1 2. To them pertained the adoption Rom. 9.4 and the glory and the Covenant and the giving of the Law and the service of God and the promises Which adoption is not internal adoption proper only to true beleevers for it is a priviledge belonging to the body of that people but it is the honour of being separated and reputed the children of God and so to live under the external Covenant and service of God and promises though they had not grace to improve them They are called Ro. 11.17 branches of the true olive partaking of the root and fatnesse of the Olive which were broken off and others ingraffed in their room which cannot be meant of the invisible company of elect but the visible Church God did not blot some out of his book of election and put others in or break off any true beleevers and graff others in but only out of their visible Church standing and partaking in outward Ordinances Object But is not this absurd that Christ should have wicked men who are limbs of Satan to be of his mystical body Carnal wicked men to be members of such a gracious glorious head Answ If by mystical body be meant the company of elect faithful ones that are knit to Christ by the Spirit on his part and by faith on their part and receive spiritual sap and vertue and grace from Christ internally it were altogether absurd to suppose any limb of Satan were so but mystical body is taken in opposition to a natural and civil body Now draw a word as suppose head from its natural and proper signification to a civil use and head will signifie a King who is called a civil head and then draw it to a theological use and it is called a mystical use of that word and so Christ is called a spiritual or mystical head and the Church a mystical body And in this sense mystical and organical are competible for both visible and invisible members may be said to be of the mystical body of Christ though in a different respect in regard of their communion the one visibly only the other not only vâ—sibly but also invisibly And in this sense M. Cotton in his Catechism cals a particular Church a mystical body of Christ wherein all are not of the invisible company And as the body admits of such a distinction so doth the head also for Christ affordeth spiritual communion to some inwardly as well as outwardly by Ordinances even saving graces and comforts by the Spirit of grace to others only outwardly by Ordinances and by common works of his Spirit In the same sense that a visible Church may be called a mystical body of Christ Christ may also be called a mystical head thereof As Christ terms himself a Master so he hath evil slothful unfaithful servants and stewards as a King he hath rebels that will not have him to rule over them even in his Church Mat. 25.26 Luk. 19.14 as a shepherd he hath goats as well as sheep Mat. 25.32 as a housholder he hath vessels of dishonour as well as honour 2 Tim. 2.20 Mat. 25.2 as a bridegroom he hath foolish virgins as well as wise invited to the wedding as a husbandman he hath tares among his wheat Matth. 13.25 as a fisherman he hath rubbish in his net as well as good fish Mat. 13.47 as a vine he hath unfruitful branches as well as fruitful Joh 15.6 Christ saith my people are foolish they have not known me sottish children that have no understanding that are wise to do evil but to do good they have no knowledge Ier 4.22 yea stubborn and rebellious people In the N.T. there were some in the Church of Corinth 1 Cor. 11. that had not the knowledge of God denying the resurrection guilty of drunkennesse at the Lords table guilty of fornication and uncleannesse and lasciviousnesse and had not repented And Tit. 1.16 Paul speaks of some in the Church that professed they knew God but in works denied him being abominable disobedient and to every good work reprobate And 2 Tim. 3.5 Having a form of godlinesse and denying the power thereof And Phil. 3.18 19. Enemies to the crosse of Christ whose end is destruction whose God
probable because of the conceived smalnesse of the place yet it is not certain for it was a port Town 8. miles from Corinth as Hâ—lyoke tels us and Gualter in Rom. 16. saith it was Oppidum Corinthiorum navium statione celeberrimum ideò frequens valdè populosum The clearest evidence is from 1 Cor. 14.14 for a particular Congregational Church Let your women keep silence in the CHURCHES which word Churches seems to import several Congregations meeting in several places to enjoy publike Ordinances by the Corinthians your women and these Congregations are called Churches and yet were all one combined Church of Corinth often spoken of in the singular number But this dispute belongs noâ— to this question yet the present difference of opinions and practices have caused me a little to dilate upon this subject beyond the explication of the term And I understand by particular Churches any or all the forementioned Churches whether National Provincial Presbyterial Classical or Congregational and this last principally for those that have first moved this question mean principally if not solely the Congregational Church because as I suppose they hold no other particular Churches but such The fourth term to be opened is What is meant by Prima Sect. 4. vel Secundaria Orta This distinction or at least in these terms is not ancient for M. Parker in his Politeia Eccles was the first that sprung it as far as I know Primum in Logick is defined to be Quod est suae Originis Ortum quod oritur a primo Secundarium is properly that which is next after the first in order for it is an ordinal I do not mean strictly next immediatly but in the largest sense for that which hath not the first right or first consideration but a Posterior In the Question Primum or first is meant that which hath the priority in consideration Whether in our apprehension of Churches we are to begin at the Church-Catholike and descend to particular Churches or begin at the particular and ascend to the Church Chatholike which notion is first in distinct knowledge whether Ecclesia Vniversalis aut Particularis Whether the nature priviledges and Ordinances belong first to the Church Catholike and secondarily to the particular Churches I do not mean as M. Ellis supposeth that the power of Ordinances go by way of discention or derivation of power from the Church-Catholike indispensation of Ordinances but in consideration for I acknowledge power to be given immediatly to every particular Church therein yet under regulation of a greater part of Church-Officers in case of male-administration The properties and power of water is primarily given to the whole element of water but is immediatly yet secondarily in the particular parcels thereof But the Catholike Church is the primary in a threefold respect First as the Orthodox Catholike Church is a means or instrument by the Ordinances Ministery and members thereof in the several parts and places thereof to convert adde and bring in more new members thereunto and in continually conquering out of Satans and Antichrists Kingdom and leavening the world with the doctrine of Christ Secondly as the Church-Catholike affords matters and members to make up or constitute the particular Congregations which consist only of the members of the Catholike Church gathered up from any place of the world into particular vicinities Thirdly in regard the Ordinances and priviledges of the Church are primarily intended and given by Christ by one Charter unto the whole Church and to particular Churches secondarily as parts thereof And so they partake of the benefits and priviledges of the Church not because they are members of the particular Churches though there they have the immediate opportunity but of the Church-Catholike As a Corporation already constituted by Charter receiveth in free men continually and giveth freedome to new members which come any way to have right thereto and those members have right to the priviledges of the City not because they are of such a street or ward or company but because they are tree of the City So that though I have retained the terms of M. Parkers distinction prima and Orta sive secundaria yet my question differs much from his For he compares the particular Churches who delegate and send members or commissioners to constitute a Classis or Synod with such a ministerial Church a Church of Officers so constituted for some especial ends pro tempore which some call a representative Church and I confesse with him that such a Church may well put on the notion of Ecclesia Orta and the particular Churches out of which these members are delegated may in some sense in reference unto them put on the notion of Ecclesiae prima Yet I do not conceive that those particular Churches give either the office or the power in actu primo whereby those delegated Commissioners do act when they are met but by such delegation they do evocate and call forth the exercise of that power which Christ hath annexed to their office habitually in actum secundum to act pro hic nunc for the good of all those Churches so sending which acts of theirs binde the delegating Churches to submission in the Lord. But in my Question the whole Church Catholike visible is compared with the particular Churches and they are considered as parts thereof CHAP. II. Proofs by Scripture that there is a Church-Catholike visible NOw I have opened the terms of my Question I finde two Questions in stead of one and whether of them is the most difficult I cannot tell Whereas the subject of every Question useth to be taken for granted and the predicate only to be proved I finde the subject of my Question exceedingly questioned and opposed Chap. 2. and that by some of our own Divines and therefore though my first aim in undertaking the Question was to clear the Predicate yet I must crave leave to confirm the subject or else whatsoever I shall say of the Predicate will be as a house built on the sand or a Castle in the air for if there be no universal visible Church then it is not capable of being either Prima or secundaria In handling both these Questions I shall follow my wonted method I preferre one Divine Testimony before ten arguments and one good argument before ten humane testimonies Sect. 1. First then Whether there be a Church-Catholike visible I know that our Divines in answer to the Pontificians do deny the Church-Catholike to be visible as Zanchy Gerard Whitakers Chamier and Ames against Bellarmine and Sadeel against Turrianus and against the Monks Confession of faith and D. Willet in his Synops For they restraining the signification of the word Church to the better part of the Church the Elect only and considering them in respect of their internal communion with Christ their head and not their external communion one with another by Ordinances did deny the Church-Catholike to be visible Nec
a quovis impio nec pio videri potest saith Whitaker And if the word Church be taken in that sense it is most certainly true it must needs be invisible But there is also an external communion as hath been shewed before which the visible members have both with Christ and one with another which is visible and makes the enjoyers thereof visible one to another and to all others also viz. their praying one with another and for another and their hearing the Word and receiving the Lords-Supper together as occasion is offered and their receiving all those as visible members of the visible mystical Kingdom and body of Christ that are admitted in any part of the Church by baptism and the avoiding of such as are any where excommunicated and the receiving again into communion those that are any where absolved So that there is an external visible Kingdom of Christ as well as an internal and invisible and the elect are of the visible Kingdom as well as of the invisible they are as Ezechiels wheels a wheel in the midst of a wheel It is true which reverend M. Hooker puts me in minde of that these 4. Questions between the Pontificians and our Divines are distinct Vtrum Ecclesia sit visibilis Vtrum Ecclesia visibilis potest deficere An sit semper frequenâ— gloriosa Vtrum Ecclesia opus habet visibili monarchâ summo Judice But they are rather marshalled so by our Divines in their answers then distinguished by themselves for they often confound visible conspicuous glorious manifest specious splendid magnifical and flourishing together yet the Church is visible when latent under persecutions and is deprived of the other properties for all the members even then are not invisible members of Christ Cameron granteth that these properties may betide the visible Church but not alwaies and so say some of the Papists also and that when they do betide the Church they rather shew Quid sit Ecclesia quam quae sit that it cannot be discerned which is the true Church by these accidents of perpetual clarity Cameron de Conspic Eccl. The Pontificians notion of the Church Catholike is very absurd for they hold the name Church-Catholike to belong to one Church viz. the Church of Rome and that being the Church-Catholike and comprizing the universality of the Church in it self all that will be members of the Church-Catholike must submit unto them and be members of that Of which Tylen in Synâ—â—g saith well Orbem urbi includunt And the necessity which they make that this one visible Church should be under one visible universal head on earth viz. the Pope as Christs vicar general is as absurd and therefore they are worthily confuted by our Divines But to deny an external Kingdome or Church of Christ upon earth or to deny the visibility or perceptibility of it or the unity of it or the univesality of it under the Gospel is as I conceive as absurd on the other side To the particulars I shall speak more fully in following Chapters I finde reverend M. Hooker in his Survey of Church-Discipline par 1. pag. 3. acknowledging Christ a political head by his especial guidance in means and dispensations of his Ordinances as well as a mystical by spiritual influence and the Church a political body as well as a mystical The political body or Church-visible saith he results out of that relation which is betwixt the professors of the faith when by voluntary consent they yeeld outward subjection to that government of Christ which in his word he hath prescribed and as an external head exerciseth by his Word Spirit and Discipline by his Ordinances and Officers over them who have yeelded themselves subjects to his headship and supream authority And pag. 25. The visible Church is truly stiled and judged by Scripture light to be the visible body of Christ over whom he is a head by political government and guidance which he lends thereunto 1 Cor. 12.12 And that it is a visible politick body appears quite through the whole Chapter but especially ver 27 28. Because in that Church God set Orders and Officers Some Apostles Teachers Helpers Governments The like to this Eph. 4.12.13 Again p. 16. The Church is the visible Kingdom in which Christ reigns by the scepter of his word and Ordinances and execution of Discipline The testimony cited out of Ames by me was this Congregationes ille particulares sunt quasi partes simulares Ecclesiae Catholica atque adeò nomen naturam ejus participanâ— And further he saith Illi qui proâ—essione â—â—ntum sunt fideles dum remaâ—ene in illa societâ—â—â— sunt membra illius Ecclesia sicut etiam Ecclesia Catholice quo ad statum exterâ—â—m Ames medul l. 1. c. 22. Sect. 11. And in his Bellarminus euerâ—atus he saith Nos fotemur Ecclesiam militantem visibilem esse quo ad formam accidentalem exteruam insuit partibus singulatim conjunctim c. Here I am taxed by M. Ellis vind p 53. for citing this authour for me who is known to be against me But I answer I dealt candidly with D. Ames acknowledging him to be against a Church-Catholike visible in some sense and yet not against it in some other sense 〈◊〉 expresse words declare Neither doth he reject iâ— terminis an universal visible Church in my sense as M. Ellis affirme but my position stands good for ought that I finde in D. Aâ—â—â— though I 〈◊〉 consent to his judgement in all things But let M. Ellis observe that Ames doth not hold the Church which is mystically one to be a genus or one generically sed quasi species specialissima vel Individuum quia nullas habet species propriè dictas Dicitur igitur Catâ—olica non ut 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 genus aut generale aliquid significat sed ut denotat aliquid significat sed ut denotut aliquid integraliter universale ut quum dicimus Orbis universus quia complectitur fideles omnium gentium omnium locorum omnium temporum Med. l. 1. c. 31. n. 18 19. Again cap. 32. n. 5. he saith Ecclesia particularis respectu communis illius naturae qua in omnibus particularibus Ecclesijâ— reperitur est species Ecclesiae in genere sed respectu Ecclesia Catholicae quae habet rationem integri est membrum ex aggregatione variorum membrorum singularium compositum atque respectu ipsorum est etiam integrum Which is as much as in this part of the question I contended for viz. that the Church-Catholike in regard of the external and accidental form is an integral and not a genus But M. Ellis makes the Church-Catholike one only in regard of the internal essential form and not in regard of any external form wherein he expresly crosseth Ames And therefore I retort it upon him again that he citeth a man for him which is expresly against him The external form is that which is visible and if the
this method rightly understood though they were not my words but only collected out of them I conceive that a man of any Nation converted to be a visible beleever is a member of the Church-Catholike entitive being within the general external Covenant and hereby hath right to all Church-priviledges that belong to the whole Church and that his particular membership which he comes to next doth not afford him his right but opportunity only But when M. Hooker comes to shew how this crosseth Gods method he only sheweth that it crosseth the method that God used in the national Church of the Jews which being in populo Israelitico must needs differ from the method in populo Catholico A person being a visible beleever must join himself to the Jewish Church before he can partake of their priviledges because the priviledges by Gods Covenant were so given but now the Covenant is Catholike it is sufficient to be in the general Covenant to make a man have right to the priviledges of the Covenant opporunity indeed cometh by joyning himself with some particular Congregations where the Ordinances are administred or some particular priviledges but not the general For my part therefore I conceive and conclude that the Church-Catholike visible is Totumintegrale and the particular Churches are partes similares or members thereof and parcels thereof As the Jewish Synagogues were of the Jewish Church though with some more priviledge for both Sacaaments And therefore Jam. 2.2 the Apostle calleth a Christian Assembly a Synagogue in the Greek If there come into your Synagogue a man with a gold ring And Heb. 10.23 The Apostle cals their assembling in Christian Congregations 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a coming together into a Synagogue So Tylenus in Syntag. de Eccl. dis 1 Thes 3. Quamvis Ecclesiae nomen usitatius sit pro Christiano caetu quà m Synagogae tamen ne hanc quidâ—m appellationem respuit Scriptura Cum enim utriusque Testamenti Ecclesia una eademque sit secundum essentiam uno eodemque nomine utrumque populum indigitare nihil vetat Neither am I averse from the opinion of such who make the several Synagogues of the Jews several depending Churches for they had there the word read and preached and praier and there they kept daies of humiliation and there they had their Officers of the Synagogue and the dispensation of discipline even of excommunication Joh. 9.22 Only the censures were with liberty of appeals in case of male administration And they are called by the Psalmist the houses of God Psal 83.12 And the Apostles separated not from them any where until they persecuted them Totum essentiale sive genericum doth not comprise the form of the species in it self but giveth the matter or common nature to the species but the Church-Catholike is made up of the matter and form of the particular Churches conjoined as a whole house of the particular rooms in it and the particular Churches have in them and consist of part of the matter and part of the form of the whole quâ—ad statum exteruum And these parts are limited and distinguished from others by prudential limits for convenience of meeting and maintenance and transacting of businesse and every Christian is or ought to be a member of the Church in whose limits he dwels being already in the general Covenant by baptism I do not hold as M. Hooker conceives from my words that meer cohabitation divolveth a Church-membership upon a man for then a Heathen Turk or Jew should be a Church member if cohabiting with a Church but I expressed the condition of being baptized and so in the general Covenant and then he ought to associate with the Church where God layeth out his habitation and they ought not to refuse him except there be sufficient cause of censure For of any Christians dwelling in any city or Town where there was a Church and he not to be a member of that Church or to be a member of another Church in another Town or City and reside in his own but per accidens as some distinguish hath neither example nor warrant in the Scripture And must imply either that he holdeth them not to be a Church and so not of the Kingdom of Christ or else such a corrupt part that he dares not joyn himself with them And as a man that comes to dwell in a Town ought not to refuse to be a member of that town but shall be ruled by the Officers thereof in civil affairs and if he like not he may yea must remove from them if he will not submit himself and if he continue with them he will be liable to punishment or restraint by those civil Officers if there be just cause so I conceive If any professed subject of Christs Kingdom shall sit down and cohabit with a Church within the civil limits allotted for such a Congregation he not only ought to associate with them but the Officers of that Church ought to take the inspection of him and if he be dangerously hererical or prophane and thereby dangerous and offensive they ought to take care of his cure and the preservation of the rest of their members by censuring of him whether he will or no in regard of his habitual general membership and their habitual indefinite office And though civil prudential limits wherein a Congregation dwels give no formality to the Church being heterogeneal yet as the limits of the particular seas and their names are from the shoars and lands they are bounded by though heterogeneal so may particular Churches well be bounded and denominated by their civil limits We finde frequently in Scripture the Church which was at Jerusalem Antioch Corinth Ephesus and Cenchrea And so it is in New-Englaad the several Churches are limited and named by the precincts and names of the civil divisions of Towns The Christians of Boston associated together make the Church of Boston if there be any not associated yet it is their duty to joyn and they ought to be received except as I said before CHAP. V. That the Church-Catholike is visible I now proceed to prove the Church-Catholike to be visible Sect. 1. which is the thing so much denied by many Divines There is indeed an invisible Church of Christ and that Catholike but if you take Catholike for Orthodoxal and also for universal and that in the largest sense of all comprehending all places and all times both past present and to come some militant some triumphant for whose sakes principally Christ died and the Ordinances were given and the visible Church was instituted Which invisible company are only known to God and are given by the Father to Christ to redeem and save And these persons though they be visible in their generations and enjoy visible communion in the visible Church whereof they are ordinarily visible members yet besides that they have invisible grace and invisible communion with Christ their head by faith on their parts and the
Spirit on his part and only these shall be saved yet that is not the Church that is meant in this question but the external Church of Christ consisting of true beleevers and hypocrites in which sense the Scripture oft takes the word Church I say the external political body and kingdom of Christ as M. Hooker cals it The same Church which Valle Messalinus or Salmasius Apollonius Spanhemius and Cameron de regimine Ecclesiae and Polanus de Ecclesia visibili universili and M. Rutherford M. Richard Hooker and M. Parker and divers others mean â—n their tractates of this nature wherein hypocrites as well as true beleevers are partakers of external Ordinances of worship and discipline And of this Church it in that Cameron saith Non negamus simpliciter Ecclesiam esse visibisâ—m quaestio est quomodo sit visibilis quatenus quando quibus Cam. de conspic Ec. p. 248. And he addeth that this visibility rather sheweth Quid sit Ecclesia quà m quae sit Now visible is that which may be seen Visibile est quod videri potest i. e. that which hath a capablenesse in it self to be seen herein it differs from visum for that is that which is actually seen Now as Cameron and others of this subject do distinguish things may be said to be visible either per se primariò and so only light and colour are visible or else per accidens and so figure magnitude motion and all other things which we say are visible are seen a man is not seen per se but per accidens The second kinde of visibility is meant in this question viz. per accidens per effecta as all other societies are visible Secondly a thing may be said to he visible either distinctè or confutè The Church-Catholike is visible in the second sense which Cameron also granteth p. 246. And aliquatenus aliquando aliquo modo aliquibus p. 247. Thirdly a thing may be said to be visible either uno intuitu simul or secundum partes at several aspects The first way only one side of a thing can be seen viz. one plain and small superficies The same man cannot be seen at the same view in all his external parts nor yet the Sun which is most visible The Church-Catholike cannot be seen uno intuitu but secundum partes sive membra Fourthly some things are visible only by the eye and judged of by the common sense but some other things require an act of the understanding to put those visible parts together to apprehend the unity thereof The unity of a man or a tree the very beast can discern but the unity of a society or Kingdom though it be visible they cannot discern because they want understanding to put the parts together And in this last sense the Church-Catholike is said to be visible as a Kingdom or Empire is the eye and common sense alone cannot discern the unity of it but there is requisite an act of the understanding to put the visible parts together in apprehension No man will deny an Empire to be visible because he cannot see the union of it with his eyes Again I did not take visible in the strictest sense visibile est quod radiat per medium ut luminosum coloratum but for that which is perceptible by any of the senses yea to the perceiving of which there is required an act of the understanding also to conceive of it and put the parts together yet not by logical abstraction but mental apposition and conjunction as we must do to perceive the unity of a Kingdom The nearer the parts lie the more is the visibility and the further off the lesse A Congregation is more visible in this sense then a National Church and a National then the Oecumenical The more visible the copula or bond is the more visible the thing is Having shewed you what Church-Catholike is visible and how the Church-Catholike may be said to be visible I come to prove by arguments that it is visible or perceptible But indeed the difficulty lyeth not here but in the integrality for if the Church-Catholike be an integral it will easily appear to be a visible one First If the subject matter Sect. 2. the persons of whom the Church-Catholike doth consist be visible the whole Church is visible also But they are all visible Therefore so is the whole Church That the whole Church consisteth of men and women who are visible beleevers not visible as men but as beleevers also none will deny That the visibility of the whole will necessarily follow is as undeniably true for what makes a thing visible but the visibility of the materials The essential forms of the most visible things are not visible as of a stone or a man Nothing can be said to be invisible whose materials are visible Secondly If the conversion into the whole Church be visible then the whole Church is visible But the conversion is visible Therefore c. That conversion into the visible Church is visible none can deny The Apostles made a visible conquest of the world by their preaching They were charged by Demetrius to have turned the world upside down Act. 17.6 They turn'd men from Idols to serve the living and true God 1 Thes 1.9 That this conversion was not into a particular Congregation but into the external visible body and kingdom of Christ is as clear and the gathering them into particular Congregations and setting Elders over them was a second work Chap. 5. And the consequence will follow for such as the conversion is such is the Church into which they are converted visible conversion makes no man a member of the invisible body but of the visible only invisible grace is required for that Thirdly If the profession subjection obedience and conversation of the members of the whole Church be visible then the whole Church is visible But they are visible Therefore c. The assumption none will deny It is called a professed subjection 2 Cor. 9.13 And Rom. 16.19 Your obedience is come abroad unto all Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works Mat. 5.16 It is toward God in duties of the first table and towards men in duties of the second in charity chastity equity truth humility meeknesse Phil. 1.27 2 Pet. 3.17 yea visible to them that are without 2 Pet. 3.11 Now what reference hath this profession subjection obedience conversation to the particular Congregations Do they professe subject themselves to the laws of Christ and yield obedience thereunto in a godly conversation because they are members of this or that particular Congregation or because they are entred into the general Covenant whereby they are made subjects and members of Christs Kingdom Is the particular confederation the ground and cause of their profession subjection obedience and godly conversation Were not these found in them before they were thought meet to be entred into the particular
national provincial classical or congregational Church rest in that intensive power that remains within its own limits or also if they stand so as that they cannot combine with neighbours or have recourse unto them Extraordinary cases cannot be regulated by ordinary rules And this I conceive is the reason why the Scripture hath not determined more particularly the Synodical Assemblies but only giveth general rules that may be drawn to particulars because all Churches and seasons are not capable of national or provincial Synods in regard of many things that may be incident In some cases also all civil power must rest in one Congregation as if it were in a wildernesse where there were no neighbour Towns or cities to which it might be joyned Yet it followeth not that it must be so in England or any other kingdom where there are Counties Shires Cities great Towns or a Parliament Yea I know not but a particular family may yea must be independent in such an extraordinary case both in Ecclesiastical and civil matters also yet it follows not that there is such an inherent right in every town or family all over the world and that therefore particular Towns and families in England are debarred of an inherent priviledge belonging to them because necessity may put such an Independency on some in an extraordinary case as by shipwrack or being cast into some Iland not inhabited Here M. Ellis chargeth me to say that the power of a general Councel or of a Church-Catholike visible is but extensive and only extensive and not intensive and the power of the particular Churches is intensive But Sir do as you would be done by It is not fair dealing to note them as my words which were none of mine nor my sense For first I never conceived a general Councel to be the whole Church-Catholike visible but only an oecumenical ministerial or representative body of Officers or Organs of the Church much lesse the prime Church to which the Ordinances and priviledges of the Church were first given of which I spake as appears in my second part Secondly I never said the power of a general Councel was only extensive for as the particular Officers have intensive power over their particular Congregations so hath a general Councel intensive power also but their power is larger in extension actually then the particular Officers is being Officers sent from a larger part of the Church-Catholike and intrusted by more and acting for more then one Congregation or one Eldership This distinction M. Parker de polit Eccl. lib. 3. p. 121. setteth down in these words Distinguo de potestate clavium quae intensiva aut extensiva est Intensivâ potestate caret nulla Ecclesia prima viz. particularis ne minima quidem extensivâ verò eâ—â— caret quam habet Synodus cum potestas ad plures Ecclesias extenditur And so it neither overthroweth my first nor second tenet as he inferreth Sect. 6. Obj. If there be a Church-Catholike visible here on earth it is fit it should have a visible head over them that so the body and head may be of the same nature Answ This was indeed used as a main argument by the Ponficians for the supremacy of the Pope The avoiding whereof made our Divines so shy of granting a Church-Catholike visible but it was not necessary that they should deny upon this ground as M. Hooker conceives Surv. p. 251. I say it is not necessary to grant a visible head to the Church-Catholike visible no more then to a particular visible Congregation which our brethren hold to be a body of Christ And though they call it a mystical and spiritual body yet that doth not imply it to be invisible The Sacraments are called mysteries and mystical and the Ordinances are called spiritual and yet are visible though the grace signified or conveyed by them to the Elect is invisible They are spiritual in respect of the authour God and the divine subject about which they are in opposition to natural and civil and so our Ecclesiastical Courts were called spiritual though indeed as they managed them they made them carnal and sinful The members of the particular Congregations are visible members and their union and confederation is visible and they are a visible body mixed of true beleevers and hypocrites as Gerard Whitakers Cameron and even M. Bartlet in his model confesseth And their communion is visible and yet there is no visible head on earth required for them and why then should there be for the Church-Catholike Such a head therefore whether visible or invisible present or absent as will serve a particular mystical body of Christ as M. Cotton cals a particular visible Congregation will serve the Church-Catholike visible I answer further that the Church-Catholike visible hath a head of the same nature consisting of body and soul who sometimes lived in this visible kingdom of grace in the daies of his flesh and did visibly partake in external Ordinances though indeed now he be ascended into his kingdom of glory yet ceaseth not to be a man and so visible in his humanity as we are though glorified and glorious yet not lesse visible in himself for that but rather more and ceaseth not to rule and govern his Church here below for it is an everlasting Kingdom Esay 9.7 As when King James was translated from Scotland to England and lived here he did not cease to be King of Scotland so neither doth Christ cease to be the head of his Church though he be translated and ascended to his other kingdom the kingdom of glory And as for a Vicar or Deputy here below it is not needful We confesse the government of the Church in regard of the head is absolutely Monarchical but in regard of the Officers it is Aristocratical This second answer is excepted against both by M. Ellis vind p. 56. and M. Hooker Sur. p. 258. It is insufficient saith M. Ellis for Christ is head invisible and thence our Divines affirm his body the Church to be mystical also and invisible taken properly I answer That Christ is not only head of the invisible company which headship and body allude to the natural head and body which is indeed the Church in the most proper and prime sense but he is head also of the visible company or Ecclesiastical body in allusion to a civil head or governour Christ not only affordeth invisible communion to his invisible members but externally by Ordinances to both invisible and visible members of the Church yet to both visibly For Christ by his Ambassadours and in his written word speaks externally to their senses and they speak externally to him in praier and singing And as he was once visibly on earth in our nature a visible head of his Church so also if the millenary opinion be true which some of this way hold he shall come again and shall sit and reign a thousand years visibly But whether that opinion be true or no
that the Presbyterians hold that there is one general Church of Christ on earth and that all particular Churches and single Congregations are but as similar parts of the whole and the Independents say they hold that there is no other visible Church of Christ but only a single Congregation meeting in one place to partake of all Ordinances The London-Ministers affirm only that the Independents deny one general Church of Christ on earth not the similarity of particular Congregations But it will necessarily follow that they deny them to be similar parts if they deny the whole to which the parts must relate And if they make the whole Church a genus as they do then must they make the particular Churches similar species which is little lesse then a contradiction for the formality of a species lieth in dissimilarity and difference from the opposite species Now to shew that this assertion of the similarity of particular Churches crosseth mine own scope M Ellis sets down mine opinion with a mark as if the words were mine own which neither are my words nor my sense viz. That the Church visible Catholike is an Organical ministerial governing body i. e. saith he not such a body as is the element of water and air every part whereof is of the same nature vertue and power in it self considered but such a body as a man hath which is distinguished by several members c. And such a body as all Corporations are Now this saith he contradicts plainly the former both opinion and expression for if the Church-Catholike be a similar body and all Congregations alike and the whole nothing differing in nature or constitution from the parts then the Catholike visible Church is no more the governing Church then a particular Ans To let passe his unfair dealing with my self and others in misreciting my words I said indeed the Church-Catholike was an Organical body but not a ministerial governing body For the scope of my Thesis was and is to prove the Church-Catholike as it consists of Officers and private Christians to be the prime Church to which the Ordinances are given respectively as the Officers or private members are capable and to particular Churches secondarily I spake not of the Organs or Governours only The body of Officers is indeed a governing body called a ministerial Church but the whole Church either particular or general is no governing body no more then a whole Corporation or kingdom can be said to be a governing body but they are governed bodies and so is the Church both particular and general Indeed I finde the words ministerial governing Church in M. Rutherford in his due right of Presbyt 177 178 179. c. but it is clear that he takes it not in M Ellis's sense but for a Church furnished with Officers and having discipline and government exercised in it for he was farre from making the body of the Church to be the receptacle of the keys and having power of governing He saith the keys were given for the Church but not to the Church It is only a Scottish expression not to be so expounded and strained as M. Ellis doth who bendeth his whole reply against a sense of it which I beleeve was not M. Rutherfords meaning Neither did I make the whole to differ any thing in nature constitution or power from the parts but said they have the same kinde of intensive power but in the Church-Catholike it is of larger extension Similar bodies conjoyned exert their power more intensely and extensively then when single All the water of the Sea will cool and moisten more and further then one drop a great fire will warm yea burn more and further then a spark a great heap of stones extends further and will weigh more then a little one So all Churches if they could meet have no other power when met together then a single Church but being combined the power both reacheth further in extension of places and it more august and solemn and to be the rather respected and submitted unto But this he saith crosseth Apollonius whom saith he I follow but indeed I never saw his book nor heard of it until a good while after I had composed my Thesis and then inserted I think but 2. or 3. sentences of his Apollonius saith he saith that Eph. 4.16 is meant of an organical ministerial body differing in members which M. Hudson expounds to be meant of a similar body whose parts are all alike Answ They are alike in the integrals as I said before but not in the essentials But where doth Apollonius deny the particular Congregations to be similar integrals parts of the Catholike There is therefore no disagreement among the Presbyterians in this point as M. Ellis suggesteth vin 54. that one of them would have one thing another another But the main question comes now to be discussed Sect. 3. It is one Organical body viz Whether the whole Church-Catholike visible be one Organical body which if it can be made appear will end the whole controversie The Church is distinguished into Entitive and Organical The Church visible is called Entitive not because of the inward grace which is essential to an invisible member but from the reception and embracing the Christian Catholike faith which is essential to a visible beleever And it is called Organical in reference to the Officers thereof which are the Organs of the Church or in regard of the Offices which Christ hath instituted to be in his visible Church This distinction halteth as much as that of the Church-visible and invisible for the Organical Church is also Entitive viz. it is of such as have received and embraced the Christian faith and is made up of such and only of such yet there is a difference in notion but not in persons Indeed in some sense a company of visible beleevers may be said to be a Church-Entitive and not Organical because they are not actually under any particular Officers as a company of visible Christians in New England inhabiting together to make a Congregation but as yet have chosen no Officers may in reference to other organized Congregations be said to be inorganical and entitive only but this sense is not the most proper sense of the word For if they be then but a Church-entitive then also after they have Officers if those particular Officers die they should return to be a Church-Entitive only again in the interim before they have chosen any new ones Now though in consideration we may distinguish between the essence of beleevers as beleevers embracing the Christian faith and their existence under Officers especially under particular Officers yet the existence of visible beleevers members of the Church-Catholike can hardly be without reference to Officers For the ministery of the Officers is the usual means of their conversion and to be sure they cannot be admitted to be actual members of the Church-Catholike by baptism but by some of the Officers though
hath 3 It appears by the definition of a Genus both according to the Ramists and Aristotelians neither of which can agree to the Church-Catholike Section 2. Secondly Affirmatively that it is an Integral 79 1 Because it hath an existence of its own which no Genus hath 2 Because the particular Churches constitute the Oecumenical which hath partes extra partes 3 Because it is made up not only of particular Churches but of particular beleevers also 4 Because it hath accidents and adjuncts of its own existing in it 80 It is capable of being greater or lesse It is mutable and fluxile 81 It is measured by time and place Section 3. 5 Because it hath admission into it nutrition and edification in it and ejection out of it 6 Because it hath a head and Governour of the same nature as man and Officers on earth that are habitually indefinite Officers to the whole 82 7 Because it hath actions and operations of the whole 8 It appears by the several appellations given to it in the Scripture 84 9 It appears by the Scripture-expressions of the union of the members of the whole Church 86 10 Because the invisible Church may in some sense be called an integral therefore much more the visible 87 Section 4. An Objection from the possible contraction of the Church-Catholike into narrow limits answered Whether every essential predication will make the arguments to be Genus and Species 89 Whether the right to the Ordinances and priviledges of the Church arise from the common nature and qualifications in beleevers or from a Covenant 90 If from a Covenant whether from a particular Covenant between man and man or the general Covenant between God and man The variation of situation or accidents vary not the species 91 The method of conveyance of the right of Church-priviledges asserted 94 The particular Churches are similar parts and parcels of the Church-Catholike 95 As the several Synagogues were of the Jewish Church Meer cohabitation makes not a man a member of a Church Yet for a visible beleever to inhabit within the limits of any particular Church and not to be a member of it implyeth it either to be no Church or a very corrupt one 96 Chapter 5. That the Church-Catholike is visible 97 Section 1. There is an invisible company or Church of Christ But that is not meant in this Question Four distinctions of visible 98 What kinde of visibility is here meant Section 2. Arguments to prove the Church-Catholike to be visible 1 Because the matter thereof is visible 99 2 Their conversion is visible 4 Because their profession subjection obedience and conversations are visible 100 4 Because the Officers of the whole Church are visible 101 5 Because the admittance into and ejection out of the whole are visible 102 Section 3. 6. Because the Doctrine Laws Ordinances and Covenant of the whole are visible An Objection of M. Hookers against this answered 103 7. Because all the administrations dispensations and operations of the whole are visible An Objection against this answered 8. Because it is our duty to joyn our selves visibly thereto 104 9. Because the accidents of the whole Church are visible 10. Because the several parts of the whole Church are visible 105 Section 4. Some Objections of M. Ellis answered The Church-Catholike which our Divines in opposition to the Papists speak of is not the same with this which is meant in this question 107 Neither can that Church-Catholike be considered as a Genus which this is affirmed by our brethren to be 109 Section 5. An Objection against the visibility of the Church-Catholike because it wants an existence of its own answered 111 Another Objection from the necessity of the whole to meet together sometimes answered 113 Some exceptions of M. Ellis answered About general Councels and their power 116 Section 6. Another Objection from the necessity of a visible head of the Church-Catholike visible answered 117 How Christ may be said to be a visible head 118 Some exceptions against Christs visible headship answered 119 Another Objection viz. that the Church-Catholike is an article of our faith and therefore cannot be visible answered 121 Chapter 6. That the Church-Catholike visible is an Organical yet similar body Yea one Organical body 123 Section 1. That particular Churches are or ought to be organized Section 2. That particular Churches thus organized are similar integral parts of the whole 124 This assertion vindicated from M. Ellis's charge of a contradiction The similarity of the Churches asserted by D. Ames and M. Bartlet c. 125 It neither crosseth mine own scope nor Apollonius as is suggested 126 Section 3. The Church-Catholike is one Organical body 127 The distinction of the Church into Entitive and Organical Whether the Church or the ministry be first 128 An explication how the Church-Catholike may he said to be one Organical body and how not 129 Section 4. Arguments to prove the Church-Catholike one Organical body 131 1. From the metaphors whereby it is set out in Scripture It is set out by a natural body 133 By a political body as a Kingdom City Army By an Oeconomical body 134 2. Because a baptized person is admitted a member of the whole Also because excommunication ejecteth out of the whole Certificates indeed were sent from one Church to another to signifie the inflicting of the censure but no new act passed 3. It appears by the Identity of the Covenant Charter Promises and Laws of the whole 135 4. By the general communion that all the members of the Church-Catholike have indefinitely with other members or Churches whereever providence cast them 136 5. From the opposition which the adversaries of the Church make against it as one organical body 137 Section 5. 6. By the indefinitenesse of the Office of Ministers This Indefinitenesse appears 1. From the generality of the Donation Institution and Commission of the Evangelical Ministry 138 They bear a double relation one to the whole Church another to the particular 139 M. Rutherford M. Balls Crakenthorp and Salmasius cited 140 Section 6. 2. From the subject matter whereabout their office is exercised which is common to all 141 3. From the end of the ministerial function which cannot otherwise be attained 142 4. From the actions which every Minister doth perform by vertue of his office indefinitely 143 Section 7. 5. From the double relation which private members bear one to whole another to the particular Church 147 6. From the great absurdities which otherwise will follow 148 Section 8. Obj. Then ordinary Ministers differ nothing from Apostles and Evangelists answered 150 Chapter 7. About Combinations of particular Congregations in Classes and of them in Synods 151 Section 1. A double integrality of the Church First Entitive Secondly Organical A double combination one habitual another actual 152 Section 2. The combining of particular Congregations into a Classis 153 Scripture-proofs and Instances thereof 154 Reasons to prove the necessity of it 156
is their belly whose glory is in their shame who minde earthly things See what manner of persons Iude speaks of in 12 13 and 16. verses Spots in their feasts of charity feeding themselves without fear clouds without water carried about with windes trees whose fruit withereth without fruit twice dead plucked up by the roots raging waves of the sea foming out their own shame wandering stars to whom is reserved the blacknesse of darknesse for ever murmurers complainers walking after their own lusts c. Yet these were Gods people by dedication and consecration and God owneth them so And is it not as absurd for Christ to have such branches as such members But though the Metaphor taken from the natural head and members seem to imply such a strict union and communion as to set forth only the elect yet we know that many of them are not called and so in their natural condition as vile as any and even the best on earth are but sinful men yet as it is borrowed from a civil head and political body it is no absurdity at all For God himself is head and Governour of all the world and thereby of devils as well as angels beasts as well as men wicked men as well as good for he is the soveraign ruler over all And Christ Eph. 1.22 is said to be head over all things to the Church his body There is therefore a visible Ecclesiastical body which may also in some sense be called mystical and there is also an invisible spiritual body of the elect only which is most properly called mystical There are two sievs or garbles which God useth the first is to fift the world into a visible Ecclesiastical body over which Christ is a mystical political governing head and ruler and this sieve is managed by the hands of the Ministers the second is to sift the visible Ecclesiastical body into a spiritual invisible body and that is in Gods hand only Now we are to know that this distinction of visible and invisible is a very lame one and the lamenesse thereof deceiveth many For whereas all distributions should have their parts distinct and different and the more opposite the members be the better the distribution is these two branches of this distinction interfier one with another and the one comprehends the other the visible comprehend the invisible here in this world I mean the persons though not the notions For though indeed every visible member is not invisible yet every invisible member in the Church is also visible Ad Catholicam Ecclesiam visibilem in terris se recipere debent quot quot invisibilis illius cives esse cupiunt Polani Syntag. l. 7. c. 9. Invisibilis Ecclesia latet in Ecclesia visibili ut pars in toto frutramque consideres ut coetum vocatorum externa vocatione quae communis est invisibili visibili Ecclesiae Ibid. They that have inward communion with Christ for life are not taught and nourished only by an inward unction or inspiration but are fain to have external communion also in the outward Ordinances of God De Ecclesia vivorum modò agitur cui Symbolum Apostolicum praescriptum est non decoelesti Ram. in Symb. So that this distinction is like the old distinction of Gratia gratis data gratia gratum facient whereas Omnis gratia gratum faciens est etiam gratia gratis data If invisible had been taken for Saints in heaven and visible for Saints on earth it had been a compleat distinction Or if visible had been taken for a Church conspicuous flourishing with liberty of Ordinances and invisible for a Church latent as under persecutions and general heresies then it had been compleat but the terms are not used in either of those senses and therefore the distinction halteth So that in what is to be said we must take heed that by visible we mean not only such as are hypocrites and reprobates but those that are also truly godly not only such as make external profession of faith whereby they are differenced from heathens but such as have inward sincerity also whereby they are differenced from hypocrites The Church visible I said is a company of people called or separated by God from Idols to the true religion What a Church visible is and yeelding professed subjection to that call which is true of the godly as well as of the hypocrites This description is excepted against by some because it is said to be a separation from Idols whereas many Athiests and Jews c. which worship no Idols may be converted and therefore say they it had better have been said called out of the world But I answer that that expression would have admitted of as much exception for there is much of the world in the Church I pray not for the world saith Christ Ioh. 17.9 which was meant of the reprobate Jews which yet were in the visible Church If I had made a description of the invisible Church it had been right to have said called out of the world but speaking of the visible Church Idols are the most proper contradistinct term to the living God and Idolatry that which onely causeth a divorce between God and a visible Church and obstinate prophanenesse which is opposite to the professed subjection mentioned in the description And though some converted should have been Jews or Athiests c. that never were Idolaters yet my description takes them in for I mean a separation or call both privatively and negatively priatively if they have been Idolaters negatively though they never were i. e. there must be a disclaiming of Idols negatively though there never were a positive worshipping of them As if a neuter who never struck in of any side shall side with one opposite there must be a disclaiming of the other opposite An Objection much to this purpose reverend M. Norton hath In Respons ad totum Quaestionum Syllogem p. 115. whereby he would inferre That a Synod is not a Church his words are these Nâ—sâ—â— catus cujus membrorum vocatio non habet â—mundum terminum immediatum a â—pâ—o Christum terminum immediatum ad quem habet sanctè vocatos pro proximâ materiâ At omnis Synodus est talis 〈◊〉 cujus membrorum vocatio non habet terminum iâ—â—e â—â—â—tum a quo c. Materia Synodi sunt pij docti viri membrae Ecclesiae But with due respect unto him I conceive he little considered how much this argument strikes at all the Churches in New-England which are made up of members not immediatly called out of the world but of members of our Churches in Old England and by Gods Ministers here converted and sealed with the seal of the Covenant A second exception against it is Because a Church may be a Church though they fall to some Idolatry as the ten Tribes were owned by God as his people though Idolaters I answer there were 7000. in Israel in the worst times that lived
latent among the Idolaters who never bowed the knee to Baal nor kissed him and God might own the people for their sakes being the better part though the lesse Secondly though God doth not divorce a Church for all Idolatry yet they deserve it And at last came forth the sentence of Lo-ammi and Lo-ruhamah against the ten Tribes for it Hos 1.6.9 Thirdly I answer it may be verè Ecclesia as is said of the Church of Rome by some but not vera pura and it was needful for me as near as I could to give a description of a true Church But I will not contend with any about this description you may take a more comprehensive description A visible Church may be described to be a company of those that own or do professe the doctrine of Christ Or such as professe the true Religion The third term to be opened is Sect. 3. Catholike universal or Oecumenical The word Catholike is frequently given to such Churches as hold the true doctrine of the Apostles and in that sense it is the same with Apostolical as it is opposed to heretical and so we finde it frequently used in Eusebius Socrates and Sâ—zomen So Damasus is called Bishop of the Catholike Church at Rome and Aurelius of the Catholike Church at Carthage and Callinicus of the Catholike Church at Peleusium And the Councel of Nice cals the Bishops of the Orthodox Churches Bishops of the Catholike and Apostolical Church And in that sense I suppose M. Ellis intends it in the title of his book which he cals Vindiciae Catholicae a found or Orthodox vindication For if he means by it A general vindication against all that assert a Church-Catholike visible he is mistaken therein also for M. Rutherford hath written professedly of my question in both the branches of it that there is a Church-Catholike visible and that it is the prime Church though I confesse I knew not of it when I printed my Thesis But this signification doth not fully comprehend my meaning of the word Secondly Catholike is taken for an office in the Church next under a Patriarch that was as his Vicar general and is called in Latine Rationalis See Salmas de primat Pap. p 21â— Thirdly Catholike universal or general is taken for a logical second notion abstracted by the minde of man comprehending divers different species under it Fourthly It is taken in the same sense that we use to take Oecumenical that which is or may be all over the world The first and last sense are only pertinent to this Question viz. the Orthodox Church over all the earth and especially this latter and therefore now I have inserted the word Oecumenical into the question And in both these senses Augustine takes it who saith the Church is called Catholike Quia universaliter perfecta est in nullo claudicat per totum orbem diffusa est Aug. de Gen. ad lâ—t cap. 1. We are to know that the Church of God admits of several distinctions from several accidents As in reference to the times wherein the Church hath existed or doth exist it is distributed into the Church under the Old Testament and the Church under the New And this again is distributed into the primitive and successive So in regard of the places where the Church doth exist or persons of whom it consisteth it receiveth the distinction of universal and particular Now in this question universal is meant principally in regard of persons and places and not in regard of time The Church Catholike existing on earth at the same time is compared with particular Churches existing at the same time also What the universal visible Church is The Vniversal visible Church is the whole company of visible beleevers throughout the whole world Now whereas M. Ellis vind p. 52. saith this definition of the Church Catholike reacheth not the subject of my question but contains what is of all hands confessed I answer I aimed at no more in the first part of my question but to prove that there is a Church Catholike visible which he saith is of all hands confessed and then I have as much as I desired namely the subject of my question granted But I will further adde that which M. Ellis thinketh wanting to make it pertinent to this question viz. That this company is one visible Kingdom of Christ on earth The Evangelical Church which is so often called by Christ the Kingdom of heaven several men give several descriptions thereof I shall set down some of their sentences Ecclesia Dei vivi est columna firmamentum veritatis toto orbe terrarum diffâ—â—sa prâ—pter Evangelium quod praedicatur sicut dicit Apostolus in omni creatura quae sub coelo est Aug. Sancta Ecclesia nos sumus sed non sic dico nos quasi ecce qui hic sumus qui me modo auditis sed quot quot sunt Christiani fideles in universo terrarunt orbe quoniam a solis ortu usque ad occasum laudatur nomen Domini Sic se habet Ecclesia Catholica mater nostra Aug. Serm. 99. Adhuc habet Ecclesia quo crescat donec illud impleatur Dominabitur a mari usque ad mare Aug. in Matth. Disseminaâ—a est Ecclesia super omnem terram Iren. lib. 3. cap. 11. Non altera Romana urbis Ecclesia altera totius orbis aestimanda Gallia Bithinia Persis Oriens India omnes barbarae geâ—tes nationes unum Christum adorant unam observant regulam veritatis Si authoritas quaeritur Orbis major est urbe Jerom. ad Evanâ—r Distincti per Orbem Ecclesiarum conventus unam Catholicam faciunt Ecclesiam Beda in 1 Pet. 2. Catholica Ecclesia est illa quae diffusa est per universum orbem Cyril Hierosol Catech. 18. Quum unus sit Deus una fides unus Dei hominum mediator Jesus Christus unicum Ecclesiae caput consequitur necessariò unam quoque esse Ecclesiam Bezae conf fid cap. 5. art 2. Saepe Ecclesiae nomine universam hominum multitudinem in orbe diffusam designamus quae unum se Deum Christum colere profitetur Calv. Iustit l. 4. c. 1. s 7. Est Congregatio omnium per orbem universum qui consentifide Evangelica Bulling Est caetus hominum Christum suum regem sacerdotem prophetum profitentium Keckerm In novo Testamento vocamus Ecclesiam pro omnibus qui Christo nomen dederunt Zuingl Vniversa multitudo Christianorum quae se fidelem censet simul num fidelis populus una Ecclesia dicitur Idem Ecclesia significat totam illam omnium multitudinem qua generatim ex vocatione professione externa astimatur Trelc Ecclesia Catholica ex hominibus unius temporis est Caetus eorum omnium qui doctrinam Evangelij de Jesu Christo in carne jam manifestato per universum mundum profitentur Dicitur 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb. 2.5 i. e. mundus ille
futurus quem praedixerant prophetae priore adventu Christi inchoatus c. Polani Syntag. l. 7. c. 7. Statuimus Ecclesiam quandam vniversalem externam per totum orbem dispersam nobis in sacris literis describi quae visibili quadam politia unicum Ecclesiasticum Organicum corpus constituit sub quo omnes Ecclesiae particulares Classicales Provinciales Nationales tanquam partes totius continentur Apollon p. 29. Vbicunque quandocunque fuerint homines Apostolicâ fide informati Christianam Electorum rem-publicam constituunt etiam fi dispersi in omnes orbis partes Sic Antoninus Philosophus civem Romanum dixit esse quicunque Romanis legibus viveret Ita quicunque Christiani◠legibus moribusque vivis ubicunque sit nihil interest civis est Christianus ad publicum de regendâ civitate Dei consilium adhibendus ut Ecclesiae Catholicae disciplina Catholica sit Ram de Eccles Against these testimonies M. E. saith pag. 5. that I bring the description of the visible Church out of several Authours none of which except Apollonius and Ramus take it in my sense Ans They all imply a Church Catholike and that to be visible and this Church Catholike visible to be one which is all I brought them for And whereas he seeks to blast Apollonius because he was pre-engaged I answer It is more then I know he is still alive and may answer for himself And against Pet. Ramus he alledgeth a clause out of Beza's ep before Aristotles Organ But I could cite much more in his commendation out of others but I write not to commend men valere quantum valere potest I am sure I have cause to blesse God for him Sometimes saith Bifield Church signifieth a company of men in one city or Province that did outwardly professe the true religion 1 Cor. 11.18 22. And so usually in the writings of Divines the company throughout the world so professing is called the visible Church Bifield on Art 9. Catholike in the most evident sense agreeth to the Church now under the Gospel since the partition wall between Jews and Gentiles was broken down and yet in some sense it may agree to the Church from the beginning Idem For particular Churches either single or combined either National Provincial Classical or Congregational it is not belonging to this question to discusse the Queries about them and therefore I shall only set down some descriptions of them positively as they are usually taken by others and give you my present apprehensions of them A National Church is where all the visible publike What a National Church is religious Assemblies of a Nation being parts of the Church Catholike living under one politick civil government are by the profossion of the same faith and communion in the same worship and government united into one body Ecclesiastick or Ecclesiastical Re-publike Two things as I conceive are required to make a National Church First National agreement in the same faith and worship Secondly National union in one Ecclesiastical body in the same community of Ecclesiastical government The Churches in Foance and the Netherlands have the same faith and worship and kinde of government but they are not in the same National community thereof See Apollonius consid cap. 3. Assert 2. Asserimus Ecclesiam visibilem in sacra Scriptura descriptam non tantum fuisse Parochialem seu particularem sed esse etiam Ecclesiam quandam Nationalem unius gentis aut regni quae constat ex diversis multis Ecclesijs Parochialibus uno regimine Ecclesiastico junctis mutuâ quadam communione societate Ecclesiasticâ visibili inter se devinctis See clear proofs for National Churches under the Gospel Isa 55.5 Thou shalt call a Nation which thou knewest not and Nations which knew not thee shall run unto thee It is spoken of Christ under the Gospel And there is set down both Gods call of a Nation and a Nations answer to that call And these two things are sufficient to make a Church Also Isa 19.24 25. In that day shall Israel be a third with Egypt and with Assyria even a blessing in the midst of the land whom the Lord of hosts shall blesse saying Blessed be Egypt my people and Assyria the work of my hands and Israel mine inheritance It is a prophecy of the times under the Gospel where Aegypt and Assyria are promised to be called in to be Churches as well as Israel and are preferred in order before Israel however it is clear those three Nations are owned and blessed by God as three sister Churches Also Psa 72.11 17. All Kings shall fall down before him all Nations shall serve him All Nations shall call him blessed i. e. Christ Mat. 21.43 The kingdom of God shall be taken from you and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof Rom. 10.19 I will provoke you to jealousie by them that are no people and by a foolish Nation will I anger you i. e. God choosing the Gentile Nations and giving them the priviledges of the Jews it should anger the Jews and provoke them to jealousie Isa 65.1 I said behold me behold me to a nation that was not called by my name The Commission of the Apostles was to go teach and baptize all Nations not Congregations only i. e. some of all Nations if they received the Christian faith and the whole Nations if the whole received it Mic. 4.2 Many Nations shall come and say Let us go up to the mountain of the Lord and he will teach us his waies and we will walk in his paths Isa 52.15 He shall sprinkle many Nations i. e. with his grace Jer. 4.2 The Nations shall blesse themselves in him and in him shall they glory And Rom. 4.17 Abraham is said to be a father of many Nations in a spiritual sense as well as a carnal In thee shall all the Nations of the earth be blessed He is said to be the father of us all Rev. 11.15 The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ The Ecclesiastical polities in converted kingdoms are said to be commensurable to the civil Rev. 21.24 The Nations of them that are saved shall walk in the light of it i. e. of the new Jerusalem Zac. 2.11 Many Nations shall be joyned unto the Lord in that day and shall be my people Whereby we see the current of the Scripture runs that God not only would convert Congregations out of several Nations but the whole Nations which also he performed and many whole Nations joyned themselves to the Lord and made Christian Kingdoms or Common-wealths though they proceeded not from the loins of one man as the Israelites did which some make the ground of the National Church of the Jews yet we know there were proselytes of all Nations that were members of that Church and had right to all the Ordinances as well as the Israelites and servants that came not out of Abrahams
the particular Congregation but into the whole visible body and into the general Covenant not into any particular Covenant 8. If there be an external Catholike union of fraternity between all visible Christians in the whole world there is one external visible Catholike Church But there is one external Catholike union of fraternity between all visible Christians in the whole world Therefore c. The consequence of the major appears because this fraternal union ariseth from the unity of the Church which is constituted by one Covenant into which they are all entred visibly They are not made brethren by being invisible believers only or in the same respect for then only invisible believers were brethren in the Scripture sense If any one that is called a brother be a drunkard railer extortioner c. 1 Corinth 5.11 Now few true believers are fornicators idolaters drunkards therefore this brotherhood is in regard of a visible profession and membership The minor appears because whereever the Apostles came if they found any visible believers they are said to finde brethren Act. 28.14 And it is the most usual term that the Christians were called by both in the Acts of the Apostles and in the Epistles not because they were of one particular Congregation but because of the Church-Catholike which are also called the houshold of faith Doe good unto all i. e. though heathens but especially to the houshold of faith Gal. 6.10 The houshold is commmensurable to the entertainment of the faith Not the invisible members only for they could not be known as such but all the visible members 9. If the same individual systeme or body of external laws under one command whereby all Churches equally should walk and be governed be Catholike then the Church is Catholike But there is the same individual systeme or body of external laws under one command whereby c. Therefore c. The major is proved by evidence of reason and experience of all bodies politick The minor is undeniable For the same individual systeme expressed in the Gospel totidem verbis governs and guides the whole Catholike Church It cannot be said the same in kinde only but the same for matter manner end method and expresse words unlesse we can say the several copies are several species and then we in England have so many species of laws as there be copies printed of our laws Neither is it the law written in the heart and put in the inward parts but the external systeme given to the Church as a body politick Neither is it the moral law quâ moral but that in the hand of a Mediatour with other positive laws added thereto Neither is this subjection unto these external laws arbitrary by the concurrent consent of divers Churches out of custome or because of the equity and conveniency of them vi materiae as divers Kingdoms now use the civil laws or for intercourse with forreign Churches but by vertue of the command of the authour of them Neither have particular Churches any municipal laws divine of their own superadded to distinguish them as England and Scotland have but are wholly ruled by this Catholike systeme 10. If there be a Catholike external communion intercourse and communication between all the members and in all the particular Churches in the world in worship doctrine and sign or seal of confirmation nutrition or commemoration of the same redemption visibly wrought by the same visible Saviour then all those members or Churches having this external communion intercourse and communication are one Catholike Church But there is such a communion c. Therefore c. The consequence appears because communion ariseth from membership there is an union presumed before there can be a communion admitted especially in the Lords Supâ—er which is a seal and if an union then a membership for thereby they are made of the body and if the communion be visible and external then so is the union from whence it floweth for qualis effectus talis est causa And though there may be an admittance of a heathen to be present at the word singing praier yet it is not an admittance into fellowship for then we should have spiritual fellowship with idolaters they may come and see what fellowship Christians enjoy with Christ and one with another but they are not admitted into that fellowship while heathens and idolaters but after conversion professed subjection and believing After the 3000. were converted by Peter and were baptized they continued stedfastly in the Apostles doctrine and fellowship and in breaking of bread and praier Act. 2.41 42. And yet were not of one particular Church not as our brethren themselves tell us as I shewed before therefore as members in general And nothing is more usual then for members of one Congregation to joyn in the fellowship of the word read and preached in singing and prayer with members of divers Congregations together as at lectures or other occasions and frequently also at the Lords table even among our brethren in New-England members of far distant Congregations do communicate occasionally Also all the visible Churches on earth pray publikely and give thanks and on occasion may fast for the welfare of the whole Church on earth As for the evasion which some of our brethren have that this communion of strangers with them is by vertue of a particular present transient membership with them I conceive it of no force nor warranted in the word of God Then should those men be members of two Churches at once then ought they to contribute to that Minister then ought that Minister to take the charge of them then by some of our brethrens positions should the whole Congregation have a hand in their admission Also if there be any Ecclesiastical admissions or censures or transactions or contributions that concern that particular Congregation they also ought being members to have their vote and consent and hand therein And then by the same reason all that came to a lecture which is a Church-fellowship in divine Ordinances of singing praier preaching and blessing the people must so many times turn members of that Congregation where such a meeting is And then is it a dangerous thing to hear a lecture in a Congregation where the Minister or people are corrupt for we thereby make our selves members of that Congregation and so put our selves under that Pastour and those Elders for the present and thereby give our allowance of them It is not a subâ—tane occasional meeting that can make a person a member of a Congregation but constancy quoad intentionem saltem saith Ames in medulâ—a lib. 1. cap. 32. Sect. 21. And for communion of Churches I shall speak of it afterward And by this that hath been said I suppose the minor is cleared also 11. If the censure of excommunication of a person in one Congregation cuts him off from the Church-Catholike visible in regard of communion which formerly he had right unto then is there a
but most properly relateth to the union of an integrum Also it is called a Kingdom as I shewed before The Kingdom of his dear sonne Col. 1.13 The Gospel is called the Gospel of the Kingdom Mat. 4.23 And the word of the Kingdom Mat. 13.19 And such as are only visible members are called the children of the Kingdom Mat. 8.12 And this Kingdom hath a King and Laws and Officers in it now a Kingdom or society is no Genus but an Integral It is also called a Tabernacle Revel 21.3 which was a thing coupled together with tenons sockets loops and taches and so an integral no Genus nor could signifie any It is called also an house or building 1 Tim. 3.15 The Church which is the house of God 1 Cor. 3.9 Ye are Gods building Eph. 2.21 In whom all the building fitly framed together c. which is the Catholike Church visible consisting of Jews and Gentiles built on the visible foundation of the Apostles and Prophets Jesus Christ being the chief corner-stone And a houshold Gal. 6.10 Also it is called a Temple in the fore-cited Eph. 2.21 1 Cor. 3.17 2 Cor. 6.16 Now the Temple was an Integral Also it is called a city and the members thereof Jews and Gentiles are called fellow-citizens Eph. 2.29 Also an army terrible with banners Cant. 6.10 Also it is called a sheepfold a wheat-field a barn-floor a dragge-net a loaf of bread made up of divers grains 1 Cor. 10.17 Now all these and many more appellations have no analogy to a Genus but to an Integrum Therefore the Church-Catholike visible is an Integrum 9. It appears to be an Integral from the words which the Scripture useth to expresse the Church and union of the members of the Church-Catholike together As Act. 2.41 There were added about 3000. souls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They were put unto them as an encrease now a Genus is not capable of addition by numbers but an Integral only Also Eph. 4.12 The Officers general as well as particular are given to the whole external political body of Christ to use M. Hookers own words for the perfecting of the Saints 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ad coagmentationem sanctorum It signifyeth properly to make a thing perfect by filling of it up omnibus numeru absolutum reddere or as some render it to set in joint again All the significations agree only to an Integral And for the edifying of the body of Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. the building up of the body relating to the whole Church This is proper only to an Integral A word also much like this and more significant for the purpose in hand we have Eph. 2.22 In whom also ye are builded together for an habitation of God c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifyeth a knitting together in a building Also vers 21. In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy Temple Here are three words note Integrality First the whole building 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2. fitly framed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 3. groweth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So Eph. 4.16 From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplyeth according to the effectual working in the measure of every part maketh encrease of the body unto the edfying of it self in love Here are divers words which properly notifie an Integral 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the whole body 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fitly joyned congruente proportione constructum vel connexum 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 compactum compacted 4. by that which every joynt suupplyeth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 per omnem commissuram suppeditationis vel juncturum subministrationis 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in mensura uninscujusque membri 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 augmentum corporis facit 7. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in aedificationem sui The like we finde Col. 2.19 From whom all the body by joints and hands having nourishment ministred and knit together encreaseth with the encrease of God The words are most of them the same with the former in the Original There is 1. a whole body 2. joints 3. bands 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and nourishment ministred 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 4. knit together 5. encreaseth with encrease 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And though much spoken in these places seem to be applicable to the invisible company yet to them as visible receiving edification from their Officers and having visible communion one with another and the Apostle speaks indefinitely of the Church under their Officers without making any difference of kindes of believers Also Act. 17.34 certain men clave unto him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were glued unto him i e. Paul And in the Old Testament Isa 14 1. The strangers shall be joyned with them Israel and they shall cleave unto the house of Jacob. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 copulabit se 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 adhaerebunt All which and many more words in Scripture about the Church shew it to be an integral 10. If the invisible Church be one body of Christ as in the primary sense they are then by the same reason the visible also as visible are one body for the only difference between them as to this purpose is in regard of the manner of communion the one invisibly and inwardly the other visibly in outward Ordinances The invisible are called Christs body in allusion to a natural body more properly the visible in allusion to a political body The invisible Church are only in reference to Christ their head and fellow-invisible members but have no Officers under Christ quà invisible the visible are one in reference to Christ their professed King and his written laws and fellow-visible members and indefinite Officers under Christ The invisible body might with better reason be called a Genus because their unity is only in the head and in one kinde of nature and in spiritual relation to invisible brethren and therefore if they be called one body then much more the visible Church whole union is in King laws the same qualifications and external relation to visible brethren under indefinite Officers M. Hooker takes much pains in Surv. c. 15. to prove that the Church-Catholike visible cannot be an Integral To which I shall answer under the several heads as they come in the Thesis His main Argument is because that an Integrum resulting out of the members is Symbolum effecti and so is in consideration after the members whereof it is constituted and out of which it doth result and so that crosseth the second part or predicate of the Question This I shall refer to the second part of the Question Secondly That it will then require one visible head over it This I shall refer to that Objection in Chap. 5. Sect. 6. Sect. 4. Thirdly That which he objects against the visibility of the Church-Catholike I shall refer to the next Chapter Cha. 5. An Objection may be raised here
be drops in the whole element of water and so by consequence a hundred thousand species of water in every pail-full and as many species of wine as there are drops of wine and so many species of milk as there are drops of milk for it may be said of every drop of water wine or milk they are water wine or milk Can the variation only of situation or accidents vary the species This man is a man there is genus and species 2. This man is an English man there should be another subalternal species 3. This English is a Suffolk man there should be another inferiour species 4. This Suffolk man is of such a particular hundred there should be another inferiour species 5. This man is of such a Town in that hundred as suppose Ipswich there is another inferiour species 6. This Ipswich man is of such a Parish there is another species 7. This man of such a Parish is of such a street in the Parish there is another inferiour species 8. This man is of such a Family in such a street there in another inferiour species The like descention may be made of particular Churches By this reason man will prove a very large Genus that hath so many subalternal species under him and many more may be made by the same reason Yea the same man will vary his species as oft as he varieth his place I conceive this proposition Haec aqua est aqua will at best be but species infima individuum and the like of hic homo est homo but the predication of this man by the several particular divisions and subdivisions of the Kingdom will prove denominatio adjunctae personae à subjectis and this division of a Kingdom into more particular parts will rather prove a division of integri in membra then generis in species But suppose this should be granted which Logicians will not yet it must also be granted that as there may be such second notions of this man or this Church raised by logical abstraction so there must needs be an integrality resulting out of physical contiguity or political conjunction and aggregation of places persons and Churches But let it be supposed that by logical abstraction we may draw a notion of a genus from the similarity of all Churches or community of nature in all Churches though the Churches differ not from each other by any essential different specifical forms but only accidentally as individuals yet also it must be granted that by the unity of the Covenant and Charter wherein they are all bound up in an unity and by political combination which necessarily followeth thereupon we may raise an integrality for they are all members of the Church-militant of Christs external Kingdom on earth and so they become really and necessarily members of a political integrum And on this Integral were the priviledges of the Church bestowed primarily and on particular visible Churches but secondarily as members of the whole body Let it be granted that these priviledges are bestowed by God upon such a sort of men so and so qualified viz. visible beleevers and from their similarity of disposition may be drawn a community of nature or disposition yet the priviledges of the Church do not accrue unto them because so and so qualified but by vertue of that one external individual Covenant of God made unto such qualified persons by which external Covenant they are made externally one habitual external visible body And if the same company of men so qualified can make a Genus by abstraction though there be no specifical distinct subalternal forms and yet be an Integral because of the external visible Covenant under one head into which they are all entred which is the fountain of all their priviledges I shall yield the Church Catholike visible to be a Genus as well as an Integrum and call it with Ames Vniversaliter Integrale But if such an use can be made of that logical tenet that Individuals are species which yet most Logicians do deny that those individuals cannot be political members of one greater body I fear it will prove more prejudicial to policy then beneficial to Logick Again that which M. Hooker makes peculiar to an Integral from that which we call totum universale is that what belongs to this doth not belong to all its members Sur. c. 15. p. 256. Is true only of Integrum dissimilâ—re for it is not true of Integrum similare for as a whole pinte of water doth moisten and cool so doth every drop in its measure and proportion And so it is peculiar only to a dissimilar Integral I shall note also two things in that Chapter wherein M. Sect. 5. Hooker mistaketh my meaning First in the seventh proposition which he collects out of my Thesis set down pâ— 52 Every particular Church partaketh of part of the matter and part of the form of the whole Which p. 261. he makes use of againâ— and renders it thus Ecclesia Catholica gives part of the matter and part of the form to all particular Churches But my meaning was it doth consist of part of the matter and part of the form of the whole as a room in an house consisteth of and so in that sense may be said to partake of part of the matter and part of the form of the whole not as a species but as a member of the house A second mistake of my meaning is that he conceiveth I accounted the Jewish Church the Catholike Church because I defined the Church-Catholike to be the Whole company of beleevers in the whole world p. 263. And thereupon undertakes to prove that the Church was in populo Israelitioâ— and not in populo Catholìco But this never came into my thoughts but I acknowledge the Jews to be a national Church But my description of the Church-Catholike was of the Church as it is now since the partition wall is broken down for then it became Catholike I conceive there were beleevers of the sonnes of Keturah that did not partake of all the priviledges of the Jewish Church except they became proselytes It is the Evangelâ—cal Catholike Church which my Question is about into which the Jews themselves being converted were admitted by a new initial seal viz. Baptism and did not stand in it by their former national membership but received a Catholike membership by baptism And hereupon he undertakes to make out my method of conveyance of the right of Church-priviledges to crosse Gods method He sets down my method thus First when a man is converted to the profession of the Gospel and so becomes a visible beleever he is then a member of the Church-Catholike 2. He hath by this profession and membership with the Church-Catholike right unto all Church-priviledges 3. He then becomes a member of a particular Church but hath no right to Church-priviledges because of that but because of his former membership with the Church-Catholike I shall own
together by laws under one government it is otherwise the distance of place hinders not the integrality of the whole and though it cannot be seen uno intuitu by the same man at once unlesse by way of representation as in a Parliament or Common-Councel as M. Ellis saith nor yet be perceived to be one without some act of the understanding yet this maketh not the City or Empire invisible He confesseth the Church-Catholike to be visible in respect of the several parts and places where they dwell but this saith he is to prevaricate and to prove that which is not in question But he might remember that I took visible in the explication of the terms of the question to be meant in regard of visible communion in holy Ordinances â—hough the persons never congregate into one place to be seen with one mans eye but in opposition to inward invisible communion Let him grant but such a visibility of the Church-Catholike as was in any of the four Monarchies or a civil kingdom which yet are seen but in their several parts and places and I contend for no more I suppose no particular Congregation was ever seen together in all the members thereof uno inâ—uitu and yet is visibly one in regard of the particular confederation and usual meeting of most of the members Is not England a visible Kingdom though seen but in the parts of it was it not visible before there was a Parliament to represent it or doth it cease to be visible in the intervals of Parliaments The visibility of it consisteth in the visibility of the Persons Corporations Places Laws Government So is the case of the Church-Catholike whose Persons Places Laws which are the visible bond and government are as external and visible as those of the Kingdom i. e. lyable to sense and perceivable by sense though not actually seen by the same man at once I desire it might be noted that the Church-Catholike which our Divines speak of in their disputes against the Papists is not this Church-Catholike which we have now in hand but that is the whole Church or company of the elect both past present and to come It is the Church taken in the first sense in the explication of the terms of the Question not the external political mixed Church or kingdom of Christ Neither doth that Church agree with this but only nominally and equivocally in that it is called by the same name but it is not the same in nature or sense and therefore should that and this be used in a syllogism there would be 4 terms For that Church is neither external nor visible nor existent nor organical it hath no Officers it is no polity it is not that which M. Hooker cals Tâ—tum genericum existens for many of them are already in heaven and the spirits of just men made perfect many not yet born many not yet converted Now to make that the Genus of the visible external political Churches of Christ were as absurd as to make the vessels of gold to be the Genus of the silver brazen pewter wooden stony and earthen vessels of a house or a marble building to be the Genus of all the buildings of other stones brick and timber And therefore to dispute from that to this is not ad idem I suppose that neither M. Hooker nor M. Ellis meant that Church no more then I. If the genus comprehend only invisible members the species should be only of invisible members also The genus is of the same nature or predicament with the species and all that is common to all the species is found in the genus and fetched from thence There is nothing in man but it is in animal except the specifical form whereby he differs from a brute and nothing in animal but it is in man except its totality or generality whereby it comprehends man and brute If homo and brutum be visible living substances they received it from animal The genus giveth essence to the species and is symbolum causae materialis but the Church of the Elect giveth not essence nor matter to the visible Church for there are many members of this which are not invisible neither are the elect members of this quà invisible but quà existent and visible The visible and invisible Church are contra distinct branches of a distribution ex adjunctis vel 〈◊〉 communionis therefore the one cannot be the genus of the other for then genus and species should not be of the same general predication or denomination but the invisible should be genus of the visible one branch be genus of the other which is contrary to all Logick The invisibility of this genus ariseth not from a separation of the invisible members from the visible or the sheep from the goats but ariseth from a mental abstraction it is the invisibility of a notion not of the persons It is not by culling out such as have invisible grace and leaving the rest for that which is so culled out is not comprehensive of them both The Genus drawn by logical mental abstraction from the most corporeal visible substances is as invisible quà genus as a genus of incorporeal invisible substances Either that Church-Catholike which our Divines speak of is the Genus of particular visible Churches or it is not If it be then it must be an external visible polity in general notion which must comprehend all the external visible Ecclesiastical Polities on earth and so hypocrites as well as the elect The species consist of such matter and therefore so must the genus in the notion I mean but that they deny of their Church-Catholike visible If it be not then it is not the Church-Catholike which M. Hooker and M. Ellis intend for they intend a general Church which comprehends in notion all the visible Churches under it And therefore they differ from our Divines in their meaning of the Church-Catholike as much as I do And so joyn not nor concur with our Divines in the same subject neither is it adidem Now if we make the Church-Catholike an abstract general notion comprehending all particular Churches under it as a genus then we make Christs visible external Kingdom on earth only a logical non-existing notion and the particular Congregations to be the several species of the kingdom of Jesus Christ all comprehended under one logical comprehensive notion and the particular Covenant or confederation of such or such a company between themselves should constitute a kingdom of Jesus Christ And so when a man removes from one Congregation into another he should remove out of one species into another and in the interim be quite out of the kingdom of Christ because he is out of all the species of Christs kingdom and a particular member cannot exist under this genus for it is a genus of Congregations quà Congregations and not of single persons And then it will follow that many a visible beleever
shall be no member of Christs visible external kingdom or else that after he is a visible existing subject of Christs kingdom he may choose which species of Christs kingdom he will exist in and that is as absurd as if there should be an existing animal that will choose whether he will be a man or a brute who seeth not that there is a visible existence of many a visible beleever who is a subject of Christs visible kingdom before he be admitted into any of those Congregations which are by this opinion accounted species Now if we account the particular Churches members of Christs Kingdom it is not absurd for any subject of Christ to choose which part of Christs kingdom or which Ecclesiastical Corporation he will dwell in or adhere unto for the actual enjoyment of the Priviledges Laws and Ordinances of Christs Kingdom no more then for a subject of a King to choose in what part of the Kingdom he will dwell The Kingdom of England though a political body yet containeth under or in it not only all Corporations and villages but all single persons that are subject to the King and Laws though they be not fixed and though they want by their unfixednesse the particular priviledges of the particular Towns they might have inhabited and so the actual opportunity of enjoyment of the benefit of the Laws administred in such Corporations or Counties yet have an habitual right to the general priviledges by being subjects so have unfixed members of Christs external Kingdom which reacheth single visible subjects as well as combined Nay a man may better make the kingdom of England a Genus and all the Corporations and villages species thereof because they are many of them distinct and different in their constitutions then the Church-Catholike a Genus and the particular Congregations species which are of one constitution And if totum genericum existens can have any sense put upon it it will agree to the Kingdom of England or any other kingdom for it consisteth of a sort of men viz. English-men existing in several Counties and Towns but as that notion hinders not the integrality of the Kingdom so no more it will the Church-Catholike visible Obj. Yea Sect. 5. but the Church-Catholike cannot be visible because it wants an existence of its own and existeth only in the existence of the particular Churches the members thereof Answ Where there are existing visible members there must be an existing visible Integral Omne membrum habet suum integrum The same Objection lyeth as well against any aggregative body A heap of stones may as well be said to exist only in the existence of the particular stones and a particular Congregation exist in the existence of the particular families and particular families exist in the particular persons But if the members exist quà members the existence of the integral results out of their conjoyned existence and so doth the visibility An army existeth in the several brigades and regiments and they are billeted or quartered in distant places and yet having the same General the same Laws martial the same cause the same enemies although they should never be drawn up together in one body at one place yet are they one visible Army So is the Church-Catholike one and that visibly as I shewed in the beginning of this Chapter though there goeth an act of the minde to the perceivance of the unity It is a political union by the same visible Charter and laws and way under one Commander in chief and therefore visible i. e. perceivable by sense though not by sense only the very uniting bond the laws are visible yea the existence of it will more appear because it hath priviledges belonging thereunto which particulars have not or but in part and at second hand as hath been shewed in the former Chapt. and shall more fully in the second Question This Objection M. Ellis vind p. 56. undertakes to set down and marks it in the margin as if he had cited my words but misseth both my words and sense And then fals upon the Answer and saith that it amounts not to an answer for no collected body that is made up of several things hath its being in these things severally considered and apart but as united altogether it is not an heap of stones if one lie at York some at London others in France Spain c. I answer It is true in bodies made up by physical or artificial aggregation there must indeed be some contiguity or nearnesse of parts but in political aggregation and such M. Ellis acknowledgeth vind p. 5. l. 38. it is not necessary M. Ellis makes the Empire of Germany one by aggregation and yet hath not I suppose cast those several territories one upon another as the Giants are feigned to throw Pelion upon Ossa but they ly further distant then at M. Calamies door and M. Hudsons as he is pleased to make the allusion or illusion rather vin p. 35. One Kingdom may consist of divers Ilands if under the same King and laws c. and so may all the Churches in the world be one Church though farre distant and visible though not actually seen because the persons and places are visible and the things wherein and whereby they are conjoyned as Profession Laws Doctrine Seals Worship c. are external and so visible And though an aggregative body is not made up of the several parts considered severally and apart yet out of the existence and visibility of them conjoyned either physically or politically c. according as the thing is the existence and visibility of the whole will result as I said before And Sir I cannot but right my self from an injury which in your answer to this Objection vind p. 24. you offered me by intimating bitingly to delude your reader and wrong M. Calamy the licenser of that Thesis as if he were the Authour of it or partly the Authour or at the fairest the inciter thereto What other construction can these words of you bear A man-midwife may be father also And another jerk you give to the same purpose vind p. 80. in these words Moses mother was his nurse also But Sir that which is mine I am not willing should be charged upon any other I owned it in print and to put you and others out of doubt I assure you that neither M. Calamy nor any other incited me thereto neither so much as made or altered one sentence in the whole Thesis Neither was it of such a texture as that you or any man else should suppose it had any other Authour or Authours then a mean Countrey-Minister such as I acknowledge my self to be You might have known who was the Authour thereof if you would have been pleased to have come to our company at the reading of it as you were lovingly invited out of desire to enjoy your society for the learning and piety we conceived to be in you Obj. If the Church-Catholike or
which I much doubt yet he shall come again visibly as the Sonne of man at the end of the world and take account of the managing of these Ordinances and of the carriage both of Officers and private Christians and the elect shall be gathered together into heaven and enioy him visibly to all eternity and he shall visibly condemn the reprobates and every eye shall see him So that this is but an interval wherein Christ though he be now visible in himself yet appears not to us visibly ordinarily though he did to Paul and Steven even after his ascension Yet now he affords visible communion to his people by his Ordinances and they do visible service unto him though he resideth not with them If the absence of the King make the kingdom invisible then Ireland is an invisible kingdom M Hooker affirms this opinion to be not only untrue but very dangerous to hold that Christ as meer man consisting of body and soul is a visible head of his Church And thereupon citeth Whitakers words that Christ did not reside in the Church as a visible Monarch nor came into the world to set up a visible Monarchy Answ I do not conceive that Christ as meer man consisting of body and soul is the head of the Church either invisible or political but as God-man yet that person was visible though but in one of his natures and in but half of that neither viz. his body The visibility of one nature makes visibility to be predicated of the whole person else no man is visible for his soul is invisible It is the meanest half of him that is visible and so no earthly King should be visible Christ is called God manifested in the flesh 1 Tim. 3.16 And the word became flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory the glory as of the only begotten of the Father Joh 1.14 We were eye-witnesses of his majesty 1 Pet. 1.16 That which was from the beginning which we have heard which we have seen with our eyes which we have looked upon and our hands have handled of the word of life 1 Joh. 1.1 I hope these speeches are neither untrue nor dangerous And for his donative power and authority Christ saith of himself Joh. 5.27 that the Father hath given authority to execute judgement because he is the son of man The Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sinnes and that was a kingly action And the Apostle saith Act. 17.31 God hath appointed a day wherein he will judge the world in righteousnesse by that man whom he hath ordained It is true indeed all the vertue and power come from the deity to gather and perfect the Saints forgive sinnes raise the dead judge the world and by his deity only he is present with us now yet as man also he is head of his Church and not as God only for had he been only God he could not have been a sutable head or second Adam but that he became by becoming man and taking our nature upon him The seed of the woman must break the Serpents head The governing power and wisedom of a King is in his invisible soul yet he is a visible King It is true also that Christ came not in the daies of his flesh as a visible temporal Monarch in Davids civil throne yet Christ confesseth then unto Pilate that he was a king though his kingdom was not of this world i. e. civil to oppose Caesars yet it is in this world and external in this world also God over-ruled Pilate to set a true title over Christ on the Crosse Jesus of Nazareth king of the Jews As a King he had all power in heaven and earth given hem Mat. 28.10 19 and immediatly thereupon as a King he issues out his Commission to his Apostles Go ye therefore and teach all Nations c. It is not because Christ died for all as a Priest that this commission is so general but because all power in heaven and earth was given to him therefore as a King he summons in all even the very rebels to yield obedience to his lawful authority but only such as yield obedience and come in are saved by him He set Officers and offices and gave commandment to his Apostles Act. 1.2 And appointed the form of Ecclesiastical proceedings in discipline in case of scandal Mat. 18. And this is no other doctrine then our reverend Assembly hath set out both in their larger and shorter Catechism That Christ our redeemer executeth the offices of a Prophet a Priest and a King both in his estate of humiliation and exaltation Neither can I see any reason why Christ should be denied to execute his kingly office while he was here below any more then his Priestly or Prophetical If he was then a King and had all power given him he did not suspend the execution of it while he was on earth Joh. 5.17 neither doth Beza in conf fid ob 5. art 5. cited by M. Hooker deny Christ to be head as man though he acknowledge him to be head as God also And though he saith that he communicates that degree of dignity to none else He by those words excludeth the Pope c. but not Christs own humane nature by which it is indeed that we come to our union with God All that can truly be alledged in this case is that Christ is not now visibly seen as King with our bodily eyes nor can we come to him bodily nor receive any verbal commands from his mouth as we may from an earthly King But how few subjects have that priviledge in regard of their earthly Soveraigns The legal commands are counted the Kings commands and not his verbal only nor chiefly Yet we finde that Christ after his ascention did in Rev. 2. and 3. Chapt. write a letter by John unto the 7. Churches of Asia and reproves or commends and exhorts them particularly and in the inditing of it appears as a man to John and useth arguments therein from things betiding him as man as that he was dead and is alive again and washed us from our sins in his own bloud c. Object Though there be a Church-Catholike yet it is not visible because it is the object of our faith it being an Article of our faith I beleeve the holy Church-Catholike Now faith is the evidence of things not seen Heb. 11.1 Things seen are the object of sense and knowledge not of faith For what a man seeth how can he be said to believe faith and sense are opposed each to other by the Apostle Answ If indeed we take the Catholike Church in the largest sense for the elect past present and to come as some do the Church-Catholike is invisible Also the grace of such as are invisible members is invisible but that is not the Church we are speaking of The Church we have in hand is the whole company of visible believers in the world considered as visible Secondly
not considered as their particular Officers yet Officers in general And such persons as receive the doctrine of Christ which denominates them to be beleevers are bound to receive his commands also to submit themselves to his Ministers for their edification And though they have no particular Officers yet as they look upon the Church as a society of men and fellow-members to whom they joyn themselves in the general though not as yet in any particular membership so they look upon the Ministers as Christs Ministers to whom they are to be subject in the Lord to receive their doctrine exhortations and reproofs and from whom also if they prove scandalous heretical infectious or apostates they must expect disciplinary censures though they be no particular members under a particular Minister There is a question whether the Church or the Ministers be first because the Ministers are the instrumental cause of the conversion of the Church and the Church of the choice of the Ministers which is something like that Philosophical question Whether the hen or the egge were first for as the egge comes of a hen so the hen comes of an egge And as that is resolved by the consideration of the creation and then God made the hen first so is this question by consideration of the first institution and setting up of the Evangelical Catholike Church and then we finde that Christ set up the Officers first to convert men to be beleevers and they being converted to the faith of Christ are bound to submit themselves to Christs Ministers in the Lord. And because they will stand in need of constant inspection teaching and ruling which they cannot enjoy from Ministers in general as so considered because they are dispersed into several places for habitation and take particular parts of Christs Church to watch over therefore they are to desire and endeavour to have some of Christs Ministers to take the particular inspection of them But we know that at first they receive Baptism not from their own particular Minister or not as so considered for being newly converted into the Church and not baptized they cannot as I conceive be members of a particular Congregation until after baptism but they receive it as from one of Christs Ministers in general and are by him admitted into the visible body the Church and after this have liberty to choose under the inspection of what Ministers they will put themselves See more of this Qu. 2. S. 2. 4. Now before the proof of this assertion it will be needful to explain a little what I mean by one Organical body I doe not mean that there is one universal visible actual society consisting of all such as are accounted or to be esteemed Christians subjected actually to one or many universal general actual Pastors or guides from whom subordinates must derive their office and power and with whom they must communicate in some general sacred things which may make them one Church as the Jews were And which general sacred services or duties can be performed by that universal head or heads and that Church only Such an universal Christian Church Christ never ordained no not in the daies of the Apostles to whom the extraordinary care of all the Churches was committed Nor that all the whole Church should be subjected to one supream Tribunal of Officers constantly erected and continued among them Nor yet to communicate with Christ himself though in some sense he may be said to be a visible head in some worship to be performed by all joyntly assembled at some especial solemnity as the Jews at the Passeover But an habitual Politico-Ecclesiastical society body flock in one sheepfold of the militant Church in uniform subjection to the same Lord the same Laws in the same faith and under the same visible seal of Baptism performing the same worship and service in kinde and though the members be dispersed far and wide yea divided into several particular places and secondary combinations of vicinities for actual constant enjoyment of Ordinances as particular Corporations in a Kingdom which is an accidental not essential relation to them as subjects of the Kingdom yet still those Ordinances admissions ejections have influence into the whole body as it is a polity and the members indefinitely may of right communicate one with another in any place or any company of Christians though every person so meeting but occasionally may be of a several particular Church and the Minister dispensing a particular Pastor to none of them all yea though none of them all be fixed members of any particular Congregation nor the Minister dispensing fixed to no particular Congregation neither by vertue of their general membership in the visible body and kingdom of Christ and of the habitual indefinitenesse of the Ministers office and the common donation of the Ordinances by Christ to his whole visible Kingdom and to all the subjects and members thereof which have a common freedom therein And in this sense the word Church is taken in Scripture His bodies sake which is the Church whereof I Paul am made a Minister The house of God which is the Church Now because there is no such civil society or kingdom that will in every thing parallel this but there use to be some general offices and officers and some inferiour subordinate receiving power and authority by descention derivation or subordination and the inferiour Officers of lesse extent of place and power then the superiour As the Lord chief Justice of England is above inferiour Justices and his warrant can reach all persons in all the Counties of the Kingdom and there be constant Courts of Kings bench and Common Pleas for judicature for all the Subjects of the whole Kingdom though haply it was not so in the four Monarchies this make men stumble at the name and notion of a Church-Catholike visible But as in other things Christs Kingdom is neither of this world not like unto worldly polities so neither in this But every Minister of the Church in his particular place serveth the Church-Catholike visible in admitting members to general freedom in it and ejecting out from general communion prayeth publikely for the whole body and manageth his particular charge in reference to and so as may stand with the good of the whole body whereof his Congregation is but a member And the Ordinances therein administred are the Ordinances given to the whole not as to a genus which is but a notion and can have no Ordinances but as to a spiritual kinde of an habitual organical body and polity as to a sort of men so and so qualified bound up in an union and unity of the same head laws seals worship and communion Now the same arguments which prove the Church-Catholike an Integral will serve to prove it one organical body also Sect. 4. and therefore I shall take some of them into consideration again under this head and in this notion 1. It will appear by the names
aggregation and combination as M. Hooker understands me for the particular Congregations must exist before they can be combined and aggregated Neither do I 〈◊〉 in regard of operation for now the Church is constituted and divided into particular combinations the particular Churches are first in their ordinary operations And yet the Evangelical Church did put forth operations at first before any such divisions and without any reference to them But positively I mean the Church-Catholike is before the particular 1. Intentione divinâ in Gods intention as Nature intends first the whole man and not any part of man although the parts are in some sense before the whole in consideration for the whole is made up of them 2. Institutione divinâ in regard of Gods institution God did first institute the whole by one Charter Covenant and systeme of Laws and the particular Congregations secondarily for convenient communication of persons and transactions of businesse Go teach all Nations was the first Commission after Christs resurrection 3. Donatione divinâ for the Ordinances and priviledges of the Church were first given to the whole and secondarily to the particular Congregations as the priviledges of any Kingdom and Corporation are 4. The Church-Catholike is prior dignitate in dignity a Kingdom is of more dignity and honour then any particular town and a city then any street or ward The whole hath more dignity then any part Yea and I may say also in authority for the authority of the whole is greater in divers respects then of the parts 5. Perfectione for the perfection of the whole is made up of the perfection of the parts a whole Kingdom of the parts of it and any whole comprizeth the perfection of the parts of it a particular street or ward is an imperfect incompleat thing and not consistent alone but as a part in reference to the whole and as a member in reference to the whole body The particulars may have the perfection of parts and some be more perfect then others but the whole is most perfect and the perfections of the parts concurre in the perfection of the whole 6. Entitivè or essentialiter the Church-Entitive is before the Organical for the organical is made up of the members of the Church Entitive and the Church-Entitive affords materials to the Church-organical And in this respect the particular Churches are properly ortae arising out of the Entitive and so also is the whole Church-organical for it ariseth out of the combination of the particular Congregations and both it and they consist only of members of the Church Entitive And herein I consent unto M. Parker in this sense but not that the habitual power of Elders should arise from the particular Congregations to act in Synods but only in regard of their evocation and exciting of their power to act in reference to them pro hic nunc 7. Causalitate efficientis Ministerialis For the Church-Catholike already converted is a means of converting more unto them as opportunity is afforded and of admitting ministerially into the Church-Catholike both entitive first and then organical both private members and also Officers into their habitual office 8. Cognitione sive noscibilitate perfectâ For though this or that Congregation be proprior ad sensum and so notior respectu nostri which is cognitione confusâ yet the Church-Catholike is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 noscibilior simpliciter Distincta enim cognitio sequitur ordinem naturae in se in mente benè dispositâ As universalia sunt notiora minus universalibus species infima individâ—â—â— The Kingdom of England as a Kingdom is propius ad 〈◊〉 and so noscibilius distinctâ ratione but particular towns are propiora ad sensum The notion of an English man comes first upon a subject of this Kingdom before of a Suffolk man A man may have knowledge of England as a Kingdom and be well skilled in the polity laws and priviledges thereof and yet by sense have but little or no knowledge of particular Towns so a man may know much of the Church as Christs Kingdom and be well skilled in the Laws Ordinances and priviledges thereof and yet know but few particular Churches So that the priority of the Church-Catholike visible in respect of the particulars is like the priority of a Kingdom to the parts of it or of a Corporation in respect of the parts of it which is not meant in a mathematical or techtonical consideration for so the particular buildings are prima and the whole city ortae yet so M. Hooker understood me in his acute arguing about integrale Surv. pag. 255. But in regard of intention institution donation of priviledges dignity perfection essence instrumental efficiency and perfect cognition of it There is also a difference between ortum secundarium for every ortum is secundarium but every secundarium is not ortum But I principally meant secundarium or secundary yet in regard the particular Churches arise and spring out of the Church-Entitive and are converted and admitted ministerially by the Church-Catholike already in being they may truly be said to be ortae and the Catholike prima First Sect. 2. All the names that are in the Scripture given unto the Church-visible agree primarily to the Church-Catholike and secondarily to particular Congregations As 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we are first considered as called out from Idols and devoted to be the Lords people before we can be considered of this or that Congregation We know they were given even to the Jews before ever any Congregational Evangelical Churches had existence Act. 7.38 The Church in the wildernesse And the Jews are frequently called the Lords people So the Church is called the house of the living God 1 Tim. 3.15 And the ground and pillar of truth Gods vineyard Joh. 15.1 Wherein branches in Christ bearing no fruit are cut off Christs sheepfold Joh. 10.16 Barn-floor Mat. 3.12 Drag-net Wheat-field Kingdom of heaven Mat. 13.37 38. A great house wherein are vessels even of dishonour 2 Tim. 2.20 These names cannot be limited or appropriated to any particular Congregation but are first true of the whole Church and of every particular Church as a part thereof Congregationes particulares sunt quasi partes similares Ecclesiae Catholicae atque adeò nomen naturam ejus participant Ames med l. 1. c. 32. s 4. 2. That is the primary Church to which the Covenant Promises Laws and Priviledges of the Church do primarily belong but the Covenant Promises Laws and Priviledges do primarily belong to the Church-Catholike Therefore c. The minor I prove because the Covenant of grace and salvation by Christ and the first Evangelical promise that ever was made in the world was to Adam and Eve representing all mankinde and therefore consequently the whole Church of God This was before there was any division or distinction made of Churches into Jew and Gentile National or Congregational Again the main commission for gathering
the Evangelical Church was Go teach all Nations and baptize them in the name of the Father Son and holy Ghost Mat. 28. And this was before any divisions or subdivisions were appointed and they were secondarily brought in for order and convenient administration of Ordinances and communication of members and transaction of businesse and they being similar parts of the whole receive their particular distinctions from external accidental and adventitious particularities as the places where they exist the particular Officers set over them their purity or impurity eminency or obscurity multitude or paucity zeal or remisnesse antiquity or late constitution c. They all retain the general essential form and difference from heathens and among themselves as parts of a similar body are distinguished but by accidental differences And that promise that the gates of hell shall never prevail against the Church is primarily given to the Church-Catholike visible have 〈◊〉 For that in heaven is not assailed by the gates of hell but only that on earth And though it may seem to be applicable to the invisible only yet to those as visible for so they are assailed by persecutions and heresies Again He that beleeveth and is baptized shall be saved Mar. 16. This doth primarily belong to the Church Catholike and that a visible Church because capable of Baptism and though it be applicable to every member of any particular Congregation yet not as being a member of that particular society or confederation but as being in the general Covenant and so a member of the Church Catholike to which that promise was made Yea look over all the promises in the New Testament and you shall finde them under in general without the least respect or reference to the particular confederations or Congregations wherein the beleevers lived In any similar body as water the accidents doe not primarily pertain to this or that particular drop and secondarily to the whole but first to the whole and secondarily to this or that drop So the promises and priviledges of the Church do not primarily belong to this or that particular Church and secondarily to the Catholike but first to the Catholike and secondarily to this or that particular Congregation or person as being a member thereof The Laws also are given to the whole Church primarily as the Laws of England are to the whole Kingdom primarily and to the particular divisionâ— secondarily and all are bound to obedience not as Suffolk or Essex men but as Subjects of this Kingdom So the Laws of Christ binde every particular Church but not because in such a particular Covenant or confederation but because Subjects of Christs visible Kingdom The like may be said of the priviledges of the Church Two main priviledges of the Church are federal holinesse of the children of visible beleevers and right to the Ordinances on for â—â—llcclesia Now neither of both these betide any primarily as a member of a particular Congregation but as a member of the Church-Catholike For federal or covenant-holinesse whereby the children of visible beleevers are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it betideth no mans children because the parents are of this or that or any Congregation but because of the Church-Catholike yea though but entitive if under the seal of Baptism This I prove thus That which should have been though the particular relation to a particular Congregation had never been and which continueth when the particular relation ceaseth that is not a proper priviledge of that relation but such is federal-holinesse in regard of relation to any particular Congregation Therefore c. Suppose those baptized by John Baptist or by Christs Disciples before there were any particular distinctions should have had any children or the Eunuch if he were an Eunuck by office only and not in body baptized by Philip who went immediatly home into his own countrey or Cornelius and his friends baptized in Peters command should not their children 〈◊〉 Suppose â— Church dissolved by war the Minister and people slaiâ—â—ick dying by some raging pestilence and some women left with childe and haply they carried away captive should not their children be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because the particular relation is extinct Do not those women remain members of the Church But they cease to remain members of that particular Church or Integral for that inceased Therefore of the Church-Catholike or of none Are thereto he accounted without in the Apostles sense Are visible be leevest not yet joined in Church-order or fellowship by a particular Covenant to be accounted without Or is a Congregation deprived of Elders by death land in that interval 〈◊〉 of Word Sacraments and discipline to be accounted 〈…〉 joyning of a company of private Christians together without Officers before they be organized that gives them their right primarily to the Ordinances I fear too 〈…〉 to that particular conjunction and covenient 〈…〉 weight laid upon it which is a very accidental 〈…〉 to Ordinances and enters not into it 〈…〉 and extinguishible without the least impeaching of the right to Ordinances If the reason whereupon the Apostle saith the Church of Corinth was not to judge them that were without was because they were not within the Church of Corinth and so not under their particular 〈…〉 or judgement this holdeth true of them that be of another society or Congregation desiring to be admitted to the Sacrament as well as of such as are no set members desires to be received to the Lords Supper And so all 〈…〉 of 〈◊〉 society are without unto another See M. 〈…〉 But by fornicators of this world whom the Apostle pointeth into by the title of being without 1 Cor. 10.11 he means such as had not received the Covenant of grace such as 〈…〉 the Common-wealth of Israel strangers from the 〈…〉 of promise having no hope and without God in the world 〈◊〉 And 〈◊〉 right to the Ordinances it ariseth from the general Covenant 〈…〉 priviledge primarily belonging to visible beleevers though in no particular consociation the admission into the particular Congregation only affords an opportunity because thereby a particular Minister hath taken the charge of him and must administer the Ordinances to him which any other Minister may do upon occasion For Baptism it cannot be a priviledge of the particular Covenant for if a Pagan be converted he must be baptized before he can be admitted a member of the particular Congregation and this must be by some Minister Therefore baptism is a priviledge of the Church-Entitive and a Minister can yea and must sometimes exert his power of office not only beyond his own Congregation even into others but beyond the Church organical into the Church-Entitive to set Christs seal there And for the children of visible beleevers though born never so farre from the place where the particular Minister liveth which hath the actual care of his parents be it by sea or by land any Minister may administer Baptism to them because they are
vipers and yet addeth I indeed baptize you with water Matth. 3.7 11. Indeed they confessed their sins and it is like promised amendment and so will the worst in our Congregations doe though they never perform it The ground therefore upon which this supposal is to be must not be any mans personal particular judgement built upon such evidence as may convince the understanding of a judicious experienced Minister or Christian that the persons are truly godly but an Ecclesiastical judgement in foro Ecclesiae raised upon such grounds as the Ministers of God directed by God have formerly gone upon which conditions if they finde they are not to deny administration of the seals unto which are the seals of the visible not invisible Church The same causes and rules are of admission that are of ejection vice versâ and as no man is to be censured and cast out of the visible Church because the Elders particular judgement makes them think the man hath not the true power of godlinesse and grace of God in sincerity except he commit that which deserves an Ecclesiastical censure so neither is admission to be denyed to any man that desires to dedicate himself unto God and will promise and professe subjection to Christ in all his Ordinances though it be suspected by judicious Christians that he hath not the true work of grace in his heart The Church of God in their Ecclesiastical judgement censureth only ignorance errour and scandal A Scholar that is admitted into a school is not admitted because he is doctus but ut fit doctus and if he will submit to the rules of the school and apply himself to learn it is enough for his admission the like may be said of the Church visible which is Christs school Iohn Baptist did not in his conscience think they had all actually really and compleatly repented and reformed themselves whom he baptized but he baptized them unto repentance Mat. 3.11 and they by receiving the same bound themselves to endeavour the practice thereof It were a sad case for Ministers if they were bound to admit none or administer the Lords Supper to none but such as were truly godly or that they judged in their conscience to be so or were bound to eject all that they judged were not so I fear the Elders in New-England do not in their consciences judge so of all their members It is not confederation that can give right to Ordinances if by Gods laws they ought not to have them There is a great difference between the visible and invisible Church the rules of the one will not serve for the other No Minister could ever administer the Sacrament without sin if he ought not to administer it to any but such as are truly godly neither hath God given us any rules to judge certainly of the truth of grace in any man but the most judicious Divine in the world may be deceived by a cunning hypocrite And to salve this by saying we ought to think in our conscience that they are godly is vain for as we have no such rule to go by in Gods word so it is very harsh to passe an Ecclesiastical censure upon that ground and the like may be said of denying admission thereupon and it is also a very doubtful rule for a Minister to go by for some men judge very well of him that others judge but slieghtly of and there will be a division among people in their communicating together according to their several judgements one of another still suspecting that they have fellowship with unbeleevers and both Ministers and peoples judgement very very much concerning the same man according to the variety of his carriage there will sometimes be hopes and sometimes fears but Ecclesiastical judgement is not guided by such uncertain variable rules neither in admission nor ejection but upon clear evidence and palpable grounds which must reach all and may be clearly known and proved There are some I finde that distinguish between the qualifications of the members of the Church-Catholike visible and of the members of particular instituted Churches For the former viz. the general membership they acknowledge that these forenamed qualifications will be sufficient and therefore will admit such and their children to baptism which say they is an Ordinance of the Church-Catholike visible and every Minister being a Minister of the Church-Catholike visible besides his particular relation to his particular Congregation may say they administer baptism to them though they be members of no instituted Churches but to make a member of a particular instituted Congregation they require evident signs of true grace and a consent and submission to the Ordinances of Discipline dispensed by the particular Officers But this distinction of qualifications I finde not grounded upon the word of God nor that any should be fit to be members of the Church-Catholike visible and not to be members of a particular visible Congregation If they be brought into Christs sheepfold they are fit to have some of Christs shepheards to take inspection of them if they be admitted into Christs Kingdom City Family they are fit to be under the regiment of some of his Officers If the Ordinances of worship yea the seal of the Covenant be administred to them I see no ground that these should be freed from the Ordinances of Discipline who in all likelihood will stand in most need thereof The great Objection which M. Hooker urgeth against this assertion that the particular Churches are ortae and whereby he would prove the Church-Catholike to be Orta is because if the Church-Catholike be an integral it is made up of the aggregation of the particulars oritur ex illis And every Integrum is in respect of the parts Symbolum effecti And the parts must have a being before the whole can result out of them Answ My main intention in the Question was to prove the Church-Catholike to be the prime Church in those respects which are enumerated in the explication of this part or the predicate of the Question to which I referre you and that the particular Churches are secondary in the same senses also And for the particular Churches being Orta I have already both in the explication of the terms of the Question Chap. 1. Sect. 4. and in this second part expressed my meaning thereof Sect. 1. c. My meaning is not in regard of the aggregation and combination of the particular Churches to make one aggregated combined integral for so indeed the Church-Catholike puts on the notion of orta But I meant it first in regard the particular Congregations are made up of and arise out of the members of the Church-Entitive or of visible beleevers which are the matter thereof And whereas it is objected against this that that Church is no political body haply never had the sight or knowledge one of another never entred into agreement of government one with another and are wholly destitute according to reason and
Priviledges primarily belong to the Catholike Church The Covenant commission for gathering the Evangelical Church the promises made to it and Laws of it proved to be universal 220 The Priviledges are also catholike First Federal holinesse is a priviledge of the Catholike Church 221 Secondly Right to the Ordinances of Christ 222 Proved in regard of Baptism 223 And the Lords Supper 224 Hearing of the word and joyning in Praier 225 The query about the Ordinances of Discipline discussed 226 1 Every member of the Church though but entitive is bound to submit thereto 2 Every Minister hath an habitual indefinite power annexed to his office to administer them 3 The Ordinances of discipline were first given to general Pastors 227 4 The censures dispensed have influence into the whole Church 5 Otherwise great inconvenience will follow 6 All polities administer justice to strangers offending within their limits And the like power must be allowed to Ecclesiastical polities Section 3. The third argument is because Christs Offices are first intended for and executed on the Church-Catholike 228 The fourth argument is because the signs to difference the true Church from a false belong primarily to the whole 229 The fifth argument is because all the members are members of the Church-Catholike primarily 230 Both those that are born members and those converted This illustrated by three similitudes 231 Section 4. The sixth argument is because the Ministers are primarily Ministers of the Church-Catholike 232 Diverse proofs hereof The absurd consequences of binding the Ministers office to his particular Congregation only 233 The Ministers office and power ceaseth not by the dissolution of his particular flock 235 An Objection against this by M. A. and M. S. taken from the ceasing of the ruling Elder or Deacons office at such dissolution answered 236 It appears because the censure of excommunication inflicted by particular Officers reacheth the whole Church-visible 237 The distinctions of formally and virtually and of antecedenter consequenter discussed 238 It appears also because particular Officers admit into the Church-Catholike by baptism 239 Baptizing is an act of the ministerial office All are baptized into one body Many examples of persons baptized without relation to any particular Congregations Though it be objected that this was done by extraordinary Officers yet this salves it not because if it be an Ordinance belonging to particular congregational members these being not so they could have no right to receive it no jus in re 240 Some are called Ministers in Scripture in regard of more Congregations then one 241 And ruled in common over more Congregations then one Section 5. The seventh argument is because every Christian bears his first relation to the Church Catholike and that relation continueth last and cannot be broken off without sin 242 Hence strangers tried where they reside for the present Ephesus commended for trying strangers Rev 2.2 Non communion is a sentence denounced against strangers Hereticks and false teachers not fixed must not be suffered It is no sin to remove from one Congregation to another 243 The eighth argument is because particular Churches spring from the Church-Catholike and are an additament thereto 244 The Church-Catholike is as the main Ocean and the particular as the arms thereof A double rise of particular Churches out of the Catholike 245 First They are made up of members of the Church-Catholike i. e. of visible beleevers Secondly They finde the Church-Catholike constituted and invested before their addition 1 The Church-Catholike is instrumental to their conversion 2 And gives them ministerially their admittance both into the Church entitive and organical Section 6. What is sufficient in foro externo to make a man a member of the Church-Catholike visible 246 The absurdities of accounting true beleevers only members of the visible Church Apollonius and Mr Norton cited Obj. Holinesse of dedication is founded on holiness of sanctification answered 247 Instances out of the Old and New Testament for the contrary Personal and Ecclesiastical judgement differ 248 The rules of the invisible Church serve not for the visible There are the same qualifications for the members of the Church-Catholike visible as for the particular Churches 249 Two Objections against the priority of the Church-Catholike answered 250 The conclusion of the premises 253 Section 7. Corollaries from the former Thesis 254 24 Corollaries concerning the Church-Catholike 12 Concerning particular Churches 255 7 Concerning the publike Officers of the Church 256 12 Concerning private members 257 Section 8. An application of the Thesis bewailing our division 258 First in judgement 259 Diverse errours reckoned up that are broached Secondly in heart and affections 260 Thirdly in way or practice 261 An exhortation to unity in all these 3. respects 262 THE ESSENCE AND VNITY OF THE Church Catholike visible c. QUEST Vtrum Ecclesia visibilis universalis sive Oecumenica sit prima vel secundaria orta a particularibus Whether the vis Ch. Cath. or the particular Churches be first CHAPTER I. The Explication of the Tearms FOR the handling of this Question here are these four tearms to be opened First What is meant by Ecclesia or Church Secondly What by visibilis or visible Thirdly What is meant by universalis sive oecumenica or universal and oecumenical Fourthly What by prima and orta or the first Church and that which riseth of it or secondary 1. First What a Church is SECT 1. The word Church is taken in a civil or theological sense In a civil sense for a company of people summon'd or gathered together for some civil affairs Acts 19.39 It shall be determined in a lawfull assembly the word in the Original is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Church Yea even the rout met together Acts 19.41 is called Ecclesia 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He dismissed the assembly or the Church as the word is in the Original Secondly In a theological sense it signifieth a company of people that are called or to be called and joyned together standing in some spiritual relation to God And so the word is taken diversly First and most properly for the whole company of the elect as they are opposed to the reprobates whether Jew or Gentile and in this sense it is taken Ephes 5.25 26. As Christ loved the Church and gave himself for it that he might cleanse it with the washing of water by the Word So vers 23 27. and 32. Again Col. 1.18 His body the Church Interdum cum Ecclesiam nominant eam intelligunt quae rever à est coram Deo in quam nulli recipiantur nisi adoptionis gratiâ filij Dei sunt spiritus sanctificatione vera Christi membra Ac tunc quidem non tantum sanctor qui in terra habitant comprehendit sed electos omnes qui ab origine mundi fuerunt Calvin Instit. lib. 4. cap. 1. sect 7. where you may see more of this subject Of these there are three sorts The first are elect uncalled
which are not actually the Church but in potentiâ and in Gods decree the second sort are militant warring with principalities and powers with flesh world and devil being actually justified and sanctified persons the third sort are triumphant in Heaven having finished their course and are now the spirits of just men made perfect For the fourth which the Papists make viz. Ecclesia dormiens in Purgatory we acknowledge not Secondly The word Church sometimes signifyeth more then the elect viz. the multitude of beleevers whether truly or in shew only So Act. 8.3 Saul made havock of the Church Act. 12.1 Herod stretched out his hands to vex certain of the Church Now it is certain that neither Herod nor Saul knew who were elect but as himself expounded it He persecuted this way unto the death And he desired letters to Damascus that if he found any of that way he might binde them Act. 9.2 So Act. 5.11 Fear came upon all the Church Now it cannot be conceived that they were all elect that feared that judgement of God So 1 Tim. 5.16 Let not the Church be charged with them that it may relieve widows indeed Now we cannot conceive that only the elect gave collection but the whole number of professors which yet are called the Church In Ecclesia plurimi sunt permixti hypocritae qui nihil Christi habent praeter titulum speciem Calvin Institut lib. 4. cap. 1. sect 7. Thirdly The word Church is sometimes taken for the members of the Church as distinct from the officers Act. 15.22 Then pleased it the Apostles and Elders with the whole Church And ver 4. They were received of the Church and of the Apostles and Elders And this was before their convention in the Synod And Act. 14.23 Fourthly The word Church sometimes signifyeth the Governours of the Church to whom of right it belongeth to administer and dispense the censures of the Church Matt. 18.17 If he will not hear them tell it to the Church i. e. the Ministerial Church where Christ seemeth to me to speak of a Church that was in present being among the Jews because he applies his speech to the capacity of the Jews present Let him be to thee as an heathen and Publican who might not have communion with Heathens and would not with Publicans but Christians might eat and drink with both and the same course by analogy was to be taken by Christians when they had Churches set up as it followeth ver 18 19. Whatsoever ye shall binde on earth c. Now we know that matters of complaint were not among the Jews brought unto the Assembly or body of the people but to their Elders and Rulers And the word Kahal which signifieth Ecclesia or Church is frequently used in the Old Testament for a Court of Elders not only Ecclesiastical but even civil See 1 Chron. 13.1 2 4. And 1 Chron. 29.1 10 20. And 2 Chron. 29.28 31 32. And 2 Chron. 30.2 4. called Psal 82.1 The Congregation of the Gods Compare also Num. 35.12 24 25. and Deut. 19.12 with Iosh 20.4 6. By Congregation in one place is expounded Elders in the other Also Exod. 12.3 with v. 21. Deut. 31 28. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 gather me the Elders or make a Church of Elders The same word we finde 1 Kin 8.1 of Solomons assembling the Elders of Israel And 1 Chr. 28.1 of Davids assembling the Elders The Septuagint translate Kahal Ecclesia or Church by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Prov. 26.26 His wickednesse shall be shewed before the whole Congregation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Compare also Deu. 23.1 2 3 8. No bastard Ammonite Moabite c. might enter into Kahal the Congregation which is rendred by the best Divines to be Consessus Iudicum the Congregation of Iudges For by Exo. 12.48 49. and Num. 15.14 15. and 9.14 and Lev. 22.18 All strangers upon circumcision were admitted into the Congregation of the people to offer to God as well as Israelites Chap. 1. Demosthenes useth the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pro concione maguntum saith Pasor It is very frequent in the Scripture to speak of executing of judgement and justice and putting away of evil from the Congregation indefinitely by ye and thou as if it were spoken to the whole Congregation which was done by the Elders and Judges only judicially Levit 19.15 35. Deut. 16.19 Ier. 7.5 Amos 5.15 24. Zach. 7.9 16. 1 Câ—â— 5.4 7 12. Fifthly The word Church is sometimes used to signifie the faithful in some one family Philem. 2. c. To the Church in thy house Unlesse those families were the meeting places for the Christians that dwelt about to enjoy the Ordinances of God in because there were no publike meeting-houses built And to this I confesse I incline The second acceptation of the word Church sutes best with this question Sect. 2. The second 〈◊〉 to be opened is what is meant by Visible The Church is distinguished into visible and invisible which yet are not two distinct Churches or species of Churches but it is a distribution of the Subject by the Adjunct viz. a duplici modo communion is externo interno Such as have spiritual communion with Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 inwardly are said to be invisible members which are only known to God and not to men having this seal The Lord knoweth who are his Such as have external communion in outward Ordinances 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they are called visible members because their communion is visible and apparent I grant the internal communion is invisible but the external is as visible as of any civil society and Gods Ordinances are as visibly administred as justice at the Sessions or Assizes and the profession of Christianity is as visible as the profession of any tratle the general calling to be Christians by profession is as visible as the particular calling and trade of life The inward grace is indeed invisible but the outward administration of the Ordinances and communion in them is visible i. e. perceptible by the senses And this external communion in the Ordinances though it were distributively in the several places where men live which is confessed by all would serve my turn for this question which I have in hâ—â—â— But visible taken in the sense which M. Ellis takes it in in his Vindiciae Catholicae for that which Vno intuitu videtur is seen with one view was not my meaning and therefore to expound it so which he knows I did not is to prevaricate as he chargeth me pag. 59. If visible i. e. that which may be seen and visum that which is seen actually be the same then is not the world visible But when we say the whole world is visible there is required an act of the minde we conceive that all countries are visible as well as our own and if we were there we might see them They cannot be said to be invisible because we see them not actually
loins And by the same reason when a part of a National Church shall joyn in particular consociation and community in a City or Province or Classis they may receive denomination from thence the one containing a greater part of the Church Catholike the other a lesse For the Church Catholike being a similar body retains the name Church in what parts parcels or quantities soever it be divided into for convenient community until it be brought in minimum quod sic as the Philosophers say i. e. into the least parts that can enjoy publike communion in Ordinances which is a particular Congregation The division of the Church Catholike into particular Congregations seemeth to me to be no further of divine institution then as it fitly serveth for order and edification by cohabitation for enjoyment of Gods Ordinances together publikely as the Jewish Church was divided by Synagogues for their constant enjoyment of word praier and discipline which they could not constantly enjoy as a National Church by their National worship thrice in the year and the same reason will by proportion carry it for Classical Provincial and National divisions for community of a greater part of the Church Gersom Bucerus in dissert de Gub. Eccles p. 11. hath this description of a particular Church Nos particularem Ecclesiam intelligimus quem libet credentium caetum in unam vocationem divinam Evangelij praedicatione sacrarumque Institutionum observatione adunatum ac uni presbyterio subjunctum sacros verò conventus uno aut pluribus locis agitantem Nam paraeciarum in quibus convenitur numerus accidentaria res est nihil ad Ecclesia particularis essentiam pertinens Now this seemeth to me to be a description of a Presbyterial or Classical Church and so not to divide the Church Catholike into any lesse parts for the enjoyment of all the usual publike Ordinances then a Presbyterial Classical Church and so though it be a description of a particular Church indeed yet not of the least particular Church M. Cotton a reverend Minister in N. E. in his Catechism tels us that a visible Church is a mystical body whereof Christ is the head the Members Saints called out of the world and united together into one Congregation by an holy Covenant to worship the Lord and to edifie one another in all his holy Ordinances But with due respect to so grave and worthy a man much of this description seems to me to belong to an invisible Church and not to a visible First because the matter thereof is the mystical body of Christ consisting only of Saints called not only from Idols but out of the world and therefore truly godly but much of the world is in the visible Church Secondly Every Congregation though it be in some sense of the mystical body of Christ yet is not the or a mysticall body of Christ for Christ hath but one mystical body it behooveth therefore a particular Church to be defined with reference to the rest of the body and not to the head only it being but a part of the body It would seem strange to define the little toe to be a body made up of flesh bloud and bone of such a figure enformed by the head without declaring the reference of it to the rest of the body Or a Corporation in England to be a body politick whereof the King is the head or Soveraign without mentioning its reference to the rest of the Kingdom whereof it is but a part and so the King the head or governour thereof but secondarily it being a part of that Kingdom whereof he was Soveraign It is true the Apostle saith the head of every man is Christ. 1 Cor. 11.3 i. e. they are of the body of Christ So it may be said of every Congregation Christ is the head thereof and that it is of his body or kingdom visible Ecclesiastical but then we must adde that which the Apostle doth of the Church of Corinth 1 Cor. 12.27 Now ye are the body of Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. members of a part rendred in the old English Translation Members for the part in the new Members in particular On which words saith Beza in his large notes upon the place Nam omnes Ecclesiae per orbem dispersae diversa sunt unius corporis membra And the English Annotations upon the Bible paraphrase it thus That is members of this Church of Corinth which is but a part of the Catholike Christian Church for all the faithfull wheresoever they are make the whole body you Corinthians are not the whole body but members only neither all the members but a part only of them Paraeus renders it partiatim Peter Martyr Vosestis pars membrorum Thirdly I dare not make a particular explicite holy covenant to be the form of a particular Church as this definition seemeth to do because I finde no mention of any such Covenant besides the general imposed on Churches nor example or warrant for it in all the Scriptures and therefore cannot account it an Ordinance of God but a prudential humane device to keep the members together which in some places and cases may haply be of good use so it be not urged as an Ordinance of God and so it be not used to inthral any and abridge them of liberty of removal into other places and Congregations for their convenience or urged as the form of a Church I deny not but mutual consent of persons within such a vicinity to joyn together constantly in the Ordinances of God under the inspection of such and such officers is requisite to a particular Congregation But it is the general preceding Covenant sealed by baptism and not this that makes them of the body of Christ they must be conceived to be of the visible body of Christ before they can be fit members to constitute a particular Congregation neither is it this particular Covenant that giveth right to the Ordinances of God but the general and therefore they must be judged to have right thereto before they be admitted as members of the Congregation Only this mutual joyning together and choice of such and such a Pastor or Teacher or ruling Elders giveth such Officers a call to take immediate inspection over them and administer the Ordinances of God belonging to their offices unto them to which they had right before their particular consociation which is but an accidentary thing and may many waies be dissolved and yet they not lose their right to Gods Ordinances by that dissolution Such a consent joyning and call of or submitting to a Presbytery giveth to those Elders right of exercising of their offices over or towards them rather then over others and to them to expect or require the Ordinances of God from those particular Officers rather then from others Fourthly For the enjoyment of all the Ordinances of God in one Congregation it seemeth to me very incovenient for some of the Ordinances and altogether impossible for others
Where the word Church cannot signifie the Elect only nor any particular Congregation or Kingdom but indefinitely it reacheth the whole body though in never so remote parts M. Hooker excepteth against this proof because saith he the Church here spoken of is contra-distinct to the Jews and therefore cannot comprehend the whole company of beleevers through the whole world because some beleevers were of the Jews Surv. c. 15. p. 270. Answ It is true I finde Beza in his large notes upon the place interpreting the Jews here spoken of to be the beleeving Jews and the Gentiles to be the beleeving Gentiles Partibus subijcit totum But then he crosseth M. Hooker in making the Church an integrum and Jews and Gentiles to be the integrant parts Yet he adds as the more probable meaning Nisi malimus istud Iudais Graecis de extrancis intelligere quorum etiam nobis sit habenda ratio c. And all others that I have met withall interpret the words of the unbeleeving Jews and Gentiles in opposition to Christians Or else of the beleeving Jews and Gentiles making one Church but most in the first sense So Calvin Iudaeos Gentes nominat non tantum quia duobus illis generibus constabat Dei Ecclesia sed ut doceat nos omnibus etiam alionis esse debitores ut eos si fieri potest lucrifaciamus So Paraeus on the vers Also Amb. Thomas Aqu. Goran and the English Annotations on the place And the reason divers of them render is because the unbeleeving Jews abhorting Idols might be beat off from Christ by seeing Christians eating things sacrificed to Idols which is the particular offence here mentioned by the Apostle and the unbeleeving Gentiles might be confirmed in their Idolatry thereby and the beleevers both of Jews and Gentiles take offence at it Again saith M. Hooker that Church is here meant whom a man may offend by his practice in the particulars mentioned but he cannot offend the whole company of believers through the whole world because a scandal must be seen or known certainly c. Answ All indefinite negative precepts as against murder adultery theft c. as they are general for the time binding semper ad semper so concerning place and persons though no one man is ever like to have opportunity or possibility to commit them in every place and upon every person So is this prohibition Some might give offence in one place some in another and some one in many places in those travelling times and the whole was liable to offence though haply not by one man and therefore the object is set down indefinitely to comprehend the whole Yea the word comprizeth not the Church Entitive but Organical and combined for they may so be offended and we are not to affront or offend them the greater the part of the whole body is and the more compleated the greater respect is to be had to it that we give no offence thereunto Also Gal. 4.26 But Ierusalem which is above is free which is the mother of us all By Ierusalem is meant a Church because it is that which brings forth children to God which sometime may be desolate and in sorrow because of the paucity and dispersion of them sometime is bidden to rejoyce for the multitude and prosperity of them as vers 27. It â—s also an Evangelical Church freed from the ceremonies of the Law because it is called Ierusalem answering to Ierusalem that was in Pauls time and was in bondage with her children vers 25. i. e. to the Church of the Jews that were under the ceremonial Law and would not forsake it which was soon after destroied The Apostle changeth the manner of this speech from the person of Sarah who was the type of the Evangelical Covenant to Ierusalem which is the Church wherein the Evangelical doctrine and Covenant is preached and this Ierusalem is the seed of Sarah i. e. the Evangelical Church is the seed and offspring of the Evangelical Covenant This Evangelical Church is called Ierusalem and Sion in Heb. 12.22 which text is parallel to this and Rev. 21.1 2. the New Ierusalem The legal ceremonial service did beget all under it to an external bondage and brought them up under bondage especially hypocrites which were not led by the Law to Christ but rather hindred from him they were in external and internal bondage It cannot be the Church Triumphant for that is not the mother of the Church militant that hath no Orrdinances to beget children And though it be called Ierusalem which is above yet that is meant because it hath its Original from heaven as Rev. 21. the New Jerusalem is said to come down from heaven and we are said to be begotten from above 2. Because their conversation is in heaven Phil. 3.20 3. Because they shall in the end be brought thither It cannot be the invisible Church as so considered but must be a visible organical Church because it doth no otherwise become a mother of children but by the use of Ordinances and keys committed to her It is by the preaching of the word that children are begotten in her womb the seed is the word and by the same word as milk and the use of the Sacraments they are nourished in their mothers house and as a mother she educates and rules them by discipline And this cannot be a particular Church but must be the general because the Apostle saith it is the mother of us all the Apostle puts in himself and all beleevers And the 27 vers makes it more plain because the Apostle confirms and explains himself by a quotation out of Isa 54. f. 2 3. which sheweth the calling in of the Gentiles to be of this Church And thus all the protestant Expositours that I have met with expound it Calvin on the place saith Caelestem vocat non qua calo sit inclusa non quae sit quaerenda extra mundum est enim diffusa Ecclesia per totum orbem in terra peregrinatur Luther also saith This heavenly Ierusalem which is above is the Church i. e. the faithful dispersed throughout the whole world which have one and the same Gospel faith Christ holy Ghost and Sacraments It is the Church which is now in the world and not the Triumphant Church To be the mother of us all it is necessary that this our mother should be on earth among men as also her generation is This spiritual Jerusalem which took her beginning in corporeal Jerusalem hath not any certain place but is dispersed throughout the whole world This free mother is the Church it self the spouse of Christ of whom we are all gendred So Musculus Perkins Baldwin and Bullinger Loquitur de Ecclesia in terris ex omnibus gentibus collecta It is another body which is correspondent to Sarah viz. the Christian Church Beza and Calvin on Hebr. 12.22 a text parallel to this hath these words Caelestem Ierusalem intelligit
any one will serve the turn to batter it down it matters not it seems what become of the rest He parallels this place with Eph. 4.4 5. And saith that one body or Church here and there spoken of is meant in the same sense that One faith One Baptism is viz. one in kinde and as there are many single faiths hopes baptisms though one in kinde so there is one body in kinde but many singular bodies vind p. 34. But M. Ellis might have seen that if he had run his parallel a little further he had run over shoes and boots too For there it is said that there is One Spirit one Lord Jesus one God and Father not in kinde but in number and why may not the Church in which there is one individual doctrine of faith and body of laws and into which there is one manner of inrowlment by baptism and in which only there is hope of salvation be one numerically also especially considering that as the head the Lord Jesus Christ is one in number so his body the Church can be but one in number also For Christ hath not more bodies in the same respect then one But even his granting of a mystical onenesse in Essence drives him to grant willingly that this doth imply an union visible also as much as may stand with the institution of Christ and the edification of the Church p. 34. And I think the Presbyterians desire no more Also he saith the Church is one as the worship and government is one viz. for nature and kinde in the substantials of it or that general platform of it Mat. 18. c. but as the Church is not one visible policy or corporation in number so neither in outward government of it vind 35. Answ The Presbyterians do acknowledge many distinct particular corporations of particular Churches exercising government actually and constantly by their own Officers But as this onenesse in kinde of worship and government giveth every private Christian whose constant actual exercise of publike worship is in one Congregation an habitual right to worship God and communicate in any though never so far remote Congregation if occasion serve and makes him liable to reproofs and suspension there if there be known cause why shall not the Officers also whose constant actual exercise is but in one Congregation have the like priviledge to exercise their office in any remote Congregation upon an occasion or call to it But there were two Objections vind p. 35. which played so hard upon him that they beat him from that battery and therefore he betakes himself to another mounted much higher I grant saith he the Apostle speaks of the Church whether visible or invisible universal or particular but not of it in these respects but mystically and totally as comprehending those in heaven also and this sense I will stick unto pag. 35. Now in this body or this Church as Eph. 36. or in this family in heaven and earth as vers 15 He hath set some Apostles some Pastors Though they have exercise of their functions only in that part which is on earth and in that part of it on earth which is visibles yet they are placed in the whole pag. 36. But here M. Ellis grants more then was desired I fear this opinion will prove but a novel opinion and he will have but few fellows to stand by him in managing this piece of battery For as it expresly crosseth D. Ames before-cited who saith the Church-Catholike is one in regard of its external and accidental state and not internal and essential so it crosseth himself who holdeth that the Officers of a particular Church are Officers only in their severall Churches vind p. 8. therefore not set in the Church Triumphant Certainly there they are where they were set but they are in the Church visible militant only the Church Triumphant hath no Officers This opinion will make all the Ministers notable Non-residents who never come at the place where they were set all their life time It were a happy turn for the Ministers if they were all placed in the Church Triumphant as well as militant I am sure many of them will never come there The Saints in heaven have no hand in the election of Officers here below which by his arguing they ought to have as well as the Church-Catholike in the election of every particular Officer vind p. 40. The Church in heaven have neither word Sacraments nor discipline which are counted the notes of the Church where the Ministery is placed The Ministers preach not to them pray not with them have no external communion with them watch not over them neither admonish nor censure them not perform any part of their ministerial office to them Nay the Officers are not so much as placed in the invisible Church on earth for as invisible it hath no Officers but as visible only It is true they are set for the good of the invisible Church and for the perfecting of the Triumphant but they are set only in the visible and they are altogether visible and many of them only visible and yet are true Ministers Are the gifts of tongues and of healing and Deacons set in the whole Church Triumphant as well as Militant Are all that are baptized into one body baptized into the Triumphant as well as militant I think you will not say so But how are we flown from a particular visible congregational Church to the Triumphant on a sudden from one extream to another Remember that of the Poet Ne si dimissior ibis Vnda graves pennas si celsior ignis adurat Inter utrumque vola Medio tutissimus ibis It is clear the Apostle speaks of that body wherein is suffering and rejoycing one with another But Abraham is ignorant of us and Israel acknowledgeth us not It is contrary to reâ—â—on it self that the Officers reckoned up in 1 Cor. 12.28 and Eph. 4.11 should be set in the Church essentially taken for discipline is not essential to the Church but for the â—inâ—esse or well being of it Considering also that by those Officers the Church becometh political It were a paradox to say that a King Judges Justices and Sherifs and Laws c. are given to a Kingdom essentially and not as it is a poâ—â—â—iâ— for they are the very formalis ratio and sinews of the politie thereof without which it might indeed have an essence but no politie Our brethren for Congregational Churches hold that there may be a Church entitive or essential before they choose any Officer else they were in no capacity to choose them how then can Officers aggree to them essentially But it is contrary to sense to say they are set in the Church Triumphant But fearing that he cannot keep this battery he retreats to a third and that is a double one In the general he saith should I grant which I do not that the Apostle is to be understood of the Church on earth yet
he speaks as well of in particular Church as of the general And to avoid the dirt of this Fort or Aâ—bâ—â—â—â—â— is he taâ—â— it viz. 1 Cor. 12.28 He brings in two significations of the word Apostle which worth alone saith he is the ground of the Objection And saith if we take the word for such Officers as were sent out with commission from any Church upon special occasion which is the literal signification of the word and is so taken 1 Cor. 8.23 of Barnabas and Phil. 2.25 of Epapbroditum so the Argument hence were voided Answ But there is not the least probability that the Apostle in setting down the Officers of the Church both extraordinary and ordinary should set down occasional messengers first before Prophets and Teachers And in Ephes 4.11 keeping the same Order should preferre them before Prophets Evangelists Pastours and Teachers And leave out in both places the highest office in the Church viz. Apostleship especially considering that the Apostle there doth not set down the Officers â—aptim promiscously but addeth an ordinal numeral with them first Apostles secundarily Prophets But again If it be taken properly in that he applieth his speech particularly though not exclusively to the Corinthians ye are the body of Christ to wit ye are a particular body and members in particular and so Chap. 3.21 22. All are yours whether Paul or Apollos or Cephar or life or death all are yours and ye Corinthians Christs Where all are the whole Churches and each Churches in particular as their occasions require each in their order He might also have said and each particular member So that the sense is saith he he hath given or set in the Church i. e. in this Church of Corinth and so in that of Ephesus c. Some Apostles c. as their need shall require yet not therefore making them one external society among themselves As some general Officers make not England and Scotland one Kingdom Answ M Ellis goes upon a mistake in all his book The Presbyterians say not that the Church-Catholike visible is one external constant actual society but habitual or in actu primo or constantly and actually in actu secundo sive exercite the regiment is exercised in the particular Churches or vicinities yet hath the whole Church or some great parts of it some common interests that may require to be handled in Synods and Councels by their combined or delegated Officers occasionally and those Officers therein act not as private men but as Officers and may exert their indefinite habitual power annexed to their office for the good of the whole or of so great a part of the Church-Catholike as did delegate them And as for the parallelling Apostles and Prophets in this case with life and death it is not equal for God did not set life and death as Officers in the Church but they are general accidents to the whole world over-ruled by God for the good of his people All things work together for the good of them that love him But in that he grants the word Church to extend to Corinthians and Ephesians c. he must grant it to comprehend all the Churches as well as them and that they all are one Church habitually having then some general Officers over them viz. Apostles Prophets Evangelists and Teachers and the same Apostle the same Prophet and the same Teacher if need required in any of them But fearing he could not keep that battery he retreats to a fourth and saith that though by Church were meant the Church-Catholike visible yet it follows not that because it was so then and in respect of the Apostles that therefore it was to be so to the end of the world and in it self pag. 37. Answ it is true it was not Christs minde that the extraordinary office of Apostleship should continue there were to be no more such men of extraordinary gifts and divine immediate mission of an infallible spirit that had actual regiment over the Churches of the whole world without any delegation from others but by immediate commission from Christ But how comes that which was an integrum in the Apostles daies to be now sublimated into it genus and lose the integrality and so prove a second notion existing only in intellectu nostro Did it cease to be one body as soon as the Apostles were all dead seeing the same doctrine worship laws discipline enrowlment by baptism confirmation and communion in the Lords Supper continued still and the liberty of all the members of the whole Church to communicate in these in any place of the world where they become though but occasionally continue still And by the same reason the habitual power in actu primo which the Officers have to dispense the Ordinances of God may be drawn forth in any part of the Church in actum secundum upon an occasion and call according to their measure which the Apostles had habitually and actually every where both in actu primo secundo extraordinarily Yea but saith he the Churches were not one in themselves but one in the Apostles and that by accident as England and Scotland were one in the King because he governed both Israel and Judah in David the whole world one in Nebuchadnezzar But they are not therefore one considered in themselves Vind. p. 37. Answ I grant the Church was but accidentally and temporarily one in regard of the Apostles but integrally one in it self It was not one because that they were set over it but it was one in it self integrally because Christ is set over it and therefore they by commission from Christ were set over it extraordinarily for the present good and necessity thereof An Empire being made one under one Emperour hath imperial laws and constitutions which being divided under divers governours it loseth again and ceaseth to be an Empire but the Church hath the same laws under the same head that it had then and ever shall have The world was one Empire under Darius by imperial laws not because the three Presidents were set over it neither did it cease to be so by their death or ceasing So c. But fifthly saith he though we grant that while the Apostles were living there was one body of Officers over the whole Church and so in respect of them the Church might be said to be one governed body yet it was never one governing body for whilest the Apostles lived the universal governing power was committed to the Apostles only and not with them to any other Officers or Churches no not to all the Churches together but they with their Officers were all in subjection to them Answ I acknowledge the Church-Catholike was never one governing body although M. Ellis is pleased to set down that expression in capital letters in the frontispiece of his book and upon the top of every page and in divers other places as the opinion of the Presbyterians But where doth he finde any such expression in
their writings It may more truly be affirmed to be the opinion of some of our brethren of the Congregational way who put government into the body of the Congregation whether M. Ellis be of that opinion or no I cannot say and so they are a particular governing body and if all the Churches in the world were of that way as certainly they desire and these Churches might in any sense be called one Church as is confest by all that they may then they must needs be one governing body But as they are now they not only govern their own body but passe the censure of Non-communion against all persons nay whole Churches if they judge there be cause But the Presbyterians hold that governments belong to the Organs i. e. the Officers of the Church not to the body It is for good of the body but belongs not to the body to exercise The Church-Catholike is the subject in quo exercetur or cui datur non ad utendum sed ad fruendum Neither are the Officers of the Church-Catholike one constant collective governing body actually but habitually for constantly and actually they are distributed into several Congregations for the exercise of government there But if the necessity of the whole when it could be or of any great part of the body call the Officers of many particular Churches together which may be by themselves or their Commissioners then can they exercise their office collectively conjunctim yet only according to the word of God And this M. Ellis granteth in effect p. 7.8 only he saith their power being met is only consultatory and suasory not obligatory it is the acting of officers but not as Officers but I suppose he cannot think that consultatory and suasory power is sufficient to cure the Church of the malady of obstinate hereticks whose mouths saith the Apostle must be stopped And though the universal constant actual power of government was given to the Apostles only yet we see they did joyn with the particular Elders in the government of their Churches when they were among them and did also joyn them with themselves in making decrees to binde the Churches Act. 15.6 and Act. 16.4 But fearing lest he had granted something too much in his former answer he plucks away part of it in his sixt and saith that the Apostles were not one joint Ministery For besides that each had intire power some had one part committed to them and some another Thomas sortitus est Parthiam Andreas Scythiam Johannes Asiam c. Answ The Apostles did first act in Jerusalem as one joint combined ministery and did afterward disperse themselves into several parts of the world according to their commission yet retained their power of uniting and acting together jointly without any delegation or commission from any Churches and this power of their 's no ordinary Ministers lay claim to And though the planting and watering of Churches required this dispersion and several lots voluntarily yet were they fixed in no Congregation as Elders are Seventhly He denyeth the consequence of a Church-Catholike visible from that place and that he proves by a parallel supposing such like words had been said of the whole world for civil government his words are these If it follow not when we say God hath set in the world some Emperors some Kings some Princes some inferiour Officers and Magistrates therefore the world is but one governing Kingdom and all particular Kingdoms do but govern in the right of the Kingdom of the world in common the Officers whereof are the Kings of the several Kingdoms c. Neither doth it follow that because the Scripture saith God hath set some in the Church Apostles c. therefore the Church throughout the world is but one Congregation to whose Officers first as the general Officers of the whole Church not by way of distribution but as a notionally at least collected body of Officers the power of government is committed c. Answ He hath not paralleled the question rightly but it should run thus Suppose there were one Emperour over all the Kingdoms of the earth and he should set down one form of government and enrowlment for freedom in the whole world for such as will be his subjects and should first set 12 Presidents over the whole world to abide so for their life time as extaordinary Officers and for ordinary standing Officers should set in the several Provinces or Kingdoms several Officers that should rule under him or them in their several places and yet appoint that as every free member of the whole though his fixed habitation be in one place yet is free of the whole habitually and upon occasion can make use of it to trade freely in any place so the several governours though ordinarily fixedly and actually they constantly govern their own Provinces yet upon occasion of difference danger or for the good of the whole or any great part of the same they shall have power to convene either all if it may be or some of them by way of delegation to act for the good of the whole or so many Provinces as the matter concerns and their delegation is for Whether would not this prove the world one intire Empire and body politick habitually And so is the case of the Church-Catholike But take earthly monarchies as they have been on earth and we finde that the several kingdoms of the Empires did enjoy their several liberties with respect had to the whole that nothing should be prejudicial to the Empire that the Emperour should have no damage Dan. 6.2 And yet in reference to the Emperour and some certain common laws they were one monarchy Because the Emperour could send messengers and Officers of any countrey and commands to them all and all were to take care in their places for the whole though haply there was no general convention of all Officers and to keep as much as lay in them neighbour Kingdoms from rebelling even where they had no ordinary jurisdiction and to subdue them to the Emperour if they did rebel and yet not retain ordinary power over them Now these things agree to this spiritual monarchy the Church yea and much more For they are all one in the head one in all the laws and in one form of government and ought all to do what they do in reference to the whole as to admit every where into the whole by baptism to eject out of the whole by excommunication to keep any neighbour Church from defection and to reduce them if fallen off though they have no ordinary jurisdiction over them Christ can send a Minister out of any Kingdom into any not only occasionally pro tempore as a messenger but settle him there as an Officer and call back or remove him any whither else And therefore the Church-Catholike is one Kingdom in general and yet particular rights and liberties of particular Churches be preserved so far as may stand with the good of the
acknowledgeth Primarily therefore these canons concern the whole Church The manner also of the Apostles speech is to be attended he doth not say the Churches houses pillars grounds to be ordered pari rattoni but in the singular number house church pillar ground 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as if there were but one Church one house whereof Ephesus was but one room and that already furnished one seat one large pillar that hath the same truth written on every side of it which holdeth it forth unto others both Jews and Gentiles within the Church and without more forensi And as Timothy being an Evangelist conversed with many Churches so it is like did the members of the Church of Ephesus The English Annotations on this place are these As the Catholike Church is as it were the whole house of God so every particular Church as this of Ephesus was in which Timothy resided was a part thereof and by a Synecdoche totius may be called the house of God c. The words also of the following verse will lend us some light Great is the mystery of goâ—linesse God manifested in the flesh justified in the spirit seen of Angels preached unto the Gentiles beleeved on in the world received up into glory This is the truth supported by this seat and holden forth by this pillar Doth this concern Ephesus solely or particularly or primarily Is there not a larger subject expressed viz. Gentiles and the believing world All these are the family and houshold of God Eph. 2.19 and 3.15 Again it is the Catholike visible Church that is so often in Scripture called the Kingdom of God Mat. 4.26 30. And the Kingdom of heaven Mat. 13.24 31 33 47. Christ cals them not Kingdoms but the Kingdom And compares this Kingdom to a field of wheat mingled with tares This must be the Church visible in this world because it is where the sower ordinarily soweth his seed visibly and audibly vers 8. which is the preaching of the word And because here are good and bad wheat and tares and the tares visibly discerned after the wheat And it is the Catholike Church for Christ himself expounds it so the field is the world not of the Jews only but of the Gentiles also Joh. 3.16 and 17.11 15. And this must be the Christian world for the other is a field of tares only where there could be no danger of plucking up of wheat because none grew there They shall fever the wicked from among the just And in this field particular Churches are but as particular ridges enjoying the same tillage seed fencing watering It is a barn floor with wheat and chaffe It is a draw net gathering together good and bad It is a marriage where wise and foolish virgins some had oil and some only lamps of profession It is a feast where some had wedding garments some had none Now these things cannot be spoken solely or primarily of any particular Congregation but they agree to the Church-Catholike visible this Kingdom is here spoken of as one and to particular Churches as parts thereof and this is also an organical body therefore called a Kingdom Here are servants sowing and viewing this field proffering to weed it And this weeding must be by Ecclesiastical censures not the civil sword they were not so void of reason as to go ask whether they should kill all the world besides the godly with a civil sword then these tares must be members of the Church else they were not capable to be cast out if never in Here were fishermen officers that cast this net and servants that invited these guests every where in high waies and hedges Luk. 14.23 indefinitely without respect of Countrey or Town That which is objected against this by M. Hooker is that the Kingdom of heaven beside other significations as the Kingdom of glory c. it doth by a metonymy imply the word of the Kingdom and the dispensation and administration of the Gospel in the Churches and the special things appertaining thereunto And citeth these parables for that sense Answ I deny not the several significations of those words the Kingdom of heaven in â—everal places But they cannot signifie so in the fore-ceited places For it is said the Angels shall gather out of his Christs Kingdom all things that offend and them which do iniquity and shall cast them c. can this be meant of the word or Gospel Is there any thing that offends therein or doth iniquity that shall be cast c. Is there any tares any chaff any rubbish there Or can it be meant of the dispensation thereof Should sinful or erroneous dispensations of Gods Ordinances be suffered to the end of the world for fear of plucking up good dispensations Why do we then endeavour a reformation Doth not Paul say false teachers mouths must be stopped and wisheth such cut off It is clear the texts speak of a Kingdom consisting of persons the tares chaffe rubbish foolish virgins and evil guests are the children of the wicked one man that offend and doe iniquity that shall be gathered out of Christs Kingdom therefore they were in it And the wheat good fish wise virgins and good guests are the children of the Kingdom without respect to any particularities of Town or Countrey much lesse of any Congregation And when we say Thy Kingdom come we pray not only for the conversion of the elect nor only for the coming of the Kingdom of glory but also for the Church-Catholike visible that it might be enlarged and have freedom and purity of Ordinances which are things that concern it as a visible organical Kingdom because the dispensations thereof are by Officers Again in 1 Cor. 15.24 it is said Then shall Christ deliver up the Kingdom to God his Father This is not the natural or essential Kingdom which he hath with the Father and holy Ghost as God for that he shall never deliver up Neither is it the Kingdom of grace which he by his Spirit exerciseth in the hearts of the Elect for that shall continue for ever and be more perfect in heaven For the Kingdom of grace here and of glory afterward differ only gradis communionis as Ames tels us here the degree is imperfect then it shall be perfect both in graces and joyes But it is the Kingdom exercised in the visible Church-Catholike in the Ordinances of worship and discipline wherein our communion is mediate with God which shall then cease For as the Evangelical external service and manner of communion with God thrust out the legal and ceremonial so shall the heavenly immediate thrust out the Evangelical But this Kingdom saith M. Hooker cannot be the Catholike visible Church because that consisting of sound-hearted Christians and false-hearted hypocrites these are not delivered up into the hand of the Father that he might be all in all to them Surv. p. 276. Answ I do not conceive by Kingdom to be meant the children of the Kingdom but the
Oecumenical be one visible Church it is necessary that they should all meet together at some times Answ It is not at all necessary neither to the unity nor yet to the visibility of the Church It is sufficient that the persons be visible in their several places and that they be combined together under the same head by visible laws and profession under the same visible seal and enrowlment walk visibly in the same godly conversation before men pray one for another as fellow-members rejoyce in the wel-fare and mourn for the ill-fare one of another and contribute assistance one to another as occasion is offered As therefore it is not needful to the unity or visibility of a kingdom or Empire that they should meet together sometimes so is it not needful for the whole Church indeed there may be some conveniency in both ad benè vel optimum esse sed non ad esse simpliciter This M. Ellis excepteth against vin p. 55. First he asketh whether ever there were such a kingdom in the world that the members did not meet sometimes if it be not a meer visible monarchy as under Popery If there be any liberty left to the Subjects c. Answ Let him shew that ever the four Monarchies did meet together respectively either in their persons or deputies or delegates from every Province yet that hindered not their unity nor visibility And his answer implyeth that the Ecclesiastical Monarchy under Popery did never meet He makes it but a sign of liberty to meet not a sign of visibility And for the point of liberty inherent in the subjects as their proper right distinct from what is derived and given by Christ as their head there was never any Monarchy so meerly depending on the will of the Monarch as the Church-visible on Christ for the Church deriveth all its power from Christ and hath all its laws given and imposed only by Christ without any vote of the Churches in the making of them It is probable that the kingdoms under the four Monarchies had some enjoyment of their municipal laws only might have some imperial general laws superadded but it is not so in this for the whole Church as a Church hath no laws but of Christs arbitrary donation Christians are not subdued by Christ as Englishmen were by William the Conquerour viz. on condition that he would suffer them to enjoy their former rights and the Laws of Edward the Confessor but absolutely to receive Laws from him And yet this can neither be thought tyranny in Christ nor yet slavery in us for Christs Laws are more beneficial to us then any of our own making and his service is perfect freedom And yet we reade of general Councels of the Church by their delegates which were as it were a ministerial Church-Catholike which in former times of the Church under Christian Emperours were frequent and there is no intrinsecal let in the Church that they do not meet so still but only extrinsecal and extraneous by reason of the divisions among the civil Governours but even in our daies a great part of that great body hath met as in the Synod of Dort c. by Commissioners D. Whitakers and Apollonius acknowledge the meeting Act. 1. to be a general Councel The members were the Apostles who were Pastours of the Church-Catholike and brethren out of Galilee and Jerusalem The work was to elect an Apostle who was to be a Pastor of the universal Church and they that undertake and dispatch such a businesse which concerns the extraordinary teaching and government of the whole Church should represent the whole Church-Catholike M. Ellis vin p. 25. utterly denyeth that ever there was any general Councel which might be said to be the Church-Catholike viz. ministerially But I took general in the usual sense of it and not precisely considered He knows the four Councels are known by the name of The four general Councels And so himself cals them vind p. 15. l. 37. I took the term general in the sense that we cal the four Monarchies the Monarchies of the whole world and yet we know there were many countries that were never under them And as Luke Act. 2.5 saith there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews devout men out of every nation under heaven and yet there were many Nations where Jews never dwelt some of which were discovered lately But let him look into Euseb de vita Constantini lib. 3. and Socrates Scholast lib. 1. cap. 8. and he shall finde from how many Countries the first Councel of Nice was gathered There were gathered saith he together into one the chief Ministers of God inhabiting all the Churches throughout all Europe Africk and Asia That sacred Synod framed as it were by the handy-work of God received also both Syrians and Cilicians and such as came from Phoenicia Aegypt Arabia Palaestina Thebais Lybia and Mesopotamia There was also in this Synod the Bishop of Persis of Pontus Galaâ—ia Pamphilia Cappadocia Asia and Phrygia Moreover the Thracians Macedonians Achaians Epirotes Also of the Spaniards there was an eminent man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Bishop of the imperial city 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 viz. Rome by reason of his old age absented himself yet there were present of his Presbyters which supplyed his room Divers things M. Ellis excepteth against that Councel as some extraordinarinesse in the summoning of the members of it without election and delegation of the particular Churches And that Constantine was the visible head of it and that he called for Bishops chiefly if not only which will not be pertinent here to answer Something there might be extraordinary in the summons for the civil and Ecclesiastical State not concurring together until Constantine haply there could not be a regular election In extraordinary times and cases our brethren will grant something may be done extraordinarily as there is in the calling of this present Assembly as is acknowledged by M. Gillespy There were also others besides Bishops and Ministers Neither did Constantine either sit as President of it nor presume to be head but confesseth himself to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but by his civil sanction he did confirm their decrees and send them abroad Neither is there any ground that in that or any other Councel the members acted only each for his own particular Church that sent him as M. Ellis suggesterh but the whole for the whole as far as their delegation was I acknowledge there is power given to every particular Church to rule it self and exercise the discipline of the Church for the being and well-being of it ordinarily Yet so as it is a part of the whole Church into which also the censures there passed have influence And on some great occasions there may be cause to ferch help further as Cranmer appealed to a general Councel But if that extensive power cannot be had as now it is very difficult then must the particular
I answer it is not true that that which is in it self visible cannot be the object of faith Indeed that which is actually seen is the object of that mans sense and knowledge that seeth it but that which is visible i. e. which may be seen may be the object of faith to him that seeth it not actually I believe there is Orbis universus a whole world but I never saw it and yet it is visible I believe that there is a kingdom of Spain and Empire of Germany and they are visible but I never saw them nor am ever likely to see them I believe there are constellations about the South-pole but I never saw them and yet they are as visible as those about the North pole So I believe that the Church visible is now no longer included in the land of Canaan but is spread over many kingdoms and may be into all but I never saw it in the extent thereof and yet it is visible in it self The extent of place though it lessens the visibility yet it takes it not away I know this was an argument of an eminent Divine of ours against a Jesuite and it holds strongly against the visibility of the Church-Catholike taken in the first sense but not in our sense Yea grant the Church-Catholike to be a Genus yet the argument reacheth it not for a Genus is not the object of faith but of knowledge because the assurance thereof ariseth not from the credit of any ones word but from our own understanding CHAP. VI. That the Church-Catholike visible is an Organical yet similar body Yea one Organical body THat the particular Churches are or ought to be organized Sect. 1. It is Organical is not a thing questioned by M. Ellis or M. Hooker nor any one that I know of And therefore I shall neither trouble my self nor my reader about that It may not only be drawn from Mat. 18. Tell the Church which cannot be referred only or chiefly to the Church-Catholike for that even in a general Councel ministerially is seldom convened and cannot be informed by every one that it scandalized But also from Tit. 1.5 I left thee in Crete that thou shouldest ordain Elders in every city And Heb. 13.6 17 24. Remember obey and salute them that have the rule over you Of the Elders of Ephesus we reade Act. 20.17 And of the Angels of the seven Churches of Asia Rev. 2. and 3. Chapt. And yet many of these were combined Churches of many Congregations and might be so all for ought I know And we reade of the Elders of the Church of Jerusalem in the Acts but whether fixed to particular Congregations or no I know not to be sure they ruled in common Only we finde Rom. 16.1 Of Phaebe a servant of the Church at Cenchraea which is the most probable example of a Congregational Church as I said before but not certainly But I shall take that for granted that particular Churches ought to be organized But with what Officers whether with a Pastor and a Teacher or with preaching and meer ruling-Elders Or by whom these ought to be elected or ordained or how maintained Or whether their power be from Christ immediatly or from the Congregation the Officers being as their stewards and servants Or whether the Congregation hath votes and suffrages in the dispensing of censures and the Elders but their mouth to pronounce and execute their censures as he that sits for judge and gives the charge at a Sessions or a chair-man at a Committee is in regard of the rest of the Justices or whole Committee to propound gather their votes and passe sentence accordingly whether their work in such Ecclesiastical meetings be only to convene and dissolve Chap. 6. and to bring things into order for the hearing of the rest are different questions which are not to my purpose and therefore I will not meddle with them Now seeing every part is or ought to be organized the whole may be said to be Organical in that sense Sect. 2. It is similar If all the species be be organized supposing they were species the genus in a logical consideration must be said to be organized because it is the common nature of the species so to be Much more if we consider the several Congregations as members as indeed they are Now because I said that these particular Congregations thus organized are similar integral parts of the whole M. Ellis chargeth me with a contradiction to mine own end and scope and disagreeing with Apollonius vind 54. First he thinketh he hath caught me upon the hip of such a contradiction against my self and scope and that I can come off no otherwise then with a Veniamque damus petimusque vicissim nor any otherwise be relieved but by the charitable benevolence of my readers ingenuity But if there had been such a palpable contradiction it is a marvel that reverend judicious M. Hooker should not finde it and shew it as well as he If all the countries in the world had the same kinde of civil government both officers and laws respectively though not dependent were it a contradiction to say they were similar integral parts of the world And if all the Corporations in a Kingdom though organical bodies were of the same constitution and had the same Officers as Maiors c. would they not be similar integral parts of the kingdom yea even in physical mixed bodies as medicinal potions compounded of several ingredients yet because the mixture is alike in all parts they may be said to be similar parts of the whole Materialia componentia sunt dissimilaria partes integrales compositi constituti sunt similares So the Church-Catholike in regard of the constituent materials or essential parts viz. Officers and private Christians is dissimilar but in regard of the several Congregations constituted which are integral parts of the whole it is similar because they are similar I did not mean by similar quarto modo similare as I may say in the strictest sense as haply the pure element of fire is but such a similarity as is consistent with a mixture of ingredient materials Every Congregation in reference to other Congregation is similar being of a like constitution but in reference to it self it is dissimilar consisting of Officers and private Christians This assertion need not seem so harsh seeing D. Ames as I shewed before asserteth the same And M. Bartlet in his model p. 45. confesseth the particular Churches to be similar parts of the Church-Catholike and saith the Independents have left it upon record that they are so and for that cites Ames medul c. 32. And M. William Sedgewick in his Sermon before divers of the Parliament pag. 4. And chargeth the London-Ministers for an untruth in affirming in the preface of Jus divinum that they deny it But the charge is unjust they only set down the difference between the Presbyterians and Independents there to be in this
suasive that is no more then a few private men may do yea one man or woman may counsel advise and perswade By M. Ellis's opinion Councels and Synods being void of all authority are but as a company of private Christians met together to advise one with another how to act in their own Congregations where only saith he they are in office it may be an act of those that are in office but not as Officers so that in that act they are to be considered as private members who by such consultation take or give private advice how to act as officers where they are Officers Which is no otherwise then if in these times of trouble and danger a company of peti-constables should meet occasionally or by appointment together at a market-town and there consult together how to act most commodiously and uniformly in their several Parishes in the pressing of Souldiers or gathering Assessements or a company of Mayors of several Corparations should meet by appointment at London and there advise together how to order their several Corporations So that a Synod whether Provincial National or Oecumenical can have no power to summon any heretick or scandalous person and if any such should voluntarily come before them or be brought before them by the civil Magistrate that should before their faces blaspheme the whole Trinity or be convicted of Sodomy yea though any of their own members should curse God himself or be convicted of a present act of whoredom or of sorcery they have no power to censure him Ecclesiastically but fraternally admonish him and send him back to his own Congregation to be censured and they themselves only go thither as witnesses against him because they are there by this opinion out of office and all censures belong to the particular Elderships as particular But suppose now this heretick or scandalous person being departed haply from the Congregation where formerly he lived or that Congregation being dissolved be a fixed member of no Congregation as ten thousands of visible Christians i. e. that have received the doctrine of Christ and are under the seal of Baptism may be if particular Churches consist only of such as can give evidence of the work of true grace in themselves shall he remain an entitive member of Christs visible kingdom a gangreened limb a rebel and traitour under the name and notion of a subject and infect the rest of the body and there be no remedy Sect. 4. But as the subject matters that Synods have to deal with are of three sorts so their power and the acts of it which they put forth are of three 〈◊〉 likewise First they are to act in reference to matters of faith i. e. doctrines to be beleeved and embraced and of divine worship i. e. duties of worship to be performed unto God not to coin or frame or adde any new articles of faith or new acts of worship or alter any that God hath instituted but to explain prove and apply those Articles of faith and rules of worship laid down in the word and to confute and declare against the contrary errours heresies and corruptions and the power they exert herein is called dogmatical Secondly they are to act in reference to external order and polity in matters prudential and circumstantial which are determinable by the true light of nature right reason and general rules in the Scripture ◠to set things in order that all things may be done uniformly decently and in order and the power they exert herein is called diatactical Thirdly they are to act in reference to errour heresie schism obstinacy contempt and scandal and to represse them and to censure such persons as are guilty of any of them and are referred over to them and the power they exert herein is called critical This is none other power then the particular Elderships in their several Congregations or Classes may exert in their sphear and precincts with submission to the superiour assemblies and all must be according to the word of God As in the natural body God hath set several senses to act upon the several sensible objects visible audible tactile c. and several faculties in reference to truth and falshood good and evil to discern and embrace the one and avoid the other so in the body Ecclesiastical hath he set several powers in the organs thereof to act diversly according to the occurrent objects and incidents in the Church both in the particular Congregations for the good of them and in greater parts of the body for the good of them and in the whole if convenible for the good of that but because remote parts cannot meet personally and generally in all their Officers therefore that trouble and confusion is avoided by delegation of particular elected choice officers and is but occasionally and pro tempore A ground and pattern of a Synod is laid down Act. 15. and 16. which is acknowledged to be a Synod and warrant for a Synod by reverend M. Cotton in his keys of the kingdom of heaven cha 6. And is called an Oecumenical Councel by Chamier in Panstrat Tom. 2. lib. 10. cap. 8. sect 2. and Whitak cont qu. 6. And generally by our Protestant Divines And is abundantly proved and explained by the London Ministers in their Jus Divinum par 2. chap 14. and 15. to which I referre the reader for satisfaction The occasion of that Synod was an errour broached at Antioch and neighbour-Churches to enforce the observation of the ceremonial Law by all Christians and this was promoted by lying as if they were sent by the Apostles and Elders at Ierusalem to preach this doctrine Hereby the Churches were much troubled and in danger to be subverted in their souls This could not be suppressed by the disputes of Barnabas and Paul hereupon the Elders of Antioch decreed and ordained 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that Paul and Barnabas and some others should go up to the Apostles and Elders at Ierusalem about this question and they submitted to this order there was an authoritative mission and probably members were also sent from Syria and Cilicia for they were involved in the same danger by the same persons Act. 15.23 24 41. But if there were delegates but from two Churches it will justifie delegates from ten or twenty And as the Church of Antioch did not send Paul and Barnabas as extraordinary and infallible and authentical Oracles of God as M. Cotton noteth for then what need the advice and help of Elders that were below them being but ordinary and particular Officers of Ierusalem But as wise and holy guides of the Church who might not only relieve them by some wise counsel and holy order but also set a precedent to succeeding ages how errours and dissentions in Churches might be removed and healed And with Paul and Barnabas they joyned others messengers in the same commission So when this Synod was met the Apostles acted not by their Apostolical infallible transcendent
which is the way our brethren now practise vind pag. 9. Here he granteth what is contended for if the whole were convenable i. e. as I conceive all the Officers of the whole Church But if that could be I doubt he holds they must either act as men out of office or an particular Officers every one in reference to his particular Congregation or can their convention together put a general office upon them which they had not before or draw forth general actions that concern the whole from them that had no habitual power reaching the whole but if all the Officers met together can rule the whole because every particular Congregation hath its Officer there why hath not a part thereof convened power to rule that part also seeing the right and reason is the same seeing the Church is a similar body in regard of the integrals and the parts are similar parts And if so here will be an unavoidable ground for classical associations where all the Officers may meet And himself freely acknowledgeth the conveniency and necessity of Classes yea and Synods also for direction and determination and that by divine right though not with power properly juridical vind pag. 3. But then their directions and determinations must be by his opinion but charitative and by their skill only and not by vertue of their office But the reason why his parallel of a Kingdom where a part cannot make laws for that part holdeth not is because the whole Kingdom is under one legislative power and combined together in a body representative under one head who have power to make uniform laws for the whole but neither the Church-Catholike nor any particular Church can make any new divine laws or abrogate any of them which Christ hath set down but explain them and make particular rules according to the general and not otherwise and put Christs laws in execution and this a particular combination may do in their sphear for their limits And so as farre as their Commissions reach the Officers in a Corporation may make constitutions for the Corporation so they be not contrary to their charter and the Justices or Committees for a County may make Orders for the County so they be agreeable to the Laws of the Land whereof the County is a part and have habitual power to execute justice in any part of the County as occasion serveth though they for conveniency sake do usually act in their several divisions A Justice or Mayor or Constable cannot act beyond their County Corporation or Town though they be desired and called without a new Commission but a Minister may preach and administer Sacraments in any part of the Church-Catholike upon a call and why not also act judicially and juridically and where according to the foresaid limitation if he hath a call to bring his habitual power into act seeing the keys are commensurable Sect. 3. But then he comes to state the question positively what it is And he sets it down thus viz. Whether the whole company of Christians on earth are in their ordinary and setled Church-constitution so one intire single Common-wealth Corporation and Congregation as that of right and by the will and appointment of Jesus Christ it is the first subject of all Church-power by authority whereof and commission from which all particular Churches act and to the determinations of the major part whereof they are to yield obedience if not apparently contrary to the word of God and the Catholike governing power whereof resides immediatly as in its proper subject under Christ only in the Ministers and Elders and they not taken severally but jointly as one entire College or Presbytery to whose charge severally and jointly the whole and every particular Church is committed c. And this assertion M. Ellis sets down with in the margin and cites Apollonius and the London-Ministers as the Authors of it as if they were their very words but they are niether their words non sense I wonder Sir who ever dreamed of such an assertion but your self It is not honest dealing to lay the births of your own brains at other mens doors to make them father them The like stating of it is again vind pag. 40. where the same Authours are cited viz. Apollon cap. 3. sect 4. And Jus Divinum pag. 43. and pag. 163. And again vind p. 27. and there are cited for it Apollon cap. 3. pag. 41. And Hudson p 25. as assertors of this opinion expresly But I am sure there in no such thing asserted by these Authours in any of those places And if he saith it is drawn by consequence from their tenets I answer it is not accounted fair dealing to affirm those consequences that may be drawn from any mans opinion to be his opinion when haply he was never aware of any such consequences or doth deny the consequence of them from his opinion Much lesse is it fair to set them down in capital letters and with marks in the margin which usually importeth them to be their very words or to make that the main controversie which is not owned by the opposite partee but haply may be drawn by consequence The scope of Apollonius and the London-Ministers is to set down the proper subject and receptacle of the keys first negatively not the people or catus fidelium nor the civil Magistrate though they grant him a defensive diatactick compulsive cumulative power a power circa sacra non in sacris nor Papal Officers as Cardinals c. nor prelatical as Deans Arch-Deacons c. nor political Officers as Committees Commissioners nor Deacons But positively all those Church-guides extraordinary and ordinary which christ hath erected in his Church vesting then with power and authority therein viz. Apostles Prophets Evangelists Pastours and Teachers governments or ruling-Elders these Christ hath made the immediate receptacle and first subject of the keys or of Ecclesiastical pover from himself So say the London-Ministers expresly Now suppose they had undertaken to set down who were the proper subject of civil authority under the King and should first negatively say it is not the Physician nor the Chirurgion nor the Mathematician nor the Merchants nor Mariners nor Tradesmen nor Husbadmen and Farmers but positively they are the Judges Sheriffs Justices Maiors Bayliffs and Constables Would any one gather from hence that all these Officers not taken severally but jointly are one entire actual college of Officers to whose charge severally and jointly the whole and every part of the Kingdom is committed by authority whereof and dependance upon which common Officers the Officers of every particular Town do act Besides this stating of the question is not consistent with it self for it makes the Church-Catholike the first subject of all Church-power and then makes the Ministers and Elders the proper subject thereof but the proper subject is the prime subject Unlesse he means in a logical sense as sight is predicated of the whole man and yet
heart only and that but dimly and not apprehended by all in all the parts thereof alike through ignorance rudenesse barbarism or evil customes Secondly There are no Officers of the whole world as it is a society directed by the internal Law of nature but so there are of the visible Church and Therefore the visible Church is more then a society it is Christs external political Kingdom Thirdly There are several chief governours over the several Kingdoms of the world which are Gods vicegerents and Gods annointed ones in their Kingdoms and written municipal laws belonging to every Kingdom distinct from other Kingdoms and priviledges proper to the several Kingdoms wherein the subjects of other Kingdoms partake not But Christ hath set no such several supream annointed ones over the several Churches nor permitted the several Churches to make any different laws from his nor from those laws which are common to the whole Church And the priviledges of the Church are common to all the members of the several Churches and they have freedom to communicate together in the holy Ordinances whereever they dwell Fourthly The Law of nature is given by God as an invisible Creator the Laws of the Church are given by Christ a God man as a Mediator As he is God he hath an essential right to be governour of angels and men and all other creatures but as Mediatour he hath a donative Kingdom of grace and is a political head of an external visible Kingdom which is but one Fifthly All mankinde are not entred into one body by one external instituted sign badge enrowlment and initial seal not are entred into one explicit actual Covenant nor make an explicit actual profession of subjection to the same God or to the same systeme of written Laws And therefore that parallel which these two reverend Ministers M. Allen and M. Shepard whom I love and reverence much in the Lord endeavour to draw between mankinde and the Oecumenical Church in their Defence unto the nine questions or positions p. 79. will not suit and agree in all things 6. Yet as all men are one society though they want Officers as such yet are they bound to combine even from that internal union to preserve themselves and maintain the Law of nature Suppose there were some circumcelliones or some conjurers that sought to destroy mankinde in general not because they are of this or that Kingdom upon some particular quarrel but because they are men or that endeavoured to poison and infect the air or let in the sea to drown the earth or take away the light of the Sun if such things were possible or any kinde of wilde beast should multiply that would destroy all mankinde then all mankinde setting aside their particular immunities combinations Laws yea and quarrels ought and would unite themselves as men to preserve mankinde and oppose such common enemies of mankinde Forreign Nations will combine to vindicate Jus Gentium if it be violated All Nations combine against Pirates notwithstanding particular distinctions and oppositions yea so far as mens positive laws are general as the civil Law reacheth far over many Kingdoms if there be any oppositions or obstructions that hinder the exercise thereof for common good all that submit themselves thereunto would notwithstanding their particular distinctions joyn together to remove the same Much more then ought there to be an union and combination between the several parts of the Church which hath the same head and King over the whole of our own nature who hath given us one systeme of written laws and but one charter for the whole and made Officers for the good of the whole enduing them with an habitual power of office to administer all his Ordinances in any part of the Church upon a call And if they could meet together they might actually teach and rule the whole Church as one Congregation as M Ellis granteth and because they cannot so meet yet by the same reason if a great part of them meet together the Elders set over them may teach and rule them joyntly together as well as severally asunder For the greater number of Churches being considered as combined and consociated parts of the whole bear the same relation in a proportion to the lesse that the greater number in the same Congregation do to the lesse and therefore if the major part in the Congregational Eldership shall overrule the lesse by their votes so by proportion shall the greater number of any greater Presbytery whether Classical Provincial or National c. being in actual consociation and combination overrule the lesse if they dissent But because there are so many superstitions errours and heresies in the Asian African European and American Churches as M. A. and M. S. in their defence p 92. do take notice of which book I confesse it was mine unhappinesse not to hear of until this tractate of mine was transcribed for the presse and who have dealt exceeding candidly upon this question and seem to yield the fairest concessions toward the universality unity integrality and priority of the whole Church in some respects of reason pag. 77. though not so much as is contended for yet I say for these things sake I should be very tender in defining as the case now standeth what Churches or how farre the visible Churches may with convenience or safety enter into actual combination Quest 2. lest the truths of God or the liberties of the more sound and pure Churches should be prejudiced thereby The second Question I come now to handle the predicate of my Question which I may well call a second Question and that is Which of these two Churches is Prima or first and which Secundaria or secondary Sect. 1. BEfore I answer I desire it may be remembred that the comparison is not between the invisible and the visible Church but between the visible Catholike Church and the particular visible Churches And then I answer I conceive the Church-Catholike visible is priâ—â—a and the particular Churches are secundariae and in that sense orâ—ae as being ministerially converted and admitted by it But for our better understanding of this priority I shall first set down what kinde of priority this is and what not I doe not mean a priority of time as if the Church-Catholike should be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈…〉 antiquius quid and yet the Evangelical Church was first set up in time before there were any divisions into particular Churches but now it is divided the members that are born in the several Congregations enter into the general and particular Churches simul tempore though not ratione naturei As a freeman in London takes up his freedom of the City 〈◊〉 of such a â—all or company at once But those that are born in it and converted to it finde the Church-Catholike already constituted before them even in time Also I do not mean in regard of constitution of the whole political Kingdom of Christ by
dead and buried risen again and ascended into heaven c. for so do all the Church-Catholike but we must give other notes to distinguish any of them for these are not distinctive because common That which is primary to any thing is distinctive to that thing but that which is secondary and common is not distinctive from other particulars of the like kinde or from other parts of a similar integral Fifthly All the members of the particular Churches are members of the Church-Catholike yea that relation belongs first unto them If they be born within the pale of the Church they have federal holinesse and are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not because members of this or that Congregation but because born of parents within the general external Covenant and so within the Church-Catholike If they be converted from heathens they are not first converted into this or that particular Church but converted first into the Church-Catholike and then secondarily admitted members of this or that particular Congregation after they be baptized A man may dwell it one City and hear the word of God by accident in another city and thereby be converted but he is not converted to be a member of the Church where he was converted but into the Church-Catholike So that particular Congregations are made up of members of the Catholike and therefore most properly in that sense are said to be Ortae For such a convert may joyn himself after his conversion to what Congregation he pleaseth to inhabit among If a man comes into a Parish that is an heathen he is not a member of that particular Church though he shall be a civil member of the Town because be is not a member of the Church-Catholike but if he be a Christian then he is a member of that particular Church where he resideth or fit so to be and ought not to be denied admission or communion if no just exception lieth against him though he had never been a member of any other Congregation The particular companies in London are made up only of free-men that are joyned together in some particular body or society belonging to such or such a Hall now the first notion that comes upon any such persons or companies is that they are free-men of London and secondarily that they are distinct from other free-men by being of this or that particular company belonging to such a Hall So it is for all Churches first of all the members are conceived to be free of the Church-Catholike and secondarily distinct by their societies in this or that particular Assembly And though haply this similitude holdeth not in every thing as the not removing from one company to another and being received in there because he is a free-man yet it is free for any Christ to change his particular relation from one Congregation to another because he is a Christian and takes not up his first freedom into a particular Congregation or company but into the Catholike They are made members of the whole body and kingdom of Christ by conversion to the faith and initiated by the Sacrament of Baptism but are secondarily made members of a particular Congregation by cohabitation or consociation He that is free of one Corporation may not thereupon remove to another and set up his trade as a free-man there because they are constituted by several charters but the whole Church-Catholike hath but one charter and by that a Christian is free in any Ecclesiastical Corporation whereever he please to inhabit and may not by them be inhibited As he that was free of Rome was free whereever he became in all the Romane Empire Suppose a man had abundance of sheep as Abraham Isaac and Jacob and Job who had 14000. and these sheep had all one brand of the owners upon them and these sheep were divided into several flocks unister several shepheards in several sheep-walks of the same owners according to his appointment the primary consideration of any of these sheep or flocks is not that they are under such a keeper in such a sheep-walk but the first consideration of them is they are such a mans sheep bearing his brand and fed by his servants on his ground and then the more particular and secondary consideration and notion is that they are under such a particular shepheard in such a walk And the like may be said in a civil respect the first consideration of a man is that he is an English man and so a subject of this kingdom and the secondary that he is a Suffolk man or an Ipswich man So the first consideration in a spiritual respect of a man or a Congregation is that they are the Lords people that they belong to Christ and are his subjects born or converted to him fed and nourished and ruled by his Ordinances and Officers and then the particular secondary notion is that they are fed and ruled by such Elders in such a place or society It is an usual similitude on all hands to compare the Church to the Sea or Ocean which though it be one yet as it washeth upon this or that Countrey receiveth the name and distinction of the Germane Spanish Irish or British Seas And so when it puts in at any creek because it is continuous with the Sea we call it the Sea And we say the sea comes up at Harwich Ipswich Mâ—â—itras Colchoster now it were absurd for any man to think that the particular Seas were the prime Seas and the main is Mâ—râ—secundarinus or ortum Or because the name Sea iâ— indâ—â—â—ed to this or that arm or Creek that therefore that should monopolize the name Sea to it self that there should be no Sea but such Creeks or that any such Creeks should arrogate the came and priviledges of the Sea first to themselves and leave them but secondarily to the main So it is for particular Congregations which have the name and priviledges of the Church indulged to them as second or third hand because they are members and similar parts of the whole to usurp and challenge the name and priviledges given by God to the Church-Catholike primarily to themselves and leave them secondarily to the Church-Catholike Sect. 4. Sixthly The Ministers are primarily Ministers of the Church-Catholike secondarily of this or that particular flock or Congregation and therefore the Catholike is the prime Church And this appears thus That Church to which the donation of the Ministry was first made is the first subject thereof but that was the Church-Catholike Therefore c. For proof hereof see Mat. 28.19 and 1 Cor. 12.28 29. God hath set some in the Church first Apostles secondarily Prophets thirdly Teachers Now this Church was the Church-Catholike and not any particular Congregation for it is the Church to which God gave Apostles Note also from hence that the same Church to which God gave Apostles and Prophets to the same he gave Teachers also though not with general actual power as to the
or Integral 9. That the keys of Discipline are Catholike as well as of Doctrine 10. That the Church-Catholike is one similar body if considered as Entitive the members are similar parts of it if as organical the particular Churches are similar parts of it 11. The Promises Priviledges and Ordinances of worship and discipline belong primarily to the Church-Catholike 12. That the Church-Catholike is constituted by one Covenant Charter and Systeme of Divine Laws 13. That the Priviledges and Ordinances of the Church arise not from the Nature of it but from the covenant donation and institution of Christ 14. That the Church-Catholike is the prime Church 15. That the Church-Catholike visible is of greater dignity then the particular Churches 16. That the Church-Catholike visible is more august and of more large authority then the particular though the authority differs not in kinde 17. That the Church-Catholike is of greater perfection then the particular Churches 18. That the Church-Catholike visible is ministerially an instrument to convey the Nature Priviledges and Ordinances of the Church to such as are added thereunto 19. That the whole Church-Catholike is the primary and adequate object suo genere of Christs Offices and the particular Churches but as parts thereof Joh. 3.16 20. That the Notes and Signs of the true Church belong first to the Church-Catholike visible and therefore are distinctive to that only 21. That the Church-Catholike visible hath an existence accidents and operations of its own as it is Catholike 22. That the Church-Catholike visible hath an head or governour over it and but one head even Jesus Christ who is very Man as well as God 23. That though Christ be the only supream head and ruler of his Church yet hath it immediate rulers over it under Christ 24. That the unity of the Church-Catholike requireth not a meeting of the whole body together at any time Concerning particular Churches 1. That the particular Churches are made up of the members of the Church-Catholike Entitive 2. That the particular Churches organized and all visible beleevers make up the Church-Catholike Organical by aggregation and the particulars are inferiour thereunto 3. That the particular divisions of the Church-Catholike visible for convenient enjoyment of publike Ordinances have the name Church and the Priviledges and Ordinances as far as they are capable of them secondarily in consideration 4. That the particular Churches being similar parts of the whole Church having no essential specifical differences are to be distinguished by accidental differences and circumstances as their limits of place c. though they be heterogeneal to them 5. Many Congregations may be in the same community of discipline and be ruled by their Elders in communi by coordination and so be called one Church National Provincial or Presbyterial 6. If the particular Churches claim power of dispensing all the Ordinances of Christ by vertue of the general Charter Covenant and donation they being parts of the Church then much more may the whole Church-Catholike for which they were primarily intended and made 7. The greater the parts of the Church-Catholike be and the more united by combitation and coordination the stronger they be and the smaller the divisions be the weaker 8. The division of the Church Catholike into small parcels to stand alone by themselves without coordination is dangerous 9. Yet necessity in regard of distance of place c. may cause a particular Church to be Independent and stand alone in regard of actual external consociation or combination 10. The necessity of an explicit Covenant as the essential form whereby the particular Church is constituted implyeth a denial of all other Churches to be true that are not so constituted because they must want the essential form 11. The ordinary and constant operations of the Officers of the Church in dispensation of Christs Ordinances are in the particular Churches primarily 12. Any particular Congregation may fail apostatize or be dissolved and cease but should the Church-Catholike be reduced into so narrow limits and the being thereof be reserved therein and it sustain the notion of the Church-Catholike God would not suffer it in such a case to fail or cease for then the whole must cease also Concerning the publike Officers of the Church 1. Every Minister is an Officer of the Church-Catholike visible and that relation is primary to him yet the particular relation he stands in to a particular Congregation giveth him a more immediate especial call and charge to administer the Ordinances of God constantly to them 2. Any single Minister by vertue of his office hath power ministerially to admit a member into the Church-Catholike visible if he be fit 3. Although the election of a Minister to a particular Congregation be an act of liberty in the people yet his mission is from Christ primarily and ministerially by the Presbytery 4. He doth not administer the Ordinances of God in the name of the Congregation as their servant but as the servant of Christ As a Mayor in a Corporation though chosen by the people yet executeth his office in the Kings name 5. If he administreth any Ordinances out of his own Congregation he doth it not as a gifted brother but by vertue of his office 2 Cor. 5.20 And the like may be said of their dispensation of Ordinances to members of other Congregations that come to their Congregations 6. Although the particular flock over which a Minister was set be dissolved yet he ceaseth not to be a Minister because the Church to which he bare first relation is not dissolved which is the Catholike 7. The Elders of several particular Congregations as they may exercise the keys of their office divisim in their several Congregations so they may exercise them conjunctim in combinations if they be called thereunto Concerning private members 1. Particular converts are first converted into the Church-Catholike Entitive and secondarily conjoyned into particular consociations for the more oppurtune enjoyment of Ordinances actually and constantly 2. Every member of a particular Congregation is a member of the Church-Catholike Entitive and that relation doth primarily belong unto him 3. External profession of the true faith and subjection to Gods Ordinances is enough to make a man capable of being a member of the Church-Catholike visible and so also of a particular Congregation quoad externam formam 4. By Baptism members are visibly and ministerially admitted into the Church-Catholike visible 5. By excommunication rightly administred an offender is cast out of the Church-Catholike visible as much as out of a particular Congregation 6. Federal holinesse belongs to none primarily because born of members of a particular Congregation but of the Church-Catholike 7. They that are only in the Church-Catholike visible are not without in the Apostles sense 8. Children of beleeving parents have right to Baptism though their parents were not members of any particular Congregation and are debarred from their due if denyed it 9. Every visible beleever is
is seated properly in the eye or reason is given to the whole man and yet is seated in the understanding Christ hath given all his Ordinances to his visible Church for the publike dispensation of which he hath instituted Church-Officers to whom he hath committed that power respectively these officers are distributed among and setled in their several Congregations and there actually and constantly dispense their Ordinances to them as by their office they are enabled according to the word and yet because there are some things of common concernment with other Congregations and of greater moment and difficuly then can be transacted by a few Elders in a particular Congregation therefore upon such occasions they make act conjunctim with the Elders of other Congregations and may also dispense both Word and seals occasionally to other Congregations upon a call by opportunity want or desire of other Congregations Yet do not the Presbyterians hold that the particular Churches or Officers act by authority of and commission from the one entire single Common-wealth Corporation and Congregation of the whole company of Christians on earth as M. Ellis is pleased to set it down to render their tenets odious but they hold that every Minister by vertue of his office hath an immediate habitual power from Christ to dispense his Ordinances but the conâ—tant exerting and exercise of this power is called forth into act by that parcel of the Church-Catholike which hath given him a call to take the particular immediate inspection and care over them in the Lord yet upon occasion for the honour of God the vindicating of his truth the suppressing of more general errours and scandals the propagating of the Gospel and the good of others as God gives opportunity it may be exerted and exercised in other places and to other persons so confusion and disorder be avoided Neither do the National Churches act by commission from the Catholike nor the Provincial from the National nor the Classis from the Provincial nor the Congregational from the Classis but every Minister acts by commission from Jesus Christ by vertue of his Office And the Congregational Eldership is first in acting though last in Christs intention in instituting the office Every drop of water is similar to the whole element and is cold and moist but receive not those qualities from the whole Element but hath them immediatly in its self and though it actually exerts them only where it is placed and applied yet hath an habitual power to exert them any where else if applied So the Church-Officers have their powder neither from the Church Catholike nor from their particular Congregation but from their office which they receive from Christ though ministerially admitted thereto by the Presbytery which power though ordinarily and constantly they exert in their own Congregation yet can elsewhere upon a call Neither do the Presbyterians say that the Church-Catholike or the whole campary of Christians on earth are in their ordinary and setled Church-constitution one entire single Common-wealth Corporation and Congregation actually but one habitual Common-wealth and Corporation made up by the aggregation of all the single actual Congregations of Christians in the world as an Empire of all the Provinces and Kingdoms under it and that beside the particular actual constant affairs of the Congregations which are properly to be managed by such as are the particular actual Officers thereof there are some things that concern more then themselves and those are to be transacted as such occasions arise by the Officers of so many Congregations as they concern they belonging properly to the cognizance of Officers as Officers and if those matters be of more general concernment then that all the Officers concerned therein can meet without confusion to transact them then they are to delegate some choice Officers from the several vicinities to transact them as hath been shewed before and as the call of the Congregation draweth forth the power of the Officers to act among them constantly so this delegation cals forth their power to act occasionally pro tempore in this greater meeting The case was once that Totus mundus ingemuit sub Arianisino this concerned the whole or the greater part and could not be cured by particular Officers as particular in their several Congregations divisim and therefore required a more general meeting of Officers to whom by reason of their office it did appertain to consider of it and suppresse it conjunctim by confutations and censures and these having done the work they were called forth unto then are to return to their particular charges again for this work is but occaâ—ional and these occasions fall out very rarely This makes not the whole Church-Catholike under one actual constant regiment Yet because in Churches that are near together in a vicinity matters of common concernment or that require the help of more Elders then one or two Congregations can afford will frequently and constantly occurre and if there be not a set time and place appointed by consent for a certain number of Officers of that vicinity to meet they will be drawn together with much difficulty charge labour trouble and confusion and with lesse certainty as appears by the case of M. Ward in the Netherlands who being unjustly cast out of his place could not under two years get a meeting of neighbour-Elders to hear and right his cause and when he had obtained a meeting it was â—ut of very few viz. the Elders of Aruheim as I have been enformed therefore it is conceived that there should be a certain time and place appointed for the Elders of such a vicinity as are in combination for mutual assistance to meet in M. Ellis mistakes the state of the question in saying the Ministers and Elders of the Catholike Church not taken severally but jointly as one entire College or Presbytery have the charge severally and jointly of the whole and every particular Church committed to them vind pag. 9. For they are not actually Ministers and Elders of the Church-Catholike nor actually one entire College and Presbytery nor have not actually the charge of the whole and every particular Church but habitually only by reason of the indefinitenesse of their office They have power in actu primo by vertue of their office but not in actu secundo sive exercito they have jus ad rem every where but not in re any where without a call They are the Ministers of Jesus Christ and thereby have right and power to perform the acts belonging to their office but for the execution of it either in a particular Church constantly or conjunctim occasionally with others there is required a call thereunto And the not observing of this distinction is the cause of this difference in this question The Levites were by their office consecrated to do the service of the Tabernacle and to stand before the Congregation to minister unto them Numb 16.9 And the Priests to offer sacrifice and