Selected quad for the lemma: state_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
state_n	church_n	member_n	visible_a	2,963	5	9.4470	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A78437	Vindiciæ clavium: or, A vindication of the keyes of the kingdome of Heaven, into the hands of the right owners. Being some animadversions upon a tract of Mr. I.C. called, The keyes of the kingdome of Heaven. As also upon another tract of his, called, The way of the churches of Nevv-England. Manifesting; 1. The weaknesse of his proofes. 2. The contradictions to himselfe, and others. 3. The middle-way (so called) of Independents, to be the extreme, or by-way of the Brownists. / By an earnest well-wisher to the truth.	Cawdrey, Daniel, 1588-1664.	1645 (1645)	Wing C1640; Thomason E299_4; ESTC R200247	69,538	116

are still but where they were What if the Presbytery or Church will not submit to their determination or Declaration for it is no more what remedy hath the Church against their erring hereticall scandalous Presbytery If the Synod have a power of censure then againe you destroy your Independency No The Church may withdraw from them So they might before they consulted the Synod nay they were bound to doe it in your way without consulting the Synod But you may call to mind your former thoughts In your other Tract you give them full power to censure their Officers without any Officers as hath more then once been said above And thus your second answer is also answered already You say Excommunication is one of the highest acts of Rule The way p. 101. and ergo cannot be performed but by some Rulers Yet you contradict this f●●●ly in your other Tract when you say In case of offence given by an Elder or by the whole Eldership together the Church hath Authority marke that Authority which in this Booke you oft deny to require satisfaction of them and if they doe not give due satisfaction to proceed to censure according to the quality of the offence And yet which is strange me thinks here you resolve the cleane contrary The Church cannot excommunicate the whole Presbytery because they have not received from Christ an office of Rule without their Officers But now if this reason be good then on the other side it might seeme reasonable That the Presbytery might excommunicate the whole Church Apostate because they have received from Christ an office of Rule without the Church No say you They must tell the Church and joyne with the Church in that censure But this is to say and unsay For if the Church must joyne with them then the Church hath received some peece of an Office of Rule which was before denyed If you say they have not received any Office of Rule without their Officers This may imply that with their Officers they have received an Office of Rule which all this while you have seemed to deny allowing them a Liberty but no Rule or Authority And whereas you say They must tell the Church but that cannot be when the Church is Apostate I rejoyne this makes it reasonable to me That there is another Church to which they must tell the offence by way of appeale or else both an erring Presbytery or an Apostate Church have no remedy to recover them instituted by Christ and so the Church a multitude or a Presbytery is not so well provided for as one particular member But you have found a remedy The Church wants not liberty to withdraw from them Is not this even tantamount with excommunication Is it not the execution of that sentence to withdraw especially in your way Excommunication is the contrary to communion Now how doth the Church communicate their Elders Take your owne words As they set up the Presbytery The Keyes p 17. by professing their subjection to them in the Lord so they avoid them that is in sense excommunicate them by professed withdrawing their subjection from them according to God And this is as much as any people doe or need to doe to persons excommunicate unlesse you grant them a power to the very Act and decree of excommunication which as you have clearly done in your other Tract so you doe here giving them a power more than Ministeriall even a Kingly and more than a Kingly power when you say They rule the Church by appointing their owne Officers and likewise in censuring offenders not only by their Officers which is as much as Kings are wont to doe but also by their owne Royall assent which Kings are not wont to doe but only in the execution of Nobles Satis pro imperio 5. The last Liberty of the Church is Liberty of communion with other Churches which is seven wayes exercised c. To this I say in generall This is rather communion of Saints than communion of Churches because in your way every Church is independent and hath no church-Church-state in relation to any but it s owne members We suppose this communion is the liberty or priviledge of every Christian by vertue of his interest in the generall visible Church and not by any peculiar interest in a particular Congregation He that is a professed Christian and baptized hath a right to all the Ordinances of God where ever he find them As of old he that was a Citizen of Rome or so borne was a freeman through all the Romane Empire and enjoyed the priviledges of a Roman A Christian is a free Deacon in any part of the Christian world A Citizen with the Saints and of the houshold of God Eph. 2.19 And this to me seemes reasonable upon these grounds 1. Because every Christian not yet in a particular Church or Congregation is at liberty to joyne himselfe to any Church tyed by no obligation to one more than another 2. Because it is lawfull for any member of a particular Church upon just reasons to leave that Church and to joyne himselfe to another and nothing can hinder his removall or communion with another Church except he be scandalous c. 3. It was the custome of the first times before Congregations were fixed to adde them to the visible Church were their number lesser or greater and give them communion in all the Ordinances of Christ 4. Because the whole visible Church is but one City one Kingdome though for orders sake divided into severall Corporations It is not so in civill respects A Citizen of one Corporation cannot goe and set up trade in another because they have their severall Charters But in the City of God the Kingdome of Christ there is but one Charter for all and no more is required to admit a man a member of any Congregation but that he professe himselfe a Christian and live accordingly Your New Covenant to tye men to your particular Church that he may not remove without a generall leave will I feare prove a snare and a tyranny worse than yet we can imagine 1. But come we to your particulars First by way of participation of the Lords Supper the members of one Church comming to another Church c. But 1. Why doe you instance in this Ordinance only Have not their children occasionally borne there a liberty also of Baptisme Where neither of the parents can claim right to the Lords Supper there their Infants cannot claime right to Baptisme The way p. 81. Nor the childe of an excommunicate person p. 85. The rather because Baptisme is not administred with respect to this or that Church but to the generall visible Church Unlesse you hold that a man or childe is baptized to no Church but that particular and an Infidell to all the rest Yet some of your brethren will hardly baptize a childe of any but a member of their owne Church which is next doore to

to the generall visible Church for their sakes and then to the particular Congregation as a part or member of that generall visible Church But if you meane it in the former sense as you doe and must or else you aequivocate with us from the beginning and throughout your whole Booke you fall into that extreme of the Brownists which you so labour to avoid For to take the Church in Mat. 16. for a particular Congregation of Beleevers without Officers is a new and strange and false glosse maintained by none but Brownists and such like Separatists To conclude The Church of which our Saviour speaks is called here the Kingdome of Heaven on Earth But a particular Congregation of Beleevers is never called the Kingdome of Heaven being but a member or corporation of that Kingdome It were as improper to call a congregation Christs Kingdome as to call London the Kingdome of England yet so your party speake sometimes This I thought good to note to cleare the way for the better understanding of that which followes And now goe on 2. The next thing to be explicated is what the Keyes of the Kingdome be wherein you resolve us thus The Keyes are the Ordinances of Christ which he hath instituted to be administred in his Church as the preaching of the Word as also the administring of Seales and censures I take what you grant only I shall animadvert some things In this Paragraph as you doe clearely lay downe the state of the question so you doe strongly confute the scope of your whole Booke which is to give the people a share in the power of the Keyes that is in the government of the Church which appeares upon these considerations 1. You say the Keyes are the Ordinances which Christ hath instituted But the Ordinances of Christ are given indeed for the Church of Beleevers that is for their good and benefit objectivè But are never in all the Scripture nor in all Antiquity said to be given to that Church subjectivè It sounds ill at first hearing to say that the people have any power to exercise Ordinances of preaching or administring of Seales or Censures The power of preaching or administring Sacraments by the people as none but Separatists doe usurpe so your selfe complaine of it page 6. And why you should allow them power in censures there is very little reason 2. You say the Keyes are Ordinances which Christ hath instituted to be administred in his Church What Church the Church of Beleevers a particular Congregation for so you meane as was shewed afore Marke it to be administred in that Church scil by Officers instituted for that purpose not by that Church without Officers 3. You adde that which to me clearly excludes the people of your Church These Keyes are neither sword nor scepter c. for they conveigh not soveraign power but stewardly ministeriall Whence thus I argue The people or Congregation of Beleevers have no stewardly or ministeriall power over themselves ergo they have nothing to doe with the power of the Keyes They are not as Hilkiah was whose Office was over the house Isa 22.15 22. nor Stewards in the house as he was Gen 43.19 nor as those are who are spoken of 1 Cor. 4.1 2. Stewards of the mysteries of God But you adde a clause to draw in the people saying This power to open and shut the gates of Heaven lyeth partly in their spirituall calling whether it be their Office or their place and order in the Church c. I suppose the word calling should be taken here of a speciall calling or office as we use to call it which againe would exclude the people from any power in the Keyes as having no office in the Church But you adde by way of explication of your owne sense Whether it be their Office or their place and order in the Church on purpose to steale in the interest of the people in some share of the Keyes But if place order in the Church give the people out of office any power in the Keyes that is the Ordinances so you say again then may women children claim an in●erest in those Keyes for they have a place and Order in the Church as well as men which yet you would seeme to deny But let me professe at first what I shall make good from your selfe hereafter I see not but women and children may challenge a great part of that power of the Keyes which you give to the Brethren 3. Concerning the third What are the Acts of the Keyes and the fourth what is the subject to be bound and loosed I shall not contend with you The fifth To whom the power of the Keyes is given requires a more serious consideration as being the very foundation of all your new Fabricke which stands or fals with it The Text is expresse To thee Simon Peter will I give the Keyes c. in a cleare contradistinction to the Church before mentioned upon this rock of thy confession will I build my Church which you take for a particular congregation though by a great mistake as was shewed above But let it be granted for the present to be so then the words in all cleare construction run thus I will build my Church the particular congregation upon that rocke and I will give the Keyes of that Church called the Kingdome of Heaven and so by you interpreted to thee Peter and to such Officers as thou art Otherwise he would have said On this rocke will I build my Church and I will give unto it the Keyes of the Kingdome of Heaven that is of the Church it selfe which is scarse a reasonable interpretation of the words To make way therefore for your great designe you undertake to resolve that busie question as you call it How Peter is to be considered in receiving this power of the Keyes whether as an Apostle or as an Elder or as a Beleever c. Before I come to consider your answer I would make bold to put one ingredient more into the question whether Peter was not considered as a Deacon as well as an Elder or Beleever For seeing a Deacon is one of the Officers of the New Testament The Keyes p. 32. The way p. 83. some say Iudas was Christs Deacon and your selfe say all the Officers of the Church were virtually in the Apostles They were Pastors Teachers Ruling-Elders Deacons c. It may not unfitly be questioned whether Peter did not then represent a Deacon as well as an Elder or Beleever And then againe whether the Keyes were not given to Peter as a Deacon and why a Deacon only is denyed any power in the Keyes when beleevers are admitted to have a share therin seeing a Deacon hath power to collect and distribute the goods and treasury of the Church I leave these to your consideration or theirs who shall reply and come to your answer To shew your desire of peace and your impartiality in inclining

Church Order in the keyes of Order more than one not yet in Church Order Your selfe speake confusedly here in my judgement when you say Every faithfull soule that hath received a key of knowledge you should rather say knowledge by the key of preaching is bound to watch over his Neighbours soule as his owne c. non ratione ordinis sed in tuitu charitatis Not by vertue of a state or order which he is in till in Church-fellowship but as of common Christian love and charity one in Church-Order is bound to doe it in both respects c. But 1. A Christian of no particular Church as yet is in a Church-Order with respect to the generall visible Church or else what differs he from an Infidell and so is bound to watch over his Neighbour not only by vertue of common charity but of that Christian-Order wherein he stands 2. Nay an Infidell is bound in tuitu charitatis by vertue of common naturall love and charity to watch over and admonish his brother and is a Christian not yet in Church-Order as you call it bound no more than he to watch over his brother If he be as he is by a nearer relation unto the mysticall body and visible Church of Christ then he is to doe it by vertue of his Order or state of Christianity If he be not what differs he from an Infidell It was a morall Law Lev. 19.18 Thou shalt not hate thy brother but rebuke him c. Which Cain despised when he said Am I my brothers keeper Surely it is want of naturall charity not to watch over a brother that is not in Church-Order as you meane it And it is not becomming a Christian to say A Christian in Church-Order is not to watch over a brother not in Church-Order ratione ordinis but only in tuitu charitatis He is bound to doe so for an Infidell and is he bound no more to a Christian Suppose one in your Church-Order see a Christian not in Church-Order walke unorderly is he not bound to admonish him by that royall Law of Church-Order Mat. 18.1 And if he will not heare him to take two or three more and if he will not heare them to tell it to the Church and afterwards to walke towards him as God directs the Church to order it Hath Christ ordained no better remedy to reclaime a Christian not in Church-Order than to reclaime an Infidell But further An Officer or one in a superiour Order by reason of his office is bound to watch over his brothers soule not only in tuitu charitatis but also ratione ordinis Is a brother bound as much as he or he no more then a brother out of office Againe a Deacon is in a superiour Order by reason of his office as you speake here of Elders in what different respect is he bound to watch over his brother no otherwise then a brother out of office Truly then it is all one in your way to be in an office and out of office And this is the way to banish if not Christian yet naturall charity out of the Church And it is observable that since this new Church-fellowship and Church covenant hath been set up charity is growne very cold and some of them have been heard to professe they had nothing to doe with an offendor not of their owne particular Church-communion And doe indeed account all not of their way little better than Infidels or as they speake without and in a manner say with Cain Am I my brothers keeper Never was there so little charity so much scorne and contempt of all not in their owne way as is found in them that professe themselves the only people that have found the way of Christ though in severall Sections CHAP. IV. Of the Subject of Church-Liberty THis Key is given to the Brethen of the Church for so faith the Apostle Gal. 5.23 Brethren you are called unto liberty Concerning the vindication of that Text enough hath been said above Before you come to the particulars of their liberties you Rhetoricate a little to make it more passable As in the common-wealth the welfare of it stands in the due ballancing of the liberties or priviledges of the people and the authority of the Magistrate so in the Church the safety of it is in the right ordering of the priviledges of the Brethren and the ministeriall authority of the Elders All this is granted But the right ballancing of either lyes not in the multitude of the people as having any immediate influence into the government of Church or State For then the government of both were Democraticall But as in our State the ballancing of the priviledges of the people and the authority of the Magistrate supreme lyes in the authority of the Parliament where there are Knights and Burgesses representing the people so I thinke it is in the Church the ballancing of the Brethrens priviledges and the Ministers authority seemes to lye in the Ruling-Elders who are the representatives of the people But take away this ballast or poise of the government and it will be either absolutely Monarchicall and so easily Tyrannicall or else Democraticall and so lyable to Anarchy and confusion as experience shewes us in the Papall and Episcopall tyranny and the Separatists Anarchy the two extremes before observed But let us take a view of the particulars Their Liberties are 1. To chuse their owne Officers so Acts 1. and 6. and 14. In generall I answer thus The election of the people was no more but a designation or propounding the persons and presenting them to the Apostles not by way of vote or suffrage but by way of desire if they were found fit to have one or some of them ordained But this is little or nothing to the power of the Keyes That place Acts 1. was an extraordinary case wherein the people had little or no hand For 1. they were confined to some sort of men hat had conversed with our Saviour 2. They propounded two it was not in their power so much as to nominate the particular man 3. The Lord himselfe determined it and not the Apostles much lesse the people As for that word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 stood upon it cannot be properly taken as if they by their votes or suffrages had constituted or ordained Mathias to be an Apostle but barely thus Seeing God had chosen and ordained him they accepted him by an orderly subjection to the revealed will of Christ For the second Acts 6. It was expedient that the people should at least have the nomination of their Deacons because better knowne to them and so better to be trusted with their owne stocke But they did but nominate or present the men they did not ordaine so much as a Deacon Looke you out seven men whom we marke it may appoint or ordaine to this businesse It is never found in all the New Testament that ever the people ordained or imposed hands upon any Officer

as a fault upon the Presbyteriall way 2. You have otherwise determined in the way Suppose the whole Presbytery be in an errour or scandall as they may shall the faction now devest the Brethren of their power and authority to censure and cast them out which you have fully given them there and here doe seem to take away 3. You mitigate the businesse much when you say A Synod of Churches is the first subject of that power whereby errour is convinced c. and the way of ●ruth and peace declared and imposed on the Church For all this is only a doctrinall declaration and imposition not authoritatively by way of jurisdiction The censure you reserve to the Congregation where you had placed it before But what if the Synod of Churches erre or disagree there be a faction also amongst them you will know your owne words An erring or disagreeing Church binds not So all will come to nothing The censure of the Synod binds not for they can but declare what is truth The censure of the particular Church binds not for they are in a faction so you give the Brethren a power and presently take it away againe If then a considerable party fall into errour or faction by variance they presently lose like the Bee her sting their power of binding and loosing and if this be but once knowne as it cannot be hid how easie is it for any Delinquent to make a party or faction and so escape all binding censure seeing neither the Church erring or at variance nor a Synod hath any binding power Your second Argument is From the patterne Acts 15.1 c. When there grew errour and faction in the Church of Antioch they determine not the case but referred it to the Apostles and Elders But first the Church of Ierusalem did only doctrinally declare the truth they did not censure the erring Brethren so you pleaded above but referred that to the Church of Antioch 2. If declaration had been sufficient the Church of Antioch needed not to have sent so farre as Ierusalem Paul and Barnabas were able enough to declare the truth at home and so that particular Church though erring and at variance was the first subject of that power here given to a Synod 3. You mislay the comparison when you say As in the case of an offence of a faithfull brother persisted in the matter is at last judged in a church which is a Congregation of the faithfull so in the offence of a Church the matter is at last judged in a congregation of Churches c. For the judgement is not of the same kind but you doe meerely aequivocate with us The judgement of the Church upon a Brother is juridicall even by way of censure of excommunication But the judgement of a Synod is only doctrinall and declarative If you grant any more you and we are agreed Before I conclude this proposition I only animadvert these few things 1. That you grant the Assembly of the Apostles and Elders at Ierusalem Acts 15.1 to have been a formall Synod wherein your Disciples here doe discent from you as appeares in their Epistle and call it only a Consultation by way of Arbitration To which Arbitration it seemes the Church of Antioch was not bound to stand for they did not for ought appeares promise or bind themselves to stand to their arbitrement nor might they so bind themselves by your doctrine and theirs too for that were to give away their priviledge purchased by the bloud of Christ 2. You yeeld also The Keyes p. 57. that the Apostles did not act herein as Apostles and determine the matter by Apostolicall Authority but as Elders in an ordinary way as the whole proceeding in the businesse proves as you well observe Yet your Schollers here submit not to your doctrine as they professe in their Epistle though they neither shew any reason for it nor confute yours 3. You call a Synod a Congregation of Churches for what is a Synod but a Church of Churches and yet deny that a Presbytery of Churches is ever called a Church 4. You say The Elders there at Jerusalem were not a few the Beleevers in Jerusalem being many thousands Therefore say wee they were more than could meet together in one place and yet called but one Church whence we may inferre There was not an Independent Church of one but a Presbyteriall Church of many Congregations Lastly you say This patterne plainly sheweth to whom the Key of Authority is committed when there groweth offence and difference in a Church But the Key of Authority if you remember what you said above hath this power in it as to administer the Seales so to bind an obstinate offender under excommunication and to release and forgive him upon repentance Grant but your Synod of Churches such a Key of Authority to bind an offending party or Church and to release them upon repentance and the matter is at an end But if you grant no more but a doctrinall declarative power you grant but what every Pastor single hath And whether this be the Key of Authority given by our Saviour to the Church let every indifferent Reader judge And now you come to your Corollaries concerning the Independency of Churches to shew how they are or are not Independent Wherein I purpose not to follow you and that for this reason because for the most part you doe but repeate what you have said before You say your selfe You take the first Subject and the Independent Subject to be all one Therefore say I if the Church of a particular Congregation be not the first Subject of all Church-power as is evinced above neither is it the Independent Subject of that power I have only some things to observe in your second Corollarie and then I shall conclude You say The establishment of pure Religion and the Reformation of corruptions in Religion doe much concerne the civill peace If Religion be corrupted there will be warre in the gates Judges 5.8 and no peace to him that commeth in or goeth out 2 Chron. 15.3 5 6. But where Religion rejoyceth the civill State flourisheth And this you truly refer to the Civill Magistrate partly by commanding and by stirring up the Churches and Ministers thereof to goe about it in their spirituall way partly also by civill punishments upon the wilfull opposers and disturbers of the same Whereupon I desire to know 1. By what Authority our Brethren here in Old-England having not only Christian Magistrates covenanting to reforme but also calling and commanding an Assembly of Divines to reforme according to the Word doe take upon them to set up and establish a forme of Church-Government of their owne before they have demonstrated it to be the way of God to the great disturbance of the peace both of Church and State 2. I doe demand also why many of your disciples here plead for a Toleration of all Religions which you will not tollerate in New-England which they call Liberty of conscience and the prosecution of such disturbers they call persecution When as they may heare you say It belongs to the Magistrate to punish the wilfull opposers and disturbers of Reformation And more then that you tell them Of the Times of the New Testament it is prophesied that in some cases capitall punishment shall proceed against false Prophets and that by procurement of their nearest kindred Zach. 13.3 And the execution thereof is described Rev. 16.4 to 7. Where the rivers and fountaines of waters that is the Priests and Iesuits that conveigh the Religion of the Sea of Rome throughout the Countries are turned to bloud that is have bloud given them to drinke by the civill Magistrate Does this hold true only against Priests and Jesuits and are all other erroneous schismaticall blasphemous Sectaries to be tolerated I leave them to consider it and you and them to reconcile this and other your many differences and contradictions amongst your selves And when you are well agreed in the way we shall consider how farre you agree with the Truth FINIS Errata Page 7. l. 22. reade offender and often after p. 23. l. last r. institution p. 24. l. 4. r. institution p. 25. l. 16. r. for p. 26. l. 26. for 1. r. 15. p. 30. ● 23. r. except p. 32. l. 15. r. whom p. 34. l. last but one r. Counsell p. 35. l. 8. r. Presbyters p. 45. l. 17. put out the second in p. 53. l. last for And r. from p. 55. l. 2. for feare r. heare p. 76. l. 10. for of r. at