Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	apostle_n	church_n	foundation_n	1,820	5	8.3994	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A39282	Vindiciæ catholicæ, or, The rights of particular churches rescued and asserted against that meer (but dangerous) notion of one catholick, visible, governing church ... wherein by Scripture, reason, antiquity, and later writers, first, the novelty, peril, scandal, and untruth of this tenet are cleerly demonstrated, secondly, all the arguments for it, produced by the Rev. Apollonius, M. Hudson, M. Noyes, the London ministers, and others, are examined and dissolved ... / by John Ellis, Jun.	Ellis, John, 1606?-1681.	1647 (1647)	Wing E593; ESTC R18753	75,919	94

whereof and commission from which all particular Churches act and to the determinations of the major part whereof they are to yeeld obedience if not apparently contrary to the Word and the Catholick governing power whereof resides immediately as in its proper subject under Christ onely in the Ministers and Elders and they not taken severally but joyntly as one entire Colledge or Presbyterie to whose charge severally and joyntly the whole and every particular Church is committed c or more briefly Whether the whole be one Corporation whereof the Elders joyntly are Governors and the members gouerned CHAP. III. Just Prejudices and strong probabilities against an universal visible Governing Church IT is the custome of warre to skirmish first and to begin with the lighter armed Souldiers this method shall be here followed and first such things as render this opinion vehemently suspicious and questionable Whereof the first is The NOVELTY of it The saying of Tertullian is received Quod Antiquiss Veriss Truth is Ancient and error Novel but M. Noyes would avoid this prejudice where he saith that the Fathers so predicated the unity of an universal Church that they laid foundations for an universal Bishop I shall therefore endeavour to shew the Novelty of it and first absolutely considered in it self Secondly relatively and that first in respect of the Protestant and then of the Presbyterian party 1. Absolutely If we credit the * Centurists the particular Churches in the first hundred of years after the Apostles did exercise all Church-Gouernment within themselves * They did ordain and depose Ministers admonish and excommunicate obstinate offenders held Synods or meetings wherein they determined the affairs of their own body In doubtful cases they consulted with other Churches not by reason of their superiority but upon the ground of common charity But no hint of this Catholick Governing body among them Object But in occasions which concerned many Churches they held that they should be transacted in Synods and Councels and they did accordingly in such meetings exercise superior power in the particular Churches as excommunication ordination deposition of Ministers determining of controversies c. Besides several expressions of the Ancients imply as much To which I answer First To the Synods and Councells That what concerns many should be debated by many c. doth not conclude them a Corporation no more then the common Treaties of Nations in things of joynt concernment Secondly Their exercising the acts above mentioned in their particular Churches and their acting these things in Synods were it is certain at some distance of time and seeing the former way of Government is mentioned first it may well be that the latter came in as the discipline of Churches began to be corrupted and decline to WORLDLY POLICIE which happened in this first age also say the same * Authors 3. It might be by Decree and judgement onely not by actual execution of such things as 1 Cor. 5. I haue determined that when ye are gathered c. and John 4. 2. Christ baptized more Disciples then Iohn though Christ himself baptized not but his Disciples 4. Howsoever their practise in this if it were at the same time and not after Discipline declined must be expounded to be consistent with their other practise within themselves whereby they owned entire and of right Independent power from any other Church or Churches So that in such united Synods or Councells each Church might act its owne power though in union with other and all act as so many several and distinct Churches united not as one entyre universal body in the nature and notion of it different distinct and superior to the particular Churches So that being gathered they had a larger power but not a greater nor another power as a general Councel but as so many particular Churches or Elders congregated They acted not as a Parliament but as a Dyett of so many Free-States Or to take M. Hudsons owne similitude As a heap of stones have no more inward vertue because they are an heap then if they were each one by themselves they have a larger but not a more excellent one or of another kind neither doth the power of working what ever their vertue be agree to them first bebecause they are an heap but because they are stones of such and such a nature So here They might excommunicate then but it might be from their owne heap as we may so speak or Societies onely not as out of the Catholick Visible Church also unlesse per accidens in as much as he that is rightly excommunicated out of one Church is really excommunicated out of all because they are essentially and mystically one and to go by the same rule though formally he may not be so As he that is justly condemned for a Traytor in one of the Kings Dominions is really and vertually condemned in the rest because these Domions are politically one in their head yet may they be Independent one from another in their proper Governments and Rights as was said above concerning England and Scotland Fifthly It was but a voluntary association or by right of Fraternity only and not of onenesse of Corporation which appears by astringing and confining even in after times in some Councells the power of Bishops and Ministers to and within their owne Diocesses and Churches so as to pronounce all the acts they did elsewhere unlesse by call or permission void and of none effect Whether it were judgement ordination excommunication it shall be say they of no force As the Councels and Canon Law are cited by Crakanthorp himself one of our adversaries in this cause So Cyprian saith that Stephan Bishop of Rome put his sithe into other mens Harvest when he endeavoured by authority to restore two whom the Bishops of Spain had deposed Now if they had apprehended the whole Church to be but One Corporation or great Congregation and all the Bishops and Ministers to be over this one Church in common why then though in regard that each man was assigned by the Church to his particular place for the avoyding of confusion such acts out of their owne Churches might be disorderly and irregular yet could they not be formally void for that the whole Church being committed to each and to all they had been within their charge seeing they had an habitual and fundamental right thereunto as being Officers per se and properly of the whole Church and not of any particular Church but by accident onely And let it be remembred that these Constitutions were much later then the Churches we spake of before This for Churches and Councells We come now to particular and those the most eminent persons Let us hear themselves speak First CHRYSOSTOME The Sacrifice or Passeouer was to be eaten in one house and not to be conveied out that is the house is one that hath Christ and the

the good of the whole 2. As pride and independency are inseperable so also pride and usurpation pride and invasion of the rights of particulars under notion of a common society pride and Tyranny which hath its way paved in the Church by this notion as hath beene found by experience and 't is acknowledged by this Author in this chapter to have beene the occasion of the rising of the man of sinne viz. some of the Ancients their high doting on the unity of the visible Church 3. Some kinde of Independency may bee without pride such as was in the Apostles and is in the severall Kingdomes and free States in the world whereof New England the place of this Authours habitation is one and all kinde of it and an absolute independency is disavowed by persons of the greatest note in that way as the Apologists expresly call absolute independency as a proud and insolent title so the Elders of New-England and particularly M. * Cotton This Author therefore should either have explained himself touching Independency or else have used some other expression then that which he could not but know would be ad salviam indeed to the palate of some but ad contumeliam an addition to the pressure that others good and sober men are oppressed with But it may be the superstition of certain of the old * heathen takes at this day who in sowing some kinde of graine apprehended it would grow the better if it were done with reviling and reproaching each other I would willingly hope that example of Tertullian is so well known to Mr Noyes that no provocation from the Church should excite him to satisfie himself upon it Injuriae parentum ferendae sunt Argum. 9. The Covenant or profession of all Israel together was to walk before the Lord And converts in the Primitive Church promised to walk with all Saints in all the Ordinances The Church is one Citie having many gates or particular Churches by any gate or Church entrance is had into the whole Church c. Answ. 1. There must be difference made betwixt the state of the Jewish and Christian Church because they were joyntly One Common-wealth and one PARTICVLAR Congregation and not the universal Church unlesse by accident in as much as there was then no other visible Church except as we said before we follow those who hold that Iethro Iob c. lived in those times and were particular Churches 2. Whether the Covenant in the Primitive time ran in such a forme doth not appear to me but for the sense of it it may be admitted according to what hath been often said men are ingaged and may promise to do the duties of their relations to those to whom they have any tye and so in that respect are one with them and yet it followeth not that this body is a visible body or Corporation it may be a mystical one or it may be visible in some respect and not in point of Government or yet the government may be visible in several parts but not as one in the whole All the Apostles were engaged to assist one another yet did they not depend one on another in point of Government as after I had said this above I found M. Cotton to have taught it before whom then I had not read All men are bound to offices to all men Do good to all men saith the Apostle are therefore all men one visible corporation or body politick 3. By one Church we are let into all Churches in respect of their essential being Rights and common priviledges mystical union c. not in respect of particular jurisdiction A man that is borne of one Parent is let into the whole society of men and all common Prerogatives but not into the Rights of each Citie c. His 10. and last Argument It is generally supposed that all Churches have power to act together and to expect power of Jurisdiction in a general councel Calvin is expresse Inst. l. 4. c. 8. and 9. therefore the Church is one visible body else it could not so act Operari sequitur esse Answ. 1. It hath been granted that a company in some sense may be a visible body or Corporation in respect of some more common and lesser acts but not properly so and in respect of the parts of Government and Jurisdiction properly so called 2. The acting of a general Councel yea though it were to the highest points of Jurisdiction as Ordination and excommunication may proceed on our grounds and not on the visible and integral onenesse of all Churches into a Corporation for it may proceed on the ground of Voluntary association and communion of Churches whereby all particular Churches are willing to unite freely and not of necessity their power and to act for the use of their particular bodies and in order to the whole but not as being one incorporated Reipublick nor as having any new or properly larger power being met as such a body but onely by accident as being aggregated and collected together After which manner was the first Presbyterian Church erected viz. at Geneva the several congregations uniting voluntarily as so many distinct bodies into one aggregated body And as the Kingdom of England and Scotland and some free Cities in Germany upper and lower act together which neither makes a new or greater power in the assembled or general body nor destroyes the entire power of the particular societies in which sense our opinion would admit of the power of a general Councel but I cannot owne it because it is partly groundlesse in Scripture partly impossible and partly dangerous in the thing it self as hath been observed above 3. Not all acting together nor all acts that in some sense may be said to be acts of power doth imply an onenesse of Corporation or jurisdiction properly so called I have shewed before that a Colledge of Physicians may meet to consult and give advice in point of health which they have power by their profession and by the Lawes to do and the patient is obliged by the lawes of Nature prudence and conscience unlesse there appear a sufficient impediment but this neither argueth that all these Physicians are of one Colledge yea or Kingdom nor that they have power to constrain the Patient to obey Calvin in the very chapters quoted by this Author he laies down ground for the overthrow of this opinion as where he teacheth That as the writings of men though godly so neither the authority either of particular Churches or of the whole Church in general is such as was the authority of the Apostles for they may not establish any new Article of Faith c. And also answers divers of the Arguments of this Author and the other by affirming that the promises of not leaving the Church of guiding it in all truth c. and so we might add all the other almost before mentioned are made NO LESSE

TO EACH BELEEVER THEN TO THE WHOLE CHVRCH which I desire may be observed Again He makes the authoritie of a general Councel to depend on that promise When two or three are gathered in my name c. And then saith That this as well agreeth to any particular company of Christians as to a generall Councel 2. It doth not appear to me in those chapters that hee ownes general Councells on any such grounds nor do I see how he can by what he saith on Eph. 4. 11. above cited 3. If these Councells he there approves did excommunicate c. yet he doth not mention his approbation of them in those things and wee may apprehend he might count such actions among those particulars of their failings which he there enumerates 2. After his Argument he makes the objection M. Hudson had done viz. The whole Church hath no visible head Ergo It is no one Visible Corporation or body He replies to this 1. Particular Churches are visible Churches though destitute of Officers But I Reply should they be so if they had not one common bond of particular laws administred by one person or one visible Society of Officers 2. They may all meet as one visible body the universal Church then must either meet so or else have some visible officers universal over the whole Secondly he saith Christ is supposed the Visible Head in some respect Answ. But that is not the question but what visible existent head there is on earth by whom it may appear one Visible bodie As we saw before out of Calvin on Ephes. 4. 11. 2. How can we contain Christ visible properly 3. He saith The Church is one so as to act ordinarily as one divisim dividedly and yet by reason of the mutual consent in all Churches one act of power done in one Church is by authority of the universal Church and reaches to all Churches as excommunication out of one is excommunication out of all But 1. There was never any Society or Corporation that acted as one dividedly and in parts unlesse it did first act as one joyntly together and in a body wherein power was given to such divided bodies to act so unlesse it were upon some sudden and extraordinary accident that required immediate action before the body could convene 2. Every Society though it may act in parts as a Kingdome in severall Corporations and a Corporation in severall Wards or Halls and Companies yet hath it withall one common ordinary and standing officer or officers visible to governe in chiefe to whom all maine causes are referred c. But 3. That the particular Church that acteth in the right of the universall Church by reason of mutuall consent in all Churches is not proved by that medium for mutuall consent may be voluntary and accidentall and so a figure onely whereas hee is to prove that all Churches are necessarily essentially by way of institution and for ever to be one body whether they consent or consent not But a particular Church acteth first In the right of Christ who is the first subject of Church power Matth. 28. 28. Secondly it acteth in the right of a Church that is of a Societie that hath embraced the faith of Christ which as a Church indefinitely and essentially is the next subject of Church power because we see such power committed to every Church so we heard even now Calvin to expound that promise Matth. 18. when tvvo or three are gathered c. which I finde also the forepraised Author to have said before me whom at the writing of this above I had not seene in the particular 4. That he that is excommunicated out of one Church if duely is excluded out of all is not because the whole Church is one visible body but because all the particular Churches agree in nature and essence of Doctrine Worship and Government so that he that is unfit to be a member of one is so of all because they all require the same essentiall conditions as he that is cut off by the hand of Justice for violation of the Lawes of nature in one Common wealth is cut out of all yet it doth not follow that all men are one Common wealth Or as hee that is out-lawed in one Corporation justly is outlawed in all Congregations virtually and upon the matter though not directly and formally till hee be so declared by them if those Corporations go all by the same lawes for substance and government though it doth not follow that these severall corporations are therefore one or under one generall body which as I take it is the case betwixt England and Scotland where by reason of union under one King though the governments remaine distinct yet one that is borne in either Kingdome is not an Alien but a Free-borne Denizon of both and so by consequence as I apprehend for I may be mistaken in a Law notion and I bring it but for illustration hee that is out-lawed in one Kingdome cannot remaine under the protection of the Lawes of the other and yet the bodies are distinct in power and government though not divided wholy but in some respect So in the Church In the third and last place he comes to authorities But here either he cites those who are nothing for him or when they dispute the point professedly are expressly against him as his first Author Chamier who though he say that if not every Pastor yet all of them are set over the whole Church yet when he argueth the point he explaineth himselfe to mean all distributively every one in his charge as all the Ma●ors and Sheriffes governe the whole Kingdome but not joyntly but severally for hee denyeth such an one visible universall Church as Mr Hudson acknowledged and as we saw before The 2. Are other moderne Divines whom Mr Noyes would have not to consist with themselves whilest they deny an universall visible Church and yet grants Judiciall Power to Synods But it hath beene shewed before that this may be granted though the other be denyed c. The 3. Are the Fathers who he saith so predicated an universall visible Church they laid the foundation for an universall Bishop If so then let this Author take heed he lay not a foundation to raise him out of the grave againe in his Image as I have heard a Reverend Elder of New England called an universal visible Church in respect of the Papacy and to bury the liberties of all the Christian Churches in his grave The 4. Author is Polanus who saith the things of God are administered Synodali {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} by the determination of the Synod but are confirmed Regia {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} by the Kings authoritie Wee allow the Power of determining with Calvin above cited according to the word of God to Synods and are well content and thankfull that Kings will become Nursing Fathers to the Church