The Due Right of Presbyteries, Chapter 10 · Section 1
Of the communion of the visible Catholique Church.
IEsus Christ hath now under the N. Testament a Catholique visible Church on earth (for of that part of the Catholique Church now triumphing in glory; or of that part which onelyonly is a Church of elected Saints, and are not yet formally a professing Church, but onelyonly such in the predestinatiun of God, I spake not now) and to this Church universall, visible, hath the Lord given a ministery, and all his Ordinances of Word and Sacrament principally and primarily and to the ministery and guides of this Catholique visible Church hath the Lord committed the Keyes, as to the first subject, and for the visible Church Catholique, including also the invisible Church; as for the object and end hath he given his ordinances and the power of the keyes; And the Ministery and ordinances are not given to this or this Congregation which meeteth ordinarily in one place, principally, 1. The Lord Iesus gave this Ministeriall power to the universall guides of the catholick Church, the Apostles as they did represent the Presbytery of the whole Catholick visible Church, Ioh. 20. 21. As my Father sent me, so send I you. 22. And when he had thus sayd he breathed on them, and said, receive the Holy Ghost. 23 whosoever sinnes you remit, they are remitted; and whosoever sinnes you retaine, they are retained. The Apostles here receive the keys in name of the whole Catholick Ministeriall guides. For in this the Apostles must stand in the person and roome of a single society of believers united by a Church covenant in one parishonall Church, if our brethrens grounds stand good; so as a Parishionall Church must be the onelyonly successors of the Apostles, but this no Word of God can warrant. Nor is the Eldership of a single Congregation that which the Apostles here represented; except you say to this Eldership, as to the first subject, is this message of sending, as the Father sent Christ, committed, and to this Eldership within one Congregation is the power Ministeriall of pardoning and retaining sinnes given; For I aske, from whence, or from whose hands do the Eldership of a Congregation receive the keys? from Jesus Christ, say they, but this is no answer, the Ministery according to its institution is no doubt onelyonly from the head of the body the Church, from Iesus Christ. But I aske now of an ordinary Church-calling; and I demand from whose hands under Jesus Christ have this particular Eldership received Ministeriall power: they cannot say from themselves, for they doe not make themselves Ministers: they will not say from a Colledge of Presbyters of many congregations, for they are flatly against all such presbyteries, and that which they say indeed, the Eldership of a congregation hath their Ministeriall power from the people. Well then, the Apostles when they received the keys they did represent the people: but what people? not the people of a classicall presbytery, of a Province, of a Nation, of the whole redeemed Church, but of one single congregation; how shall this be made out of the Text, or out of one Word of God, I see not. 2. Christ ascending on high, and giving some to be Apostles, and some Prophets, and some Evangelists, and some Pastors and Teachers, 12. For the perfecting of the Saints, (not of Ephesus, far lesse of one single Congregation onelyonly) for the worke of the Ministery (in generall) for the edifying of the Body of Christ (not a congregationall body onelyonly) 12. Till we all meet in the unity of the Faith, and of the knowledge of the Sonne of God, unto a perfit man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulnesse of Christ. Consider I pray you, that Christs intention in giving a Ministery is not for a congregation of forty, or sixty, or a hundred, as if hee intended to impawn all power in that Congregationall body; but hee intended the edifying of his body Catholick, and the comming of all to the unity of the Faith. A Congregation of sixty cannot be all Saints, and this power is clearely given to that body, which the Lord is to make a perfit man, according to the measure of the fulnesse of the stature of Christ, this is a mysticall man, and the Catholick body of Iesus Christ. Call it a Congregation and you wrest the Scripture, and vilifie the noble and large end for the which Christ hath given a ministery: as aske to what end, and to what first and principall subject hath the Lord given reason and a faculty of discoursing, is it to Peter, to Iohn, &c. as to the first subject, and for them as for their good? no, no, it is for and to the race of mankind. The case is is just so here, 1 Cor. 12. 28. God hath placed some in the Church, first Apostles, secondarily Prophets, thirdly Teachers, &c. Is the meaning thus? God hath placed in the body of a single Congregation Apostles? Where do you read that? I believe Apostles have the Catholick visible Church for their Parish; and is it a Congregationall body, wherein God placed such variety of members, as Apostles, Prophets, Teachers, Workes of miracles, gifts of Healing, Helps, Governments, &c? So Rom. 12. 5. So we being many are one body in Christ, and every one members of another. Hence hee reckoneth out divers offices in this body. Now this is not one Congregation onelyonly, but that one Body of Christ whereof Christ is head, this is the Catholick Church.
2. What power ministeriall our Brethren affirme to bee given to a Congregation, they say it is given to them under the notion of a flock of redeemed ones, of the Spouse, and body of Christ, as they cite for this act, 20. 28. & Col. 1. 18. Eph. 1. 22 and under the notion of the City of God, the Kingdome, house and building of Christ, but so they come to our hand, for this reduplication, or notion of a flock of redeemed ones, of the body and spouse of Christ, of the City, Kingdome, House, Building, agree first to the Catholick Church as is clear, Col. 1. 8. Eph. 5. 25 26. 1 Tim. 3. 15. Eph. 2. 19, 20, 21, 22. and secondarily only to a Congregation as it is a part of this universall flock. 3. The whole Catholick Church visible is made one ministeriall body Cant. 6. 4. beautifull as Tirzah, comely as the City of Jerusalem, terrible as an army with banners. By reason of their order of discipline, and is there called an organicall body having v. 6 7 8. Eyes, Haire, Teeth Temples, Locks and haveing particular Churchs under her, three score Queens, fourescore concubines, and virgins without number. Yet is it sayd, v. 9. My Dove, my undesiled is but one, she is the only one of her Mother. Ainsworth who here may be more then a witnesse, sayth this Ainsworth an. in Cant. 6.one Church is the daughter of Jerusalem who is above and the mother of us …ll. C…ton a witnesse not inferior saith on this place: Cotton in Cant. 6.The true catholick Church of Christ is the Mother of all reformed Daughters, and that argument that our Brethren useth to prove a particular Church to be visible, because of externall communion (not in one House, for that is accidentall to visibility, one congregation may meet in three caves of the Earth, in time of persecution, and yet remaine one congregation) holdeth good in this catholick church made up of so many organs, as a congregation is formed. 1. Begetting by the Ministery of the word, daughter-Churches to God, as they say a congregation doth, nor is it enough to say Ierusalem is not one by externall government and order of Discipline, because they cannot meet together to exercise Discipline, but shee is one invisibly, because shee hath one Faith, one Lord, one Baptisme, one Spirit, one Hope of glory. For the Text sayth, they have one and the same Organs, Teeth, Eyes, Haire, Temples, Locks; they are one Ierusalem, and compact City, one Army terrible by the Sword of of discipline. 2. We do not say, to make them one visible church, that they must have one visible actuall government, in externall order: for when of a congregation of 60. their be 30 absent through sicknesse and the busines of a lawfull calling, they are one Church visible, though in one metting you cannot see them all with one cast of your Eye; and when the church of Ierusalem exceeding in number ten thousand, did meet in part. from House to House, that is in sundry Houses; yet continuing in the same doctrine of the Apostles, and in fellowship and in breaking of bread, and in prayer, Acts 2. 46. 32. our brethren will say, they are one church. And therefore the power of Discipline, and the exercise of the Word, Seales, and Discipline in parts, is sufficient to make one visible catholick Church. 4. To that Church hath Christ given, as to the first church, the ordinances and ministery, which he principally intendeth to perfit, to gather, and to bring to the unity of faith in a perfit body by these ordinances and that Ministery; because the wisdome of Christ hath not given his Ministery, and Ordinances to the catholick Church, intending principally to save them, except he give them a power in that Ministery to the first subject, which being put forth in acts may compasse that end. But Jesus Christ principally intends, to perfit to gather, to bring to the unity of faith in a perfit body, by these ordinances and Ministery, the whole catholick visible church, and secondarily only this or this particular congregation. Ergo, Christ hath given to the whole catholick Church, as to the first Church, the ordinances and Ministery, and so in this Mioistery catholick, hee ha h given the Keys to this catholick Church visible as to the first Church.
5. I prove it thus, when ever Chrst giveth gifts to a whole, he giveth it to the whole, by order of nature, before he give it to the parts of that whole, as is cleare by induction. He gives Christ a gift to the whole Church, by order of nature, first to the World, Joh. 3. 16. Then to this or this believer of the World. So he giveth redemption and grace by order of nature first to his Church in generall, Eph. 5. 25. Christ dieth first for his Church, not this or that single company, or particular person, first for His sheep, that is, the whole flock, Joh. 10. v. 11. then for this or this company, or this of this straying sheep; He came to seeke and save, first the lost, Luk. 19. 10. then this or this lost man. He died first to gather together in one, not one man onelyonly, yee not the nation of the Iewes onelyonly, but to gather together in one, all the Children of God, which were scattered abroad, Ioh. 11. 25. and he is a propitiatiou by order of nature. First, for the sinnes of the whole World, 1 Ioh. 2. 1. and then secondarily, for our sinnes, so hath hee given the gifts of Apostles, Prophets, and Teachers, first to, and for Saints, in common and in generall, and not for this and that Saint, or for this company of Saints at Ephesus. Now that particular Congregations are parts of the great visible Church; I prove, and first that they are parts visible of a Presbytery, or a circuit of Congregations, within the locall bounds of a Presbytery. I make good thus. Those who have one common necessary object of externall government in Church-affairs, those are a whole visible community gifted with power from Christ to rule in that common and necessary object of government, and this and this portion of this whole community must be parts of that whole. But those Congregations within the locall bounds of the circuit of a Presbytery have one common necessary object of externall government, in Church affaires; Ergo, those Congregations in such a circuit must be parts of this whole. The major I take from our Brethren, who therefore make a particular Congreation to be one in respect of ordinary meeting, to partake of word, seales, and to transect matters of jurisdiction, amongst themselves, but this agreeth to many congregations within one circuit, for they meet occasionally one with another in hearing the word and receiving the seales; and for the assumption I prove it thus, all those congregations have these particulars of externall government in Church affaires, which they cannot transact within their owne Congregations, but doe ex aequo belong to them all. As 1. That they doe not give offence one to another; that one Church doe not hold the Doctrine of Balaam to the effence and scandall of other Churches. 2. That one Congregation make not Acts and Canons against the Word of God, and against the Acts of another Congregation agreeable to the Word of God. 3. That one Church admonish, rebuke, comfort, provoke another to love and to good works, in such and such poynts; now though a Congregation make acts and constitutions for governing this, or that member of the community; yet they doe not, nor cannot make acts that oblige the community and the Church as the Church; the Church as the Church being a part is to be regulated by the whole, and if there be things that ex aequo concerne all, and doe not concerne one particular Church more then another, one particular Congregation cannot governe in these. And by the like reason particular Churches and classicall Presbyteries, and Provinciall and Nationall Churches, are parts of the whole Catholick visible Church.
6. Because Christ hath not given the power of Ministery and Ordinances, and Jurisdiction to the single Congregation as to the first subject upon the ground that our Brethren speake, to wit, because the single Congregation is that Spouse to which Christ is referred as an Husband, and that body to which hee carrieth the relation of an head, communicating life to all the members, Eph. 1. 22. Col. 1. 18. nor is it that adequat number of ransomed persons, of sheepe, of lost ones, of fellow-citizens, of spirituall stones, &c. To the which Christ doth carry that adequat and compleat relation of a Saviour, of a good Shepheard, of a Seeker of lost ones, of a King and Governour, of the chiefe c…ner-stone. Therefore that visible Church for whose salvation Christ hath given the Ministeriall power, must be the larger visible Church, just as the God of Nature hath given to the whole race of sheep, a power to seeke their own food, and because of their simplicity, a power to be ordered and led by the shepheard, and secondarily this power is given to this or this flock feeding on Mount Caermel, or elsewhere: so hath the God of Grace given a power to the whole visible Catholick flock to submit themselves, in the Lord, to other guides, and he hath given to the whole company of Shepheards as to the first subject the power of the Keys, and secondarily the power is given to this or this visible Church, and company of Pastors.
7. When any scandalous person is delivered to Satan, he is cast out of the whole Catholick Church; Ergo, he was before his ejection a member of the whole catholick Church, for hecannot be cast out, who was never within. And when he is excommunicated, his sins bound, as in Heaven, so on Earth, that is, not only in that Tract of ground, where a handfull of a little Congregation independent (as they say) of 10 or 20 or an 100 doth ordinarily feed, but in all the visible World where God hath a Church. and all both within the little Congregation where hee is, and without, are to repute him as an Heathen and a Publican. It is true some of our Brethren say, he is excommunicated onelyonly out of that Congregation whereof hee is a member antecedentèr, because Christ hath given the power of excommunication onelyonly 1 Cor. 5. 4. To the congregated Church, when they are met together to deliver to Satan, and they must do it, in collegio, in consessu, coram tota Ecclesia, before and in presence of the Church congregationall, which is to give their consent and hath a certaine power of interest in the busines, but he is cast out and excommunicated to all other Churches onelyonly consequentèr, by consequent, and by vertue of the communion of Churches: I answer, the plaine contrary; hee is antecedentèr and formally delivered to Satan, by the power of the catholick visible Church which is put forth in exercises, and in act before that Church whereof he is a neerest member. Even as the left hand doth cut off a finger of the right hand, which otherwayes should infect the whole body. Now it is not the left hand onelyonly that cutteth off the contagious and infectious finger, but the whole man, deliberate reason and the will consenteth it should be done for the preservation of the whole man; the left hand is a meere instrument, and the losse of the finger is the losse of the whole body, and the finger is cut off the right hand not antedentèr, and onelyonly off the right hand by that power intrinsecall onelyonly in the right hand, but intrinsecall in the whole body; it is true the contagion should creepe through, and infect the right hand, and right arme first, and therefore incision is made upon the right hand. So if the Eldership of a Congregation deliver to Satan, it is not done by that power that is intrinseally onelyonly in that Congregation, but by the power intrinsecall in the whole universall Church, who shall keepe communion with him that Eldership cuts him off as the instrument, or hand of the Church catholick, and the incision (as it were) is performed there in that meeting (I will not say of the whole Congregation, that is to be proved) because the contagion shall come first upon these with whom the delinquent is to keepe the nearest fellowship, and that Excommunication be performed in a meeting I grant, and the place, 1 Cor. 5. 4. saith so much, and a meeting of the Church. But that that is a meeting of the congregation▪ with favour of the learned, cannot be proved cogently; though I thinke excommunication when it is actually performed, it should be done before the Congregation, but that is for the edification and nearest and most immediate practice of that Congregation, for the contagion is nearest to them, but the reason why the presence of the Congregation whereof the Delinquent is a member is requisit, is not because this Congregation hath the sole intrinsecall power in her selfe; and because shee onelyonly doth formally and antecedentèr Excommunicate, and the rest of the Churches consequenter, and by vertue of a communion: for the sister Churches are to debarre this excomunicate person from their communion with Christ in the Seales of the Covenant, and that by an intrinsecall authoritative, and Church power, where as if he were not excommunicated, they should have received him to a Communion with them in the Seales, and that by an intrinsecall authoritative and Church power, for one man cannot receive another to the Seales of the Covenant with him; because no one man hath a Church authority. If therefore the Church as the Church is consociated by an intrinsecall Church-power should have admitted him, if he had not been excommunicated, it is evident that hee was a member not onelyonly of the Congregation out of which he is excommunicated, but also of the whole consociated congregations. 2, The man sins are bound on Earth antecedentèr, to all the consociated Churches. He is now equally uncapable of Church-fellowship in all the consociated Churches, as in that Congregation whereof he is a member. All without and within that Congregation are to hold him for no visible Saint; not to eate or drinke with him, he is now to all the visible Churches, in regard of visible communion, no member of that body whereof Jesus Christ is head, no part of that City, of that building whereof Christ is the Lord and chief corner-stone. And he is to the sister Churches in their authoritative & Church-estimation (to speake so) and in relation to their power of Jurisdiction, in the very same case a member of Satan, that hee is in relation to the authoritative power of Jurisdiction of that Congregation whereof he was a neerest member; just as the finger cut off is alike separated from the body, yea the whole body as from the hand; and it is a wonder to me that Christ giveth an intrinsecall power to a Congregation of twenty believers to cut off a member, for the preservation of that little company of the Lords Flock, and that he hath denied that intrinserall power to the whole, which is no lesse in danger to be infected, seeing Christ principally intendeth in the giving of a Ministery to the whole Church, especially the gathering of the whole body; To the full and perfit stature of the age of Christ, in the unity of Faith, Eph. 4. 11. yet he intendeth the salvation & preservation of the whole from infection more then the salvation of a part of this whole Body. That is, as it you would say, the God of Nature hath given an intrinsecall power to five hundred in a City to set guides over themselves and to rule themselves by wholesome Lawes, but hee hath denied that power to the whole City consisting of ten thousand; and he hath given to the right hand an intrinsecall power to consent that a finger in the right hand infected with a Gangrene, be cut off, but he hath denied this intrinsecall power to the whole man. I beseech you doth the God of Nature in conferring this power to the right Arme, intend the preservation of the right Arme onelyonly, and its wellbeing, and not rather the preservation of the whole body? so doth not Christ intend that the whole consociated Churches shall be preserved from infection, and not that particular Congregation onelyonly? Then if Christs meanes be congruously fitted for his owne end, he must have given an intrinsecall power to many consociated Churches to cast out a contagious lumpe; other wayes the consociated Churches are to exercise the punishment of avoyding the Excommunicated person as an Heathen, which floweth from a power which is no wayes in them; what conscience is here? 2. What if the Congregation cast the man out, clave errante, and undeservedly? shall they, consequentèr, as sister Churches, in a brutish fraternity execute a sentence of a power intrinserall in another Church, and not any of them, or their guides have any power to discerne, whether the censure be justly or unjustly infflicted? This our Brethren condemne in their owne Congregation: for because the reputing the ejected man an Heathen, is a matter of practise, that concerneth the conscience of every one of the Congregation, therefore must all the Congregation give their powers and consent; yea do more then consent (say some) even exercise jurisdiction, or a power not different from it. Some things are objected against this way.