A Defense of Sundry Positions of the Congregational Way, Position 2
POSITION II.
Seven, eight, or nine, may make a Church. In Adams and Noahs time there was not above ſeven or eight will you deny them the being of a Church? What will you make of Chriſt and of his Family, which were not above twelve beſides himſelfe, and of the firſt foundationals of the Church of Epheſus, which were about twelve? The number in the firſt beginning of the greateſt Church was ſmall enough in compariſon, Acts 1.15.
The caſe of Adam and Noah was extraordinary: Anſwer. there were no more in the world, and therefore could be no more in the Church.
You grant in an extraordinary caſe, ſeven, eight, Reply. or nine may make a Church: The Poſition ſaith not, that more may not make a Church, but if there be but ſo many, the truth and being of a Church cannot be denied them. We ſay further, that ſuch a number may but make a Church in the firſt foundation, or while there be no more perſons ſitted for memberſhip. For when more Saints by calling offer themſelves, they are to be received, and ſo the Church will be increaſed, Acts 19.7, 8, 9, 18.19, 20.
Adam and his wife, Anſwer. and firſt ſonnes, yea Adam himſelfe was the Church, if then there was any; yet you hold not that two or three, yea one may make a Church.
We conceive that the Church is Chriſts body, Reply. and that every body conſiſts of members; If all were one member, where were the body? How therefore one Adam could have been a Church, we underſtand not. Put this we hold, that look how few have ever made a Church ſince the beginning of the world, the ſame number may ſtill make a Church. And the reaſon is, becauſe God hath not preciſely determined what number doth make a Church.
Cain lawfully married his own ſiſter, may other men doe the like? Anſwer.
Have we not a manifeſt prohibition of ſuch marriages in the Scripture? Reply. ſo that though ſometimes they were lawfull, yet now they are not lawfull. But what Scripture have you againſt this, that what number of beleevers have formerly been a Church, ſuch a number may yet be a Church? And no greater number is required to the ſimple being of a Church.
Twelve are more then ſeven or eight, Anſwer. and an hundred and twenty are a competent number; yet it appeareth not that they were called or counted a Church, till they were more increaſed.
Firſt, Reply. though twelve be more then ſeven or eight, yet twelve is not more in the truth of conſtitution of a Church, then ſeven or eight; Is there more of the eſſence of a Church in twelve then in ſeven or eight? [Except you mean it ſo, you declare onelyonly in ſaying ſo, that you can number twelve.] And if you ſo underſtand it, we ſhall demand proof of you for it.
Secondly, the Scripture determines not what number is competent, and what not competent to the being of a Church. How come you then ſo to paſſe your verdict about it; when further you adde, That it appeares not they were called or accounted a Church, till they were more increaſed? that is, till thoſe three thouſand perſons were added to them, Acts 2.41. If ſo, are you not then the more preſumptuous in ſaying, that an hundred and twenty are a competent number to make a Church? Notwithſtanding if you will, you may ſee them a Church before they were ſo increaſed: For they performed one great act of a Church, in electing an Officer to be over the Church, Acts 1.23. And when three thouſand were added to them, they came into their ſtate; and if their ſtate were not Church ſtate, then neither were they made a Church by this addition: for let three thouſand be added to no Church, and they are ſtill no Church; which to affirme, were ſlat againſt the Scripture, Acts 2.47.
If there were no more Beleevers in Epheſus then twelve (as there was, Anſwer. viz, Aquila and Priſcilla, which knew no more then Johns Baptiſme, Acts 18.26. with 24.25. if not others) yet there were more in feruſalem then an hundred and twenty, even five hundred brethren at once c1 Cor. 15.6..
Firſt, though Aquila and Priſcilla were at Epheſus, Reply. yet they were but ſojourners there, as they were alſo in many other places, ſometimes at Rome, ſometimes at Corinth, as appeares from Acts 18.2. Rom. 16.3. But to what place they did belong, is not certain.
Secondly, your five hundred brethren at Jeruſalem is as ſlightly collected from 1 Cor. 15.6. For, 1. doth the Apoſtle ſay, that he was ſeen of thoſe five hundred in Jeruſalem? He ſhewed himſelfe in Galilee, and ſome other places, as well as in Jeruſalem. 2. Though the place of manifeſting himſelfe might be Jeruſalem, muſt the perſons therefore be of Jeruſalem? Why not appertaining unto Judea? Or ſuppoſe of Jeruſalem, why might they not be diſperſed before Chriſts aſcenſion? For preſent afterwards, when they choſe an Apoſtle, they were not, which was yet a Church action: and without doubt, the major part of the Church would have been preſent at it.
Adam and Noah with their Families, Anſwer. (if they were Churches) they were but Domeſticall Churches, not Congregationall.
Domeſticall Churches enjoying Congregationall Ordinances, Reply. and congregationall Churches, are not divers ſpecies of Churches, neither doe they differ in their nature or kind, but in quantity, as one Congregation differeth from another, as one ſmall Countrey Chappell differeth from a numerous Towne Church.
What will ye make of Chriſt and his Diſciples, Anſwer. a Church diſtinct from the Jewiſh? You know Chriſt did not make a new Church, or gather men into it, but lived and died a member of the Jewiſh Church. dAnſwer to to 32. q. p. 14.Had they been called a Church, as ſome houſholds are in the new Teſtament ePhile. 2. witnes T.W. to W.R., you had had ſome more pretext, and yet they are but a Domeſticall Church, &c.
1. Whether Chriſt died a member of the Jewiſh Church, Reply. is queſtionable: But that he gathered certain perſons to him, and that he inſtituted Baptiſme and the Supper amongſt them, is moſt certain, which were Ordinances of the Goſpel Church, and he either thereby prepared them for, or laid the foundation of a Goſpel Church before his death. For immediatly after his aſcenſion they were a Goſpel Church, as appeareth from Acts 1.14, 15.
2. For the denomination of Church, we paſſe not much, whether we meet with it, or not; provided that we find the reality of a Church among any perſons.
3. Many Domeſticall Churches may be in one Congregationall in your ſenſe, but not in ours. We deny and put you to prove that two or three converted in a Family, enjoying ſome Chriſtian Ordinances, but no Church Ordinances, are called a Church.
It is an Argument you will not own; Anſwer. ſeven, eight, twelve, may make a Domeſticall Church, therefore they may make a Congregationall.
We acknowledge not any ſuch diſtinction of Congregationall Church, Reply. and Domeſticall, as you preſſe after: But ſay, That the foundation of a Congregationall Church may be laid in one Family, and may ſpread unto many. It may be laid in ſeven or eight, and may grow up to an hundred, or a thouſand, or to as many as can meet together conſtantly unto edification in one place. The Church in Abrahams Family, was the ſame which was in the Families of all his ſonnes, and in the Families of their children after them, & which afterwards grew up into a nation. And though the Goſpel Church is not now Nationall, as the Jewiſh was, yet a congregation of many Families may ſpring out of a Church of one Family, more eaſily then a Nation did formerly. And if ſeven, eight, or twelve may not make a congregationall Church in our apprehenſion, what have you been conſuting all this while?
If ſeven or eight may make a Church, Anſwer. then two hundred perſons in a Citie may well make twenty diſtinct Churches, and by conſequence ſo many Independent Judieatures.
Firſt, this collection is made to bring an Odium upon congregationall Churches; but it may be thus retorted, foure or five in a houſe may make a family, therefore three hundred in an houſe may make ſixtie diſtinct families. Foure or five in a family may make a Domeſtick Church (ſay you,) then three hundred in a family may make ſixty Domeſtick Churches; two thouſand in a Field may make an Army, therefore two hundred thouſand in a Field, may make ten diſtinct Armies under ſo many independent Generals.
Secondly, we have declared our ſelves before, that ſeven or eight may make a Church in the firſt foundation, and whilſt there are no more perſons fitted and that as more in that place ſhall be converted, the Church, of them, is to be increaſed. And we are utterly againſt the unneceſſary multiplication of Churches, as conceiving ſuch ſmall Churches inconſiſtent to Chriſts ends, which is edification by Paſtors, Teachers, Ruling Elders, Deacons, which he hath given to his Church. But that a Church of ſeven or eight ſhould require ſo many Officers, or be able to maintain them, we cannot underſtand. And we perceive from the patternes preſented in the New Teſtament, that Churches in cities which at firſt were ſmall, grew great by the daily addition of others to them, Acts 1.14.15. with Acts 2.41. & 19.7, 8, 9, with 18, 19, 20. Acts 20.17.28. So that we would not have beleevers of one citie, be of ſo many Churches, if one congregation will conveniently hold them, except there be ſome eminent reaſon for it. But though there ſhould be many Churches conſiſting of a few members: yet without Officers amongſt them, we doe not aſſert them to be Independent Judicatures.