The Government of the Churches of Christ, Book 2 · Chapter 3
CHAP. III.
That before a company of Believers or Saints, can become the Formal Seat of Government, they must be united into the state, and order of a Church. Reasons given why this is necessary. A Demonstration of it also from the Example of the Primitive Churches, planted by the Apostles.
THis first Charter or Grant of the keys both to the Saints and Officers, being but indefinite, and given unto them but as materially considered, as the command and blessing to multiply, is to Men, Gen. 1. Ere these can become the Formal Seat of Government, or Publick Worship, there must be an orderly moulding and casting of this matter, both Saints and Officers, into several Bodies or Societies, for the exercise of these keys; which both the necessity of the thing requires, and also the examples in the New Testament do warrant and confirm unto us.
1. The necessity of the thing requires it.
For first, otherwise there would be no Order, which in the Church of the Colossians, the Apostle doth so praise in them. He might have commended the Saints in that City, for their Personal Holiness, the Teachers among them for their Gifts; but he further rejoyceth in their Order. And as Order in any Multitude or Company of Men, primarily respects their Union into a Body, for such ends and purposes among themselves, as thereby they seek to attain; So here in this case, Quod non est formatum, non est vere unum, what is not formed, is not truly one: This outward Order is as the Form that gives the Unity. An heap of Stones is not one Body, so properly as an House, although the parts in such a heap be Homogenial, and of one and, the same kind; and the other consists of several materials, Hetrogenial, and of several kinds, as Wood, Stone, Iron, Clay, &c. Yea, and the indefinite Collection of all such Materials into one heap, are not a Building, although they be Squared, and fitted to be joyned each to other; the Beams and Rafters by their Tenants and Mortesses, and the like: But that all these should be Reared, and Artificially erected into one Building; it is that, which makes them one Body, in such a respect as the other are not.
2. Secondly, There would otherwise be no Government at all. When God gave forth that Law, Gen. 9. 6. he that sheddeth Man's Blood, by Man shall his Blood be shed; over and above this indefinite Commission given, it was necessary for the due and orderly execution hereof; that there should be Orderly Societies of Men, which should be the Seat of a Government, by which this punishment should be exercised. God's way in this Law, and so Christ's meaning in that Gift of the keys, Mat. 16. 19. cannot be like to that which Cain, through the Horrour of his Conscience feared, that any Man, or every Man that met him next, might kill him. So neither is it indefinitely and promiscuously in the power of any, the next company of Saints and Elders to judge an offending Brother. And Reason confirms this. For 1. It is this Form and orderly Union of them into a Body, that makes any company the Seat of Government, and to have a power among them; and how can there be true Government, without a Seat of Jurisdiction, in which it must be exercised? And that must be a Body politick, according to the nature or kind of the Government, or politick exercised in it; if Civil, then 'tis a Common-wealth or Corporation, &c. if Ecclesiastical, it is a Church. A politick Body is not made up by a Multitude; for then a company of Men at a Horse-Race were such. Nor is it Local Union in the same place, for so at a Stage-play, a throng or a croud meeting, would be such.
As Forms in Natural Bodies, are necessary to constitute them such, as well as matter; so an Union and Moulding into one, is needful to constitute a Body politick. Yea, a judicial power doth as much depend upon a Formality of Order, as it doth upon a Material qualification of Persons. Take a company of Ministers, or what sort of Persons else, however qualified or denominated, they have not that power (which yet doth belong to Ministers) indefinitely, or as any way met; but as Formed up into Bodies, as a power in a Kingdom is not given to Justices of Peace indefinitely, or promiscuously met; but as met according to Commission in several Circuits, and distinct Bodies from them. Burgesses of Parliament, although lawfully chosen to be such, yet they have not Parliamentary power, but as met in Parliament, according to the Law of the Kingdom; and the Legality of the meeting, doth give us as much Power and Authority, as the qualification of the Persons. The Authority is the Result of Union, and that legally and lawfully made, as well as it is founded in Persons fitly qualified. Power in Civil things, is not so much given to Mayors and Aldermen, as to the Corporation, though the whole Corporation exerciseth it not; yet it is this priviledge, and they have such and such a power amongst them, it is not alone the priviledge of the Magistrates so much: That Heathenish Town-Clark of Ephesus, when the Men of that City met in in a promiscuous way: (And perhaps the very same Men of that City, had panegyrical meetings for some Acts of Government, as Election of Magistrates, and the like; yet) because then they met not according to the Order of that City, he says of it, that it was an illegal foreign Assembly.
2. Without this Union, and Order of Society, Persons offended, that ought to complain, should not have whither to go to accuse; nor the party offended be obliged to come. Nor would it be known, whose the Care and Duty were, to take on them the cognizance, and judging of it; and whose the sin was, if it were neglected. If these companies of Elders and Saints in a great City, were fluid and promiscuous; and but like such companies as met at sights, or shews, or Ordinances without any Incorporation or Imbodying, so as, all being in an equal liberty, to go one day to this, another to that company, &c. the same Persons never met in one place, unless casually, and providentially; if twelve such Meetings were in one such City, what shall oblige me to any one, more than the rest? If I come to receive in any one; and they upon occasion would proceed judicially to deal with me, I might plead and say, I am no more accountable to you, than the rest; I receive as often with them, as with you, I belong as much to other Assemblies, as to you; and what have you to do to judge me, more than they? And besides it being (in this way) but providential, that the same Persons, the offender is accused unto to day, should meet in one place another day, when all have an indifferent liberty, without any set or fixed Incorporation; at the utmost it is but his forbearing, to Assemble with the company for that time, or in that place any more, and retire unto those other; for he is at his freedom so to do.
Again in this case; all, that any of those companies can inflict upon him, is but for that time to suspend him from Communion with them; but to proceed to Excommunication they cannot, not only because that imports a fixed company, he is cast out of; but also because there is nothing to oblige him to attend that company, to be so often Admonished, as his sin shall become an obstinacy, and fit matter for Excommunication. Or what shall oblige those of this individual company, to whom the complaint first came, that they in relation to, and for his Censure's sake, should meet so often rogether, as that he may be publickly Admonished by them, so many times as in the end deservedly to be thrown out?
Yea, 3. This Union and Order, must needs hold in such Societies, where the very punishment is to cast out of that Body, they were first within; for to cast out, and to be within, are Correspondent, and answer each to other. Now the punishment to be exercised, is not only a personal withdrawing by every Man apart, (as occasionally they should meet him) by a Sentence publickly agreed on; but the Sentence, then in use in the Primitive Churches, was to cast out of the Church, ver. 3. John 10. (as to Expel, and cast out of a City or Town, or Family) which unless they were a Body formed up among themselves, and he one within to them, they could not do.
II. As the necessity of the thing, so the Examples of those Primitive Churches, argues them to have been formed and fixed Bodies, that were the Seat of Worship and Government, and do agree with these forementioned principles.
First, The very Denomination of Churches, (as of Churches in Judea, Galatia, &c.) doth fall in with, and confirm that first Reason, that the Saints and Elders in those Countries were cast into distinct and several Bodies; and diversifyed by several Corporations and Relations. It imports not a Distinction of them, only as Saints materially from the World, (as the Universal Church, whereof they are parts, doth) but a Distinction of them into several companies among themselves; Namely, the Universal and Great Church, parted into several lesser companies and Churches. Nor can those set and fixed Titles, arise from several Promiscuous Acts of meeting of these Saints and Elders providentially; but it inclines, in the Holy Ghost's Language, a setled State, and Incorporation, in order to setled Meetings; as the word Presbytery notes out, not simply a company of Elders, but united into a Body for Government; so the Phrase Churches imports, not simply a company of Saints and Elders met, but a stated Society: So as when the Union of their actual meeting is dissolved, they still continue the same; as the Companies in London are still so many Companies in State, though not in Act, when every Man is gone to his own House, as well as when met in their Common Hall. They are not only a Body because, or when they actually meet, but they are a Body in order to meeting; and there is a power in their Governours, to call them together again. And this also all the Comparisons of an House to God, &c. (speaking of particular Churches) implies, not simply acts of meeting, but a compacted State.
And that the Churches then in the Primitive Times of Christianity, were such Bodies is evident: For 1 Cor. 14. the Apostle calls not only a particular Church, an whole Church, (as likewise elsewhere, Acts 20. 28. the Church of Ephesus, is called the whole Flock; and that at Corinth, a whole lamp; 1 Cor. 5. 6. each therefore Though it be not foreign in Acts 20. yet 'tis so elsewhere in other places.making a Distinct Body, an whole and entire Body, bounded within it self, as any other Corporation is) but further, he speaks of that Church, as importing a stated Union, in relation to meeting actually, if the whole Church, (says he, ver. 23.) come together. They were therefore a Church in order to meeting, even when they met not, and are at home, in respect that the Union and Bond to the same Laws and Ordinances, still remained. They were not a Church simply, because they met, or when they met; but they, the same Persons were to meet, because they were a Church in a stated and constant Relation. And suitably to this, he elsewhere says of them; when you are gathered together, to cast out such an one, 1 Cor. 5. 4, 5. because they were to meet as a Body, in a constant way. And upon this fixed Relation of each, unto the whole, the Apostle lays, upon this same Church, this as a Duty, as to meet for Worship, so to stay each for other, in 1 Cor. 11. 33. and so not to meet in promiscuous several companies, (as Men at Ordinaries) for the Sacrament: There was therefore a Set Company, known to each other, obliged to meet in one, in a constant way, and so was an whole Church, in a fixed Relation.
And such were all the Churches the Apostles wrote unto, and gave Ordinances forth unto; So I ordain in all the Churches, 1 Cor. 7. 17. we have no such Custom, (saith he, 1 Cor. 11. 16.) nor the Churches of Christ: Whom he praiseth for, keeping the Traditions he gave them, as 1 Cor, 11. 2. and rejoyceth in their Order, and whom he blameth for occasion of Divisions, in respect of their publick MEETINGS, as ver. 18. 17. 21, 22. Now all this argues, that as Churches, these were Bodies and Societies, in a fixt and setled Relation; For his manner of writing is parallel with that, as if a King or his Superior Officers, should write in his Name to all Corporations, Shires, and Bodies politick, giving out Laws and Proclamations, and edicts to be observed by them in their Assemblies; which if they were not fixed and setled Bodies, but only unfixt and uncertain fluid Assemblies, they were not meet Subjects, capable thereof, nor of Orders to Regulate them. This also the State of the Seven Churches of Asia, whom Christ directeth those seven Epistles unto, with several Inscriptions to the several Angels of those Churches, it evidently argues, they were fixed Bodies, having each their Elders an Angel, Collectively taken as the use of that Phrase in that Book is) in a special relation; to whom therefore, as to the Mayor or Aldermen in a setled Corporation, the Letters are directed. And he blames them, as Bodies or Societies of Men fixedly incorporate, for sins passed in their publick Transactions, as they were a Body; as suffering Jezabel to Teach, &c. And further, he threatneth to remove the Candlestick, Rev. 2. 5. that is, their Church-State, as they were a standing Seat and Subject, of the Ordinances of the Gospel; as the Jewish Condlestick was. For the seven Candlesticks, are the seven Churches, Rev. 1. 20. As these Candlesticks were these Churches, distinguished each from other, so these Churches were the Saints and Elders, as Candlesticks cast, and moulded into a set and standing Form; and so thereby made distinct each from other, though all made out of the same lump of the Church Universal; therefore chosen out as standing patterns of the Frame, and Fabrick of other Churches then extant, or to come. And as that and the like threatning, concerns Succession, so it further argues a fixed Combination, that is the Subject of Guilt; for that Combination continuing, though the Persons then alive, should all die: Yet if the same sins continued in Persons that succeed Members of that Combination, that Church or Body, in respect of the fixed State of it continuing, would inherit it. For by reason of such a fixed Union, or stated Society or Corporation, it comes to pass, that not only a company of Men are one Body, when their Assemblings or Meetings are not, though in order to such Meetings, as well as when they are; but farther, that they continue the same Body to Succession, and so each of these the same Church or Candlestick, notwithstanding it may suffer alteration in encrease or lessening, in respect of particular Persons. Yea, though the Matter, the Gold, the Persons that now make up one of these Candlesticks, should all be removed by Death, or otherwise yet the Candlestick continued the same, because the same setled Church-State continued; as in this respect, the Company of Mercers, or any Corporation, is the same it was an Hundred years ago, because of this setled Order and Union; and is capable of being threatned to have their Charter taken away, their Corporation removed, or the main priviledges of it some way nullified, though the Original Persons do not still dwell in the same City.
2. And as in respect of publick Worship, so in respect of Judicature; the Churches then were Bodies cast into fixed Relations. This made the Church of Corinth, (as 1 Cor. 1. 2. 'tis called) a Seat and Subject of Judicature and Government, 1 Cor. 5. 12. Do not ye Judge them that are within? And what have I to do to Judge them that are without? Here was first a Set and certain Judicature among themselves, as the word Judging imports: Secondly, a Body within which who ever was, he came under this Judicature. For they Judged them within, as Corporations or Bodies politick, use to do them within themselves. There was something then that made a special Relation, which was the ground of their power to Judge this Person; and brought him within the compass of their Jurisdiction. And it is further expressed with a denial of power, over others that are without; What have I to do to Judge them that are without? I that am an Apostle, that have the largest Jurisdiction and Commission, what have I to do in it? And his power and theirs did differ; for though he might Judge as occasion was, in any Church where he came; yet he lays it as a special peculiar Duty upon them, to have power over them that were within themselves; and that power belonged unto them, as the other belonged unto him. And the Persons that are said to be within, to that Church of Corinth, to whom he writes, could not be the Church Universal; for then the Church of Corinth, should have had power to have judged all or any other Churches of Saints in the World, as well as it self, and so a part had power over the whole. There was thirdly a duty lay upon some Persons among them, to whom this belonged, Do not ye judge and a sin that lay upon them for their neglect, which lay not upon another company Do not ye judge them within? And have you hitherto neglected it?
3. Thirdly, The special relation of Elders to their Churches, and the Members in particular Churches among themselves, doth evidence, that not any company of Christians, but such as embodied together into, and setled in the Order of a Church, are the Subject and Seat of this Grand Charter of the keys, or the Ecclesiastical power.
1. The Relation of the Members among themselves, doth evidence it, 1 Cor. 12. 27. where he descends from the Discourse of Union of the Members, in the Universal Body of Christ, which he calls Christ, ver. 12. to a more particular enforcement of the Duties of that special Relation, that was amongst the Members of that Church, as a particular Body to Christ; and so to oblige each to other, not only by that general Law of the Universal Relation; but further by vertue of a more special one, contracted among themselves, being made a distinct and entire Body to Christ in particular, by being one Church. And so the Obligation was not only doubled upon them, but further the proportion of the general Tye, (which was more diffused) was contracted into a narrow and lesser compass; and as holding analogy with it, was so made stronger and more vigorous. Thus we understand those words to be a special Application of that general Doctrine promised in the former part of the Chapter, which Treats of Christ's Body, the Church Universal: Now ye, the Church of Corinth, are the Body of Christ, and Members in particular, in a more special Relation; and so owe all those Duties in a special manner, one to another. In this respect also, sometimes when the Apostle hath occasion to mention a Member of a particular Church, he specifies it with a special distinctive Relation, Epaphras, who is one of you, Colos. 4. 12. And Rom. 16. 1. Phebe our Sister, who is a Servant of the Church, which is at Cenchrea, is commended to Communion with them, as standing in special relation to that Church. So when he speaks of Elders, a special relation to a particular Church is intimated, which could not be, unless those Churches had been fixed Bodies for State; and not Promiscuous Assemblies, in respect of acts of meeting. Thus the same Epaphras, as to his common relation of Membership, in that Church of Colossians is mentioned, who is one of you, as afore, chap. 4 12. and also as to his more special relation, as an Officer of that Church, who is for you a Faithful Minister, of whom they had been taught the Gospel, as ye also learned of Epaphras, who is for you a Faithful Minister; and in a special relation your Minister. He still held his relation of a Minister for them, though for the present occasionally implyed with Paul. Thus the Ordinary Elders were set over particular Churches, and so had a special relation to those Churches, as Elders of them; and the Relation was the Rise and Foundation of their call to be Elders: As Acts 14 23. The Apostles who were general Elders in all Churches, by vertue of Apostolical Commission, Ordained ordinary Elders in every Church; and these Elders were specially appropriated foreign to them, and were to take care of that whole Flock, which appertained to them, Acts 20. 28. and so they were intrusted with the care of them, and to watch over them, as those that were to give an account to God for their Souls; and therefore they were their peculiar charge, Heb. 13. 17. And in respect of this Relation, the Holy Ghost directs those Epistles mentioned, Rev. ch. 2. 2, 3. to the several particular Angels of those Churches in Asia, who therefore had their Churches assigned to them; for which they were to give an account, and more accountable for their sins in which they are accordingly blamed.
And these Elders could not have a special setled relation, if these Churches were not cast into a fixt setled State, as Churches under them; for the one, are relations to the other; and therefore the Holy Ghost directs his Epistles to the Churches also, chap. 1. as well as to the Angels of these Churches, for in their relations, these two were Commensurable.
4. And Lastly, These Elders and these Churches, were formed up into fixt and setled Presbyteries, so 1 Tim. 3. And the Acts of Ordination, were not Attributed simply to an indefinite company of Elders, (as promiscuously, or any way met) but to a Presbytery, which imports not simply an Act of meeting, by a company of Elders; but (as the word is Paraphrased by our Translators, with respect to the Jewish Synedrim) the Estate of Elders, Act. 19. 5. As if we should say, the Common-Council did ordain so and so, it notes not out simply, a meeting of a company of Wise Men in such a City, but as met in an united Body. And if these Presbyteries were a fixed and united company of Elders, then the Churches must needs be also, to whom they were a Presbytery. And so this is a further Argument than that former, which was drawn from the special relation of Elders, singly or personally, or loosly taken; which was ordinarily fixed, to be a setled Church. But if further, we consider these Elders, as united into a Presbytery, it yet more importeth this. For though it should be granted to be a Truth, which some affirm, that every Elder, were an Elder indefinitely of the Church Universal; yet every Presbytery, is not a Presbytery to the whole Universal, (no more than every Common-Council in each Corporation, is a Common-Council for the Kingdom; though each Burgess met therein must be capable of being a Burgess in Parliament for the whole Kingdom;) but as specificated, such must relate only to some particular Church. If therefore the Government were seated, as our Brethren would have it) in Presbyteries, yet these Bodies must be fixed and incorporated: Or if in Churches with their Elders, (or else no where) yet if their Elders were Presbyteries to their several Churches, (as is evident they must be) then those Churches also were fixed Bodies, over which they were placed. Yea, and the Scripture doth in Terminis, in plain Terms, Attribute the Act of Ordination to a Presbytery; that is, a company of Elders united in their Relation, and in that Action; and as much to this their united relation, as to their being Elders. And so the validity and legality of the Act, depends as much upon this, as upon their being Elders met; as if a Man should say, such a thing was done by the Common-Council, certainly he means thereby, that it was done not only by Men that are Councellors promiscuously in that sense, as Lawyers are called to give counsel, as occasion is singly or apart; but it imports, they met as a Common-Council so imbodyed, that the Act hath a Legality, an Authority therefrom. And the Validity as much depends upon that incorporation of theirs, according to a Law, as upon their being Men, and so qualified.