The Government of the Churches of Christ, Book 1 · Chapter 1
OF THE CONSTITUTION, Right, Order, AND GOVERNMENT OF THE CHURCHES OF CHRIST.
By THO. GOODWIN, D. D.
LONDON, Printed by Tho. Snowden, for T. G. in the Year 1696.
THE Government of the Churches of Christ.
BOOK I.
Of the Right Institution of the Churches of Christ. That the Order and Government of those Churches, are Established by Divine Institution. What is the Nature of Divine Institutions, and how the Knowledge of them is conveyed to us; that Christ hath setled Ordinances for Worship, and Discipline, which are to continue unto the End of the World; that the Power of Church Censures, and Excommunication hath its Institution in a more especial manner from Christ, as Head of the Church.
CHAP. I.
A Brief Scheme of the several Opinions concerning the Constitution, and Government of the Church of Christ. The Truth Stated, and Vindicated.
IF it were granted that the Churches in the New Testament, were formed and fixed Bodies, yet the question would still remain about the Tenure whereon they hold their Formation and Constitution; of what kind that Tenure is, whether of Divine Institution; and therefore it will be most Seasonable, and Conducing to the Understanding of all that follows, to give a general Prospect of the several Opinions about Church Constitution, that are amongst us, ere we proceed.
There are three eminently differing Opinions, one of which will certainly prove to be the Truth of God, and which soever of them (when all of them are once throughly and fairly examined) shall be found to be the Truth, we shall Rejoyce, though it prove that we do suffer loss in our own.
1. Our Presbyterian Brethren hold the Institution of Church-State, to fall upon the whole universal Church, as one great Body by Institution; and then likewise upon all the parts thereof, according to the Division and Subdivision of the whole into several Subordinations of greater and lesser Bodies, or fixed Assemblies, National, Provincial, Classical, or Congregational; so as the Universal Church on Earth being by Christs Institution, a Body Politick, and a Kingdom in the Total Consideration of it, and being a Similar Body, consisting of Similar or like parts for State and Condition, it becomes throughout such in all parts thereof. Even as every part of water hath the Nature of the whole, so every Integral Church, be it lesser or greater, National, Provincial, Congregational, &c. as they are all Churches, so in their Proportion, they are all of them Seats of Government by an equal Uniform, general Institution; and the whole being Ordained such, each part, by Association and Consent, doth become such also: For Christ by one great Charter granted to the whole, did at once Authorize and Endow all such particular Subordinations with Ecclesiastical Power; only left the Distribution of this vast and great Common-Wealth and Pody Politick, into its parts greater or lesser, to be made by General Rules for Edification and Order, as the Law of Nature and Human Wisdom should see fit. But yet all is ordered with this Law, that the lesser Bodies should be subject to the greater, from top to bottom, and so all to the Church Universal, and the Judicature thereof; so as Judicatory Appeals might be made from the less to the greater, by vertue of this Divine Right granted to the whole. And this is said to have been the Scope of Christ in his first Institution, Tell the Church; and by it this kind of Power and Government being wholy given to the Elders of the Church, is to be Transacted by them in their Consistories and Associations, even from Congregational to General Councils, and is therefore only Practicable by the meetings of Elders chosen and sent from the lesser Assemblies to the greater, as Abstracted from, and without the convening of the Saints, whereof they are Elders; for Convention of all the particular Saints, is not only Unpracticable in those greater Bodies, but in Classical Assemblies too. And we do freely give this Testimony of Honour to this Opinion, that of all other grounds unto which the Presbyterian Divines have in these latter Days, when put to prove their Government, had Recourse, this is the most Consistent and Fairest Principle (if it could be proved) to rear up all their Subordinations at once, and to Endow the Constitution of them with a Divine Light, which as the Soul in the Body will be equally Diffused through every part thereof, and which if it prove true, we must all turn Presbyterians.
2. Some other Godly and Reverend Divines, who do with us wholy Reject any such Politick Modell, as an Invention of Man, (which Reareth up a Worldly Frame and Theater for Elders, through several Stairs, to enter upon the Heritage of the Lord) yet agree with our Presbyterian Brethren in this Principle of the Catholick Universal Church, being a Similar Body in the whole, and all the parts thereof. So that as a Congregation is in no further Respect or Consideration a Church, nor to any other End, Use, or Purpose, than is the Universal: So likewise the Warrant for, and the Priviledge of Congregational Churches, being a Seat for Ordinances and Elders, is but from the bare general Grant and Priviledge given to the Church Universal, which is one Day Ordained to meet together in Heaven, and should now on Earth Aspire to the State and Perfection thereof. And by vertue of this Canon-Law and Charter only, Saints gather into particular Churches, and enjoy Ordinances, and all power of Government executed therein. So that the whole Constitution and Order of Congregational Churches, is only by vertue of that General Law of Communion of Saints, without any further Superadded Institution of Christ, either Electively ordaining of all such other Bodies of Saints, to be the …at of Ordinances, or Endowing them with any further Priviledge or Power of Government, than the whole Body of Saints in the World hath. In a word, the Appointment of Congregational Bodies is according to this Opinion only virtual, and arising from the General grant to the Universal Church, and founded but upon the Common Law of the Communion of Saints. These two Opinions, though thus agreeing in that forementioned General Principle, yet do differ, as two Extreams. The one, as we conceive, diffuseth a pretended Instituted Policy too vastly, engaging all Saints, and particular Churches to Subject their Consciences, under pain of Excommunication, to the Determinations and Decisions of all the Clergy in the World; which is by this Constituted as one Body, Inspired with this Soul of Government in all the Divisions of them, as parts of the whole; and such a Government may possibly issue in the greatest Tyranny. The other whilst they betake themselves to the Common Priviledge of the Church Mystical and Universal, and meerly to that Law of Communion of Saints that is therein, doth hereby shut out and Exclude all Government or Censures, but such as the Common Law of Communion of Saints, and the Law of Nature common to all Societies, will admit, yea, and in the Consequence thereof, takes away all Institutions whatsoever of any such Discipline or Censures, whereof if particular Congregations be found the Seat, those Congregations themselves also must be by Institution.
3. We profess, (as in other things) so in this to run a middle way, which for ought we yet see, the Scripture chalks out to us.
1. We maintain that Assertion of a Church Universal, as the General Body of all, and that particular Churches are as parts thereof: Yet so as with our own Amesius (and others who have been Esteemed Orthodox Divines) we conceive that the notition or consideration of Church, which the Universal Body of Saints stands under, is meerly and purely Mystical, and such also to be the Union and Communion thereof, as with Christ, so of all the Members thereof among themselves. And further we Assert, this Notion or Name of Mystical Church, to be given not only to the Invisible company of the Elect, and Real Members of Christ the Head; but to the visible company of Professors of Christianity, that do walk as Saints, and are esteemed as such by Saints through the World. Unto whom as taken in the Lump and outward view, as Christ is reckoned to be an outward Head to them, as on Earth considered; so upon whom also taken in the lump and outward visibility, as well as upon the invisible company, the Notion of the Church Mystical may be put, it being in this Distinction opposed to a Church instituted, or that which is a politick Body under Christ.
2. We Assert, that untill the Mystical Body of the Elect shall meet together in Heaven, God hath appointed and ordained the visible Saints on Earth, being diffused over all the World, and thin Sown therein, to be knit together in particular Bodies, over which he hath appointed, Elders, Pastors, and Teachers, Officers by his Institution; which Bodies consisting of both, should be the Publick Holders forth of his Truth and Worship, and the Subject of the Priviledge of all Ordinances, and Seats also of a Power and Government, for these Saints to be Subjected to, and Reduced in case of Scandalls; And the Honour of Christ is hereby to be vindicated, and his Ordinances kept pure, although there were no Christian Magistrates in the World, that would take Cognisance of such Scandalls.
3. And further we conceive, that the gathering of Saints into such particular bodies to Christ, thus to be the Seat of such Officers, Ordinances of Worship and Government, is by a General Institution and Endowment of Christ, over and above the Catholick Warrant of Communion of Saints, although including and taking in all the Rules and Laws thereof. And accordingly the measure and proportion and extent of these bodies, and what the limits and bounds thereof were to be, is set forth by Institution; as also the Organization of this body, what kind of Officers or Original Members shall be in it. These are all to be found set out by him, as in his Wisdom he foresaw would best suit those ends which this Institution of such bodies of Saints should serve to, and as should be fitted to the Priviledges these bodies are endowed with; Christ having also (as to his own Institution he doth) made an answerable special blessing (which special promise of blessing doth indeed, if there were no more, make an Institution and Ordinance of that thing to which 'tis made) of being with such Assembl… of his, over and above the blessing which from the Virtual Catholick Relatio… … Communion between Christians in general, and on occasional ways, would flow.
4. These Instituted bodies of Churches, we humbly conceive to be, for the bounds and proportion, or measure of them, only Congregational, which are the fixed Seat and Subject of all Ordinances of Worship, and who are the Seat of all sorts of Officers or Organical Members, that serve for the use of the whole; and that these also, by and with their Officers, are the sole Seat of that Government, and the Acts thereof, which may more properly be termed Government, i. e. that is, judicially to bind the Soul, (which is acco…panied with a promise, that such a Soul shall be bound in Heaven) and in Christs Name also to deliver to Satan, &c. which is an instituted punishment, over and above the Sphere of that Catholick Communion, and beyond what any company of Angels or Saints as Members of, or by vertue of the Catholick grant, can or ought to take on them, execute and pronounce: And from which rightly Administred, there can be no Appeal; nor of which no Act of Repeal can be made by any Supream Court on Earth; though, if not rightly Administred, it is null, and of no force. And these bodies thus Endowed hath Christ appointed, as un… …ols of his Foundation, wherein by the Enjoyment of all his Ordinances, his Saints living therein whilst on Earth, might be Tutored, built up and form'd and fashioned for that great University, when all the Saints shall meet in Heaven. And thus over and above the general Communion of Saints, there are, and ought to be, by Christs Institution, Political, Ecclesiastical Bodies or Churches, that are the Seat of a Spiritual Government, wherein we joyn with the first Opinion.
5. And yet we further affirm, that out of the Circuit and Bounds of these instituted Priviledged Seats for Worship and Government, taking all these Saints, Elders, and Churches, whether in a City, Province, Nation, yea, the whole World, among them as so considered, that Common Law of the Mystical Communion of Saints, which the Catholick Relation obligeth to, takes place; so that as there is a Law of single Communion and Non-communion, between Saint and Saints, in case of offence, so between Church and Church, or greater or lesser Combinations of Churches, as occasion is, or may be, of intercourse either way. And therein Churches proceed with Churches, not politicè, or as Arm'd by Christ with a Judicial Power of giving up to Satan; but they proceed and deal each with other, modo Mystico, or with a Moral Declarative Power only; which Law of Mystical Communion, yet obligeth them to all the same Duties for Substance, each to other, that that Political Power obligeth them in a Congregation unto. And thus far we also joyn with the second Opinion, Humbly professing, that either to make the Church universal in the whole, and all the parts, to be a Political Instituted Body, Arm'd with Government, as the first Opinion doth; or on the other side, to make the Communion and Power in Congregational Bodies, and the Institution thereof, to be but Virtual, from what is given to the Church Universal, and but similar thereunto, as the second Opinion doth; to be both of them mistaken: apprehending much rather the Truth, to lye in a Communion of Saints here on Earth, compounded and made up (for the kind thereof) of both kinds of constitution; the one a fixed instituted and political Communion, superadded to the obligation of the Mystical Relation of Saints one to another, as such, and this to be in and between the Members of a particular Congregation; the other simply Mystical, and Moral, and Occasional, and that to be between Congregations each with other, and indeed between all the Churches in the World. So as whilst these Saints are knit and united into such particular Churches, for the Enjoyment of Ordinances, with power to preserve them pure, they yet are both, as Saints, and as a Church to hold all sorts of correspondency, and are by Christ obliged to all sorts of Communion, and which accordingly we do profess to hold and maintain with all Saints and Churches, according to the several Degrees of Purity amongst them.
This being a true Scheme, and general prospect of the several Opinions amongst us, the particulars of all which we shall in order pursue in this Discourse, in such a due Method as may conduce most to clear the Truth; I shall now apply my self to consider, whether these particular Churches, or fixed Bodies of Saints and Elders, (whether Congregational or Classical, or what ever else they shall prove to be) are to hold their constitution and formation by any special Divine Institution. For the clearing of which, we shall have occasion first to have to do with that principle forementioned, whether over and above the General Charter of the Church universal, and the Laws and Rules of the Communion of Saints belonging thereunto there is not a Superadded Institution, for the constitution of particular Churches, and for the endowing them with these Priviledges, which as Churches is found to be bestowed upon them; and then we shall prove, that even the setting forth the bounds and limits of those Bodies, the extensive power of Elders, and measure and proportion of these Churches that are the Seat of Government, must also necessarily be set forth by such a special Divine Institution.