The Due Right of Presbyteries

Ob. 1. The power of the Keys cannot be given to the catholic representative Church, or catholic Presbytery, as to the first subject to be an ordinary and constant mean of edification; The exercise whereof, in an ordinary and constant way, is unpossible; But the exercise of this Ministerial power given to the catholic visible Presbytery, as to the first subject, in an ordinary and constant way, is unpossible; Ergo, such a power is not given to the Catholic representative Church, as to the first subject, to be an ordinary and constant mean of edification. The proposition is clear, it is uncongruous to the Wisdom of Jesus Christ that he should give that to be a mean, which possibly cannot attain the end. The Assumption is as evident; for the Catholic visible Presbytery cannot meet in an ordinary and constant way.

Answ. 1. By distinguishing the Major proposition; That power of the Keys remote cannot be given to the catholic presbytery as to the first subject, the exercise whereof in an ordinary and constant way is impossile physically and ex natura rei. True, but now the Assumption is false; That nearer power cannot be given as a mean of edification, the exercise whereof is morally and through the corruption of men's nature physically impossible. That is false, and denied, and in either sense the conclusion cannot be true. 2. I grant the whole, and yet nothing is concluded against us. For the power of the Keys is not given to the catholic Presbytery as to the first subject, to be a mean of edification in an ordinary and constant way; but only in an extraordinary and occasional way, in those things which concern the power of jurisdiction belonging to the whole Catholic Church. By ( extraordinary ) here I mean not that which is against a particular Law of God, and cannot be done without a Divine dispensation of providence, but by ( extraordinary ) I mean that which is raro contingens, and doth not oft fall out; as almost it never falleth out that the universal Church hath need to excommunicate a national Church, for all and everyone of a national Church do never fall away from the Faith. Yet a remote power for Excommunication, is in the Catholic visible Church.

2. It is objected, if the visible catholic Church be the first and principal subject of all Church-power, then a Presbyterial Church cannot Excommunicate, but by a power derived from the catholic visible presbytery, and so the presbytery should •• excommunicate, but by consulting with the Catholic visible Church, but this latter were impossible and absurd; Ergo, so must the antecedent be. The counexion is proved thus; for as •• things have beat in so far as they partake of the Fire; because heat is originally in the Fire, as in the first subject, so all Churches exercising Excommunication must partake of the power of censures, that is, first and principally in the original subject, to wit, in the catholic visible Church. And it would seem that none can use or put forthin acts, the power of the catholic Church visible, without the conscience of the catholic Church visible.

Answ. This occasioneth me to speak somewhat of the power of the presbyterial and catholic Church. Hence I say. 1. With submission to the learned.

First, It is an hard way of arguing, to reason from the power to the several exercises and diverse acts of the power. Our Brethren hold that all power of the Keys, and all power Ministerial of preaching, administrating the Seals, is originally in caetu sidelium, in a Church of Believers: but they cannot say that therefore the acts of Preaching, administrating of the Sacraments and all acts of jurisdiction can be exercised by the Believers, because they are the first subject.

Secondly, the farther that the members, or Churches either Congregational, Presbyterial, or National are removed in local distance, one from another; the less is the visible and external communion of rebuking, comforting, and admonishing one another; yet the power and obligation of these duties are not removed. So though the National Churches be locally distant one from another, yet their power of exercising duties, and so their power of Jurisdiction, in an O • cumenicke Council, is not from thence concluded to be null. Yea, National duties upon occasion are still obligatory • and communion of men of sundry Nations is clear to me, Isaiah. 2. 3. many Nations shall flow unto the Mountain of the Lord's House, Zach. 8. 23. Ten men shall take hold out of all Languages of the Nations, they even shall take hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew, saying, we will go with you, for we have heard that God is with you. I do not say, these Nations do meet all in one Synod, but the places do well prove the power lawful of performing duties, whereas the exercise of them in one place is not hic & nunc, in ordinary providence, possible. And so this consequence must be weak; the whole catholic visible Churches in their principal guides cannot ordinarily, and constantly meet, hic & nunc, for the exercise of their power; Ergo, they have no such power. For if the power be exercised in parts, which through occurrences of Providence, and the corruption of men's nature cannot be exercised in whole, at once; yet its not hence evinced to be a power not given of Christ for e • ification; for by our Brethren's grant three thousand are added to the Congregational Church of Jerusalem, Acts 2. and to this Church of three thousand, and a hundred and twenty, Christ hath given the ordinary power of the Keys as to the first subject, though through occurences of providence, and the corruption of man's nature, some of these, suppose a thousand, through sickness, pest, danger of persecution, and sinful separating from the assembly of Saints, could not hic & nunc meet in one house, to exercise jointly all the acts of that power which our Brethren say is given to them by Christ; they cannot say therefore Christ never gave to this whole Church consisting of three thousand and a hundred and twenty, any such power.

Thirdly, there is a great difference betwixt the power given ad esse simplicter, to the being of a Church, and the power given ad been esse tantùm, only to the well-being. 2. Great difference also there is betwixt ordinary power to be exercised constantly, and ordinarily, because of nearer consociation of the Churches, in those things that concern that Church in particular: suppose a presbyterial or Congregational Church, and a power to be exercised, but more rarely, not ordinarily, because of the less communion visible, and great local distance of Churches, as it falleth out in the whole visible Church. Now from this.

First, The ordinary power of Jurisdiction because of nearest vicinity, and contiguity of members is given by Jesus Christ to one Congregation in an Isle. 1. Because that Church is a Church properly so called, though it be not a perfect and complete Church. I say it is a Church properly so called, Because. 1. It is a little City, and a little Kingdom of Jesus Christ having within it self power of the Word and Sacraments: and that is a Church and hath the essence of a Church to which agree the essential notes of a visible Church. Now preaching of the Word and Administration of the Sacraments are essential notes of a visible Church. But I say it is not a complete and perfect Church in the latitude of visibility, (for Churches, are less or more visible, according as they have less or more visible communion) for visible communion constituteth a visible Church. Now a Congregation in a remote Island hath a less communion visible with other visible Churches, then conscciated visible Churches have. 2. It is not complete and perfect in its operations, because in case of doubts of conscience touching government and practice, and dogmatical points, it wants the joint authority, and power of Jurisdiction needful for the well-being of a Church, which it should have, if it were consociated with many other Congregations: so as we say an hand with five fingers is a complete hand, but it is not a complete organical body, but a part of the organical body of a man; so is a Congregation a Church wanting nothing of the being and essence of a Church; yet is it incompleate, because it is a part or member of a Presbyterial Church, and not being consociated wanteth that which belongeth to the well being of a complete visible Church. For visibility of a Church must have a latitude, because it is an accident or adjunct of an organical politick body, which is totum integrale.

Secondly, the ordinary power of ordinary Jurisdiction in a more perfect way, because of ordinary and perfiter consociation, is given to the Presbyterial Church, as to the proper subject in the constant and ordinary exercise of Discipline, because contignity being the foundation of visible external government, the Presbyteriell Church of Jerusalem, Ephesus Corinth, Antioch, and Rome, is a perfect complete consocia • d body. To which the power of ordination, exauthoration, or deprivation of Pastors, of excommunication in a constant and ordinary way doth belong. For this is a principle of Church-policy. Every politick body of Christ hath power of Church government within it self. But a Presbyterial church is such. 2. This is a received maxim also. Quod tangit omnes. ab omnibus, suo more, tractari debet. What concerneth all, should be agitated by all, according to their degrees of concernment, but excom nunication of a person, in a consociated Church, concerneth all the consociated Churches in a Presbytery; all are scandalized, all may be, and are in danger to be leavened with the infectious lump. And here it is to be observed, that as preaching of the Word is an essential note of the visible Church, and agreeing to the visible Church, as necessary ad esse simpliciter, to the very being of a visible Church. For if the word as Preached and some way promulgated be not in such a society, we cannot call it a visible Church; so Discipline is a note of the visible Church, and necessary ad been esse, and it cannot be a Ministerial Church in a good condition exercising acts of edification, if the wall of Discipline be broken down: and meeting in one place for Word and Sacraments is but accidental for a Ministerial Church. If the Word be preached, and the Sacraments administrated in sundry Congregations, though not in a Presbyterial Church all convened in all its members in one place, yet hath the Presbyterial Church the essential note of a visible Church. Because there is a difference betwixt carrying the colors in an Army tali modo, as all the Army at once may see the colors, and the carrying of the colors. Yet the colors are a note visible of such an Army: so there is a difference betwixt preaching the Word, simpliciter, and preaching the Word, tali modo; in such a way in one material house only. And therefore it is necessary that government which concerneth many Churches consociated, be in its exercise hic & nunc, larger then preaching of the Word in its exercise, hic & nunc: which cannot be done, but to a multitude which conveneth 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , to the same material place. And we see an act of government, Acts 15. by confession of our Brethren, belonging to divers consociated Churches and performed by them, and yet these cannot ordinarily meet to one and the same place in all their members for hearing of the Word.

Thirdly, an extraordinary, and remote power of Jurisdiction which is but rarely and in extraordinary cases to be put forth in acts, is given to the Catholic visible Presbytery of the whole Catholic visible Church. Because the Oommunion external and visible is less, where the local distance of visible Churches is more: and therefore because ecumenical councils, being necessary for the Catholic visible Church, neque ad esse simpliciter, neque ad b •• e esse, sed ad melius seu optimum esse, neither in respect of the Churches being, nor in respect of the Churches well-being, • u • only in respect of her best and most spiritual well-being, these councils are seldom to be had in an ordinary providence. For the Cresse of Jesus Christ is rather a mark of the catholic visible Church, then Bellarmine his prospe • ous condition, that he will have to be one of his fifteen notes of the Church: and since the Church cannot have her wishes, the want of general councils is the Catholic Churches Cross, not her sin; we do not say that God is deficient in means necessary to his Church, or to some of his own Children; because the Woman hath wings given her of God to sty to the Wilderness to hide her self from the Dragon, Rev. 12. 14. and so cannot enjoy God's ordinary presence, in his Sanctuary. Nor do we say that God hath denied a power to his Church in the Wilderness, to enjoy them in a visible Sanctuary, I mean a moral power, and jus, a right and interest in that presence, because he interrupteth the Churches physical power, for a while, in the enjoying of these comforts of a visible Church-Communion, in the Sanctuary.

Fourthly, hence it doth not follow, that because the catholic representative visible Church is the first subject of the power of the Keys, that the power of Excommunication is derived from the visible Church to a Presbyterial Church, or that a Presbyterial Church cannot excommunicate without consulting with, or fetching authority from the Catholic visible Church: Because the Catholic visible Church is a great integral body of Jesus Christ, and he is the head of this body; because though the power of seeing by order of nature be first in the whole man, and then in the Eye, yet the power of seeing in the Eye is not derived from the rest of the body, from Hands, Leggs, Shoulders, Arms, to the Eye. The light is first in the whole Body of the Sun, as the first and prime subject of light; yet supposing now the received opinion of Astronomers, that the body of the Sun doth exceed the quantity of the Earth an hundred sixty and seven times, it doth not follow that this or that part of the Sun hath no light intrinsical in it; but that which is derived from the whole body of the Sun; for then this or this part of the Sun should have borrowed light derived to it from another: so the Soul doth at one and the same instant, animate, and quicken the whole organized Body as its first matter and subject, but it doth not follow that the Hand hath life derived to it from the whole body: so because the power of the Keys is also intrinsical in the Presbytery, as in an O • cumenicall council: it doth not follow, that the power that is intrinsical in the presbytery is by derivation, or borrowed and at the second hand, from the Catholic presbytery of the whole World; far less that the Presbytery cannot Excommunicate, except it consult with the catholic visible Church. The power of the Keys, by order of nature, is only in the catholic representative Church as in the first subject, but in order of time this power is communicated from the head Christ to all the integral parts of this great Body according to the capacity of every part, so as it is intrinsical in the particular Eldership of a single Congregation in these points of Discipline, that concern a Congregation as a Congregation, and it is intrinsical in the classical Presbytery as it is such, and it is intrinsical in the provincial, and National Synod, in points belonging to them as such.

3. They object; if a single Congregation have not power of Excommunication, and of entire and complete government within it self, because it is but a part of a Presbyterial Church, and so an incomplete Church: by that same reason a Presbyterial Church shall be a complete Church, and not have entire and complete power of Government within it self; because a presbyterial Church is a part of a provincial Church, and a provincial Church shall be in the same case, because it is a part of a National Church, and a National Church, in that same case; because it is a part of the catholic visible Church, and there shall be no perfect visible Church on Earth, which hath full and entire power of jurisdiction, save only the caholicke visible Church, which by no possibility can convene, before her Oecunenick and highest catholic Court, a National Church, or the Church of great Britain, and upon the testimony of three witnesses deliver her to Satan, and upon supposal of Repentance receive her again to the catholic power of that same Court; into fellowship of Church-union with the great catholic body. For so because this catholic Church, for many centuries, yea possibly for a million of years, cannot convene to exercise her authority in a Court (and out of her Court she hath none) the repenting National Church, shall remain in Satan's bands forever, by a physical and invincible necessity.

Answ. A single Congregation is a Church, but so as it is a part also and a member of a Presbyterial Church, and because of nearness of communion with consociated Churches under one Presbytery; it can neither have complete power of casting out one of its own members, because that member hath so strict a visible Union of membership also with consociated Churches, nor can it exercise that intrinsical power that it hath as a remote part of Christ's Catholic body, but the case for ordinary and constant power of ordinary and constant Jurisdiction is not so in a Presbyterial, in a provincial, in a National, in the Catholic visible Body. And therefore it followeth not that they are not complete Bodies, and entire Churches for all ordinary and constant Jurisdiction; and the reason is clear, because Synods or Synodical Churches above a Presbytery to me are not ordinary; not constant Courts, but extraordinary, and prore nata occasional, having their rise from some occurrence of providence, as is most clear, by Scripture. The Church of Ephesus being a Presbyterial Church, did constantly exercise Discipline, and try false Prophets, and those which called themselves Jews, but were lievs, Revel. 2. 2. Whereas that famous Council at Jerusalem was not an ordinary and constant Court, but extraordinary, that is, occasional (for so I take the Word, for expressions cause) and had its rise, Acts 15. 1. from a mere occasion, because some came from Judea and taught the Brethren, except ye be circumcised after the manner of Moses, you cannot be saved, And the subject of this Court was not the constant and ordinary affairs of Discipline, that belonged to the presbytery of Jerusalem, and Antioch. No, v. 6. the subject was only an incident controversy raised by false teachers, subverters of souls, v. 24. and therefore it is said, v. 6. The Apostles and Elders, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , to consider of this matter; therefore the presbyterial Church hath both Word and Sacraments dispensed in it distributively through all the Churches, and for the power of Jurisdiction ordinary intensive, and quoad essentiam Ecclesiae ministerialis, according to the entire essence of a ministerial Church, it is as perfect and complete in one single Congregation, as in a provincial, as in a National, yea as in the Catholic visible Body, whereof Christ is the Head; only a provincial, national, and the Catholic Church visible, extensive, according to the power of extension, is a larger and a superior Church, and though the presbyterial Church be a part of the Catholic, it is so a part, as it is a perfect whole Church: as a man is a part of this great all, the World, yet so, as he is a perfect reasonable Creature, and so a whole man, and a part of the World: but a Congregation is so a part of the Presbytery, that it hath not a whole, entire, complete intensive power over its own members to excommunicate them, because its members are for contiguity and necessity of near visible communion, parts that cannot avoid daily edifying or scandalizing of consociated Churches, and therefore the consociated churches trust have a power over the members of a Congregation. But our Brethren will say; Contiguity of local cohabitation doth not in be a visible Church, but only the voluntary agreement of Professors who do, ex pacto, and by covenant tacit or express, make up a conseciation: for a Papist and a Protestant may cohabit in one house.

Answ. That is true, but contiguity is such a necessary foundation of external visible Church fellowship in one presbytery, as without that contiguity, I see not how, jure Divino, there can be either a Congregational Church, or any other Church: for, sure I am, Christ hath not ordained me to be a member of a Congregation in America, or of a presbyterial Church in Geneva. And that such persons and no more be members of a Congregation, is not juris Divini, yet without a contiguity less or more they cannot be members of a Congregation, nor is this single Congregation a limb of this presbyterial Church, jure Divin • ; only this in abstracto is jus Divinum, that there be a Congregation of a convenient number, and a presbytery of such as may meet conveniently in their guides. But to return, the Brethren do deny that God gave a power of Jurisdiction to the Catholic visible Court of the O • cumenick Church. And why? because a general council cannot excommunicate, nor relax from Excommunication a national Church, But I answer, 1. It is by accident, and not through want of innate and intrinsical power, that the Court of a Catholic council cannot in an ordinary and constant way, exercise the power that Christ hath given to her, as the presbyterial church doth; and the exigence of providence maketh it so, because it falleth out by the blessing of God, that Zion must say, as it is, Isaiah. 49. 20. The place is too straight for me, give place to me that I may dwell. And because she enlargeth the place of her Tent, and stretcheth forth the curtains of her habitation, and lengthneth her cords, and breaketh forth on the right hand, and on the left, and her seed inheriteth the Gentiles, Isaiah. 54. 2 3. and because from the rising of the Sun, to the going d •• ne thereof, his Name is great amongst the Gentiles, and in every place incense is offered to him, Mal. 1. 11. yet have general councils condemned Heretics, as Nestorians, Macedonians, Eutyches and others; and I see nothing to prove that a general council hath no power to excommunicate a National Church. If the Lord should be pleased to give the Christian Churches a general council this day, they might lawfully, in a juridical way, declare the faction of Romish pretended catholicks, to be mystical Babylon, a cage of unclean Birds, which is excommunication in the essence and substance of the Act; nor is there need of a legal and juridical citation of national Churches, or a citation of witnesses to prove Romish Heresies, and perfidious and detestable obstinacy: for their writings, and deeds, are so notorious, that the senses of men may as infallibly prove the fact, as we know there is such a City in the world as Rome, and C • n • tantinople; as for the instance that a catholic council cannot ordinarily be had, to relax a repenting national Church: I answer, the same inconvenience will follow, if we suppose an ordinary case, the Church congregational (as our Brethren suppose) of Jerusalem, Acts. 2. consisting of three thousand and a hundred and twenty, having excommunicated Ananias, Sapphira, and others, who yet by the grace of God, should truly repent; in the mean time, the Sword of the Roman Emperor intervening scattereth this Church, that they cannot convene in a spiritual Court, to relax them (and out of Court they have no authority of Jurisdiction) here were an invincible necessity of their remaining in Satansbonds, in foro externo ecclesiae. But what then? This is to limit God, as Papists do in binding and tying salvation of Infants to the outward sign of external baptism; as if God, in soro caeli, in his own Court could not absolve penitent sinners, because the Church will not, which is more ordinary, through men's corruption, or cannot absolve, through the necessity of exigence of divine providence: and the more catholic that crosses be, as war • , the universal and catholic cruelty, and treachery of the church of M • lignants against the true catholic Church of Christ, the more easily are the Juridicall and Court-operations, actions and proceedings of the catholic universal Church impedited. And therefore this of our Savior's, tell the Church, is necessarily to be applied to all Churches and Courts of Christ, even to a catholic council, though Christ gave instances in an offended Brother, who is to tell the Church, But I am sure, ( tell the church ) is not to be restricted to a vocal & personal complaining of one brother against another, in the face of a single Congregation. For if the offense be committed before the Sun at noon-day in the seeing and hearing of the church, either congregational, or presbyterial, as some may, and one do by word and writ openly blaspheme God: in this case Christ's affirmative command, tell the church, doth not in conscience oblige one man to come and deal with the delinquent in private, and then (if he repent not) before witnesses, & then to tell the church, so as one sinneth if he tell not the church; for here God's providence disposing of the notoriousness and publicknes of the scandal doth tell the church; and yet, I hope, our Brethren could not deny, but this Text doth w •••• that such a public offender who scandalizeth many Churches should be excommunicated by this place, Mat. 18. from which I gather the weakness of what is said for the independency of churches from, Mat. 18.

Ob. 1. Here we cannot understand the Church universal. 1. Because he would not say where two or three are gathered in my Name, I will be in the midst of them, for two or three cannot represent all the Churches comprehended under the catholic visible Body of Jesus Christ.

Ans. This is an argument from the less to the more. If I be present (would our Savior say) where two or three, though they be but two or three: I will far rather be present in the assemblies of the Church. Nor can the words stand according to the letter strictly, according to our Brethren's mind, that two should be a Church; for there should be Pastors and Elders, and Christian witnesses, two at least, and the accused Brother here. 2. two or three, and brother and brother are not to be taken as singular men only, but as two or thee men, or Churches, who as they may be offended. 1 Cor. 10 32. so may they give scandal and offense; so may three, four, of consociated Congregations give the offense, and that publicly; what? hath Christ provided no remedy against scandals in his whole Kingdom, but only for scandals fallen out in the single persons of a small Congregation consisting of ten, 20 100. or 200. only when these little congregations offend sister Congregations, they are left to the immediate judgment of God? This is wonderful.

Ob. 2. The Christian magistrate as a nursing father is to punish those who offend, and hath power to command Churches to confess offenses done to sister Churches, and command Church censures, as excommunication, to be used, and Christ's power to be put forth in practice, according to the will of Jesus Christ.

Answ. Yet doth it follow that the Apostolic Churches, & the succeeding Churches to them under the ten bloody persecutions, when Magistrates were enemies to Christ, and his church, that the Churches wanted spiritual means to gain fallen and scandalous churches. 2. Christ hath provided an Ecclesiastical power to remove scandals betwixt church and church; for the Magistrates power is civil and put forth by the Sword, and by carnal weapons. Christ's 〈◊〉 in this, Mat. 18. 19. s to remove scandals, and gain soales v. 15 for hear thee, thou o • st gained thy Brothe. The Sword of the Magistrate is not ordained to gain so • les to Repentance. That 〈◊〉 who careth for the part of a visible church, doth he not far rather care in a spiritual way, for the whole? 3. What can the Magistrate command here? the Eldership of a Congregation turn •• Here • icks and scandalous to sister Churches and infecteth then. To • Magistrate commadeth that Church censures be used 〈◊〉 them as you say, who should use them? not a sister Church 〈◊〉 is offended. She hath no power; not the Eldership themselves offending. Christ never ordained that a church should excommunicate her self; not the people; Who gave them power? And the major part of them turneth scandalous. Also Christ nere hath left n • re ne • y. but let them grow till Harvest, so say A • abaptists.

Ob. 3. Christ here speaketh for a present and constant removing of scand 〈◊〉 Brother and Brother of one congregation. A cathalick 〈◊〉 of the whole visible Church is far off, • nd cannot be 〈◊〉 .

Answ. That he speaketh of a present and constant remedy only, and of no remedy against the scandal of whole Churches, is de • ed. He speaketh of all remedies to gain any offenders, persons or churches.

Ob. 4. Then should an universal council of the whole world be absolutely necessary, if in some cases we must tell the whole catholickchurch

Ans. Neither doth that follow general councils are neither necessary to the being, nor to the well-being, but only to the best being of the catholic church, and if the catholic church enjoyed its best-being to which it hath jus, and due right, that is, a perfect Reformation in doctrine and discipline, then should general council be necessary for the keeping of this best being. And this rule of Discipline given by Christ supposeth a particular Congregation right constituted (say our Brethren) else this rule cannot be necessarily kept. So say we, that it may necessarily be kept in the catholic church, it supposeth the catholic church to be reformed; but Christ's church must sail with a second wind, when she cannot have a first.

Ob. 5. Refusing communion with sister Churches in case of scand • ll is as effectual a way for edification, as authoritative excommunication of congregations by Presbyteries.

Answ. Excommunication of Congregations is a possible, not an ordinary supposition; but our grounds proceed, when the members of one sister-church offendeth another, if there be no presbyterial power superi • r to both, that may take order with them, then hath not Christ, in the ordinary supposition of ill administration of the Eldership of a particular Congregation, provided an ecclesiastic way to remove scandals out of His Kingdom. 2. non-communion is no more then I may do to a brother who offendeth me. 2. it is not so efficacious as a binding and loosing ratified in Heaven. 3. It hath not that special promise of Christ's church presence walking in the midst of the Golden candle-sticks. 4. It is a secret condemning of the Wisdom of Christ in the institution of excommunication, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord, 1 Cor. 5. 4. that some may learn not to blaspheme, 1 Tim. 1. 20. as if excommunication which is a public authoritative mean were superfluous, if a private and brotherly non-communion be sufficient, and as efficacious a mean of edification, as Christ's mean.

Ob. 6. Either must you complain to a presbyterial, provincial, and national Church, before you complain to that congregation of which the 'Delinquent is a member, or after that you have complained to that congregation; if the former be said, then you cannot tell the presbytery, or superior Courts, but in case of obstinacy; for if you can gain a Brother, or a Church in a private way, you are not to bring him to a more publickeshame, that is contrary to Christ's order, v. 15. If he hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother. And if you tell it the Presbytery and the superior Courts, after you have told it to the Church, whereof he is a member, then you make four steps, in your reclaiming your brother, where Christ hath made but three.

Ans. Christ's order according to the number of steps are three, when the fault is private, scandals of many Congregations cannot be private, and in public scandals we cannot go but to that church which the offense doth immediately concern; and if you make four steps or five according to your grounds, I see no transgression; if 1. You admonish the offender. 2. Before two. 3. Before the half of the Elders. 4. Before all the Elders, and. 5. If you be willing that the Elders bring it to the hearing of the Congregation the number of three precisely are not of positive Divine institution, they are only set down by Christ to show we are to labor to gain our brother in private, before we publish his shame to the Church; and if he commit the offense before two, I think you need not tell him yourself alone, but before two, and yet the offense is private, if three only be privy to it; seeing it is not yet come to the Church. 3. I much doubt if no faults be punishable by excommunication, but only obstinacy: I think the 〈◊〉 of incest, parricide and the like deserveth excommunication, though no contumacy be supervenient to such crimes.

Ob. 7. The Church spoken of, Mat. 18. is all one with the House of God, and the House of Prayer, where two or three agree to pray for onething. v. 19. and the place where worshiping is, and word and Sa • raments, that society in which stewards give a portion of the trea •• of life to every child of the House, Mat. 24. 45, 1 Cor. 4. 1. 2. 〈◊〉 public Rebukes are tendered to these who sin publicly, before all, that others may fear, 1 Tim. 5. 20. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 : this must be in the Churches hearing and before the Congregation meet for the Word and Sacraments, for these ordinances of God work for the edifying both of the party reproved and before all the Congregation, which shall hear and fear; and they work upon the Heart, as the Word of God doth: now a presbyterial Church convened in some Elders of divers Congregations, for Church censures and exercise of jurisdiction, is not such a House of God, where are the Word, Sacraments and public rebukes in the hearing of the Congregation; for the Congregations of all the presbytery being 20. or 30. cannot meet in one Church.

Answ. That only a Congregation and not the catholic Church is the House of God, I judge, the Word of God cannot teach; as Isaiah. 56. 5. To them will I give a name within my House. What a name? to be a member of a single Congregation? No, but of a whole visible Church, opposed to the condition of Eu • uches and strangers, v. 4. that were not of the people of God. Cant. 1. 17 The beams of our House are cedars, this is the catholic Church and Spouse of Christ, Cant. 3 4. I would not let Him go, till I brought Him to my Mothers House, not a Congregation, but Jerusalem, (saith Ainsworth ) the Mother of us all, Cotton, the Catholic Church; Alstedius, Jerusalem, Heb. 3. 2. as Moses was faithful in all his House. Not a single congregation. 2. This Church here is formally a Ministerial Church meeting to bind and loose, and excommunicate. Nor is there need to expound it of an House of praying congregationally, but rather 2. 19. of ligatory and authoritative prayers of the Presbytery. 3. Nor is rebuking in a Congregation for the edifying of the hearers, anything but the execution of the judicial sentence of a Presbyterial Church, which we grant may be done in the congregation, whereof the Delinquent is a member, and yet the Church here shall not signify a congregation convened for the Word and S • crame • ts, except you say, all the people must necessarily be present, yea and authoritative actors to bind and loose, as this Church is expressly called, v. 18. for if the place speak, 1 Tim. 5. 20. of concionall rebuking; then it proveth nothing, that is done by Timothy as a Pastor, virtute potest at is ordinis, and not by the Presbytery, as an act of jurisdiction which is done by the Church, not by one man, if it be meant of juridical rebuking that is done in a Court, where all the congregation are not present; or if it be done before the congregation in Name of the Presbytery, what is done before the Church 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 before many is not done by those many, as if they were the Church, which our Savior biddeth us tell, and sure nothing i • here against us.

Ob. 8. The Word Church is never used in the New Testament, for the Presbytery; and if it signify a Representative Church; the meaning of this, the Angel of the Church of Pergamos might be the Angel of the Church of Pergamos; for the Representative Church is the Eldership of that Church.

Answ. This being the first time that Christ spake of the Church (which the Hebrews or Jews who knew his language, behooved to understand) he could not mean anything but a representative Church, not the common multitude; and though it were taken other ways in all Scriptures beside, here it must have this meaning; because he speaketh of a court. If he heart not the Church &c, 2 Of a company who bindeth and looseth on Earth. 3. Whose sentence is • atified in Heaven. 4. Binding and loosing are words of highest royal judicial authority in Scripture, Psal. 105. 20. The King sent and loosed him. 21. He made him Lord over his House, v. 22. to bind his Princes at his pleasure, Psal. 148. 8. To bind their Kings with chains, and their Nobles with fetters of Iron. v. 9. To execute upon them the judgment written, Mat. 22. 13. Take him and bind him; Paul's being in bands, is to be under the Judges power, Acts 12 6. Peter was bound with two chains; So the Captain of the Guard, J • r. 40. 4. and now be hold I loose thee this day from thy chains. 2. The representative Church is not called the Elders of the representative Church, nor the Angel of the representative Church, but of the collective Church: and therefore there is no Angel of a Church, of a Church here.

Ob. 9. From the Church here spoken of, their is no appeal, because the sentence is ratified in Heaven. 2. It inflicteth the highest punishment, the censure of excommunication, and a higher judicature can do no more. 3. Their is no reason to appeal to a higher judicature, because the inferior may err, because all above a Congregation are Courts which may err: for Presbyteries, Provincial, National, the universal council of the Catholic Church may err. So Mr. Mather.

Answ. This is no reason why we may not appeal from a Congregation, because the sentence is ratified in Heaven, because the sentence of an inferior Judge proceeding rightly is ratified in Heaven; yet we may appeal from him: to appeal is but upon fears of ill administration to desert a lower Court, and go to a higher Court, so when we fear a counsel and advice given by a sister Church to be not according to the Word of God, which yet is according to the Word of God, upon the supposal of that fear we decline that counsel, and take another. Neither are we to appeal, de jure, from a just sentence in a presbytery. Illud possumus quod jure possumus. What the inferior Sanhedrin of Israel did justly, was ratified in Heaven: yet by God's Law there might be an appeal from it to the highest Sanhedrin. 2. Nor is this a good reason that we may not appeal from a Judicature which may inflict the highest censure; for inferior Judicatures in Israel had power of life and death, yet might man appeal from them. 3. The cause of appeals is not because inferior Judicature • may err, for so we might appeal from all judicatures, even from a general council, for it may err. But the true cause is. 1. Because rariùs errant, they do not so frequently err. 2. They are not so inclined and disposed to err, for many Eyes see more then one, and many Eyes do more seldom miscarry in not taking up the right object then one. 3. Because we conceive more equality and less partiality in higher Courts.

Ob. 10. You grant that a single Congregation in an Island hath power intrinsical of Excommunication within it self; Ergo, th • inconvenient which you put on independent Congregations, shall follow in the case of a remote congregation, Christ hath not then provided sufficiently for that Church in that case.

Answ. It followeth only; Ergo, Christ hath not provided so sufficiently for that Church as for others in a consociation, which is nothing against us. For woe to him that is alone, and two are better then one.

Ob. 11. If the Church here be a representative Church, the • it hath power from those whom they represent, but they represent the people, and so the power is first in the people, and the people must be the first visible Church, not the presbytery, not a general council. I prove the major, because the power the representer hath that must be first in the represented.

Answ. A representer standeth for another either objectively or subjectively. What ever representeth another objectively, that is, doth such a business for another, or in remejus, for his behalf and good, though he some way represent that other, yet hath he not his power from that which he representeth; as the Eye objectively in seeing, and the Eare in hearing representeth the body, for the Eye seeth for the whole body, the Eare heareth for the whole body. But the eye hath not its visi • e, or seeing faculty from the body, nor the Eare the hearing faculty from the body. Now the Presbytery doth represent the people only objectively, that is, for the good and salvation of the people, and so the Elders have not all their power of ruling from the people, but from Jesus Christ. That which representeth another subjectively hath indeed its power from that which it representeth, as he who carrieth the person and room of a King as an Ambassador, doth fetch his power from the King, and that power is more principally in the King. But now the Assumption is false, because the Eldership doth not represent the people, in their power of Jurisdiction, subjectively, as standing in the place of the people, but as the Ambassadors of Christ, and as stewards they have both the Keys from Christ, not from the people, and do actually use the Keys, in his Name and authority, not in the people's name and authority. Hence is easily answered that Delegatus seu deputatus non potest facere delegatum; one delegate cannot transfer his power to another delegate, that would bring a progress infinite in government; for one deligate standing in the room of others, sibjectively cannot transfer his whole power to another, its true; he cannot transfer his power in part and according to some singular acts, it is false: for Acts 15. 25. It is said by the council, It seemed good unto us with one accord, to send chosen men to you, with Paul and Silar. Paul and Silas and these chosen men, suppose six or ten are in this Embassage, are but the deputies and Messengers of the council, and yet they do agree to make Paul their deputy, and mouth to speak for them all, seeing order requireth that six at once should not speak, in this case Paul speaking the mind of all the rest, in this singular act, he is a deputy of Deputies, and he representeth the whole six, who were Messengers of the Church sent with the Epistle, and these six were Deputies and Messengers of the council, but as these six Messengers sent by the council could not lay their whole power on another to carry the Epistle to the Church of Antioch, and bestow their labors elsewhere, nor could one of these six deligates, being chosen as deligate to speak for the rest, put that power of speaking the mind of the whole six off himself to another; in which sense, one deligate cannot make another, one Messenger cannot send another; so the Presbyterial or classical Court convened as the deligates of the whole Congregations under them, or rather deligates for them, then of them, decerning that one of a Congregation should be excommunicated, may deligate one in that Congregation to pronounce the sentence, and this one pronouncing the sentence as the deligate, and Messenger of the Church is a deligate & a deputy of deligates, and deputies, in one particular act; and this our Brethren in their own Church-sentences pronounced by one Elder, must also say.

Object. 12. That nearest Church to whom we delate the offense of one single offender, is a single Congregation, else we must over-leap this Church, and tell the Presbytery, contrary to Christ's direction; but if he hear not that very Church to whom we tell the business, he is excommunicated by that nearest Church, as the words bear; Ergo, that nearest Church being single congregations, may excommunicate, and so it is the first Church, and the Presbyterial Church is not the first Church.

Ans. That nearest Church to whom we delate the offense of the delinquent; first, in the case of willful obstinacy; secondly, in the case of consociation of Churches (whom the obstinacy concerneth) is not a congregational Church, having power of Jurisdiction entirely and completely, to whom we must tell the offense, which is the subject of excommuncation. The whole ministerial Church is that particular Church, together with the Presbytery; and my reason is, there is a Church, Acts 2. consisting of one and thirty hundred and twenty, all called one Church. Now it is said of this Church that they continued, verse. 42. steadfastly in the Apostles doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and prayer; but where did they meet? verse. 46. not only in the Temple, but daily from house to house. This whole number hath had v. 42. one Church-fellowship, one Word, one Supper of the Lord; but in one meeting at once? No, but they met from house to house, that is, in any private house, as the phrase is here, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , and Acts 20. 20. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 . Now it is clear there were Congregations and Churches, when Word and Sacraments were in private houses at Jerusalem, and from house to house in Ephesus; but I hope these were but parts of the Church at Jerusalem and Ephesus, and that they could not meet all in one house. If one therefore complain of a scandalous person to the Church of Ephesus convened in a house, possibly in an upper Chamber, or elsewhere, this is a meeting that continueth in prayer and breaking of bread, and so hath power of Church-censures to admonish and rebuke, which things belong to that single Congregation or Church in a private house; but it hath not power to censure those that offend the consociated Congregations that meet also 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , in houses, that is, to excommunicate; and therefore he must complain to the Elders of Ephesus, • o • we are not to think that the false Jews who were censured by the Apostles of Ephesus, Rev •• . 2. 2. did only infest houses, or one Congregation meet in a house, or that one House-Church, or House-Congregation of Ephesus, did try and censure those that called themselves Jews, Revel. 2, 2 but Christ giveth the praise of this to the whole Church of Ephesus, who had the power of censures. But it may be said, Ascandalous person may infect two Congregations of two neighbouring Presbyteries, he dwelling near the borders of both: Ergo, if he be to be excommunicated, not by a Congregation only, but by the Presbytery, because • e may leaven many consociated Churches; this man is not to be excommunicated, except you tell two Presbyterial Churches, and so a whole Province; and if he dwell in the borders of two Nations, betwixt England & Scotland, he may leaven two parts of two National Churches; and if the matter concerneth both the National Churches, a higher Church then a Presbytery, to wit a Church made up of two Presbyteries, yea, of parts of two Presbyteries of two Nations, must by divine institution be that Church complete and entire to which we must complain, and which hath the power of excommunication. Answ. It is certain, as the local limits of a Congregation and the number is not properly of divine institution, only a convenient number there must be to make up a Congregation; and suppose a man do dwell in the borders of two Congregations, where he is equally distant from the place of meeting of these two Congregations, it is not of divine institution whether he be a member of the one or the other; yet where his parents did willingly associate themselves to such a Congregation, or he himself did associate himself, and where he received Baptism, he hath now a relation to that Church as a member thereof, and that Pastor is his Pastor, not any other, as the Elders of the Church of Ephesus (suppose it were one single Congregation) and the Angel of Ephesus is not the Angel of Thyatira; the Angel of Pergamos is not to be called the Angel of Sard • s. So i • the matter in a Presbytery, or two Presbyteries of two distinct Nations (I mean now a classical Presbytery) therefore these do make Presbyteries, 1. A convenient number of Churches may be governed by one College, or society of Elders. 2. Having ordinary conversing one with another. 3. Voluntarily upon these two grounds combining themselves in one society; and upon these three the supervenient institution of Christ is grounded. And therefore though it be true, that one dwelling in the borders of two Congregations, of two classical Presbyteries of two Nations, may equally infect other, and so ex natura rei, and in reality of truth he may leaven both; yet the God of order having made him a combined member now by institution of one Presbyterial Church, not of the other, he is to be excommunicated by the one, not by the other: For though local distinction of Congregations and Presbyteries be not of divine institution; yet supposing consideration be had to, first, a competent number which may be edified; secondly, to ordinary conversing; thirdly, to voluntary combination, either formal, as at the first molding of Congregations and Presbyteries, or tacit and virtual combination, as in after tracts of time. God's institution maketh a relation of a particular membership of this man, so to this Congregation or Presbyterie; as that now upon their foresaid suppositions, though he may leaven the neighbouring Presbyteries or Congregations, no less then those whereof he is a member, yet may he be censured by those and none others now, in respect of Christ's ordinance applied to this Presbyterial Church in this place, and in this Nation, and not in this.

Object. 13. If the Congregation may admonish and rebuke, then may they excommunicate, for you may not distinguish where the Law of God distinguisheth not: for there is no reason why this or this exercise of jurisdiction should be given them, and not the exercise of all.

Answ. The Law clearly differenceth, Matth. 18. I may rebuke and convince my brother with the consent of three witnesses, which is some degree of Church-censure, especially if a Pastor rebuke before three, yet may not a Pastor excommunicate; the Church doth that. 2. We acknowledge that a Congregation may exercise all jurisdiction in re propria; but excommunication, where Churches are consociated, is not a thing that is proper to a Congregation, but concerneth many.

Obj. 14. We do not think that the Church, Math. 18. 16. is the community its alone, nor the Elders there alone; but the Elders in presence of the community. For even Act. 15. when the Apostles and Elders did give out decrees, they did it before the Church of Jerusalem, and in their presence, V. 22. Then pleased it the Apostles, Elders, and whole Church, to send chosen men to Antioch. For show us a warrant in the Word, where the Elders there alone did exercise jurisdiction, the people not being convened, and where such a company of Elders there alone is called a Church. The Judges in Israel judged in the gates before the people; the Elders judged in, or, before the Church, as the eye seeth united to the head, not separated from it.

Answ. Nor do we exclude these from hearing the Elders exercise jurisdiction, if the matter concern them; but we ask if the whole people of Israel were obliged by virtue of Divine Institution to be present in the gates of the City when the Judges did sit there, and judge, as our brethren therein say; by a Divine Institution the people are to be present, and to consent; yea and have an honor above consenting, (say they) so as, if the people be not there to have their share of excommunication in their way, then is Christ's order violated, because the Church cannot be said to excommunicate and bind and loose on Earth; whereas the Elders only, without the people, do only bind and loose, and excommunicate; and the Elders (say they) without the people are not the Church, nor can be called the Church, and so the acts of the Elders, judging, and separated from the people are null, because not acts of the Church; seeing the alone Elders are not the Church; & by this reason the Judges could not judge in Israel, except all Israel had been present to consent, for all Israel are bidden to execute judgment in the morning, both the Rulers and people. 2. All the thousands in Jerusalem which made up many Congregations, were not, nor could they, and the whole Congreations of A • tioch, Syria, and Silicia, who were all concerned in conscience no less then Jerusalem, be present, and that by obligation of a Divine Institution: and therefore that Church, and that whole Church, Act. 15. 22. can be no other then the whole representative Church. And so we say, both here and Act. 15. the Church representative exerciseth jurisdiction without the people; if people were present, it was by virtue of no Divine Institution: so as if they had not been present the decrees could not have been called the decrees of the Church: and certainly the comparison of the eye which seeth not but as united to the body, if it be strictly urged, may well prove that the Elders, if the people be not present, even all and everyone whom it concerneth, c •• no more exercise jurisdiction, or discern that a scandalous person can be excommunicated, then an eye can see when it is plucked out of the head.

Object. 15. Divines bring an argument from Math. 18. by ••• logy and proportion from particular congregations, to prove Na • i • nall and general Synods of the whole Christian world. Ergo, they suppose that a particular Church is the measure and pattern, and first Church which hath power of excommunication,

Answ. Parker, and some few inclining to our brethren's mind do so, but Divines understand by a Church a Presbyterial Church, which they make the measure and pattern of Assemblies.

Object. 16 Here is a particular Church, because here is an offended brother who is a member thereof. This particular Church hath Elders, this particular Church is a whole Church, 1 Cor. 14. if the whole Church come together. Jam. 5. Send for the Elders of the Church. It cannot be, that the sick • person is to send for the Elders of a Presbyterial Church that are so far removed from the sick man.

Answ. An hand with five fingers is a whole hand, but not a whole body; a Congregation is a whole Church in its own kind, whole for those things that concern it self, but not whole and complete for all jurisdiction. If James should bid, send for all the Elders, this consequence should have some color.

Object. 17. A Presbyterial Church can be an offending Church, but this, Math. 18. is for an offending brother, if thy brother sin against thee, &c.

Answ. Christ giveth an instance only in an offending brother, but the doctrine is for the curing of an offending Church also, for all persons to be gained, Thou hast gained thy brother. We are to gain Churches even as we are not to offend Churches, 1 Cor. 10. 32.

Object. 18▪ There are no Church-censures meant here, Christ's scope is to resolve a case of conscience, how far we are to go on with an offending brother before we behave ourselves to him as to an heather. • , It is said, if thy brother sin against thee, Ergo, it is a private offense, not a public Church-scandal, that deserveth excommunication.

Answ. Christ's purpose is to show how we may gain to repentance an offending brother, Thou hast gained thy brother. And he will have us use both public and private means to gain him. 2. It is such a sin as must be told to the Church, when obstinacy to the Church is added, and therefore at length it is a public scandal and so deserveth excommunication.

Ob. 2. Reprove him, that is, convince him, but is it not reproving to be brought before the Church? must I reprove everyone who offendeth me, even the King? it is a man's glory to pass by an offense; and Solomon for biddeth us to over-hear our servant cursing us.

Answ. God hath made every man his brothers keeper, and we are not to suffer sin in our brother, but in any case to rebuke him, Lev. 19, 17. the King is not every man's brother whom he is to use familiarly, as the brother meant of here; though Kings should be rebuked by their Nobles, and by Pastors. 2. We are to pass over offenses, that is, to forgive those that sin against us, and not to be too curious to know who reproacheth us, as Solomon's meaning is to be taken, and to be willing to forgive, and yet to labor to gain our brother by rebukes; one act of love fighteth not with another.

Ob. 3. Tell the Church, is not meant of a Christian Church, but he speaketh of a thing present, but there was no Christian Church as yet.

Answ. It followeth not, it is a rule especially for time to come, though Christ speak after this manner, as if it were a thing present.

Ob. 4. It is not much that the word, Church, signifieth only in this place a company of godly men, witnesses of the man's offense; for 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 signifieth only once, Joh. 3. the wind. 2. Christ spake in the Syriac and Gnedah, Psal. 22. Gnedah a company, or many Bulls have comp • ss • d m • , 1 San. 19. a company of Prophets, Gnedah. The meaning is, if he be not convinced by the testimony of two, rebuke him before many.

Answ. It is not like, that seeing in the Chapter preceding he s • ache of the Church, as of a company to whom the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven were given, and that here he speaking of a Church which hath authoritative power to bind and loose, that Christ hath any such • nsolent meaning of the word Church, as only to note many Christians. 2. The Syriac is not the Original, but the Greek.

Ob. 5. The witnesses sp • ken of here are not witnesses of the offenses, but of the reproof, and therefore there is nothing here of a judicial proc • s.

Answ. Yea, but these witnesses are witnesses both of the reproote, and of that obstinacy, for the which the man's sins are bound in Heaven.

Ob. 6. Let him be to thee as an Heathen. He saith not, let him be to the C • urt as an Heathen, and therefore here is no shadow of any Court.

Ans. It is an ordinary hebraisme, when the second person is put for the third, especially in Laws, as, Thou shalt not send him away empty. Also, Thine eye shall not spare him. Also, Then shalt out away evil out of Israel. And therefore here is a real Court, it the context be considered. Christ speaketh so, Let him be to thee as an Heathen; in opposition to that which he was called to be, for his obstinacy; to wit, a brother, if thy brother offend. And how weak is this? Let him be to thee as an Heathen. Ergo, He should not be to the Church as an Heathen. The contrary consequence is most necessary, if he be to thee as an Heathen, because he is now convinced of obstinacy before two brethren, and before all the Church. Ergo, these two brethren and the whole Church are to count him as an Heathen, for the offended brother hath gone along all the way in the unanimous judgment, and a consort of mind, with both the witnesses and the Church; Ergo, this obstinate man is the same to the Church that he is to the offended brother, that is, he is to both as an Heathen and a Publican, and both are to abstain from eating or brotherly conve si • g with him, as the Jews would not familiarly converse with the heathen, and as Paul commandeth 1 Cor. 5. 10, 11. that with an excommunicated man, we are not to eat.

Ob. 7. Whatsoever you bind on earth, is in good sense, that he who offendeth any little one that believeth, his sin is bound in Heaven, as the friends of Job c. 42. were not accepted of God, till they made their peace first with Job, yet Job had no power of the Keys over his friends, and an offering is not accepted, while first the offerer be reconciled to his broth • r, and so his sins are bound in Heaven, and yet one brother hath not a jurisdiction over another.

Answ. Binding and loosing in this, Chap. 18. must be the same with binding and loosing, Chap. 16. 19. but expressly their binding and loosing is by the Church. power of the Keys, and is all one with that authoritative power of remitting and retaining sins 〈◊〉 . 20. 21, 22 23. and in Scripture the keys, and binding, and loosing, are never ascribed but to Stewards, Officers, Princes, and Judges, who have power of jurisdiction, as I have proved already; and therefore that which is spoken of Jobs friends, and of the offerer not reconciled to his brother, Come not up to the point, for Job's friends do not bind on earth, and the offended brother is a more private man destitute of the keys, and of all power of j • risdiction.

Answ. I deny the Proposition, to wit, If many Elders be one Presbytery ruling many Congregations, then do they bear the relation of Elders to these many Congregations, as proper Pastors to every Congregation, of, or within that Presbyterial Church: nor do they bear that relation of watchmen and proper Pastors to everyone of these Congregations, that a Pastor of a particular Congregation beareth to his particular flock, that is to be • oved. It is true they are called the Elders of the presbyterial Church of Ephesus, the College of the Angels of the Church of Pergamos; but this is a general and different relation from that which each Pastor, doth carry to his own flock in those respects. 1. The Presbytery are Elders to the classical Church 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 •• ; not in things proper to each Congregation but in things common to all, or in that which is the proper object of government, to wit, those things which rather concern the consociation, and combination of those thirty Churches then the thirty consociated, and combined Churches in particular. 2. The Presbytery doth rather take care of the reg • lation of the acts of governing in all these Churches, then the governed Churches: for they are to heed to the Pastors ordained, and to lay h • nds suddenly on no man, to commit the Word to faithful m • n, to see that Pastors preach sound Doctrine, and exercise Discipline according to the rule, but they do not feed as special Pastors the particular flocks, but everyone is to feed his own flock over the which the Holy Ghost hath set him, Acts 20, 28. 3 The Elders of the classical presbytery are Elders to all these Churches, as the Elders themselves are, in Collegio Presbyteriali, in the College of Presbyters and properly as they are in the Court, but not separatim, and oct of Court, so this and this Archippus is not an Elder, or Pastor to all these Congregations, so as he hath to answer to God and to watch for the Souls of them all, but he hath a charge of them only in Collegio; and if he do anything, as a classical Elder, as if he lay hands on a Pastor ordained to be the Pastor of such a Congregation, he doth it as the hand and instrument and deligate of the Presbytery, or if he pronounce the sentence of excommunication in a Congregation, he is virtualiter in Collegio, when he doth that act, in respect he doth it as the deligate of the Presbytery. And this our Brethren may see in their own particular Eldership of their independent flock, if an Elder occasionally rebuke any of the flock, never convened before the Church, he doth not in that exercise an act of Church Jurisdiction, because he is not now in a Court, and when he is not in the Court he cannot excommun • cate, Yet • iting in Court he doth, in Collegio, with the rest of the Eldership exercise Church Jurisdiction. And separatim, and not joined in the Court they cannot exercise Church Jurisdiction. 2. The presbytery hath a Church-Relation to all these 30. Churches not taken distributively, but collectively as all those are united in one Church classical under one external and visible government, even as the Elders of an independent Church are not Elders of their single Congregation, being separated from their Court, and extra coll • gium Presbyteriale, in the notion of the relation of a Church-Jurisdiction, for they are Elders by reason of Church Jurisdiction only in their Court. 3. Classical Elders in the Court have power of Jurisdiction in relation to this presbyterial, or classiciall Church, but they have not properly an ordinary power of order to preach to them all and everyone, and to administrate the Sacraments to them. The Elders of a particular Congregation, have power of order and power of Jurisdiction without the Court, but they have not power of Church jurisdiction, but in the Court; for there is a difference betwixt a power of jurisdiction which Elders have as Watchmen, and a power of Church-Jurisdiction which Elders have not but in foro Ecclesiae, in the Court of Church-Jurisdiction. So the great Sanhedrin bear rule over all the Tribes of Israel. But this Judge of the Tribe of Dan a member of the Sanhedrin is not a Judge of the Tribe of Benjamin, or a Judge to a thousand of that Tribe, as the Captain of that thousand. 2. I distinguish the proposition, if the Elders of the Presbytery be Elders of the Presbyterial Church, then are they Elders in relation to the many Congregations in that Church, if they be Elders in these common affairs which concern government in general, then are they Elders in feeding, by the word of knowledge, and in governing in all the particulars which concern the government of each Congregation. That I deny, for their oversight in governing in things belonging to all the consociated Churches, doth not make them Elders of all those particular Congregations. 3. Deacons in some cases are also Deacons in relation to all the particular Churches in some reserved cases: if all the Deacons of Macedonia, Corinth and other Churches, should meet in one and take course for supplying the distressed Saines at Jerusalem, what inconvenient were in this?

Ob. 2. If Presbyterial Elders be Elders to mary Congregations in a general Relation, what sort of Elders are they? are they Elders ruling, or are they Elders teaching? it is unpossible that they can be Elders teaching, to so many Congregations; for teaching is a personal and incommunicable act, that m • n cannot commit to any others, they must perform it in their own persons, a •• cannot commit it to others, if they be Ruling Elders only, and not teaching Elders, this is against the Scripture; for the exten: of teaching and the extent of ruling are commexsurable in the Word, and of alike extersion, Acts 20. 28. These same who are to feed the fl • ck at Eph • sue, are to govern and rul • , and they are to feed the whole fl • ck • , not a part of it; so the Text saith, Take heed to the whole fl • cke, then they are not to govern all in a presbytery, and to feed with teaching the Word, one particular Congregation only; so 1 Pe • . 5. 2. feed the flock of God which is amongst you, not with knowledge only, but be addeth their duty of governing: Taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly, &c. So H • b. 13. 7. Remember them that have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you the Word of God; Ergo, these same who have the rule over the flock, and govern, du also speak the Word of the Lord and teach, v. 17. obey them that have the rule over you and submit to them, for they watch for your souls as these who must give accompt; Ergo, these same who govern, do also as Pastors watch for the flock, as those that are to give an accompt; but the governing classical Presbytery do rule, but it is unpossible that they can give an accompt for all the Congregations of a classical Presbytery, for they cannot watch over them all, except everyone of these must have many Eyes: Nor can they be both ruling and teaching Officers, for then they should have two Offices, if one man be both a Physician and a Surgeon to two several companies, he must have two Offices in relation to two charges which he hath to those two companies, if he practice physic to the one company, and chyrurgery to the other, this is against the order that Paul Col. 2. rejoiced to behold. Therefore the classical Elders cannot be Rulers having the oversight of the whole c •• ssicall Church, and yet everyone of them must be a 〈◊〉 and teaching pastor only to the single Congregation over which 〈◊〉 .

Answ. As grand-Fathers and fathers do bear a relation to these same Children divers ways, both are fathers and may tutor and provide for the children, but both are not begetting • athers, so also do the classical Elders and the Elders of particular Congregations, bear divers relations to the flocks. the question then is what sort of Elders are the Presbyterial Elders to the Presbyterial Church? I distinguish Church, I distinguish Elders. They are Elders classical only to the classical Church collectively taken, and they have an authoritative care over this Church. But they are proper Elders to the classical Church taken distributively, that is, this man is an Elder to this part, or member of the Presbytery, to wit, to this Congregation. And another man to this Congregation as the Elders; in the Court and Aslembly at Jerusalem, Acts 15. they are Elders in relation to the whole Churches of Antioch, Syria, and Silicia, and the Gentiles collectively taken in those dogmatical points, with the confession of our Brethren, and these same Elders were in special manner Elders to the Congregations of Antioch, Syria and Silicia, and other Churches taken distributively; so also the Elders of many consociated, and Neighbouring Churches are special watchmen over their own fl • cks, by teaching and ruling, according to our Brethren's grounds, and also they have a Brotherly care over all the consociated Church, to Council, • dmonrth, Comfort; seeing every man is his Brothers keeper, by a Divine Law, and the care is like as is it were authoritative, only, by our Brethren's way, it wanteth the relation of authority; vet doth it not follow that Elders this way have two Offices. but only that they perform two acts of one and the same Office; also a Pastor of an independent flock, who writcth • B •• ke for the instruction of Sister-Churches as he preach •• those same Sermons that are in the printed B • oke to his own people and flock, hath two Relations, one to his own flock whom he preacheth unto. as a Pastor, another as an instructer of other Churches by his writings, yet for that he hath not two Offices, as one who is a 'Physician and a Surgeon to two sundry companies. if any say, he writeth not Books as a Pastor, by virtue of his Office, but as a gifted man by power of fraternity, let me deny the truth of the distinction, for this is to beg what is in question; For to teach the Churches by writing should proceed from the authoritative power of a Pastor, as a Pastor; and by that same official power that he teacheth his own flock vivâ voice, by vocal preaching, as a Doctor he teacheth other Churches by writing. But it was asked, whether are the classical Elders ruling Elders, or Teaching Elders to the classical Church?

Answ. They are both, and they are neither, in divers considerations, they be teaching Elders in all the Congregations, distributively taken, they are Rulers in all collectively taken, they are Teachers 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , in some reserved acts, resolving synodically some cases of conscience and dogmatical points upon occasion, but they be not the constant Teachers to watch for the Souls of all. 3. The places, Acts 20. 28. 1 Pet. 5. 2. Heb. 137. 17. prove that those that rule in common many Churches should be Teachers of these same Churches distributively, and all the Eldership at Ephesus should rule the whole Churches amongst them. And there should no Pastor be a sole Ruler and not a Teacher, as the Prelate is; nor is there a Pastor who is a sole Teacher, and it is very true he who is a ruling Pastor is also a Teaching Pastor, but not to that same flock always. Neither is this true, that because power of jurisdiction is founded upon power of order, therefore teaching should be every way commensurable with ruling; for 1. The Eldership convened in Court, and only formaliter in foro Ecclesiae, in this Court hath Church-power of Jurisdiction, in a Congregation, and in this Court they govern, but the Eldership in this Court neither doth preach, nor can preach. 2. The power of ruling is in the ruling Elder, but not the power of teaching, and the power of teaching publicly is in the un • fficed Prophet, as our Brethren teach, and yet in him there is no power of ruling.

Ob. 3. It is strange that to excommunicate agreeth to the ruleing Elder in a classical Presbytery, which he may do in many Congregations, and so he may perform his principal acts over thirty or forty Congregations; and yet the Pastor may not perform his principal act of teaching in many Congregations, by virtue of his office, but only in one congregation, by this frame of a classical Church.

Answ. The ruling Elder doth only in some common cases with the presbytery perform his special acts, but all the ordinary acts of the spiritual Jurisdiction the ruling Elder performeth in that Congregation whereof he is an Elder, nor is this an inconvenient; but preaching which is given to unofficed men by our Brethren, should not be called the principal part of a Pastors charge.

Ob. 4. It is unreasonable that a Prelate or a Pope should rule me, and not teach me, and we condemned this in Prelates that they would only rule, and not teach: But the classical presbytery doth fall in that same fault, for they govern the whole classical Church, but they do not teach the whole classical Church; It is dreadful for a man to watch for the souls of one single Congregation, as being under necessity to give an accempt; Ergo, far more dreadful it is to watch also for a whole tract of thirty or forty Churches, the Apostle will have Him who watcheth for one flock to entangle himself with no other employments. How then shall he take the burden of thirty, or forty Flocks?

Answ. It is unreasonable that Prelate and Pope should rule me, and so many hundred Churches 1. as the sole and proper Pastors, and all under them be but suffragans and deputed Pastors, doing by borrowed authority from Pope and Prelate. 2. That their sole Office should be to command feeders as Pastors of pastors, and not to feed with knowledge the flock, that is most true; but the classical presbyters are neither principal nor proper pastors of the whole classical Churches collectively, nor are two or three pastors under them as deputies. 3. Nor is their Office to rule only, not to feed with knowledge also. 2. The pastors of independent flocks are obliged by brotherly association, to be Vine-Keepers, Governors, fellow-Counsellers to forty sister- Churches, for they acknowledge that Churches cannot subsist in good government without the help of Synods; Now if we distinguish onerousn • sse, care, and labor of B • therly watching over one another, and oner • u • n • sse, care, and labor, by way of Jurisdiction, the former is as great in foro Dei, in the Court of Conscience as the latter, and so ou • Brethren make Governing without Teaching, as well as we do; They in a Brotherly way, we in a way of Jurisdiction. I prove that their way is as dreadful and labo • ous in the • oynt of conscience, and in a way of giving accompt to God, as our way. For 1. A divine command that we be our Brethren's keepers, and we watch over one another commandeth onerousnesse, and care in Brotherly governing to them, as to us. 2. We make the ground and foundation of governing a Classical Church that band of Love and Union of the members of one Body of Christ, and this band of Lovely and Brotherly consociation of many Congregations commandeth, and ti • th us to do no more in Governing and i • Helping, and promoting the edification of sister- Churches, then if we had no further warrant to prom • te edification, then the alone relation of Brotherly consociation, for the only and very reason why the Wisdom of our Law-giver Christ hath put a special Commandment on consociated Churches to make one Presbytery, and to govern one Classical Church, in these common points that concern the whole Classical Church, in the point of sound Doctrine and lawful and Ministerial Jurisdiction, is the necessity that Members of one Body have of Broth • rly Help, Light, Direction, Comfort one of another. Which point I desire carefully to be observed: for we see no ground to make the powers of a Congregation, of a presbytery, of a Province. of a National Church, powers formally and essentially different, they differ only in more or less extension, as the adjunct or genuine property of one and the same great visible Body, which is one integral part; That same. 1. Covenant of God. 2. That same Lord 3. That same Spirit. 4. That same Faith and Baptism. 5. That same power of the Keys in Nature and Essence belongeth to all; only the power must be more or less, as the Body is more or less, as there is more of that vis loc • motiva, the power of moving in the Hand then i • one Finger, and in the whole Arm then in the Hand only, and in the whole body then in the Hand. And I clear it in this, a man is a gifted Preacher in a Congregation in an Island, there is none other gifted of GOD to Preach the Gospel but he only. I would think, as a Brother he were under as great an Obligation of care, and laborious onerousnesse of conscience to bestow his Talent for the gaining of Souls by preaching, though he were not called to be their Pastor, and that by virtue of his Brotherly relation to the people, as if he were called to be their Pastor. I desire to know what the naked relation of Authority, or Jurisdiction addeth to his care and onerousnesse in point of laboring by preaching the Gospel. Indeed now being called, his care is Pastoral and more authoritative. But if according to the measure of the Talent, everyone is to proportion his pains to gain more Talents to his Lord, and if the relation of a Pastor add no degrees of gifts to His Talent, as we may suppose, I think his onerousnesse in laboring was as great before he was a Pastor as after: but I speak not this, to say that in a constituted Church there is no calling required other then gifts. Nor do I speak this to say, that a calling is not a new motive why a man should employ his gifts for the honor of the Giver; But only to show that CHRIST hath united powers of Jurisdiction in Congregations, in Presbyteries, in Churches of Provinces and Nations; that so, not only gifts might conduce to help and promove edification, but also united powers of Jurisdiction which are also gifts of God, and though some may say that a calling to an Office layeth on M • n a more special Obligation, to make accompt for Souls, then gifts only (which in some sense, I could also yield) yet seeing we think the relation of the Eldership to a whole Classical Church is not founded upon an Office different from the Offices of Pastors and Elders which they have, and are clothed with in relation to their particular Congregations, but only authoritative acts of the same Office, and that for the common promoving of edification in the whole Classical Church, grounded in the depth of his Wisdom who hath seven Eyes, upon a Brotherly Consociation, in which they must either edify one another, and occasionally partake of these same holy things, or then scandaliz • and leaven one another, with their public transgressions; we cannot see how presbyterial Elders are more to give accompt for the Souls of the whole Classical Church in Scriptures sense, Hebrews 13. 17. then consociated pastors and Elders of consociated Churches are to give an accompt to GOD for sister Churches, over which they are to watch, and whose Souls they are to keep, and so far as they are Brethren must make a reckoning to GOD for them. And how can the presbytery be more said to entangle themselves, in governing the Classical Church in some things, with things not proper to their calling, seeing consociated Churches, in a Brotherly way, do medle with those same things, though not in a way of Jurisdiction? For helping the Classical Church by way of Fraternity is not unproper to a Christian calling of Brethren, and the joining of power of Jurisdiction; I mean of power lesser to another power greater, to help the Classical Church, upon the same ground of Fraternity, cannot be unproper to the calling of a College of presbyters.

Objecti. 5. The power of Presbyteries taketh away the power of a Congregation, therefore it cannot be lawful. The antecedent is thus confirmed. 1. Because if the Presbytery ordain • one to be Excommunicated, whom the Elders of a Congregation in conscience think ought not to be Excommunicated, the man, Jure Divino, must be Excommunicated, and the power of the Congregation, which Christ hath given to them is nul. And the exercise thereof impeded by a greater power. 2. the voices of two Elders of a Congregation, which are now sitting in the greater and classical Presbytery, are swallowed up by the greater number of Elders, of thirty or forty Congregations met in one great presbytery; Ergo, the power of the Congregation is not helped by the presbytery, but close taken away.

Answ. The Argument doth presuppose that which is against GOD'S Law, to wit. 1. That there is a contradiction of Voyces, betwixt the Elders of a Cong egation, and of the greater presbytery; which should not be, for Brethren even of Galathia, which contained many Congregations, as our Brethren confess, should all mind and speak, and agree in one thing that belongeth to Church Discipline, as is clear, Gala. 1. 8. Gala. 5. 10 v. 15. Gala. 6. 1. 2. 2. The Argument supposeth that the greater presbytery is wrong in their voicing, that such a man should be excommunicated, and the two Elders of the Congregational Church is right, and hath the best part in judging that the same man ought not to be Excommunicated. But Christ hath given no power to any Church to err, and that power which in this case the presbytery exerciseth is not of Christ; and de jure, the power of the greater presbytery in this case ought to be swallowed up of the two Voyces of the Elders of the Congregation. But suppose that the Elders of one Congregation, and the whole meeting all agree in the truth of GOD, as they all do Acts 15. will you say that Peter, Paul, and James their power is null, and taken from them; and their three voices are swallowed up in that great convention, because to their power and voices are added, in this dogmatical determination (which you grant even now to many consociated Churches ) the power and voices of the rest of the Apostles and Elders; yea and as some say, of the whole Church. Acts 15. 2, v. 6. 25. Acts 16. 4. Acts 21. 18. 25? I believe addition of lawful power doth not annul lawful power, but corroborate and strengthen it. So this shall fall upon your own Eldership of your independent Congregation. Suppose • en Pastors, Elders and Doctors in one of your Congregations, whereas sometime there were but three, and these three had the sole power of Jurisdiction and exercise of the Keys, you cannot say that the accession of six Elders to three, hath made null the power of three, and swallowed up their voices; for if their power and voices were against the truth, it is fit they should be swallowed up: if they were for CHRIST, they are strengthened, by the accession of lawful power and moe voices, and neither annulled nor swallowed up.

Object. 6. The Church at the first, for example, when it was but a hundredth and twenty, had the full entire power within it self: Ergo, it should be in a worse case by the multiplication of Churches, if now that power be given to Presbyteries.

Ans. It is a conjecture, that the whole Christian Church Acts 1. was only an hundredth and twenty. I think there were more, though these only convened at the ordination of Matthias, for there were above five hundred Brethren at once which saw CHRIST after his Resurrection, 1 Cor. 15. 6. and these, I Judge, belonged to the Christian Church also. 2. It is constantly denied that addition of lawful power to lawful power doth arnull, or put in a worse condition the prexistent power; it doth help it, but not make it worse: and twenty Churches adding their good and Christian counsels, and comforts to two Churches do not annul, or hurt or swallow up either the power of good counseling in these two Churches or their good counsels, but do much confirm, and strengthen them.

Object. 7. It is absurd that there should be a Church in a Church, and two distinct kind of Churches, or a power above a power, a Jurisdiction above a Jurisdiction, a State above a State, as Master and Servant, and Father and Son, so there is here a governing and a commanding Classical Presbytery, and a governed and commanded Classical Church, and in a political consideration formally different: now where there be two different States, there be two different names, Titles, and Adiuncts, as 1 Cor. 12. 28. GOD hath set some in the Church, first Apostles, secondarily Prophets. So it is said, Genesis 1. GOD made two distinct Lights, a greater Light to serve the Day, and a lesser Light to rule the Night. But the Scripture maketh no mention of greater or lesser Presbyteries, we have the name of Presbytery but twice in the New Testament, and in matter they differ not, for these same Elders are the matter of both: in form they differ not, for the same combination and union is in all: they differ not in operations, for the superior hath no operations but such as the inferior can exercise, for because a Pastor exhort • th a Pastor comsorteth, we do not make two kinds of Pastors, if we cannot find a distinction betwixt presbyter and Presbyter, how can w • e 〈◊〉 a distinction betwixt Presbytery and Presbytery? Hath the Wisdom of Christ left these Thrones in such a confusion, as by Scripture they cannot be known, by Name, Title, Nature, Operations? And if there be a power above a power, we have to a • end to a Nation and so to subdite a whole Nation, and their consciences to this Government, and we are to put a Kingdom within a Kingdom.

Answ. A Church-Congregational within a Church-Classical is no more inconventent, then a part in the whole, an Hand in the Body, and that is a lesser body in a greater, and our Brethren call the people a Church, and the Elders the Elders of the Church, and what is this but a Church in a Church? 2. A power above a power, is not absurd, ex • ept it be a Church-power, so above a Church-power, as the Superior power be privative and destructive to the inferior, as the Popes power distroyeth the power of the Chu • ch Universal, and the prelates power destroyeth the power of the 〈◊〉 where of he is pretended Pastor. But the power of the presbytery is A • xiliarte, and cumulative to help the Congregation, not privative and destructive to destroy the power of congregations.

Secondly, a power above a power in the Church cannot be denied by our Brethren: for 1. In the Eldership of a ••• gle Congregation, the Eldership in the Court hath a power of Jurisdiction above a power of order, which one single Minister hath, to preach the Word and administrate the Sacraments; for they may regulate the Pastor and censure him, if he preach heretical Doctrine: is not this a power above a power? yea two Elders in the Court have a power of Jurisdiction to govern with the whole prebsytery, but the power of the whole presbytery is above the power of a part. But to come • nearer; The Apostles and Elders at Jerusalem met in a Synod have a power, in dogmatical points over the Church at Antioch, and others: and our Brethren say that the Church at Antioch might have in their inferior Synod determined these same points which the Synod determined at Jerusalem; her's power above power.

Thirdly, we do not see how they be two, or divers indicatures formally and specisically different in nature and operations, for they differ only in more or less extension of power, as the reasons do prove, as the power of government in one City or Borough, doth not differ formally from the power of the whole Cities and Boroughs, incorporated and combined in one common Judicature, and the power of two or three, or four Colleges, doth not differ from the power of the whole combination of Colleges combined in the comm on Judicature of the Universities: so here the powers of the inferior Judicatures do differ from the Superior only in degree, and in number of members of the Judicatures; the policy divine is one and the same, though the Superior can exercise acts of Jurisdiction different from the Acts of the inferior in an ordinary way; such as are ordination of Pastors and excommunication, where many Churches are consociated; though, where this consociation is not, Ordination and Excommunication may be done by one single Congregation: also to argue from the not distinction of Names, Titles and Adjuncts of the Iudicatures is but a weak Argument, because Congregational, and presbyterian, provincial and a national