Chapter XXXVI: Book 2: , Chap. 4

[Footnote 35: See this proposition for substance fully and clearly asserted by that acute and pious author, Mr. P. Bains, in his Diocesan's Trial, quest. 3, pages 83, 84, conclus. 3.]

[Footnote 36: See Cotton's Keys, &c., pp. 31-33, and Mr. Thomas Goodwin, and Mr. Philip Nye, in their epistle prefixed thereunto, do own this book as being for substance their own judgment.]

[Footnote 37: See that judicious treatise, Vindiciae Clavium, chap. III. IV. V., pp. 33-52.]

[Footnote 38: John Cameron, Praelect. in Matt, xviii. 15, p. 149-151, in fol, and Baine's Diocesan's Trial, the third quest, pp. 79, 80, and D. Parcus in Matt. xviii. 15. This is fully discussed and proved by Mr. Rutherford in his Peaceable Plea, Chap. viii. p. 85, &c.]

[Footnote 39: A difference arose betwixt two gentlemen in that church about singing of hymns: the second gentleman was complained of to the church by the first, and upon hearing of the whole business, and all the words that passed between them, this second gentleman was censured by the church, and Mr. Nye _charged sin upon him_ (that was the phrase) in many particulars, and still at the end of every charge Mr. Nye repeated, "this was your sin." After this censure, so solemnly done, the gentleman censured brings in accusations against Mr. Nye, in several articles, charging him with pride, want of charity, &c., in the manner of the censure; and this being brought before the church, continued in debate about half a year, three or four days in a week, and sometimes more, before all the congregation. Divers of the members having callings to follow, they desired to have leave to be absent. Mr. Goodwin oft professed publicly upon these differences, If this were their church fellowship, he would lay down his eldership; and nothing was more commonly spoke among the members, than that certainly for matter of discipline they were not in the right way, for that there was no way of bringing things to an end. At last, after more than half a year's debate, not being able to bring these differences to an end, and being come into England, they had their last meeting about it, to agree not to publish it abroad when they came into England, &c. Mr. Edwards's Antapolog., pp. 36, 37.]

[Footnote 40: Mr. J. Cotton, in his Way of the Churches of Christ in New England, chap, ii. sect. 7, p. 43.]

[Footnote 41: Were the power in the church, the church should not only call them, but make them out of virtue and power received into herself; then should the church have a true lordlike power in regard of her ministers. Besides, there are many in the community of Christians incapable of this power regularly, as women and children. Mr. P. Bain in his Diocesan's Trial, quest. 3, conclus. 3, page 84, printed 1621.]

[Footnote 42: If spiritual and ecclesiastical power be in the church or community of the faithful, the church doth not only call, but make officers out of virtue and power received into herself, and then should the church have a true lordlike power in regard of her ministers. For, as he that will derive authority to the church, maketh himself lord of the church, so, if the church derive authority to the ministers of Christ, she maketh herself lady or mistress over them, in the exercise of that lordlike authority; for, as all men know, it is the property of the lord and master to impart authority. Did the church give power to the pastors and teachers, she might make the sacrament and preaching which one doth in order, no sacrament, no preaching; for it is the order instituted of God that giveth being and efficacy to these ordinances; and if the power of ruling, feeding, and dispensing the holy things of God do reside in the faithful, the word and sacrament, in respect of dispensation and efficacy, shall depend upon the order and institution of the society. If the power of the keys be derived from the community of the faithful, then are all officers immediately and formally servants to the church, and must do every thing in the name of the church, rule, feed, bind, loose, remit, and retain sins, preach and administer the sacraments; then they must perform their office according to the direction of the church, more or less, seldom or frequent, remiss or diligent; for from whom are they to receive direction how to carry themselves in their offices, but from him or them of whom they receive their office, whose work they are to do, and from whom they must expect reward? If their office and power be of God immediately, they must do the duties of their place according to his designment, and unto him they must give account; but if their power and function be from the church, the church must give account to God, and the officers to the church, whom she doth take to be her helpers, &c. Mr. John Ball, in his Trial of the grounds tending to separation, chap. xii. pages 252, 253, &c.]

[Footnote 43: See Vindiciae Clavium, judiciously unmasking these new notions.]

[Footnote 44: Here understand by this phrase, (_over you in the Lord_,) viz: Not only in the fear of the Lord, nor only in those things that appertain to God's worship, but also according to the will, and by the authority of the Lord Christ derived to them.]

[Footnote 45: See the Apologetical narration by the five Independents, page 8; and Mr. Jo. Cotton, at large, asserts the divine institution of the ruling elder. Way of the Churches of Christ, &c., chap. 2, sect. 2, page 13-35.]

[Footnote 46: Calvin, Beza, Pareus, Pagnin.]

[Footnote 47: Arias Montan.]

[Footnote 48: Tremel. out of the Syriac; so the old Geneva translation, and our new translation.]

[Footnote 49: Field, of the Church, book 5, chap. 26.]

[Footnote 50: Sutlive, who afterwards declared, that he was sorry with all his heart, that ever he put pen to paper to write against Beza as he had done, in behalf of the proud domineering prelates; and he spoke this with great indignation.]

[Footnote 51: Mat. Sutliv. de Presbyterio, cap. 12, p. 87, edit. 1591.]

[Footnote 52: Ibid. pages 72 and 87, edit. 1591.]

[Footnote 53: Bilson's perpetual Government of Christ's Church, c. 10, p. 136, 137, 138, printed in Ann. 1610.]

[Footnote 54: That the magistrate cannot be here meant, see fully evidenced in Mr. Gillespie's Aaron's Rod, &c., book ii. chap. 6, pages 218-224, and also chap. 9, p. 284.]

[Footnote 55: Pareas in 1 Cor. xii. 28.]

[Footnote 56: D. Field, Of the Church, book v. chap. xxvi.]

[Footnote 57: Peter Martyr, Beza, Piscator, and Calvin.]

[Footnote 58: Calvin in 1 Pet. v. 2, 3. _Vid. etiam Jacob. Laurent. Comment, in_ 1 Pet. v. 2, 3, _ubi fusius de hac distinctione disserit_, p. 322, ad. 325.]

[Footnote 59: Mat. Sutliv. De Presbyterio, cap. 12, page 72 and 87: edit. Lond., an. 1591. Bilson's Perpetual Government of Christ's Church, chap. 10, page 141; in 4to. printed in anno 1610.]

[Footnote 60: _Vide_ Calv. in loc.]

[Footnote 61: Sutlive.]

[Footnote 62: Whitgift.]

[Footnote 63: Coleman.]

[Footnote 64: Who desire more full satisfaction touching this poor and empty gloss, that the civil magistrate should be meant by these governments, let them consult Mr. Gillespie's elaborate treatise, called Aaron's Rod Blossoming, book 2, chap, 6, pp. 218 to 224.]

[Footnote 65: Bilson.]

[Footnote 66: Mr. Rutherford in his Due Right of Presbyteries, p. 145.]

[Footnote 67: Calvin, Beza, &c. on this place.]

[Footnote 68: See Gillespie's Aaron's Rod, book 2, chap. 9.]

[Footnote 69: Mr. Rutherford in his Due Rights of Presbyteries, chap. 7, sec. 7, pages 145-147.]

[Footnote 70: Beza, Piscata, Calvin, on this verse.]

[Footnote 71: Bilson's Perpetual Government of Christ's Church, chap. x. pages 130, 131.]

[Footnote 72: Altar. Damas. cap. xii., page 918 and page 920.]

[Footnote 73: B. King, in his Sermon on Cant. viii., Bilson in his Perpetual Government of Christ's Church, c. x. page 132, &c.]

[Footnote 74: B. King, in his Sermon on Cant. viii., page 40.]

[Footnote 75: B. Whitgift in his Defence against Cartwright's first Reply. This is one of D. Field's three glosses. Field, Of the Church, lib v., chap. 26.]

[Footnote 76: Bishops that have no tolerable gift of teaching, are like idols, their cases, or rather coffins, set up in the church's choice. Cartwright Testam. _Annot_., in 1 Tim. v. 17.]

[Footnote 77: Altar. Damasc. chap, xii., page 919.]

[Footnote 78: Bridge, Hussey.]

[Footnote 79: Altar. Damasc. chap, xii., page 919.]

[Footnote 80: Sutlive.]

[Footnote 81: Sutlive, De Presbyterio, cap. 12, pages 72, 73.]

[Footnote 82: Bilson's Government of the Church, page 133.]

[Footnote 83: Sutlive, De Presbyterio, c. 12, pages 72, 73.]

[Footnote 84: Bilson, page 135.]

[Footnote 85: Field, Book v.]

[Footnote 86: Bilson, page 133.]

[Footnote 87: Field, Book v.]

[Footnote 88: D. Downham. See Altar. Damasc. c. xii. page 924.]

[Footnote 89: Chrysost. Homil. 15, in 1 Tim. 5, Hier. in 1 Tim. cap. 5, Ambr. in 1 Tim. cap., Calv. in 1 Tim. cap. 5, Bullinger in 1 Tim. cap. 5, Beza in 1 Tim. 5.]

[Footnote 90: Bilson, Sutlive, and Downham.]

[Footnote 91: The London ministers have here inserted the testimonies of these ancient writers in favor of the divine right of the office of the ruling elder, viz. Ignatius, Purpurius, Tertullian, Origen, Cyprian, Optatus, Ambrose, Augustine, and Isidorus; and of these three late ones, viz. Whitaker, Thorndike, and Rivet. The amount of their testimony, when taken together, appears to be simply this, that there have been ruling elders, as distinct from preaching elders, in the Church of Christ from the beginning. It is therefore judged unnecessary to give the quotations from these authors at large.--_Editor_.]

[Footnote 92: Against the office of deacons, and the divine right thereof, fourteen objections are answered by Mr. S. Rutherford in his Due Right of Presbyteries, chap. 7, pages 159 to 175. To which the reader that shall make any scruple about the deacon's office, is referred for his further satisfaction.]

[Footnote 93: Some of our brethren in New England, observing what confusion necessarily depends upon the government which hath been practised there, have been forced much to search into it within this four years, and incline to acknowledge the presbyters to be the subject of the power without dependence upon the people. "We judge, upon mature deliberation, that the ordinary exercise of government must be so in the presbyters, as not to depend upon the express votes and suffrages of the people. There hath been a convent or meeting of the ministers of these parts, about this question at Cambridge in the Bay, and there we have proposed our arguments, and answered theirs, and they proposed theirs, and answered ours; and so the point is left to consideration." Mr. Thomas Parker in his letter written from Newbury in New England, December 17, 1643, printed 1644.]

[Footnote 94: Vid. Hen. Steph. Thes. L. Graec. in verb.]

[Footnote 95: Piscator.]

[Footnote 96: Beza.]

[Footnote 97: Zanch. in loco.]

[Footnote 98: Vid. Hen. Steph. Thes. ad verb.]

[Footnote 99: Mr. Jo. Cotton's Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven, chap. vii. in propos. 3, pages 44-46.]

[Footnote 100: See Mr. Cotton's own words in chap. XIV. at the end, in the margin.]

[Footnote 101: See John Calvin, in 1 Cor. v. 4.]

[Footnote 102: Cameron, in Matt. xviii. 15.]

[Footnote 103: Thus Mr. Bayne remarkably expounds this text, Matt. xviii., saying: Where first mark, that Christ doth presuppose the authority of every particular church taken indistinctly. For it is such a church as any brother offended may presently complain to. Therefore no universal, or provincial, or diocesan church gathered in a council. 2. It is not any particular church that he doth send all Christians to, for then all Christians in the world should come to one particular church, were it possible. He doth therefore presuppose indistinctly the very particular church where the brother offending and offended are members. And if they be not both of one church, the plaintiff must make his denunciation to the church where the defendant is. 3. As Christ doth speak it of any ordinary particular church indistinctly, so he doth by the name of church not understand essentially all the congregation. For then Christ should give not some, but all the members of the church to be governors of it. 4. Christ speaketh it of such a church to whom we may ordinarily and orderly complain; now this we cannot to the whole multitude. 5. This church he speaketh of then doth presuppose it, as the ordinary executioner of all discipline and censure. But the multitude have not this execution ordinary, as all but Morelius, and such democratical spirits, do affirm. And the reason ratifying the sentence of the church, doth show that often the number of it is but small, "For where two or three are gathered together in my name;" whereas the church or congregations essentially taken for teachers and people, are incomparably great. Neither doth Christ mean by church the chief pastor, who is virtually as the whole church.--Mr. Bayne's Diocesan's Trial.]

[Footnote 104: Timothy received grace by the laying on of the hands of the presbytery. For that persons must be understood here, is apparent by the like place, when it is said, by the laying on of my hands, he noteth a person, and so here a presbytery. 2. To take presbytery to signify the order of priesthood, is against all lexicons, and the nature of the Greek termination. 3. Timothy never received that order of a presbyter, as before we have proved. 4. It cannot signify, as Greek expositors take it, a company of bishops; for neither was that canon of three bishops and the Metropolitan, or all the bishops in a province, in the apostle's time; neither were these who were now called bishops, then called presbyters, as they say, but apostles, men that had received apostolic grace, angels, &c. Finally, it is very absurd to think of companies of other presbyters in churches that Paul planted, but presbyteries of such presbyters as are now distinguished from bishops, which is the grant of our adversaries.--Bayne's Diocesan's Trial, page 82.]

[Footnote 105: See Assertion of the Government of the Church of Scotland, Part I. Chap. 2, p. 122, &c.]

[Footnote 106: Mr. Gillespie's Aaron's Rod Blossoming, book i. chap. iii. pages 8-38.]

[Footnote 107: Vid. Joannis Seldeni de Anno Civili, and Calendario, &c. Dissertationem in Praefat., page 8. See also Mr. John Lightfoot's Commentary upon the Acts, c. x. 28, pages 235-239.]

[Footnote 108: John Cameron, Praelect. in Matt. xviii. 15, page 143 ad 162, and Mr. G. Gillespie's Aaron's Rod Blossoming, &c., book i., chap. 3, page 8, &c., and book ii., chap. 9, page 294-297; and book iii., chapters 2-6, handling this elaborately, pages 350-423.]

[Footnote 109: Assertion, &c., part 2, chap. 3, p. 139.]

[Footnote 110: Basilius in Psal. cxv. Oecumenius in loc. Jerom. Chrysostome, hom. 33, in Matt. Irenaeus, lib. 1, chap. 11. Salmeron.]

[Footnote 111: Euseb. Hist. Eccles. 1. 8 c. 1.]

[Footnote 112: If Cenchrea be comprehended under the church of Corinth in this epistle, and the apostle writing to the Corinthians, wrote also to this church, called, Rom. xvi. 1, _the church of Cenchrea_, then have we more congregations than one at Corinth. Now, Cenchrea was a seaport or harbor of the Corinthians. It was a place near to Corinth, on the east of the Egean Sea. Rutherford, in his Due Right of Presbyteries, page 462.]

[Footnote 113: Paget, Gillespie, and the four Leyden professors, unto whose judicious and elaborate treatises, the reader is referred for more full satisfaction against the usual cavils and exceptions that are made against synods, and their power.]

[Footnote 114: This is the judgment of the learned Whitaker upon these words: other lawful councils may in like manner assert "their decrees to be the decrees of the Holy Ghost, if they shall be like to this council, and shall keep the same rule, which in this council the apostles did keep and follow. For if they shall decree and determine nothing but from Scripture, (which was done in this council.) and if they shall examine all questions by the Scripture, and shall follow the voice of the Scriptures in all their decrees, then they may assert, that the Holy Ghost so decreed," &c. Whitaker, Cont. page 610.]

[Footnote 115: That there is an authoritative, juridical synod; and that this synod, Acts xv., was such a one; and that this synod is a pattern to us;--all this is most ingenuously acknowledged and asserted by that learned Independent, Mr. John Cotton, in these words, viz:

"IV. Proposition, in case a particular church be disturbed with errors of scandal, and the same maintained by a faction among them. Now a synod of churches, or of their messengers, is the first subject of that power and authority, whereby error is judicially convinced and condemned, the truth searched out and determined; and the way of truth and peace declared and imposed upon the churches.

"The truth of this proposition may appear by two arguments

"_Argum_. 1. From the want of power in such a particular church, to pass a binding sentence where error or scandal is maintained by a faction; for the promise of binding and loosing which is made to a particular church, Matt, xviii. 18, is not given to the church when it is leavened with error and variance. And the ground----If then the church, or a considerable part of it, fall into error through ignorance, or into faction; by variance, they cannot expect the presence of Christ with them according to his promise, to pass a blind sentence. And then as they fall under the conviction and admonition of any other sister church, in a way of brotherly love, by virtue of communion of churches; so their errors and variance, and whatsoever scandals else do accompany the same, they are justly subject to the condemnation of a synod of churches.

"2. A second argument to prove that a synod is the first subject of power, to determine and judge errors and variances in particular churches, is taken from the pattern set before us in that case, Acts xv. 1-28: when certain false teachers having taught in the church of Antioch a necessity of circumcision to salvation, and having gotten a faction to take part with them, (as appeareth by the dissension and disputation of Paul and Barnabas against them,) the church did not determine the case themselves, but referred the whole matter to the _apostles and elders at Jerusalem_, Acts xv. 1, 2. Not to the apostles alone, but to the apostles and elders. The apostles were as the elders and rulers of all churches; and the elders there were not a few, the believers in Jerusalem being many thousands. Neither did the apostles determine the matter (as hath been said) by apostolical authority from immediate revelation: but they assembled together with the elders, _to consider of the matter_, ver. 6, and a _multitude of brethren_ together with them, ver. 12, 22, 23; and after searching out the cause by an ordinary means of disputation, ver. 7, Peter cleared it by the witness Of the Spirit to his ministry in Cornelius's family; Paul and Barnabas by the like effect of their ministry among the Gentiles: James confirmed the same by the testimony of the prophets, wherewith the whole synod being satisfied, they determine of a JUDICIAL SENTENCE, and of a way to publish it by letters and messengers; in which they CENSURE the false teachers as troublers of their church, and subverters of their souls; they reject the imposition of circumcision as a yoke which neither they nor their fathers were able to bear; they IMPOSE upon the Church none but some necessary observations, and them by way of THAT AUTHORITY which the Lord had given them, ver. 28: which PATTERN clearly showeth us to whom the key of authority is committed, when there groweth offence and difference in a church. Look as in the case of the offence of a faithful brother persisted in, the matter is at last judged and determined in a church: so in the offence of the church or congregation, the matter is at last judged in a congregation of churches, a church of churches; for what is a synod else but a church of churches?"--Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven, pages 47-49.]

[Footnote 116: Junius, Beza, Calvin, and Piscator.]