Part 4
And when that which we call general councils have been, that they were rather for matter of doctrine than for government, or for appeals about persons, and that the institution could not fallupon.
It is trae in Mat. xvi. 18, the word ehurch is taken indefinitely, and for the chorch universal, but yet not as an institution political, therefore he doth not say, he will give the keys to it, but unto Peter, as representing both saints and ministers, to be divided into several bodies,. as afterwards. Christ should appoint it.
That the grand charter of church government, or the power of the keys, is granted not to ministers in particular only, excluding the people, but to.the whole body ofbelievers.
If any were to set down the model of any government whatsoever, the first and most necessary thing is, to set out first what commonwealth, corporation, or body politic, should be the substratum, the seat of that government, in and among whom it is exercised; and to set out the bounds and extent thereof, by which the jurisdiction of that government is limited, and unto which, as the subject matter thereof, all the particulars of that government are suited and proportioned, as the building is to itsfoundation ;
. and also the situation and measare of the ground which they make the seat thereof.
Therefore, in the inquisition after that order and frame of government which, we conceive, Christ hath instituted for his church, it is most proper to begin in seeking out what kind of body or society it is which should be that proper, adequate, entire seat and ,subject of this government, what the bounds and extent thereof are wherein Christ would have his government exercised, and within which confined.
I call the church sedes, or seat, not in allusion to that ancient phrase used for the subject of ecclesiastical jurisdiction, which phrase yet strengthens this use of it, but in allusion to that Scriptare phrase, 1 Tim. iii. 15, where he calls the church ideale, that is, the ' seat or ground of truth;' and as of truth there, so, say
I, of worship and government.
This, therefore, as the foundation, shall be the subject of diseourse, and upon the finding the true abutments hereof, doth the ending and determining of most of those suits and quarrels of this age about church government depend.
The first charter granted by the founder, and the patterns of those master builders the apostles, and the proportions of those primitive churches, must be our guide herein.
Begin we therefore to inquire what is the trae purport of the first grand charter of all the rest, and what help that will contribute hereunto; as we find in Mat. xvi. 19, ' And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven : and whatsoever thon shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.'
THE GOVERNMENT OF [Boox I.
1, Where, first, he no sooner mentions (and it is the first mention) a new church to be builded by him under the New Testament, but he, together therewith, makes mention of keys, both as means of building it and of governing it, following the metaphor of a house therein.
And Peter having newly made a confession that Jesus was the Son of God, he being declared and owned by him as such, Christ utters himself again to him, as the Son of God indeed, speaks of building and contriving anew of his house, as & prerogative proper to him as the Son, which to the same purpose the apostle in like manner allegeth: Heb. iii. 8-5, 'Christ as the Son over his own house, is the builder thereof,' which prerogative he here holds forth, saying,
I will build my chureh, and I will give keys.
The church he intends is the church of the New Testament, which (the Son being himself come) was to be moulded and built anew by him, especially after his ascension.
And the keys he means are ' the keys of the kingdom of heaven ' (as the state of the church under the gospel is called), which, to shew he is the Son, and hath all power committed to him, he professeth to dispose of anew (as the keys themselves were new) to another sort of persons than before; the keys of _ knowledge and government having been before in the hands of high priests and Levites, &c.
Now as the church was to be of a new frame, and the keys*were new, 60 he declares a new disposement of them to other persons than the former.
So that this place strengthens the sssertion that Christ as the Sen is the builder of his church, Heb. iii. 8, 6, and the institutor of all power and means of building in #; and also it proves that the frame and government of the church under the Old Testament, delivered by Moses to those that sat in his chair, cannot be a set rule of the frame and form of government of the church under the New.
For Christ the Son being come, shews his prerogative by declaring the old to be done away with, saying, I will build, I will give the keys, &c.
Whilst he speaks of a new, the old is done away; yea, the persons to whom, and the extent and limits of the power are to be set out by him, as well as what those keys shall be by which he will build and have his church governed, and he therefore says to Peter, 'I do give to thee.'
In that he singles him out electively, it argues his special designation of the subject or pprsons (whoever they be) to whom he will bequeath them.
2. That Peter here, in this promise of the keys for the future to be given, should stand in a representative respect, and not merely personal, all writers in all ages and all sides, though in Peter's name laying several claims unto these keys, do universally acknowledge and observe.
Some say the grant is to Peter only considered as a believer, having made confession of his faith, that Christ was the Son of God, and therefore representing the church of believers, as unto whom all church power should be first given.
Others assert this grant to be made to Peteras an apostle, and so representing the apostles and ministers only.
Thirdly, others, as the papists, vindicate a personal privilege of Peter's above all other apostles, yet therein representing his supposed successor, the bishops of Rome.
Learned Cameron almost alone would have it that this was a personal privilege to Peter, wherein none others did succeed him.
Thus much seems evident to us, that our Saviour Christ speaks unto Peter under a double consideration in these words, ver. 19, and the words before.
The one was merely personal, and therein he speaks to him under his own proper name, Simon son of Jonas, and so pronounceth him blessed, for that his confession, which accordingly expressed his personal privilege (which under that name he had even from circumcision) of his being saved, without any mention of the gift of the keys. But then, secondly, he gives him withal a new name, and 'I also say unto thee, Thon art Peter,'
Cuup. I.) THE CHURCHES OF OHRIST. or rock, which was 4 new and mystical name, as the words following shew, 'upon this rock.'
Tirgog and wérge: answering each other as fides and fidelis.
And under this new name now put upon hing he gives him a farther privilege, * I will give to thee the keys,' namely, as thou art Peter.
This was not so touch in a personal as a mystical consideration, upon which his new name was given him.
And to strengthen this, it may be observed that God in : firat delivering his promises and grand charters unto all sorts, singled out some one man in whose name the grand charter should eminently ran.
So Adam was fixed upon, when God, in his name, gave the earth unto the rest of the sons of men.
So Abraham was singled out to represent the church, both of the Jows and Gentiles, but especially to represent the Jews who were his children, to whom God gave the promises of the Land of Canaan, as representing all his seed, and of the whole world as representing all the saints, Rom. iv. 18.
And accordingly he did upon it change his name from Abram to Abraham.
Thus in like manner here doth Christ deal with Peter.
Hee first blesseth him personally as Simon, then changeth his name to Peter, and so bequeaths this charter of the keys, in his like representation of others, to whom in him the grant is made, as well as tohimself.
For Peter was still more forward than all the rest to utter his faith that Christ was the Son of God.
Elsewhere indeed (as in John vi. 69) he speaks in the person of all the apostles, but here, where this grant is first uttered, singly in his own; and on this occasion Christ honoureth this great and eminent confessor of him, as that man in whose name this great charter should run, he bearing therein the persons of all sorte that were to have any portion of power, whether of his apostles, extraordinary officers, or of ordinary officers, as also of the church of believers, and even of all to whom ever any portion of the keys was for the fature to be given: yet so as this honour was peculiarly his, and he is singled out to be this common representer of all others under the New Testament, which honour he doth bear to this day in his name, even as Abraham had the like honour under the Old Testament.
And to evidence this the more by the event, Christ did in an especial manner honour Peter to be the founder; as it were, and beginner of the new Christian church (as Cameron hath observed out of Tertullian) when he converted that multitude at one sermon, Acts ii.
Neither yet is this to be understood, as if those keys were given unto Peter to convey the keys unto others derivatively, but he takes them representatively (and therefore it was not necessary that all power should be in Peter's person as an apostle, otherwise than representatively) and that not representatione reali, as if he received all power for the church over her, as a king or @ parliament doth, who represents a commonwealth (as the papists and episcopal divines and others say of the officers, that they represent the charch) but only representatione typical, a typical representation (as Baynes distinguisheth), that is, that power which the church, or others that were officers unto her, should receive in themselves afterwards, he now received in a representation both of her and them, as a common person standing for and spoken to for all the rest.
And Christ therefore doth not say I give, which if he had spoken to him as an apostle, constituting him such thereby at present, he would have done, but J will give, for the fature, because many of those whom Peter represented here the power was afterwards to be given to, when the Lord should be pleased to declare it by himself or his apostle.
8. Further, as all this is spoken of Peter here as a representative person, s0 in an indefinite and general way.
And as it is the first great promise and charter, in which all particular portions of power, towhomsoever afterwards distributed, are included, so likewise as the other first and great promises of THE GOVERNMENT OF [Boor II.
God use to be, this is as comprehensive, s0 indefinite also, not designing at particulars.
Such was that grant of the earth to the sons of men, whom afterward God divided into several nations, to whom by his providence, suited to his decrees, he set out the bounds of their several habitations, Acts xvii. 26, and in Deut. xxiii. 8.
The like was that first charter made of Canaan to Abraham, which was afterwards particularly designed out by lot to the several tribes, &c., whose right was yet all indefinitely comprehended, and intended in that first grant to Abraham.
So accordingly all the expressions in this promise are general and indistinct, and to be taken in an indefinite and comprehensive way.
1. As first, where he saith, he will build his church, it is hard to know howto limit it, for he means all sort of churches; he means the mystical church, for he saith, ' The gates of hell shall not prevail against it,' which is only true thereof, for they have prevailed against particular churches, and may; and yet again he must include particular churches too, for it is certain that the mystical general church hath not the power and exercise of all the keys, but only as divided into particular churches, or if it might be supposed to have the keys of rule in general councils, yet not of the sacraments, not . of preaching the word, for, as for such ordinances, that church cannot meet, and therefore exerciseth them only in several parts, and divisions of iteelf.
2. Those words, the keys, are a general comprehensive expression, answerable to that of the word church, taking in keys of all sorts, viz., the keys whereby the universal church, as such, is built and reared, that is, those means whereby men are converted and made members thereof, which God oftentimes blesseth in the hands of others than ministers.
And they are therefore called 'the keys of the kingdom of heaven' at large, not the keys of the church, as restraining it to a political church; and therefore (as Bellarmine, though to a wrong purpose, urged, namely, for the transcendency of the pope's power above the church, yet for the thing itself rightly) is larger than that in Mat. xviii.
It is there meant of a church political, but the keys here in Mat. xvi. 19 have relation to the opening the door of faith, as in Acts xiv. 27 it is called, and therefore implies all means of conversion. And accordingly the opposite thereunto is the gates of hell, which shall not prevail.
And yet again, on the other side, the keys or the power that is given to particular churches are intended, for this is the general grant, afterwards settled in Mat. xviii., where ' Go tell the churches' is mentioned.
And the binding and loosing spoken of there is comprehended under the binding and loosing which is spoken of here; so as churches of all sorts, and keys of all sorts, keys given to churches in a way of discipline, and to private persons to build up one another, keys given to officers of all sorts, apostles and others, are all here intended.
And therefore Melancthon well saith, Claves ecclesie data sunt, sed justa electionem a Christo institutam.
And it is certain that in Mat. xviii. he instituteth a church power, as touching the persons to whom it belongs, distinct from Peter's, and that of the apostles as such ; and yet whatsoever church power there mentioned was to be in any,
Peter receiveth it here.
And as when we say all civil power is in a kingdom, it is meant, sensw diviso, the king hath one part, the nobles another, the people another; and the several officers of a kingdom, they have their part; . and so it is here, and all at the first was now given unto Peter, as bearing the person of all these.
4. Whereas the controversy hath been, whether Peter represented the apostles and the ministers only, or whether he represented the church also, or whether Peter is here personally to be taken as the sole and single subject of a personal privilege; we say all these are here intended by Christ
Cup. II.] THE CHURCHES OF CHRIST. in this his first promise, uttering it himself in this indefinite way, which was afterwards to be further and more distinctly divided, and set out by himself and his apostles.
So that whether Peter had it granted to him as an apostle, and as an apostle representing apostles and other ministers, we will not contend; but yet, that Peter had it also representing the church itself, and saints built upon the rock, the arguments are as convincing and concluding to prove it, if not more, than those that on the other side are framed to prove the words should be spoken of him as an apostle representing the other apostles und elders; and therefore we safely take in all.
The main argument urged to prove that it is spoken to him as an apostle, is drawn from this, that the peraon spoken unto, viz. Peter, was an apostle, and the other
. apostles were present, and so intended ; and therefore this grant here should be restrained to Peter and them as such.
And the arguments for the other, namely, that ordinary believers also should be intended, is taken from the oceasion and ground of Christ's speech, which was a confession of faith made by Peter, and therefore that Christ should take in, and intend other ordinary believers and confessors to have an interest in the keys, as well as elders and apostles, and accordingly to have been by Peter represented.
Soas the pleas of this suit (so far as concerns this place) do lie between the sort of persons spoken to, and that were present, and the qualification of that person a8 a believer, namely, and the ground of Christ's speech ; and all the arguments that are brought to prove they were given him as an apostle, are not exclusive that they are not given him also asa believer.
Austin's expression, Non tantum Petro, sed ecclesia, not to Peter (that is, as an apostle) only, but also to the church, doth rightly divide the share between both.
The occasion of the promise was Peter's confessing that Christ was the Son of God, which holds forth nothing proper unto ministers only, or himself as an apostle only; and therefore the privilege here must be common unto that sort that make confession of faith, as well as to ministers.
It was 8 common faith confeased, not of what belonged unto apostles only, but unto believers ; the promise is therefore suited unto the oceasion.
And this is a stronger inference than that other which is brought, that he represented the other apostles only, namely, because that they were present, whenas Peter here did not intend to speak it in their names, as in John vi. 69 he did; but rather, he steps out and prevented them, and therefore also Christ speaks first untohim inhis personal condition, ' Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jonas;' and then in his representative condition, as representing those whose faith he had confessed, as well as the apostles, whom, if only or simply Christ had intended that he should represent, he might have spoken to them all as well as to Peter, they being then present.
And then, again, his name, Petros, Peter, which Christ here anew gives him, with the reason of it, viz. 'upon the rock,' &o., in an allusion to Petra, signifying one built on the rock, and so of the same nature with the Tock, argues this to have been Christ's scope in promising to him the keys.
This change of his name thus into Peter elegantly served to suit and answer the thing which Christ was speaking, namely, the building his church on the rock, whereon Peter, thus confessing himeelf, was built.
'Thou art Peter,' that is, Thou art built on this rock, thou art a stone in this rock, and unto thee as such I speak.
And further, he doth not say, Thou shalt be called Peter, but Thou art Peter, that is, Thou art a stone, thou art built on rock; and thus it answereth to his being a believer, which is all one as to be 8 member of the chureh so built, and therefore it is spoken of Peter, considered in the person of believers, built with the rest ofthe church upon the tock, as well as the apostles, whose privilege alone this was not; and it is
THE GOVERNMENT OF [Boox I. farther observable, that of all the apostles, this Peter, here spoken to, should, if only intended, alone use this very similitude to this particular purpose, and in effect apply what is said here of himself, Thou art Peter, to all believers, in 1 Peter ii. 5, ' Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house,'
; a8 if he had said, It is not I only that am the Peter that Christ intended; it was not spoken to me, but unto you all. And his expression in 2 Peter ii. 1 is all one with this in his first,
' To all that have received like precious faith with us,' i.e. with me; asin 8 John 9 John saith, ' that receiveth not us,' that is, that receiveth not me.
And almost all divines of all sides do thus far yield this: they say the keys are given primarily to the faithful, only they explain it and say, they are given tn bonum ecclesia, for the good of the church, but unto the officers of it.
Obj. 1. If it be said that if they be given to Peter as a believer, then unto all believers, to women and children, and the like.
Ans. The answer is, first, when it is said the keys are given to a believer, it is to be understood not reduplicativé, as if only and to all such all sorts of the keys are given; but extensive, that is, to Peter, as representing believers also, and not barely as an apostle, but yet such believers as after should be more specially determined to have their share in them.
For they are given unto believers, in Peter representing such, according to Christ's disposement, after to be declared.
It is an indefinite charter, to be formed up by him afterwards, only now declaring that those of that sort should have them.
And Christ hath afterwards made a peculiar exception of women not to speak nor to usurp authority in the church, 1 Cor. xiv. 84; which being an exception, it must be from a rule, and 60, firmat regulam, argues and confirms that the rule is, that males have liberty and power to speak and judge in some cases.
And yet, secondly, even they have a sprinkling of the keys in their proportion, if you take keys in that large sense before explained ; for the keys of conversion and edification may be, through God's blessing, in their hands.
Their speeches and instructions in private may, and often do, convert and edify the souls of others; thus, Titus ii. 4, 'That the aged women may teach' (namely, by private instructions and the like) 'the younger women to be sober, to love their husbands.'
And other of them may be instruments to convert or build up servants and children, friends, &c., in their families; yea, 'their husbands may be won without the word, by their chaste conversation,' 1 Peter iii. 2.
Yea, and as members of a church, they have power to bind sin upon a man, in private personal admonition first, which is a degree, and in order to that public, if a man repents not, which yet personal admonitions of others to those not in church fellowship (as in England formerly) are not in order unto.
For when a woman doth tell a man of his sin, if she makes it out and prove it, she tells it him with this bond upon him, that if he repent not, she bringeth it to the church; and so she binds him before and in the church, which she doth as a fellowmember, though not as a judge.
And the same sentence that a woman hath thus pronounced in private against him, the same the church afterward ratifies, even as what the church ratifies is bound in heaven.
The mistake of the objection lies in this, to infer that because women have not the authority, the public power of the keys, that therefore they have no power of the keys committed to them, whereas, none have all that others have, not the apostles themselves.
Obj. 2. If farther it be objected, that the keys are given to others than believers, as to ministers, though not true believers ;—
Ans. The answer is: Yet so as that they are visibly believers, or they ought not to be ministers; so Judas was.
And so if it be given to ministers only, Cuar. III.) THE CHURCHES OF CHRIST. and apostles, it is supposed that they are faithful: 'The things that thou hast heard, commit to faithful men, that they may teach others,' 2 Tim. ii, 2.
'Just, sober, holy,' Titus i. 18.
Obj. 8. And if it be said further, that then they are given to believers singly, and out of church fellowship; Ans. The answer is: Although they are here given to believers materially, yet formally, but as built up in a church, according as Christ should after order it.
And if we speak of the judiciary power, elders themselves must needs be supposed to be set over a church ere those keys are given unto them; and so also what is granted to saints hereof, those keys must needs fall under the same supposition.
But if we speak of the keys in a larger sense, 80 they are given to all and every one singly, whether they be in church fellowship or no.
Now, Christ's grant here being general and indefinite, though it takes in all, yet each according to Christ's order ; and so if thejudiciary keys aro said to be intended, they mast be understood to be here given, as Christ afterwards should particularly design how they should be exercised, and that is, and can be, only in church society; and whether by saints or elders only, as they are rightly formed up into fixed bodies.
But for a conclusion, that which from this place we take along with us, towards the finding out the seat or subject of church power, is this, that the keya were indefinitely and materially here given, as well to saints as elders, in the person of Peter, in their several proportion, and afterwards were particularly determined, and held forth in the rules and examples set by the apostles.
That before a company of believers or saints can become the formal seatof government, they must be united into the state and order of a church.—
Reasons given why this is necessury.—A demonstration of it alsofrom the : example of the primitive churches, planted by the apostles,
This first charter, or grant of the keys, both to the saints and officers, being but indefinite, and given unto them as materially considered, as the command and blessing to multiply, is to men, Gen. i. ; ere these can become the formal seat of government or public worship, there must be an orderly moulding and casting of this matter, both saints and officers, into several bodies or societies, for the exercise of these keys; which both the necessity of the thing requires, and also the examples in the New Testament do warvant and confirm unto us.
1, The necessity of the thing requires it.
For, first, otherwise there would be no order, which in the church of the Colossians the apostle doth so praise in them.
He might have commended the saints in that city for their personal holiness, the teachers among them for their gifts, but he farther rejoiceth in their order.
And as order in any multitude or company of men primarily respects their union into a body for such ends and purposes among themselves as thereby they seek to attain,
80 here in this ease quod non estformatum, non est vere unum, what is not formed is not truly one.
This outward order is as the form that gives the unity.
An heap of stones is not one body so properly as an house, although the parts in such a heap be homogeneal, and of one and the ame kind; and the other consists of several materials, heterogeneal, and of several kinds, as wood, stone, iron, clay, &o.
Yea, and the indefinite collection of all such materials into one heap are not a building, although they be squared and THE GOVERNMENT OF {Boox II. fitted to be joined each to other, the beams and rafters by their tenons and mortices and the like; but that all these should be reared, and artificially erected into one building, it is that which makes them one body, in such
@ respect as the other are not.
2. Secondly, There would otherwise be no government at all.
When God gave forth that law, Gen. ix. 6, 'He that sheddgth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed ;' over and above this indefinite commission given, it was necessary for the due and orderly execution hereof that there should be orderly societies of men, which should be the seat of a government by which this punishment should be exercised.
God's way in this law, and so Christ's meaning in that gift of the keys, Mat. xvi. 19, cannot be like to that which Cain, through the horror of his conscience, feared, thatany man or every man that met him might kill him. bo neither is it indefinitely and promiscuously in the power of any, the next company of saints' and elders, to judge an offending brother.
And reason confirms this; for, 1, it is this form and orderly union of them into a body that makes any company the seat of government, and to have a power among them ; and how can there be true government without a seat of jurisdiction in which it must be exercised?
And that must be a body politic, according to the nature or kind of the government or polity exercised in it; if civil, then it is a commonwealth or corporation, &c.; if ecclesiastical, it is a church.
A politic body is not made up by a multitude, for then a company of men at a horse-race were such; nor is it local union in the same place, forso at a stage play a throng or a crowd meeting would be such.
As forms in natural bodies are necessary to constitute them such as well as matter, so an union and moulding into one ig needful to constitute a body politic; yea, ajudicial power doth as much depend upon a formality oforder as it doth upon a material qualification of persons.
Take a company of ministers, or what sort of persons else, however qualified or denominated, ; they have not that power (which yet doth belong to ministers) indefinitely, or as any way met, but as formed up into bodies, as a power in a kingdom is not given to justices of peace indefinitely or promiscuously met, but as met according to commission in several circuits and distinct bodies from them.
Burgesses of parliament, although lawfully chosen to be such, yet they have not parliamentary power, but as met in parliament according to the law of the kingdom; and the legality of the meeting doth give as much power and authority as the qualification of the persons. The authority is the result of union, and that legally and lawfully made,as well as it is founded in persons fitly qualified.
Power in civil things is not so much given to mayors and aldermen as to the corporation;though the whole corporation exerciseth it not, yet it is their privilege, and they have sueh and such a power amongst them ; it is not alone the privilege of the magistrates so much.
That heathenish town-clerk of Ephesus, when the men of that city met in a promiscuous way (and perhaps the very same men of that city had panegyrical meetings for some acts of government, as eleetion of magistrates and the like), yet because then they met not according to the order of that city, he says of it that it was an illegal ixxAno/a, assembly.
8. Without this union and order of society, persons offended, that ought to complain, should not have whither to go to accuse, or the party offended be obliged to come.
Nor would it be known whose the care and duty were to take on them the cognisance and judging of it, and whose sin it was if it were neglected.
If these companies of elders and Saints in a great city were fluid and promiscuous, and but like such companies as met at sights, or shows, or ordinances, without any incorporation or embodying, so as all being
Cuar. DT.} THE CHURCHES OF CHRIST.
' in an equal liberty to go one day to this, another to that, company, &c., the same persons never met in one place unless casually and providentially.
Iftwelve such meetings were in one such city, what shall oblige me to any one more than the rest?
If I come to receive in any one, and they upon occasion would proceed judicially to deal with me, I might plead and say,
Tam no more accountable to you than the rest, I receive as often with them as with you, I belong as much to other assemblies astoyou; and what have you to do to judge me morethan they?
And besides, it being (in this way) but providential that the same persons the offender is accused unto to-day should meet in one place another day, when all have an indifferent liberty, without any-set or fixed incorporation, at the utmost it is but his forbearing to assemble with the company for that time or in that place any more, and retire unto those other, for he is at his freedom so to do.
Again, in this case, all that any of those companies can inflict upon him is but for that time to suspend him frem communion with them ; but to proceed to excommunication they cannot, not only because that imports a fixed company heis cast out of, but also because there is nothing to oblige him to attend that company to be so often admonished, as his sin shall become an obstinacy and fit matter for excommunication.
Or what shall oblige those of this individual company to whom the complaint first came, that they in relation to and for his censure's sake should meet so often together, as that he may be publicly admonished by them so many times as in the end deservedly to be thrown out ?
Yea, 4, this union and order must needs hold in such societies where the very punishment is to cast out of that body they were first within, for to cast out and to be within are correspondent, and answer each to other.
Now the : punishment to be exercised is not only a personal withdrawing by every man apart (as occasionally they should meet him), but a sentence publicly agreed on; and the sentence then in use in the primitive churches was to cast out of the church, John iii. 10 (as to expel and cast out of « city, or town, or family), which unless they were a body formed up among themselves, and he one within to them, they could not do.
IL As the necessity of the thing, so the examples of those primitive churehes argues them to have been formed and fixed bodies that were the seat of worship and government, and do agree with these fore-mentioned principles. = First, The very denomination of churches (as of churches in Judea, Galatia, éc.) doth fall in with and confirm that first reason, that the saints and elders in those countries were cast into distinct and several bodies, and diversified by several corporations and relations.
It imports not a distinction of them only as saints materially from the world (as the universal church whereof they are parts doth), but a distinction of them into several companies among themselves, namely, the universal and great church parted into several lesser companies and churches.
Nor can those set and fixed titles arise from several promiscuous acts of meeting of these saints and elders providentially, but it includes, in the Holy Ghost's language, a settled state and incorporation in order to settled meetings.
As the word presbytery notes out not simply a company of elders, but united into a body for government; so the phrase churches imports not simply a company of saints and elders met, but a stated society ; so as when the union of their actual meeting is dissolved, they still continue the same, as the companies in London are still so many companies in state, though not in act, when every man is gone to his own house, as well as when met in their common hall.
They are not only a body because or when they actually meet, but they are a body in order to meeting, THE GOVERNMENT OF ([Boox II. and there is a power in their governors to call them together again.
And this also all the comparisons of an house to God, &e. (speaking of particular churches), implies, not simply acts of meeting, but a compacted state.
And that the churches then in the primitive times of Christianity were such bodies is evident, for, 1 Cor. xiv., the apostle calls not only a particular church an whole church (as likewise elsewhere, Acts xx. 28, the church of Ephesus is called the 'whole flock,'* and that at Corinth 'a whole lamp,'
1 Cor. v. 6, each therefore making a distinct body, an whole and entire body, bounded within itself, as any other corporation is): but farther, he speaks of that church as importing a stated union in relation to meeting actually:
"If the whole church,' says he, ver. 28, 'come together.' They were therefore a church in order to meeting, even when they met not, and are at home, in respect that the union and bond to the same laws and ordinances still re- . mained.
They were not a church simply because they met or when they met, but they, the same persons, were to meet because they were a church in a stated and constant relation.
And suitably to this, he elsewhere saya of them, ' When you are gathered together to cast out such an one,' 1 Cor. v. 4, 5, because they were to meet as a body in a constant way. And upon this fixed relation of each unto the whole, the apostle lays upon this same church this as a duty, as to meet for worship, so to stay each for other, in 1 Cor. xi. 88, and so not to meet in promiscuous several companies (as men at ordinaries) for the sacrament.
There was therefore a set company known to each other, obliged to meet in one in a constant way, and so was an whole chareh in a fixed relation.
And such were all the churches the apostles wrote unto, and gave ordi- ' nances forth unto: 'So I ordain in all the churches,' 1 Cor. vii. 17; 'we have no such custom,' saith he, 1 Cor. xi. 16, 'nor the churches of Christ,' whom he praiseth for keeping the traditions he gave them, as 1 Cor. xi. 2; and rejoiceth in their order, and whom he blameth for occasion of divisions, in respect of their public meetings, as vers. 18, 19, 21, 22.
Now all this argues that, as churches, these were bodies and societies in a fixed and settled relation, for his manner of writing is parallel with that, as if a king or his superior officers should write in his name to all corporations, shires, and bodies politic, giving out laws and proclamations and edicts to be observed by them in their assemblies, which, if they were not fixed and settled bodies, bat only unfixed and uncertain fluid assemblies, they were not meet subjects capable thereof, nor of orders to regulate them.
This also the state of the seven churches of Asia, whom Christ directeth those seven epistles unto, with several inscriptions to the several angels of those churches, evidently argues ; they were fixed bodies, having each their elders, an angel (collectively taken, as the use of that phrase in that book is), in a special relation, to whom thereforo, as to the mayor or alderman in a settled corporation, tha letters are directed.
And he blames them, as bodies or societies of men fixedly incorporate, for sins passed in their public transactions as they wera a body, as suffering Jezebel to teach, &c.
And further, he threateneth to remove the candlestick, Rev. ii. 5, that is, their church state, as they were a standing seat and subject of the ordinances of the gospel, as the Jewish candlestick was; for the seven candlesticks are the seven churches, Rev. i, 20.
As these candlesticks were these churches, distinguished each from other, so these churches were the saints and elders, as candlesticks cast and moulded into a set and standing form, and so thereby made distinct each from other, though all made out of the same lump of the church universal, therefore chosen out as standing patterns of the frame and fabric of other
* Though it be not 'sass in Acts xx., yet it is so elsewhere in other places.
Caar. TT.) THE CHURCHES OF CHRIST. churches then extant or to come. And as that and the like threatening concerns succession, so it further argues a fixed combination, that is the subject of guilt, for that combination continuing, though the persons then alive should all die, yet if the same sins continued in persons that succeed members of that combination, that church or body, in respect of the fixed state of it continuing, would inherit it; for by reason of such a fixed union or stated society or corporation, it comes to pass that not only a company of men are one body when their assemblings or meetings' are not, though in order to such meetings, as well as when they are, but farther, that they continue the same body to succession, and so each of these the same charch or candlestick, notwithstanding it may suffer alteration in increase or lessening, in respect of particular persons.
Yea, though the matter, the gold, the persons that now make up one of these candlesticks, should all be removed by death or otherwise, yet the candlestick continued the same, because the same settled church state continued; as in this respect the company of mercers, or any corporation, is the same it was an hundred years ago, because of this settled order and union, and is capable of being threatened to have their charter taken away, their corporation removed, or the main privileges of it gome way nullified, though the original persons do not still dwell in the : same city.
2. And as in respect of public worship, so in respect of judicature ; the churches then were bodies cast into fixed relations.
This made the church of Corinth (as, 1 Cor. i. 2, it is called), a seat and subject ofjudicature and government: 1 Cor. v. 12, 'Do not ye judge them that are within?' and 'What haveI to do to judge them that are without ?' .Here was, first, a set and certain judicature among themselves, as the word judging imports; secondly, a body, within which whoever was, he came under this judicature, for they judged them within, as corporations or bodies politic use to do them within themselves.
There was something then that made a special relation, which was the ground of their power to judge this person, and brought him within the compass of their jurisdiction.
And it is farther expressed with a denial of power over others that are without, ' What have I to do to judge them that are without?' I that am an apostle, that have the largest jurisdiction and commission, what have I to do in it?
And his power and theirs did differ ; for though he might judge as occasion was in any church where he came, yet he lays it as a special peculiar daty upon them, to have power over them that were within themselves ; and that power belonged unto them, asthe other belonged unto him.
And the persons that are said to be within, to that church of Corinth to whom he writes, could not be the church universal, for then the church of Corinth should have had power to have judged all or any other churches of saints in the world, as well as itself, and so a-part had power over the whole.
There was, thirdly, a duty lay upon some persons among them, to whom this belonged, ' Do not ye judge?' and a sin that lay upon them for their neglect, which lay not upon another company, ' Do nod ye judge them within ?'
And have you hitherto neglected it ?
8. Thirdly, The special relation of elders to their churches, and the members in particular churches among themselves, doth evidence that not any company of Christians, but such as embodied together into and settled in the order of a church, are the subject and seat of this grand charter of the keys, or the ecclesiastical power.
, (1.) The relation of the members among themselves doth evidence it, 1 Cor. xii. 27, where he descends from the discourse of union of the members in the universal body of Christ, which he calls Christ, ver. 12, toa
THE GOVERNMENT OF [Boox II. more particular enforcement of the duties of that special relation that was amongst the members of the church, as a particular body to Christ; and so to oblige each to other, not only by that general law of the universal relation, but farther by virtue of a more special one contracted among themselves, being made a distinct and entire body to Christ in particular, by being one church.
And so the obligation was not only doubled upon them, but further, the proportion of the general tie (which was more diffused) was contracted into a narrow and lesser compass, and as holding analogy with it, was so made stronger aud more vigorous.
Thus we understand those words to be a special application of that general doctrine premised in the former part of the chapter, which treats of Christ's body, the church universal.
'Now ye,' the charch of Corinth, ' are the body of Christ, and members in particular,' in a more special relation ; and so owe all those duties in a special manner, one to another.
In this respect also, sometimes when the apostle hath occasion to mention a member of a particular church, he specifies it with a special distinctive relation, 'Epaphras, who is one of you,'
Col. iv. 12; and Rom. xvi. 1, 'Phoebe, our sister, who is a servant of the church which is at Cenchrea,' is commended to communion with them, as standing in special relation to that church.
So when he speaks of elders, a special relation to a particular church is intimated, which could not be unless those churches had been fixed bodies for state, and not promiscuous assemblies in respect of acts of meeting.
Thus the same Epaphras, as to his common relation of membership in that church of Colossians, is mentioned, ' who is one of you;' as afore, chap. iv. 12, and also as to his more
H special relation as an officer of that church, ' who is for you a faithfal minis- | ter,' of whom they had been taught the gospel : 'As ye also learned of Epaphras, who is for you a faithful minister,' and in a special relation your minister.
He still held his relation of a minister for them, though for the present occasionally employed with Paul.
Thus the ordinary elders were set over particular churches, and so had a special relation to those churches as elders of them; and the relation was the rise and foundation of their call to be elders, as Acts xiv. 28.
The apostles, who were general elders in all churches, by virtue of apostolical commission, ordained ordinary elders in every church ; and these elders were specially appropriated is¢ rous, to them, and were to take care of that whole flock which appertained to them, Acts xx. 28; and so they were entrusted with the care of them, and to watch over them, as those that were to give an account to God for their souls ; and therefore they were their peculiar charge, Heb. xiii. 17.
And in respect of this relation, the Holy Ghost directs those epistles, mentioned Rev. ii. 2, 8, to the several particular angels of those churches in Asia, who therefore had their churches assigned to them, for which they were to give an account, and more accountable for their sins, in which they are accordingly blamed.
And these elders could not have a special settled relation, if these churches were not cast into a fixed settled state, as churches under them; for the one are relations to the other; and therefore the Holy Ghost directs his epistles to the churches also, chap. i., as well as to the angels of these churches, for in their relations these two were commensurable.
4, And lastly, these elders and these churches were formed up into fixed and settled presbyteries, so 1 Tim. iii.; and the acts of ordination were not attributed simply to an indefinite company of elders (as promiscuously or any way met), but to a presbytery, which imports not simply an act of meeting by a company of elders, but (as the word is paraphrased by our translators, with respect to the Jewish Sanhedrim) 'the estate of elders,' Acts xxii. 5.
As if we should say, The common council did ordain so and so, Cup. IV.) THE CHURCHES OF CHRIST. it notes not out simply a meeting of a company of wise men in sucha city, but as met in an unjted body.
And if these presbyteries were a fixed and united company of elders, then the churches must needs be also, to whom they were a presbytery.
And so this is a further argument than that former, which was drawn from the special relation of elders, singly or personally, or loosely taken, which was ordinarily fixed to be a settled church.
Bat if farther, we consider these elders as united into a presbytery, it yet more importeth this.
'For though it should be granted to be a truth, which some affirm, that every elder were an elder indefinitely of the church universal, yet every presbytery is not a presbytery to the whole universal (no more than every common couneil in each corporation is a common council for the kingdom, though each burgess met therein must be capable of being a burgess in parliament for the whole kingdom), but, as specificated, such must relate only to some particular church.
If therefore the government were seated (as our brethren would have it) in presbyteries, yet these bodies must be fixed and incorporated.
Or if in churches with their elders (or else nowhere), yet if their elders were presbyteries to their several churches (as is evident they must be), then those churches also were fixed bodies over which they were placed.
Yea, and the Scripture doth, in terminia, in plain terms, attribute the act of ordination to a presbytery, that is, a company of elders united in their relation and in that action
; and as much to this their united relation, as to their being elders.
And go the validity and legality of ' the act depends as'much upon this as upon their being elders met; as if a man should say, Such a thing was done by the common council, certainly he means thereby that it was done not only by men that are councillors promiscuonsly, in that sense as lawyers are called to give counsel, as oceasion is, singly or apart; but it imports they met as a common council, soembodied, that the act hath a legality, an authority therefrom.
And the validity as much depends upon that incorporation of theirs according toa law, as upon their being men, and so qualified.
That Christ in his institution of ecclesiastical power, Mat. xviii., hath granted this power of the keys only to saints embodied and united in the state and order of a congregational church.—That though it should be granted that Christ in this institution had a regard to the constitution of |the church of the Jews, yet it would be evident that he intended a congregational church.
Moreover, if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his Sault between thee and him alone : if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother. But if he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.
And if he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the church: but if he neglect to hear the church, let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican.
Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
Again I say unto you, That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything which you shall ask, it shall . be done for them of my Father which is in heaven.
For where two or VOL. XI, E !
THE GOVERNMENT OF [Boos II. three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.— There are three things may be proved out of this place.
The first is, that church power is by Christ's institution.
Secondly, that a particular congregation is there meant, and so we have an institution for it.
Then, thirdly, that suppose there were a subordination of churches above particolar churches, that yet the particular church should finally excommunicate, and that the supposed superior orders of presbyteries should not take it out of their hands.
1. The first is plain, that here is an institution of church power, as is evident by comparing it with Mat. xvi. 18, 19, where it is said, 'I will build my church, and I will give thee the keys.'
He speaks indefinitely.
That place affordeth this evidence, that Christ is the only builder of his church (' Every house is built by some one,' Heb. iii. 4), and of all things about the house: 'The builder of all things is God' (saith he), namely, Christ, who is God, as he had proved in chap. ii.
Having spoken this indefinitely in Mat. xvi. 18, 19, here, in Mat. xviii. 15, 16, he particularly determines the seat and subject of this ecclesiastical power.
Here, in Mat. xviii. 17, Christ uttereth himself definitely, 'Tell the church.'
The jus proprictatis is in Mat. xvi. 19; the right of propriety is stated in the right of administration.
The jus executionts, in Mat. xviii. 16.
He doth not give it to saints and officers simply, but as formed up into bodies.
Mat. xvi. holdeth forth that they are to be saints, making confession as Peter did.
There is the matter of a church, to whom the keys is given; but Mat. xviii. holdeth forth how that these saints are to be formed up into several bodies or churches, and 80 to execute this power.
Therefore he speaks of them as 'being gathered together in his name,' Mat. xviii. 20.
Their being saints, or faithful, is not enough ; but order is to be added to faith (as in Col. ii. 5), which order is held forth here, in Mat. xviii. ver. 15 to 20.
2. The words of Christ here, in Mat. xviii. 18, ' Verily I say anto you,' which are institutive; ' And again I say unto you.'
(1.) That word Amen, or verily, est idem quodfirmum et ratum, shews the thing to be firm and ratified, as Amen doth also, being set to our prayers.
And here so it is taken; for it is with a promise of power from him, confirming and ratifying of such meetings as he speaks of.
And a promise to any thing that is beyond the law of nature implies an institution; for what is an institution but a setting up something with promise, to have a blessing in it beyond the efficacy of the thing ?
(2.) 'Again I say unto you,' saith he, ver. 19.
The word again is additionis, moreover, a superadded expression, as Mat. iv. 7, ' Again it is written."
(8.) The words I say are institutive, or commanding with an efficacy; as they are used in Luke v. 24, 'I say unto thee, Arise.'
And if they be only assertory (as some say they are), yet being spoken by the Son, of his own house, in his mouth they are edificatory, or institutive of it.
(4.) Jesus Christ giveth power to a brother to admonish, and that in an ordinary way, in order to excommunication ; then bids him take two or three, and then tell the church.
And it is not a matter of indulgency or liberty, or privilege (as Cameron observeth), that his speech importeth, for that is, whenas there is a benefit to one's self by it, which, if I will forego, I may; but what is spoken here is per modum imperii, by way of command, for it is for the gaining of a brother.
And it is in order also to a court sentence, when it is brought to the church; and the word established, Mat.
Cuuar. IV.) THE OHUROHES OF CHRIST. xviii. 16, that is, the sentence shall be firm, and fixed, or ratified, confirms this to be his design and meaning.
(5.) To reckon a brother as an heathen, if obstinate after this course is taken with him, is an act of power, which, if Christ had not given, should not have absolutely necessitated it.
(6.) He saith, ' Where two or three are gathered in my name,' therefore it is an ordinance.
What makes other things: an ordinance, but that they are done in the name and power of Christ?
Is baptising in his name-an ordinance, and so gathering together in his name also? And in his name-is all one, as in his power and authority, by commission from him; and to such ends and purposes as he hath appointed, whereof one is to throw out an offending brother.
Hoe speaks as the Messiah, that did anew form his charch, and pat a new title upon their gathering together; calls it ' assem~ bled in my name,' as the Messiah is come in the flesh.
And whereas before he did authorise the whole nation, and made the trust unto them, he reduceth it now to a fewer company, to two or three gathered together in his name.
All assemblies, if they be not established by authority, are unlawful, Acts xix. 89.
Therefore these assemblies that Christ here speaks of, must be established by the law of Christ.
And thus mach may suffice to shew in general, that let it be meant in church power, whatever it is, it is by institution.
And when he saith, ' go tell the church,' he imports authority and power, placed in that company he calls a church, with which he invests them.
The word church im this is an authoritative word, and the authority the church hath is his; and whom should she have it from, but from him? And therefore, in 1 Cor. v. 4, they are said to be ' gathered together in his name, and in his power.'
And by comparing this place and that together, it appears that his intent is both institative and directive, only with this difference, that in Mat. xviii., Jesus Christ speaks by way of directing a bro~ ther what to do when he is offended ; and upon that occasion mentions what aathority he would give unto his church, and assemblies of his saints gathered together in his name; but in the other text, 1 Cor. v., Paul gives forth the direction to the church itself, calling upon them to perform their duty, according to the power and authority given him by Christ.
As an apostle, he commands them, when gathered together, to deliver such an one to Satan, and (saith he) 'do ye not judge them that are within?'
That is, have ye not power to do it from Christ, is it not a duty lies upon you > And he parallels it with that power himself had, according to proportion.
Now the power he had, all grant to be institutive, for otherwise, what power could one man assume over the churches of Christ? And so likewise without the like institution, what power could a church assume to deliver a man to Satan, which is out of their natural and moral power
I shall now demonstrate that a particular congregation is meant in this, Mat. xviii., and that a particular congregation is there instituted, and instituted, too, as having that power of excommunication.
Now that a particular congregation is here meant, is proved first out of the place.
The church intended here, is a church appointed for worship as well as for discipline.
Not only because that meeting to pray is mentioned, as well as to correct offences; but because if that be a church which is appointed for worship, it were strange if Christ should in his first institution mention that church which is only for discipline, and not that which is for worship also.
2. Out of presbyterian principles.
And, 1, out of the place it is apparent that a particular congregation is THE GOVERNMENT OF [Boox If. meant, take church to be interpreted by whatsoever you will that Christ alluded to, then in use.
There were many unformed sects, that had several companies belonging to them, that were of the same principles and regular order; who, although
_ 'they held a general communion with the church of the Jews, yet the manner of these sects was to have their synagogues and echools (as Paul was brought up at the feet of Gamaliel; and we read of the school of Tyrannus).
And if any of them transgressed the principles of their order and sect, they were brought (as Grotius saith) before the whole; and so they were reproved érixser awdvewy, that is, before all.
And now if this allusion be to such a chureh or company, then the people are taken in, such as should meet and hear; and so then, Jesus Christ so fixed his institution, as the people as well as the officers met, for even those sects supposed guides, who did bring it to the whole company of that sect, whereto a man belonged.
Secondly, if the allusion were to this, then according to the liberty that was then given, of having disciples, our Saviour Christ had then a church upon earth which he spoke actually unto.
For he had by him twelve apostles and disciples, who after grew unto one hundred and twenty.
And, therefore, according to the law of those times, he directs them, that if any offences were among them, after two or three witnesses taken, they should tell it to this church.
Although Judas had sinned, yet he had not go sinned, as to have witnesses ' against him, until 'his betrayingof Christ, and then (as ourSaviourChrist prophesied of him, John xv. 6) he was cast out as a withered branch. And then, 8, that phrase of gathering together in my name, is an allusion to that custom in those times; for the manner was fhen to call disciples by the names of those they followed, and their meetings by their names, es Hero- | dians were so styled from the name of Herod.
'In my name' (saith Christ), that is, such as profess me, and set up such schools in my name, are to observe the rules which I set them, for their order and government.
Christ here expressed how his churches should, after his death and ascension into heaven, be ordered under the New Testament,
As it is said, 'the Scripture foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles through faith (Gal. iii. 8), made the promise unto Abraham;' and as God, foreseeing that when the Israelites came into Canaan, they should live in cities, and be a kingdom or a nafion, accordingly ordered beforehand their government, and gave laws aforehand, for that nation of the Jews as such, when they should be in their own land.
So here, the church of the New Testament, being to be multiplied and scattered, that they could not-assemble in one, as that national church of the Jews did, Christ aforeéhand speaks, what he would have his churches onder the New Testament to be ; and his institutions are suited to what in his counsels and providence he had determined should be, and he knew aforehand would fall ont.
2. If, secondly, the allusion beto the Jewishway that wasappointed byGod, and had been of old, then either the Sanhedrim is meant, or the synagogues, with the officers there.
But in the first place, the Sanhedrim is not meant; for (as Cameron saith) that is never called ecclesta, a church, no, not by the Septuagint.
But be it that this word had been used of it, yet private offences (of which Christ here speaks)-were never brought to the Sanhedrim ; but Christ speaks this of private offences, for it is, 'if he offend thee, then take two witnesses,' and then tell it to the church.
Whereas there were but four cases which belonged immediately unto the Sanhedrim, and those were cases of difficulty, when the private judges in the cities could not end the controversy, who yet had full power to have done it.
And then, in the third place, Cameron's reason why the Sanhedrim is not meant, is good, Cup. IV.] THE CHURCHES OF CHRIST. because the evangelists do still call it xgsoBuriguy rov Adou, and that now only
Christ should call it ecclesia, a church, when it is nowhere used by the Septuagint, under that name, would be very strange.
Secondly, if his allusion be to the government of every town, this makes for the way of congregational churches.
For every village had their government entire within themselves: Deut. xvi. 18, 'in all their gates.'
If it were a small town, there were three elders (to which Christ here alludeth), and in the cities one and twenty.
And from the towns to the cities there was not an appeal, but immediately to the Sanhedrim.
8. His allusion rather is unto the synagogues in every town, which were the ecclesiastical state.
The books of Moses were read in every city, in the synagogues, Acts v.21.
For every city had their synagogue, and so then in this sense, to 'tell the church,' was to tell that particular synagogue
(whereof they were members), both to people and rulers.
Now that Christ alludeth to this appears, (1.) Because that excommunication was exercised in their synagogues, not in the Sanhedrim.
Indeed, the Sanhedrim might make a law,as a rale according to which men should be excommunicated;.but the synagogues executed it, therefore it is called, 'casting out of the synagogues,' John
. xvi, 2, And synagogues were not governed by an association, but each synagogue hed its ralers, John ix. 22 ; andin John xvi. 2, ' They shall cast
You out of the synagogues.'
And a synagogue was a particular assembly, such as congregations now: Luke vii. 5, 'He hath built us a synagogue;'
Mark i. 21, 'Christ entered into the synagogue and taught.'
And when a man was cast out of the synagogue, and would come into the temple, they used to say to him, when he would offer to enter into the temple (although they refased him not to enter thither, for he held communion atill with the temple), May he who inhabits this temple give thee an heart to hearken to the words of thy brethren, that so they may receive thee.
(2.) In every one of these synagogues there were two or three officers.
They had rulers, Acts xiii. 14, 16, xviii. 7, 17.
And therefore Christ allading unto this saith, 'If two or three agree.'
They used to have three at least, that a major vote might cast it among the rulers.
And they used to have two or three admonitions afore they cast out, and thirty days between every admonition.
(8.) In a manner, all other authority was taken from them, but what they exercised in their synagogues thus, or in the Sanhedrim, which dealt onlyin the great matters of blasphemy; whereas this authority of synagogues was for offences of brethren;and therefore it is still said, they should bring them into their synagogues when they questioned them, as Luke xii. 11.
The Romans took away all other power from them.
But here they could inflict punishments: ' They shall scourge you in their synagogues ;' it was the place of their punishment, so Mat. xxiii. 84; they whipped in them, for they had no other courts left, Acts xxvi.11.
And they had rulers, for the casting men out from thence.
And perhaps these meetings in the synagogues are _ those which are called Synedria in Mat. x. 17.
And in Luke xii. 11, 'when they bring you into the synagogues,' is mentioned first, and then, "unto magistrates and powers,' namely, the civil magistrate, which in Mat. x. 17 is rendered thus, ' They will deliver you up to the council,' or Sanhedrim, and they will scourge you in their synagogues; and then follows their being brought to the civil magistrate in the next verse, ' and shall bring you before kings and 'governors.'
And some interpreters say, that the allusion is here, in Mat. xviii. 17, to that synagogue government and worship, ecelesia and synagogus being used promiscaously.
THE GOVERNMENT OF [Boox II.
(4.) These synagogues were oratories, places of prayer and preaching, therefore Christ doth also subjoin here, ' if two meet together, to ask,' or to pray.
It is not meant only of praying when they administered discipline, for it is praying about any business, for they used to worship and pray in the synagogues, as well as to cast out of the synagogues; their worship and their discipline there being of equal extent.
And the word that is used in this text of Mat. xviii. 19, cyngwrjowow, shall agree, signifies a meeting, as well as a consent, so Gen. xiv. 8; and the words also that Christ useth, ver. 19,
' Again,' or moreover, 'I say unto you' (having spoken of discipline afore, and now of prayer), do hold forth the scope of this church to be as well for prayer as for discipline, and so to be understood of such a synagogue as was both for discipline and worship, or prayer.
And then the addition of the last words, ver. 20, ' Fer where two or three are gathered together in my name, I am in the midst of them,' is the general conclusion to both ; so that the meaning is, that whether they meet for worship or prayer (of which he had spoken, ver. 19), or for discipline (of which he had spoken, ver. 17, 18),