Part 5
Christ is in the midst of them.
Now, as our Saviour Christ's allusion was unto that synagogue government and worship then extant, so particular ebarches and congregations under the gospel, in answer thereunto, are expressed unto us, under the word synagogue.
They have that name, because unto them did Christ allude; and they suited his institution under the New Testament.
James ii. 2, 'If one come into your assembly, it is in the Greek, is¢ rv. cvreyerysy, 'into your synagogue.' He speaks of synagogues for worship, as in Heb. x. 25, ' Forsake not the assembling of yourselves together.'
It is there imovayaysy, meeting in a synagogue, which is a particular meeting for worship, which is therefore called the house, that God hath under the New Testament, ver. 20, whereofChrist is said to be the high priest.
And, indeed, the analogy between their synagogues and our congregations holdeth exceeding far.
They hold two or three officers that were rulers of the synagogue, and we profess, for kind, that there are three sort of officers,
—pastors, teachers, and elders.
And the Jews, in a manner for the substance, use the same expression concerning their synagogues ; they had two : wise men te teach, and one to discern; and therefore Christ saith, ' where two or three are gathered together.'
And to be an heathen and a publican, and to be cast ont of the synagogue, was all one;and the word synagogue and ecclesia, or church, are all one in the Septuagint; and #0, consequently, to . be cast out of the church, corresponds to their ejection out of the synagogue.
And to this hath Christ framed the constitution of his church under the New Testament, that it should be both for worship and government, as the | synagogues were within themselves.
And although these assemblies are called synagogues as for their extent, yet they are called temples as for their And this constitution of Christ suited with the primitive times of the gospel ; for the Jews, being dispersed in several nations, they had synagogues in all cities, and an entire government within those synagogues.
Yea, even in Judea, in some one great city, there was but one synagogue, as in Capernaum, Mark i. 21.
Thus, at Antioch too, the Jews had a synagogue, Acts xiii. 14, 15, as also at Thessalonica, Acts xvii. 1, and at Connth,
Acts xviii. 4, where the Greeks and the Jews were met in one.
Now, the Christians being to be called out of all places, and being dispersed, as these Jews were, in all nations, Christ suited a government to these conditions of the synagogue-government, and answerably fixed his institution of churches, in imitation of the Jews dispersed, who had synagogues amongst all the Gentiles, in their several cities.
Christ chose not the legal way of a national church, or of a sanhedrim, or of going up to one temple for a whole nation,
Crap. IV.] THE OHUROHES OF CHRIST. but he fixed on synagogues, as fitting his tarn best, for he chose churches out of nations, and go did not hold to one national church of the Jews; and, therefore, we read of churches in Judea itself, and not church, Gal. i. 22.
And to strengthen this assertion, it may be observed that our Saviour Christ did not take nor follow the institution of the Old Testament, but the appendixes of it ; as for example, in the Lord's supper he instituted the bread and wine, answerably to the bread and wine which were appendixes' of the passover, and he refuseth the paschal lamb, and chooseth the bread and wine.
So likewise, as the Jews used to baptize proselytes, so he refuseth circume cision and takes that baptism.
Thus also as the synagogues were, as it were, chapels of ease to the great church, the temple, where moral worship only was, he lets the stately templo worship go, and the glory of a national government, and chooseth this mean way of a synagogue, but yet endows it with the privilege of a temple ; that so whereas, before, God was worshipped in the mount and in the temple, he is now worshipped as much, and as traly, and as spiritually everywhere, and in every synagogue having the same privilege.
And, indeed, Christ's way in the ordinances and institutions of the gospel was to choose that which, in comparison, was before to the Jews, and to the world, foolishness ; thus he chose the foolishness of preaching, and instead of taking the high priests and rulers, he takes fishermen, &c.
4. But yet, though Christ might speak in the language of the Old Testament, it is not necessary that his meaning should be that the churches in the New Testament should be formed according as the old were, but the contrary.
Our Saviour Christ had said before, inMat. xvi. 18, 'I will build my church ;' and, as he speaks of new keys that are to be given, so by that he prepares their minds to a persuasion, that he would have a new church distinct from the former.
And then afterward, here in Mat. xviii. 17, he tells them more distinctly, that they should 'tell the church.'
And if it be said that they understand not what he meant by the word church, or that they could not apprehend that he meant by it a particular congregation, and that they knew not too what he meant by keys, for certainly they knew not the particular ordinances which he intended under that general expression, the keys of heaven; and so neither knew they what this new church,
. in Mat. xviii. (to which they were to tell) might import; the answer is plain, that the Holy Ghost was to come on them, to tell them afterwards.
And, indeed, our Saviour Christ spake of many things which they then understood not, as of the resurrection:Mat. xvi. 21, 'I will destroy this temple, and build it in three days ;' and also, ' that his kingdom was not of this world,' John xviii. 86.
So when he washed his disciples' feet, they knew not then the meaning of it; but he saith, he would 'send them the Comforter, which should tell them all things,' John xiv. 16, and chap. xvi. 80; but yet it was necessary that Christ should deliver the main foundations of all those traths which the Holy Ghost afterwards should enlighten them in.
Moses delivered many things in the wilderness concerning the government of the charch of the Jews, which they could not so well understand, till they came into the land of Canaan ; and though they knew not the place that God would choose, yet many of the laws that Moses gave depended upon it.
But, 2. Our Saviour Christ had, according to the liberty that then was given unto all several sects (though we call not his such), built a church; he had a little flock, as he calls it; and as he began to institute baptism, and began to institute the Lord's supper afore he died, so to institute this church; he began it as other ordinances, afore his death, and he did cast Judas out of it.
THE GOVERNMENT OF [Boor I.
8. The manner is oftentimes to speak in the language of the Old Testament when the same thing is not meant.
As when Christ speaks of the person offending, Mat. v. 22, he expresseth the degrees of punishment to several sins, under the names of three courts amongst the Jews, and yet he
. meaneth spiritual degrees of punishment.
Thus, too, in 1 Cor. ix. 18, the whole service of the sanctuary is called the altar (' He that serveth at tho altar, must live of the altar') ; yet there is no such altar erected amongst us, as was amongst the Jews.
And the prophets also, prophesying of the times . of the gospel, spake of our ordinances under the notion of the Old Testament, yet meant other ordinances anew to be instituted ; so in Isa. Ixvi. 28,
'They shall go from one new moon unto another.'
Though under the gospel we have not monthly feasts and meetings as they had, yet the meetings that we have are expressed thereby.
And so now here Christ speaks of a charch, that as the Jews hada church, so likewise, under the New Testament, there should be a church to which offences should be brought; but that officers alone should be that church (supposing that the ruling officers are called the church in the Old Testament), it followeth not.
For the word presbytery, which was given to the eldership of the great Sanhedrim of the whole nation of the Jews, is now given to the presbytery of every congregation.
So as though he useth the same word to express the institution of the new churches of the gospel by, yet it follows not that it is of the same kind with the old, or that it runneth in the same way.
But, 4. We are rather to interpret it by what kind of churches we read afterwards that the apostles erected.
As Moses was interpreted by the prophets, so is Christ's mind in this to be known by his apostles ; for the Spirit came on them, and did reveal unto them Christ's mind and intention.
The trial, therefore, will lie upon this, what bodies, and consisting of whom, are called a church in the Acts of the apostles, and in their epistles.
What that church is upon which the institution of Christ falleth, is not to be argued merely out of the analogy of the Old Testament, for that will not set up an institution in the New.
But when we have found out what manner of church in the New Testament Jesus Christ hath instituted, we are then to consider the analogy of that form thereunto, so far forth as Christ hath applied it.
Now both in the phrase of the New Testament, assemblies, consisting of elders and people, and of the saints, are called churches ; and in the words also of Mat. xviii. 20, ' Where two or three are gathered together in my name,' Christ tells us his meaning of a church.
And unto this church, say we, doth the analogy of all the church under the Old Testament hold, if you take the due proportion; and as the excellent stories and allusions in the Old Testament are brought into the New, to set forth things that come under the New, in the book of the Revelation, in their several proportions (therefore, speaking of Rome, he calleth it spiritual Sodom, and Egypt and Babylon, &c.), so we find that all the types of the Old Testament are applied unto these assemblies.
Thus as to the temple, which was the seat of worship, and the sacrifices there, congregational assemblies have carried away the analogy of them by Christ's institution ;. for they only are the fixed public seats of worship, where spiritual sacrifices are offered.
In congregations, the living stones are built up together, to offer up living sacrifices, acceptable unto God, as in 2 Peter ii. 5, Eph, ii. 22.
And unto these assemblies are the same promises made that were made to the whole nation of the Jews, when they were a church encamped in the wilderness:
' Upon all their assemblies shall be a cloud, and a pillar of fire,' prophesying of the gospel, saith the prophet Isaiah, chap. iv. 6.
And all the privileges which that '
Cur. IV.) THE CHURCHES OF CHRIST. nation had as a church (take them in a spiritual respect) hath every congregation of saints now.
This, therefore, is called the house of Gud, over which Christ is an high priest, Heb. x.; which, in ver. 25, he interprets to be the assembling of themselves together.
In the compass of such an assembly also hath Jesus Christ contracted appeals sufficient, for first (says he) tell him of his fault thyself, then take two or three, and then go tell the church ; and then he is bound in heaven, as the supremest jndicature, Mat. xviii. 15-19; and God hath so advanced the state of the New Testament above that of the Old, that as the glory of the second temple exceeded the . first, so doth the glory of the saints now in these assemblies excel all former.
Every believer is a priest now; yea, the allusion in the company of saints assembled for worship, in Rev. iv., is unto the twenty-four priests that were over the twenty-four companies of priests.
And the officers now are, as the four beasts in Ezekiel, Rev. iv. 8, and are as angels rather than priests, called therefore the angels of the churches, Rev. i. 20.
The saints all are a royal nation, and the name of the city of God is written upon every assembly.
The great presbytery or Sanhedrim of the people is the presbytery of every congregation.
'Every church is a city unto God; it is the city of the living God; it is the holy city, and hath a government within itself, of elders within its own gates.
Yea, here is the synagogue-government also, unto which the allusion also is; and these assemblies are so called, as I proved in the foregoing chapter.
Yea, and as God chooseth the mean things of the world under the gospel, 60 he chose that synagogue frame, because the worship therein was wholly spiritual and moral ; it was not the seat of ceremonial worship, as was the temple.
The government of the synagogues was nataral, to cast any person out of themselves, as all bodies have by the law of nature, with a punishment suitable annexed, viz., to keep such from the esteem of worshippers, and that they should be accounted as heathens and publicans.
Thus Christ hath chosen a way more spiritual, more natural, suitable to the communion of saints, that hath less pomp and glory in it.
He hath taken this Bethlehem, that was the least, the lowest of the governments amongst them, and hath made it the greatest, and endowed it with the privileges of all the rest.
It hath both national and temple privileges, and Sanhedrim privileges also; it hath the spirituality of them all.
Thore they have the Lord's supper imstead of the passover; there they have the altar, 1 Cor. x. 16,17, &c.
What glorious things are spoken of in Jer. iii.
' You shall say no more, The ark of the covenant of the Lord, neither shall it come to mind,' &. ; 'I will give you pastors, according to mine own heart, which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding; and I will take you, one of a city, and two of a tribe, call them out, and bring them to Zion.'
That Zion is where the pastors are teaching, therefore meant of congregations.
He doth not take nations, but select out of nations, out of cities and tribes, saints hero and there, and formeth them up into congregations, becanse they have pastors that feed them ; and in such congregations is the feeding of the pastors with knowledge and understanding.
And this succeedeth the ark of the covenant, having the privilegos thereof.
It is a prophecy of the calling of the Jews under the gospel.
And yet if that judicial government (as we may so call it), that was in Jewry, were the pattern of all church government future, although it would indeed then, by the analogy of it, erect a national assembly over the lesser churches, yet even that would conduce more to the establishment of the congregational way we contend for than our brethren will yield them, and will militate against the presbyterian pattern as it is practised, and that in these particulars.
For, 74THE GOVERNMENT OF.
1. First, each town, as well as each city, had all government within their gates as much as cities ; and the elders in the towns were not to appeal to the elders in the cities, but immediately to the national assembly.
In Ezra x. 14, there were the rulers of all the congregations (which was all the whole nation) mentioned, and the elders of every city, and judges thereof; city, according to the Hebrews, was every little town.
Thus Moses is said to be read in every city in the synagogues, that is, in every town; for they had synagogues in villages, Acts xv. 21.
In Deut. xvi. 18 (saith he), 'Judges and officers shall thou make thee in all thy gates,' that is, in every town ; and therefore the rabbins do say, that if it were a big city, where there were one hundred and twenty families in it, there were twenty-three sat in the gate ; if it were less, then but three, for there was no court consisted of less.
2. Secondly, those towns were not raled by a combination, but had a government entire within themselves, unless things were too hard for them.
8. Thirdly, the appeals unto the Sanhedrim was only for the decision of law-canses, in a doctrinal way (as if that the judges of Westminster Hall should inquire of the parliament for the meaning of a statute; and were bound to pronounce sentence according to their interpretation of the law), though still the judgment of the matter of fact, and to pronounce the sentence itself, was to be done by authority and jurisdiction of each town, like as we also contend that all censures should be by particular congregations.
Obj. If so, then their government was not uniform.
° Ans. Yes, only in lesser proportions; in the smaller towns, they had three rulers, and in their cities and greater towns twenty-three, the law of God not determining how many elders should make up the judicature, either in the one or in the other; as also in congregations, God hath not determined how many, bat, according to their proportion and necessity, hath left a liberty of choosing a greater or lesser number.
That though it were granted that the power of the keys in Christ's institution, Mat. xviii., was given to the elders or officers, and not to the people, that yet tn a greater probability of reason, the officers or elders of a particular congregattonal church are meant.—That in all probability, too, the institution
. of such churches was designed by him, because their conditions and order best suits the ends of the edification of his saints.
If by church, in Mat. xviii. 17, were meant the officers, yet still the officers of a particular church, for there is a presbytery in every church.
And the mention of two or three doth rather carry it to that meaning.
So that if by church should be meant the elders, yet the question will return, What elders, in relation to what church?
To a particular church, say we.
Thus when it is said, in James v. 14, 'Send for the elders of the church,' it could not be the elders of a presbyterian church.
Our presbyterian brethren acknowledge. that particular congregations are churches; they are the first of the name in this institution, and are first intended, and are therefore called ecclesia prime, the first churches, even by presbyterians themselves.
We are sure also that particular churches have the name of a whole church: 1 Cor. xiv. 28, 'If the whole church meet in one.'
We are sure, too, that the first churches in all places were but particular churches, even in Jerusalem itself.
The apostles did not forbear making a particular church in any place; they did not stay till Christians were multiplied, so as to make many
Car. V.} THE CHURCHES OF CHRIST. churehes in one place.
Now such a particular church, before churches ever multiplied, had a government within itself, by virtue of Mat. xviii. 17.
And if so, if here be an institution, it falleth upon it, and it exercises its government as a church by virtue of its charter.
1. That a particular church is meant in Mat. xviii. is evident, because it is such a church that is spoke of, whereof a man is a brother; and now he is a brother first, and more peculiarly, of a particular congregation; that is the reason why you excommunicate him out of the particular chureh, when out of none of all the rest.
And when you bring the matter at last to an issue, you tell the church of it more than any of the rest, for that congregation being a church by the order of Christ, it is to be brought unto that chareh first, which the offending person hath the relation of a brother unto.
Now, see who are in the right, our presbyterian brethren or wo ; they think themselves bound to tell the church, because he is a brother of it, but not at first;whereas Christ saith, Tell this church first, and if he will not hear what that church says, 'let him be an heathen.'
2. The method that Christ here prescribeth evidently argueth it to be a particular church; for, 1, saith he, do thyself deal with him ; 2, take two or three witnesses; 8, tell the church.
This mustneeds be that particular church, that is, the next body, for that particular church is a church, and it is his church; and it is a body in ascent next to the two or three witnesses ;
. andif there be any such thing as a church classical, that is a degree beyond it.
8. All that are for presbyterial government, do by virtue of this place in Mat. xviii. tell it to the congregational elders, the presbytery.
And so then, that the particular congregation is meant in this, Mat. xviii., both their practices and principles do import; for they argue from this place by way of analogy.
They argue from hence the power of many churches over any church, because, look what power the first church hath over a brother, that many chorches hath over a church; and therefore, according to their own concessions, this first church is first meant as the measure of the other, and, therefore, what is said here in Mat. xviii. must be first true of the particular congregation.
For they make a combination of churches, for to deal with offending or disagreeing churches upon this ground, that a particular church is that which is here appointed to deal with a brother.
If, then, the argument doth ran by way of analogy, then the power of their greater charches is fetched from the power that this particular church hath.
And they argue that therefore they have an entire power over many churches, because that this hath an entire power over its own members ; and that what power is in a particular church, is in the whole body of churches jointly.
And therefore, by the presbyterial concessions and principles, the institution must first fall upon this church congregational.
For if any man would argue from what power a corporation hath over its members, that the like power many corporations may have over that corporation, it would imply that that corporation hath an entire power over its own members ; and look how much of the entireness of the power you take away from the particular corporation over its members, 80 much you weaken the argument and analogy for the power of many.
In a word, all the arguments of all sides,—of papists, that would 'have the pope to be the church ; of the episcopal party, that would have tho bishops to be the church,—all argue from the word church.
And they say, that a diocesan hath power in a diocese, because a whole diocese may be one church ; and so many elders may make up a presbytery over many congregations, because many congregations make one church. So as all these, and |
THE GOVERNMENT OF [Boox II. the presbyterian government itself, can prove their claim only as they can make it out that they are achurch.
Now, particular congregations do, and may, put first in for it, that they are churches; therefore, as a church, | they must have a power over their own members, as the other have over churches, according to their own principles.
4, Thefirst and primary institution must fall upon particular congregations as the seats or bounds of the first power, whether the institution be
| supposed to fall upon them as churches or as a presbytery.
If it falls on them as churches, the greater churches eonsisting of many congregations are bat ovte, or sprung of this; if it falls on them as a presbytery, they are but compounds and decompoands.
The native and first genuine church is the congregational, the other are but representative churehes, whenas this is more real.
5. As the institution of a congregational church in Mat. xviii. most suite with Christ's aim and design, the communion of saints, a0 it most agrees too with that promise of his presence, ver. 20. What kind of assembly is most likely to be pitched upon by Christ, to be made hie court on earth, but that wherein he is worshipped ; and where there is the personal presence of his saints, for whose sake he is present with the officers of a church, and not as they are officers abstracted from the church, or meeting without it?
And, indeed, it was for the honour of the saints, and was becoming of their state under the gospel, that not elders alone, but that saints gathered together with the elders, should be those fixed bodies to which the power should be given: for so the style runneth, ' the churches of the saints,' 1 Cor. xiv. 88.
And what is the church without the presence of Christ?
And what is more a church, than that to which more of the promise of the presence of Christ is made?
Now to the saints, and also to the elders, as joined and united in bodies with saints, is the promise made.
Those promises, ' I will walk among you,' &., 1 Cor. vi. 16, Ezek. xxxvii. 26, 87, is made to the bodies of saints.
So then, if we take the state of the saints under the New Testament, where every one comparatively is said more to know the Lord, comparatively unto those of the Old, itis answerably in a way of comparison more suitable to reason, than if the government should be placed upon bodies formed up, the institution should fall upon such bodies as have both saints and elders.
And if there were no other reason, yet this might be pleaded for it, that the officers have, though not formal power from the people as officers, yet a virtual power, concurrence, and assistance (through the promise of Christ's presence with them) as such from the presence of the saints, in respect of the execution of their office andthe blessing thereof, which they do not carry about them alone, especially in such acts, wherein they do things as for the people, and which do concern them, as acts of jurisdiction do.
Although, as elders dedicated unto Christ, they might have a blessing in preaching unto them, and that as elders, orin prayer, orthe like ; yet in all ministerial acts of jurisdiction that belong to a church as a cor- ' poration, they have a virtual assistance from the concurrence of the people with them, doing all this in their presence.
Thus the elders among the Jews, besides the blessing of their calling, as being elders, and united into a body over that nation in a Sanhedrim or council, had also a blessing from the place where they should meet, the place that God should choose, as also their sacrifices had ; and should the same Sanhedrim have met out of that place, they had not had that assistance, neither could the acts have been counted acts ofjurisdiction.
This principle the papists themselves seem to ucknowledge, who make the assistance that the pope hath, when he speaks infallibly as a pope, to be not alone, but in the cathedré, in the chair; and Cua. V.] THE CHURCHES OF OBRIST. so in council with the cardinals; and so in a state or kingdom, though the ultimate concluding and ratifying of laws doth lie in the king, yet he doth not do it alone, but having all other estates of nobles and commons present, or else what he doth is not legal nor binding.
Now so, under the New Testament, though all charch power should be supposed to be formally in the elders, yet not as abstracted from the presence of the saints, which is instead of the place that God then chose among the Jews, in which they had an especial blessing and assistance.
Nay, he hath now chose a better temple for elders to exercise theirjurisdiction in, temples made of living stones, that is, churches consisting of saints, from the concurrence of whose spirits, prayers, and applications, the acts done by the elders in a church do receive their strength.
So Jesus Christ is in the midst of the elders, because his promise is to be in the midst of the saints, their spirits join and concur in the act, and so there is an efficacy runving along therewith.
And this honour at least was meet to be given by Christ to his saints under the New For what though the elders be as the loadstone, yet as the virtue and effieacy of the loadstone depends upon its being set in steel, so the virtual blessing of tho elders' actions in matters of jurisdiction (which are the highest acts of church government) depends upon their being in the midst of saints that concur with them.
And therefore, in Mat. xviii. 17, it is said, 'Tell the church,' that is, the elders joining with, and in presence of tbe people.
Although the eye is that member that doth see for the body, yet it hath the virtual efficacy that enableth it to see, from its being placed in the body ; and as the eye cannot see out of the body, nor can one body bring in another body's eye to see withal; so cannot this power of the elders be carried out of its seat, nor a foreign power be brought in.
And therefore, when the apostle says, in 1 Cor. v. 4, ' When ye are gathered together with the power of the Lord Jesus;' and so in 2 Cor. vi. 16, 'I will walk among you;' and in Mat. xxviii.
20, when Christ promised, 'Iwill be with you to the end of the world;' he speaks not only of ministers, and the successors of the apostles, but of those also that believe through their word, for so in John xvii. 20 he interprets it, and likewise in John xv. 16, 'your fruit shall remain,' and so be both with ministers and saints as successors of the apostles ; this being the honour of the apostles, not only to have ministers to succeed them, but churches and believers also, with whom Christ is.
And therefore in the Revelation, where Jesus Christ's presence in the church of the New Testament is presented, with allusion to that of the Old, chap. iv., although the vision is of the church universal materially considered, yet formally the representation of it is made as it is the seat of public worship, and therefore represented under the idea of a congregational assembly, as appeareth (as Mr Brightman and Parker and others have observed) in that it'is set forth in order to acts of public worship performed therein.
Thus there is the laver to wash in, as in the temple there was before they worshipped, unto which the apostle makes the allusion for meeting in the house of God for worship, Heb. x. 21, 22, 25, verses compared, ' Let us draw near with a pure heart and bodies washed,' which afterward (ver. 25) he expounds to be assembling themselves together.
And in that , Rev. iv., the four beasts, who are the leaders and the choras for worship, when | they fall down and cast down their crowns, the elders do so too.
Now those assemblies, in which Jesus Christ hath thus set his throne and temple, they consist of elders and beasts having eyes, &c., that is, saints and officers," for * See his exposition on the 4th and Sth chap. Rev. in vol. 2 of his works.
Il. of this edition —Ep.] :
THE GOVERNMENT OF [Boox II. such is the advancement of the saints now in comparison of those under the Old Testament, that they themselves are called the elders, and the four living wights are those four sorts of officers of congregations.
The thing we cite it for is this, that the throne and presence of Christ is with the beasts, as joined with the twenty-four elders, and in assemblies made up of both.
And therefore the officers are said to be set in the church, 1 Cor. mii. 28, and so to work still as set in the church, but they are nowhere called the church itself.
Yea, and though the apostles were made immediately by Christ without a relation to any special or particular church, and in order principally unto gathering and rearing up churches, yet the choice of one apostle was made in ® congregational church consisting of angels and people, Acts i.; and Paul and Barnabas, though made apostles immediately by Christ, yet received their ordination in such a particular church, whilst the elders were ministering unto the Lord in the church of Antioch, Acts xiii.
; yea, and they themselves ordinarily did not exercise any acts ofjurisdiction, either of ordination or excommunication, but as still present in a particular church.
They did not set up a court unto which churches were to come, but they rather came themselves and visited churches, ordained elders in every church, with fasting and prayer in the churches, and ordinarily they excommunicated not (though they might give general directions) but in a church.
And however, if there might be cases wherein the apostles did excommunicate alone, yet they were very extraordinary, and no way to be imitated, as their miracles are not.
They did not excommunicate when absent: 2 Cor. xiii. 10, ' Shall I come with a rod?'
'And when I come, I shall bewail some of you,' &.
As, therefore, the apostles did not set up a court out of particular presbyteries, so presbyteries are not to set up a court out of particular churches.
Yea, in that only instance of a synod which we have in Acts xv., the transactions of the apostles and elders were in and with that charch of Jerusalem, where the brethren also were present.
Thus hath God honoured the saints of the New Testament, that the promise of the presence of Christ should be made to them when gathered together with their officers, and that he will be with the officers even as such for the people's sake.
' You know' (saith the apostle to the Thessalonians) 'what manner of men we were among yon for your sakes,' 1 Thes. i. 6.
They have not only a ministerial power for them, but they have a ministerial power through them, as having it for their sakes and by virtue oftheircommunion, God's promise beingto be in themidst ofthem by virtue of their presence.
So as although they have not a power derived to them ab ecclesid, a8 from the church, yet they have it derived to them tn ecclesia, in the church, and also instrumentally ab ecclesid; and although they act not the power that is in the church in their stead, and for their ease doing such acts as otherwise the church should (as those of the separation have held), yet the assistance of the execution of their poweris virtually in the church, the promise being made to them as a church.
Neither are they the church representative, having a power absent and abstracted from the people, as is the nature of all representations (for nothing is represented that is present), but the church itself is the sedes, the virtual seat, in which this power is exercised, as the body is of the actions of the principal members, the spirit, and strength, and vigour of the whole body concurring and assisting in the acts of all such members, and therefore excommunication is in the name of Christ, that is, as some say, invocato nomine, or of Christ called upon ; and so as having the prayers of the people of God to assist, to put force and efficacy into it.
And so ordination is done with fasting and prayer ; and the prayers of the saints, the least saints, have as much influence
Caur. V.] THE CHURCHES OF CHRIST. unto the virtual assistance of the officers in their acts before them as the prayers of the elders themselves ; and, therefore, the presbyterial acts that are abstracted thas from the people have not that efficacy in them as when the body of saints and elders are joined together.
So as the institution falleth not only upon elders, but upon elders and people as a body formed up of both, not only because all acts of worship and jurisdiction are for the edification of the saints as wellas ofthe elders, but itis because that Jesus Christ will have the assistanee of their spirits and of their prayers, &c., which have ax much efficacy in them to prevail with him for a blessing as those of the elders had.
And in this respect the keys (as was said before) are given unto Peter both asa saint and asa minister, as both respects considered did meet in him, when the keys were given to him, so that the words to thee include both ; so that at least the keys are so given to the ministers as to be exercised before and in the presence of the saints, having an assistance from the concurrence of their spirits and desires.
The papists would have the keys given to Peter alone, simply and absolutely, only they say indeed for the church, but they do not make the church the subject to which the keys are given.
Others do make the church the first subject to whom the keys are given, and not only for whom, but then they make the elders the representative church, and so that they are given to elders onlyto be exercised instead of thechurch.
But we say they are given so to the church as that if they should not be the formal subject of parted power together with the elders, yet they are the virtual subject in which the elders should exercise them; and hence it is that the denomination of church is from the saints, and not given to the officers anywhere in the New Testament.
The officers are said to be set in the church, but they are not called the church.
For the church of Christ must needs be a body to Christ, that still is the persphrasis of a church.
Now, as in 1 Cor. xii. 12, 'A body is not one member but many,' (and from thence it is rightlyargued that a bishopis not the church, for he is but one);
80 nor is a presbytery of elders, although many, the body, for they bear not the immediate relation of a body to Christ himself, but are only the representation of his body.
And as members of all sorts do make a natural body, not only members that are the principal, and rule the body, but also those that are ruled and ordered, so is it here.
And when Christ in Mat. xviii. saith, 'tell the church,' having first told the party alone himself, then brought a brother or two, as the sin of the offending party doth by this increase and grow more heinous, so the number of those by whom he is now to be rebuked, that are called the church, must be supposed to increase also, and therefore not two or three elders of a congregation alone.
'This last is the last and the highest remedy, and therefore the publicness must not lie only in respect that they are public persons, officers ; for if it be told privately only in a consistory, it is as private as if it were told to two or three of the brethren before, or,itmay so be that the same elders had been taken to be the brethren that should admonish him.
By the word church, therefore, is meant a greater company, and therefore not the elders alone, but the elders before the charch, or rather the elders in the church, with whom the church is to join in the admonitions and rebukes of him.
If it be said that bymaking the peoplethus the church rather than the elders, it argues that more authority is given to the people than the elders in the eharch.
The answer is, that that follows not ; it only follows that there is more efficacy and virtue by reason of the church, and the presence of the elders in the church, although the authority should lie in the elders them- '
THE GOVERNMENT OF [Boox IT. selves, as the virtue by which the eye seeth lieth in the body subjectively and virtually more, though the eye alone is the instrament of secing.
We argue also for this congregational institution to have been rather appointed than the other, because that the bounds of this are certain, and are natural.
God (as Baines saith) did never set a church but he did set certain bounds of it; as when he made the Jewish church a nation, he set the bounds of it to be that of a nation.
Bellarmine argueth that therefore bishops are not divino jure, of divine right, because God did not make dioceses, and did not set them out by lot, as he did that of the tribes.
And it was therefore a great contention among bishops of old, in those times of the fourth and fifth century, to whose jurisdiction such and such villages or towns should belong.
In a word, the church is God's house, and God hath not left it unto man to frame his building to what proportion he pleaseth.
Christ's body instituted (which is resembled unto the natural body throughout the epistles) is to have set limits of it, a mazimum quod sic, and if it have all the parts that can have communion natural in the same common acts of nature together, though it be never so small, it is a perfect body; so as it hath a prescription, and bounds are set it, both for parts, and a maximum quod sic for degrees of stature.
Now we have natural and set bounds for all instituted churches, in thisway of congregational churches.
1. The same assembly that doth meet for worship is to meet for discipline, sa that discipline and worship is of equal extent as touching the seat of it.
Now the public worship is upheld by no other society in a constant way, nor can be, but by congregations, as many as can meet to edify in one place.
And therefore by preserving of fixed congregations, God hath always pre- . served the essentials of a ministerial church, that although it suffered additionals of corruption in power, and of tyranny in popish bishops and popes and the like over them, yet still because the institution of a church fell upon congregations, there were true ministerial churches, and a true baptism and the like in all ages.
2. The congregational government hath its bounds natural from s sufficiency of elders, for the sorts and kinds of them. There is no sort appointed on purpose or alone for presbyterial government; as for episcopal, it was pretended there was; but even all the sorts that are, the seats of them are congregational ; and where all are, there is a sufficiency of eldership, as we
A congregational church had elders of all sorts appointed to it, as for what belongeth to worship, pastors and teachers, and as for what belongeth to men's lives, ruling elders; and there is no more elders but of these sorts in the greatest presbyteries over many congregations.
Yea, the presbyteries themselves of many congregations must come furnished of all these sorts, out of their having all these sorts in their particular congregations,
And our presbyteries vannot say, This church shall have a pastor, and this church shall have a teacher, and this church shall have a ruling elder, and so we will make up a presbytery out of all these; but every church is the seat de jure, by divine right, of all these, and every church hath need of all these, and Christ hath appointed these to congregations first.
8. We can derive the limits of congregational churches from the time that is instituted for worship, which is the Lord's day, which God hath fixed, and on which day no other churches meet, and so there is no set time for the exercise of a presbyterial church.
It is Baines his argument against the bishops, that God did appoint for all church meetings under the law a time.
And in Tertullian's time we read that the censures of excommunication were executed upon the Lord's day, and admonition.and the like, though things might be prepared upon the week days.
And the epostle's words in 1 Cor. v., Cuar. VY.) THE CHURCHES OF CHRIST. that they shall cast him out when they are met together (he doth not bid them meet together on purpose), seems to incline to it.
We know of no time that God hath appointed for all ordinances (whereof this is one) in a set way as the fixed season of them, but only this Lord's day, and upon this day presbyterial churches cannot meet for government.
4. That the duties which lie upon the relation of elders to preach and to rale should all be of the same extent (for the subject of them over which they are exercised), all this falleth in naturally with the institution of congregations, and elders over them, and the relation of elders to them.
Men should not govern ordinarily beyond their preaching.
This is evident from what the New Testament holds forth concerning elders in their relations to their flocks committed to them, the exhortations and charges to them of duties towards those flocks, founded upon that relation; as also the duties of their flocks to them, which is like to be the truest measureto find out the extent of their power and bounds of their flocks, whether for the ordinary way it be limited to one congregation or many.
For those exhortations must needs be supposed suited to the boundaries of churches, and to that constitution and extent of relation wherein the elders of these primitive times were placed over them.
And like as in the question about polygamy, what the Scripture hath said of the duties of man and wife, which were given and suited to the extent of that relation, as God from the beginning bounded it, manifestly evinceth that one man cannot have many wives, but one; 80 it may be argued as to the point in hand.
We have hitherto taken this for an undoubted maxim, that as a mutual relation is the fountain of all power, whether economical, civil, or ecclesiastical, so the extent of all power is commensurable with the extent of that relation.
A master, as a master, hath power but over such servants of whom he may say, 'I am your master'; and they of him, ' We are your servants ;' 'for what hath any man to do to judge another man's servant ?' as the apostle speaks, Rom. xiv. 4.
And so correspondently here, those elders that assume to be over either one or many congregations, must have, as the office of elders, so the relation of elders unto that one, or those many congregations, that they may be able to say, We are your elders, and you all our church; which two are, in Scripture expression, the relate and correlate, as king and kingdom, magistrate and commonwealth; all which falls in naturally for the set bounds of a church to be those of congregations.
Whereas the bounds that the presbyterial way goeth by in all their subordinations are uncertain.
You have not a certainty of number of officers.
Some particular congregations have as many officers as some elasses have had.
Neither is it essential to that government that there should be many congregations; for they acknowledge that it may so fall out that there may be but one congregation that may have all the government in it in cases of necessity.
But it is essential to upholding worship in all the parta of it, that there be a fixed congregational church.
And to make the jurisdiction of cities to be the pattern of ecclesiastical government cannot be a certain rule.
For London, or greater cities (as suppose Grand Cairo was converted), would vastly exceed the lesser; and so the rale would fall in disproportion if you come in the country towns aod villages.
And indeed what reason can be given that God should proportion an ecclesiastical government to the boundaries of the civil?
Because the cities under the Roman empire had a jurisdiction in ther, and they over their suburbs, must their churches have so too?
Hath God thus conformed his church unto the government of this world?
And besides, all VOL. XI.
THE GOVERNMENT OF [Boor II. states have not the like government, neither was the government of all countries a city government; and so there could be no certain rule for church government, if it were to be chalked off by these measures.
Neither is the government of nations a certain rule for that of the church, for the Jews after that rate, when they were two nations, should have been but one church.
And, indeed, to form the institution of a church to that boundary had been to do it from what is accidental; for that they should grow up to a nation is accidental.
God did find the Jews a nation entire, entered into a covenant with them, and so made them a national church.
And if God had designed a national church under the New Testament, he would have given laws aforehand, as he did for the Jews when they should come into cities ; so that, although they were now in the wilderness, and they were not to come into cities, till they came into Canaan many years after, yet he giveth a law for that condition of their being a nation and living in cities.
That congregational churches were designed in the institution of Christ, proved Srom instances of the primitive churches planted by the apostles.—The first instance assigned from the states and order of the church at Corinth.
Now, for the proof of all or most of the particulars of which I have discoursed in the preceding chapters, I shall bring, as the conclusion of all, the instance of the church of Corinth, which is the greatest and surest pattern, and the most complete of all other.
It is the greatest pattern, because it answers to the institution in Mat. xviii. (as in the directions given to that church in the 1 Cor. v. and the phrases that about excommunication are put into it, being compared with that in Mat. xviii. doth appear.)
As there Christ, in the promjse that he makes to the church, when it bindeth sin, useth that phrase, 'Where two or three are joined together, I am in the midst of them,' Mat. xviii. 20; so here likewise, in 1 Cor. v. 4, the apostle's direction runs in the same phrase, 'when you are gathered together.'
As there Christ saith, ' gather together in my name,' so here the apostle saith, 'when ye are gathered together in my name, and with the power of the Lord Jesus.'
As Christ there in his promise saith, 'I will be in the midat of you,' when ye are so gathered; so here, speaking of their gathering to- | gether, and throwing him out of the congregation, the apostle useth the | same phrase, 'Take him from the midst of you.'
As there, upon his being cast out, he is to be reckoned as an heathen and a publican, with whom the Jews would not eat, so here, if a brother be thus, they are not to accompany with him, no, not to eat with him.
It is the surest instance of the ordinary power left in a church, because it was a church that was formed up, in which there was that ordinary government which was to continue to the end of the world.
The instance of the church of Jerusalem is an instance, though of the first church, yet for the government of it hath this extraordinary in it, that it was then governed by the apostles, and therefore cannot make a pattern of the government of churches, and the power of elders therein, which should ordinarily and for continuance be exercised.
But this is an instance of a church whom the apostle Paul leaves to their own power that is within them ('Do not ye judge,' &c., 1 Cor. y. 12), which they had exercised and practised.
The church of Jerusalem also bad many other things extraordinary, as that about having their goods common, &c.
But the rules that he gives to this church are such as he gave to all churches; so when he speaks about laying up, not making their goods common, as at Jerusalem, but the Cuar. VI.) THE CHURCHES OF CHRIST. ordinary way that was to be observed concerning alms, ' Let every man lay up' (saith he, 1 Cor. xvi. 8, 4, vii. 17) '38 God hath blessed him; and so T ordain in all the churches.'
§o as the pattern hereof is held forth, as that which held correspondency with the ordinances in all churches in the primitive times.
And therefore is* an argument against the bishops; when they urged the instances of Timothy and Titus, presbyterian divines used to answer, that the instance of their government will not hold as a pattern for episcopal government, because that their government was extraordinary and for the present, but.that we must take that which was the ordinary government that was left in the church, and make that the pattern.
So we may say of the church of Jerusalem, and the government thereof at first by the apostles, whilst they were there, comparatively to this of the church of Corinth, that it is not so great a standing pattern to us.
And this of the church of Corinth is the most complete pattern of all other churches, for he doth give direction almost about all sort of things concerning worship and government, and he utters more rales in his epistles to this chureh than any other.
Thus he gives instructions concerning the sacrament, 1 Cor. xi.; about ministers' maintenance, chap. ix.; about matter of seandal and offence, chap. viii.; about collection for the poor, chap. xvi.; how to order their meetings, chap. xiv.; about covering and uncovering in their assemblies, he saith he had left traditions with them, and wherein they practised according to his traditions he commendeth them, 1 Cor. xi. 2.
He speaks also of the power amongst them'to judge of doctrine, chap. xiv.; and that they were a chureh that had power amongst them to order things for matter of worship in a decency—' Let all be done decently, and aecording to order,' 1 Cor. xiv. 40—and many things of the like nature.
And last of all, it is the only instance and example of excommunication, the highest censare which the apostle gives direction about, and tells them they had power to do it, 1 Cor. v.
Now, concerning this church, there are all these things appertaining to a church, and the institution, and power, and government thereof held forth here; as, 1. Here is a ehurch ;. so it is called.
2. Here is the qualifications of the members, a church of saints, 1 Cor. i. 2, conformable to which all other churches were to be as to the constitution of their members also: chap. xiv. 88, ' As in all the churches ofthe saints.'
All the churches consisted of saints. then, that were visibly such, as this of 8. It was a church formed up into a body, as all those phrases imply, that they are called a whole lump, chap. v. 6, and a whole church, chap. xiv. 28, entire, complete within itself; which whole lamp would be leavened, not only by way of infection by the incestuous person, but by way of guilt, if he were not cast out.
4. It was a -body which had power to judge them that are within: 'Do not ye judge them that are within?' chap. v. 18, that is, within your own body, and society, and fellowship; therefore he saith, 'Put away from among yourselves,' chap. v. 18; therefore he useth those phrases, ' Fornieation is committed among you; that he that did this deed may be taken from among you,' chap. i. 1,2.
It was a church formed up that had a juriediction over them within (and to them without he could not reach); and if they had power to cast out, they had also power to take in; it was therefore a formed body.
5. It was a fixed body in respect of the relation of the members one unto another.
Why else doth he bid them to tarry one for another when they * Qu. 'in'?—Ep.
THE GOVERNMENT OF [Boor II. were to eat the Lord's supper ? chap. xi. 88.
And that they should not take the sacrament alone, one company by themselves, and another company by themselves, which, if such a promiscuous unfixed way was lawful, they might have done, but they were to tarry one for another, that all the church might as one body at once receive.
Now,if they had not been a fixed company, " why should they have been obliged thus to have tarried, or who could have known who was absent and who present ?
| 6. It was a church also that had elders over them, and those more than | one; for speaking of the ordinary teachers that were ministers amongst
| them, some say (saith he), 'I am of Paul, and I am of Apollos, and I am of Christ,' 1 Cor. i. 12; which he in a figure transferred to himself and to Apollos, herein speaking in his own person; but it tendeth to represent the | persons of their teachers, the ministers to whom they did give maintenance,
' and were therefore officers: 1 Cor. ix. 12, 'If others be partakers of this | power over you, are not we rather?'
7. It was'a church having set bounds, by which they might know who were within and who not; for when he saith, 'Do not ye judge them that are within?' 1 Cor. v. 18, he doth not mean all saints in all churches, but it must be those within themselves.
The bounds set by this, that they might be as many as could meet in one assembly, 1 Cor. xiv. 28.
'If the whole church be come together in one place,' &.
8. It was a particular congregation.
1. This is evident from their divi- | sions and contentions, which he findeth fault withal, as in a whole church, | . a whole body, 'that there be no schism in the body,' as he himself expresseth,
1 Cor. xii. 25, applying it to them, ' now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular.'
He speaks of these divisions as being among those that ' did meet in one fer worship: 1 Cor. xi. 18, ' For first when ye come together i in the church, I hear there be divisions among you, and I partly believe it.'
And this division was in their meetings in the church for worship, 1 Cor.
And 'have ye not houses to eat and drink it, but despise ye the | church of God?' the assembly of the saints, as he reproves their divisions
| and disorders in respect of the sacrament.
To remedy these divisions, he : bids them tarry one for another, ver. 88.
Thus these directions concern H them that are one congregation for worship, that use to meet in one place ; ' and, chap. xii. 21, he saith they were members of one another in particular, in a more special relation.
Now, that special particular near relation is that i between those of the same congregation, where they meet fixedly for wori ship, by the consent and before the people, of which a man is therefore cast out, which he is not out of any other church in the world.
2. In this respect | he calleth them a temple to God, speaking against them that caused divisions | in the church: 1 Cor. iii. 16, 'The temple of God are ye,' and that he that | went about to destroy it by divisions, God would destroy him.
He speaks : not personally of each member, as in chap. vi., but in respect of their church state, as they were a body, in opposition to divisions.
Now the temple is for all the ordinances of worship, therefore called the house of God.
8. He : gives directions to them as to a whole church, chap. xiv. 28, 'If the whole church be come together in some place.'
4. He speaks of it alsoas a church, which was to receive edifying together by the ordinances administered, so chap. xiv. ver. 6, 'I would that ye all spake with tongues, but rather that ye prophesied: for greater is he that prophesieth than he that speaks with tongues, that the church may be edified ;' so ver. 12, ' See that ye excel to the edifying of the church.'
And if the whole congregation, é&e. ; and ver. 26, he speaks this in application to them all in respect of their meeting:
' How is it then, brethren, when ye come together,' dc.
Cuap. VI.] THE CHURCHES OF CHRIST.
As their assembly for worship proves them to have been a particular con- . gregation for worship, so also the directions given concerning excommunication evince it, chap v. ; for if they had been many congregations in respect of their members, 1. He would have written to that particular congregation whereof the man was, as that congregation (at least the elders thereof) which should (according to presbyterial principles) be told first of an offending member before he is brought to the classical.
He would have named that chureh he was thus a member of, and written to it in a peculiar manner, whereas now he names none, but writes to the whole church.
2. When his directions come to fall upon the. execution of the act, he doth not mention the sentence so much that was to be passed (according to our brethren) in the presbytery, but the act of execution, the act of delivery to Satan, was to be done when they were met together;which being to be done in that particular church whereof he was a member, if there had been many congregations there, he would have named that church as that in whieh it should have been done.
Especially considering that the aposthe in his writing pitcheth upon that solemn act of excommunication, which completeth the throwing of a man out, which, as all grant, is done and performed in the gathering together of that particular congregation, whereof a man is a member.
8. If there had been a claésical church over many congregations where the elders meet, and a congregational church too, where this person did meet with the elders of his own church and the congregation, if there had been these two several sorts of church meetings, it would have been obscure and dark, unto whieh the apostle's directions should refer him; so as there would have been need of new distinctions of meetings as well as of elders and churches, when the apostle speaks but of one.
Yea, the apostle saith, 'when met together,' 1 Cor. v. 4, namely, for other ordinances upon the Lord's day, that then they should give this sentence of excommunication.
He doth not give directions that they should meet together on purpose for that, but as discipline is to keep worship pure and subserveth it, so also is it to be performed when the whole meet together for worship, that the person also may see out of what a communion he is cast.
6 Saith he, ' Do not ye judge them that are within?'
If there had been congregational churches, one whereof he had been a member of (for he could be but a member of one), and another classical church, here had been two withins, and which of these should the apostle intend?
Our presbyterian brethren say, that the congregations have power to judge things within themselves, so that they must needs have one within, and why should not their within be the within here intended for the ultimate throwing out of this man ?
9. This church at Corinth also had an entire judicature within itself, not depending upon the advice of any for sentence, and the like; for he speaks of the whole act, 'Do not ye judge them that are within?'
He useth the same word that he useth of himself and his power, 'Do not ye judge' (saith he), speaking of them; ' what have I to do to judge,' speaking of himself.
And (saith he) 'when ye are gathered together with my spirit, and the power of the Lord Jesus, to deliver such an one to Satan.'
So that they were not dependent upon the apostle, to come to him for the sentence; only in their neglect the apostle writes to them as an apostle, with this rule, to excommunicate such an one if the party be found guilty, which the apostle did never know but by hearsay, therefore could never pass a judicial sentence; but he finds fault with them, because they had not done it, for do not ye use to do it? saith he.
Have not ye power to do it?
'Do not ye judge them that are within?' le doth not say, 'whom I have delivered unto Satan,' but directs them as a church of Christ having such power to do it.
THE GOVERNMENT OF [Boox II.
Object. But it is objected by{some that he did it for a trial of their obedience, and therefore their act was but an act of obedience in them, but the power was in him.
Ans. The answer is this, that the power might completely rest in them, and yet they obey the apostle in the act, as an apostle directing them, when they neglected it; as when a prophet in the name of God bade the magistrate to do his duty, though it is an act of obedience in him to do it thus commanded, yet he hath power as a magistrate in himself.
And as in case a minister had neglected to baptize, and the apostle had sent to him or commanded him to have done it, the pewer of baptizing must be said to be in him that baptizeth.
10. If this church of Corinth had been a church that might have associated, it would have done it, for it had neighbour church near it, the church of Cenchrea, which was a port town to Corinth, as Leith is to Edinburgh; and Cenchrea was but a small town, not a city; but he writeth to the church of Corinth as an entire-church distinct of itself.
That the people have an interest in judging, we refer that to the proofs out of this place, only we name it here to shew the completeness of this pattern, for the forming of congregational churches answerable to it.
CHAPTER VIL That the name of a church given in the New Testament to congregational churches rather than any other (as 43 proved from several texts, 1 Cor. xi.
18, Rom. xvi. 1, 5, 1 Cor. iv. 17, dc.), proves congregational churches to have been intended by Christ in his institution of a church, they most properly being both in name and nature such.—That a presbyterian assembly of elders cannot properly be called a church, evinced by several arguments.
To decide the controversy about the divine institution of a congregational : church, we may put it to the trial, whether single congregations with their elders have more the style of churchesin the New Testament, than the elders of many congregations as assembled in a consistory, and let that determine it.
Now that those congregations where God is publicly worshipped, and the preaching of the word, and the sacraments administered, are called each of them a church, is evident.
1. In 1 Cor. xi. 18, ' When you come togethor in the church,' he speaks of their meeting for the Lord's supper, ver. 20, and in ver. 22 he calls it so again.
So their meeting for preaching and for singing ofpsalms, he calls it a church, chap. xiv. ver. 2, 19, 28; he calls it a whole charch meeting for those ends.
And there he gives not the name to the meeting or assembly, but to the state and company, ver. 28, for the rules he giveth there are for ordering of worship., So too in Rom, xvi. 4, saluting Aquila and Priscilla
(who for his life would lay down their own necks), he giveth these congregations the name of churches ; 'anto whom' (saith he) ' not only I give thanks, but also all the churches of the Gentiles ;' and ver. 16, 'The churches of Christ salute you.'
Were those a company of elders over many congregations met ? presbyterial churches, that did testify their thanks unto Aquila and Priscilla?
Or were they congregations of saints and strangers also where Paul had been?
He had related unto them his own danger, and Aquila's, and Priscilla's, exposing their \lives for his; and can it be supposed that the saints, as making several presbyterial churches (who are so vast, like ours, as the people never meet to-do it), did salute
Cuar. VII.] THE CHURCHES OF CHRIST. the Romans, and Aquila and Priscilla?
No; rather the several congtegational churches might well have an opportunity to express the remembrance of them at their meetings.
And the first verse and the fifth verse of Rom. xvi. will easily prompt us what manner of churches he meaneth, when he speaks of all these churches, that they were such as was'at Cenchrea; 'the church which is at Cenchrea,' saith he, which was asmall port seven miles off Corinth; and ver. 5, saith he, ' Greet ye the church that is (i. e. that met) in Priscilla's house.'
Such churches as these were the churches of the Gentiles, who saluted them.
If we come to the ' epistle of the Corinths, saith the apostle, 1 Cor. iv. 17, ' As I teach everywhere in every church.'
Doth he mean these presbyterial churches or consistories, or congregational? Surely the churches where Paul still preached and tanght must be congregational; for those assemblies are the subjects and seats of teaching.