Whence it is most evident that all church-officers, so far as they had any pas- toral or episcopal office, were given to a particular congregation as the -rpurov hxTixov. We read of no pastors of many congregations, nor of any church made up of many congregations, to which officers were annexed, nor of any representa- tive church, as some would have.
That apostolic power did descend to successors we utterly deny, it being not derivable; for none after them could say they had been eye-witnesses of our Lord before or after his resurrection, none since so qualified by an extraordinary mea- sure of the Spirit for preaching and working miracles, and none but the pope challenges such an extensive care for and power over all churches. That \\'hich descends from them to the ordinary ministry is a commission to preach and bap- tize: and why not to head, it being always, in the coinmission that Christ gave, a pastoral relation or presbytership which was included in their apostleship, and exercised toward the church of Jerusalem ? Such presbytership John and Peter both had. Hence there remains no other successors "jure" to the apostles but ordinary pastors and teachers.
These are relative officers, and are always in and to some particular congrega- tions ; we know of no catholic visible church that any pastors are ordained to. 1. The Scripture speaks of no church as catholic visible. 2. The thing itself is but a chimera of some men's brains, it is not " in rerum natura;" for if a catholic visible church be all the churches that I see at a time, I am not capable of seeing many more than what can assemble in one place. And if it be meant of all the churches actually in being, how are they visible to me? where can they be seen in one place ? I may as well call all the cities and corporations in the world the catholic visible city or corporation, which all rational men would call nonsense. Besides, if all organized churches could be got together, it is not catholic in re- spect of saints militant, much less of triumphant ; for many are no church mem- bers that are Christ's members, and many visii^le membei's are no true members
THE PREFACE. 6
of Christ Jesus. Where is any such church capable of communion in all ordi- nances in one place? and the Scripture speaks of no other organized visible church.
Again: to a catholic visible church constituted should be a catholic visible pastor or pastors; for as the church is, such is the pastor and officers. To the mystical church Christ is the mystical head and pastor; he is called "The chief Pastor," 1 Pet. v. 4; and " The Shepherd of our souls," chap. ii. 25. Hence the uncalled are his sheep, as John X. 16. But to all visible churches Christ hath appointed a visible pastor or pastors; and where is the pastor of the catholic visible church? he is not to be found, unless it suffice us to take him from Rome. To say that all individual pastors are pastors to the catholic church is either to say that they are invested with as much pastoral power and charge in one church as in another, and then they are indefinite pastors, and therefore all pastors have mutual power in each other's churches ; and so John may come into Thomas' church and exercise all parts of jurisdiction there, and Thomas into John's; or a minister to the catholic church hath an universal catholic power over the catholic church, — if so, the power and charge which every ordinary pastor hath is apostolic; or, lastly, he is invested with an arbitrary power, at least as to the taking up a particular charge where he pleaseth, with a " non obstante " to the suffrages of the people, for if he hath an office whereby he is equally related to all churches, it is at his liberty, by virtue of this office, to take [himself] where he pleaseth.
But every church-officer under Christ is a visible relate, and the correlate must be such, whence the church must be visible to which he is an officer. It is absurd to say a man is a visible husband to an invisible wife ; the relate and correlate must be " ejusdem natural." It is true, Christ is related to the church as mysti- cal head, but it is in respect of the church in its mystical nature, for Christ hath substituted no mystical officers in his church.
There is a great deal of difference between the mystical and external visible church, though the latter is founded upon it and for the sake of it. It is founded upon it as taking its true spiritual original from it, deriving vital spirits from it by a mystical union to and communion with Christ and his members; — and it is for the sake of it; all external visible assemblies, ministers, ordinances, are for the sake of the mystical body of Christ, for calling in the elect, and the edifying of them to that full measure of stature they are designed unto.
But the different consideration lies in these things, —
That the mystical church doth never fail, neither is diminished by any shocks of temptation or suffering that, in their visible profession, any of them undergo; whereas visible churches are often broken, scattered, yea, unchurched, and many members fail of the grace of God by final apostasy. Likewise Christ's mystical church is many times preserved in that state only, or mostly, when Christ hath not a visible organized church, according to institution, to be found on the face of the earth. So it was with his church often under the old testament dispensation : as in Egypt ; in the days of the judges, when the ark was carried away by the Philistines ; in the days of Manasseh and other wicked kings ; and especially in Babylon. In such times the faithful ones were preserved without the true sacri- fices, the teaching priest, and the law. So hath it been in the days of the new testament, in divers places, under the draconic heathen persecutions, and after- ward in the wilderness state of the church, under the antichristian usurpations and false worship. Which mystical state is the place prepared of God to hide the seed of the woman in from the dragon's rage for the space of one thousand two hundred and sixty days.