Of the End and Scope of this Government of the Church.
The end or scope intended by Christ in instituting, and to be aimed at by Christ's officers in executing of church government in dispensing the word, sacrament, censures, and all ordinances of Christ, is (as the description expresseth) the edifying of the Church of Christ. This end is very comprehensive. For the fuller evidencing whereof these two things are to be proved:1st, That Jesus Christ our Mediator hath under the New Testament one general visible Church on earth. 2d. That the edification of this Church of Christ is that eminent scope and end why Christ gave the power of church government and other ordinances unto the Church.
I. For the first, that Jesus Christ our Mediator hath under the New Testament a general visible Church on earth, made up of all particular churches, may be cleared by considering well these particulars.
1st. That it is evident by the Scriptures that Jesus Christ hath on earth many particular visible churches: (whether churches congregational, presbyterial, provincial, or national, needs not here be determined.) "Unto the churches of Galatia," Gal. i. 2. "The churches of Judea," Gal. i. 22. "Through Syria and Cilicia, confirming the churches," Acts xv. 41. "To the seven churches in Asia," Rev. i. 4, 20. "The church of Ephesus," Rev. ii. 1. "The church in Smyrna," ver. 8. "The church in Pergamus," ver. 12. "The church in Thyatira," ver. 18. "The church in Sardis," Rev. iii. 1. "The church in Philadelphia," ver. 7. And "the church in Laodicea," ver. 14. "The church that is in their house," Rom. xvi. 5; and Philem. 2. "Let your women keep silence in the church," 1 Cor. xiv. 34. "All the churches of the Gentiles," Rom. xvi. 4. "So ordain I in all churches," 1 Cor. vii. 17. "As in all churches of the saints," 1 Cor. xiv. 33. "The care of all the churches," 2 Cor. xi. 28. The New Testament hath many such like expressions.
2d. That how many particular visible churches soever Christ hath on earth, yet Scripture counts them all to be but one general visible Church of Christ. This is manifest,
1. By divers Scriptures, using the word church in such a full latitude and extensive completeness, as properly to signify, not any one single congregation, or particular church, but one general visible Church: as, "Upon this rock I will build my Church," Matt. xvi. 18. "Give none offence, neither to the Jews, nor to the Greeks, nor to the Church of God," 1 Cor. x. 32. "God hath set some in the Church, first, apostles; secondarily, prophets; thirdly, teachers," &c., 1 Cor. xii. 28. "I persecuted the Church of God," 1 Cor. xv. 9; Gal. i. 13. "The Church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth," 1 Tim. iii. 15. "Might be known by the Church the manifold wisdom of God," Eph. iii. 10. "In the midst of the Church will I sing praise unto thee," Heb. ii. 12. In which, and such like places, we must needs understand, that one general visible Church of Christ.
2. By such passages of scripture as evidently compare all visible professors and members of Christ throughout the world to one organical body, having eyes, ears, hands, feet, &c., viz., several organs, instruments, officers, &c., in it, for the benefit of the whole body; as, "He gave some apostles, and some prophets, and some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ," Eph. iv. 11, 12. "There is one body," Eph. iv. 4. "As we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office; so we being many are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another," &c., Rom. xii. 4-9. "As the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body being many, are one body; so also is Christ," (i.e., Christ considered mystically, not personally,) "for by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free," &c., 1 Cor. xii. 12, to the end of the chapter, which context plainly demonstrates all Christ's visible members in the world, Jews or Gentiles, &c., to be members of one and the same organical body of Christ, which organical body of Christ is the general visible Church of Christ; for the invisible church is not organical.
II. That the edification of the Church of Christ is that eminent scope and end, why Christ gave church government and all other ordinances of the New Testament to his Church. This is frequently testified in scripture. 1. The apostle, speaking of this power generally, saith, "Our authority which the Lord hath given to us for edification, and not for the destruction of you," 2 Cor. x. 8. The like passage he hath again, saying, "according to the authority," or power, "which the Lord hath given to me for edification, and not for destruction," 2 Cor. xiii. 10; in both which places he speaks of the authority of church government in a general comprehensive way, declaring the grand and general immediate end thereof to be, affirmatively, edification of the church; negatively, not the subversion or destruction thereof. 2. In like manner, when particular acts of government, and particular ordinances are mentioned, the edification of the Church, at least in her members, is propounded as the great end of all: e.g. 1. Admonition is for edification, that an erring brother may be gained, Matt. xviii. 15, 16, that wavering minds may be sound in the faith. "Rebuke them cuttingly, that they may be sound in the faith," Tit. i. 13, that beholders and bystanders may fear to fall into like sins. "Them that sin rebuke before all, that others also may fear," 1 Tim. v. 20. 2. Excommunication is for edification; particularly of the delinquent member himself; thus the incestuous person was "delivered to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit might be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus," 1 Cor. v. 4, 5. "Hymeneus and Alexander were delivered to Satan, that they might learn not to blaspheme," 1 Tim. i. 20: more generally of the Church; thus the incestuous person was to be put away from among them lest the whole lump of the church should be leavened by him, 1 Cor. v. 3. Absolution also is for edification, lest the penitent party "should be swallowed up of too much sorrow," 2 Cor. ii. 7. 4. All the officers of his Church are for edification of the Church, (Eph. iv. 7, 8, 11, 12, 16,) together with all the gifts and endowments in these officers, whether of prayer, prophecy, tongues, &c., all must be managed to edification. This is the scope of the whole chapter. 1 Cor. xii. 7, &c., and 1 Cor. xiv. 3-5, 9, 12, &c., 26; read the whole chapter. That passage of Paul is remarkable, "I thank my God, I speak with tongues more than you all; yet in the church I had rather speak five words with my understanding, that by my voice I might teach others also, than ten thousand words in an unknown tongue," verses 18, 19. Thus church government, and all sorts of ordinances, with the particular acts thereof, are to be levelled at this mark of edification. Edification is an elegant metaphor from material buildings (perhaps of the material and typical temple) to the spiritual; for explanation's sake briefly thus take the accommodation: The architects, or builders, are the ministers, 1 Cor. iii. 10. The foundation and corner-stone that bears up, binds together, and gives strength to the building, is Jesus Christ, 1 Cor. iii. 11; 1 Pet. ii. 4, 6. The stones or materials are the faithful or saints, 2 Cor. i. 1. The building, or house itself, is the Church, that spiritual house, and temple of the living God, Eph. ii. 21, and iv. 12; 1 Cor. iii. 9, 16, 17. The edification of this house is gradually to be perfected more and more till the coming of Christ, by laying the foundation of Christianity, in bringing men still unto Christ, and carrying on the superstruction in perfecting them in Christ in all spiritual growth, till at last the top-stone be laid on, the Church completed, and translated to the house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.