A37205:132
The power of Congregational churches asserted and vindicated in answer to a treatise of…
The power of Congregational churches asserted and vindicated in answer to a treatise of Mr. J. Paget entitled The defence of church-government exercised in classes and synods / by John Davenport.The power of Congregational churches asserted and vindicated in answer to a treatise of Mr. J. Paget intituled The defence of church-government exercised in classes and synods / by John Davenport.
London: printed for Rich. Chiswell and to be sold by John Usher of Boston, 1672
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
5. Reas. They to whom the Keys are here given, do authoritatively forgive and retain sins, and their Acts are valid in Heaven: but the Church of Believers, wanting Officers, cannot by any warrant of Scripture, authoritatively forgive and retain sins.]
5. Reas. They to whom the Keys are here given, doe authoritatively forgive and retain sins, and their Acts are valid in Heaven: but the Church of Believers, wanting Officers, cannot by any warrant of Scripture, authoritatively forgive and retain sins.]
Answ. The word, Authority, sometimes is taken more generally, for Power, sometimes more strictly and properly, for Ruling and Office-Power. In the first sense, the Church hath power to forgive judicially, in 2 Cor. 2.10. in reference to their former censure. The Officers forgive authoritatively, in the second sense. We proceed to the last interpretation.
Answ. The word, Authority, sometimes is taken more generally, for Power, sometimes more strictly and properly, for Ruling and Office-Power. In the first sense, the Church hath power to foregive judicially, in 2 Cor. 2.10. in reference to their former censure. The Officers forgive authoritatively, in the second sense. We proceed to the last interpretation.
6. Others look at the Keys as given to Peter here, in the name of a particular visible Church, indefinitely taken; not of this or that particular definite Church, that all other Churches should receive the Keys from them, or be subject to the power of the Keys in their hands: For that will not stand with the parity of Churches among themselves: for, par in parem non habet imperium. Therefore the Church, here intended, must be taken generally, and indefinitely, as comprehending in it any particular visible Church, one as well