The power of Congregational churches asserted and vindicated in answer to a treatise of…

Then the Church is before its Officers, that is, it is a true Church, essentially, and hath all Church-Power, either formally, or virtually, before it hath Officers, and when the Officers are removed from it, by Death or Censure. For, 1. as a man is a true man, who is a living creature endued with a reasonable soul, because the definition of a man agreeth to him, though he wanteth some bodily Members; so a Church is a true Church, which consists of a Soc•• of visible Believers confederated ⟨p. 106⟩together in one Congregation, to walk together in all the Ordinances of Christ, with mutual submission one to another, in the Lord; because the definition of a Church agreeth to it, though it wants Officers. 2. Such a Church can call their Officers, and thereby make them Officers to themselves: Therefore it must be before them, as the cause is before its effect. A Corporation hath its being and power of a Corporation within it self, before it hath Magistrates; because it can choose Magistrates, and, when they are dead, or put out, can put others into their stead and place. So it is with the Church.

Then the Church is before its Officers, that is, it is a true Church, essentially, and hath all Church-Power, either formally, or virtually, before it hath Officers, and when the Officers are removed from it, by Death or Censure. For, 1. as a man is a true man, who is a living creature endued with a reasonable soul, because the definition of a man agreeth to him, though he wanteth some bodily Members; so a Church is a true Church, which consists of a Soc of visible Believers confederated