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

Then a Congregational Church (such as hath been described) is the highest Ecclesiastical Tribunal, under Christ, in its own matters. This was revealed to John, as that frame of Church-Government which should continue, from the Apostles time, unto the end of the World; when he saw a Throne set in Heaven, the Trinity ⟨p. 135⟩sitting upon it, and the four living Creatures between it, and the four and twenty Elders who sate round about the Throne, Rev. 4.1,-9. Thither appeals must be made according to Christ his Ordinance, by an offended Brother, after the first and second step; or by any Member that finds himself over-rigorously deal• with by his Brethren in these steps; Matth. 18.17, 18. that there the Cause may be scanned, and Sentence proceed according to Christ. If the Church want sufficient light, or consent, for the sentence, they are to seek help from others by their Light and Counsel, but still preserving the power of Censure entirely in the Church, where Christ hath placed it. The wisdom of Christ, the good of the Church, and of every Member, and the nature of the thing require, that there be some chief Tribunal in the exerci•• of Church-Government, unto which Appeals must be last made, Juridically, and from which no Appeal may be granted and expected. 2. That this chief Tribunal must have no Ecclesiastical Power above it; and 3. That it may not be judially censured by any Power of the same kind. All the question is, which is the chief Tribunal? That, say some, must be ⟨p. 136⟩the Classes, under which such Churches stand, and the Synods under which the Classes are subordinate; and they give this Reason: Because the end, for which the Keys are given to the Church, is, that all offences may be removed, Mat. 18.15, 16, &c. Which, they say, cannot be done, if you put the chief Power of Judgment into a Congregational Church. For, what if an Elder? what if the whole Edership? yea, what if the whole Church offend? The Church cannot censure their Elders; for that were to rule their Rulers, and to judge their Judges; nor will they censure themselves. But a Classis or Synod of many Elders may, and will, reform all, by judicially censuring all.