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

CHAP. III. Concerning the formal Cause.

The formal cause, or that which gives essential being to this Church, is here held forth in a Metaphor, taken from houses. For, [Greek or Hebrew], properly signifies, to build an house of materials, ⟨p. 27⟩fitly joined and compacted together: but Christ doth not here speak of the structure of a material house, but of the constituting of that holy Society, which he calleth his Church, under the metaphor of building an house, which every way suits the matter he speaks of. For, as a material house (suppose, of stones) is built by orderly placing and strongly cementing them together, which before were either scattered stones, or a confused and loose heap, but not an house, till they were thus framed and compacted together: so this holy Society, the Church of Christ, ariseth from the coadunition, or knitting together of many Saints into one, by an holy Covenant, whereby they, as lively Stones, are built up a spiritual House, 1 Pet. 2.4, 5. And as the natural body of a man is built, by an orderly joining and firmly knitting the parts together: So is the Church of Christ built by the mutual Covenanting of the Saints, the Members of the Church, which is called the Body of Christ, where the Members of it are thus orderly and firmly knit to the Head, and one to another. Eph. 4.15, 16. The same holds in Cities and Families, which are thus built also; and therefore the Apostle speaketh of this matter, under the same ⟨p. 28⟩metaphor, in Ephes. 2.19, 20, 21. The conclusion from hence is, that

THe formall cause, or that which gives essential being to this Church, is here held forth in a Metaphor, taken from houses. For, , properly signifies, to build an house of materials,