Seeking_Thy_Kingdom
Puritan Board Sophomore
Question: Whether the organized church can be preserved in one person and whether Adam, when he was alone in the world, was the church of God?
Answer: No. After all, it is said that one thing is a multitude: the church is a multitude and a crowd gathered together in one flock. This is evident from the fact that she is called in Holy Scripture a household, a kingdom, a people, a herd, and this is compared to a body, a building, a state. A Christian, for example, who is under Barbarians and unbelievers, or in a desert, or on some island, is completely out of touch with people (which, if I am not mistaken, has been the case for more than 30 years with a Dutch sailor who, after that lapse of time, returned again to his own), in his solitude serves God in spirit and in truth, not yet a church. Ask me whether he then belongs to the church or is one of her members, so I admit, as far as the invisible and mystical church is concerned, but as regards the organized church, I deny that he is a member if he has never been in a visible and factual community with any church; if one wants to call him a potential member, we have nothing against this, provided that he wishes with all his heart and has the information to do so. But this remains improper and entirely by analogy or agreement. If a person used to be in an ecclesiastical community, and now he is single (out of his own fault) and separated from any visible church that continues to have community, so much as is in his power, such a person could be called a member inwardly, and his community an inner or hidden person. And this also shows what our judgment must be about the Catholic, potential church of the popes, the pope alone, and about the potential church of a diocese who would exist in a bishop.
Gisbertus Voetius, Treatise on The Visible and Organized Church
Answer: No. After all, it is said that one thing is a multitude: the church is a multitude and a crowd gathered together in one flock. This is evident from the fact that she is called in Holy Scripture a household, a kingdom, a people, a herd, and this is compared to a body, a building, a state. A Christian, for example, who is under Barbarians and unbelievers, or in a desert, or on some island, is completely out of touch with people (which, if I am not mistaken, has been the case for more than 30 years with a Dutch sailor who, after that lapse of time, returned again to his own), in his solitude serves God in spirit and in truth, not yet a church. Ask me whether he then belongs to the church or is one of her members, so I admit, as far as the invisible and mystical church is concerned, but as regards the organized church, I deny that he is a member if he has never been in a visible and factual community with any church; if one wants to call him a potential member, we have nothing against this, provided that he wishes with all his heart and has the information to do so. But this remains improper and entirely by analogy or agreement. If a person used to be in an ecclesiastical community, and now he is single (out of his own fault) and separated from any visible church that continues to have community, so much as is in his power, such a person could be called a member inwardly, and his community an inner or hidden person. And this also shows what our judgment must be about the Catholic, potential church of the popes, the pope alone, and about the potential church of a diocese who would exist in a bishop.
Gisbertus Voetius, Treatise on The Visible and Organized Church
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