14 - Of the extent of a particular church

Summary

After the examination of the several titles of such as challenge the supreme Power of the Keys, and the declaration of mine own judgement, the third thing proposed was the extent of a particular church. That there is a supreme Power of the Keys; that there is a primary subject of this power, that this power is in the church; that it's disposed in this church in a certain order and manner in one or more, purely or mixedly, few, if any, will deny. But that it is disposed in the whole church after the manner of a free state, so that every particular Christian community, is the primary subject of it, is not so easily granted, though I conceive it, as many other worthy and excellent men do, to be truth delivered unto us by Christ and his Apostles. Yet let this be agreed upon, yet there is another difference concerning the bound and extent of this church. This is not the proper place, I confess, to handle this particular, for extent presupposeth a church constituted and in being, and it's an accident of the same. Therefore pars subdita, which is the second integral part, as of a state, so of a church, should first have been spoken of. In this point I find a threefold difference: for some extend this church, which is the primary subject of the Power of the Keys, very far, and make it to be the universal church of all nations.