In his Christs dayes shall the righteous florish so long as the Moone endureth And he shall rule from sea to sea and from the River even to the ends of the round world Yea all the Kings of the earth shall adore him and all nations shall serve him Psal 98.3 All the ends of the earth have seene the saluation of our God Of what Church is this true besides the Roman 4. In this point of the multitude of Gentiles to be converted none more eloquēt and copious then the Prophet Isaias Chap. 2. v. 2. And in the later dayes the new Testament is called the last houre 1. Io. 2.18 the mountaine of the house of our Lord shall be prepared in the topp of mountaines and all nations shall flow unto it and he shall judge the Gentills c. Again Ch. 49. v. 1. Listen ô you Ilands and attend you people from a farr And then v. 6. It is a small thing that thou shouldest be my servant to rayse up the Tribes of Iacob and to convert the Dreggs of Israël it is too too poore a thing for Christ to be authour of so small a Church as the Iewish Church was Behold I have given thee to the light of the Gentills that thou mayest be saluation even to the farthest part of the earth Kings shall see and Princes arise and adore for our Lords sake Behold these shall come from farr and behold they from the north and the sea and these from the south country Lift up thy eyes round about and see all these are gathered togeather thy are come to thee And v. 19. Thy desarts and thy solitary places in which no body before served God and the land of thy ruine shall now be straite by reason of the inhabitants And yet shall the Children of the Barrennesse say in thine eares The place is straite for me make me space to dwell Then v. 22. Behold I will lift up my hands to the Gentills and to the people I will exalt my signes And they shall carry thy Sonns in theyr armes and thy Daughters upon theyr shouldiers And Kings shall be thy nurcing fathers and Queenes thy Nurses With a countenance cast downe to the ground they shall adore thee and they shall licke up the dust of thy feet Kings prostrating themselves at the feet of Christs Vicar and kissing them Again Chap. 54.2 Enlarge the place of thy tents and streetch out the skinns of thy Tabernacles for thou shalt penetrate to the right hand and the left And thy seed shall inherit the Gentills and shall inhabite the desolate Cities Here note that these things were spoken to the Iewish Church telling her how much the future glorie of Christs Church should exceede her and so to her the Prophet sayd in the first verse Payse ô barren woeman which barest not sing prayse and make joyfull noyse because many are the Children of the desolate Gentills more then of her that hath a husband To witt the Synagogue to which he had been so long espoused So that it is flatly against Scripture to make the Church of Christ at any time so barren as the Synagogue was in the dayes of Elias Allthough even then she had in the field farr above an eleven hundred thousand men besides many thousands of soldiers in her walled Cities as we shewed Point 3. n. 2. much more is it against Scripture to make her so litle as not to be visibile or known And therefore again Ch. 60. v. 1. Arise be illuminated Hierusalem because thy light is come and the glorie of our Lord is risen upon thee Gentills shall walke in thy light and Kings in the brightnes of thy rising Lift up thine eyes and see round about all these are gathered togeather they are come to thee Thy sonns shall come from a farr and thy daughters shall rise from thy side Then shalt thou see and abound and thy heart shall be enlarged when the multitude of the sea shall be converted to thee The strenght of the Gentills shall come to thee the inundation of Camells shall couer thee v. 10. The Children of strangers shall build thy walls and theyr Kings shall minister to thee and thy gates shall be open continually never shalt thou be invisible for day and night they shall not be shutt that the strenght of the Gentills may be brought to thee for the nation and the Kingdomes that shall not serve thee shall perish What nations can serve yea and be bound under paine of perishing to serve an invisible church again v. 15. I will make thee an eternall excellency a joy unto generation and generation and thou shalt suck the milk of Gentills and thou shalt be nourished with the teate of Kings Again Ch. 62. v. 2. And the Gentills shall see thy Righteousnes and all the Kings thy glory 5. Ieremie allso every where fully Chap. 30.19 I will multiplie them and they shall not be few and I will glorifie them and they shall not be small Christs Church still shal ever containe a vast number of people Again 31.34 And a man shall no more teach his neightbour and a man his brother saying know our Lord for all shall know me from the lest of them to the greatest sayth our Lord Thus sayth our Lord that gives the Sun for the light of the day the order of the Moone and Starrs for the light of the night If these laws shall faile before me sayth our Lord then allso the seed of Israël shall faile that it be not a nation for ever before me This text cometh convincingly home to prove that this universality shall be perpetuall and no more faile in any age then the light of the Sunne and Moone As long as they last this Church shall be a flourishing Nation for ever For again v. 37 Thus sayth our Lord. If the heavens shall be able to be measured and the foundations of the earth beneath to be searched out I allso will cast away all tht seed of Israël And then in a Metaphore of a Citie built upon hills farr distant from one another he sayes this so vastly extended Citie shall not he plucked up and it shall no more be destroyed for ever which is a gallant expression of the perpetual universality of the Church for ever retaining a vast great extent in any ages whatsoever The same follows Ch. 33. v. 20. Thus sayth our Lord if my covenant with the day can be voide and my covenant with the night that there be no day nor night in theyr time allso my covenant may be made voide with David my servant that there be not a sonne of him to reigne in his throne and Levits and Priests my Ministers Even as the Starrs of heaven cannot be numbred and the sand of the sea be measured so will I multiplie the seed of David my servant and the Levits my Ministers Now if the number of Priests Pastours and Teachers shall be so great at all times how great att all times
and how exceeding visible must be the number of the people who are visibly to be ruled fedd and taught And yet again v. 25. If I have not set my covenant between night and day and laws to heaven and earth surely I will allso cast of the seed of Iacob and of David my servant that I take not of his seede Princes of the seede of Abraham Isaac and Iacob These Levites and Priests shal not be so by birth but they shall be taken out of Italians Africans Grecians the Ilands as Isaias sayth in his last Chap. v. 21. Though your Bible did not interpret the Hebrew names of the Countries These Texts then manifestly tell the perpetuall succession of Priests and Pastours in Christs Church so that we are no lesse assured of haveing lawfull Princes in the Church lawfully still governing the same then we are assured of haveing night and day and the heavens moveing above us and the earth standing under us A point much to be noted yet we may confidently say no Church no Church but the Roman can doe this 6. Ezechiel Chap. 17.22 Thus sayth our Lord. And I will take the marrow of the high Cedar and will set it and will plant it upon a mountaine a mountaine high and eminent On the high mountaines of Israël will I plant it and it shall shoote forth into a budd and shall yeild fruit and it shall be into a great Cedar and all Birds and every foule sball dwell under the shaddowe of the boughes thereof and shall there make theyr nests Behould Christs Church which in her beginning was but a small graine of mustard seede now growne up to the greatnes of such a Cedar as this is And not growne and growne untill at last she was growne quite invisible Memorable is that Text Chap. 36.25 And I will powre out upon you cleare water and you shall be cleansed from all your contaminations and from all your Idolls will I cleanse you and give you a new heart and will put a new spirit in the middest of you and will by my grace make that you shall walke in my precepts and keepe my judgments and doe them Before we goe farther I pray take speciall notice that the Church by the grace of Christ is freed from feare of being abandoned because she did at any time grow to forsake Gods judgments for he will still give her grace to keepe them In that day that I shall cleanse you from all your iniquities and shall make the Cities to be inhabited and shall repaire the ruinous places and the desert land shall be tilled and they shall say This land untilled is become a garden of pleasure And v. 37. I will encrease them with men like a flock as the flock of Hierusalem in her solemne feasts in which feasts many thousand men gathered out of every howshold of that nation did use to goe up to Hierusalem so shall the desert Cities be full of flocks of men How can universality and a most visible numerosity be more fully expressed when even the desert places shall be filled as Hierusalem was thronged and crowded in the solemnityes thereof Daniel Chap. 2. v. 35. makes the Church of a litle stone grow into a moutaine filling the whole earth how ridiculously then do you tell me you can scarce see it for this 1000. yeares before Luther 7. Micheas Chap. 4.1 And it shall be in the later end of the dayes 1. Io. 2.18 the time of the new Testament is called the last howre there shall be the mount of the howse of our Lord prepared in the topp of mountaines and high above all the hills what more visible and people shall flow unto it and many nations shall hasten and shall say Come let us goe up to the mountaine of our Lord and to the howse of the God of Iacob c. And v. 7. I will make her that labours into a mighty nation and our Lord will reigne over them from this time now and for ever So that from this time now and for ever the Church was promised still for all ages to be a mighty or strong nation Never a small invisible unknowne company 8. Zacharias Chap. 14. v. 8. And it shall be in that day liveing waters shall issue forth of Hierusalem halfe of them to the east sea and halfe of them to the last sea in summer and winter shall they be and our Lord God shall be King over all the earth and in that day shall be one Lord and his name shall be one And by and by he tells us at large even to the end of the Chapter how all nations shall be accursed that come not up to adore in his Church A manifest signe of her pepetuall purity in Doctrine For how would God lay such curses ad plagues upon men for refusing to follow the Church erring 9. Malach. Chap. 1.11 tells us the Church shall be extended as farr as the sun beames among the Gentills From the rising of the sun even to the goeing downe thereof great is my name among the Genrills and in every place there is sacrificing and there is offered a cleane oblation because my name is great among the Gentills sayth the Lord of Hosts Behould the true Church all the world over offering a pure and gratefull sacrifice 10. The places of the new Testament are more knowne as that the Church by reason of her continuall university is A Citie upon a Hill still to be seene from all places A Candle upō a candlestick as well seene to the whole world as a cādle to the whole Roome in which it burnes The Apostles are sent to preach to all Nations The litle mustard seed grows to be the bighest of all plants like the Cedar in Ezechiel chap. 17.22 S. Peters nett is even broken with the taking of fish c. But because the new Testament writes no farther then the Acts of the Apostles and contained but small part of them the subsequent conversion of the multitude of Nations of the strenghth of Gentils and of all the Kings of the earth as the above cited Texts declare is to be taken out of historie in which manifestly the truth of all that was foretold doth appeare But all this wholy and intirely was performed by the Roman Church onely that is by such as have beene knowne to have joyned in Communion with her If you say the Roman is not the true Church heere foretold by the Prophets then I pray ponder well how impossible it is for you upon earth to find any other Church to which those manifold Prophecies with any shew of probality can be applied THE FIFT POINT Of the infallibility of the Church and consequently of her fitnes to be judge of controversies 1. NOte that in two manners or wayes things of beleefe and practice may be delivered by a community The first is whē such things once received by the sayd Community are perpetually retained by the same in all places by the
people Iosue in that dignity did succeed him But he had but part of his glory so Num. 27. v. 18. Take Iosue the sone of Nun a man in whome it the spirit and put thy hand upon him who shall stand before Eliazar Priest and thou ô Moyses shalt put some of thine honour upon him Now the one part of Moyses his honour was to be a secular Prince and commander in chiefe In this dignity Iosue did succeed him But in Levit. Ch. 8. God commanded Moyses to inuest Aaron with the other part of his dignity which was to be High Priest But when Aaron now came to dye God sayd to Moyses Num. 20.26 Take Aaron and his sonne with him and when thou hast unvested the father of his vestiture thou shalt revest therewith Eleazar his sonne Moyses did as our Lord commanded him And thus successively God provided his Church of high Priests Neither for the wikedness of any of them did he cease to governe his Church by them even by heavenly and supernaturall assistance As bad as Cayphas was yet because he was the high Priest he did prophesy Io. 11.51 He sayd not this of himselfe but beeing the high Priest of that yeare he prophesyed that Iesus should dye for the Nation 5. The old law beeing now transferred to the new it was necessary that the Priesthood allso should be transferred these two going togather Hebr. 7.12 wherefore the new law beeing the Lady the old the hand maide as S. Paul speakes the new law allso according to him beeing established upon better promisses Hebr. 8.6 we may with all ground in Scripture expect to see Christs church ever provided of such high Priests as shall by his bounty have many advantages above the high Priests of the old law Christ then intending to build his new church he called to him even amongst the first of his Apostles Simon and presently changed his name into Cephas which is interpreted Peter a Rock Io. 1.42 To this Simon Matth. 16.18 he sayth Thou art Peter which in that language which Christ spoke is as much as to say Thou art a Rock and vpon this Rock I will build my Church The wisest of men designes a sure Rock for the everstanding building of his church in the midst of all windes and waves if any one say that Christ himselfe is a Rock so as not to communicate this Rock-like firmity of his allso to S. Peter he flatly contradicts Christs saying Thou art a Rock and upon this Rock I will build my Church If any man should take a fayre stone in his hand and say Thou art a fayre goodly solid stone and upon this stone I intend to rayse a Chappel Who would conceive this man in the last part of his speach to point at any other stone thē that which he had in his hand True it is that Christ is the fundation yet with out any dishonour to him nay to the increase of his honour he communicateth that very title of fundation to others So Eph. 2.20 we are sayd Built upon the fundation of the Apostles and Prophets Iesus Christ beeing the thiefe corner stone Christ then is the chiefe Rock of an everlasting perpetuity and this by his owne vertue S. Peter is a Rock standing firme everlastingly not by his owne vertue but by the vertue of Christ and made thus not for his owne sake but for Christs churches sake Christ intending that this his church should stand for ever as I proved Point 3. Whence Christ adds upon this Rock I will build my Church We willingly grāt that the church was to be built not upon the shoulders of S. Peter but vpon his faith yet his faith must not be taken as separated from his person but it must be taken as the thing chiefly regarded in his person for which to him personally this dignity was given yet given chiefly for the perpetuall good of the church to be built upon him Wherefore lest the building should be shattered at his death this firme perpetuity of a Rock that is this saith of his which Christ prayed should never fayle Luc. 22.32 was to be derived to his lawfull successors as the chaire of Moyses ever had the successors of Moyses sitting in it for no well ordered common wealth is destitute of sufficient meanes still to provide her of her lawfull Heads and Governours appointed her successively And as it is not enough to say Christ is King of Kings and Lord of Lords therefore the civil commō wealth needs no other King or Lord. So it seems farr greater non-sense to say that because Christ is the chiefe head and Priest of the church therefore we vpon earth need no other head to governe such a common wealth as the Church is conteining so many severall people of so many nations natures customes and dispositions as be foūd frō the rising of the sūne to the going downe of the same though this so farr spread common-wealth were intended from the beginning to last as long as the Sunne and Moone It was then for this his churches sake that some one was ever to be first and Chiefe in it 6. Now sayth S. Matthew numbring the Apostles Princes of the Church The names of the twelve Apostles be these The first Simon who is called Peter Matth. 10.2 And so in all places where the Apostles are counted as Iudas is allwaise the last so S. Peter is counted first and as it was sayd of Eliazar that he was the Prince of Princes of the Levites Num. 3.32 So amongst the spirituall Princes of Christs Church S. Matthew doth not only count him first but plainly says he was the first The first Simon who is called Peter He was neither the first in order of calling to the Apostle shipe nor in age For his Brother Andrew was before him in both these Io. 1. Again to signifie that he was the head and chiefe in ordinary Christ sayd to him Matth. 16.19 And to thee will I give the Keyes of the Kingdome of heavē For though the power of loosing and binding was afterward given to the other Apostles Iohn 20.23 yet the Keyes of the Kingdome of heaven are never in Scripture sayd to be given to any but to S. Peter The giving of the Keyes is wel knowne to signifie naturally the supreme Rule in a citty or familie Hēce the Keyes of the citty are offered to the chiefe Governours at theyr entrance So allso the Keye of the house of David is given to Christ being to reigne in the house of David for ever Here Christ giveth the Keyes to S. Peter as to his successor in the house of God which is the Church of the living God 1. Tim. 3.15 By these Keyes is signified the plenitude of highest power 7. Again Iohn 21.15 Simon of Iohn lovest thou me more then these Feed my lambes And yet again v. 17. Feed my sheepe Note that he would not have required greater love in Peter rather then in any of the rest nor
1. Kinges 18.22 I even I only remaine a Prophet of our Lord. And in the next Chap. v. 10. I even I only am left which again he repeates v. 14. I answer that at lest he is told presently by God v. 18. That there were left in Israël seven thousand men whose knees had not bin bowed before Baal And in the former Chapter it is manifest he knew of an hundred Prophets For v. 13. Abdias told him I hidd of the Prophets of our Lord an hundred men by fifty and fifâ—y in caves Wherefore he knew well that there were many faithfull amongst whom so many Prophets were known to him yea hence it is cleare that he was not the only Prophet left Wherefore those words I only I remaine a Prophet of our Lord are to be understood thus I only I remaine a Prophet standing openly to oppose theyr fury amongst the Apostated Tribes of Israël For Elias knew full well that not all the Children of Israël but only tenne Tribes were faln from God 1. Kinges 12. He knew allso that the still faithfull Tribe of Iuda including Benjamin afforded Roboam an hundred and four seore thousand chosen men to fight against the other revolted tenne Tribes v. 21. which is again repeated 2. Chron. 11. with a notable declaration how much the true Church even then florished in Iuda and Benjamin Roboam himselfe building fifteene cities inclosed with walls And v. 13. the Preestes and Levits that were in all Israël resorted to him out of all theyr coasts And v. 16. Of all the Tribes of Israël whosoever had given theyr heartes to seeke theyr Lord God of Israêl came into Ierusalem to sacrifice and they strengthned the Kingdome of Iuda All this Elias knew very well and also that which follows to witt that Asa reigned over all Iuda in all pietie and peace 2. Chron. 14. And he built other fenced cities in Iuda And v. 8. Asa had of Iuda an army of three hundred thousand and of Benjamin two hundred eighty thousand And he defeated tenn hundred thousand Ethiopians And 2. Chr. 17. Iosaphat who lived in the day 's of Elias was yet greater then Asa his Father both in piety and power For v. 10. The Dread of our Lord came about all the Kingdomes of the Lands that were about Iuda Neither durst they make battell against Iosaphat And he built many strong cities and stupendious was the number of his forces v. 14. of Iudath under Abnath Three hundred thousand and two hundred eighty thousand under Iohanan And two hundred thousand under Amasias And two hundred thousand under Ehada And two hundred eighty thousand under Iosobad All these make Eleven hundred thousand and sixty thousand soldiers And yet the Scripture sayth All these were at the hand of the King besides others whome he had putt in Walled cities in Iuda Behold the Iewish Church even at her lowest ebbe Christ's Church is the Mistris and of higher dignity Wherefore at all times after her beginning you must find me at lest as many visible Professors of her doctrine as the Iewish Church had in her meanest coÌ„ditioÌ„ For the new testameÌ„t is established in far better promisses Heb. 8.6 As also appeares by the texts which here shall be cited All which texts coÌ„vince such a perpetuall coÌ„spicuous and visibly florishing state at all times that no church differing from the RomaÌ„ caÌ„ be shewed to have had any thing like it 3. The other only considerable objection is that perhapes these promises made by God to his Church concerning his allwaise protecting her were made upon this condition that he would do this if she should persever to keep his commandments for so all his promises to David and Salomon are made I answer that it is evideÌ„t that some promises which feeme made to them and their posterity are not to be litterally understood of their posterity according to flesh but as they by grace be sonnes of Christ who was the sonne of David And diverse of these promises are made so absolutly that absolutely they admit of no such condition Take for proof hereof that convincing Text Ps 89.4 I have made a covenant with my chosen I have sworne to David my servant thy seed will I establish for ever and I will build up thy throne to all generations All which is only verified in Christ Who in his Church hath giveÌ„ hâ—m the seate of David his father and he shall reigne in the house of Iacob for ever and of his Kingdome there shall be no end As the Angel sayd Luke 1.32 After this promise of everlasting perpetuity to his Church lest any ony should thinke his promises might be made void by any sins of hers or to be made only upon condition of theyr walking in his commandments he addeth in the same Ps v. 29. And I will putt him the first begotteÌ„ high aboue the kings of the earth I will keepe my mercy unto him for ever and my Testament faithfull unto him I will putt his seede for ever and ever and his throne as the days of heaven But if his Children shall forsake my law this can not be possibly in your doctrine spoken of the Elect and will not walke in my Iudgments If they will prophane my Iustices and not keep my commandments I wil visit theyr iniquities with a Rod and theyr sinnes with stripes But my loving kindness I will not take a way from him nor suffer my faithfulness to fail My covenant will I not break nor the thing which is gone out of my Lips Once I have sworn in my holy if I ly to David his seed shall continue for ever And his throne as the Sun in my sight and as the Moon perfect for ever This Text speakes home to prove what I inteÌ„d to witt that these promises be made upon Christ The son of David the son of Abraham Matth 1.1 and as S. Paul teacheth that only those who believe in Christ be the rue children of Israël and Abraham so they only be the true children of David and concerning them is verified the promise which as is here sayed for no fins of theirs shall ever be frustrated Not as though the word of God had takeÌ„ no effect but they that are the Children of the Promisse are counted for the seed Rom. 9.6 4. And in this sense the Sacred Text speakes 2. Sam. 7.16 And thine house and thy Kingdome shall be established for ever before thee thy throne shall be established for ever According to all these wordes did Nathan speake to David So Psalm 72.5 They shall feare thee as long as the Sun and Moone endure through out all generations He shall have dominion allso from sea to sea and from the River to the ends of the Earth In whom can these Texts of Scripture be verified but in Christ ever raigning in his Church diffufed even in a florishing condition over the face of the earth According to what is sayd Luke 1.32 The Lord God shall give
that knows God heareth us 9. Tenthly In declaring the true meaning of the true Scriptures the practise and doctrine of the Church is necessary to be followed as a certaine Guide For example When Christ sayd Doe this in remembrance of me He did impose sayth the Church a true commaund to doe so Yet though Christ no lesse cleerly sayd Iohn 13.14 That we ought to wash one anothers feete for I have given you an example that as I have done So you allso should doe He did not impose sayth the Church any commaund obliging vs to wash one anothers feete For though he sayd we ought to wash one an others feete yet by the practise and doctrine of the Church it is assuredly declard to vs that these words of Christ containe no precept though the former do 10. Eleventhly The same Apostle in his first Epistle Chap. 2.19 after that concerning Heretikes he had sayd They went out from us He turnes his speach to those who still remained in the Church subject and obedient to it and of them he sayth But you have the unction from the Holy one and know all things To witt the spirit of truth residing in the Church to teach her all truth maketh you who are guided by the Church to know all things necessary for your information and instruction 11. Twelfly It is grounded in this infallibility of the Church that her Prelates may exact obedience of her Children in captivating theyr understanding to the faith which she by commission from Christ delivereth unto them 2. Cor. 10.4 For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty through God casting downe Imaginations or Reasonings and every thing that exalts it selfe against the knowledg and bringing into captivity All understanding unto the obedience of Christ and haveing in a readines to revenge all disobedience So S. Paul But it is most irrationall to say God should impower his Church to force men to follow a Church which being fallible must needs confesse that she may deceive you and enforce you to follow errors Yet this in a Church haveing the infallible assistance of the Holy Ghost is most rationall For there you are to your apparent good enforced to follow truth in place of such error as might be most hurtfull to you Thirteenthly The same S. Paul tells vs that God out of an expresse intention which he had to keepe vs from all wavering and vnsetlement in faith resolved so to assist the Governours of his Church that we might securely relye upon them For Ephes 4 11. He gave some Apostles and some Prophets and other some Evangelists and other some Pastours and Teachers for the perfecting of the Saints for the worke of the ministery for the edifying of the Body of Christ untill we all come into the unity of faith To what end all this to the end that we hence forth be no more Children tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the sleight of men and cunning craftines from which his Providence had not thus secured vs vnles these our Teachers had beē infallible whē defining in a lawfull councill or proposing what is universally taught by them 12. The second sort of Texts proving the infallibility of the Church conteines such glorius Titles given her or such admirable things spoke by Gods own mouth of her as must needs be vain empty and truthles words if the Church ever prove to be a Mistris of errors obtruding them to her Children for divine verities First Psal 132.13 Our Lord hath chosen Sion he hath chosen it for an habitation unto himselfe This is my rest for ever and ever Here will I dwell because I have chosen it Now Christs dwelling place as S. Paul tells vs is his visible Church 1. Tim. 3.15 That thou mayest know how to converse in the house of God The Church of the liveing God He could not be taught how to converse in an invisible Church he speakes then of the Church visible Farr be it from this house to be a store house of errors For how then could it be Christs desirable Habitation and his rest for ever and ever 13. Again Isa 54.4 Feare not for thou shalt not be ashamed neyther be thou confounded for thou shalt not be put to shame What greater shame or confusion to a Church which should be the Pillar and ground of truth to see herselfe growne now to professe open superstition Idolatry and other pernicious errors in whole swarmes How then is that true which follows 14. Thirdly Isai 60.15 I will make thee an eternall excellency a ioy of many generations Fourthly v 18. Thou shalt call thy walls saluation our Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting light Thy Sunne shall goe downe no more and thy Moone shall be no more diminished because our Lord shall be thine everlasting light Words manifestly spoken not of the Elect but of the visible Church on earth even from the beginning of the Chapter for v 10. he tells how Kings should minister to her and how he had struck her when she was the Synagogue in his indignation Which words cannot be understood of the elect or the invisible Church and so he goes still on speaking 15. Fiftly In the like sense Chap. 62. v. 3. Thou shalt be a crowne of glory thou shalt be no more called forsaken as thou wert when thou wert the Synagogue but thou shalt be called my delight in her And sixtly to secure her from all error contrary to his will he adds v. 6. Vpō thy walls Hierusalem I have appointed watchmen And how careles soever thy be by theyr owne nature yet by my continuall assistance all the day and all the night for ever they shall not hold theyr peace To witt by crying downe errours For they had better have held theyr peace that preached publickly errours every where And v. 12. Thou shalt be called a Citie sought for and not forsaken And yet Protestants say they did laudably forsake every visible Church vpon earth by adhering to Luther and his followers who did separate themselves from all Churches visible in the whole world openly professing that as then there was no one Church on earth worth seeking for and so they did not joyne themselves in Communion with any Church then vpon earth but pretended to returne to the Primitive Church as it was above a thousand yeares before which is to say that for this whole last thousand yeares the Church was a Citie forsaken and that for so long her Communion was not to be sought for 16. Seventhly There is a very convincing text to prove the Church to be by divine Providence assuredly provided of faithfull Pastours and Governors Ierem. 33. v. 25 If I have not put my Covenant to night and day and laws to the heaven and earth then will I cast away the seed of Iacob and David my servant that I doe not take from his seed Princes to be Rulers over the seed of Abraham Isaac