Servants chap. 18.32 The title of Servants is given to such as these because they are of the Houshold of the great Lord and Master that is Members of his Visible Church which is his House And St. Paul saith in a great House and so in the Church he means there are not only Vessels of gold and of silver but also of wood and of earth and some to honour and some to dishonour 2 Tim. 2.20 And our Saviour hath said that many shall come from the East and West and shall sit down with Abraham Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdom of Heaven but the Children of the Kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness Mat. 8.11 12. Having seen what evidence the holy Scriptures do afford to prove that God that Christ himself does own others to be part of his Visible Church than such as are of the Church as invisible I shall now proceed to take into consideration such Texts of Scripture as in the apprehension of some seem most to favour the contrary opinion I will begin with 1 Pet. 3.21 The like figure whereunto Baptism doth also now save us not the putting away the filth of the flesh but the answer of a good Conscience towards God by the Resurrection of Jesus Christ Whence it is argued that those who were received into the Church by Baptism were always supposed such as had the answer of a good Conscience towards God the inward qualification which answers the outward figure or sign in Baptism Death unto sin and a Resurrection unto a new life But the answer to this is very easie The Apostle in these words was shewing what is necessary in the parties Baptized besides their Baptism to make their Baptism available to their salvation but not what is necessary by way of condition to their being Baptized this Text meddles not with that so far as appears by any clause or circumstance in it And is much of the same nature and much like to that of St. Paul Rom. 2.28 29. where he saith That is not Circumcision which is outward in the flesh but that which is of the heart and in the spirit By which he does not mean that Circumcision which was but outward in the flesh served to no other ends but to signifie Heart-circumcision for it did engage the Circumcised in Covenant with God and initiate them and give them entrance into the Church and made them partakers of the Oracles and Ordinances of God there as he shews in the following words in the next Chapter But his meaning was that Circumcision in the flesh alone without Circumcision of the heart would not avail to any mans having acceptance with God So here that Baptism which consists in outward washing only the putting away the filth of the flesh will not save will not avail to salvation without the answer of a good Conscience towards God But then it does not follow but that it may avail as well as Circumcision in the Letter did to bring men into the Visible Church and to procure them the benefit of the outward priviledges of it Another Text is John 3.5 Except a man be born of Water and of the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God Some that are of the opinion which I am opposing by the Kingdom of God here understand the Church as well Visible as Invisible and then infer that none can enter into the Church without being born of the Spirit as well as of Water But the answer to this is very easie For if by Kingdom of God here we understand either the Church as Invisible or the Kingdom of glory it is granted that men cannot enter into to the Kingdom of God except they be born of the Spirit But then this does not at all oppose what I have been proving viz. That Men may be and many really are Members of the Visible Church and that in Gods account who yet are none of the Invisible Church by being born of the Spirit or internally Regenerated And that by Kingdom of God here cannot be meant the Visible Church is evident because many have entered into it who yet have not been born of the Spirit as I have as I think abundantly proved against all reasonable contradictions Our Saviour we see speaks here of a being born of Water and of a being born of the Spirit which are two distinct things And there are many that have been born of Water and thereby entered into the Visible Church that have never been born of the Spirit And there are many also that have entered into the Visible Church by being born of Water who have been born of the Spirit but not till afterwards not till some time after they have been in the Visible Church We must suppose this or else say there is no possibility of effectual conversion in the Visible Church which is a thing so absurd to imagine and so much against all experience as that no man I think has the heart to assert it which yet must be asserted if the other be denied It is further alledged from those words Tit. 3.5 According to his mercy he saved us by the washing of Regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost I say it is hence alledged that since Baptism is called the washing of Regeneration that therefore those who are admitted to Baptism must be supposed to be Regenerated before or in Baptism Answer This follows not since Baptism may be called the washing of Regeneration for another reason and in another respect more probable and that is because men by Covenant are engaged to become new men and to lead new lives And it is from this engagement by Baptism that St. Paul so often exhorts and persuades Christians to mortification and a new life as we see he does Rom 6.2 3 4 5 6. Col. 2.12 3.1 2. As John the Baptist Baptized the People unto Repentance Mat. 3. â—â— So they are Baptized unto Regeneration that is they are thereby brought under a solemn engagement to repent and so to be Regenerate And in this respect Baptism is properly enough called the Laver of Regeneration Not that Baptism does inwardly Regenerate by the act done or suffered to be done tho it does engage to it but it is the work of the Holy Ghost as the principal agent and therefore is here called the Renewing of the Holy Ghost And its evident that the washing of Regeneration and the Renewing of the Holy Ghost are here mentioned as two different things as they are in their own nature Altho the Christians here spoken of were said to be saved according to Gods mercy by both yet it no ways follows that this end could not be attained unless they were renewed by the Holy Ghost at the same instant in which they were Baptized for the one might succeed the other in point of time as often it hath done And if so there can no necessity be inferred from hence of not admitting men to the one but upon supposition
undissembled belief was that I doubt not which Philip required of the Eunuch when he said If thou believest with all thine heart thou maist be Baptized And the Eunuchs answer upon which he was Baptized by Philip does intimate so much when he only said I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God And more than this I conceive cannot be duly inferred from those words of Philip to the Eunuch for the reasons I have already given These are the principal Texts made use of to countenance the opinion which I have in this Inquiry opposed There are objections or pleas drawn from some other which are well answered by Mr. Thomas Lamb as some of these I have insisted on also are in his fresh suit against Independency And thus upon our Inquiry we have found as I conceive that others are of the Visible Church in Scripture account and so in Gods account by whose inspiration the Scriptures were written than those which are of the Church as Invisible or them that seem to be so For Almighty God as has been shown accounteth and owneth such to be his People in distinction from the rest of the world that have entered into Covenant with him tho otherwise they or many of them are far from seeming to be of the Church as Invisible And if God esteem of them as such then so must his Servants likewise and if the Scripture account them such it will become us to do so too who profess to make the holy Scriptures the rule of our judgment After that upon our Inquiry we have found things thus Let not any man now say that by this doctrine we confound the Kingdom of the Devil with the Kingdom of God For this would but reflect after an unseemly manner upon the wisdom of God for thus numbering bad men as well as good to be of his Visible Church as externally related to him and as worshippers of him Secret Hypocrites belong to the Kingdom of the Devil as well as those that are more visibly such and yet none deny but that many such are in the Visible Church nor do they count this a confounding Gods Kingdom with the Devils There is no doubt but that the Devil has his Visible and Invisible Kingdom as well as God has his But those Hypocrites whether secret or more open which are of the Visible Church tho they are in a sence of the Kingdom of the Devil yet must be reckoned to be not of his Visible but of his Invisible Kingdom So that the Hypothesis I seek to establish does not at all tend to confound Gods visible Kingdom and the Devils visible Kingdom one with another much less their Invisible Kingdoms For those are not in Scripture reckoned to be of the Visible Kingdom of the Devil who professedly worship the true God and him only and Jesus Christ as his Son and only Mediator tho otherwise bad But such as worship Idols other gods and other mediators in doing of which they do in effect worship the Devil who is the founder of such worship Those Kingdoms or Nations are in Scripture counted of the Devils Kingdom or Dominion in which his Worship and Ordinances Idol-worship and the Rites of that worship are established by publick Authority as the Religion of those Nations As on the contrary those Nations or Kingdoms are counted Gods Kingdoms in which the Word and Worship of God are by publick Authority owned and established as the Religion of those Nations Thus when Idol worship was put down and cast out of the several Territories of the Roman Empire by the first Christian Emperors and the Christian Religion established by publick Authority as the Religion of those Nations then the Devil was said to be cast down and the Kingdom of God and the power of his Christ to be come Rev. 12.9 10. And again The Kingdoms of this world are said to become the Kingdoms of the Lord and of his Christ When idol-worship which is Devillish worship is rejected by the Authority of those Kingdoms Revel 11.15 Not that there shall be no Hypocrites or Carnal Professors of Christianity in these Kingdoms when they are thus become the Kingdoms of the Lord and of his Christ But tho there be 〈◊〉 as the true Christian doctrine and worship is owned and established by the Government or ruling power of those Kingdoms and so long as the generality of the Inhabitants are for the same doctrine and worship in opposition to Idolatrous and Antichristian doctrine and worship they are accounted to belong to Gods Visible Kingdom in the world and not the Devils however many of those Inhabitants may belong to the Invisible Kingdom of the Devil And thus those are called the Children of Gods Kingdom by our Saviour who yet at last shall be cast out into outer darkness Mat. 8.12 But of this more afterwards QUERY IX WHether God hath granted any right to Church-priviledges to those who are only of the Church as Visible but not as Invisible That such have right to them before men unless they are justly deprived of them by Church-censures those will grant who yet deny that they have any right to them by Gods allowance But our present enquiry is whether they have any right by Gods allowance And if that be true which we now suppose we found to be so in our former enquiry viz. that God himself doth own very many such to be of the Church as Visible which yet are not at all of it as Invisible then it will be but reasonable to conclude from thence that he does allow them a share in the external and temporary priviledges of that relation except in those cases wherein he himself hath made an exception For otherwise God by conferring on them the priviledge of Relation to himself and his Church has conferred upon them a right to the priviledges of that relation so far as the relation it self extends For the relation and the priviledges of the relation go together except in case of forfeiture by miscarriage The union of parts does of it self infer right to communion with them in things common to the whole The right of those in the Visible Church to Visible Church-priviledges does arise I conceive from that Covenanting between God and them in Baptism by which they engaged themselves to be his People as God on the other hand had engaged himself to be their God on that condition Now for ought that appears from the Scriptures to the contrary so far as they perform Covenant with God in being a People unto him so far he owns them to be his People and so far as he does so he allows them the priviledge of his People which is a share in his houshold fare and in the provisions for his Family which are his Word and Ordinances If they worship no other God and hold the Head Christ Jesus in point of doctrine and worship and own his doctrine and precepts as the rule of faith and life and worship God in
me to fall somewhat hard upon such as separate from the publick Worship of God established in such Nations by National Authority in a way of National Reformation and on those more especially who separate from that Worship for that very reason because enjoyned by National Authority It likewise falls hard upon them also who disesteem or less esteem a National Ministry because it is National or made such according to a National establishment These seem to be of one mind and Almighty God of another when he esteems Nations to be joyned to him and to be his People by that for which they separate Their pretence that in the Apostles times and for three hundred years after the Affairs of the Church were carried on only in a free Congregational way in greater or lesser voluntary Associations and therefore they ought to be so now seems very inconsiderable Because what was done in that kind then was done by way of necessity because they had not opportunity of a better Not but that they long'd for and pray'd for such Kings as would use their Authority and Power for the propagation and furtherance of the Christian Religion as well as for the defence of it and the Professors of it And they esteemed it no small favour from God when at last they obtained it in Constantine a Christian Cesar who used that Power of his for the establishing the Christian Religion and Worship of the only true God and for the ordering and regulating many things relating to the more commodious and orderly carrying on the ministration of the Gospel and the Worship of God And therefore the people of God then existent in the Empire are brought in by the Spirit of Prophesie expressing themselves thus upon that occasion Now is come salvation and strength and the Kingdom of our God and the power of his Christ as I shew'd before Rev. 12.10 2. It may be justly questioned whether it be worth the while for men to dispute against the being of a National Church in New Testament times considering that in the New Testament Nations reformed from Paganism and Popery are stiled Gods Kingdoms And considering likewise that the Scripture stiles the same people and in the same respect sometimes the Kingdom of God and sometimes his Church And therefore it should seem no more improper to call a Christian Nation a Church of God than it is to call it a Kingdom of God which yet the Scripture stiles so 3. It may be observed yet farther That the Kingdoms or Nations which have been reformed from Popery were before such reformation was made but Kingdoms of this world notwithstanding much of what pertains to the Christian Religion was then owned and professed in them The Spirit of God by whom the book of Revelations was indited we see stiles them so in their unreformed state The Kingdoms of this world are become c. Yet they then in their unreformed state Worshipped the true God and his Son Christ Jesus They owned the holy Scriptures for the Word of God and used the same Creeds which the Reformed Churches themselves use and yet we see they are in that state stiled by the Spirit of God but Kingdoms of this world when as under their reformed state they are said to be the Kingdoms of God and of his Christ Like as Almighty God for the like reason esteemed the Nation of the Jews who had been his own Church and People but as Ethiopians unto him Amos 9.7 and told them by another Prophet Ye are not my people and I will not be your God Hos 1.10 For tho they had his Ordinances among them and boasted of their Temple-Worship crying The Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord are these yet at the same time they burnt Incense unto Baal and walked after other Gods Jer. 7. they divided their Worship between the true God and Baal and did swear by the Lord and by Malcham Zeph. 1.5 And upon this account it was that God said of them by his Prophet they are unto me as a speckled bird of a Religion of several colours Jer. 12.9 For this spiritual Whoredom especially it was that Almighty God who had once espoused that people to himself gave them a Bill of Divorce at last brake up house turned them out of doors and sent them out of his Land untill they should repent and reform And if we compare these things with the spiritual whoredom wherewith Mystical Babilon is charged and for which with other heinous crimes she is threatned in this Book of Revelations it will not be at all hard to conceive why Nations while Popish are stiled and esteemed but Kingdoms of this world And this if there were no other is argument enough to prevail with all such as would not be disowned by God to be none or to become none of their Communion who are thus disowned by him And thus we have seen how both from the light and law of Nature the reason of the thing and from divine Revelation also the great expediency at least of the publick exercise of Gods Worship in the way of National establishment is warranted and approved of This then may be a caution to men who live in any such reformed Nation as we have discoursed of and as ours is to take heed of acting in matters Ecclesiastical or pertaining to Church Communion as if they lived in a Popish or Pagan Nation by disowning and by separating from the National way of Worship lest thereby they discountenance and disparage what God approves of and disown that for which God owns such a Nation for his Kingdom It is true the Primitive Christians who lived in Pagan Countries and those since which have lived in Popish have been necessitated in duty to be separate in their Christian Communion from their National Worship as much as they were obliged not to be Idolaters But there is a great difference between false Worship and defects in that which is true The best Church Constitution and the best Church Administration which have men not divinely inspired for the ordering of them are liable to humane defects And if humane defects even in Gods Worship were not to be endured for the sake of Communion in the Worship it self there could no such thing as Church Communion be enjoyed among Christians because we cannot say there is any in this imperfect state in which we are without defects But then the question will be what defects are to be indured in Gods Worship rather than Communion in it should be forsaken and what are intolerable and for the sake of which Communion in the Worship is to be declined And here it seems to me impossible warrantably to determine any defects intolerable which do not alter the nature of the Worship and make it become false Worship that do not destroy or defeat the ends for which true Worship serves Who is he that will undertake to determine for what defects which