is that makes men to be of it and concerning Church-Communion and what it is that qualifies men for it have been the true reason and cause of our Church-Divisions and Separations in great part where such notions have been entertained My present design therefore which I intend to pursue in these Papers is to inquire into the true measure which the holy Scripture gives us of these things that thereby we may the more steadily and with the more certainty make a true Judgment of those separations in Church-Communion which have been made and applauded by some I shall begin with what concerns the being of the Universal Church as Visible and then inquire how and by what means men become Members of it After this I shall inquire further what it is that qualifies men for and which gives them a right to external Communion in this Church as exercised in particular Congregations and likewise into the nature of Catholick-communion and Schism and the usefulness of National-Constitutions for the furtherance of Christian Religion QUERY I. WHat is the true notion of the Vniversal Church as visible The Universal Church as Visible is that Body Company or Society of People throughout the whole World which consists of all such as are Visibly Joyned or Vnited to God in Christ as Head by a Religious Bond. And that which doth distinguish them from all other People in the World is that Relation they bear to God different from that in which all other People stand related to Him And this Relation is a Religious relation by which they are brought nearer to God than all other People are All other People are related as humane Creatures to God as their Creator and Governour but these are related to him by another kind of Bond Obligation such as is Spiritual and of a Religious Nature of which I am to say more afterward And then as this Relation is External and Visible so that by which this Relation is effected and wrought is something Visible also which is the reason why the relation it self is said to be Visible Now the Persons thus Visibly Related to God in Christ are not all Religiously Related to Him alike Some of them are Related and United to him Internally and Invisibly by an Invisible Bond of Union over and besides their Visible Relation to him by that which is visible When as all the rest are Related to him only Externally or if in any respect Internally also yet not so or by such a relation as will entitle them to the internal and best sort of priviledges of Gods People such as Justification Reconciliation Pardon and Eternal life But yet this difference does not make this body of People which are externally one by a Relation to God common to the whole to become two Universal Churches For all which Essentially belongs to the being of the Universal Church is not limited and restrained to that part of it which in respect of its internal and invisible state does differ from and excel the other for the External Relation to God without which the Universal Church does not exist is common to the worser part of it as well as the better by reason whereof they cannot be two Churches and are but one One part of the Visible Church differs from another indeed in respect of Internal and Invisible State before God this is plain from the Scripture But then it is as plain from thence that as touching their External and Visible state they are one and that the same external priviledges belong to the one as to the other of which more afterward We have not indeed the words Visible and Invisible used in Scripture in reference to the two different states of men in one and the same Church but yet we have those different states of them sufficiently revealed in Scripture which we mean by those words I need not instance in Scriptures of this nature because they are sufficiently and commonly known and I shall have further occasion to mention them afterward QUERY II. WHat is it which prepares or qualifies persons for that Relation to God in Christ which makes them Visible Members of his Church There is something previous to that by which the Relation in men to God is wrought which makes them Visible Members of his Church and which does capacitate them for it and that is their being Externally called by God to be of the true Religion Persons lare first to become Disciples before they be received into the Church by Baptism and their becoming Disciples and their being called is the same thing This is the foundation in which that Relation is laid and upon which that which does effect it is built And People are thus called either 1. When they are Converted from a false Religion to own and profess the true And thus the Pagans were called by the Preaching of the Apostles when they were brought to be Disciples Or 2. When Almighty God causes them to be Born and to be Educated in the true Religion as those are who are born of Parents externally in Covenant with God Thus the Jewish People from Abrahams time downward were called to be Gods People and to profess the true Religion And accordingly they were stiled Gods called ones by the Prophet Isa 48.12 Hearken to me O Jacob and Israel my called And how were they called Abraham indeed he was called extraordinarily by God who appeared to him when he was in Mesopotamia before he dwelt in Charran Act. 7.2 But his Posterity were called by being Born to and educated in the same Religion which he himself was of and so were his Childrens Children from Generation to Generation And thus has it been in calling Persons to be of the Christian Religion At the first erection of the Church as Christian men were extraordinarily called by the Preaching and Miracles of the Apostles and others they were called and converted from the Pagan and Jewish Religion to own the Christian Religion But since the times of first planting the Gospel up and down in the World Gods ordinary and common method of calling men to the profession of the Christian Religion has been by their Christian Parents educating them in it And indeed their being born of Parents in an especial Relation to God is in it self a Providential Call which qualifies them for the priviledge of being so related also For upon that account they are both in the Old Testament and the Now stiled a holy Seed that is a Seed separated from the Infidel World to God And by this the Females of the Jews became Church-Members and by this were their Males qualifi'd to enter into Covenant with God by Circumcision at eight days old But of these things further mention will be made in the process of our Inquiries QUERY III. WHat may that be by which People are made Visible Church-Members That by which People are constituted compleatly Visible Church-Members is a mutual Covenanting between God and them between Christ
hunger when at the same time they made themselves guilty of intemperance and excess one is hungry another is drunk despise ye the Church of God and shame them which have not These also were such unworthy Acts as Christians by common grace may easily keep themselves from being guilty of the like Now all these outward Acts of unworthiness proceeded from their not rightly discerning the Lords Body as we may well conceive either as not understanding the nature of the Ordinance or as not being duly affected with what was represented and commemorated by it And therefore for remedy for time to come he puts them upon examining themselves concerning the apprehensions the sense and affection which Christians ought to have touching those things when they go to the Table of the Lord. I shall not proceed to shew how each of these external Acts of unworthy communicating proceeded from their not discerning the Lords Body which yet might easily be done Upon the whole matter I think we may conclude that if men by examination find themselves in a capacity and disposition to answer our Lords end in this his institution by eating and drinking at his Table in a grateful remembrance of him that then they are not altogether unfit and unworthy to be Communicants of it For men receive the Sacrament worthily or unworthily according as they do or do not thereby answer the end and design of it in remembring our blessed Saviour QUERY X. WHy and for what reason may it be conceived does Almighty God own and allow others to be of the Church as Visible than only such as are of the Church as Invisible There are several things offer themselves to our consideration which seem to render it fit and reasonable and well-becoming the wisdom and goodness of God that it should be so and such as render it highly useful and beneficial unto men As 1. Because it tends more abundantly to increase the number of Invisible Church Members than it would if none should be admitted into the Visible Church until they were of the Invisible or worthily reputed to be so That it has this tendency needs no better proof than the Experience the Church of God has had of the happy effect of this way and method of converting men above what has been produced in the other way Experience has made it manifest that abundant more thorow and sound conversions in men have been made in the Visible Church than out of it and after they have been baptized than before More in the Church of God have been made good and that by means of their being in it than have been made so before they were admitted into it How rarely have any thorow and sound conversions been wrought in men while out of the Church since Miracles ceased How seldom do we see or hear of any Jews or profest Infidels become really holy and good men tho they live among Christians and where they have the opportunity of hearing the Gospel if they had any mind to it When as thanks be to God we have known or heard of multitudes of Conversions of this nature that have been wrought in men after they have been in the Church If the Apostles in their time did by vertue of their Ministry convert many so as of bad to make them really holy and good before they were received into the Church Yet as their Calling was extraordinary so was their Ministry by which those Conversions were wrought their Mission and Doctrine being attested to come from heaven by multitudes of miraculous operations and marvelous gifts And therefore those Conversions which were wrought by such extraordinary means must be looked upon as extraordinary Conversions And to argue from things extraordinarily done to a necessity of having the like done in ordinary cases and under ordinary means is so absurd and such a piece of unreasonableness as those we call Seekers are guilty of who can find as they think no true Churches extant or visible because not called by men qualified with like extraordinary gifts as those or many of those in the Apostles days were by whom Churches were then gathered And indeed had not the means by which the Apostles converted those whom they did convert been extraordinary it would have been in a manner impossible for them to have succeeded in their undertaking as they did considering that they were to convert them from other Religions in which they had been educated and brought up and which they had received from their Fathers and Fore-fathers unto a new Religion the Christian Religion which was so greatly different from theirs as it was especially from that of Paganism from which most of their Conversions probably were made But when the Apostles had in this extraordinary way gathered our Saviour a Church all over the known World and settled particular Churches it was not necessary as the Event shews that this extraordinary way of converting men should be continued For when by this extraordinary means of converting men way was made for converting them in an ordinary way then that which was extratraordinary ceased Like as the giving the Israelites Manna from heaven ceased when they came into Canaan and had opportunity of being supplied with food in an ordinary way And from that time forward there have been but few Conversions made in those without the Church but most of those that have been made in bringing men to the power of godliness have been made upon those within the Visible Church For tho God is pleased I doubt not to plant true saving grace in some in their early days by the benefit of godly Education yet there are very many others who having been received into the Church by Baptism in their Infancy have little or nothing more than a form of godliness if so much found in them when grown up But among these there are many who in time are brought on or converted to the Power of Godliness by means of their being in the Church and under those Ordinances of God there administred by which he is wont to work saving grace in men This is Gods ordinary way of Conversion since that which was extraordinary ceased And ever since that time almost all the Conversions that have been made in men to a saving Christian faith and to a faithful practice and the Power of Christianity have been made upon persons baptized and within the Church And altho the Conversion of men to Christianity by the Ministry of the Apostles was extraordinary because wrought in an extraordinary way and by extraordinary means as I have shewed yet we have great reason to think that those Conversions or many of them that proved effectual at last were but only beginnings and preparatory to a second and thorow Conversion of them while they were yet without the visible Church and were carried quite through and made effectual after they were brought into the Church by Baptism And the manner of the Apostles writing to the Christians after
they had been in the Church for some time seems to intimate that the Apostles themselves had no other apprehensions of those Conversions or many of them For we find them earnestly perswading those Christians to put away such practices the retaining of which could not well consist with a thorow and sound conversion Which argues that at least many of them had not yet put them off tho they had been for some time in the Church Thus Col 3.8 9. But now ye also put off all these anger wrath malice blasphemy filthy communication out of your mouth Lie not one to another seeing ye have put off the old man with his deeds That is they had engaged to do so in Baptism See the like again Ephes 5.3 And 1 Pet. 2.1 Wherefore laying aside all malice and all guile and hypocrisies and envies and all evil speakings as new-born babes desire the sincere milk of the Word that ye may grow thereby 1 Cor. 6.15 Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them the members of an Harlot God forbid What know ye not that he that is joyned to an harlot is one body Chap. 10.21 22. Ye cannot drink the Cup of the Lord and the Cup of devils Ye cannot be partakers of the Lords Table and of the Table of Devils Do we provoke the Lord to jealousie Are we stronger than he Chap. 15.33 34. Be not deceived evil communications corrupt good manners Awake to righteousness and sin not for some have not the knowledge of God I speak this to your shame 2 Cor. 6.16 17. What agreement hath the Temple of God with Idols For ye are the Temple of the living God Wherefore come out from among them and be ye separate saith the Lord and touch not the unclean thing and I will receive you Chap. 12.20 21. For I fear lest when I come I shall not find you such as I would and that I shall be found unto you such as ye would not lest there be debates envyings wraths strifes backbitings whisperings swellings tumults and lest when I come again my God will humble me among you and that I shall bewail many which have sinned already and have not repented of the uncleaness and fornication and lasciviousness which they have committed Phil. 2.22 All seek their own and not the things of Jesus Christ So by the general Epistle which St. James wrote not to any particular Church but to the twelve Tribes scattered abroad it appears that he was very jealous and suspicious that the faith which very many of the Christians had was but a dead and unavailable faith and such as would neither justifie nor save them because it was but a barren and unfruitful faith such as did neither purifie the heart nor reform the life being hearers of the Word and not doers For for all their knowledge and their faith it seems by the tenour of his writing that their lusts remained still lusty and strong that warred in their members The love of pleasure their unworthy compliances to keep friendship with the World pride envy and grudging one against another strife and contention and uncharitable judging and condemning one another and provoking one another with their unruly Tongues and cursing and swearing and such like distempers it seems did abound among them And St. James by this Epistle to them endeavours their thorow Conversion and encourageth the sincere among them to endeavour it likewise saying If any see his brother err and one convert him Let him know that he which converteth a sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death and cover a multitude of sins And when we likewise find that there were but a few names in Sardis but what had defiled their Garments having indeed a name to live but were dead and nothing which our Saviour could commend in all the Church of Laodicea I say when we find this and consider all these things and more of like nature in the Apostles Writings we have great reason to think that many of those whom the Apostles baptized were not thorowly converted till after they were brought into the Church and yet many such were so after And indeed I do not know what other reason can be given why the Apostles made such haste as they did to baptize persons after they had once gained their consent to turn Christians without staying for any farther trial but that they thought their thorow Conversion was more likely to be effected within the Church than without It is one thing to be converted from a false Religion to a bare or notitional belief of the true and another thing to be converted from that to a right practical belief of it There were some who did believe in the former sense through the power of conviction and could do no otherwise who yet had no mind to become obedient to the Rules and Precepts of the Gospel in all things Such were those Joh. 2.23 and those Joh. 12.42 43. and such was Simon Magus and such were those of whom St. James speaks that had but a dead faith And thus it is with many that are of the Visible Church in these days who have no other faith for some time and yet afterward are converted to a lively practical belief of the Christian Religion And it is probable that the faith of most of the Apostles Converts went little or nothing farther than to a general belief of the truth of the Apostles Doctrine until after they were baptized they having so little time of learning before as generally they had but were carried on further to a more particular distinct and practical belief by after-teaching when they were in the Church And this is not disagreeable to what I have formerly noted from the words of our Saviours Commission to his Apostles touching a double teaching the one to make men become Disciples which went before Baptism the other to direct them how to live as Christians which followed after it Mat. 28.19 20. But however whatever thorow and effectual Conversions the Apostles might in an extraordinary way effect in men while they were without the Church for the first founding of the Christian Church yet we are sure that since that extraordinary way of Conversion has been discontinued abundantly more have been converted by their being in the Church and by advantage of the means of conversion which they have there enjoyed than have been among those without the Church And this is the first reason assigned why others should be admitted into the Visible Church than such as are of the Invisible or than are reputed to be so before such admission 2. Another reason why we may conceive Almighty God allows many others to be of the Visible Church than are of the Invisible is because so to do is more useful for the propagating and spreading of the Christian Religion in the World than the limiting and restraining the
Visible Church only to those who are of the Invisible also can be For it cannot be denied but that such gifts and such common grace as will not be sufficient unto a mans own Salvation may yet be very useful for the maintaining and defending the Christian Doctrine against Adversaries and for the instructing others in it and for the persuading them to believe it and to live according to it Which was the reason I suppose why St. Paul said that he rejoyced and would rejoyce that Christ was preached tho it were but insincerely by some as well as for being preached in truth by others Phil. 1.18 For the more men of Parts and Learning and of Interest among men the Christian Religion and sound Doctrine has to assert and defend it and the more there are of others to abet and encourage them in it though many of them shall be supposed to be mainly influenced therein by motives of secular honour and interest the more credit in general and the more reputation it will have in the World and the further it will spread As we see on the contrary the more Popery has had men of parts and learning and of interest otherwise to promote and propagate it the more and the farther it hath spread and prevailed in the World And the same is true of other Errors and Heresies as that of Arianism when time was There is no question but the more good men are backt in their promulging sound and saving Doctrine by men of great interest in the World that agree with them in Doctrine and substance of Worship tho they should not in all respects be so hearty and sincere as the other are the more Christian Religion gains among men And if all such as these should be made enemies to the Church by being denied to be of it the Churches power of propagating the Christian Religion would quickly be thereby exceedingly weakened and the propagation thereof greatly obstructed We have not now Miracles the extraordinary means by which Christianity was at first propagated without which it is not probable the unbelieving and blind world would have been reconciled to it upon account of its own intrinsick excellency and goodness And therefore there is now the more need of the help of all Christians to propagate the Christian Religion Not only of such as are of the Invisible Church and Visible likewise but also of those who are but only of the Visible The success in propagating the Christian Religion does not wholly depend upon the moral goodness of the Instrruments by whom it is done but so much upon its own goodness that if that be but sufficiently discovered tho but by men defective in their Morals it is yet able to commend it self very much unto the choice of men If they had stood in my counsel and had caused my people to hear my words then they should have turned them from their evil ways saith God concerning the false Prophets Jer. 23.22 It is no small matter upon this account to be born within the Pale of the Visible Church of Christian Parents and to be educated in the Christian Religion though by Parents too much strangers to the power of it And of Zion it shall be said this and that man was born in her The Lord shall count when he writeth up the people that this man was born there Psal 87.5 6. How many worthy Children has the Church had and of great use in it who yet have been born of Parents of but small account for Religion So that such mens being of the Church is of great use for the propagating of truly religious men and by them the Christian Religion But if such men as these had been deprived of Chureh education by their Parents being deprived of Membership in the Visible Church the Church in all probability would have been deprived of such useful Members as these prove to be for the propagating of the true Christian Religion 3. Another reason may be because to take others into the Visible Church than such as are or are credibly reputed to be of the Invisible tends much more to the security of the Invisible Church in the world than the excluding all such would do For were it not for those of the Church as Visible over and besides such as are of it as Invisible those which are of the Church as Invisible would be in much more danger than now they are of being devoured by those numerous enemies which they have in the world Christs Flock is but a little flock comparatively and there are but few that find the narrow way that leads to life as he hath told us And so he hath told us also in the Parable of the Sower that of four sorts of hearers of the Gospel there is but one that brings forth fruit And in another place that among the many that are called there are but few chosen Now then if when with the help of those of the Visible Church which are not of the Invisible which yet according to the Scriptures seem to be far the greater number those of the Invisible Church have enough to do to subsist in the world without being rooted out of it by the Enemies of Christianity as we see they have what can we think would become of them but ruine without a standing Miracle to secure them if those who are but only of the Visible Church were made Enemies also to those of the Invisible as doubtless they would if they should all be rejected by them as none of Christs Church on earth How unable would they be to defend themselves against the Popish Party in the world if they were not assisted by those who are but of the Church as Visible Or how unable would they be to defend themselves against all those that are Enemies to Christianity both name and thing if the bulk and body of men which are Christians only in outward Form and Profession did not stand as a screen between them and those enemies Our Saviour hath declared that the Wheat would be in great danger of being rooted up if the Tares should for the present be gathered out of it and for that reason would have both to grow together till the harvest Mat. 13. Our Saviour did not intend hereby no more do I by what I have said to put a bar against purging the Church of Capital Offenders by Discipline and therefore by Tares its probable he meant carnal Gospellers that yet are not obnoxious to Excommunication such as the thorny-ground hearers in whom the Cares of this world and the deceitfulness of Riches and Pleafures of this Life choak the Word which they have received and which they profess so that it brings forth in them no fruit to perfection But before I proceed any farther I must remove an Objection which otherwise lies against the use which I here make of this Parable of our Saviour And the Objection is this That this Parable makes nothing against gathering
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
out of scruple of Conscience and others from a worse Principle will be apt to take occasion to disturb the peace of the Church with disputes and by deserting the Communion of it And then moderation and prudence are necessary to the same end in the exercise of Discipline in the Church by making a difference in correcting open and notorious scandals and lesser disorders For else if both be punished alike when they are not alike criminal or if lesser disorders shall be strictly looked after and severely punished and greater connived at it will tend to lessen the Government in mens reverence and esteem and so weaken the fense of the Churches peace and render Communion with her less desirable by such as will take themselves to be unequally dealt with by her But as good Government in the Church is necessary to its Peace and to Unity in its Communion so is obedience to such Government without which Government loseth its end But when the Government and exercise of it is equal and as easie as will consist with the due ends of it then if yet for all that men will be troublesom and disobedient under it they will be left without excuse in the eyes of sober men if fitting course be taken to restrain them from disturbing the peace of the Church for otherwise if this be not granted Government in the Church would signifie little THus much concerning our Inquiry touching the nature of Catholick Communion and the means of preserving it But before I proceed to an Inquiry into the nature of Schism I think it not amiss to enquire for what reason the Unity of Catholick Communion is necessary and why we should endeavour that as much as may be it should be kept entire and all of a piece and without Fracture And the only reason which I shall insist on is this because its being such and so kept and maintained tends greatly to the growth and increase of the Church both in respect of the number of its Members and bigness of its Body and also in respect of its healthful state and its growing up to a greater stature in all virtue and goodness 1. It tends to the increase of the body of Christians in the number of its Members For next to the miraculous operations of the Holy Ghost in the Apostles and Primitive Believers the peaceable and charitable demeanour among Christians and good agreement among themselves if it were generally found in them would attract and draw men to the liking and love of the Religion which they profess for the sake of the lovely effects it produceth in them Men can hardly think otherwise than well of that Religion by which they find men are made more peaceable and loving and more ready to all good offices to one another and to all men than others are or than they themselves were before they engaged heartily and seriously in it And that the concord and good agreement of all Christians in one Catholick Communion has so happy a tendency as I have said to draw others to the belief love of that same Religion appears by the reason why and for which our blessed Saviour so earnestly desired and prayed for the Union and Agreement of all Christians in the things their Religien taught them to wit because the world would thereby be brought to believe that he the Author of it had been sent of God Joh. 17.20 21. Neither pray I for these alone but for them also which shall believe on me through their word that they all may be one as thou Father art in me and I in thee that they also may be one in us that the world may believe that thou hast sent me And it s most apparent that the contrary to this has had its contrary effect For where have any such numerous additions to the Catholick Church been found from among the Pagan world since the great divisions which have risen and been kept on foot in the Christian world as those which were made for some hundreds of years together in the Primitive times while Catholick Communion was preserved in the Church without any considerable interruption Nay have not the unreasonable divisions and fierce contentions which have broken out in the Reformed Churches since the Reformation and in our own nation especially been a temptation to many to turn Atheists or Scepticks The holy Scriptures in many places seem to foretel a more general flowing of the Nations of the world into the Church than ever yet has been accomplished But we cannot reasonably expect this should be brought to pass by means of the Christian Churches in being until by humility peaceableness and charity and good agreement among themselves and other virtues they make a better representation of the excellency of the Religion which they profess than they do at this day When God Almighty turns to the people a pure Language then it may be expected they will call upon him and serve him with one consent as the Prophet speaks Zeph. 3.9 Not while they treat one another with impure and corrupt Language which smels of wrath and disdain of envy spight and contempt Not while by words they do all they can to disgrace one another but by speaking the truth in love and with meekness of wisdom 2. The good agreement of Christians in one Catholick Communion tends greatly to the increase of the Church in respect of its spiritual healthful state and its growing up to a greater stature in all virtue and goodness For where peace and good agreement is in the several offices of Christian Brotherhood there love is which is the bond of perfectness which holds them fast together And love is a radical grace out of which other graces grow in so much that love is made the Summary of all Christian duties towards one another Love is said to be the fulfilling of the Law Rom. 13.8.10 Charity edifieth saith St. Paul 1 Cor. 8.1 It tends to edifie and build up the subject in which it dwels and to make him more like God who is love and it tends to edifie the object on which it is set and on which it exerciseth it self it tends to build up both the one and the other in grace and goodness And there is this further reason why a peaceable agreement in one Catholick Communion tends to increase the Church in her spiritual riches viz. because the holy Spirit of God delights to dwell where peace and love dwell and there to dispence and communicate his treasures by which the souls of men are enriched but without his supplies influences and operations there is no thriving in grace and real goodness He that dwels in love God dwels in him 1 Joh. 4.16 And where God takes up his special residence he will adorn those living Temples with plenty of spiritual ornaments and those shall be sure to be made partakers of his best sort of gifts such as the world cannot receive Be of one mind live in peace and
misrepresented that Method of our Lord in the general tenour of my Inquiries And indeed if I have not taken wrong measures and unless very much mistaken their Communion in their state of Separation if taken altogether and the terms on which it is held must needs be far more impure than the Parochial Communion they have withdrawn from There are extreams on both hands as well on the right hand as on the left and there is a proneness in men to run into the one by flying from the other And good men especially in matters of publick Reformation are through mistaken zeal more in danger of running into an extreme on the right hand than into one on the left and in flying from Babylon to run beyond Jerusalem And there is a danger of doing much hurt in the Church by over-doing as well as there is by under-doing and both extremes are carefully to be avoided The New England Ministers in their Answer to Mr. Davenport formerly mentioned do say We may be very injurious to Christ as well as the Souls of men by too much straitening and narrowing the bounds of his Kingdom or Visible Church here on earth Certainly enlargement so it be a regular enlargement is a very desirable thing In Church Reformation it is an observable truth saith Pareus on the Parable of the Tares that they which are for too much straitness do more hurt than profit the Church So much they p. 45. Thus the mistaken zeal of the Donatists and Novatians of old for a purer Church and purer Communion as was thought or pretended put them upon separating from other Orthodox Christians which proved an inlet to the most unchristian practices imaginable for the carrying on their undertaken Reformation and destructive of the peace of the Church in the highest and lamentably scandalous to the Christian Religion in the Doctrinal part whereof notwithstanding they were for the most part all agreed as we are now and differ mostly about Disciplinary Points as they did then Such a strictness in Church Reformation as does so narrow and lessen the Visible Church as to endeavour to reduce it to the size of the Invisible is many ways hurtful as I have shewed in my Reasons for the contrary It tends to hinder and lessen the great work of thorow and sound Conversion in the Church It tends to hinder the spreading and propagating of the Christian Religion It tends to harden men in an unsafe condition It tends to deprive good men of Communion with the Church under the Notion of bad It tends to ruine the Church as to its existence in the world And lastly it tends to beget and foment divisions contentions feuds envyings strifes and undue censurings among Christians and so to cast the Church into a sickly state and such as threatens her spiritual life Besides the encouragement and advantage which is thereby given to our common Enemies to plot and attempt against us And thus over-doing is indeed undoing And lest any should be offended at a discourse against over-much strictness It ought to be considered that there is a great difference between a mans being strict towards himself and in reference to his own practice and his being strict and severe towards others in depriving them of the outward Priviledges of Christian Professors A man cannot well be too strict in keeping a narrow watch over his own heart words and ways in governing his Appetites Thoughts and Passions Tongue and Actions Nor does this kind of strictness depend upon such a purity of Communicants or Communion in which no Carnal Christians have any share But it depends upon or rather it consists in a due attention of mens minds to their own duty and to the opportunities of receiving good by the Ordinances of God The rest of the Guests in the Parable were not the worse nor did fare the worse for that there was one among them that had not on the Wedding Garment The ordinances of God do not the less avail good men that with a due frame of mind wait upon God in them tho unregenerate men participate with them therein And when by the Censures of the Church Capital Offenders and notorious scandalous Persons are deprived of Communion with the Church it is not for that reason as if the Ordinances of God were the less useful to the good by such mens sharing in them But it is to bring such Persons to shame and by that means to repentance and to free the Church from that dishonour which otherwise would stick upon it for tolerating such scandalous persons among them And partly also for admonition to others and to prevent the tainting of such as are less wary by their ill example and familiar converse But otherwise bad mens sharing in external Communion with the Church is no ways likely to hinder the growth of good men in grace or their profiting by the Ordinances of God there administred To the pure all things are pure Bad men cannot in the least pollute the Ordinances of God to the good by their participating with them in them And therefore if God would have such as are not obnoxious to Excommunication for Capital Crimes tho not Regenerate to be continued in the Church being once received into it by Baptism to the end they might be under the influence of his Ordinances for their Conversion I say if God would have it thus in order to their Conversion no good man should envy or grudge them this benefit of enjoying the means of such Conversion And they especially should not who have themselves been Converted and Regenerated in the same way of general Communion and by the means therein afforded which yet has been the case I doubt not of such as have been leading men in modelling this new Church way as it has been of many others For their Congregations at the first and long after consisted scarcely of any other than what had been drawn out of the Parochial Congregations where they had been Converted if they were indeed Converted as they supposed them to be before their incorporating and associating in their new way And if they had continued in the same way wherein they were by Gods blessing upon the means of Grace they therein enjoyed made such as they then were they might without doubt have attained to as much growth in all Christian Virtues as ever they did afterwards and I think much more provided they had but diligently and carefully improved the same means and opportunities by which they had acquired what they had then attained to For the Word and Ordinances of the Gospel which are the means of increase of Grace as well as of the beginning of it are the same and will produce the same effects in those who with a good frame of mind attend upon God in them as well when unregenerate men share in them as when they do not And therefore neither the holy Prophets or other holy men of greatest Piety under the Old Testament nor
Catholicism Or Several ENQUIRIES TOVCHING Visible Church-membership Church-Communion The Nature of Schism And the Vsefulness of National Constitutions For the furtherance of RELIGION By W. A. LONDON Printed by M. C. for Walter Kettilby at the Bishops head in St. Pauls Church-yard 1683. THE PREFACE TO THE READER ONE would think any thing should be acceptable to dissenting Brethren which has a true tendency to deliver them from those mistaken notions of things which do expose them to much trouble from Men and from the Laws themselves and by means of which they are an occasion of trouble and danger to the Nation And it is but reasonable to expect that things of this nature should be consider'd by them now at such a time as this tho' neglected during the time in which those Opinions put them to no trouble The hope of which and the sorrow to see Christian Brethren to suffer great inconveniencies to themselves needlesly has been a motive to me to make these sheets publick at this time as not doubting but that if judiciously and impartially weighed they with other writings of like nature may be of good use to discover to them their mistakes Their Separation from parochial Communion which does expose them to trouble does proceed principally from their mistakes as I conceive them to be either about that which makes men members of the visible Church or that which gives them Right to the external Priviledges thereof or about the external manner of publick worship There are many of the Dissenters whose notion of the visible Church and of Mens Right to Communion in the external Priviledge of it seems much narrower than the Scriptures represent those things to be They make that to be necessary to visible Church-member-ship and Communion which is but necessary to Invisible Church-Communion And then they make this qualification necessary not only by way of Duty but of Condition also without which in humane judgement persons ought not to be admitted into Church fellowship or unto Communion in the external priviledges of the Church Which notion and correspondent practice of theirs I have endeavored to discover to be plainly contrary to the whole current of the Scriptures touching these matters both of the Old Testament and of the New both as to doctrine and matters of fact That which hath betrayed them into this mistake seems to have been the want of distinguishing between the internal and external state of the Church for want of which they confound them and make that which is but necessary to the Being of the Church as invisible to be so likewise to the Being of it as it is visible The Church being described in Scripture but as a little flock and that as our Saviour says there are but few which find the narrow way which leads to Life and enter in at the strait gate and because the qualification of those of the invisible Church who shall be saved as described in Scripture seems to agree but to a few of those who profess the Christian Religion and because the Church is but One hereupon they come to be persuaded that none are really and truly of the Church but such whose qualification agrees with their description to whom Salvation is indeed promised But as for others they esteem them no more to be true and real Members of the Church than wooden Legs and glass Eyes are Members of the Body of a Man But then there are Scriptures which must be considered likewise which have foretold of the coming of many whole Nations into the Church both Kings and their People and of the numerous increase of it when a little one shall become a thousand and a small one a strong Nation when the stone cut out of the mountain without hands shall fill the wole Earth when for number they shall say the place is too strait for me give place to me that I may dwell and the like for there are many such Predictions in Scripture Now unless they will say that whole Nations and those vast numbers forementioned are all of the Church as invisible which is more then they will or can say they must of necessity admit of a distinction of a two-fold state of one and the same Catholick Church the one external and visible the other internal and invisible And if this distinction be admitted then these Predictions concerning the vast extent of the Church will be fairly reconcileable to those other Scriptures which speak of it in a more contracted and limited sense without which they seem irreconcileable For what some Scriptures speak touching the paucity or fewness of Church-members and what others say touching a far greater number of which the Church doth and will consist are both true in different respects the one in respect of the Internal and Invisible state of the Church the other in respect of that which is external and visible And this distinction is fairly justified by what our blessed Saviour hath said more than once to wit that many are called but few are chosen And if any should fancie that this twofold state of Church-members implies two Churches the one visible the other invisible there is no ground for it since those who are of the Church as invisible are the same Persons which are in external and visible Vnion and Communion with those who are of the Church only as visible and so make one Church with them But we cannot say they make one Church with these and another by themselves for then there would be two Churches indeed and yet of the same persons for a considerable part Considering then this twofold state of the Church it will not be difficult at all to conceive how and why a participation in the external priviledges of the Church does belong to all that are externally and visibly of it when yet a participation in the internal and invisible priviledges of it belongs only to those who are of the Church in respect of its invisible as well as visible state As there are different qualifications of persons of the same Church so there are different priviledges which belong to them accordingly external ones to them who are only externally qualified and both external and internal ones to them who are qualified for both Now this different state of the Church being so apparent as it is in Scripture as also that those who have but common grace and yet Baptized are really and truly of the visible Church I say the consideration of these things hath enclined me to touch upon several things which seem to render it very improbable at least that the Apostles should admit none into the Church by Baptism but such as they judged to believe so effectually as to be thereby Regenerate before they would Baptize them To what is said in my inquiries into these matters I shall here add a little more for our better Vnderstanding that case or question The question is whether it be probable that the Apostles admitted none into
Communion in the instituted Ordinances of worship That particular Churches are Constituted or to be Constituted only of such But others do think that these do make the Visible Church much narrower than the Scriptures do and do hold that all that are visibly in Covenant with God are thereby joyned in Relation to him and are made Members of his Visible Church as well those which have no saving grace as those that have Our business then for the present will be to consult the Scriptures in this case Before God had a Church in the World by Institution mans visible relation to God was known by their worshipping of him only whether they had any other signs of saving grace or no and tho they were in no visible Covenant with him They were known to whom they did belong by whom they worshipped Every man walked in the name of his God as the Prophet speaks Mica 4.5 and those that worshipped a strange God were the Children of a strange God Mal. 2.11 as those that worshipped the true God were counted his Children Natural Religion especially in point of worship was then the measure of judging mens visible relation to God But when Almighty God was pleased to set on foot and begin the gathering him a Visible Church out of the rest of the World in a way of divine Institution he laid the foundation of it in his transaction with Abraham by instituting and ordaining two things 1. That as God by Covenant engaged to Abraham to be his God and the God of his Seed so Abraham and his Seed must engage to God by Covenant to be his Servants and a People unto him 2. That this Covenant should be entred into by Abraham and his Seed by observing such a Sacred Rite as God instituted and appointed for that purpose and that was Circumcision And this was continued for this use until the Messias came and instituted Baptism another Sacred Rite for the same end Now in Gods thus founding his Visible Church there was no such thing as the appointing saving Grace in the judgment of charity to be the condition of mens admission into his Church by Circumcision But the Lord absolutely commanded that Abraham and his Male Seed after him and all Born in the House or bought with their money should be Circumcised without any limitation or condition in reference to the appearance of saving Grace By which it is evident that God did not design to have no others of his Visible Church than such as had saving Grace Now the Posterity of Abraham when they came out of Egypt were by virtue of their Covenanting with God all of them bad as well as good visibly related to God as his People and so his as no other people were And I hope we may safely say that God himself accounted them to be what Moses and others by divine inspiration said they were And if so then we may say that Almighty God did account them all bad as well as good tho not in the most emphatical sence to be his chosen elected and adopted People Deut. 4.37 Rom. 9.4 his Called Isa 48.12 a People near unto him Psal 148.14 his Saints his holy People Deut. 7.6 33.3 Psal 50.5 his Children Deut. 14.1 a special and peculiar People unto himself Deut. 7.6 14.2 his Inheritance Deut. 9.29 his Portion Deut. 32.9 his peculiar Treasure Psal 135.4 All these Titles and Appellations given them by God or by man inspired by God in giving them do with as much plainness as words can express shew that God himself owned them for his People his Children and related to him in such a sence as other People not in Covenant with him were not Now that they were not thus called or accounted for any such reason as because they had saving grace or because they were reputed to be of the Church as Invisible will appear with full evidence For the same inspired Man Moses at the same time and in the same Book in and by which God owned them for his People under many of the foresaid appellations did from God charge them with such and so much guilt as no man can with any colour of reason say was consistent with an Invisible Church-state Thus in Deut. 9. Thou art a stiff-necked People vers 6. From the day thou didst depart out of the Land of Egypt even until ye came unto this place ye have been rebellious against the Lord vers 7. They have corrupted themselves they have quickly turned aside vers 12. I have seen this People and behold it is a stiff-necked People vers 13. You have been Rebellious against the Lord from the day that I knew you vers 24. I know thy rebellion and thy stiff neck chap. 31.27 They have corrupted themselves their spot is not the spot of his Children they are a perverse and crooked generation chap. 32.5 When the Lord saw it he abhorred them because of the provoking of his Sons and of his Daughters vers 19. A froward Generation Children in whom is no faith vers 20. They are a Nation void of Counsel neither is there any understanding in them vers 28. These things are charged on them generally and in the gross And considering some other passages there is great cause to fuspect that much the major part of them at least were thus guilty For in Numb 14.2 its faid That all the Children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron and the whole Congregation said Would God we had died in the Land of Egypt or would God we had died in the Wilderness And vers 10. All the Congregation bade stone them with stones And vers 33. Your Children shall wander in the Wilderness forty years and bear your Whoredoms until your Carcases be wasted in the Wilderness And vers 35. I will surely do it to all this evil Congregation that are gathered together against me And vers 29. Your Carcases shall fall in this Wilderness and all that are numbred of you according to your whole number from twenty years old and upward which have murmured against me All these things considered they will not suffer us with any plausible pretence to say or to think that God owned this People in the bulk of them as his Visible Church for any such reason as because they seemed to be Invisibly related to him by special grace And if not then it must be upon some or all of these accounts following unless any other more likely can be thought of which I am not able to foresee nor to suspect 1. They were in some sort holy and separated unto God as they were Born of Parents who were in Covenant with him Upon which account they were called a holy Seed Ezra 9.2 Now the holiness of persons always signifies some such special relation to God which is not common to all persons as such Almighty God has another kind of right to the Children of such as are his by Covenant than he has to the Children of
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
the Visible Church as Members of the Invisible will be thereby strengthened in their self-flattery and good opinion they have of themselves touching their good and safe condition when there is no such matter And when they find the good opinion they have of themselves thus strengthened by the publick judgment of the Church concurring with them therein they will be under the greater temptation and in so much the greater danger of resting securely in that unsafe condition to the great hazard of their Souls We know or have abundant reason to suspect that many that have but a Form of Godliness are Laodicean like less apt to suspect the goodness of their own condition before God than they that are truly sincere How much less will they suspect it and how much more will they be confirmed in the good opinion of themselves tho false when they have the publick judgment of the Church to back them in it and that after inspection has been made into their lives and signs of their Conversion approved of As the manner is of those that go that way Of this danger and of this great inconvenience some of the New England Divines grew sensible after they had made trial of that way a great while For in their answer to Mr. Davenports Apologetical Preface pa. 43 44. they express themselves in these words Indeed when men confound these two and do the Visible Church Interest unto such conditions and qualifications as are reputed enough to Salvation this may tend to harden men and to make them conceit that if once they be but got into the Church they are sure of heaven when as alas it may be they are far from it But now there is no such danger does arise from mens being owned Visible Church Members from their professing to believe the Christian Religion and from their Covenanting to endeavour to live according to it Such Profession and such Covenanting does indeed give ground of hope to the Church that such will not be so regardless of their own Salvation as not to be willing to learn their duty and to endeavour to do it that they may be saved But yet such hope of the Church concerning their good performance for the future does not minister any occasion of confidence in such men that they have already performed what is necessary to their Salvation as a receiving them into the Church and unto Communion as having in the publick judgment of the Church already performed it would do This act of the Church in receiving them into Communion in her external priviledges in hope of their improving them to the saving of their Souls gives them no ground of confidence of the safety and goodness of their condition thereby further than they are careful to make their Calling and Election sure by using all diligence in improving the opportunity and means of doing so by their being in the Church Men are too prone to lay too great a stress upon their being received into the Visible Church and Communion tho the Church hath past no judgment thereby of their being of the Invisible Church how much more would they do so in case it had St. Paul was sensible I doubt not how prone many Christians are to lay too much stress meerly upon their being of the Church and partakers in the external Communion thereof For which cause he cautioned the Christians against flattering themselves with an opinion of their safe condition upon that account and laboured to possess them with a sense of the danger they were in for all that if they should rest therein without growing better and better thereby 1 Cor. 10. I would not saith he that ye should be ignorant brethren how that all our Fathers were baptized unto Moses in the Cloud and in the Sea and did all eat the same spiritual meat and drink the same spiritual drink and yet with many of them God was not well pleased but overthrew them in the Wilderness And he told them that these things were our examples to the intent that we should not lust after evil things as they lusted Then enumerated their miscarriages and what befel them thereupon and further told them that these things hapned to them for Examples or Types to us and were written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come Thereby giving them to understand that tho they were baptized and received into the Church and did participate of the same spiritual meat and drink in the Sacrament with the best in the Church yet if they did not take warning by the miscarriages of those that had been of the Church and of the Communion of it as well as they to avoid the like they might perish as well as the other did for all their Communion in the Church 5. Another reason against refusing all such Communion in the Visible Church who are not judged to be of the Church as Invisible is taken from the danger of such a practice in another respect and that is the danger of mistaking the good for bad and of refusing the sincere Christians under the Notion of Carnal and Unregenerate There is so little visible difference between what many of the same persons were a little before they had saving grace and what they are when they have it only in the lowest degree that men would be in great danger of mistaking if they should make a judgment of their spiritual state under such Circumstances And the difficulty of not mistaking in this case will be still increased when that very little of true grace which is in some men is greatly obscured by the courseness of their natural temper and disposition Besides the prejudice which some good men have against others upon account of some difference in Opinion will not suffer them to discern true grace in some of them in whom it is and perhaps in some good degree too This Age hath furnished us with too many instances of this nature The like may be said in respect of the narrowness of spirit and severity of many by reason of which many of those in whom God himself finds saving grace would be refused Communion with the Church for want of it if that opinion should generally obtain that none should be admitted into the Visible Church ar to its Communion but upon the reputation of their being of the Church as Invisible Some do understand the danger of rooting up the Wheat if the Tares should be gathered from among it to lie in the danger of mistaking the Wheat for the Tares if the one should be attempted to be gathered from the other And if this should be the reason why our Saviour would have them both to grow together till the Harvest it would be pat to what I have said on this reason But if it be not as I am apt to think it is not yet then it so much the more confirms that to be our Savious meaning which I have suggested elsewhere for I do not
of the Universal Church as Christian which yet in order of nature is Antecedent to particular Churches The gathering of Christ a Christian Church in the world at first was the effect of the Apostolical Ministry and the Ministry of their assistants The Church is built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets Christ being the chief corner stone Eph. 2.20 and the Foundation is Antecedent to the Superstructure All the additions that have been since made to the Visible Church have been by the Ministerial Office by letting all the particular Members of that addition into it by Baptism And when men are ordained Ministers of the Gospel they are not ordained Ministers of this or that particular Church but Ministers of Christ to the Church in general Let no man glory in men for all things are yours whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas all are yours and ye are Christs 1 Cor. 3.21 22. Paul Apollos and Cephas were theirs in common with others not theirs appropriately And their being sent or called to be Ministers to this ot that particular Church is but the application of their general capacity to particular use and exercise to wit that of Ministration to such a people in particular And this Ministerial Power they bring with them to the Church or People among whom they are placed but do not receive it from them And it is by virtue of their Ministry and Ministration that a particular Body of people can act or perform any Publick Acts of Communion peculiar to a Church as such And therefore as they cannot act as a Church without such a Ministry so neither can they properly be a Church without it The first thing St. Paul mentions Ephes 4.11.12 for which our Saviour Christ gave Apostles Prophets Evangelists Pastors and Teachers was for the perfecting of the Saints or for the joyning them together or for the making them up or for the compacting or knitting them together For thus variously is that word rendred by Expositors but all to the same sense For it is for the knitting them and holding them together as one body in their several Publick Assemblies for Worship and Edification And indeed a Church is so called from several Christians assembling together for Publick Worship their Union wherein is made by their joynt concurrence with their Spiritual Pastor in his Ministration for which end and purpose such Officers are given and appointed by Christ as the words of St. Paul now alledged shew And now as for the Text alledged by the Doctor in which Paul and Barnabas are said to have ordained Elders in every Church Acts 14.23 this does not prove the Churches there spoken of to be such Antecedently to any Ministerial Act or Power by which they became such For they had been made Churches in some sort by the planting of Paul and Barnabas who also as Church Officers ministred to them while they were among them For this ordaining Elders in every Church by Paul and Barnabas was done in their return to the places where they had preached the Gospel and made Disciples before and they returned to them to confirm them and to ordain Elders among them as appears by the two precedent verses compared with the Text it self Besides St. Luke did not write this History till after the Apostles had thus ordained Elders in the Churches mentioned by him so that they were indeed Churches then when he wrote those words and it was proper for him to stile them so tho it should be supposed they had been none before they had Elders ordained in them So that this Text can be no proof of that for which the Doctor doth alledge it QUERY XII WHether from the reason of the extent and Latitude of Visible Church-Membership and Communion which has been discoursed of the great usefulness of a National settlement or Constitution for the publick exercise of the Worship of God in all parts of a Nation professing Christianity may not fairly be inferred and concluded Now the reason why Visible Church-Membership Communion are better in respect of their due extensiveness than they would be if the terms and conditions of enjoying those Priviledges were limited and restrained to the same terms which the enjoyment of Invisible Church Membership and Communion are is this viz. because these Priviledges under such an extent and latitude tend more to the propagation of the Christian Religion and the increase of the number of those who shall be saved than they would or could do if they were limitted and restrained to the same terms and conditions of enjoyment as Invisible Church Membership and Communion are This hath been shew'd in our tenth Inquiry And it is for the same reason that it is better that the exercise of Gods Publick Worship should be set up in all parts of a Nation professing Christianity by a National Authority and that all such Professors should be thereby obliged to frequent it than it is to leave all such to their own liberty to promote and frequent it or to forbear and neglect to do so as the way called Independency does For the National way tends more to propagate and promote the knowledge and practice of Christian Religion and the Salvation of Souls than the Congregational way does and therefore must needs be abundantly better That it does so is too apparent to be denied by any that have but common reason when these things following are but duly considered 1. Better provision is made by a publick establishment for the instruction of such a Nation in the way of Salvation than can reasonably be expected without it Unless provision were made by publick Authority for the maintenance of a Gospel Ministry in all parts of a Nation there would certainly be a greater want of a publick Ministry in many places of it than by reason of such a publick provision there is Would people think we of themselves in all places of a Nation provide a better maintainance for the Ministry of the Gospel among them if left wholly to themselves than there is made by publick Authority If they would how comes it to pass that those places are generally worst supplied with Ministers where the Publick has made least provision for their maintainance And generally where there is the greatest failure in this there is the least face of Religion and greatest hazard of mens Souls Where there is no Vision the people perish saith Solomon Prov. 29.18 And the people are destroyed for lack of knowledge saith the Prophet Hos 4.6 2. If the people should be all left to themselves to chuse what Ministers they please without any publick approbation and allowance of some appointed by publick Authority to judg of their fitness many would be in danger of chusing men of erronious Principles and such as would corrupt the minds of men The consequence of which would be great opposition and contention between the Orthodox and the Erronious and making of Parties and endless strife to the destruction
of Peace and Charity and to the hurt of mens souls thereby and to the great dishonour of our Religion and to the hinderance of its good effects upon the minds and lives of men 3. Altho the Publick Worship should be set up in all places of a Christian Nation yet if men should be under no Obligation by Law to attend it it would doubtless be much more neglected by many than when there is But the more men are brought to attend the means by which God works Grace in them tho it be but by virtue of the Law they are brought to it yet the more hope and probability there is of their being savingly wrought upon 4. If whosoever shall pretend himself qualified for it should have liberty to gather a Congregation it would be the leaving open a door of opportunity to Seducers to subvert mens Souls and to fill a Nation with variety of Sects and the mischievous effects of them And yet so it would be if there were no publick Government in the Church to restrain men And to this day we feel the very sad effects of so great a liberty sometime indulged Thus we see for what reason true Religion should be promoted by National Authority And as to matter of fact it is sufficiently known that those who have had the Supream Power in all Nations have been wont always to promote by their Authority that which they have thought to be the true Religion whether it hath been true or false And whence comes this but from the light and Law of Nature which directs men to use the Power and Interest they have to further the Worshipping of the God whom they serve And indeed Christians of all pesuasions are willing enough to have the Civil Power to exert it self in furthering their own way of Worshipping God The People of New England who once were as much for Liberty of Conscience as any yet soon found it convenient to incorporate the Civil Power with the Ecclesiastick for the defence and propagation of their Religion Now as the great usefulness of a National establishment for the purposes aforesaid does sufficiently appear from the reason and nature of the thing it self and has the light and law of Nature on its side so it is not destitute of countenance from supernatural Revelation 1. When Almighty God said to Abraham Thou shalt be a Father of many Nations a Father of many Nations have I made thee Gen. 17. He declared his intention of Reforming the world by degrees from Idolatry and false Worship in a National way if we may judg what he intended to do afterwards by the first instance he gave of his performance herein and if we may judg of the true meaning of this as of other Divine Predictions by the after Events which answer them in point of fact which yet is the best and most approved way of understanding Predictions when such events take place Almighty God made Abraham first a Father of a Nation which issued out of his own Loyns For when his Posterity who by Circumcision Covenanted to take Abrahams God only for their God grew very numerous in Egypt God brought them out thence that they might worship him openly and publickly in a National way And by this means and by his visible owning them for his people by extraordinary favours shew'd them he designed to make himself more known to the rest of the world to be the only true God and to be so acknowledged Now in that Abraham was promised to be the Father of many Nations it was not so much for that God intended that many Nations should descend out of his Loyns by natural generation as that many Nations in time should after his example come to acknowledge and worship him only for their God as the only true God For so St. Paul understood this promise of God to Abraham when he makes Abraham in respect of his believing in the true God to be the Father of all Nations that should be of the same belief as well those of the Vncircumcision as that which was of the Circumcision as it is written saith he I have made thee a Father of many Nations Rom. 4.16 17. And it was in this spiritual or religious respect and sense that St. Paul had before in this Chapter asserted Abraham to be the Father of all that shall believe in the true God as he did in all Nations as well those who were never Circumcised as those that were Ver. 11 12. And thus God made Abraham a blessing to the World as he promised he would and a Father of Nations not only for that the Messias was to be born of one descended from him for so he was born of one that descended from Abrahams Predecessors and Successors as well as from Abraham But he was a blessing to the World and the Father of Nations by being made by God the Head the beginning and great example of reforming the World from Misbelief and Idolatry and other consequent evils so as his Progenitors were not To encourage which work in the world God invested Abraham that led the way herein with the honour of being counted the Father of Nations and a publick blessing to the world both in himself and in his Seed 2. That God did design farther to carry on the reformation of the world from Misbelief and Idolatry in a National way and in that way to bring the world by degrees to the Worship of the true God only appears by other Predictictons of the Prophets such as that Isa 55.5 Behold thou shalt call a Nation that thou knowst not and Nations that knew not thee shall run unto thee Chap. 52.15 He shall sprinkle many Nations the Kings shall shut their mouths at him Chap. 49.23 Kings shall be thy nursing fathers and their Queens thy nursing mothers Zech. 8.22 Many people and strong Nations shall come to seek the Lord of Hosts Chap. 2.11 Many Nations shall be joyned to the Lord in that day and shall be my people The formal nature of mens Visible Church-Membership consists in their being visibly joyned to the Lord as I have shewed and therefore when many Nations are Nationally joyned to the Lord they may well be counted Nationally his people or Churches And Nations are then Nationally joyned to the Lord when Nations do incorporate the Christian Religion with their Civil Government and make it part of the National Government as the Ecclesiastical Polity of the Jews together with the Judicial Law of that Commonwealth was And by this means the Christian Religion becomes commodiously and with more certainty to be transmitted to future Generations in a Nation as well as practised for the time being by that which is existent just as the Jews Religion was For he established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a Law in Israel which he commanded our Fathers that they should make them known to their Children That the Generation to come might know them even the Children which should
the God of love and peace shall be with you saith St. Paul 2 Cor. 13.11 While the Catholick Church is of one mind in the great things of Christian Religion and being so do live in peace and not unpeaceably contend fall out and divide about lesser things such as for which God perhaps doth neither esteem or disesteem men he who is the God of love and peace will be with them to bless them with his presence with spiritual blessings especially And as the presence of the soul in the body enlivens it with natural life by virtue whereof the several Members perform their several functions proper to each of them respectively even so the presence of the holy Spirit in the body of Christ the Church does animate it with spiritual life and does so influence and actuate the several Members of it as that by virtue thereof they all perform their several Christian offices proper to each for the common good of the whole But then this vital power of acting spiritually is conveyed by the Spirit to each of the Members as they are in Vnion and communion with the whole and so as one Member is made a Channel of this conveyance to another and each enabled to contribute its part to the common good of the whole Thus Col. 2.19 where St. Paul mentioning the Head of the Church saith from which all the body by joynts and bonds having nourishment ministred and knit together increaseth with the increase of God This spiritual nourishment of the body flows from Christ the Head we see as having obtained it by his Mediation but then it is the great Office-work of the holy Spirit to apply the benesits obtained by Christ to the several members of his body by working and increasing grace and comfort in them He shall glorifie me for he shall receive of mine and shew it unto you saith our Saviour speaking of the Holy Ghost Joh. 16.14 And this conveyance of nourishment from the Head to the Members by the Holy Spirit is made by the union of the parts as knit together by joynts and bands by which Union one member is made a Channel of conveyance of nourishment to another and in this way the whole body increaseth with the increase of God This being so a disunion of the parts or members must needs obstruct this spiritual nourishment and hinder the growth of the body To the same effect is that parallel place Ephes 4.15 16. Speaking the truth in love may grow up into him in all things which is the head even Christ from whom the whole body fitly joyned together and compacted by that which every joynt supplieth according to the effectual working of the measure of every part maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of it self in love This increase of the body to the edifying it self in love is made we see both by the parts of the body being joyned together and also by that which every joynt supplyeth being so compacted Thus we see how the increase of the Church in spiritual strength depends upon Gods special presence and assistance and how the enjoyment of that presence depends upon the peaceable agreement and mutual love of the parts of which the Church doth consist And if so then unpeaceableness discord and strife contention and dividing into Parties in the Church must necessarily tend to deprive her of that special presence and divine assistance of the holy Spirit without which Christians cannot thrive and increase in true goodness and for want of which they will rather decline and go backward Tho the God of peace and of love will be with his People while they are so of one mind in the Essentials of Christianity as upon that account to live in peace and Christian Communion one with another notwithstanding their differing in some lesser things which will always be found in the best estate of the Church which can be expected here on earth yet there is no reason to expect he will be so with them when they do not so live in peace tho they should otherwise be of one mind in the fundamental Doctrines of Christianity and all the substantial parts of Worship The holy Spirit may indeed dispense gifts of Knowledge and Utterance and the like which are common to bad men as well as good such as these he may bestow upon Christians even while they are in disorder and unpeaceable division But as for those fruits of the Spirit which constitute men truly good such as love joy peace long-suffering gentleness goodness and meekness Gal. 5.22 the having of these and mens being of an unpeaceable temper and in a state of discord and division are I fear inconsistent for these are contrary one to another Tho St. Paul acknowledged those of the Church of Corinth to be enriched with all utterance and all knowledge Chap. 1 5. yet in Chap. 3.1 he tells them that he could not speak unto them as unto spiritual but as unto carnal even as to babes in Christ and for this reason as it follows in ver 3. because there was among them envying strife and division Ye are yet carnal saith he for whereas there is among you envying and strife and divisions are ye not carnal and walk as men that is as other men which were no Christians They might indeed know and believe and talk otherwise and better than those that were out of the Church but their walking and living was but as theirs while envying strife and division was found with them For these are of those works of the flesh of which St. Paul saith that those which do such things shall not inherit the Kingdom of God Gal. 5.20 21. And if Christians would but examine and judge of themselves by these Scripture measures it would make them on all hands one side as well as another to be as much afraid to do any thing to disturb the peace of the Church or to be guilty of envying strife and division in it as they would be to find themselves but in a carnal state and of being shut out of the Kingdom of heaven And as for those who are guilty of these things in these sad times wherein envying strife and division do abound it is hugely necessary that as they love their own souls they would without delay repent and get out of such a state and not flatter and deceive themselves with an opinion of their good and safe condition upon account of their being otherwise Orthodox and Religious so long as they indulge themselves in such a state QUERY XIV What is the nature of Schism From what hath been discoursed touching the nature of Catholick Communion and the means of preserving it we may be able to make a judgment of the nature of Schism what it is and who are guilty of it For if Catholick Communion stands in the Unity of the Spirit or Christians Unity in their Communion in the Doctrine of Faith in things necessary to Salvation and in the
direct Schism and prepare the way to reconciliation For when it does indeed appear by complying as far as they can and by other truly Christian behaviour of persons that through error of judgment differ from their Brethren in other things that that difference proceeds purely from Conscience tho erronious and not from a worse Principle their case is truly pitiable and calls for tenderness towards them from them that differ from them and to treat them accordingly is certainly the way to gain upon them and to make them the more capable of receiving information and satisfaction in their scruples Whereas when they are otherwise treated with severity it tends to spoil their good temper and to exasperate them and to make them out of disgust to them who have so dealt with them to unite into Parties and make head against them to the imbroiling the Church in grievous Schism 2. There is another and worse Division or Schism than meer difference in judgment and practice in some lesser things and that division lies more in Christians unchristian managing their differences than in the difference that is in their opinion and practice when it is but about some things wherein the good or hurt of men would be little concerned if they could be separated from their effects And this division lies in the immoderate manner of contending for that wherein Christians differ As thus when they do not content themselves with offering their arguments fairly and peaceably for that wherein they differ but fall out with their Brethren for not submitting to but opposing them both in their arguments and practice as when they set them at naught and censure them as insincere as not truly lovers of truth but that they are byassed by some undue interest of honour reputation or gain or humour or self-will and that these prevail with them more than truth Now such things as these are of a provoking nature and lay a temptation upon their Brethrens Passions and tend directly to alienate affections and minister to unpeaceable contendings and are a direct breach of peace Tho men have truth on their side yet they may be Schismatical in labouring to propagate or to defend that truth when they go farther in doing so than speaking the truth in love I mean in way of Controversie Tho those that differ from them may possibly be moved with undue motives to oppose them and the reasons for what they hold yet because whether they be so or no is a matter of which they are not competent Judges it lying out of their reach and belonging only to the Judgment of God who only is the searcher of hearts therefore whatever they may fear or suspect yet they should forbear either to pronounce or insinuate any such hard things against their Brethren by which they become Judges of evil thoughts Which if they do not they stir up strife and violate peace by causing unquietness and disorder in the Church and destroy Charity weaken yea wound the very Spirit of the Churches Communion which without doubt is Schism tho it should never proceed to actual separation This mingling of mens Passions and unchristian Censures and insinuations with their Arguments hinders the due operation of their Arguments upon their Antagonists minds tho they should have truth on their side For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God but hinders it Jam. 1.20 Whereas tho men do differ yet so long as they propose and reply one to another no otherwise than as supposing both sides to be only in the search of truth they may live lovingly and peaceably together and enjoy Edifying and comfortable Communion one with onother their difference in Judgment notwithstanding 3. There is a division and consequently a Schism in the Church of a higher nature than the former and that is when the persons that divide or cause division in the Church unnecessarily gather into a Party and do after a sort unite and combine themselves together the more publickly and avowedly to maintain and carry on the Cause they have espoused in opposition to their Brethren and industriously labour to increase their number as hoping thereby in time to be able to bring their opposites to submit to them and to give up their Cause Now if the thing or things they after this manner contend for should be unprofitable for the Church in case they should obtain or of so little use or benefit as that it could never reasonably be expected that it should countervail the hurt that is or will be done to the Church to the Communion of the Church to the Cause of Religion in the world and to the Souls of men in general by being obtained in such a way it would be a most grievous Schism thus to divide and imbroil the Church upon so mean an account A Division or Schism of this nature is termed Faction which is a siding or making of Parties in the Church And of this nature in some sort was the Schism in the Church of Corinth For their Divisions were factious Divisions for they proceeded to making of Parties Their Crime in this charged upon them by St. Paul is termed Divisions in our Bibles but the word is Faction in the Margin 1 Cor. 3.3 And part of the works of the flesh rendred Seditions in our Translation is Divisions or Factions in the Margin Gal. 5.20 This sort of Division which is accompanied with Faction or making of Parties is more than is found in some Divisions which yet are sinful Now when a Schism grows up to this height to a combined strength it is much worse than while it was acted only by a few apart and in a more private way and less taken notice of because then there is more of contempt in it and more are corrupted by it and the peace of the Community more disturbed and because usually by endeavours of increasing the Party much more evil is perpetrated by slanders naughty insinuations and suggestions against those they divide from and combine against than was found in the nature of the division at first or in the nature of the error on which the division first began This factious division is likewise aggravated further when it partakes of the nature of Sedition And we see in the fore-cited place Gal. 5. the same word signifies Division Faction and Sedition Now Sedition I conceive is a division accompanied with a combination of men against the Government either of Church or State under which the Providence of God hath set them It is their acting things contrary to that Government farther than the necessity of not sinning against God does oblige them to the disturbing of the publick peace thereby or it may be so perhaps by seeking to alter any thing amiss or inconvenient in the Government in an undue way that is by acting out of their sphere or the place or rank in which the providence of God hath set them their going beyond their bounds in it
our Saviour or his Apostles or any other holy men in the Primitive times of Christianity did ever decline the Publick Worship or the use of Gods Ordinances in such Assemblies where bad men as well as good had Communion in them Such a mixture of bad with good cannot hinder good men from any growth in Grace by those Ordinances if they have but a due care to make the best improvement of them they can And therefore there can be no need of separating and new associating in reference to mens own growth in Grace tho we should suppose it possible they could be sure it were simply lawful Which makes such separation on the one had and associating on the other the more inexcusable when it causes so much hurt to the Church in general and such obstruction to the success of the Gospel in the world as hath been shewn it does and would do more if it should more generally prevail The few names in the Church of Sardis did not defile their Garments by communicating with the greater number of those that had Nor did they thereby deprive themselves of the benefit which Christ designed them by his Ordinances either by having their minds discomposed by such a mixture of Communicants or otherwise For if they had we cannot think that our Saviour who walked in the midst of his golden Candlesticks searching the reins and the hearts to give to every one according to their works would have applauded them as he did with promise of great reward saying They shall walk with me in white for they are worthy Rev 3.4 And now for a Conclusion That no man may take offence at the Discourse in these Papers nor at me for the sake of it I must inform those that are most likely to do so of two things First That if I had discerned that what is herein pleaded had had no better foundation than some few obscure Texts of Scripture of dubious and uncertain Interpretation I should not thus far have engaged in it as I have done But if it shall appear to others as it does to me that I have the general stream of the Scriptures on my side herein both of the Old Testament and of the New both as to matter of Doctrine and matter of Fact I hope I shall be excused for making this Essay for the satisfaction of those that most need it Secondly That I take the scope and design of the whole of the Discourse in these Papers to be perfectly agreeable to Christian Charity as tending to no mans hurt but to the general good of all sorts else I should not have been satisfied in it For I know not how to think any thing Orthodox in Divinity which is against Charity Now if the extent of Visible Church-Membership and Communion pleaded for tends more to the Conversion of such of them as are unregenerate and not otherwise obnoxious to Excommunication than the excluding such from both would do then what I plead for is great Charity to them And this extent of Visible Church-Membership and Communion tends to propagate and spread the Christian Religion among those that are yet without the Church more than the narrower way can do as has been shewn and therefore its matter of Charity to them also And in that this more general way of Visible Church-Membership and Communion is not pleaded to the denying the usefulness of Excommunication in reference to Capital Offenders but the contrary that 's matter of Charity to them also Because by that they may be brought to shame and so unto Repentance when they see all sober Christians ashamed to own them or to be numbred with them as being a disgrace to the Religion they profess And I am so far from being less for the exercise of Church-Discipline upon the proper Objects of it than our Dissenting Friends are That I think it a piece of great uncharitableness towards gross Sinners when it is neglected by them to whom the exercise of it does belong Only I would have the Scripture Rules observed in the exercise of it and not use such severity as to exclude all such from Church-Communion as may be suspected to be unregenerate when yet not guilty of any Heresie scandalous Crimes or gross ignorance For men may give occasion of suspicion of their unregeneracy by such sinful neglects of doing good as yet may be no just ground of Excommunication Neither is this more extensive way of Visible Church-Membership and Communion hurtful to those that are good but gives them opportunity of doing the more good and therefore is no matter of uncharitableness unto them neither For this will not hinder them from being as good as they have a mind to be if nothing else do They may be as strict as they will in reference to themselves And they will not be at the less but the more liberty to converse with the best men for their own improvement in wisdom and goodness And then it will be beneficial to them by putting them into a capacity and giving them an opportunity of doing more good than otherwise they could For while good men do not separate themselves from formal Professors of the same Religion nor exclude them from Communion with them in the means of Grace they the better preserve their own esteem among them and the esteem of that wherein they excel them and they will be the more ready to hearken to them in their advice and counsel and in their admonition or reproof and the sooner be brought to imitate their Virtues Whereas a contrary carriage produces contrary effects For separation from Neighbours as no Members of a truly Christian Church when yet they are so breeds more or less estrangedness between them and that begets prejudices against them and jealousies and suspicions concerning them as men wanting in true Christian Charity and Humility which will make them the less valued and their good Counsels and Exhortations the less regarded and their good example in what is worthy imitation the less taking with and the less gaining upon such men A Discourse likewise which evinceth a more extensive Visible Church-Membership and Communion to be approved of by God than these Dissenting Brethren will allow must needs be matter of Charity to themselves more especially For it tends to rescue and deliver them from such error as makes them injurious to the Church of God and the affairs of the Gospel in the World And what good man is there that would not be glad to be delivered from such apprehensions as made him troublesom even to good men themselves without any cause And from such opinions as have kindled a fire of contention and discord in the Church destructive of that Christian Charity without which all we do in Religion will signifie nothing It is certainly a great grief to all good men that there should be any bar in the way to keep them at any undue distance from one another and consequently it must be very grateful to them when ever it is removed This more general way of Visible Church-Membership and Communion being then more useful and beneficial to all sorts of men than the other is and truly hurtful to none I say it being a way and Method so ful of Charity in the nature of it and so agreeable to Moral Principles of wisdom and goodness as it appears to be would commend it self to right reason and to that natural light that is in men if it should not have had that evidence from supernatural Revelation to back and authorize it which it has The consideration of which as it was a great motive to me to engage in the defence of it so I hope it will plead my excuse in every good mans Conscience for this undertaking For indeed I that do certainly know my own mind do know that I have more love and true respect for the Persons whose Opinions I have herein opposed than to wish or do any thing that tends to their hurt And now methinks I might reasonably promise this to my self that such as love Truth for truth sake and are of the number of those that will buy the truth but not sell it at any rate whatsoever should not be unwilling to lay aside all prejudice and self interest and to consider impartially a thing of this nature by what hand soever it be prepared and yet that is all that I desire from them for whose sakes this Discourse was composed THE END
inclination it s far enough from putting a man into a justified state And when ever the will is brought to comply with the assent and judgement of the mind in this great matter yet it is then ordinarily a work of time and the fruit of many thoughts and considerations for want of which tho' men do believe their Faith will languish and bring forth no fruit to perfection as we are taught in the Parable by the seed which did so for want of much Earth which answers to the want of many thoughts and considerations All these things consider'd then that since a Faith which hath not Regenerated those in whom it is falls short of a Justifying Faith and since Faith in its beginning and lowest pitch is ordinarily so weak and inoperative to effect so great a change as Regeneration signifies untill by many thoughts and considerations it has gathered some strength and since for it to do so is a work of time and since the Apostles from whose writings these things are collected baptised those upon their first believing or beginning to believe who had untill then lived in the darkness of Paganism I say these things considered make it very improbable that the Apostles Baptised none but upon supposition and probable presumption that they all had a justifying Faith before they Baptised them If any shall say it was upon a charitable perswasion in the Apostles that those whom they Baptised had such a Faith as by which they either were already regenerated and justified or would be in time that they Baptised them I shall not oppose them herein But the saying thus does suppose and grant that the Apostles did not account such a Faith as by which men were already before Baptism regenerate and justified necessary to qualifie them for Baptism if they had but such a Faith which gave them ground to hope that it might in time be improved so as to become a justifying Faith which concession is every whit as much as I plead for 2. It is not probable that the Apostles received none into the visible Church by Baptism but such as they esteemed to be of the Church as invisible by a Justifying Faith because they could not but know that many are really and truly of the visible Church and are so esteemed by God who yet are not of the Church as invisible by such a Faith That such are of the visible Church in the account of the Scriptures both of the Old Testament and of the New I have I suppose sufficiently proved in some of the following Enquiries And if this was and is the currant doctrine of the Scriptures of the Old Testament and of those written by the Apostles we cannot suppose them to be ignorant of it And if they were not it is not reasonable to suppose they would reckon more necessary to qualifie men for their enterance into the visible Church than was necessary to their being of it 3. The Apostles had Commission to Baptise Disciples and Believers without limitation or exception and those who had but the initial Faith which I before described are in Scripture said to have believed and to have been disciples as is shew'd in the following Papers and therefore the Apostles Commission to Baptise must needs extend to the Baptising of such And it is no ways likely that the Apostles would make exception in reference to the Baptising of persons where their Commission made none but that they Baptised all that were at all disciples as such without discrimination or making a difference between believers and believers or disciples and disciples in reference to their Baptising of such Nor does it all appear by any the least hint in Scripture that they did Indeed our Saviour in Commissionating his Apostles seems to make a difference between teaching men so as to make them disciples capable of Baptism and the teaching them afterwards how to live a truly Christian Life he seems to have directed them to bring them first to believe Christ to be the Son of God the Messiah the Saviour the great Prophet that brought to men the way of Salvation and to engage them to become disciples unto him and his Religion and to baptize them into it and then afterwards to instruct them in the particulars of their duty And this the double teaching mentioned in their Commission Mat. 28.19 20. seems to imply and their baptising men so suddenly and upon so little Teaching as they did does likewise infer I have also given same account in the Tenth Enquiry how agreeable it is to the Wisdom and Goodness of God towards men in several respects to admit such as have but common grace into the Church as visible and if it be so then they act cross to Gods gracious design who labour to keep them out of it Another mistake upon which Separation from parochial Communion is founded is an opinion that our blessed Saviour has been more particular then indeed he has in determining the external manner and circumstances of Gods publick worship For the promoters of Separation were wont heretofore to suggest to us from those words concerning Christ Heb. 3.2 That he was faithful to him that appointed him as Moses was faithful in all his House That Christ had given direction in particular about the worship of God and the orders to be observed in his House now under the Gospel as Moses had done under the Law And accordingly they often urged that care should be taken that all things be done according to the Pattern in the Mount By which many people became disaffected to the worship of God by the use of a Liturgy in as much as they could not find our Saviour to have given any precept or direction for the worshiping God in such a way or after such manner Whereas the faithfulness of Christ to him that had appointed him did not stand in being as particular as Moses was in his directions touching the worship of God and orders of his House but in doing and teaching so much and all that the Father had appointed him as Moses also had done And since we find that our Saviour has not been so particular in his directions touching these matters as Moses was we thereby know that the Father did not appoint him to be so because he was faithful in observing all that was appointed him Now that our Saviour has not been so particular in his directions touching the external manner of Gods worship as Moses was will quickly appear if we do but compare what was done by him in this kind and what was done by Moses Vnder the Law God did not only prescribe the matter and substance of his worship as the several sorts of Sacrifices and Oblations but also the particular circumstances relating to them as the place where the Sacrifice should be killed and on which side the Altar and how it should be dressed and about the Fire of the Altar and the orderly laying of the Wood upon it and how
whether in bringing their Children to be Baptized they do not intend thereby to dedicate them to the Father Son and Holy Ghost and to engage them as much as in them lies to be Gods faithful Servants and to believe and live according to the Doctrine and Precepts of our Lord Jesus Christ or somewhat to that effect And whether likewise such Answers from the Parents should not be expected as are most suitable to such demands And further it would be considered Whether Infants can be so well or so directly and properly obliged to God in Covenanting with him in Baptism by what Sponsors which are not their Parents then do to oblige them as they may by what their Parents themselves may do to that end And the reason of this proposal or question is this If the Childrens being obliged to do that when they come to Age which Parents obliged them to in their Baptism does depend upon their Parents properly in them and authority over them as is supposed it does from what has been formerly argued then they cannot be so properly obliged by what other Sponsors do in their behalf at their Baptism which have no such property in them or authority over them It is true indeed Parents are not wholly unconcerned in entering their Children into Covenant with God by Baptism when yet Sponsors act in the Parents stead For it is the Parents that cause their Children to be Baptized and what the Sponsors act is by the Parents procurement and upon these accounts it is interpretatively their act But yet Parents immediately and in their own persons acting the part of entering their Children into Covenant seems more proper and better to answer the nature of the things Sponsors may be more useful in case Parents of Children to be Baptized are dead as possibly it might be the case of some Children whose Parents were Martyr'd in the Primitive times from which perhaps that usage in the Church took its first rise There are other cases in which Sponsors or Pro-parents may be useful and necessary but hardly so as to exclude Parents from their proper work But I speak of these things with submission to those of better judgment and more authority having only offered them to consideration QUERY VII FOr what reason is Church-Membership said to be Invisible as well as Visible in some and yet but only as Visible in others And from whence does this difference arise This difference proceeds from the difference there is between Visible and Invisible Christianity and from the different Union between Christ the Head and his Members which is caused thereby By invisible Christianity I mean those inward acts and affections of soul by which men abhor that which is evil and cleave to that which is good which are wrought by a serious assent of the mind unto the truth of the doctrine and great motives of the Gospel by which they are convinced of the necessity of repentance and holy living in order to their escaping everlasting misery and becoming eternally happy By visible Christianity I mean external and visible acts of Religion in reference both to God and men such as is the profession of the God that made the World to be the only true God and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent to be his Son and the rest of the Articles of the Christian Faith and such other acts as consist in an external performance of the external acts of worship due to this God and Saviour and in acts of Justice and Charity towards men and in sobriety of behaviour in reference to a mans self Now by the internal and invisible Christianity forementioned in conjunction with that which is external the Covenant entred into in Baptism is so performed that by it a man is internally and invisibly united to Christ and consequently to all those who are invisibly one with him But visible Christianity alone is but an external performance of the Covenant entred into in Baptism and this amounts to no more than an external and visible Union with Christ and with his Church as visible By this much then we may understand wherein the difference between visible and invisible Church membership lies and from whence it doth arise Now that the internal Christianity which consists in an internal change in the faculties of the soul to wit in their apprehension inclination motions and operations in reference to their various objects of good and evil does produce or obtain an internal and invisible Union of men with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ will appear if we consider these things 1. This internal Renovation of soul contains in it an Union with God by adhesion for by it a man doth with his heart and soul and out of judgment and choice cleave unto the Lord which in the sence of Scripture is a being joyned to him He that is joyned or he that cleaveth unto the Lord is one spirit for it is rendred by both words 1 Cor. 6.17 And for a man firmly and resolvedly to adhere and stick to the Lord and to the interest of his honour and glory in the world in worshipping loving and obeying him and in placing his affiance in him as his only God and Saviour come what will which is his cleaving to him is such a moral Vnion with God as the nature of man is capable of 2. This internal Renovation worketh an invisible Union with God by a participation of the divine nature as the Apostle phraseth it 2 Pet. 1.4 By which participation men are morally united to God For they are thereby renewed to the Image of God in Knowledge Righteousness and Holiness and so are made one Spirit or one in spirit with Him according to that of the Apostle in 1 Cor. 6.17 He that is joyned to the Lord is one spirit or of one spirit For so far as such an one is partaker of the Divine nature by Renovation he judgeth of good and evil as God judgeth and loves and hates and designs the same things that he doth 3. By this Renovation of the Inner man men come to have the same Spirit of God and of Christ to reside and dwell in them by which their Vnion with the Father and the Son is compleated The holy Spirit first prepares them as living Temples or an Habitation for himself to dwell in by renewing them in a less degree and then comes and takes up his abode and dwells in them by affording them a more constant and more plentiful influence and assistance And the same Spirit dwelling both in Christ and in them the Vnion between them becomes more intimous and more entire Hereby we know that we dwell in him and he in us because he hath given us of his Spirit 1 John 4.13 As the Union of all the members of a natural body is not made so much by their contiguity or close joyning as by being all animated by one and the same spirit which is in all the parts so it is
Pray while unregenerate as not come to the Sacrament while they are so For they are required to do both the one and the other in a right manner as well as to do them at all But yet no judicious Man will say that all unregenerate Men ought to restrain Prayer before God or to be restrained from it For it is possible and to be hoped that their Praying may have that good effect upon them as to make them better And the same may be said of such mens coming to the Sacrament 3. Though the Scripture directs that by Church-Censure Men should be debarr'd from the Sacrament for open Acts of Scandal yet I know not where it directs to keep them from it for want of saving Grace so long as not guilty of such Scandal 2. Obj. It is again Objected that this Ordinance is appointed for the Confirmation of the Converted but not for the Conversion of the unconverted Answer I grant indeed that this Sacrament is not appointed for mens first Conversion to Christianity or for unbaptized Persons But yet it may be very useful together with other means to carry on the work of Conversion from common Grace to special And yet such is the Conversion generally which is wrought in such as are Educated in the Christian Religion The use of this Sacrament in conjunction with Christian Doctrine may very well contribute its share in carrying on this progressive change in Men by improving common Grace into special The Preaching of the Cross is to us who are saved the Power of God to Salvation saith St. Paul 1 Cor. 1.18 And Christ as Crucified is by the Lords Supper Preached to the seeing of the Eye as well as by Word and Doctrine he is Preached to the hearing of the Ear And the Eye affecteth the Heart as the Prophet speaks as well as the Ear And therefore the one may help on the work of Conversion from common Grace to special as well as the other And in all likelyhood it often does so as we have reason to think when we see Men who as may be seared have no more than common Grace upon occasion of their going to the Sacrament to become more serious both before and after than usually they are at other times And if such would but frequent it often it might well be hoped that it would work a great alteration in them by making them often more serious and considerate about the things of their Souls And indeed what is more likely to beget a love to our Blessed Saviour than such a lively representation of his wonderful love in dying for us as is made in the Celebration of that Sacrament 3. Obj. The giving this Sacrament to such as by a saving Faith are not in Covenant with God is but like setting a Seal unto a blank To which it is answered First That this Sacrament is not a Seal of Mans Faith but of Gods Covenant and the Seal that is set to that is not set to a Blank The Lords Supper is not a Seal to assure such as receive it that they have Faith but to assure them of Gods Faithfulness in his Covenant and to work in them a confidence in that Circumcision which was a Seal of the Covenant was not set to a blank when applyed to Children before they had Faith Secondly though this Sacrament be indeed a Seal of Gods Covenant directly yet it must be acknowledged that the end and design of its being so is to help Mens Faith in Gods Faithfulness and Goodness in reference to what he has promised in his Covenant But then though this be so yet the giving this Sacrament to such who have but common Faith cannot be said to be like setting a Seal to a blank because a common Faith such as unregenerate Men may have is more than no Faith at all and yet it is the having no Faith at all which can only answer to the setting a Seal to a blank in this case For a common Faith may be improved until it become special as I have shewed and upon that account this Sacrament being a Sacrament for Mens improvement in Faith and Love may as well belong to them who have but common Faith as to those whose Faith is special and saving And indeed what is more likely to make a Faith which is but dull and unactive as a common Faith is to become lively and vigorous than that which with great Advantage is to this end represented to the Mind in this Sacrament as I said before Thirdly I might add that the Covenant made in Baptism is Recognized and renewed in the use of the Lords Supper and this doubtless may be done by such as have but common Faith as well as by those who have that which is special and saving 4. Obj. The saying of St. Paul in 1 Cor. 11.28 Let a man examine himself and so let him eat of that Bread and drink of that Cup is alledged against mens being admitted or presuming to come to the Lords Supper who have not saving Grace though otherwise free from Scandalous Offences They suppose Saving Grace Repentance Faith and Love to be the Matter about which the Apostle would have Men to examine themselves as necessary to qualifie them for Lawful Communion in that Sacrament Now that for Men to examine themselves whether they have saving Grace or no is very necessary for their Preparation for coming to the Sacrament is granted because thereby they will the better come to know the state of their own Souls and what it is that hinders their assurance of having such Grace and the necessity of removing it and their need of such a Saviour as he is whose Love they are to commemorate in that Sacrament And God forbid that I should in the least encourage any to neglect the best Preparation they can make for so concerning a business as the approaching to the Table of the Lord is And except by examination they can find in themselves some knowledge and belief that Christ Jesus is the Saviour of Sinners by dying for them and of the Nature and End of this Sacrament in general I do not understand how they should receive any benefit by coming to it But to conclude from this saying of the Apostle that Men are to forbear coming to the Table of the Lord until by self-examination they can satisfie themselves that they have saving Grace I think to be more than ever the Apostle intended in those words For such satisfaction and assurance is hardly attainable while Christians are but weak and unexperienced though known to God to be sincere And for this cause it seems to be more than is fit to be imposed upon Men as a condition of their coming to the Lords Supper But by the reason which St. Paul gives in verse 29. why he would have Men to examine themselves before they eat of that Bread and drink of that Cup it appears that the thing in special and in particular concerning
be born who should arise and declare them to their Children Psal 78.5 6. Those Prophesies fore-mentioned concerning Nations being joyned to the Lord referring to times under the New Testament the event of them as we shall see will shew that they foretold Christian Nations their being joyned to the Lord Nationally or in the course of National Government And the nature of Events which answer to divine Predictions are I think the best and most approved Expositions of those Prophesies when they are fulfilled and the best measure which can be taken for the understanding of them Two things then would be enquired into touching the Events we speak of 1. What and which they are which we may reasonably pitch upon for those Events 2. How we may be assured from some Scriptures of the New Testament that those Events of Providence which we shall pitch upon are indeed of that sort and kind which the Prophesies we speak of point us to I. For the first of these we have very great reason to believe that those National Reformations from Paganism and Judaism and those National Reformations from Popery which have been made in the world since the Christian Religion was first set on foot and which shall yet farther be made are those very Events or the chiefest part of them which the Prophesies before specified point us to We cannot say that any Reformation of either kind has been National untill it has been back'd by National Authority It s true there have been great multitudes of men during the standing of the Roman Empire as Pagan that were recovered from Judaism and Paganism to Christianity and there were many famous Churches of such But I think no one Nation as such could be said to be joyned to the Lord in all that time tho out of many Kindreds Tongues and Nations there were many very many both men and women that were But Nations then became Nationally the Lords when the Christians in them were owned as such and required to behave themselves as such by the Supreme Authority and ruling powers of those Nations tho there might possibly be many in those Nations at the same time which yet did not so much as pretend themselves to be Christians 2. But let us inquire in the second place what assurance we have from any of the holy Writings of the New Testament that those National Reformations from Paganism and Popery that have been made in New Testament times and which shall further be made in other Nations are those Events of Providence which the Prophesies touching National conversions point at And to this end let us observe First That at what time the Supreme Power of the Roman Empire fell into Christian hands and was imployed for the destruction and rooting out Pagan Idolatry and for the setting up and establishing the Publick Worship of Almighty God and his Son Jesus Christ throughout its Dominions Then it was that this Kingdom or Dominion became Gods Kingdom in Scripture account For to this great turn of Affairs in the judgment of the most approved Interpreters of the Revelations does that joyful acclamations refer which we have set down in Chap. 12.10 Now is come Salvation and Strength and the Kingdom of our God and the Power of his Christ At which time also the great Dragon called the Devil and Satan was cast out and his Angels with him ver 9. that is those Rulers supreme and subordinate who had till then done his work in promoting the Interest of the Kingdom of darkness by supporting Idolatry and persecuting Christians as it was said The Devil shall cast some of you into prison Rev. 2.10 But was not Gods Kingdom come into the Empire till now that the Government was made Christian by the Emperour being a Christian Were there not many great and famous Christian Churches within the Empire while the Government of it was Pagan in respect of Worship Why yes there was Why then was not the Kingdom of God and the Power of his Christ said to be come till the Government in the hands of Constantine the Emperour became Christian Why should this Song Now is come salvation and strength and the Kingdom of our God and the power of his Christ be applied to this great turn of Affairs in the Empire rather than to that when the Preaching of the Gospel was first set on foot in it and many Christian Congregations erected There can no other reason hereof be given I conceive but that all the while the Government of the Empire in reference to Religion was engaged for the upholding of the Visible Kingdom of the Devil so far and in this respect it might be said to be his Kingdom to be sure it could not be said to be Gods so far as it was imployed against him But when the Government of it became Christian and engaged it self in throwing down the Kingdom of darkness the Worship of false Gods and in setting up and establishing the Publick Worship of the true God and the Christian Religion then and from that time in this Scripture account that Kingdom or Empire became the Kingdom of God and of his Christ tho many of the Inhabitants of it continued still for a time at least Idolaters as to their profession and private practice So that when and so long as the Government of the Empire in its constitution in reference to Religion continued idolatrous so long the Empire it self was not owned for Gods Kingdom tho there were many Christian Churches in it but when once the Government of it became Christian it was then owned for Gods Kingdom tho many of the Inhabitants of it were no Christians From whence it follows may naturally be inferred that in Scripture Notion Kingdoms are said to be Gods Kingdoms upon the account of a National Reformation from Idolatry and false worship when ever it is made by the publick Government and authority of such Nations But now after this Reformation from Paganism by the Imperial Authority and Power in process of time therecame a falling away in the Empire from the purity of Christian Worship unto a Worship of a mixt nature made up partly of a Worship given to the true God and partly of a Worship given unto Creatures which is due only unto God which was done by the prevailing of the Papal Apostacy And the ten Kings mentioned Rev. 17. into whose hands the Empire became divided gave their power and strength unto the Beast for the support of this impure Worship and Pagan-like Superstition But after this had been done and continued in for several hundreds of years several of those Kingdoms and Principalities which had before given their power and strength unto the Beast fell off and reassumed that power and strength and then devoted it to the service of God in reforming their Dominions from Popery and in restoring the Publick Worship of God throughout their Dominions without any Idolatrous mixture Upon which great turn of Affairs those great
voices in heaven followed saying The Kingdoms of this world are become the Kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ Rev. 11.15 For this joyful acclamation is here brought in upon occasion of the Resurrection and Exaltation of the Witnesses in this Chapter spoken of and of the fall of a tenth part of the City spiritually called Sodom and Egypt By which we understand that the fall of part of the Papal Power and Jurisdiction and the rise and exaltation of the Witnesses were contemporary and that this great alteration and change in several Nations made those Nations which were but Kingdoms of this world before to become the Kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ Now there are these two reasons to induce us to believe that this Resurrection of the Witnesses and the fall of a tenth part of the City refer unto the great Reformation from Popery which was made many years since in several Kingdoms and Principalities in Christendom and consequently that the acclamation aforesaid the Kingdoms of this world are become the Kingdoms of the Lord and of his Christ refer unto the same time and thing 1. Because we have no where so great so notable and remarkable an alteration as that Reformation made in Christendom foretold and particularly pointed at in this Book of Prophesies if it were not in this And yet it seems incredible that so great and famous an alteration of Affairs in the Popish State and in the condition of the Church as that Reformation made should not in special be pointed at somewhere in this Book of Prophesies This reason the Reverend Dr. More hath surnished me with in his Appendage annexed to his Exposition of Daniels Prophesies p. 291. With whose Exposition of what I here alledge out of Rev. 11. I am abundantly satisfied as I find it in the foresaid Appendage and in his Book entituled The Revelation of St. John unveiled 2. The matters which sell out and were transacted in and by that Reformaton did exactly answer to that which was foretold by that Prophesie touching the Resurrection of the Witnesses and the fall of the Popish power and interest in a considerable part of the Popes Jurisdiction For then there was a Political Resurrection of that sort of men who had been Politically slain and a long time dead for crying down Popery And this was done when such were put into publick imployment in all Reformed Nations And at the same time on the other hand there was a Political slaughter of thousands of men when all those that had been in Office and holy Orders in their Church were put down in all those Nations that then became reformed And this reason methinks should convince any unprejudiced man that our first happy National Reformation from Popery in several Nations was the fulfilling of that Prophesie touching the Resurrection of the Witnesses we speak And if it were then I cannot see how any can deny but that those voices in heaven which presently followed thereupon did declare that those Nations which while Popish were but Kingdoms of this World yet by their National reformation from Popery they became the Kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ But if the Prophesie concerning the Resurrection of the Witnesses should refer unto another time and turn and not to that of the first National Reformation from Popery yet that saying The Kingdoms of this world are become the Kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ upon the occasion there foregoing will no less serve to prove that Nations by their National Reformation from Popery became the Kingdoms of God than it would in case that Prophesie had referred unto the first National Reformation from Popery For the Resurrection of the Witnesses the Earthquake the fall of a tenth part of the City and Political slaughter of seven thousand of names of men must needs import a great alteration of Affairs and National Reformation wheresoever and whensoever they fall out be it sooner or later because upon it we see some of those Nations which were but Kingdoms of the world before do then become the Kingdoms of God And if Nations of the world indefinitely become the Kingdoms of God by being reformed from Popery or Paganism so as to make the right Christian Doctrine and Worship the Religion of those Nations by National Authority then the same is true of all Nations which are so reformed at any time and consequently of those which led the way and have been first in such Reformation And thus our proof appears every way pregnant To conclude this matter then when we find that in all times and places in point of fact that as fast as the Sovereign and Supreme Power in each Nation has fallen into Orthodox Christian hands so fast those Nations have become reformed from Paganism or Popery by the Governing Power of those Nations And when we find again that by such Reformations those Nations have become Gods Kingdoms as contradistinguished from the Kingdoms of this world great reason we have to believe these to be the very and true Events and the fulfilling of such ancient Predictions of the Prophets as those which foretold that many Nations should be joyned to the Lord and be his People It is true it was a great while after Christianity began before it became National by National Authority as it was long after Abraham and his Posterity became the People of God by the Covenant of Circumcision before they and their Religion became National And as the one was in bondage four hundred years under the Egyptian Tyranny so were the Christians three hundred years under the Tyranny of the Pagan Roman Emperours before they and their Religion became National by National Authothority But as the Christian Religion and Worship as reformed has since the Reformation been carried on principally in a National way so I doubt not but that it will be carried on farther and more Nations come to be reformed from Popery Infidelity and Paganism until at last that ancient Prophesie of the Angel by Daniel comes to be fulfilled which tells us That the Kingdom and Dominion and the greatness of the Kingdom under the whole heaven shall be given to the people of the Saints of the most High whose Kingdom is an everlasting Kingdom and all Dominions or Rulers as it is in the Margin shall serve and obey him Dan. 7.27 And that also in Psal 72 11. All Kings shall fall down before him all Nations shall serve him And now from what hath been represented to us in the foresaid Prophesie of St. John Rev. 11. we may briefly observe these two or three things 1. That notwithstanding any lesser defects in Doctrine Worship or Government Ecclesiastical in any of the National Reformations from Popery which have been made yet after and because such Reformation has been made those Nations are in Scripture account esteemed the Kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ as opposed to the Kingdoms of this world Which seems to