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
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
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
know any third sense pretended to among Interpreters But indeed there is danger in both respects and therefore I know no inconvenience if we understand the Parable in reference to both Now it is not hard to conceive how bad a thing it would be if such as have true grace should be refused admittance into the Visible Church or to its Communion only because it is so little that men cannot discern it to be so For such a discouragement may be enough to set them back again to quench the smoaking flax and to expose them to the loss of that very little grace in its beginning which they have A thing point blank against that admonition and caution of our Saviour Mat. 18.10 Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones QUERY XI WHat is it that makes the difference between the Vniversal Church as Visible and particular Churches And what makes the difference between one particular Church and another The Query being double I shall answer to that first which is first and do say the Universal Church differs from a particular Church in two respects 1. The Universal Church differs from a particular as the whole differs from a part and a particular Church differs from the Universal as a part differs from the whole For otherwise they are materially the same only with this difference the one contains all Visible Church matter and the other but a part of it There is nothing necessary to qualifie the matter of which a particular Church doth consist than what made all the Members of it Members of the Universal Church unless it be what belongs to the Officers of it as such 2. If by a particular Church we understand one single Congregation then a particular Church differs from the Universal as those of which it does consist do assemble together in one place for Publick Worship which the Universal Church cannot do now tho in the beginning of its existence possibly it might But if by a particular Church we understand so many single worshipping Congregations as are united under one and the same Church Government and Governours in a City Province or Kingdom Then a particular Church in this sense is differenced from the Church Universal by this Ecclesiastical Polity under which it is otherwise united than the Universal Church as such is or can be And such a particular Church we suppose the Church in Jerusalem in Corinth and in other great Cities to have been the Scripture so accounting them when yet each of them consisted of more single worshipping Assemblies than one as may well be presumed on several accounts not here to be mentioned There is another thing which the Congregationalists make essential to the being of a particular Church for they make it the Form or formal cause of it which would be another difference between the Universal Church and a particular if their Opinion and Assertion were admitted concerning it and that is that Church Covenant or mutual engagement to walk together in the way and order of the Gospel And by this each one of their single Congregations distinguisheth it self from all other And they account this so necessary as to make it a condition of Communion without which they will not admit persons otherwise well approved of by themselves to Sacramental Communion that is unless they are under this engagement to them or some other Sister Church of the same kind But this is so much the worse because it is done and required under the Notion of Divine appointment when God has appointed no such thing Which is such a piece of superstition as the enjoyning the use of the Ceremonies of the Church of England is free from so long as they are not enjoyned as things of divine appointment but only as of an indifferent nature and therefore there is no such reason to scruple them as there is to scruple this practice upon those terms There are two Texts of Scripture upon which more especially and principally they ground this opinion and practice of theirs which I shall a little enquire into The one is 2 Cor. 8.5 which Dr. O. to this end quotes more than once in his late Book the words are these And this they did not as we hoped but first gave their own selves to the Lord and unto us by the will of God The Vs here in the Text are St. Paul and Timotheus from whom this Epistle came Chap. 1.1 And if so how could the Churches of Macedonia's giving themselves to St. Paul and Timothy possibly signifie their mutual Covenanting one with another among themselves And is it not as strange also that they should give themselves to Paul and Timothy in order to the Constituting themselves Churches when as that giving themselves to Paul and Timothy here spoken of was done then when they were already Churches as the whole Context from ver 1. doth shew And if their giving themselves to Paul and Timothy was one of those things which they did more than Paul and Timothy hoped for then such a confederation is not likely to be meant by it as was essentially necessary to their existence as Churches this certainly would not have been more than they hoped for if it had been their duty and of so great a necessity This is enough to shew how impertinently this Scripture is alledged But the whole Context shews that the things St. Paul here speaks of were quite of another nature and that is the liberality of the Churches of Macedonia towards the relief of the Christians of Jerusalem and their zeal in being otherwise serviceable to so good a work wherein they did indeed exceed the expectation of Paul and Timothy For their Poverty to which they were brought by sustering for the Gospel was so deep that St. Paul it seems scarce thought it fit to receive any thing of them and it was upon their earnest intreaty that he did and yet they did not only thus give above their ability but besides their giving up themselves to God as ready to suffer further for him if called to it they gave up themselves to St. Paul Timothy also to assist them in that charitable work they had in hand by their further endeavours to promote it among others For they intreated Paul and Timothy earnestly to take upon them the fellowship of ministring to the Saints the managing of that affair and procured them to send Titus to Corinth to promote the same business as appears by ver 6. This Scripture though so great a stranger to this opinion as you see yet is that which so far as ever I could perceive is chiefly depended upon in this cause They bring in also as favouring their notion and practice the saying of St. Peter to the Christians ye also as lively stones are built up a spiritual house an holy Priesthood c. 1 Pet. 2.5 And they do it seems suppose that these living stones being so laid together as to to make a spiritual
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
Church and those of the world All under this Character and Badge and none but they were of the Visible Church and therefore it must needs be the Constitutive form of that Relation Visible Church-membership All that have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ and are visibly Christians and of Christs Church How ancient and how long before Christs appearance in the world in our nature this way of constituting Visible Church-members has been by such a Rite as God appointed I have shewed before And if this visible Covenanting with God by Baptism be that by which persons become Members of the Visible Church then a probable appearance of Regeneration or a reputation of being of the Church as invisible cannot be it that makes them visible Church Members tho it does qualifie them for it unless this probable appearance of Regeneration and Covenanting with God by Baptism be one and the same thing And if they be then those of which our Parish Churches are constituted have a probable appearance of Regeneration or of being of the Invisible Church and then they are constituted of matter according to those Dissenters own mind And if so then we may well hope they will no longer separate from them as if they were not Constitututed of qualified matter So that things are brought at last to this issue That these Dissenters must either overthrow this Plea against the reason and ground of their Separation and prove that visible Covenanting with God by Baptism is not that by which Visible Church-membership is made or else it will certainly overthrow this Plea of theirs for their Separation And if they will so much as attempt to overthrow this Plea against them they must row all the way against the stream and strong tide of the Scriptures and against the stream of Antiquity and the sense of the ancient Church from the Apostles times downwards who always esteemed Baptism the door of entrance into the Visible Church and consequently that all such as had pass'd through Baptism were within the Church And as it is more agreable to Scripture so it is much more reasonable to say that men cannot seem to be of the Church as Invisible without being first of the Church as Visible than it is to say their being of the Church as Visible proceeds from their seeming to be of the Church as Invisible For as touching mens enterance into the Church by Baptism our Saviour hath said Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God Joh. 3.5 And Baptism is injoyned in order to the obtaining Remission of sin and Salvation which are Priviledges of the Church as Invisible Acts 2.38 and 22.16 Mar. 16.16 So that according to these Scriptures mens being and seeming to be of the Church as Invisible and their sharing in the Priviledges of it seems ordinarily to depend upon their being of the Visible Church by Baptism Now one would think a Notion so preposterous as this opposed appears to be should be very unfit to make a foundation to build Churches upon or to justifie a separation from those which have a substantial foundation the Scriptures I mean But if mens seeming in the apprehension of others to be of the Church as Invisible did not depend upon their being of the Church Visible yet such seeming could be no proper or fit Rule by which to judg determine and conclude who are and who are not of the Visible Church And the reason is because it is Arbitrarious and uncertain for mens being or not being acknowledged to be of the Visible Church would depend upon the uncertainty of mens opinions and affections and those would seem in some mens apprehensions to be of the Church Invisible which to others would seem otherwise And then those would be owned by some to be of the Visible Church which would be denied to be so by others Of the truth of all which this present Age hath furnished us with plentiful experience And if this should be the Rule observed through the whole Christian world it would be the ready way to make Parties and Sidings unchristian oppositions and uncharitable censurings among Christians in all parts of the world as it has done here in this Nation Whereas to be visibly in Covenant with God by Baptism is a certain fixed a common open and publick Rule by which to judg who are of the Visible Church so long as they continue to own themselves under the obligation of that Covenant and have neither so far violated it as to give Divine Worship to other Objects than their God nor incurr'd to themselves Excommunication by Heresie or other scandalous living And this Rule gives no occasion of division in the Church as the other does but tends to bind and hold the several Members together in the unity of the Spirit and bond of peace To which purpose St. Paul urgeth it upon the Christians motive-wise Eph. 4. All these things considered one would wonder how men of Learning and Piety should ever be betrayed into such Notions and Principles and to lay so mighty a stress on them as they have done when yet they have no more colour from Scripture or reason than ever yet they have been able to produce for their defence But to make the best of it I can we will suppose it was the appearance of a more thorow Reformation and more pure Communion which in their apprehension was to be obtained by these new Methods that first drew them into this way Reformation and pure Communion are things which sound mighty well in good mens ears and which they can easily believe to be well pleasing unto God And as there is an appearance of greater strictness in that way than in that of more general Communion so it was easie for them hereupon to think there was more purity in it also which has been the prevailing reason which has carried multitudes into Quakerism And when such an opinion has once seated it self in mens minds they quickly grow confident that nothing in Scripture can be against it and then they can easily fancy that every slight appearance and sound of words in Scripture is for them upon which they can but put such a gloss as shall favour them though it be nothing to their purpose when impartially scann'd And had their opinions and practice which I have opposed and wherein they differ from all other good men been matter of purity indeed I should not have made One to find fault with them But if this their Way be disagreeable to Gods pure Word which is the Rule by which we must judg of what is pure and what is impure and if it run counter to our Lords Method laid down in the Scripture of ordering the affairs of his Church in very material points then it will be found an impure practice a sinful mixture and a corruption to be purged out of the Church And yet such it is if I have not