purity faith rather than enjoy the pompe and glory of the world by waxing wanton against Christ Hence note The true Church is not alwayes conspicuous visible and glorious to the world but may be hid obscured and oppressed So was the Church of God in Aegypt thrust out into the wildernesse than which no place is more solitary none more free from the pompe and glory of the world What glory and visibility had the Church in Elias time when hee complained that hee was left alone his life was sought so that hee was faine to flie into the wildernesse to save his life yet were there seven thousand that bowed not their knee to Baal What glory and visibility had the true Church in the Babylonish captivity being compared to dead bones dryed and scattered in the open field Ezek. 37. 2 What visibility had it in the death of Christ when the shepheard being smitten the sheepe were scattered or after his ascention when all the earth worshipped the Beast Rev. 13. 12 Because the Church is a selected company called out of the world a little flocke Iohn 15. 9 as a Parke of God paled in from the waste of the world hortus conclusus Cant. 4. 12. the Garden and Paradise of God wherein wilde beasts may not enter Now God hath put such a distance and enmity betweene them as that the blinde world neither can nor will abide to see her but to chase her out from her how can the world see her that is called out of the world The true Church is such a body as is not alwayes visible to mans eye suppose good men even Elias himselfe for it is Gods onely priviledge to know who are his the foundation being in Gods election and the union spirituall The Churches desert and merit abusing peace and prosperity driveth her here into the wildernesse maketh the Lord strip her naked and set her as in the day she was borne and not onely sendeth her into the wildernesse but maketh her as a wildernesse and leaveth her as a drie land as Hosea 2. 3. The Churches safety as Elias to bee safe was sent into the wildernesse so here the Church provideth for her safety in evill times by flying into the wildernesse Hence is showne hatred to the Dove of Christ dwelling in the Rocke Cant. 2. 19. that is as the Doves by the Kites or Hawkes are chased into the Clifts and Rockes to hide them so the Dove of Christ. The militant condition of the Church in the world suffereth her not alwayes to bee conspicuous and visible neither is shee tyed to any one estate or any one place Not to one estate being compared to the Moone which is sometimes in full sometimes in waine sometimes shining and sometimes hid and not seene and to the Arke tossed with waves and billowes sometimes aloft and presently downe againe in the deepes and to the ship in which Christ was a sleepe so ready to sinke as the Disciples crie Lord save us and this is the continuall estate of the Church in the troublesome sea of this world The Mirtle trees in the bottome Zach. 1. 8. Neither to any certaine place whether Rome or Antioch or Hierusalem but forced oft-times to change her seate as well as her state and tossed hither and thither as 1 Cor. 4. 11. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 wee have no dwelling place Heb. 11. Hence are the Papists confuted who 1. Affirme the Catholike Church to be a visible company of men under one visible head for what visible head hath the Church in the wildernesse 2 Denying that ever their Church fled into the wildernesse or that ever she disappeared from the world wherein they plainly deny her to be the true Church and this no other who fled into the wildernesse and if their doctrine bee true that the Church must ever bee as a City on a hill the spirit must bee false and the Scriptures which affirme shee must flie into the wildernesse from the fury of Antichrist The Papists object many things against our doctrine but how impertinently and vainely will appeare if we set downe the right state of the question betweene us both in their tenents and in ours 1. They say that the Catholike Church which hath alwayes continued hath beene alwayes visible now would I to beate out their meaning aske what is the triumphant Church in heaven visible or by what glasse or spectacle can they see that glorious company of Prophets Apostles Patriarkes Martyrs and Saints which is the chiefe part of the Catholike Church as Heb. 12. 23. Or is their Church in purgatory visible when two chiefe parts of it by their doctrine are invisible and the other part in earth but a handfull to them Well then they must meane the militant Catholike Church which is a speech absurd enough for as one halfe can never be the whole so cannot the militant Church be Catholike no more than a finger can be a hand or a hand the body or perhaps they would have us beleeve two Catholike Churches whereas our Creed teacheth us to beleeve but one But we will take their meaning namely that God hath alway a Church consisting of a great multitude as conspicuous to the world as any earthly kingdom part whereof and alwayes the head shall bee visible at Rome and the rest visibly subject to the Bishop of Rome Now what we hold concerning the point I will propound in sundry conclusions and then examine some of their chiefe arguments By the Church which wee hold invisible wee meane the Church mentioned in the Creed which is but one and Catholike even the multitude of all elect which are or were or ever shall be and to this company all they and onely they whether they be in the way or in the Countrey doe belong For we beleeve according to our Creed that the Church is holy and no wicked person belongeth unto it and that it is a communion of Saints onely to which belongeth remission of sinnes and life everlasting and we cannot but wonder that Papists who mumble up so many Creeds should so fondly hold that the Catholike Church should consist of good bad for are the wicked the body of Christ as they say the Church is or is not Christ the Saviour of his body If wicked and reprobates are the body of Christ why then are they not saved This Catholike Church we say is invisible to the world for 1. Gods election the ground and foundation of it is invisible 2. The greatest part of elect are not subject to sense not the Saints in heaven neither many true beleevers on earth nor numbers of the elect not yet borne or borne againe 3. Visible things are not beleeved but invisible faith is of things not seene and if wee beleeve the holy Catholike Church we cannot see it Now every Popish argument must either prove this to bee visible which none of them doe or they touch not us
or our cause Concerning the militant Church what wee hold will plainly appeare in these Conclusions 1. That God will alwayes have a true part of his Catholike Church in the earth that shall hold and constantly maintaine the true faith in their severall ages to the end of the world and that the true Church cannot faile upon earth 2. That this part of the Catholike Church cōsisteth of men which are visible exercise visible ordinances of word Sacraments government c. and often in times of peace appeareth glorious in many particular and visible congregations for we never deny that particular Churches are often visible 3. That these visible particular Churches are not alwayes visible after the same manner neither is any part of the visible Church alwayes so necessarily visible but it may be discontinued and disappeare as all the visible Churches in the old and new Testament ever have done 4. This number of men in whom this part of the Church consisteth may come to be a few and by tyranny or heresie their profession may bee so secret amongst themselves that the world shall not see them neither can any man point to any particular Church and yet the Church is not destroyed for as the Sunne is a shining Sunne in it selfe though in the night we see it not nor in the day a blinde man cannot discerne it so the Church wanteth not her shining glory in her selfe though in the night wee see is not nor in the day a blinde man cannot discerne it the Church wanteth not her shining glory though the blinde world especially in the night of persecution cannot discerne it 5. Although the Church cannot faile upō earth yet the external governmēt of it may faile for a time the Pastors may be interrupted the sheepe may bee scattered the discipline hindered the externall exercise of religion suspended and the sincerity of religion exceedingly corrupted so as the members of the Church are onely visible to the true members within themselves By which conclusions we shall easily meete with the subtilty and vanity of all their reasons which ordinarily conclude from the externall forme to the failing of it selfe in the being and from the invisibility to the blind world to the invisibility amongst themselves as if they would conclude A man is hid therefore he is no man or A blinde man cannot see therefore no other man also or because hee that is without dores cannot see what I doe within therefore neither hee that is within with me Having thus bounded and laid the question let us see how they bend the force of their arguments Ob. 1. The body of Christ is visible but the Church is the body of Christ 1 Cor. 12. 27. Ye are the body of Christ speaking to men visible Ans. 1. They might tell us what they meane by the body of Christ the Scriptures make mention of a threefold and never a one visible to humane sense 1. His naturall body that is invisible in the heavens 2. His Sacramentall body that is invisible in the Sacrament 3. His mysticall body and that is spirituall and no object of sense II. They might alleage the Scriptures sincerely and not as they use deceitfully to suppresse the words of the Text which would fully answer their arguments the words of the Textare Yee are the body of Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for your part which words suppressed by them sheweth us 1. That hee speaketh of a particular Church which then was visible but this is farre from proving the Catholike so to be which is the question 2. That both parts of their reason be false the former because it is not generall for the whole body of Christ is not visible and the later because the Corinthians were not the whole body of Christ for the Apostle saith they were both part of it Object But the Apostle writeth to visible men Sol. 1. From a particular to a generall the reason cannot hold because I see some men by me therefore I can see all men that ever were or shall bee or because I can see a particular congregation at Corinth I can see the Catholike Church in heaven and earth borne and unborne in the way in the countrey Such fond reasons may bee plausible to Romish blinded and hooded sots but as the Sunne maketh mists to vanish so the light of the Gospell doth these mists and fogges of subtilty and deceit 2. They might remember that the Church is a society of men not as men for so a number of Turks might be the body of Christ or a nest of Arians but as beleevers therfore the Church as the Church cannot be seene but beleeved which force of words hath made Bellarmine himselfe to confesse whose words are Videmus enim coetum hominum qui est Ecclesia sed quod ille coetus sit vera Christi Ecclesia non videmus sed credimus and what say wee more or lesse 3. They seeme either not to know or to dissemble the reason why the Church is called visible which is not because the men are visible but because of the external visible forme which being interrupted the visibility is gone though the persons not seene to the world they remaine seene amongst themselves 4. How absurd is it to define a Church by our senses and measure them by flesh and bones this is as one saith Chirurgum agere non Theologum hee that doth so would make a better Surgeon than Divine but these muzes cannot long hide them Hence then I conclude this first objection from their owne premisses thus If the Church be the body of Christ then it is not visible because it is not his naturall body for Christ had not two naturall bodies but his mysticall then invisible this being the true difference betweene a mysticall and a physicall body the one is subject to sense the other the object not of sense but of faith Object II. But the Pastors and Doctors the Sacraments the preaching of the Word the building of the Church are visible ergo the Church is visible Sol. 1. All this concludeth but particular congregations to bee visible which wee deny not but no reason can conclude hence the visibility of the Catholike Church and then it is too short to reach our cause and controversie 2. Consider the visible Church two wayes First according to her external matter and forme and thus consisting of men met together to performe externall Ecclesiasticall actions so farre I say a particular Church is visible Secondly according to her inward forme and so farre as they be of the Catholike Church by effectuall vocation faith righteousnesse and holinesse thus are the same members invisible for though wee see the men professing the faith yet who knoweth which or whether of them professe in soundnesse or in hypocrisie 3. Although a Church be now visible in eminent Pastors in numerous professors and in their glorious fruition of Christ and his ordinances yet no Church in the
we may and must cut off the vizards of envious obtrectors and slaunderers if not for our persons yet for the truth Thirdly impudent accusers abuse the patience and modesty of good men and by their silence make thēselves more audacious to slaunder Fourthly a good man may be as bold in defence of innocency and goodnesse as they are impudent in disgracing them Samuel did not boast or preach himselfe when rejected by the people he asked Whose Oxe or Asse have I taken Our Saviour Christ many times askes Which of you can accuse me of sinne If Papists or Atheists make it the discourses of their table and sawce of their meats to belye and slander Preachers of the Gospell a Preacher may as I doe this day challenge all Papists scoffers enemies of the truth which I preach c. if the Roman law were in force which Eusebius and Nicephorus speake of that hee that had falsly accused his brother and not able to prove it should have both his legs broken what a number of criples should we have I wish them better that God would breake their hearts with godly sorrow and breake their malice rather then their limbes that embracing the truth they may acknowledge the bringers of it The accuser is cast downe The second part of these words is The dejection of the dragon He was cast downe not utterly expulsed or destroyed for he will ever stand up as an accuser before Gods tribunall and mens but he falleth in his accusation and is cast in his cause Quest. Wherein standeth this dejection of the dragon Answ. In two things 1 In regard of Gods tribunall he is foyled because Christ is risen for the justification of Beleevers and is ascended into heaven to cleare all accusations and now reigneth triumpheth over all enemies whom he hath made his footstoole 2 In regard of mans tribunall at this time which our text aymeth at the heathenish power which had long oppressed the Church being subdued and Christian religion stablished by Christian Princes those horrible accusations by which the poore Christians were daily brought to death by hundreds and thousands were stayed and in great part cut off and the Christians were cleared and acquitted from those hatefull and impudent accusations layd against them And now the innocency both of their persons and profession appeareth 1 The holinesse innocency peaceablenesse and godlinesse of their persons began more and more to breake out the booke of their Adversaries false suggestions was as an honourable crowne upon their heads now God gives them favour and honour in the sight of their Adversaries 2 That which is more now the profession and religion of God and his Sonne Jesus Christ as odious as it was formerly made by hellish blasphemies begins to be received advanced spred abroad and lifteth up the head above all heathenish and idolatrous religions in a word grace and glory comes unto it in stead of former infamous imputations cast upon it This is the casting downe of the Accuser Note hence that there is a time when the accusers of Gods people shal be cast downe and put to silence Though Ioseph a long time lie in the place of the Kings prisoners his mistris is impudent in accusing his master credulous in beleeving cruell in putting his feet in the stockes and laying irons on him and himselfe hopelesse of favour or deliverance yet the Lords time came when he came out of prison with honour and much more grace then all his disgrace came unto Mordecai and his people may be accused condemned a day of execution appointed no hope nor helpe appeares but ere that day commeth the Lord brings forth his innocency Haman his accuser must honour him and proclayme him the second man in the kingdome and quickly after hansell his owne gallowes There was a time when the den and furnace were thought too good for Daniel and his fellows so grievous are the aceusations and so haynous their facts but soone after they are raysed to honour and high advancemet and their accusers cast into their roume There was a sad and heavie time in which the poore Christians bare the burden of tenne bloody tyrants and monsters their names blacked their goods spoyled their blood shed as water but afterward a Constantine came who acquitted them honoured them cherished and protected them 1 This must needs be in respect of God in whom if we consider foure things wee shall see it cannot be otherwise First his knowledge and cleare discerning of the innocency of his servants Now their righteousnesse and innocency is denied and derided enemies would bury it in the grave of everlasting oblivion and take deepe counsells to roll great stones of infamy and reproach upon it that it cannot rise in the after-ages of the world But all things are naked to him with whom we have to deale who preserves the bones of innocency and will rayse it out of the ashes and bring it into a cleare and glorious light See Luke 12. 2. Secondly his justice The righteous judge of all the world cannot alwayes hold his peace at wrong nor alwaies suffer justice to be turned into wormewood nor truth to be alwayes covered with sackecloth and ignominy He must shew himselfe a patron of truth and a revenger of wrong Be it farre from him the doing of this thing that the righteous should be even as the wicked that be farre from him shall not the judge of all the world doe right Gen. 18. 25. Thirdly his promise in Psal. 37. 6. Commit thy way to the Lord and he will bring forth thy righteousnesse as the light and thy judgment as at noone-day implying that righteousnesse may be hid with darknesse and covered with the blacke night of impudent slaunders but yet after darknesse it shall see light the longest and darkest night that ever was saw a morning and the sunne rose and chased away darknesse and mists and revealed all that was hid in darknesse And so God promiseth it shall be to all his disgraced Saints Doth he promise and doth he not meane to performe is he not able is he not willing to accomplish is not he truth are not his promises so both from truth and for truth and those that are of the truth Fourthly his affection to innocency The righteous Lord loveth righteousnesse What a man loveth he will maintaine much more the Lord though he tarry long yet at last will step forth and plead for truth and will not suffer it alwayes to bee smothered with smoake and mists of lyes and falshood 2 It shall so be in respect of Jesus Christ to whom the Saints must be conformed and by whom they are confirmed and upheld First as the Saints are conformed to Christ in his crosse so in his crowne as in his combate so in his victory And therefore as the Head was accused accursed crucified buried and a great stone rolled upon him and a sure watch about him and all
the world and therefore out of his implacable fury he turnes him to another device utterly to extirpate and root all the letters and characters of her honourable name and carry her quite away off the earth as with a mighty flood and current Where are three things 1. What are these floods of filthy waters which this huge Monster casteth after the woman 2. The spring whence they rise and slow out of his mouth 3. The issue and scope of them that she might be carryed away of the flood For the first By floods of water are meant in Scripture extreme perils and deepe dangers and trials whether inflicted by God or men or Satan Sometimes they are inflicted by God Psalm 42. 7. All thy floods and waves are gone over me Sometimes by men stirring up raging tumults against the Church when mighty enemies Princes and people rise in their power fury and unresistablenesse like a flood Esa. 59. 19. The enemy shall come like a flood Sometimes by the dragon himselfe as here the serpent casts out a flood after the woman Quest. Why are these great tryals compared to floods of waters Ans. 1. For the danger threatning destruction to the Church as the floods of water doe drowning 2. For abundance As many waters gather together into one to make a swift streame or flood so many enemies of all peoples and Countries even all the wicked of the world gather their forces and combine their wrath together against Christ and his Church to make a great and violeÌ„t flood and head to destroy her Rev. 17. 1. Antichrist is the great whore that sits on many waters and these waters are the multitudes nations and tongues all gathered under one head against Christ Verse 15. 3. For their depth these floods seeme as impassable as the deepe sea so as the godly are ready to sinke and can finde no footing Psal. 69. 2. I am come into the deepe waters The Israel of God is often even in the bottome of the sea Ionas was in the deepe waves and weedes And the Church hath often waters of affliction wrung out of a full cup that is a large portion of troubles Psal. 73. 10. 4. For the instance incessant restlesnesse of them for as the waves succeed one another and thrust on one another so doe grievous afflictions one deepe cals another Psalme 42. 7. and the end of one tryall is but the beginning of another 5. For the pride fiercenesse swelling and rushing of many waters for the fiercenesse and pride of enemies is compared to the swelling of waters Psalm 124. 5. then had the swelling waters gone over our soule For the second The spring or fountaine whence these floods flow is the dragons mouth The waters must needs bee filthy which issue from so foule a fountaine And shewes us more distinctly what the waters bee For there is a two fold flood of persecutions cast by the dragon after the woman The former was that bulke of persecutions with which the dragon had infinite wayes vexed the Church in her infancy cradle and even in her riper age such as warre exile fire sword and divers torments But all these darts and keene weapons hee threw out of his hands by which hee forced her into the wildernesse But now the woman is escaped his hands and is out of his reach Which some not well observing expound this flood of actuall persecution by sword and torments which stands not well with her hidden estate But the phrase more properly aimeth at a flood cast out of the serpents mouth and not out of his hands which the woman in the wildernesse hardly escapes Whereby I meane in generall whatsoever poysonfull thing is by Antichrist and his Champions who are the dragons mouth vented and spread abroad for the utter wasting of the true Church and Christian profession if it were possible More specially I take it the Spirit of God here aymeth at three things I. The flood of heresies and poysonfull errors the bitter waters of false doctrines against the foundation and all those troubled waters of Antichristian superstitions and traditions to drowne and oppresse the woman for ever For as the pure doctrine of the Gospell comming out of the mouth of Jesus Christ is that aqua Coelâ—stis or aqua vitae by which the woman is quickned and revived to eternall life So that heretical and poysoned doctrine comming out of the mouth of Antichrist is a bitter and cursed flood of water to drowne the woman if it were possible For as wee doe not exclude those most deadly heresies the vomit of the dragon after Constantine the Arrian heresie the Pelagian Nestorian Eutychian which vexed the Church almost three hundred yeares so doe we especially meane here those Monsters of opinions blasphemies and damnable doctrines against the whole Gospell vented and cast out of the mouth of Antichrist in all the ages of Antichrist till this day so directly bent to carry away the woman as none must buy and sell no nor breathe and live that will not receive and worship the Image and marke of the beast Rev. 13. 15 17. For example Against the Scriptures Antichrist casteth out of his mouth that they are a dead letter a Nose of waxe a breeder of herefies of no more authority than Esops fables without the Churches authority this was godly spoken by Hermanus saith Hosius A Popish Doctor reasoning with M. Tindal boldly said Wee might better want Gods law than the Popes It was objected by Doctor Benet Chancellor of the Bishop of London that the heretikes did read certaine Chapters of the Evangelists in English which containe in them divers erroneous and damnable opinions and conclusions of heresie The like blasphemies he vomits out against Christ as 1 That he is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God of himselfe Rhemist on Ioh. 10. 3. Who though he be the Son of the Father yet is he God of himselfe Ioh. 5. 26. as the Father hath life in himselfe so also hath the Sonne The word therfore is another person from the Father but not another thing 2 That Christ did penance by fasting solitarinesse and conversing with beasts Rhemist on Mark 1. sect 6. An horrible blasphemie making Christ a sinner for no sinner need no repentance 3 That Christs death is neither the efficient cause nor formall cause of our justification Bellarm. in sundry places but wee are formally made just by a justice inherent in our selves Conc. Trid sess 6. can 10. Rhem on Rom. 2. sect 4. A blasphemous heresie contrary to Phil. 3. 9. not having mine owne righteousnesse 4 That by grace we may truly make satisfaction in some sort ex proprijs of our owne et ad aequalitatem to a full equality et per hoc justè et ex oondigno satisfacere Bellarm. de paenit l. 4. c. 7. A most horrible blasphemie that a man by his own proper workes can satisfie God fully according