the Church and reject a corrupt Communion though we are Christians still and we hope of a much purer Communion than they are Schism and Separation is a breach of the external and visible Communion of the Church not of the essential Unity of it the Church is one Church still whatever Breaches and Schisms there are in its external Communion for the Unity of the Catholick Church consists in the Union of the whole to Christ which makes them one Body in him not in the external Communion of the several parts of it to each other And therefore it is not a Separation from one another but only a Separation from Christ which is a Separation from the Catholick Church But what the true Notion of Schism is I shall discourse more at large hereafter 5. I observe further that the Indefectibility of the Catholick Church does not depend upon the Indefectibility of any organized Churches for the Catholick Church does not consist of organized Churches as organized but is made up of particular Christians and therefore while the whole Race of Christians does not fail in the World the Catholick Church cannot fail There is no Promise that I know of to any particular Church that it shall not fail and all organized Churches are particular Several of them have totally failed others have been very greatly corrupted both in Faith and Manners and Worship but had these Failures and Corruptions been much greater and more general than ever they have been yet while there are a number of good Christians preserved in the World though not united in one visible Body the Catholick Church does not fail for since the Catholick Church is not an organized Church nor made up of organized Churches as such though all the particular organized Churches in the World were so corrupt as not to deserve the Name of True Churches if there be a number of good Christians preserved among them though unknown and concealed as it was in the time of Elias the Catholick Church is safe amidst all the corruptions of particular Churches I am abundantly satisfied that there always has been since the first planting of Christianity in the World and I believe always will be to the end of the World a true visible Church but yet I do not think the Indefectibility of the Church necessarily requires a perpetual Visibility that the Church must needs be owned to fail if there should be no visible organized Church with whom we could hold communion This indeed would mightily eclipse but not extinguish the Church for it is certain the Catholick Church subsists in single and individual Christians who may lie concealed from publick not notice and therefore it is not sufficient to prove that the Church has failed though there were no visible Society of Christians but what were corrupted with damnable Practices and Errors It is very true were there no visible Society of Christians no Administration of Baptism by which Men are made Members of the Christian Church and this State should continue so long till the whole Race of baptized Christians were lost in the World there would be too much reason then to say that the Church had failed too for I cannot see how the Church can subsist without a number of baptized Christians but this never was the state of the Church and I believe never will be for Antichrist himself sits in the Temple of God which supposes that even in his reign there is a visible Society of Christians Now how corrupt and degenerate soever the External state of the visible Church may be while there is a Society of baptized Christians though so corrupt in their External Policy and Government Faith and Worship that it may admit or a dispute whether they are a true Christian Church or not yet tho' the visible state of the Church may be Antichristian there may be an invisible number of Christians among them who may preserve themselves from the Corruptions Superstitions Heresies and Idolatries of the visible Church and in these men the Catholick Church is preserved from a to al failure Indeed this is the only difference between Protestant Divines in this Matter they all agree that the Catholick Church shall not fail because Christ has promised it shall not fail that the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it but some doubt whether there shall be always a true visible organized Church in the World. They agree that there shall be always a visible Society of Christians in the World who shall profess the whole Christian Faith and administer the true Christian Sacraments but they differ whether such a Church may be called a true Christian Church if together with the true Christian Faith and Sacraments they set up an Antichristian Hierarchy and impose an Antichristian Faith and Worship Those who affirm that such a Church is a true Christian Church do consequently teach that the true Church shall be always visible tho it may be corrupt even to the degree of Antichristianism those who affirm that such a corrupt Church is not a true Church do also consequently affirm that the true Church may be sometimes invisible and consist only of such private Christians as preserve themselves from those corruptions which unchurch the visible Church I may have occasion to consider this more hereafter all that I observe at present is that this does not alter the case as to the indefectibility of the Church for while there is a visible Society professing the Christian Faith and administring the Christian Sacraments the Catholick Church may subsist in an invisible and unorganized number of Christians who profess the true Faith without such corrupt and Antichristian Mixtures Were the Catholick Church an organical Body then indeed it must be always visible and the Church would fail if ever it became invisible but if the Catholick Church be an unorganized Body of Christians who are united only in Christ it is possible that it may be unknown and invisible as great numbers of private Christians may be and yet the Church not fail Now this shews the weakness and fallacy of several Arguments used by the Church of Rome As 1. That the perpetual visibility of the Roman Church proves it to be that indefectible Church of which our Saviour promised that the Gates of Hell should not prevail against it A Promise which all men grant our Saviour made to the Catholick Church not to any particular Church that is to the whole company of Christians that there should never want a succession of true Believers in the World not to any particular organized Church or Body of Christians such as the Church of Rome is And therefore the indefectibility of the Church cannot prove that it shall be always visible and then the uninterrupted visibility of any Church cannot prove that it is indefectible for if the indefectible Church may be sometimes invisible then that visible Church may not be always indefectible when the indefectible Church is invisible to be
sure that Church which at that time is visible is not the indefectible Church and thus I am sure it may be whether it has been or not but if it may be the Argument is naught 2. And so is that Argument to prove the Church to be infallible because it is indefectible That it cannot err because it never shall so grievously err as to cease to be a Church The indefectibilty of the Church as you have already heard does not necessarily prove that there shall be any one visible organized Church which shall never fail for the Church does not fail while there are any true Christians in the World it may be preserved in a number of single and concealed Christians who are neither known to one another nor much less to the World. And therefore if indefectibility proves infallibility it proves only that there shall be some private infallible Christians not that there is any visible infallible Church For it can prove only those to be infallible who are indefectible and therefore since it does not necessarily prove that any visible organized Church shall be indefectible it cannot prove any such Church to be infallible neither The infallibility of private Christians the Church of Rome will not allow and yet if indefectibility prove infallibility this is all the infallibility which the indefectibility of the Church can prove that there shall always in the greatest degeneracy of the Church be a number of private infallible Christians who shall continue in the true Faith and Worship of Christ. When our Saviour says that the Gates of Hell shall not prevail against his Church we may consider it either as a Promise or a Prophecy or both that there always shall be some sound and orthodox Believers in the world who in the greatest degeneracy of the Church shall be the Seeds of a Reformation and a new visible resurrection of it now I hope Christ can make good such a Promise if we consider it as a Promise without bestowing infallibility upon any Christians for men may be orthodox Christians without being infallible and if we consider it as a Prophecy I hope Christ can certainly foretel things which have no necessary causes and then he can foretel that there shall never want true Believers tho' it is possible there might be none that all Christians shall not err tho' they are all fallible and therefore may err and then neither the Promise nor the Prophecy can prove the infallibility of any Christians and this is all that Protestants can mean when they say that the Catholick Church cannot err in Fundamentals not that there is any visible Society of Christians which is infallible in its definitions of fundamental Doctrines but that the Catholick Church or the whole number of Christians shall never err fundamentally that is that there shall always be some true and orthodox Believers in the Church 3. Nor is it a good Argument to prove any Church to be a new upstart Church because after some time of concealment it reassumes its visibility and appears openly in the World. The stabbing Question as the Church of Rome thinks to the Reformed Churches is Where was your Church before Luther Those who own the Church of Rome with all her Corruptions to be a true Church have a plain and easie Answer to this That the Church was before Luther where it was afterwards for they did not make a new Church but only reformed that part of the old which consented to such a reformation they profess the same Faith still have the same Sacraments and the same Christian Worship but purged from those Innovations and Corruptions which had deformed the visible Communion of the Roman Church which can no more make a new Church than a man's washing off the dirt makes a new-Face And I confess I think those who deny the visible organized Church of Rome to be a True Church do not want a good Answer neither For during the degeneracy of that Church the Church might subsist in those private Christians who preserved themselves in a great measure from the corruption of that Church which might more easily be done before the Reformation than since for many of their Doctrines and Practices were not then so peremptorily decreed by their Councils nor so strictly imposed upon the consciences of men as the Council of Trent has since done And there are Evidences enough that there never wanted some in all Ages who have condemned their Innovations and that profound Ignorance wherein that Church brought up honest and devout men was the true reason why there were not more now all these men may be reckoned the Seeds of the Reformation out of which a visible Church would spring as soon as a new light broke in upon the World. There was no failure of the Church tho' it was obscured and concealed we may as well say that it is a new Sun which rises every Morning not that which set at Night as make a new Church of the visible Resurrection of old and primitive Christianity the Profession of which was never lost thô the Professors of it were not so visible If the true Church be indefectible and never fails it can never be new again and if the indefectibility of the Church may be preserved in some private and unknown Christians the want of a visible Society of such pure and orthodox Christians cannot prove that the Church has failed and then when the old Christian Church appears again with a new glory it is ridiculous to call it new only because for some years it has been concealed Thus I have considered the true Notion of the Catholick Church on Earth which there is so much talk of in our Disputes with the Church of Rome and I hope have made it appear how little Service this can do them FINIS Books Printed for and are to be sold by W. Roger. Bp Wilkins his Fifteen Sermons Octavo Dr. Wallis of the Necessity of Regeneration In Two Sermons to the University of Oxford Quarto His Defence of the Royal Society and the Philosophical Transactions particularly those of July 1670. In Answer to the Cavils of Dr. William Holder Quarto The Necessity Dignity and Duty of Gospel-Ministers discoursed of before the University of Cambridge By Tho. Hodges B. D. Quarto The Peaceable Christian. A Sermon Quarto Price 3 d. A Treatise of Marriage with a Defence of the 32d Article of the Church of England viz. Bishops Priests and Deacons are not commanded by God's Law either to Vow the State of Single Life or to Abstain from Marriage c. By Tho Hodges B. D. Octavs History of the Affairs of Europe in this present Age but more particularly of the Republick of Venice By Battista Nani Cavalier of St. Mark. Fol. Sterry's Freedom of the Will. Folio Light in the Way to Paradise with other Occasionals By Dudley the 2d late Lord North. Octavo Molins of the Muscles with Sir Charles Scarborough ' s Syllabus Musculorum
signifie an organical Body though that the Church on Earth is also by Christ's own institution of which more hereafter but it is so called for mystical reasons which I shall briefly explain to you 1. Now I first observe that the Relation between Man and Wife is but an Emblem and Figure of that Union which is between Christ and his Church Hence the Apostle exhorts Husbands to love their Wives even as Christ loved his Church and tells us of Marriage It is a great mystery but I speak concerning Christ and his Church 5 Ephes. 25. 32. 2. That to be the Body and the Spouse of Christ signifies the same thing Hence the Apostle argues That men ought to love their Wives as their own bodies 28 v. For no man ever hated his own flesh but nourisheth and cherisheth it even as the Lord the Church 29. For we are members of his body of his flesh and of his bones 30. So that the Wife is the Body the very Flesh of the Husband and so is the Church of Christ. 3. To understand this matter why the Church is called the Body and Spouse of Christ we must enquire why the Wife is called the Body of the Man Flesh of his Flesh and Bone of his Bone and the reason of that is because the Woman was formed out of the Man. God at first formed Man with an entire humane Body of the Dust of the Earth and out of Man while he slept he formed the Woman who though a distinct separate Person yet was part of the Man Flesh of his Flesh and Bone of his Bone And this was a natural Marriage for two were by nature one Flesh and this was the natural and fundamental reason of the Matrimonial Union For this cause shall a man leave his Father and Mother and cleave to his Wife and they two shall be one Flesh. For though other Women are not made as Eve was no more than other Men are made as Adam was yet the Woman being originally of the Man the reason holds as to the whole kind and in subsequent Marriages a legal Ceremony and Contract does what a natural Formation did at first that is unites two into one Flesh. Thus the blessed Jesus out of great pity and compassion to fallen man intending to marry us unto himself and thereby to recover us out of a state of sin and misery first marries our Nature to himself by an hypostatical Union as Man was created first and then the Woman formed out of him Christ took a humane Body of the substance of a pure Virgin which signifies that it was an Espousable Nature which he took and was a Pledge and Earnest and Medium of our Marriage to him For though we cannot be married immediately to the Divinity yet to a God Incarnate we may For Marriage requires that Husband and Wife be of the same nature But this is not enough that the Husband and Wife partake of the same Nature but the Woman must be formed out of the Man which makes her Flesh of his Flesh and Bone of his Bone. And thus accordingly the Church is formed out of the Body of Christ and is in a mystical sense his very Flesh and Bones as St. Paul speaks We are members of his body of his flesh and of his bones For the Sufferings of Christ in the flesh gave life and being to the Church he purchast to himself a Church by his own Bloud that is he formed to himself a Church out of his broken Body as Adam's Body was broken and a Rib taken out of him to form the Woman And therefore as the Woman was made of the same Flesh with Adam so the Sufferings of Christ in his humane nature purchased a Church not of Angels but of Men of the same nature with himself as the Apostle observes 2 Heb. 16 For verily he took not on him the nature of Angels but he took on him the Seed of Abraham and therefore is not the Saviour of Angels but of men is not married to the Angelical but to the humane nature And to make the Analogie still more compleat as the Woman was formed out of Adam's side so was the Church out of Christ's side for when he was pierced with the Souldiers Spear there came out of his side both Water and Bloud 19 John 34. and the Evangelist sets a peculiar remark upon it He that saw it bare record and we know that his record is true and he knoweth that he saith true that ye might believe 35 v. and this is especially observed and great weight laid on it 1 John 5. 6. This is he that came by water and bloud even Jesus Christ not by water only but by water and bloud This some think signifies no more but that it was a demonstration that he was truly dead in that his heart was wounded where there is a Capsula called the Pericardium which contains water which being pierced water came out together with bloud but the water and bloud came out distinct though from the same wound which was never known before and cannot be done again by the greatest Artist and though this might be a reason why St. John might take notice of it in his Gospel where he gave an account of his death yet it does not seem a sufficient reason why he should lay such weight on it in his Epistles This is he who came by water and bloud not by water only but by water and bloud and therefore I doubt not but the ancient Fathers were in the right who tell us that the two Sacraments of the new Covenant flowed out of his side which are the formation of this spiritual Spouse his Church the birth and the nourishment of it Baptism and the Lords Supper which came from his wounded body and have both of them a peculiar respect to his Death and Passion Thus we see the Church is called Christ's Body and Spouse for mystical reasons because it is formed out of his broken Body his Death and Sufferings giving life and being to the Church and therefore it is but one Body because all those who are redeemed by his Bloud and united to him by Covenant which is a kind of Marriage-Vow and Contract are his Body and Spouse And therefore the Sacraments of the new Covenant Baptism and the Lords Supper do no otherwise unite us to each other than they unite us all to Christ which makes us all one Body or as the Apostle speaks with respect to the Lords Supper For we being many are one bread and one body for we are all partakers of that one bread We all partake of the same Body of Christ which is therefore called the Communion of his Body and Bloud and therefore we all are but one Body so that it is a vain thing to inquire after any other Principle of Unity for the whole Church but the Union of all Christians to Christ who are one Body by their Union to one Head. But it may be
made to the Church do not belong to the Bishops of the Church as that the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it which certainly proves that the Church shall never totally fail but does not prove that the Bishops or any Bishop of the Church shall be Infallible For the Bishops are not the Church there are distinct Promises to the Church and to the Pastors and Ministers of it and they ought to be kept distinct which will put an end to a great many Controversies between us and the Church of Rome Thus if St. Paul in his Epistle to Timothy 1 Tim. 3. 15. calls the Church the Pillar and Ground of Truth whatever that signifies it belongs to the Church or to the company of the Faithful not meerly to the Pastors and Bishops of it and therefore the Infallibility of the Pope or General Council can never be proved from it though the Pillar and Ground of Truth should signifie Infallibility Thus whatever Authority Popes or General Councils may challenge in matters of Faith yet if they decree any thing contrary to the common Faith of Christians their Decrees are not the Faith of the Church but the Faith of Popes and General Councils who are not the Church though they are the Governours of it and yet under this venerable Name of the Catholick Church every packt Conventicle challenges an indisputable Authority to its Decrees 2. Nay as Bishops are not the Catholick Church so neither are they the Representatives of the Catholick Church much less is any one Bishop the whole Catholick Church virtual The Office of a Bishop is not to represent but to govern the Church and therefore Bishops are not the Churches Representatives by Institution no more than the King is the Representative of his Kingdom How then do they come to be the Churches Representatives Did all the Christians in the World who are the Catholick Church ever intrust them with this Power Did they ever resign up their Faith into the hands of their Bishops This never was done and yet no man has a Representative but by his own consent and if it could be done Bishops then must sit in Council not only as Bishops but as Lay Representatives if two such different capacities are not inconsistent and yet Bishops have challenged this Authority only as Bishops and excluded the Laity nay Presbyters themselves from any Votes and therefore such Councils of Bishops who acted only as Bishops could not be the Representatives of the Catholick Church In matters of Discipline and Government Bishops act not as Representatives but Governours of the Church by that Authority which they have received not from the People but from Christ and their Decrees and Constitutions about such matters have a sacred and venerable Authority when they do not contradict any divine Laws and Institutions But Bishops have no Authority over the Faith of the Church nay the Church herself has no Authority to alter the Faith and therefore can give no such Authority to her Bishops however if she could she never did and therefore no Council of Bishops can be the Church-representative in defining Articles of Faith. As Bishops are the Supreme Pastors and Teachers of the Church they may declare what the Faith is and agree what Doctrines shall be taught in their Churches and consent to censure and excommunicate those who will not profess to believe as they do but if they make any Decrees contrary to the common Faith of Christians no Christian is bound to believe them nor is ever the worse for their Anathema's and Excommunications and it is a ridiculous thing for them to call this the Faith of the Catholick Church which is only the Decrees and Definitions of some Bishops in it who are far enough from being the Catholick Church And this I think sufficiently proves that the most general Council that ever was may err and yet the Catholick Church not err for Bishops are not the Catholick Church nor so much as the Representatives of it and therefore could it be proved that the Catholick Church could not err this would not prove the Infallibility of a General Council which is not the Church for the Faith may still be preserved pure and uncorrupt among private Christians even when General Councils err 3ly I observe farther that the whole Catholick Church on Earth is not one organized Body for it is only the whole company of the faithful and no Ecclesiastical Ministers or Pastors belong to the definition of it and yet unless some Oecumenical Pastor be essential to the Notion and Definition of the Catholick Church it cannot be one organized Body The Catholick Church indeed is organized by parts that is the whole Company of the Faithful are distributed into particular Bodies under the government of particular Bishops which makes a particular Church and is essential to the definition of it of which more presently but the Catholick Church itself is the whole Company of the Faithful who are united in one Body to Christ only who is the only Head of his Church Now hence it evidently follows 1. That no organized Church can be the Catholick Church nor the Bishop of it an Oecumenical Pastor because the Catholick Church is not organiz'd but every organized Church is a particular Church Which shews how vain the Pretences of the Church of Rome are to be the Catholick Church and of the Pope of Rome to be the Universal Bishop 2. It as evidently follows that there neither is nor can be any visible Tribunal of the Catholick Church which shall be the Center of Catholick Communion and have Authority over all particular Churches in Matters of Faith and Worship and Government For the Catholick Church being no organized Body it has no Authority and can have no Tribunal 1. It has no Authority For the whole Company of the Faithful which is the true Notion of the Catholick Church are the Mystical Body of Christ and in subjection to him as a Wife is subject to her Husband The Catholick Church is made up of particular and individual Christians who are all immediately united to Christ their Head and are made one in him and though Bishops as the Ministers of Christ have received Authority from him to govern the Church which they exercise in particular Churches over which they are placed yet as Members of the Catholick Church they are not considered as Bishops but as private Christians for it is not their Authority in the Church but their Union to Christ which makes them Members of his Body and thus they are united to Christ no otherwise then all other private Christians are Now if the Chatholick Church be only a company of private and particular Christians united immediately to Christ and made one Body in him the Catholick Church has no more Authority than particular Christians have which is none at all The Catholick Church is united to Christ by a belief of his Gospel obedience to his Laws and a participation of his
and made One Body in him and considered as the Catholick Church are not the One Body of Christ nor can be under any other notion So that had the Catholick Church any Authority it could be exercised only by the whole multitude of Christians for nothing else is the Catholick Church and this is as impossible as it is for the whole multitude of Christians to meet together in one place But cannot the Catholick Church meet and act by its Representatives as Kingdoms and Common-wealths do I answer I have already proved that all the Bishops of the Church much less any one Bishop cannot represent the Catholick Church for as Bishops they are not the Church but the Governours of it under Christ and no man ever yet thought of any other Representatives for the Church and it is evident de facto that there are no other Representatives for the whole multitude of Christians never did make choice of any such Representatives and no man can be represented but by his own consent and if there could be any such Representatives made by the unanimous Vote of all the Christians in the World which I think is morally impossible yet then the highest and most soveraign Authority in the Church would be derived from the People which I suppose the Church of Rome will not very well like Nay indeed it is absolutely impossible that the Catholick Church should be represented for the Catholick Church is the whole multitude of Christians considered as the whole company or multitude now a multitude as a multitude can never be represented by any thing but itself there can be no formal nor virtual multitude but the whole entire number The Catholick Church signifies all Christians and if you leave out any of the number it is not all and therefore is not the Catholick Church Now if the Catholick Church have any Authority it must have it as it is the Catholick Church that is as it is the whole company of Christians for particular Christians have no such Authority as all men grant and therefore that which destroys the Catholick Church must destroy its Authority too and any thing less than all makes it cease to be Catholick and therefore the Catholick Church cannot be represented by a few of the whole number because a few are not all and therefore not the Catholick Church It is a different case indeed when every particular man has an original right and share in the Power and the whole power is not formally seated in the whole Body for then it may by common consent be contracted into one or more hands by particular mens giving up their share in the Government as some fancy that civil Societies were first formed but where the power is formally seated in the whole and not in particular Members as the Authority of the Catholick Church must be if it be the Authority of the Church considered as Catholick there it is evident the Authority must continue in the whole and can by no consent be put into a few hands and then it is impossible that the Catholick Church can have any Representatives nor consequently any visible Tribunal And yet that Dispute between the Church of Rome and some Protestant Divines which is managed with so much warmth and zeal about the perpetual visibility of the Church issues in this controversie about a visible Tribunal of the Catholick Church for nothing else will do the Protestant Cause any hurt or the Popish Cause any good We do say and we may safely say that there always has been and ever will be a Visible Church for while there are any men who visibly profess Christianity there will be a visible Church And what then what then Why then you must hear the Church then you must submit to the Authority of the Church then you must believe as the Church believes and receive your Faith from the Decrees and Definitions of the Church But pray why so Has every visible Church this Authority No but the Catholick Church has Suppose that but how shall I speak with the Catholick Church which is dispersed over all the World and is nothing else but the whole number of Christians all the World over Now it seems impossible for me to speak with all the Christians in the World and to know what their Belief is in all matters of controversie and though the Catholick Church is visible and part of it is to be seen in England and part in Holland and part in France c. yet no man can see it all together nor speak with all the Christians in the World together and therefore tho' the Catholick Church be visible it cannot determine any one controversie unless there be some visible Catholick Tribunal from which we must receive the Faith of the whole Church This the Papists assert and make the Church of Rome to be that visible Catholick Church or visible Tribunal of the Catholick Church to which all Christians are bound to submit Now besides what I have already proved that the Catholick Church neither has nor can have any such visible Tribunal suppose such a thing might be yet this Dispute about the visibility of the Church is nothing to the purpose for though the Church be visible it does not hence follow that the Catholick Church has such a visible Tribunal to which all Christians must submit and if the visibility of the Church does not prove one Supream Catholick Tribunal what do the Papists get by the Churches visibility or what do the Protestants lose by it The Church of Rome is a visible Church and so is the Church of England and if meer visibility give this Authority to a Church the Church of England has as good Authority as the Church of Rome because it is as visible a Church 4. In the next place I observe that the essential Unity of the Catholick Church is not an external and visible Union of an organized Body because the Catholick Church it self is not an organized Body There is and can be but one Catholick Church because the whole company of Christians is this Catholick Church but then the essential Unity of the Catholick Church does not consist in an external and visible Union of all Christians which is the Unity of civil Societies of Kingdoms and Common-wealths and other inferiour Corporations which are united under one visible Government which knits and tyes them together as Nerves and Sinews do the Members of the natural Body but though there be an external and visible Union in and between particular Churches of which more presently yet the Unity of the Catholick Church consists only in the Union of all Christians to Christ which makes them his one mystical Body This is a very material point in opposition to the Pretensions of the Bishop of Rome who will needs be the Supream and Oecumenical Pastor and Head of Unity to the Catholick Church and though the Christian World never owned him so as has been abundantly proved by
objected against this that this confines the Church to the company of the Elect who are the mystical Body of Christ that according to this Notion there can be no visible Church upon Earth for no man can tell who belongs to the mystical Body of Christ which is made up only of true and sincere Christians and no man can see who they are without seeing their hearts Now this is a mighty prejudice against any Notion if it destroys the visibility of the Church which is so plainly taught in Scripture and does for ought we know unchurch the greatest Member of visible Church-Members if the Church consist only of those who were elected from all eternity and are in time called by the Grace of God to a state of real Holiness and Sanctification and made the living Members of Christ's Body I cannot possibly see how there can be a visible Church on Earth for this internal Grace which makes a Church-Member is invisible and therefore Church-Members are invisible too and then I fear the Church it self must be invisible if all the Members of it are invisible for invisible Members cannot make a visible Society and to say that the Field in which the Corn and the Tares grow together is visible will not make the Church visible unless this visible Field as visible be the Church and then the Tares as well as the Corn must be Church-Members for to see where the Corn grows if we cannot see the Corn does not make the Corn visible and if the Corn only be the Church invisible Corn cannot make a visible Church Which has made me often wonder that some learned Protestants and that of late too have so much insisted on this Notion which gives manifest advantage to their Adversaries and serves no end that I know of but what may better be served without it But the Union of the Church to Christ which I have now explained is a visible Union for we are united to Christ by the Gospel-Covenant and the Covenant is visible the Sacraments of the Covenant Baptism and the Lords Supper are visible the profession of Faith and obedience to Christ made by these visible Sacraments is visible also and therefore the Church which is united to Christ by a visible Covenant visible Sacraments and a visible Profession is visible also But you 'll say can wicked men then be Members of Christ's mystical Body yes no doubt but they may in this World if they can be in Covenant with him We are united by Covenant and those who are thus united are Members of his Body and Christ has but one Body which is his Church and mystical Spouse And what absurdity is there in saying that men may be in Covenant with Christ and not perform the conditions of the Covenant nor obtain the rewards of it This no man will deny but that bad men who live in visible Communion with the Church who are baptized in the name of Christ and feast at his Table are visibly in coveâ—ant with him for if the Sacraments of the Covenant do not prove that we are in covenant no man can tell whether he be in covenant or not Now all that are in covenant with Christ are his Body and unless we can find two Covenants and two Bodies for Christ we must grant that good and bad men in this World are in the same Covenant and Members of the same Body Our Saviour tells us that there are some branches in him which bear no fruit but they are in him for all that though they shall be taken away and separated from him 15 John 2. St. Paul disswades the Corinthians from Fornication by this Argument that they are the Members of Christ Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a harlot God forbid 1 Cor. 6. 15. Which supposes that such a thing may be done that the Members of Christ may be made Members of a Harlot and that supposes that very bad men may be Members of Christ's Body But are not all the Members of Christ mystically united to him and can there be such a mystical Union between Christ and bad men I answer if by mystical Union be meant being united in the same Life and Spirit it is plain that bad men are not thus mystically united to Christ for they are not living but dead Members of his Body they are branches that are in the Vine but bear no fruit and yet may be Members of his mystical Body which is so called not upon account of any mystical Union which some men â—alk of of but no man could ever explain but for mystical reasons as I have already shewed you Now if those mystical reasons for which the Church is called the Body of Christ include wicked Professors and concealed Hypocrites as well as truly good Men then I hope bad Men may be said to be the Members of Christ's Mystical Body without such a Mystical Union to him Now I observed before the Mystical Reason why the Church is called the Body of Christ Flesh of his Flesh and Bone of his Bone is because he purchas'd the Church with his own Blood the Church is formed out of his broken Body as Eve was formed out of the Body of Adam And therefore if bad Men who are in Covenant with Christ are the purchase of his Blood and have a Covenant-right to the expiation of it and all the benefits procured by it then they are the Members of his Mystical Body Flesh of his Flesh and Bone of his Bone. And methinks no man should deny that those who are in Covenant with Christ should have a Covenant right to the Expiation of his Death and all the Blessings purchas'd by his Blood for otherwise we cannot tell what it is to be in Covenant if it confer no right to the Priviledges of it and yet no man has a right to the Purchase of Christ's Blood but those who are his Body and therefore if bad men may have such a Covenant-right as certainly they have if they be in Covenant then they are by Covenant united to his Mystical Body If you object that by this reason all Mankind are Christ's mystical Body for He died for all Men and therefore they are all the Purchase of his Blood and consequently they are his Mystical Body which is formed out of his broken Body I answer it is true indeed that in some sense Christ died for all because none are excluded from the Benefits of his Death who unite themselves to his Body by Faith and Baptism but yet he died for none so as to give them an immediate Right and Title to the Purchase of his Blood for his Purchase is confined to his Church which is his Body He is the Saviour of the Body He loved his Church and gave himself for it And therefore his Church only is his Mystical Body Flesh of his Flesh and Bone of his Bone and