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
the Sufferings of his Natural Body extend no farther than his Mystical Body and therefore Christ is said to have reconciled both Jew and Gentile to God in one body by the cross 2. Ephes. 16. That is he has reconciled all both Jews and Gentiles who by Faith and Baptism are united in his one Mystical Body to God by his Sufferings on the Cross. So that we are not the Body of Christ and cannot be said to be the purchase of his Blood till we are united to him by Covenant This we may learn from that Analogy there is between the Law and the Gospel The legal Sacrifices especially that great Sacrifice on the Day of Expiation were typically of the Sacrifice of Christ and the Carnal Israel was a Type of the Spiritual Israel or of the Christian Church now as the Virtue and Expiation of Legal Sacrifices was applicable only to the Carnal Israel so the Expiation of Christ's Death extends only to the Spiritual Israel the Christian Church which is Christ's Mystical Body which one thing if well considered would answer all the Difficulties and silence those fierce Disputes about Universal Redemption However this shews what difference there is between bad Christians and the world of Infidels the first are visibly in Covenant with Christ and are the Purchase of his Blood and have a Covenant-right to the redemption of it and therefore are Members of his Mystical Body for none else have any right to his Sacrifice the other have no interest in him nor relation to him And if we will not allow of this I desire to know who those Children of the Kingdom are that at the last day shall be shut out But is not our Mystical Union to Christ then an Union of Spirits a participation of his Nature and Life having his Spirit dwelling in us being led by the Spirit and walking in the Spirit I answer this is our Spiritual Union to Christ this is to live in him to be quicken'd by him but it is not our Mystical Union as that signifies such an Union as makes us Members of his Mystical Body for that in a strict proper sence is only a Covenant-relation every Member of Christ's Mystical Body ought to partake of his Life and Spirit or else they are onely dead and rotten Members which shall be cut off and shall never inherit Eternal Life but such dead Members are Members still till they are cut off either by Church Censures in this World or by the Sentence of Christ in the next This Participation of the Life and Spirit of Christ is not our Mystical Union to Christ but the effect of it We cannot receive the influences of Life and Grace from Christ till we are united to him and made the Members of his Body for his Spirit onely quickens and animates his own Body and we are united to his Body by Covenant and by the Sacraments of it which convey this Divine Life and Spirit to us and therefore Baptism is our Regeneration or New Birth the beginnings of a New Life because it incorporates us into Christ's Mystical Body which puts us under the influences and communications of his Life and Spirit as when a branch is engrafted into a stock it receives nourishment and life from it So that these divine and supernatural influences are consequent upon our Union to Christ and tho' all who are united to Christ have these influences of Grace as the root naturally communicates its sap and juices to all its branches yet all do not improve it do not digest it into principles of life and action do not bring forth fruits worthy of it like dead and withered branches who cannot receive the sap and nourishment which ascends from the root and would quicken them were not its entrance stopt and hindred but notwithstanding this they are members and branches still though dead and fruitless There is no account indeed had of them Christ knows them not and does not reckon them as his and therefore the Description and Characters of the Church in Scripture are such as belong onely to living Members to those who are renewed and sanctified and quicken'd by the Divine Spirit but yet they do belong to Christ's Mystical Body tho' they are in it onely as a dead Branch is in the Vine But how can the Church on Earth and the Church in Heaven be one Church and one Body if the Church on Earth has such corrupt and rotten Members in it for the Church in Heaven has none but living and holy Members I answer the same Covenant makes them the same Church and the same Body of Christ and that there are bad Men in the Church on Earth and none but Saints in Heaven does not prove that they are two Churches but that they are in two very different states Of right none but sincere believers and truly pious men ought to be Members of the Church on Earth as well as in Heaven but the government of the Church the receiving in and casting out of the Church being intrusted with Men who cannot see the Heart or who are not careful in the Exercise of Discipline to preserve the Purity of the Church secret Hypocrites may be received into the Church and those who are openly Prophane may not be cast out of it but in the other World Christ makes the distinction and separates the Chaff from the Wheat and therefore the Church in Heaven can consist only of good Men because bad Men can find no admission there And besides this it is agreeable enough to the state of the Church on Earth and indeed cannot well be otherwise that good and bad Men should be intermixt in it because it is a state of Tryal and Discipline of Growth and Improvement Tho' bad Men as that signifies Hypocrites and Unbelievers if they were known ought not to be received into the Church yet if they be by the Influences of Grace and the Instructions of the Word and the Prayers of the Church and the Examples and Conversations of good Men and the prudent Exercise of Discipline they may be reclaimed to Vertue and become living Members of Christ's Body those who were dead before may recover a New Life by being engratted into this Heavenly Vine nay indeed tho' all men are not equally wicked yet no Man has this Divine Life but onely from Christ and the communications of his Grace which he cannot receive from Christ till he be united to him and therefore the Apostles required no other qualification for Baptism but onely Faith the very worst of Men who believed in Christ and profess'd obedience to him were received into the Church by Baptism and put under the Influences of Grace without expecting till they had first reformed their Lives which besides the Authority of the Apostles seems to me much more agreeable to the Gospel-Dispensation than that Discipline which was afterwards used in the Church when they did not immediately baptize those who profess'd to believe in Christ
it as evident that there never can be more than one Church in the World for those Nominal Churches which have not the same Lord the same Faith the same Baptism are no Churches and all that have are but one Which makes it a ridiculous Triumph of the Church of Rome as if we Protestants did not believe one Catholick Church or could not tell where to find it when we profess to believe but One Church and that all true Churches are Members of this One Church For it is plain from this account that though all the Churches in the World were united in one Ecclesiastical Body yet this external visible Union is not the thing which makes them the one Body of Christ They are one Body by being all united to one mystical Head the Lord Jesus Christ not by an external and visible Union to each other this external Union is a Duty which all Christians and Christian Churches are bound to observe as far as possibly they can but all true Christians and Christian Churches are the One Body of Christ whether they be thus visibly united or not But for the better understanding this matter we must consider I. The true Notion of the Catholick Church on Earth II. What the Nature and Unity of a particular Church is and how every particular Church is a part of that Universal Catholick Church which is the Body of Christ. III. What that Unity and Communion is which all distinct particular Churches ought to maintain with each other and whence this Obligation results I. The true Notion of the Catholick Church on Earth Now it is evident from what I have already discoursed that the true Notion of a Church is the caetus Fidelium or the company of the Faithful of those who profess the true Faith of Christ and are united to him by Baptism There can be no other Notion of the Universal Church in Heaven and Earth but the whole company and family of the Faithful who are united to Christ by covenant and are his mystical Body in the sense above explained And if the Universal Church in Heaven and Earth be the whole company of the Faithful the Catholick Church on Earth must be the whole number of the Faithful on Earth for we must still retain the same Notion of a Church where the whole consists of universal parts for there every part has the same nature with the whole I know indeed of late the Clergy have in a great measure monopolized the Name of the Church whereas in propriety of Speech they do not belong to the definition of a Church They are Members of the Church as they are themselves of the number of the Faithful and they are the Governours of the Church as they have received Authority from Christ the Supream Lord and Bishop of the Church but they are no more the Church than the King is his Kingdom or the Shepherd his Flock and therefore St. Paul expresly distinguishes the Church from the Apostles and Ministers of it 1 Cor. 12. 28. God hath set some in the Church first Apostles secondarily Prophets thirdly Teachers after that Miracles then Gifts of Healing Helps Governments diversities of Tongues These are placed in the Church for the instruction edification and good government of it and therefore are of a distinct consideration from the Church in which they are placed Thus 4 Eph. 11 12. He gave some Apostles and some Prophets and some Evangelists and some Pastors and Teachers for the perfecting of the Saints for the work of the Ministry for the edifying of the Body of Christ that is the Church of Christ which is therefore distinguished from the Pastors and Teachers of it Thus in directing his Epistles to several Churches he gives us the definition of a Church 1 Cor. 1. 2. Vnto the Church of God which is at Corinth to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus called to be Saints with all that in every place call upon the Name of Jesus Christ our Lord both theirs and ours that is the whole company of the Faithful 1 Ephes. 1. Paul an Apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God to the Saints which are at Ephesus and to the Faithful in Christ Jesus Which is the true definition of a Church 1 Col. 2. To the Saints and faithful Brethren in Christ which are at Coloss. And 1 Phil. 1. he expresly distinguishes the Saints or Church as that signifies the company of the Faithful from the Bishops and Deacons To all the Saints in Christ Jesus which are at Philippi with the Bishops and Deacons The Learned Launoy has produced various Texts of Scripture for this definition of the Church that it is the company of the Faithful and has proved by the Testimony of the Fathers in all Ages even down to the Council of Trent it self that this was the received Notion of the Church till it was altered by Canisius and Bellarmine Canisius puts Christ's Vicar into the definition that the Church is the visible collection of all baptized Believers under one Head Christ in Heaven and his Vicar on Earth which makes the Church a Monarchy Bellarmine defines the Church to be a company of men united together by the profession of the same Christian Faith and the Communion of the same Sacraments under the government of lawful Pastors but chiefly of the Bishop of Rome as the one Vicar of Christ on Erath which makes the Church a kind of mixed and tempered Monarchy the government of Bishops and the Pope as Supream Vicar whereas before these men neither Pastors nor Bishops much less the Pope of Rome were ever put into the general definition of a Church for as for St. Cyprian's definition I shall account for it hereafter And indeed it stands to reason that they should not for Pastors and Bishops are set over the Church are Overseers of the Flock to instruct and govern it and therefore must be distinguished from the Church which they govern The Church is the mystical Body of Christ which is in subjection to Christ the Head but the Bishops and Pastors of the Church considered as such represent the Head and not the Body for they receive their Power and Authority from Christ and act in his place and stead as he tells them after his Resurrection As my Father hath sent me so send I you 20 John 21. And He that receiveth you receiveth me and he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me 10 Matth. 40. and 13. John 20. And therefore as Christ the Head is distinguish'd from his Body so are those also who act under the Head and represent and exercise his Authority in the Church as private Believers they are the Members of the Church as Church-Governours they are the Vicars of Christ. Now from hence I shall observe some few things the use of which we shall afterwards better understand As 1. That Bishops and Pastors are not the Church but the Governours of the Church and therefore the Promises
Spirit which is a state of perfect and absolute subjection to him and therefore can have no Authority to alter the Faith to make a new Creed or a new Gospel which would be to have power over Christ not to be subject to him To be sure unless we will grant this Authority to every particular Christian the Catholick Church cannot have it which is only the whole multitude of particular Christians who are united singly to Christ and made One Body in him and therefore are not such a Body as can make a new Faith and new Laws but are made One Body by embracing the same Faith which they must receive from Christ but have no Authority to make because their receiving this Faith unites them into One Body in Christ and they continue One Body in Christ no longer than they profess this Faith and therefore never can have Authority to change it where a multitude of Men unite themselves into One Body or Civil Society to form and model their own Government and to make Laws for themselves there the whole Authority is in the Community and they may make and alter and repeal Laws as they please but where a Society is formed by a voluntary submission of single and particular Persons to known and stated Laws and no man can be of this Society without submission to these Laws nor continue longer in it than he does submit to them it is a contradiction to say that such a Body of Men have any power over the Laws because it is only their submission to such Laws which make them such a Society The whole Society in this case have no more Authority than a single Man for they are not a Society for Government but for Obedience and Subjection Christ indeed has placed an Authority in his Church for the Instruction and Government of it but an Authority in the Church and the Authority of the Church are two very different things The first signifies the Authority of Christ who is the Head the second is the Authority of the Body which is the Church the Head has Authority over his Church and may appoint what Ministers he pleases to exercise this Authority but the Church has no Authority at all no more than the Body has which is subject to the Head. This may be thought a very nice distinction between the Authority in the Church and the Authority of the Church but it is as useful as it is true For thô the Authority of Christ must be much more sacred and venerable than the Authority of the Church whatever Authority it were supposed to have yet the name of the Catholick Church is thought much more venerable than the name of Bishops thô they are the Ministers of Christ and therefore those who would impose upon the Faith of Christians talk of nothing less than the Authority of the Catholick Church which sounds very big and frights people into a submission While they pretend only the Authority of Christ's Ministers private Christians make bold to examine their Commission and how far their Authority reaches â—d whether they do not prevaricate in the exercise of this Authority as it is possible Ministers may do but the name of the Catholick Church strikes all dead for who dare oppose the Decrees of the Catholick Church which is to condemn the whole Catholick Church of Error or Heresie who dares separate from the Catholick Church which must be an unpardonable Schism and a state of Damnation since it is universally agreed that there is no salvation to be had out of the Catholick Church and thus when a packt Conventicle of Schismaticks and Hereticks usurp to themselves the name of the Catholick Church they impose upon Christians under so venerable a disguise and enslave them to their own Dictates but now all these Amusements vanish when we remember that the Catholick Church has no Authority that whatever the Authority of Bishops in or out of Council be it is not the Authority of the Church but the Authority of Christ and it is not his Authority neither when they exceed their Commission and teach such things as he has given them no Authority to teach and therefore we may reject such a Council of Bishops without condemning the Catholick Church and renounce their communion without separating from the Catholick Church And this very consideration that the Catholick Church has no Authority and therefore cannot innovate in Matters of Faith nor alter the Laws and Institutions of our Saviour is little less than a demonstration that there is no Authority in the Church neither to do it For the Bishops and Pastors of the Church as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Christ's Ministers so they are themselves Members of the Catholick Church now as they are Members of the Catholick Church they must receive nothing but what Christ has taught for the Church is founded on the Faith of Christ and has no Authority to alter it Now is it imaginable that Bishops as private Christians and Members of the Catholick Church are obliged to believe nothing but what Christ has taught and yet as Bishops or Christ's Ministers have Authority to teach what Christ has not taught that is that as Bishops they have Authority to teach that which as private Christians they themselves must not believe if they will continue Members of the Catholick Church nay can we imagine that Christ has given Authority to his Ministers to teach that which the Catholick Church must not receive for if the Catholick Church has no Authority it must no more receive new Doctrines than make them I know indeed no body will pretend to an Authority of making new Articles of Faith but only of declaring what the Faith is but this is the very same thing if this Authority of Declaring be such as to oblige all people to believe such Declarations without any Dispute or Examination for then they may make a new Faith under a pretence of declaring the old as we see the Council of Trent has done which has declared such Doctrines as the Christian Church was a stranger to before and there is no difference that I know of between declaring and making an Article of Faith which was neither declared nor made before And therefore Christian Bishops and Pastors have no such Authority either to make or to declare Articles of Faith as can oblige all Christians to believe it meerly upon their Definitions and Declarations It is their Office to Preach the Gospel to convince and perswade gainsayers by Scripture and Reason which obliges all Christians diligently and impartially to attend to their Instructions but yet leaves every man at liberty to judge whether they Preach the Gospel of Christ or their own Inventions 2ly That the Catholick Church has no Authority is evident from this also that it has no visible Tribunal wherein to exercise this Authority For the Catholick Church is nothing else but the whole company or multitude of individual Christians who are all singly united to Christ
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
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
Church in Heaven into One Body unless this visible Head on Earth be the Head of the invisible Church in Heaven too for if the Unity of the Church consists in being united under One Head that Head must be the Head of the whole Church or else the Church is not united in the Head if the Head which is the principle of Union be not the Head of the whole Now I suppose no Papist will say that the Bishop of Rome is the Head of the invisible as well as of the visible Church and then the Church is not one by being united under the Bishop of Rome tho there are some things which would make one suspect that the Church of Rome did believe the Pope to be the Head of the invisible as well as of the visible Church for if his Authority be confined to the Church on Earth one would wonder whence he should pretend to canozie Saints in Heaven or to release Souls out of Purgatory unless his being Christ's Vicar on Earth makes him his Vicar in Heaven and in Purgatory also but this by the way If they say that when they speake of the Unity of the Church they mean only the Unity of the Church on Earth and that the Pope is the visible Head of this Unity I answer 1. That they must grant then that they speak very improperly for the Church on Earth is not that One Church which is the One Body of Christ and therefore the Unity of the Church does not consist in the Headship of the Pope but they ought only to say that the Unity of the Church on Earth consists in its Union to the Pope 2. And therefore they must quit all their Arguments for the Pope's Headship taken from the Churches being One the One Body of Christ for the Church on Earth is not this One Body of Christ and therefore it does not follow that because Christ has but one Body therefore the Church on Earth must have one visible Head. 3. Nay they must confess that the formal and essential Unity of the Church on Earth does not consist in its Union to the Pope For the Church on Earth is One with the Church in Heaven they being both but One Church and therefore must have the same essential Unity for how they should be one by two sorts of Unity that is be one without the same formal Unity is very mysterious and near a kin to a contradiction And therefore since the Unity of the Church in Heaven does not consist in its Union to the Pope no more does the Unity of the Church on Earth the Unity being the same in both And thus all their Arguments from the Unity of the Church on Earth to prove an Universal Visible Head of the Church are lost too 2ly Nor does the Unity of the Church consist in joyning together in the external and visible Acts of Worship or in maintaining mutual intercourse and correspondence with each other these are Duties which result from Church-Unity when they are practicable as I shall shew more hereafter but the Unity of the Church cannot consist in them for the Church in Heaven and Earth are one without them and so may distant Churches on Earth be one Church without any such visible correspondence 3ly Nor can the Unity of the Church consist in such Articles of Faith as have not always been the Faith of the Christian Church For since the whole Church in all Ages is but One it can have but One Faith and that cannot be the One Faith which has not been the Faith of the whole Church And therefore it is ridiculous to talk of such a Power in the Church of every Age as to make or declare new Articles of Faith unless there be Authority to make a new Church too in every Age but then how the Church should change its Faith in every Age and yet continue one and the same Church is worth inquiry As far as any Church has altered the Faith of the Apostles and Primitive Christians it is become a new Church and a new Church I think is not the same with the old the Unity of the present Church considered as a Church does not consist only in its Unity with it self but with the Church also of former Ages for unless it be one with the Apostolick Churches it cannot be the One Church of Christ and therefore thô all the Christian World should at this Day unite in the Faith and Worship of the Council of Trent it would be as much divided from the One Church of Christ as it differs from the Faith and Worship of the Primitive Church I shall only observe here by the way what a contradiction the Worship of Saints and the Virgin Mary is to the belief of One Church For if the Church in Heaven and in Earth be but One Church then the most glorious Saints in Heaven not excepting the blessed Virgin herself are but Members of the same Body with us which makes it as absurd to Worship them in Heaven as it is for one Member of the same Body on Earth to Worship another for they are the same Body still and thô there is a great difference in honour between the Members of the same Body yet that relation that is between them will not admit of the Worship of any Member For it is no Act of Communion in the same Body for one Member to Worship another To pay Divine Honours to erect Temples and Altars to the greatest Saints advances them above the degree of fellow-Members and if they be not Fellow-Members of the same Body then the Church in Heaven and in Earth is not One Church From whence we may learn who they are who divide the Unity of the Church they who command the Worship of Saints and the Virgin or those who refuse it We believe the Church in Heaven and Earth to be the One Body of Christ and that the most glorious Saints are but Members of the same Body with us and therefore not the Objects of our Worship but of our Brotherly Love and Honour but those who Worship Saints destroy the Unity of Christ's Body by dividing the Church on Earth and the Church in Heaven for nothing is more contrary to the sense of Mankind than to Worship those of our own Communion And therefore the natural Interpretation of that Worship they pay to Saints is that they are not Members of the same Body with us but are as much above us as the Object of our Worship is and ought to be 2ly This Notion of Church-Unity that it must include the whole Church from the beginning of Christianity to the end of the World as well that part of it which is already transplanted into Heaven as that which still sojourns on Earth which is all but one Body may direct us wherein to place this Unity of the Church which to be sure can consist in nothing but what belongs to the whole Church any Notion of Unity which does
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