that which tended both to the perfecting of the Saints and to the edifying of his owne body For as it hath pleased the Father that in him all fulnesse should dwell so the Son is also pleased not to hold it any disparagement that his Body the Church should be accounted the fulnesse of him that filleth all in all That howsoever in himselfe he be most absolutely and perfectly complete yet is his Church so neerely conjoyned unto him that he holdeth not himselfe full without it but as long as any one member remaineth yet ungathered and unknit unto this mysticall body of his he accounteth in the meane time somewhat to be deficient in himselfe And therefore our Apostle having in the words immediately going before this Text declared that the Ministery was instituted for the edifying of the bodie of Christ addeth presently Till wee all come in the unitie of the faith and of the knowledge of the Sonne of GOD unto a perfect man unto the measure of the stature of the fulnesse of Christ. In which words we may obserue aswell the Matter of this Building Wee all as the Structure of it and further also consider in the Structure first the laying of the foundation In the unitie of the faith and of the knowledge of the Sonne of God secondly the bringing of the worke to perfection and the raising of it to his just height unto a perfect man unto the measure of the stature of the fulnesse of Christ The Matter then of this spirituall edifice that wee may begin with that are Wee our selves Yee also as lively stones are built up a spirituall house saith Saint Peter To this Saint Paul doth here adde a note of Vniversalitie WE ALL as suting best with the nature of the Catholick or Vniversall Church which is that body of Christ of the edifying whereof he here treateth of which therefore he telleth us more plainly in another place that by one spirit we are all baptized into one bodie whether wee be Iewes or Gentiles whether we be bond or free For the Catholick Church is not to be sought for in any one angle or quarter of the world but among all that in every place call upon the Name of Iesus Christ our Lord both theirs and ours 1 Corinthians 1.2 Therefore to their Lord and ours was it said Aske of mee and I will give thee the Heathen for thine inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession and to his mysticall body the Catholique Church accordingly I will bring thy seed from the East and gather thee from the West I will say to the North give up and to the South Keepe not backe bring my sonnes from farre and my daughters from the ends of the earth even every one that is called by my name Thus must we conceiue of the Catholick Church as of one entire body made up by the collection and aggregation of all the Faithfull unto the unitie thereof from which union there ariseth unto every one of them such a relation to and a dependance upon the Church Catholique as parts use to haue in respect of their whole Whereupon it followeth that neyther particular persons nor particular Churches are to worke as severall divided bodyes by themselues which is the ground of all Schisme but are to teach and to be taught and to doe all other Christian duties as parts conjoyned unto the whole and members of the same Common-wealth or corporation and therefore the Bishops of the ancient Church though they had the governmēt of particular Congregations onely committed unto them yet in regard of this communion which they held with the Vniversall did usually take to themselves the title of Bishops of the Catholick Church Which maketh strongly aswell against the new Separatists as the old Donatists who either hold it a thing not much materiall so they professe the faith of Christ whether they doe it in the Catholick Communion or out of it or else which is worse dote so much upon the perfectiō of their own part that they refuse to joyn in fellowship with the rest of the body of Christians as if they themselues were the onely people of God and all wisedome must live and die with them and their generation And herein of all others doe our Romanists most fearefully offend as being the authors of the most cruell schisme that ever hath been seene in the Church of God Those infamous schismes of the Novatians and Donatists were but petty rents in comparison of this huge rupture which hath pulled asunder East and West North South and growne to such a head at home that in our Western parts where this faction was so prevalent it hath for diverse ages past been esteemed Catholicke In the 17 th of the Revelation wee haue a Woman described unto us sitting upon seven mountaines and upon many waters The Woman is there expounded to be that great Citie which reigneth over the Kings of the earth The seven mountains upon which that City sate needed not to be expounded every childe knew what was meant thereby The waters are interpreted peoples and multitudes and nations and tongues Which is that very Vniversalitie and Catholicisme that the Romanists are wont so much to brag of For this Woman is the particular Church of Rome the City-Church which they call the Mother-Church the holy Ghost stileth the Mother of harlots and abominations of the earth Those peoples and multitudes nations and tongues are such as this proud Citie reigneth over the Catholick-Roman Church they are commonly called by themselves but by the holy Ghost the Beast upon which the Woman sitteth This Woman is the Head of the faction and the very Mother of this schism the Beast that is to say they that suffer themselues to be thus ridden by her are her abbettors and supporters in it For the particular Church of Rome not being content to be a fellow-fellow-member with the rest of the Churches of Christ and to haue a joynt dependance with them upō the whole body of the Church Catholick which is the Mother of us all will needs goe out of her rank and scorning any longer to be accounted one of the branches of the Catholick Church would faine be acknowledged to be the root of it so that now all other Churches must hold their dependance upon it or otherwise be cast forth as withered branches which are fit onely to be throwne into the fire and burned The wisedome of God foresaw this insolency long before-hand and therfore caused a Caveat to be entred against it even in that Epistle which was specially directed to the Church of Rome it selfe The words are plaine enough Rom. 11.18 If thou boast thou bearest not the root but the root thee The Church of Rome therefore must know that shee is no more a root to beare up other Churches than other Churches are to beare up her she may not goe
beyond her line and boast her selfe to be the root of the Catholick Church but be contented to be born her selfe by the root aswell as other particular Churches are For a streame to sever it selfe from the common Fountaine that it may bee counted a Fountaine it selfe without dependance upon any other is the next way to make an end of it and dry it up The Church of Rome may doe well to think of this and leave off her vaine boasting I sit a Queen and am no Widow and shall see no sorrow Other Churches may faile and the gates of hell may prevaile against them but it cannot fall out so with me Whereas she might remember that they were Romanes unto whom the Apostle so long since gave this admonition Be not high minded but feare For if God spared not the naturall branches take heed lest he also spare not thee Behold therefore the goodnesse and severity of God on them which fell severitie but towards thee goodnes if thou continue in his goodnesse otherwise THOU ALSO SHALT BE CUT OFF. The Romanes therefore by their pride may get a fall as well as others and the Church of Rome by infidelity may be cut off aswell as any other congregation and yet the Catholick Church subsist for all that as having for her foundation neither Rome nor Rom's Bishop but Iesus Christ the Sonne of the living God And yet this proud Dame and her daughters the particular Church of Rome I meane and that which they call the Catholick Romane or the faction rather that prevaileth in them both have in these latter ages confined the whole Church of Christ within themselves and excluded all others that were not under the Romane obedience as aliens from the Common-wealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise The Donatists were cryed out against by our forefathers for shutting up the Church within the parts of the South and rejecting all others that held not correspondency with that patch of theirs And could they thinke well then of them that should conclude the Church within the Western parts of the world and exclude all other Christians from the body of Christ that held not by the same root there that they did It is a strange thing to me that wise men should make such large discourses of the Catholique Church and bring so many testimonies to prove the Vniversalitie of it not discern that while by this means they think they have gotten a great victory over us they have in very truth overthrowne themselves for when it cōmeth to the point in stead of the Catholick Church which consisteth of the cōmunion of all nations they obtrude their own peece unto us circumscribing the Church of Christ within the precincts of the Romish jurisdiction and leaving all the world beside to the power of Sathan for with them it is a resolved case that to every creature it is altogether of necessitie to salvation to be subiect to the Romane Bishop What must then become of the poore Moscovites and Grecians to say nothing of the reformed Churches in Europe What of the Aegyptian and Aethiopian Churches in Africk what of the great companies of Christians scattered over all Asia even from Constantinople unto the East Indies which have and still doe endure more afflictions and pressures for the Name of Christ than they have ever done that would be accounted the onely friends of Christ Must these because they are not the Popes subjects be therefore denied to be Christ's subiects Because they are not under the obedience of the Romane Church doe they thereupon forfait the estate which they claime in the Catholick Church out of which there is no salvation Must we give all these for gone and conclude that they are certainly damned They who talke so much of the Catholick Church but indeed stand for their owne particular must of force sinke as low in uncharitablenesse as they have thrust themselves deep in schisme wee who talke lesse of the Vniversalitie of the Church but hold the truth of it cannot finde in our hearts to passe such a bloudy sentence upō so many poore soules that have given their Names to Christ. He whose pleasure it was to spread the Churches seed so farre said to East West North and South Giue it is not for us then to say Keepe backe He hath given to his Sonne the heathen for his inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for his possession wee for our parts dare not abbridge this grant and limit this great Lordship as we conceiue it may best fit our owne turnes but leave it to his owne latitude and seek for the Catholick Church neither in this part nor in that peece but as it hath beene before said in the words of the Apostle among all that in every place call upon the Name of Iesus Christ our Lord both theirs and ours Yea but how can this be will some say seeing the Catholike Church is but one and the principall reason for which it is accounted one is the unitie of the faith professed therein How then can this unitie of faith bee preserved in all places if one speciall Church be not set as a Mistresse over all the rest and one chiefe Bishop appointed for a Master over all others by whom in matters of faith every one must be ruled And out of such different professions as are to bee found among the divided Christians in those severall parts of the world how can there be fit matter drawne for the making up of one Vniversall Church To this I answer and so passe from the Matter of the Building to the Structure that it is most true indeede that in the Church there is one Lord one Faith one Baptisme for so we are taught by the Apostle in this chapter But yet in the first place it is to be considered that this unitie of the faith must be compassed by such meanes as God hath ordained for the procuring of it and not by any politicke trickes of mans devising Now for the bringing of us all to this unity of the faith the Apostle here telleth us that Christ gave some Apostles and some Prophets and some Evangelists and some Pastors and Teachers If he had thought that the maintenance of this unitie did depend upon the singularitie of any one Apostle or Pastor or Teacher is it to be imagined that hee would have overslipped such a singular person even in that very place where of all others his presence was most requisite and runne altogether as he doth upon the plurall number That the multitude of Teachers dispersed over the world without any such dependancie or correspondencie should agree together in laying the foundations of the same faith is a speciall worke of Gods Spirit And it is the unity of the Spirit which the Apostle here speaketh of and exhorteth us to keepe in the bond of peace Whereas the unity of which our Adversaries boast
so much which is nothing else but a wilfull suffering of themselves to be led blind-fold by one man who commonly is more blind than many of themselves is no fruit of the spirit but of meere carnall policie and may serve peradventure for a bond of peace betwixt themselues and their owne partie such as the Priests of Antichrist were to have and as many as would be content to yeeld themselves to the conduct of such a Commander but hath proved the greatest block that ever stood in the way for giving impediment to the peace and unity of the universall Church which here we looke after And therefore Nilus Archbishop of Thessalonica entring into the consideration of the original ground of that long cōtinued schisme whereby the West standeth as yet divided from the East and the Latin Churches from the Greeke wrote a whole booke purposely of this argument wherein he sheweth that there is no other cause to be assigned of this distraction but that the Pope will not permit the cognisance of the controversie unto a generall Councell but will needs sit himselfe as the alone Teacher of the point in question and have others hearken unto him as if they were his Scholars and that this is contrary both to the ordinances and the practice of the Apostles and the Fathers Neither indeed is there any hope that ever wee shall see a generall peace for matters of Religion setled in the Christian world as long as this supercilious Master shall be suffered to keepe this rule in Gods house how much soever he be magnified by his owne Disciples and made the onely foundation upon which the unitie of the Catholick Church dependeth Now in the next place for the further opening of the unitie of the faith wee are to call unto minde the distinction which the Apostle maketh betwixt the foundation and that which is builded thereupon betwixt the principles of the doctrine of Christ and that which he calleth perfection The unitie of the faith and of the knowledge of the Sonne of God here spoken of hath reference as we heard to the foundation as that which followeth of a perfect man and the measure of the stature of the fulnesse of Christ to the superstruction and perfection In the former there is a generall unitie among all true beleevers in the latter a great deale of varietie there being severall degrees of perfection to be found in severall persons according to the measure of the gift of Christ. So we see in a materiall Building that still there is but one foundation though great disparitie be observed in sundry parts of the superstruction some rooms are high some lowe some darke some lightsome some more substantially some more slightly builded and in tract of time some prove more ruinous than others yet all of them belong to one building as long as they hold together and stand upon the same foundation And even thus is it in the spirituall Building also whether we respect the practicall part of Christianitie or the intellectuall In the practicall we see wonderfull great difference betwixt Christian and Christian some by Gods mercy attaine to a higher measure of perfection and keepe themselves unspotted from the cōmon corruptions of the world others watch not so carefully over their wayes and lead not such strict lives but are oftentimes overtaken and fall fowly that he who looketh upon the one and the other would hardly thinke that one Heaven should receive them both But although the one doth so farre outstrip the other in the practice of new Obedience which is the Christian mans race yet are there certaine fundamentall principles in which they both concurre as a desire to feare Gods name repentance for sinnes past and a sincere purpose of heart for the time to come to cleave unto the LORD Which whosoever hath is under mercie and may not be excluded from the Communion of Saints In like manner for the intellectuall part the first principles of the Oracles of God as the Apostle calleth them hold the place of the common foundation in which all Christians must be grounded although some be babes and for further knowledge are unskilfull in the word of righteousnesse other some are of perfect age who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discerne both good and evill The Oracles of God containe aboundance of matter in them and whatsoever is found in them is a fit object for faith to apprehend but that all Christians should uniformely agree in the profession of all those truthes that are revealed there is a thing that rather may be wished than ever hoped for Yet the varietie of mens judgements in those manie points that belong to Theologicall faith doth not dissolve the unitie which they hold together in the fundamentall principles of the Catholick faith The unitie of the faith commended here is a Catholick unitie and such as every true Christian attaineth unto Till wee ALL come in the unitie of the faith saith the Apostle As there is a common salvation so is there a common faith which is alike precious in the highest Apostle and the meanest beleever For we may not thinke that Heaven was prepared for deepe Clerkes onely and therefore beside that larger measure of knowledge whereof all are not capable there must be a Rule of faith common to small and great which as it must consist but of few propositions for simple men cannot beare away many so is it also requisite that those articles should be of such weight and moment that they may be sufficient to make a man wise unto saluation that howsoever in other points learned men may goe beyond common Christians and exceed one another likewise by many degrees yet in respect of these radicall truthes which is the necessarie and common food of all the children of the Church there is not an unitie onely but such a kinde of equalitie also brought in among all sorts of Christians as was heretofore among the Congregation of the Israelites in the collection of their Manna where he that gathered much had nothing over and hee that gathered little had no lacke If then salvation by beleeving these common principles may be had and to salvation none can come that is not first a member of the Catholick Church of Christ it followeth thereupon that the unitie of the faith generally requisite for the incorporating of Christians into that blessed societie is not to be extended beyond those common principles Which may further be made manifest unto us by the continuall practice of the Catholick Church her selfe in the matriculation of her children and the first admittance of them into her communion For when shee prepared her Catechumeni for Baptisme and by that dore received them into the congregation of Christs flock we may not think her iudgement to have beene so weake that shee would omit any thing herein that was