impowred by authority and consisted of men orthodoxall and of just minds and of moderate temper who would make Gods will their law and Gods word their rule otherwise whereas they might be the balm of the Church they prove her bane as many have done namely the second Nicen Synod and that of Constance and the Roman under Innocent the third and many others so that the outward communion of the Church hath been often dissolved though the inward hath and must hold among the faithfull Mathe. I desire to know what the Communion of Saints is Phila. The participation of those benefits to which the Saints only have a right in common and this communion they have with God and of his benefits among themselves That they have a communion with God you may see 1 John 1.3 7. by which we have a connexion and union with him by love of him towards us and our love to him and his word and service and so as it were cohabiting and dwelling one in and with another Iohn 14.23 as a father with his children by providence children with their father by a loving obedience And this communion is express in Scripture particularly with the blessed Trinity As first with the father by being made his sons 1 Iohn 3.1 through Christ by faith Iohn 1.12 and by the vertue of the Holy Ghost who leadeth us into all saving truth Iohn 16.13 and testifieth to us that we are the children of God Rom. 8.16 17. For as the Father by his love to us draweth us to Christ Iohn 6.44 so Christ dwels in our heart by faith Eph. 3.12 and the spirit acteth and perfecteth this union and communion by his operation through his spirituall graces Rom. 8.14 Therefore as God the Father hath given us his Son so his Son hath united our nature to himselfe by an union indissoluble as a body and members to the head 1 Cor. 12.12 So the Holy Ghost doth combine him and the Saints by a true and reall union and communion of his substance not by his body being in ours or ours in his but as the branches are in the vine which though differing in sight yet agree in connexion communication and assimulation By this spirit we have communion with Christs divine nature because it dwels in us and conforms us to it selfe 2 Pet. 1.4 and also with his human nature as children are partakers of the same flesh blood Heb. 2.14 yea of the same spirit 1. Cor. 6.17 and of his sufferings also Rom. 8.17 that we may be glorified with him For by the union we have with Christ is obtained all the benefits of his birth death resurrection and ascension spoken of before together with all the blessed effects thereof wronght in us as free justification regeneration adoption and freedome from sin satan and the sinfull world with all the consequents thereof which is remission of sin resurrection of our bodies and life eternall all which is sealed to us by the two Sacraments Baptisme and the Lords Supper by both which we have communion with Christ for all that are baptized into Christ have put on Christ Gal. 3.27 and the cup of blessing and the sacramentall bread is the blood and body of Christ to faith 1 Cor. 10.16 Mathe. What need was there of two Sacraments since both of them have relation to the death of Christ Phila. He that did first institute them knew best the reason of appointing two and the Scripture which is the expresse mind of Christ sets forth baptisme to us as the Sacrament of initiation or entrance or first grafting into Christ and his mysticall body the Church The other as the Sacrament of sustentation by which we are with the word nourished up to life eternall Therefore St Paul Rom. 6.5 cals baptisme a planting into the similitude of Christs death and Rom. 11.17 he saith the Gentiles were grafted into the true olive which no doubt was at first by the word of faith preached and baptisme received And the Sacrament of the communion is represented to us as food to which Christ had some respect John 6.55 saying my flesh is meat indeed though he explains it afterward in a spirituall sense ver 63. saying the spirit quickneth the flesh profiteth nothing It is true that there is no clear analogy between grafting and washing except we consider the subject of that Sacrament in divers respects 1. As a wild tree and so by baptisme one is said to be grafted because it is a means ordained for our admittance into the stock 2. If we consider man as a polluted infant in birth naturall so washing is proper Ezek. 16.4 5. and therefore baptisme is called the washing of regeneration or the new birth and differs as much from the other Sacrament in the thing signified as in the sign for the sign of one is water of the other wine So the thing signified in the one is the all-cleansing spirit of God John 3.5 which in effectuall baptisme operates with the water the thing signified by the other is the all-cleansing blood of Christ not but that both are in both the blood of Christ concurring with baptisme through the efficacy of it though not signified by it and the Holy Ghost in the communion by his powerfull operation conveying the efficacy of his body and blood to every beleever Mathe. Though Baptisme be but the Sacrament of entrance yet there be many tender minds who cannot comfortally bring children to it as there be many being fearfull of their own unworthiness and to partake with such as are not fit as they suppose to abstain from the Lords Table I pray therefore to help me therein that I being strengthened I may comfort others Phil. First I know no reason why any Christians should doubt of bringing their children to baptisme for the reasons I have already shewed But beside if Christ did admit children that were carried in peoples arms to his person for a blessing Luke 18.15 no doubt they may be admitted to baptisme where his blessing is to be expected especially there being no other ordinance appointed whereby we may bring children to him but this and that we find no prohibition in Scripture against it And whereas some say they may not because they have not faith they cannot prove they have none because Christ saith there be little ones that beleeve in him Greg. Decret lib. 3. cap. â— de baptis Nor can they prove that none may be baptized that beleeve not for Simon Magus was If they say that he made a confession of it I say they may make a better confession and profession by their parents and witnesses than he did by himselfe Or if there were a Text containing these words he that beleeveth not shall not be baptized would discreet men think it meant only of those that could hear and understand and not of Infants who cannot understand no more then that place of St Mark 16.16 includes infants damnation where Christ
wander and so help to nourish Christian communion which is almost lost And this is all he aimeth at and praieth for who is and ever by Gods grace will be Thine as thou art Christs Benjamin Spencer These Books following are printed and to be sold by William Hope on the North side of the Royall Exchange at his shop next door to St Bartholomews Church THE Faith Doctrine and Religion professed in this Realm of England and the Dominions thereunto belonging Expressed in Thirty Nine Articles by Thomas Rogers The Balm of Gilead Or Comforts for the Distressed Also his Devout Soule and Free Prisoner by Jos Hall D. D. and B N. The New Covenant Or The Saints Portion by John Preston D.D. Bethel Or A form for Families in which all sorts of both Sexes are so squar'd and fram'd by the Word as they may best serve in their severall places for usefull pieces in Gods building by Matthew Griffith The Holy Lives of Gods Prophets by J. H. The Abridgement of the Body of Divinity of that Famous and Reverend Divine Mr William Perkins A True Relation of the Unjust Cruel and Barbarous proceedings against the English at Amboyna in the East-Indies by the Netherlandish Governor and Council there Godly Meditations upon the most holy Sacrament of the Lords Supper by Christopher Sutton Doctor in Divinity late one of the Prebends of the Collegiate Church of Westminster A Fountain of Teares by that Reverend divine Iohn Featley D.D. Chaplain to his late Majesty Some Sacramentall Instructions Or An explication of the Principles of Religion by T. B. B D. Pastor of M. O. London A Triumphant Arch Erected and Consecrated to the Glory of the Feminine Sex By Monsieur de Scudery Englished by I. B. Gent. The Generall History of Women Containing the Lives of the most Holy and Prophane the most Famous and Infamous in all ages exactly described not only from Poeticall Fictions but from the most Ancient Modern and admired Historians to our times by T. H. Gent. Heroick Education Or Choice Maximes and Instructions for the most sure and facile training up of youth in the waies of eminent learning and vertues by I. B. Gent. Gerardo the Unfortunate Spaniard Or a Pattern for Lascivious Lovers Originally in Spanish and made English by L. D. Poems By Francis Beaumont Gent. Colloquia Plautina viginti Ex totidem M. Plauti Comoediis excerpta Annotatiunculis marginalibus illustrata Opera Alexandri Rossaei A CHRISTIAN DIALOGVE between PHILALETHES and MATHETES Mathetes REverend Sir I have presumed upon your goodnesse and long acquaintance you being a lover of truth and of all those that love it to designe this day to wait upon you and to give you the trouble to satisfie some questions whereby my mind may be established in this wavering world wherein severall societies of Christians do all lay claime to truth as theirs only with as great fervency as the two women pleaded before King Solomon for the child which could not possibly have two mothers So surely there is but one truth and but one right and true profession of it Philalethes I hope your Religion is not now to seek Mathe. Not altogether but I confess I would be glad to find satisfaction more fully about that religion in which I was born and bred that so I may not beleeve implicitly as because my parents were of this or that religion but that I may be able to render a reason of mine own faith Phila. Your endeavour is good but I fear you are troubled with the staggers or vertigo a braine giddinesse bred by the inordinate motion of spirits in the ventricle of the brain so I beleeve your mind is made light and frothy by some evil notions unwarily received or by a multitude of good notions not wel disposed like unto good meat that being not well digested will breed a disease as well as vicious diet this may be some cause of your wavering Mathe. I think Sir you say right For I confesse to you that I have met with some spirits that have made me in such a maze and brought me into such alabyrinth that I have turned Seeker of what I had and a Shaker in what I held yet I find my first tenets in the Protestant Religion to be the best but I want confirmation For some tell me that I cannot prove there is a God or that man hath asoule immortall more then other creatures and that it comes only by generation and hath no existence after death And when I endeavour to confute them by Scripture they bid me prove the Scriture to be the word of God when I seek to prove that by Scripture they say it cannot bear witness to its selfe for that is to prove the same by the same If I flie to the tradition of the Church they aske me what Church is the true Church Or if I offer them the sence of Scripture to prove what they demand then they ask me who shall be judge whether that be the true sense or no If I say our Church of England Gabr à porta Bicl in can miss lect 23. they deny her to be true If I say the Church of Rome others prove her and her Pope too Hereticall If I say the reformed Churches of Geneva Helvetia or Scotland they tell me they are schismaticall so that I am in a great straight with Job to know where wisdome is to be found Job 28.12 or where is the place of understanding Phila. You need not seek far the word is neer thee from whence such reasons may be deduced that will answer all these opinions But if men will not hear these reasons I must tell them they have no faith but either humane or divelish not divine faith which beleeves that there is a word of God and beleeves God upon that word But I will not anticipate tell me therefore what was the first thing which troubled you Mathe. Even the same with which I troubled my selfe being a child or something else troubled me by casting into my mind what that God was of whom my parents had told me whether he was before the world what he did then before he made it And I have met with some of as little wit as I my selfe then had or else of deeper reach either to bring us into some form which yet we have not had or else to bring us all to confusion and then out of that chaos to raise up a Church of their own framing and boast of it as did Nebuchadnezzer Is not this great Babel which I have built Phila. As these thoughts came into your mind for want of knowledge of God at first so do these scrupulous queries come into it for want of subjecting your selfe to that knowledge which God hath offered to you of himselfe For the soul of man being rational and discoursive will run into many vagaries and grow extravagant without rule and so misse God wherein standeth mans eternall happinesse Mathe.
Quest 1 Is there a way then for a man to attain eternall happinesse Phila. Yes First if there were no eternall happinesse God had made man in vain with so vast a mind which no finite thing can satisfie and then there must be a way to this happinesse or else that happinesse is ordained in vain also for man Mathe. Some think it is not necessary to know any more happiness then nature sheweth and dictates to us Phila. Nature sheweth in part that felicity which is necessary for man to know but not fully but as in the wrong end of an optick glass which makes things appear farther off or lesse then they are or else sheweth us a false felicity as in a magnifying or multiplying glasse wherein it appeareth bigger or more then it is all which sheweth there is an happinesse though nature mistakes it or cannot perfectly shew it though it be necessary for us to know it Mathe. How prove you it is necessary for us to know it Phila. 1. Because I have a soule capable of such a knowledge nor is an industrious soule quiet till it find either it or something like it wherein it may find a rest and content Therefore the spirit of a man is the candle of God to search hidden secrets Pro. 20.27 yea even the things of God 1 Cor. 2.10 and by desire a man having separated himselfe seeks and intermedleth with all wisedome Pro. 18.1 2. Because man is made for it God intended him for happinesse For as the world was made that God might be revealed so God was revealed that man might know him which is felicity God sought to bring man to it first by obedience wherein he failing thereby shewing the mutability of created nature God next set before him the object of beleeving viz. his promise of Christ to know whom in God is life eternall John 17.3 and felicity 3. Because man is a future not only a present creature for he hath a soul which will be existent after death in joy or sorrow and therefore necessary for him to know felicity and to avoid misery Mathe. How prove you that he hath such a soule Phila. From our immortall desires to live either in memory or posterity for ever which argueth the immortall nature of the soule though it be deceived in the choise of it by placing immortality where it is not So Absalom set up his monumentall pillar 2 Sam. 18.18 and some call their lands after their own names Psa 49.12 and men desire tombs which argueth a desire of perpetuall life No creature hath this desire but man for things without life desire to preserve themselves in their particular being Secundum numerum pronunc Vid. Scor. Dist 94. and beasts desire the continuance of their kind only for the present time but man desires a perpetuall being included in no bounds 2. Because it hath a kind of infinit apprehension comprehending singular things and universall things and the kinds of all things which argueth an immortall nature 3. Because God hath made a perpetuall covenant with man Numb 18.19 and therefore the soul hath a continuall being in or out of the body else is the Covenant ended But God is not the God of the dead Mat. 22.32.33 but of the living for all do live to him therefore he cals himselfe the God of the Patriarchs after their death Exod. 3.6 so some in scripture are said to be gathered to their fathers in peace though slaine as 2 Chron. 35. as good Josiah But it is meant to the spirit of the Fathers which were at rest and peace with God bound up in the bundle of life 2 Sam. 25.29 among the spirits of just men made perfect Heb. 12.23 4. Because men undergo losse and crosse and death without cause joifully which were madnesse if the soule were not immortall and expected after death some felicity to enjoy 1 Cor. 15.19 But many love not their lives that they may find them hereafter Mar. 8.35 5. Because God in the last judgement may shew himselfe just as Gen. 18.23 for in this world good men suffer and evill men flourish Psal 37. Psal 71.2 3. so Jer. 12.1 yet it is but to fat them for the slaughter Jer. 12.3 Therefore the soule is immortall that every man may find the justice of God at last 6. The learned heathen did acknowledge this Arist Cic. Tusc 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 calling the soul the first motion as if it were the beginning of motion so by their letting an Eagle flie aloft when the bodies of their Heroes were put into the funerall fires It is true that the Scripture saith the soul that sinneth that shall die but the meaning is not that the soul shall be dissolved in his essentiall life but in the relative life to God-ward by whose goodness and mercy it obtaineth an eternall felicity Mathe. But how can I prove that it hath any existence after the death of the body Phila. Because it is distinguished in this by all wise men from the souls or life of bruits for the spirit of a man goeth upward and the spirit of a beast goeth downward Eccles 3.21 And again Eccles 12.7 the dust shall return to the earth and the spirit to God that gave it which returning to God signifies the souls immortality Psallus that is as God alwaies is so the soule is subsisting with God for if the soule be immortall it cannot wax old Phocylid but must live ever so that you must denie the soule to be immortall or else grant that it never dieth But the old Chaldeans and Egyptians shall rise against such Christians whose precept was that a man should make haste to the light and splendors of the Father and to seek Paradise which is the splendid and cleer region of the soule Trismegistus confirms the perpetuall being of the soul Cic. Tusc Pythagoras saith as much and Tully from him Epictetus saith we are the kinsmen of God and return from whence we came Plat. in Phaed. Comment Mo◠Zill Hisp in Plat. Plato is more clear then any And St Paul himselfe makes use of Aratus in the Acts saying We are Gods off-spring Acts 17.28 But beside Christ gives us greater light in the point John 3.36 saying He that beleeveth in me hath life eternall and to the thief he said This day thou shalt be with me when as that day both their bodies were dead 1 Cor. 5.1 So St Paul saith We know when this earthly house is dissolved we have a building of God in the heavens He doth not say when this house shall be repaired as at the resurrection but so soon as it is dissolved So in the fifth verse saith he When we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord and therefore are willing to be absent from the body to be present with the Lord therefore he desired to be dissolved and to be with Christ And St Stephen praieth God to
bring both to passe 1. His salvation being he was born to be a King a Priest and a Prophet by which three offices he could effect all that belonged to mans salvation To deliver as a King to instruct him as a Prophet Acts 4.12 to purge him from sin as a Priest 2. To bring him to peace with God above him and to peace about him with Angels and men to peace within him in his conscience and to peace belowe him for hell cannot hurt him though it would all which may be gathered from the Angels song Luke 2.14 But to the wicked it brought judgement even to make them stumble and fall Luke 2.34 because he brought light and men loved darknesse rather John 3.19 Beside nothing about his birth but had some effectuall signification for he was born at Bethelem the house of bread to shew that in effect he should be the bread of the houshold of faith So born in the fulnesse of time when the Church was at the lowest ebbe and no hope on earth was left for it to effect faith in the Church that God could help when all help in man was past So he was born poor and thereby not only made us rich but also taught us with him to trample upon world pomp and glory since by lying in the manger he procured us an heavenly mansion And the very publishing of his birth unto the wisemen and simple shepherds to Gentiles and Jewes to Anna as well as Simeon shewed that his birth should take effect on Jewes and Greeks learned and simple male and female and all should be one in Christ Jesus Gal. 3.21 Mathe. I pray tell me how could Christ suffer being God and man 2. Why he so suffered and what is the effect of it upon us Phila. For the first Quere how Christ suffered We understand that though the sufferings of Christ belonged to his whole person and so is attributed to both natures yet only to the humane nature sensibly and to the divine relatively For the divine nature cannot suffer being immutable nor die being immortall yet as his person consisteth of both natures his sufferings belonged to both For the word divine was not severed from the humane nature neither in his birth nor suffering Nor was the nature inviolable hurt by the sufferings of the nature passible no more then the beams of the Sun that shineth on a tree is wounded by the Axe that felleth the tree And thus we are to understand those phrases Acts 20.28 that God redeemed the Church with his blood and 2 Cor. 2.8 the Lord of Glory was crucified 2. The reason why he suffered for us as it was not casuall but by divine providence the drops of his cup were measured by the determinate counsell and foreknowledge of God And this was so 1. That the Scripture might be fulfilled Luke 24.26 27. and God found true of his word just in all his waies not sparing his own Son being but surety for us how can wilfull sinners expect to escape Gods wrath 2. That he might revive the pattern of patience almost decaied and lost and leave it to us to imitate 1 Pet. 2.21 That we might be consecrated by affliction as he the Prince of our salvation was 3. That he might deliver us from the bondage of the ceremoniall Law Gal. 3.13 Also that he being made sensible of our sufferings might become a more mercifull High Priest to us and more apt to succour us in temptations Heb. 2.17 and 4.15 Beside he suffered that he might reconcile us to God 1 Pet. 3.18 by being made an expiation for us and condemning our sins in his flesh Isa 53.5 and Rom. 8.3 For if one died for all then are all dead to that fault for which he died so that our disease of sin is cured by the mediation of his passion and by the speciall vertue of his Ordinances operating in us by the Holy Ghosts application of Christs sufferings to us Lastly that we might being sprinkled with his blood enter within the vaile namely into heaven the Holy of Holies from whence for sin we are shut out as well as out of paradise Mathe. What use may we make of this Phila. 1. It teacheth that those sufferings have relation only to the Son not to the Father nor to the Holy Ghost 2. To wonder at this gracious work that the Son of God should be condemned by the sons of men that righteousnesse it selfe should be condemned by the unrighteous that the God of order should be corrected with rods that the nower of God should be weakned salvation wounded and life killed Also to think on the hatefulnesse of sin that brings God to suffering and to be pitifully affected with the sufferings of such an eminent person yet to wax strong in faith because such an one hath made satisfaction 1 John 3.7 and to be ready to suffer from wicked men because he did so Heb. 12.3 and 1 Pet. 2.18 And farther to distinguish rightly for whom he suffered It was not for all but for all the elect therefore Mat. 26.28 it is said his blood is shed for many for Christ will not know some Mat. 7.23 Nor did he pray for the world but for those that God gave him out of the world So he gave his life for his sheep not for goats nor swine for his righteousnesse extends to all them that beleeve Rom. 3.22 As those were only cured that looked on the brazen serpent and turn from transgression in Jacob Isa 59.20 and are ruled by the voice of this Shepherd and are conformed to his Image by afflictions and that dedicate their lives and services to him that died for them 2 Cor. 5.15 All which should make us 1. To be affected with his love which was never paralleld The just died for the unjust 1 Pet. 3.18 whereas few or none will die for a just man Rom. 5.7 but he for us which were ungodly yea his enemies Rom. 5.10 and never sought to him for any kindnesse much lesse thought of such a kindnesse that Piety would be scourged for impious man Wisdome derided for fools â— Truth denied for lyars Justice condemned for unjust men Life to die for dead men 2. To be ready to suffec for him or for one another 1 John 3.16 And 3. To plead his sufferings before God against our sins and satans accusations and not to feare but that seeing such a price is paid for our reconcilement that God will save us being reconciled Rom. 5.10 And 4. Being this sweet Passeover is sacrificed for us to purge away the old leaven of malice and wickednesse and all corruptions and become a new lump full of sincerity and truth 1 Cor. 5.7 8. Mathe. How can the suffering of one satisfie for the sins of many and how is it just in God to punish the righteous for the unrighteous Phila. His suffering is a sufficient satisfaction for all because of the dignity of his person God and Man which made
First to men so that is honor we prefer before our selves those whom we ought and as much as we ought and so by humility candor and modesty we destroy pride and hypocrisie So we must be ready to benefit all men out of the sincere affection of charity Heb. 13.1 2. because the end why God gives his benefits is that they may be bestowed for the common good of the Church as God bestoweth his providence in common among good and bad and we know not fully who are good and who may not be made good by our charity they all bearing outwardly to us the same image of God and the similitude of Christs members Now secondly the deniall of our selves in relation to God standeth in these two things First in an equanimity and a fair construction of mind in all actions and state of life Secondly in bearing the crosse aright The first of these appears in our being subject to Gods will in all things and in shunning ambition and covetousnesse and expect prosperity only from God depending only upon him and not desire riches or honours without him or out of him and therefore to follow no wicked arts to compasse them but to cast all the burden and care of them only upon him and so not envy any mans prosperity but commit all accidents of life to Gods will as afflictions diseases and poverty and the death of friends and to bear all with patience Secondly the deniall of our selves in relation to God stands in the right carriage of the cross and a moderate bearing of that adversity which God sends upon us by what hand soever it be outwardly afflicted Mat. 5.4 and so obtain the blessing of the mourners comfort which causeth us though troubled yet not distressed though perplexed yet not in despaire persecuted yet not forsaken cast down but not destroied 2 Cor. 4.8 9. This is done first by considering how the glory of God is illustrated by freeing his people from it as 2 Tim. 4.17 18. and how we are taught to hate both sin the devill the world and the flesh John 15.19 and to serve God not for worldly pleasure and advantage but for his own sake Rom. 5.5 And secondly it is done by considering the comforts of the crosse which are First that God hath purposed and appointed all the sufferings of the Church and neither men nor devils can add to them one jot more then he hath determined John 19.11 Acts 4.28 And secondly that our sins are forgiven us in Christ with whom and for whom we suffer 2 Tim. 2.12 if we suffer for a good conscience which makes the event of the crosse happy 1 Pet. 4.13 14. and gives us hope of an eternall reward by the example of Christ Phil. 2.9 and of the Saints Heb. 11.2 who by faith and patience obtained a good report because they suffered for righteousnesse Mat. 5.10 The next businesse of a Christian life is to meditate on the life to come as those that behold things promised afar off and seek another country beside and above this world Heb. 11.13 14. This meditation includeth a contempt of the world as of riches honours pleasure and of death which like physick doth evacuate many evill humours by considering the various afflictions of this life and that all the joy and pleasures of it are but momentany and yet hinder us from imploying the mind about heaven though themselves have in them neither continuance nor contentment they neither satisfie nor sanctifie us but are like painted reeds gay vanities without but hollow within though we run after them as children after butter flies and get a fall by following and some hurt by heedlesse pursuing them And this contempt of the world would be the more seriously performed if we consider that here we are exiles from home i. from heaven 2 Cor. 5.9 and therefore we should have a most serious and joifull desire of the life to come which would make us either value death as nothing or else look upon it as Christ hath made it namely an entrance into life and a freeing us from our step-mother the world by delivering us to the heavenly Jerusalem which is the mother of us all Indeed if we do not thus the common creature shames us who sigh and grone to be delivered Rom. 8.19 And the heathen wise men and Philosophers thought it their glory to contemn death yet I do not say that this life or the things thereof are altogether to be detested for they are the blessings of God and testimonies of his good will to help through this wildernesse of sin but so far to contemn them as they make us obnoxius to sin Therefore the third part of a Christian life is to make a right use of those that God hath afforded us in this life In this case we must mark the right use and abuse of those things The right use is to make them serve our necessity not superfluity and to increase our delight in and praise to God Psal 104.1 15. and so tasting thou maist see how good the Lord is The abuse when first we exceed our measure and incline to extreams God makes our cup overflow and we make it overflow us Or secondly when we are too abstemious in denying to our selves the lawfull use of the creatures which God hath given us to lead us to acknowledge the bounty of the Creator The one way we make our belly our God Phil. 3.19 The other are too superstitious as were the Essens Col. 2.21 the one through too much love of the creature doth extinguish the meditation of the life to come and the other doth frustrate the favor of God offered to him in this life of both which faults we must give an account especially we being of the true Catholick Church which teacheth the right use of these things and are well understood by those that are of the communion of Saints Mathe. What mean you by the Catholike Church and whether is it alwaies in the same state Then I desire to know what the communion of Saints is and next what kind of government this Church hath alwaies had and allowed Phila. By the Catholick Church I mean that which is intended in the Creed which I beleeve to be though I beleeve not in it as I do in the holy Trinity yet that it is and ever will be while the world endureth notwithstanding all the power of Satan Mat. 16.10 And of this Church we are to beleeve that we are members and professe our selves to be joined thereunto and to live and die members thereof Now this Catholike Church is the City of the living God or a company of holy men who by the free election of God are called to union with Christ God and man to life eternall as well those soules that are triumphant in heaven as those people that are militant here on earth Col. 1.18 of all which Christ is the head for I reckon not Angels to be of the Church but