but Quakers There are others who frame to themselves other reasons of separation from Parochial Communion in Worship besides its being performed by the Liturgy as namely because those Congregations are not as they pretend constituted of visible Saints nor by a Church Covenant Who these are is well known for whose sakes several of my former Inquiries are made in which there are such things produced from the holy Scriptures as may I suppose be sufficient to satisfie their reason if not their prejudice touching their mistake in these opinions As for their exceptions against the Government of the Church by Bishops as Diocesan how they would make Communion with the particular Congregations under their Jurisdiction unlawful upon that account I understand not unless they think the Ministers of those Congregations by whom the Ordinances are administred to be no true Ministers because Episcopally ordained and not by Presbyters And if this should be their scruple they may easily receive satisfaction by considering that Diocesan Bishops were Presbyters before they were Bishops and therefore must needs remain so after For they were not devested of any Ministerial power or authority by being made Bishops but only invested with a superaddition of authority and power they had not before So that they who are ordained by them are ordained by a Presbyterial authority and more And with this the old Nonconformists satisfied themselves touching the validity of their Ministerial authority received by Ordination from the Bishops that then were Some again dislike Parochial Communion because the Civil Power is so much concerned as it is in Ecclesiastical affairs relating to it one way or other and for that all such things are not left wholly to the ordering of Ecclesiastical Rulers as they were in the Apostles times and long after But there is not the same reason why they should be so left now as there was why they were so then The reason why they were wholly left then to the ordering of an Ecclesiastical Power was because there was no Civil Powers as Christian then in being so that they could not promote Christianity better any other way But it is not so now for it is shewed in our last former Inquiry but one that the affairs of the Gospel and the Salvation of men in a Christian Kingdom or State may better be provided for and promoted by a national Constitution than they can be without it And that therefore things of this nature are not to be ordered as if we were still in a Pagan Kingdom when we are not For where the reason of things is altered it is but reasonable and fit that there should be a sutable alteration in the things themselves Thus the gesture of standing with Loyns girt and a Staff in the hand appointed to be used in eating the Passover at the first Institution of it for that it was then to be eaten in haste was afterwards altered to another gesture by the Church when that Circumstance of eating in haste ceased and our Saviour himself did eat it in that posture to which the Church had changed it which is a consideration of very great weight in reference to this and some other cases And the Obligation of the Ceremonial Law ceased upon the same ground when the substance was come which had been prefigured by Ceremonial Rites And the like might be observed touching the discontinuance and disuse of anointing the sick washing Disciples feet and the kiss of Charity and some other things which were obliging until the reason of the Obligation ceased But altho the Civil Power doth concern it self by a National Constitution to order and direct in things appertaining to the Church for the promoting of Religion and the Salvation of men yet it does not this without the advice and assistance of those that are Officers and bear rule in the Church And when the Civil Powers have gone as far as they think fit in ordering and directing by Ecclesiastical advice and assistance yet they do not act any thing themselves peculiar to the Ministry of the Church but leave all such things wholly to them who are invested with Ministerial authority reserving only to themselves a power os restraining such men from an undue exercise of their Office tending to publick disturbance And thus I have endeavoured to satisfie the Dissenters that there is no sufficient reason or cause for them to separate from the Publick Worship of our Parochial Assembles and that their pretences for their doing so when narrowly looked into are found to have nothing of substance in them sufficient to bear them out in it And if I am not mistaken in my Allegations and reasonings I cannot discern how their separation can possibly be defended from being an unlawful Schism And if it be I am sure they have upon many accounts great reason to desist from engaging farther in it QUERY XV. SVpposing things touching visible Church-Membership and Communion to be as they have been represented in our former Inquiries yet how do they tend to lessen our Church Divisions The answer to which is That if the matters of our Inquiry be as they have been represented then they tend to lessen our Church-divisions by removing and taking away the very foundation on which they and our Church-separations are in great part at least built For I do not know any one of the different Parties among the Protestant Dissenters except those called Presbyterian who do not found their separation from our Parish Churches at least principally upon this supposition that they are not constituted according to the order of the Gospel And why not according to the Order of the Gospel but because as they say they are not constituted ol Gospel matter that is not of visible Saints but of such as for a great part of them at least were never duly reputed to be regenerate or to be of the Invisible Church and their meaning is as I collect both from their Writings and Converse That they were not at first nor since constituted of such particular members only as at the time of such their Constitution had a probable appearance of Regeneration but of all baptized persons however they proved good or bad and without any other probation or discrimination Now if those things be true which have been endeavoured to be proved to be so in the management of the former Enquiries Then this ground on which they build their separation is altogether unsound and such as has no firmness or substance in it but is only imaginary For our Parish Congregations are constituted of persons visibly in Covenant with God the Father Son and Holy Ghost by being baptized in their name and thereby engaged to be theirs to worship and serve the Father by the Son through the assistance of the Spirit And of such and no other were the Churches planted by the Apostles constituted And this Covenanting was then and so is now the visible formal difference between those of the Visible
that have aggravated their crime in not observing the Covenant consented to by their Fore-fathers unless they their Posterity had been obliged by their Fore-fathers consenting to it Thirdly God calls those Children of Idolatrous Jews his Children whom they Sacrificed to their Idols and says they were born unto him Ezek. 16.20 21. 23.37 And upon what account were they so but by being the Children of Parents in Covenant with God tho now they had violated it and by being farther brought into Covenant with God by their Parents Circumcising them It seems that Covenant which had obliged the Parents to be Gods obliged those that were born of them to be so likewise and much more were they thus obliged when their Parents had brought them into Covenant with God by Circumcising them Tho such Parents had forfeited their Covenant interest in God yet they had not by that by which they did so made void Gods Covenant right to them and their Children but that they were still under an Obligation to him to be his Upon which account it is as it is probable that God is called the God of some men when yet they have been very bad as we may see 1 King 15.3 2 King 16.2 2 Chron. 28.5 36.5.12 Fourthly It was the Parents that Circumcised their Children of eight days old and not the Children themselves and yet these Children were as firmly obliged by it when grown to be men as if they had then Circumcised themselves I testifie again to every man that is Circumcised that he is a debtor to do the whole Law saith St. Paul Gal. 5.3 And if they were obliged by what their Parents did in Circumcising them to perform the duty on their part whenever they were capable of it we may well conceive that by what their Parents did in entring them into Covenant by Circumcising them they were invested with the benefit promised on Gods part until they devested themselves of it by their actual and wilful transgressing the Covenant in not becoming a People unto God in correspondence to his Promise of being a God unto them And the truth is according to Scripture account little Children which were devoted to the Service of God by their Parents and designed to be trained up to it were by a favourable construction reputed to be doers of that Service while but little Children which they could not actually perform until they were past their Child-hood This is plain and express in one case and by purity of reason must be allowed in other under like circumstances The Children of the Koathites of a month old were said to keep the charge of the Sanctuary because they were designed and devoted for it by their Parents then tho they could not actually perform that Service until they attained unto more years Numb 3.27 28. These are the Families of the Koathites in the number of all the Males from a month old and upwards were eight thousand and six hundred keeping the charge of the Sanctuary And the contrary practice of Parents was accompanied with a contrary event in their Children If they did not devote their Children to the Service of God by Circumcising them when they should their Children were reputed breakers of the Covenant whereas their Parents properly were so by neglecting to fulfil the terms of it on their Childrens behalf The Vncircumcised Man-child whose flesh of his fore-skin is not Circumcised that soul shall be cut off from his People he hath broken my Covenant Gen. 17.14 And thus were the little Children of Proselytes also made parties in Gods Covenant by their Fathers taking hold of it and by entering their Male-Children with themselves into it by Circumcision Exod. 12.48 Nor is it at all unreasonable that the Children should be obliged by what their Parents did to that end in their Minority so long as it was in nothing but what the Children ought then to have obliged themselves to if they had been capable to have done so and which in duty they ought to oblige themselves to when come to years of discretion if their Parents had not done it for them before Parents as Parents have so great an Interest and Propriety in their Children and so great Authority over them and Power of disposing of them that what they oblige them to by their act and deed will and command in their Minority they ought in duty to observe and do if the things be not unreasonable in themselves nor countermanded by God as having a greater Interest in them and Authority over them than their Parents had This is so reasonable as that we see God himself approves of it and has founded his own Institution upon it of obliging little Children by Covenanting with him by the act and deed of their Parents If a man by his Will and Testament oblige his Son and Heir to any thing which is fair and reasonable it is a dishonourable thing among men for such a Child to esteem himself not obliged thereby to do it If it be but a mans Covenant or Testament yet if it be confirmed no man disannulleth it saith S. Paul Gal. 3.15 And thus we see how little Children become obliged in Covenant with God and visible Members of his Church by the act and deed of their Parents on their behalf both before the Law of Moses and under it Let us now consider whether the little Children of Christians under the New Testament be not brought into Covenant with God and made Members of the visible Church by the act and deed of their Parents as well and as much as others had been in times of the Old Testament It cannot be denied but that Christian-Parents have as great a Propriety in and as much Authority over their Children now as ever Parents had under the Law And if so they must needs be in the same capacity of obliging their little Children by their act and deed on their behalf in any thing that is for their benefit as they were Nor is it less the duty of Children now to be obliged by what their Parents do in their Minority on their behalf for their benefit than it was then Honour thy Father and thy Mother is of as much force to Children now as ever it was in Old Testament times These things are clearly seen by the light of nature And now we deny not but that it is as much the duty of Parents now to seek the good of their Children by doing that for them in their Minority which tends to their benefit as ever it was heretofore All things being supposed it must be granted that Parents are in as good a capacity to oblige their little Children to God in Covenant now by what they may do on their behalf in their Minority as ever Parents were heretofore They may dedicate and devote them to God and his Service by Baptism now as well as Parents could by Circumcision heretofore And Baptism does as much oblige the Baptized in Covenant with
undissembled belief was that I doubt not which Philip required of the Eunuch when he said If thou believest with all thine heart thou maist be Baptized And the Eunuchs answer upon which he was Baptized by Philip does intimate so much when he only said I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God And more than this I conceive cannot be duly inferred from those words of Philip to the Eunuch for the reasons I have already given These are the principal Texts made use of to countenance the opinion which I have in this Inquiry opposed There are objections or pleas drawn from some other which are well answered by Mr. Thomas Lamb as some of these I have insisted on also are in his fresh suit against Independency And thus upon our Inquiry we have found as I conceive that others are of the Visible Church in Scripture account and so in Gods account by whose inspiration the Scriptures were written than those which are of the Church as Invisible or them that seem to be so For Almighty God as has been shown accounteth and owneth such to be his People in distinction from the rest of the world that have entered into Covenant with him tho otherwise they or many of them are far from seeming to be of the Church as Invisible And if God esteem of them as such then so must his Servants likewise and if the Scripture account them such it will become us to do so too who profess to make the holy Scriptures the rule of our judgment After that upon our Inquiry we have found things thus Let not any man now say that by this doctrine we confound the Kingdom of the Devil with the Kingdom of God For this would but reflect after an unseemly manner upon the wisdom of God for thus numbering bad men as well as good to be of his Visible Church as externally related to him and as worshippers of him Secret Hypocrites belong to the Kingdom of the Devil as well as those that are more visibly such and yet none deny but that many such are in the Visible Church nor do they count this a confounding Gods Kingdom with the Devils There is no doubt but that the Devil has his Visible and Invisible Kingdom as well as God has his But those Hypocrites whether secret or more open which are of the Visible Church tho they are in a sence of the Kingdom of the Devil yet must be reckoned to be not of his Visible but of his Invisible Kingdom So that the Hypothesis I seek to establish does not at all tend to confound Gods visible Kingdom and the Devils visible Kingdom one with another much less their Invisible Kingdoms For those are not in Scripture reckoned to be of the Visible Kingdom of the Devil who professedly worship the true God and him only and Jesus Christ as his Son and only Mediator tho otherwise bad But such as worship Idols other gods and other mediators in doing of which they do in effect worship the Devil who is the founder of such worship Those Kingdoms or Nations are in Scripture counted of the Devils Kingdom or Dominion in which his Worship and Ordinances Idol-worship and the Rites of that worship are established by publick Authority as the Religion of those Nations As on the contrary those Nations or Kingdoms are counted Gods Kingdoms in which the Word and Worship of God are by publick Authority owned and established as the Religion of those Nations Thus when Idol worship was put down and cast out of the several Territories of the Roman Empire by the first Christian Emperors and the Christian Religion established by publick Authority as the Religion of those Nations then the Devil was said to be cast down and the Kingdom of God and the power of his Christ to be come Rev. 12.9 10. And again The Kingdoms of this world are said to become the Kingdoms of the Lord and of his Christ When idol-worship which is Devillish worship is rejected by the Authority of those Kingdoms Revel 11.15 Not that there shall be no Hypocrites or Carnal Professors of Christianity in these Kingdoms when they are thus become the Kingdoms of the Lord and of his Christ But tho there be 〈◊〉 as the true Christian doctrine and worship is owned and established by the Government or ruling power of those Kingdoms and so long as the generality of the Inhabitants are for the same doctrine and worship in opposition to Idolatrous and Antichristian doctrine and worship they are accounted to belong to Gods Visible Kingdom in the world and not the Devils however many of those Inhabitants may belong to the Invisible Kingdom of the Devil And thus those are called the Children of Gods Kingdom by our Saviour who yet at last shall be cast out into outer darkness Mat. 8.12 But of this more afterwards QUERY IX WHether God hath granted any right to Church-priviledges to those who are only of the Church as Visible but not as Invisible That such have right to them before men unless they are justly deprived of them by Church-censures those will grant who yet deny that they have any right to them by Gods allowance But our present enquiry is whether they have any right by Gods allowance And if that be true which we now suppose we found to be so in our former enquiry viz. that God himself doth own very many such to be of the Church as Visible which yet are not at all of it as Invisible then it will be but reasonable to conclude from thence that he does allow them a share in the external and temporary priviledges of that relation except in those cases wherein he himself hath made an exception For otherwise God by conferring on them the priviledge of Relation to himself and his Church has conferred upon them a right to the priviledges of that relation so far as the relation it self extends For the relation and the priviledges of the relation go together except in case of forfeiture by miscarriage The union of parts does of it self infer right to communion with them in things common to the whole The right of those in the Visible Church to Visible Church-priviledges does arise I conceive from that Covenanting between God and them in Baptism by which they engaged themselves to be his People as God on the other hand had engaged himself to be their God on that condition Now for ought that appears from the Scriptures to the contrary so far as they perform Covenant with God in being a People unto him so far he owns them to be his People and so far as he does so he allows them the priviledge of his People which is a share in his houshold fare and in the provisions for his Family which are his Word and Ordinances If they worship no other God and hold the Head Christ Jesus in point of doctrine and worship and own his doctrine and precepts as the rule of faith and life and worship God in
of Peace and Charity and to the hurt of mens souls thereby and to the great dishonour of our Religion and to the hinderance of its good effects upon the minds and lives of men 3. Altho the Publick Worship should be set up in all places of a Christian Nation yet if men should be under no Obligation by Law to attend it it would doubtless be much more neglected by many than when there is But the more men are brought to attend the means by which God works Grace in them tho it be but by virtue of the Law they are brought to it yet the more hope and probability there is of their being savingly wrought upon 4. If whosoever shall pretend himself qualified for it should have liberty to gather a Congregation it would be the leaving open a door of opportunity to Seducers to subvert mens Souls and to fill a Nation with variety of Sects and the mischievous effects of them And yet so it would be if there were no publick Government in the Church to restrain men And to this day we feel the very sad effects of so great a liberty sometime indulged Thus we see for what reason true Religion should be promoted by National Authority And as to matter of fact it is sufficiently known that those who have had the Supream Power in all Nations have been wont always to promote by their Authority that which they have thought to be the true Religion whether it hath been true or false And whence comes this but from the light and Law of Nature which directs men to use the Power and Interest they have to further the Worshipping of the God whom they serve And indeed Christians of all pesuasions are willing enough to have the Civil Power to exert it self in furthering their own way of Worshipping God The People of New England who once were as much for Liberty of Conscience as any yet soon found it convenient to incorporate the Civil Power with the Ecclesiastick for the defence and propagation of their Religion Now as the great usefulness of a National establishment for the purposes aforesaid does sufficiently appear from the reason and nature of the thing it self and has the light and law of Nature on its side so it is not destitute of countenance from supernatural Revelation 1. When Almighty God said to Abraham Thou shalt be a Father of many Nations a Father of many Nations have I made thee Gen. 17. He declared his intention of Reforming the world by degrees from Idolatry and false Worship in a National way if we may judg what he intended to do afterwards by the first instance he gave of his performance herein and if we may judg of the true meaning of this as of other Divine Predictions by the after Events which answer them in point of fact which yet is the best and most approved way of understanding Predictions when such events take place Almighty God made Abraham first a Father of a Nation which issued out of his own Loyns For when his Posterity who by Circumcision Covenanted to take Abrahams God only for their God grew very numerous in Egypt God brought them out thence that they might worship him openly and publickly in a National way And by this means and by his visible owning them for his people by extraordinary favours shew'd them he designed to make himself more known to the rest of the world to be the only true God and to be so acknowledged Now in that Abraham was promised to be the Father of many Nations it was not so much for that God intended that many Nations should descend out of his Loyns by natural generation as that many Nations in time should after his example come to acknowledge and worship him only for their God as the only true God For so St. Paul understood this promise of God to Abraham when he makes Abraham in respect of his believing in the true God to be the Father of all Nations that should be of the same belief as well those of the Vncircumcision as that which was of the Circumcision as it is written saith he I have made thee a Father of many Nations Rom. 4.16 17. And it was in this spiritual or religious respect and sense that St. Paul had before in this Chapter asserted Abraham to be the Father of all that shall believe in the true God as he did in all Nations as well those who were never Circumcised as those that were Ver. 11 12. And thus God made Abraham a blessing to the World as he promised he would and a Father of Nations not only for that the Messias was to be born of one descended from him for so he was born of one that descended from Abrahams Predecessors and Successors as well as from Abraham But he was a blessing to the World and the Father of Nations by being made by God the Head the beginning and great example of reforming the World from Misbelief and Idolatry and other consequent evils so as his Progenitors were not To encourage which work in the world God invested Abraham that led the way herein with the honour of being counted the Father of Nations and a publick blessing to the world both in himself and in his Seed 2. That God did design farther to carry on the reformation of the world from Misbelief and Idolatry in a National way and in that way to bring the world by degrees to the Worship of the true God only appears by other Predictictons of the Prophets such as that Isa 55.5 Behold thou shalt call a Nation that thou knowst not and Nations that knew not thee shall run unto thee Chap. 52.15 He shall sprinkle many Nations the Kings shall shut their mouths at him Chap. 49.23 Kings shall be thy nursing fathers and their Queens thy nursing mothers Zech. 8.22 Many people and strong Nations shall come to seek the Lord of Hosts Chap. 2.11 Many Nations shall be joyned to the Lord in that day and shall be my people The formal nature of mens Visible Church-Membership consists in their being visibly joyned to the Lord as I have shewed and therefore when many Nations are Nationally joyned to the Lord they may well be counted Nationally his people or Churches And Nations are then Nationally joyned to the Lord when Nations do incorporate the Christian Religion with their Civil Government and make it part of the National Government as the Ecclesiastical Polity of the Jews together with the Judicial Law of that Commonwealth was And by this means the Christian Religion becomes commodiously and with more certainty to be transmitted to future Generations in a Nation as well as practised for the time being by that which is existent just as the Jews Religion was For he established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a Law in Israel which he commanded our Fathers that they should make them known to their Children That the Generation to come might know them even the Children which should
be born who should arise and declare them to their Children Psal 78.5 6. Those Prophesies fore-mentioned concerning Nations being joyned to the Lord referring to times under the New Testament the event of them as we shall see will shew that they foretold Christian Nations their being joyned to the Lord Nationally or in the course of National Government And the nature of Events which answer to divine Predictions are I think the best and most approved Expositions of those Prophesies when they are fulfilled and the best measure which can be taken for the understanding of them Two things then would be enquired into touching the Events we speak of 1. What and which they are which we may reasonably pitch upon for those Events 2. How we may be assured from some Scriptures of the New Testament that those Events of Providence which we shall pitch upon are indeed of that sort and kind which the Prophesies we speak of point us to I. For the first of these we have very great reason to believe that those National Reformations from Paganism and Judaism and those National Reformations from Popery which have been made in the world since the Christian Religion was first set on foot and which shall yet farther be made are those very Events or the chiefest part of them which the Prophesies before specified point us to We cannot say that any Reformation of either kind has been National untill it has been back'd by National Authority It s true there have been great multitudes of men during the standing of the Roman Empire as Pagan that were recovered from Judaism and Paganism to Christianity and there were many famous Churches of such But I think no one Nation as such could be said to be joyned to the Lord in all that time tho out of many Kindreds Tongues and Nations there were many very many both men and women that were But Nations then became Nationally the Lords when the Christians in them were owned as such and required to behave themselves as such by the Supreme Authority and ruling powers of those Nations tho there might possibly be many in those Nations at the same time which yet did not so much as pretend themselves to be Christians 2. But let us inquire in the second place what assurance we have from any of the holy Writings of the New Testament that those National Reformations from Paganism and Popery that have been made in New Testament times and which shall further be made in other Nations are those Events of Providence which the Prophesies touching National conversions point at And to this end let us observe First That at what time the Supreme Power of the Roman Empire fell into Christian hands and was imployed for the destruction and rooting out Pagan Idolatry and for the setting up and establishing the Publick Worship of Almighty God and his Son Jesus Christ throughout its Dominions Then it was that this Kingdom or Dominion became Gods Kingdom in Scripture account For to this great turn of Affairs in the judgment of the most approved Interpreters of the Revelations does that joyful acclamations refer which we have set down in Chap. 12.10 Now is come Salvation and Strength and the Kingdom of our God and the Power of his Christ At which time also the great Dragon called the Devil and Satan was cast out and his Angels with him ver 9. that is those Rulers supreme and subordinate who had till then done his work in promoting the Interest of the Kingdom of darkness by supporting Idolatry and persecuting Christians as it was said The Devil shall cast some of you into prison Rev. 2.10 But was not Gods Kingdom come into the Empire till now that the Government was made Christian by the Emperour being a Christian Were there not many great and famous Christian Churches within the Empire while the Government of it was Pagan in respect of Worship Why yes there was Why then was not the Kingdom of God and the Power of his Christ said to be come till the Government in the hands of Constantine the Emperour became Christian Why should this Song Now is come salvation and strength and the Kingdom of our God and the power of his Christ be applied to this great turn of Affairs in the Empire rather than to that when the Preaching of the Gospel was first set on foot in it and many Christian Congregations erected There can no other reason hereof be given I conceive but that all the while the Government of the Empire in reference to Religion was engaged for the upholding of the Visible Kingdom of the Devil so far and in this respect it might be said to be his Kingdom to be sure it could not be said to be Gods so far as it was imployed against him But when the Government of it became Christian and engaged it self in throwing down the Kingdom of darkness the Worship of false Gods and in setting up and establishing the Publick Worship of the true God and the Christian Religion then and from that time in this Scripture account that Kingdom or Empire became the Kingdom of God and of his Christ tho many of the Inhabitants of it continued still for a time at least Idolaters as to their profession and private practice So that when and so long as the Government of the Empire in its constitution in reference to Religion continued idolatrous so long the Empire it self was not owned for Gods Kingdom tho there were many Christian Churches in it but when once the Government of it became Christian it was then owned for Gods Kingdom tho many of the Inhabitants of it were no Christians From whence it follows may naturally be inferred that in Scripture Notion Kingdoms are said to be Gods Kingdoms upon the account of a National Reformation from Idolatry and false worship when ever it is made by the publick Government and authority of such Nations But now after this Reformation from Paganism by the Imperial Authority and Power in process of time therecame a falling away in the Empire from the purity of Christian Worship unto a Worship of a mixt nature made up partly of a Worship given to the true God and partly of a Worship given unto Creatures which is due only unto God which was done by the prevailing of the Papal Apostacy And the ten Kings mentioned Rev. 17. into whose hands the Empire became divided gave their power and strength unto the Beast for the support of this impure Worship and Pagan-like Superstition But after this had been done and continued in for several hundreds of years several of those Kingdoms and Principalities which had before given their power and strength unto the Beast fell off and reassumed that power and strength and then devoted it to the service of God in reforming their Dominions from Popery and in restoring the Publick Worship of God throughout their Dominions without any Idolatrous mixture Upon which great turn of Affairs those great
me to fall somewhat hard upon such as separate from the publick Worship of God established in such Nations by National Authority in a way of National Reformation and on those more especially who separate from that Worship for that very reason because enjoyned by National Authority It likewise falls hard upon them also who disesteem or less esteem a National Ministry because it is National or made such according to a National establishment These seem to be of one mind and Almighty God of another when he esteems Nations to be joyned to him and to be his People by that for which they separate Their pretence that in the Apostles times and for three hundred years after the Affairs of the Church were carried on only in a free Congregational way in greater or lesser voluntary Associations and therefore they ought to be so now seems very inconsiderable Because what was done in that kind then was done by way of necessity because they had not opportunity of a better Not but that they long'd for and pray'd for such Kings as would use their Authority and Power for the propagation and furtherance of the Christian Religion as well as for the defence of it and the Professors of it And they esteemed it no small favour from God when at last they obtained it in Constantine a Christian Cesar who used that Power of his for the establishing the Christian Religion and Worship of the only true God and for the ordering and regulating many things relating to the more commodious and orderly carrying on the ministration of the Gospel and the Worship of God And therefore the people of God then existent in the Empire are brought in by the Spirit of Prophesie expressing themselves thus upon that occasion Now is come salvation and strength and the Kingdom of our God and the power of his Christ as I shew'd before Rev. 12.10 2. It may be justly questioned whether it be worth the while for men to dispute against the being of a National Church in New Testament times considering that in the New Testament Nations reformed from Paganism and Popery are stiled Gods Kingdoms And considering likewise that the Scripture stiles the same people and in the same respect sometimes the Kingdom of God and sometimes his Church And therefore it should seem no more improper to call a Christian Nation a Church of God than it is to call it a Kingdom of God which yet the Scripture stiles so 3. It may be observed yet farther That the Kingdoms or Nations which have been reformed from Popery were before such reformation was made but Kingdoms of this world notwithstanding much of what pertains to the Christian Religion was then owned and professed in them The Spirit of God by whom the book of Revelations was indited we see stiles them so in their unreformed state The Kingdoms of this world are become c. Yet they then in their unreformed state Worshipped the true God and his Son Christ Jesus They owned the holy Scriptures for the Word of God and used the same Creeds which the Reformed Churches themselves use and yet we see they are in that state stiled by the Spirit of God but Kingdoms of this world when as under their reformed state they are said to be the Kingdoms of God and of his Christ Like as Almighty God for the like reason esteemed the Nation of the Jews who had been his own Church and People but as Ethiopians unto him Amos 9.7 and told them by another Prophet Ye are not my people and I will not be your God Hos 1.10 For tho they had his Ordinances among them and boasted of their Temple-Worship crying The Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord are these yet at the same time they burnt Incense unto Baal and walked after other Gods Jer. 7. they divided their Worship between the true God and Baal and did swear by the Lord and by Malcham Zeph. 1.5 And upon this account it was that God said of them by his Prophet they are unto me as a speckled bird of a Religion of several colours Jer. 12.9 For this spiritual Whoredom especially it was that Almighty God who had once espoused that people to himself gave them a Bill of Divorce at last brake up house turned them out of doors and sent them out of his Land untill they should repent and reform And if we compare these things with the spiritual whoredom wherewith Mystical Babilon is charged and for which with other heinous crimes she is threatned in this Book of Revelations it will not be at all hard to conceive why Nations while Popish are stiled and esteemed but Kingdoms of this world And this if there were no other is argument enough to prevail with all such as would not be disowned by God to be none or to become none of their Communion who are thus disowned by him And thus we have seen how both from the light and law of Nature the reason of the thing and from divine Revelation also the great expediency at least of the publick exercise of Gods Worship in the way of National establishment is warranted and approved of This then may be a caution to men who live in any such reformed Nation as we have discoursed of and as ours is to take heed of acting in matters Ecclesiastical or pertaining to Church Communion as if they lived in a Popish or Pagan Nation by disowning and by separating from the National way of Worship lest thereby they discountenance and disparage what God approves of and disown that for which God owns such a Nation for his Kingdom It is true the Primitive Christians who lived in Pagan Countries and those since which have lived in Popish have been necessitated in duty to be separate in their Christian Communion from their National Worship as much as they were obliged not to be Idolaters But there is a great difference between false Worship and defects in that which is true The best Church Constitution and the best Church Administration which have men not divinely inspired for the ordering of them are liable to humane defects And if humane defects even in Gods Worship were not to be endured for the sake of Communion in the Worship it self there could no such thing as Church Communion be enjoyed among Christians because we cannot say there is any in this imperfect state in which we are without defects But then the question will be what defects are to be indured in Gods Worship rather than Communion in it should be forsaken and what are intolerable and for the sake of which Communion in the Worship is to be declined And here it seems to me impossible warrantably to determine any defects intolerable which do not alter the nature of the Worship and make it become false Worship that do not destroy or defeat the ends for which true Worship serves Who is he that will undertake to determine for what defects which