it 1. That it is the House of the Living God 2. That it is the Pillar of Truth 3. That it is the Ground of Truth Quest Before the Explanation of each of these Titles in the first place I desire it may be determined whether these things are spoken of the Catholick or of a Particular Church the Particular Church of Ephesus Answ Although I have already affirmed That the Catholick Church differs from a Particular True Church only in the Compass and Comprehensiveness of it yet I very willingly represent it over again in this Instance These things are truly applied to the Catholick Church to the Particular Church of Ephesus to every Particular Church nay it reaches down to every single living Member of the Church so far that God makes his abode with him dwells in him he is a Pillar in the House of God the Truth rests and dwells in him and shall be with him for ever so that he is a Ground of Truth and hath more of the Church in him than greater seeming Portions of it that erre from the Truth Quest If you please now to proceed in the Explanation of these Titles and first What is the Importance of the Churches being the House of God for the actuating the Scripture Answ God the most High Possessour and Owner of Heaven and Earth places his Court Family and particular Residence where he pleases and he hath chosen the Church to be this to him This is my Rest here will I dwell for ever for I have desired it Heaven is my Throne Earth is my Footstool where is the House you will build me To this Man will I look that trembles at my Word And where God dwells there he manifests himself As a Master of a Family makes known in his House and Family his Nature Will Laws and Government so God does in his Church In Judah is God known his Name is great in Israel In his Church he shews the Light of his Countenance expects and rewards Services as a Great Master and makes known his Dislikes and Displeasure This is brought to pass in the Church by those many Ways that God hath of bringing his Word to any Places or Persons giving it Reception among them and then stirring up his Children and Servants to hear his Voice to search his Mind and Will and to understand it so that it is as a Voice continually behind them In his Temple therefore in his House every one must needs speak of his Glory His Word cannot lie still for all are concerned to meditate ponder inquire and discourse of it and are by Supreme Management excited so to do and so much as this Exercise in his Word is by any means depressed so far God is withdrawn and the Excellency of the Church-state lost Now of the Church being the House of God there was this great Type God dwelt in the Temple at Jerusalem as in a Palace there was such a Diet of Shew-bread changed every day of Sacrifices of all sorts such Perfumes of Incense and Odours such Officers and Servants attending continually such Resorts of the whole Body of the People to the Court of this Great King and Princely Housholder Together with this State runs along in a mighty Stream Gods shewing his Word to Jacob his Statutes and Judgments to Israel In the New Testament the Pomp and Ceremonial Part is wholly transferred into Spirituality but Spirituality is not lower but higher in the Substance of all that could be figured by these things and the substantial part of that State the Communication of the Word of God is much exalted in the true Christian Church that the Light of One Day is now as much as the Light of Seven was before Thus the Church as the Family of God cannot but actuate his Word Quest What is the meaning of the Church being the Pillar of Truth Does the Church support Truth Answ Not so for it self is built upon the Foundation of the Prophets and Apostles Jesus Christ himself being the chief Corner-stone Quest How then is it said to be the Pillar of Truth And of what Importance is that to the Actuating Scripture Answ As the Laws and Ordinances of Courts and Governments are publickly fixed that every one may know and take notice of them so the Church in all its Members but especially by Deputed Ministers giving themselves wholly to it proclaims preaches and makes offer of the most Publick Notice of the Word of Truth within it self that all the Children and Servants of the Family may be continually catechiz'd and built up therein and Strangers have opportunity to know if they would apply themselves to it Thus it is a Famous City set on an Hill that cannot be hid and therefore its Laws Constitutions Manners cannot but in all reason be inquired of by all that do so much as pass by it It is a Candlestick bearing the lofty Torch of Divine Truth Of this the Pillars of the Temple at Jerusalem and the affixing to them the Rolls of Divine Revelation was an eminent Type and alluded to by the Apostle As therefore from a Prince come forth Edicts Proclamations Manifesto's and Declarations according to Laws which are fastned to Publick Pillars of the Court it self and all open and conspicuous Places of Concourse so are there in the Church the most advantagious Publications of the Divine Truth and Word to all both the Natives and Free-born of the Church it self and Ingenuous Strangers that would hearken out the most Reasonable Proposals of Truth or whom God is pleased to Naturalize to himself Quest What is the meaning of the Church being the Ground of Truth And how does this actuate Scripture Answ It means nothing but the Perpetuity and Continuation of Truth with the Church establishing it self by all that Firmness of Divine Evidence and Reason and on those very Securities taking Possession of the Church as the Ark of its Strength where it self or the God that is Truth it self places the Soles of his Feet as on his unmovable Footstool for ever Of which the Ark in the Holiest was a Type the Footstool of the Throne of Mercy the secure Repository of the Tables of the Covenant the Ark of Testimony over which the Shecinah or Glory appeared as inthron'd attended with Cherubims and setting its Feet upon it the place of my Throne and the place of the Soles of my Feet Ezek. 43. 7. For thus the True Church against which the Gates of Hell cannot prevail is the unchangeable Rest of Truth It adheres to Truth it buys the Truth and never sells it Truth dwells with it for ever God never suffers it to apostatize from Truth but by the constant holding of the Judgment and retaining the Love and Zeal of the Affections of those that are indeed his Church he hath setled his Word in his Church on Earth even as it is for ever settled in Heaven The Church therefore actuates Scripture by finding out Reasons debating enforcing defending by
all Arguments that Truth of Scripture and so persisting in it for ever Quest Cannot then the Church fail Answ It hath been said before the True Church cannot fail For the True Church is as hath been described the House of God the Pillar and Ground of Truth and that which is so cannot fail and God will have such a Church always in the World If any Person City or Nation that seem to have been the Church have this Light eclipsed the Candlestick removes for it is only a Candlestick for the sake of the Light and the Pillar it self shakes and falls if the Records fixed to it are taken away and the Palace and Court remove with the Prince who is always with his Truth and the lively Motion of it So much Truth therefore and active Display of it so much a Church in any Place and the Truth removing or lying dead the Church removes also or is ready to die in that Place Quest But is thâ—re no higher Sense of the Church being the Pillar and Ground of Truth Answ No other but what arises from the most intimate and inseparable Union betwixt the Church and Truth Truth taking an undefailable possession of the Church so that whereever Truth in that Fulness as to lead to Life and Happiness is there is the Church and no where else The True Church then may be stiled a Pillar and Ground of Truth in the highest Sense if rightly understoo that is Truth it self that is the unmovable Pillar and everlasting Foundation hath so closely banded the Church with it self that it is One Pillar and Foundation with it Thus the Church may be both the Building and the Rock and Foundation to succeeding Parts and Members of the Church The Building as it self rests upon the Pillar and Foundation of Truth else it can't be the Church The Pillar and Foundation of Truth to the still succeeding and rising Church as it is One with Truth it self to which every True Member first comes and unites and therein to the Church even as every Degree of Building is a Foundation and Support to the still growing Building not in it self but as it is surely cemented to the Foundation regulated by it and partakes its Strength Yet if it swerve never so little from the Foundation it is presently a Deformity and the more it swerves the greater danger of the Ruine of it self and all that rests upon it Quest May not this help to explain that so much disputed Expression of our Saviour Thou art Peter and upon this Rock I will build my Church and the Gates of Hell shall not preval against it Answ I shall be glad if it may give any Light to it and hope it may For the Apostle Peter making that Confession of the Divinity of Christ not singular but representing the whole Body of Apostles and Christians and being possessed with and by that Truth he confess'd was both part of the Building upon that Rock and as united with that Rock he became Rock it self upon which succeeeding Christians were to be built The Prophets and Apostles are in this Sense Foundations and the Twelve Apostles Twelve Foundations Christ himself being the Corner-stone in whom alone the whole Building even the Apostolick Foundation it self rises in a strict and proper Sense Quest Is there not a good Security then in joyning our selves to the Church to those that have been in the Building before us Answ No otherwise than as we joyn our selves by their Ministry to that Foundation it self which always lies sure upon which they themselves must alone rest if the True Church For by placing our selves not upon them but upon that Common Foundation we are adjusted to the whole Building that was before us that lies regular with that Foundation by the Care of him who is both the Foundation Corner-stone and is also he that built all things even God in Christ Quest We must then seek to find the Truth by it self and then the Church by that Truth and not the Church by it self and then the Truth by the Church Answ Very true For God hath so in his Infinite Wisdom establish'd the very Nature of Things Truth can give many Assurances of it self to us by it self so suited to our Faculties The Church can give us none but by its agreement with Truth revealed in the Word of God We could not have known such a Congregation as the Church at all to be much less which it is but by that Word manifesting it self in our Consciences and so distinguishing to us the True Church among the many Associations in the World each calling to us as having the best Religion among themselves Even the True Apostles themselves could be known to be so and False Apostles tried and found Liars no other way but by this Truth view'd and considered singly and distinctly by it self Quest But when we have found the Church by the Truth may we not then deliver up our selves wholly to the Church as so united to Truth Answ No by no means We can never so deliver up our selves nor will the True Church desire any such thing of us seeing its Office is not to hold out it self but the Word of Truth and in doing any thing else it acts not as a Church but as any other ordinary Society and on no other Terms can we have to do with it For the very Attempt to hold out as a Church any Laws of its own ought to enter us into a Jealousie whether it be the True Church which is as a Church the Pillar and Rest of Divine Truth only Quest What Reason is there of such a Jealousie when once we have found it a Church by the Truth it holds out Answ Because a Church that hath been a True Church may several ways decline from its State Quest How then can it he said The Gates of Hell shall not prevail against it Answ That Prophetick Promise does not secure this or that Particular Church but that there shall be a Seed of the Church in the World with which the Covenant of God is Eternal My Word shall not depart out of thy Mouth nor out of the Mouth of thy Seed or thy Seed's Seed for ever But it is yet further true the True Seed the Holy Seed the Substance of the Church can never utterly and finally fail in any Particular Member of it for if it could it were too great a violation of our Saviour's Truth in that Declaration The Gates of Hell shall not prevail against his Church or force that Immortal retrograde into Mortality even that most dreadful one of the Second Death for which a Succession of others and in the same Danger is but a faint Salvo though it go on so to the End of the World Quest Who are this True Church in every Age and Place Answ They which are by True Saving Faith united to Christ the Son of God the Rock of Eternity and being so founded upon him are Pillars
in the mean time attending with lowliest Submission and not with pompous Appearance Now from this Supreme Dispose of all things to the Ends of God in Scripture out of such a variety of Emergencies of all sorts arises such a diversity of several Excellencies in the Parts of Scripture that yet all meet in that Great Center of the Glory of God in a Communication of his Counsels concerning Man and that turn round those Two Globes that little one of the present World a Point like this Earth and the other that vast Circumference of Eternity Quest But is there not as great a difference arising from the various States and Conditions of the Writers of Scripture and the so different Periods of Time they were upon Answ That there is and must needs be a difference is undeniable yet to the great Glory of Scripture and assurance it is from God even those smallest and lowest things last spoken of are all treated with all the Purity Gravity becoming the Penmen of the Holy Spirit and with all the Usefulness their Nature can extend to Even so the Holy Men used by God in this Service how various and differing soever in their several Ages and Times of writing in their Circumstances of State and Condition in this World High Low Rich Poor Learned Unlearned how distant soever in their Times of Writing in the outward Forms and Modes of their Worship of God in the Things that fell under their Account and Relation before the Law under the Law in the Days of the Messiah after his Death yet there is the same Spirit Scope Chastness of Style Majesty and Authority in the Contexture one Aspect upon the Glory of God Obedience to him Desire of his Favour as the whole Happiness of Man the same Reflexions upon the great Evil of Sin and the consequent Misery and even of their own Sins So that where any Combination or Conference to concert things was impossible yet there is such an Union without a set Uniformity as assures the One Hand of the Divine Spirit and Guidance upon All. Quest Is not the Church of God the Trustee and Depository of Sacred Oracles Answ It is so in Divine Ordination and the general Course of Providence but yet it adds nothing to them but receives all from them The Church is known to be the Church by the Scriptures not the Scriptures by the Church except declaratorily only The Church is the Pillar and Rest of Scriptures where God is pleas'd to fix them that they may be exposed to Publick View but their Authority is of God evident in themselves Quest Do we then attribute nothing more to the Church in which we were Baptiz'd and received the Knowledge of Religion Answ A very great Favour it is of God that when he writes up the People he counts that we were born within his True Church where all the Springs of Salvation run but as to the Proof of Religion or the Records of it it can be no more than a Private Proof For till we make a true Judgment by what is Divine and Publick and of God in the true Church it does no more than equal other Societies walking with Confidence and Assurance with great Awes and Devotion in the Name of their God in the Profession of their Religion Till therefore there is a Trial of every Religion and the Records of it all such Societies are upon the same Level When the Religion and Oracles of every Religion come to be tried and duely examined the Church of God rises to Heaven and all else except so far as they joyn in any Parts of the same Truth sink down beneath Quest But how can we know that every Book of Scripture is Scripture but by the Testimony of the Church or that we have all the Books of it but by the same Testimony Answ That the Books we own for Scripture are Scripture and all of them so arises to our Assurance by finding the same Divine Spirit of Truth running through one as does through another For upon this account the True Church received them when first received and so transmitted them making the same Judgment successively in the several Ages as the first did the same Reason always continuing What is besides this is to be attributed to the Discerning of Spirits in all the Times while Scripture was writing by the due Exercise of which True Scripture was received and all other shut out for the Writings of Prophets was subject to Prophets and by them enroll'd into Scriptures That we have the same Scripture justly and faithfully consigned over to us from Age to Age is to be own'd and acknowledg'd to Divine Providence watching over his Church and Oracles together and conveying to us by the ordinary Security of the Churches Testimony the Precious distinguish'd not only from the Vile but from the less Precious also but yet we must have greater Testimony than this as hath been already urged Quest But how could we be assured we have all the Scripture were it not for the Churches Testimony Answ Finding so much Divine and no more of the same stamp in the World we may be concluded that way and abundantly satisfied that God will accept us in our Faith and Obedience to so great a Revelation When any measure of Divine Truth hath been adhered to sincerely the Danger hath always been greater in losing True Religion by corrupt Additions and the injurious Refusals of further Revelation come to pass more through the Prejudices of that Corruption than by humble and modest Suspensions till God hath assured us of his further Revelations But besides this we may easily find we must needs have the whole Globe of Truth and the Horizon of the Gospel gives us the whole Heaven or Kingdom of it as it is administred in this World so that all further Degrees of Light and Discoveries of it shall be but greater Clearnesses of what we already have in the main and Substance For if even the New Testament though it made so great a change did but thus compleat and illustrate Christ yesterday and to day the same how much more may we be assured who have the New it self so much excelling the Old as it every where assures us So that we can expect a Milennium or the New Hierusalem on Earth only for the highest Exaltation of what we now have till we come to Heaven it self Quest Do the various Readings so often bandied by Learned Men make no Abatement from the Certainty of Scripture Answ Those various Readings are such as excite and quicken Search and yet cannot distract the Doctrine being not able to alter the Scope Coherence and Design of the Context much less to change the Analogie of Scripture in other Places While therefore they do not that they take away the suspicion of Conspiracy they preserve from greater Corruptions by turning the Eyes of Men to look every way they shew how many excellent Senses dwell near the Divine Writing
Revealed Religion in the World is Scripture Quest Is Ratiocination then or the Just Compass Reason goes to be neglected concerning Scriptures Answ By no means For when these Self-evidences of every thing have struck us earlier than our Scrutinies of Reason and its Inquest can be performed about them that they may neither appear Fancies to us on our second Thoughts nor we run into Mistake concerning them by the Power of Imagination there is then liberty for Reason to inquire further and assure it self Nor will the Evidence hereupon amount to less than Divine For Divine only can satisfie the Reason that rationally and like it self inquires into Divine Quest What then are the great Assurances to Reason of the Divinity of Scripture Answ I account this the Chief That there are Two great Volumes the Book of the Natural Law of Religion written upon the Heart and engraven in the Conscience and the Book of Scripture That both these are addressed purely to the Mind as abstracted from Sense That each of them is Counterparted by Two great Manifestations of Divinity to Sense which Sense is Reason incarnate or Mind acting in and by Body These two are either Ordinary or Constant as Creation Conservation or Providence or Extraordinary as Miracles That each of them have also two Executive Powers acting them to their Ends The Motions and Activities of Reason inabled by the constant Concourse of General Illumination and the Supernatural Illuminations and Motions of the Divine Spirit And that all these agree in one unite with and fortifie one another all of them carrying the Evidences of Divine Presence and filling all the Apprehensiveness of our Faculties concerning God that he is in them so that nothing is Divine in the whole World the contrary of which we may feel or Scripture is Divine Quest But what is to be allowed to Consent of History Vniversal Tradition and Education in the Belief of Scriptures Answ All that can be desired to be allowed for it speaks the Absolute Sovereignty of God in making use of whom and what he pleases in introducing his Word into any Parts of the World and contriving the Testimony of Men as preparatory to the Testimony from himself which is much greater even as our Saviour received the Service of John's Testimony but had much higher or as Reason may receive from Sense some accidental Testimonies Quest But is there not much more to be yielded to the Rational Assurance that such Historians as the Prophets Apostles and Inspired Writers of such Honesty and Integrity would not prevaricate nor give any false Account of Things of the Miracles wrought by themselves or our Saviour of the Doctrines of Christianity or of their Divine Original especially when they seal'd all these with the Contempt of all things in this World even of Life it self and died in the constant Affirmation of them which remov'd all base Designs far from them even the suspicion of it Answ These Proofs of the Doctrine and Divine Descent of Scripture are undoubtedly of the highest Account that any Created Testimony can be and are a down-weight of Proof to all sober Reason Yet that they can rise above the Value of John Baptist's Testimony to Christ I cannot find and therefore we must remove higher to the Doctrines that those Holy Men preach'd and writ the spiritual Wisdom and admirable Contexture they us'd in Writing the Works they did carrying the Evidences of Divinity in themselves and applied by the Holy Spirit to the Senses of true Believers with its own assuring Attestations and gracious Operations of which all that was but created is no more than the Tube Pipe or Channel of Conveyance if we enter it into a compare with what is Higher and Divine But if the last Resolution of Proof were into any thing Humane there might be mistake in that for Humane at its highest elevation is but Created and Created is not firm and sure enough for a Foundation nor can it raise an Assent noble and generous enough for a Faith in that which is Divine All that can be summon'd may be an outward Fortification or Introduction but the Rock of Truth is the Son of God Divinity it self Upon this the Church is built that the Gates of Hell cannot prevail against it Quest But are there no Parts of Scripture that receive greater Service from Humane Testimony than others Answ There are some Parts of Scripture that are but Ministerial and almost Servile in comparison of others And that these are found in all Authentick Copies and have been delivered down from Age to Age with the Sacred Rolls may depend more upon Humane Testimony especially where the Connexion with the more Divine Parts is not evident For these being but as the Body and some of them of the more remote Parts from the Soul of Scripture cannot sparkle that Divine Light and Heat the Spirit of Scripture does and so may stand in need of borrowed Light from the Superiour Luminaries of Sacred Truth and in many Cases may like the Moon need Reflexions of Light from our very Earth but the Sun of Scripture receives the Highest Testimony by the strongest Reflexions of its own Original Beams Quest How comes it to pass that there are such different Degrees of Scripture Excellency in the several Parts of it and that it is not one Even Form of Doctrine methodically laid together and of the same Tenour of Discourse Answ In this seeming Disorder appears the great Wisdom and Majesty of Divine Contrivance that without obliging it self to the low and even pedantick Laws of Humane Discourse it raises so great a Record of Truth upon variety of Occasions and by an Infinite Foresight predetermining to it self the several Measures and Ends of Scripture raises them out of a great variety of Accidents and in such an Order as seem'd best to it self for those Ends so as to give easie and ready Advantages to him that runs to read and gather Instructions of weightiest moment and also of quickest and suddenest sally upon his Mind of greatest aptness to fix upon the Memory without loading it and yet in the mean time to lay the Obligations of all Degrees of Search and Diligence to join one part of Scripture to another so as to comprehend the whole Complex of Divine Doctrine and extract the Order of History For by a most natural free and unaffected occasional way all Truths to make wise to Salvation and a complete Sum of all Goodness is to be found in Scripture with infinite Varieties of Address all the ways possible to the Understanding Will Affections Conscience Memory Imagination suited to all Capacities States Conditions full of plain and obvious of most retir'd secret and farthestreach'd Wisdom which no Mind can fully grasp nor Tongue express And with these Things of main Importance runs along such a Chronology of the Dealings of God with the World and especially with his Church as serves the main Design All Learning and Knowledge
or Humane Imposition but of Divine Authority and Presence his Interpretation however true yet does not bind as it is his Interpretation or upon any other Recommendation but Scriptures proper ways of recommending it self I speak as to Wise Men judge ye what I say Quest What then is that Private Interpretation the Apostle remonstrates against Answ All Interpretation that brings no Credentials from evident Scripture-sense nor from Heaven of immediate Inspiration much more if False or Mean and impossible to be so derived and yet would impale and inclose Scripture within it self and impose it self upon the Consciences and Judgments of others and so bring them under Bondage That which forbids Men to Interpret for themselves though with utmost Industry and all the Assistance they can use and the Implorings of Divine Assistance That which gives out Private Oracles at pleasure and too often most False ones as if they were Scripture and for its own Private sake would lock Scripture from the possibility of being Interpreted even by it self sequestring it into an unknown Tongue from great Multitudes of all Nations professing Jesus Christ This is indeed Private Interpretation and adding to Scripture making another Scripture which yet is not another And thus are all lower Degrees of this Tyranny to be estimated according to their several Graduations in it imposing upon Men as from some Scriptural Authority what is not of the True Excellency Spirit and High Descent of Scripture nor manifested in Mens Consciences as Scripture manifests it self Quest Is it not then necessary in regard of the Confusion arising from the variousness and incertainty of every Man Interpreting for himself and without certain Divine Evidence that there should be some Infallible Publick Interpreter so Divinely assisted as you describe And is it not reasonable to believe there is such a one seeing we cannot suppose God is wanting to his Church in such a Necessary Answ 1. Scripture it self is such an Infallible Interpreter it being in all things necessary to Salvation both clear and certain to all but the self condemned Heretick or Ignorant 2. When there comes such an Infallible Interpreter bearing the Seal of such Credentials as the Scripture does we will receive him Till such an Interpreter so arm'd comes to us we are never the better for his Pretence to Infallibility But all that receive him are destroyed by him when he brings Falshood for Truth under so great a Title so that he becomes more an Apollyon or Destroyer of the Church than an open Enemy can be Quest Must we not then necessarily suppose great Tracts of Scripture lying like unknown Land for want of Publick Interpretation Answ That there may be so cannot be denied in Controverted or Prophetick Parts of Scripture Yet that God hath been pleased to communicate much useful Knowledge relating to them is most evident and most thankfully to be acknowledged to his Goodness and Bounty Quest What Expectation is there of a Full and Certain Publick Interpretation of all such Scriptures Answ It is not for us to know the Times and Seasons which the Father hath put in his own power But most probably at the time of fulfilling the great Prophesies of the New Testament there shall be such extraordinary Effusions of the Divine Spirit as shall expedite all Doubt and make every thing clear the Knowledge of which is not reserved for Heaven to adorn the Absolute State of Persection there Quest Seeing by all that hath been said it appears how incongruous Private Interpretation is to Publick Scripture or that the Will of Man should be trusted with the one and not with the other What Account therefore can be given of Translations May not they bring in a Private Interpretation upon Scripture if not performed by an immediate Divine Assistance Answ Even as in the safe Conveyance of Scripture it self and preserving it pure from gross Falsifications so in Translations we must leave God to be the Governour of the World and of his Church He hath been pleased to order the Conveyance of Scriptures into so many Languages by raising up many to travel in the Knowledge of all Tongues and the Keys of them as in the Originals to find out their Meaning and to transfuse them into all other Languages and that by so many of several Ages and Nations as makes all Combination to deceive impossible and Universal Deception next to impossible upon the Translators themselves These things are under his supreme Care It is enough to us there is brought to our Knowledge such an excellent Doctrine rising out of so many Divine Sayings and Discourses that are as so many Stars in the Firmament of Truth clear as the Luminaries of that name in the Heavens Why should we then be more than modestly and humbly concerned to know all the Ages they have pass'd through before they came to us or all the Secrets concerning their Motion and Appearance that he onely knows that calls the Stars by their Names It is enough they evidently and undeniably declare God to us and assure us by their Light by their regular Motion according to the Laws of Truth and Goodness that they are Stars the Greater and the Lesser differing one from another in Glory yet all Stars and of a truly Divine Lustre Certain and not Wandring Quest Let us now hear the Conclusion of this whole Matter Answ It rests in these two things 1. That the Evidences of the Divine Presence in the Scriptures and all the principal Branches thereof are as clear and certain and do satiate the Soul and its Faculties inlightned by the general Influences of the Divine Spirit much more by its sanctifying Efficacy even as the clearest Notions we have of Things do and much above them And that these Evidences are the same in the Original Scriptures and in the Translations for that they are indeed All Original and not capable of any Translation but make even Translation an Original 2. That as Scripture is such a Contexture and makes up such a Book God the supreme Governour of the Church and of the World in general hath always and does always take care of its preservation from such Corruptions as would injure those Evidences of Divine Inspiration he hath ingraven upon it not only upon the Substance but upon the very Contexture and the very same care he hath taken for the Conveyance of it by agreeable Translations to the several Nations in their own Tongue to whom he hath vouchsafed the Scriptures themselves or the Doctrine of them Quest Hath God wrought miraculously to these Ends Answ That need not be asserted but he hath by the ordinary Interposals of Providence watchful in every thing over its own Ends brought all to pass he in Wisdom thought necessary Quest What Visible Means hath Providence used for the securing Scriptures against foul Corruptions Answ Continual and various Copyings of the Original even in the Days of the Writers in the very time of the Inspection and
in some things want the Application and Direction to our use dictated by Divine Wisdom in others the unerring Censure of even Apostolick Actions as in that of the Apostle Peter Galat. 2. 11. Now because our Consciences would be apt to be drawn into subjection to things of so great Reputation and yet there would be no Divine Authority to draw them nor Infallible Authority to support them in which Cases it is the Absolute Will of God they should not be in subjection God hath therefore in his Providence left that time so much in the dark that we may trust in his written Word only For separate Immediate Divine Presence from the Prophets and Apostles themselves and there remains nothing at the highest but the Wisdom and Prudence of Understanding and Good Men applying General Rules to particular Cases Times Places and Events as they for that time could best judge and yet besides the variation of Circumstances in every Age they themselves were as Men subject to mistakes as Nathan about David's building the Temple as Paul assaying to go into Bithynia to like Passions with other Men as in the Contention betwixt Paul and Barnabas to like Temptations as in the Miscarriage of Peter before referred to All they did and said not shining with immediate Light from Heaven must be tried in the Light of what themselves together with all the other Penmen of Scripture had written They themselves therefore acting or speaking by way of Prudence or general Assistance must be tried by themselves acting or speaking according to Revelation and special Assistance in which only they are and ought to be Authoritative Quest But it still remains There might be some things that were not so fit for vulgar Knowledge and so were Secreted into Tradition apart from Scripture and that Tradition deposited with Trusty Men who should successively so deposite it that it might at convenient Seasons be brought forth as Goliah ' s Sword from behind the Ephod Answ None like it indeed to serve a purpose But to satisfie Reason and Conscience nothing so improper For first let these Traditionaries give clear Expositions and such as are worthy to be acquiesced in of the Prophetick or otherwise Dark Places of Scripture If they cannot do that where is the Wisdom above the Vulgar and why did not Tradition without Scripture inclose those mysterious Visions of the Revelation from Popular Inspection But the things Tradition is imploy'd indeed in are quite of another Nature either the Prelation of Men in Church-Office and Dignity or some Rites of Worship that should change Devotion into Superstition or lull it into Ignorance or some Canons that turn Religion into Trade or Doctrines suited to that End or which serves to all such purposes a Tradition to call back all Scripture out of the Written Word into Oral Tradition by locking it up in a Tongue unknown to the generality of Christians And yet if there were any seemingly Purer or more Contemplational Traditions seeing they are not inrolled into Scripture they must as hath been said give such Evidences of themselves as Divine Revelation hath or be at their highest but Enthusiasm and Fanaticism Quest But what Esteem is to be had of the Writings and Transactions of the Ancients whom we call Fathers Doctors of the Church Men of eminent Holiness great Abilities Confessors and Martyrs of Christianity Answ It may be easily judg'd by what hath been said already that they must be brought to Scripture laid at its Feet and submitted to its Acceptance whether according to its true Sense or not For if the Apostles when the Holy Spirit was not upon them could not exceed Humane how much less can any of a lower Class pretend The Fathers therefore had so great an Awe of Scripture that they did not assume any thing to themselves or their Writings or yield any thing to the Persons or Writings of those of the same Time with them but according to the undeniable Sense of Scripture Quest But the nearness of these Fathers to the Days of Christ and the Apostles must needs enable them either from what they themselves received warm from their Lips or from what they had from others not quite cold to know the Apostles Doctrine Discipline Manner of Life Purpose their Sense of the Scope and Meaning of those Things wherein they were Divinely Inspired and so to deliver it to After-ages Answ Whatever they have spoken or written giving us more light and advantage to understand and behold Scripture in its own Light ought from them or from any other to be accepted with great regard but if it do not thus it cannot be accepted even from the Writers of Scriptures themselves upon a single or divided Authority They were so bounded by the very Things and Words they themselves had once spoken and written by the Holy-Ghost that all the deference to their knowledge in Divine Things above others was to be made reasonable in the clearest Expounding what themselves and others had written by Divine Inspiration and to be discerned in the very Writings themselves and not to be drawn oracularly out of their Breasts when the Evidences of Divine Inspiration were not upon them For he that is Spiritual i. e. that God vouchsafes Inspiration to or pretends to it must acknowledge all that is either truly written or spoken by the same Inspiration to be the Commandments of the Lord 1 Cor. 14. 37. And as for the newness freshness and life of Truth given by Divine Revelation God graciously providing it should remain as Revelation left it and the Evidences it hath done so appearing with it it is the same in all Ages Divine never loses of its life nor abates of its vigor what it was so many Ages ago that it abides now what the Holy-Ghost spoke so many Ages ago that it speaks now as warmly as then All Divine Truth given is after the power of an endless life the Eternal Increates Spirit lives in it and gives Divine Quickness to it It is yesterday to day the same for ever and so breathes its own sense in Scripture by the ordinary Assistances it vouchsafes to Holy Humble and diligent Waiters upon him in this even as it did in the first Ages though the extraordinary Motions are withdrawn Quest But still the Gifts and Endowments of those Eminent Men with all the Light Truth Grace Learning and Reason they shine to us with ought to be esteemed and improved Answ Yes doubtless For whatsoever Things are true whatsoever things are pure are of Virtue and deserved praise they are Publick and of God wherever they are found And whatever there is in these Elders in their nearness to the First Times their Holiness their Sufferings their great Learning their Encounters of Paganism their Apologies for Christianity their Heavenliness their Contempt of this World all is a Donation and a Grace of God by them to his Church and Mankind in general Quest And does not there arise great Evidence
regard Quest But still how can the Church be called a Congregation seeing that â—â—â—aks it always actually Congregated but those very Members that in regard of nearness one to another are at due seasons Congregated cannot yet be always Congregated Answ The Twelve Tribes of Israel that is the Church in its several Members always united always ready to the Instant serving God Day and Night are beheld and seen by him as in a perpetual actual Congregation Quest Why do you call the Church The Congregation Answ Even as Holy Writing is The Scripture and The Bible or Book so the Church is The Congregation by way of Eminency the only Excellent Assembly or Congregation in the World And indeed upon a true account there is no other Religious Congregation but either a rude Multitude or a Conspiracy and Faction against God Quest Why is the Church said to be a Congregation called by the Word Answ Because Humane Nature uncall'd lies in the Lapse of Separation from God in Private and False Religion and in those Assemblies justly branded as before till it be recalled by him into the Church united again to him So that a Church is not a Natural but a Supernatural Assembly yet it is ready to embrace all true Nature and the Associations of it into it self Quest Why is the Church describ'd to be One Catholick Congregation when both Scripture and daily Observation assure us there have been and are so many Particular Congregations very Regular Churches and duely so styled Answ Because the Church is of the Nature of those Things that are distinguished only by the several Accidental Receptions they find and yet still remain One the Catholick Church and a Particular Church differ no otherwise than as a Beam of Light differs from the whole Globe of Light or a Stream of Water from the Ocean Even the most Particular Church is in this regard Catholick that it is united to God and Christ that indeed give both the Name and Nature of Catholick from themselves Particular Churches yea even Particular Persons truly of the Church have every one the whole Character Title Promise and Privilege of the Catholick Church so far as they can need or receive them even as Heaven is Entire Heaven to every single Glorified Soul Every Lively Member of the Church touches the Head and Corner stone and so in him the whole General Assembly and Church of the First-born both in Heaven and Earth and is at last consummate with them to Eternity Quest How is this Church Congregated Answ It was begun and hath always increased by Particular Persons converted and brought home to God according to his Word in several Ages and Successions For the Church as it is a Church is not a Society formed by a common Consent of Men or by their Will but its several Parts are added by God so that it consists of all that are inwardly and truly of that Catholick Religion in God the Father and in the Lord Jesus Christ by the Eternal Spirit all the World over and in which meet all that have been are or shall be thus converted by the Word of God as the Church is and shall be triumphant in Glory Quest The Call then that makes this Congregation is first to God and Christ and not to the Church it self Answ It is evidently so All true Converts first give themselves to God and Christ and by vertue of That to the Church The Apostles were not sollicitous of any other Conjoyning Men to the Church than what most necessarily followed upon their receiving the Gospel and were afraid of their fixing upon them that were but Ministers and Servants We preach Jesus to be the Lord and our selves Servants for Jesus sake The Corinthians heading themselves under Paul or Apollo or Cephas was very mischievous and therefore the Apostle knowing the Union ought to be only to Christ directs himself so vehemently against it as also against any fanciful Distinction of themselves under Christ as an ordinary Chief of a Party and not as the Divine Head of the whole Body in the Catholick Truth Even as he erred that vulgarly called Christ Good not knowing him to be God the Supremely Solely Good Quest Are they all true Converts that are of the Church Answ All that are indeed the Church are so but all that may appertain to the Church are not so as all that were of Israel were not Israel There is a visible Profession that is too often not sincere yet this makes Men Of or belonging to the Church but not truly The Church Many are so called that are not chosen But all that are truly The Church are also truly called and truly Converts not only outwardly and visibly the Church but inwardly and invisibly so too whose praise is not of Men but of God In the mean time they that are onely of the Visible Church have the Means of Grace and are not thrown out of that Register of God's People till the Final Judgment cuts them off A very great Benefit in it self Quest Is not the Church then so Catholick or General as the Profession of the True Religion is Answ The Catholickness of the Church as hath been often inculcated is its Union to God and Christ and that in sincerity As to the general Profession though the number of it be as the Sand of the Sea a Remnant only shall be saved For God will finish the Account and cut it short in Righteousness for a short work will the Lord make in the Visible Church There shall be an often eating or brousing it off a retrenching of it again and again it shall cast the Leaves of its meer Professors as the Teyle-tree or Oak when yet their Substance is in them the Holy Seed are the Substance of it Isa 6. ult not losing them it loses nothing Quest In what sense is it then said The Gates of Hell shall not prevail against the Church Answ It is undoubted none can fail while they are the Church while united to Truth to the God of Truth to Christ the Way the Truth and the Life It is also certain from this high Declaration there always shall be a Church in the World so united Hades or Mortality shall not prevail over it and how much farther it assures the Perseverance of those that are once truly the Church I leave the thing it self to speak It is said They that overcome ar Pillars that never go out of it and They that go out of it were not of it for if they had been indeed of it they would no doubt have continued with it And how the Church it self shall always continue if any True Member of it may perish is not easie to conceive Quest How is the Church ordained by God to actuate Scripture as it is the Secord of Catholick Religion Answ The Apostle in his Noble Description of the Church hath laid the Foundations of our Instruction herein in those three Honourable Titles he hath given
that never remove and a Rest of Truth for ever having been taught and learnt it as it is in Jesus Quest Who are the Professionary Church only Answ They that though they may as Artificial Pillars give some Ornament to the House of God and offer Truth yet not being indeed united to the Foundation are movable and may go out of the House They are such as have not received the Truth in the Love and Obedience of it within themselves and so may fall away from it It cannot be said of them as of the former The Truth shall be with them for ever having made its Edraioma or Settlement in them Quest How does the Professionary Church fall away in the Bulk and Body of its Professors and Profession Answ The Office of the Church being to Actuate Truth and only Truth it may fail either in abating the Fervours due to Truth though nothing False or Forreign be admitted or in receiving Falshood or things of a baser Alloy for Truth and wasting those Fervours due only to Truth upon them The one may be called a departing from the true State of a Church the other from the State of a True Church and they usually meet one in another Quest How does this come to pass Answ From the Judgment of God upon the present sinful State permitting things so to themselves that in very few Instances it is but that the Imperfections of Good Men and the prevailing Corruptions of Professionary Christians change the Holy Lively Activities of the True State of a Church into Lukewarmness and Formality or by admitting Falshood and impure Mixtures into Doctrine Worship and Discipline corrupt the State of the Church so that it loses its Truth Quest What becomes of the Professionary Church when it loses the True State of a Church Answ It is as the Prophet expresses a Civil State or a City that hath lost its Splendour It becomes like a burnt Mountain or extinguish'd Globe of Light It retains the Form but loses the Life and Vigour of a Church like Ephesus that lost its First Love or Sardis that had a Name to live but was dead or Laodicea that was neither cold nor hot Quest What becomes of it when it is corrupted and loses in its Truth Answ It exchanges the Lively Oracles for Forms of Doctrine and Lifeless Discourse not of the High Spirit of Scripture It debases pure Worship into Ceremonialness Superstition or Idolatry and the Gospel Rule and Discipline it sells for a Worldly Politie and the true Graces of Christianity expressed in a Holy Conversation for what is much beneath or contrary Sometimes it forsakes Truth in some Fundamental Article that it swells out from the Foundation in a Breach ready to fall And there is one Instance of all these in the Anti-Church which will deserve a greater Consideration Quest How does God deal with such Churches Answ Sometimes sweeps them with the Beesom of Destruction taking away both the Candlestick and Place of it together Alienes Both to them and their Religion thrusting them out of their whole Possession Sometimes he suffers them to continue even for Ages yet so that their Candlestick is moved out of its due stately Positure hardly appearing like a Candlestick and that by the Indignation of God Quest In these Cases how does it fare with the True Holy Seed the Substantial Church Answ God chastens them to Repentance Self-purification and greater Zeal in that Case of the Churches losing its Brightness and Vigour that they may recover their first State and Work aad sets them on work to retrive Truth lost in that other Case of the Churches Defection Quest How is it with them when the very Place and Candlestick are taken away Answ They are either first removed into the higher State of the Church in Heaven or driven before into other Parts of the World by Persecution or the violence of the Judgment makes no distinction but carries them Captive with the rest though in different Baskets as the Prophet Jeremy represents Quest How do they survive in the time of the displac'd and dejected Candlestick Answ They are either called out to a Zealous Appearance and Suffering for Truth or sometimes retired into Corners like the Seven thousand in Israel or the Church in the Wilderness that they cannot appear like a Church offering those Publick Notices of Divine Truth a Church is designed for Quest How is a Visible Profession lost from Particular Persons Answ It is too often thrown up by Apostasie or Profaneness or dwindled into a very Spiritless Form but very often a Profession without the Power being not inconsistent with the working of Iniquity it may pass out of this World like a Lamp burning but being found to burn only in a small Temporary Light without Oyl in the Vessel a Plenitude of Grace in the Heart shutting out every Lust it becomes a Lamp put out in utter Darkness Quest What is to be inferred from all this Answ That there is no Trust but in the Lord himself the Truth it self by which at all times the Church that is indeed the Pillar and Ground of Truth and wherein it is so will be known to us and in uniting to Truth we are united to That Quest There remains one thing yet to be understood in the Description of the Church which is its Power of Governing even as it is Governed by the Word of God Vnder what Notions I beseech you is that Government expressed in Scripture Answ That Power is by our Saviour represented under the Mataphor of Keys and the Use of those Keys in opening and shutting or in Binding and Losing Quest What is the meaning hereof Answ The meaning is plainly this When the Church of Christ hath by the Key of Knowledge inquir'd into all the Divine and Heavenly Doctrine of the Gospel and Word of God it hath in and according to that Word and only so a Power of Application of that Doctrine to Particular Cases binding Men under the Sense of Guilt and fear of Damnation in such or such Sins and an impenitent Continuance in them or of Absolving and assuring Men of the Divine Favour and Acceptance in a holy course of Life and Obedience to God and of Pardon upon Repentance after Falls into Sin and Disobedience and so of Declaring and Pronouncing upon Men as to their present State in the Church by Excommunication or Absolution all these are the Power of Binding and Loosing according to what our Saviour speaks in parallel Words Whose Sins you remit they are remitted whose Sins you retain they are retained meaning still according to his Word the Pole-Star by which they are to direct all their Motions who claim any such Power For only where it is declard according to the Word is it that what is bound on Earth is also bound in Heaven and what is loosed on Earth is loosed in Heaven there being an Invariable Agreement between what is Published from Heaven in the Word of
God concerning the State and Actions of Men on Earth and the Transactions in Heaven in relation to them He then that pronounces agreeably with that word pronounces as Heaven does and will pronounce Heaven binds what he binds and looses what he looses because he speaks the Voice of Heaven in both Cases But that there should be any Binding or Loosing except in the Power of this Word and according to it in its Vertue in its Truth nothing can be more contrary to the Ends to the Glory to the Soveraignty of Christ To bind any single Christian by Excommunication and not according to this Word is as much a Brutum Fulmen a Thunder to no purpose a causeless Curse that shall not come as for the Pope to Excommunicate whole Protestant Churches Quest What is a Particular Church Answ It is the Catholick Church in a Neighbourhood or number of Christians Communicating one with another ordinarily even as the whole Cotholick Church would if it were possible Communicate with it self in the Ordinances and Worship of Christ exactly according the to Rules of his Word wherein this is the distinguishing Character of the True Church that its Communion is not with it self primarily but â—ts Communion is so with it self as to be with the Father and his Son Jesus Christ principally as the Fountain-Head Center and Rule of the Communion and therein it holds out and invites to its Communion CAP. X. Of the Officers appointed by Christ in his Church Quest CAn there be either an Orderly or an Effectual Actuation of the Truth by the Church as a Congregation without distinct and separate Offices and Officers that may attend continually on this very thing Answ It is imposible for an Assembly without Order would cease to be an Assembly and fall into a Confusion or Rude Multitude All Wise and Prudent Assemblies have always had Elders to preside over them and our Lord hath ordained such to moderate throughout his Congregation or Church to conduct all the Publick Services of Religion For all things therein are actually administred by the Ministers of Christ the Noblest Organical Parts of the Church like those Senses that attend upon the Understanding most immediately Seeing Eyes and Hearing Ears so these upon the Word of Christ And that they may be most fitted ingaged and provoked hereunto they are even according to the very Laws of Nature separated to their Offices and unto all Preparations for them by Reading and Meditation as to their Proper Calling and Business of Life seeing they do not pretend to Immediate and Extraordinary Inablements or Excitations to their Service Quest What Titles or Characters does the New Testament place upon these Officers Answ Those that we have especial Respect to for in the Deacons if strictly taken we are less concerned receive Denominations either from their Work and Service or from that Honour and Estimation due to the Faithful Discharge of such a Service From their Work they are stiled Apostles Evangelists Pastors Teachers Ministers Servants of God and Christ and in a just sense of the Church also From the Estimation and Honour due to the Discharge of their Work and the Authority it ought to carry in the Hearts and Consciences of Christians they are styled Bishops Elders Rulers Guides and Ensamples as also Embassadours And the Work and the Honour do so enclose one another that they ought not to be separated and are in their Institution the Measure one of another extending both to Obedience and Support of them in their Work and the Titles are so prepared by the Wisdom of the Holy Ghost that they ought not to be changed for any other nor the Scripture-Language herein to be altered for any Words not importing the same proper Sense Quest How shall the True Ministers of Christ be known that there may be that Obedience and Submission paid to them that is commanded Answ There can be no other Means to discern them but by the Word of Righteousness of which all True Ministers are the Ministers on account of which alone Obedience and Submission to them is due Their bringing that Word in its own Life Evidence and Power is their best Commission Quest But how are they most orderly enstall'd into so high a Function Answ Christ as the Head of the Church hath ascended up on high and given gifts to Men and as the Lord of the Harvest takes it upon him as his Supreme Care to thrust forth Labourers into his Harvest The several Congregations of Christians observing Ministerial Abilities and Meetness to Teach call out to such to help them and herein in the Cessation of Extraordinary Gifts the Schools of Learning and Religious Education like the Schools of the Prophets do best prepare and the Judgment of those that have been Pastors and Teachers before them does most orderly recommend to Choice and Acceptance in the great Service such as are Scribes instructed to the Kingdom of Heaven and commits to them the Charge of Teaching others For in this as in all other Acts the Elders of the Church are to preside with due Respect to the Congregation Quest Is the Lord Christ pleased then to act generally by the Elders and Officers of the Church Answ Generally and ordinarily he does so the Officers are therefore more particularly entrusted by Christ with the Keys even as the Church in general is Thus eminently by the Ministry of the Apostles our Lord founded his Church and so edifies and builds it up in After-ages by Pastors and Teachers and when great Defections have prevailed upon it summons it to Reformation by some rais'd up among those Officers and whom he sends out as such to reform and recover his Church Yet still all this Power is in and according to his Word and no other and so that in all things as much as may be the Knowledge Judgment and Approbation of the Church is to be joyn'd in all the Officers do as having their Interest in the Keys also because they have their Interest in the Word of God in the Understanding Opening and Applying of which to Particular Cases the whole Power of the Keys rests The Apostles Elders and the Brethren or whole Church were together pleased and together joyn'd in that Famous Conciliary Epistle Acts 15. 22. Quest I desire your more full Explanation of the Publick Offices of the Christian Church and the Power accompanying it Answ I will very willingly do as you desire and begin with the Apostles Quest Wherein stood their Power Answ It stood in their Preaching Acting Directing Governing by that Immediate and Infallible Assistance of the Divine Spirit by which they writ and sealed Scripture and by which they were so guarded every way that they could turn neither to the Right Hand nor to the left in any thing wherein they exercised this Power Quest How was this Power Justified Answ By the Divineness substantial Goodness and Reasonableness of all their Prescriptions propos'd in all the Methods of
Answ They are all hereby Established for they are the Ordination of God to this very purpose to make Men see to bring them Light to clear things to them that by the awakening their Judgments the summoning and collecting their Principles they may see with their own Eyes the ways of God and Religion the Holy Spirit graciously adjoyning it self to their Ministry They have no Dominion over their Faith but are helpers of their Joy that is they facilitate and make pleasant the knowledge and assurances of Religion and they Rule by Exhorting Admonishing Rebuking Comforting and even Commanding in the Evidences of Divine Authority on Account of which they are to be obey'd and highly esteemed for their Works sake Notwithstanding all this no Man is excluded from his own Office to himself for every particular Christian is in some Sense a Congregation and Preacher to himself as Solomon his Conscience hath the Keys binds and looses within it self nay Christians are not excluded from Rule in the Church when they have the Word of God on their side they may plead and reason with their Mother Hos 2. 2. When they have more understanding than their Teachers or the Rulers Rule not according to the Word of God they that speak according to the Law and the Testimony even Rule their Rulers and prove the more noble Organs of the Church when those that should Rule it are as the Idols Eyes that see not Ears that hear not or as the Idol Shepherd a Blâ—st is upon their Right hand and Right-eye that their Arm is clean dried up and their Eye utterly darkened the most naked unfurnished Christian with outward Accomplishments that yet knows the Word of God is among the Prophets in such a time of necesity CAP. XII Of Schism and Scandal Quest FRom the precedent Discourse of the Church I conceive the truest Notion of Schism may be deduced I desire you therefore to Explain what the true Nâ—ture of Schism is Answ The Question concerning the Nature of Schism follows very pertinently upon the right settlement of the Nature of the Church now the whole Being of the Church consisting in its Union to God and Christ in Love according to the Truth of his Word and that it receives all its Members into Union with it self by their being first united as it self is Schism which is Division must needs in its strictest and most formal Notion be a Division from that Truth wherein the whole Church is one and so from the Love consequent upon such an Union Quest What is that Truth of the Word of God in which the Church is One Answ The Truth of the Doctrine of God or the Unity of the Faith of the Son of God in things to be believed and the Truth of his Law and Commands in things to be done Quest How is the Love of the Church Vnited in these Answ It is a Love in the Truth and hereby we know we Love the Brethren when we Love God and keep his Commandments John Epist 2. No Love how great soever is Christian-love nor Union how close soever Christian-union if it be not in the Truth and Commandments of God From whence it necessarily follows the Schism that is a Schism from the Church must be a Disunion from the Faith of the Scriptures and the Love springing from that Faith and there is no danger of any other Schism from the Church as it is a Church Quest How does Schism differ from Heresie Answ Heresie in the highest Sense and worst Sense of it is a Disunion from Truth in some Fundamental and Grand Concernment of Religion either in the Doctrine or Commands of God so that a Man is subverted and sinneth and must needs be Condemned of a Separation from the Assembly of Truth both by himself and the Thing it self and that both as to Faith and Christian-love he is so separated Schism is a Disunion in some less momentous parts of this Truth under an apprehension of a greater moment than there is indeed in the Causes of such a Disunion and a proportionable abatement of Christian Love arising from it All Heresie therefore includes Schism but all Schism does not rise up to Heresie Quest Are these the Scripture Notions of Schism and Heresie according to its use of those Words Answ They are most agreeable with the Sense of it but the words were not so set solemn and formal in Scripture as afterwards in Ecclesiastick Writers for Dichostasyes or Division into two or more Parties and Contentions are by the Apostle used to the same Sense as Schism and Heresie sâ—metimes signifies no more than a Sect or Division though that is remarkably used in its worst Sense by both the Apostles Paul and Peter Quest Is every different Apprehension and Practice ensuing upon it though distant from Truth immediately to be Condemned of Schism Answ By no means if it be a Modest and Humble Distrust and Suspension concerning the Truth and Command of God in some things of smaller moment and doubtful yea though it comes to a positive Determination so far as a Man's judgment and yet erroneous can at the present discern it cannot be branded as Schism if there be no stress laid upon the Thing beyond its desert if the Union in the greatest and clearest Truths and Commands remains firm and the Love due to such an Union with the Church of God be sincere and fervent yea even Dissent in greater points thus qualified and free from ill practice hath not been rigidly censur'd for Heresie Quest Is there no danger then of running into Schism if there be an Vnion with Truth Answ In this Sense only when the weakness or misapprehension of others are rated against them beyond their Merit and without regard to the greater Truths they agree in and the Love due to them upon Union in those greater Truths is withdrawn or the Spirit of meekness in endeavouring to restore the Erring Christian denied This may be justly esteem'd like Schism as it recedes from the just value of Great Truths and from the Charity of Christians upon Union in them but no Man is to espouse any Mans Erroâ—s or to receive even Truth by an implicit Faith for fear of Schism in things that carry not a broad Evidence of Divine Truth there is great scope for Modest Suspensions and even Dissents without Imputation of Schism for Truths of magnitude either in Doctrine Worship Practice or Diâ—cipline are too bright to be refused by sincere and honest Minds after due admonition Quest Wherein lies then the great Evil of Schism Answ That Schism and the Evil of it may better be understood I will set before you the several Instances of Schism in Scripture and the Evils noted by the Apostle in each of them 1. The first sort of Schism is the Disunion in the sincere Doctrine of the Gospel and bringing in upon it the necessity of the Judaique Rites to concur with it This the Apostle to the Romans Rom.
16. 17. calls making Divisions or Parties beside or contrary to the Doctrine received The great Evil of this adding to the Word of God is that it lays Scandals before Men and draws them into this great mischief that instead of the pure nourishment of Divine Truth all runs into this over-beloved Sentiment and so deprives the Soul of the true and vigorous Spirits of Truth and also the Service due to True Christianity is drain'd away and consumed upon this private Opinion which is indeed the mischief of all Falshood in Religion and Devotion in Things not appointed by God who only can prescribe what is truly fitted to our Good and bless it with suitable Effect Miscarriage from Divine Truth is always found in Schism with this mischievous Consequence that it deceives the Soul with a Cloud and Wind instead of Truth and solid Good 2. A Second kind of Schism the Apostle Notes 1 Cor. 11. 19 20. was the Disorder in Divine-Worship in that great Ordinance of the Lords Supper wherein they that were reprov'd were necessitated to withdraw and to stand apart for the manifesting themselves in the purity of that Worship and Service for the very honor of it The great Evil of this Schism is that it brings in a necessity of divided Parties in Publick Religion and the Duties of it seeing good Men must separate from such Corruptions and stand at a Distance from them on Account of which Religion it self is dishonoured as if it were a Jumble of Sects and gave an uncertain sound and further than that is charged as if it were but a Sect it self because it stands by it self Thus Christianity was called This Sect and the Sect of the Nazarenes Idolatry damns the True Worship of God as a Heresie from it self and the False Church charges the truly Publick-Assembly with Schism and a Private Religion 3. Another Degree of Schism the Apostle taxes in the Corinthians 1 Cor. 1. 11. c. 4. 3. was that this one intire Profession of Christianity in the one Universal Church of Christ they thought ought to be shred into little Fraternities under the Names of some prime Minister of Christianity or even under the Name of Christ himself as an ordinary Master of a Party except we will understand that Those Approved who stood firm in Christ alone were manifested and stood alone by being at a distance from the Schism of others and so appeared as was said before like a Schism themselves Thus vain Philosophy parcell'd out it self under its great Masters The great Evil of this is that it raises Feuds Contentions and Factions as if this one Integral Christianity could have distinct Interests and some ingross one Interest others another Whereas the Apostle thus reduces this Schism all Ministers saith he with all their Gifts Graces and Functions are the whole Churches without any cantoning other than that Order and Conveniency requires the more constant administration of Religion in certain Congregations with their Elders Cephas the Apostle of the Circumcision was the Corinthians though Gentiles as well as the Apostle of the Gentiles Paul himself and not only the Churches Ministers but the whole World and the Cargo of Light and Truth in it are the Churches Every Truth every Ordinance every Minister whether of Truth Natural or Revealed Religion with all the happy Effects of them are all the Donation of Christ to the Catholick Church whose the Catholick Church is and no Ministers whatever and Christ is Gods who is the Foundation Center and Supream Head of this Unity and Union 4. The last Instance of Schism I find in Holy Scripture is intimated to us under that curious Parable 1 Cor. 12. 12. of the Wise and Excellent Temperament betwixt the several Members of the same Body set in different Degrees of Dignity the less comely parts have more abundant Comliness and those that we think to be less Honourable on these we bestow more abundant Honour that there should be no Schism in the Body but that the Members should have the same care one for another under this Elegant Shade the Apostle teaches that a neglect and a contemptuous over-looking the Rights and Interest of the lower and less Honourable Members in the Church incurs the guilt of Schism as arguing the want of that Compassion and Feellingness that springs from the head of the Church down through the higher to the meanest of his Members for no Man ever hated his own Flesh even the meanest and lowest part of it but nourishes and cherishes it even as the Lord the Church They therefore that carry the greatest Grace and Honour in the Church should invest the least comely Members with more abundant Honour and Comliness in the most humble Christian Condescensions and kindest Treatment covering all their defects in Imitation of God who hath given most abundant Honour to that part which lacked and being more tenderly careful of deferring to them the utmoâ—t God hath allowed them On the other side the groundless and unreasonable Repining and Discontent of those Inferior Members that they are not the most noble parts is Schismatical also not feeling the Glory of those more excellent Members as their own Glory with delight and complacency even till it rises up to the Glory of the Head Christ and God To be perfectly united therefore in the same Judgment and Mind and to speak the same thing God hath spoken in his Word and herein to Love one another to observe the same pattern of Worship given by God himself to look upon our selves as only Christs and all Ministers to be the whole Churches given it by Christ alike so far as God gives us opportunity to enjoy them to rejoyce in the Honour of the highest Members and to Honour more abundantly the meanest as being all the Body of Christ and so tempered by him and wherein we cannot in this State of the Church come up to the exactness of these things yet to perform thus in the greatest instances of each of them and in the smaller to tollerate and forgive one another these are our security and certain preservation from Schism Quest Is there not another sort of Schism yet to be spoken of Answ No other that I can find spoken of by the Scripture Quest Is it not Schism when the Church or that part of it wherewith we are conversant prescribes Indifferences to make orderly and decent the Worship of God and any Christians separate themselves into particular Assemblies to Pray to Hear and Speak the Word of God to Admininister Sacraments that they may be free from such prescriptions For this is setting up an Altar against an Altar and one Part of the Church against another what can it then be but most notorious Schism and so esteemed in all Antiquity Answ I know not whether it is at all Schism I am sure if things were rightly managed it were the least Guilty kind for there being an Union as is supposed in all things that are Commanded
in the Church of God to be confined within the Monarchy and Word of Christ and nothing to be Imposed or Forbidden but according to that so it doth every where disinterest the Church of Christ to judge or intermeddle in Civil Government or Things pertaining to it it supposes Civil Powers will oblige to and determine Indifferencies in Civil things this way or that way as they please and therein exercise a Lordship but Christ having declared it shall not be so among his Disciples does yet Command by himself and his Apostles all Obedience to these Principalities and Powers even thus Commanding if not against Gods Command directly so that in all such things the Doubting Conscience is only to be instructed in its Rule and Duty but can have no more Relief against Obedience to Civil Commands than it hath against Obedience to the Commands of God when it is mistaken about those Commands for such Obedience to Magistrates is Obedience to the Divine Command Quest There appears so near an Affinity in the Commands concerning Indifferent Things of those that have Rule in the Church with the Commands of those that have Civil Rule that the one may be a Measure for the other or wherein is the difference especially when they joyn in one in their Commands concerning these Indifferoncies Answ The Commands of Civil Authority concerning Indifferent Things in Religion deserves a particular consideration for which a proper place shall be reserv'd But that the Church is such a kind of Political Regiment that should set up for it self as one of the Polities of this World by Canons and Constitutions of its own not founded in the Word of God but introduced on other pretences and that if Christians do not Submit to them they should be accounted Schismaticks and Excommunicated as Heathens if they do not hear the Church that is the Rulers of the Church thus Ordaining in their own Wisdom and all this by the Charter of the Keys or the Power of Binding or Loosing is as gross a Forgery as Popery hath any in this Point Indeed if there were such a state of things there were reason to believe the whole Church should by proper ways and means found out by Christ be modelled into one universal Uniformity of Government and Ceremony seeing the whole Church is but one and that the Romane supposing it had not so grossly contradicted the Laws of Christ might sooner pretend to be the Metropolis of it and the Bishop of Rome the Head of the Unity than any other it being the first Imperial City that was famous for Christianity But how little Uniformity is to Christ or his Kingdom in those things wherein he hath not interposed at all but left Christians free and intended they should be free appears in the Ununiform Unity of the History of the Evangelists concerning his Life Doctrine Death and Resurection To suppose therefore the Church to be in this manner Uniformed by the Prudence of its Governours is to turn it so far into a Civil State and the Bishops of it into Lay-Elders CAP. XIII Of the Anti-Church and its Opposition in every Thing to the True Church Quest IS there not an Anti-Church or Antichristian-Church that stands in Opposition to the True-Church Answ There is and hath been so for many Ages and that hath taken upon it in the most Publick way to be the Church of Christ the House of the Living God the Pillar and Ground of Truth Quest With what Advantages hath it been arm'd thus to take upon it self at all the Name of a Church Answ It having risen out of the True Ancient Apostolick Church that received the True Christianity from the Apostles at Rome and the Faith of which as the Apostle Paul witnesses Rom. 1. 8. was spoken of throughout the World it hath retain'd the Scriptures and the Fundamentals of Christianity the Writings of the First Christians and Apostolical Men and so hath continued to do from that very time of the Apostles to this Day and hath also actuated the Truth of the Scripture and those Fundamentals of it according as its Interest hath led it in some Ages more in some less as shall be presently more discovered Quest Having then the Scriptures those Fundamentals of Christianity and the Discourses of the Ancient Fathers and Doctors upon them in such a length of time with what reason can it be looked upon as an Anti or antichristian-Antichristian-Church Answ With very great reason because by a multitude of Additions fowlest Idolatrous and Superstitious Corruptions and false Interpretations upon the Scriptures the Fundamentals of Christianity and the Discourses of the Ancients shamefully interpolated and by Spurious Writings under their Names despited it hath turned whole Christianity into a very contrary thing to it self while therefore it holds those points of Christianity and the Records of it in veneration and yet supports all its Falshoods thereby it becomes perfectly an Antichurch or Antichristian It hath in regard of those Articles of Truth it holds and actuates so much as to have the Name of a Church and Christian and yet having them so falsified corrupted and changed from themselves it becomes a Mock-Church a Mock-Christianity that is an Antichurch and Anti-christian in despite of the True-Church and True-Christianity And as to its Actuation of Truth it hath so Actuated Truth as to Actuate by Truth its own Falshoods and Lies upon Truth Quest How then did it rise to such an Eminency and pretence of being Catholick and Publick Answ The many Concurrences of Divine Providence under his deep and unsearchable Judgments in the Government of the World in relation to that state he had appointed for his Church I leave to the History of the Church and Roman Empire in those times by which may be understood how the Papacy took the advantage to Exalt it self not only above the Episcopal Chairs then in an Ambitious Contest for Supremacy but above all that was called God that is the Imperial Power it self and so set its Foot upon the Necks of Christian Princes throughout the World till the great Cheat began to be detected and all this by and upon pretence of being the Vicar of Christ or the Head of the Catholick that is the Roman-Church Quest These things I confess not so convenient to my Inquiry I desire only to know how in the middle of so many horrible Corruptions this Antichurch could be so bold as to vaunt it self the Vniversal Church of Christ Answ Taking the utmost benefit of its Antiquity in the Christian-Faith and Fundamentals of it and especially of the Conspicuousness and Famousness of its State and in the mean time the Corruptions growing up by degrees and not so observably as at once for Papal Rome was not built in a Day It usurped the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven as its own the Key of Knowledge in its Infallibility the Keys of Power in opening and shutting Heaven Gates so as that in the Darkness then overspreading
the World and the Church Ignorance the Mother of False-Devotion so bewitching the Minds of Men that they all wondered after the Roman-State as new modelled under the Beast Arm'd with two Horns like those of a Lamb counterfeiting Power from Christ the Lamb but that spake as a Dragon pursuing all its pretendedly Christian Decrees with the extreamest Salvageness of any of the greatest Earthly Tyrants but all under a Mask of the Catholick Apostolick Church by which Fascination of Zeal to the most excellent Religion though so Vitiated Princes and People Surrendred their Power to this great Sorceress using at once all the Frauds and Cheats of False-Prophesie and the Arts and Policy of the most Designing Universal Monarchy Thus while this Antichurch stole into Power by the best appearances of True-Religion and secured it by all the Blandishments of a Meretricious Religion it found it self so strong as to force its False-Religion by its Power and using both together raised the Grandeur of both a Secular and Spiritual Tyranny to such a height Quest But how did the True-Church in this time Actuate Truth or agree with those Characters of being the House of God the Pillar and Ground of Truth Answ It was by the might and prevalency of this Secular and Spiritual Tyranny so suppressed that it was in a manner known only to God who reserv'd a number to himself in the midst of so great a Defection wherein that promise was made Good the Gates of Hell shall not prevail against his Church Exposing and Actuating Truth pure from those Corruptions is hardly and very hardly to be found in History in any of the Lines and Motions of it in the most dark and dolesom period of that Defection Quest How was it with the True-Church recovering it self from this great Darkness Answ God raised up by extraordinary Measures of though but an ordinary presence such who by Indefatigable searches into his Truth and Word and those Records of Christianity that Antichurch was concerned to preserve because as was said it could not without so much of a Church be an Antichurch and by bold Publications of it shook so that Inchanted City that a tenth part of it fell And by the great contrivance of Providence even the chief of that Antichurch were forc'd by way of Repercussion to raise greater Light by endeavours to defend themselves from Scripture Antiquity and Reason by the Summons of all that Learning Wit and Industry could levy in their Defence so that they were necessitated to awaken out of that Barbarity and Ignorance in which they had been so long drown'd and to Actuate even Truth more fiercely that they might together with it make as potent and prevalent as they could and give countenance to those great Falshoods they had interwoven with it From all which broke out such a light in the World that Princes rowz'd themselves and no longer crouch'd down under such an intoxicated Servitude which had long gall'd and pinch'd them but that they knew not how to rid themselves from it till the Sorcery was laid bare which still gave greater scope for the display of Truth Quest Could the Scripture be inconscious or silent concerning so great Revolutions in the Church of God as these Answ It is in all True Reason most impossible and therefore it is a mighty Argument that those great places of Scripture that do so notoriously agree to such a purpose as the Discovery of this Antichristian State are justly apply'd to it by Protestant Interpreters Quest If you please point me to the chief of those places you refer to Answ I will do it very briefly as being too large for the present purpose to enumerate many or enlarge upon any of them But what more proper to delineate such a State than the Apostasie the Apostle describes 2 Thess 2. 3. and 1 Timoth. 1. 4. or than the Church in the Wilderness Revel 12. 14. the Witnesses Prophecying in Sackcloth being slain and lying dead three Days and a half True Christianity being in all appearance extinct The measuring the Altar the Temple and those that Worship in it signifying the close Retirement of Pure Religion and the outward Court left to be trodden down by the Gentiles or Heathen Christians and their impure Rites and Worship and therefore excluded from those strict measures true undefiled Christianity is enclos'd within Revel 11. 1. Now upon all these Representations of such a State of the Church so exquisitely shadowed and resembled and compared with that deep plunge and immersement of Christian Religion in the time of the Popish Midnight who can but believe these with many concurrent Delineations in all those forecited Scriptures were on purpose to give the Portraicture of that so Fatal Apostasie that believes it at all to be Prophesied in the Book of God and who that considers the weight of the thing can but believe it foretold if there be any thing prophetick of the State of Christianity to the end of the World As it most evidently appears there is But if any be so incredulous as to suppose such a State of Christianity beneath the prefigurations of the Divine Spirit he cannot if he be indeed a Protestant but agree that nothing does with more Art and Divine Skill Pourtray and Draw to the Life such a Devastation of Christs True Religion as all History knows Popery hath made and as far as it can prevail does now and would do much farther and in its very Frame is constituted so to do Quest But seeing you suppose these Types of Popery may be applyed another way though it is I confess very hardly to be supposed yet I desire if any thing hath fallen under your Observation that can be less avoided to make plain how different a Religion Popish-Christianity is from the Scripture-Christianity you would give me leave to ask what it is Answ I must needs commend your Rational Enquiry for I know neither the Veneration given to any Religion by the Natives of it nor the ill Words against any Relion by those that are Strangers and Enemies to it should conclude against it The Professors of every Religion are startled at any reproach of their own Religion as at horrible Blasphemy but freely speak ill of a diverse from it Mahometans call themselves Believers and Christians Infidels Popish Religion calls it self Catholick and Protestancy a Grand Heresie and Schism Judaism charges whole Christianity with Cheat and Imposture It is therefore necessary we should have some Magnetick Needle to point us to the True Religion and to the True Christianity seeing its Name is not only distributed to many but so solemnly divided into the Popish and Protestant Profession of Christianity Quest What then can be our Invariable Northpole in Religion in such a Wide and Tumultuous Ocean Answ I hope you have not forgotten what was at first given in Instruction concerning Natural and Revealed Religion their exact Agreement with one another and with all our Faculties so
Offered by the Eternal Spirit which certainly makes the comers thereunto perfect On the other side this Liberty lays not open the Inclosures of a Holy Life nor removes the Barriers of Justice against Sin if not satisfied and attoned by Faith in the Blood of Christ 4. Lastly That which answers to each of these Characters of True Religion is that it hath no Secular Interest no Interest of this present World that it looks not upon the things that are seen that are but for a Moment but on the things that are not seen that are Eternal such is the Godliness such is the Sacrifice such the Christian Liberty that their Uses and Ends are too great and large to center in Earthly things and though themselves are the True Interest of the present state yet they no way make it or the Grandeur of it an Interest but seek a Heavenly Country and City even as the Lord of this Religion said My Kingdom is not of this World Now as this measures each of the other Characters so each of them measures it such a Transcendant Holiness and Purity can alone see God in Eternal Habitations such a Sacrifice alone can have its Blood enter into the Holy Place made without Hands having obtained an Eternal Inheritance such a Blood speaks alone in the Heavens better things than the Blood of Abel a Conscience so free so perfected hath boldness to enter into the Holiest and none else These are all fitted and Consecrated to Eternity and Eternity to them Light and trivial Holiness Insignificant Ceremonies and Rites of Purgation a cumber of External Observations invented by Men can never enter within the Vail nor endure for ever And on the other side by such Divine Things to grasp at this World and a Patrimony on Earth is as gross and out of Square so that these things exactly measure one another and square together Quest How is the Four-Square City or the True Church adjusted to these Dimensions Answ In all these things I before mentioned in having these and these only in its Doctrine its Worship its Practice and Obedience its Discipline or Government Quest How is the False Church out of Square to all these Answ In that retaining the Profession of the Christian Religion constituted according to these and pretending an Imitation of them and the Miracles attesting them it hath been most extravagant from them by its Traditional Additions and Counterfeits of them every of which are a Violation and Irregularity from one or all of these Characters or equal Sides of True Religion a great Lie upon them with which they can never be brought to agree being not only an endless Variation from but a flat Opposition to them and a despiting them with themselves so strangely so monstrously mis-shapen and that in so great numbers that as in mockage to the many excellent things our Saviour did and taught so many that if they were all written the World it self could not contain the Books that would be written even so if all the numerous and prodigious excursions of the Antichristian Church and Antichrist the Head of it from Christian Religion by its indeterminable swarm of New pieces of Antichristianism should be written the whole World it self would not be able to contain the Volumes that would be written Quest But does not the Profession of so much of the Christian Religion in such an Eminence like the City upon the Hill that cannot be hid give it the Reputation of a most Famous Church if not the Catholick as it calls it self Answ Christianity so abused as in the Popish Religion is infinitely the more dishonoured for the Eminence of the Antichurch that so exposes it and it is only the Eminence of Antichrist sitting in the Temple of God and the exalting himself above all that is indeed and truly God in his Church and shewing himself that he is God in his Oracles Wonders and Miracles but they are all but one great Lie of this Son of the Father of Lies the Image of the God of this World the Son of his falshood and perdition contrary to Christ the Son of the Father in Truth and Love But if any one receiving Christianity or the Scriptures from the Antichurch and measuring them in and by themselves separates True Christianity from the Antichristianism and retains it Pure it is but like the Service God received from the False Prophet Baalam when he Prophefied Truth into whose Place and Office Antichrist succeeds and is therefore styled the False Prophet Revel 16. 13. Quest What then can this pretended Catholick Church be in relation to the True Catholick Publick Religion Answ It can be no other upon strict account than the Synagogue of Satan the Pseudocatholick Antichurch in a Damnable Heresie from and hatred to the General Assemby and Church of the First Born written in Heaven united with the God of Truth and Love and the Son of the Father in Truth and Love in a Hellish Schism and Separation from the Apostolick Catholick Church of which God and Christ are the Head Quest How can it be believed that so great a Lie upon Christianity should be received by so large a proportion of the Christian World or that Persons of so vast Abilities and Comprehensions should so deceive others or be themselves deceived Answ Scripture has taken all the care possible to Arm us against this Objection which is indeed very great It calls this Apostacy a Mystery of Iniquity and to assure us the Apostle Paul and the Divine Person in the Revelation point to the same Thing upon the Forehead of this Adulterous Church is written Mystery Now a Mystery if it were presently understood and all easie and plain were no Mystery It hath the Energy of Delusion in causing Men to believe a Lie it is the whole Deceit of unrighteousness it sets up a great Stage of Counterfeit Miracles that it vaunts upon and that it might have that Reverend Face of Antiquity to deceive with and say it comes from a far-off Ages It was a Mystery that was then at work in the Apostles time Lastly It hath its effect upon them that may be Christians and receive Truth but not the chaste unprostitute Love of Truth alone Quest But it seems imposible that any parts of the Christian World that have been once disabused should return any more under so great a Delusion Answ There are very great hopes that God who hath Commanded his Light to shine out of this Darkness will interpose by the perpetual Brightness of his own appearance and by that Divine Breath of his Mouth in his Word against the return of so great a Darkness This set aside there are so many Reasons of fear and such possibilities of laying a Train of Causes reaching to such an Effect that there can be no place for Security but in the Almighty Providence and yet what Degrees of that deadly Scourge may fall on the Protestant World God only knows we know our Sins
deserve very ill Quest What is the greatest Security under the Divine Grace and Providence against so great Desolation upon True Christian Religion Answ A perfect Acquiescency of the Protestant Nations upon the Foursquare of Divine Truth and Resolvedness not to move from thence For as a Foursquare never removes from its own Base because it is All Base so they that are Squar'd to it and settled upon it never move For it always bears them alike with it self and by its own Justness recalls them if they offer to wander meer angry prejudice against this or that False Religion is not enough without being thus grounded upon Truth Entertainment of Truth with any Addittaments will secure no Man for he that receives one Addition may receive another He that receives Truth lying Foursquare with it self is called back by that Even of Truth He that adds one to it and makes it Odd may go on indefinitely as Popery hath done because he hath forsakent he Just Even that should stay him He can no longer wait for the Voice of Truth that by it self always answers it self but to what is not like it self it will not answer but discover it to be off from this Square it will not on any respects hearken to any thing different because it will not be sollicited to move from it self So that upon the whole the Laws of Symetry and Commensuration are the great Security of True Religion and ascertain the True Church both to it self and all Beholders For Additions to Religion like Surds or Irrational Figures incommensurable to the Rational Square can never be reduc'd to this Foursquare of Truth but are like the Deaf Adder that will not hearken to the voice of Reason Charming never so Wisely Nor can they ever be reduced to a certainty or exactness with themselves but are one thing to day another to morrow But Divine Truth is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rational Certain Expresly it self Deaf indeed to any thing else but in it self it is Testerday and to Day the same for ever He therefore that daily ponders meditates upon hath a just Measure of the Fundamentals of Divine Truth and does all things in a Regular Square with them shall know the Doctrine that is of God all the Fruits of the Tree of Life though they are various yet come all within the Apostolick Twelve and he that hath a Spiritual Gust exercis'd to discern betwixt Good and Evil by tasting any aright will taste all and find them Apostolical and know whatever pretends and is not and so reject it He will know all the Gates of Wisdom and Truth and the Angelical Guard attending at them and go in and out by them but the Disorderly Breaches and Gaps that Wild Beasts or Deceitful Foxes have made he avoids knowing they exceed the Apostolick Twelve and are therefore dangerous and pernicâ—ous and whatever Apparation of Angels may be at them he knows it is only Satan transformed into an Angel of Light and his Ministers transformed as the Apostles of Christ as the Ministers of Righteousness Thus the Doctrine of the Prophets and Apostles Numbred and Measured exactly by it self is the Security of the Twelve Tribes of Israel that is of the True Church CAP. XIV Of the Power of Magistrates in Religion and of National Religion Quest IT is I think very clear by all that hath been spoken that the settlement of Religion in the Word of God is most stable and certain and that by no Powers he hath given in his Church it can be changed nor receive any Arbitrary Additions that should be Obligatory But I am in great doubt how to reconcile those Commands of Scripture to be subject to Principalities and Powers with those strict Precepts to keep close to the Word of God and to turn neither to the Right hand nor to the Left where Rulers so often prescribe in Religion contrary to or different from the Word of God Answ I aknowledge the Resolution of this Doubt contains many difficulties in it and cannot be given at once but I shall endeavour so to lead your Questions by every Degree of Answer as may direct into the best method for your satisfaction Quest What I pray you is the first step necessary to be taken in order to the Resolving this Doubt Answ To settle a True Understanding how the Magistrates Power and Authority in Religion made entrance into the World Quest I very much desire to know that and believe it to be of very great Influence into all things that concern the unfolding this Question Answ This then I take to be the best Account of it After the apparent Degeneracy of Humane Nature so that the Laws written in Mens Hearts were evidently defaced and blotted by contrary Practices there was a necessity of forming the great Notions of Natural Religion Godliness Righteousness and Soberness into Laws that Men might be thereby preserved from highest Irregularities and excess under the pretence of being at Liberty or every Man being a Lawgiver to himself Quest I desire you further to Explain how this brought in Magistracy Answ That such Laws might be made and Executed there must be some supreme Legislative and Executive Power in every Community whether placed in one or more whether by the Title of Paternity or Primogeniture whether Hereditary and Successive or Elective whether by Agreement and Covenant primarily or by Submission and Pacts after Conquest These things are variously ordered by God in his Paramount but secret Government of the World But the Laws of Godliness Righteousness and Soberness are so necessary and Men know them to be so necessary that they cannot be without them nor without some Supreme Legislation and Execution of Laws formed according to them They that are above see a necessity of Governing by them they that are below see a necessity of being Governed by the same and therefore submit by Common Consent to some supreme Authority and Subordinate Magistrates under the Supreme to that end Mankind is touch'd by this Impression from God and all that are not are branded as Sons of Belial Quest But how are Princes and Magistrates secured in the Exercise of their Power against those that would not be Subject Answ Besides the Laws of God written in the Heart and promulg'd in the World besides the secret Touches and Motions of Providence and Interlinkings of Common Interest with the Rights of Soveraignty Princes and Soveraign Rulers are both by the Will of God and the Common Consent of Mankind surrounded with Grandeur of Highest Estate that they may draw Subjects into their Service and Dependence upon them by the greatness of their Rewards being both the Fountain of Honour and of Splendor of Condition But especially they are Arm'd with the Power of the Sword intrusted with them by God that by the awe of their Wrath and Vengeance they may bring People into Subjection and a Readiness to Obey Thus they appear as Gods in the World as Living
it may be made the clearer will you give the Distinction between Sovereign Powers and the Elders of the Church For they are both called Rulers they are both called the Ministers of God Answ This is indeed most necessary to be known as tending much to Illustrate this whole Matter 1. The Power of the Elders of the Church lies wholly and intirely in the Evidence of the Truth and the Word of God they Minister without which their Persons are Invested with no Power or Authority at all But there is a Sacred Character upon Soveraign Powers and their very Persons so that Reverence Prostration Obeysance Honourable Titles and Obedience in all Lawful Things are due to them even when their Commands in some things being unlawful cannot be obeyed as appears every where in Scripture 2. The Authority Power and Majesty of Sovereign Princes remains Inviolable and not to be invaded by any no not by those who have Commission to speak the Word of God There is no Temporal Power in order to Spirituals Conferred by Christ or Ordained to his Ministers to Create a Civil-Spiritual Power within a Civil and to rencounter it But Princes are in all Causes and over all Persons within their own Dominions under God and according to his appointment Supream Governours so contrary is Scripture to the Usurpation of the Anti-Church herein All Religious Princes guiding themselves by Gods Word have great Power and Authority not only by that Word but by Virtue of that Authority and Majesty God hath Cloathed them with as his Vicegerents to Direct and Govern according to Truth wherein the Divine Spirit is pleased often to be so immediately present with them that a Divine Sentence is in the Kings Lips that they may direct according to Truth and in all Truth they are to be Obey'd not only for the Truths sake but for that Authorities sake also God hath Invested them with 3. The Elders of the Church lose their Power by erring from Truth and the Word of God for of what Authority is the False Prophet or the False Teacher But Princes and Soveraign Powers have a Power though misapply'd to vindicate their Authority upon those that cannot Obey them except they should Disobey God to Obey Magistrates which none dare assert that acknowledge God in which Power Magistrates must not be resisted even while they cause Men to suffer for Righteousness sake 4. The Admonitions Excommunications Anathema's of Church Rulers have no Force when not grounded upon Divine Truth nor ought to make Impression upon Conscience but to be rejected with Disdain But the Penal Sentences and Vindictive Decrees of Sovereign Powers have their Effect so far even when they are unjust as to be received as an Ordination of Power appointed by God though us'd to a wrong purpose Where the Word of a King is there is Power and his Wrath is as the Roaring of a Lion and it is so appointed by God Against such a Supream Executive Power Arm'd with the Supream Legislative Power of a Nation there is no rising up no remedy but appeal to God by Prayers and Tears Quest This whole Account might be much Illustrated if it be declared on the other side what Obedience is due to the Ministers of the Word and Truth of God whether extraordinary as Prophets and Apostles or ordinary as the Elders of the Church and Ministers of the Gospel even when Supream Magistrates Command the contrary Answ The Word and Truth of God are of so Supream Authority that though the Ministers of it are of no Authority separated from that Word yet the Word and Truth of God of which they are Embassadours is much higher than the Kings and Princes of the Earth and there is no Compare between the one and the other God therefore raised up extraordinarily what Messengers he pleased and sent them with what Messages he thought good to what Princes or Magistrates soever because immediately from God the King of Kings and Lord of Lords and yet these extraordinary Ministers in all things wherein they were not Commanded by God preserv'd the Just Rights of Soveraignty Thus the Word of God ought by ordinary Ministers to be faithfully declared by those who are called to do it and if it be so declared it hath and ought to have a Soveraignty above all Earthly Soveraignty both with Princes and Subjects and yet the Publishers of it and they to whom it is Published stand in their Just Distances and in all things pay the Homage due to Soveraignty by Obedience Active wherein they are not Countermanded by God or by Submission to penal Laws and Decrees made against them by the Supream Legislative Power of a Nation wherein they cannot Obey God and the Powers at once because so is the Will of God that they should by suffering for well doing put to silence the Cavils of the Ignorant or Malicious Quest But ought we not to expect that Princes should be the Supream Interpreters of the Mind and Will of God that so their Command and Superiority might be more absolute and because that Government that does not determine the Religion of the Subject cannot have so free a display of it self nor rest so secure as is necessary to Government Answ While the Holy Patriarchs Ruled who by the Laws of Nature more unsullyed so near the Creation by purer Tradition by Divine Revelation vouchsafed to them as occasion required preserv'd Religion Undefiled Supream Authority and Instruction in True Religion Resided in the same Persons yet even then their Authority in Religion was from the Evidences of Divine Truth even as afterwards in Moses Samuel David and Solomon who were both Supream Princes and immediately Commissioned by God as Prophets for wherever Men are Deputed by God either as ordinary or extraordinary Ministers of his Truth the Authority is not in Man but in the Word of God evidencing it self to be the Word of God When therefore the Patriarchal both Power and Holiness expired and the Revolt of Princes and People from True Religion grew greater God begun to Instruct his Church by Messengers sent on purpose and Separated betwixt Princes and Prophets Yea even in the time of so Sacred a Priesthood Established by God himself among the Jews he taught his Church very often by Prophets of an extraordinary and immediate Character And lastly by the Apostles Founded the Christian Church without any Consultation with or Concurrence of the Powers at that time in the World and yet those Apostles taught all Subjection to those very Powers until the whole was settled in the Canon of Scripture Consent with which is now the only Credential of a Teacher appointed by God however he be Ordinated by Men. Quest What is to be Inferred from hence Answ Especially that the Truth of Religion is so independent upon all Humane Soveraignty that it is to be accepted only upon Tryal by its own Evidences and not by those of Humane Authority This Treasure is therefore for the most