shalt thou be established In the same sense Jeremiah speaks of it They shall teach no more every man his neighbour and every man his brother saying Know the Lord for they shall all know me from the least of them unto the greatest of them for I will forgive their inquity and I will remember their sin no more Ezekiel says as much I will sprinkle clean water upon you and ye shall be clean I will give you a new heart and a new spirit will I put within you and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh and I will give you a heart of flesh And I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and ye shall keep my judgements In like manner Joel Then says he shall Jerusalem be holy and there shall no strangers pass through it any more Likewise Zechariah In that day there shall be no more the Canaanite in the house of the Lord of hosts What can all these great and wonderful promises mean This Circumcision of Heart This way of Holiness where the unclean shall not pass over This keeping out of Lions and ravenous beasts This being taught of God This universal knowledg joyned with a pardon of sins This pouring out of the spirit which shall take away the hearts of stone and change them for hearts of flesh This Holiness of Jerusalem so as to suffer no stranger nor Canaanite in the midst of her I say What signifies all this if the form and essence of a Church consist in a bare profession and if this Communion can be composed of unjust as well as just of Bad as well as Good men V. St. Paul in his first Epistle to the Corinthians endeavours to make us apprehend the Church aright by resembling it to a man's body As the body says he is one and hath many members and all the members of that one body being many are one body so also is Christ For by one spirit are we all haptized into one body whether we be Jews or Gentiles whether we be bond or free and have all been made to drink into one spirit I need not here observe that by Christ he means the Mystical body of Christ That is his Church this is manifest of it self and he explains himself so afterwards You says he are the body of Christ and members in particular All we have to do is to enquire what he makes to be the principle and â—and of this unity here attributed to the Church and with respect to which he likens it to the body of a Man And this is easily understood for in his opinion it is the spirit and consequently not a bare profession But still it may be doubtful what Spirit this is Is it a spirit of direction only that attends upon the Clergy and prevents their giving erroneous determinations and publickly professing any such how wicked sover the persons exercising this Authority be By no means It is the spirit which the faithful receive and whereof Baptism is a sign For says the Apostle we are all haptized into one body whether we be Jews or Gentiles whether we be bond or free and have all been made to drink into one spirit Thus you see the band and principle of the Churches Unity The evident consequence whereof is that inward regeneration is essential to it and that as many as have not been washed by nor made to drink into this heavenly spirit cannot be parts of this body VI. But the Apostle carries on his Argument yet further for he takes notice that although God had put a difference between the members as there is likewise in those of the Church yet he had so qualified this difference That there should be says he no schism or division in the body but that the members should have the same care one of another so that whether one member suffers all the members suffer with it or one member be honoured all the members rejoyce with it From hence it is plain that according to St. Paul there is as real an agreement between the members of the body of the Church as there is between those of a humane body without any contrariety or discord and that this good correspondence is founded on that Unity which makes each part to have one and the same common interest Now what true agreement or common concern can there ever be between the members of Christ and members of the Devil Or in St. Paul's own phrase What fellowship between light and darkness What continual enmity on the contrary must there needs lurk under the Covert of such an untoward seeming Peace as a bare outward profession may make Every one aims at advancing his own Master's honour so that the sentiments designs and methods of the Servants must of necessity carry as great opposition as there is between the Masters they serve VII In his Epistle to the Galatians he gives us another description of the Church very like this As many says he as have been baptizeed into Christ have put on Christ There is neither Jew nor Greek there is neither bond nor free there is neither male nor female for ye are all one in Christ Jesus Thus far respects Communion with the same Christ which is the very thing that constitutes the Unity of the Church and is the essential form of it so that persons out of this Communion are not of the Church because they have no part in the Churches Unity If you would now Know what kind of Communion this is attend to what follows If ye be Christ's Ye are Abraham's seed and heirs according to promise So that St. Paul does not treat of a Communnion consisting in a bare outward profession but such a one as makes men Mystical Children of Abraham and heirs of God VIII In his Epistle to the Romans he thought it not enough to say They that are in Christ Jesus walk not after the flesh but after the spirit which yet is intimation sufficient what nature that Communion is of that makes this Mystical Body of Christ the Church but he goes further and is express afterwards If any man have not the spirit of Christ he is none of his Words of such strength as will not allow us to acknowledg wicked men belong to the Church unless we should make a Church that is not Christ's If the Church formally and as such be Christ's this must be true of all that are of the Church and participate of that which constitutes it such Now according to M. de Condom's definition wicked men and reprobates may be of the Church therefore in his opinion they may be Christ's Notwithstanding St. Paul avers that they that are Christ's live not according to the flesh and that as many as have not Christ's spirit are none of his so that he is of a judgement different from M. de Condom's If an outward profession alone be the common
these ruins Qu. 3. Whether the Church upon Earth be visible or invisible or whether both together considered in a different sense and under different respects Thus much I think Sir may suffice to give a resolution of the second question which was whether the Bishop of Condom's definition of the Church upon Earth was a good and sufficient definition viz. A Society making profession to believe the Doctrine of Jesus Christ and govern it self by his word or whether it was defective and required something else to be added to it You see the necessity of handling this subject with some exactness for it being our business to know what Society we must be of to obtain Salvation and both sides agreeing that it is the true Church being it concerns us to know to what Society the Promises of Jesus Christ are to be applied and both sides agreeing that it is the true Church The first thing in reason to be done is to form an abstracted Idea of the true Church before it be applied to any particular subject that so this may serve for a Rule and direct us to know at least what that true Church is which we enquire after We know in general that there is one true Church we know also that this Church is a Religious Society but when we come to define it particularly every one knows his own method of doing it This therefore is the first thing to be determined not only to avoid equivocation but to prevent a continual deviation which may otherwise happen through the whole dispute by means of a mistake in the beginning and this having given occasion to the second question the dispatching that already will mightily facilitate our enquiry into the third The thing then to be examined is whether the Society of true believers who only are the Church be visible or invisible or whether both in some senses and respects For the resolution of this Query I shall not say that this true Church being a Society of men and so a body that hath its external order as all other Societies have hath likewise consequent to that a visibility common to it with all other bodies Thus much is necessarily supposed for the Believers are not Angels nor invisible Spirits but in this respect like the rest of mankind But this visibility being supposed we must further enquire Whether there be not yet another which gives it the Character of Jesus Christ's true Church so that a man may say That the body we see and which is the object of our senses as the true Church of Christ In this there would not be the least difficulty had not God's design as to his Church been disturbed by the enemy of our Salvation For since God calls true Believers only and since as we have already shewn such alone constitute the Church were it not for what happens from some other thing there would not be among the outward Professors of Christianity either Hypocrites or Hereticks or Superstitious or worldly or profane persons And thus none but such as are truly the faithful being to be found among them this outward profession would be a sure means and an univocal Character to know the true Faith and Regeneration by and consequently to know the true Church of Jesus Christ as such So that we need say only thus much That although the Church were not immediately visible by its inward and cssential form because none can immediately see mens hearts but God only yet it would be visible by its external form as by a sure distinguishing Character For it might be seen by its Ministery and profession of Faith in Christ and known to such a degree that a man might infallibly and positively say That is the Church But we all know that is Jesus Christ sowed his good seed in the field of the world so to use the expressions in the Parable the enemy hath likewise sown Tares That is that with the true Believers are intermixt vast numbers of men who 〈◊〉 no more than the appearance and outside of Christianity and so make the outward profession to be a note subject to mighty uncertainties and equivocation This God hath permitted for reasons known to his own wisdom and hence have risen on one side false Churches and on the other false members of the true I mean whole Communities who have wrongfully assumed to themselves the title of a Church and single persons who wrongfully assumed the title of the Faithful So that the Church now like all other things liable to hypocrisy and dissimulation cannot be truly known without much difficulty And whereas according to the nature of the thing the Churches visibility and invisibility ought to lye here that its essential and internal from cannot be seen immediately and of it self but may by the mediation of its external form instead of this they do now consist further in a discerning between true and false a distinguishing betwixt that which is real and sincere and that which is counterfeit We must therefore examine how this distinction is to be made because in it consists the visibility or invisibility of the true Church Whether we must make it between several external bodies differing from one another or between several persons externally incorporated into the same Body I bâ—gin with the former and affirm that the discerning between several bodies depends upon some certain marks or characters whereby that body on whose side the true Church is may be distinguished from another where it is not I shall not now shew what those Characters are for this is another dispute between the Church of Rome and us which we need not here engage our selves in It is enough we are all agreed that such marks there are and that by them this distinction must be made That which most concerns us to take notice of and which I desire you would observe with a very particular attention is that after we have found this Body or external Society on whose side the true Church is we may and in reality do form to our selves two notions of it one proceeding from a mere Judgment of Charity the other from a Judgment of Reflection By the Judgment of Charity we look upon all within the Body to be true Believers indifferently For the searching of hearts being not in our power but peculiar to God Charity makes no distinctions but supposes that things are in truth what they should be and upon this supposition we call all that society the visible Church speaking simply and absolutely By the Judgment of Reflection having consulted the Rules of Scripture and the light of Experience we come to know that there are Tares mixed with the Wheat and that it is past a doubt that among these outward Professours are abundance of hypocritical superstitious ambitious and prophane people Hence we correct our first notion and term this Society a visible mixt Church Thus in the same external body we distinguish two different Bodies one of true
to receive implicitely whatever is delivered to them by their Ministry But reject this principle and there is no reason why the Faithful may not separate the good from the bad and why they may not subsist under such a Ministry by the help of that distinction which the Grace of God enables them to make And here Sir allow me to wonder a little at the pleasant double which the Doctors of the Romish Communion make when they dispute Our first and main question is whether we ought to acquiesce in the Council of Trent's Determinations Yes say they you must yield an implicit obedience to the Decrees of the Prelates assembled in a Body But why an Implicit Obedience Because say they the Church cannot subsist without it But why cannot it subsist without it Cannot it subsist by resuming the Ministry out of such hands and putting it into better Cannot it without going so far subsist by separating between good and bad food No they tell you it cannot because it is obliged to receive implicitely whatever the Prelates in a Body shall deliver What way of disputing call you this if it be not quite to swerve from good sense and reason and to be lost in an impertinent maze For is not this a perfect round first to prove an Implicite Obedience because the Church cannot otherwise subsist and then to prove the Church cannot otherwise subsist without this Obedience because men ought to obey implicitely VI. But let us proceed in drawing our Consequences And being we hit upon the point of the Implicit Obedience they exact to the decisions of Bishops and that Sovereign and Absolute Authority wherewith they would invest them let us try if this can agree with the Principles we have establish'd I meddle not now with those other reasons that might be made use of you will find them in part in the Book I quoted just now All I shall say is that since no man can have a distinct knowledg of the True Believers and that the True Church consists of such alone no man consequently can be secure that this Body of Prelates whether considered single or whether as convened in a Council are the true Church Yes but says one they represent the true Church I agree with you so far as the True Believers are still under their Ministry But representing the True Church does not presently endue them with its Opinions and Affections The true Church in conferring her Ministry upon men does not confer upon them withal either true Faith or true Regeneration much less perfect Infallibility Hence whatever determinations they give are still subject to an examination If these prove confermable to God's Word it is our duty not only to embrace them but further to respect â—he Body of Ministers as the true Church Representative because they have exprest her sense and Charity will carry us still further and incline us to esteem them true Believers because they have acted as such But when their divisions are found to disagree with God's Word we are to look upon them as men that have abused their ministry If this happen in things not plainly interesting the Conscience their ministry must be born with and the liberty of separating the clean from the unclean natural to every Believer made use of If they do interest the Conscience we groan under their ministry we pray to God we implore succors from above still using the Liberty of Conscience to refuse the Evil and retain the Good But if this Body of Prelates-proceed to violent taking away this necessary and indispensable Liberty of Conscience and reduce the faithful to this hard streight either to be damned for false Doctrine in slavishly following their Ministers errors or damn'd for dissimulation in pretending to follow them Then the true Believers ought to look upon them as men that have stript themselves of the right of the Ministry to oppose them to take it from them and repose the trust in other hands It is evident then the supreme Authority we contend about cannot take place because it is continually in danger of being invested in worldly men to whom it cannot in any case belong And so we should be continually in danger of mistaking That for the Church Representative which neither is really nor can possibly be so VII The seventh Use to be made of what we have advanced is the right apprehending of some expressions used by us viz. That the Church is corrupted that the state of the Church hath been interrupted and the like so as to reconcile these with Jesus Christ's Promises which import not only the perpetual existence but also the perpetual holiness and incorruption of the Church Now for that corruption attributed by us to the Church I say that whereas the Promises of Christ concern the true Church that is True Believers only our expression on the contrary respects the Church according to that Idea of Charity we form of it including all external Professors which are ordinarily call'd the Visible Church 'T is of the Church taken in this last notion that we say she is corrupted for the whole Body being made up as we have seen of good and bad man it hath come to pass that the wicked are mightily increased and the spirit of the World which is a spirit of error and superstition shewed it self in an eminent manner But we do not understand true Believers to be corrupted only so far forth as they may possibly have contracted some tincture of infirmity by conversing with the others And for that interruption of the state of the Church mentioned in our Confession of Faith where we say That the state of the Church being interrupted it was necessary it should be raised up again out of its ruines and desolation The meaning of those expressions is not what M. de Condom pretends that the true Church ceases to exist or that its Ministry was quite extinct in those times which we call times of desolation and ruine for we make a distinction between the Church and the state of the Church The Church is the true Believers making profession of Truth and Christian Piety and a real Holiness under a Ministry which dispenses all nourishment necessary for spiritual life without keeping back any It s natural and proper state is to be freed as much as its militant condition can admit from the impure mixture of prophane worldly men not to be covered over and as it were swallowed up with this Chaff and Tares to have a pure Ministry not incumbred with errors with false worship superstitious customs a Ministry in the hands of good men who are in possession of it by honest methods and set a good example to others This State is what we think hath been interrupted having seen strange opinions brought into Religion Superstitious propagated the Ministry invaded by men neither deserving nor capable of it and that were advanced by scandalous and unlawful methods having seen vices openly predominant among
few by preserving the true Faith will also preserve all the Priviledges of Jesus Christs Church All this is exactly what we assert in this case The Abbot of Palermo's opinion was likewise common to many of the Schools Occam a famous Doctor among the Schoolmen of the fourteenth Age hath composed a Dialogue on this Subject where among other questions he discusses these six principal ones 1. Whether a Pope that is Canonically chosen can afterwards turn Heretick 2. Whether the Colledg of Cardinals may fall into Heresie 3. Whether it be possible for the Pope and Cardinals together to fall into it 4. Whether it be so for the Church of Rome and Apostolick See to fall into it 5. Whether a General Council may fall into it 6. Whether even the Body of Christians may fall into it He affirms that as many held the Negative in these Points so there were a great many too that held the affirmative and he gives you the reasons urged by both sides for their several opinions I know very well that he was engaged in that silly quarrel between John the 22 d and the Franciscan Friers which took up almost the whole life of that Pope to know whether the Friers had any proper right to the bread they eat or only the bare use of it and whether Jesus Christ and his Apostles had likewise any proper right to the things they used But this is no argument why such an Authors Testimony should not be unexceptionable when he asserts as matter of fact that the six forementioned questions were disputed pro and con among the Learned men of his time There is likewise a testimony of John Francis Picus Mirandula which flourished in the beginning of the Fifteenth Age which he gives us in his Theoremes concerning the Faith After having said something to their opinion who make either a Pope or a Council Infallible he adds these words Others there are that oppose this opinion by saying that Councils may err and actually bave erred as for instance the Council of Arimini the second Council of Ephesus that of Constantinople concerning Images and that of Aix la Chapelle about the marriage of Virgins that were forced And if these say they have erred others may err as well as they whereupon some hold that such General Councils as the Pope does not preside in by his Authority may err but those where he does cannot To which others return that the Council of Ephesus was lawfully convened that the Pope's Legates presided in it and yet the Faith was subverted there and the regulation of this very matter was it that moved Pope Leo to call the Council of Chalcedon They say further that their pretending to find out remedies for knowing when two Councils clash whether of the two a man ought to hold to is an evident sign that General Councils may err It is certain then that the Doctrine we now assert when we affirm that even the most numerous Assemblies are liable to error that they may consist of such men as shall not be of the true Church and consequently may fall off from their function is neither a new Doctrine nor any opinion we are driven to for the justfying our Reformation but an old Doctrine which the evidence of Truth hath always suggested to sincere and unbiassed men So that if M. de Meaux had but pleased to reflect a little upon this he would not have said as he did That it was a Monster the birth whereof was reserved for the time of the New Reformation It is convenient sometimes to be a little more advised and sparing in passing ones judgment It would questionless be very foul to conclude form what hath been just now said against the absolute Authority and Infallibility of Ecclesiastical Assemblies that we quite cast off all these humane Orders for the external guidance and government of the Church To six any such opinions as this upon us would be the unjustest thing in the world Our Confessions of Faith our Discipline and the Writings of our Authors as well as our constant practice in all places are a vindication of us in this particular beyond all scruple or exception First then we hold the Ministry to be of Divine Institution and consequently become necessary by the necessity of a Command and that tho the use of it is not absolutely necessary by the necessity of the means for the Existence of the Church it is however of such excellent use and advantage in order to the preserving and propagating of the Church that to go about to take it away would be a manifest impiety Secondly We are of opinion that in matters of Discipline relating to the publick such as the manner and form of Religious Assemblies of Administring the Sacraments and others of this kind these should be left to the determination of Ecclesiastical Assemblies and provided they bring in no Rite offensive to the Conscience or contrary to the nature of the Evangelical Worship an absolute obedience is due to them Further yet We allow these Ecclesiastical Assemblies a power of Censuring private persons and proceeding to the last and highest Censure that of Excommunication And although we make no question at all but this power may sometimes be abused by them and unjust sentences pronounced yet we think that out of veneration for the Order a man ought to suffer such to be executed upon him provided this do not engage us in any thing that may wound a good conscience As for matters of Faith Worship and general Rules for ordering mens Manners we are perswaded that these Assemblies continuing the subordination to one another may not only attain to the knowledg of them by the Word of God but that they must and ought to do so for preventing the encrease of error and the preserving Gods truth in its genuine purity It is part of their office and business to restrain the exorbitances of mens minds to help the weak and to the utmost of their power cherish and maintain publick peace in the midst of this Society But because on one hand the persons making these Assemblies are neither inspired nor infallible nor have any power over mens consciences and on the other hand because no body can be sure that they are good men and will discharge their duty faithfully there being so many several sorts of by-respects that influence men when the Spirit of God does not guide them we think it a very faulty indifference and a manifest slighting a man's own salvation to reveive their decisions blindfold and upon trust without any trial or examination of them at all But still though we think this examination highly just and indispensably necessary yet we think withal it is to be used with abundance of caution Besides that it must be undertaken in the fear of God and with a disposition full of modesty and Christian humility besides that we must beg for grace from above and not presume upon our own
triumphant in Heaven that which is now militant on Earth and that which is not yet in the world but shall be in succeeding Ages All these three Churches do really make but one because united together in the eternal purpose of God appointed to know one and the same Word to partake of one and the same Spirit and to inherit one and the same Glory They are but one Family for they have the same Father the same Rights and Priviledges the same Hopes and are called to the same Duties They are but one body under the protection and Guidance of Jesus Christ their only Head who is as the Scripture says The same yesterday to day and for ever And this is our sense of the Church called in the Creed Catholick or Universal The Latitude we here take the Church in hath displeased M. de Condom he says we put a wrong sense upon the Article and to understand it thus is in effect to reject it He is of opinion it should be confined to this part upon Earth which he defines A Society making profession to believe c. But in the first place M. de Condom must allow us to tell him that Saint Augustine however hath taught us to explain the Church in our Creed after this manner That Father indeed went farther than we do for he hath not scrupled to include in this notion the Angels confirmed in Grace Here says he and 't is in his very Exposition of the Creed that he says it we must take the Church whole and entire not only for that part of it upon earth which praises the name of God from the rising of the Sun unto the going down thereof singing to God a new Song since their deliverance from their former Captivity but also for that other part which is in Heaven and never was separated from the Divine presence the Blessed and Holy Angels The Body of Christ says he in another place is the Church not this or that Church but which is diffused over the whole world not that which is made up of men now alive but consisting of those which have been before us and those which shall come after us even to the end of the world For the whole Church being composed of all the Faithful in as much as all the Faithful are the Members of Jesus Christ 〈◊〉 Jesus Christ for its Head and this Head though exalted high in the Heavens does notwithstanding still continue to govern his body M. de Condom must likewise allow us to tell him that the Catechism of the Council of Trent hath given this sense of the Church in our Creed The Church it says and 't is in the very Explication of this Article hath two parts one of which is called Triumphant the other Militant The Triumphant is that illustrious assembly of the Blessed and all those who have vanquished and triumph'd over the World the Flesh and the Devil and who being now delivered from the miseries of this life enjoy everlasting rest and felicity The Church Militant is the company of all the Faithful yet alive upon earth which is therefore called Militant because they are engaged in a perpetual war with these most deadly enemies Satan the World and the Flesh Yet must we not from hence imagine that they are two distinct Churches but as was said two parts of one and the same Church one of which is gone before and already possest of its Heavenly Country The other daily following after till at length being united with our Saviour it shall rest above in Eternal happiness Again We must desire M. de Condom's leave to say that the very Title of Catholick or Vniversal used in the Creed does lead us to this extended notion of the Church This to me seems evident for two reasons First that this Title is given the Church to distinguish it from all false Churches which do neither exist always nor every where but spring up and die away in some particular places and at some certain times as having no sound nor lasting principle Secondly that this Title was to distinguish it from particular Churches which are but members of this great Body collected by Christ and separated from the world that he might sanctifie it to himself Whence it follows that when we say the Vniversal or Catholick Church by this is plainly meant the Church intire and at large without exception or limitation either as to time or place Lastly M. de Condom must allow us to tell him that we are brought to this notion by what follows in the Creed The Communion of Saints which terms explain this of the Catholick Church For the Saints are not only persons now living upon Earth but those also that reign in Heaven and those which shall be to the worlds end and 't is with all these that we are in Communion If the Communion of Saints were to be understood of such only as make profession to believe in Jesus Christ and govern themselves by his word This could be no other than an external Communion by living under the same Ministry and partaking of the same Sacraments which good and bad men enjoy equally And certainly this would fall far short of so great so Majestick an expression and consequently could not deserve a room in our Creed But says M. de Condom in the Creed which was only a bare declaration of faith this term must be taken in its most proper and most natural signification and such as is most used among Christians I own it must be taken in its most proper and most natural sense but even this supplies us with a fresh argument against him it being certain that the most proper and most natural sense is to take the Vniversal Church for the company of all those that are truly the faithful separated from the world by the Word and Holy Spirit of God according to the purpose of his Election from the beginning to the end of all things I acknowledg the word Church when used in a Civil sense as for instance when spoken of the people of Israel does most properly signifie an external and visible company and so far I am of M. de Condom's mind both as to what he urges out of the Acts and from the Septuagint Translation But still I assert that this word when applied to a Christian Society does not properly denote a visible Congregation or an outward profession of the Faith and no more but chiefly an inward calling a spiritual communion and such as that outward is only a consequence of and does depend upon A man must be utterly ignorant of Christianity to deny this truth The Church then is a name for something within and not barely to signifie what passes without so that implying an inward communion when the Title of Vniversal is put to it it must needs mean the whole body of true and faithful Christians By the same reason I affirm this to be its most natural
is necessary to Salvation in despight of all temptations to the contrary from Hell the World and their own Infirmities This I own our Lord hath promised Now this in my opinion is a thing sufficently illustrious and clear to serve for a sensible and palpable assurance of the immutable certainty of his Promises For when we see our Brethren dye and do our selves dye in the bosom of Truth and Piety this denotes Jesus Christ's Grace sensibly enough If they understand over and above this a perpetual subsistence of the Ministry in such a condition as is sufficient for the Salvation of God's Elect mangre all the oppositions of Hell or the disorders of the Ministers themselves this I do likewise acknowledg to be promised by Jesus Christ and herein we have a sensible and palpable assurance of the immutable certainty of his Promises For in the midst of so many infirmities as the Faithful are liable to in the midst of so many Thorns as encompass and incumber the Lilies of the Son of God in the midst of so many superstitious profane heretical designing worldly-minded lukewarm and indifferent people that are exteriour Professors and often Officers in the Church that God should still preserve the Ministry so far as is necessary for nourishing and cherishing his Elect and true Believers and to bring them safe to Heaven is a sensible indication of the strength of our Saviours Words That the Gates of Hell should not prevail against it He does not say the Gates of Hell shall never fight against it nor that they shall never get any advantages over it He supposes that they shall encounter it that they shall very much endamage it that they shall sometimes reduce it to great extremities But he assures us they shall not prevail In this the Assistance and perpetual Providence of Christ is the more gloriously illustrated that the Church can say of her self Many a time have they vexed me from my youth up but they have not prevailed against me M. de Condom alledges next those words of our Saviour Go and teach all nations baptizing them in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy ghost Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you And to I am with you always even unto the end of the world Upon which Text M. de Condom puts this Comment Teaching with you Baptizing with you Instructing with you my Faithful to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded consequently exercising with you in my Church and exteriour Ministry 'T is with you 't is with those who shall succeed you 't is with the Society assembled under their Conduct that I shall be from this present even to the consummation of the World alway without interruption For there shall not be any one moment in which I will leave you but tho absent in Body I will be always present by my holy Spirit I own that Christ speaks there to his Church that he orders it to Baptize to Teach and consequently gives it a Ministry which he commands to be exercised therein I acknowledg moreover that he promises to be with it to Teach with it till the consummation of the World without interruption but this is not the point in controversy All our business is to know what Church this is M. de Condom will have it all that Society that makes profession to believe c. we think it to be that which making profession to believe does so really and sincerely He supposes his Proposition without offering Arguments for it but we prove ours For no man can say that Christ is with wicked men and hypocrites by the presence of his Holy Spirit always without interruption that there is never any moment when he leaves them even to the Consummation of the World This can be affirmed of none but the Society of true Believrs Such a Society there will always be and Jesus Christ always in the midst of them baptizing and instructing with them For tho the mouth and hand of his enemies may often exercise the outward acts of the Ministry and often with abundance of impurity and disorder yet Jesus Christ does for ever preserve his faithful under the Ministry which is rightfully theirs he does ever baptize and teach them even by wicked Ministers so as by his wonderful Providence never to suffer so fatal a corruption in the Ministry as should render it insufficient to cherish the Faith of his Elect even to the conclusion of the World To the same purpose it is manifest St. Paul speaks of the design and duration of the Evangelical Ministry Jesus Christ hath given some Apostles and some Prophets and some Evangelists and some Pastours and Teachers for the perfecting of the Saints for the work of the Ministry for the edifying of the Body of Christ Till we all come in the unity of the Faith and of the knowledg of the Son of God unto a perfect man unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ That is says M. de Condom the Ecclesiastical Ministry shall last without any discontinuance till the general Resurrection I say once again this is not the Point in Controversy The Ministry shall last to the end of the World and in such a degree and condition too as may suffice for the edifying of the Body of Christ for the conducting all his Elect and true Believers to that perfection St. Paul speaks of Our concern is to know two things The first whether This shall be constantly preserved from corruption and impurity and continue in the state wherein Christ and his Apostles left it us or whether the Tares sown by the Enemy in the Lord's Field by night shall not vitiate it The second whether its uninterrupted continuance must wholly consist in being ordinarily transmitted from one Minister to another in the way we call exteriour or personal succession or whether it may not happen that the Church should sometime take away her Ministry from them who have palpably abused it and commit it to others who she may hope will use it better Each of these two are the matters in dispute and not that which M. de Condom was pleased to determine from that place of St. Paul Give me leave Sir to run over these wonderful Promises of Jesus Christ to his Church and some others of the same nature once more The Gates of Hell shall not prevail against her He will present her without spot or wrinkle holy and without blemish He will love and cherish her as his own flesh and bones He will bring her in the unity of the faith and of the knowledg of the Son of God to the measure of a perfect man He will be in the midst of her at solemn Assemblies He will continue with her to the end of the World He will give his spirit to abide with her for ever He will redeem her from all iniquity and