Lord's VVill than offend and do things that deserve Beating VVhich is a Matter to be considered of about the Sins and Condemnation of the Heathen There be Four Things may be taken Notice of from these VVords of Christ. I. The Bond and Equity that should bind Men to the Obedience of the Lord's VVill. II. The Bond and Equity that binds them over to Punishment if they obey it not III. The Distinction of the Sins of those that live under the Knowledge of the Law and VVord of God and those that do not IV. The Gradual Difference of their Punishment III. An Inquiry why God appointed the Jews a Carnal Ceremonious Institution IF any ask that material Question VVhy since God requires to be worshipped in Spirit and Truth did he set up a VVorship Carnal and Ceremonious as he did among the Jews Not the least part of the Answer must be because they were a Carnal People and gross to apprehend the Things of Religion doting infinitely on Formal Services and Ceremonious Rites The Apostle saith of the Hebrews converted to the Gospel that they were dull af Hearing Heb. v. 11 Much more might he say so of them unconverted They must have a Visible a Gay a Ceremonious Religion or else no Religion will go down with them Remarkable is that Passage of the Apostle Gal. iv 3 Even so we when we were Children were in Bondage under the Elements of the World As an Heir before he comes to Age is under Tutors and Governors ver 2. VVhere you may observe these Two considerable Things I. That till the Gentiles came in to make up the Church of God the Church was in her Nonage in her Minority or Childhood But when they came in to make up the Church then the Church grew into Manhood II. That because of the Childhood of the Church then best pleased with Childish things God saw it requisite to set up such Childish Carnal Beggarly Rudiments among them as the Apostle calls them because of the Dulness and Grosness of their Hearts to apprehend better And what our Saviour saith of one Particular of their Law Mat. xix 7 Moses because of the Hardness of their Hearts gave them Commandment to give a Bill of Divorce So Moses because of the Grosness and Dulness of their Hearts gave them all those Ceremonies that made up their Religion IV. A Meditation upon the Length of Time the second Temple was in Building Forty and Six Years was this Temple in Building John ii 20 NOT to trouble our selves with the Disputes among Learned Men about the Computation of these Years it is enough that we have asserted by these Jews who no doubt knew the Matter well enough that it was so long in building Six and Forty Years A long time Six times as long and more than Solomon was building his Temple which yet was far a more noble Fabrick than this was And so far more noble that they which had seen that and saw the Foundation of this laid wept sadly to see the Difference Ezra iii. 12 First God raised up Cyrus King of Persia purposely for this End that he might be a Means for Building of the Temple which the Soldiers of Nebuchadnezzar had burnt down See Esay xliv 28 That saith of Cyrus He is my Shepherd and shall perform all my Pleasure even saying to Jerusalem Thou shalt be built and to the Temple Thy Foundation shall be laid And Chap. xlv 1 Thus saith the Lord to his Anointed to Cyrus whose Right Hand I have holden to subdue Nations before him and I will loose the Loins of Kings to open before him the two leaved Gates and the Gates shall not be shut Secondly Cyrus accordingly sends the People out of Captivity gives them Commission and Charge to build the Temple Ezra i. 2 3. gives Order for the Measures of it and restores the Silver and Golden Vessels to it that had been taken from the Temple when the City was captived Ezra vi The People fall upon Work immediately after their Return out of Captivity Ezra iii. So that here was God's setting on Cyrus his Concurrence and the People's setting about the Work Yet Forty Six Years was this Temple in Building If we look about to observe where the Reason lay why the Work went on so slow we must look Three Ways I. We may look upon the Enemies of the Jews that put in all the Hindrance they could as you may read in the Books of Ezra and Nehemiah In Dan. ix 25 Gabriel tells Daniel that Jerusalem Street and Wall must be built in troublous Times And those two Books tell you how the Enemies of the Jews round about were Troublous Hinderers all the Time II. You may look upon the Jews themselves and find them faulty and contributing to the slow going on of the Work by their Coldness and little Forwardness in it They took more Care of Building their own Houses than the House of God Hag. i. 2 This People say the Time is not yet come the Time that the Lordâ—s House should be built Ver. 4. Is it Time for you O ye to dwell in your ceiled Houses and this House to lye waste They had got their own Houses ceiled but the Temple of God little or nothing at all done to that III. Now you may say Where is God's Providence all this while Which is a third thing to be lookt upon Did he bring the Children to the Birth and wanted Strength to bring them forth Did he set his own Work of his House on Foot and yet is it carried on with no more Speed than that Forty-six Years are taken up before it be finished Nebuchadnezzar could build the great Babylon in far less Time And Alexander the Great could build I know not how many Alexandria's in a few Years above Six which is the odd Number in this Account And the Work wherein God's own Hand was a first and chief Mover to find such a Delay And so indeed God's Work of Building himself up a House his Work of Reforming Repairing a Church a People a Nation hath ever gone but slowly on and the Wheels of that Work ever driven very heavy Do I need Instances We may take it too sadly at home Well from this present Business of the slow Proceeding that is hinted in the foresaid Words of the Jews we cannot but think of God's Providence and may very well be called to consider of it since there came such interfering in this Business of Building God's own House Which one would have thought Divine Providence would have carried on with more Success and Speed Strange Dispensation of Providence That seems different nay contrary to it self and one while to promote one way another while the contrary As if the same God that was well pleased with the Building of his House and commanded it seemed as well content when the Building was hindred and his Providence would not remove that Hindrance It was the Dispensation of God's Providence that
As in Gen. xiii 8 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We are MEN BRETHREN In fine so well did our Divine acquit himself in this Assembly and such was the General Opinion of his Learning and Integrity that when Much Munden in Hertfordshire was under Sequestration and Mr. Sedgwick moved that some one of the Assembly might be recommended to that Place Lightfoot was Nominated and it was ordered with Universal Consent that he should be recommended to the Committee for that purpose which happened in Jan. 1643. 'T is true this Learned Man was noted for certain peculiar Opinions differing therein from such as were commonly received and believed and thereupon was disliked by some Nor will I deny it but yet I must add that they were such Notions as were innocent and did no harm such as had no bad influence upon Religion nor tended in the least to the Breach of the Churches Peace which he ever held very sacred nor lastly Such as abated the necessity of a Vertuous and good Life And for evidence hereof I will mention some if not the chief of them First That the Jews shall not be called but are utterly rejected And that the Time of their Rejection happened before the Times of Christ and that it so happened to them for their fond and impious Traditions rather than as it is commonly asserted after Christ for their Wickedness in Murthering their Messiah and persecuting the Gospel how grievous a Crime soever that was And that their last and only Calling was in the Times of Christ and his Apostles when some few of them viz. A Remnant were brought in to the Faith of Christ. But that neither then there was nor ever shall be any Universal Calling of them And that that pâ—ace in the Epistle to the Romans Chap. xi 5 At this present time there is a Remnant c. was very unfit to prove this Calling of the Jews to be either Universal or after a great many Ages Secondly His mean Opinion of the Greek Translation of the Bible by the Seventy that it was hammered out by the Jews with more Caution than Conscience more Craft than Sincerity and that it was done out of Political Ends to themselves As that the Bible might be represented after that manner to the Heathen among whom the Jews dwelt that they might have no occasion from any Passages therein to revile or cavil with them and that the Jewish Nation might live the more securely concealing in the mean time as much as they could the Mysteries and Truths contained therein Thirdly His Opinion concerning the Keys that they were given to Peter alone And this he openly hâ—ld in the Assembly of Divines When a long Debate happenning whether the Keys were given to all the Church or to the Apostles only our Divine stood up and granted that in all Ages the Learned hâ—ld that the Keys meant the Government of the Church but that for his part he held that the Keys were only given to Peter according as Christ spake only to him To THEE will I give the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven But mark in what sense he meant it That is to open the Gospel to the Gentiles which was meant he said by the Kingdom of Heaven And that it was to this purpose Peter spake Acts xv 7 in an Assembly of the Apostles and Elders at Jerusalem Ye know how that a good while ago God made choice among us that the Gentiles by my Mouth should hear c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is from this Promise of Christ given to him And Fourthly He did not allow that Binding and Loosing related to Discipline but to Doctrine And that because the Phrases to Bind and to Loose were Jewish and most frequent in their Writers and that it belonged only to the Teachers among the Jews to Bind and to Loose And that when the Jews set any apart to be a Preacher they used these Words Take thou Liberty to Teach what is Bound and what is Loose To which I might add Fifthly His peculiar Interpretation of those Words of God to Cain If thou dost not well Sin lyeth at the Door SIN that is not Punishment to take hold of thee but a Sin-offering to make Attonement for thee and that that was the common Acceptation of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e Sin in the Books of Moses And that God did not intend to terrifie Cain by those Words but rather to keep him from Despair These and perhaps other Notions and Expositions of Scripture however Novel they seemed to be yet as they were not without probability so they never made any Assaults upon Fundamental Doctrines or true Christian Holiness and Peace And thus we have seen somewhat of his Learning and Divinity But that which made it the more valuable was his Integrity and Goodness Which opens to us a second Scene of the Man and brings us to the Consideration of him II. As a Good Christian. And for the the better evidencing of this I shall use the same Method for the most part as I have done before to shew his Learning Namely by looking into his Behaviour while he sat a Member of the Assembly of Divines 1. He was an earnest Promoter of the Peace of the Church And because the breaking of the Communion of Christians by Schisms and Separations and withdrawing from the National Church into distinct Churches did effectually tend to kindle the Fire of Contention and Uncharitableness and to beget Estrangements in the Family of Câ—rist where Love ought to be the great Badge therefore he always set himself to oppose those Practices And for this purpose he would often urge how our great Master and Lord kept up constant Communion with the Jewish Church whereof he was Born a Member and came up duly to the Temple at the Set Feasts and observed the Churches Rites and Customs however corrupt they were in many respects and the Officers and Prime Professors of it very Degenerate and Hypocritical Which Argument he hath managed well in his Discourse upon the Widow's Mite in this Book as well as in other Places of his Printed Sermons extant in his Works To which I might add that when in his Discourse upon one of the Select Articles of the Creed now published he had occasionally said that it might so happen that a Man might be excommunicate out of a true Protestant Church and yet it were hard to doom such an one to Perdition he presently put in this Caution That he spake not this to animate any to separate or withdraw from the visible Church wherein we live Adding withal his Grief at the Separations among us That for such Divisions of Reuben there were great Thoughts of Heart And it is remarkable that when once in the Assembly some began to move whether the Church of England were a true Church and the Ministry of the Church of England a true Ministry some would have waved it lest it might have brought on the Business of
he that trains not up his Child to God for whom does he train him up but the Devil For is there any Mean between What Complaint God taketh up against Israel about their giving up their Children to Moloch may he not take up against Thousands in the World upon this Account Thou hast taken my Children and delivered them up to make them pass through the Fire That is the Children which I have given thee and which should have been mine He warned Men against Lying and False-speaking by the Example of Ananians and Sapphira that were struck dead for it Which he called a fearful Judgment set up as a Pillar of Salt at the very entrance of the Gospel into the World that Men might see and hear and fear and not dare to Lie under the Gospel of Truth especially not to the Spirit of Truth And if you look upon Ananias his doing you see him Deceiving and Lying and if you observe Peter's Words you may see he referrs his Lying and Deceiving to their proper Original Viz. That they both are the Work of the Devil Why hath SATAN filled thy Heart to lye and filled thy Heart to deceive and keep back part of the Price of the Land That if you will trace his Wickedness to the Spring-head his Intent to deceive made him lye and his base Covetousness made him deceive and the Devil caused all He gave this Rule concerning Apparel and for the avoiding Pride in what Men put on God allows Men to wear good Cloths according to their Quality and Degree but if Pride be there it is beside his Allowance God allows us Cloths to keep us warm He allows us Cloths to adorn our Rank and Quality but if we lace and trim our Wear with Pride there is a Leprosie got into the Warp and Woof that rots all God appointed the Jews to wear Fringes upon their Garments to make them still to be remembring the Law I am afraid the Fringing and Finery of two many have a clean contrary Effect It doth but puff them up and make them proud And again If any should ask What Cloths and Hair and Garb may I wear this may be a very direct and satisfactory Answer Wear what you think good so it be without Pride And this I believe will shut out of Doors 1. Wearing a Garb above one's Rank and Degree For I question whether one can wear a Garb above his Rank without Pride And 2. Affecting foreign and strange and few fangled Fashions For tho' it may be possible for a Person to be in the Fashion without Pride because he would not be hooted at for Singularity yet certainly it is hardly possible to affect new fangled Fashions without Pride It is one thing to put on the Fashion to avoid Reproach and another thing to dote upon Fashions and to make them Bravery He that makes his Cloths his Bravery it is very suspicious he makes them his Vainglory and he that dotes on the Fashion it is to be doubted he dotes on the Pride of the Fashion THESE Instances are enough to shew what a plain but fruitful Method of Teaching and Preaching Dr. Lightfoot took But he also took care of his People's Principles to preserve them from warping from the National Church as hath been taken notice of before and from the Church consider'd as Protestant Of which I shall proceed to a few Instances To arm his Auditors against Popery thus he taught them Our Histories tell us That when Austin the Monk came hither into Britain from the Pope as to settle Religion and when some of the British Christians consulted with a grave prudent Man whether they should close with him and submit to his Rules Yes saith he if he be humble do But if he be proud he is not of God Would you take a Measure of true Religion no surer Token than these two Humility and Charity They talk they will prove the Truth of their Religion by Antiquity Universality and I know not what Let them shew it by the Humility and Mercifulness of it and we shall desire no more But I doubt that Religion that teacheth the Merits of a Man's Works is too proud against God to be the true Religion and that that teacheth that the Pope is above all Princes is too proud against Men. And I doubt that Religion that stirs up Mâ—n to murder Princes Nobles People that will not be of that Religion is not the true Religion I am sure Christ and his Apostles were never either of such Pride or Cruelty but further from these Principles of Rome than it is 'twixt Rome and Jerusalem And as he warned them against Popery in general so particularly Against a blind Zeal Zeal without Knowledge or Zeal in a wrong Way It is good always to be zealous in a good Matter but mischievous to be zealous in a bad There was a great deal of Religious Zeal for those Parents to offer their Children to Moloch to be burnt alive in his Arms in Devotion to that God of theirs But it was blind Zeal mad Religion distracted Devotion Their God was the Devil St. Paul in one Place saith That in Zeal he persecuted the Church But in another Place he saith He was exceeding mad against the Church That Zeal of his was mere Madness It was blind and mad cared not whither it went nor what it did Rom. x. The Jew hath Zeal but without Knowledge and that made him so to set himself against the Truth You remember that They that kill you shall think they do God Service It was great Zeal but as blind as a Beetle It runs upon it cares not what as a blind Man runs upon every Post and falls into every Pit And against Cruelty The Papists plead stoutly that theirs and none but theirs is the true Religion If that should be tryed by this very Touchstone Is that can that be true Religion that makes it Religion to murder Men None of you but have heard of the bloody Days of Queen Mary and how many poor innocent holy Men were then put to the Fire and there ended their Lives And this forsooth done by the Papists out of Zeal for Religion Just such a Religion as they were spurred by that offered their Children to Moloch For compare the things together and what can be liker Those Wretches out of that Devotion and Religion as they took on them made their poor innocent Children pass through the Fire a Sacrifice to Moloch These Wretches out of that Devotion and Religion as they took on them made these poor innocent Souls pass through the Fire a Sacrifice to the Pope The Cruelty much alike the Manner of the Death they put them to much alike And were they not Religious think you much alike Such a Sacrifice to their Moloch would they have offered of innocent ones when they would have sent away our Parliament out of the World in Fire and Gunpowder and this forsooth out of Zeal to Religion
any Obligation to it But however God brake not his Covenant with them And therefore the forequoted Place means not that but it speaks of a particular thing In Egypt they were Idolators Ezek. xx 7 Then said I unto them cast ye away every Man the Abominations of his Eyes and Defile not your selves with the Idols of Egypt He brought them out that they might be a People Serving the true God But this Idolatry now committed by them made him turn and give them up to be as the Heathen This was a Critical Business and set the Clock for future Ages in Judgment upon them As Adam's eating the Forbidden Fruit brought Guilt upon his Posterity so did this Not that any particular Person was necessitated hence to Idolatry but that God revoked the Priviledge he intended them viz. That they should be a People not Idolatrous So that in this Necessitatem non imposuit sed Privilegia abstulit i. e. God laid no Necessity upon them but took away certain Priviledges from them God took away that that should have stopped them from falling into Idolatry But might not they say for this as they did Ezek xviii 2 The Fathers have eaten Sowr Grapes and the Children's Teeth are set on Edge No whosoever was Idolatrous afterwards was not necessitated to it God had paled them in with this Priviledge You shall be a Holy People Exod. xix 5. Now therefore if ye will obey my Voice indeed and keep my Covenant then ye shall be a peculiar Treasure unto me above all People And ye shall be unto me a Kingdom of Priests and an holy Nation They broke a great Gap in this Pale and God breaks down all This does not drive them out but if they go out it is of themselves The Words are not He made them Worship the Host of Heaven but he gave them up lest them to themselves whereas till now he had charged himself with them But are they here bound over to Sin to commit Idolatry Does God punish the Sins of the Fathers in the Souls of the Children He does indeed in their Bodies in their Estates in their Outward Concerns but does he also punish the Children in their Souls for their Fathers Faults I answer First God is the Cause of Sin to none Giving up to Idolatry is not the Cause of Idolatry If he were the Cause of this Sin he were the Cause of his own Dishonour which we cannot imagine Secondly God Causeth not these to Sin but suffered them to walk in the Ways of their Fathers Thirdly Their Idolatry is to be look'd on as a Punishment to their Children and not as a Sin to them So that it was a Great but Just Penalty Great because Spiritual Just because he turned from them when they first turned from him He gave them up to what they would be Read both in Psal. lxxxi 11 12. My People would not hearken to my Voice and Israel would none of me So I gave them up unto their own Hearts Lusts and they walked in their own Counsels And yet he wisheth ver 13. O! that my People had hearkened unto me and Israel had walked in my Ways Lord thou couldest as easily make them so as wish them so So Luke xix 42 If thou hadst known in this thy Day the things which belong unto thy Peace But Men put themselves out of a Capacity of God's doing for them and necessitate him to do against them if he will maintain his Truth and Justice It is not the Question what God can do for them but what he cannot but do because of his Truth and Justice In the Penalty we may observe 1. The proper Cause Their Sin 2. The Inflicter God 3. The manner of it By giving them up 4. The Being and Nature of it To worship the Host of Heaven But it may be said that it seems not Parity To worship the Host of Heaven rather it should be to worship Cats and Dogs as the Egyptians did But in answer hereunto it is all one as to the thing it self viz. the Worship of the Creature more than the Creator One indeed seemed to be a more noble Deity than the other but the Worship of either was abominable alike in this Regard that either was a worshipping of the Creature The Egyptians worshipped Onyons Garlick c. Israel would have a more noble Idolatry to worship the Sun Moon and Stars But all alike abominable all forsook God alike all worshipped the Creature alike The Cause of Idolatry is Misconception of God So it is Rom. i. 21 Because when they knew God they worshipped him not as God neither were thankful but became vain in their Imaginations and their foolish Heart was darkned And as there the Gentiles so here Israel is given up upon the like Account Now to make some Observations 1. The Want of the right Knowledge of God is the Root of all Evil. Right Knowledge of God But he is unfathomable will some say past our Apprehension to conceive or understand Nay Things in Nature are so We know not how our Cloths keep us warm much more can we know God But there is difference 'twixt knowing God fully and conceiving of God 2. Observe upon the Sin it self They made a Calf how foolish Man is about the things of God when left to his own Wisdom Here is an Example most Pregnant 3. Upon the Sin and the Punishment together observe that one may sin till there be no Healing no Revocation of Punishment So it happened to Israel and so the Nation of the Jews for the Sins of Manasseh 4. Upon the Word Turned observe that God turns not from Men till they turn from him V. How Israel was given up to Idolatry and yet remained a long while after God's People THAT the whole Nation of Israel was given up by God upon the Sin of the Golden Calf is plain from Acts vii 42 God gave THEM up that is the whole People But here two Things seem strange First That they should be a Covenanted People and yet such a People given up Secondly That they should be given up and yet remain a People still This was at the beginning of the State of the Jews and they continued a People still above a Thousand Years Yet this Fate and Doom appeared all along in them that they were an Idolatrous People Only after the Captivity they were not for then they were given up to Traditions But tho' God had thus given them up yet he spared his Ordinances among them yet he spared them from utter Ruin and that for two Reasons First Because of his Covenant to their Fathers This Reason is given Ezek. xx c. But why Was he in Covenant to do Good to their Children whether good or no whatsoever they were howsoever they carried themselves This were strange Drudgery that God would have bound himself to And yet what say you to that Rom. xi 28 As touching the Election they are beloved for the Fathers
some Hundreds of Years all this Western World was Popish Italy Spain France England Germany and no Religion visible in all these Countries but Popery The Name of Protestant not owned the Protestant Religion not to be seen And where was then your Religion say the Papists to us To whom to give a full Answer let us compound these three or four things together We must tell them or else we speak not as the Truth is that the Popish Religion was far from being the true Religion and the Popish Church from being the true Church all that time or from ever being so I shall not insist upon many Arguments to prove this I shall only give you one Argument from a Scriptural Reason and one Consideration of a Scriptural Expression The Argument from a Scriptural Reason is this That Church that is built more on Traditions and Doctrines of Men than on the Word of God is no true Church nor Religion But the Church of Rome is built more upon Traditions and Doctrines of Men than on the VVord of God Ergo. The Foundation of the true Church of God is Scripture Eph. ii 20 And are built upon the Foundation of the Apostles and Prophets But if you look upon what the whole Frame of Popery is built you will find it upon a Sand of Humane Tradition That the Pope is Head of the Church that he pardons Sin rules over Princes where find you this in Scripture They are but Points of the cursed Inventions of Men. That Priests can sing Souls out of Purgatory that the Service of God should be in an unknown Tongue that the Priests can change the Bread into a God and generally the whole Rabble of their Romish Religion hath not so much as any one underpinning of Scripture Warrant but all founded upon the rotten Trash of Humane Invention and Self-ends The Scriptural Expression to be considered is that Title of Rome Rev. xvii 5 MYSTERY Babylon the Great the Mother of Harlots and Abominations of the Earth For that it speaks of Rome is plain ver 18. The Woman which thou sawest is the great City which reigneth over the Kings of the Earth And described even as the Roman Writers themselves do describe her ver 9. The Seven Heads are Seven Mountains on which the Woman sitteth She is stiled Mystery Babylon She was a Mystery of Iniquity Babylon while she takes upon her Sion Mother of Harlots and Abominations of the Earth when she takes upon her to be Mother of all Churches and the only Spouse of Christ in the World A Jezabel as Rev. ii 20 that takes on her to be a Prophetess but is a Seducer And Mysterious is the Providence of God in permitting such a Deceiver that should seduce all the Western World with a general Seduction It is observed that Popery and Mahometism rose together one overwhelmed all the East the other the West Where had been Glorious Churches there this Smoke of the Bottomless Pit clouded and darkened all And it is observable that wheresoever the Gospel had been these two came and spoiled all And Popery the more abominable than the other because under the Name of Christ and the Gospel it led Men from Christ and the Gospel We may say upon Thoughts of both as it is Rev. xvi 5 Thou art righteous O Lord which art and wast and shalt be because thou hast judged thus Because they received not the Love of the Truth that they might be saved it was just with thee Righteous God to send them strong Delusions that they might believe a Lie That they all might be damned that believed not the Truth but had Pleasure in Unrighteousness 2 Thess. ii 10 11 12. So that to question where was the Church of God before Luther we must answer 1. That the Roman Church was not it for that was but Babylon the Mystery of Iniquity the Plague of God upon the World for not receiving the Love of Divine Truth 2. Wheresoever there were any in that time that kept to the Truth of God they were the Church of God Ubi Imperator ibi Roma So wheresoever the true Profession of the Truth was there the Church was Where two or three are gathered together in my Name there am I in the midst of them The Seven Thousand that worshipped not Baal were the true Church I shall not insist to shew that even in the thickest and darkest Times of Popery there were other Churches in the World that were not infected with that Plague as the Grecians Abyssines c. But even Stories do shew that even within the Compass of the Popish Church there were some in all Ages that held to the Truth of God and Abominated the Wickedness and Delusions of the Church But if any such could not be named yet God never left himself without Witness and it hath ever been the Glorious Providence of God to preserve a Noah in a wicked old World a Lot in Sodom an Abraham in an Idolatrous Chaldea a Job in Heathen Arabia and a Jeremy in a most wicked Jerusalem a Church to himself in the worst Times But observe that the Church of God is the least part of the World and so the least part of the visible Church We must distinguish the Church in Opposition to the World and in Opposition to Hypocrites and carnal Gospellers So the Scripture nameth Saints in Opposition to the Heathen and in Opposition to unholy Christians Now take the Word in this latter Sense which is the most proper and the true Church of God is the least part of the Church I deny not that the Church of England Scotland and Ireland is a true Church of God in regard of outward Profession But there are Multitudes in these that are not the true Church in regard of sincere Profession but profane Hypocrites Castaways Imagine a great Parish or Congregation that meet together and in the Church hear and wait on the Ordinances and have the Word and Ordinances truly administred They attend upon them in outward Attendance but out of the Church are Profane and Ungodly We cannot but say here is a Church in Opposition to the Heathen a true Church in Opposition to a false where the Ordinances are not rightly administred Yet we cannot say this is a true and sincere Church of God because they do but outwardly profess and not at all Practice So Israel professed went to the Temple Es. i. had Ordinances rightly administred This was a true Church so far But they lied sware falsely committed Adultery oppressed the Innocent and such like Can we then say they were a true Church of God See that Eph. v. 25 26 27. Christ loved the Church and gave himself for it That he might sanctifie and cleanse it with the washing of Water by the Word That he might present it to himself a Glorious Church not having Spot or Wrinkle or any such thing but that it should be Holy and without Blemish Let us take up all these