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
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 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-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
A. Catholick Catechism SHEWING THE IMPOSSIBILITY THE CATHOLICK RELIGION Should be varied to the Degree of a Thought from the Measures left Sealed by the Apostles WITHOUT THE LOSS of TRUTH And therefore The Impossibility POPERY or whatever else is not found in Scripture should be CATHOLICK Composed to the Capacity of the Meanest that will but Consider that they may know and be ready upon unmovable Reasons to give an Apologie or Defensive Answer for the Catholick Religion if they are indeed of it and be secured from Temptation in Times of Danger 2 Pet. 1. 12. The Present Truth Prov. 22. 21. That I might make thee know the Certainty of the Words of Truth that thou mightest answer the Words of Truth to them that send unto thee LONDON Printed for Tho. Parkhurst and Will. Miller at the Bible and Three Crowns in Cheapside and the Acorn in St. Paul's Church-yard 1683. THE PREFACE TO THE READER I Call this A Catechism because I design it a Familiar Instruction in Fundamental Truths Resounding the same Thing from Question to Answer the easiest way of Conveying Truth and Imprinting it upon the Minds of those that are even of the meanest Capacity But especially because the Principles of it are to be daily so Meditated upon Pondered and Applyed to use as to be a perpetual sound in our Ears and so to be properly stiled Catechism For Things of such great weight as Principles are must have as the most Advantageous Admâ—ssion as the most Deep and therefore Leisurely Insinuation as the most Resolved Adherence when found True and Right which is Buying the Truth and not Selling it so they must have the most Easy and Ready Application to all their Uses and Ends They must therefore be bound continually about our Neck that when we go they may lead us that when we sâ—eep they may keep us that when we wake they may talk with us Prov. 6. 21 22. I know the Things I have written cannot be duely received without much Thinking and without that they will be in danger of a Censorious rejection from the most or of a superficial unintelligent Acceptance in the Kinder which is as bad as the other and therefore I present it as a Catechism to those that shall at all approve it that they may be throughly versed in it and the Sense of it grow Domestick to them I call it a Catholick Catechism only with Relation to the Great Subjects it Treats of the Catholick Religion and the Catholick Church in those things wherein they are Catholick or in which their Catholickness consist That is that they are of God and that the whole Society of Holy and Happy Spirits is by that Catholickness united and closely banded with it self Catholick as the Epistles called Catholick that is after some Doubt Asserted to be Divine of the Publick Spirit of God and giving that Publick Doctrine in which the General Assembly is one I have endeavoured to contrive the Questions and Answers so that the Answers may be an Apology or Defensive Answer of that Catholick Truth giving a Reason or a Rational Account to any Demand that can be made upon it And it is the Apology of that Truth it self the Apology it gives and furnishes us with for other can no Man give Truth can need no other than its Native Apology for it self no other will it accept To give this and to be always ready to give it to keep it within us and to have it fitted to our Lips is the proper Fruit of such a Catechetical Instruction and the Apostle assures us it is the great Duty of Christianity and the greatest Honour we can do to God First to Sanctifie him in our Hearts by a full acknowledgment of him in his Divine Truth by a Plerophory or full Assurance of Vnderstanding in the Mystery of God and of the Father and of Christ For a Devotion to the True God without knowing him to be the True God cannot thus Sanctifie or Honour him There is nothing we should be more Rational in than in the True Religion the Account of which and of its whole Content ought to be so certain to us that nothing of a Diverse Spirit from it can be added to it nor any thing of its Integral or Essential Nature taken from it but we may plainly see it would change the Account and so we need not make a Traverse over all Falsehood to know Truth but by having a Right understanding in and Just Contemplation of Truth the most even thing in the whole World we come to know it self by it self and to be assured of it although there were no other False Religion in the World to compare it with and set it off by and withal to descry every false way offered to us and to hate it Yea we observe every thing that is but doubtfully Proposed and stay it its due time of Examination and so either accept or reject it or if we see full reason for neither still suspend It is not the Laws of our Country our Church our being Baptiz'd or Educated in it that will justifie our Religion to be the True It is not the High Reverence of it the Devotion we use in it our hating of those that speak Blasphemously of it will make good our Religion what Religion in the World may not be justified upon such Topicks It is not that we find many great Principles of Truth in a Religion that will justifie it There is no Religion that can be called Religion that does not espouse many True Principles And in Christian Religion Antichristianism vies with Christianity it self upon the Fundamental Creeds which it self Confesses with True Christianity but hath Built upon them New Creeds of its own and so Corrupted all For what is so pure and perfect as True Religion is must needs be Corrupted by any Addition All that is Pure and True is already its own who then can add to it and not be found a Lyar Nothing therefore as I have already intimated can be our security for True Religion but the Just Divine Measure the Common Faith the True Catholick Standard which in all things necessary to the main End is most evident and in entertaining nothing that is not so evident till it becomes so upon this Great Test this is our Security For it is very plain there is less danger when our Understandings are not yet extended to the breadth of Divine Truth if none of the Vital Principles are unknown to us unsensed by us which are so exceedingly plain that we cannot be except willfully ignorant of them for no Injury is done to Truth that we do not understand its whole Compass nor to our selves if we do not hate knowledge offering it self to our notices but in adding to Truth seeing we can have nothing to add but what is of no worth we must needs defile it in having only Truth though we have not all Truth we yet are under the Influence of Truth only
Deordination of Spirit into Body that whatever true Principles of Reason might effect if duely pursued he is without Revelation upon all Experiment no better than in the Valley of the Shadow of Death Quest But does there appear any Expectation of Revelation in the Motions of Natural Reason Answ Very great so that no Religion in the World hath been without the Pretence of it And it is both most hopeful according to the Laws of Natural Light that God will reveal himself and most just that his Revelations should be accepted with all Reverence when vouchsafed our very Reason being a Revelation from him and if any Revelation from him could be false even That might be so also But in all things Natural Light must needs bow to Divine Veracity Quest How happy might the World be if all the Religions of the World were but reformed to this Natural True Religion Answ Undoubtedly so for the State of it could not then be far from the Kingdom of God all True Religion whether Natural or Revealed being so closely allied to it self For though Revealed rises much higher yet in an inseparable connexion with and in a continuation undivided from Natural Quest But as the State of the World is and hath always been there seems to have been no Effect of True Natural Religion Answ Very great in many respects 1. To justifie God in his Dealings with Mankind that there have been such Possibilities of Return to True Religion laid up in them 2. To be as Sense in a Mans Soul upon which all Divine Applications might take either to Conviction or Conversion 3. To be at all times ready to be re-enlivened by Revealed Truth and to unite with it 4. To be an Universal Code of True Religion in which it is always reasonable for Mankind to agree or in any Parts of it on any Occasion as Jonah and the Mariners did in their Calamity or as St. Paul and the Seamen with him in giving Thanks to God 5. That it might be a Standard to punish Prophaneness and Irreligion by without entrenchment on Conscience which Revelation cannot be but in some peculiar Circumstances 6. That Men may on all Occasions treat with one another by it on Terms of Reason and Justice as the Apostle Paul with the Men of Athens with Felix and generally Men one with another in all their Commerce All Society good Laws and Government Restraint of excessive Evil depending upon it CAP. IV. Of Revelation and the Reasons of so great Miscarriages against both the Light of Nature and Revelation with the Means of Cure Quest SEeing there is by all that hath been spoken so great a weight resting upon Revelation let the Accounts of Gods Revealing himself to Mankind be more fully stated Answ Besides Gods Revealing himself to Adam even in Innocency in a Doctrine suitable to those two Sacramental Trees the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil and the Tree of Life and besides that Original Revelation of Christ after the Fall The Seed of the Woman shall break the Serpents Head he hath been pleased to guide that Holy Seed which is his Church by Revelation as by a Pillar of Fire throughout succeeding Ages till he compleated the whole he intended in a Kingdom of Truth that cannot be shaken which is to continue to the end of the World Quest How then did God deal with the rest of the World Answ Even they were for some considerable Spaces in the first Ages of the World within the Advantages of Revelation by mixture with or Neighbourhood to the Church by Tradition from the Holy Patriarchs which if they had faithfully observed together with the Improvement of Natures Light it would have secured them in True Religion Besides that they who were faithful in these were on all proper occasions provided for by the Faithful Creator though they were not strictly of that Seed with immediate Revelations But when all these were corrupted as they were in the generality of Mankind God withdrew himself by degrees as the Glory did from the Temple in Ezekiel till there was nothing left but the Darkness of Tradition fearfully debauch'd false Deductions from Nature's Light and worse than that the Devils Oracles in the room of Gods so that there was in the generality of the Nations a second and more desperate Fall of Mankind from the true Religion the Jewish Church and a small Proselytisme to that only excepted Quest What Examples are there of Gods continuing Favour to any parts of Mankind out of Abrahams Family justifying him as not departing from men till they departed from him Answ Melchisedek no descendent from Abraham was King of Righteousness and King of Peace at the same time the Church was placed in Abrahams Seed Laban was not wholly revolted from true Religion But especially Job and his Friends of the Posterity of Esau were eminent Instances of the Favour of God that whole Book of Job testifying that being helped by Holy Tradition together with occasional Revelations they held the Light of Nature at its own Purity Quest How long did the Nations that deserted God continue under that dismal obscurity Answ Till that Blessed Seed in whom all the Families of the Earth were to be Blessed and who was the desire of all Nations came and shone as the Sun of Righteousness upon the whole World Quest How was the Light of Revelation conveyed to the People of God in Elder Times Answ In divers Ways and Manners in more immediate Appearances in Visions Dreams Prophesies in inward Illumination by a Voice In all which there were when ever they were truly from God such mighty Evidences of Divinity as over-ballanc'd all doubt Together with these were the ordinary and familiar Instructions of Patriarchs and Holy Men grounded upon Natural and Revealed Religion Quest How did God conclude his Manifestations of himself in the way of immediate Revelation Answ By speaking in the last Days by his Son and the Apostles immediately Commissioned by him sealing up Vision and Prophesie in the fullness and Complement of Truth Quest Did God take any care for the securing the Monuments of his Truth given out by Revelation Answ Yes very early how early we know not but beyond Controversie in the first forming the Jewish Church into a setled Body he began the more sure and certain way of committing his Word and Will to Writing and for the Honour of it set the Copy with his own Hand and continued it till the whole Revelation was compleat Passant Revelation or Oral Tradidition not being sure enough Quest Wherein is the Written Word more sure than the Word in passing Revelation or Tradition Answ The Word committed to Writing stands unalterable Divine Providence watching over what was Written to keep it the same All Covenants and Treaties all Monuments of Knowledge have been thus secured transmitted into all Parts and consigned to after Ages Appeals in Cases of doubt are more safely made to what is Written and every one
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
and the Bad are manifestly enough thrown off For in main things there is so much repeated and said over again and again as that all such Truths may be fully presented and assured and yet not so much be said as might be said of the same kind without any Tautology for the Subjects are so rich that even the World would be over-charg'd and not able to contain the Books that would be written Amen CAP. VII Of the Publick Interpretation of Scripture Quest THat the Progress upon this great Point may be made with the best Advantage it will be necessary to state the Amount of what hath been already asserted viz. That Scripture is a Publick and Divine Record and That the Proof and Evidence it is Divine is Divine and Publick also What therefore do these two Positions arise to Answ They arise plainly to this 1. That True Religion is at once given unalterably fixed on Monuments of its own and cannot receive the various Phases of Increase or Decrease like the Moon by new and upstart Decrees Canons or Anathemas 2. That Religion is in this Sense Publick even as God himself that it is of free and open access in the Scripture and its Entertainment as liberal as the Light and the Fountains of Water and no Man need wait till his Religion be drawn out of the private Repository of Breast or Breasts 3. That the Assurance and Evidence of Scripture is very near us when we come to treat with it so that we need not send up to Heaven that were to bring Scripture down from above when it is come down already nor beyond the Sea to oldest Antiquity for a Scale to it which hath always the Broad Seal of Divinity with it for that were to bring Scripture a second time from the Apostles and former Ages through which Divine Care and Providence hath already pass'd it down to us with the very same principal Assurance it gave them viz. that Divine Life of Truth and Holiness that cannot be far from any one of us for in it our Understandings and Consciences live and move and have their Beings and in that Light alone see Light Quest But hath the Private Spirit of Apostate Angels working by Corrupted Humane Nature made no Attempt upon this Publick Record though so every way guarded as it is to introduce a False Religion even under the Appearance of this Publick Authority of Scripture Answ Yes that very notorious one of Private Interpretation Answ What is Private Interpretation Answ That it may be well understood being a very great Instrument of the False Spirit we must proceed by degrees to the true Comprehension of it And first in the strictness of its Notion it is an affixing a Sense to Scripture or any part of it that does not so evidently and indisputably flow from Scripture as to partake of the Divinity of Scripture Quest How should an Interpretation be so made of Scripture as to partake of its Divineness Answ An Interpretation is as Divine as Scripture when it is the true evident Importance and Sense of Scripture Words and Scope and carries the perfect Spirit and Analogie of Scripture with it or is a Deduction and Doctrine arising from Scripture measured by the Context by its usual ways of expressing it self and the compare of one Place of Scripture with another so as to evince it self to be a just and necessary Consequence Quest What is the Effect of such Interpretations Answ Every one that soberly and impartially and piously attends to it cannot but be convinced and instructed by it as the true Divine Scripture-Sense opened and applied to him Quest How else may Interpretation be Publick and Divine even as Scripture it self Answ When there is truly a Divine Presence and such Motives of Credibility by which a rightly qualified Person may be induced to believe that such an Interpreter is immediately assisted by the Holy Spirit to give such an Interpretation that else could not be found by any Created Sagacity or Industry in such particular Places of Scripture either from the Importance of the Words the strength of the Context or Scope or in the Analogie of Scripture comparing Spiritual things with Spiritual Quest What are to be understood to be Motives of Credibility in so great a Case Answ The Divine Sense of an Interpretation agreeable with all those so self-evident Notions of God and all Goodness the Weight and Gravity of the Matter The Authoritativeness of Scripture-Language and Elocution Miracles Agreement with all former Scripture Awes upon the Conscience Inward Illumination of the Holy Spirit in its Sanctifying and Heavenly Influences breathing in it and with it These are a Divine and Publick Presence and absolutely constitute further Scripture even as they illustrate and put a greater Splendour upon former Scripture and compleat it Quest Who were such Interpreters of former Scripture Answ The Prophets were such Interpreters upon the Law in their Time even all that writ after Moses who either by Histories compiled by such Divine Inspiration gave Examples agreeable to the Scope of the Law or by Sermons stirr'd up to the Obedience of it and reproved the Disobedience or by Divine Meditations Discourses and Hymns display'd it or by Prophesies foretold the Government of God in his Church and in the World according to it but especially accommodated all things in it under Prophetick Veils to Christ and the State of True Religion under the New Testament All the Prophets from Samuel and all that followed after as many as have spoken foretold likewise of these days All which together fill up wholly the Spaces of Scripture in the Old Testament Quest How did the New Testament and the Writers of it succeed in this great Office of Expounding and Summing up Scripture in this Publick Divine Authority Answ They were above all that went before them For John the Baptist than whom a greater Prophet among them that were born of Women had not risen yet he that was least in the Kingdom of God in the more explained State of Christianity was greater than he Quest How is this Notion of Publick Interpretation contradistinguish'd to Private made good out of Scripture it self Answ From the Apostle Peter who expresly tells us Scripture is not of any Private Interpretation Whose Sense in that place is very necessary to be pursued both as it much clears the Nature of Private Interpretation and also strengthens the Foundations of the New Testament as laid in the Old Quest But you know the Original Word there used and translated Interpretation is by some understood for no more than the Prophetick Declaration or Interpreting the Mind of God revealed by Inspiration and by very many another Word signifying Inspiration it self or the Illapse of the Divine Spirit in those Prophetick Revelations is preferred to the Word translated Interpretation as the more genuine Reading Answ I know the Current of Expositors both the ways you mention but against them both there is this great
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
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
Rational Discourse and manifestation of themselves in Mens Consciences witness'd to by the Holy Spirit and authorised by a Power of Miracles generally of Beneficence or doing good and in some but sparing Instances of infliction of Bodily Pains or Death Quest Did the Apostles never err in their Administration Answ Whenever that Infallible Guidance was not present to them they might err as was before observed in the Apostle Peter's Miscarriage which no doubt was recorded to shew their Power was not in themselves but in the Divine Spirit acting by them that none in After-ages might pretend to dictate as their Successors having not their Power and yet requiring Obedience as if they had it whereas even the Apostles themselves might err and so lose their Power if never so little deserted by the Holy Spirit And therefore what they consigned over to After-ages was winnowed from every thing Humane and Fallible that both Officers and People might know the one Common Rule by which one is to Govern the other in the Application of it is to be Governed Quest Who were next to the Apostles in this Office and Power Answ Evangelists such as were Timothy and Titus who having a Portion of the Apostolick Work to plant and settle Churches and Ordinary Officers in them had also a Portion of their Power to enable them to it it being absolutely necessary there should be such till the General Rule was fully settled and fixed Quest Were not the Apostles and Evangelists above Ordinary Pastors and Teachers Answ They were in this great Point of Difference that they had the Word of God by Immediate and Infallible Revelation committed to them to commit the same to others by direction from the same Spirit who gave them Discerning to whom to entrust it till all things relating to the Kingdom of God in the Church were sealed in the Canon of the New Testament else they owned themselves Compresbyters as the Apostle Peter stiles himself A Presbyter with Presbyters Quest From all that hath been spoken we are to conclude That the whole Power in the Church and in all things pertaining to Religion is retained in the Word of God Answ It is so For Christ in his Word is the only King and Lawgiver of his Church which Glory he will not give to another Whatever Power can be supposed resident in the whole Church together is no other than in that Word of Truth publickly offered by it The Apostles Power was only the presence of that Word to them by the Immediate Revelation and infallible Guidance of the Holy Spirit for the Preaching it throughout the World and thereby founding the Christian Church Such was the ordinary Power of any extraordinary Ministers under them The and constant Rulership of the Elders of the Church remains unmoveably in the Word which it is their Office to speak Quest Are not those we distinguishingly call Bishops Successours to the Apostles in that Preeminency they had over other Pastors and Elders Answ That Successors to the preeminency of the Apostles may be well established Three things are necessary 1. That there be found and produced Distinct Commands given in Scripture to the Inferior Ministers of the New Testament to obey Superior Ministers or Bishops Commands to Christians to obey Inferior Ministers or Ordinary Presbyters as Inferior Ministers with respect to Superior Ministers and those Superior Ministers as Superiors We must find the Apostle distinguishing ordinary Presbyters as Inferior Ministers with respect to Superior Ministers and those Superior Ministers as Superiors as we find him distinguishing Civil Magistrates into the King as Supreme and Governors as those that are sent by him 2. Seeing it is very clear and apparent there is nothing more distant from the Design of the Gospel than to Constitute any thing for the sake of making a great Figure without as great an Use or End and that Christ hath not given Power to his Rulers to Command the very least thing but as Commanded by himself first for then they would be Lords which he plainly declares against and absolutely denies to them and that what they do as Commanded by him they should do so in Duty and Service to the Supreme Lord and Subordinately to his Church as not to be called or esteem'd Benefactors for their Services so that it must be evident what their Superior Service is it must be plainly expressed in the Word of God and there at least so determinately set down as to be deduced with greatest clearness to the Understanding and Conscience of Christians and distinguishingly from the Service of other Subordinate Rulers appointed by Christ that so it may be waited for and received according to his Ordinance with Faith and Obedience 3. Seeing Christ appoints none to an Eminency of Service without a suitable Eminency of Abilities as is plain in the Apostles and Evangelists it is therefore reasonable to expect some extraordinary promises of the presence of Christ to those Superior Ministers to assist them in the Conduct of their Superiority wherein they might above any other Ministers of the Gospel Visibly and Experimentally make some approaches to the Eminent Assistances the Apostles and Evangelists had in the time of their Ministry and that they have continued and succeeded in their High Function in the Church of Christ so that the History of the Real Substantial Services of Bishops to Christianity hath come near to the Acts of Apostles and as much excelled that of Common Presbyters as the Order it self is supposed to do Now without these three self evident concurrent marks of Superiority secret invisible Characters are of no signification Quest How then is such a Succession of Bishops in a Superiority over Presbyters so uncontrolably deduced from Antiquity Answ Besides all other Coincident Accounts there is this to be given After the Apostles there was but a Gradual Cessation of Apostolick Men Men of Eminent Graces and Extraordinary Gifts though not of the Infallible Guidance of the Divine Spirit for the Revelation of the Gospel or the writing of Scripture yet of more immediate Divine Assistances in resemblance of Timothy and Titus for the Confirmation of the Churches planted by the Apostles Supervisal over them and Care for them and also for the further propagation of Christianity which being but newly set out had not arrived many places where it was to come and so needed some more than ordinary Assistances Even as Miracles did not immediately Cease no more did these Personages extraordinary in their Endowments Such as these were worthily in a Degree of Superiority over those that had not the same miraculous Inablements nor Knowledge as yet in Christianity Afterwards such Manifestations of the Divine Presence by Degrees retiring and Christianity having fixed it self where it was then to go and the Churches settled the best accounts of the continuing Distinction between those that were upon the same level in regard of their Gifts and Graces were but Humane Prudence and Order which oblige no
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
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
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
not to resist the Power vindicating its Commands by Sufferings and Penalties upon those that cannot actively Obey wherein Religion Justice or Soberness are contradicted which are Gods and must be rendred to him according to themselves who is able to make them recompense who suffer for Righteousness sake as he pleases in this World or most certainly in the Resurrection of the Just But if there were not such an absolute Legislative and Executive Power in every Community thus fixed and unmoveable and accountable only to God the Restless Love of Change would be always disturbing and calling to account Government and every Man take upon him to be a Lawgiver and a Justicier or indeed to be Licencious and Inordinate and as they could Consult and together Collect themselves into a Rebellion would enter into open Hostilities against it and so the ends of Government in the Peace and Order of Humane Societies be quite lost so that till any Principalities sitting on the Seats of Government are so bad as to retain less of the Uses and Ends of Government than they destroy and it can be made apparent endeavours of Change cannot introduce so great and general Mischiefs or that even Anarchy it self cannot introduce greater Mischiefs than that Government is the Author of which hath come to pass in few Instances till then I say we must fear the Lord and the King and not meddle with them who are given to Change For their Calamity shall rise suddenly and who knows the ruin of them both Quest But what are Christian Subjects to do when Titles of Soveraignty or Legislative or Executive Powers of Laws are Disputed either betwixt various Pretensions of Princes or where the bounds of Power and Rights of Soveraignty and the Liberties and Properties of People are in Controversie Answ I shall no more intermeddle in that than the Doctrine of Christianity does which leaves all those things to the Laws and Constitutions of Nature of Nations and of each Particular Country The Duty of Christians is to those Soveraign Powers whose Authority is Current whose Image and Superscription is upon all things Publick the Powers that are in being are to be Obey'd according to the Ends of Government already Discoursed that is for the Punishment of Offenders for the Executing Judgment betwixt Man and Man for the securing Common Peace in all Godliness and Honesty Our Lord and his Apostles intimate nothing either way to strengthen or weaken the Claim of the Powers then present but declare Obedience to them Prayers and Thanksgivings for them as they then were although they could not have the clearest of Titles Christianity as it is strictly the Religion of Jesus Christ doth not make it self a Divider over Men nor Decide such Controversies which are quite of another Cognisance yet it subverts no Rights it betrays no Liberties justly so called it reverses no Laws of Nature nor rescinds Constitutions and Compacts of Government but teaches Men to do all they can to preserve Common Good and Right determinable upon other Principles Only this the more clear ancient and indisputable the Titles of Princes are the more indisputable Boundaries betwixt Prince and People are kept the greater are the Obligations of Obedience of quiet and peaceable rest in that Obedience of the most vigorous Defence of the Power over us and the greater the Guilt of any of the Sins of Mutiny Faction Sedition Rebellion Quest The Discourse of the Power of Magistrates in Religion hath brought to my thoughts National Religion and a National Church wherein I desire your Instruction Answ I can but apply what I have said in general to this Particular Case which I shall endeavour to do to your satisfaction in these six Propositions Quest What is the first Proposition I am to be Instructed by Answ It is this That to join in True Religion with our Native Country or Nation is such a Law of Nature that cannot be reversed For the sake of the True Religion we may be oblig'd to forsake not only our Country but our Fathers House and to unite to the Church of God founded in that True Religion yet in the mean time we must own all that is Divine Rational True weresoever we find it much more in our Native Country and if it be possible propagate True Religion upon it For we shall not only be judged in this World with our Nation but shall rise with it at the Day of Judgment in the same Station or Lott wherein we were placed in this World according to our doing good in it we shall receive our Reward with those of it that are saved who shall then survive in Glory and become as if they were the whole Nation the perishing part being lost as we therefore desire the prosperity of it in this World so ought we to endeavour by all means the Eternal Happiness of as many of it as we can by joyning with them and ingaging them in True Religion Quest I desire your Second Proposition Answ It is this That in a Political Sense National Religion is when Magistrates and the Body of the People joyn in the True Religion and Establish it by Law and devote to it the most Publick Advantages that the Largeness and Grandeur of such a Nation have in their Power fixing Characters of Civil Honour and ample Condition upon the Rulers of the Church and Communicating to them Magistratical Power in things pertaining to the External Defence Honour and Provision for the True Religion as it is National all which so far as it is Serviceable to the best Ends is acceptable to God our Saviour who is not the Author of Confusion but of Peace and ought to be Submitted to with Reverence both in Obedience to Government and also as it is done in Honour to the Name of God and True Religion The State of the Church in times of Persecution being not the Standard as to these things in the prosperous times of it Quest I now desire the Third Proposition Answ The Government of a Nation in Religion appointing and prescribing Liturgies Confessions of Faith Catechisms and Publick Forms of Instruction or Homilies they may be so far useful as when they are composed according to the Word of God to secure True Religion and the Publick Administration of it by so much publickly Ratified and requiring of all whom it Intrusts as Ministers of the Word of God under its Approbation and Maintenance to assent to the Truth of Religion so Compriz'd and Publickly to declare it by using them as is appointed But these are not to be understood to put Limits upon the Ministers of the Word first entrusted by Christ who are both in Prayer Preaching the Gospel and all means of Instruction to search into all the Scripture that is profitable for Doctrine Instruction Reproof and to Pray with all Prayer and Supplication according to the particular occasions and in that abundance and liberality of the Divine Oracles that they themselves may