hold proportion to the more noble parts of the body. Kings are said to be heads, counsellors ὀφθαλμοὶ βασιλέων : to the constitution of such a commonwealth distinctly, as such, it is required that the whole hath the same laws; but not that only. Two nations most distinct and different, on the account of other ends and interests, may yet have the same individual laws and customs for the distribution of justice, and preservation of peace among themselves. An entire form of regimen and government peculiar thereunto is required for the constitution of a distinct political body. In this sense we deny the church whereof we speak to be an organical, political body, as not having indeed any of the requisites thereunto. Not one law of order; the same individual moral law, or law for moral duties it hath; but a law given to the whole as such, for order, polity, rule, it hath not. All the members of it are obliged to the same law of order and polity in their several societies; but the whole, as such, hath no such law: it hath no such head or governor as such; nor will it suffice to say, that Christ is its head; for if, as a visible political body, it hath a political head, that head also must be visible. The commonwealth of the Jews was a political body; of this God was the head and king: hence their historian saith their government was ɛoкparía; and when they would choose a king, God said they rejected him who was their political head; to whom a shekel was paid yearly as tribute, called the 'shekel of the sanctuary.' Now they rejected him, not by asking a king simply, but a king after the manner of the nations; yet, that it might be a visible political body, it required a visible supreme magistrate to the whole; which when there was none, all polity was dissolved amongst them; Judges xxi. Christ is the head of every particular church, its lawgiver, and ruler: but yet to make a church a visible, organical, political body, it is required that it hath visible governors and rulers, and of the whole. Nor can it be said that it is a political body that hath a supreme government and order in it, as it is made up and constituted of particular churches; and that in the representatives convened doth the supreme visible power of it consist; for such a convention in the judgment of all ought to be extraordinary only; in ours is utterly impossible, and 'de facto' was not among the churches for

three hundred years, yea, never: besides, the visible catholic church is not made up of particular churches as such; for if so, then no man can be member of it but by virtue of his being a member of some visible church, which is false: profession of the truth, as before stated, is the formal reason and cause of any person's relation to the church visible, which he hath thereby, whether he belong to any particular church

or no.

Let it be evidenced, that the universal church whereof we speak hath any law or rule of order and government, as such, given unto it; or that it is in possibility as such, to put any such law or rule into execution; that it hath any homogeneous ruler or rulers that have the care of the administration of the rule and government of the whole, as such, committed to him or them by Jesus Christ; that as it hath the same common spiritual and known orders and interest, and the same specifical ecclesiastical rule given to all its members, so it hath the same political interest, order, and conversation, as such; or that it hath any one cause constitutive of a political body, whereby it is such, or hath at all the form of an instituted church, or is capable of any such form; and they that do so shall be farther attended to.

CHAP. VI.

Romanists' charge of schism on the account of separation from the church catholic proposed to consideration. The importance of this plea on both sides. The sum of their charge. The church of Rome not the church catholic: not a church in any sense. Of antichrist in the temple. The catholic church how intrusted with interpretation of Scripture. Of interpretation of Scripture by tradition. The interest of the Roman church herein discharged. All necessary truths believed by Protestants. No contrary principle by them manifested. Profane persons no members of the church catholic. Of the late Roman proselytes. Of the Donatists. Their business reported, and case stated. The present state of things unsuited to those of old. Apostacy from the unity of the church catholic charged on the Romanists. Their claim to be that church sanguinary, false. Their plea to this purpose considered. The blasphemous management of their plea by some of late. The whole dissolved. Their inferences on their plea practically prodigious. Their apostacy proved by instances. Their grand argument in this cause proposed: answered. Consequences of denying the Roman church, to be a church of Christ, weighed.

LET us see now what as to conscience can be charged on us, Protestants I mean, who are all concerned herein, as to the breach of this union. The Papists are the persons that undertake to manage this charge against us. To lay aside the whole plea 'subesse Romano pontifici,' and all those fears, wherewith they juggled, when the whole world sat in darkness, which they do now use at the entrance of their charge. The sum of what they insist upon firstly, is, The catholic church is intrusted with the interpretation of the Scripture, and declaration of the truths therein contained, which being by it so declared, the not receiving of them implicitly, or explicitly, that is the disbelieving of them as so proposed and declared, cuts off any man from being a member of the church; Christ himself having said, that he that hears not the church, is to be as a heathen man or publican; which church they are, that is certain. It is all one then what we believe, or do not believe, seeing that we believe not all that the catholic church proposeth to be believed, and what we do believe, we believe not on that account.

Ans. Their insisting on this plea so much as they do, is sufficient to evince their despair of making good by in

stance our failure in respect of the way and principles by which the unity of the visible church may be lost or broken. Fail they in this, they are gone; and if they carry this plea, we are all at their disposal. The sum of it is, the catholic church is intrusted with sole power of delivering what is truth, and what is necessary to be believed. This catholic church is the church of Rome; that is, the pope, or what else may in any juncture of time serve their interest. But as it is known,

1. We deny their church, as it is styled, to be the catholic church, or as such, any part of it, as particular churches are called or esteemed. So that of all men in the world, they are least concerned in this assertion. Nay, I shall go farther; suppose all the members of the Roman church to be sound in the faith, as to all necessary truths, and no way to prejudice the advantages and privileges which accrue to them by the profession thereof, whereby the several individuals of it would be true members of the catholic church; yet I should not only deny it to be the catholic church, but also, abiding in its present order and constitution, being that which by themselves it is supposed to be, to be any particular church of Christ at all; as wanting many things necessary to constitute them so, and having many things destructive utterly to the very essence and being of that order that Christ hath appointed in his churches.

The best plea that I know for their church-state, is, that antichrist sits in the temple of God. Now although we might justly omit the examination of this pretence, until those, who are concerned in it, will professedly own it, as their plea; yet as it lies in our way, in the thoughts of some, I say to it, that I am not so certain that Kaioa siç Tòv vaòv toũ Jεou, signifies to 'sit in the temple of God;' seeing a learned man long ago thought it rather to be a 'setting up against the temple of God;' Aug. de Civitate Dei, lib. 10. cap. 59. But grant the sense of the expression to be, as it is usually received, it imports no more, but that the man of sin shall set up his power against God, in the midst of them, who by their outward visible profession have right to be called his temple, which entitles him, and his copart

ners in apostacy, to the name of the church, as much as changing of money, and selling of cattle, were ordinances of God under the old temple, when by some men's practising of them in it, it was made a den of thieves.

2. Though as to the plea of them, and their interest, with whom we have to do, we have nothing requiring our judgments in the case; yet ex abundanti,' we add, that we deny that by the will and appointment of Jesus Christ the catholic church visible is in any sense intrusted with such an interpretation of Scripture, as that her declaration of truth should be the measure of what should be believed; or that, as such, it is intrusted with any power of that nature at all, or is enabled to propose a rule of faith to be received, as so proposed, to the most contemptible individual in the world; or that it is possible that any voice of it should be heard or understood, but only this, I believe the necessary saving truths contained in the Scripture; or that it can be consulted withal, or is, as such, intrusted with any power, authority, or jurisdiction; nor shall we ever consent, that the office and authority of the Scriptures be actually taken from it, on any pretence. As to that of our Saviour, of telling the church, it is so evidently spoken of a particular church, that may immediately be consulted in case of difference between brethren; and does so no way relate to the business in hand, that I shall not trouble the reader with a debate of it. But do we not receive the Scripture itself upon the authority of the church? I say if we did so, yet this concerns not Rome, which we account no church at all. That we have received the Scripture from the church of Rome at first, that is, so much as the book itself, is an intolerable figment. But it is worse, to say that we receive and own their authority, from the authority of any church, or all the churches in the world. It is the expression of our learned Whitaker, 'Qui Scripturam non credit esse divinam, nisi propter ecclesiæ vocem, Christianus non est.' To deny that the Scripture hath immediate force and efficacy to evince its own authority, is plainly to deny them; on that account being brought unto us, by the providence of God (wherein I comprise all subservient helps of human testimony), we receive them, and on no other.