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together in the celebration of the ordinances of the New Testament, instituted by Christ to be so celebrated by them. The union of it, with the breach of that union in these several respects, with the application of the whole to the business under consideration, was to be inquired after; which also was performed.

I began with the consideration of the catholic invisible church of Christ, and the union thereof. Having declared the rise of this distinction, and the necessity of it from the nature of the things themselves; as to the matter of this church, or the church of Christ as here militant on earth, I affirm, and evince it to be, all and only elect believers: the union of this church consists in the inhabitation of the same Spirit in all the members of it, uniting them to the head Christ Jesus, and therein to one another. The breach of this union, I manifested to consist in the loss of that Spirit, with all the peculiar consequences and effects of him in the hearts of them in whom he dwells. This I manifest according to our principles to be impossible; and upon a supposition of it, how remote it would be from schism, under any notion or acceptation of the word; so closing that discourse with a charge on the Romanists, of their distance from an interest in this church of Jesus Christ.

Our reverend author professes that he hath but little to say to these things; some exceptions he puts in unto some expressions used in the explication of my sense, in this particular. That which he chiefly insists upon, is the accommodation of that promise, Matt. xvi. 28. Upon this rock will I build my church,' to the church in this sense, which he concludes to belong to the visible church of professors. Now as I am not at all concerned, as to the truth of what I am in confirmation of, to which of these be applied, so I am far from being alone in that application of it to the catholic church which I insist upon all our divines that from hence prove the perseverance of all individual believers, as all do that I have met withal, who write on that subject, are of the same mind with me. Moreover, the church is built on this rock in its individuals, or I know not how it is so built. The building on Christ, doth not denote a mere relation of a general body to his truth, that it shall always have an existence, but the union of the individuals with him, in their being

built on him, to whom the promise is made. I acknowledge it for as unquestionable a truth as any we believe, that Christ hath had, and ever shall have to the end of the world, a visible number of those that profess his name, and subjection to his kingdom; because of the necessary consequence of profession upon believing; but that that truth is intended in this promise, any farther but in respect of this consequence, I am not convinced. And I would be loth to say, that this promise is not made to every particular believer, and only unto them; being willing to vindicate to the saints of God, all those grounds of consolation which he is so willing they should be made partakers of.

As to the union of this church and the breach of it, our reverend author hath a little to say. Because there may be 'some decays in true grace in the members of this church,' he affirms, 'that in a sort there may be said to be a breach in this union, and so consequently a schism in this body.' He seemed formerly to be afraid lest all schism should be thrust out of the world: if he can retrieve it on the account of any true believer's failing in grace, or falling for a season, I suppose he needs not fear the loss of it, whilst this world continues. But it is fit wise and learned men should take the liberty of calling things by what names they please; so they will be pleased withal, not to impose their conceptions and use of terms on them who are not able to understand the reasons of them. It is true there may be a schism among the members of this church, but not as members of this church, nor with reference to the union thereof. It is granted that schism is the breach of union, but not of every union; much less not a breach of that, which, if there were a breach of, it were not schism. However, by the way, I am bold to tell this reverend author, that this doctrine of his concerning schism in the catholic invisible church, by the failings in grace in any of the members of it for a season, is a new notion; which as he cannot justify to us, because it is false, so I wonder how he will justify it to himself, because it is new. And what hath been obtained by the author against my principles in this chapter, I cannot perceive. The nature of the church in the state considered, is not opposed; the union asserted not disproved; the breach of that union is denied, as I suppose, no less by him than myself. That the instances

that some saints, as members of this church, may sometimes fail in grace more or less for some season; and that the members of this church, though not as members of this church, yet on other considerations, may be guilty of schism, concern not the business under debate, himself I hope is satisfied.

CHAP. VII.

OUR progress in the next place is to the consideration of the catholic church visible. Who are the members of this church, whereof it is constituted, what is required to make them so, on what account men visibly professing the gospel may be esteemed justly divested of the privilege of being members of this church, with sundry respects of the church in that sense, are in my treatise discussed. The union of this church, that is proper and peculiar unto it as such, I declared to be the profession of the saving doctrine of the gospel, not everted by any of the miscarriages, errors, or oppositions to it, that are there recounted. The breach of this union, I manifest to consist in apostacy from the profession of the faith, and so to be no schism, upon whomsoever the guilt of it doth fall: pleading the immunity of the Protestants as such from the guilt of the breach of this union, and charging it upon the Romanists, in all the ways whereby it may be broken, an issue is put to that discourse.

What course our reverend author takes in the examination of this chapter, and the severals of it, whereon the strength of the controversy doth lie, is now to be considered. Doth he deny this church to be a collection of all that are duly called Christians in respect of their profession? to be that great multitude, who throughout the world profess the doctrine of the gospel, and subjection to Jesus Christ? doth he deny the union of this church, or that whereby that great multitude are incorporated into one body as visible and professing, to be the profession of the saving doctrines of the gospel, and of subjection to Jesus Christ according to them? Doth he deny the dissolution of this union, as to the interest of any member by it in the body, to be by apostacy

from the profession of the gospel? Doth he charge that apostacy upon those whom he calls Independents, as such, or if he should, could he tolerably defend his charge? Doth he prove that the breach, of this union is, under that formality, properly schism? nothing less, as far as I can gather. Might not then the trouble of this chapter have been spared? or shall I be necessitated to defend every expression in my book, though nothing at all to the main business under debate, or else independency must go for a great schism. I confess this is somewhat a hard law, and such as I cannot proceed in obedience unto it, without acknowledging his ability to compel me to go on farther than I am willing; yet I do it with this engagement, that I will so look to myself, that he shall never have that power over me any more; nor will I upon any compulsion of useless, needless cavils and exceptions do so again: so that in his reply he now knows how to order his affairs so, as to be freed from the trouble of a rejoinder.

His first attempt in this chapter is upon a short discourse of mine, in my process, which I profess not to be needful to the purpose in hand, relating to some later disputes about the nature of this church; wherein some had affirmed it to be a genus to particular churches, which are so many distinct species of it, and others that it was a totum made up of particular churches as its parts, both which in some sense I denied; partly out of a desire to keep off all debates about the things of God from being inwrapped and agitated in and under philosophical notions, and feigned terms of art, which hath exceedingly multiplied controversies in the world and rendered them endless, and doth more or less straiten or oppose every truth that is so dealt withal: partly because I evidently saw men deducing false consequents from the supposition of such notions of this church. For the first way, our reverend author lets it pass only with a remark upon my dissenting from Mr. Hooker, of New England, which he could not but note by the way, although he approves what I affirm. A worthy note! as though all the brethren of the presbyterian way, were agreed among themselves in all things of the like importance; or that I were in my judg ment enthralled to any man or men, so that it should deserve

a note when I dissent from them. Truly, I bless God, I am utterly unacquainted with any such frame of spirit, or bondage of mind, as must be supposed to be in them whose dissent from other men is a matter of such observation. One is my master, to whom alone my heart and judgment are in subjection: for the latter, I do not say absolutely that particular churches are not the parts of the catholic visible, in any sense, but that they are not so parts of it as such, so that it should be constituted and made up by them, and of them, for the order and purpose of an instituted church, for the celebration of the worship of God, and institutions of Christ, according to the gospel; which, when our author proves that it is, I shall acknowledge myself obliged to him. He says indeed, that ' it was once possible that all the members of the catholic church should meet together, to hear one sermon,' &c. But he is to prove that they were bound to do so, as that catholic church, and not that it was possible for all the members of it under any other notion or consideration so to convene. But he says, they are bound to do so still, but that the multitude makes it impossible: 'credat apella:' that Christ hath bound his church to that which himself makes impossible. Neither are they so bound: they are bound, by his own acknowledgment, to be members of particular churches, and in that capacity are they bound so to convene, those churches being by the will of God appointed for the seat of ordinances. And so what he adds, in the next place, of particular churches being bound according to the institution of Christ to assemble for the celebration of ordinances, is absolutely destructive of the former figment. But he would know a reason why forty or more, that are not members of one particular church, but only of the catholic, meeting together, may not join together in all ordinances, as well as they may meet to hear the word. preached, and often do; to which I answer, that it is because Jesus Christ hath appointed particular churches, and there is more required to them, than the occasional meeting of some, any, or all if possible, of the members of the catholic church as such, will afford.

His reflections upon myself, added in that place, are now grown so common, that they deserve not any notice. In his ensuing discourse, if I may take leave to speak freely to our

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