mised that he would give an account of my relying on Scripture, and here was the place reserved for it; but when he comes to it, it is nothing at all, but a reviling of it, calling of it "A bare letter, unsensed outward characters, ink thus figured in a book;" but whatsoever it is, he calls it my "main, most fundamental, and in a manner my only principle;" though he, according to his usual method of saying what comes next, had said before that I had no principle,' and that I had many principles.' All that he adds afterwards is nothing but the same talk over again concerning the fathers, of which I have given an account I hope full enough; and I shall add something more when I come to speak concerning the justification of the grounds of the protestant and Christian religion. Only that I may be out of J. S.'s debt, I shall make it appear that he and his party are the men that go upon no grounds; that in the church of Rome there is no Sure Footing,' no certain acknowledged rule of faith; but while they call for an assent above the nature and necessity of the thing, they have no warrant beyond the greatest uncertainty,-and cause their people to wander (that I may borrow J. S.'s expression) "in the very sphere of contingency."

THE

SECOND PART

OF THE

DISSUASIVE FROM POPERY.

BOOK I.

SECTION I.

Of the Church: showing that the Church of Rome relies upon no certain Foundation for their Faith.

THAT the Scriptures are infallibly true, though it be acknowledged by the Roman Church, yet this is not an infallible rule to them, for several reasons: 1. Because it is imperfect and insufficient (as they say) to determine all matters of faith. 2. Because it is not sufficient to determine any that shall be questioned: not only because its authority and truth are to be determined by something else that must be before it; but also because its sense and meaning must be found out by something after it. And not he that writes or speaks, but he that expounds it, gives the rule; so that Scripture no more is to rule us, than matter made the world: until something else gives it form, and life, and motion, and operative powers, it is but iners massa,' not so much as a clod of earth. And they, who speak so much of the obscurity of Scripture, of the seeming contradictions in it, of the variety of readings, and the mysteriousness of its manner of delivery, can but little trust that obscure, dark, intricate, and at last, imperfect book, for a perfect clear rule. But I shall not need to drive them out of this fort, which they so willingly of themselves quit. If they did acknow

ledge Scripture for their rule, all controversies about this would be at an end, and we should all be agreed: but because they do not, they can claim no title here.

That which they pretend to be the infallible judge, and the measure of our faith, and is to give us our rule, is the church; and she is a rock; "The pillar and ground of truth;' and, therefore, here they fix. Now how little assurance they have by this confidence, will appear by many considerations.

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1. It ought to be known and agreed upon, what is meant by this word church,' or 'ecclesia.' For it is a moλúnμov; and the church cannot be a rule or guide, if it be not known what you mean when you speak the word. Σῶμα ἑαυτοῦ τὴν innλnoiav naλeï ¿ Xgioròs, said Suidas; 'His body,' viz., mystical, Christ calls his Church.' Among the Greeks, it signifies a convention or assembly met together for public employment and affairs ; συναγωγὴν ὄχλου: so Aristophanes understands it ; ἡ 'κκλησία δ' οὐχὶ διὰ τοῦτον γίγνεται ; “ Is there not a convocation or an assembly called for this Plutus *?" Now, by translation this word is used among Christians to signify "all them, who, out of the whole mass of mankind, are called and come, and are gathered together by the voice and call of God, to the worship of God through Jesus Christ, and the participation of eternal good things to follow:" so that the church' is a company of men and women professing the saving doctrine of Jesus Christ.' This is the church in sensu forensi,' and in the sight of men; but because 'glorious things are spoken of the city of God,' the professors of Christ's doctrine are but imperfectly and inchoatively the church of God; but they who are indeed holy and obedient to Christ's laws of faith and manners,-that live according to his laws, and walk by his example; these are truly and perfectly the church,' and they have this signature, "God knoweth who are his." These are the church of God in the eyes and heart of God. For the church of God are the body of Christ; but the mere profession of Christianity makes no man a member of Christ; "Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision availeth any thing in Christ Jesus; nothing but a new creature;" nothing but "a faith working by love;" and " keeping the commandments of

* Brunck, 171.

God." Now they that do this, are not known to be such by men; but they are only known to God; and, therefore, it is in a true sense "the invisible church;" not that there are two churches, or two societies, in separation from each other; or that one can be seen by men, and the other cannot for then either we must run after the church, whom we ought not to imitate; or be blind in pursuit of the other that can never be found; and our eyes serve for nothing but to run after false fires. No, these two churches are but one society; the one is within the other; "They walk together to the house of God as friends, they take sweet counsel together," and eat the bread of God in common: but yet though the men be visible, yet that quality and excellency by which they are constituted Christ's members, and distinguished from mere professors and outsides of Christians, this, I say, is not visible. All that really and heartily serve Christ in abdito,' do also profess to do so; they serve him in the secret of the heart, and in the secret chamber, and in the public assemblies, unless by an intervening cloud of persecution they be for a while hid, and made less conspicuous: but the invisible church ordinarily and regularly is part of the visible, but yet that only part that is the true one; and the rest but by denomination of law, and in common speaking are the church,-not in mystical union, not in proper relation to Christ; they are not the house of God, not the temple of the Holy Ghost, not the members of Christ; and no man can deny this. Hypocrites are not Christ's servants, and therefore not Christ's members, and therefore no part of the church of God, but improperly and equivocally, as a dead man is a man; all which is perfectly summed up in those words of St. Austin, saying, "that the body of Christ is not bipartitum,' it is not a double body:''non enim revera Domini corpus est, quod cum illo non erit in æternum ;' 'all that are Christ's body, shall reign with Christ for ever."" And therefore, they who are of their father, the devil, are the synagogue of Satan, and of such is not the kingdom of God: and all this is no more than what St. Paul said; "They are not all Israel, who are of Israel":" and, "He is not a Jew that is

a De Doctr. Christ. lib. iii. c. 22.

b Rom. ix. 6.

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