When men shall cease to be wilfully blind, or when the powers of the " strong delusion," that begin to abate, shall expire, they will easily see the direct opposition that is between these two heads and two churches, namely, Christ and the pope, the catholic church and that of Rome.
I know well enough all the evasions and distinctions that are invented to countenance this antichristianism : as, " That there is a double head, — one of internal influence of grace, which Christ is, and the pope is not; the other of rule and authority/, which the pope is. But this also is twofold, supreme and remote, and immediate and subordinate ; the first is Christ, the latter is the pope. And there is yet further a twofold head of the church, — the one invisible, which is Christ ; the other visible, which is the pope."
Not to insist on these gross and horrible figments of a two/old head of the catholic church, in any sense, which are foreign to the Scripture, and foreign to antiquity, whereof never one word was heard in the church for six hundred years after Christ, deforming the beautiful spouse of Christ into a monster, we will allow, at present, that the pope is only the immediate, visible, subordinate head of all rule and authority to their church; which is what they plead for. Then I say, that the church whereof he is the head is his body, that it holds him as its hfead, that it is compacted together by the officers and orders that depend on him and receive all their in- fluence of church power and order from him: which though he com- municates not by an internal influence of grace and gifts, (alas, poor Avretch!) yet he doth it by officers, offices, orders, and laws; so giving
] 88 TEUE NATUEE OF A GOSPEL CHURCH.
union and communion unto the whole body by the effectual work- ing of every joint and part of the hierarchy under him, for its union, communion, and edification. This, I say, is the antichrist and the antichristian church-state, as I shall be at any time ready to main- tain.
Let any man take a due prospect of this head and this body, as related and united by the bond of their own rules, constitutions, and laws, acting in worldly pomp, splendour, and power, with horrid, bloody cruelties against all that oppose them, and he will not fail of an open view of all the scriptural lineaments of the apostate, anti- christian state of the church.
I say again, this assigning of the original of all church order, union, and communion, unto the pope of Rome, investing him there- with as an article of faith, constituting him thereby the head of the church, and the church thereon his body, — as it must be if he be its head, so as that from him all power of order, and for all acts of com- munion, should be derived, returning all in obedience and subjection unto him, — doth set up a visible, conspicuous, antichristian church- state in opposition unto Christ and the catholic church. But with this sort of men we deal not at present.
There is a pretence unto a union of churches not derived from the papal headship ; and this consists in the canonical subjection of particular churches unto a diocesan bishop, and of such bishops to metropolitans, which though "de facto" it be at present termi- nated and stated within the bounds of a nation, yet " de jure" it ought to be extended unto the whole catholic chiu'ch.
According unto this principle, the union of the catholic church consists in that order whereby particular churches are distributed into deaneries, archdeaconries, exempt peculiars, under officials; dio- ceses, provinces, under metropolitans; and so by or without patriarchs, to avoid the rock of the Papacy, issuing in a general council, as I suppose. But, —
1. To confine the union and communion of the catholic church hereunto is at present absolutely destructive both of the church and its communion: for all particular churches, when they are by a coalescency extended unto those which are provincial or national, have, both politically and ecclesiastically, such bounds fixed unto them as they cannot pass to carry on communion unto and with the church as catholic, by any acts and duties belonging unto their order; and hereby the union and communion of the church is utterly lost, for the union of the catholic church, as such, doth always equally exist, and the communion of it is always equally in exercise, and can consist in nothing but what doth so exist and is so exercised. "Wherever is the catholic church, there is the communion of saints; but nothing of this can be obtained by virtue of this order.
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2. We inquire at present after such a union as gives particular churches communion among themselves, which this order doth not, but absolutely overthrows it, leaving nothing unto them but subjec- tion to officers set over them, who are not of them, according to rules and laws of their appointment; which is foreign to the Scripture and antiquity.
S. This order itself, the only bond of the pretended union, having no divine institution, especially as to its extent unto the whole catholic church, nor any intimation in the Scripture, and being ut- terly impossible to be put in execution or actual exercise, no man can declare what is the original or centre of it, whence it is deduced, and whereon it rests.