A25467:1178
A Continuation of morning-exercise questions and cases of conscience practically resolvedA Continuation of morning-exercise questions and cases of conscience practicaly resolved
A Continuation of morning-exercise questions and cases of conscience practically resolved by sundry ministers in October, 1682.A Continuation of morning-exercise questions and cases of conscience practicaly resolved by sundry ministers in October, 1682.
London: printed by J.A. for John Dunton, 1683
Title page typeset from the transcription.
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
SECT. IV.
IV. It is an unquestionable Principle of Truth, that the Church of Christ is in it self a Body, such a Body as hath an Head, whereon it depends, and without which it would immediately be dissolved; a Body without an Head, is but a Carcass, or part of a Carcass; and this Head must be always present with it. An Head distant from the Body, separated from it, not united unto it by such ways and means as are proper unto their Nature, is of no use. See Eph. 4, 15, 16. Col. 2.19.
IV. It is an unquestionable Principle of Truth, that the Church of Christ is in it self a Body, such a Body as hath an Head, whereon it depends, and without which it would immediately be dissolved; a Body without an Head, is but a Carkass, or part of a Carkass; and this Head must be always present with it. An Head distant from the Body, separated from it, not united unto it by such ways and means as are proper unto their Nature, is of no use. See Eph. 4, 15, 16. Col. 2.19.
But there is a double Notion of an Head, as there is of a Body also; For they both of them are either Natural or Political. There is a Natural Body and there is a Political Body; and in each sense it must have an Head of the same kind. A Natural Body must have an Head of Vital Influence, and a Political Body must have an Head of Rule and Government. The Church is called a Body, compared to it, is a Body in both Senses, or in both parts of the comparison, and in both must have an Head. As it is a Spiritually living Body, compared to the Natural, it must have an Head of Vital Influence, without which it cannot subsist; and as it is an Orderly Society for the common Ends of its Institution, compared unto a Political Body, it must have an Head of Rule and Government, without which neither its Being, nor its Use can be preserved.