An expository comment, doctrinal, controversial, and practical upon the whole first chapter to the…An expository comment, doctrinal, controversal, and practical upon the whole first chapter to the…

That the Church of God, as it is a Church, doth far surpass all Civil Societies, ¹and temporal Dignities.

That the Church of God, as it is a Church, doth farre surpass all Civil Societies, ¹and temporal Dignities.

1. 1The Church of God as a Church doth far surpass all civil Societies, and temporal dignities.The Church of God as a Church doth far surpasse all civil Societies, and temporal dignities.

The Apostle owneth nothing in this famous City, but their faith, their profession of Christ, and subjection to him. A Church is a supernatural Society, for supernatural and spiritual ends, where God is in a more special manner present; and therefore though the civil Magistrate be also of God, and civil Societies they are of him, yet not in that peculiar relation as a Church is. Thus the Psalmist saith, Psal. 87. 2. The Lord loveth the […] of Zion, more than all the dwellings of Jerusalem, that is, the Assemblies of his people met together in holy Ordinances, above all other their civil meetings, though never so pompous and magnificent. Therefore it's good to consider, that in all the inscriptions which the Apostle […] to any Churches, he doth not at all speak of any civil or temporal Dignities, that the places where the Churches were, had but only •on of their spiritual titles, as a Church, Saints, Believers, Beloved of God. And certainly, if we do truly consider things, these Titles do as far transcend all civil glory, as the Heavens do the Earth. The Apostle writing to the […] ⟨p. 78⟩in all that Epistle takes no notice of the glory of that City, which was the Orbis Domina, and which they usually called aeterna Urbs; he mentioneth their faith, which was known to the whole world,