1. This stability must not be meant of any particular Church in the world. Particular Churches have their beginnings, progresses, and periods; many Churches as well as many persons have apostatized from the faith; many Candlesticks have been broken in pieces, and yet the candle not blown out, but removed and set in another socket; particular Churches have been corrupted by Superstition and Idolatry, rent by Heresies, and scattered by Persecutions. What remains are there of those seven Churches in Asia which were the walk of Christ, Revel. 2.1. but deplorable ruins? There is no absolute promise given to any particular Church, that ⟨p. 24⟩it shall be free from defection. The Church of Rome so flourishing in the Apostles time, was warned to be humble, lest it became as much Apostate as that of the Jews, Rom. 11.21, 22. Nay there are predictions of almost an universal apostasy1. And just before the coming of Christ it will be difficult to find a grain of faith among the multitude of Chaff, Luk. 18.8. There is not one place which was in the primitive times dignified with truth, but is now deformed by error. Yea the universal Church hath been forced by the fury of the Dragon, though not to sink yet to fly into the wilderness & obscurity, yet hath been preserved through all changes in the midst of those desolations & deserts. 'Tis not indeed so fixed in one place but the cords may be taken up, the stakes removed, and the tents pitched in another ground. 'Tis spread through the world wherever God will set up the light of his Gospel. Zion hath stood, though some Synagogues of it have been pulled down; it hath like the Sun kept its station in the Firmament, though not without eclipses and clouds to muffle it. The Church is but one, though it be in divers Countries, and named according to the places where it resides, as the Church of Ephesus, the Church of Sardis, &c. which all are as the beams of the Sun darted from one body, branches growing from one root, streams flowing from one fountain; if you obstruct the light of one beam, or lop off one branch, or dam up the stream, yet the Sun, Root, Fountain remains the same:
1. This stability must not be meant of any particular Church in the world. Particular Churches have their beginnings, progresses, and periods; many Churches as well as many persons have apostatized from the faith; many Candlesticks have been broken in pieces, and yet the candle not blown out, but remov'd and set in another socket; particular Churches have been corrupted by Superstition and Idolatry, rent by Heresies, and scattered by Persecutions. What remains are there of those seven Churches in Asia which were the walk of Christ, Revel. 2.1. but deplorable ruines? There is no absolute promise given to any particular Church, that ⟨p. 24⟩it shall be free from defection. The Church of Rome so flourishing in the Apostles time, was warn'd to be humble, lest it became as much Apostate as that of the Jews, Rom. 11.21, 22. Nay there are predictions of almost an universal apostacy1. And just before the coming of Christ it will be difficult to find a grain of faith among the multitude of Chaff, Luk. 18.8. There is not one place which was in the primitive times dignified with truth, but is now deformed by error. Yea the universal Church hath been forced by the fury of the Dragon, though not to sink yet to fly into the wilderness & obscurity, yet hath been preserv'd through all changes in the midst of those desolations & deserts. 'Tis not indeed so fixed in one place but the cords may be taken up, the stakes removed, and the tents pitched in another ground. 'Tis spread through the world wherever God will set up the light of his Gospel. Sion hath stood, though some Synagogues of it have been pulled down; it hath like the Sun kept its station in the Firmament, though not without eclipses and clouds to muffle it. The Church is but one, though it be in divers Countries, and nam'd according to the places where it resides, as the Church of Ephesus, the Church of Sardis, &c. which all are as the beams of the Sun darted from one body, branches growing from one root, streams flowing from one fountain; if you obstruct the light of one beam, or lop off one branch, or dam up the stream, yet the Sun, Root, Fountain remains the same:
- 1All the world wondered after the Beast, Rev. 13.3. and worshipped him, v. 8.All the world wondred after the Beast, Rev. 13.3. and worshiped him, v. 8.
