The power of Congregational churches asserted and vindicated in answer to a treatise of…

Therefore if any object, that the gates of Hell have prevailed against the Greek-Churches, those golden Candlesticks in Asia, and against Rome, whose Faith was spoken of throughout the whole World, and against sundry other particular Churches?

Answ. I Answer, 1. Though it be true, that the gates of Hell have prevailed against this or that particular Church; yet not against a particular Church, indefinitely considered, or (which is the same) against the Church, in general, existing in its particulars. In this sense, the visible Church doth not fail. For, (1.) Christ ever had, and will have some or other visible Church on Earth, wherein the general nature of a visible Church is preserved, as the Genus is in its Species, and the nature ⟨p. 46⟩of man in this or that individual; as when the Lord preserved Noah and his Family, in the Ark, mankind was preserved in them, though multitudes of men were destroyed in the Deluge. (2.) Christ will show, that he makes a difference between Churches, wherein are some true Believers mixed with many Hypocrites, and other Societies. Therefore he will not suffer such visible Churches to be totally destroyed, as he doth his open enemies, Hos. 11.8, 9. Isa. 1.8, 9. & 6.13. 2. Though it be true, that the Churches of Asia and Rome have been prevailed against by the gates of Hell, yet not, as they were built by Christ, or planted by the Apostles, but their degenerate Posterity and Successors, who were not built on this Rock, but on an outward Form, and neglected the means appointed by Christ for their safety. The Apostle Paul forewarned the Romans to beware of Apostasy, by the example of the Jews, Rom. 11.12. They, nevertheless, in succeeding generations, did degenerate from the Faith and Profession of their Predecessors, and so fell into the gulf of Antichristian Apostasy. But, as when God took his visible Kingdom from the Jews, for their obstinacy in unbelief, he did not destroy