Section IV: The Headship of Christ vs. the Papacy
profession of the truth, and our deliverance from the snares of our adversaries. For whereas it is undeniable that this peculiar institution, distinct from all others, doth intend and design a distinct communication and exhibition of Christ; if it be pressed on us that these must be done by transubstantiation and oral manducation thereon, and can be no otherwise, nothing but an experience of the power and efficacy of the mystical communion with Christ in this ordinance, before described, will preserve us from being ensnared by their pretences. There is not, therefore, on all accounts of grace and truth, any one thing of more concernment unto believers, than the due exercise of spiritual light and faith unto a satisfactory experience of a peculiar participation of Christ in this holy institution.
II. The same is fallen out amongst them with reference unto the church, and all the principal concerns of it;—having lost or renounced the things which belong unto its primitive constitution, they have erected a deformed image in their stead; as I shall manifest in some instances.
Section IV: The Headship of Christ vs. the Papacy Sect. IV. It is an unquestionable principle of truth, that the Church of Christ is in itself a body,—such a body as hath a head, whereon it depends, and without which it would immediately be dissolved.
A body without a head is but a carcase, or part of a carcase; and this head must be always present with it. A 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 a 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 a head of the same kind. A natural body must have a head of vital influence, and a political body must have a 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 a head. As it is a spiritually living body, compared to the natural, it must have a 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 a head of rule and government, without which neither its being nor its use can be preserved. But these are only distinct considerations of the church, which is every way one and the same. It is not two bodies; for then it must have two heads: but it is one body, under two distinct considerations, which divide not its essence, but declare its different respects unto its head.
And in general, all who are called Christians are thus far agreed— nothing is of the church, nothing belongs unto it, which is not dependent on, which is not united to, the head. That which holds the head is the true church; that which doth not so, is no church at all.
Herein we agree with our adversaries; namely, that all the privileges of the church, all the right and title of men thereunto, depend wholly on their due relation to the head of it, according to the distinct considerations of it. Be that head who or what it will, that which is not united unto the head, which depends not on it, which is separated from it, belongs not to the church. This head of the church is Christ Jesus alone; for the church is but one, although, on various considerations, it be likened unto two sorts of bodies. The catholic church is considered either as believing, or as professing; but the believing church is not one, and the professing another. If you suppose another catholic church besides this one, whoso will may be the head of it, we are not concerned therein; but unto tins church
Christ is the only head. He only answers all the properties and ends of such a head to the church. This the Scripture doth so positively and frequently affirm, without the least intimation, either directly or by consequence, of any other head, that it is wonderful how the imagination of it should befall the minds of any, who thought it not meet at the same time to cast away their Bibles.
But, whereas a head is to be present with the body, or it cannot subsist, the inquiry is, How the Lord Christ is so present with his church! And the Scripture hath left no pretence for any hesitation herein; for he is so by his Spirit and his word, by which he communicateth all the powers and virtues of a head unto it continually. His promises of this way and manner of his presence unto the church are multiplied; and thereon doth the being, life, use, and continuance of the church depend. Where Christ is not present by his Spirit and word, there is no church; and those who pretend so to be, are the synagogues of Satan. And they are inseparable and conjunct in their operation, as he is the head of influence unto the church, as also as he is a head of rule; for, in the former sense, the Spirit worketh by the word, and in the latter, the word is made effectual by the Spirit. But the sense and apprehension hereof was for a long time lost in the world, amongst them that called themselves "the church." A head they did acknowledge the church must always have, without which it cannot subsist; and they confess that, in some sense, he was a head of influence unto it. They knew not how to have an image thereof; though by many other pernicious doctrines they overthrew the efficacy and benefit of it But how he should be the only head of rule unto the church they could not understand; they saw not how he could act the wisdom and authority of such a head, and without which the church must be headless. They said, he was absent and invisible,—they must have one that they could see, and have access unto; he is in heaven, and they know not
how to make address to him, as occasion did require: all things would go to disorder, notwithstanding such a headship. The church is visible, and it must, they thought, have a visible head. It was meet, also, that this head should have some such grandeur and pomp in the world as became the head of so great and glorious a society as the church is. How to apply these things unto Christ and his presence with the church, by his word and Spirit, they knew not. Shall they, then, forego the principle, that the church is to have such a head and supreme ruler? That must not be done, but be sacredly retained; not only because to deny it, in general, is to renounce the gospel, but because they had found out a way to turn it unto their own advantage. They would therefore make an image of Christ, as this head of the church, to possess the place and act all the powers of such a head; for the church, they say, is visible, and must have a visible head: as though the catholic church, as such, were any other way visible but as the head of it is,—that is, by faith. That there must be a head and centre of union, wherein all the members of the church may agree and be united, notwithstanding all their distinct capacities and circumstances, and how this should be Christ himself, they know not; that without a supreme ruler present in the church, to compose all differences, and determine all controversies, even those concerning himself, which they vainly pretend unto, they expressly affirm there never was a society so foolishly ordered as that of the church. And hereon they conclude the insufficiency of Christ to be this sole head of the church; another they must have for these ends.
And this was their pope,—such an image as is one of the worst of idols that ever were in the world. Unto him they give all the titles of Christ, which relate unto the church; and ascribe all the powers of Christ in and over it, as unto its rule, to him also. But here they fell into a mistake; for, when they thought to give him the power of Christ, they gave him the power of the dragon to use against Christ, and those that are his. And when they thought to make an image of
Christ, they made an image of the first beast, set up by the dragon, which had two horns like a lamb, but spake as a dragon; whose character and employ is at large described, Rev. 13:11–17.
This is the sum of what I shall offer on this head:—those who called themselves "the church," had lost all spiritual light, enabling them to discern the beauty and glory of the rule of Christ over the church, as its head; and hereon their minds became destitute of all experience of the power and efficacy of his Spirit and word, continually to order the affairs thereof, in the ways, and through the use of means, by himself appointed; they knew not how to acquiesce in these things, nor how the church could be maintained by them: wherefore, in this case, "they helped every one his neighbour, and every one said to his brother, Be of good comfort; so the carpenter encouraged the goldsmith, and he that smootheth with the hammer, him that smiteth the anvil." They set themselves, in their several capacities, to frame this idol, and set him up in the place and stead of Christ; so fixing him in the temple of God, that he might show himself from thence to be as God. Neither will this idol be ever cast out of the church, until the generality of Christians become spiritually sensible of the authority of Christ exerting itself, in the rule of the church, by his Spirit and his word, unto all the ends of unity, order, peace, and edification. Until that be done, a pope, or something like him, will be thought necessary unto these ends. But never was there a more horrid, deformed image made of so beautiful and glorious a head: all the craft of Satan, all the wits of men, cannot invent any thing more unlike Christ, as the head of the church, than this Pope is. A worse figure and representation of him cannot possibly be made.
This is he of whom nothing not great, nothing common, nothing not exceeding the ordinary state of mankind, on the one hand or the other, is thought or spoken. Some say he is "the head and husband of