But, in deed and in truth, she was mystery Babylon, the
mother of harlots, mother of those that, with all their show and outside
of religion, were adulterated and gone from the spirit, nature, and life
of Christ, and grown vain, worldly, ambitious, covetous, cruel, &c. which
are the fruits of the flesh, and not of the spirit.
Now it was, that the true church fled into the wilderness, that is, from
superstition and violence, to a retired, solitary, and lonely state:
hidden, and as it were, out of sight of men, though not out of the world.
Which shows, that her wonted visibility was not essential to the being of
a true church in the judgment of the Holy Ghost; she being as true a
church in the wilderness, though not as visible and lustrous, as when she
was in her former splendor of profession. In this state many attempts
she made to return, but the waters were yet too high, and her way blocked
up; and many of her excellent children, in several nations and centuries,
fell by the cruelty of superstition, because they would not fall from
their faithfulness to the truth.
The last age did set some steps towards it, both as to doctrine, worship,
and practice.
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