God’s people may err from the very fundamentals of visible worship.
Truth. To this distinction I dare not subscribe, for then I should everlastingly condemn thousands, and ten thousands, yea, the whole generation of the righteous, who since the falling away from the first primitive Christian state or worship, have and do err fundamentally concerning the true matter, constitution, gathering, and governing of the church. And yet, far be it from any pious breast to imagine that they are not saved, and that their souls are not bound up in the bundle of eternal life.[97]
We read of four sorts of spiritual, or Christian, foundations in the New Testament.
Four sorts of spiritual foundations.
First, the foundation of all foundations, the corner-stone itself, the Lord Jesus, on whom all depend—persons, doctrines, practices, 1 Cor. iii. [11.]
2. Ministerial foundations. The church is built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Ephes. ii. 20.
3. The foundation of future rejoicing in the fruits of obedience, 1 Tim. vi. [19.]
Στοιχεῖα, θεμὲιοὶ. The six foundations of the Christian religion or worship.
4. The foundation of doctrines, without the knowledge of which there can be no true profession of Christ, according to the first institution, Heb. vi. [1, 2,]—the foundation, or principles, of repentance from dead works, faith towards God, the doctrine of baptisms, laying on of hands, the resurrection, and eternal judgment. In some of these, to wit, those concerning baptisms and laying on of hands, God’s people will be found to be ignorant for many hundred years; and I yet cannot see it proved that light is risen, I mean the light of the first institution, in practice.