same bread, and drinking of the same cup, are united in the same cognizance, and so known to be the same Church. And this is the unity of the sacraments.

Fourthly, Whosoever belongeth to any Church is some way called; and all which are so, "are called in one hope of their calling" (Eph. iv. 4.) the same reward of eternal life is promised unto every person, and we all "through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith." (Gal. v. 5.) They therefore which depend upon the same God, and worship him all for the same end, the "hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began," (Tit. i. 2.) having all the same expectation, may well be reputed the same Church. And this is the unity of hope.

Fifthly, They which are all of one mind, whatsoever the number of their persons be, they are in reference to that mind but one; as all the members, howsoever different, yet being animated by one soul, become one body. Charity is of a fastening and uniting nature; nor can we call those many, who "endeavour to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace." (Eph. iv. 3.) By this," said our Saviour," shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another." (John xiii. 35.) And this is the unity of charity.*

Lastly, All the Churches of God are united into one by the unity of discipline and government, by virtue whereof the same Christ ruleth in them all. For they have all the same pastoral guides appointed, authorized, sanctified, and set apart, by the appointment of God, by the direction of the Spirit, to direct and lead the people of God in the same way of eternal salvation as therefore there is no Church where there is no order, no ministry;† so where the same order and ministry are, there is the same Church. And this is the unity of regiment and discipline.+

By these means, and for these reasons,§ millions of persons

'Unus Deus enim et Christus unus, ecclesia ejus una, fides una, et plebs in solidam corporis unitatem concordiæ glutine copulata.' S. Cyprian. de Unitate Eccles. §. 21.

+ Ecclesia non est, quæ non habet Sacerdotes.' S. Hier, adv. Lucifer. col. 302. Πάντες ἐντρεσέσθωσαν τοὺς διακόνους ὡς Ἰησοῦν Χριστὸν, καὶ τὸν ἐπίσκοπον ὡς Πατέρα, τοὺς δὲ πρεσβυτέρους ὡς συνέδριον Θεοῦ καὶ ὡς σύνδεσμον ̓Αποστόλων. χωρὶς τούτων ἐκκλη cia où nakettal. S. Ignat. ad Trall. §. 3. Τό γε μὲν τῆς ἐκκλησίας ὄνομα τὴν τῶν εἰς Χριστὸν πιστευσάντων ὑφαίνει πληθύν, ἱερουρ γούς τε καὶ λαοὺς, ποιμένας καὶ διδασκάλους, καὶ τοὺς ὑπὸ χεῖρα κατεξευγμένοι ad Is. c. xlv. 17. ubi inte male transtulit declarat,

φαίνει ; cum reddere opo aut contexit.'

Episcopatus unus est, cujus a singulis in solidum pars tenetur: ecclesia quoque una est, quæ in multitudinem latius incremento fœcunditatis extenditur.' S. Cyprian. de Unit. Eccles. §. 4. So he joins these two together: Cum sit a Christo una ecclesia per totum mundum in multa membra divisa, item episcopatus unus episcoporum multorum concordi numerositate diffusus.' Ep. ad Antonianum, l. iv. ep. 2. §. 16. al. ep. 52.

These are all expressed by TertulJian: Una nobis et illis fides, unus Deus, idem Christus, eadem spes, eadem lavacri sacramenta, semel dixerim, una ecclesia sumus.' De Virg. veland. c. 2. Corpus sumus de consci

disciplinæ unit

Jog. c. 39.

ligionis

adere.'

and multitudes of congregations are united into one body, and become one Church. And thus under the name of Church, expressed in this Article, is understood a body, or collection, of human persons professing faith in Christ, gathered together in several places of the world for the worship of the same God, and united into the same corporation by the means aforesaid. And this I conceive sufficient to declare the true notion of the Church as such, which is here the object of our faith. It remaineth therefore that we next consider the existence of the Church, which is acknowledged in the act of faith applied to this object: for when I profess and say, I believe a Church, it is not only an acknowledgment of a Church which hath been, or of a Church which shall be, but also of that which is. When I say, I believe in Christ dead, I acknowledge that death which once was, and now is not: for Christ once died, but now is not dead when I say, I believe the resurrection of the body, I acknowledge that which never yet was, and is not now, but shall hereafter be. Thus the act of faith is applicated to the object according to the nature of it; to what is already past, as past; to what is to come, as still to come; to that which is present, as it is still present. Now that which was then past, when the CREED was made, must necessarily be always past, and so believed for ever; that which shall never come to pass until the end of the World, when this public profession of faith shall cease, that must for ever be believed as still to come. But that which was when the CREED began, and was to continue till that CREED shall end, is proposed to our belief in every age as being; and thus ever since the first Church was constituted, the Church itself, as being, was the object of the faith of the Church believing.

The existence therefore of the Church of Christ (as that Church before is understood by us), is the continuation of it in an actual being, from the first collection in the apostles' times unto the consummation of all things. And therefore, to make good this explication of the Article, it will be necessary to prove, that the Church which our Saviour founded and the apostles gathered, was to receive a constant and perpetual accession, and by a successive augmentation be uninterruptedly continued in an actual existence of believing persons and congregations in all ages unto the end of the World.

Now this indeed is a proper object of faith, because it is grounded only upon the promise of God; there can be no other assurance of the perpetuity of this Church, but what we have from him that built it. The Church is not of such a nature as would necessarily, once begun, preserve itself for ever. Many thousand persons have fallen totally and finally from the faith profe , and so apostatized from the Church. Many es have been wholly lost, many candlesticks d; neither is there any particular Church

which hath any power to continue itself more or longer than others; and consequently, if all particulars be defectible, the universal Church must also be subject of itself unto the same defectibility.

But though the providence of God doth suffer many particular Churches to cease, yet the promise of the same God will never permit, that all of them at once shall perish. When Christ spake first particularly to St. Peter, he sealed his speech with a powerful promise of perpetuity, saying, “Thou art Peter, and upon this rock will I build my Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." (Matt. xvi. 18.) When he spake generally to all the rest of the apostles to the same purpose, "Go teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost;" (Matt. xxviii. 19.) he added a promise to the same effect, "and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the world." (Ibid. 20.) The first of these promises assureth us of the continuance of the Church, because it is built upon a rock; for our Saviour had expressed this before, "Whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat upon that house; and it fell not, for it was founded upon a rock." (Matt. vii. 24, 25.) The Church of Christ is the House of Christ; for he hath "builded the house," and is as a "son over his own house, whose house are we;" (Heb. iii. 3. 6.) and as a wise man, he hath built his house upon a rock, and what is so built shall not fall. The latter of these promises giveth not only an assurance of the continuance of the Church,* but also the cause of that continuance, which is the presence of Christ. "Where two or three are gathered together in the name of Christ, there he is in the midst of them," (Matt. xviii. 20.) and thereby they become a Church; for they are as a builded house, and the son within that house. Wherefore being Christ doth promise his presence unto the Church, even unto the end of the World, he doth thereby assure us of the existence of the Church, until that time, of which his presence is the cause. Indeed, this is "the city of the Lord of Hosts, the city of our

Non deserit ecclesiam suam divina protectio, dicente Domino, Ecce ego vobiscum omnibus diebus, &c.' Leo Epist. 31. St. Augustin upon those words of Psal. ci. Exiguitatem dierum meorum annuncia mihi, maketh the Church to speak these words: Quid est, quod nescio qui recedentes a me murmurant contra me? Quid est, quod perditi me periisse contendunt? Certe enim hoc dicunt, Quia fui et non sum. Annuncia mihi exiguitatem dierum meorum. Non a te quæro illos dies æternos; illi sine fine sunt, ubi ero; non ipsos quæro; temporales quæro, tempo

rales dies mihi annuncia. Exiguitatem dierum meorum, non æternitatem dierum meorum annuncia mihi. Quamdiu ero in isto sæculo, annuncia mihi, propter illos qui dicunt, Fuit et jam non est: propter illos qui dicunt, Impletæ sunt Scripturæ, crediderunt omnes gentes, sed apostatavit, et periit ecclesia de omnibus gentibus. Quid est hoc, Exiguitatem dierum meorum annuncia mihi? Et annunciavit, nec vacua fuit vox ista. Quis annunciavit mihi, nisi ipsa via? Quomodo annunciavit? Ecce ego vobiscum sum usque ad consummationem sæculi. Serm. ii. §. 8.

God, God will establish it for ever,"* (Psal. xlviii. 8.) as the great prophet of the Church hath said.

Upon the certainty of this truth, the existence of the Church hath been propounded as an object of our faith in every age of Christianity; and so it shall be still unto the end of the World. For those which are believers are the Church; and therefore, if they do believe, they must believe there is a Church. And thus having shewn in what the nature of a Church consisteth, and proved that a Church of that nature is of perpetual and indefectible existence by virtue of the promises of Christ, I have done all which can be necessary for the explication of this part of the Article, I believe the Church.

After the consideration of that which is the subject in this Article, followeth the explication of the affections thereof; which are two, sanctity and universality; the one attributed unto it by the apostles, the other by the fathers of the Church: by the first the Church is denominated holy, by the second catholick. Now the Church which we have described may be called holy in several respects, and for several reasons: first, In reference to the vocation by which all the members thereof are called and separated from the rest of the world to God; which separation in the language of the Scriptures is a sanctification and so the calling being holy, (for "God hath called us with a holy calling," 2 Tim. i. 9.) the body which is separated and congregated thereby, may well be termed holy. Secondly, In relation to the offices appointed and the powers exercised in the Church, which by their institution and operation are holy; that Church, for which they were appointed and in which they are exercised, may be called holy. Thirdly, Because whosoever is called to profess faith in Christ, is thereby engaged to holiness of life, according to the words of the apostle, "Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity :" (2 Tim. ii. 19.) for those namers of the name, or named by the name, of Christ, are such as called on his name; and that was the description of the Church as when Saul did persecute the Church, it is said he had "authority from the chief priests to bind all that called upon the name of Christ;" (Acts ix. 14.) and when "he preached Christ in the synagogues, all that heard him said, Is not this he who destroyed them which called on this name in Jerusalem?" (Ibid. 20, 21.)+ Being then all within the Church are by their profession obliged to such holiness of life, in respect of this obligation, the whole Church may be termed holy. Fourthly, In

Forte ista Civitas, quæ mundum tenuit, aliquando evertetur. Absit. Deus fundavit eam in æternum. Si ergo Deus fundavit eam in æternum, quid times ne cadat firmamentum?' S. August. in Psal. 47. §.7.

+ See 1 Cor. i. 2. Ὅτι γὰρ τὸ ἄθροισμα τῶν ἁγίων τὸ ἐξ ὀρθῆς πίστεως καὶ πολιτείας ἀρίστης συγκεκροτημένων Εκκλησία ἐστὶ, δῆλόν ἐστι τοῖς σοφίας γευσαμένοις. Isid. Pelus. Epist. 246. 1. ii.

regard the end of constituting a Church in God was for the purchasing a holy and a precious people; and the great design thereof was for the begetting and increasing holiness, that as God is originally holy in himself, so he might communicate his sanctity to the sons of men, whom he intended to bring unto the fruition of himself, unto which, without a previous sanctification, they can never approach, because without holiness no man shall ever see God. (Heb. xii. 14.)

For these four reasons, the whole Church of God, as it containeth in it all the persons which were called to the profession of the faith of Christ, or were baptized in his name, may well be termed and believed holy. But the apostle hath delivered another kind of holiness, which cannot belong unto the Church taken in so great a latitude. "For (saith he) Christ loved the Church, and gave himself for it, that he might sanctify and cleanse it by the washing of water by the Word, that he might present it to himself a glorious Church, not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish." (Eph. v. 25-27.) Now though it may be conceived that Christ did love the whole Church, as it did any way contain all such as ever called upon his name, and did give himself for all of them: yet we cannot imagine that the whole body of all men could ever be so holy, as to be without spot, wrinkle, blemish, or any such thing. It will be therefore necessary, within the great complex body of the universal Church, to find that Church to which this absolute holiness doth belong and to this purpose it will be fit to consider both the difference of the persons contained in the Church, as it hath been hitherto described, while they continue in this life, and their different conditions after death; whereby we shall at last discover in what persons this holiness is inherent really, in what condition it is inherent perfectly, and consequently in what other sense it may be truly and properly affirmed that the Church is holy.

Where first we must observe that the Church, as it embraceth all the professors of the true faith of Christ, containeth in it not only such as do truly believe and are obedient to the Word, but those also which are hypocrites, and profane. Many profess the faith, which have no true belief: many have some kind of faith, which live with no correspondence to the Gospel preached. Within therefore the notion of the Church are comprehended good and bad, being both externally called, and both professing the same faith. For the kingdom of heaven is like unto a field in which wheat and tares grow together unto the harvest; like unto a net that was cast into the sea, and gathered of every kind; like unto a floor in which is laid up wheat and chaff; like unto a marriage-feast, in which some have on the wedding-garment, and some not. (Matt. xiii. 24. 30. 47. iii. 12. xxii. 10.) This is that ark of Noah in which were