for if any "neglect to hear the Church, (saith our Saviour,) let him be unto thee as a heathen man and a publican." (Matt. xviii. 17.) By great and scandalous offences, by incorrigible misdemeanours, we may incur the censure of the Church of God; and while we are shut out by them, we stand excluded out of heaven. For our Saviour said to his apostles, upon whom he built his Church, "Whosesoever sins ye remit they are remitted unto them, and whosesoever sins ye retain they are retained." (John xx. 23.) Again, a man may not only passively and involuntarily be rejected, but also may by an act of his own cast out or reject himself, not only by plain and complete apostacy, but by a defection from the unity of truth, falling into some damnable heresy; or by an active separation, deserting all which are in communion with the catholick Church, and falling into an irrecoverable schism.

Thirdly, It is necessary to believe the Church of Christ to be holy, lest we should presume to obtain any happiness by being of it, without that holiness which is required in it. It is not enough that the end, institution, and administration of the Church are holy: but, that there may be some real and permanent advantage received by it, it is necessary that the persons, abiding in the communion of it, should be really and effectually sanctified. Without which holiness the privileges of the Church prove the greatest disadvantages; and the means of salvation neglected, tend to a punishment with_aggravation. It is not only vain, but pernicious to attend at the marriage-feast without a wedding-garment; and it is our Saviour's description of folly to cry, "Lord, Lord, open to us," (Matt. xxv. 11.) while we are without oil in our lamps. We must acknowledge a necessity of holiness, when we confess that Church alone which is holy can make us happy.

Fourthly, There is a necessity of believing the catholick Church, because except a man be of that, he can be of none. For being the Church which is truly catholick, containeth within it all which are truly Churches, whosoever is not of the catholick Church, cannot be of the true Church.* That Church alone which first began at Jerusalem on earth, will bring us to the Jerusalem in heaven; and that alone began there, which always embraceth "the faith once delivered unto the saints." (Jude 3.) Whatsoever Church pretendeth to a new beginning, pretendeth at the same time to a new Churchdom, and whatsoever is so new is none. So necessary it is to believe in the holy catholick Church.

Having thus far explicated the first part of this Article, I conceive every person sufficiently furnished with means of instruction what they ought to intend, when they profess to

* Sola catholica ecclesia est, quæ verum cultum retinet. Hic est fons veritatis, hoc est domicilium fidei, hoc templum Dei: quo si quis non intra

verit, vel a quo si quis exierit, a spe vitæ ac salutis æternæ alienus est.' Lactant. de ver. Sap. 1. iv. c. 30.

believe the holy catholick Church. For thereby every one is understood to declare thus much: I am fully persuaded, and make a free confession of this, as of a necessary and infallible truth, that Christ, by the preaching of the apostles, did gather unto himself a Church, consisting of thousands of believing persons and numerous congregations, to which he daily added such as should be saved, and will successively and daily add to the same unto the end of the World: so that by the virtue of his all-sufficient promise, I am assured that there was, hath been hitherto, and now is, and hereafter shall be, so long as the sun and moon endure, a Church of Christ one and the same. This Church I believe in general holy in respect of the author, end, institution, and administration of it; particularly in the members, here I acknowledge it really, and in the same hereafter perfectly holy. I look upon this Church not like that of the Jews, limited to one people, confined to one nation, but by the appointment and command of Christ, and by the efficacy of his assisting power, to be disseminated through all nations, to be extended to all places, to be propagated to all ages, to contain in it all truths necessary to be known, to exact absolute obedience from all men to the commands of Christ, and to furnish us with all graces necessary to make our persons acceptable, and our actions well pleasing in the sight of God. And thus I believe THE HOLY CATHO LICK CHURCH.

The Communion of Saints,

THIS part of the Article beareth something a later date than any of the rest, but yet is no way inferior to the other in relation to the certainty of the truth thereof. And the late admission of it into the CREED will be thus far advantageous,

* These words, communionem sanctorum, were not in the Aquileian Creed expounded by Ruffinus: they were not mentioned by him, as being either in the Oriental or the Roman Creed. They were not in the African Creed expounded by St. Augustin De Fide et Symbolo; not in the Creed delivered by Maximus Taurinensis; not in any of the Sermons of Chrysologus; not in any of the four books De Symbolo ad Catechumenos attributed to St. Augustin; not in the 119th sermon under his name De Tempore: 'Cum dixerimus sanctam ecclesiam, adjungamus remissionem peccatorum. They are not in the Greek Creed in Sir Robert Cotton's library; not in the old Latin Creed in the Oxford library; not in that produced by

Elipandus. We find them not in the old Greek Creeds, not in that of Eusebius given in the Council of Nice, not in that of Marcellus delivered to the Bishop of Rome, not in that of Arius and Euzoius presented to Constantine, not in either of the Creeds preserved in the Ancoratus of Epiphanius, not in the Jerusalem Creed expounded by St. Cyril, not in that of the Council of Constantinople, not in that of Charisius given into the Ephesine Council, not in either of the expositions under the name of St. Chrysostom. It was therefore of a later date, and is found in the Latin and Greek copy in Bene'tCollege Library, and is expressed and expounded in the 115th and 181st Sermon De Tempore, attributed to St. Augustin. SeePaschasii Symbolum.

that thereby we may be the better assured of the true intent of it, as it is placed in the CREED. For it will be no way fit to give any other explication of these words as the sense of the CREED, than what was then understood by the Church of God, when they were first inserted.

If we look upon the first institution of the Church, and the original condition of those persons which received the Gospel, how they were all together, and had all things common;" how "they sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men as every man had need ;" (Acts ii. 44, 45.) how St. Paul urged "an equality, that the abundance of some might supply the want of others, as it was written, He that had gathered much had nothing over, and he that had gathered little had no lack:" (2 Cor. viii. 14, 15.) we might well conceive that the communion (which word might be taken for communication) of the Saints, may signify the great charity,* bounty, and community, among the people of God.

But being that community, precisely taken, was not of eternal obligation, nor actually long continued in the Church; being I conceive this Article doth not wholly look upon that which is already past; and especially, being I think neither that custom, nor that notion was then generally received in the Church, when this communion of Saints was first inserted: I shall therefore endeavour to shew that communion which is attributed to the Saints both according to the fathers who have delivered it, and according to the Scriptures from whence they derived it.

Now all communion being between such as are some way different and distinct, the communion of the Saints may either be conceived between them and others, or between themselves; between them and others, as differing from them either in their nature or their sanctity; between themselves, as distinct in person only, or condition also. Wherefore if we can first understand who, or what kind of persons these are which are called Saints, with whom beside themselves, and how among themselves, in this relation as they are the Saints, they have communion; and lastly, in what the nature of that communion in each respect consisteth; I know not what can be thought wanting to the perfect explication of the communion of Saints.

That we may understand what communion the Saints have with others, it would be necessary first to consider what it is to be a Saint, in what the true nature of Saintship doth consist, by what the Saints are distinguished from others. Again, that we may understand what communion the Saints have with or among themselves, it will be farther necessary to consider who are those persons to which that title doth belong, what are the various conditions of them, that we may be able to

* Grotius, upon that place of the huc ca quam in Symbolo profitemur Corinthians, observes: Spectat et Sanctorum communionem.’

comprehend all such as are true Saints, and thence conclude the communion between them all.

I take it first for granted, that though the Greek word, which we translate Saints, be in itself as applicable to things* as persons, yet in this Article it signifieth not holy things, but holy ones, that is persons holy. Secondly, I take it also for granted, that the singular Holy One, the Holy One of Israel, the fountain of all sanctity, the sanctifier of all Saints, is not comprehended in the Article, though the communion of the holy ones with that singular, eminent, and transcendent Holy One,† be contained in it. Thirdly, I take it farther for granted, that the word in this Article, which we translate Saints, is not taken in the original of the CREED, as it is often taken in the translation of the Old Testament, for the sanctuary,‡ as if the communion were nothing else but a right of communicating or participating of the holy things of God. Lastly, I take it also for granted, that although the blessed and holy angels are sometimes called in the Scriptures by the name of Saints ;§ yet they were not those who are here said to have the communion, though the Saints have communion with them.

* Κοινωνία ἁγίων may be as well understood in the neuter as the masculine, as Exod. xxviii. 38. 'Etape 'Aapwv тà àμapríjμara rŵv åyíwv, “that

ἀγγέλων, Rev. xiv. 10.; but also the aytou, holy ones, or Saints, taken substantively or singly, signify sometimes the angels, as Deut. xxxiii. 2.

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he came with * ואתה מרבבת קדש Aaron may bear the iniquity of the

ten thousands of Saints;" which the Jerusalem Targum renders

and with him ריבון מלאכין קדישין Kat posteronen drd rov

iv Tois àɣious 'Iopanλ, Jer. li. 5. Στο τρις ἀπὸ τῶν ἁγίων Ἰσραήλ· and if it were so taken, then rowvwvia Tuv ȧyiwv would be the communion of God, as τοῦ ἁγίου Πνεύματος.

holy things." So Lev. v. 15. Kai ἁμάρτῃ ἀκουσίως ἀπὸ τῶν ἁγίων Κυρίου xxii. 2. ȧyiwv ruv viwv 'Iopanλ. 1 Chron. xxiv. came ten thousands of holy angels ; and 5."AρXOVτes TV ȧyiwv, "the governors Jonathan, ON MT TOY of the sanctuary," of which notion and with him myriads of myafterwards. riads of holy angels. And although This is one of the common names the LXX. keep the Hebrew UTP, of God in the Old Testament, yet they understood the angels in that Στην ἅγιος Ἰσραήλ, which is also place σὺν μυριάσι Κάδης, [Hesych. sometimes translated plurally by the Κάδης, ἁγιασμὸς] ἐκ δεξιῶν αὐτοῦ ἄγγελοι LXX. as Isaiah xli. 16. P MET AUTOU. So Job v. 1. "To which of the Saints wilt thou turn?" & riva ἀγγέλων ἁγίων ὄψη, LXX. Thus in the vision of Daniel, he “heard one Saint speaking, and another Saint said unto that certain Saint which spake," Dan. viii. 13. So Zech. xiv. 5." And the Lord my God shall come, and all the Saints with thee." And thus it may very well be understood in the New Testament, 1 Thess. iii. 13. ¿v τῇ παρουσίᾳ τοῦ Κυρίου μετὰ πάντων τῶν ἁγίων αὐτοῦ, in correspondence to that, 2 Thess. i. 7. iv rý áπoкaλúfi τοῦ Κυρίου Ἰησοῦ ἀπ ̓ οὐρανοῦ μετ' ἀγγέλων δυνάμεως αὑτοῦ. These are the μυριάδες ἁγίαι in St. Jude, ver. 14. W the myriads of angels; and thus κοινωνία ἁγίων should be the communion of the angels.

Tà ayla frequently used in the Scriptures for the sanctuary; and then Kowaría Tuv ȧyiwv might be taken for the communion in all those things which belonged to the worship of God, as ἀκοινώνητος was a man excluded from all such communion.

§ The angels are not only called holy in the Scriptures by way of addition or epithet, as πάντες οἱ ἅγιοι ἄγγελοι, Matt. xxv. 31. μετὰ τῶν ȧyyéλwv Tv ȧyiwv, Mark viii. 38. Luke ix. 26. έχρηματίσθη ὑπὸ ἀγγέλου ἁγίου, Acts x. 22. ἐνώπιον τῶν ἁγίων

For this part of the Article hath a manifest relation to the former, in which we profess to believe the holy Church; which Church is therefore holy, because those persons are such, or ought to be, which are within it, the Church itself being nothing but a collection of such persons. To that confession is added this communion; but because though the Church be holy, yet every person contained in it is not truly so, therefore is added this part of the Article which concerneth those who are truly such. There is therefore no doubt but the Saints mentioned here are members of the Church of Christ, as we have described it, built upon the apostles, laid upon the foundation of their doctrine, who do not only profess the Gospel, but are sanctified thereby.

The only question then remaining is, in what their sanctity or Saintship doth consist, and (because though they, which are believers since our Saviour's death, be truly and more highly sanctified, yet such as lived before and under the Law, the patriarchs, the prophets, and the servants of God, were so called, and were truly named the Saints of God) who are the persons which are capable of that denomination?

Now being God himself hath given a rule unto his people, which is both in the nature of a precept and of a pattern: ("Be ye holy as I the Lord your God am holy:" (Lev. xi. 44. xix. 2. xx. 7.) Be ye holy, there's the command; as the Lord your God is holy, there's the rule:) being it is impossible that we should have the same sanctity which is in God, it will be necessary to declare what is this holiness, which maketh men to be accounted holy ones, and to be called Saints.

The true notion of Saints is expressed by Moses, both as to the subject, and the affection and qualification of it; for they are called by him men of holiness; (Exod. xxii. 31.)* such are the persons understood in this Article, which is the communion of men of holiness. Now holiness in the first acceptation of it signifieth separation, and that with the relation of a double term, of one from which the separation is made, and of the other to which that which is separated is applied. Those things which were counted holy under the Law were separated from common use, and applied to the service of God; and their sanctity was nothing else but that separation from and to those terms; from a use and exercise profane and common, to a use and exercise peculiar and divine. Thus all such persons as are called from the vulgar and common condition of the world unto any peculiar service or relation unto God, are thereby denominated holy, and in some sense receive the name of Saints. The penmen of the Old Testament do often speak of the people of Israel as of a holy nation, and God doth speak unto them as to a people holy unto himself; because he had chosen them out of all the nations of the world, and appropriated them to himself. Although therefore most of

אנשי קדש *