secondly, In reference to their sanctity, as they are men of holiness: we are now to consider such as differ either only in person, as the Saints alive; or in present condition also, as the Saints departed.

Sixthly therefore, The Saints of God living in the Church of Christ, have communion with all the Saints living in the same Church. If we walk in the light, we have fellowship one with another;" (1 John i. 7.)* we all have benefit of the same ordinances, all partake of the same promises, we are all endued with the graces of the same mutual love and affection, keeping" the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace," (Eph. iv. 3.) all engrafted into the same stock, and so receiving life from the same root, all "holding the same head, from which all the body by joints and bands having nourishment ministered, and knit together, increaseth with the increase of God." (Col. ii. 19.) For in the philosophy of the apostle, the nerves are not only the instruments of motion and sensation, but of nutrition also; so that every member receiveth nourishment by their intervention from the head; and being the head of the body is Christ, and all the Saints are members of that body, they all partake of the same nourishment, and so have all communion among themselves.

Lastly, The Saints of God living in the Church of Christ, are in communion with all the Saints departed out of this life and admitted to the presence of God.+ Jerusalem is sometimes taken for the Church on earth, sometimes for that part of the Church which is in heaven, to shew that as both are repre sented by one, so both are but one city of God. Wherefore thus doth the apostle speak to such as are called to the Christian faith: "Ye are come unto Mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and Church of the first-born, which are written in heaven,'and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant." (Heb, xii. 22, 23.) Indeed the communion of Saints in the Church of Christ with those which are departed is demonstrated by their communion with the Saints alive. For if I have communion with a Saint of God, as such while he liveth here, I must still have communion with him when he is departed hence; because the foundation of that communion cannot be removed by death. The mystical union between Christ and his Church, the spiritual conjunction of the members to the Head, is the true foundation of that com

munion which one member had with another, all the members living and increasing by the same influence which they receive from him. But death, which is nothing else but the separation of the soul from the body, maketh no separation in the mystical union, no breach of the spiritual conjunction; and consequently there must continue the same communion, because there remaineth the same foundation. Indeed, the Saint departed before his death had some communion with the hypocrite, as hearing the word, professing the faith, receiving the sacraments together; which being in things only external, as they were common to them both, and all such external actions ceasing in the person dead, the hypocrite remaining loseth all communion with the Saint departing, and the Saints surviving cease to have their farther fellowship with the hypocrite dying. But being the true and unfeigned holiness of man, wrought by the powerful influence of the Spirit of God, not only remaineth, but also is improved, after death; being the correspondence of the internal holiness was the communion between their in their life, they cannot be said to be divided by death, which had no power over that sanctity by which they were first conjoined.

persons

This communion of the Saints in heaven and earth, upon the mystical union of Christ their Head, being fundamental and internal, what acts or external operations it produceth, is not so certain. That we communicate with them in hope of that happiness which they actually enjoy, is evident; that we have the Spirit of God given us as an earnest, and so a part of their felicity, is certain. But what they do in heaven in relation to us on earth particularly considered, or what we ought to perform in reference to them in heaven, beside a reverential respect and study of imitation, is not revealed unto us in the Scriptures, nor can be concluded by necessary deduction from any principles of Christianity. They which first found this part of the Article in the CREED, and delivered their exposition unto us, have made no greater enlargement of this communion, as to the Saints of heaven, than the society of hope, esteem, and imitation on our side, of desires and supplications on their side: and what is now taught by the Church of Rome, is, as unwarrantable, so a novitious interpretation."*

The necessity of the belief of this communion of Saints appeareth, first, In that it is proper to excite and encourage us to holiness of life. "If we walk in the light, as God is in the light, we have fellowship one with another. But if we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth." (1 John i. 6, 7.) "For what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? and what concord hath Christ with Belial?" (2 Cor. vi. 14, 15.) When Christ sent St. Paul to the Gentiles, it was 66 to open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they might receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in Christ." (Acts xxvi. 18.) Except we be turned from darkness, except we be taken out of the power of Satan, which is the dominion of sin, we cannot receive the inheritance among them who are sanctified, we cannot be thought "meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the Saints in light." (Col. i. 12.) Indeed there can be no communion where there is no similitude, no fellowship with God without some sanctity; because his nature is infinitely holy, and his actions are not subject to the least iniquity.

Secondly, The belief of the communion of Saints is necessary to stir us up to a proportionate gratitude unto God, and an humble and cheerful acknowledgment of so great a benefit. We cannot but acknowledge that they are "exceeding great and precious promises," by which we become "partakers of the divine nature." (2 Pet. i. 4.) "Who am I? (said David) and what is my life, that I should be son-in-law to the king?" (1 Sam. xviii. 18.) Who are the sons of men, what are they which are called to be Saints, that they should have fellowship with God the Father? St. Philip the apostle said unto our Saviour, "Lord, shew us the Father and it sufficeth;" (John xiv. 8.) whereas he hath not only shewn us, but come unto us with the Father, and dwelt within us by his Holy Spirit; he hath called us to the fellowship of the angels and archangels, of the cherubins and seraphins, to the glorious company of the apostles, to the goodly fellowship of the prophets, to the noble

sed sanctos non tam pro Dei parte, quam pro Dei honore veneremur.' De Symb. Hom. ii. p. 555. And again: Digne nobis venerandi sunt, dum Dei cultum et futuræ vitæ desiderium contemptu mortis insinuant.' Ibid. Thus far anciently they which expounded this Article: but the late exposition of the Church of Rome runneth thus: Non solum ecclesia, quæ est in terris, communicat bona sua cum omnibus membris sibi conjunctis, sed etiam communicat suffragia ecclesiæ, quæ est in purgatorio, et ecclesia,

quæ est in coelis, communicat_orationes, et merita sua cum ecclesia, quæ est in terris.' Bellarm. in Symb. Where the communication of the suffrages of the Saints alive to the Church in purgatory, and the communication of the merits of the Saints in heaven to the Saints on earth, are novel expositions of this Article, not so much as acknowledged by Thomas Aquinas in his explication of the Creed, much less to be found in any of the ancienter expositors of it.

army of martyrs, to the holy Church militant on earth, and triumphant in heaven.

Thirdly, The belief of the communion of Saints is necessary to inflame our hearts with an ardent affection towards those which live, and a reverent respect towards those which are departed and are now with God. Nearness of relation requireth affection; and that man is unnatural who loveth not those persons which nature hath more immediately conjoined to him. Now no conjunction natural can be compared with that which is spiritual; no temporal relation with that which is eternal. If similitude of shape and feature will create a kindness, if congruity of manners and disposition will conjoin the affections; what should be the mutual love of those who have the image of the same God renewed within them, of those who are endued with the gracious influences of the same Spirit? And if all the Saints of God living in the communion of the Church deserve the best of our affections here on earth, certainly when they are dissolved and with Christ, when they have been blessed with a sight of God, and rewarded with a crown of glory, they may challenge respect from us, who are here to wait upon the will of God, expecting when some such happy change shall come.

Fourthly, This tendeth to the directing and enlarging our acts of charity. We are obliged to be charitable unto all men, because the love of our brother is the foundation of our duty towards men, and in the language of the Scriptures whosoever is another is our brother; but we are particularly directed to them that are of the household of faith. And as there is a general reason calling for our mercy and kindness unto all men; so there is a more special reason urging those who are truly sanctified by the Spirit of God to do good unto such as appear to be led by the same Spirit: for if they communicate with them in the everlasting mercies of God, it is fit they should partake of the bowels of man's compassion; if they communicate with them in things spiritual and eternal, can it be much that they should partake with them of such things as are temporal and carnal ?*

To conclude, Every one may learn from hence what he is to understand by this part of the Article, in which he professeth to believe the communion of Saints; for thereby he is conceived to express thus much: I am fully persuaded of this as of a necessary and infallible truth, that such persons as are truly sanctified in the Church of Christ, while they live among the crooked generations of men, and struggle with all the miseries of this world, have fellowship with God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost, as dwelling with them, and taking up their habitations in them: that they partake of the care and kindness of the blessed angels, who take de

• Κοινωνήσεις ἐν πᾶσι τῷ πλησίον τοις κοινωνοί ἐστε, πόσῳ μᾶλλον ἐν τοῖς σου· οὐκ ἐρεῖς ἴδια· εἰ γὰρ ἐν τοῖς ἀφθαρ- φθαρτοῖς; Barnaba Epist. c. 19.

light in the ministration for their benefit: that beside the external fellowship which they have in the word and sacraments with all the members of the Church, they have an intimate union and conjunction with all the Saints on earth as the living members of Christ: nor is this union separated by the death of any, but as Christ in whom they live is the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, so have they fellowship with all the Saints which from the death of Abel have ever departed in the true faith and fear of God, and now enjoy the presence of the Father, and follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth. And thus I believe THE COMMUNION OF SAINTS.

ARTICLE X.

The Forgiveness of Sins.

THIS Article hath always been expressly contained and acknowledged in the CREED,* as being a most necessary part of our Christian profession; and for some ages it immediately followed the belief of the holy Church,† and was therefore added immediately after it, to shew that the remission of sins was to be obtained in the Church of Christ. For being the

in terris est, per hanc non perit, quod perierat et inventum est.' S. August. Enchir. c. 64. And for this purpose it is in his book De Agone Christiano, passing from one article to another with this general transition; after that of the Church, he proceedeth with these words: Nec cos audiamus, qui negant ecclesiam Dei omnia peccata posse dimittere.' c. 31. So it followeth also in Venantius Fortunatus, and in such other Creeds as want that part of the former Article of the Communion of Saints.

*Therefore Carolus Magnus in his Capitular, 1. iii. c. 6. inveighs against Basilius the bishop of Ancyra, because in his Confession of Faith which he delivered in the second Council of Nice, (Act. i.) he omitted the remission of sins, which the apostles in so short a compendium as the Creed would not omit: Hanc Apostoli in collatione fidei, quam ab invicem discessuri quasi quandam credulitatis et prædicationis normam statuerunt, post confessionem Patris et Filii et Spiritus Sancti posuisse perhibentur; et in tanti verbi brevitate, de quo Orig. Hom, ii, in Genesin. ‘Sanper prophetam dictum est, Verbum ctam ecclesiam teneat-in qua et abbreviatum faciet Dominus super ter- remissio peccatorum et carnis resurram, hanc ponere minime distulerunt, rectio prædicabatur.' Ruffin. in Symb. quia sine hac fidei sinceritatem inte- §. 38. Sed neque de ipsis criminibus gram esse minime perspexerunt. Nec quamlibet magnis remittendis in sancohibuit eos ab ejus professione illius cta ecclesia desperanda est misericorSymboli brevitas, quam exposcebat dia.' S. August. Enchir. c. 65. In resacræ fidei integritas, tantique doni missionem peccatorum. Hæc in ecclesia veneranda sublimitis.' si non esset, nulla spes esset. Remissio peccatorum si in ecclesia non esset, nulla futuræ vitæ et liberationis æternæ spes esset. Gratias agimus Deo, qui ecclesiæ suæ dedit hoc donum.' Auctor Homil. 119. de Tempore, §. 8. Quia singuli quique coetus hæreti

+ Concordant autem angeli nobiscum etiam tunc, cum remittuntur nostra peccata. Ideo post commemorationem sanctæ ecclesiæ in ordine confessionis ponitur remissio peccatorum: per hanc enim stat ecclesia quæ