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THE 
 
 TEMPLE OF GOD; 
 
 OR 
 
 THE HOLY CATHOLIC CHURCH 
 
 AND 
 
 COMMUNION OF SAINTS, 
 IN ITS NATURE, STRUCTURE, AND UNITY, 
 
 BY 
 
 CHARLES PETTIT M'lLVAINE, D. D., D. C. L. 
 km 
 
 Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church, in Ohio. 
 
 PROTESTANT EPISCOPAL BOOK SOCIETY, 
 
 I N 
 
 PHILADELPHIA: 
 1224 CHESTNUT STREET. 
 
 1860. 
 
 i ~? 
 
Wtoo 
 
 M»7 
 
 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1860, by 
 
 THE PKOTESTANT EPISCOPAL BOOK SOCIETY IN PHILADELPHIA, 
 
 in the Clerk's Office of the Eastern district of Pennsylvania. 
 
 COLLINS, PRINTER. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Page 
 Chap. I. The Essential Nature of the Church, - - - 7 
 
 II. The Foundation and Materials of the building, - 15 
 
 III. The Instrumentality of Faith, 22 
 
 IV. The Church as Visible and Invisible, - - - - 36 
 
 V. The same subject continued, ------- 50 
 
 VI. The Unity of the Church, 69 
 
 VII. Concluding Observations, ------- 91 
 
 With an Appendix, ---------- 115 
 
PEEF ACE. 
 
 " For lack of diligent observing the difference be- 
 tween the Church of God, mystical, and visible, 
 the oversights are neither few nor light that have 
 been committed." Of the truth of these words of 
 Hooker, as well in application to these times, as his 
 own, we have no question. There is at this time 
 not only the lack of diligently observing the differ- 
 ence mentioned ; but there is among us a decided 
 and diligent effort to treat it as a fiction, and thus in 
 in the face of our church-standards, and great writers, 
 to represent the Church visible and mystical as 
 identical and commensurate ; in other words, that all 
 who belong to the former, belong also to the latter. 
 " The oversights " and false views, arising from this 
 very serious error "are neither few, nor small." 
 They affect the whole system of Gospel doctrine. 
 They change materially the answer to the question, 
 What it is to be a Christian. If the Church be the 
 body of Christ, it must be a living body and its 
 members, living members. And if the visible 
 Church, and the true church or body of Christ, be 
 identical, then all its members, however ungodly, as 
 multitudes of them are, must be living members of 
 Christ. Hence follows an invariable connection of 
 Baptism with spiritual regeneration and of all 
 sacramental observances with spiritual sanctification. 
 
VI PREFACE. 
 
 Hence the confounding of the form of godliness 
 with its power, and the substitution of a religion of 
 external signs and ordinances for that inward and 
 spiritual grace in the heart without which we are 
 dead before God. Thus we take the direction of 
 Kome, where the logical consequences of such views 
 are displayed in all their revolting consistency and 
 fullness. It is to resist such evil tendencies by pro- 
 moting the more " diligent observing the difference 
 between the Church of God mystical and visible," 
 the want of which in his day, the "judicious Hooker" 
 lamented, that these pages are put forth, with an hum- 
 ble prayer and hope that the Lord and Head of the 
 Church will be pleased to use them, in some measure, 
 for the promotion of the truth, the guidance of his 
 people, and the furtherance of the highest interests 
 of his kingdom. 
 
THE TEMPLE OF GOD. 
 
 4 — ♦ »+» 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE ESSENTIAL NATURE OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 " Te are the temple of the living God," said Paul 
 to the Christians in Corinth. The same he said of 
 the whole fellowship of true Christians, Jews and 
 Gentiles. — They were (i a holy temple in the Lord," 
 " Built upon the foundation of the Apostles and 
 Prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner 
 stone/' they were "builded together, for a habitation 
 of God through the Spirit."* Such was then the 
 only true Temple ; though when Paul thus wrote, 
 the Temple in Jerusalem was still standing; its 
 daily sacrifice was still offered; its numerous 
 priests still ministered. Such is still the only true 
 Temple. 
 
 Under the previous dispensation, when almost 
 every spiritual truth had its material form and ex- 
 pression, in the types and symbols of the ceremonial 
 law, the special dwelling of God, by His Spirit; in 
 * Eph. ii. 19—22. 
 
8 THE HOLY CATHOLIC CHUECH AND 
 
 the hearts of the true Israel, the spiritual children of 
 believing Abraham, and thus his dwelling " among 
 them/' as composing one household of faith, was 
 signified by a visible sign, a magnificent house, in 
 the holy city, of the holy land, of the peculiar peo- 
 ple; and in that house, a Mercy-Seat; and above 
 that symbol of the throne of the reconciled and 
 gracious Jehovah, a visible Glory, the sacramental 
 sign of the special presence of God. 
 
 And because that holy house, so inhabited, was 
 thus associated, by divine institution as "a figure of 
 the true," with the real temple, God's true people, 
 it received the name of that which it signified, and 
 was called the Temple of God. In the passing 
 away of that whole dispensation, that temple with all 
 its typical observances, ceased. There was no suc- 
 cessor. But in the true temple there was no essential 
 change. It continued as ever of old, and as it has 
 ever since been described under the promise, " I will 
 dwell in them, and walk in them, and they shall be 
 my people, and I will be their God," — a " household 
 of faith," a people " not of the world," in whose 
 hearts God abides by the indwelling of His Spirit. 
 A spiritual church, there had always been in the 
 world since the covenant of grace began. The time 
 came when the bounds of its habitation were to be en- 
 larged; when the privileges of such a relation to God 
 were to be pressed upon the acceptance of all nations. 
 An entire change of outward economy was therefore 
 necessary. Hence, were laid aside the forms of the 
 
THE COMMUNION OF SAINTS. 9 
 
 Jewish, dispensation, as embodied in the visible 
 temple, with its altars and sacrifices and priesthood 
 and cumbrous ceremonial, confined, to a single na- 
 tion; and in their stead there was put on, that 
 simple exterior of the Christian Church, which, 
 adapts it alike to all people, and under which 
 no place has any peculiar privilege, no earthly con- 
 dition or office any special acceptance with God. 
 Thus according to our Lord's words to the woman 
 of Samaria, the time came, and now is, when nothing 
 is required to constitute a "true worshiper," except 
 that he worship God "in spirit and in truth." And 
 thus was proclaimed, what Peter had such difficulty 
 in learning, " that God is no respecter of persons ; 
 but in every nation, he that feareth Him and worketh 
 righteousness is accepted with Him." 
 
 The true people of God in all the world are "the 
 Temple of the living God." 
 
 That we may the better realize the propriety with 
 which the Church of God, composed, not of visible 
 walls, but of invisible minds, is called His Temple, 
 we must divest ourselves of the habit of thought 
 arising out of the almost exclusive application of 
 that name to visible structures of man's workman- 
 ship. The temple of Solomon, built under divine 
 direction, a wonder of the world for grandeur and 
 magnificence, and inhabited by that visible and 
 miraculous glory of God, is supposed to have em- 
 bodied the most literal idea of a temple. Any depar- 
 ture from the material and visible character of that 
 
10 THE HOLY CATHOLIC CHUBCH AND 
 
 structure, under the name of a Tempie, seems 
 a departure from the literal to the figurative ; and 
 when we come to speak of a collective body of the 
 people of God, as His Temple, and especially when 
 the Scriptures speak of every true child of God, 
 as His Temple, the expression seems to have de- 
 parted very far from a literal, and to have taken on a 
 very figurative or accommodated sense. 
 
 Now in this, we apprehend, there is misapprehen- 
 sion. The house erected by Solomon was the 
 Temple of God, not because of its walls, and courts, 
 and apartments, and altars, but because the 
 Schechinah of God's presence, appeared therein, 
 indicating that God dwelt among his people Israel. 
 Suppose those walls and altars all cast down, and 
 every stone removed, and that glory still there! 
 There would still have been, as much as ever, the 
 Temple, the habitation of the mighty God of Jacob. 
 It was simply that glorious appearing of His pre- 
 sence which made the tabernacle in the wilderness 
 as much the temple of God, as the statelier and more 
 permanent habitation in Jerusalem. It was the 
 same presence that made the place where Moses 
 stood on Mount Horeb, when God appeared to him 
 in a flame of fire, out of the midst of the bush, the 
 temple, for a time, of the living God."* God was 
 there. Jacob found the temple of God in the 
 way from Beersheba to Haran, where no house was, nor 
 altar ; nothing but the ground he lay on to sleep, and 
 
 * Exod. iii. 
 
THE COMMUNION OF SAINTS. 11 
 
 the stones lie placed for lis pillow. But God appeared 
 to him there. And Jacob awaked and said : " Surely 
 the Lord is in this place." And, because the Lord 
 was there, he said : " How dreadful is this place ; 
 this is none other but the House of God" " And he 
 called the name of the place Bethel"* And had he 
 surrounded it with courts and buildings as noble as 
 those of the temple in Jerusalem, it could not have 
 been more really, however it would have been 
 more visibly , "the temple of the living God." 
 
 Let us keep it distinctly in our mind, that it is not 
 a visible building, but the special presence of God, 
 that makes any place the temple of God, just as it is 
 the presence of the King that makes the court ; and 
 thus we shall see the strictly literal propriety with 
 which every true servant of God is called "the 
 Temple of the Holy Ghost." God dwelleih in him by 
 Mis Spirit. And hence the whole community of 
 God's true people is His Temple, because, saith St. 
 Paul, they are "a habitation of God, through the 
 Spirit."f And in the same way ; St. Paul says to the 
 Corinthians : "Ye are the temple of the living God," 
 giving for explanation and evidence the promise of 
 God " I will dwell in them" Hence the human na- 
 ture of our Lord Jesus is called the temple of his 
 body, because therein " dwelleth all the fullness of 
 the Godhead, bodi]y.":{: 
 
 Thus we have ascended to the highest, as the 
 most literal, temple of God. In the human nature 
 
 * Gen. xxviii. 10-22. f Eph. ii. 22. } Col. ii. 9.— John ii. 21. 
 
12 THE HOLY CATHOLIC CHURCH AND 
 
 of our Kedeemer, dwells, literally, truly, perfectly 
 inseparably, without distinction of person or con- 
 fusion of nature, God. Christ is " God manifest in 
 the flesh." Never was there, never can there be 
 "a habitation of God" like that. In the temple 
 of Jerusalem, God dwelt only as the Schechinah 
 over the mercy-seat, which was the sign of his presence 
 with his people. " God dwelleth not in temples made 
 with hands." But in our Lord Jesus, he dwells in 
 ail the fullness of his nature and all the majesty of 
 the Godhead ; so that the whole nature of the " Man, 
 Christ Jesus, born of Mary, is essentially and eter- 
 nally united with the whole divine nature of the 
 Lord God Almighty, who is "from everlasting." 
 Hence that human nature of Christ, in the days of 
 his humiliation, and now in the time of his glory, 
 was, and is, the temple of God, as nothing else ever 
 was, or could be. Types of that temple, there have 
 been ; resemblance is impossible. St. John describ- 
 ing the New Jerusalem, said "I saw no temple 
 therein, far the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb 
 are the temple of it."* John saw in the heavenly 
 church no temple such as men were wont to call by 
 that name, or such as that name would be associated 
 with naturally in the mind of a Jew. But he saw the 
 one real temple — " the Lord God Almighty and the 
 Lamb;" — or, as we understand his meaning, the 
 Man Christ Jesus ; and dwelling in him, " the full- 
 ness " of the Lord God Almighty. 
 
 * Rev. xxi. 22. 
 
THE COMMUNION OF SAINTS. 13 
 
 Now, it is by union to Christ, that each individual 
 believer, is in a subordinate, yet very real, sense, 
 the temple of God. That union formed, on the part 
 of the believer, by his faith which led him to Christ, 
 and on Christ's part by the communication of His 
 Spirit to the believer, consists in his having the 
 Spirit of Christ. He is the temple of God, deriva- 
 tively, as Christ is, essentially. — In the former case, 
 the Spirit abides as a gift from God's sovereign grace, 
 through Christ; but yet as an inhabitant only, 
 capable of being withdrawn. In the other, dwells 
 the fullness of the divine nature by being personally 
 and essentially united therewith to all eternity. 
 Excepting this latter and infinitely most glorious, 
 was there ever a temple, so called, that could com- 
 pare with the former, in excellence and glory ? 
 Houses made with hands, no matter to what extent 
 the arts and riches of men have been expended on 
 them, are temples, at best, but in a very figurative 
 sense. God in no degree dwells therein. Solomon's 
 magnificent sanctuary, in all its glory was not 
 arrayed as is the humblest child of God, an intelligent, 
 immortal mind, raised from the death of sin, created 
 anew in the likeness of God, n God's workmanship," 
 as nothing else among his creatures can be ; God's 
 Spirit inhabiting there. True, like the tabernacle in 
 the wilderness, which shewed, in outward appearance, 
 only the rough covering of badger-skins, it is seen 
 during the earthly state, under the vestments of a 
 frail mortality, full of infirmities and defiled with 
 
 2 
 
14 THE HOLY CATHOLIC CHURCH AND 
 
 much impurity. But within, is God's wonderful 
 handiwork in the inwrought beauty of a personal 
 holiness — imperfect as yet, but going on unto perfec- 
 tion against that day when the tabernacle of the 
 wilderness shall give place to " a building of God 
 eternal in the heavens."* 
 
 * "What resemblance, (asks Bishop Andrews^ is there be- 
 tween a body and a temple ? Or how can a body be so termed ? 
 Well enough ; for I ask what makes a temple. Is it not a tem- 
 ple because it is the house of God ? because God dwelleth there ? 
 For as that wherein man dwells is a house ; so that wherein 
 God dwells is a temple properly, be it place or be it body. * Know 
 ye not ( saith the Apostle J that your body is the temple of the 
 Holy Ghost.' A body, then, may be a temple, even this of ours. 
 And if ours, in which the Spirit of God dwelleth only by some 
 gift or grace, with how much better right his body, in whom the 
 whole Godhead in all the fullness thereof dwelleth corporally, by 
 nature, by personal union, not fas in usj by grace, by participa- 
 tion of it only. Alas, ours are but tabernacles under goat skins ; 
 His, the true, the marble, the cedar temple indeed." — (Bishop 
 Andrews' Sermons, No. 10.^ 
 
 In our Homily on the ' ' Place and Time of Prayer, ' ' we read 
 ' ' that the chief and special Temples of God, wherein He hath 
 greatest pleasure and most delighteth to dwell are bodies and 
 minds of true Christians and the chosen people of God." 
 
THE COMMUNION OF SAINTS. 15 
 
 OHAPTEE II. 
 
 THE FOUNDATION AND MATERIALS OF 
 THE CHURCH. 
 
 We are now prepared for a nearer contemplation 
 of the Church as the Temple of God. Let us con- 
 sider, therefore, 
 
 1. The Foundation. It is built on Christ alone. 
 "Other foundation can no man lay than that is 
 laid, which is Christ Jesus." The context of this 
 verse, shows that it is "God's building," God's 
 Church, of which the Apostle speaks. The foun- 
 dation is all laid. We have nothing to do with it, 
 but to build on it. It is not a mere doctrine con- 
 cerning Christ, but it is Christ himself. Not merely 
 his office and work, but his person. Not merely 
 what he has done, but what he is. "Behold (saith 
 the Lord,) I lay in Zion, a chief corner-stone, elect, 
 precious ; and he that believeth on him shall not be 
 confounded.* 
 
 "In him, (said St. Paul,) all the building, fitly 
 framed together groweth unto a holy temple in the 
 Lord."f "All the building" every least part of it, each 
 
 * 1 Pet. ii. 6. f E ph- "• 21. 
 
16 THE HOLY CATHOLIC CHURCH AND 
 
 member of the Church is here represented as being 
 framed, with every other, in Christ. All are " builded 
 together " for a habitation of God, but only as each 
 member is builded "in him" Thus it grows "a 
 spiritual house," "a holy temple in the Lord," 
 " Jesus Christ himself, the chief corner stone " he 
 that was, and is, and ever shall be, once the crucified 
 now the glorified and ever living to make inter- 
 cession for us — "The Life" — "made unto us, of 
 God, wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and re- 
 demption," "the beloved" in whom we are accepted; 
 the heir of the kingdom, with whom, the believer is 
 a "joint heir" and "in whom" we have obtained 
 an inheritance, if we be "found in him," he himself 
 is the whole foundation. True, St. Paul, in the very 
 same connection of the verses in which he thus 
 speaks of Christ as "the chief corner stone," in 
 whom all the building is framed, &c, says that this 
 "household of God" is "built upon the foundation 
 of Apostles and Prophets ;" Jesus Christ being their 
 corner stone, as well as of all other parts of the 
 building. But this does not conflict with the asser- 
 tion that our Lord — Christ, is the only foundation. 
 The foundation of Apostles and Prophets is not 
 what they are, or what they did; but what they 
 taught concerning Christ. They furnished their 
 foundation in teaching the great fundamental truth 
 that there is no foundation for the hope of the sinner 
 and no foundation for the church, as the company of 
 redeemed sinners, but Christ ; and that he is a foun* 
 
THE COMMUNION OF SAINTS. 17 
 
 dation that cannot be moved, so that whosoever 
 buildeth thereon "shall not be confounded." On 
 that doctrine of the Apostles and Prophets, the Church 
 is built ; but not on them. It is not said of them, 
 as of Christ — " In whom all the building fitly framed 
 together/' &c. They laid foundation- work doctrinally; 
 Jesus, persona lly. They, in what they spake of him — 
 He, in what he is, and hath done, for us. 
 
 Let us take care that we get the whole literal 
 reality of this truth that Jesus Christ, himself, is the 
 sole foundation. There is a figure of speech in 
 calling him a corner stone — the foundation of a build- 
 ing ; but there is no departure from the most literal 
 use of language in saying that the whole Church is 
 even more immediately and perfectly dependent on 
 him, personally, at every moment of its existence, in 
 its every part and member, for all its being, and as 
 well all its life, than any house of man is dependent 
 on its foundation. In the latter, one stone lies on 
 another and supports that above it, and only some 
 of those beneath all, come into immediate contact 
 with, and direct resting upon, the foundation. But 
 in the house of God, every stone, every member is 
 in immediate dependence on, in direct union and com- 
 munication with, Christ. They that were first added 
 to the Church are in no sense between us who have 
 been added last, and Christ. To him personally, all 
 come individually, by the faith of each heart ; and 
 to him, all so coming are joined immediately by his 
 
 Spirit given directly unto each. He is the very 
 B 
 
18 THE HOLY CATHOLIC CHUKCH AND 
 
 being of his Church. Not only its author and finisher ; 
 not only its support and light and defence; but it is 
 so " built up in him," that it is mystically himself — 
 all its parts being members of him as all branches 
 of the vine, are the vine. 
 
 Does the single christian say, "for me to live is 
 Christ?" The whole mystical union of true chris- 
 tians, composing the Church of God, must say the 
 same. He is the life of the Church, only as He 
 gives life to each of its members. It is only because 
 all the building is, in every individual part, "framed 
 together in him," in him as its righteousness, in 
 him as its sanctification, in him as all its strength 
 and life, that it "groweth unto an holy temple in the 
 Lord." "He that abideth in me and I in him," that 
 is the true description of what Christ is, as the 
 corner-stone of His Church, to every part thereof. 
 All of it, in every least part, abides in him. He, by 
 his sanctifying Spirit, abides in every part. Its one- 
 ness is the oneness of its life in Christ. Hence our 
 Lord is called a " living stone;" not so much because 
 he lives "the Lamb that was slain, and is alive 
 again for evermore;" as because he is the source, 
 and centre, and power of life, to give, and to sustain, 
 life in his people ; to make every soul that is built 
 up in him, a living temple, a spiritual house. When, 
 on a certain occasion, a dead body was laid in a 
 prophet's grave, as soon as it touched the bones of 
 the man of God, it lived. But the life came not 
 from the bones. Not so when the dead carcass of 
 
THE COMMUNION" OF SAINTS. 19 
 
 man's ruined nature, dead in sin, is brought into 
 contact, by faith, with the elect, corner-stone of the 
 Church of God, and immediately is alive unto God, 
 a new creature in Christ Jesus. The life cometh 
 from that stone. It is a living stone, and has life in 
 itself, to give life to the dead. "Our life is hid 
 with Christ in God." It is all there, in the infinite 
 depths, in the inexhaustible riches, in the inviolable 
 security of that divine nature which is in him. The 
 gates of hell cannot prevail against the Church, be- 
 cause the seat, and source, and power of its life are 
 not in the world, not in man, not in any community 
 of men, not in the body of the Church, not in its 
 ministry or ordinances ; not exposed to any of the 
 infirmities of our nature ; but in that living stone, 
 that mysterious union of God and man. Thus our 
 life is "hid" out of the reach of Satan, beyond the 
 grasp of the creature's enmity, where no convulsions 
 of this world can affect it, in the deep of the wisdom, 
 and power, and grace of God " with Christ in God" 
 
 II. Let us consider the materials of which the 
 Church is built. 
 
 They are none but the true people of God. 
 St. Paul, addressing the Church, said "Ye are 
 the temple of the living God ; as God hath said, 
 'I will dwell in them and walk in them, and I 
 will be their God, and they shall be my people." 
 Does this mean that they in whom God will dwell, 
 are none but his people : or that He dwells also in 
 those who are only professedly his people ? Surely 
 
20 THE HOLY CATHOLIC CHUECH AND 
 
 He dwells in none but those who love Him, and 
 have received His Spirit and are led thereby. "As 
 many as are led by the Spirit of God ; they are the 
 sons of God." None but these, therefore, are ad- 
 dressed in the text as the temple — none else are the 
 Church of God. True, the words of the text were 
 addressed to all the professed christians of Corinth, 
 among whom were the false as well as the true. 
 But they were all addressed also as " sanctified in 
 Christ Jesus"* because all professed to be sanctified, 
 and only as their sanctification was as professed, were 
 they the Temple of God, except in name. 
 
 But St. Peter settles this matter, once for all. 
 He calls the several parts of the temple, " living 
 stones" as he calls the great Head of the corner " a 
 living stone" "To whom coming, as unto a living 
 stone, ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual 
 house"\ What is the doctrine here? Evidently 
 that none but living stones compose that house — that 
 the stones of the walls must be conformed to the 
 stone of the corner. Because he lives, they must live 
 also. In other words a dead christian, a mere pro- 
 fessor of religion,, a mere creature of ordinances, with- 
 out having Christ "formed within him, 77 what Bishop 
 Taylor calls the mere "outsides" of the church, can 
 have no membership in Christ 7 s true Church, can 
 make no part in God 7 s Temple. The mind of Christ 
 must be also in us; we must be like Him. "If any 
 man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of Bis." 
 * 1 Cor. i. 2. ] 1 Pet. ii. 5. 
 
THE COMMUNION OF SAINTS. 21 
 
 If none of his, then surely none of his body, none of 
 his Temple. Each of us must be one of God's 
 faithful people, in order to be a real member of 
 that church which our Prayer Book defines as 
 "the blessed company of all faithful people." If 
 any be not of that company, he cannot be of that 
 church. " Others, (says Augustine,) are so said to 
 be in the house of God, that they do not pertain to 
 the structure of the house, but are as chaff* in the 
 wheat. * * Those who are condemned by Christ, 
 for their evil consciences, are not in Christ's body, 
 which is the Church, for Christ hath no damned 
 members."* "If Christ's quickening Spirit be want- 
 ing in any, no external communion with Christ can 
 make him a true member of Christ's mystical body, 
 this being a most sure principle, that he which hath 
 not the Spirit of Christ is none of His."f 
 
 * Quoted by Bishop Taylor — Dissuasive from Popery. 
 
 f Archbishop Usher's Sermon before the House of Commons. 
 
22 THE HOLY CATHOLIC CHUECH AND 
 
 CHAPTEE III. 
 
 THE INSTRUMENTALITY OF FAITH IN 
 BUILDING THE CHURCH. 
 
 The corner stone, and the materials built there- 
 upon, in the construction of the Church and Temple 
 of God, we have now ascertained. But a question 
 of chief importance here arises ; how are the dead 
 stones out of the quarry of man's fallen nature to be 
 made " living stones" in order that they may be 
 built up in Christ ? How are sinners in all the ruin 
 and defilement of a nature, totally alienated from 
 God, to be so transformed, that they shall be meet 
 to be made part and parcel of that temple of God ? 
 By what instrumentality ? St. Peter answers; simply 
 by coming to Christ. lt To whom coming as unto a 
 living stone, ye also, as lively stones, are built up 
 a spiritual house."* Our Lord taught the same great 
 truth when he said : " Ye will not come unto me that 
 ye might have life." 
 
 It is the coming of each soul, in a personal appli- 
 cation directly to Christ, by which the sinner obtains 
 life ; in obtaining life by this application, he becomes 
 
 * 1 Pet. ii. 4, 5. 
 
THE COMMUNION OF SAINTS. 23 
 
 united to the living stone, Christ Jesus, and by that 
 union he is built up as part and parcel of the spiritual 
 house. His coming to Christ is his life; his de- 
 riving life from Christ is his union unto him ; and 
 in that very union unto Christ is contained and in- 
 volved his being built up in His true Church. 
 " This union to Christ maketh the church to be the 
 church; and by it the members thereof, whether 
 they be in heaven, or in earth, are distinguished 
 from all other companies whatsoever."* What is 
 meant by the communion of saints, is simply that 
 common union with that common centre of the life 
 of all and of each. They are one spiritual body, be- 
 cause they have one living head, by which they all 
 have life. That which makes the several parts of 
 the human frame one body, is, not that they are joined 
 one to another by bones and ligaments, and enclosed in 
 the same integument ; but that they have all vital 
 union with the life of one head. Communion in the 
 life of that one head, constitutes them one body. 
 And in the spiritual house of God, communion of the 
 several stones in the life of the one living head of the 
 corner, constitutes them one holy temple. But let 
 us be more particular as to the nature of this coming 
 to Christ. 
 
 "To whom coming — ye are built up" &c. — says St. 
 Peter. Coming to Christ is then the act of being built 
 up in him. But what shall we understand by that 
 coming ? The answer is given by St. Peter imme- 
 
 * Perkins Works, vol. I. p. 277. 
 
24 THE HOLY CATHOLIC CHUECH AND 
 
 diatcly after : " Wherefore also, (he says,) it is con- 
 tained in Scripture — Behold, I lay in Zion a chief 
 corner-stone, elect, precious ; and he that believeth on 
 him shall not be confounded." Hence there can 
 be no question that believing on Christ is of 
 the same meaning with the previous expression, 
 coming unto him. Hence the apostle proceeds in the 
 next verse to say: "Unto you, therefore, which 
 believe, he is precious." The act of faith, then, 
 is that which puts us in possession of all the 
 preciousness of Christ ; which builds us upon that 
 elect, living stone; which by obtaining the im- 
 partation and indwelling of the Spirit of Christ 
 makes us alive in him, and members of his own 
 living Church. " Faith, (says our Hooker,) is the 
 ground and the glory of all the welfare of this 
 building,"* "That which linketh Christ to us, 
 is his mere mercy and love towards us. That 
 which tieth us to him, is our faith in the promised 
 salvation revealed in his word of truth."f "No 
 work of ours, no building of ourselves in any 
 thing, can be profitable unto us, except we be 
 built in faith.":}: We may be brought nigh, in a 
 certain sense, to the one foundation ; ordinances 
 and sacraments may set us down, as it were, im- 
 mediately by it, and may put us into visible con- 
 " action therewith, as visible members of the Church ; 
 
 * Hooker's 2d Sermon on Jude, § 14. 
 f Hooker's 1st Sermon on Jude, § 11. 
 J Hooker's 2d Sermon on Jude, § 19. 
 
THE COMMUNION OF SAINTS. 25 
 
 but after all we shall be but as so many loose 
 stones ; without bond ; without life — having no real 
 union with Christ, until we begin to exercise a 
 living faith in him as all our life. It is a good 
 sentence of holy Leighton: "This union is the 
 spring of all spiritual consolations ; and faith, by 
 which we are thus united, is a divine work. He 
 that laid this foundation in Zion with his own hand, 
 works likewise, with the same hand, faith in the 
 heart, by which it is knit to this corner stone."* 
 
 It is a question of vastly greater consequence 
 than at first appears to many, whether the sin- 
 ner comes by faith immediately to Christ, or in- 
 termediately only, that is, through the sacraments 
 of the Church ; whether he is privileged to come 
 nigh, and draw life directly from, Christ the Head ; 
 whether we are allowed to receive the precious 
 anointing of the Holy Grhost, directly from the 
 hand of our Great High Priest, on whom, as Man, 
 for us, it was poured out "without measure," each 
 believer receiving as directly from Christ as if 
 he were his only member; or whether the se- 
 
 * On 1st Peter, c. ii. 6. § 3. — " Faith is that spiritual mouth 
 in us whereby we are made partakers of Christ, he being, by 
 this means, as truly and every way as effectually made ours as 
 the meat and drink which we receive into our natural bodies." 
 Archbishop Usher's Sermon before the House of Commons. " As 
 Christ is the true Temple, because the Godhead dwelleth in 
 him, so all they, and only they, in whom he dwelleth by faith 
 are true temples of God and live members of the Catholic 
 Church." Dr. Jackson on the Church. 
 
26 THE HOLY CATHOLIC CHURCH AND 
 
 veral believers can only receive that anointing 
 of grace after it has first flowed down to some- 
 thing called Christ' 1 s body or church ; abstractedly from 
 the several believers composing the same, and thence 
 to his individual members. 
 
 The doctrine is maintained that Christ has given 
 the whole administration of his grace to His Church, 
 which, in this sense, is called " His fullness /" that the 
 Church, by the mediation of Priesthood and Sacra- 
 ments, gives to every man the grace purchased by 
 Christ, as each has need ; that to this end, when the 
 Church was established, on the day of Pentecost, all 
 the gifts obtained by Christ at his ascension, for men, 
 were invested in that Church, as a corporate spiri- 
 tual institution, to hold that sacred property and use 
 it as his ; consequently that when a sinner is said 
 to come to Christ, the meaning is that he comes to 
 Christ's Church, as his representative and distribut- 
 ing agent. He does not touch Christ by faith ; but 
 only the signs of his presence, the Church's ordi- 
 nances. He is made a living stone, not by being 
 brought directly to that great living corner-stone 
 which is " laid in Zion ;" but only to a building 
 erected on that stone and from which, life is received 
 by every new addition; so that the passage of 
 St. Peter, " To whom coming as unto a living stone" 
 means a coming to Christ no more literal than merely 
 our coming to the ordinances of his Church. In 
 other words, a sinner becomes a living member oi 
 Christ by being first united, by visible ordinances, 
 
THE COMMUNION OF SAINTS. 27 
 
 to the visible Church ; and not (as the truth is) a 
 living member of the true Church — the " spiritual 
 house" "the household of faith," by being first 
 united, by faith, in the Spirit, to Christ, its living 
 corner stone. Let us mind what our Church 
 says on this subject in her Homily " Corncern- 
 ing the Sacrament "— "The faithful have their life, 
 their abiding in him, their union, and as it were 
 their incorporation with him. Whereupon let us 
 prove and try ourselves unfeignedly whether we be 
 plants of the fruitful Olive, living branches of the 
 true vine, members indeed of Christ's mystical 
 body." — Now, to what evidence does the Homily 
 refer us in settlement of this momentous question? 
 Does it say — ascertain whether you have been made 
 members of the visible Church by baptism; and 
 are partakers of its sacrament of communion? 
 Certainly such evidence would be all sufficient, 
 if union to the visible church makes us "mem- 
 bers indeed of Christ's mystical body." — But the 
 Homily refers us to no such evidence. It only 
 directs us to search u whether God hath purified our 
 hearts by faith, to the embracing of his mercies in 
 Christ Jesus ; so that at his table, we receive not 
 only the outward sacrament, but the spiritual thing 
 also ; not the figure, but the true ; not the shadow 
 only, but the body ; not to death, but to life ; not 
 to destruction, but to salvation." 
 
 All this is exactly St. Paul's doctrine — "As 
 many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are 
 
28 THE HOLY CATHOLIC CHUECH AND 
 
 the sons of God" — that is, the only valid evidence 
 of your sonship, of your being Christ's and there- 
 fore adopted of God, for his sake, is a personal 
 sanetification in heart and life, by the operation 
 of the Holy GKhost. Without such evidence what- 
 ever your connection by sacramental bonds with 
 the church, your evidence of being a Christian 
 indeed profiteth nothing. 
 
 Now that putting the church between the sin- 
 ner and the Saviour is an awful perversion of 
 the Gospel, and denial of the most precious pri- 
 vileges of the believer. It is one of the grand 
 fictions of Rome, which lies at the base of her 
 Anti- Christian system. It is nothing less than 
 taking the sinner to man, instead of God. The 
 precious birth-right of the believer, in his secret 
 exercises of communion, by faith, with God, is to 
 cease from man, to look above ordinances, and 
 behold, without any intervening cloud, or medium, 
 the Lamb of God ; to come as directly to him as 
 if there were not a sacrament, or ordinance, or 
 ministry, on earth; and be built up in him as 
 immediately as if not a soul had ever been built 
 up in him before. In other words, precisely as 
 the first souls that were united by faith as living 
 stones to that living corner-stone, could have had 
 none between them and Christ, no row of intervening 
 stones ; so all believers, to the end of the world, are 
 united just as immediately. The mere incidental 
 difference that some are converted in one cen- 
 
THE COMMUNION OF SAINTS. 29 
 
 tury, some in a . later, makes no difference as to 
 the privileges of any. All are alike built im- 
 mediately on Christ. All are equally in the head. 
 All have the same directness of communion with 
 him. All receive alike out of his fullness. 
 
 This is not only illustrated, but typically proved 
 by the history of the Manna in the wilderness. 
 The Church of God in the wilderness was sus- 
 tained, as to bodily food, exclusively by the Manna 
 which came down from heaven. Our Lord, in 
 the sixth chapter of St. John, expressly points to 
 that Manna as a type of Himself. As that sup- 
 plied the bodily wants of the people Israel, so 
 is he the bread of life for the spiritual wants 
 of God's true Israel. But was the Manna laid 
 up in some depot of the Church in the wilder- 
 ness ; was it deposited in the hands of some 
 stewards, at the beginning of the journey, to be 
 kept and dealt out during all the forty years ; 
 was the prerogative of its administration given 
 to the Priesthood, and were the people to go 
 to them, day by day, to get as much as they 
 needed? No such thing! The Priesthood had 
 nothing to do with its distribution. It was a 
 matter of direct, daily, communication between 
 the Head of that Church and every individual 
 member. There was no supply laid up in cer- 
 tain hands. When this was attempted, the bread 
 corrupted; just as when the Anti- Christian doctrine, 
 against which we are arguing, took possession 
 
 3* 
 
SO THE HOLY CATHOLIC CHUKCH ANT 
 
 of the Church, and the attempt was made to in- 
 terfere with the direct, daily intercourse between 
 Christ and each of his people, every thing in the 
 Church corrupted. The simple mode by which 
 each man of Israel was fed, was his going out, 
 day by day, whether he was Priest, Levite, or 
 any thing else, Aaron or Moses, or the least of 
 the host, and gathering for himself. There was 
 no vicarious work on the part of the Church, 
 or any representative body. It was an act of 
 faith for each man daily to exercise. The sup- 
 ply was all held in the hands of the Great Head 
 of the Church, from beginning to end. No steward- 
 ship was appointed. It was He who gave to every 
 man ; and he gave only for the day, lest the sense 
 of constant, individual, direct, entire dependence 
 on Him should be impaired. 
 
 So are we taught by Him, every day, to ask 
 our Manna — " Give us this day our daily bread." 
 The Church is still on its pilgrimage. The peo- 
 ple of God live by faith; their bread comes 
 down from heaven. Each soul looks for it di- 
 rectly unto Christ, who himself is that bread. He 
 only knows what each wants. He only can give 
 as each needs. Prayer of faith is the hand by 
 which each receives out of his fullness. He has 
 never given his glory, in this respect, to another. 
 Corruption must enter into any Church that at- 
 tempts to interfere with the immediate, continual, 
 application of his people, for all grace, to their 
 
THE COMMUNION OF SAINTS. 31 
 
 one, only, and glorious Head and Life ; by cen- 
 tering attention on itself, its ministry, its ordi- 
 nances as containing, in any degree that bread 
 of life which, is not only in Christ alone, but 
 is Christ himself in all his offices of grace.* 
 
 We have thus enlarged on this part of our 
 subject, because, however great the value and ne- 
 cessity of visible ordinances and sacraments to 
 the visible form of the otherwise invisible house 
 of God ; and however important their uses as 
 divinely appointed instruments in helping us to 
 abide in Christ and in carrying on his work in our 
 hearts, we cannot keep too distinct the great 
 truth, nor urge it too plainly, that it is not 
 these which constitute the true Church of Grod, 
 whatever their office as parts of, and as essen- 
 tial to, its visible form and operation ; that the 
 great constituent act on which the whole being 
 of the true Church depends, is just that on which 
 all true piety in each soul depends — the coming 
 of sinners, each for himself, unto Christ, by faith ; 
 that in proportion as this individual exercise of 
 faith, immediately upon Christ, increases in strength, 
 and thus draws more and more life frojhi him 
 into each soul, so increases the life and holiness 
 of the Church — in other words, that the spiritual 
 life of the Church is not a sort of corporate in- 
 vestment in something called the body of Christ, 
 
 * See Appendix A. 
 
32 THE HOLY CATHOLIC CHUKCH AND 
 
 independently of the spiritual character of its se- 
 veral members, from which body, as a fountain, 
 theirs is drawn, and which continues ever the 
 same in fullness, whether they severally be holy, 
 more or less. It is simply the aggregate of the 
 spiritual life and holiness of all individual believers, 
 severally united to, and drawing life immediately from 
 Christ. To facilitate this, all the way of our pil- 
 grimage, each drinking directly of that Rock which 
 follows us, and gathering of that manna which, to the 
 believer, daily cometh down from heaven, is the great 
 object of all the external institutions of the Church ; 
 and whenever they become so employed or regarded, 
 that they perform not this subordinate office, especially 
 when placed so high in dignity that they stand as 
 evidences of the possession of grace, or worse still, 
 as identical with grace itself, instead of only signs 
 and seals and means of grace ; when instead of 
 aiding the soul's direct looking unto Jesus for right- 
 eousness and life, they render access to Him less sim- 
 ple, less personal, less immediate, and more vicarious 
 — more by intervening and intercessory agencies ; 
 when they become themselves the objects of faith instead 
 of only its auxiliaries — assuming, in any degree, to 
 stand to the soul as depositories of the grace of Christ, 
 inviting reliance in themselves instead of glory- 
 ing, like John the Baptist, to point the sinner 
 away from themselves to the Lamb of God; whenevei 
 thus presented, (we cannot say it too strongly,) 
 they are grievously perverted and dishonored. 
 
THE COMMUNION OF SAINTS. 33 
 
 Never did the forerunner of our Lord appear 
 more truly great than when retired most behind 
 his message, and endeavouring to centre all atten- 
 tion upon Him who was to baptize, not with 
 water, but with the Holy Ghost. Never do the 
 visible ordinances of the Church appear in their 
 real beauty and dignity as when their signs are 
 most retired behind the great truths they sig- 
 nify, and are most effective in sending the hearts of 
 those who come to them, away from themselves, 
 to the person and offices of that Saviour whose 
 inward grace they pledge, and to faith convey. 
 
 How prone are christian men to lose sight of 
 the real adorning of the house of God ; to think 
 of the appearance more than the substance; to 
 dwell on the outward which, however costly and 
 magnificent, like the most fine gold of the tem- 
 ple of Jerusalem, is all temporal; instead of the 
 glorious jewelry of the spiritual sanctuary which 
 is all eternal. How prone we are, while esti- 
 mating very highly, as we ought, the assembling 
 together of the many to the solemnities of the 
 sanctuary, to make a low practical estimate, com- 
 paratively, of the value of the coming of one 
 sinner to Christ, by a living faith. Angels, in 
 the presence of God, rejoice over the one sin- 
 ner that repenteth; and the worth they see in 
 our outward things, is only so far as they are 
 profitable in bringing sinners to repentance and 
 
 faith in Christ. But we — how prone to take 
 c 
 
34 THE HOLY CATHOLIC CHURCH AND 
 
 the means for ends, satisfying ourselves so much 
 with the dignity and propriety of the visible 
 array; zealous to gather the tributes of wealth 
 and taste, the sculpture, the architecture, the 
 robe, the chaunt, — all, perhaps befitting the courts 
 of the Lord's house ; but we looking so little be- 
 yond these surface-things, to inquire how far it 
 may be hoped the inward adorning of faith that 
 worketh by love, and hath fruit unto holiness, 
 is valued, preached and sought after, as the one 
 thing, without which all else is but outside and 
 vain. Alas ! let us not forget what emptiness and 
 nothingness are in the one, but as it is met at 
 each point and filled out with the reality of the 
 other; that dead materials, " wood, hay, stubble," 
 however covered over with the sacramental robe 
 of a christian profession, are stubble still; that 
 the spiritual death of a merely professing chris- 
 tian, instead of being made less dead by being 
 arrayed in the vestments of living religion is 
 only made the more awful by being thus laid 
 out in state. The painted corpse, dressed as in 
 life, is the most revolting aspect of death. 
 
 But there is a way to be adding ever increasing 
 beauty and glory to the house of God. Oh ! that 
 we may prize it more and more ! Go out into 
 the lanes and highways ; find some outcast wretch, 
 some stray fragment of the universal wreck of 
 man, some trampled stone in the miry clay, 
 sound aloud the word of the Lord— that harp 
 
THE COMMUNION OF SAINTS. 35 
 
 of blessed music by which the Spirit draws dead 
 stones to Christ. By and by, under the power 
 of God, blessing the word, that soul is awakened 
 to a sense of ruin and want and is led, in the 
 strong captivity of the truth, to Christ. No sooner 
 does he touch that rock, than the virtue of a 
 new life comes unto him, and he lives. The love 
 of God is shed abroad in his heart. The beautiful 
 garniture of inward graces, more precious than 
 the most fine gold, adorns him. He is united 
 to Christ, and through him to God. Here is the 
 honour of the Church, the preciousness of the 
 Gospel and the glory of the grace of God. How 
 wonderful that communication of life — that resur- 
 rection from the dead — that ascension of the regene- 
 rated soul to " sit in heavenly places in Christ." Look 
 unto the rock whence he was hewn, and the hole of 
 the pit whence he was digged! How is God glorified 
 in such an addition to His Church ! What joy is it 
 to the angels that do His will ! By such is the 
 Church a building of God. Thus does it rise 
 towards heaven. These are thy jewels, daughter of 
 Zion! Thy " walls salvation, thy gates praise." 
 
86 THE HOLY CATHOLIC CHURCH AND 
 
 CHAPTEE IV. 
 
 THE VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE CHURCH. 
 
 In all that we have now said, we have scarcely- 
 hinted at what is called the visible Church, as dis- 
 tinguished from the invisible. We have spoken ex- 
 clusively of that Church which, in the words of the 
 Martyr Eidley, " standeth only of living stones, and 
 true Christians, not only outwardly in name and 
 title, but inwardly in heart and truth."* This wo 
 have spoken of as the only real Church, because the 
 only " household of faith." All are of it who are 
 living a life of faith on the Son of God ; none are of 
 it, who are not living that life. 
 
 But we do not deny that the name of Church 
 is also applied in Scripture to the whole mul- 
 titude of those who, by participation in the ordi- 
 nances of the gospel, profess the faith of Christ, 
 and hence are called Christians. This is what is 
 called the Visible Church, as distinguished from 
 that " spiritual house," which consists only of the 
 true people of God ; the true church "of such as shall 
 be saved," and which is called the Invisible. And 
 
 * Bisliop Ridley's Works, (Parker s c. Ed. J p. 126. 
 
THE COMMUNION OF SAINTS. 3^ 
 
 forasmuch, as the distinction is wholly denied by 
 the Eomish Church, conflicting as it does so essen 
 tially with her whole system of sacramental grace, 
 which maintains that the number of the receivers of 
 her sacraments is just the number of the true people 
 of God ; and forasmuch as there are not a few in our 
 own church, who partake in the same aversion to a 
 distinction which is just as common in the writings 
 of the Fathers of our Anglo-Protestant Church, as 
 the difference between means of grace and grace 
 itself, we will therefore introduce what we wish to 
 say on this subject, with a passage already quoted 
 from that great authority in matters of the Church, 
 Eichard Hooker on the importance of the distinction 
 between the visible church and the invisible or as 
 he calls it mystical. He says: u For lack of dili- 
 gent observing the difference between the Church 
 of God mystical and visible, the oversights are 
 neither few nor light that have been committed." 
 Now what Hooker calls the mystical, as distinguished 
 from the visible Church, is what we here call the 
 invisible; and he calls it mystical for the same 
 reason that we call it invisible; namely, because 
 " it cannot be sensibly discerned by any man, inas- 
 much as the parts thereof are some in heaven 
 already with Christ, and the rest that are on earth 
 (albeit their natural persons be visible) we do not 
 discern under this property whereby they are truly 
 and infallibly of that body" — that is, while personally 
 they are visible, we cannot with certainty ascertain, 
 
 4 
 
38 THE HOLY CATHOLIC CHURCH AND 
 
 out of all that profess to be of the body of Christ, 
 who are truly such from those who are not. " They 
 who are of this society (he continues) have such 
 marks and notes of distinction from all others, as 
 are not objects unto our sense ; only unto God who 
 seeth their hearts, unto him they are clear and 
 manifest."* 
 
 Then, concerning this "society," or church, thus 
 invisible to us, the same admirable writer says : 
 
 "The multitude of them which truly believe (how- 
 soever they be dispersed far and wide, each from 
 other) is all one Body, whereof the Head is Christ; 
 one building, whereof he is corner-stone, in whom 
 they, as the members of the body, being knit, and 
 as the stones of the building, being coupled, grow up 
 to a man of perfect stature, and rise to an holy tem- 
 ple in the Lord. That which linketh Christ to us is 
 his mere mercy and love towards us. That which 
 tieth us to him, is our faith in the promised salvation 
 revealed in the word of truth. That which uniteth 
 and joineth us amongst ourselves, in such sort that 
 we are now as if we had but one heart and one soul, 
 is our love. Who be inwardly in heart the lively 
 members of this body, and the polished stones 
 of this building, coupled and joined to Christ, as 
 flesh of his flesh, and bones of his bones, by the 
 mutual bonds of his unspeakable love towards them, 
 and their unfeigned faith in him, thus linked and 
 fastened to each other, by a spiritual, sincere, and 
 
 * Eccl. Pol. b. iii. § 1. 
 
THE COMMUNION OF SAINTS. 39 
 
 hearty affection of love, without any manner of 
 simulation; who be Jews within, and what their 
 names be ; none can tell, save he whose eyes do be- 
 hold the secret dispositions of all men's hearts."* 
 
 Let us, in conformity with these views of Hooker, 
 explain more particularly this distinction. 
 
 We do not call the true Church, unto which the 
 promises are made, and the members of which are 
 all alive in Christ Jesus — invisible, because, so far as 
 it is on earth, it is not visible, in the same sense 
 as all professing Christians are a visible Church, 
 that is — visible, because existing under visible ordi- 
 nances, divinely appointed. But we mean that that 
 " blessed company of God's faithful people," is not 
 visible to us in respect to those spiritual features and 
 differences whereby it is distinguished as such in 
 the sight of God. Not that they do not show their 
 faith by their works; not that the good tree does 
 not bring forth good fruit ; not that their light does 
 not shine before men ; not that we cannot say, with 
 much assurance concerning this one and that, there 
 goes "an Israelite indeed;" but that we cannot do this 
 in any case infallibly } much less is it in the power of 
 any man, or of all men so to run the line in any 
 congregation between all the true people of God, 
 and all who, while united with them under the 
 marks of a visible profession, are not his people, 
 that the whole demarcation shall be strictly true, the 
 
 * Hooker's First Sermon on St. Jude. 
 
40 THE HOLY CATHOLIC CHURCH AND 
 
 wheat all distinguished from the tares. Only the 
 Lord thus "knoweth them that are his." 
 
 We are well aware that the objection is often 
 urged against this distinction between the Church 
 visible and invisible, that it is, in effect, making two 
 churches; whereas the Church of God is but one. 
 But this objection is founded on a misapprehension 
 of the whole distinction. For illustration, let us 
 speak of the whole body of professing christians, or 
 all the visible church, as all communicants at the 
 sacrament of the Lord's supper. None but a Ko- 
 manist or a so-called Protestant, far gone in Koman- 
 ism, will pretend that all these, because they all take 
 the sacrament of Christ's body and blood, do really 
 and spiritually commune in that which the sacrament 
 signifies. But visibly, (that is apparently, or under a 
 visible profession,) they are all communicants alike, 
 and so we call them. Among them however, are 
 those who, besides being communicants in the sacra- 
 mental signs, do truly commune with their Lord in 
 the inward and spiritual grace, and are partakers of 
 all the benefits of his passion to their soul's health. 
 But who these are, only God certainly knows. Their 
 inward marks are invisible to us, who cannot search 
 the heart. We have here then the visible com- 
 munion, consisting of all who partake of the sacra- 
 ment; and the invisible, consisting of those only who 
 partake also in the spiritual grace. Now does this 
 make two distinct communions ? Does Baptism with 
 the water only, and Baptism with the Spirit also, 
 
THE COMMUNION OF SAINTS. 41 
 
 make two sacraments ? Does christian religion in 
 the name and form only, and christian religion in 
 heart and life also, make two Christianities ? If on 
 the contrary, the sacrament received only in the sign, 
 and the same received also in the inward and 
 spiritual grace, be but one sacrament; then we con- 
 tend that to speak of the church having one aspect 
 as consisting visibly of all who are christians in pro- 
 fession, however many of them have nothing else 
 than the profession, and having another aspect as 
 consisting invisibly and really of those only who 
 are christians indeed, is not to make two churches. 
 
 Another objection. It is often said that whenever 
 the Scriptures speak of the Church on earth, it is a 
 visible community or society that is meant, known 
 and marked by certain outward signs and ordinances. 
 And hence the inference is made that the notion of 
 an invisible church is contradicted in the Scriptures. 
 
 The premises we grant. The inference we deny. 
 
 Did we speak of the church as invisible in the 
 same sense as that in which the Scriptures represent 
 it as a visible institution, we grant it would be 
 a direct contradiction of God's word. But we make 
 no approach to that folly. Let us take an illus- 
 tration given by Hooker to this very point. "All 
 men knew Nathaniel to be an Israelite. But our 
 Saviour piercing deeper, giveth further testimony of 
 him than men could have done with such certainty 
 as he did, Behold an Israelite indeed in whom 
 there is no guile." 
 
 4* 
 
42 THE HOLY CATHOLIC CHURCH AND 
 
 Now here is the visible and the invisible Israelite. 
 As an Israelite ; by profession, he is visible, in com- 
 pany with all others who observed the ceremonial 
 law of Israel. As "an Israelite indeed" in the spirit, 
 as well as in the outward ceremonial, he is invisible. 
 Only he that searcheth the heart could certainly dis- 
 tinguish him in that respect. Now suppose one 
 should say that to call Nathaniel invisibly "an 
 Israelite indeed" is to contradict the scriptures 
 which always speak of the Israelitish body or church 
 and every member of it as existing under certain 
 known, visible marks. Would it require any skill 
 of logic to detect the blunder? But Nathaniel 
 stands for every Christian indeed, and for all the 
 blessed company of Christians indeed; and it were 
 just as groundless to charge us with contradicting 
 the Scriptures because we call them, in that respect, 
 an invisible company, or church, while the Scriptures 
 always speak of the Church, as made visible by a 
 certain appointed externalism. 
 
 Precisely the same distinction of Israelite by ordi- 
 nance only, and Israelite in spirit and in truth also, 
 our Lord enlarged upon in all those parables, such 
 as the net cast into the sea and enclosing fishes 
 good and bad, and the field in which grew together 
 the wheat and the tares; teaching thus the mixed 
 state of the visible church, as it will be till his 
 coming again. The field and the net were visible 
 enclosures, and thus that which was in them was 
 visibly separated from all that was without. But 
 
THE COMMUNION OF SAINTS. 43 
 
 among the contents of the net and the field, there 
 was a distinction which those enclosures did not in- 
 dicate. There were the good and the bad in the 
 same net ; and the tares and the wheat in the same 
 field. The fishes were not to be separated till the 
 net was brought to the shore ; nor the wheat and 
 the tares till the harvest. Now are we to be charged 
 with, in effect, denying that they were all within 
 visible enclosures, because we say that while the net 
 was in the sea, and while to the harvest of the field 
 the husbandman had not sent forth his reapers to 
 separate the wheat from the tares, the good fish and 
 the good grain were as such invisible ? When such 
 an absurdity can be sustained, we shall grant that, 
 in maintaining the view here given of the invisible 
 Church, we in effect contradict the Scriptures, which 
 always speak of the Church on earth as known by 
 certain visible signs or ordinances. The visible 
 Church is the Church, as seen of men, in the mixed 
 mass of the true and the false, the genuine and the 
 counterfeit, people of God. The invisible Church is 
 the same Church, as seen only of God, in the un- 
 mixed company of all His faithful people. The one 
 is that great flock, gathered together by the call of 
 the Gospel, from all parts of the earth to the pro- 
 fessed following of the Good Shepherd, in which the 
 sheep of his pasture are mingled with the goats that 
 know him not, and are none of his ; all, however, 
 visibly, that is, professedly, his flock. The other is 
 simply so much of that mixed multitude as do truly 
 
44 THE HOLY CATHOLIC CHURCH AND 
 
 hear the voice of the Shepherd, and follow him, and 
 unto whom he giveth eternal life. 
 
 To call all the visible Church, the Church of God, 
 when it is not all really the Church, but only con- 
 tains it, and when indeed a very great part is really 
 of the kingdom of darkness, is only consistent with 
 a mode of speech common in the Scriptures, and in 
 ordinary life. We speak of the husk, while it con- 
 tains the corn, as the corn, though in itself fit only 
 to be burned. All the stately structure at Jerusalem 
 was called in Scripture the Temple, while the sanctu- 
 ary, far within, and making only a small part of the 
 whole structure, but distinguished from all the rest 
 by having within it, the mercy-seat and the glory 
 of God, was really the Temple. All the people of 
 Israel were called "the people of God," "the Israel 
 of God," "the circumcision," "the congregation" 
 (or Church) of the Lord, because all were visibly so, 
 by the profession which all made in the visible ordi- 
 nances of the Jewish Church. But, said St. Paul, 
 "all are not Israel, that are of Israel; neither because 
 they are all the seed of Abraham are they all child- 
 ren," of the promise made to Abraham.* "He is not 
 a Jew that is one outwardly, neither is that circum- 
 cision which is outward in the flesh. But he is a 
 Jew which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that 
 of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose 
 praise is not of men but of God"f Thus did St. Paul 
 
 * Rom. ix. 6, 7, 8. t Rom - »• 28 » 29 « 
 
THE COMMUNION OF SAINTS. 45 
 
 draw the distinction between the visible or professing 
 Church, and the real but invisible Church, under the 
 Mosaic dispensation. All the children of Abraham, 
 according to the flesh, all the children of the exter- 
 nal covenant, all that were Jews by birth and sacra- 
 ment, were of the visible congregation or professing 
 Church of Israel. But all were not "(/Israel," the 
 true Israel. The true Church of God was only of 
 those who were Jews inwardly; who had received 
 the circumcision " of the heart, in the spirit" and were 
 thus known to the Searcher of all hearts, however 
 unknown in that respect to men. To them only be- 
 longed the promises, because they only were the 
 children of faithful Abraham. St. Paul found no 
 fault with the usual mode of speech in which all were 
 said to be of the circumcision who had received the 
 sign or sacrament of circumcision ; but he thought it 
 highly important to be very distinct in his instruc- 
 tion on the point that the sign was not the thing; that 
 the sacrament of circumcision was not the circum- 
 cision. It was the thing only sacramentally, or in 
 the sign ; not in the reality. It was the visible rite; 
 not the invisible grace. It made a visible or pro- 
 fessed Israelite, not " an Israelite indeed ;" for cir- 
 cumcision (said he) is that of the heart, in the spirit^ 
 and not in the letter." 
 
 The analogous use of language extends to all that 
 is visible of the Church under the Gospel. There is 
 but one real baptism, "not the putting away of the 
 filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience to- 
 
46 THE HOLY CATHOLIC CHURCH AND 
 
 wards God;"* not the outward washing, but the in- 
 ward sanctification — for Baptism, precisely as cir- 
 cumcision, is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in 
 the letter, whose praise is not of men but of God. Still 
 that outward washing is called baptism, just as the 
 outward Jewish sacrament was called circumcision. 
 But it is important now, as in St. Paul's time, to 
 keep it very distinctly in mind that it is only sacra- 
 mental baptism, only the sacrament or sign of bap- 
 tism — not the thing. The real baptism is invisible, 
 " whose praise is not of men but of God." The sign 
 or sacrament is not depreciated in this ; but the 
 thing signified is relatively honoured above it.f 
 
 * 1 Pet. iii. 21. 
 
 f ' ' All receive not the grace of God Csays Hooker J who re- 
 ceive the sacraments of his grace.' ' — Eccl. Pol., b. v. § 17. 
 
 "External baptism and the waters of Noah are types of the 
 same rank; both types or shadows of that internal baptism by 
 the Holy Ghost, by which we are incorporated into the body of 
 Christ and become more undoubtedly safe from the everlasting 
 fire, than such as entered into Noah's Ark were from the deluge 
 of water." — Dr. Jackson's Treatise on the Church. 
 
 " Although baptism be a sacrament to be received and hon- 
 ourably used of all men, it sanctifieth no man. And such as 
 attribute the remission of sin to the external rite, doth offend. *** 
 Such as be baptized must remember that repentance and faith 
 precede the external sign.*** So that there are two kinds of bap- 
 tism — the one interior which is the cleansing of the heart, the 
 drawing of the Father, the operation of the Holy Ghost ; and 
 this baptism is in man, when he believeth and trusteth that 
 Christ is the only author of his salvation. **** So it is in the 
 Church of Christ : man is made the brother of Christ, and heir 
 of eternal life, by God's only mercy received by faith before he 
 
 
THE COMMUNION OF SAINTS. 47 
 
 Again, there is but one real communion of the 
 body and blood of Christ, that of those who feed on 
 Christ, in their hearts, by faith, with thanksgiving. 
 And yet in Scripture the visible sacrament is called 
 the communion. "The bread which we break, is it not 
 the communion of the body of Christ?"* But in strict- 
 ness of speech it is not the communion of the body 
 of Christ, but only the sacrament, or divinely insti- 
 tuted sign, of that communion. It is the visible 
 communion. The real is invisible, f 
 
 It is an old saying of St. Augustine, quoted in our 
 Homilies, J and very common in our old writers, for 
 the illustration of this precise point, that " sacra- 
 ments do, for the most part, receive the names of the 
 self-same things which they signify."§ In this ap- 
 
 receive any ceremony to confirm and manifest openly his right 
 and title.*** Thus assured of God, and cleansed from sin in 
 Christ, he hath the livery of God given unto him, baptism, the 
 which no Christian should neglect ; and yet not attribute his 
 sanctification unto the external sign. As the King's majesty 
 may not attribute his right unto the crown, but unto God and 
 unto his father, who have not only given him grace to be born 
 into the world, but also to govern as a king in the world ; whose 
 right and title the crown confirmeth and sheweth the same unto all 
 the world. 91 — Works of Hooper , Bishop and Martyr, (Parker Soc. 
 Ed. vol i.) pp. 74, 75. 
 
 * 1 Cor. x. 16. 
 
 f Art. XXVIII. 
 
 t Homily on Common Prayer and Sacraments. 
 
 § "The thing itself in this sacrament (the Eucharist) that is 
 the precious body of Christ broken, and his innocent blood shed, 
 be absent; yet be the bread and the wine called the body broken 
 
48 THE HOLY CATHOLIC CHURCH AND 
 
 plication of terms, the Sacrament of Communion is 
 called the Communion; the Sacrament of Eegene- 
 ration is called the Eegeneration. By analogous 
 terms, the receiver of these sacramental signs and 
 visible notes of a Christian, is called a Christian, 
 whether he be a Christian inwardly or not ; and the 
 vast multitude, in the whole earth, united into one 
 professing community, under the same signs, are 
 called the Christian Church; though it is no un- 
 charitableness to suppose that an immense proportion 
 of them have not the Spirit of Christ, and so are 
 none of his, and consequently are no more his Church, 
 
 and the blood-shedding according to the nature of a sacrament, 
 to set forth, the better the thing done and signified in the sacra- 
 ment. There is done in the sacrament the memory and remem- 
 brance of Christ's death, which was done on the cross, where his 
 precious body and blood was rent and torn, shed and poured out 
 for our sins. 
 
 " With this agreeth the mind of St. Augustine. — Ad Bonifa- 
 cium, Epist. xxiii. — Si enim sacramenta quandam similitudinem 
 earum rerum quarum sacramenta sunt, non haberent, omnino sacra- 
 menta non essent : that is to say, i If sacraments had not some 
 proportion and likeness of the things whereof they be sacraments, 
 they were no sacraments at all. And thus rather of the simili 
 tude and signification of the thing which they represent and 
 signify, they take the name, and not that indeed they be as they 
 be named.' 
 
 So after this manner is the sacrament of Christ's body called 
 Christ's body; and the sacrament of Christ's blood called his 
 blood ; and the sacrament of faith is called faith. As St. Augus- 
 tine learnedly and godly saith in the same argument, ' Let the 
 word come unto the element, and then is made the sacrament.' " 
 ■ — Bishop Hooper's Works, (Parker Soc. Ed. vol. i.) p. 515, 51G. 
 
THE COMMUNION OF SAINTS. 49 
 
 than a merely professing Christian is a true Christian, 
 or than a merely external communicant is a real 
 communicant of the body and blood of Christ. The 
 visible or professed Church of God they all certainly 
 are ; because they are the company of the visible or 
 professing people of God. 
 
 But the true Church of God, to which belong all 
 the glorious titles and privileges and promises of 
 God, in Scripture; which is "the pillar and ground 
 of the truth" and against which the gates of hell 
 cannot prevail, that company cannot be but in pro- 
 portion as it consists (as our good Hooker says on 
 this head) "of none but true Israelites, true sons of 
 Abraham, true servants and saints of God." 
 
50 THE HOLY CATHOLIC CHURCH AND 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE DISTINCTION OF THE CHUECH AS 
 VISIBLE AND INVISIBLE CONTINUED. 
 
 If the reader, unaccustomed to such subjects as 
 we have been discussing, would rightly appreciate 
 the views we have given, he must keep clear in his 
 mind the distinction between the universal visible 
 church, and all particular ecclesiastical organizations. 
 The visible church, universal, is not the compre- 
 hension of all separate ecclesiastical organizations, 
 such as the particular constitutions of parishes, dioceses 
 or national churches, but of all professing christians, 
 united in the bonds of common sacraments, and the 
 common fundamental faith, into one community, 
 however scattered in place, however diversified in 
 other ecclesiastical relations. 
 
 It may seem at first sight that the views just ex- 
 pressed are incompatible with the 19th Article, en- 
 titled— u Of the Church"— which is as follows: "Thf 
 visible Church of Christ is a congregation of faithful 
 men, in which the pure Word of God is preached, 
 and the sacraments be duly ministered, according tc 
 Christ's ordinance, in all those things that of neceS' 
 sity are requisite to the same." 
 
THE COIIUNION OF SAINTS. 51 
 
 This is a description of the Visible Church. At 
 first view it seems to identify the visible church 
 with the company of all God's true, believing, obe- 
 dient people; for no one acquainted with the 
 language of the writers of the days when the Arti- 
 cles were written, can doubt that "a congregation of 
 faithful men" means the community or society of 
 God's true people ; in other words, such as are living 
 "a life of faith upon the Son of God." 
 
 Now, can it be for a moment supposed that our 
 Eeformers intended to say that the visible, or pro- 
 fessing church, embraces none but such faithful peo- 
 ple? in other words, that all professing christians 
 are true christians? This were impossible. The 
 Eeformers, we all know, held no such view; but 
 loudly contended against all approach to it and es- 
 pecially as it is held by the Church of Eome. 
 
 What then does the Article mean ? A little con- 
 sideration will show that it speaks to two points. 
 1st. What is the Church ? for it is entitled — " Of the 
 Church.'''' 2d. What is the visibility of the Church; 
 or in what is it visible? 
 
 To the first, it says, The Church is " a congrega- 
 tion" or, society, "of faithful men;" precisely ac- 
 cording to the doctrine we have been teaching. To 
 the second, it says, The Church is a visible church 
 in this, viz : — In it " the pure Word of God is 
 preached, and the sacraments be duly ministered ac- 
 cording to Christ's ordinance," &c. In other words, 
 the essential notes of the church, by which it is made 
 
52 THE HOLY CATHOLIC CHTJRCH AND 
 
 visible ; are the administration of the sacraments in 
 all things essential to them, and the preaching of the 
 pure word of God, Wherever these are, is the 
 visibility of the church : — Wherever there is, under 
 fchem, a community of God's true people, there the 
 true church not only is, but is visible, as far as it can 
 be, to those who cannot search the hearts. 
 
 This leads us to some remarks on what are called 
 "Notes of the Church." 
 
 Precisely as visible sacraments are spoken of, as 
 if they were the invisible grace which they signify; 
 so the whole visibility of the church is spoken of as 
 if it constituted the church which it indicates. Thus 
 what are called "Notes" of the true Church, which, 
 in protest ant doctrine, are simply the profession of 
 the fundamental christian faith, in the right use of 
 the christian sacraments and ministry, are often 
 spoken of as if they were constituent elements of the 
 church. All this language is correct, only so far as 
 it is correct to speak of the sacramental receiving the 
 communion, as the communion of the body of Christ; 
 or the sacramental receiving of baptism, as the bap- 
 tism of the Holy Ghost ; or the sacramental receiving 
 of circumcision as the circumcision ; or to say that 
 the man who has the notes of being a christian, in hav- 
 ing the profession of the fundamentals of the faith, 
 joined with the reception of the sacraments, is there- 
 by a real christian. He has the notes, or signs, of a 
 christian, and therefore is called a christian ; but 
 those notes or signs do not make him a true chris- 
 
THE COMMUNION OF SAINTS. 53 
 
 tian, nor prove him to be such. They only prove 
 that he has the divinely appointed visibility of a 
 christian. Thus, as to the notes of the true church. 
 They do not belong to the being of the church in the 
 sight of God ; but only to its manifestation in the 
 sight of man — to its visibility, its form. That form 
 may be supposed all laid aside, and a new mode of 
 profession put on, under another dispensation ; and 
 yet the church may continue essentially the same. 
 Its notes, or signs, indicate; they do not constitute its 
 being. They are marks, not properties. Thus the 
 whole divinely appointed visibility of the church is 
 the one sign, indicating, as the light upon the dwel- 
 lings of the Israelites in Egypt, amidst the deep sur- 
 rounding darkness, the existence in this dark world, 
 of a church which otherwise would be invisible. 
 But it does no more. It is not the church, any more 
 than that miraculous light wherewith God marked 
 off his people Israel, and made them visible in the 
 night of Egypt, was that people. 
 
 The church has no more right to dispense with 
 the visible form, under which God has appointed it 
 to be in this world, than a man has a right to divest 
 himself of the body which God has given him here to 
 wear. We consider the body of sacraments and or- 
 dinances, by which the true spiritual church is made 
 visible, to be quite as necessary to the church for its 
 office in this world, as the body of flesh, by which 
 the true man is made a visible man, is necessary to 
 
 his duty on earth. But the question, what consti- 
 
 4* 
 
54 THE HOLY CATHOLIC CHUKCH AND 
 
 tutes tlie church, is as independent of what makes it 
 a visible church, as the question, what is the intelli- 
 gent man, is independent of what makes the visible 
 form of a man. 
 
 For ordinary purposes, no harm may arise from 
 confounding, in common speech, the visibility of the 
 jhurch with the being of the church, and speaking of 
 the one, as if it were identical with the other. Thus 
 we speak of man. The visible man, his body, is 
 spoken of as the man. "We say the man is dead, 
 when we mean only that his body, the visible form, 
 of the man, is dead. The man himself is living still, 
 but invisibly. But when the great question comes — 
 what is it to be a christian, to be of the communion of 
 saints — in other words, what is it to be a member of 
 the holy Catholic Church, the body of Christ ; what 
 is that society to which belong exclusively the pro- 
 mises of the Gospel, the life of Christ, and the heri- 
 tage of God ; then, as we say of every individual 
 person who has been baptized, and is a commu- 
 nicant, that he is not a christian, except he have re- 
 ceived the inward baptism of the Holy Ghost, and 
 does feed upon Christ in his heart by faith ; so we 
 must say of all the baptized and the communicating, 
 that while they all have the visibility of the church, 
 none of them have any part in its reality, except 
 they be joined by a living faith to Christ. 
 
 The vital importance of this difference between 
 the visible and invisible, which we have been en- 
 deavouring to maintain, cannot be overrated. The 
 
THE COMMUNION OF SAINTS. 55 
 
 true church is the mystical body of Christ. Its 
 members are his members. He has no dead mem- 
 bers. He will not suffer any member of his to be 
 lost. The true Church is the Bride of Christ, which 
 he will finally receive to himself and every part and 
 member of that Church is that Bride. The true 
 Church is the Temple of God, made up of "lively" 
 or living stones, each alive by the life of Christ, the 
 corner stone, and vitally united to him by a living 
 faith. To that Church, belong all the promises of 
 grace and peace and love and salvation which are 
 sealed in the covenant of grace, through Christ 
 Jesus. Whoever belongs to that church, to him be- 
 longs all those promises. To be a member of 
 Christ's body, and not have a portion in the pro- 
 mises made thereto, for the sake of the living head, 
 is impossible. 
 
 Then what is that Church ? Is it the whole visi- 
 ble society, composed as that ever has been, and as, 
 the Saviour says, it ever will be, till he comes again, 
 of such exceedingly opposite characters, all sacra- 
 mentally baptized, all partakers of the sacrament of 
 the Lord's Supper, either at the Protestant table, or 
 the Eomish altar, and among them so many of the 
 worst of men, who like Simon Magus, under the 
 name of believers, are children of the devil ? If it 
 be so, then we reach an awful conclusion. All those 
 wicked men as members of the Church are mem- 
 bers of Christ, are the Bride of Christ, and to them, 
 in that relation, belong the promises of the covenant 
 
56 THE HOLY CATHOLIC CHUKCH AND 
 
 of grace and salvation, and they must be saved. And 
 we cannot escape this awful conclusion by saying, 
 they are unfaithful members of the church ; they are 
 fallen or hypocrital professors of religion ; they have 
 forfeited the grace received at baptism. The ques- 
 tion is not whether they are consistent members, but 
 are they still members in fact of the Church of Christ? 
 If you say they are, because the whole visible church 
 is the true church, and they are members of it ; then 
 say what you please of their unfaithfulness. The 
 promises that belong to the church are theirs ; they 
 are members of Christ, they are partakers of his 
 life, they have peace with God in him. Is this con- 
 clusion revolting ? It follows inevitably from the 
 premises. Grant that essential position of Eoman- 
 ism, that whoever is in the church sacramentally, is 
 in it also really; that whoever is an Israelite by 
 ordinance is "an Israelite indeed;" and the conclusion 
 is inevitable, that the multitude of them that are 
 called christians is identically the company of them 
 that have the christian's hope. They are in the 
 Church, and therefore in Christ, and therefore heirs 
 of the promise. The only escape from such a con- 
 clusion is to forsake the position from which it fol- 
 lows, and understand by the Church, not the whole 
 visible, but only those in it, who are invisibly dis- 
 tinguished from all others, as leading a life of faith 
 in the Son of God. Hence the importance of the 
 distinction we have discussed. 
 
 It is not difficult to understand why the doc- 
 
THE COMMUNION OF SAINTS. 57 
 
 trine of the invisibility of the true Church, as 
 such, should be abhorrent to Popery. 
 
 Let us see how it effects the infallibility of the 
 Church of Eome, through its Councils, or its Pope, 
 in whichsoever it is supposed to reside. 
 
 The church, according to Eome, is, by some re- 
 presentative or other, an infallible guide of faith and 
 determiner of controversy. This she can only be, if at 
 all, because to her the promises of God are made. It 
 becomes then a great question for Eome to settle 
 what is that church to which are given the pro- 
 mises of God, and which thus becomes " the pil- 
 lar and ground of the truth;' 7 and is, therefore, 
 by Eomish inference, the infallible indicator of 
 truth. It must be either what protestants call 
 the invisible church, consisting only of those who 
 are in the exercise of a living faith ; or it' must 
 be what protestants call the visible church, as em- 
 bracing the merely nominal as well as the true 
 people of God. If the former be exclusively the 
 church which possesses the promises, then because, 
 while the persons of the members of that church 
 are visible, their distinctive character, as true 
 Israelites, is invisible, Eomanists can never ascer- 
 tain with any confidence to whom their consul- 
 tation should be directed; the oracle is of no 
 use, since its whereabouts is not known; and 
 so infallibility, if it exist, is of no tangible use. 
 The necessity of escaping this consequence, by 
 denying the premises, was perfectly understood 
 
58 THE HOLY CATHOLIC CHUKCH AND 
 
 by Cardinal Bellarmine. Therefore lie said : "It is 
 necessary it should be infallibly certain to us, 
 which assembly of men is the Church. For since the 
 Scriptures, traditions, and plainly all doctrines, de- 
 pend on the testimony of the church; unless it 
 be most sure which is the true church, all things 
 will be wholly uncertain. But it cannot appear 
 to us which is the true church, if internal faith 
 be required of every member or part of the church."* 
 Here is precisely the point. If none can be a 
 member of that mystical body to which pertain 
 the promises, unless he have internal faith — that 
 is, living faith — the infallibility of the church, as 
 a determiner of controversy, perishes. Hence, of 
 course Eome must deny that necessity, and main- 
 tain that those who have not living faith, are 
 not only professedly, but really, members of the 
 true church, and therefore sharers in the promises. — 
 Hence, in her use, the expressions, mystical body 
 of Christ, temple of God, communion of saints, 
 holy catholic church, and visible church, are pre- 
 cisely of the same application. Most of the later 
 Romanist writers "take all those glorious titles 
 or promises made to the church in its most 
 ample or exquisite signification, to be exactly and 
 entirely fulfilled of the visible church throughout 
 all ages. The visible church, in their language, 
 is a society or body ecclesiastic, notoriously known 
 
 * Lib. iii. de Eccl. Milit. cap. 10 sect. Ad hoc necesse est, &c. 
 
THE COMMUNION OF SAINTS. 59 
 
 by the site or the place of its residence, or by 
 their dignity, order and offices, which are the 
 perpetual governors of it." In support of their 
 doctrine, that this visible church is the true, uni- 
 versal, holy church, " never did the Jew doat half 
 so much on external circumcision and legal sacri- 
 fices, or the canonical priesthood, as the modern 
 Komanist doth on the sacraments of the gospel, 
 and on his imaginary priesthood, after the order 
 of Melchizedeck, or other like notes or sensible 
 cognizances of the visible church."* Cardinal 
 Bellarmine makes an argument against Calvin's 
 view of the invisible church, " which being drawn 
 into form, (says Dr. Jackson,) stands thus : ' The 
 word (church) in Scripture cloth always import a visible 
 company of men; therefore it doth not belong to an in- 
 visible congregation.' The argument, (proceeds Jack- 
 son,) is no better than this : The holy ointment did 
 bedew or besprinkle Aaron's garments ; ergo, it was 
 not poured upon his head, or it did not mollify or 
 supple some other parts of his body; whereas, the truth 
 is, unless the ointment had first been plentifully 
 poured upon his head, it could not have run down his 
 neck unto the skirts of his vesture. Answerable to 
 this representation, we say that all the glorious 
 prerogatives, titles or promises, annexed to the 
 church in Scripture, are in the first place, and 
 principally meant, of Christ's live mystical body. 
 
 * Jackson's Works, b. xii. c. xii. § 5. 
 
60 THE HOLY CATHOLIC CHURCH AND 
 
 But being in abundant measure bestowed on it, they 
 descend by analogy or participation, unto all and 
 every one that hath put on Christ by profession, 
 without respect of person, place or dignity. All the 
 difference in the measure of their participation or 
 manner of their attribution, ariseth from the divers 
 degrees of similitudes or proportion which they hold 
 with the actual live-members of Christ's mystical 
 body in matter of faith or conversation. Such as 
 have the true model or draft of that Catholic faith, 
 without which no man can be saved, imprinted on 
 their understandings, albeit not solidly engrossed or 
 transmitted into their hearts and affections, are to be 
 reputed by us, (who understand their external pro- 
 fession better than their inward disposition,) true 
 Catholics — true members of Christ's body and heirs 
 of promise ; although in very deed, and in His sight 
 that knows the secrets of men's hearts, many of them 
 be members of Christ's body only in such sense as a 
 human body shaped or organized, but not yet 
 quickened with the spirit of life, is termed a man. 
 
 "The conclusion, touching this point, which 
 Bellarmine and his followers are bound to prove, is 
 this : that under the name and titles of that church 
 whereunto the assistance of God's spirit for its di- 
 rection or other like prerogatives, are, by God's 
 word, assured, the visible church, taken in that sense 
 in which they always take it, is either literally meant, 
 or necessarily included."* 
 
 * Jackson lb. c. v. § § 3, 4. 
 
THE COMMUNION OF SAINTS. 61 
 
 Until the Council of Trent constructed the present 
 fixed creed of the Church of Kome, out of what 
 before were, in a great degree, floating, unfixed 
 opinions, more or less prevalent among her writers, 
 there were not wanting those who wrote with suf- 
 ficient clearness in support of the distinction be- 
 tween the church invisible and visible, as ex- 
 hibited here. It was not until sometime after the 
 Council that such writers quite ceased. Jackson 
 says: "Until Bellarmine, Valentia, Stapleton, and 
 some others, did trouble the stream of God's word," 
 the doctrine here shown of the difference between 
 the visible and invisible, "was clearly represented 
 to the adversaries of our church.' 7 Bishop Taylor, 
 in his Dissuasive from Popery, quotes several 
 Eomish doctors, as Aquinas, Petrus a Soto, Mel- 
 chior Canus, &c, as holding that wicked men are 
 not true members of the church, but only equi- 
 vocally. "Mali quidem sunt in ecclesia, sed non 
 cle ecclesia; quia mali non sunt de regno Dei, 
 sed de regno, diaboli." Bellarmine confesses that 
 such is the declaration of those writers, but tries 
 to evade it by saying that the wicked are not 
 in the church in the same sense as others, while 
 he contends that they nevertheless do truly con- 
 stitute a true part of the true church. 
 
 Nothing can be more satisfactory to a protestant, 
 on this head, than the language of the Provincial 
 Council of Cologne in its Enchiridion of Christian 
 Institutions, where it speaks of the Article of the 
 
 6 
 
62 THE HOLY CATHOLIC CHUKCH AND 
 
 Creed on the Catholic Church, after dividing the 
 church into triumphant and militant. Of the latter, 
 it says: "The church militant is to be regarded 
 under two aspects ; first, more strictly, as consisting 
 of those who are so in the church of God, that they are 
 themselves the church of God, or the Temple of the 
 Holy Ghost, built of holy stones. The Church in 
 this sense is known only to God. But such is not the 
 sense in which the word Church is to be taken, 
 either where Christ gives command concerning 
 hearing the church, or where the fathers, after the 
 Apostles, speak of the authority of the Church."* 
 
 But such is not the doctrine of the Church 
 of Eome, as the Council of Trent has decreed 
 it, and as its expositor and vindicator, Bellar- 
 mine, exhibits it. That the visible Church, with 
 all its mixture, is the one holy, Catholic, living, 
 Church of God, to which belong all the promises 
 given to Christ's living, mystical body; and that 
 every baptized person who is neither excommu- 
 nicate, a heretic, infidel, or schismatic, is a true 
 member of that Church, is a doctrine essentially 
 involved in her whole Tridentine system. By 
 Baptismal Eegeneration/ and Justification, as held 
 in the Church of Eome, the baptism of water 
 and the inward renewing^of the Holy Ghost are so 
 identified, that all who have received the former are 
 declared to have received, ex opere operate, the latter, 
 
 * Encliirid. Christian. Instit. fol. 65, quoted by Jackson, 
 b. xii. c. vii. § V. 
 
THE COMMUNION OF SAINTS. 63 
 
 and to have thus become spiritually the children of 
 God by adoption and grace. Then ; for that part of 
 the baptized who have fallen into mortal sin, and 
 thus lost their baptismal purity, and who have not 
 taken advantage of the sacrament of penance to 
 reinstate them in the favour of Grod, and are there- 
 fore continuing under deadly sin, their faith dead, 
 she kindly pronounces that they have true faith and 
 are true Christians still; she pronounces anathema 
 on any who shall say "that when grace is lost by 
 sin, faith is lost together with it ; or that the faith 
 which remains is not true faith, though it be not 
 living ; or that a man is not a christian who has 
 faith without hve?* Thus as the devils " believe and 
 tremble''' which is more than can be said of many of 
 these believers, we must take care when we speak 
 even of their state, lest we incur the anathema of 
 Eome. 
 
 The Catechism of the Council of Trent declares 
 accordingly, as the authentic interpreter of the coun- 
 cil, that " however wicked and flagitious men may be, 
 it is certain that unless they be infidels, heretics 
 and schismatics, or excommunicate," (which would 
 cut them off from the visible church) "they still be- 
 long to the Church."f This expansive pale includes 
 in the true membership of the true living Church 
 of true Christians, the very worst as well as the best, 
 if only they be neither heretics, schismatics, infidels 
 
 * Council of Trent, Can. XXVIII. Sess. VI. 
 f Catechism, pp. 94, 95.— Bait. Ed. 1'833. 
 
64 THE HOLY CATHOLIC CHUECH AND 
 
 or excommunicate. Thus is obtained a visible body 
 for the possessor of infallibility, as well as of all the 
 other gifts and graces of God's true Church ;— this 
 same terribly permixta ecclesia, which we call the 
 visible Church, and which the Scriptures liken to a 
 great net which catches the good and the bad. It 
 now only remains for the Church of Eome to 
 settle the representation of this Church, so as to fix 
 the definite, accessible seat of the infallible oracle, 
 and at what points the grace given to the whole body 
 can be drawn out by the individual applicant. The 
 latter she readily arranges between the Sacraments 
 and the Priesthood, multiplying the Sacraments for 
 the sake of increasing the prerogatives of the Priest- 
 hood. The former is yet a vexata qucestio, between 
 General Councils, as representatives of the Church, 
 and the Pope, as the Yicar of Christ, and both 
 united as the combined representation of the Head 
 and the members. The settlement of that question 
 is not necessary to the practical working of the sys- 
 tem. General Councils are not likely soon again to 
 appear for their claim. — Meanwhile the Pope is the 
 ecclesia docens, the practically conceded depositary of 
 infallibility. He is holder of the keys, and the ulti- 
 mate controller of the several agencies, by which the 
 grace committed to the Church is dispensed to the 
 several members of the whole body, whether on 
 earth or in purgatorial pains. Take away from be- 
 neath his feet these two props — -first, the pretence 
 that every baptized person is spiritually and inter- 
 
THE COMMUNION OF SAINT s". 65 
 
 nally renewed, ex opere operato ; secondly, that to be a 
 true christian and have "true faith," and so to be a 
 true member of God's Church, does not require that 
 a man should have "faith that worketh by love," or 
 be else than " most wicked or flagitious ;" establish 
 in their place the Scriptural doctrine that the Church 
 of the promises, "the pillar and ground of the 
 truth," the communion of saints, and the holy 
 Catholic Church, the living, mystical body of Christ 
 is composed only of those who are "in Christ 
 Jesus " by a living, fruitful faith ; and the foun- 
 dations of that whole city of abominations will be- 
 come as quicksand. 
 
 Hence the pains taken by our old Anglican di- 
 vines of the sixteenth and seventeenth century, to 
 make plain the distinction between the church visible 
 and invisible, " for lack of diligent observing of 
 which the oversights are neither few nor light that 
 have been committed." 
 
 It requires no great perspicacity to observe in 
 many ministers of our Protestant Church of these 
 United States, a great lack of the diligent observing 
 of that difference ; and the oversights which have 
 ensued, and do still increase, are neither few nor 
 light, but so many and weighty as to affect in a very 
 important degree the great interests of gospel truth. 
 The whole matter Concerning Eegeneration and Jus- 
 tification, as connected with the Sacraments, and all 
 the language of the Scriptures, the early Fathers, 
 
 and the early anglican divines, would be much 
 E 6* 
 
66 THE HOLY CATHOLIC CHURCH AND 
 
 more correctly and easily understood were that dif- 
 ference well seen and forcibly fixed in the mind. 
 
 Peculiar circumstances have tended so much to 
 draw the minds of the Protestant Episcopal ministry 
 in this country, to the study and defence of those 
 visible institutions which are peculiar to an Episco- 
 pal Church and which we believe to be apostolic in 
 origin, that it is apprehended there are not a few 
 minds not unfavorably disposed, that have become 
 so unused to the old Anglico-Protestant views of 
 the Church as it is invisible or mystical, that 
 our undisguised exhibition of them here will seem 
 almost new. Such minds, on a little reflection, 
 will come to their true bearings. The slightest 
 effort to controvert those views from Scripture, or 
 in consistency with other great truths of the gospel, 
 will convince them that nothing else can be true, 
 and that the whole doctrine is both anglican and 
 scriptural. The tendency in the present day among 
 many, in the precise direction by which the Eomish 
 Church arrived at its present doctrine, has suggested 
 the importance of giving those views the prominence 
 they occupy in these pages. And that no reader 
 may be at a loss to know how entirely the doctrine 
 of these pages is identical, in every particular, with 
 that which our Hookers, and Taylors, and Ushers, 
 &c, most earnestly taught, a series of extracts from 
 such authorities is added in the Appendix, to which 
 the reader's careful attention is requested. 
 
 We have taken Cranmer and Ridley for the times 
 
THE COMMUNION OF SAINTS. 67 
 
 of the Keformation — Jewel and Hooker for the days 
 immediately succeeding — Bishops Taylor and Hall, 
 Archbishop Usher, Drs. Jackson and Perkins for 
 the trying times of the early part of the 17th cen- 
 tury — and Isaac Barrow for those immediately suc- 
 ceeding. 
 
 Thus we have representatives of all classes and 
 schools of English divines, of the times above men- 
 tioned. And it will be seen, that among these great 
 writers there was not the least difference of opinion 
 as to the points now in view. That the true 
 Church is composed only of the true children and 
 people of God, united by a living faith to Christ ; 
 that none others have any real membership in God's 
 Church, however they may be externally associated 
 with it in visible ordinances ; that this Church is the 
 Holy Catholic Church, and Communion of Saints ; 
 having all its being in the union of its several mem- 
 bers, by faith, immediately to Christ.; that this is the 
 mystical body of Christ, as nothing else can be ; 
 that it is invisible, because while its members on 
 earth are personally visible, their distinction as such 
 from all merely nominal or professed members is 
 invisible ; that this and no other is the Church to 
 which all the promises are given, just as real be- 
 lievers among the children of Abraham were the 
 only Church to which the promises then made, be- 
 longed ; finally that this Church, mystical and in- 
 visible, is "the pillar and ground of the truth," 
 against which "the gates of hell shall not prevail/' 
 
68 THE HOLY CATHOLIC CHURCH AND 
 
 to which belongs essentially the Unity of the Spirit, 
 however the bond of peace, in the common use of 
 creeds and sacraments may be broken ; the reader 
 will find this to be the concurrent testimony of those 
 unquestionable witnesses of the doctrine of the Pro- 
 testant Episcopal Church in their respective times.* 
 
 * See Appendix B., especially the extract from Bp. Taylor, as 
 the fullest and most precise. 
 
THE COMMUNION" OF SAINTS. 69 
 
 CHAPTEE VI. 
 
 UNITY OF THE CHURCH. 
 
 From the view we have taken of the essential 
 constitution of the Church, as composed exclusively 
 of those who are "in Christ Jesus" not only by the 
 external tie of ordinances and profession, but by the 
 internal, vital, bond of participation in his sancti- 
 fying Spirit, we perceive plainly in what consists 
 the essential Unity of the Church. 
 
 The prayer of our blessed Lord for Unity among 
 his people has been, is and ever shall be fulfilled. 
 He prayed concerning his people, "That they all 
 may be one ; as thou Father art in me and I in thee, 
 that they also may be one in us;" and again, "that 
 they may be one even as we are one ; I in them 
 and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in 
 one."* 
 
 It is a most inadequate interpretation of these 
 words, to suppose that the Saviour's mind rested 
 
 * Johnxvii; 21, 23. 
 
70 THE HOLY CATHOLIC CHUECH AND 
 
 mainly, or to any considerable degree, upon matters 
 of external union, such as ecclesiastical regimen or 
 professions of faith. It is no undervaluing of such 
 things to say that the unity here spoken of is infi- 
 nitely more than mere unanimity, " since it rests 
 upon unity of Spirit and life, and the perfect com- 
 munication of all good things pertains to its mani- 
 festations. Unity of doctrine, without the unity of 
 life and of faith, on the part of all the individuals, 
 comes amazingly short of a fulfilment of this solemn 
 prayer of our Lord."* 
 
 Let us suppose a body of professing Christians 
 entirely unanimous and united among themselves, 
 in all professed doctrines of faith, and under one 
 ecclesiastical regimen ; all baptized and receiving the 
 Supper of the Lord, under the same administration; 
 all regularly worshiping by the same Liturgy, and 
 that Liturgy the most scriptural on earth. A more 
 perfect example of visible church unity cannot be 
 imagifled. But does all this make any approach 
 to such a union as that for which Jesus prayed ? 
 Does it follow that those thus united by doctrine 
 and ecclesiastical consent are one in Christ, in any 
 sense as he was one with the Father ? May there 
 not exist among them, such a division, a gulph so 
 wide, that part of them shall be of the world, 
 while the rest are "not of the world;" part governed 
 by "the spirit that ruleth in the children of dis- 
 
 * Tholuck on St. John. 
 
THE COMMUNION OF SAINTS. 71 
 
 obedience," while the rest are "led by the Spirit 
 of God;" part confessing Christ in heart and 
 life, while others, whatever their profession of faith, 
 are living in the practical denial of his claims, and 
 will? 
 
 But what an awful division is this ! What divi- 
 sions in point of external order and government; what 
 differences in doctrinal confession can compare with 
 this in importance ? Under all the diversities and 
 separations which divide the Visible Church into 
 contending denominations, we can easily conceive 
 there may be true followers of Christ, who are 
 spiritually one in him, children of the one adoption 
 and heirs together of the same eternal blessedness. 
 But under this division, we can have no such con- 
 solation. The two sides are separated by the great 
 gulph which divides the kingdom of Christ from the 
 kingdom of darkness and eternal death. That ex- 
 ternal union which we have described, may become 
 universal in the world, so that all professed chris- 
 tians shall be of one mind as to all ecclesiastical re- 
 lations, ordinances, and confessions of faith ; but as 
 long as that internal separation remains it is union but 
 in form, valuable to certain ends and objects of the 
 Church we doubt not, but not bridging over, in the 
 least, the actual, spiritual, essential, immeasurable 
 division.* 
 
 * It must not be inferred that we lightly esteem the importance 
 of that external unity because we regard it as only external ; nor 
 
72 THE HOLY CATHOLIC CHURCH AND 
 
 Now, not only is there in the visible Church just 
 that vast division running into all its parts and de- 
 nominations, crossing all external lines, and making 
 its awful oppositions of spiritual character, dominion, 
 life, influence and eternal prospect, no matter what, 
 here and there, may be the external agreement ; not 
 
 that we depict with, too strong coloring the vast separation be- 
 tween the two great classes which exist nnder the same profes- 
 sion in the visible Chnrch. We have not expressed ourselves as 
 strongly as the "judicious" Hooker. He describes the Unity 
 of the Visible Church as consisting ' ' in that uniformity which all 
 several persons thereunto belonging have, by reason of that one 
 Lord whose servants they profess to be ; that one Faith which 
 they all acknowledge ; that one Baptism wherewith they are all 
 initiated. The visible Church of Jesus Christ is therefore one 
 in outward profession of these things which supernaturally apper- 
 tain to the very essence of Christianity and are necessarily re- 
 quired in every particular man. If by external profession they 
 be Christians, then they are of the visible Church of Christ, yea 
 although they be impious Idolaters, wicked Heretics, persons 
 excommunicable, yea, and cast out for notorious improbity. 
 Such withal we deny not to be imps and limbs of Satan, even as 
 long as they continue such. Is it then possible Casks HookerJ 
 that the self-same men should belong both to the Synagogue of 
 Satan and to the Church of Jesus Christ ? Unto that Church 
 which is his mystical body, not possible : because that body 
 consisteth of none but only true Israelites, true sons of Abra- 
 ham, true servants and saints of God. Howbeit of the visible 
 Body and Church of Jesus Christ, these may be and often are, 
 in respect of the main parts of their outward prof ession, who in 
 regard of their inward disposition of mind, &c, are most worthily 
 hateful in the sight of God himself, and in the eyes of the 
 sounder part of the visible Church, most execrable." Eccl. Pol. 
 b. iii. § i. 
 
THE COMMUNION OF SAINTS. 73 
 
 only has such been the case from the beginning of 
 the Church ; but we know, from the scriptures, espe- 
 cially from our Lord's parables concerning the 
 kingdom of heaven, such as that of the wheat and tares 
 in the same field, growing together till harvest, that 
 such is to be the case until his coming again. We 
 need not cite that parable at length. The reader 
 will mark that the field there described" is one in 
 point of visible boundary — one in object, owner and 
 culture. At a little distance it all seems what it is 
 called, and is designed to be a, field of wheat. Such, 
 in other words, it is visibly. But a nearer inspection 
 shows that the oneness is only in appearance. In 
 reality, there are two growths in that field between 
 which there is an entire separation of nature, and 
 opposition of origin. Part is tare. Part wheat. 
 The former sprang from seed which an enemy 
 sowed ; the latter from seed which the husbandman 
 sowed. This is precious ; the other vile. But they 
 are so mingled together ; their roots are so inter- 
 twined, and their aspects are so alike, that they 
 must grow together till harvest, and then be sepa- 
 rated when only it can be safely done. Then the 
 wheat will be garnered and the tares burned. Such, 
 our Lord taught, is the Church on earth. Such it 
 will be till his second coming shall bring the angels 
 to make the separation. 
 
 The question then is this, can that agreement in 
 mere externals, covering such essential division in 
 all vital relations and interests, be justly considered 
 
74 THE HOLY CATHOLIC CHURCH AND 
 
 as fulfilling the prayer of our Lord for oneness in his 
 church. Was it only that for which he so solemnly 
 prayed when he said ; " As thou Father art in 
 me and I in thee, that they may be one in us?" 
 What he did pray for is no doubt described 
 under his own illustration of the vine and its 
 branches, the latter in union one with another by 
 their union with the life of the one vine. St. Paul 
 expressed the same, under the figure of the several 
 members of a living body in union with one another 
 by a common union with the one head. But in the 
 mere external unity, which we have supposed, is 
 there any correspondence to these inspired simili- 
 tudes? When you have bound together a number 
 of branches, some withered and dead, others alive, 
 into one orderly association, so as to look like a 
 vine and its branches, have yoa formed any union 
 approximating to that which exists between branches 
 which have one common life, all abiding in the vine 
 and the vine in them ? 
 
 The Saviour's prayer is, "That they all may he 
 one. 11 We ask, in what sense " one ?" and who are 
 the "all?" He proceeds to speak of an internal, 
 spiritual oneness. He says nothing now of any visi- 
 ble relations. He speaks of a oneness which only 
 God can make ; not of any which man's ministra- 
 tions, dispensing visible ordinances, can institute. 
 "As thou } Father } art in me and I in thee, that they 
 also may he one in us, that they may he one, even as we 
 are one." What less can we understand from this 
 
THE COMMUNION OF SAINTS. 75 
 
 extremely exalted language than that the Saviour 
 prayed that all his disciples might be one in Him, 
 by all partaking of His Spirit, and thus abiding in 
 him, as he is one with the Father, by possession 
 from all eternity of the same essential divinity ? 
 
 Such being unquestionably the meaning of the 
 prayer, or, at least, nothing less being its mean- 
 ing; and seeing that in the Visible Church are 
 contained all the fearful mixtures and oppositions 
 of spiritual character described above ; if the whole 
 Visible Church, as such, be that body in which the 
 Saviour expected his prayer to be fulfilled, then not 
 only has that prayer been to this day unfulfilled, 
 but what is much more, we know from the Sa- 
 viour's own prediction, that thus unfulfilled it is to 
 be until his coming again, when wheat and tares are 
 to be forever separated by the judgment of the great 
 day. Here then is a strange contradiction. Our 
 Lord, according to the idea we are contending 
 against, prayed that his church on earth might be 
 one in a certain sense, and yet foretold that in that 
 sense it would never be one ; he offered a prayer, 
 and then pronounced that his prayer would not be 
 granted. But this is impossible. His prayer will be 
 answered, has been answered, for he never prayed 
 in vain. "Thou hearest me always, 11 he said, when 
 praying at the grave of Lazarus. At the same time, 
 the account of the mixed state of the visible church 
 is also true and will be true to the end. The prayer 
 and the narrative are consistent with one another. 
 
76 THE HOLY CATHOLIC CHURCH AND 
 
 But how ? By having reference to two different 
 aspects of what is called the Church, When he 
 said " the kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man 
 which sowed good seed in his field/' &c, he spoke of 
 the visible the professed church, as embracing all 
 that participate in christian ordinances. But when 
 he prays " that all may be one, as thou Father art 
 in me," &c, he refers as the context shows, to those 
 whom he had just before described, as " not of the 
 world, even as he is not of the world" together with 
 all those who like them should ever believe on him 
 through their word. For all such as were, or are, or 
 ever shall be, " of the world " however called Chris- 
 tians, or embraced in the visible church, he expressly 
 said, in this very connection, that he did not then 
 pray, when he prayed for the unity of his people. "/ 
 pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast 
 given me, for they are thine, and I am glorified in 
 them." Consequently it was not the whole visible 
 Church, as including the world and those not of 
 the world, but that inner company of professed be- 
 lievers who are such in spirit and truth ; it was 
 the Invisible Church of which we have been 
 speaking, for the oneness of which the Saviour 
 prayed. Consequently, if that prayer has been, or 
 shall be fulfilled, it must be looked for amongst 
 its members, and must be found in those relations to 
 one another and to their Lord in which they are 
 spiritually distinguished from other professed disor 
 ples of Christ. 
 
THE COMMUNION OF SAINTS. 77 
 
 Now we take the position that in that " blessed 
 company of all faithful people," the prayer of our 
 blessed Lord has been essentially fulfilled from the 
 day it was uttered ; that in the same company it 
 will be so fulfilled to the end of the world ; and that 
 it will be perfectly accomplished when " the perfect- 
 ing of the saints " shall be completed, and when the 
 last remnant of sin and imperfection in his people 
 shall be obliterated ; in that day when the Lord shall 
 " present the Church to himself a glorious Church 
 not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing." We 
 take the position that " they all" for whom Jesus 
 prayed, all true believers, all in whose real conver- 
 sion and sanctification the power and love of Christ 
 are glorified, all who have been chosen out of the 
 world and are not of it, by having the Spirit of 
 Christ, are now really and essentially one, in the 
 sense desired by their Lord. They may be scattered 
 among all nations, all mixtures, and all sections of 
 the visible Church. They may be named by all 
 the various names that indicate the confessions and 
 divisions which have rent asunder the visible Church, 
 as such ; they may be exceedingly wide apart in 
 outward, ecclesiastical relations; but, as true be- 
 lievers in Jesus, they are all, essentially, though 
 far, as yet, from being perfectly, what he prayed they 
 might be, one body in Him their Head, one body 
 with all those blessed ones of all generations and 
 all nations, who have entered into rest, and are now 
 in the perfectness of the saints. They are one in 
 
78 THE HOLY CATHOLIC CHURCH AND 
 
 the highest sense in which the scriptures ever speak 
 of oneness in the Church ; one in the highest sense 
 in which oneness among Christians can be conceived 
 of, and in comparison with which all the unity of 
 mere ecclesiastical agreement in creeds and ordi- 
 nances, important as it is, must be regarded as of 
 little value.* In what does it consist? "We 
 answer : In having one Lord and Head, Jesus Christ, 
 not professedly merely, but in spirit and truth ; in 
 having, in him, one hope, and from him, one life, by 
 receiving his Spirit. "He that is joined to the Lord 
 is one Spirit" said St. Paul; that is, has one Spirit, 
 with the Lord, by being united to him ; and that 
 
 * " It is not the variety of by-opinions that can exclude them 
 from having their part in that one Catholic Church and their 
 just claim to the Communion of Saints. While they hold the 
 solid and precious foundation, it is not the hay or stubble which 
 they lay upon it, that can set them off from God or his Church.' ' 
 
 ' ' Neither is it, nor ever shall be in the power of all the 
 fiends of hell, to make God's Church other than one, which 
 were indeed utterly to extinguish and reduce it to nothing,' ' 
 "In spite of all devils there shall be saints. In all the main 
 principles of religion, there is a unanimous consent of all Chris- 
 tians and these are they that constitute a Church. Those that 
 agree in these ; Christ is pleased to admit as members of that 
 body whereof he is head, and if they admit not of each other as 
 such, the fault is in the uncharitableness of the refusers, no 
 less than in the error of the refused. And if any vain and loose 
 stragglers will needs sever themselves and wilfully choose to go 
 ways of their own; let them know that the union of Christ's 
 Church shall consist entire without them. This great ocean wih 
 be one collection of waters, when these drops are lost in thb 
 dust." Bp. HalVs Christ Mystical. 
 
THE COMMUNION OF SAINTS. 79 
 
 Spirit is the Holy Ghost, by whom the Lord be- 
 comes " the Life " of his people. Thus the believer's 
 union to Christ consists in his having the Spirit of 
 Christ, and so abiding in him. And as this is the 
 essential character of all true Christians, they are all 
 thus joined to one another, in the one Lord and 
 Head. This is the nearest union that can be con- 
 ceived of, and such as never takes place but by the 
 interposition of the mysterious and immediate power 
 of God. We can tie things together and say they 
 are united ; but we cannot really unite them. We 
 make a mechanical junction of parts; God only makes 
 a vital union of natures. We place parts in near- 
 ness to one another, so near, it may be, that the eye 
 can see no separation. Essential separation there 
 is, nevertheless. God only makes parts grow to- 
 gether, and into one another, so as to have the unity 
 of a common life. We can insert a graft into a 
 stock, and tie it there, so that it shall look as it 
 united to the stock. But if nothing take place be- 
 yond what our power can do; if the mysterious 
 power of God interpose not, the graft will be dead, 
 being alone. Its appearance of union will remain 
 only till you examine it closely. Then you see the 
 difference between being joined by outward bonds 
 and united by an invisible life. At the side of that 
 graft, is another, tied in the same way to the stock, 
 and wearing to the distant observation the same 
 aspect. But a power has been at work on that which 
 no human skill can imitate. There has taken place 
 
80 THE HOLY CATHOLIC CHURCH AND 
 
 a mysterious communication of life from the stock. 
 You may take away your bandages. Beneath them 
 is a wonderful union of nature. The graft is joined 
 to the stock by having one life therewith. Such is 
 " the Unity of the Spirit/' in Christ. Those band- 
 ages of the graft are the institutions of the Visible 
 Church. They have their important uses. But the 
 union they make is not the union which God's 
 Spirit makes. Under them, and by blessing upon 
 them, but so that often they cover nothing but 
 the dead and withered, God's Spirit alone forms 
 the union by which Christ becomes to a sinner's 
 soul, u the Life" and that soul is made a branch 
 of the True Vine. 
 
 Such union of every true christian to Christ, and 
 thus to all other christians, as living members of 
 the same body, under one living Head, the Lord of 
 all, is the oneness of the Church of Christ, the one- 
 ness of his mystical body, of his kingdom, of his 
 household, of his temple, "of whom the whole family 
 in heaven and earth is named." It is a union ever 
 growing towards the final perfectness, as each in- 
 dividual member grows in the participation of the 
 Spirit of Christ. Because of its present imperfect- 
 ness it is that among those so united agreement in 
 professions of faith and in action for the promotion 
 of the gospel is yet so imperfect. We may be one 
 in Christ, and yet, through dimness of vision, may 
 not see eye to eye, nor know one another as we are 
 known of him. The unity may be essentially true 
 
THE COMMUNION OF SAINTS. 81 
 
 and yet have much growth to make in inward 
 strength and outward development; just as each 
 member therein is a true christian, but needing 
 to grow much in grace before he can glorify 
 his Master to the full measure of the Master's 
 will.* 
 
 There is a part of our Lord's prayer for the unity 
 of his church which is so often quoted in evidence 
 that the unity prayed for is that of the visible Church 
 
 * Extract from Archbishop Usher: — "What ties together and 
 makes one, things asunder, but the same spirit and life in both ? 
 So that Spirit which is in Christ, a full running over fountain 
 descending down, and being also infused unto us, unites us 
 unto him ; yea that Spirit doth tie me as fast unto Christ as any 
 joint ties member to member, and so makes Christ to dwell in 
 my heart. Thus, by one Spirit, we are built up and made 
 the Temple of God and come to be the habitation of God, through 
 the Spirit ; so that by this means, we are inseparably knit and 
 united unto him ; for what is it makes one member to be a mem- 
 ber to another ? Not the nearness of joining or lying one to, 01 
 upon, another, but the same quickening spirit and life which is 
 in both. So is it with us ; that very Spirit which is in Christ 
 being in us, thereby we are united unto him, grow in him and he 
 in us ; rejoice in him, and so are kept and preserved to be glori- 
 fied in him." Usher'' s Sermon on the Seal of Salvation, We add 
 a beautiful passage from Hooker. "They which belong to the 
 mystical body of our Saviour Christ, and be in number as the 
 stars of heaven, divided successively by reason of their mortal 
 condition, into many generations, are notwithstanding coupled 
 every one to Christ, their head, and all unto every particular 
 person among themselves, inasmuch as the same spirit which 
 anointed the blessed soul of our Saviour Christ doth so unite 
 and actuate his whole race, as if both he and they were so many 
 limbs compacted into one body, by being quickened all with one 
 and the same soul." Bocl. Fol. b. v. § 56. 
 F 
 
82 THE HOLY CATHOLIC CHURCH AND 
 
 in its external features and communion, and not that 
 alone which we have now described, that we cannot 
 omit to notice it here. We quote the whole passage: 
 " That they all may be one, as thou Father art in 
 me and I in thee, that they also may be one in us : 
 that the world may believe that thou hast sent meP 
 And in a subsequent verse these words are added to 
 "thou hast sent me, 57 namely "and hast loved them as 
 thou hast loved me." (v. 23.) 
 
 Now the idea is that as the unity of which we 
 have been speaking is invisible, consisting in an in- 
 ternal conjunction, by one Spirit, in Christ, and 
 therefore is not cognizable by the world, so as to be 
 in its eyes an evidence of the divine mission of 
 Christ, it must be the visible unity of agreement in 
 the same confession of faith and the same ordinances 
 of worship and essentially the same form of church- 
 administration for which our Lord made his suppli- 
 cation. But if this be the only or the chief unity 
 prayed for in the passage before us, we confess our- 
 selves unable to see in what respect, were it attained 
 to a much greater extent than it is, it would furnish 
 to the world any very conclusive evidence of the di- 
 vine mission of Jesus. And especially are we un- 
 able to see in what respect it would be any evidence 
 at all that the Father loves those in whom it ap- 
 pears, as He loves our Lord Jesus Christ; according 
 to the 23rd verse just cited. We easily understand 
 that dissensions among professing christians on 
 points of faith and modes of worship, do furnish the 
 
THE COMMUNION OF SAINTS. 83 
 
 world with convenient and most influential weapons 
 against the reality of the gospel, and the heavenly 
 mission of our Lord. But it does not follow that 
 the absence of such dissensions, would afford any 
 valid, or at best any conclusive, argument in proof of 
 that mission. There is such external unity in the 
 church of Rome, and it is vastly gloried in, as if our 
 Lord's petition were fulfilled in that hierarchy as no 
 where else, and consequently a sanction given to 
 that church such as none other on earth possesses. 
 But in what respect does, or should, that unity 
 seem to the world a convincing proof of the di- 
 vine mission of our Lord ? Agreement in a creed 
 is surely no conclusive evidence of its truth. 
 Union under one government, marching under one 
 banner, is no evidence that the cause is good, or the 
 title of the ruler just. There is very much of this 
 sort of unity among Mohammedans ; but how it 
 tends to prove the divine mission of Mohammed we 
 see not. 
 
 But, it may be said, that when to such agreement, 
 is added, the unity of love ; when to agreement in 
 judgment is added oneness in mutual affection, so that 
 the world sees professing christians evidently bound 
 together in spirit, as well as form ; then is it not in- 
 telligible how such unity may be a strong argument 
 with the world? Certainly; but by this addition of 
 love; in other words, of an inward and invisible bond, 
 to the outward and visible, you have come to 
 an evidence which belongs not to the visible church, 
 
84 THE HOLY CATHOLIC CHURCH AND 
 
 as such, an evidence with which, its visible institu- 
 tions have no necessary connection, though designed 
 for, and tending to its promotion. You have got on 
 the ground of the invisible church; for true christian 
 love of the brethren is found only among those who 
 are truly children of God. On tkis ground indeed, 
 that is, supposing our Lord to have referred, in his 
 prayer, to that "unity of the Spirit," which is found, 
 essentially, in all who truly believe in and follow 
 him, we can well understand in what respect its 
 manifestation, by its proper fruits, may be a most 
 powerful evidence to the world that Jesus was sent 
 by the Father, and that his Gospel is true. When 
 the heathen said of the primitive christians "See how 
 they love one another" and when that sight operated, 
 as it did, to convince the heathen that christians 
 were followers of a divine Lord and Master, it was 
 the unity for which Jesus prayed, fulfilling the pre- 
 cise end for which he desired it. It was not that 
 they were joined together under the same visible 
 institutions or confession that thus drew the admira- 
 tion of the heathen ; but that they were so marvel- 
 lously one in spirit. The argument was : If they 
 so love one another, then they are of the same spirit 
 one with another. And seeing that they have come 
 from out of all nations, all classes, all diversities and 
 oppositions of mind, of habit, disposition, yea and of 
 enmities, such unity of spirit, can be accounted for 
 only on the supposition, not only of one head whom 
 they all love, but of one living head, who, (as they 
 
THE COMMUNION" OP SAINTS. 85 
 
 profess) having been once crucified, is now alive and 
 has power thus to transform his disciples, taken out 
 of all nations and characters into such marvellous 
 unity of spirit. 
 
 And this indeed is just the argument which we 
 now use with the world. We say, there is a marvel- 
 ous unity among the true people of God. Take a 
 real christian, in any part of the earth. Draw his 
 spiritual likeness. Then take it to any other part 
 of the world and compare it with the spiritual aspect 
 of any true follower of Christ there. It is essen- 
 tially the same countenance. There is a remarkable 
 oneness of character, of disposition, of affection. 
 " Among all the cases of genuine conversion to 
 Christ, in all ages and regions and circumstances, 
 and with all varieties of character, there has been a 
 wonderful identity. The same effects, essentially, 
 have ensued, under the application of the same gos- 
 pel, in the present century as in the time of St. 
 Paul ; in modern Europe, as in ancient Greece and 
 Eome ; in Hindostan, as in North America ; among 
 Hottentots, and the islanders of the South Sea and 
 savages of our western borders, as among the 
 polished inhabitants of New York or London. 
 While all these varieties of age, elements, customs 
 and cultivation, give a natural and pleasing variety 
 to what may be called, in a figure, the complexion 
 and costume in which the conversion appears ; the 
 great change itself exhibits under all circumstances, 
 the same characteristic and inimitable features ; in- 
 
86 THE HOLY CATHOLIC CHURCH AND 
 
 somuch that if you draw the likeness of a genuine 
 convert to Christ, in his chief peculiarities, as mani- 
 fested in this country and send it to Burmah, or to 
 the Sandwich Islands ; or to Caffre-land or to Green- 
 land, it will be considered a good likeness, in main 
 points, of the dispositions, affections, tempers, habits 
 and life produced by the converting power of the 
 gospel in any of those widely different regions. A 
 genuine convert to Christ, in China, or in Africa, 
 may come to this country, and find among genuine 
 christians here, his own feelings, tastes, sympathies 
 and labours, as a christian, though he never saw an 
 American or European before ; and he will be more 
 at home among their christian feelings, than he can 
 be among the manners and dispositions of the people 
 among whom he grew up, and to whom he was once, 
 in these respects, as entirely assimilated as he is now 
 opposed."* 
 
 Now this is but the manifestation of the essential 
 oneness of all true christians, in Christ. It is just 
 because "he that is joined to the Lord is one Spirit" 
 And the world cannot help taking knowledge of it. 
 And it is the more impressive to the world, because 
 of the very absence of that agreement in external 
 institutions which would make them all one, in form, 
 as well as spirit. In spite of so much want of ex- 
 ternal unity in the visible Church, there is the mar- 
 vellous manifestation of unity in the true, invisible, 
 
 * Evidences of Christianity by the present author. 
 
THE COMMUNION OF SAINTS. 87 
 
 Church. The question must be answered Whence 
 does it come? Have they created it ? Has the chris- 
 tian of Greenland who never saw any land but his 
 own frozen zone, created in himself a likeness to the 
 christian of America? or of Hindostan? Or did 
 the Missionary who carried to him the gospel, exert 
 such marvellous power as to transform his nature 
 into such resemblance ? What power is it that has 
 been so at work, in all lands and all ages, doing 
 every where the same work, with such infinitely 
 varied and vastly discordant character, everywhere 
 with the same spiritual result ? The only answer is 
 the power of God. Nothing else. Thus it is all evi- 
 dence, and powerful evidence too, that the Gospel is 
 of God, and that the Christ of the Gospel is of God. 
 And thus the unity among all the true disciples of 
 Christ is the very argument which the Saviour 
 prayed it might be, " that the world may believe that 
 thou hast sent me" And the more the whole fellow- 
 ship of Christians, thus one, shall become u perfect in 
 one" as the prayer entreats; the more nearly each 
 member of that unity shall be "joined to the Lord M 
 by the participation more abundantly of his Spirit, so 
 much the more will that unity of spiritual being be 
 manifested in all godly affections. Thus will love 
 abound and the mental vision be cleared, and thus 
 the more will the way be prepared for more har- 
 mony and working together in all labors of chris- 
 tian zeal, under the ordinances and in the fellowship 
 of the visible Church, and thus the more will grow 
 
88 THE HOLY CATHOLIC CHURCH AND 
 
 before the world, the great argument for Christ, 
 that he who does all this in his people, is the Christ 
 of God. 
 
 In answer to all this, we suppose that some reader 
 may say : But how does such manifestation of the 
 church as one, by the inward union of every soul to 
 Christ, and thus to every soul similarly united to 
 Christ agree to the idea of an invisible Church? 
 If the spiritual features in which that Church 
 differs from all that part of the Visible Church, 
 which is christian by profession only, be invisi- 
 ble how can the unity of that Church be dis- 
 cerned ? The answer is easy. The Church is in- 
 visible not in the sense of true christians being not 
 known by the effects of true religion in their lives, 
 as a tree is known by its fruits ; but in the sense of 
 their not being in all cases infallibly discernible as 
 true Christians, so that it may be accurately deter- 
 mined in every case who is a true member of the 
 mystical body of Christ, and who is such only in 
 name. Will any deny that the wheat can make no 
 manifestation of its unity of nature, because it is so 
 mixed with the tare that you cannot in every case 
 discern which is one and which the other ? Or will 
 any pretend that such manifestation of nature is 
 inconsistent with the idea of their being such a 
 mixture of tares in the same field, that all of it 
 is not really, but only apparently, a field of 
 wheat ? 
 
 It is only when we thus contemplate the Unity 
 
THE COMMUNION OF SAINTS. 89 
 
 of the Church, of Christ, that we get the true appli- 
 cation of his promise. " On this Eock will I build 
 my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail 
 against it." That Eock was Christ; not Peter who 
 had just made his confession of Christ; not Peter's 
 confession ; not merely the true doctrine then con- 
 fessed concerning the person of Christ ; but Christ 
 himself. On him the Church is built. In him it 
 all consists. Of him, is all its life and being. Against 
 it, as thus one in him, the gates of hell shall never 
 prevail. Against the Church, in its visible unity, 
 the wiles of the devil have so prevailed, for centuries, 
 as to break that unity in pieces. But against the 
 Church in the invisible union of every believer to 
 Jesus, and thus of all believers one to another, in him, 
 there is no power that can prevail. The promise is 
 repeated under other terms, when the Lord declares : 
 " My sheep hear my voice, and they follow me. And 
 I give unto them eternal life and they shall never 
 perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my 
 hand." On this assurance rises the noble faith of 
 St. Paul : "lam persuaded that neither death nor 
 life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor 
 things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor 
 depth, nor any other creature shall be able to sepa- 
 rate us from the love of Grod, which is in Christ Jesus 
 our Lord." 
 
 Blessed is the man, indeed, who is thus "in Christ 
 Jesus," whose evidence is not merely that he has 
 been sealed with Church-ordinances, but that he 
 
 8* 
 
90 THE HOLY CATHOLIC CHURCH AND 
 
 has received that " Holy Spirit of promise which is 
 the earnest of our inheritance whereby we are sealed 
 unto the day of redemption." To him "there is no 
 condemnation." He was under condemnation while 
 the Law beheld him only as in himself, clothed with 
 his own righteousness. Now it beholds him in 
 Christ clothed in all his righteousness, and repre- 
 sented in all his obedience and sacrifice. Condemna- 
 tion therefore toucheth him not. He is "justified 
 by faith," and has " peace with God through our 
 Lord Jesus Christ." 
 
THE COMMUNION OF SAINTS. 91 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 CONCLUDING OBSERVATIONS. 
 
 It has been no part of our plan, in these pages, to 
 speak of the Church, in its aspect as visible, any 
 further than was necessary to enable us distinctly 
 to show what is meant by the Church as invisible. 
 Whatever may be the case out of the bounds of our 
 Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States, 
 we do not think there is comparatively any 
 great need within her bounds, of calling atten- 
 tion generally, to a higher valuation of those 
 external things which make up the Church's 
 visible form or manifestation. In some christian 
 communities, no doubt, there is a serious demand 
 for such writing, Under the idea of promoting, 
 more purely and simply, the inner life of true reli- 
 gion, there has been generated, in some quarters, a 
 very injurious undervaluing of those outward ordi- 
 nances, which, though not the life, are appointed of 
 
92 THE HOLY CATHOLIC CHURCH AND 
 
 Grod, and are in a very important sense, connected with 
 the spiritual life. But such is not the tendency among 
 us. Quite a sufficient proportion of the attention of 
 our authors, of our magazines, of our preaching, of 
 our Sunday School teaching, to say the least, is 
 given to the establishment of a strong sense of 
 the necessity and obligation of that ecclesiastical 
 order and polity which we believe to have come to 
 us from the Apostles. Hence we have not seen it 
 necessary, in these pages, to enter on any considera- 
 tion of such topics. We have aimed exclusively at 
 what seemed much more needed ; a right estimate 
 of the essential necessity to the being of the church 
 and to the reality of any spiritual membership there- 
 in, of that inward life of faith, and of love, as the 
 fruit of faith, for the promotion of which all the 
 outward of the Church was designed and has all its 
 value. 
 
 But lest we should seem ; even negatively to look 
 with little appreciation upon the importance of the 
 Church's visible form to the accomplishment of her 
 work in the earth, we may say a few words in that 
 direction. Were we writing on the nature of man, 
 and did we make a very distinct and wide difference 
 between man, and man's body, between the intel- 
 lectual, immortal man, and the form in which he 
 resides in this world, treating the former as the 
 being, and the latter only as the house he lives 
 in, confining our attention to the former; it 
 would not seem necessary to guard against the in- 
 
THE COMMUNION OF SAINTS. 93 
 
 ference that we have little sense of the value of the 
 body, or of the importance of keeping all its parts 
 entire and all its functions in health. 
 
 We do not think that the importance and duty of 
 maintaining firmly what we consider of divine in- 
 stitution in the visible form of the church to be, in 
 any wise, affected by the essential distinction we 
 have taught, between the Church as visible, and in- 
 visible, as seen of men in the outward signs and pro- 
 fession, and as she stands before Grod in her essen- 
 tial, spiritual being. 
 
 There is a passage of Hooker which we may use here 
 for a text. "As those everlasting promises of love, 
 mercy and blessedness belong to the mystical Church, 
 even so on the other side, when we read of any duty 
 which the Church of Grod is bound unto, the church 
 whom this doth concern is a visible and known com- 
 pany."* 
 
 Let us apply this to the individual christian. 
 When you speak of him in his inward, vital, 
 relations to Grod, whom he worships "in spirit," 
 in whom he believes with the heart, you speak of 
 him in regard to that spiritual state in which he is 
 invisible to man. But when you speak of that 
 christian man as charged with certain duties of ex- 
 ample and of active exertion towards his fellow crea- 
 ures ; then it is the inward spirit as embodied in 
 the visible and outward man, it is the godly soul, 
 
 * Eccl. Pol. b. iii. § 1. 
 
94 THE HOLY CATHOLIC CHURCH AND 
 
 operating through and by means of the visible body, 
 that you have reference to; because it is only 
 through the body that the spirit of man can be known, 
 or can operate, among men. The body is the soul's 
 divinely ordained instrument of communication and 
 of manifestation in this life. It must be kept in 
 tune therefore. Its cords must not be broken or 
 neglected. We must dispense with nothing belong- 
 ing to its proper integrity. Just as important as is 
 the work of the christian, amidst the evils of this 
 world ; so is the careful preservation, in the highest 
 health, of all those bodily faculties by which alone 
 his spiritual life can get into contact with, or be 
 known to, the world. 
 
 Let us transfer this illustration to the Church. 
 When you consider it as the flock of Christ, or, the 
 household of God, to which are made, and exclu- 
 sively belong, God's everlasting promises of love, 
 mercy and blessedness, wherein to be found, is to be 
 assuredly saved, and not to be found, is to be eter- 
 nally lost; then it is the Church in its inward, 
 essential, spiritual being, before God, the Church as 
 it is invisible to the world except by its fruits. But 
 again when you consider the Church as the Light of 
 the world, giving light, by teaching the truth, 
 chiefly through an ordained ministry of men ; charged 
 with great duties in the world which require con- 
 tact and conflict with the world; then it is the Church 
 as u a visible and known company; 11 it is the spiritual 
 under sacramental signs and tangible forms; it 
 
THE COMMUNION OF SAINTS. 95 
 
 is the inward soul become incarnate, in a well de- 
 fined and easily discerned body; it is "the blessed 
 company of all faithful people on earth. " appearing 
 under the notes and professions, the sacraments 
 and ministry, which are common to all that "call 
 themselves Christians," and under which they are 
 mixed up with a multitude who, while thus having 
 a name to live, are spiritually dead. Only by such 
 investment can the Church be placed in contact with 
 the world, just as angels when they come among 
 men, on embassies from God, to make their pre- 
 sence known and their message received, put on the 
 aspect of a human body, and are heard speaking in 
 human forms of thought. Consequently, whatever 
 the importance of that great work which God has 
 committed to the Church, as the light of a benighted, 
 and the leaven of a corrupt world ; so important is 
 it that those institutions of divine appointment 
 which constitute its visible organization, should 
 be maintained in all possible integrity, and 
 health. 
 
 However possible it may be for the soul of man 
 to live out of the body, it can not do so in this world. 
 It must go away. However possible and very con- 
 ceivable that the spirit of true religion may prosper 
 in exceptional cases far removed by divine provi- 
 dence from access to the ordinances of the Church .; 
 we have no reason to suppose that it can flourish 
 or long abide among any body of people, except 
 as operating by, and living in, those ordinances* 
 
96 THE HOLY CATHOLIC CHURCH AND 
 
 If a reason be asked, it is sufficient to answer as 
 with reference to the similar dependence of the 
 human soul upon the human body, So hath God 
 ordained. " What God hath joined together, let no 
 man put asunder." 
 
 Concerning the Church as it is thus equipped for 
 its work in the world, in sacramental signs, in an or- 
 dained ministry and with "the sword of the Spirit 
 which is the word of God," it has not entered into 
 our design to speak more particularly in these 
 pages. We have confined our attention to its only 
 foundation, Christ Jesus the Lord; its only com- 
 ponent parts and members, souls made alive in 
 him, by coming to him in faith and receiving his 
 Spirit ; its essential unity and communion, the union 
 of all such members to Christ, by participation of 
 his life, so as to be " members one of another." This 
 Church thus composed, separated thus from all 
 who, however joined with them in outward, sac- 
 ramental, communion have no fellowship with 
 them in the Spirit of Christ; however, it be 
 indeed a little flock in comparison with the whole 
 mixed company of nominal christians, is the only 
 host of God for that great conflict with sin and 
 hell, for the salvation of sinners, which has been 
 so long waged, and of which, so much is j^et to 
 be fought before Satan is bound in his millen- 
 nial imprisonment.* When Gideon was sent 
 
 * Rev. xx. 1, 2, 3. 
 
THE COMMUNION OF SAINTS. 97 
 
 against the great host of Midian, he had vis- 
 ibly a large army, thirty thousand. But it 
 was only his apparent strength. There was dan- 
 ger in reliance upon it. The real strength was 
 within that force, in a much smaller number. The 
 Lord of hosts applied his test of the true soldiery of 
 Israel, and three hundred only remained to go against 
 Midian. But the real force was not thereby reduced ; 
 nor to the eye of faith was the hope of victory 
 weakened. The Lord said : " By the three hundred 
 men, I will deliver the Midianites unto thy hand." 
 Such is the army of Grod against the principalities 
 and powers that rule the darkness of this world. It 
 is a little flock when you have reduced it to the true 
 people of God, the true soldiery of Ohrist, in whom 
 is his new name and into whose souls he has put his 
 Spirit. But by these, saith the Lord, I will take the 
 kingdom, and overcome the world. " Fear not, lit- 
 tle flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to 
 give you the kingdom." What if among them 
 there be not many wise, nor many mighty, according 
 to the estimate of wisdom and might prevailing in 
 the world ; what if a great part consists of the poor 
 of this world, the unlearned, the simple, the widows, 
 the men of no station or worldly degree ! Never- 
 theless the praying, the wrestling, the believing, they 
 that wait on the Lord and so increase their strength 
 are there ; the importunate widow who prevails by 
 praying always and never fainting; they who are 
 " strong in the Lord and in the power of his might," 
 a 9 
 
98 THE HOLY CATHOLIC CHURCH AND 
 
 children of faith whose weapons are "not carnal but 
 spiritual and mighty through God," followers of 
 those who "through faith, subdued kingdoms, out 
 of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in 
 fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens," 
 they are there. " God is their refuge and strength, a 
 very present help in trouble. Therefore will we not 
 fear though the earth be removed and though the 
 mountains be carried into the midst of the sea. The 
 Lord of Hosts is with us, the God of Jacob is our 
 refuge." In that blessed company is the Ark of God, 
 " the covenant of promise ." Whatsoever we read in 
 scripture of the love of God toward his Church, or 
 his designs in its behalf, or his power in its defence 
 and strength, it is that little flock, " God's elect," 
 that is meant. His name is there. — His temple is 
 there. " Therefore is the strength of this habita- 
 tion great indeed. It prevaileth against Satan, it 
 conquereth sin, it hath death in derision, neither 
 principalities nor powers can throw it down ; it 
 leadeth the world captive, and bringeth every enemy 
 that riseth up against it to confusion and shame, and 
 all by Faith ; for this is the victory that overcometh 
 the world, even our Faith."* 
 
 But when we speak of the Church as a little flock, 
 we must remember that it is only a generation of it, 
 only so much of it as is yet in the journey and conflict 
 of the wilderness, that we speak of. We are not in- 
 
 * Hooker's Second Sermon on Jude, § 15. 
 
THE COMMUNION OF SAINTS. 99 
 
 eluding all that have gone before and are now with 
 God. We must think of that great congregation, 
 the " multitude which no man can number," that 
 " have washed their robes and made them white in 
 the blood of the Lamb/' and who are now " before 
 the throne." We must not forget how generations 
 upon generations of God's true people, ever since 
 the world began, have been ascending hence and 
 taking position in those ranks and swelling the glo- 
 rious array of that "royal priesthood" of "just men 
 made perfect." That is the Church. There is its 
 seat, its great household, its "'General Assembly." 
 All we see of it here is but a fragment, and that so 
 mixed, so feeble, so hidden, so compassed with infir- 
 mities. But there is seen the vast and perfect "Com- 
 munion of Saints." When shall we know what chris- 
 tian communion is in any of its height and depth, 
 till we reach that Assembly? There is seen the 
 Church as it is Catholic indeed; gathered "out of all 
 nations and kindreds and peoples and tongues" 
 Glorious city of God! "I saw (saith St. John) no 
 temple therein : for the Lord God Almighty and the 
 Lamb are the temple of it — the glory of God did 
 lighten it and the Lamb is the light thereof." 
 
 Unto that heavenly perfectness, the church on 
 earth is constantly growing. The visible form may 
 in one age appear to be less widely extended; the 
 number of its professing people, greatly diminished ; 
 but the true House of God, of those whose names 
 are written in heaven, continually is receiving en- 
 
100 THE HOLY CATHOLIC CHUECH AND 
 
 largement, as soul after soul is joined to Christ, 
 "All things/' under him who is "head over all 
 things/' for his Church, must work together for its 
 good. The "wise Master Builder" is he who 
 "ordereth all things after the counsel of His own 
 will." The world is preserved only that this build- 
 ing of God may have its completion, according to 
 the design of its all- wise architect. When that is 
 done, as done it will be, without the failure of a 
 single word of promise, or the change of the least 
 feature of the great plan of redemption, then the 
 days of this world will be ended. Towards that 
 consummation, the church is ever rising, "All the 
 building, fitly framed together, groweth, (saith St. 
 Paul) unto an holy temple in the Lord." In the 
 Apostle's days, in all future days, in these days, it 
 groweth. Persecution never stopped it. All the 
 powers of darkness could never stop it. " In trou- 
 blous times," when the people of God have seemed 
 almost to cease from the earth and godliness has 
 gone into the wilderness, driven away by the wrath 
 of men, the temple has grown. It grows in height, 
 as the spiritual attainments of God's people on earth 
 approach towards "the measure of the stature of the 
 fullness of Christ." It grows in amplitude, as more 
 and more of the lost are gathered in and joined 
 to the number "of such as shall be saved."' It grows 
 in heaven, as its members cease from earth. It grows 
 in purity and glory, as generations after generations 
 cast off, at death, the remnants of sinfulness and infir- 
 
THE COMMUNION OF SAINTS. 101 
 
 mity, and take their places, among the just men made 
 perfect, clothed in the likeness of their glorified 
 Lord. Little can our eyes discern this growth. 
 The world knoweth it not. It " cometh not with 
 observation/' In the temple made with hands, 
 "there was neither hammer, nor any tool of iron 
 heard while it was building." So in this spiritual 
 house, eye doth not see, nor ear hear. In the heart 
 of each true christian, the Spirit of God, in secret, 
 carries on the work of his grace. So advances his 
 work in the whole blessed company of his people on 
 earth. Upon the outer courts, upon the visible 
 church, in all that man has to do therewith, the 
 noise of man's working is heard, with all its wonted 
 confusion of tongues. Upon the inner sanctuary 
 where God only builds, as the hand is unseen, so 
 is the work silent, as when the foundations of the 
 earth were laid. Always it " groweth unto a holy 
 temple in the Lord." 
 
 It is a notable fact, that in the temple of Solomon, 
 the materials were gathered from so many and such 
 distant regions. The isles of the sea, the quarries of 
 Tyre, the forests of Lebanon, the mines of Ophir, 
 all contributed to the structure. Prom all nations 
 and kindreds and people and tongues, come the souls 
 that are to compose forever and ever the Church of 
 the living God. "The abundance of the sea shall be 
 converted unto thee and the forces of the Gentiles 
 shall come unto thee. The sons of strangers shall 
 build thy walls and kings shall minister unto thee." 
 
102 THE HOLY CATHOLIC CHURCH AND 
 
 Soon the worK will be done ; the scaffolding of the pre- 
 sent ordinances will be laid aside ; the ministry of us 
 men will be no more needed. The Church will be 
 without spot or blemish, "her walls, salvation, her 
 gates, praise." Then, as the divisions between earthly 
 and heavenly, between militant and triumphant, be- 
 tween the Church as now seen of men and the Church 
 as always seen of God, shall cease, so will pass 
 away the distinction of visible and invisible which 
 the present condition of the church requires. The 
 visible, the spiritual, the perfect, will be one. All 
 gathered together in one glorious household of God; 
 the new-creation complete; the work of redemption 
 finished. Then the everlasting Sabbath ! the sweet 
 rest, the boundless bliss, the joyful thanksgiving 
 and praise of the Holy Catholic Church, in its 
 fullness, the Communion of Saints in its perfectness. 
 From the multitude that no man can number, arises 
 the adoring worship of "Him that sitteth on the 
 throne," and of "the Lamb that was slain," for 
 the grace that gave to all "the forgiveness of 
 sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life 
 everlasting." 
 
 " pray for the peace of Jerusalem I " Pray for 
 the peace of God's Church on the earth ! We have 
 been writing about "the Unity of the Spirit" therein. 
 We are reminded of the exhortation of the Apostle, 
 "Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in 
 the bond of peace" The Church of Christ must have 
 the unity of the Spirit, just so far as its members 
 
THE COMMUNION OF SAINTS. 103 
 
 are partakers of Christ, and have received His 
 Spirit. It cannot be severed. But how sadly the 
 bond of peace is broken, among the several por- 
 tions of the professing church, every eye sees. 
 We doubt not indeed that there is vastly more 
 unbroken peace than the Church has credit for. 
 The contentions among christians in matters of re- 
 ligion are greatly exaggerated in the estimate of the 
 world. Differences of doctrine do not always create 
 estrangement of affection. Separation into divers 
 distinct ecclesiastical bodies, 'is not necessarily sepa- 
 ration in point of personal religious attachment, or 
 the reciprocities of Christian love. There is much 
 breach of harmony in religious confessions and asso- 
 ciations, when there is no breach of peace between 
 christian and christian, as such. But, that over the 
 deep seated and essential unity of the Spirit, per- 
 vading the whole body of God's great living house- 
 hold of faith, as over the unmoved heart of the ocean, 
 in all its depth and length, there does exist on the 
 surface, where the believer's infirmities and remaining 
 corruptions appear, an agitation, a strife, a want of 
 following after peace, a spirit of separation, of oppo- 
 sition, of party jealousy, of sectarian animosity, 
 manifesting much evil temper, and doing great injury 
 to the cause of Christ in the world, and which cannot 
 be excused by any considerations of duty in the 
 resistance of error, we must all with sorrow of heart 
 concede. It is one thing to differ with one another in 
 matters of belief. It is another to be separated from 
 
104 THE HOLY CATHOLIC CHURCH AND 
 
 one another in matters of brotherly kindness and 
 charity, and to look with the evil eye of sectarian 
 jealousy or detraction, one upon another, so that we 
 cannot rejoice in good wherever we see it, nor cast 
 the veil of charity upon evil when no interfe- 
 rence of ours can remedy it. There is the duty of 
 " contending earnestly for the faith once delivered 
 to the saints;' 7 a duty which will remain as long as 
 sin and Satan continue on the earth, and no love of 
 peace can excuse us from the conflict required, 
 though it be unto death. "With all error that wars 
 against the Gospel, we must be at war. The bond 
 of peace in which we are exhorted to keep the unity 
 of the Spirit, does not bind us to be at peace with 
 hurtful error ; but it does bind us to be at peace, 
 as much as in us lies, with such as are in error. 
 " Speaking the truth in love" is the Apostle's pre- 
 cept for all such circumstances. And were the 
 truth, in matters about which christians are divided 
 and in contention with one another, only spoken, 
 no matter how sharp the truth, in love; not merely in 
 the words and tones, but out of the heart of love, so that 
 contending earnestly for the truth, should always be 
 contending lovingly for the truth; then how soon 
 would contentions disappear, because love would 
 place a new interpretation upon the importance of 
 many of the disagreements ; separations be diminished 
 in number because love would not tolerate a "mid- 
 dle wall of partition," where the sacred interests of 
 truth and righteousness are not involved. How soon 
 
THE COMMUNION OF SAINTS. 105 
 
 would diversities of religious association, separating 
 christians into different denominations, while as yet 
 the way is not open for their return to one ecclesi- 
 astical organization, become divested of the party 
 spirit which genders strife, and exhibit, only in 
 more beautiful aspect, that inward, spiritual, unit}^ 
 of u all that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity," 
 in which brethren of the adoption, in spite of varie- 
 ties of opinion and form and visible association, are 
 really of one heart, and do love one another. 
 
 There is such a thing as keeping " the bond of 
 peace," even after the bond of agreement in opinion 
 and organization has been severed. " Charity, which 
 is the bond of perfectness," keeps the former, when 
 it cannot save the latter. " Let love be without dis- 
 simulation," genuine love that " vaunteth not itself, 
 behaveth not unseemly, is not puffed up, thinketh 
 no evil, rejoiceth in the truth, hopeth all things, 
 suffereth long and is kind;" let only such love 
 abound, where diversities of sect among christians 
 unhappily abound, and see how their evils, if not 
 their numbers, will decrease. And such love, we 
 think, would be materially promoted would chris- 
 tians of different denominations who agree in the 
 great essential doctrines of the Gospel and the 
 great constituent graces of the christian character, 
 only habituate themselves to the more frequent 
 contemplation of their essential oneness in Christ, 
 (as these pages have exhibited it,) rather than their 
 disagreements on matters which affect not their 
 
106 THE HOLY CATHOLIC CHUECH AND 
 
 common hope and salvation. What is their dif- 
 ference compared with their unity? The former is 
 about matters which ; if important, are not vital. 
 The latter is vital, essential. The former separates 
 them into various ecclesiastical bodies. The latter 
 keeps them all together in that one church which 
 is the body of Christ. Those outward relations are 
 temporal. Death dissolves them. We can associate 
 together as of this denomination in the church, 
 or that, only during the few days of this life. But 
 we shall dwell together in our unity in Christ, 
 forever and ever. "The communion of saints" is 
 for everlasting. How much nearer to one another 
 are two christians, as such, than as joined under 
 the bonds of the same church-organization ! How 
 much nearer two christians, by their oneness in 
 Christ, though they be of different divsions in the 
 visible Church, than any two professing christians, 
 of the same denominational union, but neither of 
 them a christian indeed. How much more closely 
 and vitally joined together are the Episcopalian 
 and the Presbyterian and the Methodist, each of 
 whom is united to Christ in the oneness of the 
 Spirit, than either can be to the brother in his own 
 church, who is not in Christ. How will this ap- 
 pear in that day when the reapers of this great 
 harvest-field shall be sent forth, to separate the 
 wheat from the tares, and He " whose fan is in his 
 hand shall thoroughly purge his floor." There 
 names will be nothing. Then to have belonged here 
 
THE COMMUNION OF SAINTS. 107 
 
 or there, to this association of professing christians, 
 or that, this confession of faith or that, will have no 
 vital bearing upon the great question, whether we 
 are Christ's or not. The only church-connection of 
 any value will be that of the Church whose register 
 of communicants is "the Lamb's book of life." The 
 only question will be, who came to Jesus? who 
 lived by faith in Jesus, who was found in Him? 
 They will come from all nations and kindreds 
 and tongues; they will come also from all sects 
 and denominations of those who hold essentially 
 the christian faith, and they will sit down together 
 with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of 
 God, one blessed, perfected, loving, everlasting, 
 communion of saints ; while the communion of the 
 lost will exhibit the like features, all denominations 
 of professing christians there, none finding it an alle- 
 viation of his woe, that he went to it out of the visi- 
 ble fellowship of one church or another. Oh! the un- 
 speakable preciousness of union to Christ, by faith, 
 and to one another, by the same. "Who are my 
 brethren ? Jesus answered, " He that doeth the will 
 of my Father in heaven, the same is my mother and 
 sister and brother." And shall any that call them- 
 selves disciples of Jesus contract that answer to suit 
 themselves ? If the Lord of All took into his em- 
 brace, as a brother, every doer of his Father's will; 
 shall we not be glad, and rejoice that we have such 
 an example to do likewise? In the present divided 
 condition of the visible Church, when sect contends 
 
108 THE HOLY CATHOLIC CHUKCH AND 
 
 with sect, and party with party, and peace seems so 
 far off, must not every true follower of Christ, 
 having in himself the mind of Christ, feel it a very 
 precious consolation that wherever in the whole earth 
 are those who under any name or form do believe in 
 Jesus, with the heart, as their only and sufficient 
 Saviour, there his brethren are, there are those who 
 are members with himself, of the same body, com- 
 municants with him in the same spiritual meat and 
 the same spiritual drink, to be joined forever with 
 him in the kingdom of God ? The more we are 
 separated by denominational divisions, the more 
 should we love to remember that whoever follows 
 Christ, the same is our sister or brother. Oh ! for a 
 great revival of this mind of Christ, in all that are 
 called by his name. Oh ! that all reputed revivals 
 of religion may shew their genuineness in the quick- 
 ening and wider diffusion of that spirit. I bless 
 God that I know something of its possession. I 
 cannot allow the partition walls which man's in- 
 firmities have built in the visible church, to separate 
 my affections, as a christian, from any christian 
 wherever he be. It is to me a precious thought that 
 wherever my Lord has a disciple, I have a brother; 
 that if a poor sinner, who has shared with me in the 
 corruption and condemnation, has shared also with 
 me in the regeneration and remission, by faith in 
 Christ Jesus, then ; whatever he be, barbarian, 
 Scythian, bond or free ; no matter how he may stand 
 far off from me in sectional relations, separated by 
 
THE COHUXION OF SAINTS. 109 
 
 partitions which, neither is willing to put away, he 
 is united to me and I to him, as bone to bone, in the 
 one mystical body of our common Lord and Life. 
 We are heirs together "of God, and joint heirs with 
 Christ." The present separation is for a day. The 
 future fellowship, face to face, in the presence of our 
 glorious Lord, seeing him as he is, will be for eter- 
 nity. It doth, not yet appear what, as children of 
 God now, we shall be hereafter, when the children 
 shall come to the inheritance of the saints in light, 
 "But this we know, that when our blessed Lord 
 shall appear, we shall be like him. 11 And when we 
 shall have been thus changed into the perfect like- 
 ness of Christ, we shall have a perfect likeness, 
 in every spiritual feature, to one another. Thus 
 brother will come to brother, heart to heart, as face 
 to face. Harmony of spirit, more sweet unspeakably 
 than all harmonies of sound, pervading all that 
 wondrous communion, so that not a thought shall 
 be in discord, to all eternity ; harmony of all wills 
 and all minds, not only with one another, but with 
 God, in all his thoughts; harmony of holiness, of love, 
 of adoration, ascending continually in thanksgiving 
 and praise, from that vast congregation, and center- 
 ing around the throne of God and the Lamb, praising 
 the boundless grace that saved them and that set 
 them in those heavenly places, in Christ Jesus; oh ! 
 how will the whole Church be filled with that 
 heavenly music ! Ah ! what a feeble conception do 
 we get of that fellowship, that peace, that high, 
 
110 THE HOLY CATHOLIC CHURCH AND 
 
 perfect social state of the people of God, from the 
 present fellowship of christian brethren on earth. 
 
 In conclusion : What is the great question, accor- 
 ding to all we have now seen, in which all enquiry 
 into one's spiritual state and hopes should terminate? 
 Is it, Do I belong to the Church of Christ ? Yes, we 
 answer, if you mean by the Church, that Church of 
 which we have been writing, the house built only of 
 living stones, made alive by union to Christ, wherein 
 are none who have not been u sanctified in Christ 
 Jesus." Membership there, is to be "in Christ 
 Jesus" where " there is no condemnation." All are 
 safe who are found in that Church, not however be- 
 cause the Church saves them, but because as being 
 thus in Christ, they are saved by the righteousness 
 of its Head. But if you mean by Church } that 
 visible form of the true Church under which are 
 assembled the good and the bad, the wheat and the 
 tare, the real and the counterfeit, and where the evi- 
 dence of membership is the register of baptisms, and 
 the evidence of communion is participation in that 
 which is only the sacramental sign of inward ^nd 
 spiritual communion; then, as all are not christians 
 that are such outwardly, we must warn you against 
 attempting to judge your spiritual state by any such 
 enquiry. The great question is, — Am I in Christ 
 Jesus ? To be in him, is to be in his Church. Not 
 to be in him is not to be in his Church, no matter 
 what Church ordinances may be ours. We enter 
 his Church by coming unto him, as we enter a king- 
 
THE COMMUNION OF SAINTS. Ill 
 
 dom by union of allegiance to the king. We become 
 members of that mystical body, by becoming united 
 to Him, its head and life. How then will you know 
 whether you are in him? Two passages of Scrip- 
 ture have a most solemn connection here. u If any 
 man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of 
 his."** " Hereby know we that we dwell in him and 
 he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit."f 
 If we have not the Spirit of Christ, the question is 
 settled at once. We are none of his. We are not 
 entitled to be called by his name. We are only pro- 
 fessedly and by external bands, connected with his 
 Church. He will deny that we have any part in him, 
 when he shall call his own sheep by name and lead 
 them out to the living waters, in the future heritage 
 of his people. Nothing can in the least change that 
 decision. None of Christ s, if without his Spirit. Plead 
 what else you may, baptized, confirmed, a communi- 
 cant, an ordained minister, high in influence in the 
 Church! It matters not. None of Christ's, then no part 
 in his salvation; out of the Church of his true peo- 
 ple, till you have his Spirit dwelling in you. But 
 the other passage; "Hereby we know that we dwell 
 in him and he in us, by his Spirit which he has given 
 us" This precious possession is as conclusive as 
 that awful destitution. This proof of being in Christ, 
 is perfect. Only know that you have his Spirit, — 
 the Holy Ghost, in your heart, leading, sanctifying 
 
 * Rom. viii. 9. f 1 John iv. 13. 
 
112 THE HOLY CATHOLIC CHURCH AND 
 
 your affections and life; then, whatever else you may 
 not have, you have Christ. He is yours; you are his. 
 Condemnation is taken from your soul ; the peace 
 of God is attained; the great work whereby God 
 makes us "meet to be partakers of the inheritance 
 of the Saints in light" is going on in your heart. 
 So that the remaining question is simply ; How 
 may I know that I have the Spirit of Christ f We 
 cannot enlarge. — But we say, enquire of the Scrip- 
 tures what is the office of the Holy Ghost with 
 us; what the Lord, when he promised to send him, 
 said he would do in, and for, such as should receive 
 him. Enquire what is the Spirit's work of Regenera- 
 tion, when a sinner is "born again of the Holy 
 Ghost ;" what his progressive work of Sanctification, 
 by which the regenerate heart grows in grace ; what 
 are the several "fruits of the Spirit," as manifested 
 in the affections and life. Study such passages as 
 the following : — " They that are after the Spirit, do 
 mind the things of the Spirit"* Enquire into those 
 " things of the Spirit ;" what they are, what it is to 
 mind them, in opposition to minding "the things of 
 the flesh." Take another passage. "As many as 
 are led by the Spirit of God, they are the Sons of God."\ 
 Study what the Scriptures embrace, as to your affec- 
 tions, will, and walk, under the being "led by the 
 Spirit of God. 11 Apply all to your own heart and 
 life. Deal faithfully with your case. Pray for the 
 
 * Rom. viii. 5. f Rom. viii. 14. 
 
THE COMMUNION OF SAINTS. 113 
 
 Spirit to enlighten your mind in searching after evi- 
 dences of his indwelling, or the contrary. " Lean not 
 to your own understanding. 77 "Search me God 
 and know my heart ; try me and know my thoughts; 
 and see if there be any evil way in me and lead me 
 in the way everlasting !" This is the prayer of 
 safety, against all spiritual delusion, and all false 
 hopes. He who makes God thus his trust for 
 guidance, taking His word for the lamp of his 
 feet, determining to cherish no hope that will 
 not stand its light, and that cannot endure that 
 prayer, he will find the salvation of God. He will 
 be led to, and will be found in, Christ. God will 
 direct his steps. His will be the "hope that maketh 
 not ashamed." 
 
 We cannot better conclude these pages than to 
 copy the animated exhortation with which that great 
 light of the Church of England, in the day of her 
 great trial, Bishop Hall, concluded that remarkable 
 treatise on " Christ Mystical ; or the blessed Union 
 of Christ and his members." 
 
 " My Son if ever thou look for sound comfort on 
 
 earth, and salvation in heaven, unglue thyself from 
 
 the world and the vanities of it ; put thyself upon 
 
 thy Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ ; leave not till 
 
 thou findest thyself firmly united to him, so that thou 
 
 art become a limb of that body whereof he is head, 
 
 a spouse of that husband, a branch of that stem, a 
 
 stone laid upon that foundation ; look not therefore 
 
 for any blessing out of him ; and in, and by, and 
 H 
 

 114 THE HOLY CATHOLIC CHURCH, ETC 
 
 from him, look for all blessings ; let Hm be thy life 
 and wish not to live longer than thou art quickened 
 by him ; find him thy wisdom, righteousness, sanc- 
 tification, redemption ; thy riches, thy strength, thy 
 glory. Apply unto thyself all that thy Saviour is, 
 or hath done. Wouldst thou have the grace of 
 God's Spirit, fetch them from his anointing ; wouldst 
 thou have power against spiritual enemies, fetch it 
 from his sovereignty ; wouldst thou have redemp- 
 tion, fetch it from his passion ; wouldst thou have 
 freedom from the curse, fetch it from his cross; 
 satisfaction, fetch it from his sacrifice; cleansing, 
 fetch it from his blood; newness of life, fetch it from 
 his resurrection ; right to heaven, fetch it from his 
 purchase ; audience in all thy suits, fetch it from his 
 session at the right hand of Majesty ; wouldst thou 
 have all, fetch it from him who is ' one Lord, one 
 God and Father of all, who is above all, through all, 
 and in all.' " 
 
APPENDIX A. Page 31. 
 
 If the views exhibited in this volume concerning 
 the invisible Church, be true, the theory of the visi- 
 ble Church being the depository of grace, &c, cannot 
 stand. I will allude to one passage which is often 
 used, as if there could be no doubt of its sustaining 
 that theory. 
 
 I refer to the first chapter of the Epistle to the 
 Ephesians, and 23d verse. 
 
 St Paul speaking of the Church, says, " which is 
 his (Christ's) body, the fullness r * , w0 of him that 
 filleth all in all" 
 
 This passage is often treated, as if the Church 
 were Christ's fullness, in the sense of being, corpo- 
 rately, in possession of all the grace which Christ has 
 purchased for his people, independently of his in- 
 dwelling, by his Spirit, in the heart of each. It will 
 be seen, from the following references, that such is 
 in no sense the understanding of the passage by our 
 old divines, and others. It will appear that the 
 passage is understood as meaning that the Church is 
 Christ's fullness, simply as the completion of Him, 
 as head of the mystical body — his Church ; just as 
 
 115 
 
116 APPENDIX. 
 
 a king is relatively incomplete without a kingdom 
 and tlms a kingdom is the fullness, or complement urn, 
 of a king. 
 
 Hooker on this very verse says, "It pleaseth 
 Christ, in mercy, to account himself incomplete and 
 maimed without us, and quoting the passage in the 
 Latin, (Ecclesia complementum ejus qui implet omnia 
 in omnibus?) says : " But most assured we are, that 
 we all receive of his fullness, because he is in us as a 
 moving and working cause. — Eccl. Pol. b. v. § 56, 
 near end. 
 
 Archbishop Usher comments on the same passage 
 as follows : " As it hath pleased the Father, that in 
 Him should all fullness dwell ; so the Son is pleased 
 not to hold it any disparagement, that his body, the 
 Church, should be accounted the fullness of Him that 
 filleth all in all] that, howsoever, in himself, he is 
 most absolutely, and perfectly, complete, yet is his 
 Church, so nearly conjoined with him, that he hold- 
 eth not himself full without it ; but, as long as any 
 one member remaineth ungathered and unknit into 
 this mystical body of his, he accounteth, in the 
 meantime, somewhat to be deficient in himself." — 
 Sermon before the King — in Usher's Answer to a 
 Jesuit, p. 694. 
 
 Beveridge gives the same. " The Church is so 
 Christ's body that it is his (V^w*) His Fullness, 
 that whereby he is full and complete, which other- 
 wise he would not be, no more than a head is with- 
 out a body. * * And therefore the Epistle here truly 
 
APPENDIX. 117 
 
 calls the Church his fullness or complement B eve- 
 ridge's Sermons, No. 82, vol, I. p. 385. 
 
 There is a very important and solemn sense, in 
 which each Christian may be a filled with all the full- 
 ness of God." St. Paul prays for the Ephesian 
 Christians — Eph. iii. 19 — that they " may be filled 
 with all the fullness of God 11 — not "the fullness of 
 the Godhead" as Christ, was and is ; but the full- 
 ness of that sanctifying grace which God has pro- 
 mised to his people, as the purchase of Christ 
 in their behalf. But in this passage it is the in- 
 dividual believer, and not any corporate body of be- 
 lievers that is prayed for. The context shows that, 
 as St. Paul prays for the Ephesians, individually, that 
 Christ may dwell in their hearts, by faith; so he prays 
 for the same individuals that they may be severally 
 filled with the fullness of God. In one sense indeed, 
 the Church may be spoken of in the same way, but 
 only as it is the aggregate of all in whose hearts, as 
 individual believers, Christ dwells by faith. 
 
 The passages below from those great divines of the 
 17th century, Dr. Jackson and Archbishop Usher, 
 will show how giants in divinity of those days were 
 wont to speak of union to Christ. 
 
 " All that believe as Peter and the other Apostles 
 did, or shall so believe, unto the world's end, are 
 immediately laid on the same foundation stone, not 
 one upon another; their union or annexation unto 
 Christ is as immediate as Peter's was, and is or shall 
 be as indissoluble as his was to Christ; albeit, their 
 
118 APPENDIX. 
 
 growth be not so great, nor for quality so glorious. 
 The description of this edifice, thus immediately 
 erected upon the same stone, would be that of the 
 poet, Grescit crescentibus illis. As the number of 
 living stones which are laid upon the foundation 
 stone increases, so the foundation or corner stone, 
 which God did promise to lay in Zion, doth increase. 
 As every particular living stone increaseth or grow- 
 eth from a stone into a pillar of the house of God, 
 unto a temple of God ; so this foundation stone, that 
 is, Christ as a man, still groweth, still increaseth, 
 not in himself, but in them. For they grow by his 
 growth in them, or by diffusion of life from him into 
 them. — Jackson's Works, vol. iii. b. ii. c. iv. § 22. 
 
 "Our Apostle's words are express that all the 
 building is fitly framed together in Christ, and so 
 framed together, groweth up unto an holy temple in 
 the Lord. He saith not, we are builded one upon 
 another, but builded together in him for an habita- 
 tion of God through the Spirit. The Spirit by 
 which we are builded together in Christ, or through 
 which we become the habitation of God, is not 
 communicated and propagated unto us as from 
 intermediate foundations or roots. We and all true 
 believers receive the influence of the Spirit as im- 
 mediately from Christ, or from God the Father and 
 the Son, in the same manner as St. Peter did. — Ibid, 
 c. v. § 6. 
 
 "The mystery of our union to Christ (says Arch- 
 bishop Usher) consisteth mainly in this ; that the 
 
APPENDIX. 119 
 
 self same Spirit which, is in him, as in the head ; is so 
 derived from him into everv one of his true mem- 
 bers, that thereby they are animated and quickened 
 to a spiritual life. * * * 
 
 a The formal reason of the union of the members 
 of our bodies consisteth not in the continuity of the 
 parts, though that also be requisite to the unity of a 
 natural body, but in the animation thereof by one 
 and the same spirit. * * And even thus it is in 
 Christ; although in regard of his corpora I presence, 
 the heaven must receive him until the times of the 
 restitution of all things ; yet he is here with us al- 
 ways, even unto the end of the world, by the pre- 
 sence of his Spirit. — Sermon before House of Com- 
 mons. 
 
120 APPENDIX. 
 
 APPENDIX B. Page 68. 
 
 THE ANGLICAN FATHERS ON THE 
 INVISIBLE CHURCH. 
 
 ARCHBISHOP CRANMER. 
 
 u I believe the holy Catholic Church ; that is to 
 say, that ever there is found some company of men 
 or some congregation of good people, which believe 
 the Gospel and are saved. * * * For this word, 
 Church, signifieth a company of men lightened with 
 the Spirit of Christ, which do receive the gospel, 
 &c. And this Christian Church is a communion of 
 Saints, that is to say all that be of this communion, 
 or company, be holy, and be one holy body under 
 Christ their head. And this congregation receiveth 
 of their head and Lord, all spiritual riches and gifts 
 that pertain to the sanctification and making holy 
 of the same body. And these ghostly treasures be 
 common to the whole body, and to every member of 
 the same. 11 
 
APPENDIX. 121 
 
 Cranmers Catechism of 1548. Fathers of the Engl, 
 Ch., pp. 235, 6. 
 
 "But the holy Church is so unknown to the world 
 that no man can descrie it, but God alone who only 
 searcheth the hearts of all men, and knoweth his 
 true children from others. 
 
 "This Church" (the invisible) "is the pillar of 
 truth, because it resteth in God's word ; * * but as 
 for the open, known Church/ 7 (the visible) "and the 
 outward face thereof, it is not the pillar of truth, 
 otherwise than it is (as it were) a register, or trea- 
 sury, to keep the books of God's holy will and testa- 
 ment, and to rest only thereupon. * * For if the 
 Church" (the visible) "proceed further, to make any 
 new articles of the faith, besides the Scripture or con- 
 trary to the Scripture, or direct not the form of life 
 according to the same; then it is not the pillar of 
 truth, nor the Church of Christ, but the synagogue 
 of Satan, and the temple of Antichrist." 
 
 "What wonder is it, that the open church (the 
 visible) is now of late years fallen into many 
 errors and corruptions, and the holy Church of 
 Christ is secret and unknown, seeing that Satan, 
 these five hundred years, hath been let loose and 
 Antichrist reigneth, spoiling and devouring the 
 simple flock of Christ. But as Almighty God 
 said unto Elias, 'I have reserved unto myself 
 seven thousand that have not bowed the knee 
 unto Baal,' so it is at present. For though God 
 hath suffered these five hundred years the open 
 
122 APPENDIX. 
 
 face of his church, to be ugly, deformed and shame- 
 fully defiled by the sects of the papists, yet hath 
 Grod of his wonderful mercy ever preserved a good 
 number, secret to himself, in his true religion, al- 
 though Antichrist hath bathed himself in the blood 
 of no small number of them." Cranmer's Answer 
 to Smith's Works, (Parker's Soc. Ed.) vol. I. pp. 
 377, 378. 
 
 Bishop Eidley. 
 
 " The name Churchj is taken in Scripture some- 
 times for the whole multitude of them which profess 
 the name of Christ, of the which they are also 
 named Christians. But as St. Paul saith of the 
 Jew, l Not every one is a Jew outwardly? &c. ( Neither 
 yet all that be of Israel are counted of the seed? Even 
 so, not every one which is a christian outwardly, is 
 a christian indeed. For ' If any man have not the 
 Spirit of Christ, the same is none of his.' Therefore, 
 that Church, which is his body, of which Christ is 
 the head, standeth only of living stones and true 
 christians, not only outwardly in name and title, but 
 inwardly in heart and in truth." 
 
 Ridley's Works, (Parker Soc. Ed.) p. 126. 
 
 Hookee. 
 
 In the body of this work, we have quoted so often 
 from Hooker that it can hardly be needful to add 
 any further elucidation of his views. We must re- 
 fer the Eeader to passages of great value and distinct- 
 ness, from that high authority in chapter second. 
 
APPENDIX. 123 
 
 William Perkins, D. D. 
 
 This eminent English divine, of Christ's College, Cambridge, 
 died 1602. His works have been translated into Latin, Dutch, 
 Spanish, &c. He connects the age of the Reformers with that 
 of the writers of the 17th century. 
 
 " The number of believers, dispersed through the 
 whole world, who are effectually called, and sancti- 
 fied and preserved unto life everlasting * * for 
 however in the Catholic Church there be two sorts 
 of men professing religion, the one of them that do un- 
 feignedly believe and are sanctified ; the other of 
 them who make show of faith, but indeed believe 
 not, but remain in their sins ; of the former doth the 
 Catholic Church consist, and not of the latter, who 
 are no members set into the head of this body, though 
 they may seem to be. 
 
 " This confuteih the Romish Church, who teach and 
 hold that a reprobate may be a member of this Churc 7 >. 
 
 " This Catholic Church is invisible, and cannot 
 by the eye of flesh be discerned * * for who can 
 infallibly determine the things that are within a 
 man ? which again overthroweth that Eomish doc- 
 trine which teaches that the Catholic Church is 
 visible and apparent upon earth. Yet some parts 
 are visible, as in the right use of words and sacra- 
 ments appeareth. 
 
 " This Catholic Church cannot utterly perish and 
 be dissolved. All other congregations and particu- 
 lar Churches being mixed may fail, yet this cannot 
 be overcome." Works, Vol. III. p. 482. 
 
124 APPENDIX. 
 
 "To this assembly and no other belong all the 
 promises of this life and the life to come. It is the 
 ground and pillar of truth ; that is, the doctrine of 
 true religion is always safely kept and maintained 
 in it. 
 
 "In visible Churches are two sorts of men; just 
 men and hypocrites, who although they be within 
 the Church, yet the Church is not so called of them," 
 (i. e. is not called the Church on account of them) 
 " but in regard of them only who are truly joined 
 unto Christ. 
 
 " Adversaries hereof are Papists, who frame not 
 the Church by these true properties, but by other 
 deceitful marks, as succession, multitude, antiquity, 
 consent." p. 504. 
 
 Bishop Hall. 
 
 11 The word Church is not more common than 
 equivocal : whether ye consider it as the aggrega- 
 tion of the outward, visible, particular Churches of 
 Christian professors ; or as the inward, secret, uni- 
 versal company of the Elect ; it is still one. 
 
 " To begin with the former. What Church hath 
 one Lord, Jesus Christ, the righteous, one Faith in 
 that Lord, one Baptism with that Faith, it is the one 
 Dove of Christ ; to speak more short, one Faith 
 abridges all. But what is that one Faith? What 
 but the main fundamental doctrine of religion neces- 
 sary to be known, to be believed unto salvation. 
 
APPENDIX. 125 
 
 "But if from particular visible Churches you shall 
 turn your eyes to the true inward, universal company 
 of God's elect and secret ones, there shall you more 
 perfectly find one Dove ; for what the other is in pro- 
 fession, this is in truth ; that one Baptism is here the 
 true Laver of Regeneration ; that one Faith is a saving 
 reposal upon Christ ; that one Lord is the Saviour 
 of his body. No natural body is more one than this 
 mystical ; one head rules it ; one Spirit animates it ; 
 one set of joints moves it ; one food nourishes it ; 
 one robe covers it. So it is one in itself, so one 
 with Christ, as Christ is one with the Father : 
 " That they may be one, even as we are one ; I in them 
 and they in me." — John vii. 22. 
 
 Bp. HalVs Sermon on the Beauty and Unity of the 
 Church. 
 
 " The whole church is the spiritual temple of God. 
 Every believer is a living stone laid in those sacred 
 walls. * * There is no place for any loose stone 
 in God's edifice : the whole Church is one entire 
 body. * * In case there happen to be differences in 
 opinion concerning points not essential, not necessary 
 to salvation ; this diversity may not breed any alien- 
 ation of affection. * * 
 
 " In the mean time, it highly concerns all that 
 wish well to the sacred name of Christ, to labour to 
 keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace ; 
 Eph. iv. 3 : and to renew and continue the prayer 
 of the Apostle for all the professors of Christianity 
 — 'Now the God of patience and consolation grant 
 
 11* 
 
126 APPENDIX. 
 
 you to be like-minded one towards another, accord- 
 ing to Christ Jesus : that ye may, with one mind and 
 one mouth, glorify, God, even the Father of our 
 Lord Jesus Christ.' " Eom. xv. 5, 6. 
 
 Bp. HalVs Treatise of Christ Mystical, c. vii. § 2. 
 
 "As there are two persons between whom this 
 union is made, Christ and the believer ; so each of 
 them concurs to the happy effecting of it : Christ by 
 His Spirit diffused through the hearts of all the 
 regenerate, giving life and activity to them ; the 
 believer laying hold by faith upon Christ ; so work- 
 ing in him ; and these do so react upon each other 
 that from their mutual operation, results this gra- 
 cious union whereof we treat. * * O the grace of faith 
 justly represented to us by St. Paul, (Eph. vi. 16.) 
 above all other graces incident unto the soul, as 
 that, which if not alone, chiefly transacts all the 
 main affairs tending to salvation. For faith is the 
 quickening grace; Gal. ii. 20 — Eom. i. 17 : the di- 
 recting grace ; 2 Cor. v. 7 : the protecting grace ; 
 Eph. vi. 16 : the establishing grace ; Kom. xi. 20 — 
 2 Cor. i. 24 : the justifying grace ; Eom. vi ; the 
 sanctifying and purifying grace ; Acts xv. 9. Faith 
 is the grace that assists to, apprehends, applies, 
 appropriates Christ ; Heb. xi. 1 ; and hereupon the 
 uniting gaace, and (which comprehends all) the saving 
 grace." Christ Mystical, c. vi. 
 
APPENDIX. 127 
 
 Bishop Taylor. 
 
 " The Church is a company of men and women 
 professing the saving doctrine of Jesus Christ. This 
 is the Church 'in sensu forensif and in the sight of 
 men, but because glorious things are spoken of the 
 city of God, the professors of Christ's doctrine are 
 but imperfectly and inchoatively the Church of God ; 
 but they who are indeed holy and obedient to Christ's 
 laws of faith and manners — these are truly and per- 
 fectly ' the Church? * * These are the Church of 
 God in the eyes and heart of God. For the Church 
 of God are the body of Christ ; but the mere profes- 
 sion of Christianity makes no man a member of Christ 
 — nothing but a new creature, nothing but 'a faith 
 working by love ;' and keeping the commandments 
 of God. Now they that do this are not known to 
 be such by men ; but they are known only to God ; 
 and therefore it is in a true sense, ' the invisible 
 Church ;' not that there are two churches, or two 
 societies, in separation from each other. * * * No, 
 these two churches, are but one society : the one 
 is within the other — but yet though the men be 
 visible, yet that quality and excellency by which 
 they are constituted Christ's members, and distin- 
 guished from mere professors and outsides of chris- 
 tians, this, I say, is not visible. All that really and 
 heartily serve Christ in aldito, do also profess to do 
 so ; * * the invisible Church is ordinarily and requ- 
 
128 APPENDIX. 
 
 larly part of the visible, but yet that only part that 
 is the true one ; and the rest, but by denomination of 
 law, and in common speaking, are the Church — not in 
 mystical union, not in proper relation to Christ; they 
 are not the House of God, not the temple of the Holy 
 Ghost, not the members of Christ ; and no man can 
 deny this. Hypocrites are not Christ's servants, and 
 therefore not Christ's members, and therefore no part 
 of the Church of God, but improperly and equivocally, 
 as a dead man is a man ; all which is perfectly sum- 
 med up in these words of St. Augustine, saying, 
 that " the body of Christ is not ' bipartitum, 1 it is not 
 a double body — ' all that are Christ's body, shall 
 reign with Christ forever.' And therefore they who 
 are of their father, the devil, are the synagogue of 
 Satan, and of such is not the kingdom of God ; and 
 all this is no more than St. Paul said : i They 
 are not all Israel, who are of Israel,' and l He is not a 
 Jew that is one outwardly, but he is a, Jew that is one 
 inwardly? Now if any part will agree to call the 
 universality of professors by the title of ' the Church? 
 they may if they will ; any word by consent may sig- 
 nify any thing ; but if by a Church we mean that 
 society which is really joined to Christ, which hath 
 received the Holy Ghost, which is heir of the pro- 
 mises and of the good things of God, which is the 
 body of which Christ is the head ; then the invisible 
 part of the visible Church, that is, the true servants 
 of Christ only, are the Church ; that is, to them only 
 appertain the Spirit and the truth, the promises and 
 
APPENDIX. 129 
 
 the graces, the privileges and advantages of the 
 gospel ; to others, they appertain as the promise of 
 pardon does ; that is when they have made themselves 
 capable. The faithful only and obedient are beloved 
 of God. Others may believe rightly ; but so do the 
 devils, who are no parts of the church, but princes 
 ' ecclesia malignantium} and it will be a strange pro- 
 position which affirms any one to be of the church, 
 for no other reason but such as qualifies the devil to 
 be so too. 
 
 Bp. Taylor contends that the Article in the creed 
 - — " Holy Catholic Church" and the next, " the Com- 
 munion of Saints" refer to the same thing, and mean 
 only what before he has defined as the invisible 
 Church, viz. the society of the true followers of 
 Christ. " If it be asked (he says) what is the 
 Catholic Church ? — the Apostles' Creed defines it ; 
 it is ' communio sanctoruin 1 — ' I believe in the Holy 
 Catholic Church,' that is, 'the Communion of Saints,' 
 the conjunction of all them who heartily serve God 
 through Jesus Christ ; the one indeed is exegetical 
 of the other, as that which is plainer is explicative 
 of that which is less plain ; but else they are but 
 the same thing : which appears also in this, that in 
 some creeds the latter words are left out, and par- 
 ticularly in the Constantinopolitan, as being under- 
 stood to be in effect, but another expression of the 
 same article. * * St. Augustine spends two chapters 
 in affirming that only they who serve God faithfully 
 are the Church of God) for this is in the good and 
 I 
 
130 APPENDIX. 
 
 faithful, and the holy servants of God, scattered 
 every where, and combined by a spiritual union in 
 the same communion of sacraments, whether they 
 know one another by face or no. Others, it is cer- 
 tain, are so said to be in the house of God, that they 
 do not pertain to the structure of the house. * * * 
 Those who are condemned by Christ (continues St. 
 Augustine) for their evil and polluted consciences, 
 are not in Christ's body which is the Church ; for 
 Christ hath no damned members.' 
 
 " But I need not be digging the cisterns for this 
 truth — Christ himself hath taught it very plainly : 
 * Ye are my friends if ye do whatsoever I command 
 you, not upon any other terms ; and I hope none but 
 friends are members of Christ's mystical body, mem- 
 bers of the Church whereof he is head. * * To be united 
 to Christ, and to be members of his body ; these are 
 the portions of saints, not of wicked persons, whether 
 clergy or laity. * * As all the principles and graces 
 of the gospel are the property of the godly, so they 
 only are the Church of God of which glorious things 
 are spoken, and it will be vain to talk of the infalli- 
 bility of God's Church ; the Eoman doctors either 
 must confess it subjected here, that is, in the Church 
 in this sense, or they can find it no where. In 
 short, this is the Church, (in the sense now explicited) 
 which is c the pillar and ground of the truth f but this 
 is not the sense of the Church of Rome" nor (we add) 
 of those who are now endeavouring to bring us so 
 near to Rome, but on the contrary is the sense 
 
APPENDIX. 131 
 
 which their whole system, as much as that of Rome, 
 requires them to oppose. Hence the necessity of 
 .Keeping it distinct, and holding it fast. 
 
 "The word 'church,' I grant, may, and is given 
 to them by way of supposition and legal presump- 
 tion, as a jury of twelve men are called l good men 
 and true ' — that is, they are not known to be other- 
 wise, and therefore presumed to be such ; and they 
 are the church in all human accounts — that is, they 
 are the congregation of all that profess the name of 
 Christ, * * * in which are the wheat and the tares ; 
 and they are bound up in common by the union of 
 sacraments and external rites, name and profession, 
 but by nothing else. This doctrine is well explica 
 ted by St. Austin. 'Not only in eternity, but even 
 now, hypocrites are not to be said to be with Christ, 
 although they may seem to be of his church. But 
 the Scripture speaks of them and these, as if they 
 were both of one body, propter temporalem commix- 
 tionem et communionem sacramentorum. They are 
 only combined by a temporal mixture, and united 
 by the common use of sacraments.' * * * So that 
 which we call the church, is 'permixta ecclesia? and 
 for this mixture's sake, under the cover and knot of 
 external communion, the church — that is, all that 
 company, is esteemed one body; and the appel- 
 lations are made in common, and so are the ad- 
 dresser, and offices and ministries. Therefore it is 
 no wonder that we call this great mixture by the 
 name of 'the church? but then since the church hath 
 
132 APPENDIX. 
 
 a more sacred notion, as it is the spouse of Christ, 
 his body, his temple, &e> * * therefore, although 
 when we speak of all the acts and duties, of the 
 judgments and nomenclatures, of outward appear- 
 ances and accounts of law, we call the mixed society 
 by the name of the Church ; yet when we consider 
 it in the true, proper and primary meaning, * * all 
 the promises of G od, the Spirit of God, the life of 
 God, and all the good things of God, are peculiar to 
 the Church of God, in God's sense, in the way in 
 which he owns it, that is, as it is holy, united unto 
 Christ, like to him, and partaker of the divine na- 
 ture. The other are but a heap of men keeping good 
 company, calling themselves by a good name, managing 
 the external parts of union and ministry; but be- 
 cause they otherwise belong not to God, the pro- 
 mises no otherwise belong to them, but as they may, 
 and when they do, return to God. Here then are 
 two senses of the word ' Church ;' God's sense and 
 man's sense ; the sense of religion, and the sense of 
 government ; common rites, and spiritual union." 
 
 Bp. Taylor's Dissuasive from Popery, Part II. B. 
 I. Sect. I. 
 
 Having laid his foundation in the position that 
 none but the true servants of Christ make the true 
 Church of Christ, and have title to the promises; 
 and having observed that the Eomish church relies 
 upon the church under another definition, Bishop 
 Taylor proceeds : 
 
 "Of the church, in the first sense, St. Paul af- 
 
APPENDIX. 133 
 
 firms, it is u the pillar and ground of truth" He 
 spake it of the church of Ephesus, or the holy cath- 
 olic church over the world ; for there is the same 
 reason of one and all ; if it be, as St. Paul calls it, 
 "Ecclesia Dei vivi;" if it be united to the head, 
 Christ Jesus, every church is as much the " pillar 
 and ground of truth" as all the church ; which, that 
 we may understand rightly, we are to consider that 
 what is commonly called the "church," is but "do- 
 mus ecclesia verae," as the "ecclesia vera" is 
 "domus Dei :" it is the school of piety, the place of 
 institution and discipline. Good and bad dwell 
 here ; but God only, and his Spirit, dwell with the 
 good. They are all taught in the church ; but the 
 good only are "taught by God," by an infallible 
 Spirit — that is, by a Spirit which neither can de- 
 ceive, nor be deceived ; and therefore by. him the 
 good, and they only, are led into all-saving truth ; 
 and these are the men that preserve the truth in 
 holiness. Without this society, the truth would be 
 hidden, and held in unrighteousness, so that all good 
 men, all particular congregations of good men, who, 
 upon the foundation, Christ Jesus, build the super- 
 structure of a holy life, are "the pillar and ground 
 of truth ;" that is, they support and defend the truth 
 — they follow and adorn the truth, which truth 
 would in a little time be suppressed, or obscured, or 
 varied, or concealed, and misinterpreted, if the 
 wicked only had it in their conduct. That is, 
 amongst good men we are most like to find the ways 
 
134 APPENDIX. 
 
 of peace and truth, all saving truth, and tlie proper 
 spiritual advantages and loveliness of truth. Now, 
 then, this does no more relate to all churches, than 
 to every church. God will no more leave or forsake 
 any one of his faithful servants, than he will forsake 
 all the world. And therefore here the notion of 
 catholic is of no use: for the church is the com- 
 munion of saints, wherever it be or may be ; and 
 that this church is catholic, it does not mean by any 
 distinct existence, but by comprehension and actual 
 and potential enclosure of all communions of holy 
 people l in the unity of the spirit, and in the bond 
 of peace 7 — that is, both externally and internally. 
 Externally means the common use of the symbols 
 and sacraments, for they are the bond of peace ; but 
 the unity of the Spirit is the peculiar of the saints, 
 and is the internal confederation and conjunction of 
 the members of Christ's body in themselves, and to 
 their head. And by the energy of this state, where- 
 ever it happens to be, all the blessings of the Spirit 
 are entailed; every man hath his share in it; he 
 shall never be left or forsaken ; and the spirit of God 
 will never depart from him as long as he remains 
 in, and is of, the communion of saints." 
 
 Dissuasive from Popery, supra. 
 
 Archbishop Usher. 
 
 "What is meant here (in the Creed) by the Cath- 
 olic Church ?" 
 
 "That whole universal company of the elect 
 
APPENDIX. 135 
 
 that ever were, are, or shall be gathered together in 
 one body, knit together in one faith, under one head, 
 Jesus Christ. For Grod, in all places, and of all 
 sorts of men, had from the beginning, hath now, 
 and ever will have, an holy church, which is there- 
 fore called the catholic church — that is, God's whole 
 or universal assembly, because it comprehendeth the 
 multitude of all those that have, do, or shall believe 
 unto the world's end. Part are already in heaven 
 triumphant, part as yet militant here upon earth. 
 
 " What is the Church militant ?" 
 
 " It is the society of those that being scattered 
 through all the corners of the world, are, by one 
 faith in Christ, conjoined to him and fight under his 
 banner against their enemies, the world, the flesh 
 and the devil ; continuing in the service and warfare 
 of their Lord, and expecting in due time, also, 
 to be crowned with victory, and triumph in glory 
 with Him. 
 
 " Who are the true members of the church mili- 
 tant on earth ?" 
 
 " Those alone who, as living members of the mys- 
 tical body, Bph. i. 22, 23 ; Col. i. 18, are, by the 
 Spirit and Faith, secretly and inseparably conjoined 
 unto Christ, their head — Col. iii. 3 ; Ps. lxxxiii. 3. 
 In which respect, the true militant church is both 
 invincible — Matt. xvi. 18 — and invisible — Eom. ii. 29; 
 1 Pet. iii. 4. 
 
 "Truly and properly none are of the church saving 
 only they which truly believe and yield obedience*. 
 
136 APPENDIX. 
 
 (1 John, 2, 19,) all which are also saved. Howbeit, 
 God useth outward means with the inward for the 
 gathering of his saints ; and calleth them as well to 
 outward profession among themselves, as to inward 
 fellowship with his Son ; (Acts ii. 42 ; Cant. i. 7,) 
 whereby the church becometh visible. Hence it 
 cometh, that so many as partaking the outward 
 means, do join with these in league of visible pro- 
 fession; (Acts viii. 13,) are therefore in human 
 judgment accompted members of the true church and 
 saints by calling; (1 Cor. i. 2,) until the Lord, who 
 only knoweth who are his, do make known the con- 
 trary, as we are taught in the parable of the tares, 
 the draw net, &c : (Matt. xiii. 24, 47.) Thus many 
 live in the church, as it is visible and outward, 
 which are partakers only outwardly of grace ; and 
 such are not fully of the church that have entered 
 in but one step ; (Cant. iv. 7 ; Eph. v. 27 ; John ii. 
 19.) That a man may be fully of the church, it is 
 not sufficient that he profess Christ with his mouth, 
 but it is further required that he believe in him in 
 heart." Usher's Body of Divinity. 
 
 De. Jackson. 
 
 Of this truly eminent writer, President of Corpus 
 Christi College, Oxford, in the early part of the 17th 
 century, it will give weight in some minds, to the fol- 
 lowing extracts, if we here quote the testimony of Dr. 
 Pusey, who has called him " one of the best and 
 
APPENDIX. 137 
 
 greatest minds the Church of England has nur- 
 tured.'' 
 
 14 All God's promises to the church principally be- 
 long to the principal members of it, who are distinctly 
 and individually known to Himself only — not so to 
 us, to whom notwithstanding their persons are visible, 
 their profession of faith is likewise visible. The sin- 
 cerity of their hearts or faith, is, to us, invisible ; 
 and therefore invisible it is to us whether they be 
 live members of the Holy Catholic Church or no." 
 
 Works b. 12.c. v.§ 2. 
 
 "The visible church is a transcendent, and 
 doth neither exclude the members of the holy church 
 triumphant or militant, nor doth it consist only of 
 them — but of them and of others called only by a 
 mere external vocation. * * * The church mili- 
 tant is visible to God and to the several members of 
 it ; but what members of this visible and militant 
 church be live members of the one holy and Catho- 
 lic church, is known only to God or to men's pri- 
 vate consciences," &c. 
 
 " Though the church be sometimes, by good 
 writers, entitled as well invisible as visible, we are 
 not, from this opposition of words or terms, to con- 
 ceit an opposition or distinction of churches, as if 
 some were visible, others altogether invisible. Such 
 as most use these terms, mean no more by them 
 than we have said, to wit : What persons of the 
 militant and visible church be true denizens of the 
 
 heavenly Jerusalem f or city of Go i, is to us invisible 
 
 12* 
 
138 APPENDIX. 
 
 or unknown. I cannot say whether it were igno- 
 rance or malice in the Romanists to construe these 
 terms of visible and invisible, whilst they found them 
 in some of our writers, as if they had constituted 
 two contra-distinct, or opposite churches, when as 
 it is plain that they are, for the most part, subordi- 
 nate and co-incident. Ordinarily, the live members 
 of the holy Catholic Church, or of that part of 
 it which is to us invisible, are members of some 
 visible church — but not e contra ; for neither all, 
 nor most part of any visible church, in latter ages, 
 are true and live-members of the holy and catholic 
 church, part of which we believe to be here on 
 earth, though it be to us invisible. * * * Many 
 there be which are no members of the visible 
 church, and yet better members of the true church 
 than the members of the church- visible, for the pre- 
 sent, are." — c. VII. § 5, 6. 
 
 "This church, (the true, holy and catholic 
 church,) is a true and real body, consisting of many 
 parts, all really (though mystically and spiritually) 
 united unto one head ; and by their real union with 
 one head, all are truly and really united among 
 themselves. Every one is so far a member of 
 Christ's Church, as he is a member of Christ's body. 
 He that is a true live-member of the one, is a true live- 
 member of the other. He that is but an equivocal, 
 analogical, hypocritical or painted member of the 
 one, is but an equivocal, hypocritical, painted, or 
 analogical member of the other." c. III. § 4. 
 
APPENDIX. 139 
 
 "The Catholic Church, in the prime sense, con- 
 sists only of such men as are actual and indissoluble 
 members of Christ's mystical body, or of such as 
 have the Catholic faith, not only sown in their brains 
 or understandings, but thoroughly rooted in their 
 hearts. In a secondary, analogical sense, every 
 present, visible church, which holdeth the holy 
 Catholic faith, without which no man can be saved, 
 pure and undefiled with the traditions and inventions 
 of man, may be termed a holy Catholic Church. 
 When we say a man may be a visible member 
 of the holy Catholic Church, and yet no actual mem- 
 ber of any present visible church, we take the 
 Catholic Church in the latter or secondary sense. 
 Who are indissoluble members of Christ's bodv, is 
 only visible or known to Him. Many thousands are, 
 and have been, true members of it, which are, and 
 have been, altogether invisible to us. But who they 
 be that possess the unity of that faith which the 
 Apostles taught, and without which no man can be 
 saved, is visible and known to all such as either hear 
 them profess it viva voce, or can read and understand 
 their profession of it given in writing." — c. XVII. § 1. 
 
 Dr. Jackson's Treatise on the Church is part of a 
 great work, on the Apostles' Creed. The Eev. Mr. 
 Goode, of London, has revived attention to it, be- 
 cause of its decided opposition to those views of the 
 church which the Tractarian writings have re-pro- 
 duced out of what were once considered, among us, 
 the worn-out errors of Eomanism. From the edition 
 
140 APPENDIX. 
 
 by Mr. Goode, a re-print was made in this country 
 a few years ago by Mr. Hooker of Philadelphia. I 
 cannot abstain from earnestly recommending that 
 little book to the study of all who wish to know 
 what is the Holy Catholic Church and Communion 
 of Saints, in which they profess to believe. 
 
 The account given by the great Dr. Isaac Barrow, 
 of the Visible and Invisible Church, in his " Dis- 
 course on the Unity of the Church," agrees perfectly 
 with the above. I shall quote from vol. vi. of the 
 Oxford edition of his works, 1818. 
 
 He defines the one as "the society of those who 
 profess the faith and gospel of Christ, and undertake 
 the evangelical covenant in distinction to all other 
 religions." 
 
 The other he defines as "the whole body of God's 
 people that is, ever hath been, or ever shall be, from 
 the beginning of the world, to the consummation 
 thereof, who having (formally or virtually) believed 
 in Christ, and sincerely obeyed God's laws, shall 
 finally, by the meritorious performances and suffer- 
 ings of Christ, be saved." — p. 497. 
 
 The latter he calls "the Catholic society of true be- 
 lievers and faithful servants of Christ" the " true uni- 
 versal church, called the church mystical and invisible" 
 —pp. 497 and 500. 
 
 To this invisible church, composed only of such 
 as shall finally be saved, belong, he says, " all the 
 glorious titles and excellent privileges attributed to 
 the church in holy Scripture." " This is the body 
 
APPENDIX. 141 
 
 of Christ," "the spouse of Christ/' "the house of God 
 built on a rock, against which the gates of hell shall 
 not prevail" "this is the elect generation," &c. 
 
 "'To this church, belongs peculiarly that unity 
 which is often attributed to the church." 
 
 " This is that one body into which we are all bap- 
 tized by one Spirit ; the members whereof do hold a 
 mutual sympathy and complacence ; which is joined 
 to one head, deriving sense and motion from it ; 
 which is enlivened and moved by one Spirit." 
 
 " This is the society of those for whom Christ did 
 pray that they might be all one" — pp. 497, '8, '9. 
 
 The essential unity of this invisible, catholic 
 church, to which only belong the promises of God, 
 according to the above, is thus described : 
 
 "All christians are united by spiritual cognation 
 and alliance, as being all regenerated by the same in- 
 corruptible seed, being alike born, not of blood nor of the 
 will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God, 
 whence, as the sons of God, and brethren of Christ, 
 they become brethren one to another. * * 
 
 " The whole christian church is one by its incor- 
 poration into the mystical body of Christ, or as fel- 
 low-subjects of that spiritual, heavenly kingdom, 
 whereof Christ is the sovereign head and governor ; 
 whence they are governed by the same laws, are 
 obliged by the same institutions and functions ; they 
 partake of the same privileges, and are entitled to 
 the same promises, and encouraged by the same re- 
 wards. So they make one spiritual corporation or 
 
142 APPENDIX. 
 
 republic, whereof Christ is the sovereign Lord." 
 —p. 507. 
 
 Then in what sense the Visible church may be 
 be considered as partaking in the titles, privileges, 
 &c, which belong of right to the invisible only, Dr. 
 Barrow thus teaches : 
 
 " The places of Scripture which do represent the 
 church one, as unquestionably they belong (in their 
 principal notion and intent) to the true Universal 
 Church, (called the church mystical and invisible;) 
 so may they by analogy and participation, be under- 
 stood to concern the visible church-Catholic here on 
 earth, which professeth faith in Christ and obedi- 
 ence to his laws." — p. 501. For because the visible 
 church doth enfold the other, (as one mass doth 
 contain the good ore and base alloy, as one floor 
 the corn and the chaflQ * * * because, therefore, 
 presumptively, every member of this doth pass 
 for a member of the other, the time of distinction 
 and separation being not yet come: * * 
 therefore commonly the titles and attributes of 
 the one are imparted to the other. All (saith 
 St. Paul,) are not Israel who are of Israel; nor 
 is he a lew that is one outwardly ; yet in regard to 
 the conjunction of the rest with the faithful Israelites, 
 because of external consent in the same profession, 
 and conspiring in the same services, all the congre- 
 gation of Israel is styled a holy nation and peculiar 
 people." 
 
 11 So likewise do the Apostles speak to all members 
 
APPENDIX. 143 
 
 of the church, (visible) as to elect and holy persons, 
 unto whom all the privileges of Christianity do 
 belong, although really hypocrites and bad men do 
 not belong to the church, nor are concerned in its unity, 
 as St. Austin doth often teach." — pp. 499, 500. 
 
 The places of St. Austin, which Barrow cites 
 and makes his own, are such as these : Non ad earn 
 pertinent avari, raptores, fcenatores. Videntur esse in 
 Ecclesia, non sunt, Ecclesiam veram intelligere non 
 audeo, nisi in Sanctis et justis. Multi sunt in sacra- 
 mentorum communione cum Ecclesia, et tamen jam non 
 sunt in Ecclesia. " The covetous, &c, do not belong 
 to the church. They seem to be in it but are not. I 
 dare not understand the true church to be but among 
 the holy and righteous men." — " There are many 
 who communicate in sacraments with the church, and 
 yet they are not in the church." — p. 500. 
 
 THE END. 
 
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