the Creed began, and was to continue till that Creed shall end, is proposed to our belief in every age as being: and thus ever since the first church was constituted, the church itself, as being, was the object of the faith of the church believing.

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

Now this indeed is a proper object of faith, because it is grounded only upon the promise of God; there can be no other assurance of the perpetuity of this church, but what we have from him that built it. The church is not of such a nature as would necessarily, once begun, preserve itself for ever. Many thousand persons have fallen totally and finally from the faith professed, and so apostatized from the church. Many particular churches have been wholly lost, many candlesticks have been removed; neither is there any particular church which hath any power to continue itself more or longer than others; and consequently, if all particulars be defectible, the universal church must also be subject of itself unto the same defectibility.

But though the providence of God doth suffer many particular churches to cease, yet the promise of the same God will never permit that all of them at once shall perish. When Christ spake first particularly to St. Peter, he sealed his speech with a powerful promise of perpetuity, saying," Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it," Matt. xvi. 18. When he spake generally to all the rest of the apostles to the same purpose, "Go teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost;" he added a promise

to the same effect; "And, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." The first of these promises assureth us of the continuance of the church, because it is built upon a rock; for our Saviour had expressed this before, "Whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man which built his house upon a rock: and the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock," Matt. vii. 24. The church of Christ is the house of Christ; for he "hath builded the house," and is as a " Son over his own house, whose house are we ;" and as a wise man, he hath built his house upon a rock; and what is so built shall not fall. The latter of these promises giveth not only an assurance of the continuance of the church, but also the cause of that continuance, which is the presence of Christ. Where two or three are gathered together in the name" of Christ, there he is in the midst of them, and thereby they become a church; for they are as a builded house, and the Son within that house. Wherefore seeing Christ doth promise his presence unto the church, even unto the end of the world, he doth thereby assure us of the existence of the church, until that time, of which his presence is the cause. Indeed this is." the city of the Lord of hosts, the city of our God; God will establish it for ever; as the great prophet of the church hath said; Ps. xlviii. 8.

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

After the consideration of that which is the subject in this Article, followeth the explication of the affections thereof; which are two, sanctity and universality; the

one attributed unto it by the apostles, the other by the fathers of the church: by the first the church is denomi nated holy, by the second catholick. Now the church

which we have described may be called holy in several respects, and for several reasons: first, in reference to the vocation by which all the members thereof are called and separated from the rest of the world to God; which separation in the language of the scriptures is a sanctifi cation and so the calling being holy, (for "God hath called us with an holy calling, ") the body which is separated and congregated thereby, may well be termed holy: -secondly, in relation to the offices appointed and the powers exercised in the church, which by their institution and operation are holy; that church for which they were appointed, and in which they are exercised, may be called holy-thirdly, because whosoever is called to profess faith in Christ, is thereby engaged to holiness of life, according to the words of the apostle, "Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity:" for those namers of the name, or named by the name, of Christ, are such as called on his name; and that was the description of the church; as when Saul did persecute the church, it is said he had "authority from the chief priests to bind all that called upon the name of Christ ;" and when he "preached Christ in the synagogues, all that heard him said, Is not this he who destroyed them which called on this name in Jerusalem ?" Acts ix. 14; 1 Cor. i. 2, Seeing then all within the church are by their profession obliged to such holiness of life, in respect of this obligation, the whole church may be termed holy:-fourthly, in regard the end of constituting a church in God, was for the purchasing a holy and a precious people, and the great design thereof was for the begetting and increasing holiness, that as God is originally holy in himself, so he might communicate his sanctity to the sons of men, whom he intended to bring unto the fruition of himself, unto which, without a previous sanctification, they can never approach, because" without holiness no man shall ever see God."

For these four reasons, the whole church of God, as it containeth in it all the persons who were called to the

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

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

is that ark of Noah, in which were preserved beasts clean and unclean. This is that great house in which "there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth, and some to honor and some to dishonor." There are many called, of all whom the church consisteth, but there are few chosen of those who are called, and thereby within the church. I conclude therefore, as the ancient catholicks did against the Donatists, that within the church, in the public profession and external communion thereof, are contained persons truly good and sanctified, and hereafter saved; and together with them other persons void of all saving grace, and hereafter to be damned: and that church containing these of both kinds may well be called holy, as St. Matthew called Jerusalem the holy city, even at that time when our Saviour did but begin to preach, when we know there was in that city a general corruption in manners and worship.

Of these promiscuously contained in the church, such as are void of all saving grace while they live, and communicate with the rest of the church, and when they pass out of this life, die in their sins, and remain under the eternal wrath of God; as they were not in their persons holy while they lived, so are they no way of the church after their death, neither as members of it, nor as contained in it. Through their own demerit they fall short of the glory unto which they were called, and being by death separated from the external communion of the church, and having no true internal communion with the members and the head thereof, are totally and finally cut off from the church of Christ. On the contrary, such as are efficaciously called, justified, and sanctified, while they live are truly holy, and when they die are perfectly holy; nor are they by their death separated from the church, but remain united still by virtue of that internal union by which they were before conjoined both to the members and the head. As therefore the church is truly holy, not only by an holiness of institution, but also by a personal sanctity in reference to these saints while they live, so is it also perfectly holy, in relation to the same saints glorified in heaAnd at the end of the world, when all the wicked shall be turned into hell, and consequently all cut off No. XV.

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