that in that church there were several churches or congregations. And thus we also read of the Church of Jerusalem, of Antioch, of Ephesus, &c. which churches doubtless consisted of several congregations in and about those populous cities, which were all united in one body, under the inspection of one apostle or governor, whom we now call Bishop.

III. The Catholic Church is the one universal society of all christian people, distributed under lawful governors and pastors, into particular churches holding communion with each other.-What these lawful gover nors and pastors are, I shall fully explain hereafter. By particular churches holding communion with each other, I mean, acknowledging each other as parts of the same body, and admitting each other's members into actual communion with them in all their religious offices. The communion which particular churches are obliged to maintain, as they are similar parts of the Catholic Church, is, that they should not divide into separate churches, so as to exclude each other's members from communicating in their worship, whenever they have occasion to travel from one church to another. For, so long as there is no rupture between distant churches, no declared disowning of each other, no express refusal of any act of communion to each other's members, they may be truly said to maintain all necessary communion.

The Catholic Church is one by the communion of all its parts; and therefore they who break communion with any one part, must necessarily disunite themselves from the whole. For when two churches separate from one another, it must arise, either from the one requiring such terms of communion as are not catholic, or from the other refusing such as are. Now

that church, which requires sinful or uncatholic terms of communion, does hereby exclude not only one, but all parts of the Catholic Church from its communion, (because they are all equally obliged not to communicate with any church on such terms;) but, in doing so, separates itself from the communion of the Catholic Church. And so, on the other hand, that church, which refuses the communion of any other church upon lawful and catholic terms, does hereby separate itself from the communion of all parts of the Catholic Church. All those particular churches, therefore, into which the Catholic Church is distributed, must be in communion with each other, otherwise they are so far from being parts of the Catholic Church, that they are only so many schisms and divisions from it.-But it must be observed, that in a divided state of the church, there may be different communions, and yet both continue parts of the Catholic Church; as in the ancient excommunications concerning the observance of Easter; and in case of a precipitate sentence, when one Bishop takes upon him to excommunicate others for little or no cause, and against the consent of his brethren.

IV. Lastly, the communion which those particular churches, into which the Catholic Church is distributed, hold with each other is three fold, viz. In all the Essentials of christian Faith, and Worship, and Go

vernment.

*

* It is granted on all hands that every part of divine truth is not in itself equally important, although all is sanctioned by the same authority. We ought carefully to distinguish between those ordinances and precepts which are of a local and temporary nature, and those which are of universal and perpetual obligation.-Davies on Ch. Union, p. 7. Bramhall's Works, p. 144.

I. In all the essentials of christian FAITH.-By the essentials of christian Faith*, I mean those doctrines, the belief of which is necessary to the very being of christianity; for as in all arts and sciences there are some first principles, upon which the whole scheme of their doctrines depend, and the denial of which, like removing the foundation of a building, dissolves and ruins the whole structure,-so in christianity, there are some principles so essential to it, that the removal of them shakes the whole scheme of it in pieces. Now the great essential, as St Paul tells us, is JESUS CHRIST, "for other foundation can no man lay, than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ," (1 Cor. iii. 11.) and the apostle pronounces those apostates from christianity, who "hold not the head," which is Jesus Christ, (Col. ii. 19.) But yet the bare belief of Jesus Christ, or of this proposition, that Jesus Christ came from God, is not all that is essential to the christian faith, which includes not only his mission from God, but also the end of his mission, viz. to be a mediator between God and man; and whatever proposition, the mediatorship of Christ necessarily and immediately implies, is a fundamental article of the christian faith, which no man can deny without innovating on the whole religion, and turning it into a quite different doctrine from true and real christianity.

For, if we believe Jesus to be the Christ and Mediator, we must believe all the holy scriptures as his word, and they contain every article. But it more especially implies his incarnation, passion, resurrection, and

* See Kettlewell's Works, I. p. 671. Sherlock's Vind. of his Defence of Bishop Stillingfleet's Unreasonableness of Separation, 1682, p. 250. Field of the Church, p. 77

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other great articles of the Creed, which must be expressly acknowledged by every one who rightly understands it. And accordingly, in the various repetitions of this grand article in the scriptures, one or other of these is oftentimes added, and given as the instance of it, (1 John iv. 15. &c. v. 1.) "Believing Jesus Christ to be the Son of God, you may have life through his name," says St John, showing the necessity of this main foundation, (John xx. 31.) But St Paul, speaking of this grand article, says, "I determined to know nothing among you, but Jesus Christ, and him crucified;" setting forth the knowledge of Christ, in the knowledge of his passion, (1 Cor. ii. 2.) And, if thou confess the Lord Jesus, and believe God raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved;" exemplifying the saving knowledge of Jesus, in the belief of his resurrection, (Rom. x. 9.) "And when he commanded us to preach him," says St Peter, "he commanded us to preach and testify that it is he who is ordained of God, to be the judge both of quick and dead;" illustrating the preaching Christ, by preaching the future judgment, (Acts x. 42.) " Every spirit that confesseth Jesus Christ is come in the flesh, is of God; and every spirit that confesseth it not is antichrist, and not of God," says St John, explaining the confession of Christ by the confession of his incarnation, (1 John iv. 2. 3.) And speaking of the record, or witness, which God has given to the christian doctrine, he thus declares what was attested by him: "This is the record, that God hath given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life, and he that hath not the Son hath not life;" setting forth the christian religion, and the saving faith, by the belief of the life everlasting, (1 John v. 10. 11. 12.) And as for the necessity of the belief

of the Holy Ghost, and of our dependence on him, to make a man a christian, this has been sufficiently expressed by our Saviour, by ordering our very baptism, which initiates us into christianity, to be "into his name," (Matt. xxviii. 19.)

All the remaining articles in the creed (adds Mr Kettlewell,) are only necessary appendages of this grand and comprehensive article, of Jesus being the Christ and Saviour. And all these points, together with others in the creed, concerning God the Father, and the Holy Ghost, are essential to the faith. For they are the very ground and foundation of our subjection to the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost (the parties with whom we contract in the christian covenant,) of all our adoration, trust, and submission to the blessed Jesus; of our worshipping and serving God by him of all that holiness which is the great design of all religion; on all which accounts they are necessary and essential articles of christian faith, and properly called fundamentals*.

;

In short, the believing Jesus to be the Christ, is, in more explicit words, to believe the Apostles' Creed, since in that summary of our faith all the above-mentioned articles are recited. It has always been the form of faith at baptism, and was held by the ancient fathers, as the "canon," the "sum," the "perfect sum of faith; that token which was sufficient to shew those who preached Christ according to the doctrine of the apostles, and distinguish believers from infidels."

* See Sherlock's Defence, p. 278. where he proves that Salvation by Christ is a fundamental doctrine, or nothing is fundamental in the christian faith; and yet the doctrine of Salvation by Christ is necessarily founded on the belief of the Holy Trinity, each sacred person being peculiarly concerned in the economy of man's salvation.