rum adjungo me huic vel illi cœtui Christiano, cujus professio et disciplina mihi placent, sub hac oxera vel hypothesi, quatenus Ecclesia illa particularis partem facit Ecclesia internæ, hoc est mystici corporis Christi. Ecclesia interna, sive mysticum Christi corpus, sola est vera Ecclesia, ut Augustinus optime multis locis docuit. Externa vero Ecclesia non dicitur Ecclesia, nisi cum respectu ad internam: nec est Ecclesia nisi sub hac oxira et hypothesi." Vitringa, Observat. Sacr. lib. v. cap. 9. s. 11. p. 136. Thus, by a little sophistry, and some convenient mental reservation, the whole character of the Church, as an external society founded by Christ, and directed by laws of his enactment, and governors of his appointment, is at once destroyed; and men are taught, that they may join any and every sect by turns, without schism; and be true churchmen without being connected with the Church by any real bond of communion.

NOTE XI.

"So many regions as there are under heaven that do truly profess the Christian name, so many national churches there are; in all these nations there are many provincial, in all those provinces many diocesan, in all those dioceses many parochial churches, in all those parishes many Christian families, in all those families many Christian souls. Now all those souls, families, parishes, dioceses, provinces, nations, make up but one Catholic Church upon earth. The God of the Church cannot abide either conventicles of separation, or pluralities of professions, or appropriations of catholicism. Catholic Roman is an absurd Donatian solecism; this is to seek orbem in urbe, as that council said well. Happy were it for that church, if it were a sound limb (though but the little toe) of that mighty and precious body, wherein no believing Jew nor Indian may not challenge to be jointed. Neither difference of time, nor distance of place, nor rigour of unjust censure, nor any unessential error can bar an interest in this blessed unity. As this flourishing Church of Great Britain (after all the spightful calumniations of malicious men) is one of the most conspi

1

cuous members of the Catholic upon earth; so we in her communion do make up one body with the holy Patriarchs, Prophets, Apostles, Martyrs, Confessors and faithful Christians of all ages and times; we succeed in their faith, we glory in their succession, we triumph in their glory. Whither go ye then ye weak, ignorant, seduced souls, that run to seek this dove in a foreign cote? She is here if she have any nest under heaven. Let me never have part in her, or in heaven, if any church in the world have more part in the universal." Bp. Hall's Works, folio, vol. ii. p. 310.

NOTE XII.

"Si inter alia, nec pauca, nec contemnenda, ad pacem mutuam incitamenta, illud præcipuum apud omnes habere locum fas sit (nullo interim ad Christum respectu habito) quod ex uno Adamo omnes originem nostram traducentes, unius etiam sanguinis (Act. xvii. 26.) participes sumus, atque unius, utcunque magnæ, Familiæ membra; (Eph. iii. 15.) quanto magis unitatem, quam in Christo habemus, spiritualem, summa ope nitendum est, ut assequamur nosmetipsi, atque in aliis quibuscunque pro nostra virili promoveamus? Ex duabus nimirum populis, (Judæis Gentilibusque) in unum corpus, quod est Ecclesia, per Jesum Christum coalescimus (Ephes. ii. 14. iii. 6.) qui et pax nostra dicitur (Ephes. ii. 14.) et hæreditatis nostræ arrhabo. (Eph. i. 14.) Absit ut paries intergerinus a Christo dirutus. (Ephes. ii. 14.) de integro instauretur a Christianis. Quotquot vera in Christum fide una cum Christo adunamur, ejusdem corporis etiam mystici, cujus caput est Christus (Col. i. 18. Eph. i. 22, 23.) membra sumus conjunctissima. (1 Cor. xii. 27.) Hæc autem unitas non efficitur nisi ab ipso Spiritu Sancto, (1 John iv. 3.) cui fideles sunt habitaculo, et qui est vere credentium copula, tam cum Christo quam inter se. At quorum unus est Spiritus, eorum unus sit animus necessum est. Una etiam est nostri omnium ad pietatem probitatemque vocatio saltem generalis; et unica spe vocationis (Eph. i. 8. iv. 4.) in Christo Jesu proposita nos erigimur simul omnes. Quorsum ergo? immo vero quam absurdum est, ut modo in terris distemus

invicem, qui simul in cœlis beatam vitam victuri: sumus sempiternam? Unicum omnes habemus Herum, unum Dominum Redemptorem; absit procul ut conservi, in lites et jurgia incurrendo, in communis Domini excandescentiam adversus nos pariter incurramus. Unum est nobis evangelium; unica fides, (si modo fides) per unum Spiritum in nobis accensa, omnibus nobis est communis. At quorum mentes; quoad præcipua ac ad salutem necessaria sunt unitæ, eorum voluntates quorsum quæso disjungerentur. Aut quorum corda plane consentiunt, eorum capita cur dissentirent? Unico omnes nos. baptismate (1 Cor. xii. 13. Eph. ii. 21.) in unum corpus coagmentamur: atque inter baptizandum unius Spiritus efficacia uni Christo inserimur. In una cœna sacramentali de uno pane participamus. (1 Cor. x. 17.) Deus bone! quid obstat, quo minus nos invicem diligamus? Quænam ate nos impellit? aut quænam res alia eo potest nos adigere, ut in partes et schismata segregemur, qui iisdem sacramentis nobis reciproce conglutinamur? ut in pauca rem conferam. Unus Deus cultores exigit unanimes. Unicum Deum adoramus. ad unum omnes. Unus est ille omnium Pater (ut inquit Apostolus ad Ephesios iv. 6.) ejusque Filii qui sumus, fratres pariter ut simus, necesse est. At quam bonum et quam jucundum est κατοικεῖν ἀδελφὲς ἐπὶ τὸ avrò, Fratres in unum habitare! Quam contra pejus, quam diabolicum, fratres mortales et moribundos, immortales erga se invicem inimicitias exercere, immortalibus in una eaque Patris omnium domo (Ephes. ii, 19.) dissidiis confligere, et contra se mutuo belligerare? Ad unitatem τῆς ὁμονοίας καὶ τῆς ὁμοψήφιας, animi simul et oris, desideratissimam, quam ipse Christus ardentissime rogavit Patrem (Johan. xvii. 21.) (in oratione sua poaywvia.) Beatus Paulus nos excitat, invitat, verbisque gravissimis adhortatur. Quod, inquit, superest fratres, valete, instauramini, idem sentite, in pace agite; Deusque pacis et charitatis erit vobiscum (2 Cor. xiii.) Precor vos ergo captivus in Domino tolerate alii alios per charitatem. (Neque enim servari pax potest sine mutua tolerantia, nec locum habet tolerantia inter feroces furiososque.) Studete Spiritus unitatem per vinculum pacis conservare; unum est corpus, unus Spiritus,

una spes vocationis, unus Dominus, una fides, unum baptisma, unus Deus et Pater omnium, qui est super omnes, et per omnes, et in omnibus vobis, (Ephes. iv.) Quicunque ergo charitatem fraternam violant, neque εὐσπλάγχνοι, neque φιλόφρονες, certe fieri non potest quin omnia ista, quanta quanta, discerpant simul dissipentque. Summa hactenus dictorum ad hoc unum redit, ut simultatibus quibuscunque de re religiosa valere jussis, concordes, unanimes, et comes simus; ut fraterna præditi charitate, mutuo molestiarum sensu affecti, ad intimam proni misericordiam, idem deinceps loquamur omnes, (1 Pet. iii. 8. 1 Cor. i. 10.) idem deinceps sentiamus, sapiamus idem: nec in hac vita peritura pauxillum temporis dissideamus, eadem prorsus felicitate æternum in altera fruituri." Th. Pierce, Pacificatorium Orthodoxa Theologia Corpusculum Proœm. Vitringa also, though his ideas of church communion were so vague, yet was induced by the same train of reflection to insist upon the duty of preserving it. "Datur igitur communio aliqua inter credentes, imo sane datur. Qui enim fieri possit, ut qui communes inter se habent res plures et præstantissimas, qui in eundem credunt Servatorem, eandem sperant salutem, eadem participant dona gratiæ, ab eodem animantur et perficiuntur Spiritu, et in eandem omnes adsciti sunt familiam ; quibus est εἷς κύριος, μία πίςις, και εν βάπτισμα, ut cum Apostolo loquar; (Ephes. iv. 5.) sive qui sunt unius spei, voti, et disciplinæ, quæ Tertulliani phrasis est: (ad Uxor. 1. ii. c. 9.) inter eos non vigeat communio." Vitringa, Observat. Sacr. lib. v. c. 7. s. 4. p. 104.

SERMON II.

NOTE XIII.

THE words "He gave some apostles, and some prophets, and some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers," have been understood to mean, "not the persons themselves, but the gifts of those persons, the office of apostles, evangelists, pastors, &c." Stilling fleet's Irenicum, part ii. chap. 2. This interpretation is mentioned by Wolfius with approbation; "Recte hæc admonita mihi videntur. Diversa hic doctorum Ecclesiæ officia indicantur, ut appareat eminentissima Christi majestas et bonitas, qua factum sit, ut non deessent dona, quibus ad officia illa in commune Ecclesiæ commodum præstanda et perficienda opus sit." Wolfius ad locum. St. Paul therefore may be considered, as not merely asserting the personal commission of himself and his fellow labourers in the different ranks of the ministry then established; but that Christ appointed the government of his Church to be perpetually administered by a succession of officers, deriving their authority originally from his commission.

Wolfius however rejects entirely that construction of the following words, πρὸς τὸν καταρτισμὸν τῶν ἁγίων, εἰς ἔργον διακονίας, εἰς οἰκοδομὴν τ. σ. τ. Χ. which by leaving out the comma after dyiwv would render the passage thus; for the fitting out or completing of the saints for the work of the ministry, &c. a mode of interpretation which has been sometimes adopted, to give a colour of Scripture authority to the wild pretensions of those, who, assuming that they were saints and gifted persons, have hence inferred their commission to undertake the work of the ministry. "Ita hæc per siypas interpun"gunt Erasmus Schmidius, Stephanus Curcellæus, et