so narrow a compass as seems to be unbecom ing the charity and moderation of a Christian, espousing such straitened notions as excluded many from the number of the church militant here, who might be reasonably presumed should be members of the church triumphant hereafter; but this I will venture to say, that to prevent too rigid straitened conceptions of the church, and the mistaking of any particu lar part thereof for the whole, it is highly probable, that the term Catholic was added in the creed as an explication of the two former af, fections of the church, to inform and settle the true believer's judgment in free and moderate principles, that the one and holy church, is not to be confined to any particular place or corner, but is diffused throughout the face of the whole earth; that from one end of the world unto another, all those who make a profession of Jesus Christ, and retain Christian love and charity, however disagreeing from each other in lesser and inferior points, are the constituent parts and members of this one holy church.

Wherefore, to conclude this article" of the holy Catholic church;" by the repetition thereof, it was intended to declare our firm persuasion, that Jesus Christ hath one visible body or church here on earth, comprehend

ing all the professors of his name throughout the whole world, who retain the purity of the faith, and the unity of the spirit, in the bond of love; unto which church, as pure and pea ceable, in opposition to all real heretics and schismatics, we will by the grace of God, stick and adhere.

To the article of the holy Catholic church, there is added as its appendix, the communion of saints; which is not found in any creed before St. Austin's time, nor in any, as I do think, of his genuine and undoubted writings, seeing in his Enchiridion to Laurentius, he assures us, that "in the order of the confession of faith, the forgiveness of sins was placed after the commemoration of the holy church," though it be very likely, that about that time, or not long after, this clause was introduced, not only because it is first found in a "creed recited in a sermon," commonly attributed unto him, but also because at that time, a probable occasion presented itself for which it should be introduced, viz. the schism of the Donatists; as I shall immediately shew, after that I shall have first explained the two terms of this clause, communion and saints.

And first of all, the term saints is not in this place to be strictly confined to those who are

really and internally holy, but is to be understood of all the several members of particular churches professing Christianity; as St. Paul directs his epistles to the saints which were at Ephesus, Philippi and Colosse, that is, as Dr. Hammond expounds it, to the societies of Christians belonging to those places, or constituting those churches; the word saint or holy being attributed to the whole, because a great part of them had without doubt, received a principle of true and inware sanctity; or, they might be rather called holy upon the account of their separating themselves from the heathenish and idolatrous word, to the worship of the true God, through Jesus Christ; for it is well known, that the primary notion of the word holy signifies no other, than the separation of a thing or person from a common and prophane, to a peculiar and religious use; for which reason, the children of Israel, though often the greatest part of them were vicious and corrupt, are frequently called in the old testament an holy people or nations because God had chosen them out from the rest of the world, and set them apart for his peculiar people. In which manner also, the creed here styles the members of particular churches saints or holy, because by their profession and baptism, which is a sign and seal of purification, and is metonymically called

[Acts xxii. 16.] a washing away of sins, they are separated from the rest of the world, and devoted to the pure and holy service of the true God, through Jesus Christ.

Now the term saints being thus explained, it will not be difficult to apprehend the meaning of the other term communion; which na turally appears to be this, that there is and ought to be a mutual intercourse and society, fellowship and communion, in all usual and regular ways, between the several respective churches and congregations of Christians and believers, whereby they declare unto the whole world, that although both necessity and conveniency oblige them to assemble in distinct places, and compose different societies, that yet nevertheless, they are all members of one and the same body, of which Christ Jesus is the head; that they are all guided by the same spirit, communicate in the same institutions, and governed by the same general rules; so that whatsoever is regularly performed and determined in one congregation, is assented to by all others; and whosoever is received to communion in one church, is freely admitted in any other.

Various were the methods used by the ancients, to maintain an inviolable communion and correspondency between themselves, and

to preserve the union of their particular churches whole and entire; amongst which the communicatory letters which the bishop elect of any church sent to other bishops and they returned to him, were not the least, as Cornelius advised Cyprian bishop of Carthage, of his promotion to the see of Rome; who, on the contrary, returned him a communicatbry letter, acknowledging him to be bishop of that part of the universal church, and promising to hold communion with him as a brother and fellow member; which communicatory letters, Antonius an African bishop, refused to send to Novatian, a schismatical pretender to the bishopric of Rome; who, according to the usual custom, advised by letter the canonical bishops of several churches, that he was ad vanced unto the Episcopal throne; though all or most of them would not send back their communicatory letters unto him, lest thereby they should dissolve the communion and fel lowship, which ought to be carefully preserv ed between all the particular members and congregations of the holy Catholic and uni versal church; and besides these, there was also another sort of communicatory letters, granted by the bishops and governors of 'churches, to such of their members as traveled, called by Tertullian, "the communication peace, the title of brotherhood, and the

of