PART

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John xv. 4,

5, 6.

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credere Ecclesiam, id non solum ad visibilem, de qua nunc agimus, refertur, sed ad omnes quoque electos Dei."-Inst. iv. 1. s. 2. Quia nunc de visibili Ecclesia disserere propositum est, discamus vel uno matris elogio quam utilis sit nobis ejus cognitio, imo necessaria, quando non alius est in vitam ingressus, &c. . . . extra ejus gremium nulla est speranda peccatorum remissio, nec ulla salus," &c.-Ibid. s. 4. If salvation is only to be obtained in the visible Church, it follows that there must always be a visible Church. He adds, that "paternus Dei favor et peculiare spiritualis vitæ testimonium ad gregem ejus restringitur; ut semper exitialis sit ab Ecclesia discessio." IBID. pp. 53, 54, note.

Q. xx. Is it then the duty of Christians to be in communion with the Visible Church?

A. Yes; for our Blessed Saviour saith; "Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in Me, I am the vine, ye are the branches: he that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit; for without Me ye can do nothing. If a man abide not in Me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, John xvii. 20, and they are burned." And again;—" Neither

21, 22, 23.

pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on Me through their word; 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 Me. And the glory which Thou givest Me I have given them; that they may be one, as We are one. I in them, and Thou in Me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that Thou hast sent Me, and hast loved them as Thou hast loved Me." Q. xxi. How do we become members of the Visible Church?

A. By Baptism, wherein we are made members of Christ, children of God, and inheritors of the Kingdom of Heaven; according to the words of our

II.

Lord Jesus Christ; "Verily, verily, I say unto CHAP. you, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God."

1 HOOKER, Ecc. Pol. III. i. 6. "Now although we know the Christian faith and allow of it, yet in this respect we are but entering; entered we are not into the visible Church before our admittance by the door of Baptism. Wherefore immediately upon the acknowledgment of Christian faith, the Eunuch (we see) was baptized by Philip, Paul by Ananias, by Peter a huge multitude containing three thousand souls, which being once baptized were reckoned in the number of souls added to the visible Church.”

Q. xxii. How do we enter into the Invisible Church?

A. By spiritual regeneration, which includes remission of sins and the gift of the Holy Ghost, and which is conferred in Baptism upon all infants, and upon all such adults as truly repent and come to God in that Holy Sacrament by faith; according to the same words of our Blessed Lord; "Except a man be born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God," and also, according to his other words; "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved."

1 HOOKER, Ecc. Pol. V. lx. 2. "If outward Baptism were a cause in itself possessed of that power either natural or supernatural, without the present operation whereof no such effect could possibly grow, it must then follow, that seeing effects do never prevent the necessary causes out of which they spring, no man could ever receive grace before Baptism; which being apparently both known and also confessed to be otherwise in many particulars, although in the rest we make not Baptism a cause of grace, yet the grace which is given them with their Baptism doth so far forth depend on the very outward Sacrament, that God will have it embraced, not only as a sign or token what we receive, but also as an instrument or mean whereby we receive grace because Baptism is a Sacrament which God hath instituted in his Church to the end that they which receive the same might thereby be incorporated into Christ, and so through his most precious merit obtain as well that saving grace of

John iii. 5.

John iii. 5.

Mark xvi. 16.

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PART imputation which taketh away all former guiltiness, as also that infused divine virtue of the Holy Ghost, which giveth to the powers of the soul their first disposition towards future newness of life."

IBID. V. lx. 3. "By Sacraments and other sensible tokens of grace we may boldly gather that He whose mercy vouchsafeth now to bestow the means, hath also long sithence intended us that whereunto they lead. But let us never think it safe to presume of our own last end by bare conjectural collections of his first intent and purpose, the means failing that should come between. Predestination bringeth not to life, without the grace of external vocation wherein our Baptism is implied. For as we are not naturally men without birth, so neither are we Christian men in the eye of the Church of God but by new birth, nor according to the manifest ordinary course of divine dispensation, new-born, but by that Baptism which both declareth and maketh us Christians. In which respect we justly hold it to be the door of our actual entrance into God's house, the first apparent beginning of life, a seal, perhaps, to the grace of Election, before received, but to our sanctification here a step that hath not any before it."

Q. xxiii. How can we be separated from the Visible Church?

A. By the Act of the Church in excommunication, or by our own act, in schism, heresy, or apostacy.

Q. xxiv. What is Excommunication?

A. It is a judgment of the Church, whereby an offender is excluded from her communion, as St. Paul delivered Hymeneus and Alexander unto Satan, that they might learn not to blaspheme. It rests on the authority of our Blessed Saviour, when He said to His Apostles, "Whosesoever sins ye John xx. 23. remit they are remitted unto them, and whosesoever sins ye retain they are retained."

Q. xxv. Does excommunication finally and totally sever from the Visible Church?

A. No: While it continues, it shuts out from the Communion of the Visible Church; but it cannot totally sever from the Church itself into which the

II.

man was received by the "One Baptism for the CHAP. remission of sins." It proceeds on the judgment, of the Church, that the Holy Spirit has been withdrawn from the sinner; it is therefore a very solemn and fearful act; but inasmuch as that judgment is not infallible, if it should afterwards appear by the continuing faith, and renewed repentance of the excommunicate, that the Holy Spirit has not been withdrawn from him, he may be again received into communion, and that without a new Baptism; which clearly shows that he has never ceased to be a member of the Church

Q. xxvi. What are the acts of the individual, whereby he may separate himself from the Visible Church?

A. There are three such acts; schism, which is making a division in the Body, by an unlawful refusal to hold communion with the Church, through that branch of it, to which, in the course of God's Providence, we properly belong; heresy, which is the rejection of any article of the Christian faith; apostacy, which is the total rejection of the Christian religion.1

1 HOOKER. Sermon V. 11. "Men do separate themselves either by heresy, schism, or apostacy. If they loose the bond of faith, which then they are justly supposed to do, when they forwardly oppugn any principal point of Christian doctrine, this is to separate themselves by heresy. If they break the bond of unity, whereby the body of the Church is coupled and knit in one, as they do who wilfully forsake all communion with saints in holy exercises purely and orderly established in the Church, this is to separate themselves by schism. If they willingly cast off and utterly forsake both profession of Christ and communion with Christions, taking their leave of all religion, this is to separate themselves by plain apostacy."

Q. xxvii. Do these things separate totally and finally from the Visible Church?

A. No; for they are at most but lawful causes

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PART of excommunication, which would justify the Church in proceeding to that sentence. They cannot therefore produce any greater effect than the sentence itself. Moreover, it is manifest that the bond of union between heretics and schismatics and the Church is not completely broken, for that bond consists in a common faith and communion with one Body. Schismatics, as such, only sever the latter; heretics, as such, only the former, and that only partially, so far as it consists in those articles of faith which they deny. Apostates are in a much worse condition than either; but still, if God shall give them the grace of repentance, it is evidence that He hath not totally cast them off; they may therefore be restored to the Church on manifesting that repentance.1

1 HOOKER. Ecc. Pol. V. lxviii. 6. "There is not the least contention and variance but it blemisheth somewhat the unity that ought to be in the Church of Christ, which notwithstanding may have not only without offence or breach of concord, her manifold varieties in rites and ceremonies of religion, but also her strifes and contentions many times and that about matters of no small importance; yea, her schisms, factions, and such other evils whereunto the body of the Church is subject, sound and sick remaining both of the same body, as long as both parts retain by outward profession that vital substance of truth which maketh Christian religion to differ from theirs which acknowledge not our Lord Jesus Christ the Blessed Saviour of mankind, give no credit to his glorious gospel, and have his Sacraments the seals of eternal life in derision.

Now the privilege of the Visible Church of God (for of that we speak) is to be herein like the ark of Noah, that, for any thing we know to the contrary, all without it are lost sheep; yet in this was the ark of Noah privileged above the Church, that whereas, none of them which were in the one could perish, numbers in the other as cast away, because to eternal life our profession is not enough. Many things exclude from the kingdom of God although from the Church they separate not."

IBID. " Throughout all ages heretics have justly been hated as branches cut off from the body of the true Vine,