Christians, express a belief in the existence of "one, holy, catholic, apostolic church," which usage can only be founded in the doctrine, that the church was always to continue, for why otherwise should men profess their belief in the existence of the church as an article of the faith? We find that such a belief was universal amongst Christians from a very remote period. St. Athanasius says: "The word is faithful, the promise is unshaken, and the church is invincible, though the gates of hell should come, though hell itself, and the rulers of the darkness of the world therein be set in motion i." His immediate predecessor in the see of Alexandria, St. Alexander, had taught the same doctrine: "We confess one and only one catholic and apostolic church never to be destroyed, though the whole world should war against it. Eusebius observes that the Lord "foretold that not only his doctrines should be preached throughout all the inhabited world, for a testimony to all nations," but "that his church, afterwards composed of all nations by his power... should be invincible, unconquerable, and never to be overcome even by death *." Hence," says Jerome," we understand, that the church may indeed be assailed by persecutions to the end of the world, but cannot be subverted; may be tempted but not overcome; and this will be, because the Lord God Almighty, the Lord God of the church, has promised

· Πιστὸς ὁ λόγος, καὶ ἀσάλευτος ý vπóoxeσi, kaì † éккλŋoía ȧýτтητος, κἂν ᾅδου πύλαι ἐπιγένωνται. καν ὁ ᾅδης αὐτὸς κινηθῇ, καν οἱ ἐν αὐτῷ κοσμοκράτορες τοῦ σκότους.--Athan. Oratio, quod unus sit Christus, tom. ii. p. 51, oper. Benedict.

· Μίαν καὶ μόνην καθολικὴν τὴν ἀποστολικὴν ἐκκλησίαν, ἀκαθαίρετον μὴν ἀεὶ, καν πᾶς ὁ κόσμος αὐτῇ

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that he will do so, whose promise is the law of nature'." Augustine confirms the same truth: "The church shall not be overcome, it shall not be rooted up, nor shall it yield to any temptations, until the end of this world shall come, and we shall be received from this temporal to an eternal habitation "."

It is needless to multiply quotations from the more ancient Christian writers, in testimony of the general belief of professing Christians, that the church of Christ was to exist always on earth. The Nicene and Apostles' Creeds have been already alluded to as intimating this doctrine, and they have been accepted not only by all ancient societies of Christians, but even by those of modern formation. The Reformation made no alteration in this respect, and Bellarmine admits, that many of the Romish theologians had taken much needless pains, in proving against their opponents the perpetuity of the church, which none of them denied". The Confession of Augsburgh expressly maintains it. "Item docent, quod sancta ecclesia perpetuo mansura sit°.” The Helvetic Confession says, "Since God from the beginning wished men to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth, there must always have been, and now, and even to the end of the world be, a church, that is a congregation of faithful men called forth or

"Ex quo intelligimus Ecclesiam usque ad finem mundi concuti quidem persecutionibus, sed nequaquam posse subverti: tentari, non superari. Et hoc fiet, quia Dominus Deus omnipotens, sive Dominus Deus ejus, id est, Ecclesiæ, se facturum esse pollicitus est; cujus promissio lex naturæ est." Hieronymus, Comment. in Amos, ad finem, tom. iii. p. 1454. ed. Benedict.

m"Non vincetur Ecclesia, non eradicabitur, nec cedet quibuslibet tentationibus, donec veniat hujus sæculi finis, et nos ab ista temporali æterna illa habitatio suscipiat." August. Enarr. in Ps. lx. tom. iii. p. 587. oper. ed. Benedict.

" Bellarm. de Conciliis et Ecclesia, lib. iii. c. 13. 。 Art. vii.

collected from the world; a communion of all the holy; of those who truly know and rightly worship the true God in Christ the Saviour, by the Word and Holy Spirit, and who partake by faith of all the benefits freely offered through Christ "," &c. Calvin argues that God preserves his church in every age. "Although," he says, "immediately, even from the beginning, the whole race of mankind was corrupted and vitiated by the sin of Adam, yet from this polluted mass he always sanctifieth some vessels unto honour, lest there should be any age which did not experience his mercy. Which also he testified by certain promises such as these: I have made a covenant with my chosen, I have sworn unto David my servant, thy seed will I establish for ever, and build up thy throne to all generations' (Ps. lxxxix. 3, 4.). Again: The Lord hath chosen Zion; he hath desired it for his habitation. This is my rest for ever' "&c. (Ps. cxxxii. 13, 14.). In fine, almost all professing Christians regard their respective communities as churches of Christ, and endeavour to prove them to be so; whence it must be supposed that they assume as a principle, that such churches were always to exist. The modern dissenters, in their

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Library of Ecclesiastical Knowledge," say "we cannot doubt that in this, as in every preceding age, such a church exists"." In the following section additional proof will be furnished of the general agreement on this subject, from the fact that all parties admit, that the church of Christ is the way of salvation.

The English church expresses her belief in the ex

P Conf. Helvetic., A.D. 1536. cap. 17.

Tract on the Christian Ministry, Library of Eccl. KnowCalvin. Institut. iv. c. i s. 17. ledge, vol. ii. P. 355.

istence of the church in the Apostolic and Nicene Creeds; and the Articles also invariably speak of the church as still existing. In the hymn 'Te Deum,' the prayer for the church militant, and many other parts of the ritual, the existence of the church is always recognized. This can only arise from a belief that the church was to be perpetual by the divine promises. Nowell observes, that we profess our belief in the church, "because unless there be a church, Christ would have died in vain," and all which relates to the causes and foundations of salvation would be in vain and reduced to nothing, for the "effect of them is, that there is a church, a certain blessed city and commonwealth, in which we ought to deposit and consecrate all that is ours, and to which we should give ourselves wholly up, and even die for it "." Field assumes the perpetuity of the church, to be the general doctrine of the Reformation. Bishop Pearson says: "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 should 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 will I 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... he added a promise to the same effect; and lo I am with you always, even to the end of the world.'. . . Wherefore being Christ doth promise his presence unto the church, even unto the end of the world, he

s Noelli Catechismus, p. 101. Oxford ed. 1835.

t

Field, Of the Church, b. i. c. 10.

doth thereby assure us of the existence of the church until that time, of which his presence is the cause ".

SECTION III.

OF SALVATION IN THE CHURCH ONLY.

The Christian revelation is so far necessary to be believed by those to whom it is proposed, that our Lord himself affirms of such: "he that believeth not shall be damned." How far the unsearchable goodness and mercy of God may provide some means of escape for those who are beyond the illumination of the Gospel, we know not for the Revelation of God only offers salvation in the name of Jesus Christ. But faith in the infinite justice and mercy of God will inspire hope even where revelation is silent; and the apostolic principle," them that are without GOD judgeth," will teach us not to condemn those, to whom the way of life has not been pointed out. On the same principles I maintain that salvation is only offered in the church of Christ by divine revelation, and that all men to whom the Gospel is preached, must be members of this church when sufficiently proposed to them, on pain of being excluded from the favour of God for ever.

That salvation is only to be obtained in the church, may be argued from Scripture thus: "Christ is the head of the body, the church" (Col. i. 18.), therefore those who are separated from the church of Christ are separated from his body, and from himself. any man abide not in Christ, he is cast forth as and is withered, and men gather them and into the fire and they are burned" (John xv. 6.).

Pearson, on the Creed, art. ix.

Now "if

a branch

cast them

We are