Having removed these pretences out of our way, we may easily discern wherein the union, and consequently the communion, of all particular churches doth consist; and in the due observation whereof all that church-order which the Lord Christ hath appointed and doth accept is preserved.
I say, then, that the true and only imion of all particular churches consists in that which gives form, life, and being unto the church catholic, with the addition of what belongs unto them as they are particular; and this is, that they have all one and the same God and Father, one Lord Jesus Christ, one faith and one doctrine of faith, one hope of their calling, or the promised inheritance, one re- generation, one baptism, one bread and wine, and are united unto God and Christ in one Spirit, through the bond of faith and love.
This description, with what is suited thereunto and explanatory of it, is all the account which is given us in the Scripture of the constituting form of the catholic church, and of the imion of particu- lar churches among themselves. What church soever fails in the es- sential parts of this description, or any of them, it is separated from the catholic church, nor hath either union or communion with any true churches of Christ.
Two things concur unto the completing of this union of churches, — 1. Their union or relation unto Christ; 2. That which they have among themselves.
1. The Lord Christ himself is the original and spring of this union, and every particular church is united unto him as its head ; besides which, with or under which, it hath none. This relation of the church unto Christ as its head the apostle expressly affirms to be the foundation and cause of its union, Eph. iv. 15, 16, Col. ii. 19, — the places before quoted. Hereby it is also in God the Father, 2 Thess. i. 1, or hath God as its Father. And unless this union be dis- solved, unless a church be disunited from Christ, it cannot be so from the catholic church, nor any true church of Christ in particular, however it may be dealt withal by others in the world.
190 TRUE NATURE OF A GOSPEL CHURCH,
From Christ, as the head and spring of union, there proceedeth unto all particular churches a bond of union, which is his Holy Spirit, acting itself in them by faith and love, in and by the ways and means and for the ends of his appointment.
This is the kingly, royal, beautiful union of the church : Christ, as the only head of influence and rule, bringing it into a relation unto himself as his body, communicating of his Spirit unto it, governing it by the law of his word, enabling it unto all the duties of faith, love, and holiness.
For unto the completing of this union on the part of the church, these things are required: — (1.) Faith in him, or holding him as the head, in the sincere belief of all things concerning his person, office, and doctrine in the gospel, with whatever belongs thereunto; (2.) Love unto him and all that is his; (3.) That especial holiness whose foundation is repentance and effectual vocation; (4.) The observance of his commands as unto all duties of divine worship. These things are essentially requisite unto this imion on the part of the church. The reality and power of them is the internal form of the church, and the profession of them is its external form.
2. There concurreth hereunto an union among themselves, I mean all particular churches throughout the world, in whom the church catholic doth act its power and duty. And the relation that is be- tween these churches is that which is termed " relatio sequiparentiae," wherein neither of the "relata" is the first foundation of it, but they are equal. It doth not arise from the subordination of one unto another, they being all equal as unto what concerns their essence and power. And the bond hereof is that especial love which Christ re- quireth among all his disciples, acting itself unto all the ends of the edification of the whole body.
Take in the whole, and the union of churches consists in their re- lation unto God as their Father, and unto Christ as their only im- mediate head of influence and rule, with a participation of the same Spirit in the same faith and doctrine of truth, the same kind of holiness, the same duties of divine worship, especially the same mysteries of baptism and the supjDer, the observance of the same rules or commands of Christ in all church-order, with mutual love, effectual unto all the ends of their being and constitution, or the edification of the church catholic.
There may be failures in them or some of them, as unto sundry of these things; there may be differences among them about them, arising from the infirmities, ignorance, and prejudices of them of whom they do consist, the best knowing here but in part; but whilst the substance of them is preserved, the union of all churches, and so of the catholic church, is preserved.
This is that blessed oneness which the Lord Christ prayed for so
OF THE COMMUNION OF CHURCHES. 191
earnestly for his disciples, — that they might be one in the Father and the Son, one among themselves, and "made perfect in one," John xvii. 20-23, without any respect unto that horrid image of it which was set up in the latter days of the church, which all men were compelled to bow down unto and worship by the fire of Nebu- chadnezzar's furnace. Of any other union there is not the least mention in the Scripture.