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fear, causing our souls to draw back, or love of some worldly creatures alluring them being on the listes they are to combat in; if we view that host of heavenly soldiers which are for us, we may always have one of the same rank more potent to remove all fear, or diminish the love of any visible creature, or other incumbrance which Satan can propose unto us, and which, unless we be negligent in our affairs, may, as we say, give our antagonist the check-mate. If he tempt us unto wantonness, by presenting enticing looks of amiable, but earthly, countenances to our sight, we have sure hopes of being as the angels of God, and consorts of His glorious unspotted Lamb, to encourage us unto chastity. If with pleasantness or commodiousness of our present habitations, he seek to detain us from the place of our appointed residence, or discharge of necessary duties, we have the beauty of the New Jerusalem to ravish our thoughts with a longing after it, to cause us choose the readiest way that leads unto it, rather than take up our rest in princely palaces. If with honour, he go about to entrap us, or terrify us with worldly disgrace, we may contemn the one by looking upon that shame, and confusion of face, wherewith the wicked, though in this life most honourable, shall be covered in the day of vengeance, and loathe the other, by fixing the eyes of our faith upon that glorious promise made to all the faithful, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you. If tyrants by his instigation threaten us with fear of death, which is the utmost of their despite, faith sets another before our eyes, whom we must fear more than only such as can kill the body. If with sickness and languishment, we may by faith feel the inward man daily grow, as the outward man decays. Finally, let him assault us what way he can, the affliction can be but light, and for a moment, in comparison of that excellent and eternal weight of glory, which we hope shall be revealed, of which hope faith is the only substance ".""

2 Matt. xxv. 34.

3 See Jackson's Works, vol. i. p. 638. Ed. folio. The image of the chess-board was no uncommon one with our earlier divines. Hall used it. "The world is a large chess-board, every man hath his place assigned him; one is a king, another a knight, another a pawn, and each hath his several motion," &c.—Of Contentation, § viii. Works, vol. iii. p. 502. Ed. folio. Jackson also again and again uses the same image, e. g. vol. iii. pp. 515. 865. &c.

Sentiments such as these, drawn from that deep well of comfort, the Scriptures of truth, were they duly impressed on men's minds, would balance them in sorrow, and strengthen their hearts and hands, when standard-bearers of Christian truth are almost fainting, and the banners of Sion, to the outward eye, are soiled and tarnished;-I say to the outward eye, because within the Church is all glorious, and a King's daughter. In the words of the Canticles, Thou art beautiful, O my love, as Tirzah; comely as Jerusalem; terrible as an army with banners*. . . And how should it be otherwise, when the Apostle tells us that Christ also loved the Church, and gave himself for it; that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word: that he might present it to himself a glorious Church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish ".

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But here a question should be answered which is constantly asked: "See we," says an objector, "any such Church? Are any tokens left of that Holy Catholic Church, in which the saints profess to believe? Is not all rather division, than unity, and seem not the gates of hell to prevail, as it were, in defiance of His word, who is the Head of the Church, even Christ ?"

Having quoted one great luminary of the Church, with reference to her troubles and trials, let me answer these questions, in the words of another, whose exposition of the Creed can never be studied too much. "The Church, as it embraceth all the professors of the true faith of Christ, containeth in it not only such as do truly believe, and are obedient to the word, but those also which are hypocrites and profane. Many profess the faith, which have no true belief; many have some kind of faith, which live with no correspondence to the Gospel preached. Within therefore the notion of the Church are comprehended good and bad, being both externally called, and both professing the same faith: For the kingdom of heaven is like unto a field in which wheat and tares grow together unto the harvest; like unto a net that was cast into the sea, and gathered of every kind; like unto a floor in which is laid up wheat and chaff; like unto a marriagefeast, in which some have on the wedding garment, and some not.

4 See Ps. xlv. 14. Solomon's Song, vi. 4.

5 E. es. v. 25-27.

This is that ark of Noah, in which were preserved beasts clean and unclean; this is that great house, in which there are not only vessels of gold, and of silver, but also of wood and of earth, and some to honour, and some to dishonour. There are many called, of all which the Church consisteth; but there are few chosen of those which are called, and thereby within the Church. I conclude, therefore, as the ancient Catholics did against the Donatists, that within the Church, in the public profession and external communion thereof, are contained persons truly good and sanctified, and hereafter saved; and together with them other persons void of all saving grace, and hereafter to be damned; and that Church containing these of both kinds, may well be called holy, as St. Matthew called Jerusalem the holy city, even at that time when our Saviour did but begin to preach, when we know that there was in that city a general corruption in manners and worship.

"Of those promiscuously contained in the Church, such as are void of all saving grace while they live, and communicate with the rest of the Church, and when they pass out of this life, die in their sins, and remain under the eternal wrath of God; as they were not in their persons holy while they lived, so are they no way of the Church after their death, neither as members of it, nor contained in it. Through their own demerit they fall short of the glory unto which they were called, and being by death separated from the external communion of the Church, and having no true internal communion with the members and the head thereof, are totally and finally cut off from the Church of Christ. On the contrary, such as are efficiently called, justified, and sanctified, while they live, are truly holy, and when they die, are perfectly holy; nor are they by their death separated from the Church, but remain united still by virtue of that internal union by which they were before conjoined both to the members and the head. As, therefore, the Church is truly holy, not only by an holiness of institution, but also by a personal sanctity in reference to these saints while they live, so is it also perfectly holy in relation to the same saints glorified in heaven. And at the end of the world, when all the wicked shall be turned into hell, and consequently all cut off from the communion of the Church, when the members of the Church remaining being perfectly sanctified,

shall be eternally glorified, then shall the whole Church be truly and perfectly holy.

“Then shall that be completely fulfilled, that Christ shall present unto himself a glorious Church, which shall be holy, and without blemish. Not that there are two Churches of Christ; one, in which good and bad are mingled together; another, in which there are good alone; one, in which the saints are imperfectly holy; another, in which they are perfectly such; but one and the same Church, in relation to different times, admitteth or not admitteth the permixtion of the wicked, or the imperfection of the godly. To conclude, the Church of God is universally holy in respect of all, by institutions and administrations of sanctity; the same is further, yet at the same time perfectly holy, in reference to the saints departed, and admitted to the presence of God; and the same Church shall hereafter be most completely holy in the world to come, when all the members actually belonging to it shall be at once perfected in holiness, and completed in happiness."

Much may be said respecting the Church and its members individually; but it is a chance if any thing be said more to the purpose than what has been now quoted. It answers the questioning spirit, and is in itself unanswerable. Whoever fall out by the way, and lose their election, the fault is all their own. He that purchased to Himself an universal Church, by the precious blood of His dear Son, willed the salvation of all men to be set forth, (as it is in the first Ember Prayer,) through Jesus Christ our Lord. It was with the weaker capacities of the creature in view, nowise forgetful of mortal man's transgression, that the poet sang,

"And though these sparks were almost quench'd with sin,
Yet they whom that Just One hath justified,
Have them increased with heavenly light within,

And, like the widow's oil, still multiply'd "."

To contemplate the Church aright, we must look upon it, though immarcessible as amaranth, subject nevertheless to eclipse, so that faithless and unbelieving men might consider the 6 Pearson on the Creed. Article ix. "The Holy Catholic Church." Vol. i. p. 518.

7 Sir John Davies. "Immortality of the Soul."

light darkened in the midst thereof. And such periods will occur more or less frequently, as the members of that body, of which Christ is the head, shall need the more or the less to be purified and cleansed. Sometimes the furnace of affliction may be for trial, but oftener, it is to be feared, for correction. The humbler members of that Church to which we belong-a part of the Holy Catholic Church throughout all the world-will most readily accede to this. That it has never failed, is because of our Redeemer's promise; that it has often been shorn of its beams, and marred of its original and perfect beauty, is of man's infirmity :

"And if physitians in their art can see

8 99

In each disease there is some sparke divine, Much more let us the name of God confesse In all these sufferings of our guiltinesse Again, when we look to the ruder shocks which the Church meets with in its opposition to the world, we may be sure it is all for good. Though the mountain of the Lord's house shake at the tempest of the same, moral, like natural tempests, in the end, purify and refine. Winds and storms fulfil the Almighty's word; and the volcano, by giving vent to combustible matter, does the same; thus, as it has been said, preventing the world from being burnt up before its time.

What has been here said applies to the Church at large; but as regards that pure (as we hope) and apostolical branch of it, established in this kingdom, the storm has at different times fallen upon it, and yet, by the blessing of God, it has revived and lifted up her head, fair as the rose of Sharon, and beautiful as the lily of the valleys. Amongst other times of danger and distress, one might mention those of the Great Rebellion, and the Revolution; -more recently that atheistic burst at the end of the last century, and the shock received some ten or twelve years ago, when all abettors of mischief rejoiced, and they had reason to hope that what is called the Establishment, would fall to the ground, and become the prey of the spoiler. On the last occasion there were many thoughtful and wise men who deemed it next to impossible that we could weather the storm; but, at the same time, they

8 Lord Brooke. "A Treatise of Warres."

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