and make another institution for other men's salvation.

"There is none other name under Heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved," but the name of JESUS; and that is no otherwise given under Heaven than in the Church. As none were saved from the Deluge but such as were within the ark of Noah, formed for their reception by the command of GOD; as none of the firstborn of Egypt lived, but such as were within those habitations whose door-posts were sprinkled with blood by the appointment of God for their preservation; as none of the inhabitants of Jericho could escape the fire or sword, but such as were within the house of Rahab, for whose protection a covenant was made; so none shall ever escape the eternal wrath of God, which belong not to the Church of GOD. This is the congregation of those persons here on earth which shall hereafter meet in heaven. These are the vessels of the tabernacle carried up and down, at last to be translated into and fixed in the Temple.

Next, it is necessary to believe the Church of CHRIST, which is but one, that, being in it, we may take care never to cast ourselves, or be ejected, out of it. There is a power within the Church to cast those out which do belong to it for if any neglect to hear the Church, saith our SAVIOUR, let him be unto thee as a heathen man and a publican. By great and scandalous offences, by incorrigible misdemeanors, we may incur the censure of the Church of GOD; and while we are shut out by them, we stand excluded out of Heaven. For our SAVIOUR said to His Apostles, upon whom He built His Church, "Whosesoever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whosesoever sins ye retain, they are retained." Again, a man may not only passively and involuntarily be ejected, but also may, by an act of his own, cast out or eject himself, not only by plain and complete apostasy, but by a defection from the unity of truth, falling into some damnable heresy; or by an active separation, deserting all which are in communion with the Catholick Church, and falling into an irrevocable schism.

FELL, BISHOP AND CONFESSOR.-On Ephesians, v. 9. Apostles,.... Prophets, . . . . Evangelists, ... Pastors, . . .

and Teachers . . . . For the three first, some part of their function was temporary and extraordinary; in what was ordinary and perpetual, Bishops succeeded.

BULL, Bishop AND DOCTOR.-Vindication of the English
Church, $ 24.

.....

We proceed, in the next place, to the constant visibility and succession of Pastors in our Church . . . . . . And here I make him this fair proposal: let him, or any one of his party, produce any one solid argument to demonstrate such a succession of Pastors in the Church of Rome, and I will undertake by the very same argument to prove a like succession in our Church. Indeed, the Author of the Letter is concerned, no less than we are, to acknowledge such a succession of lawful pastors in our Church, till the time of the Reformation; and if we cannot derive our succession since, it is a hard case. But our records, faithfully kept and preserved, do evidence to all the world an uninterrupted succession of Bishops in our Church, canonically ordained, derived from such persons in whom a lawful power of ordination was seated by the confession of the Papists themselves. For the story of the Nag's Head Ordination is so putid a fable, so often and so clearly refuted by the writers of our Church, that the more learned and ingenuous Papists are now ashamed to make use of it.

STILLINGFLEET, BISHOP.-Unreasonableness of Separation;

Preface.

.... Unthinking people .... are carried away with mere noise and pretences, and hope these will secure them most against the fears of Popery, who talk with most passion, and with least understanding, against it; whereas no persons do really give them greater advantages than these do. For, where they meet only with intemperate railings, and gross misunderstandings of the state of the controversies between them and us (which commonly go together), the most subtle priests let such alone to spend their rage and fury; and when the heat is over, they will calmly endeavour to let them see how grossly they have been deceived

in some things, and so will more easily make them believe, they are as much deceived in all the rest. And thus the East and West may meet at last, and the most furious antagonists may become some of the easiest converts. This I do really fear will be the case of many thousands among us, who now pass for most zealous Protestants; if ever, which God forbid, that religion should come to be uppermost in England. It is, therefore, of mighty consequence for preventing the return of Popery, that men rightly understand what it is. For, when they are as much afraid of an innocent ceremony as of real idolatry, and think they can worship images and adore the Host on the same grounds that they may use the sign of the cross, or kneel at the Communion, when they are brought to see their mistake in one case, they will suspect themselves deceived in the other also.... When they find undoubted practices of the Ancient Church condemned as Popish and Antichristian by their teachers, they must conclude Popery to be of much greater antiquity than really it is; and when they can trace it so very near the Apostles' times, they will soon believe it settled by the Apostles themselves. For it will be very hard to persuade any considering men, that the Christian Church should degenerate so soon, so unanimously, so universally, as it must do, if Episcopal government, and the use of some significant ceremonies, were any parts of that apostasy. Three ways, Bishop Sanderson observes, our dissenting brethren, though not intentionally and purposely, yet really and eventually, have been the great promoters of the Roman interest among us; (1) by putting-to their helping hand to the pulling down of Episcopacy. . . . . (2) by opposing the interest of Rome with more violence than reason; (3) by frequently mistaking the question, but especially through the necessity of some false principle or other, which, having once imbibed, they think themselves bound to maintain, whatever becomes of the common cause of our Reformation.

KEN, BISHOP AND CONFESSOR.-Exposition of the Church
Catechism.

I believe, O blessed and adorable Mediator, that the Church is

a society of persons, founded by Thy love to sinners, united into one body of which Thou art the head, initiated by baptism, nourished by the Eucharist, governed by pastors commissioned by Thee, and endowed with the power of the keys, professing the doctrine taught by Thee and delivered to the saints, and devoted to praise and to love Thee.

I believe, O holy JESUS, that Thy Church is holy like Thee its Author; holy by the original design of its institution, holy by baptismal dedication, holy in all its administrations which tend to produce holiness; and though there will be always a mixture of good and bad in it in this world, yet that it has always many real saints in it; and, therefore, all love, all glory, be to Thee.

....

Glory be to Thee, O LORD my God, who hast made me a member of the particular Church of England, whose faith, government, and worship are Holy, and Catholic, and Apostolic, and free from the extremes of irreverence and superstition, and which I firmly believe to be a sound part of Thy Church universal, and which teaches me charity to those who dissent from me; and, therefore, all love, all glory be to Thee.

Beveridge, BisHOP AND DOCTOR.-Sermon on Christ's Presence with His Ministers.

In the first place, I observe, how much we are all bound to acknowledge the goodness, to praise, magnify, and adore the name of the most high God, in that we were born and bred, and still live in a Church, wherein the Apostolical line hath, through all ages, been preserved entire, there having been a constant succession of such Bishops in it, as were truly and properly successors to the Apostles, by virtue of that Apostolical imposition of hands, which, being begun by the Apostles, hath been continued from one to another, ever since their time, down to ours. By which means, the same SPIRIT which was breathed by our LORD into His Apostles is, together with their office, transmitted to their lawful successors, the pastors and governors of our Church at this time; and acts, moves, and assists at the administration of the several parts of the Apostolical office in our days, as much as ever.

From whence it follows, that the means of grace which we now enjoy are in themselves as powerful and effectual as they were in the Apostles' days, &c. . . . .

And this, I verily believe, is the great reason why the devil has such a great spite at our Church, still stirring up adversaries of all sorts against it,-Papists on the one hand, and Sectaries on the other, and all, if possible, to destroy it; even because the SPIRIT which is ministered in it, is so contrary to his nature, and so destructive of his kingdom, that he can never expect to domineer and tyrannize over the people of the land, so long as such a Church is settled among them, and they continue firm to it. . . .

As for schism, they certainly hazard their salvation at a strange rate, who separate themselves from such a Church as ours is, wherein the Apostolical succession, the root of all Christian communion, hath been so entirely preserved, and the word and sacraments are so effectually administered; and all to go into such assemblies and meetings, as can have no pretence to the great promise in my text. For it is manifest, that this promise was made only to the Apostles and their successors to the end of the world. Whereas, in the private meetings, where their teachers have no Apostolical or Episcopal imposition of hands, they have no ground to succeed the Apostles, nor by consequence any right to the SPIRIT which our LORD hath; without which, although they preach their hearts out, I do not see what spiritual advantage can accrue to their hearers by it, &c. . .

SHARP, ARCHBISHOP.-Sermons, Vol. vii. Of the Church. "Go," He says, " and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them," &c. . . . . This commission of our SAVIOUR we may properly style the Charter of the Church; and mind, I pray, what is contained in it. Our SAVIOUR here declares the extent of His Church, and of what persons He would have it constituted. It was to extend throughout all the world, and to be made up of all nations. He here declares by whom He would have it built and constituted, viz., the Apostles. He here declares upon what grounds He would have it constituted, or upon what conditions any person was to be received into it, viz., their becoming the