end; of which church all parts have not been always equally sincere and sound . . . . . . In St.

......

Paul's time the integrity of Rome was famous; Corinth many ways reproved; they of Galatia much more out of square; in St. John's time, Ephesus and Smyrna in far better state than Thyatira and Pergamos were. We hope therefore, that to reform ourselves, if at any time we have done amiss, is not to sever ourselves from the church we were of before. In the church we were, and we are so still. Other difference between our estate before and now, we know none, but only such as we see in Judah, which having sometime been idolatrous, became afterward more soundly religious, by renouncing idolatry and superstition ...... The indisposition, therefore, of the church of Rome to reform herself, must be no stay unto us from performing our duty to God; even as desire of retaining conformity with them could be no excuse if we did not perform that duty. Notwithstanding, so far as lawfully we may, we have held, and do hold fellowship with them. For even as the apostle doth say of Israel, that they are in one respect enemies, but in another beloved of God; in like sort with Rome, we dare not communicate concerning sundry her gross and grievous abominations; yet touching those main parts of christian truth wherein they con

stantly still persist, we gladly acknowledge them to be of the family of Jesus Christ. We must acknowledge even hereticks themselves to be, though a maimed part, yet a part of the visible church...... If the fathers do any where, as oftentimes they do, make the true visible church of Christ, and heretical companies opposite, they are to be construed as separating hereticks, not altogether from the company of believers, but from the fellowship of sound believers. Infidels being clean without the church, deny directly, and utterly reject the very principles of christianity; which hereticks embrace, and err only by misconstruction ...... Albeit not every error and fault, yet heresies and crimes which are not actually repented of and forsaken, exclude quite and clean from that salvation which belongeth unto the mystical body of Christ; yea, they also make a separation from the sound visible church of Christ; altogether from the visible church neither the one nor the other doth sever. As for the act of excommunication, it neither shutteth out from the mystical, nor clean from the visible; but only from fellowship with the visible in holy duties...... For the preservation of christianity there is not any thing more needful, than that such as are of the visible church, have mutual fellowship and society one

with another. In which consideration, as the main body of the sea being one, yet within divers precincts hath divers names; so the catholic church is in like sort divided into a number of distinct societies, every of which is termed a church within itself. In this sense the church is always a visible society of men; not an assembly but a society. For although the name of the church be given to christian assemblies; although any number of christian men congregated may be termed by the name of a church; yet assemblies properly are rather things that belong to a church. Men are assembled for performance of public actions; which actions being ended, the assembly dissolveth itself, and is no longer in being; whereas the church which was assembled, doth no less continue afterwards than before. Where but three are, and they of the laity, saith Tertullian, yet there is a church, that is to say, a christian assembly. But a church is (also) a society, that is, a number of men belonging unto some christian fellowship, the place and limits whereof are certain. That wherein they have communion is the public exercise of such duties as those mentioned in the apostles' Acts, instruction, breaking of bread, and prayer. As therefore they that are of the mystical body of

Christ have those inward graces and virtues, whereby they differ from all other which are not of the same body; again, whosoever appertain to the visible body of the church, they have also the notes of external profession, whereby the world knoweth what they are; after the same manner, even the several societies of christian men, unto every one of which the name of a church is given, with addition betokening severally, as the church of Rome, Corinth, Ephesus, England, and so the rest, must be indued with correspondent general properties belonging unto them, as they are public christian societies."

In his list of names and titles given to christians, Bingham observes, "that the name of ecclesiasticks was sometimes attributed to all christians in general. For though this was a peculiar name of the clergy, as contradistinct from the laity in the christian church; yet when christians in general are spoken of in opposition to Jews, infidels, and hereticks,* then they have all the name of ecclesiasticks, or men of the church; as being neither of the Jewish synagogues, nor of the heathen temples, nor heretical conventicles, but members of the church of Christ. In

* Hooker, it is evident, would not have hereticks deprived of the name of churchmen, or ecclesiasticks.-Ed.

this sense ἀνδρὲς ἐκκλησιαστικοὶ is often used by Eusebius, and Cyril of Jerusalem; and Valesius observes the same in Origen, Epiphanius, St. Jerome and others."*

In another part of his work† Bingham proceeds to say, "Having hitherto given an account of the persons, as well clergy as laity, that made up the great body of the christian church, I now proceed to speak of churches in another sense; first, as taken for the material buildings, or places of assembly set apart for divine worship; and secondly, as taken for certain divisions, or districts of dioceses, provinces, parishes, &c. into which the church catholick was divided ...... One of the most common names of churches, as taken for the structures or buildings, is that of ecclesia; which yet among the antient Greek writers, often signifies the assembly or convocation of people met together, either upon sacred or civil affairs, and so it is sometimes used in scripture, Acts xix. 40. Matt. xviii. 17. And so Isidore of Pelusium uses it likewise, distinguishing thus between ἐκκλησιαστήριον, and ἐκκλησια; the ἐκκλησιαστήριον is the temple or building made of wood and stone, but the KKλnoa is the congregation of souls, or people that meet therein. And in this sense, as St. Cyril observes, there is a sort

* Antiquities of the Christian church. I. 4.

† B. viii. ch. 1