Clause 9

Testimonies out of the Prophetes and Apostles

Leuiticus 26. and 2. Cor. 6. verse 17. Ye are the Temple of the liuing God, as God hath saide, I will dwell amongest them, and I will walke there, and I will be their God, and they shalbe my people. Wherefore (Esay 52.) Come out from among them and separate your selues saith the Lorde, and I will receiue you, I will be a father vnto you, and ye shalbe my sonnes and daughters, saith the almighty. Also Ioel 2. vers. 32. 1. Tim. 3. verse. 15.16. That thou maist know howe thou oughtest to behaue thy selfe in the house of God, which is the Church of the liuing God, the piller and ground of trueth, 1. Cor 12. verses 13.14. For by one spirite, we are all baptised into one bodie, whether we be Iewes, or Grecians: whether we be bonde or free, and haue beene all made to drinke into one spirite, 1. Cor. 10.17. Because we that are many, are one loafe, and one bodie, who are partakers of one and the same bread, Also to the Heb. 3. verse 13, &c. 1. Iohn. 1. That which we haue seene and which we haue heard we declare vnto you, that you also may haue fellowship with vs, & that our felowship also, may be with the Father, & with his sonne Iesus Christ: & these things write we vnto you, that your ioie may be full. Acts. 2.47. And the Lorde added to the Church from day to day, such as should be saued.

The meaning of these wordes

The communion of Saintes, signifieth both that same outward fellowship, wherby the people as members of the visible Church thorough the ministerie of the doctrine both of the Prophets, and Apostles, and also of the sacramentes, are called into one bodie, and also that same inwarde coniunction, whereby those whome the Lorde hath alwayes chosen in this visible congregation, that is to say, the true beleeuers, are knit and vnited together with the father, with Iesus Christ his sonne, and mutuallie one with another amongest themselues. Concerning that same outward vnion we must knowe that the truth of the propheticall, and Apostolical doctrine is an vndoubted token of the visible Church, 1. Tim. 3. Besides all that professe that same trueth, wheresoeuer they shal come in the world to any visible companie of the Church, they haue right to communicate in hearing the worde, in prayers, and receiuing of the sacraments. Esai. 2.2.3. yea all the faithful haue commandement that wheresoeuer there is a visible assemblie of the Saints, that they ioyne themselues vnto it, and by no meanes separate them selues from that cōmunion. The Church also is bound to receiue them, and to the vttermost of her power, with a cheerefull minde to communicate those meanes which are committed vnto her, such as all bodily and spiritual helpes are to the common saluatiō. And as touching that same inward vnion or fellowship, it hath as it were these degrees. First all the electe haue the same right of the children of God, that is common to all: and so the same Father in heauen, Rom. 8.

Secondly, all the elect are endued with the same faith, whereby euen from the beginning, they were engraffed into the sonne of God, and yet are engraffed, which is a forcible, and an effectuall calling.

Thirdly, the same fauour of iustification in Christ is common to all vnder the olde & newe Testament.

Fourthly, glorification is also common to the whole bodie: so yᵗ the inhabitation of the Father, the Sonne, and the holie Ghost, was alwaies the same vnder either testament: to which scope and end al the gifts of the holie Ghost tend, bestowed for yᵉ common building vp of the whole bodie, that at length the glorie of the king may fully shine in the whole bodie.