HOW OUT OF THE CHURCH THERE IS NO SALVATION.
As for what the church of Rome doth so frequently triumph in, and thinks to scare us with, namely, that "out of the church there is no salvation," it is to be considered,
1. This to be true indeed of the catholic church. – Taking it not as they do, for all them, and only them, that are under the pastorship of the pope, but for all the real and living members of Christ; for they only are truly his body, that are enlivened by his Spirit. Thus the apostle joins them together: "There is one body and one Spirit" (Eph. 4:4); and elsewhere he says, that unless the Spirit of Christ be in you, you are none of his (Rom. 8:9). As every member of the body [is], and only the members of that body are, acted by the same soul; so is it in the mystical body of Christ too. And it is the concern of all to obtain the Spirit of Christ, and to live the life of Christ, without which they cannot obtain salvation by Christ, who is "the Saviour only of his body."
2. We acknowledge that it is every one’s duty to join himself unto, and not causelessly to depart from, a visible church that professeth the faith and keepeth the institutions of Christ. – Every one ought to inquire where it is that this great Shepherd "feedeth, and maketh his flock to rest" (Canticles 1:7); and every needless departing from such a church does endanger salvation, in that it makes a man truly guilty of schism, which is a great sin against charity, so highly recommended unto us; as also in that such an one withdraws himself from those societies and meetings unto which Christ hath promised his presence, and God bestows his blessing (Matt. 18:20).
3. But where this cannot be obtained, or is not sinfully neglected or refused, one may be saved without being joined to any visible church whatsoever. – If a Pagan, or a Jew, that is imprisoned in a country where the Christian religion is not professed (being, by reading or conference, through the goodness of God, brought to the knowledge of the truth, and to profess it, living answerably unto it), though he should die before that he could come to enjoy church-communion, we have no reason to doubt of his salvation; our Saviour having told us, that whosoever believeth in him hath eternal life (John 6:40).
WHAT WE THINK CONCERNING THE CHURCH OF ROME.
But more particularly as to "the church of Rome" (for so we call them that, professing to hold the Christian faith, are united in subjection and obedience unto that see, and do acknowledge the pope their universal pastor): when we call them "a church," we mean no more than that they are a society or company of men who make profession that they are Christians. Thus the Laodiceans are called "a church" (Rev. 3:14), though they were "wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked," and we do not read of a sound part amongst them (verse 17). Thus God himself calls the ten tribes his people, after their defection, by reason of circumcision, which they yet retained, and their being the offspring of Jacob (Hosea 4:6). In this sense, soundness of faith is no more essential to a church, than health is to a man. And as a man that hath the plague or leprosy is still a man, though to be shunned; so they may be thus a church, though by all means to be forsaken. But as they themselves take a church for "a company of true believers joined together in communion," so they are no church, their faith being far from the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ.
