Chapter XXVIOf the Communion of Saints
Text of the 1646 manuscript
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Text public domain · U.S.
1946 transcription of the 1646 manuscript; the copyrighted editorial note is omitted. Source: Wikisource scan transcription.
The 1646 text is public domain; Wikisource omits the 1946 editorial note and identifies the remaining transcription as insufficiently transformative for a new copyright. Rights evidence. Verified 2026-07-14.
All saints, that are united to Jesus Christ their Head, by His Spirit, and by faith, have fellowship with Him in His grace, sufferings, death, resurrection, and glory: and, being united to one another in love, they have communion in each other’s gifts and graces, and are obliged to the performance of such duties, public and private, as do conduce to their mutual good, both in the inward and outward man.
Saints by profession are bound to maintain an holy fellowship and communion in the worship of God, and in performing such other spiritual services as tend to their mutual edification; as also in relieving each other in outward things, according to their several abilities and necessities. Which communion, as God offereth opportunity, is to be extended unto all those who, in every place, call upon the name of the Lord Jesus.
This communion which the saints have with Christ, doth not make them in any wise partakers of the substance of His Godhead; or to be equal with Christ in any respect: either of which to affirm is impious and blasphemous. Nor doth their communion one with another, as saints, take away, or infringe the title or propriety which each man hath in his goods and possessions.