Catholick Church is the Society of Saints, the Communion
or Fellowship of Saints. S. Paul writing to the Corinthians (1 Cor. i.
2) addresses them as the Church, called to be Saints, and (after
referring to the distribution of various duties amongst the members by
the Holy Spirit) he says (xii. 25-27) that there should be no schism in
the body, but all the members should care for one another, suffer with
one another, and rejoice with one another: indeed his argument is that
the Church is a body, and that this sharing of joy and sorrow is an
existing fact. So in 2 Cor. i. his whole argument turns upon this
thought of a society, wherein the comfort of one is the comforting of
the rest, and the prayers of the rest a help to the one, the gift
bestowed upon one, a cause of the others' thankfulness; and all
stablished together by God. In Heb. xii. 22 mount Zion is taken as the
symbol of Christ's Church; and the readers are addressed as members
thereof, together with the spirits of just men made perfect, who are
enrolled in heaven as the general assembly and church of the firstborn.
Thus the {113} Church, or Society of Saints includes the imperfect, and
those who are made perfect; those who are alive there, and those who
are alive here. The condition of membership is briefly described in
Acts ii. 38, 42 Repentant, Baptized, having the Gift of the Holy Ghost,
Apostolic Doctrine and Fellowship, Communicant, Stedfast in Prayers.

Since then, Repentance and Baptism, Acts ii. 38: iii. 19 "for the
Remission of sins," "that our sins may be blotted out," are thus
associated with the gift of the Holy Ghost--see also S. John xx. 22,
23--this second great privilege of Christians is stated in the Creed;
we believe in the Forgiveness of Sins. It is preached unto us through
Christ, Acts xiii. 38: it is granted to us for His Name's sake, 1 S.
John ii. 12: the Son of Man hath power on earth to forgive sins, S.
Mark ii. 10: it is especially associated with the Presence of Christ in
the assembly of the Church, S. Matth. xviii. 17-20: 1 Cor. v. 4: S.
John xx. 22, 23. The union of the Faithful with Him in whom they have
Faith brings, through Jesus, Rom. iii. 25, remission of their sins,
through the forbearance of God.

The third great privilege, which comes to members of Christ through the
Holy Ghost, is the Resurrection of the Body, a most prominent doctrine
of the Gospel: as in the case of other articles of the Creeds, so here,
we only gi