other Church has them equally with her or beyond her If all these must be discussed before we can settle this Question Which is the true Infallible Church A Man must stay long e're he can come to a point in it Therefore there can be no other way taken here but to examine first What makes a particular Church And then since the Catholick Church is an united Body of all particular Churches when the true Notion of a particular Church is fixed it will be easy from that to form a Notion of the Catholick Church It would seem reasonable by the Method of all Creeds in particular of that called the Apostles Creed that we ought first to settle our Faith as to the great Points of the Christian Religion and from thence go to settle the Notion of a true Church And that we ought not to begin with the Notion of a Church and from thence go to the Doctrine The Doctrine of Christianity must be first stated and from this we are to take our measures of all Churches and that chiefly with respect to that Doctrine which every Christian is bound to believe Here a distinction is to be made between those Capital and Fundamental Articles without which a Man cannot be esteemed a true Christian nor a Church a true Church And other Truths which being delivered in Scripture all Men are indeed obliged to believe them yet they are not of that nature that the Ignorance of them or an Error in them can exclude from Salvation To make this sensible It is a Proposition of another sort That Christ died for Sinners than this That he died at the Third or at the Sixth Hour And yet if the Second Proposition is expresly revealed in Scripture we are bound to believe it Since God has said it though it is not of the same nature with the other Here a Controversie does naturally arise that wise People are unwilling to meddle with What Articles are Fundamental and what are not The defining of Fundamental Articles seems on the one hand to deny Salvation to such as do not receive them all which Men are not willing to do And on the other hand it may seem a leaving Men at liberty as to all other particulars that are not reckoned up among the Fundamentals But after all the Covenant of Grace the Terms of Salvation and the Grounds on which we expect it seem to be things of another nature than all other truths which though revealed are not of themselves the Means or Conditions of Salvation Wheresoever true Baptism is there it seems the Essentials of this Covenant are preserved For if we look on Baptism as a Foederal admission into Christianity there can be no Baptism where the Essence of Christianity is not preserved As far then as we believe that any Society has preserved that so far we are bound to receive her Baptism and no further For unless we consider Baptism as a sort of a Charm that such words joined with a washing with Water make one a Christian which seems to be expresly contrary to what St. Peter says of it 1 Pet. â— 21 That it is not the washing away the filth of the flesh but the answer of a good Conscience towards God that saves us We must conclude That Baptism is a Foederal thing in which after that the Sponsions are made the Seal of Regeneration is added From hence it will follow That all who have a true Baptism that makes Men Believers and Christians must also have the true Faith as to the Essentials of Christianity The Fundamentals of Christirnity seems to be all that is necessary to make Baptism True and Valid And upon this a distinction is to be made that will discover and destroy a Sophism that is often used on this occasion A True Church is in one sense a Society that preserves the Essentials and Fundamentals of Christianity In another sense it stands for a Society all whose Doctrines are true that has corrupted no part of this Religion nor mixed any Errors with it A true Man is one who has a Soul and a Body that are the Essential Constituents of a Man Whereas in another sense a Man of Sincerity and Candor is called a true Man Truth in the one Sense imports the Essential Constitution and in the other it imports only a Quality that is accidental to it So when we acknowledge that any Society is a true Church we ought to be supposed to mean no other than that the Covenant of Grace in its Essential Constituent parts is preserved entire in that Body and not that it is true in all its Doctrines and Decisions The Second thing to be considered in a Church is their Association together in the use of the Sacraments For these are given by Christ to the Society as the Rites and Badges of that Body That which makes particular Men Believers is their receiving the Fundamentals of Christianity so that which constitutes the Body of the Church is the Profession of that Faith and the use of those Sacraments which are the Rites and Distinctions of those who profess it In this likewise a distinction is to be made between what is Essential to a Sacrament and what is the exact observance of it according to the Institution Additions to the Sacraments do not annul them though they corrupt them with that adulterate mixture Therefore where the Sponsions are made and washing with Water is used with the words of Christ there we own that there is a true Baptism Though there may be a large Addition of other Rites which we reject as Superstitious though we do not pretend that they null the Baptism But if any part of the Institution is cut off there we do not own the Sacrament to be true Because it being an Institution of Christ's it can no more be esteemed a true Sacrament than as it retains all that which by the Institution appears to be the main and essential parts of the Action Upon this account it is That since Christ appointed Bread and Wine fo his other Sacrament and that he not only blessed both but distributed both with words appropriated to each kind we do not esteem that to be a true Sacrament in which either the one or the other of these kinds is w ithdrawn But in the next place there may be many things necessary in the way of Precept and Order both with relation to the Sacraments and to the other publick Acts of Worship in which tho' Additions or Defects are Erroneous and Faulty yet they do not annul the Sacraments We think none ought to Baptize but Men dedicated to the Service of God and Ordained according to that Constitution that was settled in the Church by the Apostles and yet Baptism by Laicks or by Women such as is most commonly practiced in the Roman Church is not esteemed null by us nor is it repeated Because we make a difference between what is Essential to a Sacrament and what is
for not following them in this as we have for not giving Infants the Sacrament and therefore we think it no Imputation on our Church that we do not in this follow a groundless and a much abused Precedent though set us in Ages which we highly reverence The greatest Corruption of this whole matter comes in the last place to be considered which is the Methods proposed for redeeming Souls out of Purgatory If this Doctrine had rested in a Speculation we must still have considered it as derogatory to the Death of Christ and the Truth of the Gospel but it raises our Zeal a little more when we consider the use that was made of it and that Fears and Terrors being by this means infused into Mens minds new Methods were proposed to free them from these The chief of which was the saying of Masses for departed Souls It was pretended that this being the highest Act of the Communion of Christians and the most sublime Piece of Worship therefore God was so well pleased with the frequent Repetition of it with the Prayers that accompanied it and with those that made Provisions for Men who should be constantly imployed in it that this was a most acceptable Sacrifice to God Upon this followed all those vast Endowments for saying Masses for departed Souls Though in the Institution of that Sacrament and in all that is spoken of it in the Scripture there is not an hint given of this Sacraments are positive Precepts which are to be measured only by the Institution in which there is not room left for us to carry them further We are to take eat and drink and thereby shew forth the Lord's death till his second coming All which has no relation to the applying this to others who are gone off this Stage therefore if we can have any just Notions either of Superstition or of Will-worship they are applicable here Men will fancy that there is a virtue in an Action which we are sure it has not of it self and we cannot find that God has put in it and yet they without any Authority from God do set up a new piece of Worship and imagine that God will be pleased with them in every thing they do or ask only because they are perverting this piece of Worship clearly contrary to the Institution to be a Solitary Mass. In the Primitive Church where all the Service of the whole Assembly ended in a Communion there was a Roll read in which the Names of the more Eminent Saints of the Catholick Church and of the Holy Bishops Martyrs or Confessors of every particular Church were registred This was an honourable remembrance that was kept up of such as had died in the Lord. When the soundness of any Persons Faith was brought in suspicion his Name was not read till that Point was cleared and then either his Name continued to be read or it was quite dasht out This was thought an Honour due to the Memory of those who had died in the Faith And in St. Cyprian's time in the Infancy of this Practice Cypr. Epist. 1. Oâ—on ad â—leb Furer we see he counted the leaving a Man's Name out as a thing that only left a Blot upon him but not as a thing of any Consequence to his Soul for when a Priest had died who had by his Last Will named another Priest the Tutor or Guardian of his Children this seemed to him a thing of such ill Example to put those Secular Cares upon the Minds of the Clergy that he appointed that his Name should be no more read in the daily Sacrifice which plainly shews unless we will tax St. Cyprian with a very unreasonable Cruelty that he considered that only as a small Censure laid on his Memory but not as a Prejudice to his Soul This gives us a very plain View of the Sense that he had of this Matter After this Roll was read then the general Prayer followed as was formerly acknowledged for all their Souls and so they went on in the Communion-Service This has no relation to a Mass said by a single Priest to deliver a Soul out of Purgatory Here without going far in Tragical expressions we cannot hold saying what our Saviour said upon another occasion My house is a house of prayer but ye have made it a den of thieves Mark 11.17 A Trade was set up on this Foundation The World was made believe that by the Virtue of so many Masses which were to be purchased by great Endowments Souls were redeemed out of Purgatory and Scenes of Visions and Apparitions sometimes of the tormented and sometimes of the delivered Souls were published in all Places which had so wonderful an effect that in two or three Centuries Endowments increased to so vast a degree that if the Scandals of the Clergy on the one hand and the Statutes of Mortmain on the other had not restrained the Profuseness that the World was wrought up to upon this account it is not easy to imagine how far this might have gone perhaps to an entire subjecting of the Temporalty to the Spiritualty The Practices by which this was managed and the Effects that followed on it we can call by no other Name than downright Impostures worse than the making or venting false Coyn when the World was drawn in by such Aâ—â—s to plain Bargains to redeem their own Souls and the Souls of their Ancestors and Posterity so many Masses were to be said and Forfeitures were to follow upon their not being said Thus the Masses were really the Price of the Lands An Endowment to a Religious Use though mixed with Error or Superstition in the Rules of it ought to be held Sacred according to the Decision given concerning the Censures of those that were in the Rebellion of Corah Numb 16.38 So that we do not excuse the Violation of such from Sacriledge yet we cannot think so of Endowments where the only Consideration was a false Opinion first of Purgatory and then of Redemption out of it by Masses this being expressed in the very Deeds themselves By the same Reasons by which private Persons are obliged to restore what they have drawn from others by base Practices by false Deeds or counterfeit Coyn Bodies are also bound to restore what they have got into their Hands by such fraudulent Practices so that the States and Princes of Christendom were at full liberty upon the discovery of these Impostures to void all the Endowments that had followed upon them and either to apply them to better Uses or to restore them to the Families from which they had been drawn if that had been practicable or to convert them to any other use This was a crying Abuse which those who have observed the progress that this matter made from the Eighth Century to the Twelfth cannot reflect on without both Amazement and Indignation We are sensible enough that there are many political Reasons and Arguments for keeping up the Doctrine of Purgatory
we do yet a great deal is done both towards that and towards the healing those Wounds in which the Church lies a bleeding when they come to join in the same Communion and in such Acts of Worship as do agree with their different Persuasions For as in the Sacrament of the Eucharist both Lutherans and Calvinists agreeing in the same Devotions and Acts of Worship a mere Point of Speculation concerning the manner in which Christ is present ought not to divide those who agree in every thing else that relates to the Sacrament every one may in that be left to the Freedom of his own Thoughts since neither Opinion has any Influence on Practice or on any part either of Publick Worship or of Secret Devotion Upon the same account it may be also suggested That when all Parties acknowledge that God is the Sovereign Lord of the Universe That he governs it by a Providence from which nothing is hid and to which nothing can resist and that he is likewise Holy and Just True and Faithful Merciful and Gracious in all his ways those who agree about all this should not differ though they cannot fall into the same Methods of reconciling these together And if they do all agree to bless God for all the good that they either do or receive and to accuse themselves for all the ill that they either do or suffer If they agree that they ought to be humble and to mistrust their own strength to pray earnestly to God for assistance and to depend on him to trust to him and likewise to employ their own Faculties with all possible care and diligence in the cleansing their Hearts and governing their Words and Actions here the great Truths of both Sides are safe every thing that has an Influence on Practice is agreed on though neither Side can meet in the same ways of joining all these together In the Church of Rome the difference is really the same between St. Austin's Disciples and the Followers of Molina And yet how much soever they may differ and dispute in the Schools their Worship being the same they do all join in it We of this Church are very happy in this respect we have all along been much divided and once almost broken to pieces while we disputed concerning these matters but now we are much happier for tho we know one anothers Opinions we live not only united in the same Worship but in great Friendship and Love with those of other Persuasions And the Boldness of some among us who have reflected in Sermons or otherwise on those who hold Calvin's System has been much blamed and often censured by those who though they hold the same Opinions with them yet are both more charitable in their Thoughts and more discreet in their Expressions But till the Lutherans abate of their Rigidity in censuring the Opinions of the Calvinists as charging God with all those blasphemous Consequences that they think follow the Doctrine of Absolute Decrees and till the Calvinists in Holland Switzerland and Geneva abate also of theirs in charging the others as Enemies to the Grace of God and as guilty of those Consequences that they think follow the Doctrine of Conditionate Decrees it is not possible to see that much-wish'd-for Agreement come to any good Effect He who believes that an ill Consequence is justly drawn from any Opinion is in the right when he is by that determined against it But because he thinks he sees that the Consequence is clear and cannot be avoided he ought not for that to judge so ill of those who hold the Opinion but declare at the same time that they abhor the Consequence that they prevaricate in that declaration and that they both see the Consequence and own it though for decencies sake they disclaim it He ought rather to think that either they do not see the Consequence but satisfy themselves with some of those distinctions with which it is avoided or that though they do see it yet they look on that only as an Objection which indeed they cannot well answer They may think that a Point of Doctrine may be proved by such convincing Arguments that they may be bound to believe it though there lye Objections against it which they cannot avoid and Consequences seem to follow on it which they abhor and are sure cannot be true though they cannot clear the matter so well as they wish they could do In that case when a man is inclined by strong Arguments to an Opinion against which he sees difficulties which he cannot resolve he ought either to suspend his Assent or if he sees a Superitory of Argument of one side he may be determined by that though he cannot satisfy even himself in the Objections that are against it In that case he ought to reflect on the Weakness and Defects of his Faculties which cannot rise up to full and comprehensive Ideas of things especially in that which relates to the Attributes of God and to his Counsels or Acts. If men can be brought once to apprehend this rightly it may make Propositions for Peace and Union hopeful and practicable and till they are brought to this all such Propositions may well be laid aside for mens minds are not yet prepared for that which can only reconcile this Difference and heal this Breach I shall conclude this Preface with a Reply that a very Eminent Divine among the Lutherans in Germany made to me when I was pressing this matter of Union with the Calvinists upon him with all the Topicks with which I could urge it as necessary upon many accounts and more particularly with relation to the present State of Affairs He said He wonder'd much to see a Divine of the Church of England press that so much on him when We notwithstanding the Dangers we were then in it was in the Year 1686. could not agree our Differences They differed about Important Matters concerning the Attributes of God and his Providence concerning the Guilt of Sin whether it was to be charged on God or on the Sinner and whether men ought to make good use of their Faculties or if they ought to trust entirely to an Irresistible Grace These were matters of great Moment But he said We in England differed only about Forms of Government and Worship and about things that were of their own nature indifferent and yet we had been quarrelling about these for above an Hundred Years and we were not yet grown wiser by all the Mischief that this had done us and by the Imminent Danger we were then in He concluded Let the Church of England heal her own Breaches and then all the rest of the Reformed Churches will with great Respect admit of her Mediation to heal theirs I will not presume to tell how I answered this But I pray God to enlighten and direct all men that they may consider well how it ought to be answered THE Articles of our Church were at the same time
all impure Desires being enjoined as indispensably necessary for without holiness no man can see the Lord. And thus every thing relating to this Article is considered and I hope both explained and proved ARTICLE VIII Of the Three Creeds The Three Creeds Nice Creed Athanasius Creed and that which is commonly called the Apostles Creed ought throughly to be received and believed for they may be proved by most certain Warrants of Holy Scripture ALthough no doubt seems to be here made of the Names or Designations given to those Creeds except of that which is ascribed to the Apostles yet none of them are named with any exactness Since the Article of the Procession of the Holy Ghost and all that follows it is not in the Nicene Creed but was used in the Church as a part of it for so it is in Epiphanius In Anchoreto before the Second General Council at Constantinople and it was confirmed and established in that Council Only the Article of the Holy Ghost's proceeding from the Son was afterwards added first in Spain Anno 447. which spread it self over all the West So that the Creed here called the Nice Creed is indeed the Constantinopolitan Creed together with the Addition of Filioque made by the Western Church That which is called Athanasius's Creed is not his neither â—or as it is not among his Works so that great Article of the Christian Religion having been settled at Nice and he and all the rest of the Orthodox referring themselves always to the Creed made by that Council there is no reason to imagine that he would have made a Creed of his own besides that not only the Macedonian but both the Nestorian and the Eutychian Heresies are expresly condemned by this Creed and yet those Authorities never being urged in those Disputes it is clear from thence that no such Creed was then known in the World as indeed it was never heard of before the Eighth Century and then it was given out as the Creed of Athanasius or as a Representation of his Doctrine and so it grew to be received by the Western Church perhaps the more early because it went under so great a Name in Ages that were not Critical enough to judge of what was genuine and what was spurious There is one great difficulty that arises out of several Expressions in this Câ—â—ed in which it is said That whosover will be saved must believe it That the Belief of it is necessary to Salvation and that such as do not hold it pure and undefiled shall without doubt perish everlastingly Where many Explanations of a Mystery hard to be understood are made indispensably necessary to Salvation and it is affirmed That all such as do not so believe must perish everlastingly To this two Answers are made 1. That it is only the Christian Faith in general that is hereby meant and not every Period and Article of this Creed so that all those severe Expressions are thought to import only the necessity of believing the Christian Religion But this seems forced for the words that follow And the Catholick Faith is do so plainly determine the sâ—gnification of that word to the Explanation that comes after that the word Catholick Faith in the first Verse can be no other than the same word as it is defined in the third and following Verses so that this Answer seems not natural 2. The common Answer in which the most Eminent Men of this Church as far as the Memory of all such as I have known could go up have agreed is this That these Condemnatory Expressions are only to be understood to relate to those who having the Means of Instruction offered to them have rejected them and have stifled their own Convictions holding the Truth in Unrighteousness and chusing darkness rather than light Upon such as do thus reject this great Article of the Christian Doctrine concerning One God and Three Persons Father Son and Holy Ghost and that other concerning the Incarnation of Christ by which God and Man were so united as to make one Person together with the other Doctrines that follow these are those Anathâ—maes denounced Not so as if it were hereby meant that every man who does not believe this in every tittle must certainly perish unless he has been furnished with sufficient means of conviction and that he has rejected them and hardned himself against them The Wrath of God is revealed against all sin and the wages of sin is Death So that every Sinner has the Wrath of God abiding on him and is in a state of Damnation yet a sincere Repentance delivers him out of it even though he lives and dies in some sins of Ignorance which though they may make him liable to damnation so that nothing but true Repentance can deliver him from it yet a general Repentance when it is also special for all known sins does certainly deliver a man from the guilt of unknown sins and from the Wrath of God due to them God only knows our hearts the degrees of our knowledge and the measure of our obstinacy and how far our Ignorance is affected or invincible and therefore he will deal with every man according to what he has received So that we may believe that some Doctrines are necessary to Salvation as well as that there are some Commandments necessary for Practice and we may also believe that some Errors as well as some Sins are exclusive of Salvation all which imports no more than that we believe such things are sufficiently revealed and that they are necessary Conditions of Salvation but by this we do not limit the Mercies of God towards those who are under such darkness as not to be able to see through it and to discern and acknowledge these Truths It were indeed to be wished that some express Declaration to this purpose were made by those who have Authority to do it But in the mean while this being the Sense in which the Words of this Creed are universally taken and it agreeing with the Phraseology of the Scripture upon the like occasions this is that which may be rested upon And allowing this large Explanation of these severe words the rest of this Creed imports no more than the Belief of the Doctrine of the Trinity which has been already proved in treating of the former Articles As for the Creed called the Apostles Creed there is good reason for speaking so doubtfully of it as the Article does since it does not appear that any determinate Creed was made by them None of the first Writers agree in delivering their Faith in a certain Form of Words every one of them gives an Abstract of his Faith in Words that differ both from one another and from this Form From thence it is clear that there was no common Form delivered to all the Churches And if there had been any Tradition after the Times of the Council of Nice of such a Creed composed by the Apostles the Arians
We must be then well assured in whom this great Privillege is vested before we can be bound to acknowledge it or to submit to it So here a great many things must be known before we can either argue from or apply those Passages of Scripture in which it is pretended that Infallibility is promised to the Church And if private Judgment is to be trusted in the Inquiries that arise about all these particulars they being the most important and most difficult matters that we can search into then it will be thought reasonable to trust it yet much further It is evident by their proceeding this way that both the Authority and the Sense of the Scriptures must be known antecedently to our acknowledging the Authority or the Infallibility of any Church For it is an Eternal Principle and Rule of Reason never to prove one thing by another till that other is first well proved Nor can any thing be proved afterwards by that which was proved by it This is as impossible as if a Father should beget a Son and should be afterwards begotten by that Son Therefore the Scriptures cannot prove the Infallibility of the Church and be afterwards proved by the Testimony of the Church So the one or the other of these must be first settled and proved before any use can be made of it to prove the other by it The last way they take to find out this Church by is from some Notes that they pretend are peculiar to her such as the Name Catholick Antiquity Extent Bellar. Contr. Tom 2. l. 4. Duration Succession of Bishops Vnion among themselves and with their Head Conformity of Doctrine with former times Miracles Prophecy Sanctity of Doctrine Holiness of Life Temporal Felicity Curses upon their Enemies and a constant Progress or Efficacy of Doctrine together with the Confession of their Adversaries And they fancy that wheresoever we find these we must believe that Body of Men to be Infallible But upon all this endless Questions will arise so far will it be from ending Controversies and settling us upon Infallibility If all these must be believed to be the Marks of the Infallible Church upon the account of which we ought to believe it and submit to it then two Enquires upon every one of these Notes must be discussed before we can be obliged to acquiesce in the Infallibility First Whether that is a true Mark of Infallibility or not And next Whether it belongs to the Church which they call Infallible or not And then another very intricate Question will arise upon the whole Whether they must all be found together or How many or which of them together will give us the entire Characters of the Infallible Church In discussing the Questions Whether every one of these is a true Mark or not no use must be made of the Scriptures for if the Scriptures have their Authority from the Testimony or rather the Decisions of the Infallible Church no use can be made of them till that is first fixed Some of these Notes are such as did not at all agree to the Church in the best and purest Times for then she had but a little Extent a short-liv'd Duration and no Temporal Felicity and she was generally reproached by her Adversaries But out of which of these Topicks can one hope to fetch out an Assurance of the Infallibility of such a Body Can no Body of Men continue long in the constant Series and with much Prosperity but must they be concluded to be Infallible Can it be thought that the assuming a Name can be a Mark Why is not the Name Christian as solemn as Catholick Might not the Philosophers have concluded from hence against the First Christians That they were by the confession of all Men the true Lovers of Wisdom since they were called Philosophers much more unanimously than the Church of Rome is called Catholick If a Conformity of Doctrine with former times and a Sanctity of Doctrine are Notes of the Church these will lead men into Enquiries of such a nature that if they are once allowed to go so far with their private Judgment they may well be suffered to go much further Some Standard must be fixed on by which the Sanctity of Doctrine may be examined they must also be allowed to examine what was the Doctrine of former times and here it will be natural to begin at the first times the Age of the Apostles It must therefore be first known what was the Doctrine of that Age before we can examine the Conformity of the present Age with it A Succession of Bishops is confessed to be still kept up among corrupted Churches An Union of the Church with its Head cannot be supposed to be a Note unless it is first made out by some other Topicks That this Church must have a Head and that he is Infallible For unless it is proved by some other Argument That she ought to have a Head she cannot be bound to adhere to him or to own him and unless it is also proved that he is Infallible she cannot be bound absolutely and without restrictions to adhere to him Holiness of Life cannot be a Mark unless it is pretended that those in whom the Infallibility is are all holy A few holy men here and there are indeed an Honour to any Body but it will seem a strange Inference That because some few in a Society are eminently holy that therefore others of that Body who are not so but are perhaps as eminently vicious should be Infallible Somewhat has been already said concerning Miracles The pretence to Prophecy falls within the same Consideration The one being as wonderful a Communication of Omniscience as the other is of Omnipotence For the Confession of Adversaries or some Curâ—es on them these cannot signifie much unless they were Universal Fair Enemies will acknowledg what is good among their Adversaries But as that Church is the least apt of any Society we know to speak good of those who differ from her so she has not very much to boast as to others saying much good of her And if Signal Providences have now and then happened these are such things and they are carried on with such a depth that we must acquiesce in the Observation of the wisest Men of all Ages That the race is not to the swift nor the battel to the strong Eccl. 9.11 But that time and chance happeneth to all things And thus it appears That these pretended Notes instead of giving us a clear Thread to lead us up to Infallibility and to end all Controversies they do start a great variety of Questions that engage us into a Labyrinth out of which it cannot be easy for any to extricate themselves But if we could see an end of this then a new set of Questions will come on When we go to examine all Churches by them Whether the Church of Rome has them all And if she alone has them so that no
For so great and so important a Matter as this is must be supposed to be either expresly declared in the Scriptures or not at all The Article affirming That some General Councils have erred must be understood of Councils that pass for such and that may be called General Councils much better than many others that go by that Name For that at Arimini was both very Numerous and was drawn out of many different Provinces As to the strict Notion of a General Council there is great Reason to believe that there was never any Assembly to which it will be found to agree And for the Four General Councils which this Church declares she receives they are received only because we are persuaded from the Scriptures that their Decisions were made according to them That the Son is truly God of the same Substance with the Father That the Holy Ghost is also truly God That the Divine Nature was truly united to the Human in Christ and that in One Person That both Natures remain distinct and that the Human Nature was not swallowed up of the Divine These Truths we find in the Scriptures and therefore we believe them We reverence those Councils for the sake of their Doctrine but do not believe the Doctrine for the Authority of the Councils There appeared too much of Human Frailty in some of their other Proceedings to give us such an Implicite Submission to them as to believe things only because they so Decided them ARTICLE XXII Of Purgatory The Romish Doctrine concerning Purgatory Pardons Worshipping and Adoration as well of Images as of Relicks and also Invocation of Saints is a fond thing vainly invented and grounded upon no warrant of Scripture but rather repugnant to the Word of God THERE are two small Variations in this Article from that published in King Edward's Reign What is here called the Romish Doctrine is there called the Doctrine of School-men The plain reason of this is that these Errors were not so fully espoused by the Body of the Roman Church when those Articles were first published so that some Writers that softened matters threw them upon the School-men and therefore the Article was cautiously worded in laying them there But before these that we have now were published the Decree and Canons concerning the Mass had passed at Trent in which most of the Heads of this Article are either affirmed or supposed though the formal Decree concerning them was made some Months after these Articles were published This will serve to justifie that diversity The second difference is only the leaving out a severe word Perniciously repugnant to the Word of God was put at first but perniciously being considered to be only a hard word they judged very right in the Second Edition of them that it was enough to say repugnant to the Word of God There are in this Article five Particulars that are all Ingredients in the Doctrine and Worship of the Church of Rome Purgatory Pardons the Worship of Images and of Relicks and the Invocation of Saints that are rejected not only as ill grounded brought in and maintained without good warrants from the Scripture but as contrary to it The first of these is Purgatory concerning which the Doctrine of the Church of Rome is that every Man is liable both to Temporal and to Eternal Punishment for his Sins that God upon the Account of the Death and Intercession of Christ does indeed pardon Sin as to its Eternal Punishment but the Sinner is still liable to Temporal Punishment which he must expiate by Acts of Pennance and Sorrow in this World together with such other Sufferings as God shall think fit to lay upon him but if he does not expiate these in this Life there is a State of Suffering and Misery in the next World where the Soul is to bear the Temporal punishment of its Sins which may continue longer or shorter till the Day of Judgment And in order to the shortening this the Prayers and Supererogations of Men here on Earth or the Intercession of the Saints in Heaven but above all things the Sacrifice of the Mass are of great Efficacy This is the Doctrine of the Church of Rome asserted in the Councils of Florence and Trent What has been taught among them concerning the Nature and the Degrees of those Torments though supported by many pretended Apparitions and Revelations is not to be imputed to the whole Body and is indeed only the Doctrine of Schoolmen though it is generally preached and infused into the Consciences of the People Therefore I shall only examine that which is the established Doctrine of the whole Roman Church And first as to the Foundation of it that Sins are only pardoned as to their Eternal Punishment to those who being justified by faith have peace with God through our Lord Iesus Christ. Rom. 5.1 There is not a colour for it in the Scriptures Remission of Sins is in general that with which the Preaching of the Gospel ought always to begin and this is so often repeated without any such reserve that it is a high assuming upon God and his Attributes of Goodness and Mercy to limit these when he has not limited them but has expresly said that this is a main part of the New Covenant Jer. 31.34 Heb. 8.12 that he will remember our sins and iniquities no more Now it seems to be a Maxim not only of the Law of Nations but of Nature that all offers of Pardon are to be understood in the full extent of the Words without any secret Reserves or Limitations unless they are plainly expressed An Indemnity being offered by a Prince to persuade his Subjects to return to their Obedience in the fullest Words possible without any reserves made in it it would be lookt on as a very perfidious thing if when the Subjects come in upon it trusting to it they should be told that they were to be secured by it against Capital Punishments but that as to all Inferior Punishments they were still at Mercy We do not dispute whether God if he had thought fit so to do might not have made this distinction nor do we deny that the Grace of the Gospel had been infinitely valuable if it had offered us only the Pardon of Sin with relation to its Eternal Punishment and had left the Temporal Punishment on us to be expiated by our selves but then we say this ought to have been expressed The Distinction ought to have been made between Temporal and Eternal and we ought not to have been drawn into a Covenant with God by words that do plainly import an intire Pardon and Oblivion upon which there lay a limited Sense that was not to be told the World till it was once well engaged in the Christian Religion Upon these Reasons it is that we conclude that this Doctrine not being contained in the Scriptures is not only without any warrant in them but that it is contrary to those full offers of
the Sacrament of his Blood is the Blood of Christ he carried himself in his own hands in some sort when he said This is my Body St. Chrysostom says the Bread is thought worthy to be called the Body of our Lord And in another Place reckoning up the improper Senses of the word Flesh he says the Scriptures use to call the Mysteries that is the Sacrament by the Name of Flesh and sometimes the whole Church is said to be the Body of Christ. So Tertullian says Christ calls the Bread his Body and names the Bread by his Body Tertul. Lib. 4. adv Marci c. 40. The Fathers do not only call the consecrated Elements Bread and Wine They do also affirm that they retain their proper Nature and Substance and are the same thing as to their Nature that they were before And the Occasion upon which the Passages that I go next to mention are used by them does prove this Matter beyond Contradiction Apollinaris did broach that Heresy which was afterwards put in full Form by Eutycheâ— and that had so great a Party to support it that as they had one General Council a pretended one at least to favour them so they were condemned by another Their Error was that the human Nature of Christ was swallowed up by the Divine if not while he was here on Earth yet at least after his Ascension to Heaven This Error was confuted by several Writers who lived very wide one from another And at a distance of above a hundred Years one from another St. Chrysostom at Constantinople Theodoret in Asia Ephrem Patriarch of Antioch and Gelasius Bishop of Rome All those write to Prove that the human Nature did still remain in Christ not changed nor swallowed up but only sanctified by the Divine Nature that was united to it They do all fall into one Argument which very probably those who came after St. Chrysostom took from him Epist. ad Celarium So that though both Theodoret and Gelasius's Words are much fuller yet because the Argument is the same with that which St. Chrysostom had urged against Apollinaris I shall first set down his Words He brings an Illustration from the Doctrine of the Sacrament to shew that the human Nature was not destroyed by its Union with the Divine and has upon that these Words As before the Bread is sanctified we call it Bread but when the Divine Grace has sanctified it by the means of the Priest it is freed from the name of Bread and is thought worthy of the name of the Lord's Body though the nature of Bread remains in it And yet it is not said there are two Bodies but one Body of the Son So the divine Nature being joined to the Body Both these make one Son and one Person In Photi Bibli Cod. 229. Ephrem of Antioch says The Body of Christ which is received by the faithful does not depart from its sensible Substance So Baptism says he does not lose its own sensible Substance and does not lose that which it was before Dial. 1st and 2d â—ont Eutych Theodoret says Christ does honour the Symbols with the name of his Body and Blood not changing the nature but adding grace to nature In another Place pursuing the same Argument he says The mystical Symbols after the sanctification do not depart from their own nature For they continue in their former substance figure and form and are visible and palpable as they were before But they are understood to be that which they are made Pope Gelasius says The Sacraments of the Body and Blood of Christ are a divine thing Lib. de duâ—bus nat Christ for which reason we become by them partakers of the divine Nature and yet the substance of Bread and Wine does not cease to exist And the image and likeness of the Body and Blood of Christ are celebrated in holy Mysteries Upon all these Places being compared with the Design with which they were written which was to prove that Christ's Human Nature did still subsist unchanged and not swallowed up by its Union with the Divinity some Reflections are very obvious â—irst If the corporal Presence of Christ in the Sacrament had been then received in the Church the natural and unavoidable Argument in this Matter which must put an end to it with all that believed such corporal Presence was this Christ has certainly a natural Body still because the Bread and the Wine are turned to it and they cannot be turned to that which is not In their Writings they argued against the possibility of a substantial Change of a Human Nature into the Divine but that could not have been urged by Men who believed a substantial Mutation to be made in the Sacrament For then the Eutychians might have retorted the Argument with great Advantage upon them The Eutychians did make use of some Expressions that were used by some in the Church which seemed to Import that they did argue from the Sacrament as Theodoret represents their Objections But to that he answers as we have seen denying that any such substantial Change was made The Design of those Fathers was to prove that things might be united together and continue so united without the change of their Substances and that this was true in the two Natures in the Person of Christ And to make this more Sensible they bring in the Matter of the Sacrament as a thing known and confessed For in their arguing upon it they do suppose it as a thing out of dispute Now according to the Roman Doctrine this had been a very odd Sort of an Argument to prove that Christ's Human Nature was not swallowed up of the Divine because the Mysteries or Elements in the Sacrament are changed into the Substance of Christ's Body only they retain the outward appearances of Bread and Wine To this an Eutychian might readily have answered that then the Human Nature might be believed to be destroyed And though Christ had appeared in that likeness he retained only the Accidents of Human Nature but that the Human Nature it self was destroyed as the Bread and the Wine were destroyed in the Eucharist This had been a very absurd way of arguing in the Fathers and had indeed delivered up the Cause to the Eutychians Whereas those Fathers make it an Argument against them to prove that notwithstanding an Uninion of two Beings and such an Union as did communicate a Sanctification from the one to the other yet the two Natures might remain still distinguish'd and that it was so in the Eucharist Therefore it might be so in the Person of Christ. This seems to be so evident an Indication of the Doctrine of the whole Church in the Fourth and Fifth Century when so many of the most eminent Writers of those Ages do urge it so home as an Argument in so great a Point that we can scarce think it possible for any Man to consider it fully without being determined by it
doing that may draw others who have not such clear Notions to do it after his Example they being still in doubt as to the Lawfulness of it then he gives Scandal that is he lays a stumbling-block in their way if he does it unless he lies under an Obligation from some of the Laws of God or of the Society to which he belongs to do it In that case he is bound to obey and he must not then consider the Consequences of his Actions of which he is only bound to take care when he is left to himself and is at full liberty to do or not to do as he pleases This explains the Notion of Scandal as it is used in the Epistles For there being several doubts raised at that time concerning the Lawfulness or Obligation of observing the Mosaical Law and concerning the Lawfulness of eating Meats offered to Idols no general Decision was made that went through that matter the Apostles having only decreed that the Mosaical Law was not to be imposed on the Gentiles but not having condemned such as might of their own accord have observed some parts of that Law Scruples arose about this and so here they gave great Caution against the laying a Stumbling-block in the way of their Brethren Ver. 13. But it is visible from this that the fear of giving Scandal does only take place where matters are free and may be done or not done But when Laws are made and an Order is settled the fear of giving Scandal lies all on the side of Obedience For a man of weight and Authority when he does not obey gives Scruples and Jealousies to others who will be apt to collect from his Practice that the thing is unlawful He who does not conform himself to settled Orders gives occasion to others who see and observe him to imitate him in it and thus he lays a Scandal or Stumbling-block in their way and all the sins which they commit through their excessive Respect to him and imitation of him are in a very high degree to be put to his account who gave them such occasion of falling The Second Branch of this Article is against the Unalterableness of Laws made in matters indifferent and it asserts the Right of every National Church to take care of it self That the Laws of any one Age of the Church cannot bind another is very evident from this That all Legislature is still entire in the hands of those who have it The Laws of God do bind all men at all times but the Laws of the Church as well as the Laws of every State are only Provisions made upon the present state of things from the fitness or unfitness that appears to be in them for the great Ends of Religion or for the Good of Mankind All these things are subject to alteration therefore the Power of the Church is in every Age entire and is as great as it was in any one Age since the days in which she was under the Conduct of men immediately Inspired So there can be no unalterable Laws in matters indifferent In this there neither is nor can be any Controversy An obstinate adhering to things only because they are antient when all the ends for which they were at first introduced do cease is the limiting the Church in a point in which she ought still to preserve her Liberty She ought still to pursue those great Rules in all her Orders of doing all things to Edification with Decency and for Peace The only question that can be made in this matter is Whether such general Laws as have been made by greater Bodies by General Councils for instance or by those Synods whose Canons were received into the Body of the Canons of the Catholick Church whether these I say may be altered by National Churches Or whether the Body of Christians is so to be reckoned one Body that all the Parts of it are bound to submit in matters indifferent to the Decrees of the Body in general It is certain that all the Parts of the Catholick Church ought to hold a Communion one with another and mutual Commerce and Correspondence together but this difference is to be observed between the Christian and the Iewish Religion that the one was tied to one Nation and to one place whereas the Christian Religion is universal to be spread to all Nations among People of different Climates and Languages and of different Customs and Tempers and therefore since the Power in indifferent matters is given the Church only in order to Edification every Nation must be the proper Judg of that within it self The Roman Empire though a great Body yet was all under one Government and therefore all the Councils that were held while that Empire stood are to be considered only as National Synods under one Civil Policy The Christians of Persia India or Ethiopia were not subject to the Canons made by them but were at full liberty to make Rules and Canons for themselves And in the Primitive Times we see a vast diversity in their Rules and Rituals They were so far from imposing general Rules on all that they left the Churches at full liberty Even the Council of Nice made very few Rules That of Constantinople and Ephesus made fewer And though the Abuses that were growing in the Fifth Century gave occasion to the Council of Calcedon to make more Canons yet the number of these is but small so that the Tyranny of subjecting particular Churches to Laws that might be inconvenient for them was not then brought into the Church The Corruptions that did afterwards overspread the Church together with the Papal Usurpations and the New Canon Law that the Popes brought in which was totally different from the old one had worn out the remembrance of all the Antient Canons so it is not to be wondred at if they were not much regarded at the Reformation They were quite out of practice and were then scarce known And as for the Subordination of Churches and Sees together with the Privileges and Exemptions of them these did all flow from the Divisions of the Roman Empire into Dioceses and Provinces out of which the Dignity and the Dependances of their Cities did arise But now that the Roman Empire is gone and that all the Laws which they made are at an end with the Authority that made them it is a vain thing to pretend to keep up the Antient Dignities of Sees since the Foundation upon which that was built is sunk and gone Every Empire Kingdom or State is an entire Body within it self The Magistrate has that Authority over all his Subjects that he may keep them all at home and hinder them from entring into any Consultations or Combinations but such as shall be under his Direction He may require the Pastors of the Church under him to consult together about the best methods for carrying on the Ends of Religion but neither he nor they can be bound to stay for