of them to nurse Men up securely in their sins such as the Doctrines of Purgatory of Indulgences of Penances and to name to more of Infallibility which being presumed as an unquestionable Principle is apt to lead Men in the most dangerous errors and the foulest sins without any remedy or possibility of recovery whensoever the Infallible Guide shall propound them This pernicious Doctrine I may add seems also to be deeply rooted in all their minds that an Orthodox Belief will save them For this they make the great business of Christianity to bring Men as they think to such a Faith as appears by this that let Men be never so bad their labour is not bestowed to make them quit their Sins but to bring them to their Belief where for any thing I can see or hear they may quietly enjoy them Nay there are a number of little devices to put them in hope of Heaven without reforming their lives provided they Believe as the Church Believes And in this let me beseech all that read these Papers to take a special care that they do not imitate them Let us be watchful that we do not put a greater Cheat upon our selves than they would do by imagining our selves good Christians meerly because we Zealously oppose the Errors of Popery That we ought to do but not leave the great Thing the amending of our Lives undone For may we not destroy and pull down by a wicked life as much as we build up by contending for the Faith How can others think that we are so much concerned as we seem to be for Truth when we make no use of it but let it lie dead in our minds What pitty is it that their hearts should not love that which is good whose minds are inlightned to discern that which is true That their understandings being convinced their wills should not also be converted It is a lamentable thing to profess that we know God but in our Works deny him This makes us look as if we were of a Faction rather than of the Faithful who oppose others rather as our Enemies than as Christ's as those that differ from us rather than as those that differ from the Truth For if it be the Truth that we Reverence why do we not let it Rule and Govern us Why do we not love to have it nearer to us than in our Brains even in our Hearts and Affections For there is no greater Truth than this that Vngodliness is the worst of Heresies a wicked life the most opposite of all other things to the Christian Faith. Let us never forget therefore that Admonition of the Apostle in the First Chapter of this Epistle to Timothy v. 19. Hold faith and a good conscience which he repeats again in the Third Chapter to the Deacons whom he exhorts to hold the mystery of saith in a pure conscience v. 9. For if we put away a good conscience we may easily make Shipwrack even of our faith Which we have just cause to think is the reason why some have fallen from this truly Apostolick Church of ours Concerning which and concerning whom I may say as Epiphanius (t) Haeres XI 〈◊〉 8. putting this place I have been expounding and some others together makes the Apostle speak to Timothy It is the Church of the living God the pillar and ground of truth which many forsaking are turned 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to fables and foolish bablings neither understanding what they say nor whereof they affirm FINIS Books lately printed for Richard Chiswell THE History of the Reformation of the Church of England By GILBERT BVRNET D. D. in two Volumes Folio The Moderation of the Church of England in her Reformation in avoiding all undue Compliances with Popery and other sorts of Phanaticism c. by TIMOTHY PVLLER D. D. Octavo A Dissertation concerning the Government of the Ancient Church more particularly of the Encroachments of the Bishops of Rome upon other Sers By WILLIAM CAVE D. D. Octavo An Answer to Mr. Serjeant's Sure Footing in Christianity concerning the Rule of Faith With some other Discourses By WILLIAM FALKNER D. D. 4o. A Vindication of the Ordinations of the Church of England in Answer to a Paper written by one of the Church of Rome to prove the Nullity of our Orders By GILBERT BVRNET D. D. Octavo An Abridgment of the History of the Reformation of the Church of England By GILB BVRNET D. D. Octavo The APOLOGY of the Church of England and an Epistle to one Signior Scipio a Venetian Gentleman concerning the Council of Trent Written both in Latin by the Right Reverend Father in God JOHN JEWEL Lord Bishop of Salisbury Made English by a Person of Quality To which is added The Life of the said Bishop Collected and written by the same Hand Octavo A LETTER writ by the last Assembly General of the Clergy of France to the Protestants inviting them to return to their Communion Together with the Methods proposed by them for their Conviction Translated into English and Examined by GILB BVRNET D. D. Octavo The Life of WILLIAM BEDEL D. D. Bishop of Kilmore in Ireland Together with Certain Letters which passed betwixt him and James Waddesworth a late Pensioner of the Holy Inquisition of Sevil in Matter of Religion concerning the General Motives to the Roman Obedience Octavo The Decree made at ROME the Second of March 1679. condemning some Opinions of the Jesuits and other Casuists Quarto A Discourse concerning the Necessity of Reformation with respect to the Errors and Corruptions of the Church of Rome Quarto First and Second Parts A Discourse concerning the Celebration of Divine Service in an Unknown Tongue Quarto A Papist not Misrepresented by Protestants Being a Reply to the Reflections upon the Answer to A Papist Misrepresented and Represented Quarto An Exposition of the Doctrine of the Church of England in the several Articles proposed by the late BISHOP of CONDOM in his Exposition of the Doctrine of the Catholick Church Quarto A Desence of the Exposition of the Doctrine of the CHVRCH of ENGLAND against the EXCEPTIONS of Monsieur de MEAVK late Bishop of Condom and his VINDICATOR Quarto An Answer to THREE PAPERS lately printed concerning the Authority of the Catholick Church in Matters of Faith and the Reformation of the Church of England Quarto A Vindication of the Answer to SOME LATE PAPERS concerning the Unity and Authority of the Catholick Church and Reformation of the Church of England Quarto An Historical Treatise written by an AUTHOR of the Communion of the CHVRCH of ROME touching TRANSVBSTANTIATION Wherein is made appear That according to the Principles of THAT CHVRCH This Doctrine cannot be an Article of Faith. Quarto A CATECHISM explaining the Doctrine and Practices of the Church of Rome with an Answer thereunto By a Protestant of the Church of England Octavo A Papist Represented and not Misrepresented Being an Answer to the First Second Firth and Sixth Sheets of the Second Part of the Popish Representer and for a further Vindication of the CATECHISM truly reprsenting the Doctrine and Practices of the Church of Rome Quarto In 3. Discourses The Lay-Christian's Obligations to read the Holy Scriptures Quarto The Plain Man's Reply to the Catholick Missionaries 24o. The Protestant's Companion Or an Impartial Survey and Comparison of the Protestant Religion as by Law established with the main Doctrines of Popery Wherein is shewn that Popery is contrary to Scripture Primitive Fathers and Councils and that Proved from Holy Writ the Writings of the Ancient Fathers for several hundred Years and the Confession of the most Learned Papists themselves Quarto A Discourse of the Holy Eucharist in the two great points of the Real Presence and the Adoration of the Host In Answer to the two Discourses lately printed at Oxford on this Subject To which is prefixed a large Historical Preface relating to the same Argument Quarto The Pillar and Ground of Truth A Treatise shewing that the Roman Church falsly claims to be That Church and the Pillar of That Truth mentioned by S. Paul in his First Epistle to Timothy Chap. III. Vers 15. Quarto A Brief Discourse concerning the Notes of the Church with some reflections on Cardinal Bellarmin's Fifteen Notes Quarto An Examination of the Cardinal's First Note concerning The Name of Catholick His Second Note Antiquity His Third Note Duration His Fourth Note Amplitude or Multitude and variety of Believers His Fifth Note The Succession of Bishops His Sixth Note Agreement in Doctrine with the Primitive Church His Seventh Note Vnion of the Members among themselves and with the Head The rest will be published Weekly in their Order A Defence of the Confuter of Bellarmin's Second Note of the Church Antiquity against the Cavills of the Adviser Quarto In the Press THE Peoples Right to read the Holy Scriptures asserted In Answer to the 6th 7th 8th 9th and 10th Chapters of the Popish Representer Two Discourses Of Purgatory and Prayers for the Dead Quarto A Short Summary of the Principal Controversies between the Church of England and the Church of Rome Being a Vindication or several Prâ—testant Doctrines in Answer to a late Pamphlet intituled Protestancy destitute of Scripture Proofs FINIS
he that can say but a little doth take away or make it less Which is such a plain declaration that the Creed contains the whole Apostolical Tradition or Faith for they are the same in his Language and the only Catholique Doctrine that if we were at this day to contrive words on purpose for the asserting this Truth we could not invent any more full or express than these Which show us that this Faith is sufficient not only for the ignorant the Catechumens and beginners in Religion but for the most improved in Christian knowledge for those that instructed and ruled the Church who had no Authority to preach or impose any other belief This is a thing that runs through his whole Book for he repeats it again in fewer words in the latter end of the next Chapter that the true Church hath but that one and the same Faith before mentioned throughout the whole World. Which in the 19th Chapter he calls the Rule of Truth by which all error was discovered for holding this rule though they speak very various and many things we easily evince that they have deviated from the Truth And again in the third Book (g) L. III. Chap. 3. he hath recourse to the same Rule of Truth unto which whosoever will hearken may see what is the tradition of the Apostles manifested in the whole World in every Church Where he saith they were able to tell what Bishops were settled by the Apostles and their Successors untill his time who neither taught nor thought of any thing like to the dotages of the Hereticks of those days And because it would have been too long to reckon up all the Churches he instances in the Church of Rome to which all had occasion to go upon some business or other because it was the Imperial City by whose Bishop he saith that Tradition and that Preaching or Doctrine of Truth which was from the Apostles in the Church is come to us and is a most full proof that one and the same life giving faith which was from the Apostles in the Church is conferred to this time and delivered in Truth The very same which Polycarp wrote to the Philippians mark these words which they of the present Roman Church are wont to conceal that they may make the World believe Irenaeus thought the Tradition of the Apostles that is the Christian Faith was to be sought only in their Church and which was in the Church of Ephesus founded by Paul and having John continuing in it till the time of Trajan which Church is a true witness of the Tradition of the Apostles And that there may be no mistake about this Tradition L. III. Cap. 4. he repeats it again in the next Chapter and informs us in very remarkable words it was nothing else but the Doctrine contained in the Creed Since these things are so plain we ought not to seek further among others for truth which we may easily find in the Church For the Apostles left most fully in it as in a rich Repository all things that belong to truth So that every one who will may take from thence the Water of Life c. out of the Holy Scriptures he means as appears by what follows And suppose the Apostles had not left us the Scriptures shall we not follow the Order of the Tradition or Rule of Faith which they delivered to those unto whom they committed the Churches To which Ordination many barbarous Nations who believe on Christ assent having the Doctrine of Salvation without Paper and Ink written by the Spirit in their Heart and diligently preserving the ANCIENT TRADITION believing in one God the maker of Heaven and Earth and of all things which are therein by Christ Jesus the Son of God Who out of his most eminent love to his Creature vouchsafed to be born of the Virgin uniting Man to God by himself and suffering under Pontius Pilate and rising again and being illustriously received in glory shall come again the Saviour of those that are saved and the Judge of those that are judged Sending into eternal fire the misshapers of Truth and the contemners of his Father and of his coming Those that have believed this Faith without Letters we in our Language call barbarous but as to their opinion and custom and conversation they please God because of their Faith by which they are most wise living in all Righteousness Chastity and Wisdom Vnto whom if any one should speak in their Language those things which Hereticks have invented they would presently stop their ears and run away not induring to hear the blasphemy Thus by that OLD TRADITION of the Apostles viz. the Creed they do not so much as admit into their thoughts the portentous talk of those Hereticks in his days These things I have thought fit to set down the more largely because they are an evident demonstration what the OLD TRADITION of the Apostles is which is nothing else but that summary of Christian Truth contained in the Creed unto which they would suffer no other Tradition to be added but contented themselves with this as fully sufficient and by this judged of all other things that pretended to come from the Apostles and were every where so well instructed in this that in those Churches which as yet had not received the Apostolical Writings the Holy Scriptures of the N. T. they had this Doctrine as the contents of those Scriptures and were thought most wise being wise enough to salvation in this faith alone without any other But because this is such a very important Truth I shall take a little more pains to set down the sense of the Church in all Ages concerning it that the Reader may be satisfied there is no other Truth but this alone which is absolutely necessary to his Salvation Which they sometime comprehend in fewer words but never add any one article beyond those in the Creed If we had the Letters of Ignatius intire and sincere we should be able to tell what he took for Truth immediately after the Apostles were dead And thus much is evident from them as they now are that they or he who contrived the Epistle to the Philippians under his name for it is not thought to be his took this to be the Doctrine of that Second Age when after the mention of the Doctrine of the Trinity and that the Son of God was truly made Man truly born and truly crucified dead and rose again not seemingly not in appearance only but in Truth they make him conclude 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He that believes these things as they are and were really done is a blessed Man. Which is an undoubted testimony they took this Creed to be sufficient to salvation which Ignatius in an unquestioned Epistle of his to the Church of Smyrna calls the unmoveable Faith wherein he blessed God they were perfected or knit together mentioning no other Articles but those before named Polycarp also in the same
they have respect to the knowledge of God or to the Creation and government of the World or to the redemption of Mankind or belong to the rewards of the good and the punishments of the bad are contained in the Doctrine of the Creed From whence this question naturally arises how come so many new Articles to be made necessary if all things belonging to the Christian Faith be contained in the Apostles Creed I can see no reason for it but only to maintain the grandeur of the Roman Church for there is no more simply necessary for all to be believed as Bellarmine himself confesses (q) L. IV. de Verâ—o Dei C. XI but the Articles of that Creed and therefore the rest are superfluous and ought to be discarded as not so needful but that Men may be saved without them 3. And for the Third that they are mere Novelties unknown to those in old time there are the like confessions of ingenuous Men amongst them Aeneas Sylvius afterward Pope Pius II. confesses (r) Epist 288. that before the time of the Council of Nice little regard was had to the Roman Church Which is a plain contradiction to Pope Pius the fourth's Article of New Belief that she is the Mother and Mistress of all Churches for none can doubt but they understood their duty in those days and practised it also to their Betters especially to a Parent The same may be said of the Doctrine of Transubstantiation which some School-men have said not to be very ancient among which are Scotus and Gabriel Biel. They are the words of Suarez (s) Disput Tom. 3. Disp 30. unto whom many other testimonies may be added of the Doctors of that Church particularly Alphonsus à Castro who saith the ancient Writers spake very seldom of Transubstantiation he should have said Not at all for Cassander honestly acknowledges it to be a Novelty (t) See a late Treatise of Transubstantiation by an Author of the Roman Communion Part I. The like is acknowledged of the Sacrifice of the Mass which neither Thomas Aquinas nor Gabriel Biel long after him believed to be proper or propitiatory but give the same account that we do why the celebration of this Sacrament is called a Sacrifice of Christ viz. because the Images of things are called by the names of the things which they represent for which S. Austin is quoted and because by this Sacrament we are made partakers of the benefits of Christ's Passion (u) Summe Par. III. Q. 83. Artic. l. Respond That Purgatory was for a good while unknown and but lately known to the whole Church is confessed by our Bishop Fisher (x) Ross contra Lâ—tâ— Art. XVIII who by the whole Church means only the Latin Church for in the same place he saith to this day it is not believed by the Greeks The same he saith of Indulgences which began with Mens fears of Purgatory The same I might observe of the Seven Sacraments and the rest of their Articles but I will only observe the contradiction to which they swear in the very first new Article wherein they declare that they embrace Apostotical and Ecclesiastical Traditions and yet consent at the same time by swearing to all that is decreed in the Council of Trent to administer the Holy Communion but in one kind which for a thousand Years and more in some places for 1300 Years was administred in both kinds every where even in the Roman Church by an undoubted Apostolical Tradition and Ecclesiastical custom and practice which continues in all other Churches to this day Which observation evidently convinces them to be guilty of the most fearful sin in cursing and damning those who do not receive these Novel Doctrines though they faithfully embrace all the Doctrines of the truly Catholique Faith and had rather die than deny any part thereof But let us be of good comfort we are safe enough notwithstanding all these Anathema's which they thunder out against us For I have proved that were these Doctrines true as they are certainly false which they press upon us yet we should not be Hereticks if we did not believe them and so not fall upon this account under the sentence of damnation Because it is only the denial of the great and fundamental Truths that can make us incur such a danger other Truths there are of which we may be ignorant without danger of perishing provided we still hold the Foundation and keep the Faith as the Apostle speaks with a life according to it They themselves therefore knew that these terrible Anathema's are but bugbear words which they use to affright Children withal For they who can read what the wisest and best of them write will find that they confess these new Articles to be superfluous while they plainly say the Apostles Creed contains all things necessary to Salvation Thus Gregory of Valentia * In secunda secundae Disp 2. Q. 7. The Articles of Faith contained in the Creed are as it were the first Principles of Christian Faith in which are comprized the summ of Evangelical Doctrine which all are bound explicitely to believe Thus the Fathers judge when they affirm this Creed was composed by the Apostles that all might have a short Summary of those things which are to be believed and are scatteredly contained in the Scriptures Thus also writes Filiucius and a great many more even the Trent Catechism it self as I have shown before So that we have nothing to do but to hold fast that which we have been taught from the beginning and to make it the Rule of our Lives as well as of our Faith. And that now I must tell you for a Conclusion of this part of my Discourse is the Grand Truth of all the main point of the Christian belief that the intention of all Divine Truths and of Faith it self is to make us truly godly They can do us no service if they do not produce this effect Whence it is that in this very Epistle of S. Paul he calls Christianity the Doctrine that is according unto godliness 1 Tim. VI. 3. and a little after calls it godliness v. 6. But Godliness that is the Christian Religion with contentment is great gain And indeed we may well be contented with the Christian Faith and Hope and think our selves happy in such glorious expectations hereafter nay look upon our selves as exceeding great gainers whatsoever we lose here upon this account if we lose not the hope of immortal life In the Epistle to Titus also in the very first Verse he calls it the truth which is after godliness which is the very Truth that is the subject of my Discourse as appears by what follows when the Apostle saith it is a mystery of godliness Not a cunning device to get Mony to advance our wordly Grandeur and Pomp much less a crafty Artifice to excuse us from living well or to palliate wickedness and show us a way how to be
right hand of God angels and authorities and powers being made subject to him So subject that from henceforth he expects till all his enemies be made his footstool X. Hebr. 13. and having vanquished Death which is the last Enemy and raised Men out of their Graves he will judge them according to their Works For he was received up into Glory to be the Judge of quick and dead These are the Principal Points of that Truth which ought to be supported and maintained in the Christian Church being the substantial and necessary Articles of our Faith without the belief of which we cannot be Christians For the fuller Explication of which I shall make Six observations the first of which the Apostle himself here suggests and the rest will fairly follow from thence 1. First the Apostle notes them to be such Truths as were without Controversie about which there was no dispute among serious Christians 2. And therefore these are the truly Catholique Doctrines and these alone 3. The fundamental Truths upon which our Religion and the Church it self is built 4. And therefore he that holds close to these cannot be a Heretick 5. But they that call Men so because they believe not other things which they have made necessary have rent the Christian Church and are guilty of that sin of which they falsly accuse others 6. Which guilt is the greater because the best and most learned Men among them have confessed those Doctrines which they have superadded to the Ancient Truth to be doubtful superfluous and unknown to the first Ages of the Church that is not truly Catholique Doctrines I. The first of these ought to be well weighed that the Truth which is to be supported and maintained in the Church is so evident and so abundantly attested that it is confessed by all Christians Thus that word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without controversie or confessedly signifies as we may learn from the use of it among the Ancient Greeks one of which Diodorus Sinopensis speaks of their Supreme God just as the Apostle doth of the Mystery of Godliness (a) Apud Athenaeum Lib. VI. cap. 9. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jupiter the Friendly is without controversie or by common consent agreed to be the greatest of the Gods. In like manner the Apostle is to be understood when he saith the same of these great and venerable Doctrines of Godliness Which are such as are confessed by all by a common agreement and doubted of by none For they are no other than those which are contained in the Apostles Creed about which there is no question among Christians but they all consent unto it being baptized into the belief of those Truths in which the whole Church hath agreed every where in all times down from the Apostles days to this present Age. For the Church saith Irenaeus (b) L. I. Contra Haeres c. 2. though dispersed throughout the World to the ends of the Earth received from the Apostles and their Disciples the Faith which is in one God the Father Almighty who made the Heaven and the Earth and Sea and all that is in them and in one Christ Jesus the Son of God who was Incarnate for our Salvation and in the Holy Ghost who preached by the Prophets the dispensations and approaches of God and the Birth of the Virgin and the Suffering the Resurrection from the Dead and the Bodily Ascension of our Dear Lord Christ Jesus into the Heavens and his coming from thence in the Glory of the Father to gather together all things and to raise all humane flesh that according to the good pleasure of the Father invisible every knee of things in Heaven or Earth or under the Earth may bow to Christ Jesus our Lord and God and Saviour and King and every Tongue may confess him and he may do Righteous Judgment upon all and send the Spirits of wickedness and the Angels that transgressed and apostatized together with ungodly unjust lawless and blasphemous Men into eternal fire but to the just and the holy and such as observe his Commandments and persevere in his Love either always or by Repentance graciously bestow life give immortality and put them in possession of eternal Glory This is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as he calls it a little Body of Truth the Rule of Faith as Tertullian often speaks instituted by Christ which nullas habet apud nos quaestiones (c) L. de praescript cap. XIV is not doubted of nor hath any questions about it among Christians but such as Heresies have brought in and which make Men Hereticks And therefore this is the Truth of which the Church ought to be the Pillar and Ground to the end of the World but not presume as I shall show anon to bind all Christians upon pain of perishing everlastingly to believe what is not contained in this Rule of belief For it alone is sufficient as appears by this that into it all the Articles or Parts as a learned Man of the Roman Church speaks (d) Rigaltius Ib. of which a Christian consists are digested as it were into one Body II. From whence it follows that these are the true Catholique and the only Catholique Doctrines Catholique they are because spread every where and the only Catholique because none besides these till very lately were received as part of the Christian Truth which must necessarily be believed if we hope to be saved Hear how Irenaeus (e) L. I. cap. 3. proclaims this immediately after the foregoing words which (f) Haeres XXXI n. 30 31. Epiphanius thought so considerable that he hath transcribed both these Chapters into his Book against Heresies The Church as we have said having received this Preaching or Doctrine and this Faith preserves it most carefully as if it inhabited but one House though it be dispersed through the whole World. And with unanimous consent Preaches and Teaches and Delivers these things as having but one Mouth For though there be different Languages in the World yet the force of that which is delivered is one and the same So that neither the Churches situated in Germany believe otherwise or have any other Tradition nor those in Spain nor those in France nor those in the East nor those in Egypt nor those in Libya nor those in the midst of the World but as the Sun that Creature of God is one and the same in the whole World so the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Preaching or Doctrine of the Truth shines every where and inlightens all Men who are willing to come to the knowledge of the Truth And neither he among the Governors of the Church who is most powerful in Speech teaches different things from these for no Man is above his Master nor he that is weak in Speech diminishes the Tradition For there being one and the same Faith neither he that is able to speak a great deal concerning it doth inlarge or exceed nor
Age wrote an Epistle to the Philippians wherein they that had a mind and took care of their salvation L. III. Cap. 3.4 Euseb Hist L. IV. c. 14. might learn the character of his Faith and the Doctrine of Truth which was the very same as Irenaeus relates in the forenamed Chapter with that set down by him which he calls that one and only Truth which he received from the Apostles and delivered to the Church And what they taught in Asia and Irenaeus in France that Tertullian in the latter end of the same Age taught in Africk that there is but one only immoveable irreformable Rule of Faith (h) L. de Velandis Virg. C. 1. that is there is no other form of believing but this as de la Cerda honestly interprets the word irreformabilis in one God Almighty the Creator of the World and in his Son Jesus Christ born of the Virgin Mary crucified under Pontius Pilate raised the third day from the dead received up into Heaven and sitting now at the right hand of the Father and shall come to judge the quick and the dead by the resurrection also of the Flesh This he calls in that place the Law of Faith which he sets down in more words in another Book where he Prefaces to it by this remarkable proposition as he calls it (i) L. de praescription c. 9. that there is one and the same certain Doctrine instituted by Christ which all people ought to believe and consequently to seek that when they have found it they may believe Now the inquisition of one certain appointment cannot be infinite which is an incouragement to seek till one find and believe when he hath found because there remains saith he Nothing more but to preserve and keep what thou hast believed For thou believest this also that there is nothing else to be believed And therefore no further inquiry to be made when thou hast found and believed that which was appointed by him who did not command thee to enquire after any thing but what he appointed Upon which principle having a little further enlarged he proceeds to lay down the (k) Ib. Chap. XIII Rule of Faith that one certain appointment which if one believe there is nothing else to be believed whereby we believe there is one God alone and no other but the Creator of the World who made all things of nothing by his Word emitted before all things That Word called his Son seen variously in the name of GOD by the Patriarchs heard in the Prophets and at last brought down by the Spirit and power of God the Father into the Virgin Mary made flesh in her Womb and born of her became Jesus Christ and thereupon preached the new Law and the new promise of the Kingdom of Heaven wrought miracles was crucified rose the third day was taken up into Heaven sitteth at the right hand of the Father sent the vicarious power of the Holy Spirit who works in believers shall come in glory to take holy persons to the enjoyment of eternal Life and the celestial promises and to condemn the prophane to everlasting fire both parties being raised up again with the restoring of the flesh This is the Rule about which he there saith there are no questions the Rule in which Faith intirely consists that Faith which will save a Man unto which curiosity ought to yeild for to know nothing against the Rule is to know all things And beyond this Rule he there expresly argues (l) Ib. Cap. X. XIV Vbi enim erit finis quaerendi Vbi statio creaendi c. there is nothing to be believed for if we still be to seek for Faith where shall we rest Where shall we make an end of seeking Where shall we make a stand and stay our believing Or where shall a full st p be put to finding And that this was the constant Doctrine of those times and places it appears from hence that as Irenaeus often repeats this Rule and this alone so doth he a third time insist upon this even after he became a Montanist as the only Rule that had run down to their times from the beginning of the Gospel which he had always professed and now much more being more fully as he fancied instructed by the Paraclete the leader into all Truth Who durst not it seems though he pretended to Revelations adventure to alter this Rule which Tertullian recites again (m) Adv. Praxeam Cap. 2. in the same terms without any inlargements as he had done in his former Books And thereby satisfies us that he did not casually make this the Rule of Faith but that it was his constant sense which though he do not express in the very same words and syllables it only shows they had no other sense but this in their minds And as Vigilius (n) L. IV. adv Entychiâ—nos speaks about this very matter nec praejudicant verba ubi sensus incolumis permanet the words do not make a wrong opinion where the sense remains safe and sound Which may be applied to all the forms of belief which were in the Church of Rome of Aquileia and in the Churches of the East before the great Council of Nice none of which differ in sense though in some words they do nor have one Article of Faith more than the Creed now contains which Tertullian (o) Apolog. Cap. 47. once more calls the Rule of Truth which comes transmitted from Christ by his companions or Apostles and in another place most significantly that ONE EDICT of GOD which hangs up as the Edicts of the Emperor did in a Table to be read by all (p) De Resurrect Carnis Cap. 18. Nor was there any other Faith in the next Age to this in the third Century as we may be satisfied from Origen who in his Preface to his Books 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thinking it necessary first to lay down a certain line and manifest rule by which to inquire concerning other things and having distinguished between things necessary to be believed and those which are not necessary he gives the summ of those things which were manifestly delivered by the Apostolical Preaching and it is nothing else but the present Creed about which he saith there is one sense of the whole Church And in his first Book against Celsus who said the Christian Religion was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a clancular Doctrine which they hid and concealed he avows that the Christian Doctrine was as well known in the World as the Opinions of Philosophers For who doth not know that we believe Jesus was born of a Virgin was crucified rose again from the Dead will come to Judgment and punish Sinners and reward the Righteous according to their Deeds Nay the Mystery of the future Resurrection is divulged though laught at by unbelievers These were the great things which were commonly taught and all obliged to believe as for others which were not
common the Philosophers he tells him had their abstruse Doctrines as well as Christians To this purpose we meet with a notable passage in Epiphanius in the succeeding Age which shows that the substance of the Christian Faith concerning our Saviour was commonly known even by those who did not profess it and understood to be this which Origen mentions For a Jew coming to see an eminent Man of his Nation who was sick whispered this in his Ear when they despaired of his life * Hares XXX n. 9. Believe in Jesus who was crucified under Pontius Pilate the Governor being the Son of GOD and afterward born of Mary the Christ of GOD and raised from the dead and that He shall come to judge the quick and the dead S. Cyprian (o) Epist ad Magnum de bapt Novat edit Rig. p. 152. also plainly shows there was no other Faith in his Church when he answers those who said the Novatians held the same Law that the Catholick Church held and baptized into the same Creed believing the same God the Father the same Christ the Son the same Holy Ghost that this would not avail them for Chore and Dathan and Abiram believed the same God with Moses and Aaron and besides they did not believe remission of sins and eternal life by the holy Church since they had left the Church Lucianus also a famous Presbyter of the Church of Antioch and a Martyr for the Faith of Christ left a form of believing written with his own hand * Sozomen L. III. c. 5. if we may believe the Bishops assembled at Antioch who sent it about in the time of the Arian Controversie to prove they were none of his followers but held 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Faith which had been set forth from the beginning and it is this as Socrates reports it (q) L. II. Eccles Hist c. 10. We have learnt from the beginning to believe in one God of the whole World the maker and preserver of all things intelligible and sensible and in one Only begotten Son of God subsisting before all Worlds and being together with the Father who begot him by whom all things were made whether visible or invisible who in the last days came down by the good pleasure of the Father and took flesh of the Holy Virgin and having fulfilled the whole Will of his Father suffered and rose again and returned to Heaven and sitteth at the right Hand of the Father and shall come to judge the quick and dead and remaineth King and God for ever And if it be needful to add it we believe the Resurrection of the flesh and life everlasting I will not trouble the Reader with a larger Creed of theirs which there follows more fully explaining the Doctrine of the Trinity because it belongs to the following Age Cent. IV. In which it is known the Nicene Fathers met to settle the Controversie about the Son of God but did not make any new Creed or add one Article to what had been believed before but only explain'd one Article the sense of which the Arians perverted No they were so far from inlarging the Christian Faith that when they met together they recited no other Creed but that of the Apostles as Laurentius Valla affirms he had read in some ancient Books of Isidore who collected the Canons of old Councils And accordingly when they had drawn up that Creed which they published they did not think they had made the least change in the matter of Faith but declared that this (r) Epiphanius in Anchorat was the Creed delivered by the Holy Apostles Which S. Ambrose (s) Serm. 38. Hieron Epist ad Pammach in that Age calls clavem the key S. Hierom indicium the mark or sign of Faith in which after the confession of the Trinity and of the Vnity of the Church the whole Mystery of the Christian Religion is concluded in the Resurrection of the flesh And which Greg. Nazianzen in his second Letter to Cledonius calls * Orat. L. II. beginning 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a short boundary and rule of our sense or judgment i. e. of the Faith of Christians S. Austin especially in a great number of places declares that this is the only Faith required to make a Man a Christian Particularly in his (t) L. de Fid Symbolo Tom. III. Book he wrote on purpose about this matter which he begins thus Since the just live by Faith the greater care must be taken that Faith be not corrupted and then adds Now the Catholique Faith is made known to the faithful in the Creed Which having explained he concludes his Book in these words which few words are known to the faithful that believing they may be subdued to God and being brought under his Yoke may live aright and living aright may cleanse their Heart and their Heart being cleansed they may understand what they believe In like manner before he begins the Explication of the Book of Genesis (u) De Genesi ad literam L. imperfectius he sets down what the Catholique Faith is because Hereticks were wont to draw the Scriptures to their own sense against the Catholique Faith. And the Catholique Faith by which he considers all things is nothing else but that in the Nicene Creed beginning with the belief of God the Father Almighty and concluding with the belief of eternal Life and the promise of the heavenly Kingdom Which is agreeable to the direction he gives to others in his Book of Christian Doctrine (x) L. III. c. 2. that in all ambiguous things the rule of Faith be consulted lest any sense that is contrary thereunto be admitted Which he elsewhere saith * Epist LVII is the rule of Faith common to little and great in the Church It is needless to add any more out of that Father and I shall but briefly mention the Creed of Pope Damasus in the same Age among S. Hierom's Works †Tom. IV. which is only a confession of the blessed Trinity with the rest of the Articles concerning the Conception Birth Death Resurrection Ascension Exaltation and coming again of our blessed Saviour to raise us from the Dead and to give to every Man according to his works concluding with these observable words Read these things believe these things retain these things subjugate thy Soul to this belief and thou shalt obtain life and reward from Christ But the words of the great Athanasius alone are sufficient to this purpose in the Letter which he and the Bishops with him sent to the Emperor Jovinian (z) Tom. I. pag. 245. 〈…〉 where they tell him the Faith confessed by the Nicene Fathers is that which was preached 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the very beginning unto which all the Churches every where consent whether they be in Spain or Britain or France or all Italy with those in Dalmatia Dacia Mysia Macedonia and all Greece all Africk Sardinia
which was the VIIIth after Christ the second Council at Nice which set up the worship of Images past the same condemnation upon him and making mention of the six (Å¿) Act. VII foregoing Councils they confirm and establish all that had been delivered from the beginning only they fraudulently add to bring in their Image worship whether written or unwritten Which made the first alteration in the Doctrine of the Church all the foregoing Councils having derived their Faith wholly from the Scriptures As the following Council at Frankfort did where as the worshipping of Images was condemned so the Holy Scriptures were highly extolled in words which signified they thought them their only safe Directors The thirtieth Chapter of the second Book of the Capitulare of Charles the Great abounds with such expressions as these the Scripture is a Treasure that wants no good but is redundant in all that Good is And in the beginning of the Third Book he and the Fathers there assembled give an account of their Faith in a Creed which they intitule A Confession of the Catholique Faith which we have received from the Holy Fathers which we hold and believe with a pure heart It is that in S. Hierom's Works inscribed Symboli explanatio ad Damasum I. which they thus subscribe This is the true integrity of the Catholique tradition of Faith which we believe and confess with a sincere heart c. This is the true Faith this confession we preserve and hold which whosoever keeps whole and undefiled he shall have everlasting Salvation Thus far therefore they were not got beyond the first Creed of which this is the explanation Nor was John Damascen himself advanced any further but confined his belief to what is contained in the Law and the Prophets Apostles and Evangelists 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 (t) L. 1. Orthod Fid. cap. 1. seeking for nothing beyond these For since God is good and envies no body he concludes that he hath revealed there all that is profitable for us and concealed only those things we are not able to bear And therefore let us love saith he these things let us abide in them not removing the Eternal Boundaries nor going beyond the Divine Tradition Which they seem to have preserved without exceeding the ancient limits in the beginning of the Ninth Age. For in a Council at Mentz (u) An. 813. Can. XLV care is taken for teaching the People the Creed which they call signaculum fidei the seal of Faith and the Lords Prayer for which end they are required to send their Children to School or to the Monasteries or their Parish Priests that they might rightly learn the Catholique Faith and the Lords Prayer Hitherto therefore the Catholique Faith was contained in the common Creed which had been from the beginning But towards the latter end of that Age the Council of (x) An. 859. Act. 10. Can. 1. Constantinople which the Roman Church calls the the VIIIth General Council began to talk of the Regulae Patrum the Rules of the Fathers in stead of the ancient word Regula fidei the Rule of Faith which is the Apostles Creed and called them the Secondary Oracles And therefore professed not only to hold all that the Catholique Church received from the Apostles and the General Councils but from any Father or great Doctor in the Church Which was the ready way to change the Faith of the Church and to turn particular Mens Opinions into matter of common belief though no new Article was as yet put into the ancient Creed The two next Ages are acknowledged to be so barbarous by the Writers of the Roman Church that they are ashamed of them and in some Collections they have made of the Councils there is not so much as one mentioned in the Tenth Age. And in the following there were so many frivolous things debated and such Corruptions crept into the Christian Doctrine that they run on very fast to the introducing a new Creed into the Church Yet this is remarkable that in the time of Thomas Aquinas who flourished in the XIIIth Century the Scripture still continued the only Rule of Faith and the Apostles Creed a sufficient summary of the Faith therein contained For in the resolution of this doubt Why should Articles of Faith be put in the Creed since the Scripture is the Rule of Faith to which it is not lawfull to add or from it to substract his Anwer is (y) Secunda 2 â—ae Q. 1. Art. IX ad primum that the Truth of Faith is diffusely and after divers manners and sometimes obscurely contained in Scripture so that long study and exercise is required to find out the truth of Faith there which they that have abundance of business have not leisure to use And therefore it was necessary that out of the sentences of Holy Scripture something manifest and clear should be summarily gathered which should be propounded unto all to be believed Which truly is not added to the Holy Scripture but rather taken out of the Holy Scripture And resolving next of all that doubt There is one Faith as the Apostle saith IV. Ephes but many Creeds his answer is (z) Ib. ad 〈◊〉 that in all the Creeds the same truth of Faith is taught But it was necessary the people should there be instructed more diligently in the truth of Faith where errors sprung up lest the Faith of the simple should be corrupted by Hereticks And this was the Cause why it was needsul to set forth more Creeds which differ in no other thing but this that those things are explained more fully in one which are contained implicitly in another To the same purpose many other of that sort of Writers declare their sense in the following Ages And this also is worthy of great remark that no longer ago than at the Council of Florence begun 1438 which the Greeks call the VIIIth General Council the Authority of the above-named Ephesine Canon about holding to the Nicene Creed was pressed with great earnestness by the Greeks upon the Latins there assembled For they said it was by no means lawful to add 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 (†) Tom. XIII Lab. Sess X. p. 162. not so much as a syllable nor a phrase nor a word and laid such a weight upon it as to affirm No man will accuse that Faith of imperfection unless he be mad * Ib. p. 163. And they likewise backt it with a passage in a Letter of Pope Celestine to Nestorius †Ib. p. 167. where he saith who is not to be judged worthy of an Anathema that either adds or takes away 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For that Faith which was delivered by the Apostles requires neither addition nor diminution Unto which the Roman Bishops had nothing to reply but that the Canon did not forbid another exposition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 consonant to the Truth in that Creed Ib. p. 167. but only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 any thing that was different or contrary to it Both these they acknowledge to be prohibited in those words No man shall bring in another Faith than that at Nice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is contrary or opposite or different or diverse or strange from the true Faith. Where it is remarkable a different another Faith is acknowledged to be forbidden as well as a contrary Nay they acknowledge that none but a General Council could make so much as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 another explication of the Articles of that Creed though not different from it In the Creed of the Apostles that is there are some things contained implicitely as Thomas Aquinas you heard speaks and being virtually there either in the Letter or the sence may be drawn from thence by evident consequence such as the Deity of Christ his two Natures the Catholique Church which was included in those words I believe the holy Church as this Article is exprest in the old Roman Creed and the like and yet such an explication these Fathers confessed could by no Man no assembly of Men less than an Oecumenical Council be lawfully made and imposed upon the Church For which they quote Aquinas whom †Ib. p. 163. they call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that there never was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an explication of the Creed but in an Oecumenical Council and he speaks of any Creed whatsoever which was common in the Church And therefore in conclusion they absolutely deny that the Latine Church had added any thing to the Creed For the Nicene and the Constantinopolitan Creed are both one So that the one being read the other is understood For though they differ in words they agree in sense and in truth And the like they affirm of all other Creeds and thereby answer the objection that they had added a word to the Creed about the procession of the Holy Ghost from the Father and the Son which is true they confessed with respect to the words but not with respect to the sense For still the Creed remains 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * Ib. p. 170. one and the same though it differ in the words And therefore it follows it was not properly an addition but one and the same thing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the exposition of the very self same thing All which I have set down thus largely to show that thus far therefore all things continued as they had done from the beginning that is notwithstanding the new Opinions there were in the Church there was no new Creed made no new Article added to the Creed nothing but what had been so at the first made necessary to Salvation Which is the last thing I observe that till the conclusion of the Council of Trent that is till a little more than an hundred years ago there were no other Creeds but those which we confess and believe in this Church which are the Apostles Creed expounded not inlarged by any new Articles But then indeed Pope Pius IV. in pursuance of the Councils Order framed another Confession of Faith consisting of no less than XII new Articles added to the old never heard of in any Creed throughout the whole Church till this time And it must be called and esteemed a New Faith and it makes that to be a New Church which falsly calls it self the Ancient Catholique Apostolique Church of Christ For it is none of these neither Ancient nor Catholique nor Apostolique but New Roman Tridentine Church derived I mean from the Roman Bishops at Trent It will be fit I think to set down this New Creed that the Reader may compare it with those I have shown were hitherto the intire Faith of the Catholique Church It may be found in several of our Writers but I wish it were in every bodies hand and therefore take the pains to transcribe it for the benefit of those into whose hands this Book shall come Pope PIVS his Creed IN. Believe and profess with a firm Faith all and every thing contained in the Symbol of Faith which the holy Roman Church uses viz. I believe in one God the Father Almighty maker of Heaven and Earth c. to the end of that we call the Nicene Creed After which immediately follow the New Articles in these words The Apostolical and Ecclesiastical Traditions and the rest of the Observations and Constitutions of the same Church I most firmly admit and embrace I also admit or receive the Holy Scripture according to that sense which the holy Mother Church to whom it belongs to judge of the true sense hath held and doth hold nor will I ever understand and interpret it otherwise than according to the unanimous consent of the Fathers I profess also that there are truly and properly Seven Sacraments of the New Law instituted by Jesus Christ our Lord and necessary to the Salvation of mankind though not all of them necessary to every Man viz. Baptism Confirmation the Eucharist Pennance Extreme Vnction Orders and Matrimony and that they confer grace and that of these Baptism Confirmation and Orders cannot be repeated without Sacriledge I likewise receive and admit all the received and approved Rites of the Catholique Church in the solemn Administration of all the above-said Sacraments All and every thing which was defined and declared about Original sin and Justification by the most holy Council of Trent I embrace and receive I profess likewise that in the Mass is offered to God a true proper and propitiatory Sacrifice for the quick and dead and that in the most Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist there is truly really and substantially the Body and Blood together with the Soul and Divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ and that there is a conversion made of the whole substance of Bread into his Body and of the whole substance of Wine into his Blood which conversion the Catholique Church calls TRANSUBSTANTIATION I confess also that under either kind or species only whole and intire Christ and the true Sacrament is received I constanly hold there is a Purgatory and that the Souls there detained are helpt by the suffrages of the faithful As also that the Saints who Reign together with Christ are to be worshipped and invocated and that they offer Prayers to God for us and that their Reliques are to be venerated I most firmly assert that the Images of Christ and the Mother of God the always-Virgin as also of other Saints are to be had and retained and due honour and veneration to be bestowed on them I affirm also that the power of Indulgences was left by Christ in his Church and that their use is most wholesom to Christian People I acknowledge the holy Catholique and Apostolique Roman Church to be the Mother and Mistress of all Churches and I promise and swear true Obedience to the Bishop of Rome Successor of S. Peter the Prince of Apostles and Vicar of Jesus Christ All the rest also
delivered defined and declared by the sacred Canons and Oecumenical Councils especially by the most holy Synod of Trent I receive and profess without doubt and likewise all things contrary and whatsoever Heresies condemned rejected and anathematized by the Church I in like manner condemn reject and Anathematize This true Catholique Faith without which no Man can be saved which at present I freely profess and truly hold I will most constantly retain and confess intire and inviolable by God's help to my last breath and take care as much as lies in me that it be held taught and preached by my Subjects or those whose care belongs to me in my Office. I the aforesaid N. Promise Vow and Swear So help me God and these holy Gospels This Bull as they call it bears date on the Ides of November 1564. and concludes in the usual manner with threats of the indignation of God and of his blessed Apostles S. Peter and Paul against all that shall inrringe or oppose it And every Reader I suppose discerns that this is not meerly a confession of Faith but likewise a solemn Oath And so the Title of it bears A Bull concerning a form of an Oath of profession of Faith. Which Oath all Ecclesiastical Persons whether Secular or Regular as they distinguish them and all Military Orders are bound to take And it is as easie to observe that this is perfectly New both as an Oath and as a profession of Faith. Never was there any such Creed imposed before or so much as framed much iess tyed upon Men by an Oath For when these Fathers met at Trent and were to make a profession of Faith by rehearsing the Creed which the Roman Church uses (a) Sess III. so the words are they could find none to profess but the Nicene Creed no larger Creed was in use no not there in the Roman Church but these very Men who afterward turned New Creed-makers were forced to be content with that And therefore this new Profession is most impudently pretended to be the true Catholique Faith being in no sense Catholique neither as to place nor time For it was no where used till they made it no not there nor is now every where believed and was not at all believed in any Church for above 1500 Years nor now used in that Church it self when they admit Members into the Catholique Church by Baptism but they are put into a state of Salvation by believing as before the old Nicene Creed alone Which is direct contradiction to their new Creed which they make necessary to Salvation but can never show to be contained implicitely in the old For it is as impossible to draw Water out of a Pumice as to extract out of the Apostles Creed the Doctrine of Transubstantiation Worshipping of Images Seven Sacraments the Traditions and other Constitutions used in the Roman Church Which was never so much as thought to be the Mother and Mistress of all Churches or to have power to impose new Articles upon the whole Church especially such large ones as take in all the definitions of that Council of Trent which they themselves are not agreed to this day how to expound Nor had that Synod if these Articles could have been shown to be contained in the old Creed any power to explain it and declare them according to what they confessed at the Florentine Council being far from a General Council no not of these Western parts of the World. And clearly showed it self to be but a factious Party in the Church by that very Explication which they made of this Article the holy Catholique Church which they thus expound the holy Catholique Apostolique Roman Church the Mother and Mistress of all Churches For it is certain the Apostles could not intend the Roman Church should be comprehended under the Catholique Church any more than every other Church which was then or should be hereafter because it was not in being there was no Roman Church at all when notwithstanding the Church was Catholique And hereby Salvation is impiously confined to the Roman Church alone by making the Catholique Church of no larger extent than that And this against the resolution of their greatest Doctors who think it no matter of Faith to be perswaded that the Apostolique See is fixed to Rome Which Bellarmine (b) L. IV. de Pont. Romano cap. 4. proves from hence because neither Scripture nor Tradition affirm it Nay if Christ had bidden Peter to place his See at Rome he doth not think it would follow that he placed it there immoveably And therefore no Man according to their own sense is bound to believe the Apostolical Church cannot be separated from the Roman which if it should happen and the Apostolick See be removed suppose to Paris the Creed must be altered again and it must run thus I believe the holy Catholique and Apostolique Parisian Church the Mother and Mistress of all Churches In which latter part of the Exposition to this Article they force Men to swear to a downright falshood For if the Roman Church be the Mother of all Churches she must be the Mother of her Grand-mother the Church of Jerusalem And it is no truer that she is the Mistress of all Churches For all Churches were not taught the Faith by her nor do they own her Authority over them But it is time to draw to an end of this matter We in this Church of England have always professed and preserved a true reverence to the IV. first General Councils One or rather two of which hath forbidden under the greatest penalties any Man to produce or compose or offer any other Faith besides that established by the Fathers at Nice which Theodoret (c) L. I. Hist Eccla c. 7. L. II. c. 22. L. IV. c. 2. in innumerable places calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Exposition of Faith and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Faith expounded the Apostolical Faith explained And therefore even for this reason alone we cannot receive the Creed of this Council at Trent which is manifestly another Faith added to the Confession of the Nicene Creed which old Creed it is madness as the Greeks at Florence said to think insufficient For it is to think they were all damned for 1500 Years and more who knew nothing beyond this necessary to be believed which no Man in his wits can believe For it is contrary to the very Faith it self which teaches us as Tertullian speaks to believe this in the first place that there is nothing to be believed beyond this And we believe so with the greatest reason because to admit any other Articles of Faith is to make endless Schisms in the Church as to believe contrary Articles is to fall into dangerous Heresies We know not where to stay if we rest not here for by the same Authority that made these more additions may be made continually without end There is therefore no such Authority in the Church that can do this
but that Church which pretends to it hath thereby forfeited the Authority which otherwise it might have had As the Church of Rome hath done which in the conclusion of that Council contradicted what it asserted in the beginning For there in its entrance as I observed (d) Sess III. Decretum de Symbolo fidei they thinking it necessary according to the example of the Fathers to make in the very first place a confession of their Faith and pretending to arm themselves thereby as with a Shield against all Heresies they repeat the Creed quo Sancta Romana Ecclesia utitur which the holy Roman Church useth as that Principle in which all that profess the Faith of Christ necessarily agree and the firm and ONELY Foundation against which the Gates of Hell shall not prevail And they think fit to express it totidem verbis in so many words as it is read in all Churches And then they say the Nicene Creed and not one word more Which is a plain Confession that this was the Faith of all Christians and no more till that time that it was the Only firm Foundation that which was read in all Churches in which all agree the Shield against all Heresies the whole Faith then used in the Roman Church And therefore with what Conscience could they make such a division and miserable destruction in the Christian World as they have done by a vast number of new Articles in which all Christians neither do nor can agree and which were not to be found in their own Creed before No reason can be given of this but the immense ambition of that Church to give Law to all others Unto which we cannot with a good Conscience submit especially when they impose such a heavy Yoke as this belief Which is the true Makebate between them and us the manifest cause of that fearful Schism which they not we have made by altering the true Catholique Faith and Church and Communion into a Roman This is the true distinction between them and us We are Catholiques they are Romans We believe the Catholique Faith of all Christians they as distinguisht from us believe the Roman Faith which none believe but themselves We believe that which hath been ever believed they believe that which was never believed till yesterday in comparison with the Ancient Faith. Ours is the belief of the whole Body of Christian People their 's the belief of a Sect. For the Truth I have shown which ought to be supported in the Church in nothing else but those uncontroverted mysteries of godliness contained in the Apostles Creed which I have proved to be the only Catholique Doctrines embraced by all Churches whatsoever They being not the Doctrines of a Sect meerly but in which we the Roman the Greek the Ethiopian the Syrian and all other Christians are perfectly agreed There are particular Men and some small companies of them here and there who understand some few of these Doctrines otherwise than they ought but there is no national Church of any Country but entertains all these intirely and sincerly as they have been expounded from the beginning according to the Nicene Creed which by the way is the only Creed the Abassines have that Creed called the Apostles being not found among them (e) Ludolph Histor Aethiop l. 3 c. 5. num 20. and therby are members of Christ's Body though they do not believe other Doctrines which are only boldly called Catholique by the Roman Church but are not truly so but only particular Doctrines of their own Church in which the Catholique Faith and Church is not concerned As they themselves confess by admitting persons into the Catholique Church which I noted before unto remission of sins and eternal life without any other belief but that which we profess Which makes us think that we might more safely swear they themselves believe this to be sufficient than they swear as they do that none can be saved without the new Faith which they have added to the ancient Creed I have been the larger in this second observation because it is of great moment for the setling of our minds in peace about right belief and this being setled I may sooner dispatch those that follow III. And the next is that these therefore and these alone are the fundamental Truths upon which our Religion and the very Church it self is built By fundamental Truths or Doctrines we mean such Catholique principles as are necessarily to be distinctly believed by every Christian whereby they being built as it were upon them become a Church Such truths no doubt there are for the Church being called here the House of God must have a Foundation Which Foundation is either Personal or Doctrinal The personal foundation is Christ the chief Corner-stone and the Apostles and Prophets as Ministers of his who laid this foundation Ephes II. 20. The Doctrinal are those grand Truths taught by them which make up our Faith in Christ That Common Faith as it is called Titus I. 4. that Faith which is alike precious in all 2 Pet. 1.1 the first principles of the Oracles of God Heb V. 12. or as it is literally in the Greek the Elements of the beginning of the Oracles of God the principles of the Doctrine of Christ or the word of the beginning of Christ Hebr. VI. 1. the form or draught the breviate or summary as it may be translated of sound words or doctrines 2 Tim. I. 13. the Faith once or at once delivered to the Saints Judge 3. and particularly committed to the trust 1 Tim. VI. 20. of those who were to instruct others in the common Salvation And what can those truths be but those great Doctrines contained in the Creed which it appears from what I have said the Apostles left in all the Churches which they planted For we find these were in every Church as Irenaeus assures us and these altogether one as Tertullian speaks and the immovable unreformable Rule of Faith and therefore may thence conclude they were that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which S. Paul deposited with Timothy 1. VI. 20. that good or that fair most excellent thing deposited with him or commended as an ancient Writer translates it to his trust to be preserved by him the Creed as Cyril * Catech. IV. p. 24 edit Paris 1640. of Hierusalem pithily speaks being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a brief summ of necessary Doctrines In some sense it is true there is nothing revealed in Holy Scripture but it may be called fundamental if we respect only the divine Authority by which it comes unto us upon which account nothing there delivered may be denyed but ought to be believed with all humility when the knowledge of it is offered to us But if we respect the matter and moment of all things contained therein we cannot but see there is a great difference and that the knowledge of every thing there is not equally necessary but we may be truly pious
de Trin. I beseech thee preserve this undefiled Religion of my Faith and grant me this voyce of my Conscience to the last breath that what I professed in the Symbol of my Regeneration being baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost I may always obtain viz. I may adore thee our Father and thy Son together with thee and do honour to thy Holy Spirit who is of thee by thine only begotten For he is a sufficient witness to Faith who said Father all mine are thine and thine are mine my Lord Jesus Christ who remains in thee and from thee and with thee always God who is blessed for ever and ever Which I the rather mention because it serves to illustrate the prudence and charity of S. Austin and the rest of the Christian Bishops of those days who though they looked upon the Donatists as Hereticks in denying the Church to be Catholique by confining it to themselves yet distinguished them from such Hereticks as erred in the prime and most Fundamental truths of our Religion about the Divinity and the Incarnation of our Christ and such like That is they made a difference even in the Articles of Faith and lookt upon some as more Fundamental than others being of more importance and of greater weight and moment and therefore judged more mildly of them than they did of such as denyed the Holy Trinity or held any Doctrines which impeached the glory of the Father or of the Son or of the Holy Ghost And therefore they still called these Donatists Brethren they pitied them as Men seduced by their Guides and professed sincere love and affection to them whether they accepted it or no. Though such was the peevishness of that Sect that they abused this charity of good Catholique Christians towards them just as they of the Church of Rome do our charity now For from thence they took occasion to argue that they were in the right even by the Concessions of their Adversaries which justified both them and their heretical Schism For you said they (m) August L. 2. contra lit Petiliavi cap. ult can find no faults in our baptism nor consequently in our Faith into which we baptize for if you could you would baptize those over again who come from us to you as we baptize those again who come from you to us Which is as much as to say you allow there is a Church and Salvation among us but we allow no Church no Salvation among you therefore it is safest for all to joyn with us not with you Which is the very Charm whereby they of the Church of Rome endeavour now to work upon the spirits of simple people among us though no wiser than this argument of a company of mad men would be if they had so much cunningremaining as to say to us we deny you to be Men but you allow us to be Men therefore we are fit for all Mens society not you who are but a herd of Beasts And what S. Austin answers to the Donatists is a full answer to the present Romanists which is this in short (n) L. 1. de Baptisino contraâ— Donatistas C. X. for it is besides my business to do more than mention these things when we speak favourably of you it is for the sake of What you have of ours not for what you have of your own let that which you have of ours be set aside and we approve of nothing at all among you But I will not further enlarge upon this nor say much of the next which is very plain V. They therefore who condemn those as Hereticks who Excommunicate them and pronounce Anathema's against them that believe the whole Catholique Faith are the great disturbers of the Christian World and the true cause of the Divisions and breaches that are in the Body of Christ And who they are that do thus is visible to every eye the Church of Rome having thought fit not to rest satisfied with the simplicity of those often mentioned Catholique fundamental Truths which are without Controversie and unquestionable but as if that Faith which the old Christians thought compleat they take to be defective have adjoyned as many more nâ—w Articles to the old body and that under the pain of damnation if we do not believe them I have told you what they are and if you look them over again you will find that upon those have all the Contests risen between us and them The necessary fundamental Truths which constitute the Church which was built upon no other for many Ages are on both sides unquestioned but because we question or rather deny those which they would impose which we are certain are no part of the Christian Doctrine they call us Hereticks That is because we will not yield Obedience to their usurpt authority because we cannot believe their new inventions to be Catholique and fundamental Doctrines Here is the true reason of all the miserable ruptures that are in this part of the World nay this is the just grievance and complaint of all Christians who know any thing of these matters but themselves alone VI. And their guilt is herein the greater because the best learned among themselves have confessed these Additions to the Creed to be doubtful opinions unnecessary and superfluous Doctrines Novelties unknown to the ancient Church Concerning every one of which three things our Authors have given the clearest evidence 1. The first of them the doubtfulness of those Doctrines appears in this that there is not only variety but contrariety of judgment about them in their own Church which argues plainly great perplexity and uncertainty Of which there needs no other proof as Doctor Potter (o) Answer to Charity mistaken p. 69. observes but the famous Books of Bellarmine who in the entrance upon every Question there stated gives an account of the Contentions and Contradictions of those who have-written upon it among themselves And at this day they are not better agreed in the Explication of several Points in difference between us See the late Answer to the Bishop of Meaux's Exposition of Faith. particularly about the Worship given to Images and the Invocation of Saints which some of their greatest Doctors mollifie and sweeten as they do other points into downright Heresie as such Explications are accounted by others 2. The very same may be clearly shewn out of their own Authors and hath been demonstrated by our Divines concerning the Second thing that those Doctrines are not necessary but superfluous For the Roman Catechism (p) Praefat. Sâ—ct 12. it self having observed that their Ancestors had most wisely distributed all that belongs to saving Doctrine into these four heads for the help of the Peoples understanding and memory the Apostles Creed the Sacraments the Decalogue and the Lord's Prayer immediately confess concerning the first that all things which are to be held by the Discipline of the Christian Faith whether
Almighty against every such refractory opposer of the Truth which he should obey There is no exception from this Rule for as it there follows v. 11. there is no respect of persons with God. Would to God they would seriously lay this to heart who now seem to be possessed with a mighty Zeal for Truth and for a right Faith that they be not so deceived by this warm Zeal as to miss the end of Faith the Salvation of their Souls which can by no means be obtained no not by Faith it self without an Holy Life PART II. What it is to be a Pillar and Ground of Truth and to whom this Office belongs HAving shown with some care what the Truth is of which S. Paul speaks which was the first thing I propounded the two next may be explained together with less pains viz. what and who is the Pillar and Ground of these great Truths which are necessary to be believed by all that will be saved I. And as for the first of these they of the Church of Rome would have us by a Pillar and Ground to understand that which is the very Foundation of our Faith that upon whose Credit and Authority all Christian Truth and the certainty of our Religion depends For taking it for granted that the Church is this Pillar and presuming also that they only are the Church they thence infer that we can be sure of no Truth but from them and that they give authority and certainty to the very Word of God it self and likewise whatsoever the Church i. e. they declare to be Truth is therefore to be received insomuch that if they make any new Articles or Faith we are to give a full assent to them because all Truth depends upon the credit of their Church This sounds strangely in the Ears of those that are not accustomed to such Language and may be thought perhaps a misrepresentation of their Doctrine But â—â—â—larmine to name no more vouches this to be the Catholique sense of this place and from the words Pillar and Ground of Truth proves that the Church cannot err either in Believing or in Teaching (y) L. II. de Concil 〈◊〉 c. 2. and again that whatsoever the Church approves is true and whatsoever it disapproves is false (z) L. III. de 〈◊〉 Milit. c. 14. But this only shows that they are hard put to it to find proofs for their high pretences For it will appear in the process of this Discourse first that it can never be proved the words Pillar and Ground have respect to the Church and not rather to Timothy for which there is good Authority as well as Reason I shall let the Authority alone till its proper place and only note Secondly That there is good reason not to refer this to the Church for having called the Church a House it doth not seem a congruous speech immediately to call the same Church a Pillar as on the other side it is very agreeable to call Timothy a Pillar in that House and to wish him to behave himself therein like other great Persons to whom in other places he gives the name of Pillars But Thirdly if it do relate to the Church it no more concerns the Church of Rome than any other Church and immediately relates to the Church of Ephesus in which Timothy presided Which Church of Ephesus (a) Concil Floreat 〈◊〉 ult with other Churches of the East condemned this Headship of the Bishop of Rome upon which they build a Soveraignty over our Faith. And further if we should suppose Fourthly That the Apostle respects the Church Universal and likewise that it is not only bound in duty to be but also actually is the Pillar and Ground of Truth yet Lastly it can never be proved that he speaks of any other Truth but those grand Fundamental Articles of Faith those Catholique Doctrines which were once delivered to the Saints and which blessed be God are maintained in every Church to this day not of all truth whatsoever much less of an absolute freedom from all manner of error For letting these things alone at present I shall shew that this is all that can be meant by the Pillar and Ground of Truth if it refer to the Church as I am content to admit not that the Church as they absurdly affirm is the very foundation of our Faith upon which it relyes but that it firmly retains upholds and professes the Christian Truth against all the force violence and opposition of Earth and Hell of Men and Devils that indeavour to overthrow it That this is the natural import of the phrase I will manifest First from the propriety of the words Secondly from clear reason and the Holy Scripture I. First from the propriety of the words in the Greek Language In which 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 frequently signifies such a Pillar as stood before their common Halls and Courts of Judicature upon which the Decrees and Orders of the Court were wont to hang or be fixed Unto which Tertullian alludes when speaking of an Article of the Creed in the place above named * L. de Resurrect Carnis C. 18. he saith Vnum opinor apud omnes EDICTVM DEI PENDET I suppose one Edict of God hangs up among all viz. to be read by them having just askt before quonam titulo Spes ista proscripta est by what TITLE this hope viz. of the resurrection is proposed and held forth to all And the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ground signifies not the foundation but the Seat where any thing is placed so as to be settled and laid up to remain and abide there And at the most can mean no more than the stay or establishment the seat or settlement of Truth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Oecumenius renders it the confirmation of truth or if we will have these words allude to a building because the Church is here called the House of the living God as elsewhere the Temple of God which is the same they signifie no more but supporters and upholders without which the edifice would fall to the ground And the most we can make of them when they are applied to the Church with respect to the truth is this that the Church sustains and keeps it from sinking or falling as a Pillar firmly setled upon a Basis sustains and upholds the fabrick laid upon it This consists in these three things which I shall distinctly though but briefly mention for the Reader 's clear information in this matter First The Church is that Body of Men which preserves and keeps which maintains and holds up the Christian Faith which God hath committed to its care as he did to the Jews the Divine Oracles delivered in old times And as the Church will answer it to God and not be guilty of betraying its trust it must constantly preserve the truth committed to it that it be not lost and do not perish This might be divided into two that the Church
is the keeper and Conservator of all the Holy Scriptures and the Divine Truths contained therein and that by faithful keeping them it upholds and supports the Truth as a Pillar doth the building which rests upon it But this is sufficiently included in what follows Secondly the Church is not only to preserve the Truth but to profess it and to give attestation to it that is to bear witness that this is the Truth of God and this alone which he hath revealed for the Salvation of Mankind By which means it doth not only hold up the Truth but hold it out to others as the Sacred Edict or Decree of God which all are to take notice of and observe And so Thirdly It is by this means to promote and propagate the Truth and not let it fall to the ground as a building doth when the Pillars that supported it are removed In brief As Heretical Churches were the Pillars and Stays of falshood they maintained and defended it they testified to it and indeavour'd to continue it and leave it to Posterity just so is the Church of Christ the Pillar and Ground of Truth it professes the Christian Faith it maintains it as the Truth of God and notwithstanding all the persecutions troubles losses torments whereby its Enemies would shake the constancy of those who maintain the Truth they testifie to it and declare to future Generations that this as S. Peter speaks is the true grace of God wherein we stand This is the first consideration to assure us of the true meaning of these words II. The Second is as strong for plain reason makes it evident that this not the other is the sense of them The Church that is cannot be the very foundation upon which the Truth is built not that which gives it authority and makes it to be Truth for the quite contrary is declared by Truth it self that the Truth is the foundation upon which the Church is built and which makes it to be a Church So S. Paul instructs this very Church of Ephesus who were built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner Stone in whom all the building fitly framed together groweth into an holy Temple in the Lord In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit II. Ephes 18 19 20. It was therefore a Church of Christ because it held the Truth which He and his Apostles taught And so a great number of the Ancient Fathers expound those words of Christ to S. Peter Thou art Peter and upon this Rock i. e. upon the confession of Faith which thou hast made upon that Truth thou hast confest I will build my Church Matth. XVI We can own no Society of Men to be a Church of Christ unless they profess the true Faith of Christ And therefore the true Faith must be known before we can know whether they be a true Church or no who call themselves by that Name and consequently they do not give authority to the Truth but the Truth to them because the Truth must be supposed before they can have any authority Observe the above recited words I beseech you which say the Church is built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets c. i. e. upon the Truth revealed by them in the Gospel It is a Church by holding and believing this for if this be not the thing which makes a company of Men to be a Church of the living God tell me why the Mahometans are not his Church They are a society of Men professing some belief and having some truth and devotion and being governed by Laws as well as we There is no reason why they belong not to the Church of Christ but because they have not the Truth as it is in Christ Therefore the Church doth not make the Truth but the Truth makes the Church the Truth doth not rely upon the Church because it is before the Church which relies upon it Which was the Doctrine of the Church it self in after Ages as it were easie to shew if I intended to write a great Book I will content my self with two Testimonies in ancient times the one is of S. Chrysostome who thus expounds these very words the Church of the living God the Pillar and Ground of Truth Not like that Judaical Temple saith he for this is it which keeps together and contains the Faith and the preaching or Doctrine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For the Truth is both the Pillar and the Ground or foundation of the Church The other is S. Austin in his third Book upon the Creed to the Catechumens (c) Tom. IX which begins thus You know this viz. the Creed to be the foundation of the Cathlique Faith upon which the edifice of the Church arose being built by the hands of the Apostles and Prophets And with this of Gabriel Biel in latter Ages (d) L. 3 in sentent Dist 25. Dub. 3. Catholique truths without any approbation of the Church are in the nature of the thing immutable and immutably true and so are to be accounted unchangeably Catholique Which brings to mind another remarkable saying of S. Austin who after he had produced in his first and second Books against Julian the Pelagian the testimonies of XI great Doctors viz. Irenaeus Cyprian Reticius Olympius Hilarius Ambrosius Innocentius where by the way it is observable he mentions the Bishop of Rome only as one of the eminent Bishops not as Head of them all Gregory Nyssen Basil of Caesarea John Chrysostom Hierom makes this reflection upon their consent which he lookt upon as the voyce of the Catholique Church Qui tamen veritati auctoritatem non suo tribuêre consensu c. who notwithstanding did not give authority to the Truth by their consent but received testimony and glory by partaking of the Truth They endeavour indeed to put by such evident conviction as this by a little distinction that though in it self the Church is built upon the Truth yet in respect to us the Truth is built upon the Church Which appears already to be a vain conceit unto those who consider that the Church cannot be the foundation of Truth to us unless we first know it to be the true Church of Christ and indued with this priviledge from God to be the Ground of Truth in this sense which I am now confuting But whence should we know this If it be said from the Truth which it professes then the Church is not the Foundation of the Truth to us for we must know the Truth before we can know that to be the true Church which calls it self the Foundation If we say from the Church then the Church is the Pillar and Ground of it self and we believe it to be the true Church because it says it is Which is so absurd and dangerous that the Mahometans as I said will be as true a Church as any else they may boldly put
in for their share of this priviledge Nay if confidence and power can carry it ingross it wholly to themselves It remains therefore that this is the true sense of the words which I have given The Church keeps the Truth and keeps it up It is the Conservator of it and preserves it from falling to the ground it proclaims it and holds it forth to others it continues the truth in the World and settles it in mens minds but it self is built upon this Truth not the Truth upon it Which derives its authority from God who sent Jesus Christ into the World to teach us his will and gave him power to send his Apostles as he had sent him God bearing them witness with signs and wonders and with divers miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghost according to his own will. This will be the more plainly laid open if I spend a little time in showing what is here meant by the Church which is commonly thought to be the Pillar and Ground of Truth and was the third thing propounded in the beginning to be explained III. The Church or House of God signifies every where a company of Christians united under their Pastors unto Christ their Head by a sincere Faith and joyned one to another by Brotherly love and communion Where ever we find such a Society of Men and Women there is a Church and all the Societies of this kind throughout the World make up that which we call the Catholique or Vniversal Church the whole body of Christ or Christian Church Of which the Church of Ephesus here spoken of was a part one eminent company of Christians professing the truly Catholique Faith and joyned to Timothy as their chief Pastor for the worship and service of Christ and for to be the Pillar and Ground of Truth as these words must be interpreted if they relate unto the Church They indeed who are now of the Roman Communion understand by the Church only the Pastors of the Church And some of them this Church representative as it may be called that is the whole assembly of Christian Bishops as many as can meet together representing all the Churches under their care But others understand only one Bishop alone the Pope of Rome who is then the Church Virtual in whom all the power of all the Bishops in the World is united But as there are no such notions of the Word Church in Scripture so if they be applied to this place they will appear very wild fancies unto any Man who will soberly consider the scope of it For it is very evident that the Church is here mentioned as distinct from Timothy who was the prime Pastor of it and who is directed how to behave himself in it Therefore if this Church was the Pillar of Truth the whole multitude of Believers at Ephesus united under him and the rest of their Pastors must be lookt upon as having an interest in this great priviledge and honour as well as duty to be the Conservators and Supporters of the Christian Faith which they had received For S. Paul as I said is instructing Timothy how to demean himself in this Society which he calls the House or family of God that is among true Believers in Christ formed into a Society under the Government of their Guides who were to take the greater care that every one in the Church was well taught instructed and ordered because they were the Pillar and Ground of Truth This made S. Paul very solicitous that Timothy should carry himself well and be a good Pastor in that Church of which the Holy Ghost had made him chief Overseer And not knowing when he might have opportunity to see him and give him personal instruction by word of mouth he wrote this Letter to him for his direction that he might fully understand how to discharge this Office. And therefore these words it appears by the verse foregoing v. 14. relate partly to what went before and partly to what follows These things write I unto thee hoping to come unto thee shortly but if I tarry long that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thy self in the House of God which is the Church of the living God the Pillar and Ground of Truth And without controversie great is the mystery of godliness c. Which whole Paragraph is to be understood as if he had said in more words Though I hope shortly to discourse with thee face to face yet not knowing what may hinder and retard my hopes I have sent the above written instructions to thee not to trouble the Church with vain disputations about the rites of the Law and such idle questions as the Jews are apt to raise but to remember as I have said in the beginning of this Letter v. 4 5. of the first Chapter that the end of the Commandment is charity the love of God and of our neighbour This therefore teach them and instruct them also to make prayers supplications and intercession with giving of thanks for all Men for Kings and all that are in authority Chap. II. 1 2 3 4. teach them all likewise how to pray v. 8. and instruct the Bishops and the Deacons and all the rest in their Office and Duty for it is of great concernment that they be well informed because this Church over which thou art set is the very Seat of Truth which is not to be found in any other place but in such a company of Believers Who ought to uphold and defend it when thou art dead and gone and therefore had need be well setled and established in it especially in the great mystery of godliness wherein all Christians agree and about which there is no Controversie That so the Church may never let it go and this Truth may not dye and fall to the Ground when we are laid in our Graves but be delivered to those that come after as the very Oracles of God. Who now is there so blind as not to be able to see that by the Church is meant not merely the supream Governour of the Church which was Timothy but all that company of Christian people under their several Bishops and Teachers who belonged to Ephesus All of which S. Paul left Timothy when he himself went into Macedonia to take care of and to charge that they taught no other Doctrine as you read 1.3 and in this House or Family he was when S. Paul wrote this Epistle to him not in a General Council for there was none in three hundred Year after this time Therefore he doth not speak of the Church Representative as it is called much less of the Church Virtual as they term it that is the Pope For then mark what sence the words will make I have wrote to thee not knowing when I shall see thee how to behave thy self in the Bishop of Rome as if he would have us fancy Timothy in the Popes Belly and himself gravely instructing him how to carry himself with
it self for the sake of it Neither is this meerly the Ecclesiastical Language but the Holy Scripture it self gives those this honourable title who constantly indured tribulation for the Gospel sake though it did not cost them their lives Thus our blessed Lord speaks to the Church of Philadelphia III. Revel 12. Him that overcometh will I make a Pillar in the temple of my God. Which signifies partly that he should be an eminent Instrument of upholding the Church and preserving many in the profession of Christianity by his constancy and firmness in it and partly that he should be so established himself by the grace and power of God that he should never fall according to that of S. Peter 1 V. 10. But the God of all grace who hath called us unto his eternal glory after that ye have suffered a while make you perfect establish strengthen settle you and partly that he should be made in the highest sense a PILLAR that is an Apostolical Man who should be advanced to the most eminent imployment in the Church of teaching and instructing of Governing and Ruling as a principal Pastor in the Temple of God. In one word be an Angel of the Church as he speaks in the beginning of this Letter v. 7. and in all the rest an illustrious Minister and Messenger of God to publish the glad tidings of Salvation to the World. Such the Apostles were whom Theodoret calls the Pillars of the Truth with peculiar respect to their sufferings Behold saith he †Orat. de providentia Tom. IV. p. 441. Peter and John 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. the Towers or Bulwarks of Godliness the Pillars of Truth supporting the Structure of the Church being scourged by the Jews but rejoycing and glorying V. Act. 41. that they were counted worthy to suffer shame or to be disgraced for his Name And such like were these victorious Souls as Arethas * Comment in III. Rev. 12. expounds our Saviour's words to this Church For he that conquers saith he the adverse powers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is constituted a Pillar and Ground of the Truth rejoycing himself immutably so he interprets in the temple of my God and establishing others in goodness that they may not fall from their stedfastness IV. Any eminent person also in the Church though not a Martyr is sometime called by this name in Ecclesiastical Writers For instance Jo. Damascen thus addresses himself to Jordanes the Archimandrite 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 (b) Epist ad euâ—n de Triâ—agio O most Divine Father the Pillar and Ground or stay of Truth Nay thus zealous persons in the Laity especially if they were of great quality contributed to the support of the Faith by supporting these Pillars of it So S. Basil in one of the forenamed Epistles having bewailed the banishment of their Bishops whom he calls the Pillars and Ground of Truth prays Terentius a Count of the Empire to preserve himself safe that they might have some to rest upon God having graciously made him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 (c) Epist 345. a support and a prop in all things to us But they of the Clergy more particularly though of the Order below Bishops were lookt upon as having no small share in this Office. For S. Cyril of Alexandria (d) Lib. V. in Esaiam Tom. 2. p. 768. having mentioned Christ as the foundation and believers in him as pretious Stones built upon him unto a holy Temple compares their instructors in the Mysteries of Religion to the most pretious Stones such as those mentioned LIV. Isa 11 12. which God uses some in laying the foundation others as buttresses some for the Gates others for the Walls of the holy City that is the Church that all her Children may be taught of God. V. Nay one of the forenamed great Doctors of the Church warrants me to add that every pious member of the Church in his place and calling hath his share in this great trust For whosoever saith S. Gregory Nyssen (e) Hom. XIV in Cant. Canticorum p 684. is perfected in these two great Commandments to love God and to love his Neighbour he is framed to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Pillar and Ground of Truth according to the language of the Apostle By both these we may become such Pillars as Peter and James and John or if there be any other since them that hath been or shall be worthy of this name And he doth in effect say the same in the place before named (f) De vita Mosis where he observes the Apostle requires others to be Pillars as well as himself when he saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Cor. XV. 58. be ye stedfast or stable unmoveable abounding always in the work of the Lord. For he that is thus firmly fixed and setled as the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies and diligent in well doing whatsoever trials he hath to shake him he supports Religion he maintains the credit of it in the World he doth great service to the Truth by shewing how good how useful how laborious it makes those that embrace it And I am sure it lies upon every one of us as an indispensable duty to hold fast the Truth and to profess it and practise it and notwithstanding any danger or trouble unto which it may expose us to testifie unto it if need be by constant patient peaceable suffering for Christs sake And he that doth thus is according to his measure though never so mean a person in the Church a Pillar and Ground of Truth And thus Theodoret expounds these words he calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the assembly or congregation of those that believe the House of God and the Church and these he saith are the Pillar and support of Truth For being founded upon the Rook they both remain unshaken and preach by their deeds the truth of their Doctrine And Theophylast also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Church is a constitution or an assembly of truth For all things that are done in it are true nothing shadowy as under the Law c. VI. I have but one thing further to add That the more and the better they are who joyn in this work the greater support they give to the Truth First I say the more the greater number there are of those who maintain the truth by preaching writing suffering or well doing and the greater credit they have in the World the stronger Pillars they are and the surer doth the truth seem to be in the eyes of those to whom they represent it Upon which account the Doctrine of S. Paul and Barnabas which he had received by revelation as well as other Apostles yet being communicated to James and Cephas and John who were eminent Pillars and been approved by them received the more strength by their concurrent testimony II. Gal. 2 5 9. And it was still more confirmed by the whole Council of Apostles and Elders at Jerusalem
XV. Act. 2.25 so that it was received joyfully at Antioch V. 31. and the Churches in other Cities were established in the Faith and increased in number daily XVI 4.5 For which reason the testimony of a great assembly of Bishops was a greater support and strengthning to the Faith than the testimony of single persons They were the principal Trustees as I observed before to whose fidelity the truth was committed and when they met together in a Council to discharge this trust it gave great force to the truth declared by them Which they knew so well that in ancient times such Councils were wont to desire the consent of other Bishops who were not there for the greater establishment and confirmation of the Faith as Theodoret (g) L. 2. Hist Eccles C. 6. relates of the Council of Sardica whose Letter he hath set down to all the Bishops in the World desiring them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as present in Spirit with them to consent to their Synod and by their subscription to decree that concord might be preserved among all their fellow Bishops every where Nay the great and first general Council of Nice it self (h) Theodoret. L. 1. Eccles Hist Cap. 8 9. wrote to the Church of Alexandria and the rest throughout Egypt Libya and Pentapolis to give them an account of their decrees And Constantine also certified all absent Bishops who could not come to the Council of their proceedings That there might be one Faith as his words are and sincere charity and a concording Religion or Piety preserved among them all It was upon the same score that sometime they sent particularly to the Bishop of Rome for his concurrence as the Council of Carthage (i) August Epist XC XCI XCV and others did in the business of Pelagius not because they imagined their decrees would be of no force without his consent that 's an ungrounded fancy but because he was an eminent Bishop in the Church of Christ by whose concurrent testimony the Truth would be still more confirmed and their Churches would have the greater comfort de communi participatione unius gratiae from the common participation of one grace by knowing that is that they were of the same belief The like may be said of the Martyrs who when they suffered in great numbers gave the more amazing testimony to the Truth which terrified the Devil himself and staggered their very Judges as S. Basil speaks (k) Tom. 1. Hom. XX. of the XL Martyrs who all together as if they had had but one Mouth cryed out when they were examined I am a Christian By such resolution as this our Religion was not only upheld but mightily increased And the more the number of Christians increased the more was Truth spread abroad till it grew to be the prevailing Religion and the Kingdoms of the World became the Kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ 2. But it was not mere numbers that did the business for their extraordinary Piety and Purity in those early days had the greatest hand in it Which was the second thing I desired to be noted under this last head that the better the Pastors and the People are the greater service they do to the Truth and the more prevalent their testimony is when it appears by their lives that they have no other interest to serve but that of Truth and Godliness And when all is done it will be found that the sanctity of those who assert God's holy Truth their pure and undefiled Religion which keeps them from being spotted by the World is that which will be the most powerful to move Mens minds and will make the easiest way for its entertainment in Mens Hearts Nothing can give a Church such authority and make its testimony so credible as its integrity and sincere Devotion its study of purity in Heart and Life it s designing clearly the good of Souls and not worldly advantages its universal charity and kindness which invites even strangers to attend unto it and much more its own Members And therefore I must note for a conclusion of this part of my Discourse that when we speak of the Church i. e. the whole company of believers and say that it is the Pillar and Ground or establishment of Truth it is meant principally of those whose Faith brings forth fruit and works by love These are the main supporters of the Christian Religion who do not merely profess it but are acted and live by their Faith in all holy obedience to Christ For they are living Stones built upon him the foundation of all the true living Body of Christ who are animated by his Spirit and with whom he hath promised to make his abode and consequently are the only persons who to purpose support and maintain and defend the Truth Which would in a little time be suppressed or obscured depraved or varied concealed or misinterpreted if the wicked only had the conduct of it Who are no more to be accounted Pillars of the Truth i. e. can no more alone support and uphold it than a Reed a Straw or a rotten Stick can support a building This is the ancient Doctrine of the Church it self as appears by what S. Austin saies in his Preface to the Exposition of the XLVIII Psalm (k) Tom. VIII Enarratio in Psal XLVII Where taking the firmament which was made the second day to be an emblem of the Church he saith by the Church we ought to understand Ecclesiam Christi in Sanctis c. the Church of Christ in his Saints the Church of Christ in those whose names are written in Heaven the Church of Christ in those who do not yield to the temptations of this World. Ipsi enim digni sunt nomine FIRMAMENTI for these are worthy the name of Firmament or strength Therefore the Church of Christ in those qui firmi sunt who are strong concerning whom the Apostle speaks we that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak is called the FIRMAMENT For hearken and acknowledge how this Church is called by this name in the Apostolical writings and then he quotes this place to Timothy which is the Church of the living God columna firmamentum veritatis the Pillar and support of Truth By these principally the Truth is maintained For it is most plainly delivered by the Apostles themselves that Men and Women by their wicked lives did turn Apostates from the Faith. And we find by experience as well as their instructions that nothing doth more quench the Spirit of God nothing is more contrary to true Wisdom than filthiness and impurity which we must abandon therefore and not think we can do very considerable service to the Truth by the bare profession of it but upon the foundation Christ Jesus we must seriously indeavour to raise the superstructure of a holy life whereby we shall adorn recommend and effectually promote our Religion It must not be denyed indeed that a
discourses in that very Book against Manichaeus (q) Cap. XIV contra Epist quam vocant Fundamenti his Letter from whence the fore-named saying I had not believed the Gospel unless the Churches Authority had moved me to it is wont at every turn to be objected to us by those of the Romish perswasion Thou dost nothing but praise what thou believest and deride what I believe Now since I can be even with thee and do the very same praise what I believe and deride what thou believest what is to be done but that we leave and relinquish those who invite us to know things certain and afterwards require us to believe things uncertain let those of the Roman Church mark this and that we follow them who invite us first to believe that which we cannot yet see into that being made stronger in the Faith it self we may come to understand what we believe NOT MEN NOW BUT GOD HIMSELF INWARDLY ESTABLISHING AND ILLUMINATING OUR MIND It is impossible to read this passage and not see that this Father thought our Faith is not ultimately resolved into the Testimony of the Church but by that being invited to believe the Holy Scriptures we are established upon the serious reading of them in the Christian Faith and Knowledge of the Truth by God himself Upon whose Word in the Holy Scripture and not upon Men we bottom our Faith. Upon the Testimony and Authority of God the Father Son and Holy Ghost and the Testimony of divine Men inspired by them who by Miracles and Signs and mighty Deeds and a prophetical Spirit proved themselves to be sent of God and have left his Mind and Will upon Record in the Scriptures of Truth Which the Church indeed in all parts of the World hath kept and preserved and faithfully transmitted down to us and now propounds to our Faith but it is not merely what the Church saith that makes us believe but what God himself saith in the Holy Scriptures concerning his Son Jesus Christ and what Jesus Christ saith concerning his rising from the Dead and sending the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles Which being fulfilled evidently proved him to be the Son of God the Saviour of the World and them to be his Apostles and Ministers who declared to Men the true way of Salvation So the Church directs and guides us to the Scriptures of Truth but they resolve and assure our Faith being the very Word of God. The authority of God's Church is the first motive which leads us to esteem the Scriptures but being led thither we find in the matter of them that which gives us full satisfaction by bestowing our pains in reading or hearing and considering the Mysteries contained therein The Church holds out this light to us but it is by this light that we see what is the mind and will of God. To this the Church points us and bids us attend to it for this it disposes and prepares us it leads us by the hand to this as the only sure foundation of our Faith because herein we find God himself speaking to us and moreover by the Ministery of the Church we are assisted in understanding the sence of the Holy Scriptures but they contain in themselves that Divine Authority and Truth whereby we come to a certain Faith. The Church tells us such and such things are true and we find them to be so by examining the Scriptures Which the Beraeans searched daily whether those things were so which the Apostles preached and therefore many of them believed not merely because the Apostles told them they ought so to do but because they found what they said in the Holy Scriptures XVII Act. 11 12. And so far as any Church speaks according to the truth contained therein it is to be believed and followed But if it bring no Divine word for its warrant if it propound other Doctrines which are not there it hath no authority to make such Doctrines the matter of our Faith much less to set up its own authority above the Scriptures as they do who say The Scriptures receive their authority from the Church Which is the Doctrine of no less Men than Baronius and Bellarmine to name no more The former of (r) Ad Annum 53 〈◊〉 X XI which argues that because we receive these Holy Books to be writings of the Apostles and Evangelists and not forged under their Names upon the testimony of the Church therefore all the writings of the New Testament received their authority from the Churches tradition which is fundamentum Scripturarum as he ventures to say the foundation of the Scriptures The other (s) L. 2. de Sacrament C. 25. Tertium is no less positive that if we take away the authority of the present Church and the present Council we call in doubt the whole Christian Faith. For the firmness of all ancient Councils and of all Doctrines depends upon the authority of the present Church This is very presumptuous talk for by the Church they mean themselves and then by the testimony of the Church that is their own testimony they mean such a Divine witness as assures us by its own authority without any other proof Which are the great points of difference between us in this matter For we assert first that the office of leading Men to the Holy Scriptures and so to Faith belongs to every Church as much as to them and secondly that no Church can bring People to Faith by its own testimony and authority but by the Doctrine of the Holy Scriptures nor is any Church whatsoever to be heard in matters of Divine Truth further than it can prove its Doctrines by the authority of God's Word and teaches things agreeable thereunto II. Which leads to the Second thing briefly to shew what power and authority the Church cannot pretend unto in matters of Faith. 1. And first it appears by what hath been said that it hath not a Soveraign Absolute Prophetical authority independent upon the Rule of the Holy Scriptures so that we must take whatsoever it saith for true without consulting them This is the ambitious pretence of the great Doctors of the Roman Church who give the Church meaning thereby the present Roman Church an authority over all things not depending on the Scriptures but upon which the Scriptures themselves depend So that without the authority of this Church all truth is doubtful Which is a manifest principle of Infidelity making all Religion stand to the courtesie of a company of Men who in such matters are the least to be trusted of all other Christians that we are acquainted withall 2. The Church hath no authority to propound any Doctrine as necessary to Salvation which is not delivered in the Holy Scriptures but depends solely on the authority of its own Tradition This is another of their ambitious attempts who having arrogated to themselves alone the whole power of the Church make that power so unlimited that it can supply the
defects of the Scripture and make things unwritten to become matters of Faith. Which is such an unbounded Prerogative that we may have a new Faith as often as they please to pretend a Tradition for it though they cannot prove it For we must rest in the authority of the present Church which affirms it and that against the very Scripture it self which tells us it is able to make a Man of God perfect and against the testimony of the Universal Church which I have shown forbids the producing of any other Faith but that which was evidently delivered by the Apostles there 3. We cannot allow the Church an Infallible authority that is such an assistance in her Doctrines and proposals that she cannot err in any thing she defines In Controversies indeed arising about matters of Faith we own and reverence the authority of the Church (t) Artic. XX. so as not to contest the publique judgement but to prefer it before our own private conceits in doubtful things But as it ought to proceed in its determinations by the Rule of Gods word So we think it possible it may mistake in the application of this Rule and therefore we do not blindly resign our selves to its authority without all regard to the Holy Scriptures unto which the Church ought to have a respect in all its determinations No that 's another proud pretence of the present Roman Church that they cannot mistake in their definitions and therefore we must submit unto them without examination From whence this intollerable mischief hath insued that it hath made them both insensible of their errors and careless to seek any cure of them nay utterly incapable of a remedy For as one of our own Divines excellently speaks (u) Dr. Petter's Answer to Charity mistaken Sect. 5. whose words those are this conceit of their Infallibility is to them both a sufficient reason for that which is most unreasonable and a sufficient answer to that which is most unanswerable To this they retreat upon all occasions when they are not able to maintain their ground they have no other way to defend their errors when they are plainly set before their eyes but to tell us confidently they cannot err Which is a very strange boldness for we demonstrate in manay instances that they have erred erred most grosly particularly in this that they have added new Articles to the old Creed to be believed under pain of Damnation and added a new Canon of Scripture to the Old Testament against the clearest evidence in the Records of the Universal Church that the Books they have newly received were never acknowledged for Canonical Scripture If by the Church indeed they would understand the Church truly Catholique the whole Body of Christ in all times places and ages and if by matters of Faith they would understand those grand Articles which I have mentioned in the first part of this Discourse and if by being Infallible they would understand not an absolute impossibility of erring which humane nature is not capable of but not actual error there are none of us make any question but the Church is Infallible That is the whole Church hath not erred nor shall not err in the whole Faith or in any necessary part thereof for such error would cut Men off from Christ the head and so leave him no Church at all which is impossible It hath been the very scope of first my Discourse to show that the Church hath always kept the great fundamental truths of our Religion and not erred in them but transmitted them down to us whole and undefiled till the Church of Rome in the Council of Trent corrupted the Faith by their errors which they have mixed with it For to a particular Church such as that of Rome is we cannot allow this priviledge of not erring because we know they have erred even in fundamental Truths and thereby ceased to be Churches Witness those glorious Churches to which Christ himself sent his Letters by S. John the Apostle These Prerogatives therefore not belonging to any Church every one must be content with those two Offices before mentioned which are sufficient First The Office of a Witness testifying the authority of the Holy Scriptures unto its members Secondly of Gods instrument by whose Ministry in opening expounding and urging the Holy Scriptures the Holy Ghost begets a divine Faith in us And by performing these Offices it supports and continues and propagates the Truth and so may be called the Pillar and Ground thereof The meaning of which I shall now distinctly set before the Readers eyes that I may give a short account of the fourth and last thing propounded in the beginning IV. How the Church may appropriate to it self this Title 1. First Every Church and every person in it especially the Bishops and Pastors are the Pillar and Ground of Truth officio by Duty and Office whereby they are obliged to keep maintain and uphold the Truth This always was and always will be incumbent on them which is sufficient to fill up the sense of such attributes as these which do not always note performance of Duty but only obligation to it As when our Saviour saith to his Disciples Ye are the salt of the Earth it doth not signifie that they were necessarily so for he supposes immediately the salt might lose its savour but that they ought to be so and if they were not so would be good for nothing but to be cast out and trodden under foot Matth. V. 13. 2. But Secondly The first Churches of Christ in the Apostles times were actu effectu actually and effectually the Pillar of Truth that is they faithfully discharg'd this Office and perform'd their Duty constantly maintaining the Truth as it is in Christ in its purity and simplicity For the Apostles were a part of those Churches whom God led into all Truth which they taught sincerely and intirely while they lived and do at this day instruct us in the Holy Scriptures in the whole Truth necessary to our Salvation 3. But we cannot say the same of all succeeding Churches that they did faithfully perform this office though in duty they also were bound so to do No some of them were so far from being Pillars of the Truth that they let it fall to the ground We have strange instances of it with which I shall not fill these Papers in the History of the Church which show us that if we take not heed to our selves and the Doctrine that is delivered to us we have no security that we or any other particular Church shall continue firm and stedfast supporters of the Truth For Pillars themselves may decay and if they be not well lookt after will go to ruin and fall to the Earth 4. Even this very Church of Ephesus which was a Pillar and Ground of Truth while Timothy presided in it afterward began before all the Apostles were dead to remit its first love and zeal for
the Truth II. Rev. 4. and now is utterly subverted and not to be found Which is a demonstration the Apostle did not in these words intend to teach that the Church cannot err but that as I said it is in duty bound by its calling and Office to preserve the Truth pure and intire For he himself foresaw this Church would be haunted with grievous Wolves after his departure Act. XX. 29 30. who no doubt came in Sheeps clothing as they also among themselves did who he foretold would arise speaking perverse things to draw Disciples after them And immediately after he had here called the Church or Timothy the Pillar of Truth he admonishes him in the beginning of the next Chapter IV. 1 2. that there would be an apostasie from the Faith as the Spirit expresly declared For according to what our Saviour predicted there was scarce any Church but the Enemy sowed Tares among the Wheat which very much hindred the growth thereof So we are informed by Hegisippus a very ancient Christian Historian who †Fuâ—b L. III. Eccles Hist c. 32. saith that as soon as the sacred Quire of Apostles were dead and that Generation was gone who had heard the inspired Wisdom with their own ears then begun 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Conspiracy or Combination of impious or atheistical error by the deceit of false teachers who make a bare-sac't opposition to the Truth of the Gospel And yet for all this the speech of the Apostle is proper enough For a Church or its Pastor may be the Pillar of Truth in regard of their duty as I have often said though they prove negligent in their Office. Just as the Priest among the Jews was called the messenger of the Lord of Hosts whose lips should so preserve knowledge that the people should seek the Law at his mouth because this was the end of his Office for which he was ordained though at the same time the Prophet complains that they were departed out of the way and caused many to stumble at the Law and had corrupted the Covenant of Levi Mal. II. 7 8. The like we read in other places of the holy Book that the Prophets were not true to their trust but declared the visions of their own heart not the Word of the Lord and lead the people into error and falshood feeding them with lies instead of Truth 5. Further I must observe that there is no promise made to any particular Church that it shall always be a Pillar of Truth no not to the Church of Rome which now so boldly lays claim and that solely to this priviledge But quite contrary there is a terrible threatning to this very Church included in that admonition which this very Apostle gives them Which is sufficient to show that Christ gave no such priviledge to this Church as that it should never err but directly contrary supposed it might err and err even to Apostasie when he bids them take heed lest they were cut off by unbelief as the Jews were from the fellowship of the Saints Read XI Rom. 20 21 22. They speaking of the Jews were broken off by unbelief and thou speaking to the Roman Christians standest by faith Be not high minded but fear hearken to this O ye of the present Roman Church For if God spared not the natural branches take heed lest he also spare not thee Behold the goodness and severity of God on them which fell severity but towards thee goodness if thou continue in his goodness OTHERWISE THOV ALSO SHALT BE CVT OF From whence we may thus argue if God had granted to the Roman Church the priviledge of being a Pillar of Truth infallibly and immutably unto all Generations all these suppositions were vain and these exhortations utterly needless and frivolous for it would have been absolutely impossible it should be cut off and absolutely necessary it should continue And yet the Apostle plainly supposes otherwise and took it for granted it might fail For these two are directly opposite to stand and to fall to continue and to be cut off to be an Everlasting Pillar and to be broken off For it is proper to a Pillar to stand and support but to be cut off as he supposes they might be is to fall to the Ground and not to be able to support ones self much less others Now that they of that Church have gone far towards this condition according to the Apostles supposition by falsifying the Truth of Christ even part of the Apostolical Faith and so have not continued a firm and stedfast Pillar of Truth but maintained and supported dangerous Errors and Heresies is apparent from this alone if there were no more that they limit and confine the Catholique Church to themselves alone and exclude all other Christians from it who will not submit to their Bishop and Decrees The Impiety of which is so great that it is not easie to be expressed for it is in Truth to make the Church not Catholique but Particular How new false sacrilegious scandalous schismatical and heretical this one Article of the Roman Creed is one of our own (x) Bishop Morto .. Bishops hath demonstrated evidently in a Book on purpose to which I refer the Reader which he had reason to call the GRAND IMPOSTURE It would inlarge this Treatise too much beyond my intention or else it would be easie to show both when they began to let Truth fall to the Ground and how they proceeded to fail in their duty and to betray their trust till they quite altered the ancient Catholique Faith in the Council of Trent Which now they cry up as the great Pillar of Truth when it did nothing but lend a lame support to the most notorious falshoods which it established as Doctrines of Faith when they were before but erroneous Opinions in that Church I call it lame because of the numerous flaws that there were both in the constitution and in the proceedings of that Council which make it of no Authority For in the very beginning of it (y) Sess IV. they decreed that no Man should wrest the Scripture to a sense contrary to that which the holy mother-Church i. e. themselves hath held and holds And so established all the Tenents of that Church before they examined them by the Scripture and engaged themselves to contradict their own Decree by wresting the Scriptures to their own sense for the maintenance of what their Church then held All the Bishops likewise there assembled were sworn to support the Papacy of the Roman Church and the Rules of the holy Fathers whereby they were obliged to maintain the Usurpations of that See upon all the Bishops in the World whose Authority was thrown down and thereby the Pillars of the Truth as I have shewn them to be trampled under foot when Boniface was declared Universal Bishop and upon Kings and Princes whom Hildebrand trod under foot yea upon the whole Church over which Pope Leo
exalted himself when he got it declared in the Lateran Council that he was above a General Council and the Universal Church (z) Sess XI being blasphemously called by his flatterers the Spouse of the Church the Lyon of the Tribe of Judah From which very Phrase of Spouse no less Man than Bellarmine (a) L. II. de Concil Auctor c. 17. himself labours to prove the Pope to be absolutely above the Vniversal Church and above a General Council because it is contrary to the Apostle and to the order of Nature that the Wife should be above the Husband This is sufficient to show what we ought to think of the present Roman Church which is so far from being Infallible that it hath erred more than any other Church 6. But though there be no promise either to that or any other particular Church of being preserved from Error yet the Universal Church in some part or other of it we are sure will always be a Pillar and Ground of the whole Truth necessary to Salvation because our Saviour hath promised the gates of hell shall not prevail against it That is the Church shall be perpetual which it cannot be unless it hold the Truth intirely it is joyned to Christ its Head. And thus one of their own Cardinals (b) 〈…〉 de 〈◊〉 L. II. c. 〈◊〉 L. III. 〈◊〉 understood the Infallibility of the Church with which they now make so much noise When we say The Church cannot err in Faith or Manners it must be thus taken according to the Doctrine of the Fathers that God doth so assist his Church to the end of the World that the true Faith shall never fail out of the same For to the World's end there shall be no time wherein some though all shall not have true Faith working by Love. Unto this exposition we heartily submit but that the present Church of Rome or indeed any other particular Church cannot degenerate and depart from the right Faith we can by no means allow but think our selves bound by the most sacred tyes to oppose these arrogant pretences that the Church is Infallible and that they are the Church They are no more the Church than any other company of Men professing the Christian Faith nor so much neither for there are truer Believers than they I have proved also that other Churches have erred and therefore so may they nay they have erred and that so grosly as to be able by no other means to maintain their errors but by pretending they cannot err And therefore let no Man be so forgetful of these things as to trust them to be his Guides fancying they cannot mislead him They have misled those that rely upon them and have led them into a maze or labyrinth in which it is impossible for them to find their way and know what is the Truth For if we should grant them their Church cannot err they are not agreed nor ever will what they mean by the Church Whether the whole body of Christian People which is the new Heresie among them as some of themselves call it or a General Council which the learnedst and best Men among them maintain or the Pope who hath a great many on his side but they cannot agree about the manner of his definition whether alone or in a General Council nor about the time whether at any time or only when he resolves to publish Doctrines as matter of Faith nor about the matter whether all things even matters of fact or only matters of Faith and after all no body can tell when there is a true Pope So that all their Faith falls to the Ground and they cannot be certain of any thing they believe because they cannot be certain of the very Ground and Foundation of their Faith which is their Church These things I have only briefly toucht which are more largely handled in other Books that the Readers may be sensible how happy they are who are freed from these Impostures And that our People may know their duty in this Church of England whereof by the Grace of God they are Members I shall conclude this Treatise with Six Considerations more whereby the whole I hope will be made more useful I. First I desire every one to consider from what I have said that this Church in which we are is certainly as much a Pillar and Ground of Truth as any other nay more than many other Churches For we openly profess and recite twice a day in our own Language that every one may understand it the whole Christian Faith comprised in the Apostles Creed with the explication of some part of this Faith by the Nicene Fathers once every week or more and a more distinct Explication of the same Articles by Athanasius once a month That is we hold and assert and maintain all those things which have always been and are confessed by all Christians the True Ancient Catholique and Apostolique Faith and the Holy Scriptures wherein this Faith is Originally contained And if we knew any thing else to be the mind of God delivered to us from Christ and his Apostles by the Universal Church we are prepared to receive it and did it appear would immediately embrace and propagate it But the Vniversal Church as I have shown hath declared this to be sufficient nay full and perfect and moreover forbidden any other Faith to be either composed or offered to those who would become Christians To all which that I have said in the First Part this memorable saying of Pope Leo (c) Epist ad Pulcheriam Augustam the Great may be added The short and perfect Confession of the Catholique Symbol or Creed it self which is sealed in as many sentences as there were Apostles i. e. XII Articles is so instructed with Caelestial munition or defence that all the opinions of Hereticks with this Sword alone may be cut in pieces II. And therefore Secondly every one of us is bound â—nless we will betray our trust and as we will answer it to our Lord Christ the Author of our Faith to hold fast this Faith to preserve it intire and to defend it not suffering any of it to be lost or any addition to be made to it as if this were not sufficient to Salvation Take fast hold of instruction of those great substantial unquestionable Truths mentioned in the beginning let them not go keep them for they are your life as Solomon speaks of Wisdom IV. Prov. 13. They are the Wisdom of God our Saviour the Rule which the Apostles preached equally among all Nations as Venantius Fortunatus (d) Praefat. in Symbol speaks the comprehension and perfection of our Faith as S. Austin (e) Sâ—rm CXV de Teâ—p or an Ancient Author under his name the Test as I have shown and Mark whereby the Faithful are distinguisht from Unbelievers and Hereticks And having this Note of a Christian you ought neither to seek for nor to admit of any other being indued
with this Wisdom you ought to think your selves wise unto Salvation And not be in the least moved with the bugbear name of Hereticks or the empty noise of Damnation which they of the Church of Rome thunder out against you For they signifie nothing but the wrath-of those who would drive you into the belief of that by frights and terrors into which they cannot draw you by solid proofs and arguments Turn away your Ears both from the one and the other for as the former is an insignificant sound so the latter all their Arguments are but confident Sophistry Which hath been and is at this day so evidently demonstrated by our Writers that they can have no excuse who are deceived by them III. And thus every one is bound to teach his Children diligently instructing and confirming them in these main Points of Christianity that so the Truth may live when we are gone Consider I beseech you what a necessary duty this is How should the Truth be preserved and supported but by those that believe it And how should they believe it who do not understand it And how should they understand it unless they be taught and instructed in it And who so much concerned to instruct their Children as they that brought them into the World Their God-fathers and God-mothers indeed are engaged to see this done but their Parents have a further even a natural obligation to it And therefore ought first of all diligently to inform themselves and by attending to all the means of instruction which they have in this Church to increase in true Christian knowledge that they may be able to teach those who are committed to their care and prepare them to be catechised and further instructed by those whom God hath set over them We are not Pillars and supporters of the Truth but the betrayers of it if we take no care about this Which is one great reason why some have easily forsaken the true Religion here taught and professed and condemned this Church an horrid crime if you seriously weigh the consequents of it by renouncing Communion with it as no part of the Body of Christ Men may be soon perswaded by confident talkers to part with that which they do not understand especially if they apprehend any danger in keeping it or hope to gain by letting it go Why should they hazzard the least hair of their Head for they know not what Nay why should they be at all concerned for it any more than a Man is for the seed that is scattered in the High-way from which he expects no Crop To that you know our blessed Lord compared him that heareth the word of the Kingdom and understandeth it not for then cometh the wicked one and catcheth away that which was sown in his heart Matth. XIII 19. IV. You must endeavour therefore to profit by all such instructions as these and to grow in the knowledge of the Holy Scriptures where God hath revealed his whole mind and will to you and plainly published all those Truths which belong to the great mystery of godliness You ought for instance to take heed how you wantonly and loosely interpret or apply them according to your own sudden or careless fancies that 's a great profanation of the Sacred Books and yet you must not for fear of this be perswaded to throw them out of your hands but rather with the more solemn humble and reverend awe of God upon your Souls ponder and weigh what you read therein especially those things which are plain and evident to every understanding that by the help of them and of those whom God hath set over you to guide and direct your minds you may either inform your understanding in what appears to have difficulty in it or satisfie your selves that it is not necessary you should understand it For they that would drive you from this hold of the Holy Scriptures intend to deceive you and would have you depend on that which is far more uncertain than the meaning of any place of Scripture can be There is no firm ground for us to stand upon but only this which all acknowledge is the very word of God and delivers that which hath been ever accounted the substance of Christian Doctrines in such words as every one may understand them And therefore this is as I have said the very foundation upon which the Church is built Which is the Pillar of Truth as it defends the Truth out of the Scriptures and by the Scriptures against all Hereticks and other opposers and as it establishes and supports it in the hearts of Men by this means that it may be continued to Posterity This must be added for the explication of all that hath been said that the Church and every person in it great or small are Pillars not by themselves but by the Holy Scriptures For we know those things that belong to our Salvation as Irenaeus (g) Adv. Hereses L. III. C. 1. begins his Third Book by no other persons than those by whom the Gospel came to us which then truly they preached but afterwards by the will of God deliverd to us in the Scriptures fundamentum Columnam fidei nostrae futurum to be the FOVNDATION and PILLAR of our Faith. Upon these our Faith rests and relys so that they who take the Scriptures from you take away the Foundation and Pillar of that Truth which is or ought to be taught in the Church and that alone They contain the mind and will of our Lord Christ who himself being the first Foundation and chief Pillar of all Epiphanius (h) Heres LXIX Nâ—m 35. applies these words to him When he saith our Lord is called the door because by him we enter in and the way because by him we walk and the Pillar because 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the very words of S. Paul in this place the ground or settlement and stay of Truth And in like manner S. Cyril (i) L. III. de Adoral in Sp. Veritate of Alexandria saith the Pillar of a Cloud and the Pillar of Fire each of them represented Christ because first of all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he is the Pillar and Ground of Truth and then because he cannot be shaken or disturbed c. which he repeats again upon another occasion speaking of the pillars which supported the Curtains of the Tabernacle Christ is to be understood saith he (k) Ib. Lib. IX in each Pillar 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. the prop of the Church the Ground of Truth according to the words of Paul. And in the next Book (l) L. X. speaking of the four pillars which supported the Vail before the holy place he saith that Vail was a figure of Christ who was lifted up on high by the preaching of the Evangelists and therefore he saith the four Evangelists were typified by those four pillars being equally eminent and pretious more valuable than Gold and Silver Which
shows that the Ancient Christians lookt upon the Church as the Pillar and Ground of Truth no other ways but as it professes preaches establishes and keeps up the Doctrine of Christ and of his Apostles recorded in the Holy Scriptures unto all which they indifferently apply these words of S. Paul which are thought immediately to speak of the Church which supports the Truth delivered in the Holy Scriptures from Christ and from his Apostles Upon which account the Creed also which is a comprehensive breviary of the great Scripture Doctrines is wont to have the same attribute given to it Particularly by Epiphanius (m) In Exposit fidei Cathol n. 19. who calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Pillar as the Greek word signifies in good Authors or prop of Truth c. our life our hope and the assurance of immortality And by S. Austin (n) De Symbolo ad Catechum L. III. C. 1. who tells the Catechumens in his Exposition of the Creed to them that it is fidei Catholicae fundamentum c. the Foundation of the Catholique Faith upon which the edifice of the Church arose built by the hands of the Apostles and Prophets Which hath made some learned Men (o) Jo. Camer Jac. Capellus refer these words of S. Paul not to what goes before but to the words following making a full stop at God and then beginning a new sentence in this manner The Pillar and Ground of the Truth and without Controversie great is the mystery of godliness c. which reading is countenanced by a Greek Edition of the New Testament at Basil 1540. where the words are so pointed as if the sence were this God incarnate and the great Truths depending thereupon ought to be the very Foundation of the Doctrine thou preachest The Doctrines of the Creed that is are the very Foundation and Pillars of the Christian Faith as the Jews it is known call the great principle of their Religion the Foundation of the Foundation the Pillar of Wisdom as Maimon speaks when he treats of this matter Stick close therefore to the Holy Scriptures and to these Articles of the Faith in the Apostles Creed which are the fundamental truths of Christianity it appears by what I have now said by which the Church maintains and defends the Truth and the Truth upholds the Church and we defend both Hold this fast as the ground of all and likewise lay up the word of God in your heart that it may setle there and take root and bring forth fruit unto Holiness that your end may be everlasting Life Make the Holy Scriptures your Rule and trust to them according to what the Son of Sirach saith of its ancient Books Ecclus XXXIII 3. A Man of understanding trusts in the Law and the Law is faithful to him as an Oracle or as the asking of Vrim That is here he may enquire and have a certain answer which will not deceive him Show your selves such Men of understanding as to enquire no where else And if any Church or Person would have you enquire of them only take that for an undoubted proof they are not to be trusted If they would not guide you by the Holy Scriptures that is by Christ the way as you have seen who hath shown us no where else that we know of what we ought to believe if they would have you follow their ungrounded Traditions whereby they would inlarge your Creed beyond the ancient bounds know that you ought not to follow them nor be led by them For such may soon cease to be the pillars and supporters of the Truth because they leave that whereby they should support it and place themselves whom they call the Church in the stead of it An evident sign they are not what they pretend for the Church it self ought to be demonstrated by the Scriptures So S. Austin (p) L. de Vnitate Ecclesiae cap. XVI tells the Donatists in those known words which are worthy to be preserved in remembrance Setting aside all such things as these which he had said they could likewise alledge let them demonstrate their Church if they can not in the discourses and rumours of the Africans not in the Councils of their Bishops not in the Letters of any disputers whatsoever not in signs and fallacious wonders for we are prepared and rendred cautious against these by the word of the Lord but in the prescript of the Law in the predictions of the Prophets in the Songs of the Psalms in the words of the SHEPHERD himself i. e. Christ in the preachings and labours of the Evangelists that is in all the Canonical authorities of the holy Books Let this be done so as not to gather and relate those things which are obscurely or ambiguously or figuratively spoken there which every one may interpret as he pleases according to his own sense For such things cannot be rightly understood and expounded unless those things which are most clearly spoken be first held by a firm Faith. This is the very sense of the Church of England which teaches all her members first to hold by a firm Faith those things which are clearly revealed in the Holy Scriptures and by them to understand and expound those things that are more obscurely delivered believing nothing to be necessary which is not read therein nor may be proved thereby nor receiving the Doctrines and Decrees of any Church unless it may be declared that they be taken from thence For haec sunt causae nostrae documenta haec fundamenta haec firmamenta as he there speaks you heard before These are the proofs of our Cause these are its foundations these are its supports And therefore as he also speaks in another Chapter of the same Book (q) Cap. III. de Vnitate Ecclesiae which he begins thus Let us not hear such speeches as these These things say I Those things sayest thou but let us hear These things saith the LORD These are certainly Books of the Lord to whose authority we both consent we both believe we both obey There let us seek the Church there let us discuss our Cause And let us not so much as think of looking after any other Articles of Faith but those which were from the beginning which our Church firmly believes in the three Creeds Nice-Creed Athanasius and that commonly called the Apostles (r) Article VIII because they may be proved by most certain warrants of Holy Scripture For after the Faith confessed and sworn in Baptism as S. Hilary (ſ) Ad Constantium August speaks we ought not quicquam aliud vel ambigere vel innovare either to doubt or innovate any other thing It is absurd that is to doubt whether this be sufficient or to add any other to it as if this were not enough So he interprets it a little after Faith is still inquired after as if there were no Faith already Faith is to be written as if it were not in the
heart being regenerated by Faith we are now taught what to believe as if that Regeneration were without Faith. We learn Christ after Baptism as if there could be any Baptism without the Faith of Christ It is most safe for us as it follows a little after to retain that first and only Evangelical Faith confessed and understood in Baptism V. And that a good and righteous cause may have good defenders and supporters let us read the Holy Scriptures wherein this Faith is contained chiefly for this end that we may order our steps that is our Lives and Conversation according to the rule of God's word Let us always remember that our Religion is a mystery of godliness as was shown before in which we are not well instructed if it do not teach us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts and to live soberly righteously and godly in the World. Which is the best way also to continue in the Faith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Apostle speaks most agreeable to these words which he writes to Timothy grounded and setled or stable and stedfast Colos I. 23. For they are the good ground in the Church who in an bonest and good heart having heard the word keep it and bring forth fruit with patience Luk. VIII 15. As much as to say if we would stand fast in the Faith and not fall away as our Saviour saith others would do in time of trial v. 13. we must first come to hear and read the word of God with unprejudiced minds and upright hearts desiring to know the Truth and resolved to receive it though never so contrary to our present inclinations and interests This is the honest and good heart which secondly must keep and preserve in mind and heart what it hath thus received and not presently let it slip or lay it aside as a thing never to be thought of more after we have heard it And lastly we must not only in a warm fit of zeal begin to put in practice what we learn but bring forth fruit with patience or continuance This is the way both to draw others into the Church and to continue our selves in it and to make us constant defenders of the Christian Faith That is to do our part in this great Office of being the Pillar and Ground of Truth Which is a thing incumbent upon the whole Church and consequently upon every one of us who are members of it And therefore remember that the Christian Religion for which we are to be Zealous is the acknowledgement of the Truth after godliness as I said before Tit. I. 1. It is the Doctrine of piety to the study of which if we seriously and heartily apply our selves it will be our best security against all impostures and preserve us from the subtil and crafty insinuations of those who corrupt or pervert the Christian Doctrine and finally be the most powerful means to make Christianity prevail in the World. Remember the advice of S. Paul to this Church of Ephesus Ephes IV. 14.15 where you may find the true way to continue firm and stedfast and not to be tossed about as Children with every blast of Doctrine c. and that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by speaking or rather following the Truth in love or according to the Hebrew Dialect being fixed and established in the love of God and of one another For the Hebrew word Aman to which 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 answers signifies not only to speak Truth but likewise to be firm and constant fixed and established which if we be we shall have a settled unmoveable confidence of God's Love and Favour towards us For he that heartily loves God and his Neighbour will never be startled much less shaken by their bold Anathemas though all the World should tell him he shall be damned if he do not believe this or that proposition which they say is absolutely necessary to his Salvation because there is something within him that gives them the lye and assures him there is no truth in them who say that God hates and will reject him who believes all the ancient Faith which works by Love. God himself testifies the contrary by making the Truth efficacious in his heart to purge him from all filthiness both of Flesh and Spirit and by changing him into his own likeness in Holiness Love and Goodness And the more thoroughly any Man is renewed in the spirit of his mind the more perfectly will he be assured that they pronounce a false judgment upon him and consequently be the more heartily resolved against that Religion which makes men so liberal in pouring out Curses upon all them that do not embrace its novel opinions Which brings me to the last thing I would have considered that VI. We do not perform our duty I may safely affirm nay confidently aver we are not the Pillar and Stay of Truth as we ought to be unless every one of us in our several Places and Stations oppose with a becoming Zeal the Errors Innovations and Incroachments of the Church of Rome who are the Men that are of all other most guilty of the just-now named Uncharitableness or rather Pride and Cruelty For they utterly un-Church us and as much as in them lies cut us off from the Body of Christ and bar the Gates of the Kingdom of Heaven against us By this alone if there were nothing else we are sure they have grosly erred and live in error that they deny us to be a part of Christ's Church who believe and confess with Heart and Mouth the whole Catholique Faith every thing that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 confessedly and by Universal consent the Ancient Christian Belief in which the Apostles and Martyrs died by which alone Righteous Souls for many Ages went to Heaven knowing nothing of the Pope's Supremacy of Transubstantiation of the Propitiatory Sacrifice of the Mass for quick and dead and the rest of their new inventions We deserve not the name of Christians no nor of Men if we stand not up resolutely against such usurpations and corruptions of the Christian Doctrine and maintain that Faith which we profess and wherein we stand to be the true Grace of God the Faith once delivered to the Saints Which is incumbent chiefly upon the Bishops and Pastors of the Church who I have shown are the Principal Pillars of the Truth as Timothy was in the Church of Ephesus and therefore ought to appear with all their might for the support of God's true Religion here established instructing teaching exhorting all committed to their charge to be stedfast and immoveable in it to the death And every honest hearted Christian ought to do the same in his rank and condition by following those instructions by fortifying himself against Romish delusions by indeavouring to understand the Truth and to detect their Errors Which are the more earnestly to be opposed because the new Articles of their Creed are not a Mystery of Godliness but tend many