teaches the same doctrine. Having cited the words of Christ: "Many false Christs and false apostles shall arise and deceive many of the faithful;" he continues: "There are therefore, and were, many, who going forth in the name of Christ, taught impious and blasphemous doctrines and practices; and we call them by the name of those men from whom each doctrine or opinion arose.... with none of whom do we communicate, knowing them to be irreligious, impious, unrighteous, iniquitous, who instead of venerating Jesus Christ, only profess him in name "." "The Lord," says Irenæus, "shall judge all those who are without the truth; that is, without the church "." "If they are heretics they cannot be Christians," according to Tertullian', who also judged, that "heresies had not inflicted less injury on the Christians by their perverse doctrines, than Antichrist by his horrible persecutions." Clement of Alexandria affirms, that "he who revolts against the ecclesiastical doctrine, and falls into the opinions of human heresies, ceases to be a man of God, and faithful to the Lord." Origen continues the same doctrine: "As those shall not possess the kingdom of God, who have been defiled by fornication, and uncleanness, and impurities, and idolatry; so neither shall heretics " h "If any one, reading the gospel, applies to it his own interpretation, not understanding it as the Lord spake it, truly he is a false prophet, uttering words from his own mind. These words may fairly be understood of heretics "." "Nor can that man be accounted a Christian," says Cyprian, "who doth not remain in the truth of his gospel and faith "." The practice of the church was in accordance with these principles. Heretics were always regarded as cut off from the church, and to be avoided by all Christians. Irenæus relates, from the tradition of Polycarp, a disciple of St. John, that when the apostle went to the bath at Ephesus, and beheld Cerinthus there, he departed, saying, "Let us fly, lest it should fall upon us, for Cerinthus the enemy of the truth is there "." Polycarp himself, when asked by the heretic Marcion, "Whether he knew him," answered, "I know thee, the first-born of Satan." "So great care," says Irenæus, "had the apostles and their disciples not to communicate, even by words, with those who adulterated the truth; as Paul also said: 'A man that is a heretic after the first and second admonition reject, knowing that such a one is perverted, and sinneth, being condemned by himself"." Heretics were only received into the church on confessing their fault, as Irenæus intimates in the case of Cerdo. Those who taught false doctrines were condemned and ana m Hom. ii. in Ezech. tom. iii. σασθαι, καὶ ἰδὼν ἔσω Κήρινθον, p. 362. ἐξήλατο τοῦ βαλανείου μὴ λουσάμενος, ἀλλ' ἐπειπών· φύγωμεν, μὴ καὶ τὸ βαλανεῖον συμπέσῃ, ἔνδον ὄντος Κηρίνθου, τοῦ τῆς ἀληθείας ἐχθροῦ. n Nec Christianus videri potest qui non permanet in Evangelii ejus, et fidei veritate.” De Unit. Eccl. • Irenæus, adv. Hæres. lib. iii. c. 3.-Ἰωάννης, ὁ τοῦ Κυρίου μαθητὴς, ἐν τῇ Ἐφέσῳ πορευθεὶς λού P Ibid. Adv. Hæres. iii. c. 4. thematized. Thus Victor and the Roman church expelled Theodotus, Artemon, and their followers, who held that Christ was a mere man". Noetus was condemned at Ephesus, and Paulus of Samosata at Antioch, by seventy oriental bishops, who in their epistle to all churches speak thus: "We also wrote and exhorted many bishops afar off, to procure a remedy of this deadly doctrine P".... and having alluded to the scandalous life of Paulus, they observe, that had he been orthodox, they would have examined into this; "but we have not judged it fit to take account of these things, in the case of one who hath betrayed the mystery, and boasted himself in the accursed heresy of Artemon; for why should we not declare his parent? .... Having therefore expelled him as an enemy of God, and remaining obstinate, we are compelled to ordain another bishop," &c. On the same principle the holy œcumenical synod of three hundred and eighteen bishops at Nice, declared all who should deny the divinity of Christ to be anathema'. It is needless to go further in accumulating proof that the church, in all ages, from the beginning, regarded heresy as a crime destructive of salvation. Even the sects which separated from the church, bore testimony, by their very act of separation, to their belief that those who taught doctrines contrary to the truth, were not to be held Christians, or communicated with. - Euseb. v. 28. Fleury, iv. 33. • Fleury, liv. v. c. 52. - Επεστέλλομεν δὲ ἅμα καὶ παρεκαλοῦμεν πολλοὺς καὶ τῶν μακρὰν ἐπισκόπων, ἐπὶ τὴν θεραπείαν τῆς θανατηφόρου διδασκαλίας.Euseb. vii. c. 30. 4 Τὸν δὲ ἐξορχησάμενον τὸ μυστήριον, καὶ ἐμπομπεύοντα τῇ μιαρᾷ VOL. I. αἱρέσει τῇ ἀρτεμᾷ (τί γὰρ οὐ χρὴ μόλις τὸν πατέρα αὐτοῦ δηλῶσαι) οὐδὲν δεῖν ἡγούμεθα τούτων τοὺς λογισμοὺς ἀπαιτεῖν....ἠναγκάστ θημεν οὖν ἀντιτασσόμενον αὐτὸν τῷ Θεῷ καὶ μὴ εἴκοντα ἐκκηρύ ξαντες, κ. τ. λ. Ibid. Socrat. Hist. Eccl. i. c. 8. Theodoret. ii. c. 12. H 3. And the same doctrine has been continually received amongst professing Christians of all appellations to the present day. At the reformation all parties received the definition of faith called the Creed of Athanasius, in which it is declared, that "whosoever will be saved, before all things it is necessary that he hold the catholic faith, which faith except every one do keep whole and undefiled, without doubt he shall perish everlastingly." Nothing can be more decisive than this of the doctrine of the reformation; for Lutherans, and Zuinglians, and Calvinists vied with each other in their adoption of the Athanasian Creed'. Nor was this merely a speculative doctrine with them. Luther held Zuinglius, Ecolampadius, and their followers, as heretics in the question of the eucharist, and accordingly refused to hold any communion with them. The Lutherans regarded the Sacramentarians as heretics, while both in their turn denounced the Socinians and Anabaptists as most grievous heretics, and separated them from all communion. Calvin styles Servetus (one of the Socinian and Anabaptist sect) "a monster"," and was instrumental in his being burned alive for See the Articles of Smalcald, Formula Concordiæ, Confess. Helvet. i. c. xi.; Confess. Gallic. art. v.; Belgica, art. ix.; Bohemica, art. iii. &c. The Zuinglians said in their Confession : "We abominate the impious doctrine of Arius and the Arians against the Son of God, especially the blasphemies of Michael Servetus and his sect, which Satan drew as from hell by their means against the Son of God, and most audaciously and impiously scattered through the world." "We execrate the madness of Eutyches and the Monothelites," &c. Confess. Helvet. i. c. xi. All the confessions of the Lutherans and Calvinists, are full of condemnations of various heresies in the strongest terms.-See chap. xii. "Nostro quoque sæculo emersit non minus exitiale monstrum Michael Servetus."-Inst. II. 14, 5. "Manichæorum delirio occurrere necesse est, quod rursus hac ætate invehere tentavit Servetus... hic diabolicus error quam crassas et fœdas absurditates secum trahat," &c.—Inst. I. xvi. 5. "Cavendum tamen est a diabolica imaginatione Serveti."-II. ix. 3. 66 heresy ". The reformed of Holland expelled the Arminians as heretics, not only from their communion, but from their country. I merely adduce these specific acts to prove the universal consent of the foreign reformation, that heresy is a most grievous sin, and that they who are guilty of it, are not to be treated as Christian brethren. The principle of temporal persecution for religion, is perfectly distinct from the original principle of the church with regard to heresy. It arose several centuries after the foundation of Christianity. 4. The sense of the Church of England admits of no doubt. The Athanasian Creed which she declares, ought thoroughly to be believed and received," as it "may be proved by most certain warrants of holy Scripture," is decisive on the question; and in the collect for Good Friday we pray for "heretics," that they may be "fetched home to God's flock," and "saved;" evidently implying that they are, as heretics, out of the way of salvation. Our most noted theologians hold the same doctrine. Bishop Jewel says: "Heresy is a forsaking of salvation, a rejection of God's grace, a departure from the body of Christ "," &c. Bishop Pearson says: "A man may not only passively and involuntarily be rejected, but also may by an act of his own cast himself out and eject himself," (out of the church) "not only by plain and complete apostacy, but by a defection from the unity of faith, falling into some damnable heresy." Dr. Barrow says: "In regard to this union in faith peculiarly, the body of Christians adhering to it was called the catholic church, from which all those were esteemed ipso facto to be cut off Mosheim, cent. xvi. sect. iii. part. 2. c. 4. s. 4. ་ W Apologia, p. 18. * On the Creed, art. ix. |