n 0 the mysteries of the kingdom; or if they did know more was necessary, and yet would not insert it, they did an act of public notice, and consigned it to all ages of the church, to no purpose, unless to beguile credulous people, by making them believe their faith was sufficient, having tried it by that touchstone apostolical, when there was no such matter. Austin; " "Confessio, expositio, regula fidei," generally by the ancients. The profession of this creed was the exposition of that saying of St. Peter, Συνειδήσεως ἀγαθῆς ἐπερώτημα εἰς Θεὸν, "The answer of a good conscience towards God." For of the recitation and profession of this creed in baptism, it is that Tertullian says, “Anima non lotione sed responsione sancitur."--And of this was the prayer of Hilary," Conserva hanc conscientiæ meæ vocem, 10. But, if this was sufficient to bring men to ut quod in regenerationis meæ symbolo, baptizatus heaven then, why not now? If the apostles admitted in Patre, Filio, Spiritu Sancto, professus sum, semper all to their communion that believed this creed, why obtineam." And according to the rule and reason shall we exclude any that preserve the same enof this discourse (that it may appear that the creed tire? Why is not our faith of these articles of as hath in it all articles "primò et per se," primely much efficacy for bringing us to heaven, as it was and universally necessary) the creed is just such an in the churches apostolical, who had guides more explication of that faith which the apostles preached, infallible, that might, without error, have taught viz. the creed which St. Paul recites, as contains them superstructures enough, if they had been nein it all those things which entitle Christ to us, in cessary? And so they did; but that they did not the capacities of our Lawgiver and our Saviour, such insert them into the creed, when they might have as enable him to the great work of redemption, ac- done it with as much certainty as these articles, cording to the predictions concerning him, and such makes it clear to my understanding, that other as engage and encourage our services. For, taking things were not necessary, but these were; that out the article of Christ's descent into hell, (which whatever profit and advantages might come from was not in the old creed, as appears in some of the other articles, yet these were sufficient, and however copies I before referred to, in Tertullian, Ruffinus, certain persons might accidentally be obliged to beand Irenæus; and, indeed, was omitted in all the lieve much more, yet this was the one and only founconfessions of the eastern churches, in the church dation of faith, upon which all persons were to build of Rome, and in the Nicene creed, which, by adop- their hopes of heaven; this was, therefore, necestion, came to be the creed of the Catholic church,) sary to be taught to all, because of necessity to be all other articles are such as directly constitute the believed by all: so that, although other persons parts and work of our redemption, such as clearly might commit a delinquency "in genere morum," derive the honour to Christ, and enable him with if they did not know, or did not believe much more, the capacities of our Saviour and Lord. The rest because they were obliged to further disquisitions engage our services by proposition of such articles, in order to other ends, yet none of these who held which are rather promises than propositions; and the creed entire, could perish for want of necesthe whole creed, take it in any of the old forms, is sary faith, though possibly he might for supine but an analysis of that which St. Paul calls "the negligence or affected ignorance, or some other word of salvation, whereby we shall be saved," viz. fault which had influence upon his opinions, and that "we confess Jesus to be Lord, and that God his understanding, he having a new supervening obraised him from the dead:" by the first whereof heligation, "ex accidente," to know and believe more. became our Lawgiver and our Guardian; by the second he was our Saviour: the other things are but parts and main actions of those two. Now what reason there is in the world that can inwrap any thing else within the foundation, that is, in the whole body of articles, simply and inseparably necessary, or in the prime original necessity of faith, I cannot possibly imagine. These do the work; and therefore, nothing can, upon the true grounds of reason, enlarge the necessity to the enclosure of other articles. 9. Now if more were necessary than the articles of the creed, I demand why was it made the characteristic note of a christian from a heretic, or a Jew, or an infidel? or to what purpose was it composed? or if this was intended as sufficient, did the apostles, or those churches which they founded, know any thing else to be necessary? If they did not, then either nothing more is necessary, (I speak of matters of mere belief,) or they did not know all the will of the Lord, and so were unfit dispensers of 11. Neither are we obliged to make these articles more particular and minute than the creed. For since the apostles, and, indeed, our blessed Lord himself, promised heaven to them who believed him to be the Christ that was to come into the world, and that he who believes in him should be partaker of the resurrection and life eternal, he will be as good as his word. Yet, because this article was very general, and a complexion rather than a single proposition, the apostles and others, our fathers in Christ, did make it more explicit; and though they have said no more than what lay entire, and ready formed in the bosom of the great article, yet they made their extracts to great purpose, and absolute sufficiency; and, therefore, there needs no more deductions, or remoter consequences, from the first great article, than the creed of the apostles. although whatsoever is certainly deduced from any of these articles, made already so explicit, is as certainly true, and as much to be believed, as the article itself, because "ex veris possunt nil nisi vera sequi:" For yet because it is not certain that our deductions | calls Joes, to which, without any further probation, from them are certain, and what one calls evident is so obscure to another, that he believes it is false, it is the best and only safe course to rest in that explication the apostles have made; because, if any of these apostolical deductions were not demonstrable, evidently to follow from that great article to which salvation is promised, yet the authority of them who compiled the symbol, the plain description of the articles from the words of Scriptures, the evidence of reason, demonstrating these to be the whole foundation, are sufficient upon great grounds of reason to ascertain us: but if we go further, besides the easiness of being deceived, we relying upon our own discourses, which though they may be true, and then bind us to follow them, but yet no more than when they only seem truest,— yet they cannot make the thing certain to another, much less necessary in itself. And since God would not bind us, upon pain of sin and punishment, to make deductions ourselves, much less would he bind us to follow another man's logic as an article of our faith; I say, much less another man's, for our own integrity (for we will certainly be true to ourselves, and do our own business heartily) is as fit and proper to be employed as another man's ability: he cannot secure me that his ability is absolute and the greatest, but I can be more certain that my own purposes and fidelity to myself are such. And since it is necessary to rest some where, lest we should run to an infinity, it is best to rest there, where the apostles and the churches apostolical rested: when, not only they who are able to judge, but others who are not, are equally ascertained of the certainty and of the sufficiency of that explication. 12. This, I say, not that I believe it unlawful or unsafe for the church, or any of the "antistites religionis," or any wise man, to extend his own creed to any thing which may certainly follow from any one of the articles; but I say that no such deduction is fit to be pressed on others as an article of faith; and that every deduction which is so made, unless it be such a thing as is at first evident to all, is but sufficient to make a human faith; nor can it amount to a divine, much less can be obligatory to bind a person of a differing persuasion to subscribe, under pain of losing his faith, or being a heretic. For it is a demonstration, that nothing can be necessary to be believed, under pain of damnation, but such propositions of which it is certain that God hath spoken and taught them to us, and of which it is certain that this is their sense and purpose; for if the sense be uncertain, we can no more be obliged to believe it in a certain sense, than we are to believe it at all, if it were not certain that God delivered it. But if it be only certain that God spake it, and not certain to what sense, our faith of it is to be as indeterminate as its and it can be no other in the nature of the thing, nor is it consonant to God's justice to believe of him that he can or will require more. And this is of the nature of those propositions which Aristotle sense; all wise men will give assent at its first publication. ecclesiæ vel pape. Gabr. Biel. in 3 Sent. Dist. 25. q. Unic. how it can stand with the charity of the church so to do, especially after so long experience she hath had, that all men will not believe every such decision or explication; for, by so doing, she makes the narrow way to heaven narrower, and chalks out one path more to the devil than he had before, and yet the way was broad enough, when it was at the narrowest. For, before, differing persons might be saved in diversity of persuasions; and now, after this declaration, if they cannot, there is no other alteration made, but that some shall be damned, who before, even in the same dispositions and belief, should have been beatified persons. For, therefore, it is well for the fathers of the primitive church, that their errors were not discovered; for if they had been contested, (for that would have been called discovery enough,) "vel errores emendâssent, vel ab ecclesiâ ejecti fuissent."t But it is better as it was; they went to heaven by that good fortune, whereas otherwise they might have gone to the devil. And yet there were some errors; particularly that of St. Cyprian, that was discovered; and he went❘ to heaven, it is thought: possibly they might so too, for all this pretence. But suppose it true, yet, whether that declaration of an article, of which, with safety, we either might have doubted, or been ignorant, does more good than the damning of those many souls occasionally, but yet certainly and foreknowingly, does hurt, I leave it to all wise and good men to determine. And yet, besides this, it cannot enter into my thoughts, that it can possibly consist with God's goodness, to put it into the power of man so palpably and openly to alter the paths and inlets to heaven, and to straiten his mercies, unless he had furnished these men with an infallible judgment, and an infallible prudence, and a never-failing charity, that they should never do it but with great necessity, and with great truth, and without human ends and designs; of which I think no arguments can make us certain what the primitive church hath done in this case. I shall afterwards consider, and give an account of it; but, for the present, there is no insecurity in ending there where the apostles ended, in building where they built, in resting where they left us, unless the same infallibility which they had, had still continued, which, I think, I shall hereafter make evident it did not. And, therefore, those extensions of creed, which were made in the first ages of the church, although, for the matter, they were most true, yet because it was not certain that they should be so, and they might have been otherwise, therefore, they could not be in the same order of faith, nor in the same degrees of necessity to be believed with the articles apostolical; and, therefore, whether they did well, or no, in laying the same weight upon them, or whether they did lay the same weight or no, we will afterwards consider. 13. But to return. I consider that a foundation of faith cannot alter; unless a new building be to be made, the foundation is the same still; and this foundation is no other but that which Christ and his apostles laid, which doctrine is like himself, Bell, de Laic. 1. iii. c. 20. sect. ad Primam Confirmationem. So yesterday and to-day, and the same for ever. that the articles of necessary belief to all, (which are the only foundation,) they cannot be several in several ages, and to several persons. Nay, the sentence and declaration of the church cannot lay this foundation, or make any thing of the foundation, because the church cannot lay her own foundation; we must suppose her to be a building, and that she relies upon the foundation, which is, therefore, supposed to be laid before, because she is built upon it; or, to make it more explicit, because a cloud may arise from the allegory of building and foundation, it is plainly thus: the church being a company of men obliged to the duties of faith and obedience, the duty and obligation, being of the faculties of will and understanding, to adhere to such an object, must pre-suppose the object made ready for them; for as the object is before the act, in order of nature, and, therefore, not to be produced or increased by the faculty, which being receptive, cannot be active upon its proper object; so the object of the church's faith is, in order of nature, before the church, or before the act and habit of faith, and therefore cannot be enlarged by the church, any more than the act of the visive faculty can add visibility to the object. So that if we have found out what foundation Christ and his apostles did lay, that is, what body and system of articles simply necessary they taught and required of us to believe, we need not, we cannot go any farther for foundation, we cannot enlarge that system or collection. Now then, although all that they said is true, and nothing of it to be doubted or disbelieved, yet, as all that they said is neither written or delivered, (because all was not necessary,) so we know that of those things which are written, some things are as far off from the foundation as those things which were omitted; and, therefore, although now accidentally they must be believed by all that know them, yet it is not necessary all should know them; and that all should know them in the same sense and interpretation, is neither probable nor obligatory; but, therefore, since these things are to be distinguished by some differences of necessary and not necessary,-whether or no, is not the declaration of Christ and his apostles, affixing salvation to the belief of some great comprehensive articles, and the act of the apostles rendering them as explicit as they thought convenient, and consigning that creed, made so explicit, as a tessera of a christian, as a comprehension of the articles of his belief, as a sufficient disposition and an express of the faith of a " catechumen," in order to baptism : whether or no, I say, all this be not sufficient probation that these only are of absolute necessity, that this is sufficient for mere belief in order to heaven, and that, therefore, whosoever believes these articles heartily and explicitly, Oɛòc μével év avtu, as St. John's expression is, "God dwelleth in him,”—I leave it to be considered and judged of from the premises. Only this: if the old doctors had been made judges in these questions, they would have passed their affirmative; for to instance in one for all,-of this it was said by Tertullian," Regula Lib. de Veland. Virg. quidem fidei una omnino est sola immobilis et irre- | covetousness. The great heresy that troubled formabilis," &c. "Hâc lege fidei manente, cætera them, was the doctrine of the necessity of keeping jam disciplinæ et conversationis admittunt novita- the law of Moses, the necessity of circumcision : tem correctionis, operante scilicet, et proficiente against which doctrine they were therefore zealous, usque in finem gratiâ Dei :" "This symbol is the because it was a direct overthrow to the very end one sufficient, immovable, unalterable, and un- and excellency of Christ's coming. And this was changeable rule of faith, that admits no increment an opinion most pertinaciously and obstinately or decrement; but if the integrity and unity of this maintained by the Jews, and had made a sect be preserved, in all other things men may take a among the Galatians and this was, indeed, wholly liberty of enlarging their knowledges and prophesy-in opinion; and against it the apostles opposed two ings, according as they are assisted by the grace of God." SECTION II. Of Heresy, and the Nature of it; and that it is to be accounted according to the strict capacity of Christian Faith, and not in Opinions speculative, nor ever to pious Persons. 1. AND thus I have represented a short draught of the object of faith, and its foundation. The next consideration, in order to our main design, is to consider what was, and what ought to be, the judgment of the apostles concerning heresy: for although there are more kinds of vices than there are of virtues, yet the number of them is to be taken by accounting the transgressions of their virtues, and by the limits of faith: we may also reckon the analogy and proportions of heresy, that as we have seen who were called faithful by the apostolical men, we may also perceive who were listed by them in the catalogue of heretics, that we, in our judgments, may proceed accordingly. 2. And, first, the word heresy is used in Scripture indifferently; in a good sense, for a sect or division of opinion, and men following it; or sometimes in a bad sense, for a false opinion, signally condemned but these kind of people were then called antichrists and false prophets, more frequently than heretics, and then there were many of them in the world. But it is observable that no heresies are noted "signanter" in Scripture, but such as are great errors practical, “in materiâ pietatis," such whose doctrines taught impiety, or such who denied the coming of Christ directly or by consequence, not remote or withdrawn, but prime and immediate; and, therefore, in the code "de Sanctâ Trinitate et Fide Catholica,” heresy is called ἀσεβὴς δόξα, καὶ à¤éμтoç didaσkaλía, “a wicked opinion, and an ungodly doctrine." 3. The first false doctrine we find condemned by the apostles, was the opinion of Simon Magus, who thought the Holy Ghost was to be bought with money he thought very dishonourably to the Blessed Spirit; but yet his followers are rather noted of a vice neither resting in the understanding, nor derived from it, but wholly practical; it is simony, not heresy; though in Simon it was a false opinion, proceeding from a low account of God, and promoted by his own ends of pride and articles of the creed, which served, at several times, according as the Jews changed their opinion, and left some degrees of their error; "I believe in Jesus Christ, and I believe the holy catholic church:" for they, therefore, pressed the necessity of Moses's law, because they were unwilling to forego the glorious appellative of being God's own peculiar people; and that salvation was of the Jews, and that the rest of the world were capable of that grace no otherwise but by adoption into their religion, and becoming proselytes. But this was so ill a doctrine, as that it overthrew the great benefits of Christ's coming; for, "if they were circumcised, Christ profited them nothing:" meaning this, that Christ will not be a Saviour to them, who do not acknowledge him for their Lawgiver; and they neither confess him their Lawgiver, nor their Saviour, that look to be justified by the law of Moses, and observation of legal rites: so that this doctrine was a direct enemy to the foundation, and, therefore, the apostles were so zealous against it. Now then, that other opinion, which the apostles met at Jerusalem to resolve, was but a piece of that opinion: for the Jews and proselytes were drawn off from their lees and sediment by degrees, step by step. At first, they would not endure any should be saved but themselves and their proselytes. Being wrought off from this height by miracles, and preaching of the apostles, they admitted the gentiles to a possibility of salvation, but yet so as to hope for it by Moses's law. From which foolery when they were, with much ado, persuaded, and told that salvation was by faith in Christ, not by works of the law, yet they resolved to plough with an ox and an ass still, and join Moses with Christ; not as shadow and substance, but in an equal confederation, Christ should save the gentiles, if he was helped by Moses,-but, alone, christianity could not do it. Against this the apostles assembled at Jerusalem, and made a decision of the question, tying some of the gentiles (such only who were blended by the Jews "in communi patria") to observation of such rites, which the Jews had derived by tradition from Noah, intending, by this, to satisfy the Jews, as far as might be, with a reasonable compliance and condescension; the other gentiles who were unmixed, in the mean while remaining free, as appears in the liberty St. Paul gave the church of Corinth of eating idol sacrifices, (expressly against the decree at Jerusalem,) so it were without scandal. And yet, for all this care and curious discretion, a little of the leaven still remained: all this they thought did so concern the gentiles, that it was totally impertinent to the Jews; still they had a distinction to satisfy the letter of the apostles' decree, and yet to persist in their old opinion; and this so continued, that fifteen chris- | tian bishops in succession were circumcised, even until the destruction of Jerusalem, under Adrian, as Eusebius reports.a : 4. First, by the way, let me observe, that never any matter of question in the christian church was determined with greater solemnity, or more full authority of the church, than this question concerning circumcision; no less than the whole college of the apostles and elders at Jerusalem, and that with a decree of the highest sanction, "Visum est Spiritui Sancto et nobis." Secondly; Either the case of the Hebrews, in particular, was omitted, and no determination concerning them, whether it were necessary or lawful for them to be circumcised, or else it was involved in the decree, and intended to oblige the Jews. If it was omitted since the question was "de re necessariâ," (for "dico vobis," "I, Paul, say unto you, if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing,") it is very remarkable, how the apostles, to gain the Jews, and to comply with their violent prejudice in behalf of Moses's law, did, for a time, tolerate their dissent "etiam in re alioquin necessariâ," which I doubt not but was intended as a precedent for the church to imitate for ever after but if it was not omitted, either all the multitude of the Jews, (which St. James, then their bishop, expressed by noσaì μvpiádɛç "Thou seest how many myriads of Jews that believe, and yet are zealots for the law-and Eusebius, speaking of Justus, says, he was one "6 ex infinitâ multitudine eorum, qui ex circumcisione in Jesum credebant,") I say all these did perish, and their believing in Christ served them to no other ends, but, in the infinity of their torments, to upbraid them with hypocrisy and heresy; or if they were saved, it is apparent how merciful God was, and pitiful to human infirmities, that, in a point of so great concernment, did pity their weakness, and pardon their errors, and love their good mind; since their prejudice was little less than insuperable, and had fair probabilities, at least, and was such as might abuse a wise and good man, (and so it did many,) they did "bono animo errare." And, if I mistake not, this consideration St. Paul urged as a reason why God forgave him, who was a persecutor of the saints, because he did it "ignorantly in unbelief," that is, he was not convinced in his understanding of the truth of the way which he persecuted, he, in the mean while, remaining in that incredulity, not out of malice or ill ends, but the mistakes of humanity and a pious zeal; therefore "God had mercy on him;" and so it was in this great question of circumcision; here only was the difference, the invincibility of St. Paul's error, and the honesty of his heart, caused God so to pardon him, as to bring him to the knowledge of Christ, which God therefore did because it was necessary, "necessitate medii;" no salvation was consistent with the actual remanency of that error; but in the question of circumcision, although they, by consequence, did a Eccles. Hist. lib. iv. c. 5. b Acts xxi. 20. overthrow the end of Christ's coming; yet, because it was such a consequence, which they, being hindered by a prejudice non-impious, did not perceive, God tolerated them in their error, till time, and a continual dropping of the lessons and dictates apostolical, did wear it out, and then the doctrine put on its apparel, and became clothed with necessity; they, in the mean time, so kept to the foundation, that is, Jesus Christ crucified and risen again, that although this did make a violent concussion of it, yet they held fast with their heart what they ignorantly destroyed with their tongue,-which Saul, before his conversion, did not,-that God upon other titles, than an actual dereliction of their error, did bring them to salvation. 5. And in the descent of so many years, I find not any one anathema past, by the apostles or their successors, upon any of the bishops of Jerusalem, or the believers of the circumcision, and yet it was a point as clearly determined, and of as great necessity, as any of those questions that, at this day, vex and crucify christendom. 6. Besides this question, and that of the resurrection, commenced in the church of Corinth, and promoted with some variety of sense, by Hymenæus and Philetus, in Asia, who said that the resurrection was past already, I do not remember any other heresy named in Scripture, but such as were errors of impiety, "seductiones in materiâ practicâ;" such as was, particularly, forbidding to marry,-and the heresy of the Nicolaitans, a doctrine that taught the necessity of lust and frequent fornication. 7. But in all the animadversions against errors made by the apostles in the New Testament, no pious person was condemned, no man that did invincibly err, or "bonâ mente;" but something that was amiss "in genere morum," was that which the apostles did redargue. And it is very considerable, that even they of the circumcision, who, in so great numbers, did heartily believe in Christ, and yet most violently retain circumcision, and, without question, went to heaven in great numbers;-yet, of the number of these very men, they came deeply under censure, when, to their error, they added impiety ; so long as it stood with charity, and without human ends and secular interests, so long it was either innocent or connived at; but when they grew covetous, and for filthy lucre's sake taught the same doctrine which others did in the simplicity of their hearts, then they turned heretics, then they were termed seducers; and Titus was commanded to look to them, and to silence them; "For there are many that are intractable and vain babblers, seducers of minds, especially they of the circumcision, who seduce whole houses, teaching things that they ought not, for filthy lucre's sake." These, indeed, were not to be endured; but to be silenced by the conviction of sound doctrine, and to be rebuked sharply, and avoided. 8. For heresy is not an error of the understanding, but an error of the will. And this is clearly insinuated in the Scripture, in the style whereof faith and a good life are made one duty, and vice d 1 Tim. i. e Eccles. Hist. lib. iii. c. 32. |