I. PART sequences, which hang together like a rope of sand ;-that Protestants affirm that "such as err in fundamental articles," and such as "err sinfully in not-fundamentals, may be saved P." Neither the Church of England, against which he ought to bend his forces in this question, nor any genuine son of the Church of England, nor any other Protestant Church, ever said, that Papists might be saved though they held not the fundamentals of saving truth, or though they held lesser errors pertinaciously without repentance. If any particular Protestants were ever so mad to maintain any such thing in an ordinary way (for we speak not now of the extraordinary dispensations of God's grace, in case of invincible necessity), we disclaim them in it; let him not spare them. But I believe, that when all is done about which he makes such a stir, it will prove but moonshine in the water. Our sepa from errors. SECTION THE SIXTH. 'To what I said, that our separation is from their errors, ration only not from their Church,' he answereth, that it "shews my ignorance what their Church is, for their Church is a society partly in their pretended errors, and therefore they, who separate from them, separate from their Church "." In my life I never heard a weaker plea. But I desire no other advantage than what the cause itself affords. Doth he himself believe in earnest, that any errors are essentials of a Church? Or would he persuade us that weeds are "essentials" of a garden; or ulcers, and wens, and such superfluous excrescences, essentials of a human body? Or do weeds become no weeds, and errors no errors, because they are called "pretended" weeds or "pretended errors," or because they are affirmed to be "essentials?" This is enough to justify my distinction. So it was not "my ignorance," but their obstinacy, thus to incorporate their errors into their Creeds, and matricuMatt. xv.9. late their abuses among their sacred rites. "In vain do they worship Me" (saith God), "teaching for doctrines the commandments of men." Suppose an Arian or a Pelagian 225 should charge him to be a schismatic or an apostate, because DISCOURSE he deserted their communion; to which he should answer, that his separation was from their Arian or Pelagian errors, not from their Church as it was a Christian Church, and that he held all other common principles of Christianity with them and suppose the Arian or Pelagian should plead, as he doth, that their "Church is a society partly in their pretended errors," or that their "pretended errors" are "essentials" of their Church and of their religion: this might well aggravate their own faults, but not infringe the truth of his Errors continue errors though they be called "essentials." There was a time before Arianism did infest the Church, and there succeeded a time when it was cast out of the Church. Their old essentials, which were made essentials by Christ, we do readily receive; their new essentials, which were lately devised by themselves, we do as utterly reject; and so much the rather, because they have made them essentials. Their Church flourished long without these errors; and we hope the time will come, when it shall be purged from these errors. answer. gate to In setting forth the moderation of our English Reformers, We arroI shewed, that " we do not arrogate to ourselves either a new ourselves Church, or a new religion, or new Holy Orders." Upon this he falls heavily two ways. "First," he saith, "it is false," as he hath "shewed by innumerable testimonies of Protestants"." That which I say is not the falser because he calls it so, nor that which he saith the truer because I forbear. For what I said I produced the authority of our Church; he letteth that alone, and sticketh the falsehood upon my sleeve. It seemeth, that he is not willing to engage against the Church of England; for still he declineth it, and changeth the subject of the question from the English Church to a confused company of particular authors, of different opinions, of dubious credit, of little knowledge in our English affairs, tentered and wrested from their genuine sense. "Scis tu simulare cupressum, quid hocy?" It was not the drift or scope of my undertaking to answer old volumes of impertinencies. If he have any testi u [Just Vindic., c. vi. vol. i. p. 199.] [Canon. 1603, can. 30.] y [Horat., A. P. 19, 20.] no new Church, &c. PART I. Whether monies that are material, in the Name of God let him bring them into the lists; that the reader may see what they say, and be able to compare the evidence with the answer, and not imagine more than is true. Let him remember that I premonish him, that all his "innumerable testimonies" will advantage him nothing. Secondly, he would persuade us, that if it were so that our our religion "Church, religion, and Holy Orders, were the same with be the same or not, we are no schisma tics. 24.] what with theirs theirs, then what need had we to go out of theirs for salvation ?" then we are "convinced of schism"."} Alas, poor men! what will become of us? Hold what we will, say we can, still we are schismatics with them. If we say our Church, religion, and Holy Orders are the same with theirs, then we are schismatics for deserting them. If we say they are not the same, then we are schismatics for censuring and condemning them. But we appeal from the sentence of our [John vii. adversary to the sentence of that great Judge Who 'judgeth righteous judgment.' We are either wheat or chaff, but neither their tongues nor their pens must winnow us. If we say our Church, religion, and Holy Orders be the same with theirs, we are no schismatics, because we do not censure them uncharitably. If we say they be not the same, we are still no schismatics, because we had then, by their own confession, just reason to separate from them. But to come up closer to his argument.-Religion is a virtue, which consisteth between two extremes, heresy in the defect, and superstition in the excess. Though their Church, religion, and Holy Orders be the same with ours, and free from all heretical defects, yet they may be and are subject to superstitious excesses. Their Church hath sundry blemishes; their religion is mixed with errors; and gross abuses have crept into their Holy Orders. From these superstitious errors and abuses we were obliged to separate ourselves, wherein they had first separated themselves from their predecessors. So, if there be schism in the case, it was schism in them to make the first separation, and virtue and piety in us to make the second. I said most truly, that "our positive articles are those general truths about which there is no controversy; our negation is only of human controverted additions"." DISCOURSE Against this he excepts sundry ways,First, "because our principal positive article" is that of Justifica"Justification by special Faith," which (as he saith) "is most tion by of all in controversy." special faith no of our Aquinas makes a great difference between " opinari" and article "credere," between a scholastical opinion and a necessary Church. 226 article of Faith. Sometimes the understanding doth fluctuate indifferently between the two parts of the contradiction; and this is properly doubting. Sometimes it inclineth more to the one part than to the other, yet not without some fear or suspicion of the truth of the other part; this is properly opinion. Sometimes the understanding is determined, so as to adhere perfectly to the one part and this determination proceeds either from the intelligible object, mediately or immediately, and this makes knowledge; or from the will upon consideration of the authority and truth of the revealer, and this makes faith.' Justification by special faith was never accounted an article of the English Belief, either by the English Church, or by any genuine son of the English Church. If he trust not me, let him read over our Articles, and reading satisfy himself. I confess some particular persons in England did sometimes broach such a private opinion, but our most learned and judicious professors did dislike it altogether at that time, as I have heard from some of themselves. But shortly after it was in a manner generally rejected as Franciscus a Sanctâ Clard ingenuously confesseth,-"Et jam hic novus error vix natus apud nostrates sepultus este"—" and now this new error being scarcely born among our countrymen was buried;" and more plainly elsewhere,—" Quibus omnibus bene pensatis, sane nulla hodie reperietur differentia in confessione Anglica et sanctissimâ definitione Tridentina""" all which things being duly weighed, truly there will be found no difference at this day in the English b [Surv., c. vi. sect. 6. p. 95.] [Quæst. Disputat., De Veritate,] Quæst. 14, "De Fide," Art. 1. d [See above c. ii. sect. 7. pp. 87, 88. R. C.'s authorities (Surv. c. ii. sect. 7. p. 29, from his Auth. Protest., lib. i. c. 6. § 4.) are Whitaker, Controv. ii. Qu. 6. c. 3. p. 562 (Op. tom. i. Genev. 1610), and Ad Ration. I. Cam PART Confession, and the sacred definition of the Tridentine Council," meaning about this subject of Justification. I. Our negatives no But, saith he, “if they be not points of our Faith, what do they in our Confessions of Faiths?" I answer, they are inserted into our Confessions, not as supplements of our Creed, or new articles, but as explanations of old articles, and refutations of their supposititious principles. Contraries, being placed together by one another, do make one another more apparent. He proceedeth,-"Have not Protestants a positive faith of articles of their negative articles, as well as of their positive articlesh?" Faith. Commandments may be either affirmative or negative: and the negative commandments bind more firmly than the affirmative; because the affirmative bind always, but not to the actual exercise of obedience at all times-semper but not ad semper; but negative commandments bind both semper and ad semper, both always and to all times. But we find no negatives in the rule of Faith; for the rule of Faith consists of such supernatural truths as are necessary to be known of every Christian, not only 'necessitate præcepti'-because God hath commanded us to believe them, but also necessitate medii'—because without the knowledge of them in some tolerable degree, according to the measure of our capacities, we cannot in an ordinary way attain to salvation. How can a negative be a means? 'Non entis nulla est efficacia.' In the Apostles' Creed, from the beginning to the end, we find not the least negative particle; and if one or two negatives were added in the subsequent ages (as that, "begotten not made," in the Nicene Creed), they were added, not as new articles, but as explanations of the old, to meet with some emergent errors or difficulties; just as our negatives were. Yea, though perhaps some of our negatives were revealed truths, and consequently were as necessary to be believed when they are known as affirmatives, yet they do not therefore become such necessary truths or articles of religion, as make up the rule of Faith. I suppose yet further, that, though some of our negatives can be deduced from the positive fundamental articles of the Creed, some evidently, some probably, as the necessity of the consequence is more [Surv., c. vi. sect. 6. p. 95.] h [Ibid.] |