and the various apprehensions and prejudices of men not like ever to be fully and satisfactorily decided and which indeed are but niceties and trifling subtilties in comparison while they put a greater value upon them than the nature and matter of them will bear and whilst they Sacrifice Unity and the Peace of the Church and the grand and real concerns of Religion to Passion and Humour 3. Much less are doubtful Consequences and Philosophical Opinions to be admitted and reckoned in the number of Fundamentals At first certainly and for several Ages together there was no great subtilty required in order to be a good Christian. The Institutions of Christianity were not Laborious and perplext Nothing was required but a firm assent of the mind to a few Propositions whose matter indeed was Mysterious but what had the highest ground of Credibility to make the assent to them just and rational but when once a bold Curiosity and an unlawful and an over-affected subtilty made men depart from the simplicity of Faith and Religion instead of being the Rule of Life and Discipline became an Art of Disputing and Scripture and Antiquity no longer made the Judges of Controversies but every mans particular Reason though never so much byassed and perverted by the prepossessions of fancy and by the heat and influence of his Passions then Articles of Faith began to multiply and every nicety and far-fetch'd consequence was called by that name and Magisterially imposed and the Philosophy of Aristotle and Plato was brought in to their assistance till the substance of Christianity was even lost in the Quarrel and the very Foundations of it undermined and Faith swallowed up in wantonness of Wit and Peace shut out of the World by Faction and Schism The result was that they were the worse Christians more talkative and curious perhaps but less strict and Religious and Charitable nay less knowing than they were before they let loose the Reins to their fancy and leapt over those boundaries which God and the Church had set 4. Whatsoever was not Fundamental in the Apostles time cannot be so now If it be a true way of defining an Article of Faith that it was revealed by Christ to the Apostles and as such imposed by them upon their Proselytes without the embracing of which they could not be Christians and that it is to be found in the writings which they left behind them either expresly or by necessary consequence Then the contrary also that is whatsoever is not found in their writings either directly or by just and necessary consequence and was not proposed to the first Believers cannot be Fundamental and consequently no one is bound to believe any Doctrine but what was then revealed and afterward acknowledged by the Catholick Church and what-ever proposal is made by the Church is no farther to be believed than as it is consonant to the Scripture and the Doctrine of the Apostles this declaration not being of it self sufficient to make an Article of Faith but as it is founded upon Scripture and Apostolical Authority How had the Peace of Christendom been still preserved if these Rules had been followed and kept in after-ages That is if new Opinions whereof some are very dangerous to which the Christian Church was a stranger for several Centuries of Years and all uncertain at the best if meer fancies to which Superstition and Ignorance have given Birth and if the niceties and subtilties of the Schools and things impossible to be throughly known and matters of meer speculation that tend to the disservice of Religion and do not slow in the least from its Principles had not been adopted Articles and Points of Faith all which we justly object to the Church of Rome and made necessary conditions of Communion How might we have adorsed before the same Altars and gone together to the House of God as Friends and have been partakers of the Mysteries of the Body and blood of our Saviour if they had not determined the manner of the presence of Christ in the Sacrament and brought in a new Doctrine which contradicts the whole circle of Sciences and the sense and experience of all mankind and tyed all others to believe an unnatural sense of the words of the Institution making the differences irreconcileable by their Trent Canons and shutting out all possible hope of Peace till God shall open the eyes of the Christian Princes of that Communion to see the fallacies and cheats of the Court and the errors and corruptions of the Church of Rome to call a free and truly General Council to debate the differences which are now on foot to the great scandal of Christianity upon the Principles of Scripture Primitive Antiquity and genuine Apostolical Tradition and which considerations of Worldly Interest and Grandeur keep up this being the only way left to restore Unity to the divided Catholick Church 'T is the glory as well as happiness of the Church of England that the Rites she uses in her Religious Worship are decent and Solemn and every way serving the purposes of Religion that her Goverment is Apostolical that her established Liturgy is according to the Primitive Standard and which no wise and good man can justly be offended at unless perchance he thinks this a just reason because it is a set form that she holds nothing as necessary and essential to Faith but what was held so in the first Ages of the Church and can be proved out of the Scriptures that she rejects no Tradition that can prove it self to be Apostolical that she receives the Articles of the Catholick Faith held Anciently for such in their received sense and as they are laid down in the three Creeds and admits all who receive them into her Communion that her determinations of Opinions in her Articles are modest and far from the high-flown pretence of Infallibility and designed as an Instrument of Union that she is willing to communicate with Christians of what denomination soever where the terms of the Communion are Lawful so as it may be done without sin without prejudice to truth and the Fundamentals of Church Government confirmed by universal Practise and Canons of Councils and without violating the Rights and Priviledges of the Catholick Church as well as her own in particular Let the Romanists single out any one of her professed Tenents which she holds as essential to Faith and necessary to Salvation which is not exactly agreeable to the first Antiquity They cannot deny that she holds nothing amiss herein only they pretend that she does not hold enough That is that we reject Transubstantiation and the Sacrifice of the Mass Invocation of Saints and Angels Worshipping of Images that we do not admit the Pope to be the visible Head and Monarch of the Church and the Vicar of Christ and that it is necessary to Salvation to be Subject to him and the like All which are meer Fancies and Usurpations But if the Primitive Christians were
a Doctrine proposed to us as a Matter of Faith Is it any where to be found in the Discourses of our Blessed Saviour preserved in the History of the Gospels Did the Apostles teach it their first Converts Is it agreeable to or founded upon true Apostolick Tradition Is this Tradition un-interrupted and derived down pure from the first Ages of the Church Was it received universally by the whole number of Christians in their time Is it any where to be met with in their Writings either in express terms or by a just and clear and necessary consequence For though the Doctrine of the Christian Religion was Preach'd and received before any word of the New Testament was Penned yet to say the Apostles taught many Points of Doctrine which they did not put down in Writing and much more such Points as consequentially overthrow and destroy the plain sense and letter of the Text is a very groundless and scandalous Supposition And besides the injury done to the Scriptures which contain in them all Points necessary to be believed is confuted by the Authors of it who pretend to fetch Proofs of their fansied tenents out of them There having been that great Veneration shewn to the Inspired Writings in all Ages that Hereticks and other kind of Innovators have chosen rather to bend and warp the Scripture and pervert its true sense and meaning in favour of their tenents than not seem to have the Countenance of its Authority 2. That since the times of the Apostles and the Sealing up of the Canon of Scripture no New Doctrine can or ought to be added as Essential to the Christian Religion For all which is Essential to the Faith was delivered by the Apostles to the Church at first otherwise the Rule of Faith had been imperfect and would have had something wanting to its completion to be supplyed in after-times which is to cast a slur and a blemish upon those first Ages of Christianity which were fully Instructed in all things fit and necessary for Christians to know and believe by the Apostles themselves without the stamp of whose Authority no Doctrine could be Authentick For what ever was believed as necessary derived only from them as the Instruments which Christ made use of to convey his Doctrine to the World which they did fully and carefully and successfully by the mighty aids of his Spirit according to the trust reposed in them They establish'd the belief of the Christian Religion in the hearts of the Faithful They concealed nothing of the mind and will of God Churches were formed and modelled according to their direction and command and Episcopal Government with the inferiour and subordinate Orders settled for the better preservation of Unity and Communion The Faith of Christ was professed and acknowledged as they taught and delivered it Their Writings were among them exactly agreeing in all things with what they had Preach'd and were to be the standing Monuments of the will of Christ Registred by their Pens to direct all succeeding Generations of Christians in their belief and in their practise After their Decease no new Revelation was to be expected only a delivering down of the same Apostolical Doctrine to after-ages in which the Faith nay the Curiosity of all Christians ought to acquiesce 3. That it is not in the Power of the Church in general much less of any particular Church of what denomination soever to lay down any Doctrine as necessary to be believed in order to Salvation but what is expresly revealed or clearly deduced out of the writings of the New Testament and was acknowledged in the first Ages of Christianity For if so they must pretend to the same Authority and produce clear and convictive Evidences of such Revelations to make them credible and lay an Obligation upon the Consciences of all Christians to receive their Propositions under the grievous penalty of otherwise disobeying the voice and will of God This dotage indeed Montanus and such kind of Enthusiasts have been guilty of But their pretensions were rejected as dreams of folly arising from mis-interpretations of Scripture as if there were to be new Revelations made in after-times by way of super-addition and supplement into which errors they were led by their pride and conceitedness and an ill habit and temper of body and the Authority of the Scriptures and the Praescription of the precedent Ages were justly objected against them All that the Church can pretend to is only this not to define and make a new Article of Faith but only to declare what before was revealed and acknowledged though not so clearly understood till the iniquity of the times made it necessary for the Church in a general Council to interpose her Authority in the determination of Controversies of Faith And where this pretence is true her Authority ought to be submitted to and her Proposals embraced That is if the Doctrine proposed be the just and natural result of an Article of Faith expresly revealed in the Scripture and understood in that manner and acknowledged as such by the first Christians Contemporaries and Successors of the Apostles and constantly received from that time downward by the generality of Christians For the opposition of a few after the first and general reception of a necessary truth is not considerable who through prejudice or out of design to raise troubles in the Church or out of Ambition to be the Chiefs of a Faction or through a pretended dissatisfaction at the Mysteriousness of it or through wantonness of Wit and Humour have been so obstinate as not only to refuse to make the same acknowledgment but to maintain the contrary with violence To all which that is to Scripture Apostolick Tradition and universal consent the Fathers Assembled in the four first General Councils had regard in their determinations against the Hereticks of their time They only fixt what was Catholick Doctrine and what was believed in the Ages before they were born They founded their Declarations upon Scripture and universal Tradition And to silence all Disputes and to prevent Schism and to direct their own and after-times in the belief and understanding of the great Mysteries of Faith they reduced the Doctrine of it as it lyes scattered in several parts of Scripture into a form of plain and intelligible words and enlarged themselves in the explication of it as we shall see anon It being the very same Faith which the Apostles Preach'd and which the Scriptures hold out to us All the Anathema's are founded upon that of St. Paul Gal. 1. 8 9. Though we or an Angel from Heaven Preach any other Gospel unto you then what we have Preached unto you let him be accursed If any Man Preach any other Gospel unto you than that you have received let him be accursed And if there cannot be another Gospel there cannot be another Faith The Gospel being the Revelation of God by Christ and that Revelation full and made but once in
or form of words in their times who lived toward the end of the second Century That this form was the same in the main with what we call the Apostles Creed is next to be made out which I shall do by laying down the words and Articles of that Form I begin with Irenaeus l. 1. c. 2. Ecclesia per universum orbem usque ad fines terrae seminata ab Apostolis à Discipulis eorum accepit eam fidem quae est in unum Deum Patrem omnipotentem qui fecit Coelum terram mare omnia quae in eis sunt in unum Jesum Christum filium Dei incarnatum pro nostrâ salute in Spiritum Sanctum qui per Prophetas praedicavit dispositiones Dei adventum eam quae est ex Virgine generationem passionem resurrectionem à mortuis in carne in Coelos ascensionem dilecti Jesu Christi Domini nostri de Coelis in gloriâ Patris adventum ejus ad recapitulanda universa resuscitandam omnem carnem humani generis Here is an explicite acknowledgment of the Doctrine of the Christian Faith received all the World over by all Orthodox Christians wherein they profess to believe in one God the Father Almighty maker of Heaven and Earth the Sea and all things which are therein And in one Lord Jesus Christ the Son of God incarnate that he was born of a Virgin suffered rose from the dead ascended into Heaven and that he shall come again in the glory of the Father and that he shall raise the dead and in the Holy Ghost It is not here undertaken to be proved that it is the same in every expression of it for that is variable or in all its clauses several of which were added in after times for wise and just reasons and ends mentioned before by Rufinus But it is evident that the beginning was ever the same the Article of one God Almighty maker of the World or of all things or of Heaven and Earth For they were not confined to a Phrase and the explication was various And then immediately follows the Article concerning our Blessed Saviour Jesus Christ the Son of God our Lord this Solemn Profession being so common and universal that the Fathers who refer to it in all probability thought it unnecessary oftentimes to repeat any more than the beginning the rest being easily understood So l. 1. c. 19. Cùm teneamus nos autem regulam veritatis id est quia sit unus Deus omnipotens qui omnia condidit per verbum suum aptavit fecit ex eo quod non erat ad hoc ut sint omnia lib. 2. cap. 43. Nunquam transferentes regulam neque errantes ab artifice neque abjicientes fidem quae est in unum Deum qui fecit omnia lib. 4. cap. 45. Hi eam quae est in unum Deum qui omnia fecit fidem nostram custodiunt eam quae est in Filium Dei dilectionem adaugent qui tantas dispositiones propter nos fecit And to the same effect cap. 62. Omnia er constant in unum Deum Omnipotentem ex quo omnia fides integra in Filium Dei Christum Jesum Dominum nostrum He supposes all along that this Confession of Faith and particular form agreeable to what we find in the Creed was handed down in the way of Tradition from the Apostles Thus lib. 3. cap. 3. speaking of St. Clement he says that in his Epistle to the Corinthians he did annuntiare quam in recenti ab Apostolis receperant traditionem annuntiantem Unum Deum Omnipotentem factorem Coeli terrae But more expresly and fully in the 4th Cap. Quid autem si neque Apostoli quidem Scripturas reliquissent nobis nonne oportebat ordinem sequi traditionis quam tradiderunt iis quibus committebant Ecclesias Cur ordination assentiunt multae gentes Barbarorum quorum fortassè aliqui qui in Christum credunt sine chartâ atramento Scriptam habentes per Spiritum in cordibus suis salutem veterem traditionem diligenter custodientes in unum Deum credentes fabricatorem Coeli terrae omnium quae in iis sunt per Jesum Christum Dei filium Qui propter eminentissimam erga figmentum suum dilectionem eam quae esset ex Virgine generationem sustinuit ipse per se hominem adunans Deo passus sub Pontio Pilato resurgens in claritate receptus in gloriâ venturus salvator eorum qui salvantur judex eorum qui judicantur mittens in ignem aeternum transfiguratores veritatis contemptores Patris sui adventûs sui To this form or rule Tertullian plainly alludes in his Book against Praxeas making it as Ancient as the first Preaching of the Gospel by the Apostles cap. 2. Nos verò semper nunc magis ut instructiones per Paracletum deductorem Scil. omnis veritatis unicum quidem Deum Credimus sub hûc tamen dispensatione quam Oeconomiam credimus ut unici Dei sit filius sermo ipsius qui ex ipso processerit per quem omnia facta sunt sine quo factum est nihil Hunc missum à Patre in Virginem ex eâ natum hominem Deum filium hominis filium Dei cognominatum Jesum Christum hunc passum hunc mortuum sepultum secundum Scripturas resuscitatum à Patre in Caelos resumptum sedere ad dextram Patris venturum judicare vivos mortuos qui exinde miserit secundum promissionem suam à Patre Spiritum Sanctum Paracletum Sanctificatorem fidei eorum qui credunt in Patrem Filium Spiritum Sanctum Hanc regulam ab initio Evangelii decucurrisse etiam ante priores quosque haereticos nedum ante Praxean hesternum probabit tam ipsa Posteritas omnium haereticorum quam ipsa novellitas Praxeae hesterni But more contractedly in his Book de velandis Virginibus thus Regula quidem sidei una omnino est sola immobilis irreformabilis credendi Scil. in Unicum Deum Omnipotentem mundi conditorem Filium eius Jesum Christum natum ex Virgine Mariâ crucisixum sub Pontio Pilato tertio die resuscitatum à mortuis receptum in Caelis sedentem nunc ad dextram Patris venturum judicare vivos mortuos per carnis etiam resurrectionem Novatianus a Roman Presbyter who lived about the Year 240 thus begins his Book de Trinitate Regula exigit veritatis ut primò omnium credamus in Deum Patrem dominum omnipotentem id est verum omnium perfectissimum conditorem Cap. 9. Eadem regula veritatis docet nos credere post Patrem etiam in Filium Dei Christum Jesum dominum Deum nostrum Dei filium hujus Dei qui unus solus est conditor scilicet rerum omnium ut jam superius expressum est Cap. 29. Sed