selves should men arise speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them: and this may happen even in large councils. But nothing like this can be said of the college of pastors, or of councils truly œcumenical, received and approved by the catholic church: nor may any one oppose scripture and the tradition of the church, to the tradition of an oecumenical council universally received and approved: for they teach the same thing, and equally declare the evangelical faith; nor do the pastors, either when dispersed abroad or collected in a really free council, bear a discordant testimony. The same truth is contained in scripture, in tradition, in œcumenical synods. It cannot be that an œcumenical council, or the free and true testimony of the college of pastors, should be contrary to the tradition of the church; nor can any doctrine be confirmed by the tradition of the church, which is repugnant to sacred scripture, since among all traditions none is more certain than that of scripture. Therefore let the scripture retain its perspicuity and sufficiency, tradition its firmness and constancy, the pastors and œcumenical synods their authority and reverence; nor let any one set them in opposition to each other, since the same faith, the same doctrine in all things necessary to salvation, is taught in its own method and order by each; and each has its own use and authority in handing down and preserving the truth." Archbishop Tillotson says: "That the whole church, that is, all the christians in the world, should at any time fall off to idolatry, and into errors and practices directly contrary to the christian doctrine revealed in the holy scriptures, is, on all hands, I think, denied: only that any particular church

Præfat. ad Epist. Launoii, Cantab. 1689.

may fall into such errors and practices, is, I think, as universally granted." He also acknowledges that "when individuals prove perverse and disobedient, authority is judge, and may restrain and punish them. This is true; but then a question occurs, who is to decide whether they be perverse and disobedient? who is to judge whether they are heretics? I say, of course, authority." Bishop Bull, in speaking of the synod of Nice, argues as follows: "In this synod the question was concerning a chief point of the christian religion; namely, concerning the dignity of the person of Jesus Christ our Saviour; whether he was to be worshipped as true God, or to be reduced to the rank of creatures and things subject to the true God. If, in this question of the greatest moment, we pretend that all the rulers of the church fell into total error, and persuaded the christian people of that error; how shall the faithfulness of our Lord Jesus Christ appear, who promised that he would be with the apostles,' and therefore with their successors, even to the end of the world?' For since the promise extends to the end of the world, and the apostles were not to live so long, Christ is to be supposed to have addressed, in the persons of the apostles, their successors in that office "."

It would be easy to cite many additional testimonies of our theologians to the great truth, that the universal church cannot at any time fall into heresy, or contradict the truth of the Gospel". This, indeed, would be inconsistent with the "godly and wholesome doctrine” of the Homilies, which affirm that the Holy Ghost was

e

Tillotson, Sermon xlix.

f Sermon xxi.

* Bull, Defensio Fidei Nicæn. Procm. s. 2.

See the very valuable Preface of Dr. Saywell to the Epistles of Launoius, Cantabr. 1689.

always to remain with the church: "Neither must we think that this Comforter was either promised, or else given, only to the apostles, but also to the universal church of Christ, dispersed through the whole world: for unless the Holy Ghost had been always present, governing and preserving the church from the beginning, it could never have sustained so many and great brunts of affliction and persecution, with so little damage as it hath; and the words of Christ are most plain in this behalf, saying that "the Spirit of Truth should bide with them for ever," that "he would be with them always (he meaneth by grace, virtue, and power,) even to the world's endi." And hence, our catholic apostolic churches, resting on these promises with undoubting confidence, declare that while particular churches have erred, "THE CHURCH-HAS AUTHORITY IN CONTROVERSIES OF

FAITH':" that is to say, particular churches may fail in faith general councils consisting of numerous bishops may err in faith: but the UNIVERSAL CHURCH, guided for ever by the Spirit of truth, sustained even to the end of the world by the presence of her Redeemer, can never fall into heresy, or deny the truth revealed by Jesus Christ. Were it possible that the universal church could fall into heresy; that with the use of all means, she might have contradicted the gospel of Christ where would be her authority? What atom of authority would remain to the church in any of her judgments?

Whatever various modes of treating the authority of the church there may have been, I believe that scarcely any christian writer can be found, who has ventured

ii.

i Sermon on Whitsunday, part

Article XX.

actually to maintain that the judgment of the universal church, freely, and deliberately given, with the apparent use of all means, might in fact be heretical and contrary to the gospel. If the principles of some writers among the adherents of the reformation appear to lead to such a conclusion, we must make allowances for mistakes in the heat of controversy, when they were hard pressed by wily antagonists. Men who argue in haste, and under the pressure of most urgent dangers, cannot always select with rigid discrimination, the arguments by which they sincerely and honestly endeavour to defend the truth; and something always remains for future generations to do, in criticizing their particular arguments, and retaining those only which are free from all defects. If we observe the general mode of reasoning practised by English theologians since the reformation, it will not be found directed against the authority of the universal church. Jewel denies the infallibility of the Roman church, and the Roman pontiff, as maintained by Hosius, Sylvester de Prierio, Pighius, and others. He contends that the Roman is not the catholic church, and denies that the council of Trent was truly general, from defects in the mode of its convocation, and in its numbers. Chillingworth addresses himself chiefly to prove, that the Roman church is not infallible; that no church of one denomination is infallible'. Leslie contends, that the promises of Christ to his church are conditional, not absolute. These and other writers argue, that the church cannot invent any new article of faith; that every thing which is held in the church is not matter of

* Juelli Apologia.

m Leslie, Case stated between

1 Chillingworth, Religion of the church of Rome, &c. Prot. chap. iii.

faith; that our faith is not founded solely and finally on the authority of the church now existing. All these propositions are true, and have been of great efficacy in controversy with Romanists: but they are not contradictory to the authority of the universal church properly understood; and several of them seem to infer, that under certain circumstances, i. e. when all lawful conditions are observed, individuals are not justified in opposing their own opinion to the decree of the universal church.

With reference to the doctrines actually supported by such judgments of the universal church as I have spoken of, it may be observed, that they are by no means numerous, extending little beyond the Nicene faith, the right doctrine of the trinity, incarnation, and grace. These doctrines are not many, but they constitute the very heart of the christian religion: and as such, have been subject to the principal attacks of infidelity and heresy in every age.

OBJECTIONS.

I. Several passages of scripture establish the right of private judgment in christians. "Search the scriptures, for in them ye have eternal life, and they are they which testify of me"." Therefore it is the duty of every christian to found his religious doctrines solely on his personal examination of scripture, independently of all other authority whatever.

Answer. (1.) Several eminent theologians maintain that the word 'pevvare should be translated "ye search." Of this opinion are Beza, Lightfoot, Erasmus, and others cited by the Synopsis Criticorum: also Dr.

"John v. 39.