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Full text of "An explanation of the Thirty-nine Articles : with an epistle dedicatory to the Rev. E.B. Pusey"

AN 

EXPLANATION 



OF 



THE TH1ETY-OTNE AETICLES: 



WITH 



AN EPISTLE DEDICATORY 



TO THE 

REV. E. B. PUSEY, D.D. 

BY 

A. P. FORBES, D.C.L. 

BISHOP OF BB.ECHIN. 



Second Edition, 



xfortr auto Hontion: 

JAMES PARKER AND CO. 

1871. 




T 



EPISTLE DEDICATORY 

TO THE 

EEV. E B. PUSEY, D.D. 



MY DEAREST FRIEND, 

THERE seems a moral fitness, in the permission 
- which you have so kindly accorded to me, that 
a work, undertaken at your suggestion, and assisted 
by your learning and counsel in each step of its pro 
gress to maturity, should be, with every assurance of 
the most devoted affection, dedicated to you. This 
enables me to express, in however inadequate terms, 
the veneration in which I hold you ; and to acknow 
ledge the deep debt of gratitude which I owe you, 
for the many benefits which you have bestowed upon 
me, during a friendship which has lasted for more 
than twenty years, and which has been one" of my 
greatest earthly blessings. To have been trained in 
your school of thought has been the best discipline 
for the discharge of the onerous duties of the Epis 
copate : to have been admitted to your intimacy has 
been the greatest social and spiritual privilege I could 
have desired. It is the prerogative of noble and af 
fectionate characters, that they who know them, best 
love them most; and you have the mighty gift of 

a2 



11 EPISTLE DEDICATORY. 

a tender sympathy for those devoted friends from whom 
YOU draw forth the sentiments of the most loyal and 
sincere attachment. Among those friends, there is 
none that you have distinguished with a more affec 
tionate regard than myself. I can only say that I 
am deeply grateful. Moreover, to no one else can 
a book, which seeks to place the Anglican position 
on a philosophic and ecclesiastical basis, be more ap 
propriately dedicated. You have devoted your time 
and your talents, and the varied gifts which God has 
bestowed upon you, to adorn the Church of England ; 
by bringing forward in her service your varied stores 
of patristic learning ; by the evolution of a more accu 
rate theology ; by the publication of heart-stirring and 
thoughtful sermons; by placing within the reach of 
her members adapted editions of the devout works 
of spiritual authors in other communions ; by supply 
ing to the student of Holy Scripture the beginning 
of a deep, affective, and exhaustive commentary on the 
Word of God ; by the development of the dogmatic 
element in the Church s teaching as the strongest 
bulwark against rationalism and infidelity ; by de 
fending the authenticity and inspiration of that Pro 
phet wtose work has been the battle-ground of modern 
criticism ; by giving comfort to many perplexed, weary, 
doubting, and sin-laden hearts, both in the more special 
ministrations of your holy office and in less formal in 
tercourse with those who have needed consolation ; by 
the guiding of individual souls into the higher life; 
and by the foundation of religious communities, in 
which devout persons may serve God in the double 
way of contemplation and action. By all this and 
more you have earned the gratitude of all true mem- 



EPISTLE DEDICATORY. Ill 

bers of the Church of England. Trained and disci 
plined within her sheltering care, you have acted upon 
the advice of the oracle in the thoughtful heathen story, 
and have adorned that Sparta in which the Providence 
of God has placed you. 

The Thirty-nine Articles have suffered from having 
been always treated controversially. It is natural that 
they should be so treated, considering the circumstances 
under which they were put forth. They were to secure 
uniformity ; in other words, " for the avoiding of diver 
sities of opinions, and for the establishing of consent 
touching true religion," but uniformity on the basis of 
a protest against certain errors. The consequence is, 
that their first aspect is polemical, and this has led to 
their having been treated polemically. In the expo 
sitions of their contents which have been put forth, an 
undue proportion has been given to the negative side 
of theology, and this is to be regretted. The soul 
cannot live on negations. " I do not believe," is poor 
food for intellect or heart. No doubt error must be 
protested against, and there is a proper place for the 
negative as for the positive side in theology, just as we 
see the anathematisms at the end of the first draft of 
the Nicene Creed, and just as Councils often ^accom 
panied their positive enactments with the condemna 
tion of errors, (the bare negative of such condemnation 
being all that comes rigorously to be believed as de 
fide] ; but still an undue proportion may be given to 
this, and it is right not to lose sight of the fact that 
the true way to confute falsehood is to build up and 
illustrate the opposite truth. 

My aim, therefore, in the ensuing pages, is not so 
much to dwell on the condemnations of errors, as to 



IV EPISTLE DEDICATORY. 



elucidate and evolve the positive doctrines, the excesses 
and perversions of which doctrines are the subjects of 
the censure of the Articles. Almost all the errors 
touched on in the Articles are perversions or exagge- 
ra f ions of Gospel truths, and it is to illustrate these 
Gospel truths without these exaggerations that this 
attempt is made. For example, the Romish doctrine 
of pardons, alluded to in Article XXII., was a per 
version of the belief and practice of the penitential 
discipline of the Church. It shall be my duty to 
touch upon that penitential discipline, and so of the 
rest. In short, this exposition shall be constructive, 
not destructive. 

Viewed from this point, it will be seen what a vast 
amount of Christian truth the Articles of Religion 
cover; how they may be turned from the transitory 
controversies of the sixteenth century to those immu 
table truths which have been taught in the Church, 
and by the Church, in all ages ; how they may be made 
the means of supplying that great want from which 
our divines at present suffer, the want of an accurate 
theology; for it cannot be denied that much of the 
vague, incorrect, and imperfect statement of the truth 
in the present day, is the result not of unbelief, or mis 
belief, or any conscious perversity of will in the matter 
of divine faith, but simply of want of clear-headedness 
and precision. 

Ten years ago a I made the following remarks upon 
the position of the Articles of Religion, in their rela 
tion to the convictions of members of the Anglican 
Communion : 

" The outward expression of this [reaction] was 

a Primary Charge, delivered in 1857. 



EPISTLE DEDICATORY. 



exhibited in the Thirty-nine Articles, but it is to be 
observed that their loose and unsystematic structure 
precludes the idea of their ever having been intended 
to be the sole rule of faith. They are rather state 
ments about truths, than the truths themselves. They 
assume an implicit substructure of the old catholicity, 
and therefore they do not define terms which, without 
a knowledge of the scholastic theology of the day, 
must have been unintelligible, and which actually, 
from the lack of such knowledge, have given rise to 
the most absurd mistakes, as may be seen by much 
which has been said about grace of condignity and 
congruity. The great doubts that have been enter 
tained with regard to the true meaning of the Articles, 
are in themselves sufncient to prove that they could 
never have been intended to be the sole rule of faith 
in the Church. The possibility of Arian subscription 
was much discussed at the beginning of this century 
and at the end of the last. The great German theo 
logian, Mohler, assumes that they are Calvinistic, 
though he bears testimony to the moderation of their 
expressions. Archbishop Laurence labours, in the 
Bampton Lectures of 1804, to shew that they are 
purely Lutheran. Sancta Clara asserts that, by the 
exercise of allowable casuistry, they are compatible 
with Tridentine doctrine; whereas Paley maintains 
that the legislature of the 13th Elizabeth being the 
imposer, its animus was ( to exclude abettors of Popery, 
Anabaptists, and Puritans/ and by saying that who 
ever finds himself comprehended within these descrip 
tions ought not to subscribe/ seems almost to imply by 
the limitation that any one else may do so b ." 
b Works, vol. in. p. 144, ed. 1830. 



VI EPISTLE DEDICATORY. 

"With such a diversity of opinion as this, it is 
absurd to hold that a set of propositions, drawn up 
with a certain object, to meet a peculiar state of cir 
cumstances, and swayed by very different influences, 
(for we find the Queen, two parties of the clergy, and 
the Parliament, severally leaving their impress upon 
these documents,) is the only rule of faith in the 
Church. Unless we are prepared to allow that the 
legislature of the day is the ultimate reference in 
matters of faith, we must assign to the Articles but 
a subordinate place in their claim upon our submission. 
They cannot be looked upon as a Creed : they are 
Articles of Religion, that is, of obligation, binding 
under certain circumstances of holding office in the 
Church ; not Articles of Faith in any strict sense, that 
is, of submission to God and His Church c ." 

On serious re-consideration I have no wish to modify 
or to alter the substance of what I then said on this 
subject ; but since these words were written, it is to be 
observed, that an influential school in the Church of 
England has made an attempt, and to a degree suc 
ceeded, in modifying in some instances the stringency 
of subscription. With some this is, almost confessedly, 
an attempt to introduce the thin end of the wedge to 
abolish subscription altogether. I confess that, in the 
present circumstances of our Church, I am not pre 
pared to advocate so sweeping a measure, though I am 
fully alive to the fact that the Articles are not only 
trying to the consciences of many individuals, who feel 
a natural difficulty in acquiescing in so many propo 
sitions imposed by a human authority, but that they 
have also a lowering effect upon men s apprehension 
c Charge, pp. 3, 4, ed. 2. 



EPISTLE DEDICATORY. Vll 

of divine truth, from the way in which some of them 
are worded. I can sign them myself " in the literal 
2nd grammatical sense," that is, taking sentence by 
sentence as a lawyer would do, and where " the plain 
and full meaning" alluded to in the Declaration is 
doubtful, I supplement any deficiency by the inter 
pretation of the other subscriptions which I have made, 
and the documents I am bound to : so that, not having 
the necessity to call in to my aid more than the most 
moderate help of such laws of explanation as all men 
practically need in the interpretation of every oath, 
obligation, pledge, or subscription, I feel that I am 
in the position of being able to come to a pretty im 
partial opinion on the subject of relaxation, and that 
opinion is, that in the present circumstances of the 
English Church, subscription to the Articles should 
be maintained ; for some test, having a quasi dogmatic 
character, seems necessary to our position ; and the 
difficulties of any substitution seem, at this moment, 
insuperable. 

I admit the hardship of demanding men s assent 
to a document which, being uninspired, can claim no 
heaven-directed guarantee for its truth. I acknow 
ledge the halting in the argument which would im 
pose, as a condition of ministering in the everlasting 
Church of Christ, subscription to a formula which has 
received modifications and alterations. I mislike the 
tone of some individual Articles, and the inaccurate 
wording and ambiguity of others ; but I should have 
more sympathy with those who are now clamouring 
for a change, if I did not think that in attacking the 
Articles, they were attacking the general dogmatic 
character of Christian confessions. 



Vlll EPISTLE DEDICATORY. 

But while I bear all this in mind, I think that in 
remembering their history, we get a practical solution 
of some of our difficulties ; and for the illogical Eng 
lish mind, this is enough. Confessedly a compromise in 
the forms of their expressions, the Articles do not affect 
to declare absolute truth. There is no one Christian 
confession that they absolutely make for. They cannot 
satisfy the pure Calvinist, (however often they are igno- 
rantly claimed for them, even by so great a writer as 
Mohler,) for not one of the five points of Calvinism 
is expressly stated in them, and some, such as Perse 
verance and the Indefectibility of Grace (Art. XVI.), 
are actually contradicted. They cannot be said to sym 
bolize with the Confession of Augsburg, inasmuch as 
they give no countenance to the crucial doctrine of 
Luther, justification by mere imputation, or by that 
faith which believes itself justified. The High Church 
party have never concealed their depreciation of them 
in comparison with the lex supplicandi lex credendi of the 
Book of Common Prayer, while they are silent on, if not 
contradictory to, many of the Shibboleths of modern 
Evangelicalism. The name or idea of sensible con 
version does not occur from beginning to end, neither 
is there mention of the renouncing of our own merits 
as the formal cause of our justification, or of assurance, 
as the end to be sought for in the spiritual life. The 
Articles give no countenance to the idea, that if a man 
dies happy, (as the saying is,) he is safe. 

It is very difficult now to throw oneself into the 
mind of the framers of the Articles at their last re 
vision. We know that there were many contrariant 
opinions to conciliate. The political and religious 
state of England, in 1562 and 1571, was made up of 



EPISTLE DEDICATORY. IX 

many factors, and all these told profoundly on the 
composition of the Articles. 

The problem was to construct a Confession for the 
National Church of England. England had cast off 
the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Rome, and had thrown 
herself on the right that every individual and nation 
has, of reforming his ways, if he have erred, as France 
had, in a less degree, actually done one hundred years 
before, when, at the Council of Bourges, the Pragmatic 
Sanction gathered up the results of those of Constance 
and Basle. What was to be the common basis of belief 
on which the National Church was henceforth to stand ? 
The factors, as I said, were many and various. There 
was the old pre-Reforrnation dislike of foreign, and 
especially of Italian interference there was the stench 
of the fires of Smithfield still fresh in the nostrils of 
the people there was the fear of the predominant in 
fluence of Spain there was the germ of the democratic 
spirit which afterwards expressed itself in English 
Puritanism there was the marked religious influence 
of the Marian Exiles, and of their friends the foreign 
Reformers. Luther and Melanchthon told strongly in 
one direction; Calvin had his representatives in both ; 
the Universities; and the nation had already been 
committed to a certain tone of thought in the earlier 
Articles, some Acts of Parliament, and the two Prayer- 
books of Edward VI. On the other hand, one half 
of England was still, practically speaking, in a state 
of traditionary Catholicism : a school of theologians, 
represented by Cheyney, Bishop of Gloucester d , to 
whom \ve may add, Alley, of Exeter, and Gheast, of 
Rochester, with others, such as Baron and Barrett at 
d Vide Collier s Hist., vi. 488. 



EPISTLE DEDICATORY. 



Cambridge, had sustained itself in a more or less con 
stant appeal to Antiquity and Church authority from 
the time of Ridley, the germ in fact of the afterwards 
distinguished school of Andrewes and the Caroline di 
vines : the Court, as represented by Cecil and Bacon, 
really inclined to the via media ; and Elizabeth s own 
proclivities, never indulged indeed at the expense of 
her interest, were probably in the direction of the old 
religion 6 . 

But the foundation of the school may be traced 
further back than Cheyney. It is the outcome of that 
school of thought which all through the Middle Ages 
existed, representing the national as against the papal 
tone of thought among the clergy. We gather from 
Pecock s work f a fact which is exceedingly important 
to be borne in mind, that " what may be called the dis 
contented portion of the Church of the fifteenth cen 
tury in England embraced persons of very various 
views. The more moderate portion of that party may 
fairly be considered the precursors of the reformed 
Church in the age of Elizabeth, while the more ex 
treme party (to whom the name of Lollards is perhaps 
now more usually limited) was developed into the 
Puritanical party of the same period. But in the fif 
teenth century everything was in a transition state. 
Distinct communions had not yet been formed, and the 
various parties within the bosom of the Church were 

e Vide Hallam s Const. Hist., vol. i. p. 234; Strype s Parker, p. 227; 
also Froude, vol. viii. p. 139. In Mary s time she actually conformed. 
(Macbyn s Diary, Sept. 3, 1553.) "The Queen s Grace and the Lady 
Elizabeth and all the court did fast from flesh, and took the Pope s 
jubilee and pardon granted to all men." 

f Introduction to Pecock s Represser, by Churchill Babington, M.A., 
p. xxv. 



EPISTLE DEDICATORY. XI 

connected with each other by various approximations, 
overlappings, and interchanges of sentiment." The his 
tory of the passing of the Act of Supremacy shews that 
there were no Protestant elements at work in that act. 
Under the influence of the strong will of Henry VIII., 
it was the act of men who most of them ended their 
lives in communion with the see of Home. These men, 
represented chiefly by Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester, 
were driven into the fiercest reaction by the acts of 
Edward VI. What the political foresight of More, and 
the spiritual instinct of Fisher had revealed to them, 
they found out too late, that to separate from the rest 
of the Latin Church, even on justifiable grounds, in 
volved consequences of the most momentous character. 
Though they might have continued in the Church of 
England as left by Henry VIII., there was no room for 
them in that of his successor; and accordingly we see 
the course they adopted during the brief restoration of 
the old religion in Queen Mary s time. The blinded 
cruelties of that unhappy reign are written in letters 
of fire and blood in the annals of England. Among 
other miseries, it prevented any reconciliation of parties 
among those actually implicated in them, when Queen 
Elizabeth succeeded. 

But still, in the case of the rank and file of the 
Church, the old spirit remained g . Suppressed and 
crushed, it formed the vivifying influence when the 
Catholic opinions began to re-assert themselves. The 
Lower House of Convocation, we know, at the begin 
ning of her reign, spoke out in the ancient voice h ; and 
though much was done to destroy that spirit, yet there 

e Strype s Annals, vol. i. p. 166. h Hullam s Const. Hist., 

vol. i. p. 250, note. 



Xll EPISTLE DEDICATORY. 

is no doubt that it continued to exist, gradually, during 
Elizabeth s reign, overcome by the growing Puritanism, 
but destined to rise from its ashes in the time of her 
successor, when, after giving birth to the belief of such 
men as Andrewes, Montague, and Donne, it developed 
into the great school of the Caroline divines. 

Meanwhile the Council of Trent had just concluded 
its sittings, and the last sessions, having been strongly 
affected by the influence of Laynez and the Jesuits, 
had ceased to exhibit that wise moderation and dread 
of giving unnecessary scandal which had distinguished 
those canons which had been drawn up at the earlier 
period of its history, before Charles V. was dead, and 
all hope of curing the schism had died away. There 
was, therefore, no great inclination on the part of the 
English to modify any strong expressions that might 
have been used on the points controverted between the 
Churches, though we do find some instances of a milder 
phraseology ; nay, as the breach seemed now incurable, 
the same process that affected the Fathers at Trent 
would naturally affect the English in an opposite di 
rection, and while the Romanist occupied his time and 
thought in securing (as he believed) the Church doc 
trine against the insidious and plausible sophistries of 
the lleformers, the Church of England was naturally 

(tempted to retain strong language with regard to those 
popular superstitions and corruptions of the old faith, 
the abuses and scandals, in short, which formed her 
only justification for infringing existing theories of 
the unity of the Body of Christ. On this point all 
who were concerned in making the Articles would be 
agreed, for the English Roman Catholic prelates ne 
cessarily took no part in their construction ; and though 



EPISTLE DEDICATORY. Xlll 

Elizabeth never intended to shut the door so as to pre 
vent a possible reconciliation with the see of Rome k , 
yet just at this time the irritation was increasing, and 
the temporary friendship of Philip II. turning into the 
deadliest hate. 

The times were not favourable for symbolizing the 
results of religious thought. The reign of Elizabeth, 
of all the periods of English history, has suffered most 
from historical investigation. For a long time the 
assumed advocacy of certain popular and successful 
ideas invested Elizabeth with a factitious glory, and 
the contrast of her reign with that of her successor s 
added to her fame. But truth in the long run vindi 
cates herself. "Non semper pendebit inter latrones 
crucifixa veritas." The revelations of the State Paper 
Office, and still more the confidential papers of the 
Spanish ambassador laid up at Simancas, have made 
a sad alteration in the estimate of that epoch. They 
exhibit a condition of things very sad : hand to mouth 
legislation, political pyrrhonism, unbounded profligacy 
characterize the upper classes of England. The Queen, 
loving Dudley much, but power more, is found to be 
jealous and self-willed as her father, avaricious and 
selfish as Henry YII. The nobility, uncertain as to 
the future succession, from the Queen s reluctance to 
marry, are involved in constant intrigue, and desirous 
of opening the way for reunion with Rome l , while the 
Church settlement is too recent to inspire any well- 
founded confidence. With some noble exceptions 
Matthew Parker was of blameless life and great learn 
ing, and in later days m Carleton, though a Puritan, 

k Vide Fronde s History, vol. ix. p. 325. Ibid., vol. ix. p. 414. 

m Hallam s Const. Hist., vol. i. pp. 154, 163. 



XIV EPISTLE DEDICATORY. 

was an excellent man the Elizabethan bishops were 
far from being perfect types of the episcopal character 11 . 
The Universities were in a condition of decay ; " The 
estate of Cambridge was miserable ." Of the inferior 
clergy Fuller says, " Alas ! tolerability was eminency 
in that age p ." The remains of Church property, left by 
the sacrilege of Edward the Sixth s time, were jobbed 
in a disgraceful way q . A persecuting spirit prevailed, 
although the severities greatly increased as Elizabeth 
grew older 1 . The parish churches were shamefully 
neglected ; even the cathedral closes lay in squalor and 
decay 8 . The morals of the nation may be tested by 
the fact borne witness to by "William Clowes, one 
of her Majestie s chirurgeons," who, speaiung of the 
scourge whereby God chastises the grosser forms of 
carnal sin, in the year 1596, when "Gospel-light had 
beamed" upon an entire generation, says, " If I be not 
deceived in mine opinion, I suppose the disease itself 
was never more rife in Naples, Italic, France, or Spain, 
than it is in this day in the realm of England \" 
There is almost a relief in the thought of the rise 
of a certain earnest Puritanism, which, though con 
taining within itself the seeds of heresy and political 
danger, at least redeemed England from religious stag- 

n Hallam s Const. Hist., vol. i. p. 274. 

Parker s Letter to Bacon, Burnet, vol. v. p. 541. 
P Church Hist., bk. ix. 35. 

1 Fuller, vol. ii. p. 498 ; Cal., vol. Ixxi. 58, p. 388. 
r Hallam s Const. Hist., vol. i. p. 204. 

s Calendar of State Papers, 15871589, vol. Ixxiii. 68 ; Sept. 12, 
1570, vol. Ixxi. 58, p. 385; March 12, 1562, p. 196, vol. xvii. 32, 
p. 177. 

1 " A Brieffe and Necessary Treatise on Lues Venerea," cit. Sir James 
Simpson on Syphilis, p. 18. 



EPISTLE DEDICATORY. XV 



nation 11 . Dull and narrow was the thought, still it 
was religious thought, and its earnestness in due 
time touched the heart of England. 

I say advisedly in due time, for during the most of 
Elizabeth s reign its influence was confined to London 
and the wealthy country towns. The great mass of 
England was implicitly Catholic x , even in the case 
of those who had submitted to the new-made changes. 
Most of the peers of old creation were either avowed 
Roman Catholics or had sympathies in that direction > . 
The country squires, the tenants of land, and the 
labourers, were less influenced by the change in Lon 
don than we can imagine z . It was seriously proposed 
to modify the Liturgy in a Catholic direction to make 
it palatable to Anjou a . The great mass of the clergy 
did not pretend to approve the changes, but hoped for 
better times, when the Liturgy might receive the sanc 
tion of the Pope b . Putting out of the question the 
feeling of the people, as illustrated by the different re 
bellions, the great mass went on very much as they 
had done before. " Oxford for many years abounded 

u Froude, vol. vii. p. 466. 

1 Calendar of State Papers, 15471589, vol. Ixxiii. 36, p. 390. 

y Froude, vol. x. p. 110. z Ibid., vol. ix. p. 506. 

a Ibid., vol. ix. p. 157. Knox, in a letter to Anna Lock (A.D. 1559, 
Apr. 6, Calendar of State Papers, Foreign, 1558, 1559), alludes to the 
dregs of papistry in the book. He will not counsel any one to use one 
jot: "One iota, I say, of these diabolical inventions, viz. crossing in 
baptism, kneeling at the Lord s Table, mummulling and singing of the 
Litany, a fulgure et tempestate a subitanea et improvisa morte. The 
whole order of the book appeareth rather to be devised for the up 
holding of massing priests than for any good instruction which tho 
simple people can thereof receive." 

b Ibid., vol. x. p. 110. 



XVI EPISTLE DEDICATORY. 

with adherents of the old religion c ." " Our Univer 
sities are in such an afflicted and ruined condition, 
that at Oxford there are scarce two persons who think 
as we do, and even they are so depressed and broken 
down that they have no weight, so effectually the 
friar Soto and another Spaniard plucked up from the 
roots all that Martyr had planted so prosperously, and 
the vineyard of the Lord is reduced to a wilderness d ." 
"The struggle between the old and new theology was 
long, and the event sometimes seemed doubtful. There 
were two extreme parties prepared to act with cruelty, 
or to suffer with resolution. Between them lay, during 
a considerable time, a middle party, which blended very 
illogically, but by no means unnaturally, lessons learned 
in the nursery with the sermons of the modern evan 
gelists, and while clinging with fondness to old ob 
servances, yet detested abuses with which these obser 
vances were closely connected e ." They had never liked 
the foreign influences, therefore they did not miss the 
prayers for the Pope and " hys trewe cardinallys :" 
they had seen their churches emptied of images, and 
a number of symbolical rites, which to them had ceased 
to be symbols, given up ; they had gained somewhat in 
having the services and homilies, such as they were, 
in the vernacular, and therefore in a language which 
they could understand ; the clergy were living in half- 
respected marriage rather than in tolerated concubinage, 
though the legality of such marriages was still doubt 
ful, Parker having to obtain letters of legitimation for 



c Hallam s Const. Hist,, vol. i. p. 250. 

d Jewel to Bullinger, May 22, 1589; Cal. State Papers, p. 269. 

* Macaulay, Hist., vol. i. p. 49., 



EPISTLE DEDICATORY. XV11 

his own offspring f . The poor looked back with fond 
regrets to the days when the ever-ready dole was given 
at each convent door, and they retained most of the 
practices of devotion to which they were used in child 
hood. They still made reverence to the altar, though 
the blessed Sacrament was no longer habitually there ; 
they still invoked the four Evangelists in a form that 
has come down to the nineteenth century among the 
poor. 

Even in the classes of the more intelligent except 
of course where the Puritan element was generated 
the same traditional religion long maintained itself. 
This is very evident from Shakspeare s plays. The 
religion of that great man has long been the subject of 
discussion. Some have maintained that he was a Roman 
Catholic ; a great scholar has written a book to prove 
that he was an Anglican of the modern type; while 
an eminent review would have it that his great mind 
soared above all distinctive forms of religious belief. 
I believe that none of these views are entirely true. 
I believe that Shakspeare making some allowance, of 
course, for the costume of the characters he portrayed 
exhibited what was the current religion among the mass 
of the people in Elizabeth s time, a faith in which the 
great features of the old religion remained, modified 
and stripped of excesses and superstitions, but still in 
tone and temper Catholic in the main. 

If, however, it be said that the evidence from Shak 
speare is inconclusive, we have a much more distinct 
proof of our position in the diary of Henry Machyn, 
Citizen and Merchant Taylor in London, which he kept 
between the years A.D. 1550 and A.D. 1563. This in- 

1 Hallam s Const. Hi4., vol. i. p. 236. 
b 



XV111 EPISTLE DEDICATORY. 

dividual conducted the funerals of many of the great 
personages of that epoch, and the journal begins with 
a mere chronicle of these. Gradually, however, he 
takes to recording the public events as they occur, and 
although we find no profound or farsighted speculations 
on those stormy times, yet we have an accurate account 
of the extraordinary occurrences, the deprivations, con 
secrations, imprisonments, trials, and executions which 
distinguished them. " On religious matters his infor 
mation is valuable, so far as it represents the sentiments 
and behaviour of the common people at this vacillating 
period of our ecclesiastical history. It is evident from 
numerous passages that his own sympathies were in 
clined to the old form of worship. ... It is instructive, 
however, to observe, that in common with the popu 
lation at large, he afterwards took great interest in the 
public sermons which were so zealously multiplied by 
the new preachers g ." 

Preface, pp. ix., x. 

Machyn s diary records the complete public restoration of the rites 
of the Homan Catholic religion during Queen Mary s time. Every pro 
cession, festival, funeral, and even sermon is carefully recorded. Nothing 
could be more complete than the re- establishment of the old religion in 
all its pomp. At last comes the notice of the Queen s death : " The 
xvii of November, betwyn v and vi in the morning, ded quen Mare, the 
vj yere of here grace s rayne, the wych Jhesu have mercy on her solle ! 
Amen." Then he goes on to detail the events in Queen Elizabeth s 
reign, and here we get evidence how few and how gradual were the 
changes. On the 22nd of November, 1558, there is "morow-masse" at 
the funeral of Robert Jonsun : so at that of Lady Chamley, on the 7th 
of December, "andshehadiiij banersof santtts (saints)." Cardinal Pole s 
body is carried in procession to Canterbury " with iiij baners of saints 
in oil." On the 28th of December, at Bishop Christopherson s funeral, 
"v bisshopes dvd offer (at) the masse, and iij songe masse that day." 
On the 23rd was "durge and morow-masse " to Charles V. On the xv 
January there is mass at Q. Elizabeth s coronation. The Lent of 1558-9 
is strictly kept. On the vii of April, 1559, he records the fiist use of 



EPISTLE DEDICATORY. XIX 

Very distinct evidences as to the state of religious 
feeling in England during the reign of Elizabeth may 

the English Burial service; yet on the xii of April, at the funeral of Sir 
Richard Monsfeld, there are "24 prests clarks, prayers all latin and 
durge." At the burial of Lady Barnes " there was a xx clarkes singing 
afor her to the Church, with blake and arms : and after Master Home 
mad a sermon, and after the Clarks song Te Deum Laudamus in Eng 
lish, and after bered with a songe, and a-for songe the Englys precessyon." 
On the xi June, 1559, "the postulle masse mad an end that day, and 
mass a Powlles was non that day, and the new Dene took possession. 
. . . and the same night they had no evensong at Powlles." It records 
the deprivations and substitutions of the bishops, and the departure 
of the religious in June and July, 1559. Machyn styles the bishops of 
the new succession exactly as their predecessors are styled. " The xiii day 
of August dyd pryche at Powlles Grose the bysshop of Harford Skore." 
On the xxiv of August, 1559, two "gret bonfires of roods and Mares, 
and John and oder images, these they were burnyd with great wonder." 
On the vii September " Dirge is sung for the French King." On the 
iv of November " was a prest mared with a prest s widow ;" and " one 
West, a new doctr, raylyd of the rod-loft." He records the election and 
consecration of the new bishops. On the 25th January, " were mayd 
at Powlles by the new Bp. of London Ix prestes, ministers, and decons, 
and more." On the 30th January, " dyd prech Master Juell, the new 
Bp. of Salesby, and there he said playnley that there was no pergatore." 
In March the bishops are mentioned as preaching "in Rochett and Chy- 
mere ;" and Dr. Byll, preacher in the Queen s chapel, where " the Cross 
and two candylls horning, and the tabulle were standing auterwyse." On 
Palm Sunday, 1562, Parker preached " a nobull sermon." In the Rogation 
week, 1560, " they whent a processyon in dyvers places." On the other 
hand, Jan. 17, 1560, Master Flammocke was "carred to church without 
synging or clarks, arid at the church a Psalm -song after Genevay, and 
a sermon and bered contennente." In the beginning of Lent, Master 
Adams, "dwellyng in Lyttel Est chepe, is fined for killing iii oxen." 
On the xvi April all the altars in Henry VII. chapel are taken down, 
and the stones carried " where Queen Mare was bered." On the 23rd 
of April, St. George s Day, " the quen s court chaplains in copes, to the 
number of xxx, sang the Litany in procession." On the 18th of May, 
they do so again, in grey amices. Machyn notes that the destruction 
of St. Paul s takes place on the eve of Corpus Christi. He mentions 
Elizabeth s banishment of the prebendaries wives from out the colleges 



XX EPISTLE DEDICATORY. 

be gathered from the letters which passed between the 
returned Marian exiles and their Protestant friends on 
the Continent, letters which, it is but justice to say, 
exhibit both parties in a favourable light. 

The exiles in Queen Mary s time were, of course, the 
most eminent of those who had promoted the extreme 
measures of reform in King Edward s time. In their 
misfortune they had been most hospitably received by 
reformers in Frankfort, Strasburg, and Zurich, with 
whom they symbolized on every point of doctrine. 

The Queen died and was succeeded by her sister, 
whereupon not only were they free to return to Eng 
land, but, in consequence of the numbers of deaths of 
the bishops, and of the deprivation of others, they were 
at once called to power and place. Sees and deaneries 
were bestowed at once on the friends of Bullinger, Simler, 
and Rodolph Gualter. But though promoted to the high 
est dignities, they soon found the utmost difficulty in 
squaring their previous convictions with what the Queen 
expected of them. They had to encounter all the elements 
which we have before indicated as going to make up 
the English mind of the period. Elizabeth was by no 
means prepared to give in to Calvinism, pure and 
simple. Parker had the difficult task of mediating be 
tween the court and the divines. The mass of the people 
had no sympathy for the bald ceremonial of the nascent 
Puritanism. Thus the Marian exiles now promoted 
found themselves in a most trying position. On the one 
hand, they were urged on both by their foreign friends 

and the restoration of daily service at St. Paul s, " was begon the serves 
at Powlles to synge, and there was a great communion there begun." 
On Nov. 1, there is a torchlight service there. At the burial of John 
Bruu s wife, " 20 clarks carry their sorplices on their arms/ 



EPISTLE DEDICATORY. XXI 

and by the more honest of their own party at home to 
make the reformation more complete, and more in ac 
cordance with the Hitachan model; on the other hand, 
they were expected by the Queen to carry out her via 
media, even to the enforcement of the hated vestments. 
The position was a difficult one, and it is probably to 
this that we must impute the absence of anything like 
high tone among them. As time passed matters grew 
worse, and ended, as all know, in the generation of 
nonconformity. We, who read these things by the 
light of subsequent events, see in them the struggle of 
the Catholic element, never entirely crushed even in 
those worst times, and destined to burst forth in greater 
vigour in the succeeding reigns. Elizabeth, perhaps, 
believed that in enforcing the surplice and square cap 
she was supporting her own authority against lawless 
ness : we see in the maintenance of the habits the asser 
tion of the sacerdotal continuity of the Church before 
and after the Reformation, and the denial of identity 
with the ministry of the purely Protestant bodies to 
which some wished to assimilate the discipline of the 
Church of England. 

So early as December 17, 1558, exactly a year before 
Parker s consecration, Sampson, writing from Stras- 
burg, complains of the "unseemliness of the super 
stitious dresses of the Bishops V During 1559 it is 
repeatedly stated that religion is placed again on the 
same footing as it stood in King Edward s time *. On 
November 2 Jewel writes to Seculer, that his hopes 
that the Bishops are to be consecrated without chrism, 
oil, or tonsure, are to be fulfilled 17 . Before consecra 
tion, Parker was styled Archbishop of Canterbury, but 

h Zurich Letters, 1. l Ibid., p. 53. k Ibid., p. 50. 



XX11 EPISTLE DEDICATORY. 

we only hear about the empty title of Bishops l . On 
the 16th of November Jewel, writing to Martyr, says : 
" The Bishops are as yet only marked out, and their 
estates are the meanwhile gloriously swelling the ex 
chequer. Both our Universities, and that especially 
which you heretofore cultivated with so much learning 
and success, are now lying in a disgraceful state of dis 
order, without piety, without religion, without a teacher, 
without any hope of revival." Sampson, writing to 
Martyr in January, 1560, after mentioning the fact 
of the consecration of Parker and the approaching 
consecrations of Jewel and others, says : " Oh my 
father, what can I hope for when the minister of the 
Word is banished from Court, while the crucifix is 
allowed with lights burning before it? The altars, 
indeed, are removed and images all throughout the 
kingdom ; the crucifix and candles are retained at Court 
alone. And the wretched multitude are not only re 
joicing at this, but will imitate it of their own accord. 
What can I hope when three of our newly-appointed 
Bishops are to officiate at the Table of the Lord, one 
as Priest, another as Deacon, and a third as Sub-deacon, 
before the image of the Crucifix, or at least not far 
from it, with candles, and habited with the golden 
vestments of the Papacy m ." 

Lever, writing to Bullinger July 10, 1560, says : 
" The true and sincere doctrine is freely preached in 
England. . . . No discipline is yet established by any 
public authority. . . . There are prescribed to the clergy 
some ornaments, such as the Mass Priests formerly had 
and still retain. A great number of the clergy, who 
had hitherto laid them aside, are now resuming similar 
1 Zurich Letters, p. 53. m Ibid., p. 63. 



EPISTLE DEDICATORY. XXill 

habits. Prebendaries in the cathedrals, and the Parish 
Priests in the other churches, retaining the outward 
habits and inward feelings, of Popery , so fascinate the 
ears and eyes of the multitude, that they are unable 
to believe but that either the Popish doctrine is still 
retained, or, at least, that it will be shortly restored n ." 
Parkhurst of Norwich, writing on April 28, 1562, an 
ticipates good from the announced Convocation, but 
the Zurich Letters give no account of that important 
assembly . 

Jewel, under date February 8, 1566, says : " The 
matter of the surplice still somewhat disturbs weak 
minds, and I wish that all, even the slightest vestiges 
of Popery, might be removed from our churches, and 
above all from our minds. But the Queen at this time 
is unable to endure the least alteration in matters of 
religion p ." 

On the 27th of August, 1566, Grindal writes to 
Bullinger an interesting letter, shewing how by the 
authority of the latter the more moderate of their 
friends were beginning to hear reason on the subject 
of the habits, although Humphrey, Sampson, and others 
still continue in their former opinion. He thus de 
scribes the episcopal position: "We who are no\v 
Bishops on our first return, and before we entered 
on our ministry, contended long and earnestly for 
the removal of those things which have occasioned 
the present dispute; but as we were unable to pre 
vail either with the Queen or the Parliament, we 
judged it best, after consultation on the subject, not 
to desert our churches for the sake of a few ceremonies, 
and these not unlawful in themselves, especially since 

n Zurich Letters, p. 85. Ibid., p. 108. P Ibid., p. 149. 



XXIV EPISTLE DEDICATORY. 

the pure doctrine of the Gospel remained in all its in 
tegrity and freedom, in which even to this day, not 
withstanding the attempts of many to the contrary, we 
most fully agree with your Churches, and with the 
Confession you have lately set forth. And we do 
not regret our resolution, for in the meantime the 
Lord giveth the increase, our churches are enlarged 
and established, while under other circumstances they 
would have become the prey to the Ecebolian Lutherans 
and Semi-Papists <*." 

In February, 1567, Grindal and Horn again defend 
their line of action : " If we were to acquiesce in the 
inconsiderate advice of our brethren, verily we should 
have a papistical, or at least a Lutheran-papistical, 
ministry, or none at all r ." 

Percival Wiburn, in a letter to Bullinger, says, 
"The ancient superstitions and rites of Popery are 
too agreeable to many parties, and there are also found 
among ourselves patrons of these things, who distort 
the writings of learned men, and your own especially, 
into that direction s ." Grindal, appointed to York in 
August, 1570, gives an account of some of these : 
" They keep holidays and feasts abrogated ; they offer 
money, eggs, &c., at the burial of their dead ; they 
pray beads, &c., so as this seems to be another church, 
rather than a member of the rest. Other Popish cus 
toms, then prevalent in the north, were the frequenta- 
tion and veneration of crosses, months, minds, obits, 
and anniversaries, the chief intent whereof was pray 
ing for the dead ; the superstitions used in going the 
bounds of the parishes; morris dancers and minstrels 
coming into the church in service time, to the dis- 
i Zurich Letters, p. 169. * Ibid., p. 177. Ibid., p. 189. 



EPISTLE DEDICATORY. XXV 

turbance of God s worship ; putting the consecrated 
bread into the receiver s mouth, as amongst the Papists 
the Priest did the wafer ; crossing and breathing upon 
the elements in the celebration of the Lord s Supper, 
and elevation ; oil, tapers, and spittle in the other 
Sacrament of Baptism ; pauses and intermissions in 
reading the services of the Church ; praying Ave 
Marias and Paternosters upon beads ; setting up can 
dles in the churches to the Virgin Mary on Candle 
mas Day, and the like V 

1 Strype s Grindal, 243251. 

IV. The State of the Church of England as described by Perceval 
Wiburn *. 

1. The English clergy consist, partly of the Popish priests, who still 
retain their former office, and partly of ministers lately ordered and ad 
mitted by some bishop there at his pleasure; but a certain form o^ 
ordering ministers by the bishop is drawn up by public authority. 

2. The different orders of the clergy are still retained as formerly, 
in the Papacy, namely, two archbishops, one of whom is primate ; after 
them are the bishops, the deans, and archdeacons, and last of all rectors, 
vicars, curates, &c. 

3. Whoever desires to serve a church there must previously obtain 
licence in writing from the lord bishop or his deputy. 

4. No pastor is at liberty to expound the Scriptures to his people 
without an express appointment to that office by the bishop. 

5. Few persons there are called to the ministry of the word by reason 
of any talents bestowed upon them ; great numbers offer themselves, 
whence it comes to pass that not many are qualified for this function. 

6. No one is admitted to any ecclesiastical function, unless he ac 
knowledge the Queen to be the Supreme Head of the Church of England 
upon earth. There is no great difficulty raised about any other points 
of doctrine, provided the party is willing to obey the laws and statutes 
of the realm. 

7. Ministers now protest and promise that th. y will observe and 
maintain the laws of their country, as being good (as they are called) 
and wholesome, as well in matters external and political, as in the rites 

* From the Archives of Zurich. 



EPISTLE DEDICATORY. 



But a better witness than that of Shakspeare and of 
Machyn to the current belief of England is to be found 

and ceremonies of the Church, and all things which are there cus 
tomary and in use, and this, too, they must atttst by their manual 
subscription. 

8. It is provided by the laws that no one shall impugn the English 
liturgy either by word or writing, and that no minister, by whatever 
name he may be called, may use in public any other form or mode 
either in the prayers or administration of the sacraments than what 
is there prescribed. 

9. This book of prayers is filled with many absurdities (to say no 
worse of them) and silly superfluities, and seems entirely to be compos d 
after the model and in the manner of the Papists, the grosser super- 
fctitions, however, being taken away. 

10. The greater part of the canon law is still in force there, and all 
ecclesiastical censures are principally taken from it. 

11. Excommunication there depends on the decision of a single 
individual, to wit, the bishop, his chancellor, the archdeacon, com 
missary, official, or any judge of the ecclesiastical court ; and is, for 
the most part, inflicted for mere trifles, such as pecuniary matters, and 
other suits of that nature. 

12. The sentence of excommunication pronounced by the judge is 
forwarded to some pastor, who is required to read and pronounce it 
publicly in his church before a full congregation. 

13. The party excommunicated, when the judge is so inclined, and 
often, too, against his will, is absolved in private and without any 
trouble for a sum of money. 

14. The marriage of priests was counted unlawful in the times of 
Queen Mary, and was also forbidden by a public statute of the realm, 
which is also in force at this day, although by permission of Queen 
Elizabeth clergymen may have their wives, provided only they marry 
by the advice and assent of the bishop and two justices of peace, as 
they call them. 

15. The lords bishops are forbidden to have their wives with them 
in their palaces ; as also are the deans, canons, presbyters, and other 
ministers of the Church, within colleges or the precincts of cathedral 
churches. 

16. Many difficulties have to be counteracted in respect to marriage 
and divorce, because the Popish laws are retained there as heretofore. 



EPISTLE DEDICATORY. XXVll 

in the Homilies themselves. These works, written in 
the interest of the "new learning/ and not without 

17. In case of adultery, even clergymen are not very severely 
punished, and it is compounded for by other parties with a sum of 
money, with the assent of the ecclesiastical judges, by whom the 
penalty is imposed. Some parties, clothed in a linen garment, ac 
knowledge and deprecate their crime in the public congregation ; and, 
indeed, the whole matter is altogether determined at the pleasure of 
the ecclesiastical judge. 

18. The Archbishop of Canterbury, the Primate of all England, 
besides his episcopal court, has also his principal courts of arches and 
audience, as they call them, where ecclesiastical causes are determined. 
He has also the Court of Faculties, where, on the payment beforehand 
of a pretty large sum of money, licences are obtained for non-residence, 
plurality of benefices, dispensations for forbidden meats on the third, 
fifth, and sixth holiday, the vigils of the saints, Lent, and the Ember 
days at the four seasons, for almost all these are seasons of abstinence 
from flesh ; from hence, too, are obtained dispensations for solemnizing 
at prohibited seasons; and that even boys, and others, not in holy 
orders, may be capable of holding ecclesiastical preferment, with many 
other things of this kind. 

19. Every bishop has his court for matters ecclesiastical, as has also 
every archdeacon, in which, as things are at present, there preside for 
the most part Papists or despisers of all religion ; and the other officers 
employed in these courts are of the same character ; the consequence 
of which is, that religion itself is exposed to ridicule, the ministers of 
Christ are everywhere despised with impunity, loaded with abuse, and 
even sometimes beaten. 

20. Besides the impropriations of benefices, th*re are also advowsons, 
by which, while the place is yet occupied, the next vacancies of the 
livings are gratuitously presented to others by the patrons, or else sold 
by them at a price agreed upon, for this, too, is permitted by the laws 
of the country. And the power of patronage still remains there, and 
institution, as it is called, and induction, as in the time of Popery. 

21. Many festivals are retained there, consecrated in the name of 
saints, with their vigils, as formerly ; perambulations on Rogation- 
days ; singing in parts in the churches, and with organs ; the tolling 
of bells at funerals and on the vigils of saints, and especially on that 
of the i east of All Saints, when it continues during the whole night. 



XX Vlll EPISTLE DEDICATORY. 

some of the Shibboleths. of the Keformation authorized 
by Cranmer and Jewel are yet full of testimonies to 
the continued prevalence of many of the ancient doc- 

22. By the Queen s command all persons, both men and women, 
must reverently bow themselves in the churches at the name of Jesus. 

23. That space which we call the chancel, by which in churches the 
laity are separated by the presbyter from the clergy, still remains in 
England ; and prayers are said in the place accustomed in time of 
Popery, unless the bishop should order it otherwise. 

24. Baptism is administered in time of necessity, as they call it, as 
is also the Lord s Supper, to the sick in private houses ; and the ad 
ministration of private baptism is allowed even to women. 

25. In the administration of baptism the infants are addressed re 
specting their renouncing the devil, the world, and the flesh, as also 
respecting their confession of faith, answer to all which things is made 
by the sponsors in their name. 

26. The party baptized is signed with the sign of the cross, in token 
that hereafter he should not be ashamed of the cross of Christ. 

27. The confirmation, too, of boys and girls is there in use, and 
the purification of women after child-birth, which they call the 
thanksgiving. 

28. In the administration of the [Lord s] Supper, for the greater 
reverence of the Sacrament, little round unleavened cakes are reintro- 
duced by the Queen, which had heretofore been removed by the public 
laws of the realm, for the taking away superstition. Every one, too, 
is obliged to communicate at the Lord s Supper on his bended knees. 

29. In every church throughout England, during prayers, the minister 
must wear a linen garment, which we call a surplice. And in the 
larger churches, at the administration of the Lord s Supper, the chief 
minister must wear a silk garment, which they call a cope. And two 
other ministers, formerly called the deacon and sub-deacon, must assist 
him to read the Epistle and Gospel. 

30. The Queen s Majesty, with the advice of the Archbishop of 
Canterbury, may order, change, and remove anything in that Church 
at her pleasure. 

31. In their external dress the ministers of the word are at this 
time obliged to conform themselves to that of the Popish priests ; the 
square cap is imposed upon all, together with a gown as long and loose 
as conveniently may be, and to some also is added a silk hood. 



EPISTLE DEDICATORY. XXIX 

trines u . The inspiration of the Apocrypha, the autho 
rity of Councils and of the primitive Church, as well as 
of the ancient Church doctors and Catholic Saints and 
Fathers, the Presence of Christ in the Eucharist, the 
recognition of Orders and Matrimony as Sacraments, 
the reign of the Saints in heaven with God, the purify 
ing and cleansing effect of alms-deeds, the power of the 
keys, are all assumed as principles. How could it have 
been otherwise ? The Marian clergy were not exter 
minated; they conformed, partly in hope of better 
times, partly from fear of the Government, partly 
moved by a sincere desire for reformation ; but still 
the traditions of a whole lifetime cannot be destroyed 
in a moment, and any great shock to their feelings 
would have led them to act as the eighty rectors, fifty 
prebendaries, fifteen masters of colleges, twelve arch 
deacons, twelve deans, and six abbots and abbesses, 
actually did, that is, abandon their preferments x . We 
are left to the dilemma that either the great mass of 
the lower clergy were a set of unprincipled self-seekers, 
or that the changes, interpreted by custom and pre 
vious usage, were so small, that no real violence was 
done to their consciences. 

To approach, therefore, the subject of the inter 
pretation of the Articles, it is necessary to place our 
selves in the position of those who first accepted them. 
They must be read with the gloss of antecedent faith 
and preconceived notion. Just as in our own time men 
have read them with the preconceived notion of the 
Low Church School, and so have imported into them 
meanings which their letter will not bear : so at the 

u Vide Apologia pro Vita sud, p. 164. 
* Fuller s Church History, vol. ii. p. 451. 



XXX EPISTLE DEDICATORY. 

time of their enforcement they must have been read 
with the deep consciousness of the old traditional Chris 
tianity, which had obtained in England since the days 
of St. Augustine of Canterbury, which had animated 
the faith of Lanfranc and of St. Anselm, had warmed 
the affection of St. Thomas Cantilupe and of St. Ste 
phen Harding, but which, chilled and overshadowed 
by the corruption of the fourteenth and fifteenth cen 
turies, now cried out for a fresh outpouring of the 
Holy Spirit of God. 

In no other way can we account for the rise of the 
Caroline school. This line of thought never ceased to 
be represented in the Universities, and protected by 
some of the bishops. When the Puritan element be 
gan in the next reign to disturb the State, here was 
found the material for reaction. There is nothing in 
Bishop Andrewes works to shew that his views were 
those of a counter-Reformation, as we find later in the 
time of Laud. Educated in such a religion as I have 
attempted to describe, he applied his learning to de- 
velope his position, and the reverence in which he was 
held in the next generation, as well as during his life 
time, shews that his views had the strength and con 
sistency of a hereditary position. 

So much for the elements that went to make up the 
mind of the English Church in the days of Elizabeth. 
It would be unfair not to say somewhat as to the form 
of its expression. That form was suggested by the 
numerous Confessions which were put forth by the Pro 
testants. Such Confessions are the fruits of the Re 
formation, the necessary results of a system which, in 
attacking what was then considered the ancient belief, 
needed to consolidate its existence on the basis of 



EPISTLE DEDICATORY. XXXI 

human conscience. When as a Church it could no 
longer impose its distinctive teachings as the voice of 
the Holy Ghost, when it gave to its determinations only 
a collateral authority, that it was in accordance with 
the Word of God, it was necessary to call in the ele 
ment of individual good faith to maintain the position. 
A man no longer submitted his reason to the teaching 
of the body to which he belonged, he now belonged to 
the body because he believed in its teaching. This was 
the only reasonable attitude which the right of private 
judgment permitted, and therefore all the Protestant 
bodies of necessity put forth their Confessions. 

England, while retaining her organic and sacra 
mental connexion with the old Church, through the 
episcopal consecrations and perpetuation of the orders 
of the Church Catholic, was from her position obliged 
in a degree to follow in this course, and, as was natural, 
not only adopted the same form as the Continental 
Reformers, but actually borrowed much from them. 
An interesting parallelism might be drawn between 
the Articles, and many of the Lutheran and Calvinistic 
formulas, especially the Confession of Augsburg ; and 
the result would be, that while the likeness is in many 
respects confessed, the Protestant Shibboleths are in 
the main left out, and a form, of words of exceeding 
moderation, and to which succeeding ages have rightly 
or wrongly assigned an ambidextrous character, is left 
to us, purposely made to include the greatest number 
of adherents, a process which has resulted in the ac 
knowledged fact of the co-existence of a Catholic arid 
Protestant element within the pale of the Anglican 
Church, which has continued to this very day. 

On the other hand, it will be observed, that many 



XXX11 EPISTLE DEDICATORY. 

of the sentences are almost in the very words of ap 
proved Church doctors and schoolmen. Not to men 
tion the reference to St. Jerome in the Sixth, and to 
the Pseudo- Augustine in the Twenty-ninth Articles, 
we shall find that many of the Articles enunciate truth 
in authoritative language. The Seventeenth Article is 
a concise summary of St. Augustine s teaching, the end 
of that on free-will is in his own words, and the corro- 
boration of the opinion of grave divines may be ad 
duced for some of the most startling of the proposi 
tions. Before the Council of Trent, the line was not 
drawn so sharply as afterwards. Individual doctors 
allowed themselves considerable latitude in matters not 
authoritatively ruled by the Church ; and it is no re 
proach to the English Church that she availed her 
self of a latitude of belief claimed by or conceded to 
Peter Lombard or Cajetan. Denying the authority of 
the Council of Trent that shut up this liberty, she felt 
herself free to use it. The Councils of the thirteenth 
century, which England by Provincial Councils had 
already accepted, had not defined anything which 
clashes with the English Articles. A writer, much 
approved by the English bishops, says : " In the first 
Lateran Council, there was no decree on faith ;" in 
the second, " nothing except what was laudable was 
done in matter of faith ;" in the third, " there was 110 
decree on faith, except that the heretics, called Cathari, 
&c., were for very good reasons excommunicated." 
" No decisions on faith seem to have been made in the 
first Synod of Lyons." " The only decree on faith 
made by Gregory in the second synod of Lyons was 
a definition that the Holy Ghost proceeds from the 
Father and the Son as from one principle." " The 



EPISTLE DEDICATORY. XXX111 



Synod of Vienne made decrees, which seem to have 
been generally laudable y." At Constance, the recep 
tion in one kind was not laid down as a law. It was 
only decreed that the custom of receiving was not to 
be rejected by man s private judgment without the au 
thority of the Church. The Council of Basle had been re 
jected wholly by the Italians. The Council of Florence, 
according to the last eminent editor of the Councils, 
laid down nothing new on the authority of the Pope, 
but only declared whence it may be ascertained what 
the power of the Pope is z . The Cardinal of Lorraine, 
Launoi, (in the name of the Gallican Church,) and 
others following them, denied that it was (Ecumenical. 
But, in fact, with the exception of doctrines on Tran- 
substantiation and Purgatory, (of which more here 
after,) there was no controverted doctrine then ruled 
as de fide which the Anglican Articles had to do with. 

Another point to be observed is, that the Articles 
are not systematic. They do not evolve one theory 
of God s dealings with mankind. Lutheranism is 
a system rolling round its cardinal doctrine of fiducia, 
that justifying faith is the faith that believes itself to 
be justified. It is a whole in which other doctrines 
exist only in the bearing upon this. So Calvinism is 
a system in which all turns on election and reproba 
tion, all other doctrines being subordinated to and 
influenced by this ; but the English position in the 
Articles is the reformation of certain abuses. The old 
Creed is everywhere assumed, as well as the abuse in 
reference to it, and then a statement is made in cor 
rection or modification : " Vitium vel abusus corrigi 

y Palmer on the Church, p. iv. c. ii. t. ii. p. 216, sqq. 
* Mansi, Animad. in Alex. Natal., Diss. x. Art. vii. 4. cit. Ffoulkes. 

C 



XXXIV EPISTLE DEDICATORY. 

debet et non status destrui, vel suis debitis juribus de- 
fraudari: sicut boni medici est ab infirmo morbum 
tollere et non infirmum corpus destruere a ." 

For the right understanding of the Articles, it is of 
paramount importance to remember the organic iden 
tity of the Church of England before and after the 
Reformation. " The Church of England is older than 
the State of England. It was a unity when England 
was a Heptarchy. There was a chief bishop of Can 
terbury before there was a king of England. The 
spiritualty and temporalty of the nation was a com 
plete whole, organized and regulated, while the poli 
tical necessities of the country, the talent and ambition 
of individual rulers, were gradually forming the State. 
The nexus of the Church was found, in the hierarchy, 
in the succession of Church officers b ." They were the 
personcB of the Church of England. The personality 
was further maintained both by ecclesiastical laws and 
by civil laws recognising the Church. So far as the 
organic character of the Church is concerned, the Re 
formation was nothing but the alteration of some of 
the ecclesiastical and civil laws affecting it. As there 
was a persona of the Church of England in each living 
before the Reformation, so there was a persona of the 
same Church of England in each living after the Re 
formation, and the alteration in doctrine and discipline 
within certain limits did not affect this. I say ad 
visedly within certain limits, for changes might be 
caused which would destroy the identity of the two 
bodies, utterly divide the pre-Reformation from the 
post-Reformation Churches, as actually for a time 

* Peter D Ailly, de Eef. Eccl. c. de ref. cap. 
b See " Saturday Review." 



EPISTLE DEDICATORY. XXXV 

took place in Scotland. When the old religion was 
abolished in 1560 in Scotland, its hierarchy came to an 
end. The bishops of the old succession consecrated no 
successors. The Reformers, claiming to be the true 
Church of Christ, started their General Assembly, which 
excommunicated those who differed from it. Only the 
most earthly accidents of Church property, such as 
tiends, manses, c. were assumed as identical c . 

In England it was very different. The organic 
identity was carefully preserved, as may be seen from 
the efforts made by Elizabeth towards securing the 
continuation of the old succession. Parker threw him 
self back upon the forms and processes used in Cran- 
mer s Pontificale, which were the old canonical forms 
(excluding, of course, what referred to the Pope) used 
in the election of Bishops before the institution of 
papal provisions in the thirteenth and fourteenth cen 
turies. These forms had been always in use for the 
election of Abbots, and in the reign of Henry V., 
during the vacancy of the Popedom in 1416, had been 
used in the case of Bishops. They were still and al 
ways canonical, but superseded in each vacancy by 
a distinct act of the Pope. What had been lawful, or 
eventually allowed then, must be lawful or eventually 
allowable now. The essence of the old forms was re 
tained ; what was given up was held to be superfluous. 
Organically, then, the Church before and after the 
Reformation was one. 

But the other element had to be considered also.^ 
It is of the essence of the Church that it teach the Ca-j 
tholic faith. As the Church had been Catholic before 

c Yet when the hierarchy was restored by the Engl ; sh consecrations, 
the old diocesan arrangements were strictly adhered to. 



XXXVI EPISTLE DEDICATORY. 

the Reformation, (though in the eyes of the Reformers 
corrupted,) so it was Catholic after the Reformation, 
(in the eyes of the Reformers purified). This is founded 
in truth. Had such a change taken place at the Refor 
mation as would have altered the integrity of the faith, 
e.g. had the Church taught Arianism, it would have 
ceased to be the same Church as before, it would have 
become a new Church. Organic identity depends upon 
dogmatic identity. If the Church of England in any 
true sense is the Church before the Reformation, there 
must be a certain dogmatic identity. Roman Catholics 
deny this maintain that the changes made were in 
essentials, and so destructive of all identity. The only 
logical basis of Anglicanism is the maintenance of 
the identity, the Protestant notion of a new primitive 
Church, teaching the Shibboleths of modern religion 
ism, for the moment extemporized, being historically 
and philosophically false : hence, in proportion as the 
foundation of a theoretical Anglicanism is deeply laid, 
so in that measure must the organic identity be max 
imized, and by consequence the theological differences 
of the same Church in its two phases be minimized. 
" Turpis fit pars quao suo non congruit universo." 

Such minimization would be the natural effect of the 
working, or existence, of the Marian clergy who con 
formed in Elizabeth s time. We know that they effec 
tually prevented the other party going into extremes. 
The Queen had also the convocation of York, still 
addicted to the old learning, to consider. It would be 
her wish that as little violence as possible should be 
done to their consciences, though the Bishops acted in 
a high-handed way in dealing with some of the me- 
dia3val practices. 



EPISTLE DEDICATORY. XXXV11 

After all, even theologically, there was much to be 
said for the position. Mediaeval corruptions were as 
sumed, perhaps exaggerated, if we may judge by some 
passages in the Homilies, but then mediaeval corrup 
tions had been assumed by all the Reformers within the 
Church from the time of the Council of Basle. The 
great work of Erasmus had been simply destructive of 
these. Colet followed in his steps ; and even the great 
and holy More, in his earlier days, had been deeply 
convinced of the necessity of some reformation, and 
only rushed into reaction when he saw what way the 
Reformation was likely to go. 

Given, then, the existence of mediaeval corruptions, 
there was a fair issue between the two learnings. The 
theory of development had not yet been used as the 
master-key to explain all existing phenomena. It had 
been propounded in Lerins in the fifth century, and in 
a very modified manner taught by St. Thomas Aquinas : 
but neither had Catholics used it to account for the 
dissidences between primitive practice and the actual 
state of things ; nor did the Protestants use it to justify 
their novelties. Both parties appealed to antiquity. 
The Roman Church to Scripture and co-ordinate tradi 
tion, as expounded by the living Church, especially by 
the successor of St. Peter ; the Anglican to Scripture, 
witnessed to and expounded by the tradition of the 
Church. 

Staking, therefore, the question on this issue, the 
Reforming Bishops had a good deal to say for them 
selves. It is doubtful whether all the statements in 
Jewel s Apology are theologically defensible, still there 
are some blots which he distinctly hits, and at any rate 



XXXV111 EPISTLE DEDICATORY. 

he indicates a line of thought which may successfully 
be carried to its conclusion. 

The founder of the existing Church of England, at 
the Reformation as now, is Pope St. Gregory the Great, 
a writer of great sagacity, earnestness, and orthodoxy, 
from whose writings we may easily cull what were the 
doctrines which St. Augustine of Canterbury preached to 
the men of Kent, and what is of more importance, what 
he imposed upon them as conditions of communion as 
things to be held as de fide. If we find him asserting 
his prerogative of successor of St. Peter, Patriarch of 
the West, Primate of the suburbicarian Churches, we 
find him in his dispute with John Nesteutes, of Con 
stantinople, laying down such canons of ecclesiastical 
hierarchy as contradict both mediaeval Papalism and 
modern Ultramontanism. If we find him strongly 
asserting the efficacy of the Eucharistic Sacrifice, we 
find no countenance for the popular view of transub- 
stantiation ; his very public Liturgy recognising the 
existence of the munus temporale in the Sacrament as 
well as the cceleste remedium. If we find him ordaining 
litanies and invocations to the saints, we discover very 
little mention of the prerogatives of the mother of 
God, and the strongest assertions of Christ being the 
only sinless One. If we find him (assuming the au 
thenticity of the Dialogues) living in a very atmos 
phere of miracle, we find the strictest prohibitions of 
anything like picture-worship. If he stoutly asserts 
a power of ruling and administration in his own see, 
we find that he bases the faith upon Scripture, and 
upon the four Councils recognised by the Church of 
England. There is in all his works not a word in 



EPISTLE DEDICATORY. XXXIX 

favour of indulgences, or of communion under one 
kind, or of the thesaurus meritorum ; while positively 
in his dealings with the Emperor Phocas he accepts 
somewhat of the Anglican position with regard to the 
civil power, and in his answers to St. Augustine, ad 
mits the position in reference to the separate rites 
and customs of " the Churches of Italy, France, Spain, 
and Germany," described in the Canons of 1604. 

It may be said, of course, that while the details of 
the teaching of St. Gregory support the Anglican sys 
tem, the spirit is Roman ; that the hands are the hands 
of Esau, the voice the voice of Jacob ; in other words, 
that while the formal outline of St. Gregory s faith co 
incides with that of the Anglican Church, the teach 
ing is practically Roman, only not in a developed state. 
To this the satisfactory answer is, that we must dis 
tinguish between St. Gregory s private opinions and 
his official and public belief. St. Gregory, as an in 
dividual doctor, is one person ; St. Gregory, as the 
official representative of the Church, is another. 

To sum up, then, and to conclude, I venture in the 
following work to assume, that the position of the 
Anglican Church requires that the Articles shall be 
interpreted in the Catholic Sense ; that this sense 
exposes us to fewer difficulties than any other canon 
of explanation ; and, that historically there is support 
for this theory. 

Lastly, convinced that a divided Christendom will 
not be able to stand the assaults of infidelity, as 
a house divided against itself cannot stand, I there- 
lore, in all that I have written, have had in view the 
future reunion 01 the Church. Recognising the pro 
vidential position of the Anglican Church, as stretch- 



EPISTLE DEDICATORY. 



ing forth one hand to the Protestant bodies, and the 
other to the Latin and Greek Churches, I have tried 
to do justice to that position, by acknowledging on 
the one hand the great necessity for a reform in morals 
and discipline at the time of the separation, and on the 
other by minimizing the points of dissidence between 
ourselves and those venerable institutions. It is no 
longer a question of opinions on either side. The basis 
of reunion must be on that which is ruled as de fide, 
and of this nothing is to be assumed as such, but the 
contrary of what is published under anathema. This 
reduces the difficulty, and leaves a wide margin for 
negociation and explanation. May God in His good 
time incline men s hearts to this, and let the heavens 
rejoice, and the earth be glad, for that the wall of par 
tition is broken down. 

Believe me, 
Ever affectionately yours, 

THE AUTHOR. 

DUNDEE, 
May 8, 1867. 



POSTSCRIPT. 

THE Catholic interpretation of the Articles has 
been assailed by some Evangelicals and by some High 
Churchmen as evasive and disingenuous. I should 
like to ask both some questions. I would ask the ad 
herent of the Calvinistic school in the Church very 
earnestly, and in no spirit of railing accusation, how 
he justifies his subscription with statements contained 



POSTSCRIPT. 



in the Articles, e.g. how he reconciles his opinions as 
to particular redemption with the Second Article, which 
describes our Lord as " a sacrifice, not only for origi 
nal guilt, but also for all actual sins of men :" as to 
the indefectibility of grace with the Sixteenth, which 
states that " we may depart from grace given and fall 
into sin :" as to the non-efficacy of baptism in every 
case with Article XV., when the word " baptized " is 
rendered by the equivalent Latin renati, and where 
"have received the Holy Ghost," is made identical 
with baptism : as to a particular election with the 
Seventeenth, which asserts that " we must receive God s 
promises in such wise, as they be generally set forth 
in Holy Scripture :" as to the right of private judg 
ment with the assertion of the authority of the Church 
in controversies of faith as asserted in Article XX. : as 
to the merely obsignatory character of the Sacraments 
with the avowal of Article XXV., that they are " cer 
tain sure witnesses and effectual signs of grace :" as 
to the nullity of the grace of Orders with that of 
Article XXVI., which states that bad clergy may ad 
minister good Sacraments: as to the notion that the 
clergy are mere ministers in a Presbyterian sense with 
the fact that in Article XXXI. , and in the title of 
Article XXXII., the clergy are termed Sacerdotes : as 
to the assurance of salvation conferring it with the 
statement of Article XXXIII., that the excommuni 
cate person must "be openly reconciled by penance." 
Again, if any adherent of what is termed the High 
Church school, demurs at this interpretation, I would 
say to him, You cannot deny that the primitive Church 
regarded the blessed Eucharist as a sacrifice for the 



xlii POSTSCRIPT. 



quick and dead, what possible interpretation save mine 
will reconcile Article XXXI. with the acknowledged 
facts of history, with the teaching of the Catholic 
Church ? You admit the authority of the Church, you 
are therefore bound to accept all that I have taught, in 
so far as it is in accordance with the utterances of the 
undivided Church. You hold and teach truly a doctrine 
of baptismal regeneration, is that a safe doctrine to 
inculcate, unless attended by the complementary truth 
of the forgiveness of post-baptismal sin by penance? 
You cry out against every attempt to qualify the lan 
guage of hope in the service which you have to read 
over the more profligate of your deceased parishioners, 
can any view but that laid down in my treatise save 
you from the charge of reading words which you do 
not believe on the one hand, or of advocating a laxity 
which saps the root of Christian morality on the other ? 
You quote the Fathers when by their limitations of the 
power of the Pope they make for our insulated position, 
why do you spurn the same Fathers when they testify 
to the intercession of the saints? You confess that 
the English Reformation was most unmistakeably based 
upon the principle of Holy Scripture interpreted by 
Catholic antiquity, are you prepared to censure the 
only line of interpretation which harmonizes the Ar 
ticles with the entire deposit? For be it recollected 
that submission to Christian truth does not consist in 
the adoption of individual separate doctrines, any more 
than of individual separate texts of Scripture. It is an 
adhesion to a living system, founded on the facts of 
history, perpetuated by unbroken tradition, and bring 
ing back man to God through the faculty of know- 



POSTSCRIPT. xliii 



lodge in Christ by the operation of the Holy Ghost 
who led the Apostles "into all the truth d ," and who, 
as He spake by the prophets under the earlier dis 
pensation, is now the informing, vivifying principle 
of the Catholic Church of Christ. 

d St. John xvi. 13. 



SYNCHRONISTICAL TABLE, 



A 



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Illllllllii! 












P-.S "2 
S"2^ 

^^2-^ 
P-iOO > 



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o- - h a 



Kj, o^tc, 



liilitl 

c S o W rt H So-S 






A 



^ 



^ r * . ji 

z<o 



DATES OF THE DIFFERENT EVENTS 

BEARING ON THE 

CONSTITUTION AND INTERPRETATION OF THE 
THIRTY- NINE ARTICLES. 

Those specially relating to the English Church are 
printed in italics. 



A.D. 

1500. Birth of Charles Y. 
1521. Diet of Worms. 

1529. Conference at Marburg between Lutherans and Zwing- 

lians (Oct. 3). 

Schwabach Articles, in number XYII. (Oct. 15). 

1530. Torgau Articles. 

Augsburg Confession presented to Charles Y. (June 

25). 

Confutation thereof by Eck, Wimpere, Faber, and 

Cochla3us (Aug. 3). 

. Final breach with Lutherans brought about by Cam- 

peggius (Aug. 16). 

1531. Gardiner made Bishop of Winchester. 

1532-3. Statute of 24 Henry VIII., harbinger of Reforma 
tion. 

1533. Cranmer made Archbishop of Canterbury. 

1534. Deliberations in the two Provincial Synods of Canter 

bury and York on the jurisdiction of the Bishop of 
Rome, and its rejection. 

League of Schmalkald (Dec. 24) : Fox and Heath pre 

sent. 
1536. Calvin s Institutes published. 



DATES OF THE DIFFERENT EVENTS 



A.D. 

1536. Conferences at Wittenburg (Jan. 15). 

- "Articles devyzed by the Xinges Highnes Majestic to 

stably she Christen quietnes and unitie among us," and 
consequent Rebellion in Lincolnshire. 

1537. Institution of a Christian Man. 

1538. Lutheran Embassy to England (May 12), and conse 

quent XIII Articles. 

- Royal Commission contra Anabaptistas (Oct. 1). 

- Select Committee de Emendenda Ecclesia, appointed 

by Paul III. 

1539. Statute of the Six Articles. 

1540. Foundation of the Company of Jesus. 

1541. Colloquy of Ratisbon under Contarini. 
1543. Necessary Doctrine for any Christian Man. 

- Repressive Act, 34 and 35 Henry VIII., for the advance 

ment of true religion. 

1547. First Session of Council of Trent. 
- Death of Henry VIII. 

- First Book of Homilies. 

1548. Cranmer puts forth a Lutheran Catechism. 

1549. FIRST DEAFT OF SOME ARTICLES (Feb. 27). 

First Service-book of King Edward VI. , (Whitsun- 

day). 

- Consensus Tigurinus reconciles Calvin and the Ger 

mans on the Eucharist. 

1550. Royal Commission against Anabaptists (Jan. 18). 

- Contest between Hooper and Ridley about vestments. 

1551. English Prayer-book first used in Ireland. 

- New Session of Council of Trent. 

1552. The Confession of \Vurtemberg. 

Hooper s Articles, in number fifty (July 6). 

- Commission against the Family of Love (Sept.) 

1553. PUBLICATION of XLII ARTICLES (May 20) with a 

Catechism. 

- Subscription publicly enjoined (June 15). 



BEARING ON THE THIRTY-NINE ARTICLES. xlvii 

A.D. 

1553. Death of Edward VI. (July 6). 

1555. Gardiner s ~X.V Articles (April 1). 

1558. Southern Convocation emit five definitions. 
Queen Elizabeth proclaimed (Nov. 17). 

1559. The Eleven Articles of Religion. 

Royal Commission visits all the Dioceses. 

1560. The Pope s jurisdiction renounced in Scotland. 
1562. Fresh Session of Council of Trent (Jan. 18). 

THE SYNOD PASSES THE XXXIX ARTICLES. 

1564. Bull confirming the Council of Trent (Jan. 6). 

1566. The Eleven Articles enjoined in Ireland (Jan. 6). 
1566-7. Elizabeth resists enforcing the Articles by Act of 

Parliament (Jan. 2). 

1567. The First Conventicle organized. 

1568. Conference of Altenberg between Flacconists and 

Electorals. 

1571. The XXXIX Articles enjoined on all the English 

Clergy. 

Elizabeth yields to Parliament. 

1572. Puritan li Admonition to the Parliament" 
1595-6. The Lam beth Articles. 

1604. Eise of Arminianism in the Low Countries. Quin- 

quarticular Controversy. 

Fruitless effort to engraft the Lambeth Articles on the 

XXXIX. 

Hampton Court Conference. 

1605. The Northern Convocation of York formally accept the 

XXXIX Articles. 

1610. The Dutch Remonstrance of Episcopius. 
1615. Irish Articles. 
1618. The Synod of Dort. 

1625. Charles I. comes to the Throne. 

1626. Proclamation about Calvinism. 

1628. His Majesty s Declaration prefixed to the XXXIX 
Articles. 



DATES OF THE DIFFERENT EVENTS, &C. 



A.D. 

1635. XXXIX Articles accepted ly the Church of Ireland. 
1689. Certain of the Articles signed by Nonconformists 
(1 Gul. et Mar., c. 18, 18). 

1771. Blackburn s Movement. 

1772. Feathers Tavern Petition (Feb. 6). 

1801. American Church, with modifications, adopts the 

Articles. 
1804. Synod of Scottish Church at Laurencekirk adopts the 

Articles. 

1818. Wix of St. Bartholomew s interpretation. 
1841. Trad XC. published. 

1863. Alteration of terms of Subscription. 

1864. Dr. Pusey s Eirenicon. 



HIS MAJESTY S DECLARATION. 



"BEING by God s ordinance, according to Our just 
title, Defender of the Faith, and Supreme Governor of 
the Church, within these our Dominions, We hold it 
most agreeable to this Our Kingly Office, and Our own 
religious Zeal, to conserve and maintain the Church, 
committed to Our Charge, in unity of true Religion, 
and in the Bond of Peace ; and not to suffer unneces 
sary Disputations, Altercations, or Questions to be raised, 
which may nourish Faction both in the Church and 
Commonwealth. We have, therefore, upon mature De 
liberation, and with the Advice of so many of Our Bi 
shops as might conveniently be called together, thought 
fit to make this Declaration following : 

" That the Articles of the Church of England which 
have been allowed and authorized heretofore, and which 
Our Clergy generally have subscribed unto do contain 
the true Doctrine of the Church of England, agreeable 
to God s Word : which We do therefore ratify and con 
firm, requiring all Our loving Subjects to continue in 
the uniform Profession thereof, and prohibiting the 
least difference from the said Articles; which to that 
end We command to be new printed, and this Our De 
claration to be published therewith. 

" That We are Supreme Governor of the Church of 
England : and that if any Difference arise about the 
external Policy, concerning the Injunctions, Canons, 
and other Constitutions whatsoever thereto belonging, 
the Clergy in their Convocation is to order and settle 

d 



1 ins MAJESTY S DECLARATION. 

them, having first obtained leave under Our Broad Seal 
so to do ; and We approving their said Ordinances and 
Constitutions; providing that none be made contrary 
to the Laws and Customs of the Land. 

" That out of Our Princely care that the Churchmen 
may do the work which is proper unto them, the Bi 
shops and Clergy, from time to time in Convocation, 
upon their humble Desire, shall have Licence under 
Our Broad Seal, to deliberate of, and to do all such 
things, as being made plain by them, and assented 
unto by Us, shall concern the settled Continuance of 
the Doctrine and Discipline of the Church of England 
now established ; from which We will not endure any 
varying or departing in the least Degree. 

" That for the present, though some differences have 
been ill raised, yet We take comfort in this, that all 
Clergymen within Our Realm have always most wil 
lingly subscribed to the Articles established; which 
is an argument to Us, that they all agree in the true, 
usual, literal meaning of the said Articles ; and that 
even in those curious points, in which the present dif 
ferences lie, men of all sorts take the Articles of the 
Church of England to be for them ; which is an argu 
ment again, that none of them intend any desertion of 
the Articles established. 

" That, therefore, in these both curious and unhappy 
differences, which have for so many hundred years, in 
different times and places, exercised the Church of 
Christ, We will, that all further curious search be laid 
aside, and these disputes shut up in God s promises, as 
they be generally set forth to us in the Holy Scrip 
tures, and the general meaning of the Articles of the 
Church of England according to them. And that no 



HIS MAJESTY S DECLARATION. li 

man hereafter shall either print or preach, to draw the 
Article aside any way, but shall submit to it in the 
plain and full meaning thereof; and shall not put his 
own sense or comment to be the meaning of the Arti 
cle, but shall take it in the literal and grammatical 
sense. 

" That if any public Reader in either of Our Univer 
sities, or any Head or Master of a College, or any other 
person respectively in either of them, shall affix any 
new sense to any Article, or shall publicly read, de 
termine, or hold any public Disputation, or suffer any 
such to be held either way, in either the Universities 
or Colleges respectively ; or if any Divine in the Uni 
versities shall preach or print anything either way, 
other than is already established in Convocation with 
Our Ro} al assent ; he or they, the offenders, shall be 
liable to Our displeasure, and the Church s censure in 
Our Commission Ecclesiastical, as well as any other : 
and We will see there shall be due execution upon 
them/ 



The ill-advised step of King James I. of sending 
deputies to the Synod of Dort, (a course very incon 
sistent in the friend of Montague and Andrewes, but 
caused partly by dislike of Vorstius, partly by political 
friendship for the Prince of Orange,) issued in the 
fiercest theological disturbance in England. Though 
the English delegates did what they could to mediate, 
their efforts were unavailing, and no sooner did they 
return home than the controversy began to rage. An 
active school, in all the energy of youth, maintained 
the tenets of Arminius, which drove the opposite party 



Ill 



into the wildest Calvinism. In vain did the King 
charge Archbishop Abbot to issue directions concern 
ing preachers. They were deliberately ignored. On 
the accession of Charles I., in concert with the Bishops, 
he issued the memorable proclamation of 1626, against 
" the sharp and indiscreet handling of some of either 
party." This did good in the Universities, but in the 
country the evil continued, wherefore it was deemed 
fit to issue a reprint of the Thirty-Nine Articles, with 
the Declaration which has ever since attached to them. 
It was resisted by the Calvinistic clergy, who saw in it 
a special condemnation of their teaching, and in the 
House of Commons, a debate on the Royal Declaration 
avowed the sense of the Articles, " which, by the public 
act of the Church of England, and by the general and 
current expositions of the writers of our Church, have 
been delivered to us. And we reject the sense of 
Jesuits and Arminians, and all others, wherein they 
differ from us a ." 

The Caroline Bishops knew very well what they 
were doing, so did the Puritans. No wonder that 
these latter sought to stigmatize the sense as Jesuiti 
cal 15 and Arminian. The instinct of Puritanism was 
naturally aroused, the Declaration was the enunciation 
of the Catholic sense of the Articles ; Tract XC. and 
the Eirenicon are legitimate outcomes of the King s 
Declaration. 

a Hardwick s History of Articles of Religion, ed. 1859, p. 206. See, 
also, Sir John Elliot s Speech, at p. 204, and Rushworth, i. 652. 

b This could not allude to Santa Clara s Book, which was not pub 
lished till 1634 



ON THE 

THIRTY-NINE ARTICLES OF RELIGION. 



ARTICLE I. 

I. DE FIDE IN SACRO-SANCTAM TfllNITATEM a . 

UN us est vivus et verus Dens, ceternus, incorporeus, im- 
partibilis, impassibilis, immensce potentice, sapientice, ac 
bonitatis, creator et conservator omnium, turn visibi- 
lium, turn invisibilium. Et in imitate hunts divince 
naturae, ires sunt person(B } ejusdem essentice, potentite, 
ac aeternitatis, Pater, Filius, el /Spntas Sanctus, 



Of Faith in the Holy Trinity. 

" There is but one living and true God, everlasting, 
without body, parts, or passions; of infinite power, 
wisdom, and goodness, the Maker and Preserver of 
all things both visible and invisible. And in unity 
of this Godhead there be three persons, of one sub 
stance, power, and eternity ; the Father, the Son, and 
the Holy Ghost." 

1. SINCE God is incomprehensible and ineffable, we 
cannot define Him by any expression which perfectly 

a The author having at some length gone into the subjects of Arti 
cles I., II., III., IV., V., XI., XVII., XIX., XX., XXVII., in his " Short 
Explanation of the Nicene Creed," would wish it to be understood that 
what is now put forth is in some sense, but not entirely, supplementary 
to what he has written in that volume. In some cases it has been neces 
sary to go over the same ground, but generally the matter is treated 
from a different point of view. 

B 



ARTICLE I. 



describes His nature. Yet, since man can in an im 
perfect way know Him, such, descriptions as, The most 
Perfect Being, the Supreme and Independent Being, 
the Infinite Being, the Being than whom nothing 
greater can be imagined, the Being by Himself, or 
from Himself, are given of Him. Thus in Exod. iii. 
14, " I am that I am. Thus shalt thou say unto the 
children of Israel, I am hath sent me unto you." 

To be of Himself, to exist by the power of His own 
Being, therefore, is a constituent idea of God, seeing 
that to be of Himself belongs only to God, and is the 
first conception we form of Him. 

That God is, is proved by many places in Holy 
Scripture, and by natural reason itself. The existence 
of God cannot be proved by d priori arguments 15 , be 
cause in that way of proof the effect is proved by its 
cause, but God has no cause of His existence. But, 
d posteriori, God s existence may be proved by the ex 
istence of His creatures. "The invisible things from 
the creation of the world are known by those things 
which are made; even His eternal power and God 
head c :" or, to follow out the thought more clearly, 
it is certain to every man that he exists ; but he does 
not exist of himself, but of some other being, there 
fore of God ; or by some other being, who again exists 
of some other, and so by advance we come to a first 
being, who is from Himself. There can be no infinity 

b We do not here use d priori in the Kantian, but in the Scholastic 
sense. Kant held that God s existence is proved a priori from the 
practical reason. c Rom> j 2 Q 



OF FAITH IN THE HOLY TRINITY. 



in such a process ; for it implies all posterior or middle 
causes, and a posterior cause cannot be granted unless 
a prior and then a first be granted also. 

Another argument may be adduced from the move 
ment of creatures. Whatever moves is moved by an 
other; therefore, it is moved by an unmoving motor, 
who is God; or by a moving motor, which again is 
moved by another ; and so, as the process cannot be 
infinite, we come to the first Motor, who moves and is 
not moved. 

Next, the existence of God is proved by the consent 
of all nations, the fulfilment of prophecies, miracles, 
the hankering after the infinite good, the remorse of 
conscience in case of sin, the wondrous formation and 
preservation of all things, which distinctly imply the 
existence of a supremely intelligent Being. 

2. Holy Scripture asserts the unity of God : "See, 
I am alone, there is none other God beside Me d ." 
This also is proved by reason. If there were more 
Gods than one, either one would be subject to another 
or not ; if subject, then the one so subject would not 
be God, the most perfect Being ; if he was not sub 
ject, then neither would be God, neither would be 
perfect, the perfection belonging to the one being by 
so much taken away from the other. 

Having proved His Being, we now come to His 
attributes. An attribute is that which is determined 
by, and flows from essence ; or, in other words, a divine 
attribute is a perfection which, in our way of conceiving 

d Deut. xxxii. 39. 



ARTICLE T. 



it, follows as a property the divine essence. Attributes 
are divided into absolute and relative. Absolute at 
tributes are they which have no relation to any one 
else, as simplicity, eternity. Relative attributes are 
divided again into attributes ad intra, such as pater 
nity, filiation, spiration ; and attributes ad extra, such 
as creation, preservation, and the like. Attributes, 
again, are either positive or negative. Positive attri 
butes are they which impute to God, wisdom, good 
ness, &c. ; negative, are they which deny Him imper 
fection, as to be uncreate, incorporeal, infinite, incom 
prehensible, immutable, immense, invincible, ineffable. 
All the attributes of God are in reality one with the 
divine essence, and one with each other, except the 
relative attributes ad intra, between which there is 
the opposition of relation, as between paternity and 
filiation. Thus the justice of God is His mercy, His 
will is His intellect ; and yet, as we may not say that 
God punishes men in His mercy, so we must admit 
a sort of distinction in regard to the fact that our 
minds, on account of their imperfection and limitation, 
cannot in one conception grasp the whole perfection 
of the divine essence, and so we form diverse, imper 
fect conceptions of God from the analogies of creation, 
which we correct by faith and reflection, conceptions 
which are not erroneous, but imperfect. 

3. The first attribute predicated in the Article of 
the one living and true God, is His eternity. That 
eternity is defined as the entire, simultaneous, and per 
fect possession of an interminable life. In that it is 



OF FAITH IN THE HOLY TRINITY. 



defined as entire and simultaneous, the idea of division 
and succession is excluded : for in eternity there is 
one instant, ever-present and existent. In that it 
is perfect, it excludes the thought of the imperfection 
and transitoriness of an instant of time, though that 
instant be without divisibility. By the thought of 
possession, we understand stability and unfailingness. 
Such eternity as this belongs only to God. " I live 
for ever e ." " Thou art the same, and Thy years shall 
not fail f . J> It differs from time in that eternity hath 
no beginning, no change, either substantial or ac 
cidental. 

When Holy Scripture attributes a past and future 
to God, it does not mean that the works of God in 
creation are so described in the way of the action 
of God, but in the way of results and terms which 
begin to be and cease. So when in Scripture such 
a passage occurs as "Before the morning watch I 
begat Thee s ," it does not signify that the generation 
of the Son has just passed, for that never has, and 
never will have an end, being always present, but 
there is a certain accommodation to the imperfection 
of man, who has to measure all things by time. 

4. Next, God is "without body, parts, or passions." 
The uncompounded nature of God is of faith. It is 
proved, first, by the thought that there is no physical 
composition of matter or form, for God is a Spirit, 
therefore immaterial and indivisible. Neither is there 

e Deut. xxxiii. 40. f Ps. cii. 27. e Ps. ex. 3, Vulg. 



6 ATlTICLE I. 



in God metaphysical composition of action and power, 
for God is the purest act, and therefore in God there 
cannot be power, to which anything is added by which 
it may be made perfect ; neither is there composition 
of essence and existence ; for otherwise essence would 
be in the power to exist, which may not be said, since 
essence includes in itself necessary existence, nay is 
constituted by itself in its own being ; neither is there 
composition of nature and personality, for in God per 
sonality is not distinguished from nature. 

Neither in Him is there logical composition, because 
genus is something perfectible and limitable by differ 
ence, also genus implies some one thing existing in 
many, whereas whatsoever is in God, is so His, that it 
cannot in the same sense be held to be shared with 
any other being. 

5. The power of God is the productive principle of 
all things. In God there can only be admitted one 
active power, which is the very essence of God in 
action, or in the divine act itself. In our way of 
speaking, the power of God is distinguished from His 
knowledge, providence, or will ; in that by His know 
ledge He is apprehended as intelligent, by His pro 
vidence as directing, by His will as governing, by 
His power as executing. In God the power and the 
act are not distinguishable. His power is infinite, as 
illustrated by creation, for the distance between being 
and not being is infinite. 

God is called Omnipotent, for He can do all things 
that do not involve imperfection ; therefore God can- 



OF FAITH IN THE HOLY TRINITY. 



not sin, because to be able to sin is to be able to be 
imperfect in action. 

His wisdom and knowledge are perfect : " The Lord 
is the Lord of knowledge h ;" and this again is not ac 
cident or habit, but pure act and the essence of God 
Himself. 

All philosophers of the highest order have demon 
strated in the same manner the existence of God. All 
have recognised the existence of a moral obstacle which 
conceals the light from the spirit, and must be re 
moved. All have recognised an inner and divine sense, 
the allurement and charm of the desirable and the 
intelligible, which, when the obstacle is removed, be 
comes the resort of the reason. All have found the 
point of rest, the TTOV crrw of that first start of the 
reason in the spectacle of things created, either world 
or soul. All have understood that this point of de 
parture is in no sense a principle whence the reason 
can deduce the existence of God ; but simply a point 
of departure whence the reason raises itself to the 
principle of all things which contains no point of de 
parture. All have recognised that the process is not 
syllogistical, and that it is one of the two essential 
processes of the reason ; that which seeks the major, 
not that which draws the consequences ; all have de 
scribed this process as an operation of the reason, 
which regarding finite being, either world or soul, 
sees, by the mournful contrast, in this finite the neces 
sary existence of the Infinite, and knows the Infinite 

h 1 Sam. ii. 3. 



-8 ARTICLE I. 



"by negation, in denying the limits of every finite being 
and every limited perfection. 

It is clear that this being granted, the process gives 
a demonstration of the existence of God and a know 
ledge of His attributes. For God can be demonstrated 
only so far as He is demonstrated as endowed with His 
essential attributes, without which there would be the 
demonstration of the existence of something else, not 
God. The demonstration of the existence of God gives 
His attributes at the same time, and furthermore reason 
can enlighten and dev elope the idea of God in two 
ways, as well as know His attributes. It can either 
obtain them at starting, from the consideration of cre 
ation, on the principle that the perfections of God are 
those of His creatures, only without limit; or, grant 
ing but one of the attributes of God, it can deduce the 
rest by way of identity. The Schoolmen held that 
what they termed the metaphysical essence of God was 
the attribute which implied all the rest, but we saw 
just now that there is no real distinction between God 
and His attributes, therefore reason may take any one, 
and argue to the absolute identity of all that is in God, 
a principle which belongs to Him alone, and not to 
Him with His creatures. 

Granted one attribute of God, one can take it as 
a principle, and by way of syllogistic consequence and 
algebraic identity, deduce the others. Thus to start 
from the attribute of God implied in the words " I am 
that I am." From the idea of Being/ as from the 
proposition Being is/ we can deduce the metaphysical 



OF FAITH IN THE HOLY TRINITY. 



attributes of God. We suppose that it is purely, simply, 
and absolutely true that Being is, and it is equally clear 
that when we thus speak of Being we mean the ab 
solute Being, not relative beings. 

i. This granted, if the Being is simply and abso 
lutely, it is not a finite Being, because a finite being is 
only to a certain point and not further. It has its 
limits and conditions : it is not simply and absolutely. 
Therefore, if the Being be not finite, it is infinite. 

ii. Again, if the Being be infinite, it must be infinite 
in all senses, because if it ceased to be infinite in one 
sense, in that sense it would be finite, and therefore not 
infinite. In the sense it was limited, in that sense it 
would cease to be the Being. 

iii. If Being is, it is all that is possible, otherwise it 
would not be absolute. It is all that is possible, and 
that infinitely so, for if it were not so, there would be, 
in that manner of being and in that sense, a limit in 
which it would not be so. If it is, it is infinitely all- 
possible. 

iv. The same reasoning applies to immensity and 
eternity. If it was not eternal, there would have been 
a time when it was not : if it was not immense, there 
would be a place where it was not. It therefore would 
not le purely, simply, absolutely. 

v. Furthermore, if Being is, it must be necessary. If 
it is, it cannot not be. There never has been a choice 
between Being and not being, for Being is eternal. 
An absolute being must always have been. To con 
ceive a doubt as to the non-existence of the Being is 



10 ARTICLE I. 



not to have the idea of it : it is not to know the value 
of the word. Hence it follows that all that is not the 
Being, might not have been. All that has not been 
from eternity might not have been, and is contingent. 

vi. If the Being is, it is by itself, otherwise it would 
be a relative, not an absolute Being. To be necessary, 
and to be by itself, is the same idea under two differ 
ent forms. 

vii. It is rigorously true, though truly inconceivable, 
as are many algebraic deductions in their application to 
geometry, that the Being, because It is eternal and im 
mense, is really present in all points of time and space. 
We can conceive to a certain point His immensity in 
space, but we cannot conceive His omnipresence in all 
time. And yet this is the case. For God there is no 
past or future : He sees and contains all things in an 
eternal present. The past, present, and future co 
exist in the infinite, as in a single point unextended 
and simple, the two extreme points in the centre of 
an infinitesimal element. 

viii. If God is absolutely, He is simple and uncom- 
pounded. "Were He not simple, He would be composite. 
If He was composite, He would have parts. These parts 
might be physical or spiritual. If He had physical 
parts, He could not be wholly in one point. He could 
not be so absolutely. If He had spiritual parts, they 
would be separate attributes, of which the one would 
not be the other, nor would they be in Him entire, but 
limited by each other. If, then, God is not composite, 
He is absolutely simple, and therefore His attributes 



OF FAITH IX THE HOLY TRINITY. 11 

are identical with each other and with His essence. 
God is His own essence. In God, Being and Essence 
are one. His will is His Essence. God is His Life. 
God is His own Beatitude. 

ix. God, then, being absolutely simple is one-^nay, 
unity itself. All created things have their unity in 
Him, an approximative unity, an image of unity, but 
the Infinite is alone One, He is the only concrete unity. 

x. Nay, He is so simple and one in Himself, that in 
a sense there is but one absolute Being. There cannot 
be two absolute beings, for there cannot be two in 
finites. Infinity + infinity has no sense in algebra, or 
means exactly infinity also. Infinity + infinity = 
infinity. 

xi. He who is, is unchangeable. To change is to be 
what one was not, or to cease to be what one was. To 
cease to be implies some loss, therefore Being is not 
absolute. If God is, He is unchangeable. There is no 
increase in Him. He is not like us, partly in act, 
partly in power. He is all act, actus purissimus. If 
so, He is all His possible unfolded. He is all actually 
present. He is living. 

xii. Lastly, if we only grant that there are outside of 
the Absolute Being finite and relative beings, it is true 
that they could not become such of themselves alone, 
nor commence if nothing was yet, nor be but by the 
Being that was already. Therefore the Being had 
the power to produce all that is produced : and as the 
beings which are were not, it follows that He made 
them out of nothing, or created them : which implies 



12 ARTICLE I. 



infinite power. No finite power could create things 
out of nothing. Therefore God is almighty. 

6. So far we have deduced from the idea of Being 
what are termed the metaphysical attributes of God ; 
but there are beside these, moral attributes and intel 
lectual attributes, and here we come to the question 
between atheists and ourselves. Atheism will allow 
a physical, geometrical, mechanical God, who is to the 
Infinite all that one meets with in nature and its laws ; 
but between such a God and an Infinite Intelligence 
there is a gulph fixed. Intelligence is another face, 
another dimension of Being. 

But this is not the only gulph which reason en 
counters. Given an absolute Being, eternal, immense, 
immutable; given intelligence, given infinite power, 
there still lack liberty, will, goodness. Is this in 
finitely powerful and intelligent Being free ? wills He ? 
loves He? If we look into ourselves, we find these 
powers, and we justly carry them on to God, and attri 
bute them to Him in an infinite degree ; or, if we reason 
from what we know of Him, we say He is infinite 5 
whence it follows that all perfections everywhere found 
in created things must be superabundantly and ori 
ginally found in Him. If all perfections of every sort 
pre-exist in Him, needs must be that He is intelligent, 
free, with the power of will and love. Thus the intel 
lectual attributes are revealed to the understanding by 
the understanding, and the moral attributes by the heart 
and by the conscience; and our conception of these 
first is only limited by the imperfections of these last. 



OF FAITH IN THE HOLY TRINITY. 13 

For to continue the development of the idea of 
Being, we come to find it identical with power, intel 
ligence, will, liberty, love. Take away one of these 
and you destroy Being. You take the heart out of 
that which is. You say in so many words, There is no 
Being above us. We are better ourselves than such 
a ruined God. He is no longer the Absolute. There 
fore 

God is free, good, and He loves : and this with refer 
ence to the world implies Providence, the paternal 
government of the world. 

7. He must have a distorted vision who in the visible 
creation sees not the hand of God. Such, alas ! there 
have been, and will be to the end, but they have not 
been the highest intelligences. One must lose one s 
reason, and abdicate one s senses, not to acknowledge 
that the eye was given to see with, the members to 
move with : not to comprehend that a profound know 
ledge and goodness, sustained by infinite power, has 
made our bodies and the world, and left its mark and 
signature, not only on the whole, but on each detail. 
Who can study the infinite strength, delicacy, and 
beauty of the structure of any of these parts of our own 
constitution and not say, This is the work of God ? or 
take the world and think how out of nebula it has 
gradually, through countless ages, been prepared for 
the habitation of man, ages passing and yet a constant 
advance to perfection, without confessing, not merely 
the cold abstraction of an overruling Providence, but 
the work of a tender Father, who made me, loves me, 



14 ARTICLE I. 



guards me, who reads my secret thoughts, rules the 
beatings of my heart, trains me for heaven, even in 
the smallest details of my life? Thus it is with all men. 
Such is the providential work of God in the history of 
humanity. He awaits the harvest. Even death, in 
His hands, is the light that transfigures all here be 
low, and gives it an eternal sense, for it is the pre 
lude of eternal life in the presence and enjoyment 
of God. 

8. Having said thus much on the triple distinction 
of God s attributes into metaphysical, intellectual, and 
moral, one must remark that they seem to correspond 
with the Divine Persons in the adorable Trinity, if it 
be true, as we believe, that the Holy Trinity is dis 
tinguished, according to a procession of the Word from 
Him who uttered it, and of Love from both. Pantheists 
may have perverted this into a support of their system, 
but still there is a true philosophical side to the doc 
trine, and it has applications which bear upon the 
science of humanity and of the world. As Christian 
philosophy developes itself, men will come to know 
that power, intelligence, and love, being three radical 
distinctions, are to the absolute Being what the three 
dimensions, breadth, height, and length, are to the 
body, and that they constitute an unity, as the product 
of the three unities of dimension constitute the unity 
of solidity : that they no more destroy simplicity, than 
the simplicity of the infinitesimal element of solidity is 
destroyed, because one ought there to distinguish the 
elements of the three dimensions : and that, finally, if 



OF FAITH IN THE HOLY TRINITY. 15 

it be true that in living organisms, the highest per 
fection consists in the maximum of individuality, or 
in unity, joined to the maximum of distinction of 
organs, in the absolute life, perfection consists in ab 
solute unity united to absolute distinction. But abso 
lute unity is simplicity, and absolute distinction is the 
distinction of person from person, so that one under 
stands what theologians mean when they say that the 
distinction of the Persons, in Gfod, is the condition, not 
the negation, of simplicity. In God, transcendental 
unity and transcendental plurality are identical. Our 
God is not solitary, though He be One, is the teach 
ing of S. Hilary of Poitiers. And in thus seeking by 
study and contemplation to sound the unfathomable 
depths of the mystery, let us above all dwell on the 
adoration and worship which it calls forth. Here 
is the source of all knowledge, all virtue, even life 
and immortality. Here is the heart of Christianity, 
the last prayer of our Lord, "that they may be one, 
as we are." Here is the perfection of each soul, the 
organization of the world to come, and of the ideal 
society of heaven, which will be, according to that 
prayer, a plurality of persons in one 1 . 

The Holy Trinity is the Substance of three divine 
Persons in one and the same nature. The Holy 
Trinity is God the Father, God the Son, God the 
Holy Ghost, three Persons, one God. In dwelling 
upon It, we have to consider : 

The question of Procession, which is nothing else 

1 Cf. Gratry, de la Connaissance de Dieu, torn. ii. p. 135. 



16 ARTICLE I. 



than the production or emanation of one Person from 
another, as the river flows from the source. It is either 
ad extra, or ad infra. Procession ad extra is transient, 
as when that which is produced is placed outside its 
principle ; thus, the child proceeds from its father. In 
this sense, all creatures proceed from God. The other 
procession is immanent, where the term produced abides 
within its principle, as an act of understanding re 
mains in the faculty of the understanding. Of this 
kind is the Procession in God, which may be theo 
logically defined as the emanation of one Person from 
another, as from a productive principle, not a produc 
tive cause, which would imply that it had a being dis 
tinct from that whence it proceeds, that it depended 
on it, and that it was posterior to it ; thus, " Thou art 
My Son ; this day have I begotten Thee k ;" " I came 
forth from God 1 ." The divine essence, whereby God 
is of Himself (a se}, is numerically the same in the 
three Persons, and therefore each Person by reason of 
its being, though not by reason of its Person, is a se 
and God. 

In God there are only two processions ad intra, the 
one by the understanding, whereby the Son proceedeth 
from the Father, the other by the will, whereby the 
Holy Ghost proceedeth from the Father and the Son, 
according to the two immanent actions in God, which 
are to know and to will. 

There is a double principle of action, the principium 
quod, which is the operating Person, and the princi- 
k Ps. ii. 7. l St. John viii. 42. 



OF FAITH IN THE HOLY TRINITY. 17 

piwn quo, whereby the Person worketh. This, again, is 
divided into the principium quo remotum, whereby He 
worketh mediately, and the principium quo proximum, 
by which He worketh immediately. Thus when a man 
understandeth, the principium quod is man ; the prin 
cipium quo remotum is his intellectual nature, and the 
principium quo proximum is the intellect itself; in God 
the principium quod of the processions are the pro 
ducing Persons; that is, the Person of the Father in 
respect of the Son, and the Persons of the Father and 
Son in respect of the Holy Ghost. The principium quo 
remotum is the divine Nature understanding and will 
ing. The principium quo proximum are the intellect 
and will, as the relations of paternity and active spira- 
tion indicate them as necessary conditions. 

The Son does not produce another Son, because 
intellect in the Son is no longer fertile, because it 
is expended in the production of the Son by the pro 
duction of an infinite term, for one action can produce 
but one adequate term. Therefore the Holy Ghost 
cannot generate ; and so the Holy Ghost, though hav 
ing the same will with the Father and the Son, does 
not produce another Spirit, for to will in Him has not 
the character of spiration or fertility, seeing that in the 
Father and the Son, it has produced its adequate and 
complete term, i. e. the Holy Ghost Himself. 

While we call the Procession of the Son from the 
Father, Generation, we do not give that name to the 
Procession of the Holy Ghost, because production by 
will differs from production by intellect inasmuch as- 



18 ARTICLE I. 



it is not formally assimilative, which is the essence of 
the other. 

Theologians in treating of the three Divine Persons 
of the ever-blessed Trinity, are accustomed to speak of 
the Father as the first, the Son as the second, and the 
Holy Ghost as the third Person of the Holy Trinity, 
and this not because one Person "is afore or after 
other," either in time or duration, but because there is 
in the nature of the Godhead a certain order of source 
or origin; an order, as St. Augustine says, "not by 
which one may be before the other, but by which 
one is from the other m ." Hence it is not allowable 
to speak of any of the divine Persons having a prin 
ciple or beginning as to time, though we may speak of 
the second and third as having a principle of produc 
tion, i. e. they do not exist from nothing, but have 
from all eternity had their being communicated to 
them. Hence, too, we may not call the Father "be 
fore " the Son in nature, but " before " Him in source 
or origin. All three Persons are equally wise, power 
ful, and eternal, for the whole perfection of the divine 
nature is in each. 

Some persons stumble at the words of our Lord, 
"My Father is greater than I n ;" but St. Thomas , 
with many other theologians, maintains that the pre 
vious words of the text, " I go unto the Father/ make 
it sufficiently clear that our Lord was speaking simply 
of His sacred humanity. Neither do our Lord s words, 

m St. Aug., cont. Max., c. 4. n St. John xiv. 28. 

St. Thomas, Part I. 9, xlii. qu. &c. 



OF FAITH IN THE HOLY TRINITY. 19 

"The Son can do nothing of Himself p ," oppose this 
doctrine, for they merely signify that the Son having, 
by His generation, the same power and essence with 
the Father, can do nothing to the exclusion of the 
Father ; every power which the Father has, the Son 
has likewise with Him, though sometimes with a dif 
ferent relation ; e. g. the power by which the Father 
generates, is in the Son, the Father having it as giving, 
the Son as receiving. 

The mutual inexistence of the divine Persons, one in 
the other, of which our Blessed Lord speaks % is called 
by theologians, Circuminsession and Co-inherence. 

In speaking of " mission " with reference to the 
Persons of the Blessed Trinity, theologians are to be 
understood to mean, the " procession " of one Person 
from another, having relation to some temporal effect. 
Two things are required in "mission" thus understood; 

1. That the Person sent proceed from Him who sends ; 

2. That the Person sent stands in a new relation to 
the object to which (terminus ad quern] He is sent. 
Hence we gather; 

That the Father can be sent of none, for He proceeds 
from none. 

That the Son is sent of the Father only r . 

That the Holy Ghost is sent by the Father and by 
the Son s . 

That the Holy Ghost, as neither of the Persons pro 
ceeds from Him, so neither of them are sent by Him. 

P St. John v. 19. i Ibid. xiv. 11 ; xvii. 21. 

r St. John vi. 57. s Compare St. John xiv, 26, with xv. 26. 






20 ARTICLE I. 



Although we cannot speak of the Father as sent, 
yet it is lawful to speak both of Him and of the whole 
Trinity as "given" to men, to dwell in them by 
grace 1 . When we speak of "mission" putting one of 
the Divine Persons in a new relation, we must remem 
ber that the dicing e is in the relation of the creature to 
whom the Person is sent, and not in the Person ; " mis 
sion," be it also remembered, is the term specially used 
to denote not the eternal generation or spiration, but 
the "sending forth" of one of the Persons to work 
certain effects in time. 

Mission is 1. Invisible, when the effect to work 
which the Person is sent is invisible and not seen out 
wardly ; thus, as by grace our souls are conformed to 
the image of the Son, the Son may be said to be in 
visibly " sent" to us. St. Augustine 11 says, "the Son is 
then invisibly sent to any one, when He is known and 
apprehended by him;" so also the Holy Ghost is in 
visibly sent, when by hallowing grace He comes to 
dwell in the hearts of the just v . 

2. Visible, when it is accompanied by some effect 
sensibty appearing, and representing the Person sent ; 
thus the Son was visibly sent in the Incarnation x ; we 
frequently read of the Holy Ghost being visibly sent, 
as a Dove r ; as a bright Cloud z ; as a Breath a ; as 
Tongues like as of fire b ; nor should the missions to the 



1 Vide St. John xiv. 23. u lib. iv. de Trin., c. 20. v Gal. 

iv. 6. * St. John iii. 17 ; St. Luke iv. 18; Rom. viii. 3. 

y St. Matt. iii. 16. St. Matt. xvii. 5. a St. John xx. 22. 

b Acts ii. 3. 



OF FAITH IN THE HOLY TRINITY. 21 

first Christians be forgotten as recorded in Acts viii. 
18 ; x. 44 ; xix. 6, and in other places. 

It is not strictly correct to speak of men " sending," 
or "giving" the Holy Ghost by administering the 
Sacraments ; it is safer to say that they give the Holy 
Ghost ministerially, i.e. that God uses their ministry to 
give the Holy Ghost c . 

Such is the great God as He is revealed to us in our 
most holy faith, ineffable, incomprehensible, known to 
us for certain only so far as He is revealed to us, above 
time and beyond space, His own law, His own suffi 
ciency, His own centre, His own end. " Canst thou by 
searching find out God ?" Yet so soon as He is made 
known to us in His beauty, goodness, and power, our 
souls, made originally to contemplate and enjoy Him, 
rise to the conception of His eternal attributes, and in 
the image of Him thus formed in the still waters of 
the human heart we cannot fail to own Him, as the 
true Lord of heaven and earth, as the blessed and only 
Potentate, the eternal Father, Whom to know is to 
live, Whom to serve is to reign. 

c Vide St. Thomas, pt. I. qu. xliii. Compare with this the words 
of the Ordinal at the Consecration of Archbishop Parker : " Take the 
Holy Ghost." 



ARTICLE II. 

DE VERBO, SIVE FILIO DEI, QUI YERUS 
HOMO FACTUS EST. 

FILIUS, qui est rerbum Patris, ab ceterno a Patre genitus, 
verus et ceternus Dens, ac Patri consubstantialis, in utero 
beatce Viryinis, ex illius substantid, natiiram humanam 
assumpsit : ita ut duce naturce, dimna et humana, inte- 
gre atque perfecte in imitate personcv fuerint insepara- 
Uliter conjunct^ ex quibus est umis Christus, vcrus 
Deus et vcrus homo, qui vere passus est, crucifixus, 
martinis, et sepnltm, ut Patrem nobis rcconciliaret, es- 
setque hostia, non tantum pro culpa originis, vemm 
etiampro omnibus actiialibus hominum peccatis. 



Of the Word, or Son of God, ichich was made very Man. 

" THE Son, whicli is the Word of the Father, begotten 
from everlasting of the Father, the very and eternal 
God, of one substance with the Father, took man s 
nature in the womb of the blessed Virgin, of her sub 
stance : so that two whole and perfect natures, that is 
to say, the Godhead and Manhood, were joined to 
gether in one Person, never to be divided, whereof is 
one Christ, very God and very Man, who truly suf 
fered, was crucified, dead, and buried, to reconcile His 
Father to us ; and to be a sacrifice, not only for original 
guilt, but also for all actual sins of men." 



1. ALTHOUGH some of the ancients, such as Lactantius 
and Tertullian, from want of precision called God the 



OF THE WORD, OR SON OF GOD, &C. 23 

Word or the Person of the Son, the Holy Spirit, and 
though some of the early heretics distinguished God 
the Word from the Son of God by nature, yet the 
Church hath ever held that the Son and the Word are 
two terms describing that divine Person Who, eternally 
begotten by the Father by way of thought, is the ulti 
mate term of the intellect of God. 

There are many names in Holy Scripture which 
apply to the Son, some of which refer to His divine 
substance, others to the nature He assumed, and some 
to the Person, which embraces both. Thus St. Ambrose 
says, "There are some names which evidently shew 
forth the properties of deity ; others which express the 
similitude of the Father and the Son ; others the unity 
of the divine Majesty. Those which express proper 
ties are generation, God, Son, Word. Those which 
express similitude, are splendour, character, mirror, 
image. Those which signify the eternal unity are 
wisdom, power, breath, life, twelve names correspond 
ing to the twelve gems which glittered on the breast 
plate of the High-Priest a ." The name Word was 
happily chosen as expressing the two characters of the 
eternal Son, being at once Iv Sew and e/c Qeov. 

2. " Begotten from everlasting of the Father." If 
there be one part of religion which demands from us 
a simple faith on authority rather than a comprehen 
sion from reason, it is this truth, which is so recondite 
and abstract, that all we know from the Holy Scripture 
is, that there is a Father who begets, and a Son who is 

a DC Fide, lib. ii. 3, vol. ii. p. 471. 



24 ARTICLE II. 



begotten. God is not the object of investigation, but 
He is the object of knowledge. Perfect knowledge is 
so to know Him as to say that none can declare Him, 
yet all must know Him. He is to be believed, He is 
to be known, He is to be adored. St. Athanasius says, 
<{ It is unmeet to ask how the Word exists from God ; 
or how He is the brightness of God ; or how God 
begets ; or what is the mode of that generation. He 
were mad, who so dared to declare in speech that 
which is unexplorable, a property of the divine nature, 
known only to God and to His Son b ." And St. Basil, 
ff Dost thou believe that He is begotten, ask not how. 
If it be right to ask how the unbegotten is the un- 
begotten, then you may ask how the begotten is be 
gotten. But if the first is not subject of question, so 
neither is the second c ." All that we dare to say is, 
that it is 1. Incomprehensible, being beyond our 
ken ; 2. Perfect, because no sterility can be predicated 
of God ; 3. Substantial, as proceeding from a cause or 
principle ; 4. Producing similarity, in that that which 
is begotten is like the begotten ; 5. That there be com 
munication of the substance of the Begotten. On this 
very profound subject we can do no better than quote 
the lines in which Prudentius d sums up all that is 
known or revealed on the subject : 

"Hoc solum scimus, quod traditur esse Deum quern 
J^on genitus Genitor generaverit, unus et unum, 
Integer integrum, non cceptum, sed tamen ortum, 

b Orat. Cont. Arian, ii. 36. c Bas., Horn. 29. 

d Apotheosis, 268. 



OF THE WORD, OR SON OF GOD, &C. 25 

Et coniperpetuum retro Patris, et Patre natum. 
Sed nee decisus Pater est, ut pars Patris esset 
Films : extendens nee se substantia tractim 
Produxit, minuitve aliquid de numine plcno ; 
Dum mutata novum procudit portio Natum. 
jN"on convertibilis, nee demutabilis unquam 
Est Deus, aut gignendo aliquid sibi detrahit : atqui 
Totus et ex toto Deus est, de lumine lumen. 
Quando autem lumen sine lumine ? quando refulgens 
Lux fulgore caret ? quando est ut proditus ignis 
Ignem deminuat ? Quando Pater et Deus et lux 
lucis Deus et Pater est ? qui, si Pater olim 
fuit, et serum genuit post tempore Natum 
Fit novus, inque novum jus proficit. Absit ut unquam 
Plenus proficiat, qui non eget incremento. 
Et Deus et genitor, lumenque et gloria semper 
Ille fuit: nee post sibi contulit, ut Pater esset. 
Sic fit ut aaternum credamus cum Patre Christum 
Illo auctore satum, cui nullus prajfuit auctor." 

3. " The very and eternal God." This is an assertion 
that in theological language the Son is avroQeos. In 
St. Athanasius e we find avroaocfrla, avroXoyos, avro- 
Svvaiiis, avrocfrcos, and such like, just as the Holy Ghost, 
in Gregory Nazianzen, is termed avTOKivyTov and avro- 
SvvajAov; and yet in another sense Athanasius denies 
that He is avTocroQia or avro\6yos. These contra 
dictions are easily reconciled if we consider the force 
of CIVTO in composition. If it mean that He proceedeth 
from no principle, but is an unbegotten substance, then 
He is not avToaotyta, for that were Sabellianism, which 
e Contra Gentes, 46. 



26 ARTICLE II. 



is to admit neither difference nor origin of Persons; 
but if the avro be taken to mean that He hath not the 
divinity or the wisdom by participation or relatively, 
in this sense the expression is correct. He is wisdom 
itself, inasmuch as He possesseth all these things not 
by participation, nor by external gift, as those who are 
partakers of it, and become wise and powerful and rea 
sonable by Him ; but He is the very Wisdom, the very 
Reason or Word, the very power of the Father, the 
very truth, the very light, the very righteousness, the 
very virtue : "As the Father hath life in Himself, so 
hath He given to the Son to have life in Himself f ." 

4. The term consubstantiaP was objected to by the 
Arians as unscriptural, and was accused both of mate 
rialism and Sabellianism. The word ovo-la, in the lan 
guage of Aristotle, stood for an individual substance 
numerically one, which is producible of nothing but 
itself. Improperly it stood for a species or genus. 
Based on this, Christianity took it in a sense of its 
own, such as we have no example of in things created, 
viz., that of a Being numerically one existing in three 
Persons ; so that the word is producible, or in one sense 
universal, without ceasing to be individual. Heretics 
objected to the term in the philosophical sense, and 
then, as applied to Father and Son, it either implied 
parts of a material subject, or involved no real distinc 
tion of persons. Hence the Homoousion. It was denied 
by Arians before the Mcene Synod, and was rejected at 
the Council of Antioch, when it was taken in a wrong 

f St. John v. 26; cf. 1 St. John v. 11. 



OF THE WORD, OR SON OF GOD, &C. 2T 

sense by Paul of Samosata. " They who deposed Samo- 
satene took one in substance in a bodily sense, because 
Paul had attempted sophistry, and said, unless Christ 
has of man become God it follows that He is in one 
substance with the Father ; and if so, of necessity there 
are three substances, one the previous substance, and 
the other two from it, and therefore guarding against 
this, they said with good reason that Christ was not 
one in substance. For the Son is not related to the 
Father as he imagined. But the bishops who anathe 
matized the Arian heresy, understanding Paul s craft, 
and reflecting that the word one in substance has 
not this meaning when used of things immaterial, and 
especially of God, and acknowledging that the Word 
is not a creature, but an offspring from the substance, 
and that the Father s substance was the origin, and 
root, and fountain of the Son, and that He was of very 
truth the Father s likeness, and not of another nature, 
as we are, and separate from the Father, but that as 
being from Him, He exists as Son indivisible, as radi 
ance is with respect to light, and knowing too the 
illustrations used in Dionysius case, (the fountain) 
and the defence of one in substance, and before that 
the Saviour s saying, symbolical of oneness, f l and My 
Father are one, and he that hath seen Me hath seen 
the Father, on these grounds, reasonably asserted on 
their part, that the Son was one in substance g ." Yet 
though the word thus admirably describes the truth, 
though it was all-important that the word should be 

* Athan., Cone. Arim. et Sel, Oxf. Tr. p. 144. 



28 ARTICLE IT. 



used in the Council, yet the Church was very tender 
in enforcing it. The next generation of bishops were 
more sparing in using it: even St. Athanasius himself 
did not insist upon it unreasonably : " It should be 
observed how careful the Fathers of the day were not 
to mix up the question of doctrine which rested on 
Catholic tradition with that of the adoption of a term 
which rested on a Catholic injunction. Not that the 
term was not in duty to be received, but it was to be 
received on account of its Catholic sense, and where 
the Catholic sense was held, the word might even by 
a sort of dispensation be waived 11 ." 

5. The astonishing truth that the Word had as 
sumed human nature was stoutly denied by many of 
the early heretics. Hence we find how necessary it 
was for the Evangelists to lay such store by the 
human actions of our Lord. The Docetse denied that 
our Lord was man, and maintained that He was but 
a phantasm. In appearance only was He born and 
crucified. So also held the disciples of Simon Magus, 
adding that Simon the Cyrenian had suffered in His 
stead. Valentinus divided Christ from Jesus, holding 
that the first was born of Unigena, the latter of all 
the ^Eons at once. He called Him Christ and Sa 
viour, said that He passed through Mary, but had 
received nothing of her. The Ophites said that Christ 
was the serpent that had deceived Eve, and worshipped 
it. They hated Jesus the Son of the Virgin Mary, 
into whom they said that Christ descended : so taught 
b Athan., ib., p. 157, n. 



OF THE WORD, OR SON OF GOD, &C. 29 

some of the Manichees, and that to delude men s senses, 
He appeared and simulated a death and resurrection. 
The Priscillianists denied that Christ had a pure exist 
ence, and asserted that He had not the true nature 
of man. Neither Arius nor Apollinaris admitted that 
our Lord was true man. Eutyches did not believe 
that our Lord was true and perfect man after His 
Ascension, and his followers believed that the human 
nature was absorbed into the divine, some before, some 
after the Resurrection ; others, again, held a composite 
nature. 

Against these manifold errors, the Church of God, 
resting on the sure word of Holy Scripture, which as 
serts that " the Word was made flesh i ;" that Christ 
" was made according to the flesh of the seed of 
David J;" that "Every spirit that confesseth that 
Christ is come in the flesh, is of God k / ; and that, 
" Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of 
flesh and blood, He also took part in the same 1 ;" 
has ever maintained that our Lord Christ was a true 
and perfect man, composed of a reasonable soul and 
human body. That human body was assumed as the 
instrument whereby the actions through which the 
world is saved have been wrought. The Word is said 
to have donned human nature, never more to doff it, 
to shew that without any change in itself, there is 
made the accession of another nature to itself, and in 
being so assumed, human nature has been deified, and 

1 St. John i. 14. > Rom. i. 3. k 1 St. John iv. 3. 

1 Hcb. ii. 14. 



30 ARTICLE IT. 



has become life-giving, because it belongs to the Word. 
Nor is this deification merely relative; nor on the 
other hand is the humanity turned into divinity, but 
it is as subsisting in the Word. 

Yet we must not hold with the Lutherans that the 
humanity of our Lord is ubiquitous, for the humanity 
of our Lord is in heaven, in a certain local circum 
scribed place. 

6. " In the womb of the Blessed Virgin, of her sub 
stance." As the unenlightened and carnal nature of 
man shrank from recognising in the meek and lowly 
Jesus of Nazareth the Word made flesh, and so twisted 
and contorted itself on every side if so be that it might 
rid itself of this astounding conception, so it was a sore 
trial to it to believe that any daughter of man, however 
holy, should be brought into that awful proximity with 
the nature of God, which the true doctrine of the In 
carnation implies. Yet no earthly son was ever so 
completely the son of his mother, as God the Son is 
the Son of His. For in earthly generations there are 
two human parents who jointly give life and being to 
their offspring : whereas in Christ, the entire pure man 
hood came from the substance of His mother only. 

The exaggerated and daily intensifying language of 
Roman divines on the subject of the present office of 
the Blessed Virgin, (language peculiarly significant 
when we are assured on very high authority that 
we may be sure that " whatsoever is prevalent in the 
Church under the eye of its public authority, prac 
tised by the people, and not censured by its pastors, 



OF THE WORD, OR SON OF GOD, &C. 31 

is at least conformable to faith, and innocent as to 
morals m ,") such as that all graces come through her 
as the neck which unites Christ the Head with the 
Church the Body, or that she is our Co-redemptrix/ 
the Authoress of our everlasting salvation/ have pre 
vented Anglicans doing justice to the position of the 
Holy Virgin in the order of grace. They have shrunk 
from looking the doctrine concerning her fairly in the 
face. They have not allowed their minds to dwell on 
the incomparable singularity, on the incommunicable 
prerogative of Divine Maternity. While they freely 
dwell on the gifts of God in other saints, in the patri 
archs under the old law for instance, they shrink from 
resting on the sweet and holy images which surround 
the name of Mary. This is in every way wrong. A the 
ology that is afraid of possible consequences is sure to 
err. We must state the absolute truth, and leave con 
sequences to God. To eliminate from our moral the 
ology the idea of the Blessed Virgin, is to strip it of 
some of its most delicate bloom. What does not civili 
zation, what does not woman owe to the sublime and 
tender conception of Mary, which has done more to 
tame the rude social life of Europe in the middle ages 
than any other one idea ! And what more constraining 
motive to purity of soul, next of course to the thought 
of Him Who is the great Exemplar of all virtues, 
can there exist than the idea of such perfect spotless 
womanhood as a grateful Christendom recognises in 
our Lady ! But there is a still more serious thought. 

m Pastoral, on Reunion of Christendom, by Manning, p. 65. 



32 ARTICLE II. 



After making every allowance for the re-action against 
the distressing language of certain popular Roman 
devotions, there is a danger lest the shrinking from 
a due appreciation of the dignity of the Mother, may 
not generate an imperfect belief in the divine per 
sonality of the Son, and no error is so deadly as that 
which seeks to touch the person of Jesus. For just 
consider how much is bound up in the thought ex 
pressed in our Article, that "the Word took man s 
nature in the womb of the Blessed Virgin, of her sub 
stance." It implies all those tremendous consequences 
that are involved in the term OeoToicosj "Mother of 
God," a term asserted to be of apostolical tradition, 
certainly employed at a very early period in the Church, 
and endorsed by the sanction of a General Council. 
That term, (the underlying truth of which was denied 
by the Ebionites, by Leporius and the Pelagians, and 
by the followers of Nestorius, and shared also by Euty- 
ches from a different point of view, by Felix and Eli- 
pandus, the Adoptionists, and, lastly, by some ill- 
instructed Protestants,) implies that Mary, not by the 
power of nature, but by the overshadowing of the Holy 
Ghost, brought forth in the flesh Christ, the true God, 
the Son of God by nature, so that she is just as truly 
and as properly Oeoro/cos, as Christ is truly and pro 
perly Qeos. 

No wonder that the pious sentiment of Christendom 
in the contemplation of this stupendous dignity should 
have burst forth in finding paraphrases for this won 
drous term, that it should awake to the conception of an 



OF THE WORD, OR SON OF GOD, &C. 33 



ideal of female holiness, such as no mere human reason 
could attain unto. No wonder that poetry has strained 
her utmost to find words to describe the celestial glories 
of her whom all generations call blessed, or that the 
art of the limner and sculptor should have been taxed 
to the full to embody in external expression those 
marvellous combinations of lowliness and glory, of 
gentleness and power, of grace and strength, which 
attend on the idea of the creature-mother of the 
Creator- Son. 

" Thou maidc and mother, daughter of thy Son, 
Thou well of mercy, sinful soules cure, 
In whom that God of bounty chees to won ; 
Thou humble and high over every creature, 
Thou nobledst so far forth our nature, 
That no disdaine the Maker had of kinde, 
His Son in blood and flesh to clothe and winde. 

Within the cloister blisful of thy sides, 
Toke mannes shape the eternal love and pees 
That of the trine compas Lord and gide is, 
Whom erthe, and see, and heven, out of relees 
Ay herien ; and thou virgine wemmiles, 
Bare of thy body (and dwcllest maides pure,) 
The creatore of evry creature"." Chaucer. 

" " It hath been said of me, O Latimer, Nay, as for him, I will 
never believe him while I live, nor never trust him, for he likened our 
Blessed Lady to a saffron-bag; when indeed I never used that simili 
tude. But in case I had used this similitude, it had not been to be re 
proved, but might have been without reproach. For I might have said 
thus : As the saffron-bag that hath been full of saffron, or hath had 
saffron in it, doth ever after savour and smell of the sweet saffron that it 
contained, so our Blessed Lady which conceived and bare Christ; in her 

D 



34 ARTICLE II. 



7. The mystery of the Incarnation is the vastest and 
most profound of all the ways of God. It reaches to 
the heavens above; it descends to the depths beneath. 
It solves a multitude of problems, which but for it 
were insoluble; it gives a master key to all history, 
and enters into the individual life of every human 
soul brought within reach of it. Yet how past finding 
out are God s judgments ! God made man, the Eternal 
Word made flesh, the Creator and Governor of the 
universe born of a lowly woman, in a little town, in 
a little country of our little planet ; the Infinite re 
duced within the proportions of the finite, the Un- 
circumscript held in space. " How can these things 
be ?" If the mystery explains all things, it is at the 
price of being inexplicable itself: it is no rest to the 
human mind that this last problem, like Moses rod, 
should swallow all the rest that vex and perplex the 
spirit of man. 

The mind of the great poet-philosopher of Italy, in 
speaking of the mystery of the Trinity, says that he is 
mad who wishes to know how three Persons can be in 
one substance, and then he adds, " human race, stay 
contented at the quid the fact. If we knew that, there 
were no need that Mary should have given birth to 
a Son." In the same spirit, Theodotus speaking of 
the mystery of which we are treating, says, " If thou 

womb, did ever after resemble the manners and virtues of that precious 
babe that she bare. And what had our Blessed Lady been the worse for 
this ? or what dishonour was this to our Blessed Lady ?" Latitner s 
" Sermon of the Plough." 



OF THE WORD, OR SON OF GOD, &C. 35 

wouldest know, learn the quiet, the fact that He was 
made ; the alone worker of miracles, God, knoweth 
the how, quomodo ." 

This runs through all God s dealings with us. We 
may know His purpose ; we cannot know His method 
-of operation. These are the two sides of the cloud 
which led the children of Israel through the desert. 
It is a property, even in mathematics, that things 
\\hich explain other things are themselves inexplica 
ble; nay, they explain in the measure that they 
cannot be explained ; therefore that which explains 
all things, God, must, of all things, be the most in 
explicable. Things cannot be explained but after the 
things which are anterior to them, and consequently 
That which is anterior to all, cannot be explained after 
anything. Moreover the Infinite is the archetype of 
the finite, which therein receives the rationale of its 
existence, as its actual existence. Thus we can ex 
plain the world and creation only by God, the Creator, 
but we cannot explain Him ; and we can explain the 
moral and social world, man and humanity, only by 
the solution afforded it by the Incarnation, but no 
one can explain that Incarnation. However, though 
nothing can explain the Infinite and His operation, all 
things bear witness to Him. God explains the world, 
and the world proves God : in biblical language, " The 
heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament 
sheweth His handywork." Much more is this the case 
with reference to the Incarnation, where the Infinite is 

Sec a grand passage on the quomodo, in St. Cyril, in Joan., 359, 360. 



ARTICLE II. 



not only in operation, but in person ; both object and 
subject; both cause and effect : " Abyssus inscrutabilis, 
Sacramentum Divinse Incarnationis P." 

But a person may say, I admit to the full the idea 
of mystery in religion, and the mystery of the Incar 
nation charms me by its beauty, and the rich morality 
of its economy, but it seems to me to involve contra 
diction ; How can the Infinite be at the same time 
finite ? how can the Omnipresent God quit one place 
for another ? how can the uncircumscript God become 
measured by space ? how can the Eternal God be 
born, the Impassible God die ? how can Greatness and 
Majesty become man ? Let us take these difficulties 
in their order. 

I. How can the Infinite be at the same time finite ; 
Creator and Creature, God and Man in Jesus Christ ? 
In Jesus Christ are two natures, the infinite and the 
finite, but one single Person, the person of God the 
Son. If these two natures made one nature, there 
would be a contradiction, as one could not conceive 
the finite and the infinite as one thing; but the two 
natures remain two natures, as distinct after as before 
the union. There is no contradiction here. Neither is 
there any from the thought that one person cannot 
be composed of two natures so as to complete it, for the 
Personality of Jesus Christ is what it is, that of God 
the Son, without the help of the human nature. Con 
taining all perfection it can receive no increase ; it is 

P St. Bernard, In Annunc. S. M. De Septiformi Spiritu in Christo. 
Serm. II. 6. 



OF THE WORD, OR SON OF GOD, &C. 37 

joined to human nature not to perfect itself, but to 
perfect that human nature. It holds the place of all; 
gives all, receives nothing. The divinity does not 
enter into composition with the manhood in Jesus 
Christ. This is emphatically union ; an imperfect 
analogy may be derived from ourselves. Had such 
a thing never been formed, had there never been but 
pure spirits and animal bodies, it would have been 
difficult to have conceived a being which united the 
qualities of both, which could be at once flesh and 
spirit, which could live in the highest metaphysical 
abstraction, and yet be under the influence of the 
lowest and basest earthly sensations. Yet this is what 
man is, and so the Son of God is the object of a still 
more transcendent union : " What is man ? a rational 
soul joined to a body; what is Christ? the Word of 
God joined to man." Here is mystery, profound mys 
tery, but no contradiction. 

II. But it may be said, How can one conceive that 
God, who is universal, should have quitted a place to 
come to another : have been " sent/ come upon earth, 
come down and re-ascended? But the Son of God has 
never quitted any place. This is but a way of speaking 
in accommodation to our frailty. The Son of Man 
was in heaven when He sat with Nicodemus^. The 
Incarnation is not a migration, it is an exhibition of 
the Godhead. As the Eternal Son proceeds eternally 
from the Father without leaving His bosom, so His 
appearance in the midst of us is a visible extension 

i St. John iii. 2, and 13. 



38 ARTICLE II. 



of that invisible extension which hath made the Son 
the Sent of the Father, as the ray is sent forth from 
the sun. 

III. Or it may be asked, How can God, who is 
uncircum script and invisible, localize Himself in His 
entirety in Jesus Christ, in the ineffable union of 
the holy Incarnation? To this we answer, that in 
Christ dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily, 
and yet that Divinity filleth all things, and by its 
immensity passes beyond the whole universe of crea 
tures. It is all entire in one, without separation from 
any other. Just as in the case of a person speaking, 
he utters a word which goes in its entirety to one 
auditor, and also in its entirety to all the auditory. 
One possesses it in its generality and it overflows among 
the multitude, who all possess it complete : so it is not 
surprising that God, all complete in heaven and in the 
universe, should at the same time be all complete in 
the Humanity of the Word. 

IY. Next, one may ask how can one say God is- 
born, or God died ? How can the Son, born from all 
eternity of the Father, be born a second time of 
Mary ? How can the Impassible One die ? All this 
is of faith, not a jot or tittle of its sharpness can be 
taken from it, but it is incomprehensible : Yes, but 
not irrational. 

When one speaks of any one, He is born, he is dead, 
it is the individual, the person, of whom one speaks, as 
indicated by the personal pronoun he. The body and 
soul have reference to a personal subject, who is the- 



OF THE WORD, OR SON OF GOD, &C. 39 



Ego. But in Jesus Christ there is but one Person, one 
Ego, and that Ego is the Word, God of G od. It is, then, 
God who is born, and who has died in Jesus Christ. 

But in the Word, the Son of God, there is the divine 
nature and the Person. The Person and the Nature 
are distinct. The divine nature is common to the 
Divine Persons in the Holy Trinity, and the Person 
is the means of being of that nature which differs in 
the Father, or the Son, or the Holy Ghost. When 
we say person, we do not mean Nature. The Person 
is God, the nature is Deity. 

When speaking of the Word we say God is born 
we do not say the Deity is born, for then it would be 
the Divine Nature which was subject to birth and 
death, and both the Father and the Holy Ghost would 
be predicated of in the same way, which were heresy. 
But, it may be asked, what has this to do in helping 
the difficulty, since if the Person be God, it is the 
Deity personified ? It is the Divinity which is born 
and dies. This is not the case, for by the birth from 
Mary, that which is already God takes human nature, 
appropriates a humanity, and this appropriation of hu 
manity one calls birth, so that it is equally true, that He 
who is born is God, and yet He is not born as God. 
The divine existence hath not to do with that birth 
and death, being entirely distinct from the human na 
ture, only joined to it by personal communication. 

Such is the mystery of the Incarnation; mystery, 
indeed, if ever there were mystery, but such as ought 
and must be, when God is its subject. 



40 ARTICLE II. 



V. There remains the fifth difficulty. How could 
God, without derogating from the dignity of His 
nature, come to assume ours in the womb of one of 
His creatures ? How can we conceive that He for 
whom the heavens are not great enough, should be 
come man, should be made flesh ? While the heart 
accepts the thought of this divine charity in abase 
ment, the reason revolts against it, even as the greatest 
manifestation of love, and sees in it contradiction, and 
a sort of rational impossibility. 

" Do not be ever quoting the members of a virgin as 
a dishonour to the Divinity. For by their nature they 
have nothing unworthy. Had they been unworthy, 
or a dishonour to God, He would not have made them 
with His divine hands ; for God maketh nothing but 
good, and there is no disgrace in God indwelling in 
His own handiwork. 

" But you add that to you it seemeth inappropriate, 
that He who inhabiteth the heavens should take up 
His abode in man. Yet here thou judgest rather by 
passion and by prejudice, than by right reason. Tell 
me, except heaven, what is greater than man. Stop 
not to consider the splendour of the material world, 
let not the grace of colour and form which thou seest 
in nature seduce thee, be not dazzled by the magni 
ficence of the rays of the sun ; confuse not thyself at 
the thought that God is clothed in flesh and skin, as 
Job beareth witness. But consider the excellence of 
the reasonable soul, the moral constitution of man, 
and thou canst not fail to admire this divine beinff. 



OF THE WORD, OR SON OF GOD, &C. 41 

He hath received as gifts hands, the ministers of his 
thought, whereby he can do wonders. Alone, of all 
the animals, he has been constituted free, alone he 
hath been created in the power of will. The sun 
obeys its laws, and circulates in its orbit ; it is with 
out freedom or will ; but man doth what he willeth. 
The sun is a slave, thou art free. Is it, then, sur 
prising that God should come to dwell in man, whom 
He hath so graciously made in His own image, de 
claring thereby from the beginning His delight to be 
with him ? 

" It is true He took dust to form thy body, while He 
made thy soul the image of His divinity. Wherefore 
willed He to form of so base a stuff that which He 
vouchsafed so to adorn ? Why took He not the glory 
of the sun when He willed to make man, and not the 
very dust of the earth ? He did it to keep man hum 
ble, that the baseness of his origin should be a counter 
poise to the might of his destination ; that he might 
recognise that it was from no merit of his OWE, but 
from the munificence of his Maker, that thus he came 
to be. 

"So noble a creature is man, however fallen into 
ignominy by sin. Judge him not as fallen, but in his 
original righteousness, and thou wilt see no dishonour 
in the good God, for the good of such a creature, con 
descending to communicate with it, as He hath done r ." 

Thus are resolved all the difficulties of apparent con- 

r Serm. Theod. Anc. ap. Concil. Eph., torn. iii. 1016, 1017, ed. Labbe 
et Cessart. 



42 ARTICLE II. 



tradiction in the mystery of the Incarnation, those 
only which one may venture to try to solve, and this 
by rigorous comparisons and reasons, rather than by 
explanations, shewing us that there are mysteries in 
the natural order, and analogies that can clear our 
thoughts. 

But this is all. The mystery is not less a mystery. 
The depth is still as unfathomed, in which all vain 
conceptions come to be cast into the Omnipotence of 
the Infinite, of which the incomprehensibility itself 
becomes the evidence. One may say, in this sense, 
that, freed from all false notions concerning it, and 
vindicated from the impossibilities of reason, which 
men fancy they see in it, the mystery of the Incar 
nation proves itself, by its depth, by its height, by 
its infinity s . 

One end of the Incarnation is in this Article stated 
to be the reversal of the penalty of the Fall, and the 
annulling of the handwriting that was against man. 
The expression, "to reconcile the Father to us/ which 
is not a Scriptural one, must be taken metom/mice, 
just as we find human emotions, e.g. repentance and 
change of purpose, frequently in the Old Testament 
attributed to God. The Scriptural expression is al 
ways the other way. The change is on the part of 
man. " Who hath reconciled its to Himself by Jesus 
Christ*;" " We pray you in Christ s stead be ye 



s Cf. the thoughtful Appendix on the Incarnation in M. Nicolas* 
work on the Blessed Virgin Mary. 
* 2 Cor. v. 18. 



OF THE WORD, OR SON OF GOD, &C. 43 

reconciled to God u ;" " By Him to reconcile all things 
unto Himself v ;" "God was in Christ reconciling the 
world unto Himself V Yet we may not blame the 
expression because God who is great without quantity, 
good without quality, allows us to employ words with 
regard to Him which though not absolutely true, re 
present the truth concerning Him, and His dealings 
with us, in the most real way that we are capable 
of receiving it. And this is one aspect of the fruits 
of the Incarnation, that in some mysterious way, for 
the merits of Jesus Christ, God is pleased to look upon 
us in mercy. 

The extreme intellectual difficulties which attend on 
a belief in the vicarious satisfaction of Christ, whereby 
the just has died for the unjust, have been aggravated 
by the coarse and disproportionate manner in which 
that doctrine has been taught. The analogy of the 
faith has been violated by the suppression of other 
balancing truths. The truth itself has not been carried 
out into its logical consequences, and notions of d priori 
fitness have been imported into it in a way totally un 
necessary. Thus a sort of discordance of will between 
the First and Second Persons in the adorable Trinity 
has been assumed ; the Father fierce and longing to 
punish, the Son all mercy and indulgence, whereas 
they may not be separated in will, even in thought; 
and while the Father never ceases to be our Father, 
yearning over the wayward creation of His own hands, 
the Son is still the revelation of the righteousness of 

* 2 Cor. v. 20. v Col. i. 21. w 2 Cor. v. 19. 



44 ARTICLE II. 



God, and we believe that He shall come to be our 
judge. 

Yet both Holy Scripture and the ancient doctors 
unanimously attribute to the life, and especially to the 
death, of our Lord, the character of an expiatory sacri 
fice. As one with the Holy Eucharist, our Lord says, 
"This is My Blood of the New Testament, which is 
shed for many for the remission of sins x ." Predicting 
the same holy mystery, he elsewhere says, " The Bread 
that I will give is My Flesh, which I will give for the 
life of the world ?." So St. Paul : " Christ our Passover 
is sacrificed for us z ;" " Christ hath given Himself for 
us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smell 
ing savour \" The main part of the argument of the 
Epistle to the Hebrews turns on the idea, and the 
notion of \vrpov and l\aa-/jLos runs through all the 
Gospel expositions of this mysterious but most blessed 
work. 

" Non potea 1 uomo ne termini suoi 
Mai soddisfar, per non potere ir giuso 
Con umiltate, obediendo poi, 

Quanto disubbidendo intese ir suso 
E questa e la ragion perche 1 uom fue 
Da poter soddisfar per se dischiuso. 

Dunque a Eio convenia con le vie sue 
Eiparar 1 uomo a sua intera vita, 
Dico con 1 una o ver con ambcdue. 

x St. Matt. xxvi. 28. t St. John vi. 51. z 1 Cor. v. 7. a Eph. v. 2. 



OF THE WORD, OR SON OF GOD, &C. 45 

Ma perch e 1 opra tanto e piu gradita 
Dell operante quanto piu appresenta 
Delia bonta del cuor onde e uscita, 

La divina bonta che 1 mondo imprenta 
Di proceder per tutte le sue vie 
A rilevarvi suso fu contenta : 

K"e tra 1 ultima notte e l primo die 
Si alto e si magnifico proeesso 
per 1 una o per 1 altro fue o fie ; 

Che piu largo fu Dio a dar se stesso 
In far 1 uom sufficiente a rilevarsi 
Che s egli avesse sol da se dimesso, 

E tutti gli altri modi erano scarsi 
Alia giustizia, si l Figliuol di Dio 
Non fosse umiliato ad incarnarsi V 

Dante, Par. vii. 97. 

b "Man in himself bad ever lacked the means 
Of satisfaction, for he could not stoop 
Obeying, in humility so low, 
As high, he, disobeying thought to soar : 
And for this reason he had vainly tried, 
Out of his own sufficiency, to pay r 
The rigid satisfaction. Then behoved 
That God should by His own ways lead him back 
Unto the life from whence he fell, restored : 
By both His ways, I mean, or one alone. 
But here the deed is ever prized the more, 
The more the Doer s good intent appears; 
Goodness celestial, whose broad signature 
Is on the universe, of all its ways 
To raise ye up, was fain to leave out none, 
Nor aught so vast, or so magnificent, 



46 ARTICLE II. 



The idea of Sacrifice is a necessary result of the rela 
tion between the Creator and His creature. The crea 
ture owes everything to his Maker, and therefore the 
self-devotion of his whole being is that Maker s due. 
This is the primary idea of Sacrifice. It is the incom 
municable privilege of God alone, and therefore is the 
highest form of worship. Yet this sacrifice is imperfect, 
if only because the creature hath nothing purely his 
own wherewith to propitiate his God. But beyond this 
there is a new idea introduced when we come to deal 
with sin. The relations of the Creator with the crea 
ture are not only those of the disproportion that must 
always exist between the Infinite and the finite ; they 
are now complicated by the absence of these qualities 
which, stated positively, are explained by the term 
" sin." A debt has been incurred which must be paid 
to the Honour of God; a stain has been imprinted 
which must be cleansed ; an offence has been given 
that must be removed; a guilt incurred which must 
be atoned. Therefore into man s creaturely relations 
with his Maker there comes in the element of repa 
ration. 

" Either for Him who gave or who received, 
Between the last night and the primal day, 
Was or can be. For God more bounty shewed, 
Giving Himself to make man capable 
Of his return to life, than had the terms 
Been mere and unconditional release. 
And for His justice, every method else 
Were all too scant, had not the Son of God 
Humbled Himself to put on mortal flesh." 

Gary s Dante. 



OF THE WORD, OR SON OF GOD, &C. 47 

Man s sacrifice is, therefore, now doubly imperfect, 
and therefore a full and perfect sacrifice, oblation, and 
satisfaction can only be found in one who is more than 
mere man. The life and death of one not only in 
nocent, but the fountain and source of innocency, is 
required to the realization of this idea. Such a condi 
tion is only to be found in the God-man, and therefore, 
from the beginning, He was the Lamb slain, in purpose, 
from the foundation of the world, and all the patri 
archal and Jewish rites received what grace they had 
from Him whom they foreshowed. And still more is 
this the case now that the Word has actually taken 
flesh, now that the human nature has been assumed 
into the unity of the Person of the divine Word, and 
consequently the actions of our Lord are the actions of 
His divine Person. The elements, therefore, of eternity 
and omnipotence now accrue to the acts of Christ; 
His very human acts, because done by a divine Person, 
savour of the attributes of Divinity, and thus there is 
no limit to the efficacy of His eternal Sacrifice, which, 
being thus superabundant and fulfilling all the ends 
of such sacrifice , is in itself: 1. the highest possible 
worship, praise, and adoration to God the Holy Trinity; 
2. the only, the fullest, and most complete Propitia 
tion for sin ; 3. the most grateful and acceptable 
Eucharistia or thank-offering which humanity in its 
head and members can render to its God ; and 4, lastly, 

e " Et in quel die, forato da la lancia 
Efc poscia et prima tanto soddisfece 
Che d ogni culpa vince ta bilancia." Par. xiii. 40. 



48 ARTICLE II. 



the most efficacious impetration of all blessings, mercies, 
and graces which humanity can require. 

Thus it will be seen that our Lord s Sacrifice reaches 
to every sin. It was discussed in the Middle Ages, 
whether the Passion was chiefly for the destruction of 
original or of actual sin, and the conclusion was, that 

" Although Christ came into this world to destroy all 
sins, yet He came more especially to take away original 
than actual sin ; for that sin by which the whole 
human race is infected, is greater than that which is 
peculiar to individual man." And this conclusion was 
mainly based upon the consideration that 

" It is certain that Christ came into this world not 
only to destroy that sin which originally passed upon 
Adam s posterity, but also to destroy all sins which in 
a manner are superadded to it; not that all are de 
stroyed, (which arises from defect in men who are not 
in Christ, according to the words of St. John iii. 19, 
Light is come mto the world, and men loved darkness 
rather than light/) but because He shewed that He 
was able to destroy all sins. Wherefore it is said in 
Rom. v. 15, Not as the offence, so also is the free 
gift : for the judgment was by one to condemnation, 
but the free gift is of many offences unto justification. 
But the greater any sin is, the more especially did 
Christ come into the world for the destruction of that 
sin. Now a thing may be said to be greater in two 
ways ; in one way, intensively^ as where we say greater, 
that is, more intense, whiteness. And in this way 
actual is greater than original sin, because it has more 



OF THE WORD, OR SON OF GOD, &C. 49 

of the nature of voluntary agency. In another way 
a thing is said to be greater extensively; as where we 
say greater whiteness, meaning a larger superficies. 
And in this way original sin, by which the whole 
race of man is infected, is greater than any actual sin 
which is peculiar to individuals." 

Another question in the Middle Ages was, whether 
the Incarnation would have taken place irrespective of 
sin and of the fall, but the Article does not enter upon 
this tempting field of speculation. It views the matter 
from the practical light of accomplished facts. It as 
sumes the sad truths of sin having entered into the 
world and death by sin, and here announces the all- 
powerful Remedy. 



ARTICLE III. 

DE DESCE^SU CHRISTI AD INFEROS. 

QUEMADMODUM Christus pro noUs mortuus est, et sepul- 
tm, ita est etiam credendus ad Infcros descendisse. 



Of the going down of Christ into Hell. 
As Christ died for us, and was buried, so also it is to 
be believed that He went down into hell." 



THE minds of men both before and at the time of the 
Reformation turned much upon this mysterious sub 
ject a . " There have been in my diocese/ says Bishop 
Alley, of Exeter, " great invectives between the preach 
ers, one against another, and also partakers with them ; 
some holding that the going down of Christ His soul 
to hell was nothing else but the virtue and strength of 
Christ His own death, to be made manifest and known 
to them that were dead before. Others say that dcsccn- 
dit in in/era is nothing else but that Christ did suffer 
upon the cross the infernal pains of hell. . . . Finally, 
others preach that the Article is not contained in other 
symbols, neither in the symbol of Cyprian or rather 
Rufinus. The contrary side bring for them the uni 
versal consent of all the Fathers of both Churches, 
both of the Greeks and of the Latins V 

a It was one of the subjects of the trial of Bishop Reginald Pecock 
in the fifteenth century. 

b Alley, cit. Hardwick, Articles, 137. Perkins expounded the descent 
into hell of our Lord s mental sufferings in the place of the damned. 
(Hardwick, 171.) 



OF THE GOING DOWN OF CHRIST INTO HELL. 51 

Moreover from a very early period, in an uncritical 

, the influence of the false gospel of Nicodemus had 
been profoundly felt in the Church. In that there 
was a most graphic description of the descent of our 
Lord into the lower parts of the earth, given with 
circumstances particular enough to excite the imagina 
tion and to impress the soul : 

" Cap. xxi. And while Satan and Hades thus com 
muned together, there came a great voice, like thunder, 
saying, Lift up your gates, ye princes ! and be ye lift 
up, ye everlasting doors, and the King of Glory shall 
come in ! And Hades, hearing it, said to Satan, Go 
forth now, if thou art able, and make stand against 
Him/ And Satan went forth. Then Hades saith to 
his demons, Make fast the gates of brass and the bolts 
of iron, and secure me the locks, and watch, all of you, 
standing on tiptoe, for if this man enter, woe be 
tides us/ 

" And hearing these things, the forefathers began to 
upbraid him, saying, All- devouring and insatiate! 
open, that the King of Glory may come in ! And 
David, the prophet, saith, Kiiowest thou not, blind 
one ! that, while still in life, I prophesied these self 
same words, " Lift up your gates, ye princes ? " And 
Isaiah said, I too foresaw this, and wrote by the Spirit, 
"The dead shall stand up, and those who are in the 
tombs shall be awakened." And, " Where is thy sting, 
O death ? Where, O grave ! thy victory ?" 

" Then came again the voice, saying, .Lift up your 
gates, ye princes ! and be ye lift up, ye everlasting 
doors, and the King of Glory shall come in ! 



52 ARTICLE III. 

" And Hades, hearing the voice the second time, 
answered, as one forsooth unwilling, Who is this King 
of Glory? And the angels of the Lord answered, 
The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in 
battle/ 

" And straightway, with that word, the brazen gates 
were broken, and the bolts of iron torn asunder, and 
the bound in death were loosed from their chains, and 
we with them. And the King of Glory entered, in 
form even as a man, and all the dark places of Hades 
were lighted up. 

" Cap. xxii. And Straightway Hades cried out, We 
are conquered. Woe unto us ! But who art Thou, that 
hast such power and privilege ? And what art Thou 
that comest hither without sin, small in seeming but 
excellent in power, the humble and the great, slave at 
once and master, soldier and king, wielding power over 
the dead and the living ; nailed to the cross, and yet 
the destroyer of our, power ? Truly Thou art the Jesus, 
of whom the Archsatrap Satan spake to us, that by Thy 
cross and death Thou shouldest purchase the universe ! 
Then the King of Glory, holding Satan by the head, 
delivered him to the angels, and said, Bind his hands 
and feet, and neck and mouth, with irons/ And, giving 
him over to Hades, He said, Receive, and keep him 
surely until My Second Advent. . . . . 

" Cap. xxiv. Then the King of Glory stretched out 
His right hand, and took the forefather, Adam, and 
raised him up, and turning to the rest also, He said, 
1 Come with Me, all of you, as many as have died by 
the wood which this man eat of ; for lo ! I upraise ye 



OF THE GOING DOWN OF CHRIST INTO HELL. 53 

all by the wood of the cross ! After these things He 
brought them all forth. And the forefather, Adam, 
filled with exceeding joy, said, I render Thee thanks, 
O Lord, that Thou hast brought me tip from the depths 
of Hades. Thus, too, said all the prophets and saints : 
We thank Thee, Christ, Saviour of the world, that 
Thou hast redeemed our life from corruption/ And 
while they were saying these things, the Saviour 
blessed Adam in the forehead with the sign of the 
cross, and did the like to the patriarchs and the pro 
phets, and the martyrs and forefathers, and taking 
them with Him, He rose up out of Hades. And as He 
journeyed, the holy fathers, accompanying Him, sang, 
Praised be He Who hath come in the name of the 
Lord. Hallelujah c . " 

When scenes like this passed for the very fact, as we 
find it all assumed as such even so late as the time of 
the great preacher, Luiz of Grenada, it is not to be 
wondered that it should occupy men s thoughts. " The 
harrowing of hell," as it was technically called in Eng 
lish, became a favourite subject of the religious art of 
the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, as may be seen 
in the works of Taddeo Gaddi and Simone Memmi, in 
the chapter-house of Santa Maria Novella at Florence. 
But this was not all. Calvin pushed his theory of the 
satisfaction of Christ to such a pass, that he maintained 
that our Lord not only descended into hell, but actually 
suffered the tortures of the damned. 

Although this truth is not expressed either in the 

c Lord Lindsay s " Christian Art," vol. i. p. Ivii. 



54 ARTICLE III. 



Nicene or Constantinopolitan Creeds, we find it in many 
of the most ancient, such as the Roman and Apostles 
Creeds, and before all in the Creed of Aquileia, as 
Rufinus testifies: " Rufinus mentions that it was not 
found in the contemporary creed of the Church of 
Rome. It occurs in the Athanasian (A.D. 430), but we 
do not meet it again till we find it in the Creed of 
Venantius Fortunatus (A.D. 570). Thenceforward it is 
of very frequent occurrence. It is found in an Arian 
Creed, which appeared in three forms in the years 359 
and 360, and is known as the third Sirmian Creed. It 
was adopted at Nice in Thrace [not Nicsea], and next 
year in a council held at Constantinople. King sup 
poses that the Article relating to our Lord s descent 
into hell was introduced into it by the Arians, the more 
effectually to blind the eyes of the orthodox, that by 
proposing a doctrine which by implication overthrew 
a doctrine which many of their sect held, viz. that 
Christ was without a human soul, the Aoyos supplying 
the place of soul, they might get the whole creed to pass 
without suspicion. These are the only creeds in which 
the clause is found previously to Rufinus s time. But 
the fact of our Lord s descent seems to have been ordi 
narily delivered, in connection with the other great 
facts of the Gospel history, in the elementary instruc 
tion communicated to the new converts. In the sum 
mary of faith which Eusebius says he translated from 
the Syriac, and which he states to have been rehearsed 
by Thadda3us to Agbarus of Edessa, we have the follow 
ing: He was crucified and went down into hell, and 



OF THE GOING DOWN OF CHRIST INTO HELL. 55 

broke down the partition which had never been 
broken. Whatever opinion may be formed as to the 
authenticity of the narrative, at any rate the summary 
of faith in which these words occur is a witness to 
the elementary teaching of very early times d ." It is 
founded on two remarkable passages in Scripture, the 
16th Psalm, as expounded by St. Peter in Acts ii., 
" Thou shalt not leave my soul in hell, neither shalt 
Thou suffer Thy Holy One to see corruption ;" and 
secondly, 1 Pet. iii. 18, 19, where our Lord is said to 
have come in the Spirit, and to have preached to the 
souls in prison ; to which may be added the 81st 
Psalm, as a prophecy of this mystery, Christ alone 
being He who is free among the dead. 

The chief questions which have been raised on this 
matter are, Did our Lord descend into hell ? For what 
end in the order of redemption did He so descend ? 
Whom did He rescue therefrom? Besides, there is the 
great question whether, on the dissolution of the vital 
union in Christ, the hypostatic union was still main 
tained ? 

Now that our Lord descended, was taught from the 
very beginning of Christianity b} the holy Fathers. 
Justin Martyr e applies to this truth that text of Jere 
miah which is not found in our version, but is quoted 
also by S. Irenseus : " The Lord God remembered His 
dead from Israel that slept in the earth of the sepulchre, 
and He came down to them to preach His salvation." 



d Heurtley s Harmonia Symbolica, pp. 135, sqq. Oxf. 1858. 
e Dial. Tryph. 72, p. 164, Oxf. Tr. 






56 ARTICLE III. 



Justin accused the Jews of suppressing this passage. 
Irenaeus says, " He went down to see with His eyes id 
quod erat inoperatum conditionis f ; " also to announce 
His coming, and extending the remission of punishment 
to those that believed in Him g ; and that for three 
days He passed the time where the dead were, and de 
scended to them to bring them out and save them h . 

Clemens Alexandrinus asserts "that our Lord de 
scended for no other reason than to preach the Gros- 
pel V and his disciple Origen says, " the soul of Christ 
disembodied conversed with disembodied spirits k ;" 
"that for the salvation of the world He went down and 
brought back Adam V Eusebius, commenting on the 
16th Psalm : " He was present for the sake of the souls 
who were retained in hell; who for many ages had 
expected His coming. He descended to break the 
brazen gates, and burst the iron bonds, that He might 
set those free who had been hitherto bound beneath m ." 
St. Athanasius uses the docrine as an argument against 
Apollinaris, who denied that our Lord had assumed a 
human soul. St. Cyril of Jerusalem elucidates the doc 
trine in the practical teaching of his Catechism n , and 
St. Epiphanius in his refutation of the heresies of the 
Herodians and Arians. To this truth also, in magnifi 
cent diction, St. Chrysostom, in the beginning of his 
homilies on St. Matthew, alludes, where he says : " Thou 

1 Iren. iv. 39. * Ibid. iv. 48. h Ibid. v. 31. 

I Strom, vi. 6, p. 762, ed. Potter. k Cont. Cel. ii. 43, p. 419. 
1 Horn. xv. Gen. Eus. Dem. Ev. x. 8, p. 501, ed. Col. 1688 

II Cyr. M. C., iv. 11. 



OF THE GOING DOWN OF CHRIST INTO HELL. 57 

slialt likewise see the tyrant here bound, and the mul 
titude of the captives following, and the citadel from 
which that unholy demon overran all things in time 
past. Thou wilt see the hiding-places and the dens of 
the robber, for even there also was our King present ." 
The Latin fathers are equally unanimous in their testi 
mony, and no one goes into the question more thoroughly 
than St. Augustine, who, in his 99th Epistle, treats of 
the interpretation of the obscure passage of St. Peter. 
St. Jerome p also developes the doctrine. He makes 
St. John Baptist, in sending his disciples to our Lord, 
reason, " I know that Thou art He who hath come to 
take away the sins of the world, but because I am going 
to descend into hell, I also ask, whether Thou also art 
to descend thither ; or is it impious to think this of 
the Son of God, and so wilt Thou send another ? I de 
sire to know whether, as I have announced Thee on 
earth, I am also to announce Thee beneath." So, in 
his "Commentary on the Epistle to the Ephesians q ," 
he says, " The Son of God therefore descended into the 
lower parts of the earth, and ascended up also ; not only 
that He might fulfil the law and the prophets, but also 
obtain other occult dispensations, known only to the 
Father and Himself. For we cannot know how the 
Blood of Christ profiteth the angels, and those that 
were in hell, and yet we cannot be ignorant that It did 
profit them. He descended therefore into hell, and 
ascended into heaven, that he might fill those who 
were in those regions, according as they could receive. 

Horn. ii. 18, Oxf. Tr. P Ep. cli. ad Algasiam. * iv. 10. 



58 ARTICLE III. 



S. Fu] gen tius r : "It remained therefore for the full 
effect of our redemption, that thither sinless man 
assumed by God might descend, whither sinful man 
separated from God deservedly had fallen; that is, 
into hell, where the soul of the wicked was used to be 
tormented ; and to the tomb, where the flesh of the 
wicked was used to be corrupted ; yet in such wise 
that neither the flesh of Christ was corrupted in the 
tomb, nor the soul of Christ tortured by the pains of 
hell ; because that Soul free from sin was not liable to 
punishment, and corruption dared not touch the sin 
less flesh." 

He meets the question of the dissolution of the vital 
union s : "In the sepulchre the same God made man 
lay; and the same God made man rose from hell on 
the third day ; but in the sepulchre the same God lay 
only according to the flesh, and descended into hell 
solely according to the soul." 

His disciple Ferrandus * developes this thought : 
"Whole (tot us) Christ is everywhere, in that He is 
the Word ; but the whole which He is (totum) is not 
everywhere : for the rational soul and flesh are not 
everywhere; with which He is one. He was in hell 
according to His rational soul, but not the whole of 
Him, for His flesh was not there, which went to 
constitute the whole. Whole Christ was in the grave 
according to the flesh ; but not the whole of Him, 

r Ad Trasimundum, lib. iii. 30, init. Bill. Patr. ix. 65. s Lib. de 
Fid. ad Petr., cap. iii., B. Pair. ix. 74 B. l Ad Severum Seaolast. 

B. Patr. ix. 512 E. 



OF THE GOING DOWN OF CHRIST INTO HELL. 59 

because the rational soul, which goes to constitute the 
whole, was not there. But the Word of God was 
both with the soul in hell, and with the body in 
the grave, because naturally it is everywhere dif 
fused, and was never wanting either to His soul or 
His flesh." 

Some of the Fathers, from the expression " nether 
most hell," in the Psalms, imagine that there are two 
mansions, one in which the souls of the saints were 
detained, and one in which the wicked are tormented. 
Whether our Lord went to both is a question on which 
the consent is not perfect. St. Gregory, in his Morals, 
would have that our Lord went to the first only ; St. 
Augustine u and, as we have seen already, his disciple 
Fulgentius, to the second. 

As regards the question what souls our Lord freed, 
the author of the treatise DC Paschatc, attributed to St. 
Ambrose, asserts that all sinners were freed by Christ ; 
and to this St. Gregory Nazianzen, in his Paschal Ser 
mon (xlii.), alludes, where he says: "If He descended 
into hell, descend with Him. Learn the mysteries of 
Christ that are enacted even there ; what is the secret 
of that double descent, what was its reason ? Did He 
save all without exception by His advent, or those only 
who believed in Him ?" The large-hearted Alexandrian 
school, with its intense love of heathen learning, and 
with its theory of the providential development of the 
Greek philosophy, rather inclined to the opinion that 
our Lord freed all ; but the common belief of the 

u De Gen. ad lit. xii. 



60 ARTICLE III. 



Church has been that our Lord, descending into hell, 
imparted salvation to those only who, while they lived, 
by faith and righteousness had rendered themselves 
worthy of that favour. This would seem to be the 
interpretation of the extremely obscure passage in the 
Epistle of St. Peter, viz. that our Lord in the Spirit, 
descending into hell, mercifully bestowed His grace 
upon the dead, and called to the knowledge and vene 
ration of Himself, not all, but those who from the 
beginning of the world had died in the grace and 
friendship of God, not only under the law, but from 
the most ancient times, even before the Flood. There 
fore he specially dwells on their case, that he might 
exhibit the fact that the beneficent power of the Re 
deemer told backward, and that he might have a fitting 
opportunity of making mention of baptism, which the 
Flood prefigured x . 

The descent into hell, viewed as the triumph over 
Satan, assumes an important place in that scheme of 
redemption which is found in many of the fathers be 
tween St. Irenseus and St. Anselm. The atonement, 
according to this view, consists in our Lord s Life being 
paid as a ransom to Satan, who had, by man s sin, 
acquired rights over man. The devil, by being unable 
to retain the Soul of Christ in hell, lost his empire also 
over those whom he had hitherto detained y. 

x Vide Petavius, de Incarnatione ad locum. ? Irenseus, v. 1 j 

Origcn, Horn, in MatUi., xiii. 581 ; see Oxenham on the Atonement, 
pp. 4752. 



ARTICLE IV. 

DE RESUKRECTIONE CHRISTI. 

CHRISTUS vere a mortuis resurrexit, suumque corpus cum 
came, ossibus, omnibusque ad integritatcm humance na- 
turae pertinentibus, recepit : cum quibus in ccelum as- 
cendit, ibique residet quoad extreme die ad judicandos 
homines revcrsurus sit. 



Of tlie Resurrection of Christ. 

" CHRIST did truly rise again from death, and took 
again His body, with flesh, bones, and all things ap 
pertaining to the perfection of man s nature ; where 
with He ascended into heaven, and there sitteth, until 
He return to judge all men at the last day." 



" THE same stone which the builders rejected is be 
come the Head of the Corner. 3 The same argument 
which the Apostles used when, inspired by the Holy 
Ghost on the day of Pentecost, they went forth to con 
quer the world to the obedience of faith, is the turn 
ing-point in the great contest between Faith and In 
fidelity, which is being waged in the midst of the 
civilization of the nineteenth century. Grant the Re 
surrection, and the whole Catholic Creed follows ; 
reject the Resurrection, and there remains no basis for 
Christianity, however long a pietistic sentiment may 
seek to feed the dead embers of a defunct and ex 
tinguished faith. 



62 ARTICLE IV. 



Observe the course of persuasion used by the first 
propagators of the faith. They distinctly assert that 
Jesus of Nazareth, who had been seen and known by 
many to whom they spake, whose public Crucifixion 
was recorded in the Criminal Procedure of the State, ac 
tually had risen from the dead, in accordance with such 
a distinct promise that He w r as to do so, as that on the 
fulfilment of such promise He had all along staked His 
pretensions as a Divine Teacher. The apostolic college 
is filled up specially with a view to a "witness with us 
of His resurrection a ." St. Peter s sermon on the day of 
Pentecost turns on this fact : " This Jesus hath God 
raised up, whereof we all are witnesses 13 ." So at the 
Beautiful Gate of the Temple, " the Prince of Life 
whom God hath raised from the dead, whereof we are 
witnesses c ;" so before the Sanhedrin, " "Whom God 
raised from the dead, even by Him doth this man stand 
before you whole d ;" so in the preaching after that, 
" With great power gave the Apostles witness of the 
Resurrection of the Lord Jesus e ;" so in the presence 
of Gamaliel, "Him hath God exalted with His right 
hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give re 
pentance unto Israel and forgiveness of sins f ;" so 
St. Stephen saw the Son of Man in heaven, whereon 
the people " cried with a loud voice and stopped their 
ears^;" so at the baptism of Cornelius, to the Gentiles 
the astounding fact is declared, " Him God raised up 
the third day, and shewed Him openly h ;" so in St. 

* Acts i. 22. b Ibid. ii. 32. c Ibid. iii. 15. d Ibid. iv. 10. 
e Ibid. iv. 33. f Ibid. v. 31. e Ibid. vii. 57. h Ibid. x. 40. 



OF THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST. 63 

Paul s first sermon at Antioch , and at Thessalonica k , 
and specially at Athens, the Resurrection is the subject 
of his teaching l . When charged before the Sanhedrin, 
he claims the sympathy of the Pharisees, and at the 
same time states the very centre of his teaching, when 
he says, "Of the hope and of the resurrection of the 
dead, I am called in question 111 ." And the practical 
and unsupernatural Festus states the matter from his 
point of view, when he speaks of the complaints against 
Paul, being " of one Jesus which was dead, whom Paul 
affirmed to be alive n ;" as indeed the blessed Apostle 
himself makes plain in his solemn address to Agrippa . 
In short, the whole of the Acts testify to the truth 
that the early disciples made this the very kernel of 
their teaching. 

As might be expected, the early Christian apologists 
urge this argument. St. Justin P says : " After His 
crucifixion, then, even they that were acquainted with 
Him all denied and forsook Him ; but afterwards, when 
He rose from the dead, and was seen by them, and 
taught them to read the prophecies in which all these 
things were foretold to happen, and when they had 
seen Him go up into heaven, and had believed and 
received power from thence, which was sent them from 
Him, they went forth to the whole race of men and 
taught these things, and received the name of Apo 
stles." And Tertullian shews how the belief in our 
Lord s Resurrection is bound up with the hope of our 

1 Acts xiii. 30. k Ibid. xvii. 3. l Ibid. xvii. 19. 

m Ibid, xxiii. 6. n Ibid. xxv. 19. (J Ibid. xxvi. 23. P Apol., 50. 



64 ARTICLE IV. 



own : " Believing the Resurrection of Christ, we believe 
also in our own, for whom He died and rose again. 
When, therefore, we are sure of the resurrection of the 
dead, the sorrow of death is voided, as well as the im 
patience of pain q ;" and, conversely, "weaken the faith 
in the Resurrection of our Lord, and that of ourselves 
is injured also r ." St. Chrysostom s shews how all the 
different mysteries hang upon each other : " For if He 
(Christ) truly took not upon Him our flesh, He neither 
was crucified, dead, nor buried, neither did He rise 
again. If He did not rise again, the whole reason of 
the Dispensation is overthrown. Thou seest into what 
inconsequence they fall who will not follow the canon 
of the Holy Scripture, but who twist everything in 
their individual reasonings. 1 " 

Now in the modern controversies, this truth, as has 
been said, is the Crucial one. We must begin by 
assuming God, therefore an omnipotent God, therefore 
a God who ruleth and governeth all things in heaven 
and earth. This granted, there can be no limit to His 
power, and however contrary to our experience, there 
is no antecedent improbability that He may not act by 
what we term * miraculous intervention/ We have 
a right, therefore, on the ground that all natural phe 
nomena are the result of the operation of a perfect 
will, to assume the propriety of a general fixity, but 
also the power of an occasional disturbance of the order 
of being. Brute matter can have no law within itself, 

i De Patientia, p. 165, ed. Eigalt. Paris, IG-il. r Ibid., p. 484. 

In Gen. Horn. 58, n. 3. 



OF THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST. 65 

else it would cease to be brute matter. Matter, there 
fore, is either the Pantheistic God, or it has no inherent 
laws of its own constitution outside the will of its 
maker. But that brute matter is the Pantheistic God 
is a supposition surrounded by great difficulties. We 
therefore may safely choose the only other alternative. 

Assuming, then, the possibility of miracle, we have 
in the Resurrection of our Lord to face the fact of the 
greatest objective miracle which has ever been preached 
to the world. If mankind have been deceived in giving 
credence to this, Christianity must fall ; for both its 
apologetic and its ethical position is bound up in the 
truth of the fact. On the other hand, accept the Re 
surrection of our Lord, and all other mysteries follow 
in its train. When the soul has bowled itself before 
the truth of the Resurrection, it is only inconsistency 
which keeps men back from accepting all the mysteries 
of the faith. It is only a little more or a little less. 
In principle the point has been yielded. 

This being the case, the historical truth of what is 
asserted of our Lord s rising again must be submitted 
to the severest historical criticism. There is no true 
kindness in blinking any fact with regard to it. It 
is too serious a matter not to be probed to the quick. 
And here such works as the Trial of the Witnesses 
come in good stead. The acutest minds have devoted 
themselves to pick holes in the Gospel narrative of this 
sacred event, and the result is that, given the authen 
ticity of the documents, there is not only no contradic 
tion, such as can destroy their historic worth, but ac- 

F 



GO ARTICLE IV. 



tually there is no escape for an unprejudiced mind in 
accepting the truth on the historic testimony. 

The chief modern attempt at evasion is that of 
Dr. Strauss, whose theory of a mythic accretion around 
a really historic personage is a very subtle device of 
the evil one. The main points on which he rests are 
i. an exaggeration of the difficulty of systematizing 
the records of the different appearances of our Lord 
during the forty great days, and thereby the infusion 
of a doubt as to the trustworthiness of the testimony ; 
or, ii. the philosophical difficulty as to the nature of 
the Resurrection of Body. 

i. Following in the main the authority of Mr. Gres- 
well 1 , we seem to find that the following chronology 
harmonizes the different accounts of our Lord s Resur 
rection, and of such of His apparitions as it has pleased 
the Holy Ghost to reveal to us in the Gospels and 
Epistles. 

1. On Sunday morning the sixteenth of Nisan, cor 
responding with the sixth of April, the two Maries and 
Salome, who had bought spices, went very early to the 
tomb. An earthquake takes place. An angel of the 
Lord comes down and rolls back the stone, and sits 
upon it ; as the women approach, they ask who is to 
roll back the stone, and on arriving they find that this 
has actually taken place. An angel announces the 
Resurrection, and invites them to enter the tomb; 
there they see a young man sitting on the right in 
a shining garment, who encourages them, and again 

* Harmonia Evangelica, p. 393. 



OF THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST. 67 

announces the Resurrection ; sends them to Peter and 
the Apostles, and invites them to meet our Lord in 
Galilee, as He had said unto them ; the women fly 
from the tomb in fear, but with great joy they ran 
to announce it to the Disciples, but they said nothing 
to any one, for they were afraid u . 

2. The watch go into the city, announce all that 
has taken place, leave the sepulchre empty, and are 
bribed by the Chief Priests x . 

3. Meanwhile a new company of women, of whom 
the chief is Joanna, the wife of Chusa, bearing spices, 
come to the tomb, see two men in bright clothing, who 
reproached them for seeking the living among the 
dead, and remind them of our Lord s prophecy in 
Galilee, that the Son of Man should be betrayed into 
the hands of sinners ; returning from the tomb, they 

.announce this to the Eleven and the rest, to whom 
their words seem as idle tales y . 

4. The news of the Resurrection, however, is affirmed 
to the Apostle Simon Peter and the other disciple, on 
the evidence of both companies of women z . 

5. Peter and John run to the empty tomb and inspect 
it, and go away, wondering at what has taken place a . 

( ). Our Lord s first appearance to Mary Magdalen 
as the gardener b . 

7. He appears to the women, saying, "All hail c I" 

u St. Matt, xxviii. 18; St. Mark xvi. 18. x St. Matt, xxviii. 

1115. y St. Luke xxiv. 19. z Ibid. xxiv. 10; St. John 

xx. 1,2. a st. Luke xxiv. 12 ; St. John xx. 3, 10. b St. Mark 

xvi. 911 ; St. John xx. 1118. c St. Matt, xxviii. 9 ; Ellicott s 

Life of our Lord, 391. 



68 ARTICLE IV. 



8. The scene at Emmaus c ^ and the second manifesta 
tion toward mid- da} . 

9. Cleophas and his companion return and announce 
it to the rest, and are received with incredulity as to 
the actual fact e ; but the disciples, on the other hand, 
announce an apparition of our Lord to Simon f . 

10. Soon after, He, for the fourth manifestation, 
appears to the ten ? . 

11. The fifth manifestation to the eleven 11 . 

12. The sixth manifestation on the mountain in 
Galilee 1 . 

13. The seventh manifestation to the five hundred J. 

14. The eighth manifestation at the sea of Tibe 
rias k . 

15. The ninth manifestation to James 1 . 

16. The tenth to all the Apostles m , on the fortieth 
day after His resurrection n . 

17. His eleventh manifestation to St. Stephen at 
his martyrdom. 

18. His twelfth to St. Paul at his conversion. 

19. His thirteenth at St. Paul s first answer be 
fore Nero. 

20. His fourteenth to St. John in Patmos. 

The beautiful legend that our Lord first appeared to 
His mother is not here dwelt upon, inasmuch as it rests 
upon no authority anterior to the Middle Ages. 

St. Mark xvi. 12 ; St. Luke xxiv. 13, sqq. e St. Mark xvi. 13. 

f St. Luke xxiv. 33, 34. St. Luke xxiv. 36 ; St. John xx. 1924. 

h St. Mark xvi. 14; St. John xx. 26. l St. Matt, xxviii. 16, sqq. 

i 1 Cor. xv. 6. k St. John xxi. 124. > 1 Cor. xv. 7. 

m Ibid. n St. Luke xxiv. 4419. 






OF THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST. 69 

ii. The difficulty as regards the Resurrection-body is 
no doubt very perplexing, for we know nothing of the 
conditions of such bodies. Enough is revealed to shew 
that something ineffable and mysterious attended upon 
all the apparitions of the Son of God after His resurrec 
tion. On the one hand, He appears among the dis 
ciples suddenly when the doors are shut, His sacred 
Body passing through matter without sustaining any 
let or hindrance thereby. He has the faculty of ren 
dering Himself invisible, and of moving from place to 
place with supernatural speed. He is so changed that 
one, least of all likely to mistake Him, supposes Him 
to be the gardener. On the other hand, He is so 
palpable that He invites the touch of St. Thomas ; and 
in proof of the abidingness of His Humanity, He eats 
fish and bread by the fire of coals on the shore of the 
sea of Galilee. 

And from these data two lines of thought have ex 
isted in the Church. St. Irenaeus, and they who follow 
him, hold the risen body of our Lord to have been flesh 
and blood in the exact sense of our own, and they natu 
rally, as against the heretics of the time, strenuously 
insist upon the identity of the body before and after 
death. On the other hand, the philosophical school 
of Alexandria, deeply imbued with heathen learning, 
and fully alive to the difficulties of the question, have 
dwelt strongly on the line of thought opened up by 
St. Paul in the fifteenth chapter of the First Epistle to 
the Corinthians, where he distinguishes between the 
natural body and the spiritual body ; where he draws 



70 ARTICLE IV. 



the broadest line possible, consistent with perfect iden 
tity, between the conditions of all pre-resurrection and 
post-resurrection bodies. This line was first developed 
by Origen, but probably traces of it may be found in 
St. Pantsenus and St. Clement. As a rule, the Alexan 
drians opposed Chiliasm, and this rejection involves the 
notion of a spiritual resurrection . They also assumed 
that souls at the time of the resurrection should not 
resume the gross material body, but one of fine, uncor 
ruptible texture v. Origen, according to Neander % 
makes much use of what St. Paul says with reference 
to the terrestrial and the glorified body, distinguishing 
from the mutable phenomenal form, the proper essence 
lying at the foundation of the body, which through all the 
changes of life remains the same, and is not destroyed 
by death. The proper essence would, by the co-operation 
of the divine power, be awakened to a nobler form, cor 
responding to the ennobled character of the soul. 

St. Augustine tells us that at one time he held the 
Alexandrian view, but afterwards saw reason to change 
his opinion 1 . Moreover, he asks if parts which ser\e 

Gieseler, Cb. Hist., vol. i. p. 242, ed. Clarke. 

P Clemens, Psed. ii. p. 230; Orig. de Princ. ii. 10. 3, and c. 11, cit. 
Gieseler. 

1 Ch. Hist., vol. ii. p. 403, where he quotes Uepl apx-, 1. ii. c. 10; 
c. Cels., 1. iv. c. 57; Liber tin. in Psalm., t. xi. p. 388, ed. Lovain ; see 
also Cels. v. 23, vii. 32. 

r Vide lletract., lib. i. cap. xvii. torn. i. p. 20. 

I am indebted for the line of thought regarding the different schools 
of Christian thought, to my valued friend the Rev. D. Greig, whose 
articles in the "Christian Remembrancer" on the connection between, 
Calvinism and Infidelity well deserve study. 



OF THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST. 71 

for the support of man will survive the resurrection, 
and he answers in the affirmative s . The thoughts of 
the Schoolmen on the subject of the Resurrection are 
very valuable. They lay down that 

It behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise again from 
the dead, First, to commend the justice of God to 
which it belongeth, to exalt those who for His sake 
humble themselves. Secondly, to instruct our faith in 
His divinity, for if Christ be not risen, the Apostle 
testifies, " our preaching is vain, and your faith also is 
vain." Thirdly, for the support of our hope, because, 
when we see Christ who is our Head risen, we may 
hope that we His members shall also rise again ac 
cording to the words of Job, " I know that my Re 
deemer liveth." Fourthly, for the instruction of the 
faithful in morals, for " like as Christ was raised from 
the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also 
should walk in newness of life. Fifthly, for the com 
pletion of our salvation, as He was humiliated in death 
to free us from evils, so He was glorified in rising 
again to promote us to good things ; as it is written, 
" Who was given for our sins, and rose again for our 
justification i " 

s Civ. Dei, xxii. 19; Serm. 243, n. 3. 

The science of anatomy supplies us with some hints as to the nature 
of the post-resurrection body. In the embryo there are the organs 
which tend to its nutrition, and there are the germs of the future 
organs of the developed body : so in the developed body there are the 
organs which tend to its nutrition, and the germs of future organs, such 
as the supra-renal capsules, which have no office in the present mode 
of being. It may be that they will find their use in the resurrection 
of body. * St. Thomas, qu. Tert. pars 53, Art. 1. 



ARTICLE IV. 



To confirm our faith in Christ s divinity, that Re 
surrection was not deferred to the end of the world; 
to confirm our faith in His humanity and death, a cer 
tain delay was necessary to make the latter evident, 
therefore He rose on the third day. Christ is the 
nrstfruits of them that slept, and His Resurrection is 
such, not in the sense of a simple resuscitation from the 
state of death, but in that of a freedom from the pos 
sibility of dying again. " Christ being risen from the 
dead, dieth no more, death hath no more dominion 
over Him." The vital union was destroyed in death, 
but not the hypostatic union. Wherefore Christ, ac 
cording to the power of His divinity, was the cause 
of His own Resurrection, but according to His hu 
manity He was raised by the Father. 

In order to a true Resurrection, the same body must 
be re-united to the same soul, and inasmuch as it is its 
form which determines the truth of the nature of any 
body, therefore the Body of Christ after His Resur 
rection was both a true Body, and of the same nature 
as before. A phantastic body implies only an appa 
rent resurrection. Whatever pertains to the nature of 
the human body, as flesh, blood, bones, and the like, 
is integrally, and without any diminution, in the 
glorious Body of the Risen Christ. But that Body 
was glorious, First, as being the model of our bodies, 
which, being sown in dishonour, shall be raised in glory. 
Secondly, because by the lowliness of His Passion He 
merited the glory of His Resurrection. Thirdly, be 
cause the Soul of Christ being glorious by its perfect 



OF THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST. 73 

fruition of the Godhead, and that glory being only re 
strained from filling the Body to accomplish the mys 
tery of redemption, when that was done, His Soul again 
resumed its power to make the Bod}^ also glorious ; and 
yet that Soul resumed the Body stigmatized with the 
sacred wounds of the Passion ; (1.) for the glory of 
Christ, to preserve to Him the trophies of His victory ; 
(2.) to confirm the faith of His disciples in the truth 
of His Resurrection ; (3.) that He might ever plead 
them to the Father in His office of perpetual Priest 
and Yictim ; (4.) to suggest, from the sight of these 
signs of suffering, to those who have been redeemed 
by His death how mercifully they have been aided 
thereby; and, lastly, (5.) to convict the reprobate at 
the Day of Judgment u . 

Our Lord did not prove His Resurrection to His 
disciples by argument, because argumentative proof 
proceeds from premisses which must have been either 
known or unknown to them. If unknown, it was im 
possible, because we cannot proceed from the unknown 
to prove the known ; if known, it was unnecessary, the 
proof being in their own power. He contented Him 
self with the testimony of Scripture, the foundation of 
our faith, as contained in Moses, the Prophets, and the 
Psalms. But He shewed Himself alive after His Pas 
sion to His disciples by many infallible proofs and 
sensible signs, to the intent that (1.) they themselves 
might be disposed to faith, and (2.) that their testimony 
might be efficacious. His proofs were sufficient to shew, 

u St. Thomas, q. 54, Art. 1, 2, 3, 4. 



74 ARTICLE IV. 



(1.) the truth, and then (2.) the glory of His Resur 
rection. The truth by its solidity : " Handle Me and 
see, for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see Me 
have ;" its identity, being the same in members as the 
Body He had before : " Behold My hands and feet, 
that it is I Myself;" its perfection, by His manifesta 
tion of the nutritive life in eating and drinking; its 
sensitive life, in sustaining their touch ; and its intel 
lectual life, by expounding to them in all the Scriptures 
the things concerning Himself. 

He shewed the glory of His Resurrection by His 
entrance through the closed doors, by His vanishing 
from the sight of His disciples at Emmaus, and bv 
His Ascension into heaven. As St. Gregory the Great 
sa} r s, " He, after His Resurrection, shewed that His 
body was of the same nature, but of another glory." 

The supernatural fact of the Resurrection of our 
Saviour being thus established, the thought leads on, 
by a natural sequence, to His wonderful Ascension. 
This earth could be no permanent dwelling-place for 
One entered upon a life immortal and incorruptible. 
His Divine Nature had never left heaven, and there 
fore was not subject to the conditions of place and 
motion, which after all are mere measures, and of no 
substantial reality. When our Lord sat with Mcode- 
mus, He stated that He was in heaven ; but the Human 
Nature, hypostatically united to the Divinity, could 
rest for a time under the relations of time and under 
our present restrictions of space, and therefore, first, 
by the power of His own Divinity, and then by virtue 



OF THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST. 71 

of His glorified Soul united to that Divinity, He 
ascended up far above all heavens, that He might fill 
all things. His Body by virtue of its union with the 
Deity in the One Person of the Eternal AVord, excelleth 
all spiritual substances,, and therefore fittingly is it 
highly exalted far above all principality, and power, 
and might, and dominion, and every name that is 
named, not only in this world, but also in that which 
is to come." 

Our Lord s Ascension not only raises our souls to 
Him as the object of our faith, oar hope, our love, 
and our worship, as That to which we direct our prayer, 
resting on the corporeal form of Him in "Whom dwellcth 
all the fulness of the Godhead Bodily ; but as our Head, 
He has gone before us His members, that where He is, 
there we may be also : He has entered into the heaven 
of heavens, within the veil, presenting His Body that 
was prepared, Himself in our Xature, as the eternal 
Victim of propitiation : He is seated in heaven crowned 
as the Lord of all, from whence He pours down His 
gifts upon creation. 

He is seated in two senses ; first, as dwelling and 
abiding in that special throne of glory which is de 
scribed as the Eight Hand of the Father, and the faith 
in this is the great safeguard against all those forms of 
Pantheism, which err in confusing created with un 
created substance. Secondly, as enjoying the Royal 
and judiciary power which, as reigning together with 
the Father, He hath from Him. To Him alone cloth 
it belong to sit there, since according to His Divinity, 



ARTICLE IV. 



He alone witli the Holy Ghost is equal to the Father ; 
and according to His Manhood He has the prerogative 
of a more blessed Human Nature than any creature, 
and a prerogative of glory due to Him alone ; " for unto 
which of the angels said He at any time, Sit Thou 
at My Eight Hand until I make Thine enemies Thy 
footstool?" 

As God, and as Man, He shall judge both the quick 
and the dead ; as God, He is the Begotten Wisdom 
and the Truth, and therefore He commanded His 
Apostles to testify that it is He Who is ordained of 
God to be the Judge of quick and dead. " The Father 
judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment to 
the Son." He is also Judge as Man, inasmuch as, 
being Head of the Church, to Him belongs the power 
of judgment. " The Father hath given Him authority 
to execute judgment, because He is the Son of Man." 
By plenitude of grace, and by merit as Man, He 
judgeth. And though at the last day the saints in 
glory will be His assessors, yet will they be there also 
only to add glory to the great Assize : " when He 
shall come to be glorified in His saints, and to be 
admired in all them that believe in that day V 

* 2 Tbess. i. 10. 



AETICLE V. 
DE SPIRITU SANCTO. 

SPIKITUS Sanctus, a Pat re et Filio procedens, ejusdem 
cst cum Patre et Filio essentice, mctjestatis, et gloria, 
ac cetcrnus Dens. 



Of the Holy Ghost. 

" THE Holy Ghost, proceeding from the Father and 
the Son, is of one substance, majesty, and glory, with 
the Father and the Son, very and eternal GOD." 



THAT the bond in the Holy Trinity, the osculum 
Patris et Filii, should have been the object concerning 
which the greatest divisions in Christendom should 
have occurred, is an instance of the deep sinfulness 
in human nature, and of the way in which the gifts 
of God are perverted by the depraved agency of the 
free will of man. Though the question that divided 
the East from the West may really have turned on 
earthly matters, on strivings for pre-eminence, and 
perhaps on deep ethnical reasons laid far down in the 
nature and constitution of man, it was the device of 
the Patriarch Photius to choose this transcendental 
truth for the battle-field of the Churches, to give 
weight to his charges against the Latin Church. It 
was a point on which there was much to be said on 
either side. All a priori reasoning tended one way, 



ARTICLE V. 



tradition testified in the other. The necessities of the 
case, and the consequences of truths admitted by both 
parties, led one way ; the past history of the Church, 
and the actual letter of Holy Scripture led the other. 

On the part of the Latins it was urged that though 
the procession from the Son is not expressly stated in 
Holy Scripture, it is clearly to be deduced therefrom. 
As He is called the Spirit of the Father a , so He is 
termed the Spirit of the Son b , and the Spirit of Christ c . 
Again, as the Father is said to send the Spirit d , so the 
Son is said to send the Spirit e , and to send implying 
the Communication of Fssence, if He be sent by the 
Son as by the Father, there must be a Communication 
of Essence, a Procession from the Son. 

Theologically, if the Father in begetting the Son 
communicates the whole essence and nature, save only 
the personal attributes of Paternity and Aseity, it fol 
lows that the Son, receiving of the Father whatsoever 
the Father is in Himself, with these two exceptions, 
must breathe forth the Spirit from Himself as well 
as the Father doth from Himself. For the Spirit 
does not proceed from the Father as a Father, else 
would He be begotten, and another Son. Yet there is 
this difference as a result of the doctrine of Subordi 
nation, that the Spirit proceedeth from the Father of 
the Father, but He proceedeth from the Son of the 
Father, who communicating His own individual Es 
sence, and consequently whatever He is to the Son, 

* St. MattJL 20. b Gal. iv. 6. c Horn. viii. 9; 1 St. Pet. i. 11; 
Phil. i. 10. d St. John xiv. 26. e Ibid. xv. 26, xvi. 7. 



OF THE HOLY GHOST. 



could not but Communicate to Him the Spirit proceed 
ing from Him as He hath it proceeding from Himself. 
What the Father hath in Himself by way of origin, 
the Son hath by Communication from the Father. 

The Latins seem to say that the Unity in the God 
head is distinguished into Persons, and the Persons are 
distinguished one from another only by the direct 
relative opposition of causing and being caused, such 
as is implied in the Xames of the Persons themselves, 
thus : 

He who begets cannot so far be He who is begotten, 
nor rice rersd ; but in all other respects He who is be 
gotten is identical with Him who begets. Also, He 
who makes to proceed cannot, so far, be He who is 
made to proceed, nor rice versa; but in all other re 
spects He who is made to proceed is identical with 
Him who makes to proceed. 

The Greek Church states its doctrine thus : " The 
Father is the source and atria of the Son and Holy 
Ghost; but He is the Father of the Son, He is the 
producer of the Holy Ghost. The Son is the Son, the 
Word, the Wisdom, the Strength, the Image, the Glory, 
the Character of the Father. As to the Holy Ghost, 
He is not the Son of the Father; He is the Spirit 
of the Father, as proceeding from the Father. Pie 
is also the Spirit of the Son, not that He is of the 
Son, but because He proceedeth of the Father by the 
Son, for His only author is the Father f ." 

1 Compare St. John Damascene, De Fide Ortk., 1. 1, p. 137 E, and 
141 I)., eel. Le Q.uien. 



80 ARTICLE V. 



Thus, stated theologically, it cannot be doubted that 
the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, being one in 
Essence but distinct in person, have two kind of attri 
butes, essential and personal. To which of these is the 
procession of the Holy Ghost to be referred ? If to the 
first, it follows that as the Holy Ghost proceeds from 
the Father and the Son, He must also proceed from 
Himself, which must be rejected ; if from the second, 
He proceedeth from the Father only, otherwise it would 
happen that an attribute of Deity was neither essential 
to the Trinity, nor confined to One Person. 

Moreover, the Unity of the three blessed Persons, 
being founded on the Common Essence, and on that 
alone ; if the Filioque be true, it follows, instead of the 
reciprocal unity of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost being 
every way equal, there is a proximity between Father 
and Son which the Holy Ghost has with neither of 
the two. 

Lastly, the Western doctrine attributes a kind of 
second, or inferior Monarchy, to the First and Second 
Persons in the Trinity, making them together a kind 
of fount or principiation of the Third, which neither 
has separately, and in which the Third hath no part s . 

The intellect of man bows itself in the presence of 
such awful thoughts as those which concern the im 
manent action of God Most High. With such abstract 
reasoning, with authorities so equally ranged on either 
side, who are we that we should decide ? Better is it 
to turn the thoughts to the point of comfort which we 

s Cf. Chris. Bern., vol. xlviii. p. 488. 



OF THE HOLY GHOST. 81 

may draw., when we think of the motives of the con 
test. Doubtless the supreme honour and pure worship 
of Gfod animates both Greek and Latin in this con 
test. The Greek dreads that any assault should be 
made upon what is with us also a matter of faith, 
the fjiovdp^ia, and a double principiation in God is 
a thought abhorrent to his feelings. The Latin, on 
the other hand, is jealous of the dignity of the Eternal 
Son, and will not endure that aught should be dero 
gated from Him ; yet surely there is some hope that 
in reality there is no dispute between them. Both 
Greeks and Latins admit the words of St. John s 
Gospel, that the Holy Ghost "proceedeth from the 
Father." Both Greeks and Latins admit, that the 
Holy Ghost is the Spirit of the Son. Now of implies 
either possession or production ; and as we cannot 
predicate possession of one Person in the Trinity by 
another, we must predicate production, so that the dis 
tinction becomes wire-drawn. Waiving the question 
of the propriety of the insertion of the Filioque into 
the Creed, may not the definition of the Council of 
Florence, when for one short moment, in A.D. 1439, 
in the Dominican convent at Florence, the schism was 
healed, and the wall of partition that had divided the 
East from the West was broken down be adequate ? 

" The Latins and Greeks, meeting in that holy 03cu- 
menical synod, diligently laboured mutually that the 
Article of the Procession of the Holy Ghost should be 
most diligently and carefully discussed. Bringing for 
ward testimonies from the Holy Scriptures, and very 

G 



82 ARTICLE V. 



many authorities of doctors both Eastern and Western, 
in some of which it was said that the Holy Ghost pro- 
ceedeth from the Father and the Son, in others from 
the Father by the Son, two aspects of the same truth ; 
the Greeks asserted that when they say the Holy Ghost 
proceedeth from the Father, they say it not to exclude 
the Son, but because as they say it seems to them that 
the Latins argue that the Holy Ghost proceedeth from 
the Father and the Son, as from two principles and by 
two operations ; therefore they abstained from saying 
the Holy Ghost proceedeth from the Father and the 
Son. But the Latins asserted that it was not with this 
mind that they said the Holy Ghost proceeded from 
the Father and the Son, to exclude the Father from 
being the Fount and Principle of all Deity, that is, of 
the Son and Holy Ghost ; or this, that the Holy Ghost 
proceedeth from the Son, the Son hath not of the 
Father ; or that there are two principles or two spira- 
tions. They assert, as they have always asserted, that 
there is one principle and one spiration of the Holy 
Ghost. When one and the same sense of the truth has 
thus been arrived at, they agreed in the following con 
fession : 

" That the Holy Ghost is eternally from the Father 
and the Son, and hath His essence and subsistent Being 
from the Father and the Son together (Sumil et FiUo), 
and eternally from Both, as from one principle and 
one spiratiou, proceedeth. Declaring that what the 
holy doctors and fathers say, that the Holy Ghost pro 
ceedeth from the Father by the Son, leads to this 



OF THE HOLY GHOST. 83 

understanding : that by it is signified, that the Son. 
also, according to the Greek is a cause, according to 
the Latin a principle, of the substance of the Holy 
Spirit, as is the Father: and since all things which 
are of the Father, He gave to His only-begotten Son, 
in begetting, save Paternity : this also that the Holy 
Ghost proceedeth from the Son, the Son hath eter 
nally from the Father, by whom from all eternity He 
is begotten." 

This Article, after beginning by assuming the Double 
Procession of the Holy Ghost, goes on to predicate of 
Him that He is of one substance, majesty, and glory 
with the Father and the Son, Yery and Eternal God. 

I. This divinity may be proved 1. from the names 
whereby the Spirit is described in Holy Scripture ; 
2. from the notes and characteristics of the Divinity 
attributed to Him ; and 3. from His operation and 
effects. 

1. The text of the Acts, where St. Peter reproaches 
Ananias with having lied to the Holy Spirit, and adds 
that he had lied not to man but to God h . 

2. That in which St. Paul applies to the Holy Ghost 
the words in the sixth chapter of Isaiah, spoken of tht* 
Lord of Hosts *. 

3. In the Hebrews the author applies to the Holy 
Ghost the temptations in the wilderness : " They 
tempted God in the wilderness k ." 

4. In the Corinthians our bodies are said to be the 

h Acts v. 3, 4. i Acts xxviii. 25 sqq. k Ps. xcv., quoted 

in I-Icb. iii. 12. 



84 ARTICLE V. 



temple of God 1 , and also the temple of the Holy 
Ghost m . 

5. In the same Epistle, in enumerating the opera 
tions, and gifts, and ministrations, they are attributed 
to powers coming from God and the Holy Spirit n . 

6. In 2 Cor. iii. 17, it is said : " The Lord is that 
Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is there is 
liberty." 

To this may be added the constant use of the article 
TO before the word Spirit, distinguishing the Person 
from the Gifts ; the epithet Holy as implying an inte 
gral, not an adventitious holiness ; and the word Para 
clete or Comforter, the Truth, the Spirit of the Lord, 
the Spirit of Christ, the Lord Himself, the Spirit of 
adoption, of love, of liberty, of wisdom, of prudence, 
of counsel, of strength, of the fear of the Lord. 

II. Next, we gather that the Spirit is God, of one 
glory with the Father and the Son, from His parti 
cipation in those things which belong to God alone. 

1. The fact of His mission and procession is proof of 
this. St. Ambrose says that as the Wisdom which pro- 
ceedeth out of the mouth of God cannot be called 
created, nor the Word uttered from His heart, nor the 
Virtue in which is the fulness of the Eternal Majesty, 
so, too, the Holy Spirit cannot be said to be created 
which is poured forth from the mouth of God, when 
God Himself so exhibits His unity, as to say, " I will 
pour forth of My Spirit on all flesh ." 

1 1 Cor. iii. 6. Ibid. vi. 19. n Jbid. xii. 411. 

Oral, de Sp. S., c. 97. 



OF THE HOLY GHOST. 85 

2. The formula of Baptism lias always been alleged 
as proof; " for what society or communion can there be 
between the Creator and His creature ? How can that 
which is made be numbered with its Maker, for the 
perfection of all men p ?" 

3. And the word "in the Name;" for we believe 
man, but we believe in God. 

4. Again, an irrefragable argument may be drawn 
from His infinite knowledge. " The Spirit searcheth 
out the deep things of God V To know God or His 
secrets is in the power of no created Being, and the 
whole argument runs on the identity of nature as 
man knows man, so God knows God. 

5. The last and most awful proof of the Divinity of 
the Holy Ghost is the singular atrocity of sin against 
Him, the only irremissible sin. 

III. The third kind of argument is that which de 
duces the Divinity of the Holy Spirit from the attri 
butes and works predicated of Him in Holy Scrip 
ture. Substance and operation must be one. Con- 
substantial things have the same operations ; now if 
there exist that Bestowal of Grace, of Holiness, of 
Righteousness, which the Church terms Justification 
and Sanctification, which consists in the remission of 
sin, and in the infusion of grace or adoption, a creature 
cannot sanctify another creature r , and the Sanctity of 
the Spirit is not adventitious, but substantial. Thus 
St. Cyril admirably reasons s : " He is holy, not by par- 

P Athan., cont. Arian. Or. 2, t. i. p. i. 508, ed. Ben. 1 1 Cor. ii. 10. 
T Bas. ad Anann. s Dial. vii. de Trin. 658. 



86 AllTICLE V. 



ticipation, nor by an external relation to the Son, but 
being by Nature and Truth His Spirit. And as it is 
stupid and illiterate for a man to be called a man, yet 
something totally different to be understood, so it is 
very foolish to call the Spirit the Holy Spirit, and yet 
to den} 7 that He is holy by nature, and to force Him 
into another nature. For that name does not signify 
any measure of glory or eminence, as the names of 
Princedoms, Thrones, or Dominations, which are attri 
buted to those who were made by Him ; but it will 
express rather a substantial quality, such as the word 
Father, in the case of the Father ; or Son, in that of 
the Son. And as it would be extremely absurd to call 
God the Father, and yet not to understand Him as 
Father ; or to call the Son the Son, and yet not to hold 
Him as such ; how shall we free from the charge of 
ignorance those who dare to despoil the Holy Spirit of 
a natural and true Sanctity ? " 

Again, grace and righteousness are peculiarly as 
cribed to Him : " On the Gentiles was poured out the 
gift of the Holy Ghost*." "The offering up of the 
Gentiles is made acceptable, being sanctified by the 
Holy Ghost V " The love of God is poured out in 
our hearts by the Holy Spirit x ." 

Again, the immunity from sin, and the power of 
forgiving it. " Receive the Holy Ghost : whose sins 
ye remit V &c. 

Lastly, all those striking words of anointment and 

1 Acts x. 45. u Rom. xv. 16. x IbiJ. v. 5. 

y St. John xx. 22, 23. 



OF THE HOLY GHOST. 87 

healing are proofs of the point. " How," asks St. Cyril, 
"can the Holy Spirit be said to be created, if \>y 
Him we become partakers of the Father and of the 
Son. The participation in God cannot come to us 
from the creature." 

Others argue that the fact of our bodies being 
temples is proof of this, for to no angel or saint may 
temples be raised. But the highest proof of all, from 
Holy Scripture, is His office with regard to the Eco 
nomy of Redemption. It is by this operation that 
the Incarnation took place. " The Holy Ghost shall 
come upon Thee," was the announcement of the Holy 
Archangel Gabriel to the Blessed Virgin. Also " the 
Holy Ghost anointeth and sendeth Christ. Christ 
was predestinated by the Holy Ghost 2 ." Christ is 
said to be full of the Holy Spirit, and how can He 
not be God, who fills God. By the Spirit He cast 
out devils, and by the Spirit He was raised from 
the dead. Christ must not be said to be helped 
by creatures, nor can the Incarnation be said to be 
effected by the power and efficacy of anything short 
of God. 

This argument is well summed up by St. Fulgentius : 
"Therefore let it be said, if one who was not God 
could strengthen the powers of heaven, if he could 
give life, if he could sanctify by the regeneration of 
baptism, if he could give charity, if he could dwell in 
believers, if he could bestow grace, if he could have 
the members of Christ as his temple, then the Spirit 
z Horn. i. 4. 



88 ARTICLE V. 



may be justly denied to be God. Again, let it be said, 
that the things which are mentioned of the Holy 
Ohost could be done by any creature, then rightly 
may the Holy Spirit be called a creature. But if 
these things were never within the power of the crea 
ture, if those things are found in the Holy Ghost 
which are competent only to God, we ought not to 
speak of Him as in nature naturally diverse from 
the Father and the Son, whom we cannot find to be 
diverse in operation ; and if it be thus right to acknow 
ledge unity of nature from unity of work, let no one 
hesitate to acknowledge Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, 
a Unity of persons being preserved, to be one God by 
nature, who could make all things by His will, who 
can govern all things by the power of His omnipotence, 
who can fill all things by the incomprehensibility of 
His Divinity a ." 

a Ad Translmund. iii. 38. Vide Petavius de Deo, ad loc. 



ARTICLE VI. 

DE DIVINIS SCRIPTUEIS, QUOD SUFFICIANT AD 
SALUTEM. 

SCRIPTURA sacra continet omnia, qua ad salutem stint 
neccssaric!, ita ut quicquid in ca nee legitur, neque inde 
vrobari potcst, non sit a quoquam exigendum, tit tanquam 
at ticulus fidei credatur, ant ad salutis necessitatem requiri 
putetiir. 

Sacra Scriptures nomine, cos canonicos libros vetcris ct 
non Tettamaiti intdligimus, de quorum authoritate in Ec- 
clcsla nunquam dulitatum est. 

DE ^OillNIBUS ET NUMEEO LIBEORUM SACE2E CANONIC^ 
Sc EirTUE.E YETEEIS TESTAMENTI. 

Genesis. Prior liber ParaUpomenon. 

Exodus. Secundus liber ParaUpomenon. 

Leviticus. Primus liber Esdra. 

Numeri. Secundus liber Efidrfp. 

Deuteronomium. Liber Hester. 

Josuce. Liber Job. 

Judicum. Psalmi. 

Ruth. Proverbia. 

Prior liber Samuelis. lEcclesiastes vel Concionator. 

Secundus liber Samuelis. Cantica Solomonis. 

Prior liber Recjum. IV. Propketce Majores. 

Secundus liber Regnm. XII. PropTietcs Minores. 

Alios autem libros (ut ait llieronymus} legit quidem JEcclesia, 
ad excmpla vita, et formandus mores : illos tamen ad dog- 

kmata confirmanda non adhibet, ut sunt, 



Tertius liber Esdra. Liber Tolia. 

Qtiartus liber Esdrce. Liber Judith. 



90 ARTICLE VI. 



Beliquum libri Hester. Historia Susanna. 

Liber Sapientice. De Bel et Dracone. 

Liber Jesu filii Sirach. Oratio IM.ana.ssis. 

Baruch propheta. Prior liber jMacliabeorum. 

Canticum trium puerorum. Secundus liber H&achabeorum. 

Novi Testamenti omnes libTos (nt vulgo recepti sunt) recipl 
mns ) et habcmns pro canonicis. 



Of tlic Sufficiency of the Holy Scriptures for 
Sahation. 

" HOLY Scripture containeth all things necessary to 
salvation : so that whatsoever is not read therein, nor 
may be proved thereby, is not to be required of any 
man that it should be believed as an article of the 
faith, or be thought requisite or necessary to salvation. 
In the Name of the Holy Scripture, we do understand 
those canonical Books of the Old and New Testa 
ment, of whose authority was never any doubt in the 
Church/ 

Of the Names and Number of the Canonical Book*. 

Genesis. First Book of Chronicles. 

Exodus. Second Book of Chronicles. 

Leviticus. First Book of Esdnis. 

Numbers. Second Book of Esdras. 

Deuteronomy. Book of Esther. 

Joshua. Book of Job. 

Judges. Psalms, 

liuth. Proverbs. 

First Book of Samuel. Ecclesiastes or Preacher. 

Second Book of Samuel. Canticles, or Songs of Solomon. 

First Book of Kings. Four Prophets the greater. 

Second Book of Kings. Twelve Prophets the less. 

"And the other books, as Hierome saith, the Church 



OF THE SUFFICIENCY, &C. 91 

doth read for example of life and instruction of man 
ners, but yet doth it not apply them to establish any 
doctrine : such are these following : 

Third Book of Esdras. Baruch the Prophet. 

Fourth Book of Esdras. Song of the Three Children. 

Book of Tobias. Story of Susannah. 

Book of Judith. Of Bel and the Dragon. 

Rest of the Book of Esther. Prayer of Manasses. 

Book of Wisdom. First Book of Maccabees. 

Jesus the Son of Sirach. Second Book of Maccabees. 

" All the Books of the New Testament, as they are 
commonly received, we do receive, and account them 
canonical." 



1. A PROFOUND reverence for the Bible as the 
inspired Word of God is a dominant idea in the 
Articles. Not only in the present Article, but in the 
Twentieth, there is a special jealousy with regard to 
its authority. Certain statements are made to rest in 
a special way on this foundation. The Creeds are to 
be received and believed, " for they may be proved 
by most certain warrants of Scripture" (VIII.) The 
position with regard to works of supererogation is 
made to rest upon a text of Scripture (XIV.) ; as is 
also the universality of human sinfuliiess (XV.) Again, 
Holy Scripture is said to set out unto us only the Name 
of Jesus, whereby men must be saved (XVIII.) Con- 
ciliar authority also is limited thereby (XXI.) Cer 
tain Romish doctrines are said to be repugnant to the 
Word of God, and are therefore rejected (XXII.) ; so 
is speaking in a language not understanded of the 



92 ARTICLE VI. 



people (XXIY.) Transubstantiation, in the sense in 
which it is condemned a , is said to be repugnant to the 
plain words of Scripture (XXVIII.) Tradition and 
ceremonies also are ruled by it (XXXI Y.) And, 
finally, the power of the civil magistrates is limited 
thereby (XXXVII.) 

To have such weight, it must be granted that the 
Word of God is inspired. Although the Church has 
never yet ruled in what measure that inspiration is 
given, or in what way it works, yet from the be 
ginning it has been believed that God the Holy Ghost 
inspired certain persons to record certain events ; that 
in accordance with the promise of our Lord that the 
Comforter should bring to mind all the matters to be 
recorded, these authors owed the remembrance of the 
facts to supernal illumination, and that therefore there 
is no room for allowing of any errors, even the slightest. 
Following the analogy of the Incarnate Son Himself, 
of His Church, and of His Sacraments, the devout 
student recognises a Divine and a human element in 
the Inspired Word. He is no more disturbed by the 
provincialisms of St. Mark, than he is with the evil 
lives of the rulers of the Church, or by anything else 
that exhibits the human organ in the Church, but he 
cannot allow the human element to account for what 
seems to imply the slightest historical inaccuracy, be 
yond the use of popular unscientific language, the 
employment of which is a necessity if the revelation 
is in any sense to be intelligible to those to whom it 

* See the mode in which the subject is handled under Article XXVIII. 



OF THE SUFFICIENCY, &C. 93 

is made. The God of truth cannot give mistaken or 
imperfect information, and he sees the dilemma, and 
accepts it ; that either the Bible must be true in every 
respect, or not the word of God at all. He can accept 
no such patronised and apologised-for document as the 
half-belief of the present day would seek to put before 
him. Making every allowance for the possible errors 
of copyists, where mistakes may have crept in, he is 
bound to stake the issue upon the absolute genuineness 
and truthfulness of what is given to him as the Holy 
Scriptures. 

And this genuineness and truthfulness being granted, 
he takes a firm step forward to the thought of its in 
spiration. It is no vicious circle to say that Holy 
Scripture proves the existence of the Church, and that 
this, the Church, proves Holy Scripture. An am 
bassador comes to a king bearing his credentials in 
a letter. He himself is the authority for the genuine 
ness of the letter : when the letter is opened, it is 
found to define the powers, plenipotentiary or other, 
of the messenger who brought it. Thus it is with 
Holy Scripture. We have a set of documents which 
external and internal evidence, on the ground of the 
most rigid criticism, agree in holding to be genuine 
documents. They are certainly of the time of which 
they profess to be. Costume, incidental illustration, 
events known from other sources, make this certain. 
Furthermore, the genuineness of the documents is a 
strong presumption in favour of their authenticity. 
This presumption amounts to the highest probability. 



94 ARTICLE VI. 



The documents are not only real documents, but the 
events recorded in them really took place. Well, 
among the events so recorded, there is the institution 
of a mighty power called the Church, the historic ac 
count of the formation of a certain corporation with 
spiritual faculties, for certain supernatural ends ; and 
among the spiritual faculties is that of a certain instinct 
whereby truth is distinguished from error, in conse 
quence of an indwelling of God the Holy Ghost. 

The first effect of the exercise of this instinct on the 
part of the Church, is to declare that the documents, 
already proved to be authentic, are canonical and in 
spired. There is no vicious circle here. The exist 
ence of a book, as containing the revealed will of God, 
is so consonant to merely human ideas of the fitness of 
things that we find it in many false religions. Both 
the Hindoos, and the Chinese, and Parsees, have their 
symbolical volumes by the side of an authoritative 
system. The fullest development of this is in the 
case of the Moslem, to whom the Koran stands in the 
highest order of authority, but then we must recollect 
that Mahomedanism, being rather a heresy than an 
entirely false religion, has borrowed this from the 
Judaism with which it is so strongly impregnated. 
However, the continued existence of this state of things 
in these systems shews that there is no antecedent re 
pugnance to right reason in the idea of an inspired 
book standing as a sort of silent appeal beside a living- 
system of authority, such as the Church of God. 

To us Christians, the position of the ancient Scrip- 



OF THE SUFFICIENCY, &C. 95 

tures at the time of our Lord is sufficient guarantee 
for the soundness of the view. Then the Scribes and 
Pharisees sat in Moses* seat, and our Lord Himself 
commands deference to them as authorities, but He 
constantly appeals to that which was " said to them 
of old," by way of correction of the Pharisaic utter 
ances. No doubt we must make allowance for the 
fact that the Holy Ghost was not given to the Jewish 
Church as He is given to the Catholic Church now, 
but still the Eternal Word was to the old Israel what 
the Paraclete is to us, and there was an authority in 
the living Church then, as there was the gift of pro 
phecy in the case of Caiaphas. If, then, this system 
could co -exist with a volume in the position and 
with the authority of the old Testament, there is no 
reason that now there should not co- exist in the 
Church of God two authorities, mutually corrobora 
tive of each other, and, so far as individual interpre 
tation of each, mutually corrective of each other : the 
inspired Word and the inspired Church. The inspired 
Word, receiving its canonicity, its interpretation from 
the inspired Church ; and the inspired Church, tested 
in its development by the inspired Word. 

Holy Scripture, either implicite or explicitc, contains 
the faith. "The Church joineth the Law and the 
Prophets with the writings of the Evangelists and 
Apostles, and thence drinketh her faith b ." St. Cle 
ment teaches that " we have the Lord as the source 
of the doctrine, guiding the true knowledge from 

b Tcrtullian De Prase., 36. 



96 ARTICLE VI. 



beginning to end, in divers portions and in divers 
manners/ through the Prophets, the Gospel, and the 
holy Apostles c ." " In the two Testaments every word 
appertaining to God may be sought and discussed, and 
from them may all knowledge be obtained d ." " The 
holy and inspired Scriptures are sufficient of themselves 
for the preaching of the truth e ." Every word or thing 
ought to be confirmed by testimony of God-inspired 
Scripture, to the full conviction of the good and the 
shaming of the evil. " What is the character of faith ? 
An unhesitating conviction of the truth of the God- 
inspired words (Holy Scriptures). What is the cha 
racter of the faithful? With the same conviction 
to embrace the meaning of what is said, and not 
to venture to annul or to add. For if everything 
which is not of faith is sin, as the Apostle says, 
and faith is from learning and hearing through the 
Word, everything which is without the God-inspired 
Scriptures is sin f ." " The doctrine of the Church, 
which is the House of God, is found in the fulness 
of the divine Scriptures s ." St. Ambrose asks h , "How 
can we use what we do not find in Holy Scrip 
ture?" St. Augustine, "In those things which are set 
down plainly in Scripture are found all things which 
contain faith and the way of life, i.e. hope and charity 1 / 
So again, " Whatever ye hear thence (the divine Scrip- 

c Clem. Strom, vii. 16. d Origen, in Lev. Horn. v. n. 9. ii. 212, 

ed. De La Rue. e S. Athanasius, cont. Gent, ad in it. f S.Basil, 
Reg. 2G, 80. c. 22. s S. Jcrom. ad Paul. h De Off. i. 23. 

102. * De Doct. Xna. ii. 9. 14. 



OF THE SUFFICIENCY, &C. 97 

tures) let that savour well unto you; whatsoever is 
without, reject k ." " The city of God believeth the Holy 
Scriptures, both the Old and the New, which we call 
canonical, from which the faith chiefly is derived,, 
whereby the just liveth, by which we walk without 
doubting, as long as we are absent from the Lord V 

" The opposing parties (Roman Catholics and members of 
the English Church) attach different meanings to the word 
proof, in the controversy whether the whole faith is, or 
is not, contained in Scripture. Roman Catholics m mean 
that not every article is so contained there that it may 
thence be legally proved, independently of the teaching and 
authority of tradition : but Anglicans mean that every article 
is so contained there, that it may thence be proved, provided 
there may be added the illustrations and compensations of 
the tradition. And it is in this latter sense, I conceive, that 
the Fathers also speak. 1 am sure, at least, that S. Athana- 
sius frequently adduces passages as proofs of points in con 
troversy, which no one would see to be proofs, unless apos 
tolical tradition were taken into account, first as suggesting, 
then as authoritatively ruling their meaning. Thus you 

k Serm. 46. de Past., c. 11. 21. Opp. v. 238. 

1 Civ. Dei, xix. 18. t. vii. p. 562. 

m " We believe that there is no other groundwork whatever for faith 
except the written Word of God ; because we allow no power in religion 
to any living authority, except inasmuch as its right to define is con 
ferred in God s written Word. If, therefore, you hear that the Church 
claims authority to define articles of faith, and to instruct her children 
what they must believe, you must not for one moment think that she 
pretends to any authority or sanction for that power, save what she 
conceives herself to derive from the clear, express, and explicit words of 
Scripture." (Wiseman s Lect., iii. p. 60, ed. 1836.) 

II 



08 ARTICLE VI. 



(Anglicans) do not deny that the whole is not in Scripture 
in such sense that pure unaided logic can draw it from the 
Sacred Text ; nor do we (Roman Catholics) deny, that the 
faith is in Scripture, in an improper sense, in the sense that 
tradition is able to recognise and determine it there. Angli 
cans do not profess to dispense with tradition ; nor do lloman 
Catholics forbid the idea of probable, secondary, symbolical, 
annotative senses of Scripture, over and above those which 
properly belong to the wording and context n ." 

The Anglican Article expresses itself in terms of the 
greatest moderation. It defines the sense in which it 
means that Holy Scripture contains all things necessary 
to salvation, by the most important qualifications. It 
leaves the amplest room for the deductions which tra 
dition or even individual doctors may gather from it, 
in the term " or may be proved thereby/ 1 It leaves 
the fullest scope for pious opinions where it asserts that 
Scripture, in its letter or in such deductions, alone is to 
regulate what is de fide. It says nothing against the 
acceptance of whatever the Church proposes to our be 
lief, because whatsoever is so proposed to us must rest 
ultimately on the authority of Scripture, of which the 
Church is the guardian and the expounder. All that it 
seeks to protect the faithful against is the enforcement 
on them, as requisite to salvation, of individual opi 
nions, which being without the authentication of Church 
authority, have consequently no Scriptural authority. 
Any accretive development, that would add to the sub 
stance of the faith, would be condemned by this Article, 

D Newman s Letter to Dr. Pusey on the Eirenicon, p. 14. 



OF THE SUFFICIENCY, &C. 99 

but it would not condemn the enunciation by legitimate 
authority of any doctrine deduced from the original 
-deposit. 

It leaves a wide range for the indulgence of a holy 
imagination as the result of meditation on the mys 
teries of the faith; all that it guards against is that 
these shall not become de fide. It guards against the 
abuse that may arise from the assertion of doctrine on 
the strength of visions and supernatural illuminations. 
And its most extended sense does not go beyond the 
general assertion borne witness to by the Bible, that 
the Holy Ghost was to lead the Apostles, ei? Traaav Trjv 
akijOeiav ; that there was nothing incomplete in the 
belief of the Apostolic or Post-apostolic age; that what 
has somewhat over-boldly been called the thin and 
colourless Christianity of the primitive Church was 
" able to make men wise unto salvation." 

In the celebrated oration by John of Kagusa, before 
the Council of Basle, he lays down the following canons 
with regard to Holy Scripture. 

After asserting, in the words of St. Augustine, " Non 
crederem evangelic, nisi me commoveret Ecclesise auc- 
toritas," that the Catholic Church is ruled over by the 
Holy Spirit, and cannot err in matters of faith, he 
adds, that because the declaration of this universal 
principle is mainly to be taken from the authority 
of Holy Scripture, he lays down certain rules for its 
right understanding . 

Concilia, t. xvii. p. 832, eel. Colet. 



100 ARTICLE VI. 



1. The foundation of all is, that all Scripture, both 
of the Old and J^ew Testament, is inspired. 

2. 80 great is the certitude of the truth of the Holy 
Scripture, that nothing asserted or expressed in it can 
be lying or mistaken. To assert the opposite is to 
destroy the entire foundations of the faith. 

3. It is congruous to the divine essential goodness 
that God should communicate Himself, by His inspired 
Word, to all His creatures, according to the measure 
of their wants and requirements. 

4. Holy Scripture has various senses, e.g. the literal 
and spiritual sense. 

5. The principal literal sense is not always that on 
the surface, but what God the Holy Ghost intends, as 
in the case of the Parables. 

6. The faith, and all things necessary to salvation, 
are founded on the literal sense, and from it alone may 
arguments be drawn for such things. 

7. Holy Scripture, well and soundly understood in 
the literal sense, is an infallible and most sufficient 
rule of faith. 

8. It is not improper, that in one and the same text 
of Scripture there may be more literal senses than one. 

9. To the proper understanding of any text, reference 
must be had not only to the context, but to the rest of 
the inspired volume. 

10. To discover the true sense it is necessary very 
diligently to attend to the various methods of proceed 
ing, for in the same sentence words are sometimes 
literal, sometimes mystical. 



OF THE SUFFICIENCY, &C. 101 

11. Difficulties in interpretation are good and neces 
sary to call out the diligence of the students, and to 
try their humility. 

12. Hence the necessity of able expositors. 

13. Those are to be chosen who are best qualified, 
with preference for the Ancients. 

14. Expositors are to be compared with each other, 
and with themselves ; and that doctor is to be chosen 
whose opinion is nearest to the sense which God the 
Holy Ghost, the author of the Scriptures, intends, 
and which is corroborated by the authority of the 
Church. 

15. Holy Scripture suffers from proud and presump 
tuous students. 

16. And lastly, Holy Scripture, in its reception and 
authentic expositions, finally resolves itself into the 
authority, reception, and approbation of the Catholic 
Church, as into a first principle of religious doctrine 
and science. 

To return to the consideration of the Article, while 
the authority of Scripture is vindicated, nothing is 
said with regard to any power or duty of individuals 
to judge whether the decrees of the Church are in con 
formity with the Word of God. The constitution of 
a country, assuming a contract between monarch and 
subjects, may lay down what are the duties of a sub 
ject, without giving individuals the right to judge him, 
far less to rebel against him. There is no sanction here 
for the right of private judgment. Such a notion never 
entered into the minds of the compilers of the Articles. 
Any modification in the form and rites of a religion 



102 ARTICLE VI. 



in those days was a matter of government. No one- 
dreamt of a man in his study sitting down to evolve 
for himself out of Scripture a system of religious belief. 
There was a re-adjustment of the balance of the divine 
grounds of faith, but the very limitation of authority 
implied authority. The Articles would be meaningless 
unless we assume the existence of an institution set up 
on earth claiming to decide doctrine, to define what 
should be believed as an article of faith, and to decree 
what is requisite to salvation. 

After asserting the office of Holy Scripture in acting 
as a check upon any developing power by way of accre 
tion in the Church, the Article goes on to the vexed 
question of the Canon, and herein takes a middle line 
between the decree enunciated in the fourth Session of 
the Council of Trent and the Protestant Confessions. 

First of all it maintains, in accordance with the 
authority of Josephus, quoted by Eusebius p , the pre 
eminence of the twenty- two books * of the first Canon* 



v Hist. EccL, iii. 9. 

The Jews thus made their enumeration : 
Genesis, 
Exodus, 



f G( 

I *> 



Books of 

< -Leviticus, , 

MoseS j Numbers, 

l^Deuteronomy. J 

C Joshua, 
Pour Books of , j , 

FOTmoP 1 Samuel, land 2, f IV ^ 
Prophets. jjKfo^ ! and 2j j 1 

r lsaiah, -s 

Pour Books of [ j erein .aiulLain.! 

Later i Ezekiel, ( IY J 

Prophets. Ll2 Lesser ProphJ 



OF THE SUFFICIENCY, &C. 



103 






" The Jewish Church had only twenty-two books of 
Scripture which might justly challenge credit and be 
lief among them ; whereof five were the books of 
Moses, containing little less than 3,000 years, and 
thirteen the books of the prophets, wherein they wrote 
the acts of their times, from the death of Moses till 
the reign of Artaxerxes, after Xerxes, King of Persia ; 
and four more containing both hymns to God and 
admonitions to men for the amendment of their lives ; 
but from the time of Artaxerxes till our own times, 
though certain books had been written, yet they de 
served not the same credit and belief which the former 
had, because there was no certain succession of prophets 
among them. It is henceforth clear how we attach 
ourselves to the true Scriptures, for in spite of so 
great a time having elapsed, no one has dared to add, 
diminish, or alter aught in them ; it being a maxim 



(^Psalms, 
Proverbs, 
The Preacher, 

The Song of Songs, 



The rest of the 
Holy Writers. 



Job, 



IX. 



Daniel, 

Ezra aiidXehemlah, 

Esther, 

^Chronicles, 1 and 2. j XXIT. 
It would seem that even among the Jews there was a difference of 
view with regard to the Canon of the Old Scripture, which extended 
itself to the Christians. The Jews of Palestine admitted the Palestinian 
Canon, in which were only the books written in Hebrew ; and those 
of Alexandria the Alexandrian, which comprehended those written in 
Greek. Vide Klee s Histoire des Dogmeo Chretiens, vol. i. p. 146, 
Paris, 1848. 



104 ARTICLE VI. 



engrafted into all Jews from their childhood to regard 
them as the dogmas of God, to adhere constantly to 
them, and, if need be, to die for them." 

The Early Church seems to have followed in the same 
line. In the Apostolic Constitutions, whatever be their 
value, there is no mention of the Apocryphal Books ; 
and in the Canons of the Apostles the old Jewish canon 
is adhered to, with the addition of a recommendation 
of the reading of the Wisdom of Sirach for the young, 
and in some manuscripts the Book of Judith is men 
tioned. It is the same with the author of the " Eccle 
siastical Hierarchy," though he does in another place 
mention the Book of Wisdom. In the catalogue of 
all the books that, by common consent of the Oriental 
Churches, was received as Canonical Scripture, made 
by St, Melito, Bishop of Sardis, in the middle of the 
second century, we have the old Canon, with the ex 
ception of Nehemiah and Esther. St. Justin Martyr 
nowhere quotes the Apocryphal books. 

Origen, in his preface to the Psalms 1 , gives the 
Hebrew Canon with the Hebrew names, although he 
does cite, under the general name of Scripture, Tobit 
and the Maccabees s . St. Clement gives no list of the 
Canonical Books, but frequently cites the Apocrypha. 
Eusebius supplies us with the term avriXeyo/jLeva ; and 
St. Athanasius, in one of his Paschal Epistles, gives 
a perfect catalogue both of the Canonical and eccle 
siastical books then received by the Church, and 

r torn. ii. p. 529. s lib. viii. in Ep. ad Rom. p. 621 and GiO. 



OF THE SUFFICIENCY, &C. 105 

charges orthodox Christians to abstain from apocry 
phal writers introduced by heretics. First he gives 
the twenty-two of the Old Testament, adding that 
these are the only fountain of salvation from whence 
all doctrine of piety and religion is preached, and 
whereunto none ought to add or none detract. Then 
he speaks of the ecclesiastical books not admitted into 
the Canon of Scripture, but appointed by the Fathers 
to be read by those who were beginners in religion, 
the Wisdom of Solomon, the Wisdom of Sirach, the 
Greek Esther, Judith, Tobit, the Apostles doctrine, 
the Shepherd of Hermas. Elsewhere, but not here, 
he mentions Susanna and the Maccabees, only, how 
ever, as dvTiXeyo/ueva. 

St. Hilary gives the testimony of the Western Church 
for the same period. St. Cyril of Jerusalem that of the 
Palestinian Church, though he puts Baruch and the 
Epistle of Jeremiah with the Prophecies. He quotes 
the ecclesiastical books often ; and when he disapproves 
of apocryphal books he does not mean them, but such 
things as the false gospels. All this is the more re 
markable because in the East they always used the 
Septuagint, of which the avTik*/op,va are an integral 
portion. 

The Council of Laodicea, A.D. 364, is the first authen 
tic conciliar recognition of the Canon; Baruch, how 
ever, being added to the Old, and the Apocalypse being 
omitted in the New ; the first being, however, pro 
bably not the distinct book so called, but merely the 
history of Baruch as given in Jeremiah. St. Epipha- 
nius quotes the Hebrew Canon, never mentions Tobit, 



10G ARTICLE VI. 



Judith, Baruch, or the Maccabees, and of the two- 
Wisdoms says, " They are not to be counted within the 
number of the Holy Scriptures, however useful and 
profitable, having never been put into the Ark of the 
Covenant*." Yet elsewhere 11 he ranges Wisdom and 
Ecclesiasticus among the Oeial jpa(f)al. Ecclesiasticus 
was received among the Ketubim in the fourth cen 
tury x . St. Basil and St. Gregory of Nazianzum endorse 
the teaching of Origen ; and there are some curious 
iambics of St. Amphilochius, Bishop of Iconium in Ly- 
caonia, in the same sense, expressing the doubt about 
Esther. St. Chrysostom acknowledges none but those 
which were first written in the Hebrew tongue > . 

A new epoch comes in with St. Jerome. He ap 
proaches the Old Scriptures in the spirit of enlightened 
and reverential criticism. For this he was prepared 
by a certain knowledge of the Hebrew tongue, and by 
the assistance he received from a Jew with whom he 
studied. It is from his Prologue to the books of Solo 
mon that the quotation in the Article is taken. It 
is to this effect z : " For as the Church indeed reads 
the books of Tobit, Judith, and the Maccabees, but 
does not receive them among the Canonical Scriptures, 
so let her read these two volumes (the Wisdom of 
Sirach and the Wisdom of Solomon) for the edifica 
tion of the people, and not to confirm the authority 
of ecclesiastical dogmas." 



o 

I User. via. cont. Epicur., lib. i. t. i. p. 19, t. ii. p. 162. 

II User. Ixxvi. ad Actium, t. i. p. 941. 

x Dr. Pnsey s "Daniel," p. 301. > Horn. iv. in Gen., t. iv. p. 25. 
z vol. ix. col. 1293. 






OF THE SUFFICIENCY, &C. 107 

Bufinus, whose work on the Creed is one of great au 
thority, follows St. Jerome in the division of the books. 

While these books were thus excluded from the 
Canon, it would be uncandid to deny that the Fathers 
frequently quote them under the title of prophetic 
writings, and a certain amount of inspiration was 
attributed to them. St. Clement of Alexandria and 
Theodoret quote Baruch ; St. Cyprian, Wisdom and 
the Maccabees, and Susanna ; St. Cyril, Ecclesiasticus ; 
and St. Ambrose, Tobit. Other books, also held both 
by us and the Council of Trent as apocryphal, such as 
Enoch, Hermas, and the Prayer of Manasses, were 
quoted in a loose way. 

In the fifth century St. Augustine, while he advo 
cates the use of the Latin and Greek versions which 
had the Apocryphal books, and uses them freely, yet 
he does set a mark of distinction between them and the 
books and Canon of the Hebrew Bible a ; yet his work, 
however, dc Doctruid Ckri#ti&xd*, is that which is cited 
for the modern Roman Canon. The same was endorsed 
by the Council of Carthage, A.D. 379 c , by that of 
A.D. 419, and by that of Hippo, A.D. 393. This testi 
mony is followed, with the exception of Baruch and 
the Maccabees, by Pope Innocent, in his third letter to 
Exuperius, Bishop of Thoulouse. St. Hilary of Aries 
demurs to the canonicity of Wisdom. 

At the end of this century Pope Gelasius held a Synod 
at Rome, and put forth a Canon in the same sense. 

a De Civ. Del, 1. xviii. 26, 36 ; xvii. c. 20 : De Cur. pro Mort., c. 15. 
b ii. n. 12, 13. c c. xlvii. 



108 ARTICLE VI. 



In the sixth century Cassiodorus, Junilius Primasius, 
Anastasius of Aiitioch, Leontius, the author of de Sectis, 
and Yictorinus of Poitiers, are quoted in behalf of the 
shorter Canon. 

In the seventh, St. Gregory the Great apologizes for 
the use of a passage in the Maccabees. St. Isidore of 
Seville gives both catalogues, preferring St. Augus 
tine s. The quinisext Council in Trullo accepts both 
the Laodicean and the Carthaginian Councils. 

In the eighth age St. John Damascene keeps to the 
Hebrew Canon and rejects the other, " having never 
been laid up in the Ark of the Covenant/ as Epipha- 
nius had said before him, whether correctly or not we 
cannot say. 

In the ninth century Mcephorus, followed by Anasta 
sius Bibliothecarius, makes a threefold distinction, oaai 
elal Oeiai ypatyal KK\7]o-ia%6jj,evaL, the twenty-two ; 
then ocrai dvTi.\e<yoi>rai,, those which we call the Apo 
crypha ; and then the a7roKpv(f>a, viz. Enoch, the Patri 
archs, the Prayer of Joseph, the Testimony of Moses, 
the Assumption of Moses, Abram, Eldad and Medad, 
Elias the Prophet, the prophecy of Sophonias, Zacha- 
riah the father of John, and the false writings of 
Baruch, Abaccuc, Ezekiel, and Daniel. Alcuin, con 
futing Elipandus, calls Sirach an apocryphal and dubi 
ous Scripture. Rhabanus Maurus transcribes Isidore. 

The tenth and eleventh ages are not without their 
witness in Radulphus Flaviacensis, Herman nus Con- 
tractus, and Gislebertus, Abbot of Westminster. 

The great twelfth-century divines, Hugo and Richard 






OF THE SUFFICIENCY, &C. 109 

of St. Victor, testify to the assertion in our Article. In 
the thirteenth, the very same line is taken by the pious 
and learned author of the Glossa Ordinaria, by Car 
dinal Hugo, and by St. Thomas. In the fourteenth 
century Nicholas Lyranus, who was converted from Ju 
daism and became a friar minor, declares his intention 
of writing on the books which are not canonical, Wis 
dom, Ecclesiasticus, Judith, Tobit, and the Maccabees, 
Paulus Burgensis, also a converted Jew, whose notes are 
printed with the Glossa, keeps up the distinction. This 
brings us down to the Council of Florence. Of this 
Council, Carranza gives a doubtful Canon to the Arme 
nians, in which the authority of St. Augustine is pre 
ferred to that of St. Jerome ; but St. Antoninus and 
Tostatus in the same age do not obey it. Tostatus, 
following the ancient Fathers, distinguishes between 
two sorts of apocryphal books, whereof some are so 
called because it is not known for certain who wrote 
them, or whether they were written by the inspiration 
of the Holy Ghost, or whether all things contained 
therein be undoubtedly true; others which, beside all 
these uncertainties, have many things in them mani 
festly false or shrewdly suspected to be so. Dionysius 
Carthusianus says of the books "that though true, they 
are not to be computed among the Canonical Scrip 
tures, and that the Church does not receive them to 
prove any Article of faith by them." In the sixteenth 
century the Complutensian speaks of the libri extra 
Canonem : Picus of Mirandula, Faber Stapulensis, 
Clichtoveus, Ludovicus Yives, Erasmus, Ferus, Driedo, 



110 ARTICLE VI. 



and, above all, Cardinal Cajetan, maintain the dis 
tinction d . 

The neglect with which the Apocrypha is treated is 
not in the interests of truth. Because there is a marked 
difference in the authority of the proto-canonical and 
deutero-canonical books, people should not ignore the 
latter in the way they do. That they are an integral 
part of the version generally used by our Lord and His 
Apostles, ought of itself to invest them with reverence, 
but they are more important when we come to see the 
principles involved in them. First, the} supply a most 
important historical link between the Old and the New 
Testament, carrying on the continuity of the fortunes 
of the people of God from the time when prophecy 
ceased. Secondly, they exhibit the gradual develop 
ment of truth, a very marked increase of the knowledge 
of God being traceable between the Books of Moses 
and the Books of Wisdom and Ecclesiasticus. Thirdly, 
they recognise in a practical manner the permissibility 
and advantage of religious fiction ; the Book of Judith 
being probably a romance written to raise the spirits 
of the chosen people at some time of their depression. 
Fourthly, they exhibit, in a very marked way, the 
effect of the union of the Jewish and Greek ideas in 
the evolution of a religious philosophy. Fifthly, they 
form a remarkable key to the understanding and in 
terpretation of the New Testament, as supplying us 

d See a Scholastical History of the Canon of Holy Scripture by 
Cosin. Works, vol. iii. Oxf. Edit. 1849. 



I 



OF THE SUFFICIENCY, &C. Ill 

with the clearest manifestation of the modes of thought 
current among the Jews in the times immediately pre 
ceding the manifestation of St. John the Precursor. 
Lastly, they are very rich in anticipation of Christian 
ideas, witnessing to that preparation of heart which 
was in the power of, and actually obtained by, those 
earnest souls who waited for the consolation of Israel, 
and therefore supplying material for an. intellectual 
acquiescence in the award whereby those who rejected 
our Lord when He came are condemned. 

"We find an uncertainty in the early ages relative 
to the Canon of the New Testament. Eusebius, in 
that which he has transmitted to us e , divides the books 
into 6jAo\o<yovfjieva and avn\ey6^eva ; in the last class 
he places St. James, St. Jude, the Second Epistle of 
St. Peter, the Second and Third Epistles of St. John. 
He designates as voda those whose authorship was de 
monstrated to be not Apostolic, as the Acts of Paul, 
the Shepherd of Hennas, the Apocalypse of St. Peter, 
the Epistle of St. Barnabas, the book entitled SiSa^at 
in the Apostolic Constitutions, and the Gospel of the 
Hebrews. He says also that some include the Apoca 
lypse of St. John. Beyond this he further brackets 
certain works as aroira and Swae/Si], as the Gospels 
of St. Peter, St. Thomas, and St. Matthew, the Acts of 
St. Andrew, St. John, and of the other Apostles. 

By degrees the avrCke^o^eva of Eusebius began to 

take their place among the recognised books. St. Atha- 

nasius and St. Epiphanius admit them. All, with the 

exception of the Apocalypse, are cited by St. Gregory 

e Hist. Eccl. iii, 24. 



112 AETICLE VI. 



Nazianzen, the Apostolic Constitutions, and the cele 
brated Canon of Laodiccea, C. Cyril. 

Yet we still find occasional isolated opposition against 
other books of the azmXeyo^ez/a. The Iambics to Se- 
leucus, printed in the works of St. Gregory Nazian 
zen f , say that many do not admit the Second Epistle 
of St. Peter, the Second and Third Epistles of St. John, 
St. Jude, the Hebrews; and that the greater part reject 
the Apocalypse. Didymus of Alexandria doubts the 
Canonicity of the Second Epistle of St. Peter ; and 
Theodore of Mopsuestia is indisposed to that of St. 
James. The Syrian version only recognises of the 
Catholic Epistles, as Canonical, the First Epistle of 
St. John, the First Epistle of St. Peter, and St. James. 
The Latin Church, in view of Montanism, tended to 
dislike the Hebrews. The Greek Church, in fear of Mil- 
lenarianism, mistrusted the Apocalypse g . The Council 
of Nice, by affording means to the Bishops of the East 
and "VYest to compare notes, enabled the Western to 
learn that the Hebrews was part of Canonical Scrip 
ture, and the Eastern the genuineness of the Apo 
calypse. This practically ended the question as to 
the New Testament Canon. Doubts subsequent to this 
were rather the abnormal opinions of individuals, and 
therefore do not invalidate the statement in the Arti 
cles, that concerning what we now receive " there was 
never any doubt in the Church." 

f torn. ii. p. 165. 

s Klee, Sistoire des Dogmes Chretiens, i. 146. Cf. Westcott s 
General Survey of the History of the Canon of the New Testament. 
Cambridge, 1855. 



ARTICLE VII. 

DE VETERI TESTAMIINTO. 

TESTAMENTUM vetus novo contrarhun non est, quando- 
quidem tarn in vetcri, quam in novo, per Christum, qui 
unicus est Mediator Dei et hominum, Deus ct homo, 
(sterna vita humano gcneri est proposita. Quare male 
scntiunt, qui vctercs tantum in promissiones tcmporarias 
sperasse confingunt. Quanquam lex a Deo data per 
Mosen (quoad c&remonias et ritus) Christianos non as- 
tringat, ncque civilia ejus prcecepta iti aliqua rcpub- 
lica nccessario recipi dfbeattt, nihilominus tamen ab 
obedientia mandatonim (quce moralia vocantur) nullus 
(quantiimvis Christianus] est sofxtns. 



"Of the Old Testament. 

" THE Old Testament is not contrary to the New ; 
for both in the Old and New Testament everlasting 
life is offered to mankind by Christ, who is the only 
Mediator between God and man, being both God and 
Man ; wherefore they are not to be heard which feign 
that the old Fathers did look only for transitory pro 
mises. Although the law given from God by Moses, 
as touching ceremonies and rites, do not bind Christian 
men, nor the civil precepts thereof ought of necessity 
to be received in any commonwealth, yet, notwith 
standing, no Christian man whatsoever is free from 
the obedience of the commandments which are called 
moral." 



.114 ARTICLE VII. 



Among certain schools of the Reformers there was 
a, great dislike of accounting the Gospel a law truly and 
properly so called", implying thereby that Christ our 
Redeemer was not truly a lawgiver. Also many denied 
the proposition that the Old Testament, promising pro 
perly and directly carnal and temporal goods, promises 
also, in the figure and symbol of these, spiritual and 
eternal good things. The Anabaptists held that the 
Old Testament was abrogated, and refused to accept its 
authority to confirm truth, or to refute error. In this 
they renewed the errors of Basilides, Carpocrates, and 
the Manichaeans. The Family of Love held that its 
promises of happiness were wholly exhausted by the 
temporal blessings of this life ; and the Brownists that 
Christians were necessarily tied to the judicial pre 
cepts of Moses, " Which laws were not made for the 
Jews state only, but for all mankind, especially for all 
the Israel of God b ." A strong Antinomian spirit pre 
vailed among many of the extreme schools of the Re 
formers, and it is against these, in their various phases, 
that the Seventh Article of religion is directed. 

The Article speaks of that fresh light that was 
hed upon the world by the Advent of Jesus Christ as 
n teacher of additional truth from heaven. Such, in 
deed, were the yearnings of heathenism. The wisest 
of these, almost in the spirit of prophecy, announced 
that "One who cared for us" should come "to be our 

* Sec Bp. Anclrewes Sermon on the Nativity, on Psalm ii. 7, p. 289, 
Anglo -Catholic Library. 

b Barren s " Discovery of the False Church," 1500, p. 96. 






OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 115 

instructor, and to remove man s ignorance," "in re 
spect of his relations to God and man c ." 

The Church is one and the same, substantially and 
formally, under the Patriarchal, Mosaic, and Christian 
dispensations. One and the same object of faith, even 
Christ, hath been believed in from the beginning even 
until now, and so shall be believed unto the end of 
the world ; with this difference, however, that, as time 
has gone on, the same faith hath been more and more 
explicit. St. Augustine very well says, " Before the 
coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, who appeared lowly 
in the flesh, just men had preceded ; believing in Him 
as about to come, as we believe in Him as having 
come. The times vary, but not the faith ; for the 
words themselves vary with the time when they are 
variously declared. About to come has one sound, 
come has another; about to come is changed into 
come: and the same faith joins those who believed 
that He was about to come, with those who believe 
that He has come. We see both enter by the one 
gate of faith, that is, by Christ d ." 

Thus St. Paul, quoting David, says : "we having the 
same spirit of faith ." In short, it must be laid down 
with the author just quoted, "No one, save by this 
laith which is in Christ Jesus, either before His In 
carnation or since His Incarnation, has ever been 
reconciled to God f ." 

c J ide Alcibiades Deuleros, Plat. Op., t. in. p. 124, Ed. Bekkcr. 
London, 1826. d In Tract XLV., in Joann. Evang., p. 598. 

= li Cor. iv. 13. f Ferraris, Bibliotheca Canonica. 



116 ARTICLE VII. 



. The first great province of the identity of the Old 
and New Testaments lies in the matter of direct doc 
trine. In the letter, and still more in the spirit of 
the Old Scriptures we find the Gospel. Truths, that 
never could be arrived at by the unassisted reason of 
man, are in germ there. The nature and personality 
of the One God, His existence in more Persons than 
one, His government by the Holy Angels, His eccle 
siastical Election, His training and discipline of the 
chosen people, the scheme of redemption by suffering 
for us in our nature, which He took, the outpouring 
and unction of the Spirit, the use of water for lustra 
tion, the outpouring of Blood for Atonement, the re 
wards and punishments of the future state, and final 
Beatitude in the sight and presence of God, all are 
found in embryo in the Law, and in the Prophets, 
and in the Psalms; in life, and strength, and fulness, 
in the Gospel. 

Again, the Old Testament History is most important 
in symbolizing to us the fortunes of the present dis 
pensation. Not only are the historical personages 
allegories, as the Apostle bears witness in the case of 
Abraham and Sarah, but the historical events are ana 
logies of what takes place now. The polity of the 
synagogue, for example, enables us to understand some 
of the fortunes of the Church of Christ. The law of 
reward on obedience, of punishment on transgression, 
holds in the same sense, but in a higher measure now. 
The overruling of man s disobediences to an eventual 
good, obtains among us now just as it did in the de- 



OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 117 

portation of Joseph to Egypt, when the sin of his bre 
thren was by God s goodness made the means of pre 
serving life. Hearts under the rejected Gospel are 
hardened just as was Pharaoh s. Men fail when least 
they watch themselves, just as Moses, the meekest of 
mankind, failed from want of meekness. And so with 
regard to communities and institutions. We get les 
sons of great importance as to states and branches of 
the Church from the fortunes of the Jewish theocracy. 
Judah and Israel have their types among us now. 
Schism and its punishment and merciful overruling, 
and the duty of striving for unity, are what Samaria 
teaches us. The danger of sin and worldliness in high 
places, the misery of corruption and unfaithfulness in 
those who sit in Moses seat, is what is taught us by 
her sister Judah. 

Furthermore, the ordinances and rites of the old 
Law have their distinct places and value under the 
Gospel. At their best they derived what value they 
had from the power of the future Incarnation. They 
testified to the faith of the offerers, they were proofs of 
obedience to God s commandments, of adherence to His 
institution, and so they irapetrated such grace as was 
competent to Jew or proselyte of righteousness; in short, 
it was the opus operantis as against the opus operation 
of the Gospel. But with the manifestation of the truth 
the shadow passed away. When Christ came, and the 
Church was set up on earth, the old rites lost their 
spiritual power. But they now assumed a new office. 
They ceased to be in any sense sacraments, they became 



118 ARTICLE TIT. 



symbols. This we learn from their treatment by the 
author of the Epistle to the Hebrews. He developes 
their symbolical character as types of the great mys 
teries of redemption, and thus their importance is an 
everlasting importance. The blood of bulls and goats, 
and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, no 
longer sanctifieth even to the purifying of the flesh, 
but the narration of these things in the inspired Word 
of God, represents to us many of the aspects of the 
eternal sacrifice of Christ, and supplies us with copious 
topics of devout meditation. The High-Priest has 
ceased to ofier for rejected Israel, and his office has 
passed away ; but the record of his consecration, func 
tions, and death, supply us with types of the corre 
sponding actions of the Great High-Priest and Apostle 
of our calling, and enable us to dwell in trustful love 
on that which in its fulness can never be realized by 
finite mind. 

Another important instance of the connection be 
tween the old and the new covenant is Prophecy. Its 
importance in the evidential department of the science 
of theology can hardly be exaggerated. It supplies 
a proof that almost amounts to demonstration, e.g, 
the prophecy, in the 28th chapter of Deuteronomy, of 
circumstances in the siege of Jerusalem, is known to us 
with absolute certainty, from the fact of the Septuagint 
translation having been made before the event. The 
details are so minute that it cannot be reduced to the 
notion of a happy conjecture. There is no escaping its 
weight. Again, those which connect the times of the 



OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 119 

Messiah with the cessation of the autonomy of Judah, 
are corroborated by the external proofs we have that, 
not only in Judcea but through the world, at that epoch 
a deliverer was expected. Lastly, the prophecy of the 
seventy weeks, counted back from the event, fits in so 
exactly with the epoch of Ezra s mission to restore the 
Jewish polity in the time of Artaxerxes Longimanus, 
and fails so entirely to find a fancied fulfilment when 
counted from the later period to which the Book of 
Daniel has been attributed, that we are driven to accept 
at once the authenticity of the original prophecy, and 
the providential fulfilment of the thing prophesied. 
Moreover, this form of evidence increases in value, 
whereas that from miracle becomes depreciated by 
time ; for we see not the miracles ; w r e know of them 
only by the report of others ; but enemies of the Gos 
pel, the Jews, are witnesses to the fore-existence of the 
prophecies; their growing fulfilments in the kingdom 
of Christ we see with our own eyes. 

In comparing Judaism with Christianity, two points 
have been always noticed, 1. That the first was inferior 
to the other; 2. That there was an interdependence of 
the two. The Fathers recognised Christianity as em 
phatically the law of liberty, as opposed to the bondage 
of the Law g ; and therefore it was inconsistent to call 
on the name of the Lord Jesus and at the same time 
to Judaize, for it was not Christianity that believed in 
Judaism, but Judaism that believed in Christianity, so- 
that every tongue believing in God should be harmo- 

? Iron. iii. 12. 4. n. 



120 ARTICLE VII. 



nious h . On the other hand, they held their connection 
in the sense of the Article. " We shall refer to the 
cause of the difference of the two Testaments, and again 
to their unity and consonance 1 ." "We acknowledge 
in this sense a separation, by reformation, by amplifi 
cation, by advance ; as the fruit is separated from the 
seed, so the Gospel is separated from the Law, while 
it is produced from the Law ; a different thing from it, 
yet not foreign to it ; diverse, yet not contrary k ." So 
that the new covenant is nothing but the old in its pro 
gress, in its pure Ideal, in its last consummation : and 
St. Clement of Rome " sees but one Church since Abra 
ham. The Church of the promise is become, by a natural 
and necessary transition, the Church of the fulfilment. 
All that was before Christ, in a sense, continues and be 
longs to the present Church. Jewish priests and Chris 
tian presbyters are the same institution, and have both 
a sacrifice to offer. In short, St. Clement is the most 
marked, representation of Church continuity. His lead 
ing idea was, We Churchmen are the true Israelites, 
sons of Abraham and heirs of the promise; Abraham 
and Jacob, Moses and David, belong to us alone 1 ." 

h S. Ig-n. Magn. x. See also specially Euseb. Dem. Evang. i. 6. 

1 Iren. iii. 12. n. 12. k Tert. ad Marc. iv. 11. 

1 Dollinger, " The First Age of the Church," vol. ii. p. 134. Eng. Tr. 

"The doctrinal traditions of the Jewish necessarily passed into the 
Christian Church. Christ Himself had recognised them, taught out of 
them, and referred His disciples to the authority of those who sat in 
Moses seat, who were their organs. And if He sharply denounced their 
arbitrary interpretation of the Law, and reproached them for making 
God s Law of none effect by their own inventions put forth as traditions 
of the ciders, those were perversions of individuals or almost of whole 



OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 121 

The statement in the Article is a very remarkable 
one, if we regard it by the light of the existent con 
troversies. It is in so many words a re- assertion of 
the doctrine of the Schoolmen against the notions of 
Luther and Melanchthon. Luther said : " The School 
men understood the abolition of the Law to mean that 
the Mosaic ordinances respecting the civil precepts con 
cerning the commonwealth and secular matters, which 
they termed judieiaUa, as well as the laws touching 

schools ; the dominant teaching was independent of them, and was con 
firmed and employed in the addresses of Christ and His Apostles 

Thus the religious consciousness of Judaism, in which the Apostle?, 
the early Christian teachers, and most of the first believers had been 
brought up, flowed in unbroken stream into the Christian Church, and 
the Jewish became the Christian tradition. There was no violent break 
or formal renunciation ; Christianity claimed to be, not a reformation, 
but a fulfilment of Judaism, expectation passing into possession, the wor 
ship of a Redeemer who had come instead of a looking for a future one, 
the Law spiritualized into the Gospel, and a world-religion and universal 
Church opening its gates to every nation, instead of a mere fellowship 
of blood and race, a Church (ecclesia) instead of a synagogue. The 
Christians were conscious of being in communion with the principalities 
up to that time, and if they threw aside as having no significance for 
them, the pharisaic tradition about the use of the ceremonial law, they 
claimed for themselves all its real benefits : the sacred books, the doc 
trinal tradition, the moral law as expounded by Christ, and even the 
ritual law in its principles, with a priesthood, altar, and sacrifice divested 
of their formal, typical, and carnal character. The Psalms were their 
manual of prayer and praise, baptism took the place of circumcision, the 
Paschal feast was transfigured into the Eucharistic celebration of sacri 
fice and communion, and the Jewish priesthood, with its descent from 
father to son after the flesh, when brought to an end by the destruction 
of the Temple, was replaced by the spiritual succession of the teaching 
and priestly ministry among Christians. Thus the Christian conscious 
ness and life were an outgrowth of the Jewish." (Dollinger, " First 
Age of the Church," vol. i. p. 222.) 



122 ARTICLE VII. 



rites and ceremonies, were, 011 account of the Death 
of Christ, pernicious, and were therefore abolished, 
but that the Ten Commandments, called moralia, still 
claimed the Christian s obedience." 

Luther, in terms, denied this; he taught the abo 
lition of civil laws, ceremonies, and moralia at once, 
especially the last, as these alone accuse the conscience 
before God, and terrify it; and that the Ten Com 
mandments have no right to accuse or alarm the con 
science wherein Christ reigns by His grace; even 
Christ hath abolished the right of the Law when He 
became a curse for us m . Melanchthon, of whom it ha& 
been said by the most eminent living divine in Ger 
many, that he wanted iron in his spiritual nature, less 
consistently, while maintaining rightly that the be 
liever, even if the moral law made no claims upon 
him, would fulfil it, being freely and inwardly moved 
by the Holy Spirit, yet he asserts, " The law is abro 
gated, not that it should not be fulfilled, but that it 
may be fulfilled, and may not condemn even when it is 
not fulfilled V 

"The life of the Saviour is in every relation an 
organic unity ; and everything in Him, His suffer 
ings, His works, His doctrine, His conversation among 
men, His death on the Cross, were in a like manner 
calculated for our redemption. It is the merits of the 
entire undivided God-man, the Son of God, whereb} r 
we are won again to God. His three offices of pro 
phet, priest, and king, are alike necessary- Thus, by 

m Luther, Gal. " Loc. Tfteol. 



OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 123 

the advent of the Son of Man there were of necessity 
proposed to man the highest degree of ethical and re 
ligious knowledge ; the ideal of a life agreeable to 
God ; forgiveness of sin and sanctification. As these 
three are united in Christ, they must be found also 
in us. 

" Christ proposed to man the highest ethical ideal, 
giving fresh knowledge, and developing the old as 
found in the Old Testament ; forgiveness of sin, and 
pardon for every moral transgression are announced in 
His Name to all who believe in Him ; the union of 
these two apparently contradictory propositions is me 
diated by that which shall be akin both to law and to 
grace, both to rigid exaction and to merciful remission. 
This is the sanctifying power which flows from the 
living union with Christ, the free grace of holy love 
which in justification He pours out on His followers ; 
in it all law is abolished, because law no longer stands 
forth as an outward claim; it is at the same time 
established, because love is the fulfilling of the law. 
In love, law and grace become one. In love, the 
entire undivided Christ becomes living within us, 
and the moral teacher and forgiver of sin is alike 
glorified ." 

" Mohlcr, vol. i. p. 260. 



ARTICLE VIII. 
DE TRIBUS SYMBOLIS. 

SYMBOLA tria, Niccenum, Athanasil, ct quod mlyo Apo- 
stolorum appeUatur, omnino recipienda sunt, ct crc- 
denda, nam firmissimis Script itranim tcstimomis pro- 
ban possimt. 

" Of the Three Creeds. 

" THE three Creeds, Nicene Creed, Athanasius s Creed, 
and that which is commonly called the Apostles 3 Creed, 
ought thoroughly to be received and believed, for they 
may be proved by most certain warrants of Holy 
Scripture." 

ST. CYRIL of Jerusalem a beautifully compares the 
Creed to the mustard seed, for as that in a little grain 
contains many branches is the whole tree in embryo 
so this faith, in a few words, hath enfolded in its 
bosom the whole knowledge of godliness contained 
both in the Old and New Testaments. Hence it is 
with the deepest reverence that the Catholic Chris 
tian regards these venerable symbols, which, found 
in their faintest expression in St. Paul s Epistles, may 
be traced back in more or less definite form to the 
remotest antiquity. While, after the Council of Nicsea, 

Led. Cat. v. 12, p. 58 O. T. 



OF THE THREE CREEDS. 125 

the Creed put forth therein, was binding on the whole 
Church, and therefore recited once a-year in the holy 
mysteries, and regarded as the standard or norm of 
orthodoxy, as is illustrated by the fact of Leo III. 
hanging it up in St. Peter s in proof of his adherence 
to the unchanged Creed, yet the Western Church con 
tinued to use in the Baptismal Service a form that had 
come clown from the Apostles. In St. Irenseus and 
Tertullian we find both Eastern and Western Creeds, 
as regards the main articles of the faith, but it re 
ceived from time to time additional articles. It is 
difficult, or perhaps impossible, to determine precisely 
all the detailed expressions of the original Creed, be 
cause the Fathers recite its articles at times paraphras- 
tically, at times summarily. Or again, with special em 
phasis against one particular heresy, so omitting some 
which did not bear on that heresy ; or again, a clause 
of the Creed is passed over, as being virtually contained 
in another. Yet there seems to be traces that addi 
tions were made in very early times, to meet prevailing 
heresies. Thus the word "One" appears to have been 
added in the clauses " I believe in ONE God," " And in 
ONE Lord Jesus Christ," against the Marcionites, who 
denied the unity of God, and Cerinthus, who separated 
Jesus from the Christ. The word " Catholic" occurs 
very early in the East, where heretics claimed to be the 
Church ; while unknown in the West, where heresies 
sprang up later. The clause, " The Communion of 
Saints," as lying implicitly in " the Holy Church," 



126 ARTICLE VIII. 



does not appear in any ancient Creed, wherefore it was 
not introduced, either into the Nicene or the Athana- 
sian Creeds, and occurs first in the Gallican Sacrarnen- 
tary, whose date is at the close of the seventh century, 
although its materials may be much earlier b . 

As to the Eastern or Nicene Creed, we see how the 
faith against the perversions of heretics, flexibly adapt 
ing itself to meet the exigencies of the Church in 
maintenance of it, was expanded into that of Constan 
tinople ; the anathematisms having been dropped, and 
certain additions made, which by some are said to be 
due to St. Gregory Nazianzen, by others to St. Gregory 
of Nyssa, but which embodied in great measure expres 
sions of ancient Creeds. Diogenes, I3ishop of Cyzicum, 
tells us that the aapKwOivra and evavOpwrrrjcravTa were 
inserted on account of the Apollinarian heresy. The 
unending nature of Christ s kingdom was asserted 
against Marcellus of Ancyra. In the East, Creeds 
were more the work of Councils than in the West. 

It is a difficulty how, when the Nicene Creed ends 
with "And in the Holy Ghost," we find so many 
of the additional clauses of the Council of Constan 
tinople already existing in Ariaii formularies before 
that Council. The probable solution seems to be that, 
there being no heresy at that time in regard to any 
of those later Articles, the Nicene Creed stopped in 
the complete confession of the Holy Trinity ; while the 

b Sacr. Gallican. Codex JBolien.<}is MaliUou Museum Halicum,iom.\. 
.par. 2, p. 312. 



OF THE THREE CREEDS. 127 

Arians on the one side, and Marcellus of Ancyra on 
the other, sought to veil their heresies by dwelling on 
the true doctrines which they also acknowledged c . 

After the Constantinopolitan Creed had been sanc 
tioned by a General Council, we find no further change 
in the unchanging East ; but in the West the expres 
sion Dciun de Deo, which had been in the Nicenc for 
mula, was probably restored by a Spanish Council, 
either that of Braga, A.D. 411, or of Galicia, A.D. 447. 
It is certain that the expression occurs in the formulae 
of the three Councils of Toledo, A.D. 589. 

Here also occurs the other more important addition 
of the Filioque which has been fraught with such mo 
mentous consequences to the Church of God. This 
Toledan Creed moreover agrees with the present Eng 
lish Form, in which holy is missed out before the 
Catholic and Apostolic, as well as the preposition in 7 
in the same clause. 

It is a remarkable thought how, in the history of 
Christianity, God has used works of anonymous or 
doubtful authorship to produce the most profound 
eifects upon the intellect of the Church. Putting out 
of sight, on the grounds of reverence, any discussion 
as to the Epistle to the Hebrews, we find various works 
telling markedly on the religious consciousness of the 
times, on the authorship of which no certainty has 
been arrived at. The Apostolic Constitutions, though 
probably the embodiment of a very early phase of 
Church discipline, are no longer attributed to is-apo- 
c See Tertullian, Oxf. Ed. note P. p. -196. 



128 ARTICLE VIII. 



stolic times. The treatise on the Heavenly Hierarchy, 
ascribed to Dionysius the Areopagite, is certainly not 
his work, but has been a storehouse for pious meditation 
for many centuries. No one can positively say who 
wrote the Tc Dcum, and in later times, the author 
ship of the "Imitation of Christ" is still controverted. 
Thus it is that God uses servants unknown to man 
for His purposes, and thus the words of some unknown 
individual, unrewarded by human commendation on 
earth, receive the blessing from the Most High, and 
the praise not of man, but of God. 

This is the case with what is termed the Creed of 
St. Athanasius. It certainly is no Eastern Creed at 
all, for although now printed in some of the Euchologia 
of the Greek Church, it is nowhere found in Greek be 
fore the twelfth century, and is evidently the result of 
purely Latin influence. Neither in the West was it 
promulgated by any council, or by any authority of the 
see of Rome. Its origin is probably from Gaul. St. 
Hilary of Aries was long reputed to be its author. 
Modern criticism bestows the honour upon Victricius 
of Rouen. This, at least, is certain, that it was com 
mented upon in company with the Lord s Prayer and 
Apostles Creed by Venantius Fortunatus about A.D. 
570, and that in France it generally was called the 
Faith of St. Athanasius the Bishop, the exposition 
of the Catholic Faith of Athanasius, the Sermon of 
St. Athanasius of Faith, the Symbol of Athanasius, 
the Little Book of Athanasius of Faith, the Sermon 
of the Catholic Faith. About the year 1050, we have 



OF THE THREE CREEDS. 129 

Gualdo of Corby calling it the Catholic Faith ascribed 
to Athanasius (quern composuisse fertur B. Athanasius)* 
Honorius of Aries calls it the Faith Quicunque vult. 
The Schoolmen generally attribute it to Athanasius, 
but in the twelfth century there appears a more cri 
tical spirit in the title. A German MS. of Leipzig, 
A.D. 1180, calls it Fides Anastasii Papa; so in 1120, 
a Haiieian MS. A MS. of the Friar Minors in France 
has Canticum Bonifacii, cc Chant fust St. Anaistaise qui 
Apostoilles dc Rome, and in a Bodleian MS. of 1400 
we have Anastasii Expositio Symboli Apostolorum. Laud. 
Misc., 490. 

All that we can gather is, that it was written in 
Gaul before the Council of Chalcedon, that it specially 
referred to the Apollinarian heresy which appeared 
about A.D. 360, and that its author was deeply imbued 
with St. Augustine s teaching, especially as expressed 
in his treatise DC Trinitate. 

The essence of a revelation is that it must be definite. 
We cannot conceive God announcing anything to His 
creatures which is not precise. There may be question 
whether a fact is really revealed or not, but there can be 
no question as to the obligation of accepting the entire 
conception, if it really be so. Moreover this applies 
not only to this or that doctrine or faith. It applies to 
the whole body of truth that claims to be communicated 
by God. There is no scope for selection of this or that 
doctrine, which speaks especially to this or that soul. 
The one question is, What is the sum of revelation ? 

Now, not only has the Christian religion ever main- 
K 






130 ARTICLE VIII. 



tained that God in sundry measures, jrdhvpep&s d , and 
divers manners, TroXvTpoTrws, spake in times past to 
the human race, communicating so much divine know 
ledge as He thought good for them, or as they were 
able to bear, as to Adam, Noah, and Moses; but it 
has asserted that one of the offices of the God-man, one 
of the objects of the Incarnation, was to communicate 
a fresh and fuller measure of certain truths by the 
Holy Spirit, which was sent as a consequence of His 
ascension. Of the gifts for men which He obtained, 
none was so important as that of the Paraclete, for His 
indwelling in the Church organic, and in the soul and 
body of the individual believer, was not only as a prin 
ciple of love and holiness, but as a principle of divine 
faith. " Xo one can say that Jesus is the Lord but 
by the Holy Ghost." 

But how did the Spirit work ? Of course the work 
-was supernatural, and even its manifestations were such 
as we now see no more; but its more obvious external 
manifestations were : 1. the direction of the Apostles, 
as a corporation, to declare certain Divine truths, the 
belief in which constituted the right of belonging to 
the new community, and the participation of the spiri 
tual privileges deposited therein, and 2. the illumina 
tion of the minds, the memories, and all the inward 
powers of certain of their number to record more fully 
vthe supernatural events of the Life of the Founder and 
His teaching. 

From these two sources spring the two authorities 

* Vicle Alford on the Epistle to. the Hebrews, inti. 



I 



OF THE THREE CREEDS. 131 

of the Creeds and the Scriptures. We have already 
touched upon the second, it remains to say somewhat 
of the first. 

Before a page of the New Testament was written, 
Christianity was an organized polity. Like every other 
polity, it had its laws, its privileges, its penalties, its 
conditions of membership. Of these last, the necessity 
of receiving Baptism was the initiatory. But this 
implied certain requirements. A thorough repentance 
of all past sin, and a renunciation of the three great 
enemies of Christ and His people were not sufficient. 
Beyond this there was the de fide acceptance of certain 
historic facts, certain theological truths (very simple 
indeed and rudimentary, but still definite and precise) 
concerning God. His unity and existence as against 
Polytheism, His creative energy against Pantheism, 
the personal existence of His Word against Emana 
tion ism, the Incarnation of the Word as the distinctive 
truth of the new religion ; the historic facts of the 
Birth, Life, Suffering, Death, Rising, Ascension, and 
Assession of the Word in His Human Nature ; the ex 
istence of the Holy Spirit ; was what their Founder had 
laid down as the terms of knowledge required in those 
who were to be baptized in the Name of the Father, 
-and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Moreover we 
find that close to this primary faith required in the 
baptized, there were certain " principles of the doc 
trine of Christ," " the foundation of repentance from 
dead works, and of faith toward God, of the doctrine 
of baptisms, and of laying on of hands, and of resur- 



132 ARTICLE VIII. 



rectioii of the dead, arid of eternal judgment ," which 
went to make up the sum of necessary convictions on 
their part. It will be seen at once that these in sub 
stance suggest the Sacraments of the Church, and cor 
respond with the Articles of the Creed, when actually 
formalized. Such was " the form of sound words," 
to which allusion is made in the Pastoral Epistles of 
St. Paul, and the TrapafcarafajKij or deposit. 

From that day to this, these articles have been the 
sum and substance of Christianity. Nothing less than 
that is sufficient. Nothing more than that is of ab 
solute necessity to salvation. When a child is bap 
tized, the Church demands no more of him, or of his 
sponsors, than an assent to the Apostles Creed and 
when the Christian soul is going out of the world to 
meet its Judge, it is in the terms of the same Creed 
that the dying man is interrogated f . 

In the present day there is a great jealousy of the 
principle of dogma. It is imagined that a true Chris 
tian morality, a holy Christian sentiment can exist 
without it ; that Creeds, professing to give us very de 
finite statements on supernatural subjects, are by the 
very imperfection of language and thought, only tram 
mels to the soul, which is thereby kept from aspiring 
to the indefinite. Yet this is unreasonable, for there 
can be no Christian morals without Christian definite 
faith. Dogma is to morals as cause to effect, will to 
motion. Christian Yaorality is dogma in action, or 
practical faith. Indeed, to make men receive and prao 
Heb. vi. 1, 2. f Office of Visitation of the Sick. 



OF THE THREE CREEDS. 133 

tise a morality severe and painful to human nature, 
one must give great and positive reasons for so doing : 
when the morality is superhuman, the motives must 
be so also. Virtues imply beliefs. Nay more, the very 
fact of Christian morality and its realization in the 
world implies a set of dogmas at its back, perfect like 
unto itself. " By their fruits ye shall know them/ 
said our Lord, and the common sense of mankind has 
accepted the dictum. As we gather an argument for 
the existence of God from the contemplation of the 
divine beauty of things created, so we obtain a proof 
of the supernatural truths of religion from the lives 
of those who believe and practise it. 

Hence proceeded the deficiency of motive, that is, of 
definite belief or dogma, which weakened the moral 
conceptions of the heathen. Their notions of God, the 
soul, and a retribution, were so feeble that they could 
not resist the onslaught of the passions ; but our Lord, 
manifesting Himself as the Logos, as the Archetypal 
Beason, whence human reason has ever derived its 
truths, came to strip the spiritual edifice of the en 
cumbering ruins that choked man s understanding; 
to restore in all their primitive purity and strength 
those enfeebled truths; to communicate fresh notions 
destined to aid man s weakness, and finally to place 
all these things beyond attack, on the impregnable 
fortress of His own. authority, so that the incessant 
assaults of nineteen centuries have failed to touch the 
sacred treasure. 

With Him every new precept has been a fresh reve- 



134 ARTICLE VIII. 



lation of truth. He has rested the one upon the other. 
He has made men touch the invisible by faith. Faith 
has bound dogma to practice, as the bond between the 
two partaking in the first by its object, in the latter 
by its principle the link between the creature and 
the Creator. In Christianity there is a precise adjust 
ment between the work of the intellect and the work 
of the heart. It is not a speculative system. We know 
that we may act : we act because we know. Where 
our conception surpasses our power of practice, we have 
evidence of a fall in an originally grand nature ; but 
in the original intention of God, in the restoration of 
humanity in Christ, there is a holy proportion between 
the province of the understanding and the province of 
the heart : just as the intellect and will in God, the 
Son and the Spirit, are hypostatically separate, but 
essentially one . 

And such has been the course of the world such 
the history of the progress of Christianity. From cer 
tain convictions, so strong that many have died for 
them, has proceeded the whole of the supernatural life, 
which has distinguished the true faith from all others. 
Because men have held, not as speculations, but with 
the grim tenacity of a struggle for life, certain truths, 
the Christian world is what it is. 

And this is no slavery, but rather emancipation. 
The human soul must think on the relations in the 
adorable Trinity. This teaches one to think safely, 

s Vide Nicolas, Etudes Philofophiqite* sur le Clirisliamsme, vol. iu 
p. 367. 






OF THE THREE CREEDS. 135 

and safety ever gives the sense of freedom and ex 
pansion. The greatest of human minds has found suf 
ficient scope for the most abstract speculation on the 
dogmas of revealed faith, and in such speculation has 
been aided by the possession of an infallible starting- 
point in the Creeds. Without Creeds speculation is- 
apt to run into mysticism : with Creeds it is the ex 
ercise of the Spirit-illumined faculty, the grandest usa 
of that divine reason which God has implanted in the 
master-work of His Hands. 

And the same Creed which has this mighty office 
with the profound thinker, has a no less holy one with 
regard to every Christian. As a fund of pious medi 
tation, we have here the mysteries of the faith pre 
sented to us in the briefest form, the great verities 
brought before us day by day so as to enter into the 
very substance of the soul. Hence the benefit of mak 
ing the Creed a part of man s daily devotion. The 
repetition of our belief is an act of faith, and we are 
justified by faith. St. Augustine says : " Say it daily ; 
when you rise, when you betake yourself to sleep, say 
your Creed ; say it to the Lord. Do not say, I said it 
yesterday, I said it to-day, I daily say it, I have it 
perfect. Call to mind thy faith, examine thyself. Let 
thy Creed be thy mirror. In it see if thou believest 
all that thou confessest thou believest, and rejoice in. 
thy faith V 

Speaking of the Council of Nicaea, an eloquent au 
thor remarks : " That Asia Minor, where the Christian 

h Serm. Iviii. torn. v. 



136 ARTICLE VIII. 



Church, had just held her grand assizes, had been for 
many centuries the birthplace of all superstitions and 
of all systems. Philosophy and fable had alike their 
favoured abode there. The southern coast of that same 
land was strewn with the ruins of Troy, the brilliant 
country of the gods of Homer. There was not one 
of all the flourishing cities along the margin of the 
Ionian sea, not one of the islands of her archipelago, 
which could not at the same time boast of a god, and 
the birth of a sage. Samos had the temple of Neptune 
and the cradle of Pythagoras. The Apollo of Claros 
and the Diana of Ephesus were adored on the same 
shores where Thales and Anaximander had taught, 
and where Heraclitus first saw the light. But this 
long labour of the same people to conceive the thought 
or the image of Grod, had only produced, till that day, 
dreams, idols, and monsters. And in less than six 
weeks, three hundred men unknown to one another, 
arriving from opposite ends of the world, speaking in 
different tongues, had been able to give a nervous arid 
concise formula of the Divine nature, destined to tra 
verse all oceans and all ages ! And at this day, after 
fifteen centuries have passed away, from one extremity 
of the civilized world to the other, in the lonely ham 
lets of the Alps, in unknown isles of ocean discovered 
by modern science, when the solemnity of the Sunday 
lifts towards heaven brows bent earthward by labour, 
is heard a concert of rustic voices repeating in one and 
the same tone the hymn of the Divine Unity : I be 
lieve in one God the Father Almighty, Maker of all 



OF THE THREE CREEDS. 137 



things visible and invisible; and in one Lord Jesus 
Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of His 
Father before all worlds, God of God, Light of Light, 
Very God of very God, Begotten not made, Being of 
one substance with the Father, by Whom all things 
were made, Who for us men and for our salvation came 
down from heaven, And was incarnate, and was made 
man; He suffered and rose again on the third day; 
and ascended into heaven, and shall come again to 
judge . . . And I believe in the Holy Ghost 1 / " 

De Broglie, L eglise et V empire Romaln au 4< ieme siecle, t. ii. p. 68. 



ARTICLE IX. 
DE PECCATO ORIGINALI. 

PECCATUM oriyinis non est (at fabulantur Pelagiani) in 
imitatione Adami situm, sed est ritiiim, et depravatio 
nature, cujuslibrt hominis ex Adamo naturaliter pro- 
payati : qua ft, ut ab oriyinaJi jiistitia quam lontjix- 
simedistft) ad mahim sua natura propendcat, et caro 
semper advcrsus spiritum concupiscat, unde in wioquo- 
que nascentium, iram Dei atque damnationcm meretur. 
Manet ctiam in renatis licec naturce depravatio. Qua 
-fit, lit affectus carnis, Grace typovrj^a 0-aprcbs (quod 
alii sapientiain, alii scasum, a/it affectnm, alii studium 
carnis interprctantur) lecji Dei non subjiciatur. Et 
quanquam renatis ct eredentilus, nnlla propter Chris 
tum est condemnatio, peecati tamen in sese ration-em 
habere concupiscentiam, fatctur Apostohts. 



" Of Original or Birth-Sin. 

" ORIGINAL sin standetli not in the following of 
Adam, (as the Pelagians do vainly talk,) but it is the 
fault and the corruption of the nature of every man 
that naturally is engendered of the offspring of Adam, 
whereby man is very far gone from original righteous 
ness, and is of his own nature inclined to evil, so that 
the flesh lusteth always contrary to the Spirit; and, 
therefore, in every person born into this world, it de- 
serveth (rod s wrath and damnation. And this in- 



OF ORIGINAL OR BIRTH-SIX. 139 

fection of nature doth remain, yea, in them that are 
regenerated; whereby the lust of the flesh, called in 
Greek, <f)p6v?j/jLa vapKos, which some do expound the 
wisdom, some sensuality, some the affection, some the 
desire of the flesh, is not subject to the law of God. 
And although there is no condemnation for them that 
believe and are baptized, yet the Apostle doth confess, 
that concupiscence and lust hath of itself the nature 
of sin." 



IN approaching the subject of the Ninth Article of 
religion, we have to bear in mind, that at the Re 
formation, the Church had to deal 1. with those who 
denied original sin, and 2. with those who mistook 
its nature and unduly magnified its consequences. 
The Family of Love affirmed that the elect and re 
generate sin not. The Adamites maintained that they 
were in as good a state as Adam before the Fall, there 
fore without original sin. The older sect of the Be- 
gards (condemned in the Council of Yienne under 
Clement V. A.U. 1311) maintained that man in the pre 
sent life can attain unto so great a measure of per 
fection, that he is rendered absolutely impeccable, and 
cannot grow more in grace. The Socinians very soon 
developed the doctrine of the denial of original sin. 
On the contrary side, as will be seen, men ran into 
the opposite extreme. 

The learned Mohler, in treating of the doctrine of 
original sin, states that the Confession of the An- 



140 ARTICLE IX. 



glican Church on every point endeavours to avoid 
a tone of exaggeration a . Exaggeration on this sub 
ject was the cardinal error of the Reformers of the 
sixteenth century. 

In order to estimate what is the meaning of original 
sin, it becomes necessary in the first place to consider 
what was the primitive state of man, in what condi 
tion, endowed with what faculties, did he come forth 
from his Maker s hands ? Now we can only attain to 
this knowledge by directing our view to the renewal 
of the fallen creature in Jesus Christ, because as re 
generation consists in the re-establishment of our pri- 
maBval condition, the insight into what Christ has 
given us back affords us the desired knowledge of 
what was originally imparted to us. Moreover, the 
Holy Scriptures tell us " that God made man up 
right." Man in Paradise was blessed with pre 
eminent gifts of body and soul. He was a spiritual 
being endowed with freedom, capable of knowing and 
loving God, and of viewing all things in Him. He 
was formed in God s image and likeness. His lower 
faculties acted under the guidance of his reason, as 
his reason was in obedience to God, and thus he lived 
in blessed harmony with himself and his Creator. 
He had also the great gift of immortality, even in 
his earthly part, and an exemption from disease and 
the ills that lead to death, and all this by a special 
divine gift, for it is one thing not to be able to die, and 
another thing to be able not to die, as St. Augustine 

a Symbolism, vol. i. p. 110, ed. 1843. 



OF ORIGINAL OR BIRTH-SIN. 141 

bears witness. This condition of tilings is the state of 
" original righteousness/ a state, which by no means 
merely implies that man was unpolluted by any alloy 
adverse to God, but what is more, that he stood in the 
most interior and closest communion with his Maker, 
and such a state and condition cannot be attained or 
upheld by the natural powers; in short, no created 
being can be holy but by the Holy Spirit, and no 
finite essence can live in loving communion with God 
but through Him. Therefore the relation of Adam to 
God, as it raised him above human nature, and made 
him partaker of that of God, was caused by a super 
natural gift of divine grace superadded to the endow 
ments of nature. Had these gifts been natural, they 
would have survived sin, as those of the demons : and 
it is necessary to distinguish between the state of pure 
nature, and the superadded gifts which in one sense 
are accidental qualities. Though, as a matter of fact, 
both existed together in the unfallen man, it is neces 
sary for theological precision to bear the distinction 
very clearly in mind. 

Some theologians hold that on Adam the super 
natural superadded gifts were bestowed simultaneously 
with his natural endowments, i.e. in the first moment 
of his creation; others, distinguishing between holi 
ness and justice, prefer the opinion that Adam was 
created in a sound, pure, and unpolluted nature ; and 
that he was favoured with the supernatural gift of 
communion with God after he had by his efforts ren 
dered himself worthy of its reception. Both theories 



142 ARTICLE IX. 



sharply distinguish alike between the provinces of 
nature and grace. 

Luther s cardinal error was, that he mistook the 
distinction between the natural and the superadded 
gifts, maintaining that Adam s acceptableness with 
God was natural, and an integral constitutive part of 
his nature. He failed to distinguish between the 
nature itself of the mind and will, created by God 
alone without us; and the virtue and uprightness, 
which are perfected by our co-operation with the 
grace of God. Divines called the former " the image," 
the latter " the likeness of God." The importance of 
this distinction is obvious. Moreover, Luther and 
many of his followers denied the freedom of the will 
in fallen man. Though Melanchthoii at one time held 
with his master, he afterwards perceived the abyss 
into which such a doctrine must plunge the Church, 
and abandoned it. ^et the servitude of the human 
will, as it was termed, profoundly influenced the Lu 
theran system. Calvin s paradisaic man was also de 
void of supernatural gifts, but he allowed him free 
will. How this is compatible with an actual predes 
tination of all things, even of the Fall itself, is un 
intelligible. 

What has gone before is necessary to the elucida 
tion of the Doctrine of Original Sin. Our Article 
tells first of all what it is not. " It consisteth not in 
the following or imitation of Adam." The rise of 
the Pelagian heresy in the fifth century is the be 
ginning of a new epoch in the history of doctrine. 



OF ORIGINAL OR BIRTH-SIN. 143 

Till this period, the mind of man had occupied itself 
with Christology, with the conditions of the existence 
of the Son of God ; for the earlier heresies, if we ex 
cept Gnosticism and Manicheism, had chiefly concerned 
themselves with His Divine Person and Natures. Theo 
logy began now to deal with the subjective. Anthro 
pology, the science of man, became its subject. It re 
mained for St. Augustine to re-exhibit those wonderful 
doctrines of the grace of God so precisely stated before 
by St. Cyprian, which, expressed with the most subtle 
analysis by St. Paul, had not been drawn out with 
precision by the Fathers, either in the epoch of the 
apologies to the heathen, or in the age of persecu 
tion, or in that of the controversies on the mode 
of existence of the Word made Flesh. Perhaps tho 
Christian was occupied in defending the faith against 
the heathen public opinion that surrounded him, in 
strengthening himself and his friends to die for Christ, 
and in humbly meditating on that Lord who was all 
in all to him, rather than concerning himself about 
his own nature in the eyes of Almighty God; or 
Christians held the faith implicitly ; else they would 
not have been startled by the errors of Pelagius, when 
he appeared, as something new. St. Augustine shews 
that it was stated in terms by eminent fathers and 
bishops in all parts of the world who preceded him b . 
But the truth was fenced more precisely to meet 
the errors of Pelagius. Said to be of Welch or 
Scottish extraction, it seems strange that the scion of 

b c. Julian, 1. ii. 



144 ARTICLE IX. 



a race, ever most susceptible of supernatural ideas, 
should have been the first promulgator of a system, 
whose error was a too great reliance on the rectitude 
and power of the human will. Aided by Celestius and 
by Julian, he maintained with exceeding acuteness the 
thesis that man by his natural powers is able to merit 
eternal life, and that consequently the Fall was hurt 
ful only from causing the possibility of the imitation of 
Adam s sin, and that to all intents and purposes there 
was no such thing as original sin. These errors were 
met by St. Augustine, who maintained the power, the 
freeness, and the efficacy of divine grace ; in which he 
was followed by St. Fulgentius, and his teaching be 
came so authoritative, that it was formalized and sanc 
tioned by the Council of Orange, in language which 
has been ever since accepted by the Catholic Church 
of Christ. It is to the effect that Adam, by sin, lost 
his original righteousness and holiness, drew down 
upon himself the anger of the Almighty, incurred 
the penalty of death, and in body and soul became 
deteriorated ; that this sinful condition is transmitted 
to all his posterity, through natural generation, en 
tailing the consequences that man is of himself in 
capable of doing acts well-pleasing to God, or of being 
in any way justified before Him, save only by the 
merit of Jesus Christ, the one Mediator between God 
and man. 

To state the matter scientifically : " as between things 
opposite there is an opposite relation, so from original 
righteousness ; original sin its opposite, may be ex- 



OF ORIGINAL OR BIRTH-SIX. 145 

plained. But the order of original righteousness con 
sisted in this, that the will of man was obedient to God ; 
and it is the province of the will to direct and rule all 
the other parts of the soul in conformity to this. Hence, 
when the will fell away from God, disorder in all the 
other faculties ensued. Hence, the deprivation of ori 
ginal righteousness is the formal cause of original sin, 
and the disorder in all the faculties of the soul, the 
material cause ; and that disorder manifests itself in the 
perverted affection for transitory good, which we call 
concupiscence." 

"Now this disorder or displacement is called the 
wound of nature, and it is chiefly felt in the four 
powers of the soul, which become the conduits of 
virtue, viz. reason wherein is prudence, will wherein 
is justice, the faculty of exertion wherein is courage, 
the faculty of desire wherein is temperance. Reason 
wounded suffers from ignorance, justice or righteous 
ness wounded suffers from wickedness, the faculty of 
exertion wounded results in frailty, and that of desire 
in concupiscence/ 

The inheritance of a nature marred both by punish 
ment and guilt is manifest in the want of the intuition 
of God, which presupposes guilt ; for no one can be de 
prived of that eternal good for which he was created, 
unless there be in him something which renders him 
unworthy to stand in the divine Presence; in the 
ignominy which hangs upon the reason, for that reason 
is now ashamed of certain motions of the flesh ; and in 
the preponderance of concupiscence, because man must 






146 ARTICLE IX. 



"be guilty unless the spirit be in subjection to God, and 
the flesh and the animal faculties in subjection to the 
spirit. Here faith, philosophy, and daily experience 
concur. It is undeniable that the soul of each one from 
his birth is perverted, and this perverted state is guilt, 
us the right state of the soul is righteousness. Hence 
the Apostle, speaking in the person of fallen humanity, 
says: "I see another law in my members striving 
against the law of the Spirit, and holding me captive 
under the law of sin." Then he exclaims : " wretched 
man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of 
this death?" Then he replies : "Thanks be to God 
or better, the grace of God through Jesus Christ our 
Lord." 

Let it never be forgotten that all this is a great mys 
tery. How the soul created by God, and created in nil 
soundness, purity, and integrity, should at the moment 
of its union with the body not only be deprived of all 
its supernatural gifts, but be deeply wounded in its 
natural faculties, is a very great difficulty ; yet this, 
which, involves the doctrine of Creatianism, that souls 
are created by God, must be accepted rather than the 
opinion called Traducianism, that souls are transmitted 
through generation by the parent to the children. 

The error which Luther maintained with regard to 
the state of man in Paradise told profoundly on his 
view of original sin. If Adam s acceptableness with 
God was natural, by the Fall he lost certain natural 
powers. According to this school fallen man no longer 
possessed even the mere faculty to understand God and 



OF ORIGINAL OR BIRTH-SIN. 147 

His holy will, and in conformity to that knowledge to 
direct his own will. The image of God, according to 
Luther s definition, the natural capacity in man to love 
God, to fear Him, and to confide in Him, was utterly 
effaced ; the image of the devil was substituted. The 
freedom of will is only an external freedom, non-existent 
in spiritual things ; man is now a mere earthly power. 
Luther maintained that original sin was a substance ; 
Melanchthon, that it was an innate power. At last it 
was held that original sin was the very substance of 
fallen man. 

While we cannot fail to respect that sense of human 
misery and sin, as well as of the need of redemption, 
which prompted these notions, we must guard against 
an error, which by making man the mere mechanical 
instrument of God s actions, by obliterating a spiritual 
faculty, transforms moral into physical evil. How can. 
man sin when he has not the faintest idea of God, when 
he has no faculty to will, when he is devoid of freedom ? 

It will be seen that all true morality must rest on 
a certain limitation of the idea of the magnitude of the 
effect of original sin. If all the higher spiritual facul 
ties be utterly destroyed, how can man really grieve 
over his shortcomings, if God has deprived him of all 
power of overcoming and avoiding these shortcomings? 
Deeply penetrated as the Church is with the enormity 
und misery of that hereditary evil which affects our 
race, she would be false to the experience of life, as well 
as to precise theology, if she were to allow sentiment 
to take the place of reason in this respect, and by ex- 



148 ARTICLE IX. 



aggeration to undermine the foundation of Christian 
ethics by the destruction of moral responsibility. Man 
is only responsible in the measure that he is free, and 
the utter destruction of the spiritual faculties in fallen 
man necessarily acquits him of the misguiding of such 
faculties. 

The Calvinists did not run into such extremes as 
these. They took warning from the mistakes of the 
earlier Reformers. They recovered themselves to a de 
gree, but still the language of some of the confessions 
is very exaggerated and false. For example, the West 
minster Confession : " By this sinne (our first parents) 
fell from their original righteousness and communion 
with God, and so became dead in sin, and wholly de 
filed in all the faculties and parts of soul and body 
From this original corruption, whereby we are utterly 
indisposed, disabled, and made opposite to all good, and 
wholly inclined to all evil, do proceed all actual trans 
gression c ." 

Very different is the tone of our own Article : " It 
is the fault and corruption of the nature of every man, 
that naturally is engendered of the offspring of Adam, 
whereby man is very far gone from original righteous 
ness d , and is of his own nature inclined to evil, so that 

c The Confession of Faith, p. 22, ed. 1658. 

d "Very far gone from original righteoixsness." The assembly of 
divines of 1643, in the criticisms which were required of them by 
Parliament, preferred the phrase, " Wholly deprived of original right 
eousness," which would have brought the Article into harmony with 
the statements of the earlier Lutherans, and the general tenor of the 
Culvinistic Confessions. Cf. Hard wick, p. 376. 



OF ORIGINAL OR BIRTH-SIN. 149 

the flesh lusteth always contrary to the spirit." Now 
some of the Schoolmen taught that a destructive and 
infectious quality was introduced into the human body, 
and that this quality, propagated by generation, con 
taminated the soul at the moment of its union with the 
body. Such a theory, which involves the absurdity of 
the existence of a positive bad quality, of an essential evil 
substance, is not taught in the Article ; on the contrary, 
the words " fault and corruption" are both privative 
words, implying the lesion of something good in itself 
by the abstraction of a certain condition ; and this helps 
us to understand what follows, "that this infection of 
the nature remains even in the regenerate/ which, as 
held by Luther, and in his sense, constituted one of his 
quarrels with the Church. Luther by this meant, that 
all that he implied by original sin, the utter inability 
to think, to believe, to will, the entire deadness to good, 
the obliteration of the image of God and the sub 
stitution of the image of the devil, remained even in 
the regenerate or baptised ; whereas the Anglican Ar 
ticle, by its expression " whereby the lust of the flesh 
is not subject to the law of God," limits it to the con 
tinuance of concupiscence, a fact which to his sorrow 
every one must admit. 

Now concupiscence or evil desire, being the disorder 
of the natural powers, was by the Reformers stated to 
be actual sin, the true image of the devil, which through 
the loss of the image of God is propagated by gene 
ration in man : whereas our Article, following the Apo- 



150 ARTICLE IX. 

stle, says " that it is of the nature of sin e ," inasmuch 
as, at least, it provokes to sin. We cannot be wrong in 
using St. Paul s words, though we recognise the dis 
tinctive teaching of our great father in the faith, St. 
Gregory, who, in answer to the questions of St. Austin 
of England, lays down distinctly the different stages in 
sin. Following the teaching of St. James, he shews 
how there is first the suggestion, then the delight, and 
then the consent to sin ; and till the consent is given 
the sin is not complete. The expression that there is 
no condemnation for them that believe and are baptised, 
while it cuts at the root of the unsacramental teachings 
of the present day, is nearly equivalent to the statement 
that God hates nothing in the regenerate ; condemna 
tion and the hatred of God being to all intents and 
purposes the same. 

It will be seen that the estimate of the iiature* 
and effects of original sin forms the turning-point 
between the ancient faith of the Church and the sys 
tems of the sixteenth century. If all the germs of 
good be extirpated in fallen man, there can be no co 
operation on his part with the work of divine grace. 
There can be no response to the operations of God 
upon the soul, therefore man becomes passive in the 

c " This corruption of nature during this life? doth remain in those 
that are regenerated; and although it be throug h Christ pardoned and 
justified, yet both itself and all the motives thereof are truly and pro 
perly sin." Westminster Couf., p. 2 ! . 

The Aseu:l>ly of Divines sr.gcsi, " It i-3 truly and properly siii. - 
Hurdnifk, 370. 



OF ORIGINAL OR BIRTH-SIX. 151 

work of regeneration, his justification becomes of ne 
cessity the mere imputation of the righteousness of 
another, there can be no correspondence with God s 
work by man in the life of the Christian. On the 
other hand, grant that in fallen man, though "Icesus 
in naturalibus, destitutus in gratuitis," there still exists 
the capacity for the love of God, there remains full 
scope for a supernatural transfiguration. Divine grace- 
stoops to this lowliness, imparts to the free-will and 
sin-polluted faculties a heavenly consecration, really 
cleanses, strengthens, and matures the soul, leads him 
on from strength to strength, making him daily better, 
holier, and more Christ-like, till the hour of his trial 
is accomplished f . 

1 Vide Moliler, Symbolism, 31 13-i. 



ARTICLE X. 
DE LIBERO ARBTTRIO. 

A est hominis post lapsum Ada conditio, ut sese natura- 
libus sit-is riribus, ct bonis operibus, ad /idem ct inro- 
cationem Dei converters ae pr&parare non possit. Quare 
absque gratia Dei (qua per Christum est) nos praeve- 
miente, ut velimtts, et coopcrante, dum volumus, ad pie- 
iatis opera facicnda, qu& Deo grata stint et accepta y 
nihil valemus. 



"Of Free- Will 

<( TiiE condition of man after the fall of Adam is 
uch, that he cannot turn and prepare himself, by his 
wn natural strength and good works, to faith and 
ailing upon God : wherefore we have no power to do 
rood works, pleasant and acceptable to God, without 
he grace of God by Christ preventing us, that we 
nay have a good will, and working with us, when we 
nave that good will." 



THIS is one of the instances in which the title of the 
Vrticle does not correspond accurately with its con 
tents. In the Article there is no direct assertion of the 
free-will of man, nor definition of its meaning, though 
t is implied in its very limitation. The Article ought 
eally to be termed, " Of the necessity of Divine grace." 
The whole of man s responsibility rests on the freedom 



OF FREE-WILL. 



153 



of his will. Some philosophers have maintained that 
the only argument for the existence of God is to be 
found in that responsibility. It is therefore one of 
the gravest of doctrines. If there is no freedom, there 
can be no virtue nor vice, no merit nor fault, no moral 
government of the universe. The opposite of freedom 
is necessity. Once grant necessity, and the idea of God 
is nearly eliminated from our system. And so with 
regard to ourselves, under the domination of an impe 
rious necessity we become mere machines. "No in 
animate creatures, neither any irrational animals, but 
all rational and intellectual beings, whether angels or 
men, have free-will. Free-will is not a habit, whether 
natural or acquired, but an appetitive power, the prin 
cipal and proper act of which is election. Will and 
free-will, 6e\r](j-is /cal (Bovkijcris, voluntas ct lib. arb. t 
are not two powers, but different acts of the same 
power. Will has immediate reference to the filial 
cause, free-will to secondary or intermediate causes. 
Eree-will never chooses evil, but always good, or ap 
parent good a ." 

" Deadly sin, which is an act of free-will, as the 
choice of that which is absolutely bad, arises from igno 
rance or error. Yenial sin, as the choice of that which 
is in itself good, but without due order of measure and 
rule, arises from absence of consideration. Doubting 1 
is not of the essence of election, but is an accident of 
its exercise in an erring nature. The will is always 
convertible in this life, but the converting power may 

Cf. St. Aug., De Grai. et Lib. ArUt. y c. xvii. al. xxxiii. 



15-1 ARTICLE X. 



be withdrawn. In the future life, the will of the 
blessed will be confirmed in good ; the will of the re 
probate obstinately established in evil. Christ s human 
will was as the will of the blessed saints. In respect 
of His own goodness, which God wills of necessity, He 
has not free-will, but in respect of contingent events 
God is said to have free-will." 

And yet the subject is most mysterious. The re 
conciliation of the knowledge and ordination of God 
with the freedom of the human will is one of those 
mysteries which has occupied the subtlest intellects, 
and when those intellects have worked to the utter 
most, the question is left where it was at the begin 
ning. It is therefore enough for us to maintain the 
two truths, and leave their reconciliation to a higher 
state of intelligence. Yet, while philosophical thought 
sustains these two apparently contrarian t truths both 
floating in the mind, there will always be tendencies 
one way or the other. Some minds will lean rather 
to the side of freedom, and the excess of that will be 
Pelagianism ; other minds will lean to that which 
takes an exaggerated view of the province granted 
by God to grace, and that excess will lead to Luther- 
anism and Jansenism. The Church of God has to hold 
the balance between the two. On the one hand, she 
seeks to develope to the highest degree the sense of 
individual responsibility, seeking to convince every 
soul of the unspeakable importance of the passing of 
each hour, making our eternity to depend on the good 
or evil use of time : on the other hand, she systematizes 



OF FREE-WILL. 155 



the beautiful doctrine of grace ; maintains that all that 
is great and of good report in man is the result of 
a condescendence on the part of God to the creation 
of His hands; that the beginning, middle, and end of 
man s salvation is influenced by God ; and that there is 
a perpetual overflowing effluence from the Person of 
our Lord and from His Spirit, sanctifying, illumining 
the soul of man, and aiding him in the search for 
truth, and in the operation of good. Thus it will be 
seen that in every good action, there are two factors 
a divine and a human. As is right, God s holy work 
goes first, suggesting, exciting, quickening; then fol 
lows man, freely yielding himself to the divine impulse. 
God offers freely and man accepts, and the double work 
becomes a unity. For His own good purposes, God 
respects human freedom. He does not force things. 
Man may resist grace, for the moral order of the world 
is founded in liberty. 

Luther, however, from his view of original sin, was 
driven to deny the freedom of the will. In spiritual 
and divine things, according to him, man i? as the 
pillar of salt into which Lot s wife was turned; yea, 
he is like a stick or stone, which is lifeless, and has 
no use of eyes or mouth, or any organ of the senses b . 
Calvinists, while by their juster view of original sin 
they were able to admit the co-operation of man in the 
work of salvation, denied however that grace could be 
resisted c . According to them it was not in the power 
of man to receive or reject the action of God. When 

b Luther in Genes., c.xix. c Calv. Tnst., lib. ii. c. 3, n. 6. 



156 ARTICLE X. 



divine grace knocks, the door must be opened. It 
works invincibly, and those who enter not into life 
have never had grace, a theory which lands us at the 
door of the doctrine of predestination. The contro 
versy with these, as well as with the Jansenists, turns 
on this phase in the question. 

The only-begotten Son of God assumed our nature, 
among other reasons, that He might rescue mankind 
from that infection and penalty, which by the fault of 
our first parents it had contracted, and to recall it to 
communion with God, and raise it to eternal felicity. 
For God proposed " in the dispensation of the fulness 
of times, that He might gather together in one all 
things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which 
are 011 earth ; even in Him d ." This gathering toge 
ther chiefly consists in the justification of the sinner, 
and in the aids and assistances whereby man is able 
to attain to this, and to persevere in it so attained, 
and to bring forth the fruits thereof, till he attain 
to everlasting life. 

This at once brings us to the consideration of grace, 
of which the efficient cause is God, the meritorious 
cause our Lord Jesus Christ, and the final cause ever 
lasting. 

By grace, taken in its widest sense, we mean every 
gift or benefit either external or internal which is be 
stowed out of the mere liberality of God upon the 
rational creature. In this sense creation, preservation, 
and their accompanying blessings, much more, law, 
A Eph. i. 10. 



OF FREE-WILL. 157 



teaching, good example, and such like, may be called 
by the name of grace. Again, the word may be ap 
plied to supernatural gifts, and to those miraculous 
powers which are bestowed rather for the benefit of 
others than for our own sakes (gratia gratis data}. But 
the true and rigorous sense of grace (gratia gratum 
faciens) is that inward help, freely bestowed, which God 
for the merits of Christ grants to fallen man, both ta 
help his infirmity in the way of abstaining from that 
which is evil and doing that which is good ; so also 
to raise him to the supernatural state, in making him 
fit to perform supernatural actions, so that he may 
attain unto justification ; and having so attained may 
persevere until he come to everlasting life. 

This again is divided into habitual and actual. 
Habitual grace is a supernatural quality permanently 
inhering in man, making him well-pleasing to God 
by formally and intrinsically sanctifying him. Actual 
grace is a certain motion within us excited by God, 
by which, first, the intellect is led to recognise good 
and evil, and then the will is led to follow the one 
and avoid the other in order to the blessed life of 
heaven. 

Habitual sanctifying grace is twofold : first and 
second : 

First grace is that by which the sinner is first justi 
fied, and from being an enemy is made the friend of 
God. It is called first, because it presupposes no 
other habitual grace, being itself expulsive of sin, and 
is conferred by baptism and penance. 



158 ARTICLE X. 



Second grace is the increase of the first, it preserves 
the first grace, being given to him who has thus re 
ceived it. It is conferred by Confirmation, the Holy 
Eucharist, Orders, the Anointing of the Sick, and 
Matrimony. Moreover, by prayer, by meditation, by 
the reading of God s Word, by deeds of mercy, and 
by every good action done in a state of grace do we 
acquire it. 

Actual sanctifying grace is threefold : 

i. Prevenient, antecedent, or exciting grace ; 

ii. Assisting, co-operating, or concomitant grace ; 

iii. Subsequent, or completing grace. 

1. Prevenient grace is a supernatural motion of the 
soul, to will what is good, and to nill what is evil. 

2. Assisting grace is that by which God, when we 
will and so will that we do, co-operates with us to 
will and do that which lie had previously stirred us 
up to. 

3. Subsequent grace is that which follows, strength 
ens, and confirms the consent of the free-will. 

Again, grace is divided into sufficient and effica 
cious grace : 

Sufficient grace, taken specifically, is that which, 
although it affords sufficient power to produce an effect 
for which it is ultimately given, does not produce it in 
defect of the consent of man. 

Efficacious grace is that which always and infallibly 
infers the ultimate result, and the co-operation of the 
iree- will. 

Holy Scripture makes mention of both these graces : 



01- FREE-WILL. 159 



of sufficient " My grace is sufficient for thee e ." " I 
can do all things through. Christ that strengtheneth 
me f ." Ezekiel mentions efficacious grace, "I will put 
My spirit upon you, that ye may walk in My com 
mandments s " and St. Paul, " It is God that worketh 
in us, both to will and to do of His good pleasure h ." 

It is a true proposition, that to fallen man grace 
merely sufficient is granted, which, in defect of the 
consent of his free-will, is frustrated of the effect ulti 
mately intended by God. 

Pelagians denied this, rejecting all grace ; Calvin, 
and Luther maintained that all grace was efficacious, so 
efficacious that the will acted under compulsion. Baius 
and Janscn agreed with them. Yet the Scripture goes 
to prove the contrary, as e.g. Isaiah v. : " O ye in 
habitants of Jerusalem, and men of Judah, judge be 
tween Me and My vineyard; what more could I have 
done to My vineyard that I have not done in it? 
I waited for grapes, and behold it brought forth wild 
grapes." " Jerusalem, which killest the prophets, 
how often would I have gathered thy sons 1 ," &c. 
"I stretched forth My hands all the day long to 
a rebellious and gainsaying people k ." " Ye do al 
ways resist the Holy Ghost l " " We beseech you 
that ye receive not the grace of God in vain 1 ." 

Sufficient grace is bestowed on all men : " That 
was the true light, which, coming into the world, 

e 2 Cor. xii. 9. f Phil. iv. 13. Ezck. xxxvi. 27. 

h Phil. ii. 13. J St. Matt, xxiii. 37. * Horn. x. 21 ; Isa. Ixv. 2. 

1 Acts vii. 51. m 2 Cor. vi. 1. 



1GO ARTICLE X. 



lighteth all men n ." " God willeth that all men should 
be saved, and should come to the knowledge of the 
truth ." "There is nothing hid from the heat 
thereof P." 

As corollaries of this we may deduce the following 
propositions : 

1. Man, aided by the grace of God, which is wanting 
to no man, can keep the commandments of God, as did 
Zacharias and Elisabeth, walking in all the ordinances 
of the Lord blameless. 

2. He who does what in him lies by the power of 
grace, grace shall not be denied to him, as in the case 
of the conversion of Cornelius. 

3. No one by his natural powers can obtain actual 
grace, or the beginning of spiritual life. "No man 
can come unto Me except the Father who sent Me 
draw him q ." " Without Me ye can do nothing r ." 

4. An equal grace may be sufficient in one case, and 
efficacious in another, as in our Lord s denunciation of 
Chorazin and Bethsaida in contrast with Tyre and 
Sidon. 

5. Nay, sometimes less grace converts men, while 
under the influence of higher grace others remain har 
dened, as the men of Nineveh were converted by the 
grace given through Jonas, and the Jews resisted the 
grace offered by our Lord Himself. So the fallen 
angels and Judas may be presumed to have received 
greater grace than many who are saved. Hence we 

n St. John i. 9. 1 Tim. ii. 4. P Ps. xix. 6. 

i St. John vi. 44. r St. John xv. 5. 



OF FREE- WILL. 161 






gather that grace in the second stage is rendered 
efficacious by the co-operation of the human will ele 
vated by assisting grace. Thus St. Paul exhorts us not 
to receive the grace of God in vain : words which clearly 
warn us to give efficacy to grace by our co-operation, 
yet that co-operation is not a bare naked co-operation, 
but a co-operation elevated by grace. 

6. Grace causes no constraint to the will, for it can 
be resisted. If man is not free, he cannot deserve nor 
fail in deserving, nor be rewarded nor be punished. 
Scotus, with a sort of grim pleasantry, and in the 
spirit of his age, proposes, that they who deny free-will 
should be exposed to tortures, until they learn that it 
is possible that they cannot be tortured. 

The question of grace was not only discussed in the 
fourth and fifth centuries against the Pelagians and 
semi-Pelagians, and in the sixteenth against the So- 
cinians, but since the Reformation the question has 
again and again come up ; among Protestants in. the 
case of the Arminians and Socinians, among Roman 
Catholics in the case of the Jansenists and Molinists s . 

s The error of Jansenism will best be understood by transcribing the 
five condemned propositions of the Augustinus. Whether the propo 
sitions were in the book or not, is not the question now with us. It 
will be seen that the Church s instinct was wise in stigmatizing them : 

I. Some precepts of God are, according to the present powers be 
stowed on man, impossible to those who are just, willing, and striving ; 
also the grace is wanting to them whereby they may become possible. 

II. In the state of fallen nature, inward grace is never resisted. 

III. For merit or demerit, in the state of fallen nature, there is not 
required in man liberty from necessity, but liberty from compulsion 
only (co-actione). 

M 



162 ARTICLE X. 



Although much has been done in the elucidation of the 
various truths which hinge upon it, it may be said that 
the matter is by no means exhausted, and the relations 
of man to the Sacraments, the discrimination of the 
orders of nature and grace, the relation between theo 
logy and medicine in some questions of morals, and 
many similar questions, still require development and 
exposition. 

AVhen we speak of the state of grace, by the word 
state we technically mean that condition under which 
human nature is conceived of, in reference to its ulti 
mate end according to the laws of Providence. It is 
divided into the status termini, the condition of those 
who possess and enjoy the end of man ; and the status 
via, the condition of those who are militant here 
upon earth. 

The statm rice is threefold 1 . the state of innocence, 
2. the state of fallen nature, and 3. the state of nature 
restored by Christ. 

1. The state of nature is that in which Adam was 
placed by God, free from sorrow, misery, and death, 
with that integrity of nature by which the senses 
and affections were perfectly subject to the empire 
-of reason, and with original righteousness, and sanc 
tifying grace. 

IV. The semi-Pelagians admitted the necessity of prevenient inward 
grace for every act, one by one, even for the beginning of faith; and in 
this they were heretics, that they denied that grace to be such as the 
human will can resist or obey. 

V. Ib is semi-Pelagian to say that Christ in effect (omnino) died and 
shed His blood for all men. 



OF FREE-WILL. 163 



2. The state of fallen nature is that miserable con 
dition of the posterity of Adam, who are not yet freed 
by baptism from the original "culpa" which it receives 
from him. 

3. The state of repaired nature is that in which 
men are set free and redeemed by the grace of Christ. 

These are all the conditions in which man in via 
can be or has been ; but to elucidate the subject more, 
theologians have discussed what are termed possible 
states, e.g. : 

1. Whether a state of pure nature is possible, in 
which man can be without vice, and without grace, 
subject however to the infirmities and miseries to 
which we are subject. 

2. Whether a state of perfect (Integra} nature is 
possible, in which man might be destitute of super 
natural aid, and not raised to supreme blessedness, yet 
gifted with such aids of nature as to be free from our 
miseries, and by the natural virtues to obtain a blessed 
ness corresponding with them. 

3. Lastly, whether a state of fallen nature, not to 
be repaired, is possible, in which man would have been 
after the sin of Adam, if God in His infinite mercy 
had not freed him. 

Now to state clearly the errors on these subjects : 
The Pelagians, in the beginning of the fifth cen 
tury, denying original sin, and asserting that Adam 
was constituted by God as men are now born, without 
any aid of nature, and without the auxiliary of super 
natural grace. 



ARTICLE X. 



This heresy was revived in the sixteenth century 
by the Socinians, who, denying original guilt, taught 
that Adam was created mortal and liable to all our 
present miseries. 

A close approach to this is the Arminian doctrine 
which, as expounded by Limborch, acknowledges in 
Adam no supernatural gift, no indclita prcvrogativa, 
although they allow that he was gifted with a certain 
knowledge necessary to him in his then estate, and 
with a rectitude which precluded inordinate concu 
piscence, and even concupiscence itself, inasmuch as, 
there being no law, there might be without guilt the 
most free exercise of the will. 

Although contrary to the Pelagians and Socinians, 
they teach that Adam might have been free from death 
in virtue of the fruit of the tree of life ; they never 
theless maintain that man, by virtue of even his pre 
sent natural powers, might tend towards, arrive at, 
and possess God as his last end and highest good ; and, 
moreover, that Adam s sin, save as a bad example, has 
in no way done damage to the race of man. 

Calvin, Luther, Baius, and the Jansenists agree with 
the Pelagians and Socinians as to man s original lack 
of supernatural gifts and graces, and the original suf 
ficiency of his natural powers ; but they go farther, 
and declare him to be now despoiled of some of the 
properties and perfections of that nature. 

Quesnel held that the grace of Adam was subsequent 
to his creation, was due to the integrity of his nature, 
and produced only human merit. According to him 



OF FREE-WILL. 165 



Adam s integrity, sanctity, and all other his prero 
gatives were conditions inseparable from, and proper 
ties due to nature not yet depraved by guilt. 

The orthodox faith teaches that Adam, as constituted 
in the estate of innocence, was endowed with super 
natural grace, was established in righteousness and 
holiness, was free from misery and death, was subject 
neither to concupiscence nor to passion. Moreover in 
him every affection was entirely under the control of 
his reason. 

As to the miserable estate of fallen human nature, 
in which the race of man now finds itself by reason of 
Adam s sin, deprived of the indellta dona of nature, 
subject to our present miseries, to concupiscence, to the 
powers of the devil and to the wrath of God, and in 
fected with Adam s guilt, propagated by generation, 
the orthodox faith teaches that all men descending 
from Adam, even the children of the faithful, are born 
infected with original sin, deprived of their right to 
eternal felicity, children of wrath and vengeance, and 
liable to everlasting damnation. 

Baius, Jansenius, and Qticsnel, taught that in man, 
after Adam s sin, libertas indlffcrcntice was wanting ; 
that for merit or demerit it was sufficient to be free 
from compulsion, not to be free from antecedent and 
inevitable necessity. Hence, inter alia, they say that 
men are guilty of deadly sin even in things which 
they cannot avoid, and that the involuntary motions 
of concupiscence are real sins ; that God commands 



166 ARTICLE X. 



impossibilities ; and that even to just men some of His 
precepts are impossible *. 

Such is the doctrine of the grace of God, as it has 
been formulised by the Church in opposition to con- 
trariant errors. It is the work of the Divine Word 
in His Incarnate Nature, the universal Truth, the 
Eternal Beauty, the Light that shineth into the soul 
of man. He, the Light of celestial spirits, speaks by 
an inward voice in the ears of all men ; and as without 
the sun the universe would be in night and death, so 
without the Word the kingdom of the powers of the 
next world would be without life and heat. Grace is 
that mighty aid to holy action, added to what we are 
and to what we know by the inspiration of the most 
ardent and enlightened charity u . For the love of 
God is shed abroad in our hearts, that the soul now 
made whole may work, not from the fear of punish 
ment, but from the love of righteousness. Of grace 
it is said : " The mountains shall drop sweet wine, and 
all the hills shall melt;" for the mountains and hills 
of Judah, with their terraced, vine-clad sides, are but 
a faint shadow of the joys and real delight and glad 
fruitfulness of this supereminent gift of God. Of grace 
it is said : " Thou shalt prevent him with the blessing s 
of goodness," for the blessings of goodness are the 
grace of God whereby He works in us, that we delight 
in and love that which He teaches us ; so that if God 

1 Ferraris, JBibliotkeca de Gratia, Venice s 1770. 
u St. Augustine, vol. x. p. 246 D. 



OF FREE-WILL. 167 



hath not anticipated us in this respect, not only is the 
spiritual life not perfect in us, but actually not begun. 
For if " without Him we can do nothing," certain ly 
we can neither begin His work nor bring it to an end. 
For of the beginning it is said, " His mercy shall go 
before me ;" and of the end it is said, " His mercy shall 
ibllow me all the days of my life x ." 

x St. Augustine, vol. x. p. 115 1>. 



ARTICLE XT. 

DE HOMINIS JUSTIFICATIONS. 

TANTUH p ropier merit-urn Domini ae Serratoris nostri 
Jcsu Chrixt.i, per fidem, -non- propter opera ct merita 
nostra-j justi coram Deo repntamur. Quare sola fide 
nos jwtificari doctrina est sahiberrima, ae comolatio- 
nis plemssima, ut in how ilia de justificatione hominis 
fusins explicahir. 

" Of the Justification of Man. 

<t WE are accounted righteous before God only for 
the merit of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, by 
faith, and not for our own works, or deservings. 
AVherefore, that we are justified by faith only, is a most 
wholesome doctrine, and very full of comfort, as more 
largely is expressed in the Homily of Justification." 



How man may be accounted righteous in the eyes of 
the all-holy and righteous God is the most important 
question that can concern him. For the truth of God 
requires that in some sense what He accounts righteous 
must be righteous. The doctrine, therefore, hinges on 
the relation of the creature to its Creator, on the spiri 
tual condition of man in reference to his eternal desti 
nies. It is no mere theological discussion, nor argument 
of the Schools ; it is the mighty question, how is fallen 






OF THE JUSTIFICATION OF MAN. 169 

man brought into relation with God in Christ, and 
when thus brought, what are the conditions of that 
relation ? 

But not only is the question most important in view 
of its intrinsic merit, it has for us the additional ele 
ment that historically justification was one of the ralty- 
ing cries of the Reformation. At one particular phase 
of that event all other questions became subsidiary to 
it. The Schoolmen had perhaps carried system to its 
fullest legitimate result, and what followed ? The age 
of the great mediaeval saints a , of the earlier School- 
divines, and of the great intellectual Popes, was now 
past. The renaissance had set in. The triumph over 
the Hussites at the two great Councils of Basle and 
Constance had put to silence all public opposition to 
the Church. The fifteenth century is eminently barren 
in saints ; men were occupied with the fresh surging of 
political thought, and the sensual glories of heathen 
dom ; the classic authors for the scholar, and the pagan 
sculptures for the artist, really possessed men s souls. 
The real leaders of European thought were no longer 
the pupils of Aquinas or Buenaventura, but Politian, 
and Marsilius Ficinus, and the Medici. The higher 
intellects sneered at those ceremonies and beliefs, which 

a It is remarkable that the greater number of the saints of this 
period illustrate the first half only of the fifteenth century. St. Anto 
ninus of Florence died in 1459; St. Bernardinus of Siena in 1444; 
St. Laurence Giustiniani in 1431 ; St. Vincent Ferrer in 1414, and 
St. John Capistran in 1456. See the life and writings of Jacob Wim- 
pheling, by Paul von Wiskowatoft , Berlin, 1867 ; also for the time of 
Louis XI. the sermons of Oliver Maillard. 



170 ARTICLE XI. 



they as princes and prelates were paid to maintain. 
Among the baser sort, " the love of the many had 
waxed cold," but they were in general sedulous in the 
external profession of religion. Dimmed as their spiri 
tual perceptions were, the belief in the great objective 
truths of religion remained unimpaired. They con 
tinued to place great faith in the external ordinances 
of religion, while divorcing them from their end as 
means of grace. And so they went on through life in 
an infructuous round of barren observances, till they 
came to the close of a life of alternative sacrament 
and sin. 

And if the deep instincts of the regenerate soul, 
never entirely faithless to the grace of baptism, did 
from time to time acknowledge the hollowness of this 
condition of things, they were softened by an appli 
cation of the coarsest form of the power of the keys, 
by the indulgences of Tetzel and his companions. 

It was in opposition to this corrupt state of things 
that a potent voice through Europe was heard pro 
claiming " justification by faith," justification in the 
true sense of the Apostle Paul. It thrilled through 
Christendom, it penetrated even the precincts of the 
Vatican; and Pole and Contarini b , and the Theatines, 
felt its power. It was a mighty reaction, and like 
most reactions it went too far, nay, ran into heresy. 
The power got into the hands of the more violent. 

b " You have brought to light the jewel which the Church kept 
half-concealed/ was Cardinal Pole s comment on a treatise on Justifi 
cation by Contarini." Ranke, vol. i. p. 138, eel. 1840. 



OF THE JUSTIFICATION OF MAX. 171 



The truths that God worked objectively in the soul 
through the Sacraments, as media between Himself and 
man, and that man, responding to grace, whether 
given in or out of the Sacraments, must needs have a 
personal, immediate, and individual relation to God, 
which had peacefully co-existed in the minds of Chris 
tians for sixteen hundred years, were precipitated into 
the sharpest opposition. Again, St. Paul was arrayed 
against St. James, no doubt to the intense astonish 
ment of those blessed Beings in their glorious home 
in heaven ; and in reaction against the coarseness of 
Tetzel was marshalled the coarseness of Luther. 

But the treatment of the doctrine by Luther soon 
ed into great error. First of all, from his conception 
of the effects of original sin, he was obliged to eliminate 
all co-operation on the part of man in the work of sal 
vation. If man be utterly ruined by the Fall, the 
operation of God finds as little response in him as in 
the irrational brute. Secondly, he was obliged to main 
tain that justification was only a judicial act of God, 
whereby the believing sinner is delivered from the 
punishment of sin, but not from sin itself. All righte 
ousness is external to us c . It remains in Christ, and 
passes not into the inward life of the believer. Thirdly, 
concupiscence was regarded as subsisting original sin, 
no distinction being made between feeling it and con 
senting to it. Fourthly, he had to hold that all sins 
in themselves, whatever be their nature, accuse men 
equally before the tribunal of Christ ; faith being the 
c Solid. Declar. iii. de Fid. Jus1 <f. 11. p. 665, 48. p. 664. 



172 ARTICLE XI. 



only decisive distinction between sinners in the eyes 
of God. Lastly, on the ground that the faithful, on 
account of the obedience of Christ, are looked upon as 
just, although by virtue of corrupt nature they be truly 
sinners, and remain such unto death d , it follows that 
no internal and essential difference as to moral beins: is 

O 

recognised between the converted and the unconverted ; 
the Scriptural antithesis of the old and new man, the 
old and new creation, lose their point and significance ; 
the notion of penitence, whereb} r the transition is 
brought about, is mistaken ; and the impressive teach 
ings of Holy Writ, about a real deliverance from sin, 
wrought through Christ, and a real mortification or 
killing of sin in believers e , becomes the occasion of 
self-delusion. Furthermore, the doctrine became dan 
gerous, in that it was made to usurp the place of the 
Sacraments, that it swallowed up all the other factors 
in the life of the soul, and was substituted as the ground 
of man s assurance, in place of these Sacraments, which 
not only are pledges to assure us of grace, but which 
themselves keep alive and nourish faith and grace 
within the soul. It was emphatically one-sided and im 
perfect, in that it ignored all those blessed truths thai, 
are conveyed to us by St. John, when he teaches us 
that we are branches of the True Vine, each branch 
partaking of the life and sap of that from whence it 
springs, the merit and grace and virtue of Christ flow 
ing forth from Him into all His members. 

As there is no source of error so copious as a mis- 

A Ibid. 15. p. 657. e Rom. vi.; via. 14. 



OF THE JUSTIFICATION OF MAN. 173 

understanding of terms, when we proceed to treat of 
the very important question of justification it becomes 
our first duty to define the term. In its literal sense 
it means a making just or righteous, just as rectifica 
tion is a making right, or sanctification a making 
saintly or holy. And this subdivides itself into three 
acceptations. 1. As, in human affairs, the word must 
be restricted to a forensic sense, because man cannot 
alter or affect the heart, the term to justify is- 
sometimes taken for to pronounce just, as when in 
the courts of law one who has been tried is absolved 
from the accusation and pronounced innocent of the 
crime by the judge. Thus in the Gospels : " He, will 
ing to justify himself V or, "He that justifieth the 
wicked, and he that coiiclemneth the just, even they 
both are abomination to the Lord s ." 2. To justify, 
in the strict sense of the term, and with reference to 
the work of God, is to make just. Thus St. Paul, con 
trasting the crimes of the Corinthians before their 
conversion with their after condition, says : " But ye are 
washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in 
the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and by the Spirit 
of our God." 3. To justify, is sometimes in Holy 
Scripture taken for to advance in justice or righteous 
ness. Thus, " He that is righteous, let him be righte 
ous still ; and he that is holy, let him be holy still V 

The word justification is also taken actively and 
passively. It is taken actively, when it is described 

f St. Luke x. 29. s p r ov. xvii. 15. 

h 1 Cor. vi. 11 ; and Rev. xxii. 11, StKaiw6r,ra}. 



174 ARTICLE XI. 



as the proper work of God ; passively, when it is de 
scribed as a certain change in the right hand of 
the Most High, by which in an from being unjust 
becomes just. 

]^ow the second is the genuine theological sense of 
the word justification/ It is a real and not an ima 
ginary process, which takes place in the soul by the 
operation of God. That process is both external and 
internal; man is declared and accounted righteous be 
cause he is made righteous. Hence St. Paul describes 
the justified state as a change from the state of sinful- 
ness into the state of habitual grace and of Sonship, as, 
" Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, 
and hath translated us into the kingdom of His dear 
Son *." It is the destruction of the alliance between 
the human will and the old Adam, the removal of 
original sin, and every other sin committed previously to 
itself. It is the contraction of a real and living fellow 
ship with Christ the Righteous and Holy One ; such 
fellowship implying the remission of sin and the in 
fusion of sanctification. It is the making over and 
imparting of the righteousness of Christ, so as to be 
come inherent in the believer, who thus, no doubt im 
perfectly, becomes really just and well-pleasing to God. 
It restores him to the original righteousness in which 
he was constituted, by means of communion with the se 
cond Adam Jesus Christ. By it faith, hope, and charity, 
with an infinite power of increase, are infused into the 
soul, and the love of God shed abroad in our hearts 

" l Col. i. 13. 



OF THE JUSTIFICATION OF MAN. 175 

by the operation of the Holy Spirit. These blessings, 
in technical language, may be summed up under four 
heads: 1. Reconciliation with God, Who instead of 
slaves now treats us as friends. 2. The remission of sin, 
so far as the eternal punishment is concerned. 3. The 
renovation of the inner man, whereby we who were 
stained and foul by sin, weakened and diseased, stripped 
of spiritual goods and half dead, become beautiful in 
God s eyes, members of Christ, so closely united to 
Him, that what is done by and in us is by Him in us 
done : " I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me ; I 
merit, yet not I, but Christ meriteth in me ; I satisfy, 
yet not I, but Christ satisfieth in me." 4. A right 
and title to eternal life. 

From what has been stated, it will be seen that justi 
fication may be divided into 1. First, 2. Second. 

First justification is that whereby the unjust becomes 
just. Actively, it is a certain admirable and super 
natural act whereby God makes the unjust just. Pas 
sively it is a certain supernatural change by which 
a man from being unjust becomes just. By this a man, 
from being hateful and unpleasing to God, becomes dear 
to Him ; instead of an enemy to Him, His friend ; in 
stead of impious, pious; instead of wicked, holy; instead 
of the slave of sin, the servant of righteousness ; instead 
of guilty of eternal death, the heir of the kingdom 
of heaven. 

The second justification, actively, is the operation 
of God whereby He makes the righteous, righteous 
still, more pleasing, more holy ; passively, it is the 



176 ARTICLE XI. 



supernatural change whereby man becomes still more 
righteous, still more holy; as it is written, "And 
grace for grace." 

Having defined the term justification/ we now ad 
vance to the first proposition of the Article, that its 
meritorious cause is the Lord Jesus Christ. We are 
accounted righteous before God only for the merits 
(jproptw meritum) of our Lord Jesus Christ by (per) 
faith, and not for (propter) our own works or deservings; 
and this is founded on the theological truth that He 
with His own most precious Blood has made satisfac 
tion for us to our Father in heaven, and, having ren 
dered a perfect obedience to Him in His most holy life, 
willed that His merits should subserve to our justifica 
tion. By His excellent virtues, by His endurance, toils, 
and labours, by His blessed good-will to us, He not only 
has satisfied superabundantly for our sins, but He has 
reconciled us to God, and merited our justification. 

Nay, He not only merited our justification, whereby 
we are restored to the grace of God, our sins are re 
mitted, our spirits renewed, and our adoption and heir- 
ship bestowed upon us, but He merited 1. that the 
Sacraments should have a power of justifying, and that 
the good works which are necessary to the justification 
of adults should be sufficient for the purpose; and 2. 
that adults should have grace sufficient for such work, 
for unless these things happened to us for the merits of 
Christ, and had their sufficiency from Him, we could 
not say that we were accounted righteous for the meril 
of Christ, but only by the law and grace of Christ, 



OF THE JUSTIFICATION OF MAN. 177 



who of His great mercy freely appointed these reme 
dies for us who could in nowise obtain them of our 
selves ; whereas it cannot be doubted that Christ has 
actually satisfied for us, ad coudignum, and merited 
justification for us, do condiyno and according- to the 
severity of justice, giving, as lie has done, more than 
we owed by our sins ; for His life was better than our 
sins were bad ; seeing that His life was the life of God 
and of Man, infinitely well-pleasing to God. And His 
death was more dear in the sight of God than our 
offences were hateful i. 

The next point to be considered is the office of faith 
in justification. Following the teaching of St. Paul, 

J The sum of our hope and justification is this : " For He hath made 
Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin : that we might be made the 
righteousness of God in Him," (2 Cor. v. 21). Nor can there be any other 
victim well-pleasing to God, or sacrifice for others, save the Word made 
flesh; of whom the Apostle says, "God was in Christ, reconciling the 
world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them ;" (ver. 19). 
For He imputeth not, who not only pardoneth freely, but truly giveth 
righteousness and holiness. 

That the righteousness of Christ is imputed to us, and that that im 
putation is necessary for justification, is quite true, but we must not 
say that men arc justified solely by the imputation of the righteousness 
of Christ to the exclusion of grace, whereby He makes us just by the 
Holy Spirit, the love of God being shed abroad in our hearts. More 
over, the merits of Christ are by faith not only imputed to us, but are 
applied and communicated to us ; by which process not only our sins are 
remitted, but a righteousness transmitted from Christ is poured into oi>r 
souls. This is the justification of the new man. St. Augustine says, 
" We read that they are justified in Christ who believe in Him, by 
a hidden communication and inspiration of spiritual grace." Lib. i. 
de pec. mer. et rem., c.x.n. 11. Bossuet, Proj. de Reunion entre les Ca- 
fholiqiies et les Protestants d Allemagne. (Ev.vres, torn. xxvi. 19. 



178 ARTICLE XI. 



that we are justified freely, the Article asserts that 
we are accounted righteous for the merits of our Lord 
by faith. 

Observe distinctly that the Article is here speaking 
of the first justification, viz. that whereby from being 
unjust man is made just, and that the faith here spoken 
of is not the fiducia of Luther, the confidence that one s 
own sins are remitted, neither is it a bare speculative 
assent to the supernatural truths of religion, such as 
exists in the demons; but it is that beginning and root 
of the spiritual life, whereby we savingly believe that 
God is, that He is the rewarder of them that dili 
gently seek Him, and that He hath sent His only 
Son for the redemption of all men ; without which it 
is impossible to please Him ; the hand whereby God s 
grace is apprehended; the intellectual power of soul 
which lays hold on revealed truth; the root whence 
springs the holy life, nay, which is the holy life itself 
in germ and possibility. It is a divine gift of God in 
the soul, a supernatural infused virtue. 

It must be laid down as a principle that this first 
justification is the free gift of God. We are justified 
freely by faith, as the Apostle bears witness. St. Augus 
tine says, " Wherefore grace ? because it is given gratis : 
wherefore is it given gratis ? because thy merits have 
not gone before, but the benefits of God have antici 
pated thee." Elsewhere he says k , " The grace of 
-Christ, without which neither infants nor adults can 



k cap. 4. De Zfatura et Gratia. 






OF THE JUSTIFICATION OF MAN. 179 



l}e saved, is not given as the reward of merit, but is 
given gratis, wherefore it is called grace, being justi 
fied freely by His grace V " This he says, explaining 
the words of St. Paul "Who shall deliver me from 
the body of this death ? the grace of God, through 
Jesus Christ our Lord." 

This faith is not mere speculative, but practical. 
Love is its vivifying principle. It does not, however, 
merit, it impetrates justification. 

The justifying faith of Lutheranism, however, is not 
this. According to this system, man has faith when, 
he believes that he has been received by God into 
grace; and that for Christ s sake, who by His death 
hath offered atonement for our sins, he receives for 
giveness of the same. Therefore no sin can damn a 
man, but unbelief alone ; and the word faith changes 
its meaning into confidence 111 . 

1 Rom. iii. 21. 

111 " Gratis justificantur propter Christum per fuiem, cum cvedunt se 
iu gratiam rccipi efc peccata remitti propter Christum qui pro pcccatis 
nostris satisfeeit. Confess. Aug., Art. iv. 

The form which this doctrine takes in modern English Evangelicalism 
seems to be of this nature : " We do not misrepresent their doctrinal 
system by stating- it as follows : St. Paul tells us, that a man is justified by 
faith ; that is, by having faith, and by the faith which he has. But when 
has a man this faith ? Is it sufficient that he has love to Christ, and puts 
his trust in His merits for salvation ? Xot necessarily/ it is replied, 
because he may be putting some trust in himself too. What, then, is 
necessary to constitute him the possessor of this saving faith ? He 
must throw himself upon Christ s merits entirely, is the answer. But 
what is the test whereby to judge whether he does trust in Christ thus 
entirely, or wherein does the entirety of his trust consist, and what is 
its essence? "It consists in his renouncing Ills own merits. When 
ti man does this, then and not till then he believes in Christ ; then and 



180 ARTICLE XI. 



The Article now proceeds : 

"And not for our own works and deservings." The 
emphatic word here is for (propter). The antithesis 
is between the merit of Christ and our merit. We are 
said to be justified by the one and not by the other. 
That is to say, our works are not the meritorious causes 
of our justification. There is no antithesis between by 
(per) faith, and for (propter) our works ; so that the 
question between faith and works ought not strictly to 
be imported into an explanation of the letter of the 
Article, though the close connection of the two subjects 
tempts one to consider their relation. It is clear that, 
the first justification being the act whereby we are in 
grafted into Christ, before the justice or righteousness 
becomes habitual, faith must precede merit, which is 
the fruit of God the Holy Ghost working in those who 
are already in Christ. 

It is next stated that the opinion that " we are justi 
fied by faith only is a most wholesome doctrine, and 
very full of comfort, as more largely is expressed in 
the Homily of Justification." If faith is taken in an 
objective sense, that is to say, as an establishment in 
stituted by God in Jesus Christ, in opposition to Ju 
daism, or any human and arbitrary system of religion, 
and the modes of thinking, feeling, and acting, which 
such religions prescribe ; then it is absolutely, and with- 



not till then he throws himself upon his Saviour s merits; then and not 
tUl then he has saving faith. 

" First of all, the conviction is a negative one ; and, secondly, the 
conviction is no profound spiritual truth, but something about the man 
himself." Christian Remembrancer, vol. Ixiv. p. 353. 



OF THE JUSTIFICATION OF MAX. 181 

out restriction, true, that faith alone justifies. Thereby 
alone man is able to acquire God s favour : " There is 
none other Name given unto man whereby he may be 
saved, but only the Name of the Lord Jesus." It is 
only through the mercy of God that this Name is given, 
without any merit on the part of mankind in general, 
or of individual man in particular n . 

" Very many of the Fathers affirm that we are justi 
fied by faith alone . By the word alone/ the Fathers 
never intended simply to exclude all works of faith and 
grace from the causes of justification and eternal sal 
vation : but in the first place the laws of nature and of 
Moses ; secondly, all works done in our own strength, 
without faith in Christ, and His preventing grace; 
thirdly, a false faith or heresy, to which and not to 
works they oppose faith ; fourthly, the absolute neces 
sity of external works, even those which are done 
through grace, as love, penitence, the reception of the 
Sacraments, and the like, whenever the power or the 
opportunity to do such works is absent : for then faith 
alone, without external works, is sufficient, yet not 

" Mohler, SymloUJc, vol. i. p. 211. 

Origcii in cap. 3 ad Eom. 9 ; St. Hilary of Poitiers, Canon 8 in 
Matt. 6, movct Scribas ; St. Basil, Horn, de Humilitate, 3, t. 2, p. 
158. The author of the Commentaries on St. Paul in cap. 3, Rom. v. 24, 
t. ii. p. 46 D ; St. Greg. Nazian/en, Or at. n. 32, 25. t. i. p. 596 C; St. 
Chrysostom in 3 Gal. 5, t. x. p. 699 ; St. Hieronyrnus in cap. 4. ad 
Rom. v. 3, v. 5, v. 11; Theodoreb. Therapeut. 7, t. 4, p. 892; St. Au- 
gustinus Cont. 2. Ep. Pelag., lib. i. c. 21, 39, t. x. p. 429; St. Cyril 
of Alexandria, lib. x. in Job. cap. 18 ; Pope St. Leo, Ep. 70. Serin, iv. 
Epiph. St. Peter; Chrys. Serm. xxxiv. Sib. Pair., t. vii. p. 872; St. 
Prosper of Aquituine, t. i. p. 331. 



182 ARTICLE XI. 



without some good affections of penitence and charity, 
which are internal works ; fifthly and lastly, all vain 
assurance and boasting of our works of whatever sort,, 
not only those preceding faith, but those done, either 
externally or internally, from the grace of faith p ." 

Again, the expression is, though not used in Scrip 
ture, true and undeniable, if we understand by faith, not 
a faith segregated from love and hope, and other virtues, 
no mere union of the phantasy or feelings with Christ, 
no barren recognition of Christian truth or conviction 
about our own spiritual state ; but a new, living spirit, 
a new divine sentiment regulating the whole man, 
forming an inseparable unity with charity, " the very 
bond of peace and of all virtue, without which whoso 
ever liveth is counted dead before God." While an 
element of hope and trust accompanies this informed 
faith, its essence does not consist in an assurance of 
divine grace in Jesus Christ, nor in a confidence in the- 
merits of the Redeemer, by the power of which sins 
are forgiven. Neither must we hold up this confidence 
as being able entirely of itself, and abstractedly, to win 
for its possessors the favour of God. This doctrine 
has no solid foundation in Holy Scripture; and it is 
a striking circumstance that, while this Article bears^ 
evident traces of having been founded upon a similar 
one in the Confession of Augsburg, the peculiar symbol 
of Lutheranism, that a man is justified if he believes- 
that he is justified (an expression whioh occurs at least 

* Forbcsii Consid., vol. i. p. 58, Oxf. ed. 






OF THE JUSTIFICATION OF MAN. 183 

seven times in that document), has been rejected from, 
the Anglican Formulary. 

The Article, in its close, sums up this teaching by 
saying that it is a most wholesome doctrine, and full of 
comfort, that we are justified by faith only ; and refers 
to the Homily of Justification. There is no Homily of 
Justification in either Book, but perhaps the Homily 
on the Salvation of All Men may be meant, as express 
ing this same teaching more largely. On this there is 
no point of controversy. Any question which would 
possibly arise, must relate not to our being justified 
by faith only, but to the character of the faith whereby 
we are justified. And on this all must be agreed. 
Faith, which had not love, would be the faith of devils, 
and this, of course, would justify none : faith, which 
had not the purpose of living to God, and according to 
His law, would be self-deceit q . 

" We nowhere expressly read in Scripture That the 
righteousness of Christ is imputed to us for righteous^ 
ness. We read, indeed, in Scripture that faith is im 
puted unto us for righteousness, that because of Christ s 
righteousness God does not impute to us our sins, and 
that righteousness is imputed to us ; J but the Scripture 

i Yet Bossuet puts the question, " Does faith alone justify ?" He 
answers, " In regard to the mercy of God and the merits of Christ, 
there is no doubt but that they truly justify us. But when the 
Lutherans, with this most excellent author (Molanus), agree that faith 
justifies, not a bare faith, or alone, in the sense of being solitary and 
destitute of the purpose of doing well, they would entirely satisfy Ca 
tholics." Projet de Reunion, t. xxv. p. 377. 

Molanus had stated, "the word alone (sola) is not to be taken for 
solitary, i.e. for a dead faith, or a faith destitute of good works, or, at 
least, of the purpose of doing well." Ib., p. 286. 



184 ARTICLE XI. 



nowhere expressly says that God imputes to us for 
righteousness the righteousness of Christ/. . . That the 
righteousness, i.e. the obedience of Christ, is imputed to 
us, as to effect and fruit, i.e. remission of sins, inherent 
righteousness, and acceptance to everlasting life ; that 
it is communicated, attributed, and given to us, is, in 
fact, said in Scripture wherever it is expressly asserted 
that by the obedience and death of Christ righteous 
ness and salvation have been obtained for us, or that 
we have been redeemed from sin and reconciled to 
God : or when it is taught that Christ is of God made 
unto us righteousness : or that for us He is made sin, 
that in Him we might be made the righteousness of 
God : or that by His righteousness and obedience we 
are made just before God. Yet it would not be safe to 
say that the righteousness of Christ is the formal cause 
of our justification. It is more rightly held that Christ s 
righteousness or obedience, imputed or applied to us, is 
the meritorious and impulsive cause of our justifica 
tion : that is, it is the external and objective cause, 
as opposed to an internal and subjective one 1 . If im 
putation mean the collation of the gifts of Christ, the 
expression is a sound one ; but if it mean that Christ s 
righteousness is taken instead of our righteousness 
that His obedience takes the place of ours it is sub 
versive of Christian morality." 

It was said at the beginning of this Article, that 

a school of Catholic theologians, headed by Contarini 

and Pole, resting mainly on the necessity of a stronger 

subjectivity in religion, and relying on such authority 

r Forbesii Consid. Mod., vol. i. p. 113. 



OF THE JUSTIFICATION OF MAN. 185 

as that of St. Bernard, had taught a theology in which 
many elements of Protestant thought existed. A little 
later, also, we have Catharinus, Cassander, and the emi 
nent Groper, attempting an Eirenikon; but logically 
such Eirenikon could not stand. Justification in the 
Catholic sense, as a real though imperfect deliverance 
from sin or stain, was incompatible with a covering of 
a sin- stained soul with the merits of Christ, so that the 
soul still remains sinful in itself, though for Christ s 
sake the punishment is remitted. It was impossible 
to reconcile two such contrary theories, as one which 
makes the work of Christ in the soul a real process of 
right-making and holy-making, with a system which 
consisted merely in a feeling, a reflective act of the 
soul that it is certainly in a state of grace. Accord 
ingly, a distinct separation took place s . 

s On the continent, also, justification by imputation was the turning- 
point of the Reformation ; yet hardly a single scientific Protestant theo 
logian now maintains it. (See a remarkable enumeration of Protestant 
theologians, in number exceeding forty-two, who have abandoned the 
doctrine of justification, as it is set forth in the Formula Concord ice and 
the Heidelberg Catechism, in fact the prevalent doctrine till 1760. Dol- 
linger s " Church and Churches," ed. Maccabe, p. 295.) And in England, 
though during the latter days of Elizabeth and the first of James, it was 
the dominant teaching in the Schools, it was so thoroughly demolished 
by Bull, Hammond, and Thorndike, within the Church, and by Baxter 
among the Nonconformists, its contradictions and destructive conse 
quences have been shewn to be so glaring, that it has ceased to maintain 
itself theologically; though a class of amiable writers Toplady, Venn, 
Newton, and Hervey are still quoted with admiration by their followers, 
who have specially adapted themselves to the well-to-do comfortable 
Englishman, who desires an intelligible, consolatory, and tranquillizing 
system. This he finds in the doctrine of justification by imputation. 
A man is there taught that by an ace of mere imputation of the righte 
ousness of Another, one may pass into a state of perfect security and cer- 



186 ARTICLE XI. 



Thus we have endeavoured to expound the holy and 
blessed doctrine of Justification by Faith, as it has 
been held in the Church of God from the beginning. 
From first to last the gift of God, like all His gifts, it 
blesses mankind by the elevation of every faculty of 
the soul. Consecrating the free-will to the glorious 
service of religion, it developes the notion of responsi 
bility, and so puts Christian ethics on a solid basis ; 
at the same time, recognising its absolute need of divine 
grace in every stage of its process, it renders high 
praise to God the Father, from whom descencleth every 
perfect gift. Herein also is the Son glorified, as the 
sole meritorious cause ; and the Holy Ghost honoured, 
through whose potent operation alone we are able to 
will and to do of God s good pleasure. 

tainty of salvation ; that by being clothed with the merits and righte 
ousness of the Saviour he may be regarded by God as righteous, although 
inwardly he is not so ; that he can never forfeit this state of grace, for 
that he is one of the elect. All this depends on his having a com 
pletely favourable opinion of his own state. This is assurance. Men 
announce the immediate and certain forgiveness of all sins, and assu 
rance of safetv, as the price of momentary excitement and concentration 
of feeling. This is called Preaching the Gospel in its fulness and free 
dom. " Vide Dollinger, " Church and Churches," pp. 114, 175. 

In short, to sum the matter up scientifically, "it is not faith but the 
imputation of the sufferings of Christ, which makes man appear justified 
before God, or that the process of justification is therewith fulfilled, 
that God attributes to man the sufferings and the fulfilment of the 
law by Christ, as if man himself had yielded the same obedience ; and 
that man, through faith, knows and becomes assured of this imputation." 
p. 299, note. 



ARTICLE XIT. 
DE BONIS OPERIBUS 

opera, qua xunt fructus fidei, et juxtificatos scqni(n- 
tar, quanquam pcccata nostra expiare, et dicini jndieii 
seceritatcm ferre non potsunt ; Deo tauten grata sunt, 
et aecepta in Christo, atque ex vera et rica fide neeessario 
profluunt, ut plane ex l/lis a>que fides viva coynosci possif, 
atquc arbor cxfnictujudicari. 



16 Of Good Works. 

" ALBEIT that good works, which are the fruits of 
faith and follow after justification, cannot put away 
our sins, and endure the severity of God s judgment, 
yet are they pleasing and acceptable to God in Christ, 
and do spring out necessarily of a true and lively 
faith ; insomuch that by them a lively faith may bo 
as evidently known as a tree discerned by the fruit." 



Tins Article is a protest against the opinion of Luther, 
that every so-called good work of man, is, when con 
sidered in itself, an act of sin, though by reason of faith 
it is remitted to him a ; that of Melatichthon, that all 
our works, all our endeavours, are nothing but sin b ; 
and finally, that of Calvin c , who states the same, only 
in milder language. On the other hand, it asserts that 

* Op., torn. ii. fol. 325 1>. b Loc. Theol., p. 108. 

c Calv. Inst, in edit., lib. ii. c. 8, 59 ; lib. iii. c. 4, 28. 



188 ARTICLE XII. 



they cannot take the place of Christ in putting away 
or expiating our sins, neither can they endure the 
severity of God s judgment. 

1. First, then, good works are the fruits of faith. 
This follows from what was said before, that faith is 
the beginning, and root, and foundation of all our 
justification. Faith being the beginning of the spiri 
tual life, good works must of course spring out of it. 
When the child is baptized it seeketh from the Church 
faith, and then and there receives the graces necessary 
to act rightly. Faith is the root of good works, in that 
the root and the rest of the tree being of the same sub 
stance, these two are in fact one, different expressions 
of the same habit of soul : the living faith is the good 
work still silently shut up in the soul, and the good 
Christian work is nothing other than the faith brought 
to light. Hence in Holy Scripture salvation is attri 
buted sometimes to work, sometimes to faith. Lastly, 
it is the foundation, for faith comes first in the order of 
intellectual conception, and the moral work rests on the 
intellectual ; for before a man can come to God and so 
much the more, before a man can follow out the con 
sequences of that coining to God he must be con 
vinced of His existence, and of the other truths with 
regard to Himself which He has graciously revealed. 

2. Next, it is said that good works follow after justi 
fication. This proposition is self-evident, if we consider 
what has been said on this subject under the preceding 
Article. The state of light and grace, which is the 
justified state, will be one of actions done in union with 



OF GOOD WORKS. 189 



Jesus Christ, into whose fellowship we are already 
entered. Nay, the good works will become the mea 
sures, as well as the promoters of the necessary justi 
fication, according as it is written, "He that is holy, 
let him be holy still." 

The Latin version here indicates that the Article 
follows the mind of St. Augustine. The expression 
"follow after justification" is rendered "justificatos se- 
quuntur," and evidently refers to the celebrated passage 
in the DC Fide et Operibus of that Father, " Good works 
follow a justified person, but do not go before in one 
about to be justified" (sequl justificatum non autcm 
pr&cedere justificandum d ) ; a passage which has been 
much misunderstood, for the Saint is here speaking of 
works of righteousness, which, <e after the faith has 
been received and professed," are henceforth to bo per 
formed ; or of those works which are performed by 
habitual righteousness, i.e. which are implied in the act 
of justification, and so are inherent and habitual : not 
of those good works which, through the assisting or pre 
paring grace of the Holy Ghost, dispose to justification. 

3. Yet they cannot put away our sins, i.e. expiate 
(eopiare) them. Christ alone is the Lamb of God that 
taketh away the sins of the world, and we cannot sot so 
much good work against so much past sin. We cannot 
keep a debtor and creditor account with God, and pay 
for the sins we love by certain acts, even the best. This 
is almost a truism; for the justified man, inhering, as 
he does, in the True Vine, even when he falls into great 
d cap. 11, 21, t. vi. p. 177. 



190 ARTICLE XII. 



and terrible sins, will allow no such thoughts to enter 
his soul. His sense of the offence to God is too great 
to think that he may thus destroy his guilt ; but this 
passage must by no means be taken to exclude the ne 
cessity of penitential acts whereby, when forgiven, we 
would seek to discipline ourselves after sin, whereby 
we would seek to shew to Almighty God that we would, 
if we could, by a holy revenge, undo the hated past. 

Good works cannot put away sin. " One must dis 
tinguish first in what state the works are done, whether 
in a state of mortal sin, or in a state of grace ; and so 
one must distinguish in putting away/ whether it- 
refer to cuJpa or pce/ia." 

" We say, then, 1st. That none of our works can put 
away sin quoad cuJpam, because if they are done in mor 
tal sin they do not satisfy God for the offence against 
Him ; and if they are done in the state of grace, that 
state of grace implies the abolition of the offc-ma and the 
riffyfff by the divine aid, from the satisfaction of Christ, 
who satisfied for the offences whereby we offend God, by 
offering up His own Life on the altar of the Cross. 

" Secondly, we say, that no works of ours done in 
mortal sin are satisfactory to God for the pcena due to 
our sins, even those already absolved in the Sacrament 
of Penance; because when a sin is remitted by God, 
so far as the offence is concerned, the sinner, from an 
enemy, becomes the friend of God, and therefore is 110 
longer to be punished as an enemy, i.e. eternally : yet 
if the measure of grace bestowed to any so meriting, as 
that with the remission of the c/tfpa there is not full 



OF GOOD WORKS. 191 



remission of the pcena, the sinner remains bound as 
.a friend to pay the rest of the pcena; and if he falls 
into sin again, and becomes again the enemy of God, 
before he have paid the penalty of that relapse, his 
works are works in a hostile state, he cannot pay as 
a friend, and therefore cannot satisfy for that pcena. 

" Thirdly, we say, the work of our persevering in 
the friendship of God, has no impediment in the way 
of satisfying for that residuum of pcena. In this the 
Lutherans err doubly, 1. in teaching that when sin is 
remitted quoad qffemamii is remitted also quoad pacnam, 
in the teeth of the example of David. 2. They take 
away from the works of the living members of Christ 
any power that may satisfy for pcena not yet remitted. 
For this were to contradict the power of Christ the 
Head in us : for I satisfy, yet not I, but Christ satis- 
fieth in me. It were also to contradict the practice of 
the Church which is used to impose salutary satisfac 
tions, by the ministry of priests, on those who, being 
truly penitents, have confessed their sins c ." 

4. An extreme school of the Reformers held that 
oven the most excellent acts of the just are defiled 
with sin, and are of themselves worth}^ of eternal 
death, although done by the grace of Christ. Every 
work of ours is an abomination. The expression of 
the filthy rags in Isaiah Ixiv. 6, (in which the Jewish 
Church, polluted by idolatry and apostasy, complains 
mournfully of the severity of the punishments laid on 
her, and, confessing her sins, alludes to the things 

e Cajetan, Opmcula, torn, iii. p. 169. Antwerp, 1012. 



192 ART1CLK XII. 



she had done during her public alienation from God,) 
was applied by them to the actions of the holiest of 
Christians. 

This dogmatic use of the text is, of course, wholly 
independent of a pious employment of it, made, at 
all times, by holy souls, who in sight of the Infinite 
holiness of God and their own coming short of their 
own ideal of what is due from the creature to the 
Creator, have not found words strong enough to ex 
press their own sense of unworthiness. 

This opinion of the Reformers as above stated, is 
opposed to Scripture, to tradition, to right reason. In 
the Word of God, the works of the just are called 
" good f ;" " works of light" ;" " sacrifices acceptable and 
well-pleasing to God 11 ;" "clean robes 1 ;" "fine linen 11 ;" 
and they who here have lived holily, are said to have 
done " works of righteousness, and kept their garments 
undefiled : ;" also, to those who walk aright is promised 
a great reward, " both in this world, and in that which 
is to come m ;" and St. James says, "In many things 
we all offend "," therefore not in all things. 

So even those Fathers, who are most opposed to 
Pelagius, though they denied that a just man would 
entirely avoid all sin for his whole life, or even for 
a long portion of his life, yet granted that the just 
could do so, at least for a short time. 

Lastly, in view of right reason. Can anything be 

f St. Matt. v. 16. e Eph. v. 8, 9. h Phil. iv. 18; comp. 

Heb. xiii. 16. * Rev. vii. 13. k Rev. xix. 8. l Rev. ii. 4, iii. 4. 
ro 1 Tim. iv. 8; comp. St. Matt. v. 12. " St. James iii. 2. 



OF GOOD WORKS. 193 



so despiteful to the grace of Christ, which has freed us 
not only from liability to punishment for our innate 
corruption, but from the dominion of it ? Certainly 
those who maintain this opinion,, although they seem 
to themselves to extol God s mercy and grace, do, in 
fact, though unwittingly, exalt the strength of the old 
Adam, and of indwelling sin more. 

We of the Church of England content ourselves with 
the affirmation that none of our works can endure the 
screrift/ of the judgment of God. It is enough that 
they can endure God s judgment, as tempered with 
grace and mercy on account of Christ ; but we are not 
so ungrateful or unjust to that grace, as to assert that 
nothing whatever can here be performed by us through 
its strength, which is in view of human frailty not in 
some way defiled by sin . 

If God should strictly judge our works, they might 
be said to be vices, and our just works to be unjust ; 
because many things which are now just, good, and 
meritorious, would be truly vices, and bad, and unjust, 
if they were brought to the standard of that sanctity 
and purity wherewith we ought to serve God, and 
which God might rigorously exact from us, as well 
on account of His own goodness, as on account of the 
excellent benefits He has conferred upon us. For not 
only is it true that the life of every one of the just is 
denied by many venial sins, but also the very works 
of the perfect fall very far short of that goodness 
wherewith we ought to worship, praise, and honour 
Forbesii Cousid., vol. i. p. 407. 




194 ARTICLE XII. 



God ; for they are joined during this life to much, 
imperfection, nor are they so pure, holy, or fervent, as 
the greatness of the divine goodness towards us re 
quires. And whereas God, on account of His exceed 
ing kindness and graciousness towards us, does not 
at present impute to us these defects and imperfections 
even as a venial fault, yet He might reckon them as 
u fault if He willed to treat us strictly, and apart from. 
His graciousness and benignity p . 

While it was right to re-assert the existence of the 
divine work in the justification of man, and that in one 
sense eternal life is emphatically the free gift of God, 
it cannot be doubted that some of the Reformers ran 
into extremes on the want of value of man s part in 
the mighty co-operation with the grace of God in 
making his calling and election sure. Luther by his 
theory of faith, Calvin by his exaggerated teaching of 
predestination, went far to destroy man s faith in what 
he had to do. Moreover, the matter did not rest with 
the authors of these teachings : their followers very 
much surpassed them, and a deep Antiiiomian spirit 
became very prevalent. It was to meet this that the 
Article was framed. No such Article is found in the 
code of 1553. It is the result of Archbishop Parker s 
first endeavour to restore a patristic line of thought. 
He guards indeed the other side, where he says that 
they cannot expiate sin, or take the place of our Lord s 
Blood, and where he asserts that they cannot endure 
the severity of God s judgment; but he goes on to 

P Vega, de Jusiificatione, ii. 38, cit. Forbes. 






OF GOOD WORKS. 195 



assert that they are 1. grata ct accepta, and 2. that they 
spring from faith. Both these are distinctly Christian 
propositions. 

1. The good deeds of those who sent offerings to 
Jerusalem are called a sacrifice, a sweet savour, well- 
pleasing to God: and various other passages in the 
Bible enforce this upon us. Indeed, no such severe 
blow has ever been struck at Christian morality as the 
one-sided conception of the Reformation on this head. 
Surely to please God we must in our measure be really 
virtuous. The approval of God must be correlative to 
human goodness. To be rewarded " according to our 
works, good or bad," is not only according to the dic 
tates of natural theology and the sense of justice im 
planted in each of us, but it is the very foundation of 
the Gospel teaching. A neglect of this truth leads to 
very one-sided notions of religion : in many cases it 
leads to infidelity. The divorce between theology and 
morals is against the will of God. To substitute what 
is termed " a personal interest in the atonement/ 
which interest is obtained by a renunciation of our own 
merit, or by the conviction that the atonement is per 
sonally ours, for a life of goodness and virtue wrought 
in man by the power of the life and death of Christ, as 
if the blessed Apostle St. John, and the most wretched 
lazar of a sinner plucked like a brand out of the fire 
at the last by a stupendous mercy, were equals in His 
sight, and should have an equal reward, is an assault 
upon the conscience. This theory has tended, first of 
all, to stunting the spiritual life in preventing great 



196 ARTICLE XIT. 



ventures in faith. It has destroyed self-sacrifice. It 
has crippled those usages of self-dedications where men, 
from the love of God have given themselves up to 
spend and to be spent in His service. It has taken away 
the motives for self- discipline and watchfulness, tend 
ing to substitute sentiment for principle. It has tended 
to a certain softening of the soul, and to an idolatry of 
comfort and respectability. In short, it is a mistake 
to seek to be wiser than Jesus Christ. If He makes 
the joys of the next world to be the reward of good 
deeds on earth, who are we that we should seek to 
place Christian action on a supposed higher platform ? 
No man can purchase heaven by his good actions, but 
actions done in the power of Christ, by His grace, with 
the aid of His Spirit, are the things which determine 
our position and measure of glory in the life to come, 
God thus crowning His own gifts in us, so that to Him 
and to Him alone belongs the glory. 

Although the first grace ever comes from God, and 
precedes all on man s part, yet faith is the first in order 
of time in all supernatural acts ; nay, more, it is the 
source from whence they flow : and, as the Article says, 
they tell back on their source, the holy act being but 
the embodied conviction, and the strong impression of 
the soul welling forth and expressing itself in the 
outward act. 

A true faith here is mentioned in contradistinction to 
a false faith ; the faith of heretics, as such, has no justi 
fying power. Hence the severity with which the Church 
has always regarded intellectual errors. All religious 



OF GOOD WORKS. 197 



truth, finds its ultimate term in Christ, who is the 
Eternal Truth. He it is who warrants all revelation. 
It is on His authority, as the Revealer of God s will 
and purpose, that we accept any proposition laid before 
us. And if the Church be His Body, and the Bible 
His Word, then those dogmas which we accept on their 
joint authority come to us on His authority. 

And, next, it is a " lively/ a living faith, which is 
spoken of. This is the same as the formed faith of the 
Schoolmen. The form of a thing is that which causes 
it to be what it is ; the life of a thing is that which 
gives it the power of motion and energy, of fulfilling 
the end for which it was created. By a formed faith 
the Schoolmen understood a faith that had love as its 
soul, its vivifying, plastic principle, its life, in short, 
and on this account it was termed fide* char itate for maty, 
animatciy fides vim, fides civida, a lively faith. This is 
that higher faith which brings man into a real vital 
communion with Christ, fills him with an infinite de 
votion to God, with the strongest confidence in Him, 
with the deepest humility and love towards Him, 
liberates him from sin, and causes all creatures to be 
viewed and loved in God q . 

It would be improper to pass over the word merit/ 
which so often occurs in theology, as men have justly 

i Mohler, vol. i. p. 171. 

The sentiment of this Article is in accordance with the formula 
agreed upon between Protestants and Catholics at Ratisbon, in 1541 : 
" It is a settled and sound doctrine, that sinful man is justified by living 
and active faith : for by it we are rendered agreeable and well-pleasing 
unto God for Christ s sake." 



198 ARTICLE XII. 



dreaded a theory of the meritoriousness of good works 
out of Christ. They have rightly said that the best of 
man s good deeds, in themselves, are filthy rags. They 
have dwelt upon the evidence of that imperfection 
which clings to the actions of man, and taints all 
efforts done in his own strength. 

But, on the other hand, w r e must not forget that God 
in many parts of Hoty Scripture makes the eternal life- 
the reward of a holy life here on earth, and that great 
promises, both in this life and in the world to come,, 
are held out to obedience. Sometimes merit is taken 
strictly and in the rigorous sense of the word, and 
means a free action, to which, out of justice, is duo 
a certain reward or premium. At other times it is- 
taken in a wider sense, as a free action entitled ta 
a certain reward, either in terms of debt, or compact,, 
or condition, or bargain, or even for grace : and gene 
rally it is taken for any work which impetrates any 
reward, and is the cause of its bestowal r . Now, theo 
logically speaking, it is a voluntary work, either in 
ternal or external, to which in right a reward is due r 
according to the Apostle s : "To him that worketh 
is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. 3 
So that four parties concur to the establishment of 
merit : 1. The person who merits ; 2. the voluntary 
work, which is the merit; 3. the reward due; 4. the 
E-ewarder. 

However, the question becomes complicated when we 
deal with the relation which exists between us and 

Vega, de Just if., lib. via. p. 192, ed. 1672. Rom. iv. 4. 



OF GOOD WORKS. 199 



God, for it seems difficult to conceive how in justice 
our work should be rewarded by God, since no absolute 
and simple right can exist between us : " In Thy sight 
shall no man living be justified." It can only be 
a relative right at best, a jus secumhun quid, like the* 
relations of master and slave, only infinitely less than 
that. Yet this feeble right is of divine ordination, and 
thus God owes, not to man but to Himself, to reward 
good actions with eternal life. Moreover, both under 
the old and new Law we find evidence of covenants 
made between God and man, and just as in a covenant 
between master and slave, an actual right is generated^ 
so it is between God and man ; yet even then, God is 
not a debtor to us, but to Himself, to His own will, 
which induced Him to enter into covenant with us *. 

The word ( merit is hardly to be found in Holy Scrip 
ture, though there are expressions nearly equivalent to 
it, as where we read " worthy/ or " to be accounted 
worthy"." Yet it is of frequent occurrence in the- 
Latin Fathers of the best and purest ages, e.g. St. Cy 
prian, having nearly the same sense as to obtain, or to 
become apt and fitted for obtaining; so as nothing i& 
detracted from God s grace, from which all merits arise^ 

The word is used in this sense in the Latin classics : 
" Sequi gloria, non appeti, debet, nee si casti aliquo 
non sequatur, idcirco quod gloriam non meruit, minus 
pulchrum est x ." 

But the true philosophy of the matter rears on the 

1 Cajetan, torn. iii. p. 168. u St. Luke xxi. 36 : 2 Tlioss. i. 5; 

Apoc. iii. 4. * Pliny, Kp., lib. via. ep. 13, up. Fac-ciolut. 



200 ARTICLE XII. 



truth, that the merit of eternal life is not our work, but 
the work of Christ our Head in us and by us. Men by 
grace are made the living members of Christ. The 
sufferings of the body are the sufferings of the Head : 
"Why persecutest thou Me?" Christ spoke in Paul, 
and Paul lived ; yet not he, but Christ lived in him y. 
Hence we may say, " I merit, yet not I, but Christ 
meriteth in me/ " I fast, yet not I, but Christ fast- 
eth in me." 

80 that while baptized infants are saved purely by 
the merit of Christ s life and death, in the case of adults 
eternal life is due in two ways : 1. by right of the merit 
of Christ, which He earned in His own person; 2. by 
right of the merit of Christ, which Christ the Head 
earns in the adult and by the adult, it being suitable 
to the divine liberality that in both ways He should 
communicate to adults the merit of eternal life, as it is 
written, " Them lie did predestinate to be conformed 
to the image of His Son V And men are so conformed 
to the image of Christ by having the merit of eternal 
life in both ways : for He had glory also in two ways, 
1. by virtue of the hypostatic union, and this was with 
out merit; and 2. by virtue of His obedience unto 
death a , wherefore in a meritorious sense " God also 
hath highly exalted Him, and given Him a name that 
is above every name b ." 

And this in no wise contradicts what the Apostle 
says, that " eternal life is the gracious gift 



Gal. ii. 20. Rom. viii. 29. Phil. ii. 8, 9. 

b Caj titan, iii. Tract, x. p. 16i). 



OF GOOD WORKS. 201 



of God in Christ Jesus," i.e. to those who are in Christ. 
For first, the foundation of all is that we are in Christ, 
not our mere natural selves only ; eternal life is be 
stowed upon us because we are in Christ; then, the 
grace of God, whereby we do good works, is the free 
gift of God ; whence, as St. Augustine says, " When 
God crowneth our merits, what else crowneth He but 
His own gifts ?" Besides, as Theodoret says, " There is 
110 proportion between temporal evils and those eternal 
goods." St. Augustine strikingly sums up, "That to 
which eternal life is owed, is true righteousness. But, 
if it is true righteousness, it is not of thee ; for it 
cometh down from above, from the Father of Light. 
That thou mightest have it, if indeed thou hast it, 
thou hast in truth received it. For what hast thou 
which thou hast not received ? Wherefore, O man, if 
thou art to receive eternal life, it is, indeed, the wages 
of righteousness; but to thee it is grace, for to thee 
righteousness itself too is grace. For it would be 
given to thee as a debt, if thou hadst the righteous 
ness, to which it is owed, from thyself. But now 
from His fulness we have received not only the grace, 
whereby we now live righteously, in our labour, to the 
very end, but also grace for His grace, that we should 
live hereafter in rest without end c ." 

c Kp : st. 194, ad Test., n. 21. 



ARTICLE XIII. 
DE OPERIBUS ANTE JUSTIFICATIONEM. 

OPERA qua fiunt ante f/ratiam Christi, et Spiritus eju$ 
afflahim, rum ex fide Jem Christi non prodeant, mi- 
nfuie Deo grata sunt, neque gratiam (ut miilti rocanf) 
</c eongruo nurenfor. Immo cum non sunt facia, ut 
Dem iUa fieri rohiit et pr&cept t, peccati rationem kaberc 
non dubitamm. 



" Of Works before Justification. 

<l WORKS done before the grace of Christ and the 
inspiration of His Spirit, are not pleasant to God, for 
asmuch as they spring not of faith in Jesus Christ, 
neither do they make men meet to receive grace, or 
(as the School-authors say) deserve grace of congruity : 
yea rather, for that they are not done as God hath 
v/illed and commanded them to be done, we doubt not 
but they have the nature of sin." 



THAT which tended to produce confusion concerning- 
the relation between faith and good works, was the 
explanation of several passages of St. Paul; e.g. Rom. 
iii. 28, where it is said, that not through works of the 
law, but through faith, a man is justified. St. Paul 
here contends against the Jews of his own epoch, who 
obstinately defended the eternal duration of the law of 
Moses, and asserted that not needing a Redeemer from 



OF WORKS BEFORE JUSTIFICATION. 203 



sin, they became righteous and acceptable before God 
by that law alone. In opposition to this, he lays down, 
the maxim that it is not by the works of the law, 
i.e. not by a life regulated merely by the Mosaic pre 
cepts, that man is able to obtain the favour of Heaven ; 
but only through faith in Christ, which has been im 
parted to us by God, for wisdom, for sanctification, for 
righteousness, and for redemption. On the one hand, 
an unbelief in the Redeemer, and confidence in the 
fulfilment of the law performed solely through the 
natural powers; on the other hand, a faith in the 
Redeemer and the righteousness to be conferred by 
God. This is the opposition described by the Apostle. 
He accurately distinguishes between the works of the 
law and good works ; the former are wrought without 
faith in Christ, and without His grace ; the latter, with 
the grace and in the spirit of Christ. 

The Thirteenth Article is another instance where the 
title does not correspond with its contents. It would 
be correct if it were worded " Of some works before 
Justification." There are some works done before jus 
tification which arc not pleasant to God. There are 
others of which it would be the most extreme want 01 
charity to predicate such a thing. Again, of works 
done before justification, some are done before the 
grace of Christ and the inspiration of His Spirit ; 
other works done before justification, are done by that 
grace and with that inspiration. Cornelius was not 
justified till the Holy Ghost fell on hirn and he was 
baptized, but no one can deny that, according to the 



204 ARTICLE XIII. 



express words of the Angel, his prayers and alms went 
up as a memorial before God, and impetrated his justi 
fication. 

It is very important to bear in mind, that the effect 
-of the death of our Lord Jesus Christ extends to all 
those for whom He died in the way of sufficient grace 
being freely imparted to all men. Beyond His cove 
nant, outside His Church, to Pagan and to Jew, to those 
who have heard of His Name, and to those who have 
never heard of Him, grace is given before faith. God 
wills that we should pray for all men, on the ground 
that He willeth that all men should be saved, and come 
to the knowledge of His truth a . Again, treating of 
the divine Word, St. John says : " That was the true 
light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the 
world ;" of which words St. Chrysostom asks : " If 
It lighteth every man coming into the world, how 
do men remain without light ?" He answers, "It is 
true so far as It is concerned, but if any, wilfully 
shutting the eyes of their minds, refuse to recognise 
the rays of this light, it is not from the nature of 
the light that they remain in darkness, but from 
their own wickedness, who wilfully deprive them 
selves of this light. For grace is poured forth upon 
all men V Thus also St. Ambrose : " That mystic 
Sun of Righteousness hath risen on all, hath come 
to all, hath suffered for all, and hath risen again 
for all c ." 

a 1 Tim. ii. 4. b Homily on St. Jolm, vol. viii. p. 4-8. e Cf. In, 
Psalm cxviii. p. 1077, viii. 57; p. 1220, xix. 39. Ed. Paris, 1686. 



OF WORKS BEFORE JUSTIFICATION. 20-> 

This grace is termed medicinal grace, aided by which 
the heathen are able to fulfil the natural law, and to 
overcome the difficulties which stand in the way of 
its observance ; works done by the aid of such assist 
ance come within the order of moral rectitude. If 
the heathen correspond with these graces, greater 
helps are given them, until God of His free mercy 
calls them to the supernatural end of life by the be 
ginning of faith, either by missionaries sent for the 
purpose, or by the whispering of their good angel, or 
inwardly by Himself, or in such other way as seems 
good to Him. 

Premising this, a sound theology will map out the 
acts of the unjustified man into several distinct di 
visions : 

1. Acts in which neither the grace of Christ nor the 
inspiration of the Spirit have aught to do, such as the 
good works of heathen men done from the tradition 
and custom of their race, from the fear of the public 
opinion of those by whom they are surrounded. 

2. The sjrfendida ritia of the heathen, those acts of 
continence and generosity, performed from simple self- 
respect, and which may be referred for a motive to 
pride. 

3. Those acts which may be said to be by the grace 
of Christ, who is the light of every man that cometh 
into the world ; as where a heathen follows his con 
science, does actions from a sense of duty, and gives 
free scope to the feelings of benevolence which survive 
in all men since the fall. 



20G Aimn.E xiii. 



4. Actions such as those of Cornelius, where a per 
son brought up and trained in an inferior system, lives 
up to his light, and by so doing draws down blessings 
upon himself. 

It is with regard to the first class that we must 
understand the wording of the Article in its absolute 
literal sense. 

AVith regard to the second, one must hesitate to say 
that such acts in a manner are not pleasant to God. 
Nay, St. Augustine would rather maintain that the 
just God would be bound to reward them with temporal 
advantages, just as He gave to the Ixomans the domi 
nation of the earth as a return for their early frugality, 
adding, however, the significant words, " perceperunt 
mercedem suam d ." Still, so far as regards the super 
natural kingdom of Christ, these works are valueless, 
and therefore they also, in a less proper sense, come 
under the condemnation of the Article. 

Touching the third, we are not called on to pass any 
judgment. How God will deal with the heathen who 
have never heard His name, is not for us to say. It 
opens up an immense question, on which there has been 
no decision by the Church. While chanty hopetli all 
things, no lax view should affect our sense of the duty 
of missionary exertion, or diminish our value for those 
assertions which attach the attainment of everlasting 
life to such conditions as faith, baptism, and holiness. 

The last class of actions of the unjustified man do noi 
come under the condemnation of the Article ; for th< 

d De Civ, Dei, lib. v. cap. 15. 



OF WORKS BEFORE JUSTIFICATION. 207 



proposition that grace does not act outside the Church 
has been justly condemned, and it is false to assert that 
the grace of Christ and the inspiration of the Holy 
Ghost do not concur with the free-will of man before 
he is justified. 

In fact, before justification, a mighty process goes 
on. The grace of Christ, and the inspiration of the 
Holy Ghost, are not lacking. First of all, grace touches 
the sinner, for no sinner can of himself turn to God. 
The first movement towards justification is the free and 
gratuitous work of God. Christ speaks to the heart, 
as the abiding Teacher. He announces the Gospel by 
His Word and by His Church; God the Holy Ghost 
rouses the soul by preventing grace. If the free-will 
responds to this influence, a faith in God s Word is the 
first result of this. He becomes convinced of the super 
natural order of things. He is touched with it, and 
especially with the thought of the love of God in Christ. 
He compares himself as he is with what he ought to be. 
He measures himself by the new standard, with which 
the Passion of Christ supplies him. He returns to 
himself and conceives the holy fear of God. Then 
turning to the thought of Jesus Christ dying for him, 
he begins to hope that God, for the Redeemer s merits, 
will pardon him; he begins to love God and to hate- 
sin; he believed, he now repents. All this precedes 
justification. 

2. The next question is, Do these works deserve grace 
de congnio ? " Works of grace and special aid, which 
concur with faith, and dispose to regeneration and the 



208 ARTICLE XIII. 



forgiveness of sins, are not excluded from justification : 
but though thej are said to concur with faith, they 
do not in any sense merit the first justification, for 
merit de cony mo is now almost excluded from Catholic 
Schools ." This notion tallies with what the Holy 
Scripture says of our being justified freely, and by 
grace : also with, what is taught therefrom by St. Au 
gustine : but while we admit this, we must not assert 
that these disposing acts have no influence whatever in 
the process. Unless we distort the word of God f , we 
must concede that they are in some way efficient causes 
of justification ; not in the way of merit, but solely from 
the benignity and gratuitous promise of God s . 

Sufficient weight, in the consideration of this Article, 
has not been given to the fact that the only works ex 
cluded from merit de conyruo by its terms are those 
done before the grace of Christ and the inspiration of 
the Spirit: consequently it does not prejudge the ques 
tion whether other works, those which are the fruit of 
faith, do or do not dispose us in some way to justifi 
cation, and de conyruo (though not de condiyno) merit 
the grace of justification, according to the teaching of 
St. Augustine h . At the same time it must be observed, 
that no Church has ever asserted the doctrine of grace 
de conyruo, and that the Dominican Order has always 
held that it bad a Pelagianizing tendency \ 

e Stapleton, de Justif., lib. viii. c. 16, cit. Forbes. f Ezek. 

xviii. 21; St. Luke xiii. 3; Acts ii. 38, iii. 19; 1 St. John i. 79. 

* Forbesii Consid., vol. i. p. 28. h Ep. 105. * See Sarpi, 
i. 344, quoted by Hardwiek, p. 101. 






ARTICLE XIV. 
DE OPERIBUS SUPEREROGATIONS. 

OPERA quce supcrerogationis appellant, non possunt sine 
arrogantia et impictatc prcedicari. Nam ittis declarant 
homines, non tantum se Deo reddcre, qucc tcncntur, seel 
plus in ejus gratiam face-re, quani debercnt, cum aperte 
Christ its dicat ; Cum feceritis omnia quwcunque prcc- 
cepta sunt robi*, dicitc, servl inutiles smmts. 



" Of Works of Supererogation. 

" YOLUNTARY works besides, over and above, God s 
commandments, which, they call works of supereroga 
tion, cannot be taught without arrogancy and impiety. 
For by them men do declare, that they do not only 
render unto God as much as they are bound to do, but 
that they do more for His sake, than of bounden duty 
is required: whereas Christ saith plainly, When ye 
have done all that are commanded to you, say, We are 
unprofitable servants." 



THERE are two ways of putting every subject. A fact 
may be so stated as to appear false ; a doctrine so enun 
ciated as to be deemed an error : or again, certain re 
sults of a course of action may be stated to flow from it, 
as in the common fallacious argument against use from 
abuse. Lastly, imperfect reasons may be adduced for 
a perfectly reasonable course of action. 

Now all these things must be borne in mind when 
p 



210 



ARTICLE XIV. 



we discuss the question of what are termed works of 
supererogation. In the Bible there are plainly laid 
down certain counsels of perfection. Over and above 
what is demanded and expected of every baptized man, 
there are narrower paths in the narrow way, which 
all are not required to follow, not so demanded or 
expected. Certain souls have an exceptional religious 
destiny laid out before them. Some are called to one 
Avork, some to another. All souls are not called to 
Christian heroism, but some are so; and it is an im 
perfect view of Christianity which does not give due 
space for such vocations. It is obvious, e.g. at first 
sight, that every one is not called upon to be a mis 
sionary, or to forsake houses, or brethren, or father, 
or mother, or wife, or children, or land, for His Name s 
sake. And yet all of us know of some who have given 
up some of these things for Jesus sake. 

While the great mass of Christians are bound to keep 
their Baptismal and Confirmation vows, others of their 
own free-will add to them those of Matrimony and 
Orders. Each of these conditions has the necessary 
graces for their fulfilment attached to them, and these 
constitute the general obligations of the Christian life. 
Bufc beyond this, under the Gospel, a higher state of 
things is borne witness to both by our Lord and His 
Apostles. Certain injunctions are laid on men ; not on 
all, but on such as can bear it. Certain things are 
promised, in addition to the ordinary blessings of God, 
on those who make certain renunciations. Again, St. 
Paul recommends a certain line of conduct as wise in 



OF WORKS OF SUPEREROGATION. 211 

the present necessity. All this higher law is gathered 
under the heads of Counsels of Perfection, of which 
the main branches are Poverty, Chastity, and Obe 
dience. 

The teacher of ecclesiastical dogma must pursue his 
way towards the heights of the revelation of God, 
having to deal with the science whereby men, through 
the God-enlightened faculty of knowledge, are brought 
back to Him. lie must necessarily touch upon sub 
jects which his own religious experience may never 
have realized, and therefore his humbler task is with 
regard to the higher teachings of Christianity, merely 
to reproduce what saints have taught on these recon 
dite themes. 

It is in this spirit and with bated breath that one 
would venture to speak first of perfection, and secondly 
of its counsels. 

Perfection consistcth not in gifts bestowed by God 
for the benefit of others, not even in those great spiri 
tual gifts, healings, tongues, and the like, which were 
bestowed upon the early Christians. It is not to be 
found in austerities or abnegations, nor in sensible 
consolations ; rather is it the way whereby we travel 
to our Eternal Fatherland the course we steer towards 
the " haven where we would be." It is not hindered 
by those duties which are undertaken in the spirit 
of obedience and love, nay, rather is aided thereby 
It consisteth in the keeping of the commandments of 
God ; for perfection is the perfect health of the soul, 
the chief est of the gifts of God, and it is summed up 



212 ARTICLE XIV. 



in the words of our Saviour, " Thou shalt love the Lord 
thy God with all thy soul." 

Thus it will be seen that Counsels of Perfection* 
are not perfection itself, nay, they are rather means to 
that end. Counsels are ways of attaining to everlasting 
salvation ; not necessary for all, but very helpful to 
those whom God calls to them. The word counsels 
stands in opposition to the precepts of God; the 
fulfilment of which is of necessity to salvation ; and 
no counsel can take the place of exact obedience to 
precept, or be excused for its non-observance. " Except 
ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish a ;" " Every tree- 
that bringeth not forth good fruit shall be hewn down, 
and cast into the fire b ." On the other hand, counsel 
is that which is referred to by our Lord : " If thou 
wilt be perfect, go and sell all that thou hast and give- 
to the poor." 

There are many Evangelical counsels which need not 
be referred to here, but there are three, all boasting 
about which is especially condemned by the Article. 
The first is that of Poverty, or the giving up of 
worldly goods, whereby, disencumbered and free from 
care, we may follow Christ. It is of this that the 
Apostles spake when they said, " Behold, we have 
left all, and followed Thee ; what shall we have 
therefore c ?" 

The second is Chastity, of body and soul, whereby 
is fulfilled that counsel of St. Paul : " He that is un 
married careth for the things of the Lord, how he may 

St. Luke xiii. 3, 5. b Ibid. iii. 9. c St. Matt. xix. 27. 



OF WORKS OF SUPEREROGATION. 213 

please the Lord. The unmarried woman careth for the 
things of the Lord, how she may be holy both in body 
and in spirit." Its special safeguard is humility. But 
we need also all things that tame the flesh, such as 
fasting and watching, and similar austerities. This 
helps to cleanse us from all defilement, both of the flesh 
and spirit, and to perfect holiness in the fear of God. 

The third is Obedience, whereby we mortify our 
own wills and submit to others, in imitation of Him 
who " came not to do His own will, but the will of 
His Father which is in heaven." 

2s"ot in these counsels is the substance of perfection, 
for perfection is the end of the spiritual life; it is that 
which, according to its own nature, unites our wills to 
God, who is our last End. 

But they are the mighty means whereby that perfec 
tion is most easily attained unto. Happy are all they 
who keep God s commandments, who, for the merits of 
Christ, shall attain unto everlasting life, in the end 
being made perfect ; but happier are they who, while 
still in life, seek to anticipate perfection by exceptional 
sacrifices for God. They shall enter into glory, and 
beyond that, with the saints and mighty men who have 
conquered themselves and all things earthly, shall enter 
into the incomprehensible joy of their Lord. 

Now fully admitting that the Counsels of Perfection 
have their place in Christianit}^, we may not call them 
"besides, over and above God s commandments," because 
in the exceptional cases where men are called to them, 
to these they become God s commandments. Woe be 



214 ARTICLE XIV. 



to that soul, which is called to a Counsel of Perfection^ 
has received the grace for a Counsel of Perfection, and 
fails to fulfil its high destiny ! This, true as it is, could 
not be taught without arrogancy and impiety, if by it 
people meant to express, that " by them men do declare, 
that they do not only render unto God as much as they 
are bound to do" that is arrogancy ; or that " they 
do more for His sake than of bounden duty is re 
quired/ a sentiment here stigmatized as impiety. It 
is arrogancy to maintain that there is a certain fixed 
measure of obedience, which God requires of us, seeing 
that nothing short of the Perfection of God, and the 
Standard of Christ, is our great exemplar. It is im 
pious to say that any one, for the sake of Christ, does 
more than is required ; for the whole heart, and soul, 
and time, and habits are His, and at His service. His 
claim upon us is illimitable : our best obedience most 
imperfect, and therefore at best we are unprofitable 
servants. Unprofitable servants ! what but unprofit 
able servants can we repute ourselves, when we mea 
sure our very best performances with that which God 
requires of us : when we call to mind that nothing 
short of the perfection of God is the standard whereby 
we shall be measured, and that in Him lie hidden not 
only all possible perfections that are or ever have been 
in any of His creatures, but that beyond that there is 
the inscrutable perfection which is His own attribute : 
when we remember that the Blessed Humanity of our 
Lord is that great exemplar upon which the Chris 
tian is to form himself; and that the virtues of the 



OF WORKS OF SUPEREROGATION. 215 

Son of God made man, are the mirrors whereat he 
is to dress himself? Unprofitable servants ! what but 
unprofitable, in view of the truth that God needs not 
one of us, that He is in Himself complete in all things, 
and that the addition or subtraction of an universe 
adds nothing to, takes nothing from His perfection P 
And yet He never calls us to impossibilities, never 
withholds the grace to do what He desires ; every in 
dividual soul is dear to Him, in the mystery of re 
demption, His money, His sheep ; and therefore in the 
order of grace, we are dear and precious in His sight : 
" And they shall be Mine, saith the Lord of Hosts, in 
that day when T make up My jewels ll ." 

d Mai. iii. 17. 



ARTICLE XV. 

DE CHRISTO, QUI SOLUS EST SINE PECCATO. 

CHEISTUS in nostrce naturae ccritate per omnia similis 
factus cst nobix, exccpto pcccato, a quo prorsus crat 
imniunis, turn in came, turn in spiritu. Venit ut ag- 
nm, absquc macula, qui mundi peccata per immola- 
tioncm sit i semcl factam, totteret, et pcccatum (ut in- 
quit Johannes) in co non crat : ted nos rcliqui ctiam 
baptizati, ct in Christo regenerati, in mult in tamen 
offendimus omnes. Et si dixerimus, quod peccatum 
nou habemus, nos ip-WH scffaciiitits, ct reritas in. no- 
bis non cst. 



11 Of Christ alone mtltout Sin. 

" CIIJUST, in the truth of our nature, was made like 
unto us in all things, sin only except, from which He 
was clearly void, both in His flesh and in Ilis Spirit. 
He came to be the Lamb without spot, who, by sacri 
fice of Himself once made, should take away the sins 
of the world, and sin (as St. John saith) was not in 
Him. But all we the rest, although baptized, and 
born again in Christ, yet offend in many things ; and 
if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the 
truth is not in us." 



AFTER laying down positively the blessed truth of 
a Ilomoiisia between our Lord and us, in that He has 



OF CHRIST ALONE WITHOUT SIN. 217 

actually assumed our nature, with all its attributes, 
its sinless infirmities, its faculties, and powers, into His 
divine person, so that as He has become a sharer in hu 
man nature, we have become partakers of the divine, 
the Article goes on to state the one abatement that 
must necessarily be made to the statement in its 
breadth which is involved in the exclusion of any 
tli ought of sin in connection with Him. 

It is first stated negatively that Christ is without 
sin; we have therefore in the first place to consider 
the doctrine of the sanctity of our Lord in His in 
carnate nature. By sanctity, we mean that quality 
which is contrary to what is profane or polluted, 
which is opposed to sin, which is a state of the soul 
free from the contagion of deadly crime, which is 
pure, incorrupt, and adorned with the splendour of 
divine grace. Now our Lord by Gabriel was empha 
tically called the holy thing that was to be born of 
Mary; and this took place in three ways: 1. by the 
gift of sinlessness, the absence of the power of falling; 
i2. by the perpetuity of that gift ; and 3. by the pleni 
tude of grace. If the first Adam was made upright, 
how much more the second Adam, who, as to body, 
was formed out of the most pure and perfect flesh 
and blood of the Yirgin Mary, and whose soul was 
formed on the likeness of the archetypal Word of God, 
which was taken by Him and proposed as the exam 
ple of holiness to all the saints ; for " whom God did 
foreknow, them He did predestinate to be conformed to 
the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn 



218 ARTICLE XV. 



among many brethren a ." Hence it is in His human 
nature, assumed into the unity of His Divine Person,, 
that our Lord is the head of the Church, and the au 
thor of holiness, which are necessary conditions of the 
due discharge of His offices of Mediator, Saviour, and 
High-Priest b ; and, duly to estimate the plenitude of thi& 
grace, we must bear in mind that this special gift was 
not accidental or communicated, but inherent in Him 
self. In Him was the fountain of grace, infinite and 
uncircumscript. And if we ask the awful question, 
What was the formal cause of this holiness ? we have 
to answer that the actual divinity of the Word by itself 
sanctifies the human nature assumed into consortship 
with the same Person ; that the human nature by union 
with the Word is deified and holy by an archetypal 
holiness : that the unction of the humanity of Christ 
has been effected by the Word sanctifying the flesh, 
by the Father working through the Word, and by 
the Holy Ghost causing the union of the Word and 
the Flesh. Hence we gather the truth of the impec- 
cancy of Christ c . 

The testimony of the ancients to the truth that sin is 
not to be predicated of our Lord is very ample. Some 
assert that Christ alone is without any sin, without 
specifying original sin : others that, Christ alone ex- 
cepted, all men are defiled with that original sin. 

1. St. Augustine, in the controversy on original sin 
with Julian, asks him whether he would venture to sav, 

a Rom. viii. 29. b Heb. ii. 17, iii. 2. 

c Petavius, de Incarnatione, xi. 10, I. 



OF CHRIST ALONE WITHOUT SIN. 219 

to St. Ambrose too, that because he excepted Christ 
alone from the bonds of a guilty generation, in that lie 
was born of a virgin, whereas all others descended from 
Adam were born in the bond of sin, he made the devil 
the creator of all born after the ordinary law of nature. 
" Charge him/ he says, "as a condemner of marriage, 
who said that the Virgin s Son was alone born with 
out sin d ." 

" Christ was the first and only man upon earth that 
did not commit sin, neither was guile found in His 
mouth 6 ." 

2. " Xo one of the saints, of whatever virtues he may 
be full, yet being gathered from that blackness of the 
world, can be equalled to Him of whom it is written, 
The holy Thing which shall be born of Thee shall be 
called the Son of God. For we, although we are made 
saints, yet are not born saints, because we are con 
strained by the very condition of our corruptible na 
ture to say with the Prophet, Behold, I was shapen 
in iniquity ; and in sin did my mother conceive me/ 
But He alone was truly born holy, who, that He might 
overcome the condition itself of corruptible nature, was 
not conceived in the ordinary way of nature f ." 

The doctrine of the sinlessness of our Lord is very 
important, when regarded in its relation to other truths 
of the Gospel. 

I. The conception of a perfectly sinless character was 
never attained to by the unassisted reason of man. 

d Cont. Jul. ii. 2. e Cyril Alex., de Recta Fide ad Theodos., 

torn. v. p. 18. e. ii. f S. Greg, in Job, 1. xviii. c. 52, torn. i.p. 593. 



220 ARTICLE XV. 



II. Impeccancy has never been claimed by any 
teacher save by our Lord, but He rests His divine 
mission on it : " Which of you convinceth Me of sin ?" 
if He is not sinless, on His own shewing, He has no 
claim on us. 

III. It infuses an element of meritoriousness and 
sacrificial power into the fact of our Lord s life and 
leath. He was made a curse for us. He bore our sins 
n His own Body on the tree, whereas in the case of 
all us, the rest, " the wages of sin is death." 

IV. The teaching office of our Lord is closely con 
nected with His sinlessness. In proportion as sin pre 
vails, it clouds the higher part of the intellect, and the 
moral taint will tell upon the belief. Not only does 
our Lord rest His teaching office, that is, His right to 
be listened to, on the fact that they could not convince 
Him of sin, but He claims to be the Truth itself. 

Y. It makes the perfection of the Christian to be 
ever advancing ; for if no standard short of the pat 
tern of a sinless Christ be that to which mankind is 
invited to look as the Sjwcies exima pukhrituduiis, it 
follows that there is no room for boasting, however 
Highly any one may seem to have attained. Between 
the perfection even of the Blessed Virgin herself and 
the perfection of her Son, who alone is, by His own 
nature, impeccable, because His Manhood is One Person 
with God the Word, and so holy with an uncreated 
holiness, there is a great gulph fixed. 

VI. The sinlessness of Christ has a most important 
bearing on ourselves. If our justification be the im- 



OF CHRIST ALONE WITHOUT SIN. 221 

parting to us of an actual righteousness, and that actual 
righteousness be the righteousness of a sinless Person, 
it will be seen what a standard is placed before us. 
Lastly : 

VII. It infuses into the soul a high sense of the 
destinies of that creation which now, and for a season, 
is made subject to vanity. Not only in body, but in 
soul and in spirit, are we destined to be changed into 
His likeness. The second Man, which is the Lord 
from heaven, who operates upon us here sacramentally, 
as the Food of our souls, is the sinless Christ, and it is 
into His image that we shall be changed from glory 
to glory. 

The Article here rises from simple dogmatic state 
ment into something like religious fervour. It goes on 
from the assertion of the sinlessness of our Lord to de 
duce the conveniency of His being the eternal Victim 
for sin. Priest and Victim in one, in order to fulfil the 
necessary conditions of our propitiation, the require 
ment of sinless life enters into both natures. His 
priesthood must be pure, " For such an High-Priest 
became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate 
from sinners, and made higher than the heavens ; who 
needed not daily, as those high-priests, to offer up sacri 
fice first for His own sins, and then for the people"." 
A sinless Sacrifice is the antitype of a lamb without 
spot. It was a lamb, or a kid of the goats without 
blemish, that was to be taken for the sacrificial feast j 
and so Christ our Passover must needs be sinless. For 
B Heb. vii. 2G, 27. 



000 



ARTICLE XV. 



we are redeemed from our corrupt conversation by the 
precious Blood of Christ, as of a Lamb without spot, 
" who did no sin, neither was guile found in His 
mouth 1 ." 

The impeccable nature of our Lord supplies the 
special aptitude for His sacrificial function. The per- 
fectness of the victim under the old law presignified 
this condition in its antitype, and foreshadowed in no 
dark similitude that the victim that was to take away 
the sins of the world must have no sins of its own to 
atone for. Herein was the difference between priest 
and victim under the old law. There the priest was 
emphatically sinful, he had to offer both for his own 
sins and for the sins of the people ; but the victim must 
be perfect, the first-born, free from all defect, otherwise 
it was not worthy to be offered to God. Under the 
new dispensation both Priest and Victim are one, 
wherefore if the Victim be pure, the Priest is pure 
also ; in short, fulfilling the conditions laid down in 
the Epistle to the Hebrews, " holy, harmless, undefiled, 
separate from sinners." 

And this sacrificial aspect of Christ s mediation can 
not sufficiently be borne in mind ; for, from the obscu 
ration of Eucharistic truth which has prevailed since 
the Reformation, our Lord s intercession has been looked 
upon much more as an act of prayer than of sacrifice. 
Hereby the whole typology of the Books of Moses as 
representing the ceremonies of the great day of atone 
ment, whereby the atonement by slaying being made 

* 1 Pot. ii. 22. 



OF CHRIST ALONE WITHOUT SIN. 223 



outside the veil, the blood was carried, still as atone 
ment, by the high-priest into the holy of holies once 
a-year is entirely lost * ; a poverty of conception with 
regard to the present work of Christ the continued pre 
sentation of those Sacred wounds, of that glorious Body 
which once hung upon the tree, and now, without words, 
pleads by its very presence within the Holy of Holies 
at the Father s right hand is engendered ; and the deep 
cry of the Church, involving its belief in the everlasting 
propitiation of the Son of God, loses its significance. 
"Agnus Dei qui tollis peccata raundi, miserere nobis." 
The Article goes on to assert in broad terms the 
actual sinfulness of mankind. In spite of our high 
privileges in the Gospel ; of our being taken out of 
the state of nature and put in the state of grace j of 
our being by baptism buried and risen with Christ ; 
of our being born again of water and of the Holy 
Ghost ; it is certain that we shall not escape all sins. 
Though God gives us grace to fulfil His law, though 
He enables us to meet each temptation as it arises, 
though He bestows on us sufficient helps to serve Him ; 
as a matter of fact, we do not do so. To take an ana 
logy in the things of this life : just as with sufficient 
knowledge of arithmetic to sum up a set of figures 
rightly, we know that if we do so a great many times 
we shall certainly make a mistake; just as out of 
a certain number of letters, there are a certain number 
and average that will be misdirected, so in our own 
individual case, we may be sure that we shall fall into 
some sin. The Article does not speak of exceptional 
See Theological Defence for the Bishop of Brecliin. 



224 ARTICLE XV. 



cases. It says, " all we the rest." It does not commit 
itself to what may be the case with regard to saints 
whom God may by a special prerogative save from grave 
sin ; as was the case, under the old law, with Zacharias 
and Elisabeth, who (albeit they might not have been 
free from infirmities) walked in all the ordinances of 
the Lord blameless, or as must be the case with regard 
to His own Holy Mother, of whom, though we may ima 
gine imperfections as possible, yet, with whom, for the 
honour of her Son, we can associate 110 idea, of sin k , 
To imagine that even for one moment the Blessed 
Yirgin, by a wilful sin, was hateful to her Son, or that 
by a deliberate evil wish she took the part of Satan 
against her Son, and conspired to dethrone Him (both 
which notions are bound up in the idea of sin), is 
a thought revolting to the pious instinct. 

Closely connected with this is the important ques 
tion, whether, by that measure of grace which God 
metes out in this life, the saints can fulfil the law of 
God. The matter was discussed in St. Augustine s 
time, and he expresses himself with great hesitation on 
the subject. When discussing with Pelagius where 
Abraham s bosom was, he was unwilling to contend 
about the power of living without sin by the grace of 
Christ, although he thought that no one could be 
shewn who had done it \ Proceeding from the power 
to the act, he expressly affirms that he does not wish 
strenuously to dispute whether there are not some who 
arrive here at such a perfection of righteousness as to 

k Vide Forbesii Considerationes, ed. Oxf. 1850, t. i. pp. 339377. 
1 Lib. ii. de Peccat. Merit., c. 68, t. x. p. 43 c. 



OF CHRIST ALONE WITHOUT SIN. 225 

be without sin, although it seemed to him the true view 
that there are none ra ; and in the celebrated letter 
sent by four African bishops (of whom the Saint was 
one) to Pope Innocent, it is confessed that there are 
Catholics to whom it seems not contrary to truth that 
there are some persons who through grace are able to 
fulfil in this life the law of God without sin ; that, if 
they err, they err more tolerably than Pelagius ; but 
that for them it is enough that no one of the faithful is 
found in the Church of God, in however high a state of 
advance and excellency of righteousness, who can dare 
to say that the petition in the Lord s Prayer, " Forgive 
us," &c., is not necessary for him, and that he has "no 
sin/ although he now lives blamelessly ". 

That the Blessed Virgin is not included necessarily 
in this condemnation, may be inferred from the lan 
guage of some of the formularies. The Collect for 
Christmas dwells on our Lord s birth from "a pure 
virgin/ which, however, may refer solely to her un 
stained maidenhood. The Preface, " that He was made 
very man of her substance, and that without spot of 
sin," may also be limited to the immaculate nature of 
our Lord s conception ; but the Homily on Repentance, 
in a short dogmatic statement, speaks of " Jesus Christ, 
who being true and natural God, equal and of one sub 
stance with the Father, did at the time appointed take 
upon Him our frail nature, in the Blessed Virgin s 
womb, and that of her undcfihd substance, so that He 

* De Nat. el Gratia, 59, 69, t. x. p. 157 d. 
u Ep. 95, num. 177, 16, 18. 

Q 



1320 ARTICLE XV. 



miirht be a mediator between God and us, and pacify 
His wrath." In that on Wilful Rebellion it speaks 
of " the obedience of this most Noble and most Virtuous 
Lady, which doth well teach us who in comparison to 
her are most base and vile." Of course, between the 
perfection of God and the perfection of the noblest of 
His creatures, there is the gulph of infinity fixed. Be 
tween essential Sanctity, the Sanctity that is the same 
as Being, and the most exalted sanctity that is a gift, 
there can be no possible comparison. There can be no 
comparison between that which is the attribute of the 
Creator and the gift to the creature. 

Indeed, as regards the Blessed Virgin, one s first 
thought with regard to her is a jealousy for the honour 
of the Lord God of Hosts. Anything that approaches 
Him must be zealously fended off. We cannot endure 
that the idea of any created thing, however great and 
holy, shall be compared unto Him. He is supreme, 
and His honour we must not give unto another. There 
fore the soul shrinks with an infinite loathing from any 
of those expressions which seem to trench upon His 
incommunicable glory. 

But on the other hand, viewed rightly and in the 
analogy of faith, the great honour bestowed on Mary, 
the recognition of her place in the order of grace, tends 
very directly to a proper estimate of the glory of God. 
As in Alpine scenes one can never estimate the vast 
distances and enormous magnitudes of the glorious ob 
jects by which we are surrounded, from the fact that 

o Part II. 



OF CHRIST ALONE WITHOUT SIN. 227 



we have no measure or power of comparison till we see 
some tree or human form, the comparative insigni 
ficance of which forms that measure, so it is with the 
infinitude of God. We ascend towards it through 
the contemplation of the saints. Take the Virgin as 
the highest of them all, estimate her pure as Eve at the 
moment of her creation, add to that the miraculous 
fact of divine maternity, exhaust all thought and all 
positive language in the conception and expression 
of her august prerogatives, and yet, when you have 
reached the height, God is still infinitely greater. 
Thus she becomes a height of created nature, whence 
to rise to the Divine Humanity of her Son, and thence 
to the infinitude of God, and the higher ideal we 
have of her, the more complete is our all-imperfect 
estimate of Him. 

Christ is the glorious sun of righteousness, shining 
in His strength, glorious and radiant, from whose 
heat nothing is hidden ; and He shines all the more 
gloriously and radiantly, l>y reason of and in com 
parison with those derived fires, the saints who shine 
in the firmament as the stars of heaven, and specially 
with her whom an imaginative and poetic Christianity, 
playing upon a fancied interpretation of her lovely 
name, has designated as the Star of the Sea. 

But the question of her immaculate conception is 
beside the honour due to her. Unless we assume the 
theory of development as the only intellectual basis 
for our faith, it cannot be denied that this doctrine 
lias little support in antiquity. While the ancient 



228 ARTICLE XV. 



liturgies freely testify to her being undefiled, while 
Holy Scripture denies the possibility of bringing what 
is clean out of that which is unclean, and St. Augustine 
from the honour due to our Lord, refuses to connect 
the notion of sin with her mother,, the notion of a sus 
pension of the law of the fall in this individual case is 
a middle-age idea. The festival was opposed by St. 
Bernard as a novelty, and as involving the doctrine of 
the Immaculate Conception, but in so doing he sub 
mitted himself beforehand to any contrary judgment 
from Rome. The festival spread, however, with, the 
deepening devotion to the Blessed Virgin, and its sup 
porters resented opposition to it as a slight upon her. 
In this country, it was unhappily upheld by what 
are now known to have been forgeries, the relation 
of a vision in which the Blessed Yirgin is herseF 
stated to have enjoined its observance, and a letter of 
St.Anselm enforcing it on the credit of that revelation. 
The Schoolmen on St. Augustine s principles and tradi 
tion continued to oppose it, until Duns Scotus, mainly 
on abstract grounds, turned the tide, and gained the 
University of Paris in its favour. The Feast of her 
Conception began with the Greeks, and was brought 
by them to Sicily and to Italy. Its object was, to 
celebrate the first moment of her existence, who was 
to be the Mother of the Redeemer of the world. Ac 
cordingly the day was fixed on Dec. 8, just nine 
months before that upon which her nativity was cele 
brated. It was a natural expression of piety. The 
Council of Basle charged Turrecremata, the master 






OF CHRIST ALONE WITHOUT SIX. 229 

of the Sacred Palace under Eugenius IV., to make 
a report on a subject so fiercely contested among theo 
logians. Afterwards, Turrecreinata retiring with the 
more moderate party of the Council, the Council put 
forth a decree in every sense in accordance with the 
opinion of the University of Paris ; and, although at 
this time, being in opposition to Pope Eugenius, it 
was held to be a schismatical Council, its decree was, 
by many, (e.g. Gabriel Biel,) accounted to be the voice 
of the Church. The Council of Trent contented itself 
with asserting that it had no intention of including 
the Blessed Virgin Mary in its decree on original sin, 
and renewed the bulls published on the subject by 
Sixtus IV. Efforts were from time to time made both 
by the Franciscan Order, and by the kings of Spain, 
Philip III. under Paul V., and Philip IV. under Gre 
gory XV., to have the doctrine declared to be dogma ; 
but it was reserved for Pius IX. on Dec. 8, 1854, by 
the Bull IneffabiUx, to do what he could in this respect. 
Whether the interests of Christianity have gained by 
the increase of honour which hereby accrues to the 
Holy Virgin, and by the additional prominence given 
to the idea of the Suprasensual in the mystery of re 
demption, or have lost by the divorce in sentiment be 
tween the past and present Church, by the dissidence 
between the Old Traditional Faith and the Developed 
Sentiment of the Living Church, is a question which 
suggests the gravest consideration, and excites the 
deepest anxiety. 



ARTICLE XVI. 
DE PECCATO POST BAPTISM UM. 

NON omnc pcccatum mortale post Baptismum rohmtarie 
pcrpctratum, cst pcccatum in Spiritum Sanctum, ct irrc- 
missibUe. Proindc lapsis a Baptismo in pcccata, locus 
pcenitentm non est negandus. Post acceptum Spiritum 
Sanctum possum-its a gratia data reccdere, atquc pcc- 
carc, denuoquc per gratiam Dei resurgcrc, ac rcxipis- 
ccre ; idcoquc illl damnandi sunf, qid sc quamdiu, hie 
vivant, amplius non posse peccare qffirnuint, aut 
resipisccntibus Venice locum dcnegant. 



" Of Sin after Baptism. 

every deadly sin willingly committed after 
baptism is sin against the Holy Ghost, and unpardon 
able. Wherefore the grant of repentance is not to be 
denied to such as fall into sin after baptism. After 
we have received the Holy Ghost, we may depart from 
grace given, and fall into sin, and by the grace of God 
we may arise again, and amend our lives. And there 
fore they are to be condemned which say, they can no- 
more sin as long as they live here, or deny the place of 
forgiveness to such as truly repent/ 



ONE heavy impenetrable cloud hangs over the Gospel 
of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. One appalling 
thought there is bayond all others terrible, which, re- 



OF SIN AFTER BAPTISM. 231 



vealed to us in mercy, yet blanches the cheek and ter 
rifies the soul. It is that in the order of God s pro 
vidence there is one sin, for which the Eternal Son, 
the Redeemer of all men, has declared there is no re 
mission : " Wherefore I say unto you, All manner of" 
sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men; but 
the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost shall not be 
forgiven unto men. And whosoever speaketh a word 
against the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven him ; but 
whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall, 
not be forgiven him, neither in this world, nor in the 
world to come a ." What that sin is, has never yet 
been declared by authority. Some have thought that 
it was the imputation of a diabolic origin to the mira 
cles of our Lord, though one cannot see how that can 
be the sin, for the Spirit was not yet given. Others 
have held that it is final impenitency, but it is left 
in a terrible suspense that men may fear the judg 
ment of God. 

There is another very awful text in the Epistle to the 
Hebrews, when the author uses the expression that it 
"is impossible," i.e. impossible for man, though possible 
for God, (as we see from the use avaicaivi^eiv, rather 
ava/caLVL^ecrdai,) " to renew to repentance those who 
were once enlightened (been baptized), and have tasted 
of the heavenly gift (of the Holy Eucharist), and were 
made partakers of the Holy Ghost (in confirmation), and 
have tasted the good Word of God (the Holy Scripture), 
and the powers of the world to come," " seeing that they 
a St. Matt. xii. 31. 



232 ARTICLE XVI. 



crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh, and put 
Him to an open shame." This passage, which is com 
monly interpreted of the exceeding great difficulty 
of a return after an open apostacy from God, has its 
special importance in these days, when men think so 
lightly of loss of faith ; when they tamper with doubts 
and bad books, and imagine themselves none the worse 
for intellectual sins. It is no carnal sin that is here 
alluded to ; it is not avarice, nor ambition, nor envy. 
It is the loss of faith, which being not only a divinely 
infused gift, but a moral habit, follows the laws of all 
moral habits, and shall be judged accordingly. 

On these two texts, Novatian of Home, urged on by 
Novatus of Carthage, established his false system. He 
maintained that " after baptism, there is no room for 
penitence; that the Church cannot pardon mortal sin 
further ; that she herself perishes by the very receiv 
ing of sinners V He denied the commission of the 
priesthood to pardon and absolve, the right use of 
ecclesiastical discipline, and the power of the keys. 
Nay, he went so far as to say that those who had 
fallen into apostacy, had no more hope of salvation, 
and could not be restored, even after penance c . The 
occasion of the separation of the Novatians from the 
Church was that they would not communicate with 
those who had fallen in the Decian persecution. In 
all other respects they held the true doctrine, though 
they mocked at the martyrs, and re-baptized those 

b S. Pac. Ep. iii. 

c Tillernoiit, 31c mo ires pour Servir, &c., vol. iii. p. 472. 



OF SIN AFTER BAPTISM. 233 

who joined their sect. It is probable that the author 
of the Phiic&opkumena was of this school, and the 
Church historian Socrates shews great sympathy for 
it. Their orders were recognised in the sense that 
their bishops on being reconciled were received as 
bishops. They died out in the seventh century. The 
last mention of them as existent is about the year 
A.I). 672. 

But at the Reformation the same texts suggested 
another phase of error. One extreme form of Calvin 
ism was that the saints can never fall away. The doc 
trine of final perseverance, coupled with the doctrine of 
a capricious election, necessarily resulted in this; and 
although many good people merely found in a specu 
lative view of this kind a sense of comforting assurance, 
it cannot be doubted that, in the case of some of the 
fierce sectaries in Germany, Holland, and England, 
during the Commonwealth, the most fearful excesses 
were committed under the cloak of this dangerous 
error. We all know that it was the anodyne which 
soothed the perturbed deathbed of Oliver Cromwell. 

Now, for the sake of correctness, the first step is to 
define what sin is ; secondly, to describe its effect ; 
thirdly, to illustrate its relation to Baptism ; and lastly, 
to dwell upon sin committed after Baptism. 

1. Sin is variously defined as " an act, deviating from 
what is ordered for the end of man, contrary to the 
rule of nature, or of reason, or of eternal law d :" or 
negatively, it is " every defect in action which implies 

d S. Thos. l ma . qu. 63, 1. 



234 ARTICLE XVI. 



violation of order ;" " it is the death of the soul by the 
withdrawal of grace ; it is to fall away from good, and 
therefore every defect in duty is of the nature of sin ; 
it is to neglect the next world for this ; it is anything 
said, done, or desired against the eternal law ; it is the 
breaking of the law of God ; the will to retain or to* 
follow what justice forbids." 

It is contrary to the nature of the human mind in 
its integrity, but according to the nature of the human 
mind in its fall. It is twofold, that of omission and 
that of commission ; which last is subdivided into sin 
of thought, of word, and of deed. 

2. Next, as to the effect of sin. The soul of man, 
turning away from its eternal, uncreated, and incom 
mutable good, converting itself and cleaving to tem 
poral, created, and commutable goods, loses a twofold 
lustre, which it formerly possessed. One, the refulgence 
of the natural light of reason ; the other, the refulgence 
of the supernatural light of the Divine wisdom and 
grace. This loss of lustre is the macula aninice, the 
stain of the soul; and it remains in the soul till by a re 
trogressive motion of the will the man returns to the 
light of reason and the Divine law, which he does by 
grace. In the case of mortal sin, by a fresh infusion 
of habitual grace ; and in the case of venial sin, which, 
however, does not really stain the soul, by any act of 
that habitual grace which it has not destroyed. 

The act of aversion from the Creator, an inordinate 
conversion to the creature, constitutes the culpa peccati, 
the guilt of sin : mortal, if aversion ; venial, if conversion. 



OF SIN AFTER BAPTISM. 235 

The punishment of sin, pcena peccati, is proportioned 
to both. The punishment of a mortal sin, that sin as 
an aversion from the Infinite and Eternal, being itself 
also infinite, must be infinite and eternal. The punish 
ment of a venial sin, that sin being but an inordinate 
conversion to the temporal and finite, and so itself tem 
poral and finite, requires to be but temporal and finite. 
The act of guilt may have passed away, the lustre of 
the soul may have been renewed, and so its stain re 
moved, and j^et the liability to punishment may re 
main to restore the balance and satisfy the demands 
of justice. 

Venial and original sin are visited, the one with the 
pain of sense, pcena sensus, the other with the pain of 
loss, pcena damni ; mortal sin with both. 

Punishment must be 1. contrary to the will; 2. 
afflictive ; 3. inflicted by reason of guilt. And it may 
be 1. satisfactory ; 2. remedial ; or, 3. simply penal e . 

It has ever been held that the Sacrament of Baptism 
is the specially ordained rite whereby the grace of God, 
working in the power of the Passion of our Lord, de 
stroys and takes away all sins, past and present. It 
removes in all, equally the entire guilt of sin, and all 
necessity of future penitence. The baptized person 
is wholly a new creature in Christ Jesus. It also 
acts as a check upon future sin in the way of preven 
tion f . Baptism is principally ordained as a remedy 
against original sin s . It at once takes away its penal- 

e S. Thomas, 1. 2 d:0 . qu. 8G. f 3 p. q. 67, 3 c. q. 68, 2, 2. in. 3, 3. 
* 3 q. 66, 9, c.f. 



2 36 ARTICLE XVI. 



ties and its infection so far as the individual is con 
cerned, but not so far as the nature is concerned, save 
only in the end h . It cleanses the flesh from all pollu 
tion, contracted so far as regards the individual, but 
not so far as regards the nature. By it the stains of 
sin, culpa, are washed out, the fire of its incentive miti 
gated by grace ; but this fire is not wholly quenched 
in the present life. Baptism absolves us from all pe 
nalty, so far as that penalty is inflicted by God, but it 
does not take away penalty so far as inflicted by man. 

3. The fall from the supernatural state, the return 
to sin after this complete cleansing, the re-engagement 
in the service of the powers of darkness, the deliberate 
choice of the will in opposition to the will of God, the 
ingratitude to the best and kindest of Fathers, who 
has translated us out of darkness into the kingdom of 
His dear Son, is surely very grievous. Of necessity 
the sins of Christians, being sins against grace and 
light, are infinitely more heinous than those of the 
heathen. Grace done despite to, conscience violated, 
the deliberate choice of evil rather than God s law, are 
bound up in the idea of post-baptismal sin. 

So strongly was this felt in the fourth and fifth cen 
turies, that men were apt to put off their baptism until 
the hour of death. There are various canons to pre 
vent this vicious practice. All this illustrates how 
deeply the thought of the danger of violating the bap 
tismal obligations had penetrated into the conscious 
ness of the Christian community. 

h 1,2. q. Art. 5, 81, 32. 






OF SIN AFTER BAPTISM. 237 

But here there was danger of running into excess. 
Several of the early heresies erred in the direction of 
over-strictness ; especially the Novatians, against whom 
this Article is primarily directed. To doubt the grace 
and mercy of God is most unpleasing to Him. The 
very Gospel, by its terms, is a Gospel of reconciliation 
and forgiveness. God is ever more ready to hear than 
we to pray, and is wont to give more than either we 
desire or deserve. The freest, the fullest forgiveness is 
held forth to us for the sake of the Death and Passion 
of our Lord and only Saviour Jesus Christ, and there 
is no sin that we can now commit which, if sincerely 
repented, can resist the effect of His atoning Blood. 
Therefore, while the Church would seek to deepen 
within us the sense of the malignity of the deliberate 
sins of Christians, she assures us that "not every 
deadly sin committed after Baptism is unpardonable, 
or sin against the Holy Ghost." 

Besides this statement of doctrine, we may observe 
certain corollaries from the structure and doctrine of 
the Article. 1. The expression deadly sin implies 
the distinction between deadly and venial sin, with 
all the consequences of that distinction. 2. The very 
denial that sin after baptism is the sin against the 
Holy Ghost, refutes the notions of those who would 
reduce the Sacrament of Baptism to a mere admis 
sion into the visible Church. Were it such, no per- 
son could ever have supposed post-baptismal sin to 
be so terrible. The heinous-ness ~o its dishonour, is 
the measure of the greatness of its efficacy. That 



238 ARTICLE XVI. 



must be a very high state of grace indeed, which 
could involve such a result from its violation. 3. Ob 
serve the metonymy. After speaking of the fall after 
baptism in the negative form, the grant of repent 
ance is not to be denied to those who fall after bap 
tism, the same proposition is enumerated positively, 
and in so doing, baptism is said to be " receiving 
the Holy Ghost." In the Article, "receiving the Holy 
Ghost" is equivalent to "being baptized." It is true 
that some of the Reformers took an exaggerated view 
on this point, since, according to them, the power of 
regeneration worked no extirpation of sin, the original 
and carnal sin, as such, remaining in them ; it follows 
that sin does not dissolve the state of grace received in 
baptism, or break the fellowship with Christ. Bap 
tism thus not only imparted the assurance that all 
our sins committed before baptism were remitted, but 
gave the pledge of the remission of sins hereafter to 
be committed. 

Now the true doctrine of repentance is taught not 
only in these Articles, but in the Commination Service : 
" Let us return unto the Lord our God with all t-on-tri- 
fion and meekness of heart : bewailing and lament 
ing our sinful life, acknowledging and coitfewuKj our 
offences, and seeking to bring forth worthy fruits 



Observe the italicized words. They divide the pro 
cess into three, the contrition of the heart, the confes 
sion of the mouth, and the worthy fruits of penance 

Comminution Service. 



OF SIN AFTER BAPTISM. 239 



as the satisfaction of the life ; and this is in accordance 
not only with the teaching of the Church, but. with the 
deepest necessities of human nature. 

1. Repentance cannot spring from the mere fear of 
hell torments. This is not the only path that leads 
men back to God. We must take a high view of what 
we are to Christ, and what Christ is to us, and from 
this thought must spring the emotion which brings 
us back to Him. Faith and confidence must precede 
repentance, and from these, hatred to sin and a faint 
love of God is unfolded. Attrition, as the sorrow for 
the consequences of sin, is only an incitement to re 
pentance; it requires something more, namely, con 
trition, a profound detestation of sin springing from 
an awakened love of God, with the determination never 
wilfully to sin again. 

2. But repentance rests not there. What is interior 
must be outwardly expressed ; as our inward love to 
Christ is outwardly manifested in acts of charity to His 
poor, so our deep inward energetic contrition will seek 
an external manifestation in confession. A reconcilia 
tion between two friends cannot take place without 
mutual avowals, and this avowal must be definite. So 
when we confess our sins, it must not be a vague de 
claration of our sinfulness, but a specific, definite detail 
of our transgressions to Christ, or His anointed ser 
vant. Yet on the other hand, it must be recollected 
that perfect contrition takes the place of all outward 
ordinances. 

3. But this is not all; if, in confession, internal 



240 ARTICLE XVI. 



repentance is manifested, the Church acts back on the 
offender by the claim of satisfaction, It may refer 
either to the past or to the future. 1. If a man has 
offended human justice, he must make restitution either 
to the sufferers, or if that is impossible, in the way indi 
cated by his spiritual adviser. 2. As regards the future, 
satisfaction becomes medicinal, in short, a strength 
ening remedy to restore the power of the soul debi 
litated by sin. Yet this is not all, penitential exer 
cises must be looked on also as real punishment. By 
sin man contracts a debt which he is quite unfit to 
pay. Christ has paid it, and to all who enter into real 
living communion with Him the debt is remitted ; but 
it is not God s will to remit the temporal consequences 
of the penitent s previous acts, and justice requires the 
imposition of those penalties, especially in believers 
who, having been made members of His Body by bap 
tism, have received grace both to perceive what they 
ought to do, and strength and power to perform it. 
All this is the work of Christ. By this His merits 
are in no ways infringed upon. All our satisfactions 
must be done in Him. We who of ourselves, as of 
ourselves, can do nothing, in Him who strengthened 
us, can do all things. Therefore all our glory is in 
the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, in Whom we live 
and move, and have our being. 

Although the errors against which the Article was 
directed have passed away, yet something similar has 
lately reproduced itself in Plymouthism. While one 
cannot fail to respect every effort at the restoration of 



OF SIN AFTER BAPTISM. 241 

Pentecostal simplicity, and respect those who in view 
of the salvation of their souls withdraw themselves 
from the world into a stricter community, it must be 
recollected that many of the heresies of the early 
Church sprang from an attempt to be stricter than 
the Church of God. Montanism, Novatianism, and 
Donatism, are special instances of this, and therefore 
the same laws which guided the Church in her treat 
ment of these errors apply now. No doubt the best 
confutation of such errors lies in orthodox Christians 
leading daily stricter lives, for the cause of the uprise 
of these errors is the laxity of the Church ; God scourg 
ing His own Elect by those exaggerations of sup 
pressed truth and neglected practices, which constitute 
the peculiarity of such sectaries as we describe. 

The rise of Plymouthism may be traced 1. to the 
worldly lives of those who profess the doctrines of 
the Church, and 2. to the neglect of preaching the 
Counsels of Perfection. Did a more simple and cha 
ritable habit of life prevail, we should not have those 
attempts at Communism and equality, which must be 
bad for master, and worse for servant ; neither should 
we have such a condition of mind as is implied by such 
propositions as the following : 

1. All that are sanctified are so perfect, that there is 
no room for confession of sin. 

2. Because we are saved by faith and by grace, 
a pure and holy life is not necessary that we should 
attain to glory. 

3. Because our Lord has delivered us by His Eesur- 



242 ARTICLE XVI. 



rection, therefore we ought not to pray for deliverance 
from His wrath. Because the believer has passed from 
death unto life, we ought no longer to pray for de 
liverance in the hour of death and at the day of 
judgment. 

4. Because peace is the essential privilege of the 
believer, it is superfluous to pray for peace ; because 
we are saved, it is wrong to ask God to make speed to 
save us ; because God hath made such meet to be par 
takers of the inheritance of the saints in light, we may 
not pray in the language of the Te Dewn " make them 
to be numbered with Thy saints." 

o. For that God hath granted unto the Gentiles 
repentance unto life, we ought not to pray for re 
pentance. 

6. All prayer for the Holy Spirit is superfluous, be 
cause already given. 

All these propositions spring from the confusion of 
thought which mixes up the Objective with the Sub 
jective in the work of man s salvation. God on His 
part, by the manifestation of His dear Son, has sup 
plied a satisfaction, superabundant enough to take 
iiway the sins of ten thousand worlds. Nothing is 
wanting to that entire and complete redemption. 
Hereby the hopes of glory are held forth to every 
hild of Adam. Jesus is our only Hope, our only 
Kefuge, our Treasure, our End, our All. But now 
omes another thought. We are free agents, free to 
choose evil and good, under certain limitation. Life 
is a trial, in which they only shall be crowned who 



OF SIN AFTER BAPTISM. 243 



strive. All will not be saved, though our Lord died 
for all. All may be saved, because our Lord died for 
all. It depends upon the way in which we respond to 
the grace of God, whether we be saved or not. God 
gives sufficient grace to all, but grace does not obli 
terate free-will, rather it strengthens and elevates it. 
To answer then the six propositions, one must say, 

1. That our Lord has indeed perfected those that are 
sanctified, but sanctification is a progressive act, day 
by day, through God s grace, increasing till we come to 
the perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the 
fulness of Christ ; and the more we are sanctified, the 
more humble we necessarily become; and the more 
humble we become, the more we see ourselves as the 
All Pure One sees us, the more in the spirit of lowli 
ness shall we be able to rejoice in saying in deed and 
in truth that there is no health in us, and be thrown, 
more and more on the resources of prayer. 

2. The descriptions of the awards of the last day 
shew us that heaven is a reward, the reward of a holy 
life. We cannot merit heaven without the grace of 
God, but God crowns His own work within us with. 
the gift of Eternal Life. 

3. The act of our Lord s Resurrection has delivered 
us from the wrath to come, has caused our j ustification, 
and has opened the kingdom of heaven to all believers ; 
but we must still pray for deliverance, for what God 
lias predestinated to give to each of us, lie hath willed 
shall be obtained through the instrumentality of prayer 
and the Sacraments. Pity that poor soul, who, when. 



-44 ARTICLE XVI. 



the death-sweat is on his brow, and the world failing 
him, can find no comfort in a prayer for deliverance to 
Him who alone is mighty to save. 

4 and 5. This goes on the assumption that the be 
liever cannot forfeit peace. When one sees the faults 
of the best around us, faults that in the sight of God 
are grievous sins, one is amazed that any frame of 
mind can exist, in which daily repentance is not exer 
cised, daily restoration of the measure of grace lost by 
frailties, not implored. 

6. This is the most marvellous of all the logical re 
sults of the system. If there be diversities of gifts, 
but the same spirit, if there be no possible condition 
of the spiritual man from the first groan of attrition to 
the most extatic realization of the Presence of God, 
which is not caused, and may not be increased, by 
God the Holy Ghost, to pray for His charismata, and 
to His Person, is the duty of every Christian at all 
times. It is the error of the sect that the state of 
grace cannot be increased, being perfect. Alas ! what 
is the best perfection of man when measured and 
weighed by the standard of Him who charges the- 
angels with folly ! 



ARTICLE XVII. 
DE PREDESTINATIONS ET ELECTION E. 



ad i itam, est ceternum Dei propositum, 
quo ante jacta mundi fundament a, SHO eonsilio, nobis 
quidein occutto, eonstanter dccre-cit, cos quos in Christo 
clccjit ex hominum gcncre, a maledicto et cxitio liberare, 
atquc. (ut rasa m Jtotwrcm effieta] per Christum ad 
ceternam salutem adducerc. Unde qui tarn pr&daro Dei 
bencfido siint donati, illi sjjt i lttt- cjit* opportune tempore 
opcrantc, secundum propositum ej/is weantur, voeationi 
per gratia m- parent, juxtifieantur gratis, adoptantur in 
fiHos Dei, unigcniti ejus filii Jcsu Christi imagini effici- 
witur conforwes, in boats opcribtis sanete ambulant, et 
demuin ex Dei misericordici pertingnnt ad sempiternani 
felicitatcm. 

Quemadmodiun prcedcsti nation is et eleetionis noxtrce in 
Christo pia comide ratio, du let s, suavis, ct ineff abilis con- 
solationis plena est, vere piis, et his qui sent in tit in se mm 
Spiritus Christi, facia earnis, ct membra, qua adhuc 
sit nt super terrain, mortificantem, aniiniunque ad ccdest m 
et sifpernct rapicntem ; turn qtila fidem nostram de ceterna 
salute eonsequenda per Christum plur unutn stabilit atque 
conjirmat, turn quia, amorem nostrum in Dcum, vclte- 
mcnter aeeendit : Ita hominibus euriosis, earnalibus, et 
fcpiritn Christi destitutis, ob oeulos perpctuo vcrsari 
prcedcstinationis Dei sententiam, pernieiosissimiou est 
pr(Gcipitium unde iUos diabohis protntdit, vel in dcspe- 
rationem, vel in cequc perniciosam impiirissimw vita 



246 ARTICLE XVII. 



securitatem. Delude promissiones divinas sic amplectf 
oportet, ut nob is in sacris fitcri* (jeneraUter propositc? 
Mint, et Dei voluntas in nostris actionibus ea sequenda 
cst, qua in in rcrbo Dei hahemux diwrte revelatam. 



" Of Predestination and Election. 

" PREDESTINATION to life is the everlasting purpose 
of God, whereby (before the foundations of the world 
were laid) He hath constantly decreed by His counsel, 
secret to us, to deliver from curse and damnation those 
whom He hath chosen in Christ out of mankind, and 
to bring them by Christ to everlasting salvation, as 
vessels made to honour. Wherefore they which be en 
dued with so excellent a benefit of God, be called, ac 
cording to God s purpose, by His Spirit working in due 
season : they through grace obey the calling : they be 
justified freely : they be made sons of God by adoption : 
they be made like the image of His only-begotten Son, 
Jesus Christ : they walk religiously in good works, and 
at length, by God s mercy, they attain to everlasting 
felicity. 

" As the godly consideration of predestination, and 
our election in Christ, is full of sweet, pleasant, and 
unspeakable comfort to godly persons, and such as feel 
in themselves the working of the Spirit of Christ, mor 
tifying the works of the flesh, and their earthly mem 
bers, and drawing up their mind to high and heavenly 
things, as well because it doth greatly establish and 
confirm their faith of eternal salvation, to be enjoyed 
through Christ, as because it doth fervently kindle 
their love towards God : so, for curious and carnal per- 



OF PREDESTINATION AND ELECTION. 247 

sons, lacking the Spirit of Christ, to have continually 
before their eyes the sentence of God s predestination, 
is a most dangerous downfall, whereby the devil doth 
thrust them either into desperation, or into wreteh- 
lessness of most unclean living, no less perilous than 
desperation. 

" Furthermore, we must receive God s promises in 
such wise as they be generally set forth to us in Holy 
Scripture. And in our doings, that will of God is to 
be followed, which we have expressly declared unto us 
in the Word of God." 



THE educated thought of the nineteenth century, 
with some notable exceptions, is content to recognise 
the existence of the truths of the perfect knowledge 
and power of God on the one hand, and of the freedom 
of the human w r ill on the other, and to sit down <eon- 
tentedly under the utter impossibility of reconciling 
them. 

"La contingcnxa, die fuor del quaderno 
Delia vostrn matcria non si stende, 
Tutta c depinta nel cospetto ctcrno. 
Ncccssitii pcro quindi non premie 
So non come dal viso, in che s-i specchia 
Nave, che per torrcntc giu discende "." 

The question is now T taken out of the region of pure 
intellect, and relegated into that of morals; in other 
words, the truths are looked upon now only in a prac 
tical point of view. How do their co-existence and 

* Par. xvii. 4.0. 



248 ARTICLE XVII. 



mutual modification tell upon the life? Does a dis 
proportionate estimate of the first of these factors deny 
or cripple the notion of human exertion ? Does the 
undue influence of the second, destroy that abiding 
rest in the Creator, which is one of the first principles 
of nature and of revealed religion? 

But it was not so at the time of the Reformation. 
Both the good side and the bad side of that event 
tended to throw the thoughts of men disproportionately 
on the Divine side of the work in man s salvation. If 
the great gain of the Reformation was that men were 
won from an undue trust in the external practices of 
religion, from the belief that doing certain acts, in them 
selves would secure man s salvation ; it was natural that 
in reaction men. should throw themselves exclusively on 
the thought of God s work in them, to the exclusion of 
all co-operation of man. On the other hand, if the loss 
at the Reformation, especially on the Continent, was 
the faith in the Church as an institution, as the one 
ordinary channel of God s grace, as the appointed 
harbour of souls, it followed that a new law of mercy 
must be found, a new theory of salvation, and that was 
sought in a theory of absolute predestination. 

A reasoning on the nature and attributes of God, 
certain texts of St. Paul, and the great authority of 
St. Augustine in the Western Church, combined to fami 
liarize men s minds with the thought of a certain pre 
destination in the Divine mind, whereby those are set 
free who are set free. It was God s will that all men 
should be saved ; yet all, as a matter of fact, are not 



OF PREDESTINATION AND ELECTION. 240 

saved. How was such a state of things as this to be 
accounted for ? 

The question was answered diversely. One school 
held that there could be no limitation to the power of 
God, that whatever He willed He must will effica 
ciously, and therefore, seeing that all men are not 
saved, it could not be His purpose that all men should 
be saved. The other school held that God willed that 
all men should be saved, but leaving man s will in 
some sense free to choose good or evil, his final salva 
tion was the reward of those good deeds which God 
predestined him to do. 

"The Church/ says M6hler b , speaking of the en 
ticing field opened to human speculation on the subject 
of predestination, " has deemed it her duty to set certain 
limitations to this spirit. For God can be exhibited 
in such wise over-against man as to make him entirely 
disappear ; or man again may be conceived in such 
a position relating to God, as to subvert the notion of 
the Almighty as the dispenser of grace. According to 
the first view, God appears also to act with a cruel 
caprice, which cannot be conceived by man : according 
to the second, so to be ruled by the caprice of man, 
that He ceases to be He who is, and through whom all 
goodness flows. Accordingly the Catholic Church alike 
rejects an overruling of God on the part of man, to 
impart sanctifying and saving grace ; and an over 
ruling of man, on the part of God, to compel the 
former to become this or that. On the contraiy, she 

b Symbolism, vol. i. p. 137. 



250 ARTICLE XVII. 



teaches, in the former case, that Divine grace is un 
merited; in the latter, that it is offered to all men, 
their condemnation depending on the free rejection 
of redeeming aid." 

Calvin expresses himself thus : "We assert that by 
an eternal and unchangeable decree God hath deter 
mined whom He shall one day permit to have a share 
in eternal felicity, and whom He shall doom to destruc 
tion. In respect of the elect, the decree is founded in 
His unmerited mercy, without any regard to human 
worthiness : but those whom He delivers up to dam 
nation, are by a just and irreprehensible judgment ex 
cluded from all access to eternal life." " It is scarcely 
credible to what truly blasphemous shifts Calvin re 
sorts in order to impart to his doctrine an air of so 
lidity, and to secure it against objections. As faith is 
by him considered a gift of the Divine mercy, and yet, 
as he is unable to deny, that many are represented 
in the Gospel to be believers, in whom Christ found 
no earnestness and no perseverance, and whom conse 
quently He did not recognise to be the elect, Calvin 
asserts that God intentionally produced within them an 
apparent faith ; that He insinuated Himself into the 
souls of the reprobate, in order to render them less ex 
cusable . Instead of acknowledging in the above facts 
the readiness of the Almighty to confer His grace on 
all who only wish it, he explains them by the suppo 
sition of intentional deceit, which he lays to the charge 
of the Almighty. Equally strange is the reason assigned 
c Instit., lib. iii. c. 2. n. 11. 



OF PREDESTINATION AND ELECTION 251 

for the doctrine of predestination. That God wishes 
to manifest His mere}- towards the elect, His justice 
towards the condemned ; as if the two Divine qualities 
were separated from each other, and mutually ignored 
each other. God will be at once just and merciful to all 
without exception; not just merely to these, and mer 
ciful only to those, as prejudiced judges in this world 
are wont to be. We must also bear in mind that even 
the notion of justice, considered in itself, cannot be up 
held where no fault exists ; and no fault can be charged 
to the reprobate, if without possessing the use of free 
dom they are condemned from all eternity. Equally 
baseless would be the notion of mercy, as it has neces 
sarily for its object sinners who, by free determination 
of their own will, and accordingly not by extraneous 
compulsion, have transgressed the Divine moral law,, 
in order thereupon to receive pardon ; for in this case 
the whole process would be a mere absurd farce 11 ." 

Now the moderation and cautiousness of the Article 
is a remarkable contrast to this language . As a matter 
of history we know that the Article never contented 
the Puritans. The very fact of the attempt to ingraft 
the Lambeth Articles in the present code, during the 
time of the dominance of the Calvinistic party at the 

d Mohler, Symb., vol. i. p. 140. 

e The very history of the process of the construction of the present 
Article is significant. In the earlier Articles of Edward VI. we find 
the formula, "licet praedestinationis decreta sint nobis iirnota;" and 
in the curious documents preserved in C.C.C., Cambridge, and published 
by Dr. Lamb, we find these words, as they occur in the latter part of 
the draft copy of the Article, actually erased by the minium pencil 
ot Matthew Parker. 



252 ARTICLE XVII. 



beginning of the seventeenth century, is a proof of this. 
In fact, the Article is Augustinian, and not Calvinistic. 
In treating of this tremendous mystery, the Article 
keeps itself closely to the word of Scripture. It first 
states the fact of a predestination in the divine mind, 
very much in the language of St. Paul : "According as 
He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the 
world, that we may be holy and without blame before 
Him in love : having predestinated us unto the adop 
tion by Jesus Christ Himself, according to the good 
pleasure of His will, to the praise and glory of His 
grace, wherein He hath made us accepted in the be 
loved f ." It then goes on, still in Biblical language, to 
describe the processes which attend on this predesti 
nation : 1. vocation, 2. obedience to vocation through 
grace, 3. free justification, 4. sonship by adoption, 
5. conformity to the image of our Lord, 6. a religious 
life, and 7. finally eternal felicity. " For whom He did 
foreknow, He did also predestinate to be conformed to 
the image of His Son, that He might be the First-born 
among many brethren. Moreover, whom He did pre 
destinate, them He also called : and whom He called, 
them He also justified: and whom He justified, them 
He also glorified-"." Having done its duty to Biblical 
truth by stating almost in its own words the doctrine 
and its way of working, the Article goes on through 
the rest of its clauses to guard men against its abuse. 
"While all God s truth, and this among others, tends to 
comfort, there is the double danger of desperation and 

f Epli. i. 4. s Rom. viii. 20. 



OF PREDESTINATION AND ELECTION. 253 

recklessness, to be guarded against in the case of bad 
men. As a matter of fact, we know that, at the time of 
the Reformation, when men s minds ran in an undue 
degree upon these abstract subjects, these two op 
posite results actually did occur ; and the immoral con 
dition of the peasantry in Scotland, where notions of 
predestination are much exaggerated, may be adduced 
in confirmation of the necessity of the caution expressed 
in the Article. The Article concludes with two canons 
of interpretation of Holy Writ, also with a view to cor 
recting the abuses of this mystery; 1. that God s pro 
mises are to be received (jcncraltfcr, that is, as applying 
to all 11 ; and 2. the will of God that is expressly de 
clared in Holy Scripture is to be followed: and that 
will is " that all men should be saved, and come unto 
the knowledge of the truth 1 ;" " that the Gospel should 
be preached to every creature j ;" "that God sent His 
Son, that the world through Him might be saved k ;" 
and " that all who are weary and heavy laden, should 
come to the Lord Christ for rest V 

11 Predestination, quanto rcniota 
E la radice tua de quegli aspetti : 

Che la prima cagion non veggion tola ! 
E voi, niortali, tenetevi strctti 
A guidicar : che noi, chc Dio vcdcmo, 
conosciam ancor tutti gli Eletti : 



b See Church Catechism, "generally necessary;" also in the au 
thorized Version, 2 Sam. xvii. 11, and Jer. xlvii. 48. 

1 1 Tim. ii. 4. J St. Mark xvi. 15. 

k St. John iii. 17. ! St. Matt. xi. 28. 



254 ARTICLE XVII. 



Et enne dolce cosi fatto sccmo, 
Pcrche 1 ben nostro in questo ben s affina 
Che quel, che vuole Bio c noi volemo." 

In order to avoid inconsistency, no interpretation of 
this Article can be the right one which is at variance 
with the statements in Article XXXI., that the offer 
ing of Christ is that perfect redemption, propitiation, 
and satisfaction for all sins of the whole world, both 
original and actual;" and in Article V., "that eternal 
life is offered to mankind in Christ ;" and in Article XI., 
" that Christ is the Lamb who, by the sacrifice of Him 
self, should take away the sins of the world." We are 
therefore compelled to reconcile what is here said of 
predestination with the truth taught elsewhere of the 
universality of the effect of the death of Christ. Hence 
the Calvinistic notion, which confines the benefit of our 
Lord s death to certain individuals, is not the right 
interpretation of the Article. God s predestination is 
bestowed on every baptized Christian. " It is the 
good will of our heavenly Father declared towards" 
each such baptized. The fact of God bringing men 
to baptism is synonymous with His choosing them in 
Christ out of mankind with his calling them ac 
cording to His purpose by His special working in 
due season. In baptism they become " His own chil 
dren by adoption," in the very words of the Article m . 
Thus God s predestination is in one sense His pledge 

m The Church prays for the child about to be baptized, that it may 
Vever " remain in the number of " His " faithful and elect children." 
(Public Baptism of Infants.) 

^ 

*** / , 

Xv. ^^ 



OF PREDESTINATION AND ELECTION. 255 

of the gift of sufficient grace, and so the considera 
tion of such a predestination is full of most pleasant 
and unspeakable comfort to those who are conscien 
tiously using that grace. It says, in exact opposition 
to Calvinism, that God will not act in a tyrannical, 
arbitrary way, but according to His mingled justice 
and mercy ; that we may comfort ourselves in the 
thought of His predestination for us, His preparation 
of good things in store for us, with full assurance 
and trust, only never leaving out of sight, that, as 
a result of our free-will, we may make vain all that 
He has put in our power. 

And so with regard to the salvation of others, we 
are not called on to judge any. " God s ways are not 
as our ways," and " many shall come from the East 
and from the West, and shall sit down with Abraham, 
and Isaac, and Jacob ; and the children of the king 
dom shall be shut out." 

Of the practical effect of Calvinism, it remains for 
me to speak; its power as a dominant idea cannot, 
be gainsayed. If the value of a religion be the mea 
sure of assurance which it can bestow, we have here 
that assurance held out to us in its most positive form. 
According to the Westminster Confession, man, by 
the hearing of preaching, receives the soul-saving 
faith, that he from all eternity is one of the elect; 
and that God will impute to him, as if himself had 
rendered it, the obedience of Christ. This unfading 
assurance of salvation is never lost, though transitory 
doubts and obscurities may for a time arise. He 



256 ARTICLE XVII. 



believes that he is under the power of irresistible 
grace, the consistent result of which is, that, where 
insoever he fails, it is God s fault, not his. If he sin,. 
he is still one of the elect, and irrevocably in a state of 
grace, just as happened to David. By such sins the 
certainty of salvation may be shaken and obscured,. 
but the life of faith and seed of God is never entirely 
lost to the believer. Man being the passive instru 
ment of God s will, the measure of which is the free- 
agency of man, whereby he admits it, a very deep 
sense of the awful sinfulness of sin, and its terrible con 
sequences, in itself, comes necessarily to be weakened. 

Again, it tends to destroy all belief in Sacramental 
Grace. Without pushing the doctrine to its fatalistic- 
consequences, which would destroy belief in all grace 
whatsoever save itself, this teaching, though held in 
consistently together with other truths, tends to hurt 
the belief in the Sacraments ; for with it there is no 
place for Sacraments in the divine order of the Church. 
A Calvinist cannot look upon Baptism as of any vital 
importance, if man s salvation depends on an irrespective- 
election ; for he will not grant that grace reaches any 
but the elect, and as all are not elect, there are many 
who are baptized who never receive grace. Grace 
may be given, but, according to this view, grace is 
not necessarily linked to the Sacrament, even when 
(as in the case of infants) there can be no hindrance 
to the reception of that grace on the part of the 
receiver. If there is an inner circle of election within 
the great body of the baptized, baptism can be of no 



OF PREDESTINATION AND ELECTION. 257 

real value, and its continued use is illogical, continued 
merely out of deference to the letter of Scripture, 
and to an instinct of piety, which corrects the logic 
of the mind. 

So with regard to the Blessed Eucharist. A belief 
in a real Presence of Christ cannot co-exist with 
a theory of irrespectii^e predestination, and of its con 
sequence, irresistible grace. For if the Body and 
Blood of Christ, and the grace of Christ therewith, 
were given through the Sacraments, then since grace, 
according to them, is irresistible, it would necessarily 
overpower all who received the Sacrament ; which is 
patently contrary to what Holy Scripture says of 
those who " eat and drink damnation to themselves/ 
and to what we cannot fail to see with our own eyes 
in the case of careless and indevout receivers. The 
presence of Christ must then, according to them, not 
be in the Sacrament, but in the believing recipient, 
and that, in a way not peculiar to the Sacrament, nor 
in any way higher than that, in which any devout 
Christian may at any time, mentally and spiritually 
feed on Christ. As it is only to the elect that the 
Divine gift is imparted, and the rest are passed over 
by God, so grace must by no means be connected with 
the visible sign, 



ARTICLE XVIII. 

DE SPERANDA STERNA SALUTE TANTUM IN 

NOMINE CHRISTI. 

et illi anathematizancli, qui clicere (indent innim- 
in lego ant sccta, quam profitetnr csse servan- 

, inodo juxta illam, ct lumen naturae accurate n>- 
erit, cum sacra literoe tantiim Jesu Christi nomcn prce- 
t/icrttf, in (jiio sah os fieri homiiim oporteat. 



" Of obtaining eternal Salvation only by tJie Name 
of Christ. 

"THEY also are to be had accursed, that presume to 
sa}^ that every man shall be saved by the law or sect 
which he professeth, so that he be diligent to frame his 
life according to that la\v, and the light of nature. 
For Holy Scripture doth set out unto us only the name 
of Jesus Christ, whereby men must be saved." 



THE provisional attitude of the Church of England 
is exhibited in the remarkable fact that she has gene 
rally avoided enforcing her teachings under the penalty 
of anathema. Unlike the general and provincial Coun 
cils, which, not content with defining the truth, have 
guarded that truth by anathema, in which anathema 
dies the essence of what is to be guarded against, and 



OF OBTAINING ETERNAL SALVATION, &C. 259 

per i-onlra, what is to be believed, the Church of Eng 
land has in the main been contented with stating her 
convictions, insisting on subscription to them as a con 
dition of ministering at her altars, but has not gone so 
far as to brand the non-reception of her teaching with 
spiritual denunciations. If the conjecture is right that 
in 1562 the door of reconciliation was purposely left 
ajar, the wisdom and charity of such a course as this 
is evident. To have to retract anything is difficult 
for man or Church ; to explain is what the most sensi 
tive conscience can condescend to. Besides, in avoiding 
anathematisms, a fertile source of irritation is obviously 
avoided. We are not disposed to be conciliatory to 
those who have expressed themselves in the sense that 
our errors peril our immortal welfare. 

But there is one remarkable exception to this mo 
deration, and it is that which is the subject of the 
present Article. The Church of England anathema 
tizes one error, one spiritual sin, the sin of latitudi- 
narianism; and this, because the latitudinarian spirit 
iinds its logical basis in the abnegation of all objective 
truth whatsoever. Latitudinarianism is not a tender 
judgment of the motives of others. It is not a dis 
position to find excuses, as from the imperfect demon 
stration of the truth to individuals, inveterate preju 
dice, peculiarities of intellectual training, or the like, 
with which it regards the erring. It is the principle 
that nothing is so certain in religion that it need be 
insisted on ; that one view is as good as another view ; 
that it does not much matter what people believe, if 



2GO ARTICLE XVIII. 



their morals be good ; in short, that there are 110 truths 
for which a man ought to be prepared to die, no re 
vealed will of God, to deflect from which, is ruin to 
the spiritual nature. In the presence of latitudi- 
narianism, Church authority obviously disappears, 
Creeds are necessarily mistakes, Holy Scripture be 
comes an instrument on which one may play any 
tune, certainty as to religion vanishes. 

Latitudinarianism is the logical consequence of the 
denial of a Divine authority, lodged in the Church, 
although many by a happy inconsistency, who have 
denied that authority, have stopped short of this con 
sequence. There have ever been bigotry and persecu 
tion on the part of those whose position made bigotry 
absurd, and persecution a sin. When once the di 
vine authority of the Church is given up, there is no 
reasonable alternative but the human authority of the 
individual. It may be sought to uphold conclusively 
another divine authority, that of the Holy Scriptures, 
a process which actually took place, but experience 
has shewn that this also resolves itself into the judg 
ment of the individual; the Holy Word of God, as 
a fact, having been differently understood, so that " pri 
vate judgment" appeals, in fact, to the individual s, 
enlightened or unenlightened, interpretation of that 
word. 

Closely connected with this, one must consider the 
cognate question of the practice of the Christian Church 
to enforce certain truths under pain of anathema. The 
popular English form of this question exhibits itself 



OF OBTAINING ETERNAL SALVATION, &C. 261 

in the defence or reprobation of the damnatory clauses 
in the Athanasian Creed. It is said, " Why impose 
a complex formula on the most recondite subjects upon 
the conscience under so tremendous a censure ?" In 
answer it must be said first of all, that here is no ques 
tion of those who never heard the name of Christ, nor 
of those who have not had the truth persuasively and 
intellectually placed before them, but of those who, 
having the dogmas of religion plainly and explicitly 
taught to them, do perversely set up their judgments 
against the teaching of God s holy truth, and delibe 
rately reject those truths, on the mental acceptance of 
which our blessed Lord and His Apostles made salva 
tion, in one sense, to depend. And that such is the case, 
must be admitted by all who confess the authenticity 
of the last chapter of St. Mark s Gospel : " He that be- 
lieveth and is baptized shall be saved ; he that believeth 
not shall be damned." In principle the Athanasian 
Creed says no more nor no less than this. 

The Article then asserts that, in order to attain to 
everlasting life, it is not sufficient for a man to follow 
the dictates of his natural conscience. Not only is it 
asserted that man cannot be saved by the sect or law he 
professeth, i.e. that there is no objective grace in such 
law or sect : but it makes the further assertion that the 
strictest obedience to such a law, though it may obtain 
temporal rewards, will not affect eternal life : for this 
reason, that there are certain supernatural gifts which 
are linked to the manifestation of the Son of God in the 
flesh. In rigorous justice man has no right as against 



262 ARTICLE XVITT. 



God ; therefore he has no right to everlasting life a ~ 
Everlasting life is a free gift to man on the part of 
God, and He has willed that that gift shall stand con 
nected in the way of cause and effect with the economy 
of grace. One of the ends of the Incarnation was to- 
open the way to heaven ; our access to God is through 
Christ ; and conversely there is no access to God save 
through Him. The power of His Passion may extend 
to many who never heard His Name. TTe have no 
right to limit the extent of His works, but it must be 
laid down as a fundamental truth, that whatever grace 
here or glory hereafter is held forth to sinful man, is 
held forth in virtue of the merits of the God-man 
Jesus Christ. 

The Article here rises into fervour as it dwells upon 
the gracious Name of our Saviour, that Name which is 
as unguent poured out, which whosoever seeketh shall 
be saved. " He Himself said, Except a grain of wheat 
fall to the ground and die, it abideth alone : but if it 
die it bringeth forth much fruit/ Let the grain die, 
and let the corn of the Gentiles spring up. It be 
hoved Christ to die and to rise from the dead, and that 
repentance and remission of sins should be preached in 
His Name/ not only in Judea but among all people, 
so that from that one Man, which is Christ, thousands 
and thousands of believers should be called Christians, 
and should say, Thy Name is as unguent poured out. 
O Blessed Name ! O unguent everywhere poured out ! 
And whither ? From Heaven to Judea, and thence it 

Vide supra, p. 198. 



OF OBTAINING ETERNAL SALVATION, &C. 2G3 

flows through all the earth, and the Church everywhere 
says, Thy name is as unguent poured out/ not only in 
Heaven and Earth but even in Hell, for at the name 
of Jesus every knee shall bow, of things in Heaven and 
things in earth, and things under the earth/ and every 
tongue confess, and say, Thy Name is as unguent 
poured out. Behold Christ ! behold Jesus ! Both 
poured out upon angels, both poured out upon men, 
and upon those men who, like the brutes, were denied 
in their own vileness, God saving both man and beast/ 
for His mercy endureth for ever/ How dear! how 
cheap ! cheap, but health- giving ! were it not cheap, it 
would not be poured out for me ; if it were not health - 
giving, it would benefit me nothing, I am a sharer in 
the Name, yea, of the inheritance. I am a Christian 
I am the brother of Christ. If I am what I am called, 
I am the heir of God and the joint-heir with Christ. 
And what wonder if the Name of the Bridegroom is 
poured out, when He Himself is poured out, For He 
humbled Himself, taking upon Himself the form of 
a servant/ and at last He says, I am poured out like 
water/ The fulness of the Godhead dwelling bodily 
upon earth is poured out, that all we who bear about 
with us the body of this death should receive of His 
fulness, and, filled with the odour of life, should say, 
* Thy name is as unguent poured out b . 

b St. Bernard in Cant., Serm. xv. 4>. 



ARTICLE XIX. 
DE ECCLESIA. 

ECCLESIA Chmti 1 isiljilis est ctvtus fidellmn, in quo verlum 
Dei purum prcedieatiir, et sacramcnta quoad ca qiue 
ncecssario cxiyantur, ju,rta Christi institutum rede ad- 
ministrantur. Sieut erravit Ecclesia Hierosolymitana, 
Alejcandrina, et Antiochcna ; ita ct erravit Ecclcsia llo- 
mana, non sohun quoad agenda, ct ccercmoniarum ritus, 
venitn in lii* ctlam qua credenda sunt. 



"OftJie Church. 

" THE visible Church of Christ is a congregation of 
faithful men, in the which the pure word of God is 
preached, and the sacraments be duly ministered ac 
cording to Christ s ordinance, in all those things that 
o f necessity are requisite to the same. 

" As the Church of Jerusalem^ Alexandria, and A.n~ 
tioch have erred, so also the Church of Rome hath erred, 
not only in their living and manner of ceremonies, but 
also in matters of faith." 



FROM the beginning, under the name of the Church, 
many have understood, in its more restricted sense, the 
reunion of those who, believing and professing the faith 
of Jesus Christ, are members of the society established 
by Him and in Him on earth, in view of salvation. In 
its larger sense, it is the society of God s creatures who 



OF THE CHURCH. 265 



Lave a share on earth in the effects of redemption, or 
who in heaven have remained faithful to God. 

This idea of the Church is expressed in Holy Scrip 
ture by figures setting forth its nature and destiny ; as 
"the kingdom of God," " the city of God," " the house 
of God ;" but the most sacred and mysterious concep 
tion is that of St. Paul, " the Body of Christ a ." 

The first notion with regard to the Church is its 
visibility. This is in accordance with the teaching of 
the early Church. It is a light b , the city set upon 
a hill c . It is the visible means whereby we attain to 
Christ who is invisible d , whereby we keep His life in 
ourselves, whose pattern we have 110 longer before 
our eyes e . 

" The ultimate reason of the visibility of the Church 
is to be found in the Incarnation of the Divine Word. 
Had that Word descended into the hearts of men, 
without taking the form of a servant, and accordingly 
without appearing in a corporeal shape, then only 
an internal invisible Church would have been esta 
blished. But since the Word became yfcs/i, it expressed 
itself in an outward perceptible and human manner. 
It spoke as man to man, and suffered and worked after 
the fashion of men, in order to win them to the king 
dom of God, so that the means selected for the attain- 



a Klee, Histoire des Dogmes Chretiens, i. 76. b S. Iren. v. 

20. n. 1. S. Cyvr. de Unit. c S. Chrys. in Jes. Horn. ii. n. 3; 

S. Aug. Unit., c. xvi. n. 40; Cont. Litt. Petiliani, ii. 104. n. 23<J. 
* S. Aug. Serm. 238. 3. c Aug. de Fide Her. qu<z non videiitur, 

c. iv. 11. 7. Klee, Hist, des Dogmes Chretiens, vol. i. p. 94. 



266 ARTICLE XIX. 



ment of tins object fully corresponded to the general 
method of instruction and education determined by the 
nature and the wants of men. This decided the nature 
of those means whereby the Son of God, even after Tie- 
had withdrawn Himself from the eyes of the world, 
willed still to work in the world and for the world. 
The Godhead in Christ having put forth its operations 
under the ordinary way of humanity, the form also 
in which His work was to be continued, was thereby 
traced out. The preaching of His doctrine needed then 
a visible human medium, and must be entrusted to 
visible envoys, teaching and instructing after the 
wonted method ; men must speak to men, in order to- 
convey to them the Word of God. And as in the world 
nothing can attain to greatness but in society, so Christ 
established a community; and His divine Word, His 
living will, and the love emanating from Him, exerted 
an internal uniting power upon His followers, so that 
an impulse implanted by Him in the hearts of be 
lievers corresponded to His outward institution. And 
thus a living, well-connected, visible association of 
the faithful sprang up, whereof it might be said, 
There they are, there is His Church, His institution, 
wherein He continueth to live, His Spirit continueth 
to work, and the Word uttered by Him eternally re 
sounds. Thus the visible Church, from the point of 
view here taken, is the Son of God Himself, everlast 
ingly manifesting Himself among men in human form, 
eternally renewing His youth, the permanent Incar 
nation of the same, as in Holy Writ the faithful, too, 



OF THE CHURCH. 267 



are called the Body of Christ. Hence it is evident that 
the Church, though composed of men, is yet not purely 
human ; nay, as in Christ the Divinity and the Hu 
manity are clearly to be distinguished, although both 
are bound in unity; so is He in undivided entireness 
perpetuated in the Church. The Church, His perma 
nent manifestation,, is at once divine and human ; she 
is the union of both. He it is who, concealed under 
earthly and human forms, works in the Church ; and 
therefore she has a divine and a human side, yet in 
both undivided ; so that the divine cannot be sepa 
rated from the human ; nor the human from the divine. 
Hence these two sides change their predicates. If the 
divine, the living Christ and His Spirit, constitute un 
doubtedly that which is infallible and eternally in 
errable in the Church, so also the human is inerrable 
and infallible in the same way, because the divine with 
out the human has no existence for us ; yet the human 
is not inerrable in itself, but only as the organ and 
manifestation of the divine f ." 

This leads us on to the next term in the definition : 
In the Church the pure Word of God is preached, 
and the Sacraments duly administered." 

If Christ the eternal Truth hath built the Church ; 
truth, transformed by the Spirit into love, is become 
living among men. The Divine truth, embodied in 
Jesus Christ, must thereby be bodied forth in an out 
ward and living phenomenon, and become a deciding 
authority if it is to seize deeply on the whole man, 

1 Mbhler, Symlolifc, vol. ii. p. 7. 



268 ARTICLE XIX. 



and put an end to pagan scepticism, that sinful un 
certainty of the mind, which stands on as low a grade 
as ignorance s . It is, then, the duty of the Church to 
preach the pure Word of God ; to communicate, on the 
authority of God, those truths with regard to the nature 
of God and the destinies of creation which He has re 
vealed ; to impress upon the intellects of men the true 
doctrine of Christ, by oral instruction, by the develop 
ment of a school of theology, by symbolical and sug 
gestive rites, by catechetical instruction, by preserving 
and interpreting Holy Writ. Its emphatic office, so 
far as regards the intellects of men, is to impress upon 
the minds of men an abiding conviction of certain 
truths ; which truths not merely lead to a holy life 
here and to salvation hereafter, but of which the 
mental acceptance is itself a part of the integral 
Christian life, one phase of that supernatural life 
which, begun in this life, receives its fulness in the 
eternal world. Thus one department of the Church is 
to be the Eccksia docens. To the hierarchy, as dis 
tinguished from the great body of Christians, is com 
mitted the duty of handing down and communicating 
these truths, not merely as spiritual nourishment to 
those within the fold but also to those without, to 
heathens and strangers, that they may be brought to 
share in the supernatural blessings which attach them 
selves to this blessed yvwais. 

But this is not all. When we come to consider the 
question of the Sacraments, we shall see that these are 

e Mohler, vol. ii. p. 12, 15. 



OF THE CHURCH. 269 



the channels whereby the virtue that proceeds from 
Christ our Head flows into His Body in general, that is, 
the Church Catholic, and into us the members in par 
ticular. From all antiquity the custody of the Sacra 
ments has always been attributed to the Church; in 
fact, they are among other things tesserae of membership 
with her. And, given this custody, it is the duty of 
the Church to administer them. iNext to the teach 
ing office of the Church comes the ministerial : next 
to the appeal to the intellect and heart comes the ap 
peal to the purely spiritual part of the nature, and 
this is made by the Sacraments. A Sacrament does 
not appeal to the intellect. It does not move the soul 
by any intellectual consideration. It only per aceidcns 
touches the heart. It works solely by virtue of the 
institution of Christ. It derives its power from Him, 
nay, in a primary sense He Himself operates in all the 
Sacraments as the High-Priest of the new law, using 
the earthly minister as the organ only. 

But the Sacraments are so far influenced by the 
elements of the world that they have their proper mat 
ter and form ; that is, there are certain conditions that 
must be observed, very simple ones indeed, but still 
definite, which go to give validity to each ordinance. 
Therefore the Article makes it a note of the Church, 
that in it the Sacraments are duly administered accord 
ing to Christ s ordinance ; that all the necessary con 
ditions to a valid Sacrament are observed. Thus there 
is no true baptism without the water and certain words ; 
the water alone, or the words alone, are not sufficient : 



270 ARTICLE XIX. 



moreover, only certain definite words may be used with 
profit and effect. So, to a valid consecration of the 
Holy Eucharist, in addition to a definite matter, that 
is, bread and wine, and a definite form of words, there 
must be the action of a priest, episcopally ordained, 
else the Body of Christ is not consecrated (conficitur}. 

" As the Church of Jerusalem, Alexandria, and An- 
tioch have erred, so also the Church of Rome hath 
erred, not only in tJtch living and manner of ceremo 
nies, but also in matters of faith/ 7 

The emphatic word here is their h . It refers to the 
human side of the Church, or rather to the individuals 
in the Church who do not live up to the graces be 
stowed on them. " The Church as the institution of 
Christ hath never erred, hath never become wicked, 
and never loses its energy; which it ever preserves, 
although the proof may not always be so obvious to 
the eyes. To exhibit the kingdom of God upon earth, 
and also to train mankind for the same, she has to 
deal with men who were all born sinners, and were 
taken from a more or less corrupt mass. Thus she 
can never work outside of the sphere of evil ; nay, 
her destination requires her to enter into the midst of 
evil, and to put her renovating power continually to 
the test 1 ." 

Individuals will never u in their living" come up to 
the perfect ideal, and the moral taint will tell upon the 
belief. It will affect the acceptance by the intellect 

h It is not in the Latin version, nml therefore must have been put into 
the English with a purpose. Miihler, vol. ii. p. 29. 



OF THE CHURCH. 271 



of those truths which belong to it, not to grasp, but 
to yield a reverent submission to. Hence corruption 
of life will always be correlative to corruption of doc 
trine, and in proportion as men fail to practise the 
moral and practical parts of the Christian religion, in 
that measure will they fail to apprehend those delicate 
intuitions which are the fruits of a true faith. A man 
who lives as though there were no retribution, though 
he may in words acknowledge what the Creed says on 
the subject, can, in only a most imperfect sense, be said 
to believe it; and still more will that be the case with 
regard to the finer truths. Practical love to God will 
alone enable a man really to believe in the Holy Ghost, 
the love of the Father and of the Son; and practical 
righteousness and Christian wisdom alone enable a man 
to realize the righteousness and wisdom of God. 

The Article is then directed against the practical 
and doctrinal corruptions of " members" of the Church 
of Home, and these errors are declared to be similar to 
the errors in the Churches of Jerusalem, Alexandria, 
and Antioch. Now by these terms we are not to under 
stand the Jacobite communities which devastate these 
provinces with the miserable heresy of Eutyches. 
These, having been cut off from the Church by the 
Council of Chalcedon, which the Church of England 
acknowledges, cannot by her be termed in any sense 
the Churches of those countries. The errors in the 
Church of Rome, therefore, are compared with any 
errors of the orthodox and believing remnants that 
have remained in the East testifying to the faith of 



ARTICLE XIX. 



Jesus. Now, not only has the Church of England never 
taken any formal step against the orthodox Eastern 
Church, but it has always acknowledged the East as 
a true branch of the Church of Christ, not without 
many corruptions, the effects of ignorance, and practical 
deformities, but still honourable and venerable in the 
highest degree ; and therefore the censure here passed 
upon the members of the Church of Ptome must be 
compatible with this view of the subject. In short, 
such censure only is intended as was implied in the 
general cry for reformation which prevailed all through 
Europe at the time of the publication of the Articles., 
and which the Council of Trent, partially indeed and 
imperfectly, but still in a measure actually, tended to 
correct. 

Since no doctrine formerly received by all the Ortho 
dox Eastern Patriarchates can be pointed out, which 
the Church of England can be held to have had in view 
when it declared that those Patriarchates had erred, 
then neither, by the force of the terms, is any doctrino 
formerly received of the Latin Church intended, when 
it says that the Church of Rome had erred. The two 
clauses are strictly antithetical, and the same degree 
of error must be meant in both. It may be that the 
writers of the Article had in their minds tacitly to 
protest against the infallibility of the Church of Rome 
by itself, or that the Church of Rome, as a particular 
Church, and not as in harmony with the rest of the 
Church Catholic, was liable to error, which is histori 
cally true, e.g. Eugenius IV. has got all ritual writers 



OF THE CHURCH. 273 



into endless perplexities by his ignorant definitions of 
the form and matter of the Sacraments k ; it may be, 
that they meant to convey that corruptions had crept 
into the Roman Church too, which required reforma 
tion. But neither statement lies in the words of the 
Article. All which the Article states is an historical 
fact as to the past. It says of the Church of Rome 
that it has erred in time past ; " hath erred ;" as it 
says of the other Patriarchates that they " have erred." 
The Article binds to nothing more than this fact. 
Whatever lies beyond it must not be imported into 
the Article, since it says nothing thereon. 

" The boldness with which through Christendom, 
and especially in Italy, censures were uttered against 
the Papal Court, and the corruption that had crept into 
the Church, is well worthy of attention. Dante and 
Petrarch have spoken with virulence, but were neither 
personally reproved, nor were their books prohibited. 
The novels were full of witticisms and adventures at 
the expense of the monks. Poggio describes the exe 
cution of Huss and Jerome of Prague so as to excite 
compassion toward them and hatred of Home. His 
shameless Facetiae, in which the manners of the Roman 
Court and of its ecclesiastics are held up as laughing 
stocks, were printed at Rome in 1467. Pictis of Mi- 
randula in the Lateran Council, declaimed against the 
ambition, the avarice, and the immorality of the clergy 
with a boldness never surpassed by any reformer 1 ." 

k Cone. Lall., t. xviii. 1222 and 544. 
1 Cantu, Storia d ltalia, Eng. trans, p. 21. 

T 



"274 ARTICLE XIX. 



" The spirit of Paganism had however penetrated 
<3veii the Pontifical Court. Men of genius found favour 
there without regard to the use the} made of their 
talents. Bembo speaks of vows to the goddess of Fame, 
of appeasing the manes of the subterranean gods. 
Bembo and Ippolito d Este, not only had sons but 
openly acknowledged them. Leo X. accepted the de 
dication of a most indecent poem by Ariosto, and 
caressed the base Aretini. TJlric Von Hutten says 
that those who came to Home came away with three 
things, a bad conscience, an impaired stomach, and 
an empty purse : that three things were not believed in 
Rome, the immortality of the soul, the resurrection 
of the dead, and the existence of hell : that three things 
were traded in, the grace of God, ecclesiastical dig 
nities, and women m ." 

Thus the "living" of the members of the Church of 
Rome was, unhappily, notoriously bad. If Florence was 
the Athens, and Venice the Corinth of mediaeval Italy, 
the imperial city and metropolis of the Church did 
not escape the contaminating influences of the times. 
Italy was at the head of the civilization and refinement 
of Europe, and alas, of its wickedness. Macchiavelli 
had destroyed its political morality. The secession to 
Avignon, and the great schism, shook the confidence 
of Europe in the Papal See. The Borgias and Pope 
Julius were strange vindicators of the spiritual king 
dom of Christ. The heathen movement, from Nicholas 
V. s time, when the Vatican Library was founded in 

m Cantu, p. 27. 



OF THE CHURCH. 275 



1447, and Laurentius Valla began that bright galaxy 
of scholars, which culminated in the time of Leo X., 
shocked the moral sense of the Church. Complica 
tions, caused by the union of the temporal and eccle 
siastical powers, such as certain sanitary arrangements 
in which the moral health of the community was sa 
crificed to the physical, became scandals. As has been 
said, the spirit of Paganism pervaded the Curia Montana. 
Yet, that error should creep into the different Churches, 
had long been recognised as possible. As early as the 
days of St. Pacian of Barcelona, who died in extreme 
old age before A.D. 392, and who represented the mind 
of St. Cyprian, we read such words as these : " There 
fore she (the Church Catholic) is also a fruitful and 
rich vine, with many branches, and the varied tresses 
of many a tendril. Look ! Are there everywhere large 
clusters, is every grape full swelled? Have none of 
these suffered from the winter cold ? Have none en 
dured the rough hail ? Have none to accuse the burn 
ing heat of summer ? One bud is studded thicker 
with shoots ; another is stronger ; another clearer : 
one bursts forth into fruit; another only into exube 
rance of leaves. Yet is she a vine, in every part 
beautiful 11 ." Moreover, sufficient stress has not been 
laid upon the note of sanctity, and its operation on the 
organic Church ; perhaps because, inasmuch as God only 
knows those who are His, men prefer to deal with that 
which is tangible and visible. They therefore appeal, 
perhaps too exclusively, to the note of unity. And yet 

11 Ep. iii. 30, Oxf. Tr. 300. 



276 ARTICLE XIX. 

surely the same laws affect both. If man s free-will 
can affect the sanctity of the Church, so it may affect 
the unity; and the same laws and circumstances that 
affect the one, may affect the other. The distinction 
between the objective and subjective in sanctity and 
unity must be maintained : the one, that wrought by 
God only; the other, that which is produced by the 
co-operation of man. Men ever come short of God s 
gracious purpose with regard to them, and this applies 
to the Church as well as individuals. 

A thoughtful person has said that the whole of the 
latter part of the Article is probably best illustrated 
by a thoughtful study of the Epistles to the Seven 
Churches in the Apocalypse. Those words of the Di 
vine Head of the Church with the exception of those 
addressed to St. Paul, standing alone in their pre 
eminent majesty and significance as the only words 
spoken by the Son of Man (hiring the Christian dis 
pensation seem to lift the veil of His dealing with the 
Church, and to shew that the trials, and failings of 
the local portions of the One Church Catholic may be 
widely different in kind, and their consequences diverse 
in degree. 

To those whose strong polemical instincts lead them 
to be perpetually inclined to "unchurch" be it the 
Church of Rome, or be it our own, it might prove 
a not unsoothing study to meditate at times upon 
the patience of our Divine Lord, not only in His 
Passion, but in His ascended glory, remembering that 
in the local portions of the Church Catholic, even 



OF THE CHURCH. 277 



in the " earliest and purest ages," we find : " failure 
of first love ;" " toleration of the doctrine of Balaam ;" 
" immoral living introduced by a false prophetess ;" 
"a church which had need to strengthen the things 
that remain that are ready to die;" and lukewarm 
and self-complacent Laodicea." And yet each and all 
were then integral portions of the Church Catholic, 
and the merciful word was still, "I will!" 



ARTICLE XX. 

DE ECCLESIJE AUTHORITATE. 

Ecclesia rihis sice cceremonias statucmlijus, ct in 
fidci controversy s authoritatem ; quamris] EccJcsicc -non 
licet quicquam institucrc, quod rerbo Del \_scripto"] ad- 
rersctur, nee umnn scripture? locum sic exponerc potest, 
nt altcri contmdieat. Quare licet Eccksia nit flirinonim 
lilrorum tcstis, ct conservatrix, attamcn ut advcrsus cox 
nihil dcccrncrc, if a prceter iUos, nilill crcdcndum dc ne 
cessitate sahitis rtebet obtrudcrc. 



" Of the Authority of the Church. 
"TiiE Church hath power to decree rites or cere 
monies, and authority in controversies of faith a : and 
yet it is not lawful for the Church to ordain any thing 
that is contrary to God s Word written, neither may it 
so expound one place of Scripture that it bo repugnant 
to another. Wherefore, although the Church be a 
witness and a keeper of Holy Writ, yet, as it ought 
not to decree any thing against the same, so besides 
the same ought it not to enforce any thing to be be 
lieved for necessity of salvation." 



THE end of revelation requires a Church, one and 
visible. The divine truth embodied in Jesus Christ, 

a For the history of the first clause in Article XX., which gave rise 
t so much discussion in the time of Archbishop Laud, see Collyer s 
Church History, vol. vi. pp. 364 377, and Hardwiok s History of the 
Vrticles, p. 143. 



OF THE AUTHORITY OF THE CHURCH. 279 

the eternal Truth, and thereby exhibited in an outward 
and living phenomenon, is of course a deciding autho 
rity; but when He ascended, He left His mystical 
Body a society which in its turn should be the living 
expositor of the truth, and represent Him. "As my 
Father sent Me, so send I you. I am with you always, 
even unto the end of the world." 

We never can attain to an external authority, like 
Christ, by purely spiritual means. The attempt would 
involve a contradiction, which must be disposed of in 
one of two ways. Either we must renounce the idea 
that in Christ God manifested Himself in hiskrfy, to 
the end that the conduct of men might be permanently 
determined by Him ; or we must learn that fact through 
a living, definite, vouching fact. Authority must have 
authority for its medium. Christ established a credible 
institution, in order to render the true faith in Him 
perpetually possible. Immediately founded by Him. 
its existence is the de facto proof of what lie really was. 
How doth man attain to the true knowledge of Christ ? 
The Scripture is God s unerring word, but ?/v are not 
exempt from error; we only become so, when we have 
unerringly received the Word, which in itself is in 
errable. In this reception of the Word, human acti 
vity, which is fallible, has necessarily a part. But in 
order that in this transit of the Divine contents of 
Scripture into the human mind there be no illusion,, 
it is taught that the Holy Spirit supplies, in Hi* 
union with the human spirit in the Church, a pecu 
liarly Christian tact, and deep sure-guiding feeling* 



280 ARTICLE XX, 



By confiding attachment to the perpetuated Apo- 
stolate, by education in the Church, by " hearing," as 
St. Paul would say, a deep, interior sense is formed, 
which alone is fitted for the reception and acceptance 
of the written Word, because it entirely coincides with 
the sense in which the Scriptures were composed. 

Where misunderstandings as to the meaning of the 
Divine Word arise, the Church must interpret Holy 
Scripture. The Church is the Bod} of the Lord ; it is 
in its universality His visible form, His permanent ever- 
renovated Humanity, His eternal revelation. Pie dwells 
in the community. All His promises and gifts are 
bequeathed to it, but to no individual, as such, since 
the days of the Apostles. This general sense is the 
KK\7)cna(mKbv <f>p6vijij,a of Eusebius, the ecclestasfioa 
intelligent ia and catholic-its sensits of Vincentius Lirinen- 
sis. To this sense the interpretation of Holy Writ is 
entrusted. The declaration which it pronounces on 
any controverted sense is the judgment of the Church, 
and therefore the Church is Judex controvei sianim, an 
"authority in controversies of faith V 

This being so, the first question, that suggests itself 
is the law whereby she is to be the judge of contro 
versies. We have in a previous Article laid down 
the relations between the Church and Holy Scrip 
ture. We have now to add the other great authority 
which the Church takes as her guide, in expounding 

b Mohler: but the author identifies the ecclesiasticus sensus with 
tradition, -which seems incorrect, as tradition is a definite thing, the 
sensus the power of judging of that thing. 



OF THE AUTHORITY OF THE CHURCH. 281 

that Holy Scripture, and which constitutes the second 
great factor in her decisions. This is Christian Tra 
dition, the concurrent testimony of antiquity, univer 
sality, and consent. A doctrine which the Church has 
received and taught in every age, in every country, 
and concurrently by all, must be, as agreeable with 
the Divine Scripture, infallibly true. These two powers, 
Holy Scripture and ecclesiastical tradition, have his 
torically been the sources from whence men ascertained 
the truth c . 

But, secondly, inasmuch as the Church is indwelt by 
God the Holy Ghost, it is no mere concocter of formu 
laries after a mechanical and lifeless fashion ; it has 
been guided to express wisely and rightly the form of 
faith, and therefore has availed itself of new terms, 
such as " the consubstaiitial/ rejecting it in the wrong 
sense, accepting it in the right. And so in later times, 
in regard to the sacred doctrines of the Natures and 
Person of our Lord, it exercised the Divine gift in 
dictating the precise terms whereby man might in 

c See Dr. Pusey s Sermon on the " Rule of Faith," p. 34. The Fathers 
at Nicea wrote concerning the Easter, it seemed good as follows/ for it 
did seem good that there should be a general compliance ; but about 
the faith they wrote not it seemed good, but thus believes the Ca 
tholic Church ; and thereupon they confessed how the faith lay, in 
order to shew that their own sentiments were not novel, but aposto 
lical ; and what they wrote down was no discovery of theirs, but is the 
same as was taught by the Apostles : " so at Chalcedon, in their decree 
the Bishops are careful to shew that they set forth no other faith than 
that of the Fathers, that they are not even devising anew aught lack 
ing to the faith, but considering what is useful for the things newly 
invented by these heretics." 



282 ARTICLE XX. 



reverence and truth speak of those holy mysteries. 
But it is not derogatory either to the Church, or to 
the Office of God the Holy Ghost in her, to maintain 
that, in some periods, this gift has been less vividly 
present than at others. 

As man is the microcosm of the universe, so the in 
dividual, faithful man, is that of the universal Church. 
As in the individual the faith whereby he believeth 
unto salvation is, as we have seen, a faith informed 
and animated by love ; and as his faith stands in 
relation to, and is profoundly affected by his moral 
nature, (so that love and good works are an inte 
gral part of vivid faith, and, correspondingly, faith 
is quickened by a holy life, and expires under the in 
dulgence of certain sins,) so something of this kind, 
limited of course by Christ s promise of indefectibility 
and the Holy Spirit s guidance, must take place in the 
Church. There must be a similar process. The divino 
perception of truth will be quickened in the body of 
the faithful, in periods of revival and refreshment. 
The eye of the Church will Avax dull when the moral 
state of society, and especially of its teachers, is at the 
lowest. Is it impious to believe that the Christian 
izing of the Empire, by increasing the material in 
terests, by silencing the delator s tongue, by bringing 
into the net plenty of bad fishes, weakened the spiritu 
ality of the Church ? Is it not in the nature of things, 
that when the old society, before the fresh blood of 
the barbarians gave it new youth, was actually dying 
out, the divine ray should become dimmed by the 



OF THE AUTHORITY OF THE CHURCH. 283 



fetid exhalations from a putrifying civilization ? Would 
the great schism ever have been permitted, had men 
not lost their sense of the necessity of Christian unity 
and of the transcendental truths in the Divine na 
ture, on which that Christian unity depends ? Surely 
as under the old law we find a shortening of God s 
merciful hand caused by the sins of His people, so, 
even in the dispensation of the Spirit, in the Catholic 
Church of Christ, we may believe that the depraved 
use of man s free-will may have worked to the distinct 
detriment of her teaching office, if faith and works be 
different aspects of the same habit. 

Hence it may have been, in the providence of 
God, that no heresy arose in those awful times, when 
" Christ seemed to be fast asleep in the bark, and the 
ship was covered with waves, and He Himself seemed 
to allow of the evils which He did not avenge d ." And 
we cannot think that it was without His providence 
that almost all the heresies which could emerge in the 
great, central doctrines of the Holy Trinity and the 
Incarnation, (and we might say also as to the grace of 
God,) did emerge in those first centuries of strong 
faith and fresh tradition, so that the highest truths of 
faith were ruled in the undivided Church. 

It is even remarkable how very little was defined 
between the fourth General Council and the Council 
of Florence. The lawfulness of the religious use of 
images, established in the second Council of Nice, has 
scarcely the character of a dogma. The Council of 
d Baron. H. E. A.D. 912. 



284 ARTICLE XX. 



Frankfort, in condemning Felix and Adoptianism, had 
no new definition to make. In the fourth Lateran 
Council, transubstantiation is rather practically taught 
in view of the Real Presence, than defined in itself 6 . 
Perhaps the one great exception is, that in regard to 
the Procession of God the Holy Ghost, the heresy im 
puted by Photius of old, that the Latin doctrine in 
volved two "Ap^ai in the Deity, is rejected in the second 
Council of Lyons ; and the decision of the Council of 
Florence, that the language used by the Greek and 
Latin Fathers meant the same, was anticipated. Even 
in the Council of Trent it is remarkable how very little 
is defined upon some of the subjects which perhaps 
mainly occasioned the Reformation, e.g. indulgences, 
purgatory, the cultus of the saints. 

In fact, the short-comings of sinful humanity have 
-crippled the operation of this divinely-ordered system. 
So long as the Church was undivided, the organ was 
in perfection and did its work. The decisions of the 
(Ecumenical Church are the voice of the Holy Ghost ; 
nothing can exaggerate the veneration or submission 
with which they ought to be received. But when, 
for the sins of Christendom, God permitted the great 
schism between the East and the West, the teaching 
office of the Church was, for the most part, limited to 
the authorization, inculcation, and application of truths 
already infallibly defined, or to the declaration of truth 
which had not yet that test of infallibility, the re 
ception by the whole Church of Christ. We cannot 
e See further on, Article XX VI II. 



OF THE AUTHORITY OF THE CHURCH. 285 

dispose of this fact as we can of the casting forth 
of Nestorianism or Eutychianism, or even of the No- 
vatian schism in earlier times. On the one hand, 
no heresy can be charged against the orthodox East 
erns; and on the other, the position of the East was 
founded in no negation of unity or catholicity. Nova- 
tianism had a theory of its own a false one. The 
Greek Church became separated by circumstances over 
which it had no control. From the time of the esta 
blishment of the Empire at Byzantium, the elements of 
the future scission began to work the human passions 
of the Popes and Patriarchs gave force to a dissidence 
which probably had its roots in the totally different 
temperaments and minds of their respective subjects; 
and in the final quarrel about Bulgaria, which occa 
sioned the actual split, it is very difficult to award 
the meed of praise or blame to either party. If the 
Easterns, on the plea of the decrees of the Councils, 
arrogated for the Patriarchs a power to which they 
had no right, the Westerns were equally bold in assert 
ing the prerogatives of St. Peter. The establishment 
of the Latin Emperors, and the aggression of a Latin 
Church at Constantinople, were not to be justified. In 
short, it is impossible to say that either side was quite 
right, or that either side had not much to say for it 
self ; and therefore we cannot aver that either party 
is cut off from the true Vine, or that either section has 
ceased to be a part of the Catholic Church of Christ. 

And this assertion has not only been held by in 
dividual doctors of the Western Church, but actually 



286 ARTICLE XX. 



has been admitted by its most authoritative organs. On 
110 other theory could the Councils of Lyons, Sienna, 
Ferrara, or Florence ever have been held. If modern 
theories be true, the Church can only deal with the in 
dividual members of separated communities. In the 
eyes of the Church such communities, according to 
these theories, have no corporate existence at all. It 
was not so in those great Councils, nay, it was not 
so in any of the prior attempts at reconciliation, some 
of which from time to time were actually successful. 
One must deny history, if one would assert that the 
Latins never treated the separated Greeks as a Church. 
Except by the Ultramontane School, the Orthodox 
Eastern Church has ever been regarded as a Church, 
with orders, sacraments, miracles, and jurisdiction, 
which has never fallen into heresy in short, a real 
Church, the schism notwithstanding. 

We find that, long after the time of Cerularius, 
a certain degree of communion still existed between 
the East and the West. Leo Allatius has produced 
several proofs that the act of Cerularius did not pre 
vent the unity of the Churches : and the author of the 
Pcrpetidte de Iff Foi, says, "that even in the twelfth 
century, the schism was not yet so formed as that all the 
Greeks were generally rejected by all the Latins, and 
all the Latins by the Greeks, and there appeared among 
many of them marks of ecclesiastical communion f ." 

Again, it must be observed, that in the present day 
the authority of the Church is made to rest mainly 

f Palmer s " Treatise on the Church," vol. i. p. 189. 



OF THE AUTHORITY OF THE CHURCH. 287 

on unity. It is said that the Church cannot speak 
authoritatively except it be one. And yet it is in 
fallibility, not authority, of which the reception by 
the whole Church is the test, which reception is hin 
dered when intercommunion is suspended. There may 
be many degrees of authority, adequate to guide us 
to the faith, short of absolute infallibility. When 
u heresy had been rejected of old in a local Church, 
there was guidance enough for its members, before the 
universal adoption of its decrees stamped its judgment 
with infallibility. But apart from this, many years 
elapsed before it was brought out that unity was the 
guarantee for authority. Even after the luminous ex 
position of the unity of the Church by St. Paul, we 
find centuries elapse before it is brought out scien 
tifically by St. Cyprian. Before that, bishops excom 
municated each other, and, resting on the goodness of 
their respective causes, died in separation, without 
a doubt as to their eternal safety. Such was the 
case in the matter of Pope Victor and the Eastern Bi 
shops. Even St. Cyprian, who, as a doctor, has done 
more than any other for the scientific development of 
the idea of Church unity, actually felt it his duty not 
to give up the re-baptizing of heretics, which he and 
a large African Council had ordained, in conformity 
to an African tradition, although Pope Stephen re 
nounced his communion for it, and the great St. Fir- 
milian confirmed him in this, saying that Pope Stephen 
had rejected, not St. Cyprian, but himself s . Except 
when controversy embittered men s hearts, the mere 

e In St. Cypr. Epp., Ep. 75, n. 25, Oxf. Tr. 



288 ARTICLE XX. 



fact of separation was not looked upon as crucial, as 
we may judge by the way in which the Meletians at 
Antioch were regarded. So also Lucifer of Cagliari, 
though the founder of a sect, is always spoken of with 
the greatest reverence ; and St. Leo, after the death of 
his great opponent St. Hilary of Aries, speaks of him 
as " of blessed memory." The Donatists were heretics 
as well as schismatics. So that, although St. Augustine 
dwells very prominently on the fact of the schism, it 
was not pure schism, (such as that between the East 
and West,) of which he says, that men without the 
Church may have everything but salvation. 

Nay, the converse of the proposition may be asserted, 
that the testimony of different Churches, agreeing in 
handing down the deposit, was regarded as of more im 
portance in way of corroboratioii of truth, than a con 
current testimony of two Churches closely united. It 
was more like the witness we now claim for certain 
truths from the immemorial practice of the ancient 
heretical communities. It was the bringing together 
of witness which was specially called for, as a basis 
for authoritative declaration. It will be seen that the 
hinge of the two notions turns on the prominence given 
to the theory of doctrinal development. 

That the plenary and absolute authority of the 
organ for deciding controversies should be thus tem 
porarily limited is no doubt a startling fact. The 
philosophizing Christian may rejoice in the thought 
that the Church is thereby saved from the danger of 
over-definition. The Catholic Christian will mourn. 
The mournful fact itself is clear from what has gone 



OF THE AUTHORITY OF THE CHURCH. 289 

before. Inerrancy is not the gift of any individual 
Church, but of the Church (Ecumenical ; and if the 
Eastern Church be, as we have shewn, a real Church, 
then, while the East is separate from the West, the 
power of inerrancy cannot be set in motion or pro 
moted ; all that has been decreed in either branch of 
the Church since the schism is liable to revision, and 
the promise of guidance given to the Apostles remains 
restrained as to its present use, in consequence of the 
perversity of the human will. 

And yet the Church still remains a witness to the 
truth, even if for the time she has ceased to declare 
infallibly fresh truth. She testifies as to the old, 
if she cannot sanction the imposition of new dogma. 
While the schism lasts, we must be content with 
this, and in the meantime, it is our duty to labour 
and pray for unity, that God, in the way He thinks fit, 
may build up the breaches in the walls of Zion, may 
unite the scattered limbs of His mystical Body, may 
mend the rents in His holy coat, may restore Pen 
tecostal unity, and then the long silent voice will 
again be heard, and the Urim and the Thummim be 
restored, and the heavens shall rejoice, and the earth 
exult, that the wall of separation is pulled down, that 
peace and concord have returned, and that Christ the 
corner-stone, Who out of two hath made one, hath 
united in the bonds of love both walls, and held them 
together in the covenant of eternal unity h . 

h ulla Eugenii IK, Hard. Act. Cone. Flor., toin. k. p. 985. 



ARTICLE XXI. 

DE AUTHORITATE CONCILIORUM GENERA.LIUM. 

GENEEALIA Concilia, sine jussu, et vokmtate principum 
congregari non possunt; et ubi convenerint, quia ex 
hominibus constant, qui non omnes spiritu, et verbo 
Dei, reguntur, et errare possunt, et interdum errarunt 
etiam in Ms qua ad normam pietatis (al. ad Deimi) per 
tinent; ideoque qua ab ittis constituuntur, ut ad salu- 
tem necessaria, neque robur habent, neque authoritatem, 
nisi ostendi possint e sacris liter is esse desumpta. 



" Of the Authority of General Councils. 

" GENERAL Councils may not be gathered together 
without the commandment and will of princes ; and 
when they be gathered together (forasmuch as they 
be an assembly of men, whereof all be not governed 
with the Spirit and Word of God) they may err, and 
sometimes have erred, even in things pertaining unto 
God. Wherefore things ordained by them as neces 
sary to salvation, have neither strength nor authority, 
unless it may be declared that they be taken out of 
Holy Scripture." 



IT having been shewn in the preceding Article that 
the Eccksia docens hath power to decree rites and cere 
monies, and hath authority in controversies of faith, 
we come to consider one great channel or organ of 



OF THE AUTHORITY OF GENERAL COUNCILS. 291 

that power the (Ecumenical Council a . Given that 
the Church has this power, by whom or how is it to 
be exercised ? By whom but by the Apostolic ministry 
who are appointed " for the perfecting of the saints, 
for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the 
body of Christ ;" by those to whom was committed the 
power of the keys, who had among other duties con 
nected with admission to communion to test the or 
thodoxy of applicants ; by those whose important office 
it was to hand on the form of sound words which they 
had received, to their successors. Each bishop held 
individually what belonged to all in solidum. A pa 
ramount authority, therefore, belonged to each Bishop 
in his diocese, by containing in his single person the 
authority of the whole body. This is the basis of 
the Cyprianic theory. 

But a state of things like this was not sufficient, 
in view of the constant efforts of Satan to sow tares 
amid the good wheat. The restless activity of the 
human mind, and the hatred which the sinful in 
tellect bears to the true doctrine of the Incarnation, 
early necessitated a stronger organization. Error often 
was too powerful for a single bishop to cope with in 
his own diocese. Error extended beyond the diocese. 
Nay, error infected the Bishop himself. Moreover, 
questions arose which could not be settled by the 

" Synodi vcl Concilii nomine majores nostri semper intellexerunt 
sacerdotes, praesertim episcopos, in locum unum congregates, ut causas 

eas scilicet deftiiireut, quse ad ecclesiee fidum seu mores pertinerent." 

Melch. Can. de loc. Theo., p. 146, ed. Patav. 1734. 



292 ARTICLE XXI. 



appeal to the sure practice of the Apostles and their 
followers. The very lapse of time weakened the in 
dividual appeal to antiquity. Something else was 
necessary, and accordingly acting on the precedent 
of the Acts of the Apostles, when the Apostles and 
Elders came together to settle the terms of admission 
of the Gentile converts into the infant Church we 
find that before the days of Tertullian, " Throughout 
Greece were held Councils out of all Churches, by 
means of which matters of importance were treated 
in common, and the representation of the whole Chris 
tian name celebrated with great veneration b ." Fur 
thermore, it was held in accordance with our Lord s 
promise, " that where two or three were gathered to 
gether in His Name, He was in the midst of them ;" 
and men dwelt upon other promises of special guid 
ance, that He, the Word, and the Holy Ghost, were 
specially present on such occasions to control and di 
rect the proceedings, to save them from error, and to 
bless the deliberations. 

The earliest record which we have of a Council, after 
that mentioned in the Acts of the holy Apostles, is 
a Sicilian Council held in the year A.D. 125, on the 
subject of an error respecting the impossibility of 
a fall after baptism c . Soon after the synodicon men 
tions a synod at Rome, in the time of Pope Victor, 
against Theodotus of Byzantium, who not only had 
sacrificed in persecution, but had denied the divinity 
of our Lord d . At Pergamos, in A.D. 152, a synod of 

b De Jejun., c. 13. Labbe, i. 558. d Ib., 568. 



OF THE AUTHORITY OF GENERAL COUNCILS. 293 

seven bishops anathematized a form of Gnosticism 
called the Colorbasian heresy ; in the East, in A.D. 160, 
Cerdon was thus condemned; at Rome, in A.D. 170 
and 198, the Quarto-decimans ; at Hierapolis, in A.D. 
173, Montanus and Maximilla ; and in Palestine, in 
Pontus, at Lyons, in A.D. 198, the Quarto-decimans 
again. The Roman synod against Sabellius and Noetus 
was probably held about A.D. 258 e . 

During these early times, from the constant liability 
of persecution, and the fact of the empire being still 
heathen, the action of the Church was by small local 
Councils in different parts, as questions happened to 
arise, and these, as they got accepted by the other 
Churches, became the voice of the whole Church. 

In short, during this period we find that every ques 
tion that arose was settled by local Councils, increasing 
in importance and weight, till the State-establishment, 
under Constantino, allowed a representation in a large 
sense of the whole Church of God in the great (Ecu 
menical Synod of Nicsea. The language with regard 
to its authority is very strong, and it is remarkable 
that in spite of the efforts of the Arians and the Arian- 
izing emperors to establish counter synods, and in spite 
of the crucial word the Homoiision not having been 
universally enforced, that Council had a grasp upon 
the conscience of the Church which none of its rivals 
succeeded in effecting. 

So great was its effect, that henceforward the autho- 

e Baluz, Nov. Coll. in Cone. i. 848, Col. 



294 ARTICLE XXI. 



rity of the episcopate became merged in the repre 
sentative institution of Councils. In the midst of much 
human feeling, violence, and fraud, God used this form 
of legislation to preserve the truth once declared to the 
saints. While the intellect of the East surged up and 
down, a very sea of speculation on the most recondite 
mysteries of the faith, it was always felt that the 
decision of a General Council closed the matter for 
ever ; they who could not agree continued in their 
error, but outside the Catholic Church. Thus the 
Nestorians were cut off after the decision at Ephesus ; 
and the Cophts, refusing the decree of Chalcedon, to 
this day remain separate from the orthodox Eastern 
Church. 

However, from the date of the Council of Nicsea, 
another power had been asserting itself in the Church, 
the power of the successor of St. Peter. Often resisted 
successfully, often urged upon inconsistent and false 
grounds, that power was gradually more and more 
felt, especially when the Eastern Empire became weak, 
and the Western Church, by the conversion of the bar 
barians, had placed itself at the head of the new civil 
ization. The question eventually was a question be 
tween the authority of the General Council and the 
authority of the Apostolic See. Following up the 
teaching of the false decretals, the Lateran Councils 
did all they could to support the Papal authority ; but 
in the next century, the dreadful corruption and schism 
induced the princes of Europe to insist on the summon 
ing of the synods of Constance and Basle. There the 



OF THE AUTHORITY OF GENERAL COUNCILS. 295 

doctrine was asserted, and acted on, that the Pope 
is inferior to the Council. The rival Councils of 
Ferrara and Florence were in the interests of the 
Papacy. The Council of Trent left the question un 
solved. 

1. The first proposition in the Article does not touch 
the marrow of the question. It is a mere matter of 
policy. Under the Empire it was of course an impos 
sibility that large bodies of bishops, with their at 
tendants, should be allowed to assemble in any city 
without the cognizance of the civil power. Religious 
questions then, were what political questions are now. 
There was the same, or greater excitement prevailing 
with regard to the question of the Divinity of our Lord 
or the double Procession, as there is now regarding the 
most hotly discussed question of secular government ; 
and just as the first duty of the State is to maintain 
tranquillity at any price, so it was the duty of the Em 
perors to maintain peace in their dominions by the 
exercise of a control over the assembling of Councils. 

Moreover, recognising as they did the authority of 
the Council though in after times we see, as in the case 
of Zeno and the Henoticon, that they did seek, unsuc 
cessfully indeed, to impose formulas by the authority 
of the civil power they used the Councils as great 
State engines for the welfare of their people. It was 
by their own will and suggestion that the General 
Councils were actually called. This power, in the 
West in abeyance for many centuries, was evoked 
again in the instance of Constance and Basle, though 



296 ARTICLE XXI. 



the forms of a certain deference to the ecclesiastical 
authority were maintained on the score of a long pre 
scription. 

It is the same at the present moment. However 
much a General Council might be desired on the part 
of the Church authorities, no Council worthy of that 
name could really be called without the concurrence 
of the civil powers of Christendom. Even those as 
semblages of prelates of the Latin Communion which 
from time to time have been summoned, have been 
controlled by the civil authorities of the different 
countries; much more a Council, such as that of Flo 
rence, where free access was given to all to state their 
claims, would need to have the moral support and 
sanction of the authorities of the different nationali 
ties. No doubt the union between Church and State is 
loosening all over Christendom, and the time might 
come when such a condition of things should be 
possible ; but at this moment, in the present condition 
of the Church and of civil society, it may be safely 
admitted that a Council ought not to be assembled 
" without the commandment and will of princes f " 

The proposition in the Article has distinct his 
torical support. From the time that the Emperors 
were converted by Christianity, the affairs of the 
Church were mightily affected by them, and the 
most important Councils took place at their 

f Vide Dr. Pusey s " Koyal Supremacy/ 
Socrates, Hist., lib. v., prooem. v. Jus. G. E. 317. 



OF THE AUTHORITY OF GENERAL COUNCILS. 297 

Constantino the Great summoned that of Nicsea h ; 
Theodosius that of Constantinople 1 ; Theodosius the 
Younger, that of Ephesus k ; Martian and Valentinian, 
that of Chalcedon l ; Justinian, the fifth, at Constan 
tinople m ; Justinian II., that in Trullo n ; Constan- 
tine and Irene the second Nicene ; and Basil, the 
eighth, which was held at Constantinople p . 

Yet the Emperors, even as representing the laity, 
were checked in their interference in Councils. Hosius, 
Bishop of Cordova, writes to the Emperor : " Mix not 
thyself in ecclesiastical affairs, and lay not on us com 
mands concerning them, but rather learn from us. 
God has given the imperium to thee, to us the eccle 
siastical power q ." St. Ambrose asks Valentinian the 
Younger 1 , "When, most clement Emperor, did laics 
judge a bishop in matters of faith ?" Theodosius the 
Younger, when he sent Count Candidian to the Coun 
cil of Ephesus, lays this principle down in his com 
mission. 

2. The second point to be considered is the relation 
between the decisions of a General Council and Holy 
Scripture. That relation was symbolized by a copy 
of the holy Gospels being put on a throne in the 
midst of the assembly as the type of the blessed 

h Euseb., Vit. Const., lib. iii. c. 6. l Socr., Hist., lib. v. c. 8. k Eva- 
grius, c. 3. 1 Lcontius, de Sectis, p. 462. m Nicephorus, Hist., 

lib. xvii. c. 27. n Balsamon, De Ed Synodo qua dicitur 6 tR Beveregii, 
Synod., torn. i. p. 151. Cone. Nicen., init. P Condi. Const., 

Harduin, vol. v. p. 1025. Ep. ad Const, op. S. AtJian., torn. i. 

p. 371. r Ep. 21. 



298 ARTICLE XXI. 



Spirit. It was always assumed that the duty of a 
Council was to declare what had been the faith from 
the beginning, not to propound new objects of belief. 
A Council might make that matter of explicit faith, 
which before, being matter of implicit faith only, might 
in ignorance be contradicted without sin, but it could 
only give authority to it as a portion of the original 
deposit and revelation. It must witness to a continuous 
tradition, and give authority to its enunciation, but it 
could teach nothing as of divine faith which it did not 
trace up to the Holy Scriptures. The Council of Car 
thage (A.D. 348) declares that it makes its decrees 
"mindful of the divine precepts, and of the magis 
terial authority of the divine Scriptures s ." 

3. The next point asserted is that General Councils 
may err, and sometimes have erred, in things pertain 
ing to God. This proposition is strictly true, for it 
may be proved by the evidence of ecclesiastical his 
tory. Not to speak of such Councils as the Arian 
Councils of Sirmium, that of Ariminum reached the 
proportions of a general synod ; more than 400 Bishops 
were assembled there ; a number beyond that at Nice ; 
much more beyond those of Constantinople. And yet 
the Synod of Ariminum erred in things pertaining to 
God. But there is a much stronger instance in the 
Latrocinium of Ephesus. It was duly summoned with 
all the appropriate forms ; there was present an im 
mense representation of the Church of God, yet it 

Labbe, Cone., torn. ii. p. 747 ; cit. Owen s " Dogmatic Theology," 
p. 14. 



OF THE AUTHORITY OF GENERAL COUNCILS. 299 

went wrong. The inerrancy of a Council can never 
be guaranteed at the moment. The test of the value 
of a Council is its after-reception by the Church. 
Synods of very limited numbers, in very obscure 
places, have by after reception assumed the weight 
of an (Ecumenical Council, as, for example, that of 
Orange on the question of grace ; on the other hand, 
one act of the holiest of all Councils, that of Jeru 
salem in the Acts of the Apostles, in the matter of 
things strangled, has in the "West become obsolete. 
Again, some canons of a Council are accepted, and 
some reprobated. Discipline also may change, so that 
in the matter of authority there is not only an after 
verdict on the part of the living Church, but there is 
also a constant correction, or rather corrective process, 
on its part going on, in matters of discipline, which 
certainly pertain to God ; of course, in the case of 
dogma, the decision of an approved (Ecumenical Coun 
cil forecloses the matter for ever. 

To the understanding of the Article, another most 
important distinction must be borne in mind. It 
speaks of General Councils, not of (Ecumenical Coun 
cils. Now, though in the strict sense of the term, 
General, Universal, (Ecumenical, are the same, yet 
the term (Ecumenical has been consecrated by usage 
to mean ( a General Council, lawful, approved, and re 
ceived by all the Church/ A Council may be general 
without being lawful. To be General, all the bishops 
of the world should be summoned to it, and no one 
excluded but heretics and excommunicated persons. 



300 ARTICLE XXI. 



To be lawful and truly (Ecumenical, it is necessary 
that all that occurs should be done regularly, and that 
the Church should receive it. Hence there have been 
Councils, general in their convocation, but not so in 
their acts or event; such as the Council of Milan, 
held in the case of St. Athanasius in A.D. 354, and 
others *. 

While the Church, then, is in her present rended 
condition, local Churches must be content to make 
local decrees, and these may hereafter either by re 
ception by the whole Church become part of the 
Church s living teaching, or receive a certain modi 
fication. 

As to the number of Councils, the Churches are not 
agreed as to their number. The Anglican Church in 
some of her documents refers to St. Gregory s four, in 
others to six. The Greek Church holds seven, though 
Barlaam, in A.D. 1339, treating with Benedict XII., 
mentions only six u . The Latin Church is not at one 
with itself on the subject. Some doctors count twenty- 
one ; that is, two of Nicsea, four of Constantinople, one 
of Ephesus, one of Chalcedon, five of Lateran, two of 
Lyons, one of Yienna, one of Pisa, one of Constance, 
one of Basle, one of Florence, and one of Trent. 
Others count only eighteen, cutting off Pisa, Basle, and 
Constance in its later sessions. This is the common opi 
nion of the Italians. The French do not consider either 
the fifth Lateran or that of Florence (Ecumenical x . 

1 Kichard, Analyse de Candles, torn. i. p. 4. Paris, 1772. 

u Palmer, ii. p. 203. * Richard, Analyse de Conciles, t. i. p. 108. 



OF THE AUTHORITY OF GENERAL COUNCILS. 301 

The Council of Florence was styled by its editor the 
eighth (Ecumenical, and is so termed in the Papal 
licence 3 ". Gaspar Contarini terms it the ninth (Ecu 
menical z . 



TABLE OF THE GENERAL COUNCILS WITH THE REPRE 
SENTATION OF EAST AND WEST. 



Date, 




Numbers i 


Easterns, 


Westerns, 


325 
381 
431 
451 
553 
680 


Nicsea . . . 
Constantinople 
Ephesus 
Chalcedon . . 
Constantinople 
Constantinople 


318 
150 
68 
353 
164 
56 


315 
149 
67 
350 
158 
51 


3 

1 
1 
3 
6 
5 



y Launoius Epistol., part viii. ep. xi. 
p. 563, ed. 1571, cit. Palmer. 



Opera Contareni, 



ARTICLE XXII 
DE PURGATOHIO. 



DOCTRINA Romanensium a de purgatorio, de indulgentm* 
de veneratione, et adorationc, turn imaginum, turn re- 
liquiarum, nccnon de invocations sanctorum, res est 
futilis, inaniter conficta, et nuUis Scripturarum testi- 
moniis innititur : immo verbo Dei contradicit. 



" Of Purgatory. 

"THE Romish doctrine concerning purgatory, par 
dons, worshipping and adoration, as well of images as 
of reliques, and also invocation of saints, is a fond thing 
vainly invented, and grounded upon no warranty of 
Scripture, but rather repugnant to the Word of God." 



WHATEVER dissidence may be imagined to exist be 
tween the preceding Articles and the doctrines as pro 
mulgated by the Council of Trent, there is none with 
regard to the subjects mentioned in the present one; 
for while the points formerly touched on were ruled 
by the Church of England subsequently to the earlier 
decrees of the Council, the questions of Purgatory and 
Pardons were not discussed for many months after the 

a "The words Romanenses and Romanistce were already used as far 
back as 1520 by Lutrher and Ulricli von Hutten to designate the ex 
treme Mediaeval party." Hardwick, p. 389. Just as in modern French 
literature, the expression parti romaniste is used for the more pro 
nounced section of the Ultraoiontanes. Observe that the harsh word per- 
niciosa of the early Articles is entirely dropped in the later version. 



OF PURGATORY. 303 



publication of the Article b . The Article, therefore, 
cannot be strained into a condemnation and contra 
diction of that which did not exist at the time; and 
we must come to the conviction that it was not the 
formulized doctrine, but a current and corrupt prac 
tice in the Latin or Western Church, which is here 
declared to be "fond" and " vainly invented/ 

This distinction is a very important one. People are 
apt to ignore the real reformation which took place ! 
within the Latin Church, the wise and scientific treat 
ment to which many points were subjected, and the 
abuses and scandals which were discountenanced. No 
doubt the reform might with effect have been carried 
further. Points vitally affecting our own position, e.g. 
all questions of jurisdiction, might have been denned; 
the disciplinary enactments for dioceses might have been 
extended to the Papal Court ; still a real reform did 
take place, and it is unscientific or uncandid to ignore 
it. The reform, such as it was, only came too late. We 
cannot say what in the Providence of God would have 
been the results, if the Popes had yielded sooner to the 
clamours of Europe for a free and (Ecumenical Coun 
cil ; but they feared similar results to those of Con 
stance and Basle, and so the time passed, till all hopes 
of reconciliation had disappeared. Still the Council 
did a mighty work c , and such men as St. Carlo Bor- 

b The decree on Purgatory was passed in the twenty- fifth session of : 
the Council, begun on the 3rd and ended on the 4th of December, 1563. ! 
Vide Harduin, Cone., t. x., p. 167, ed. Paris, 1714. 

c Cuntu, Histoire des Italiens, t. viii. p. 394, also p. 441. 



304 ARTICLE XXII. 



romeo, Archbishop of Milan, St. Thomas of Yillanueva, 
Archbishop of Valencia, Rusticucci, Salviati, Sartorio, 
Gaspar Contarini, Era Bernardino Ochino da Siena, 
Bonomo, Bishop of Yercelli, Paul of Arezzo, Bishop 
of Piacenza, Ypolito Gralantino, the silk- worker of 
Florence, S. Filippo Neri, and a host of others, who 
carried on the work, exhibit in their own persons the 
results that were effected. 

The points against which this Article is directed may 
be discerned in any of the satires which immediately 
preceded the Reformation, such as the Epistolce Obscu- 
rorum Virorum, the history of Dill Eulenspiegel, or the 
Colloquies of Erasmus. These exhibit the picture of a 
great decay of practical religion, corruption and avarice 
reigning among the clergy, nothing done to stem the 
flood of immorality, and, beside this, a round of cere 
monies and puerile superstitions. Nothing is so re 
markable as the way in which holy names and holy 
mysteries are placed by Chaucer in the mouths of those 
who are perpetrating the foulest deeds. It would seem 
as if morality and religion had got so divorced that 
there seemed no incongruity in their association. Eras 
mus account of his visit with Colet to Canterbury, and, 
again, his description of the shrine of Our Lady of 
Walsingham, well repay perusal, and are specially im 
portant in considering the Article, as they exhibit the 
prevalent habit of thought of the time, the every-day 
devotional life of the people, as seen by the eyes of one 
of the most intelligent of men. 

Indeed, the one refreshing aspect of the English 



OF PURGATORY. 305 



Reformation is that which exhibits to us the way in 
which the scandals that brought it on were dealt with, 
how the objects of superstition were cast to the winds, 
and the gainful frauds exposed and scorned. Even in 
the reign of Henry VIII. the semi-heathen image 
of Darvel Gatheren, which had in Wales promoted 
a horrid cultus, such as is said to have existed till 
the seventeenth century among the cognate race of the 
Bretons, was destroyed d . The miraculous rood of 
Boxley, which was said to move its eyes and lips, 
and to sweat blood, was broken up among the jeers 
of the people e ; and through the length and breadth of 
the land, the instruments of fanaticism were cast into 
the fire or the water. Even the bones of the saints, 
the temples of the Holy Ghost, the shrines of the 
grace of God, were mixed up in the common ruin. 
Because discredited by a base coinage, the true mintage 
was destroyed. Because mixed up with manifold im 
postures, the real authentic relics were dishonoured, 
and one common grave received the lying and fraudu 
lent objects which had been used to keep alive the fail 
ing piety of the preceding ages of declension, and the 
blessed remains of those holy men who had been the 
vessels of the favour of God, and His lights in their 
several generations. 

Excess always leads to re- action. Superstition is 
closer to irreligion than men think for, and the 

d Vide Froude s History, vol. iii. p. 294. 

e Vide Fuller s Church History, bk. vi. 810, p. 244, ed. 1837 ; also 
Froude, iii. 288. 

X 



306 ARTICLE XXII. 



misery is, that you can hardly prune away the one 
without promoting the other. Tear the ivy off the 
mouldering church wall, and you will bring away part 
of the wall with it. So it was at the Reformation. 
It was impossible to reform and not to deform; and, 
as a fact, much that had been once good, and in time 
abused, was for the time lost. Solemn rites that had 
lost their significance, or been veiled in an unknown 
tongue, were cast aside as useless ; edifying ceremonies, 
such as the washing of poor men s feet, nay, the unc 
tion for the sick, which had the support of the Inspired 
Word itself, were ignored ; doctrines, such as the 
Communion of Saints, the witness of God to innocence 
in the case of ordeal, the horrible watchful skill and 
constant infestation of evil spirits, dropped out of sight, 
and a one-sided view of God s truth was advocated and 
enforced. This was specially the case with regard to 
the subject of the Article. "The Romish doctrine/ 
in the earlier type of the Article termed " the scholastic 
doctrine," was hereby condemned. It only was con 
demned, but somehow people seemed to forget that 
besides the Romish doctrine on these subjects, there 
was a Catholic doctrine also ; that the errors lay rather 
in the exaggeration and want of proportion of the state 
ments, than in the substance, and that as formerly 
there had been danger from excess, there now was 
danger in defect, in the way of suppressing important 
truths of the Gospel. 

For on every one of the points mentioned there is 
an underlying Christian truth, and it is necessary to 



OF PURGATORY. 307 



the right understanding of the Article to know what 
this is. We cannot tell what the Article means till 
we know what it condemns ; and we cannot know what 
it condemns till we know the doctrine, the perversion 
of which drew forth the condemnation. 

But before proceeding to this, historic truth and 
candour demand that we should say that the protest 
in the Article is still needed. One does not here speak 
of those ancient mountain- shrines in the Tyrol or in 
Switzerland, where the simple, loving herdsman toils 
his weary way over brake and fell, encountering danger 
and real hardship, till he falls down before the Marien- 
bild, or other object of veneration, to which his steps 
have been directed. God forbid that we should sit in 
judgment on the simple faith which prompts the prayer, 
which, perhaps misdirected, God rewards and hears, 
as if offered immediately to Himself; but the protest 
is still needed, because it cannot be denied that super 
stition is still tolerated, if not actually encouraged by 
the authorities of the Church abroad. At Rome itself, 
in the church of the Ara Cceli, the people are blessed 
by the elevation of the Bambino, a doll of the infant 
Saviour, a sort of parody of the solemn rite of bene 
diction with the most Holy Sacrament. At Calcata, 
a place near Civita Castellana, the exhibition of a cer 
tain relic f violates the first instincts of decency and 

f Vide Narrazione critica storica delta reliqida pregiosissima del 
Sanctissimo Prepuzio di N. 8. Gr. C. cTie si venera nella Chiesa Par- 
rocJiiale di Calcata, diocesi di Civita Castellana, e Fendo dell ~Eminen- 
tissima Casa Sinibaldi. Histampata ed accrescuita per or dine di S. E. 



308 ARTICLE XXII. 



reverence ; and Loretto still draws her gains from the 
credulity of the faithful. Nay, even in France, where 
the battle of the faith is being fought by an able body 
of clergy, whose tone in some respects presents a very 
marked contrast to that of the moderate and learned 
school of divines who adorned the Church of France 
before the first Revolution, it is to be feared that, as 
in the notorious instance of the shrine of La Salettc, 
too many are using the weapon of superstition to 
combat the growing irreligion. 

I. The doctrine of Purgatory, against which the Ar 
ticle excepts, is that which is made patent to the eye 
of every traveller as he passes from Germany into Italy. 
The wayside shrines which so edify him still continue, 
but the subjects are changed. In place of the affecting 
representation of the sufferings of the Eternal Son, and 
the touching impersonations of the Lord crowned with 
thorns, with the purple robe and the reed in His hand, 
which speak to the soul of the wayfarer, terrible re 
presentations of the holy souls in flames appal him. 
They are the predominant, although not the exclusive 
subject. Sometimes the Madonna is placed in rela 
tion to those souls, but oftener still they are by them 
selves, appealing for a few pence to the awakened sym 
pathies of the passers by. They say, " Have mercy 
upon me, have mercy upon me, oh my friends ; for 
the hand of the Lord hath touched me." The popular 

il Sign. MarcTiese Cesare Sinibaldi Gamlalunga, Barone e Signore 
delta detta terra. Roma, 1862, presso Vincenzo Poggioli. Con ap- 
provazione. 



OF PURGATORY. 309 



doctrine thus symbolized prevailed in England at the 
time of the Reformation. Probably, as is believed to 
be the case in New Spain, it had come to take the place 
of a living faith in the eternal pains of hell in the case 
of most men. It was also mixed up largely with in 
terested motives on the part of the clergy. There was 
a perfect traffic in masses for the souls, and men fancied 
that by leaving money to the Church at the hour of 
death, and at the expense of their heirs, they might 
purchase mitigation or exemption from pains, which in 
degree, though not in duration, were said to equal the 
pains of hell. The English were very strongly affected 
by these teachings, for several of the most striking and 
romantic legends, e.g. the dream of St. Fursoeus and 
the vision of Drithelm, as recorded in Bede s History %, 
which had contributed much to fix in the minds of the 
faithful a conviction of this doctrine, were of British 
origin, and accordingly the number of endowed chan 
tries which were founded, that priests might, in the 
sweet language of the time, " sing for souls," was im 
mense. Of these, the college of All Souls , Oxford, 
which was established with the idea of study sub 
ordinated to that of prayer for those who perished 
in the French wars in Henry the Fifth s time, saved 
by the scholastic endowment attached to it, has sur 
vived the shock of the Reformation. In the founda 
tion, too, of Lincoln College, Oxford, the same duty 
of prayers for the departed was made co- extensive 
with that of theological study. The popular doctrine 

B Vide Bedce Historia, book iii. c. xix., book v. c. xii. 



310 ARTICLE XXII. 



of the day is laid down in Sir Thomas More s " Sup 
plication of Souls/ a work in which he answered the 
" Supplication of Beggars/ a political brochure, which 
pleaded for the suppression of the chantries, on the 
ground that so much was taken from the poor. The 
chantries were in due time suppressed, but it may 
be doubted whether the poor profited much by the 
transaction. 

"If ye pity the poor, there is none so poor as we, 
that have not a bratte to put upon our backs. If ye 
pity the blind, there is none so blind as we, which are 
here in the dark, saving for sights unpleasant and loth- 
some, till some comfort come. If ye pity the lame, 
there is none so lame as we, that can neither creep one 
foot out of the fire, nor have one hand at liberty to de 
fend our face from the flame. Finally, if ye pity any 
man in pain, never knew ye pain comparable to ours ; 
whose fire as far passeth in heat all the fires that ever 
burned on earth, as the hottest of all that passed 
a feigned fire painted on a wall. If ever ye lay sick, or 
thought the night long and longed for day, while every 
hour seemed longer than five, bethink you then what 
a long night we sely souls endure, that lie slepeless, 
restless, burning and broiling in the dark fire one Idng 
night of many days, of many weeks, of many years to 
gether. You waiter, peradventure, and tolter in sick 
ness from side to side, and find little rest in any part of 
the bed ; we lie bound to the brands, and cannot lift 
up our heads. You have your physicians with you, 
that sometimes cure and heal you ; no physic will help 



OF PURGATORY. 311 



our pain, nor no plaisters coole our heat. Your keep 
ers do you great ease, and put you in good comfort ; our 
keepers are such as God keep you from cruel, doomed 
spirites, odious, envious, and hateful, despiteous enemies 
and despiteful tormentors, and their company more 
terrible and grievous to us than is the pain itself; and 
the intolerable torment that they do us, wherewith from 
top to toe they cease not continually to tear us h ." 

It was strongly felt at the Reformation-period that 
the doctrine of Purgatory had been so taught as to 
invalidate the power of the Passion of Christ. With 
the usual confusion of the objective and subjective of 
those times, on the one hand it was coarsely taught 
that so much suffering would do its work, independent 
of the merit of Christ, in the way of cleansing so much 
sin; on the other hand, according to the new learn 
ing, it was supposed that our Lord s death took away 
the temporal as well as the eternal punishment for 
sin, a mistake, as every day s experience teaches us ; 
for the application of Christ s Blood by the deepest 
repentance will not restore the lost health to the pro 
fligate, nor the squandered wealth to the spendthrift. 
Moreover, a divorce in thought had practically taken 
place between the Sacrifice of Christ and the applica 
tive and commemorating Sacrifice, so that the souls 
were thought to be succoured by masses, to the exclu 
sion of the thought of that adorable Passion which was 
pleaded in and by those masses. 

h More s "Supplication of Souls," Works, p. 337, Cawood, London, 
ed. 1557. 



312 ARTICLE XXII. 



Now the true doctrine, of which the opinion con 
demned in this Article is an exaggeration and excess, 
is founded on the tenderest and deepest sympathies of 
our common human nature. Mankind will not endure 
the thought that at the moment of death all concern 
for those loved ones who are riven from us by death 
comes to an end. We firmly resist the heathen notion, 
which the inverted torch and the broken column sym 
bolize, that henceforward they are nothing to us, or we 
to them ; nay, we go so far as to say, that though the 
tree must lie as it falls, and though death puts an end 
to each man s probation, so far as he is concerned, yet 
that Infinite love pursues the soul beyond the grave, 
and there has dealings with it, in which we who sur 
vive have still our co-operation. To pray for the 
departed is a deep instinct of natural piety, but it 
is much more than that, it is one of the best-attested 
doctrines of the primitive Church. The Jews at the 
time of our Saviour, as they do to-day, prayed for the 
dead, and there is not a word proceeding from the lips 
of our Lord which can be tortured into a condemnation 
of it. There is little doubt that St. Paul prayed for 
Onesiphorus when dead : for the Greek phrase for " his 
household" implies his absence ; and he prays for no 
grace for this life, but only, "The Lord grant unto 
him, that he may find mercy of the Lord in that day 1 ." 
The early Liturgies of the Church, which, traced back 
to the Apostolic times, bear witness to the public teach 
ing of the most remote antiquity, are unanimous in this 
1 2 Tim. i. 18. 



OF PURGATORY. 313 



respect. That of Jerusalem prays : " Remember, 
Lord God, the spirits and all flesh, those of right faith 
whom we have mentioned and whom we have not men 
tioned, from Abel the Just to this day. Do Thou Thy 
self give them rest [or refresh them] in the region of 
the living, in Thy kingdom, in the delights of Para- 
dise, in the bosoms of our holy Fathers Abraham, Isaac, 
and Jacob, whence sorrow, grief, and lamentation are 
banished away, where the light of God s countenance 
visits and shines continually >." That of Alexandria 
prays : " Best [or refresh] the souls of our fathers and 
brethren who have fallen asleep before us in the faith 
of Christ, remembering the forefathers, fathers, patri 
archs, prophets, apostles, martyrs, confessors, bishops, 
saints, just, every soul perfected in the faith of Christ; 
and those whom on this present day we commemorate, 
and our holy Father Mark, the Apostle and Evan 
gelist, who shewed us the way of faith," [then after 
reading the diptychs of the departed,] " and of all 
these rest [or refresh] the souls in the tabernacles of 
Thy saints in Thy kingdom, granting them the good 
things of Thy promises which eye hath not seen, &c. 
Refresh their souls, and vouchsafe to them the kingdom 
of heaven k ." That of Constantinople separates off " the 
oblation for the forefathers, fathers, patriarchs," &c., 
with the clause " at whose intercessions may God visit 
us;" and proceeds, "And remember all who are fallen 
asleep before us in the hope of the resurrection unto 
eternal life; and rest [or refresh] them where the 
J Assem., Cod. Lit., v. 46. k Ass., vii. 24 26. 



314 ARTICLE XXIT. 



light of Thy countenance visits." The Liturgy of 
St. Chrysostom, now " in use through the four Patri 
archates and Russia, except on the few days on which 
St. Basil s Liturgy is said/ has no special form for 
those mentioned in the diptychs of the departed. That 
of St. Basil provides a prayer " For the rest and for 
giveness of the soul of Thy servant N. In a lightsome 
place, where grief and lamentation are fled away, rest 
[or refresh] him." 

In the Roman Liturgy, the prayers are more varied. 
In the Canon of the Mass is a prayer "upon the dip 
tychs" (occurring in a different place, in the Sacra- 
mentary of St. Gregory) : " Remember also, O Lord, 
Thy servants and handmaidens (N. and N.) who have 
gone before us with the seal of faith, and sleep in the 
sleep of peace. To them, Lord, and to all who are 
at rest in Christ, we intreat Thee to grant a place 
of refreshment, of light and peace 1 ." Other prayers, 
after the pattern of St. Paul s for Onesiphorus, were for 
a merciful judgment m ; that God would " save the souls 
of the departed from hell," "from the judgment of 
vengeance," " from the mouth of the lion," from " the 
hands of the enemy;" that they endure not "everlast 
ing punishments," " the fire of Gehenna and the flame 
of hell n ." Or, again, that they may " have part in the 

1 Opp., iii. p. 4. Ben. Comp. p. 289, n. 70. 

m Gelas. Sacram. Orat., n. 91, post Sepulluram, p. 751, Murat. : 
" That before the throne of the glory of Thy Christ, severed with those 
on the right, we may have nothing in common with those on the left." 
(S. Greg., t. v. p. 233.) 

n "From the gates of hell deliver their soul , Lord." (Breviary.) 



OF PURGATORY. 315 



first resurrection ," or "have a blessed resurrec. 

" Absolve, Lord, the souls of all the faithful departed from all bond 
of sin, and, Thy grace succouring them, let them attain [wiereantur] to 
escape the judgment of vengeance, and enjoy the bliss of eternal light." 
(Misses pro Def. Tractus.) " O Lord Jesus Christ, King of Glory, de 
liver the souls of all the faithful departed from the punishment of hell, 
and from the lake profound ; deliver them from the mouth of the lion, 
lest hell (tartarus) swallow them up, lest they fall into darkness ; but 
let St. Michael, the Captain, present them to that holy light, which 
Thou hast promised to Abraham and his seed." (Ojfert.) "Deliver it 
[the soul of one buried] not into the hands of the enemy, nor forget 
him for ever; but command him to be received by the holy angels, and 
to be brought to the house of Paradise ; that, since he hoped and be 
lieved in Thee, he may not endure the punishment of hell [inferni~\ or 
everlasting punishments/ [it used to loep&nas eternas in old Missals, as 
Missale Rom., Paris, 1521, Ussher,] "but may possess everlasting joys;" 
[ib., "on the day of death or of burial"], "that it may escape the place 
of punishment and the fire of Gehenna, and the flame of hell, in the 
land of the living." (Gelasian Sacram., n. 91 ; post obit. Horn., p. 748, 
Mur.) "May he pass the gates of hell and the ways of darkness," 
(p. 749). " Deliver him, O Lord, from the princes of darkness and the 
places of punishment" (p. 750), " that he may be free from the burning 
of eternal fire" (p. 751). "That thou wouldest deliver him from the 
torments of hell." (Greg. Sacram., post lavat. Corp., ib., p. 215 and 216. 
" Let him be severed from the fierce burning of the boiling Gehenna." 
(Post sepult. Corpus, p. 217.) " Grant him to escape the flames of eternal 
punishment, and gain the rewards of eternal life." (Miss. Ambros. in 
Pam. Lit., i. 450.) So also in the Jacobite Liturgy of St. James : " Free 
ing them from the infinite damnation to come, and making them worthy 
of the joy which is in the bosom of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob." 
(Renaud., ii. 38.) " Spare the sinners in the day of judgment," (ibid., 
39). " Forgive those sins especially for which in eternity condemnation 
is prepared," &c., (ibid., 196). " Let them be hidden under the wings 
of Thy grace, and not be condemned," (ibid., 222). " Give rest in the 
habitation of Thy kingdom to all who have fallen asleep in hope of Thee, 
and free them and us from the unquenchable fire and the worm that 
dieth not," (ibid., 339 ; add ibid., 350, 364, 378, 405, 520). 

Gelasiau Sacram., n. 91, post obit. Horn, in pp. 749, bis. 750, bis. 
Murat. ; add Gal ic. Sacram. Mi.Ks.pro defunct., ibid., p. 950; S. Greg. 



316 ARTICLE XXII. 



tion p ," " or that they may obtain eternal felicity in 
the congregation of the saints ;" " may be enrolled in 

Opp., t. v. p. 228, Paris ; Missale Goth., p. 394, ed. Thomas. Mur. " That, 
severed from the horror of hell [horrore tartareo}, placed in Abraham s 
bosom, the Almighty would vouchsafe to resuscitate them in the first 
resurrection, which He shall effect." Tertullian, in reasoning against 
second marriages, asks how a wife is to pray for the two husbands, the 
old and the new; and states the boon demanded for the dead one, 
"refreshment and a share in the first resurrection." (De Monog., x.) 

P " May he rise again among those who rise, and among those who 
receive their bodies in the day of resurrection may he receive his body, 
and with the blessed who come at the right hand of God the Father 
may he come, and among those who possess eternal life may he possess 
it/ (Sacr. Gelas., 1. c., p. 749.) " Let us deprecate the mercy of Almighty 
God for the spirit of our dear N., whose burial is celebrated to-day, that 
He would receive him in eternal rest, and restore him by a blessed 
resurrection." (Ib : d.) "Let his soul receive no injury, but when that 
great day of resurrection and reward cometh, vouchsafe, Lord, to raise 
him with Thy saints and Thine elect ; forgive him transgressions and 
sins to the last farthing, and let him obtain a life of immortality and 
an eternal kingdom with Thee." (Ibid., 750.) " Eternal God, Who hast 
given us in Christ, Thy Only-begotten, our Lord, the hope of a blessed 
resurrection ; grant that the souls of Thy servants, for whom we offer 
to Thy Majesty this sacrifice of our redemption, may be found meet, 
through Thy mercy, to attain with Thy saints to the rest of a blessed 
resurrection." (Prcef. Ant. in Pamel. Lit., ii.609.) " That Thou woulcl^st 
command the soul of Thy servant N. to be carried by the hands of Thy 
holy angels to the bosom of the Patriarch Abraham Thy friend, to be 
raised up in the last day of the great judgment." (Sacram. Greg., n. 104, 
p. 214, Murat.) " And may be found meet to be raised among the saints 
and elect in the glory of the resurrection." (Ibid., and in another 
prayer, at the grave before interment, p. 215.) " Let us pray that the 
pity of the Lord would vouchsafe to place him in the bosom of Abra 
ham, Isaac, and Jacob; that when the day of judgment shall come, He 
may cause him to be raised, and be placed among His saints and elect," 
after interment. (Ibid.) The Jacobite Liturgy prays for the person s 
resurrection (Ren. ii. 167), " Raise them, O Lord, in that last Day, and 
be Thy face calm towards them : and forgive for Thy mercy s sake 
their sins and failings." 



OF PURGATORY. 317 



the number of the saints who pleased God." There 
are prayers also for the recently baptised 1, and for 
eternal remission to those who desired penance, but 
were cut off by death r . There were also the well- 
known prayers for St. Leo I. and St. Gregory I. 
specifically s . 

Perhaps it may not be an improbable conjecture, 
that the Church at first prayed for all the departed in 
one tenour *, without discriminating, leaving it to God 

i Sacratn. Gelas., n. 96, p. 755, ed. Mur. 

r Ibid., n. 98, p. 756. 

s " Grant to us, Lord, that this oblation, by immolating which Thou 
didst grant that the offences of the whole world should be pardoned, 
may profit the soul of Thy servant Leo, through," &c., (Sacram. Gregor., 
p. 101, ed. Murat.) ; and, substituting the name Gregory, (ibid., p. 25). 

* The ancient Office in the Apostolic Constitutions prays : " We offer 
to Thee also for all who, from the beginning, have pleased Thee, saints, 
patriarchs, prophets, just, apostles, martyrs, confessors, bishops, presby 
ters, deacons, sub-deacons, readers, singers, virgins, widows, laics, and 
all of whom Thou knowest the names." (Const. Apost., viii. 12, t. i. 
p. 4C3. Cotel.) The Liturgy of Theodoras, in use among the Nestorians, 
goes on in one tenour : " O our Lord and God, receive from us by Thy 
grace this sacrifice of thanksgiving, the reasonable fruit of our lips, that 
there be before Thee a good memory of the ancient just, holy prophets, 
blessed apostles, martyrs and confessors, bishops, doctors, priests, deacons, 
and all the sons of the Holy Catholic Church, who in true faith passed 
out of this world ; that through Thy grace, O Lord, Thou wouldest for 
give them all the sins and offences which in this world, in their mortal 
body and soul subject to change, they sinned or offended against Thee; 
for there is no one who sinneth not." (Renaud., Litt. Orient., ii. 620, 
621.) The Armenian Liturgy prays collectively : "Through this obla 
tion grant health, peace, plenty, &c., through it give rest to all who 
have heretofore fallen asleep in Christ; to the patriarchs [Adam, Noah, 
Abraham, &c.], to the fathers, [of tribes, families, of the Armenian 
people, antistites in its secular sense, C. M.,] to the prophets, to the 
apostles, to the martyrs, to the bishops, to the elders [i.e. presbyters" 1 , 



318 A11T1CLE XXII. 



to hear her in whatever way He knew for each ; 
and so, that the prayers for deliverance from hell, 



to the deacons, and to the whole clergy of Thy Holy Church, and to all 
the laity, both men and women, who have ended (their life) in the 
faith," (said privately, then aloud,) " with whom we beseech Thee to 
visit us also." Then " of the Holy Virgin Mary, Mother of God, and 
of John Baptist, and of Stephen the first martyr, and of all the saints 
let there be remembrance in this holy oblation, we beseech Thee." 
Then, after full intercessions for the living, special mention of certain 
departed : " Remember, O Lord, also the spirit of Thy servant N. N., 
and have mercy on him according to Thy great mercy, and on (the day 
of Thy) visitation give him rest in the light of Thy countenance/ (but 
if he be living, " save him from all snares of the soul and body"). 
"Remember, Lord, also those who have recommended themselves to 
a mention of them in their prayers, both them that are in life, and them 
that rest in death; direct the intention [or "will"] of their requests 
unto Thee, and of our own to that which is right and that tends to 
salvation," &c. (Armenian Liturgy [Gregorian], translated by the Rev. 
C. Malan.) In the Jacobite Liturgy of the twelve apostles, the one prayer 
comprises all classes : " Remember, Lord, those also who pleased Thee 
from the beginning, especially the holy glorious Mother of God, Mary, 
John Baptist, &c. Remember also, Lord, all the faithful departed who 
have died of old and come to Thee. Receive these oblations which are 
offered for them to Thee this day, and make them rest in the blessed 
bosom of Abraham. With hope of Thy mercy, all the departed have 
received rest, and expect compassions of Thee, our adorable God. 
Grant that they may be found meet to hear that life-giving word, 
which shall call them and bring them, that they be invited to Thy 
kingdom." (Renaudot, ii. 173.) Alcuin has the like prayer in the 
offices which he framed, chiefly (it is related, Monit. JPratv. Alcuini, 
Opp., t. ii. pt. i. p. 3, ed. Frob.) from the Sacramentaries of St. Gelasius 
and St. Gregory : " We humbly pray Thee, Lord, Holy Father, 
Almighty Everlasting God, for the spirits of Thy servants and hand 
maidens, whom,y/*o#i the beginning of this world, Thou hast commanded 
to be brought to Thyself, that Thou wouldest vouchsafe to give them 
a lightsome place, a place of refreshment and quiet ; that it be allowed 
them to pass the gates of hell and the ways of darkness, and they may 
remain in the mansion of the saints and iii the holy light which Thou 



OF PURGATORY. 319 



related to souls on whom the particular judgment 
was not yet passed u ; those for the saints were "for 
increase of their glory/ as was expressed in words 
in a Gothic Missal, before the close of the eighth cen 
tury v ; on which also Innocent III., at the beginning 
of the thirteenth, says, that " very many thought not 



promisedst of old to Abraham and his seed. Let their souls receive no 
injury, but when that great day of resurrection and retribution shall 
come, Thou vouchsafe to raise them, Lord, together with Thy saints 
and Thine elect, and efface their transgressions and sins to the utter 
most farthing, that they may obtain immortal life and an eternal king 
dom with Thee." (Ibid., p. 82.) That of Dioscorus in like way prays 
God : " Remember all who, from Adam until now, have had a conver 
sation well-pleasing to Thee, who have departed unto Thee ; especially 
those who have excellently ministered and served before Thee, faithful 
priests and deacons, who have purified their own souls and those of 
the people," &c. (Ibid., p. 293.) 

u They occur chiefly on the day of the death or burial (see above, notes 
k, 1, m). Since some are dying at every moment, the more general prayers 
may perhaps relate to them, although not specified. Dieringer says of 
these prayers : " To regard these formularies as prayers for those en 
gaged in the death-struggle is, even on this ground, inadmissible ; that 
this liturgy, in its central prayers, presupposes death as having already 
occurred; but the expressions are too strong to be applied to Purgatory. 
But if one brings before one s mind the whole contents of the liturgies in 
question, that the Church in these prayers sets the departed before her, 
as they undergo the last agony, are placed before their Judge, pine in 
Purgatory, await the Resurrection and the Judgment of the world; 
all this, in time severed, is to the praying Church, directly present, since 
she may be certain that her intercessions and sacrifices, though as yet 
future, are taken account of by God at the time when their benefits can 
still avail to those who are the objects of them." (Lehrb. d. KatJi. 
Dogm., 142, p. 721, ed. 5.) 

v "For the glory of the martyrs and the rest of the departed." 
(Missale Gothicum in Thomasius, " Codices Sacram. 900 annis vetus- 
tiores," p. 393, Rom. 1680.) 



320 ARTICLE XXII. 



unworthy x ." The more common explanation was that 
they were thanksgivings 7 , which suits the forms in 
which they were commemorated, yet does not fit in 
naturally with those in which they were prayed for. 
St. Epiphanius explains that these prayers were in 
tended to mark the difference between the highest 
saints and God z . St. Cyril of Jerusalem, in explaining 
the Liturgy, apparently arranges the departed men 
tioned in it into three classes ; 1. those who are com 
memorated and not prayed for " patriarchs, prophets, 
apostles, martyrs, that at their prayers and inter 
cessions God would receive our petition;" 2. the holy 
dead prayed for " then also in behalf of (vTrep) the 



* " What is contained in a great many [plerisque], viz. let such an 
oblation profit [prosit vel proficiaf], this or that saint to glory and 
honour, ought to be understood, that it should profit to this end, that 
he should be more and more glorified on earth, or be honoured ; although 
a great many \_plerique] do not think it unworthy that the glory of the 
saint be augmented up to the judgment, and that therefore, meanwhile, 
the Church may wish for an increase of their glorifying." (Innocent 
III. ArcJilep. Lugdun. in Decretal. Greg. IX. 1. iii. tit. 41, vel de celebr. 
Miss. c. 6. Quum Martha, p. 614, ed. Ritter.) 

r S. Aug. Enchirid., c. 109, in his Short Treatises, p. 151, Oxf. Tr., 
quoted by Innocent III., 1. c. 

z "The prayer for them [the departed] helpeth, although it cuts 
not off everything of accusation. We make mention of the just and for 
sinners. For the sinners, we entreat for the mercy of God. For the 
just, and fathers, and patriarchs, prophets, and apostles, and evangelists, 
and martyrs, and confessors, and bishops, and anchorites, and the whole 
Order, that we may separate the Lord Jesus Christ from the order of 
men through the honours to Him, and may render Him reverence; 
mindful that the Lord is not on a level with any among men, though 
any man be ten thousand fold or yet more in righteousness." (H<zr. 75, 
n. 7, Opp. i. 911.) 



OF PURGATORY. 321 



holy fathers and bishops ;" and 3. of all universally 
who have fallen asleep among us, believing that it 
will be a very great advantage to the souls, in behalf 
of (vTrep) whom the supplication is put up while the 
"holy and most awful sacrifice lieth there." 

St. Cyril thus meets the difficulty, which was in 
the mouths of "many," "What is a soul benefited, 
which departed out of this world with sins or without 
sins, if it be remembered at the prayer ?" He answers 
the question as to "sinners" by an illustration: 
" Now, surely if a king had banished certain who had 
offended him, and their relations, having woven a crown, 
should offer it to him on behalf of those under his 
vengeance, would he not grant relaxation of the punish 
ments? In the same way we also, offering up to Him 
supplications on behalf of those who are fallen asleep 
before us, even though they be sinners, entwine no 
crown, but offer Christ sacrificed for our sins, pro 
pitiating both on their behalf and our own, God, the 
lover of mankind a ." 

When we turn to individual writers in the early 
Church, we find various statements with regard to the 
conditions of the souls of the departed : and those not 
only in different writers, but in the very same ; and 
yet some of these writers are ordinarily so consistent, 
that their sayings have to be reconciled. Then, too, as 
to other minds, a concurrent language has great weight 
as representing some common tone of thought or belief 
in their period. Now, on the one side, we have broad 

* Cat. xxiii. My stag. v. n. 9, 10. 
Y 



322 ARTICLE XXII. 



statements, which assume that there are but two abodes 
in the intermediate state, the one for the saved, the 
other for the lost; and that the abode of the saved 
is one of rest and refreshment b . They anticipate for 

b " I affirm that souls never perish, for this would be a godsend to the 
wicked. What, then, befalls them ? The souls of the good are con 
signed to a better place, and those of the unjust and evil to a worse, 
there to await the Day of Judgment." (St. Justin M., Dial. c. TrypTi., 
5, p. 78, Oxf. Tr.) 

"We will answer [Marcion], this very Scripture too [of Dives and 
Lazarus], which separates Abraham s bosom for the poor man from 
the inferi, refuting him. For the inferi are one place, I deem ; Abra 
ham s bosom, another. For he says that a great gulf intervenes be 
tween those regions, and forbids a passage on either side. Nor would 
the rich man have lifted up his eyes, and that from afar, unless unto 
an upper region. Whence it is clear to any wise man that there is 
a certain bounded space called Abraham s bosom, for the reception 
of the souls of his sons which shall yield meanwhile refreshment to 
the souls of the just, until the consummation of all things shall com 
plete the fulness of reward at the resurrection of all ; a temporary re 
ception of the souls of the faithful, where an image of the future shall 
be delineated, and there be an anticipation of either judgment [of 
eternal death and salvation]." (Tert., adv. Marc., iv. 34.) 

" Are all souls, then, in the inferi ? sayest thou. Will you, nill 
you, thou hast there already both punishments and refreshments; the 
poor and the rich. For why shouldest thou not think that the soul 
is both punished and cherished in the inferi, under the expectation 
of either judgment, in a sort of anticipation of it ?" (I)e anima, 
n. 58.) 

" Passing which gate [of Hades], those who are brought down 
by the angels set over souls, go not by one way; but the just, 
light-led to the right, and hymned by the angels presiding in their 
place, are led to a lightsome spot, where dwell the just from the begin 
ning, not constrained by necessity, but ever enjoying the gaze of the 
things which they behold, and gladdened with the expectation of the 
things ever new, and thinking them better than these ; to whom their 
abode brings no troubles ; no burning heat, no frost are there ; but the 
sight of the righteous fathers which they see ever smiles upon them, 



OF PURGATORY. 



the departed the same comfort and peace which people 
commonly do now ; they console under sorrow for losses 

while, after this spot, they await the rest and new eternal life in heaven. 
It is called Abraham s bosom. But the unjust are dragged by avenging 
angels to the left" ("to the confines of hell"). S.Hippol., adv. Grcec. 
et Plat. n. 1, Gall. ii. 451, 452.) 

"As those, who departing from this world according to the common 
death, are disposed of according to their acts and merits as they shall 
have been judged worthy ; some into the place called Infernus, some 
into Abraham s bosom, and in different places or mansions." (Origin, 
de Princ. iv. 23 (as revised by Rutinus), Opp. i. 185.) 

" For neither are the places which lie below the earth themselves 
void of ordered and arranged powers. For there is a place where the 
souls of the godly and ungodly are led, feeling the foretastes of the 
judgment to come." (Novatian, de Trin., c. i.) 

" The vengeance of hell overtakes us at once, and, immediately we 
depart from the body, if we have so lived, we perish from the right 
way/ The rich and poor man in the Gospel shew us this; the one 
placed by angels in the abode of the blessed and in Abraham s bosom, 
the other at once received into the place of punishment. So quickly 
did punishment come upon the dead, that even his brothers were si ill 
alive. There is no deferring or delaying there. For, as the day of 
judgment is the eternal award either of bliss or punishment, so the 
time of death orders the interval for every man by its own laws, com 
mitting every one to Abraham or to punishment till the judgment." 
(St. Hilary, in Psalm ii. 48.) 

" I think that I have to prove first of all, that our souls are not 
dissolved when they put off the body; but, according to the quality 
of their deeds, some are banished to penal places, some are cherished 
n peaceful abodes." (St. Zeno, lib. i. tr. 16, n. 2, de Resurr.) 

" Why mourn you so pertinaciously those who migrate out of this 
life to better things ?" (Ib., n. 6.) 

"The brazen altar represents the earth, under which is the In 
fernus, a region removed from punishment and fires, and the rest of 
the saints; in which the just are seen and heard by the ungodly, but 
they cannot pass thither." (Victorinus, in Apoc. vi. 9; Gall. ii. 57.) 
(Those spoken of by St. John are martyrs, but Victorinus has only the 
two classes, sancti and impii, of whom the saints are at rest.) 

"Between death and the inferi there is this difference; death it is, 



324 ARTICLE XXII. 



with the same topics, not only that those departed rest 
from their labours, and have no more strife with sin, 
but that they are in peace c ; they speak absolutely of 

whereby the soul is departed from the body ; Infernus, a place in which 
souls are laid up either in refreshment or in pains, according to the 
quality of their deserts." (S. Jerome, in Os. xiii. 14, t. vi. p. 152, 
Vail.) 

" After the departure from the body, forthwith there takes place the 
distinction of the just and unjust. For they are led by the angels to 
the places meet for them; the souls of the just to Paradise, where is 
the converse and sight of angels and archangels, and of the Saviour 
Christ in vision, as is written, being absent from the body and present 
with the Lord. But the souls of the unjust to the place of Hades," 
&c. (Qu. et resp. ad Ortliod., p. 75 ; in St. Justin M., App. p. 470.) 

" We learn from the Scriptures that the souls of sinners are in Hades, 
below all earth and sea, as the Psalm (Ixxxvii. [Ixxxviii.] 7) says, and 
as is written in Job (x. 22). But the souls of the just, after the com 
ing of Christ (as we learn from the robber on the cross) are in Para 
dise. For Christ our God did not open Paradise for the soul of the holy 
robber alone, but for all the souls of the holy thereafter." (Qucestt. ad 
Antioch., q. 19, in St. Athanasius, Opp. ii. 272.) 

The author of the Carmen de judicio Domini in Tertullian., pp. 
808, 809, knew but of the two abodes. So Prudentius, Cathem. x. 151 
162, de exeq. def. 

" We injure Christ, when, as each is called away by Him, we bear 
it impatiently, as though they were to be pitied. I have a desire, saith 
the Apostle, to be taken and to be with Christ. But how much better 
doth he shew the desire of the Christians to be ! Wherefore, if we im 
patiently mourn for others who have obtained this desire, we are un 
willing to obtain it ourselves." (Tertullian de Pat., n. 9, p. 340, 0. T.) 
" It is for Mm to fear death, who willeth not to go to Christ : it is for 
him to will not to go to Christ, who believeth not that he beginneth to 
reign with Christ. For it is written, the just liveth by faith. If thou 
art just and livest by faith, if thou truly believest in God, why, since 
thou art to be with Christ and art secure of the Lord s promise, dost 
thou not embrace thy being called by Christ, and congratulate thee that 
thou art rid of Satan ? Simeon, rejoicing in the nearness now of death, 
said, Lord, now lettest Thou Thy servant depart in peace ; proving and 



OF PURGATORY. 325 



attesting that then have the servants of God peace, then free, then 
quiet rest, when, withdrawn from these storms of the world, we gain 
the haven of our everlasting rest and security." (S. Cyprian de Mor 
tal., n. 2.) " The righteous are called to a place of refreshment, the 
wicked are hurried to punishment" [by the pestilence]; "the multi 
tude of those who are already believers is called to peace." (Ibid., n. 10.) 
We should not regret nor deplore them, nor go into mourning for those 
who have already put on white raiment." (Ibid., 15.) " Embrace we the 
day which assigns each to his own domicile; which restores us, rescued 
hence and freed from the chains of the world, to paradise and the king 
dom of heaven." (Ibid., n. 20.) " The good man shall go, rejoicing, to 
his everlasting house, but the wicked shall fill all with lamentations." 
(Greg. Neocfes. MetapJir. in EccL, xii. 6. p. 95, Paris, 1622.) St.Macarius 
of Egypt even contemplates the perfecting of the imperfect in a moment 
by God. " Qu. But if a man, engaged in war, and having two sides in his 
soul, of sin and of grace, is removed from this world, whither goeth he, 
being held back on the two sides ? Ans. Where his mind hath its aim, 
where he loveth, there he goeth. Only if affliction and war assail thee, 
thou oughtest to contradict and hate ; for, that the war cometh is not 
thine, but to hate is thine. And then the Lord, looking at thy mind, 
that thou strivest and lovest Him with all thy soul, severeth death from 
thy soul in one hour (for this is not difficult for Him) and He receiveth 
thee to His bosom and to the light. For He snatcheth thee, in an 
hour s turn, from the mouth of darkness, and forthwith translateth thee 
to His kingdom. For to God all things are easy to do in an hour s 
turn, so thou have love for Him." (Horn. 26, pp. 151, 152, Par., 1622.) 
" On the two-fold condition of those who depart out of this life." 
" When the soul of man goeth forth from the body, a great mystery is 
accomplished there. For if he be under the guilt of sin, bands of 
devils come, and angels of the left, and powers of darkness receive 
that soul, and hold it on their side. See from the good side that this 
is so. For to the holy servants of God there are from now, angels 
awaiting, and holy spirits encircling and guarding them, and when they 
go forth from the body, the choirs of angels receive their souls to their 
side, to the pure world, and thus they bring them to the Lord." (Id., 
Horn. 22, p. 133.) St. Hilary : "This guardianship, (to be scorched 
neither by sun or moon, and to be preserved from all evil,) doth not 
belong to this time and this world, but is the expectation of the goods to 
come, when, departing out of the body, all the faithful shall be reserved, 
through the guardianship of the Lord, for that entrance of the heavenly 



326 ARTICLE XXII. 



kingdom, placed meanwhile in Abraham s bosom (whither the inter 
posed gulf hinders the ungodly from approaching) until the time come 
of entering the kingdom of heaven. The Lord then shall guard their 
going out, when, going out from the body, they rest, severed from the 
ungodly by the interposed gulf. The Lord shall guard their coming in, 
bringing them into that eternal and blessed kingdom." (In Ps. cxx. 
fin., p. 383, Ben.) " The joy of each just one, as of Lazarus resting in 
Abraham s bosom, is shewn. For the joy of the just is when he seeth 
the vengeance (Ps. Ivii. 11); because, when sinners are to be punished, 
he rejoices that he is carried by angels into eternal rest." (Ibid., in 
Ps. Ivii. n. 6, p. 125, Ben.) "Let innocent religion have this confidence, 
that, if it be put to death unjustly, the soul, going forth from the habita 
tion of the body, rests in the guardianship of God." (Ibid., in Ps. liii. 
n. 10.) The ancient author of the de Virginitate in St. Athanasius : 
" If thou walkest in the world, thou walkest in death and out of God, 
according to the Divine Scripture; but if thou walk in righteousness, 
thou walkest in life, and death shall not hurt thee. With the just it is 
nob death but translation. For they are translated from this world to 
the everlasting rest, and as one goeth out of prison, so do the saints go 
forth from this toilsome life to the good things prepared for them." 
(n. 8, in St. Ath., Opp. ii. 120, 121.) St. Ambrose : " Death is in every 
way a good ; because it puts away those principles in us which war 
against each other, and because it is a sort of harbour for those who, 
after tossing on the wide sea of this life, seek for an anchorage of secure 
peace." (De Bono Mortis, 4.) "Unwise persons fear death as the 
greatest of ills ; but the wise desire it, as if a rest after toil and the 
end of ills." (Ibid., 8.) "Relying on these considerations, let us betake 
ourselves courageously to our Redeemer Jesus, courageously to the 
Council of Patriarchs, to our father Abraham, when our day shall 
arrive ; courageously to that holy assembly and congregation of the 
just. We shall go to our fathers, to our preceptors in the faith ; so that, 
though our works fail us, our faith may succour us, our birthright plead 
for us. We shall go where holy Abraham opens his arms to receive the 
poor, as he received Lazarus ; where they rest who in this life endured 
heavy and sharp inflictions. . . . We shall go to those who sit down in 
the kingdom of God with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, because when 
ask^ed to supper they did not excuse themselves. We shall go thither, 
where there is a paradise of delight, where Adam, who fell among 
thieves, has forgotten to lament his wounds, where, too, the thief him 
self rejoices in the fellowship of the kingdom of heaven; where are no 



OF PURGATORY. 327 



clouds, where no thunder, no lightning, no storm of wind, no darkness 
no evening, no summer, no winter, will vary the seasons. There will be 
no cold, hail, rain, nor the presence of the sun, moon, or stars ; but the 
brightness of light will alone shine forth." (Ibid., 12.) St. Chrysostom : 
" Think, to whom he is gone, and receive comfort ; where Paul is, where 
Peter, where the whole choir of saints." (In Illud de Dormientibus 
nolo, Horn. 5, n. 3, t. i. p. 766.) "Nor then [when Joseph made the 
mourning Gen. 1. 9 11] were the gates of hell broken, or the bands 
of death loosed, nor was death called a sleep. Wherefore, when they 
feared death, they did this ; but now, for the grace of God, since death has 
become sleep, and the end rest, and there is much assurance of the 
resurrection, we exult and are glad, as removed from life to life. Why 
say T, from life to life ? From the worse to the better, from the 
temporal to the eternal, from the earthly to the heavenly." (Horn. 67, 
in Gen. n. 4, t. iv. p. 641.) " It is death no more, but a sleep and 
a journey, and a translation from worse to better. Wherefore also Paul 
crieth aloud, to depart and be with Christ is much better. But this is 
now, since Christ is come, since the gates of brass have been broken, 
since the Sun of righteousness hath shone forth over the whole world. 
For then death had still a fearful aspect, and shook the mind of those 
righteous men." (Ibid., Horn. 45, n. 2, p. 459.) " Death is rest, freedom 
from labour, reward of toils, reward and crown of struggles. Wherefore, 
at first, there were wailings and laments for the dead ; but now, hymns 
and psalmodies. For they wept Jacob forty days, and the Jews wept 
and mourned Moses forty other days. For then death was death ; 
now, not so; but hymns and prayers and Psalms; all things shewing 
that the event hath pleasure. For Psalms are a symbol of cheerfulness : 
If any is of good cheer, let him sing Psalms. Since, then, we are full 
of cheerfulness, we sing over the dead Psalms which bid us be of good 
courage as to the end. Turn again, he saith, unto thy rest, my 
soul, for the Lord hath dealt well with thee. Thou seest that death is 
a benefit and rest. For he who entereth into that rest, hath rested from 
his works, as God from His." (Horn, de S. Bernice, &c., n. 3, t. ii. 
pp. 638, 639.) St. Jerome, to a mother on the death of a daughter : 
" Let the dead be lamented, but he whom Gehenna receiveth, whom 
hell devoureth, for whose pain the eternal fire blazes up. Let us, whose 
departure a company of angels attendeth, whom Christ cometh forth to 
meet, be rather grieved, if we dwell longer in this tabernacle of death, 
because, as long as we linger here, we are pilgrims from the Lord." 
(Ep. 39 ad Paulam de ob. Bices., n. 3, pp. 177, 178, Vail.) St. Augus- 



328 ARTICLE XXII. 



those being at peace for whom they pray for rest d ; 
they so speak not of individuals only, but of the great 
body of believers. (See above, p. 324, sqq.) 

tine : " Although it is not lawful to doubt that the souls of the just and 
pious departed live in rest." (De Civ. D. y iii. 19.) " Of which [our 
city of God] how that part had its birth, which is gathered out of mortal 
men to be associated to the immortal angels, and now is in its mortal 
pilgrimage on earth, or, in those who have died, rest in secret receptacles 
and abodes of souls, the same God creating them." (Id., ibid., xii. 9.) 
St. Cyril of Alexandria : " The force of His words ( Father, into Thy 
hands I commend My Spirit ) laid a beginning and foundation of good 
hope for ourselves too. For it ought, I deem, to be held fixed, and very 
justly, that the souls of the saints, departing from the earthly bodies, 
are deposited, as it were, in the goodness and loving -kindness of God, as 
into the hands of a most tenderly loving Father, and not, as some of the 
unbelievers think, linger in the tombs waiting for the libations there ; 
neither are they, like the sin-loving souls, conveyed to the place of 
boundless torment, i.e. Hades ; but rather they hasten to the hands of 
the Father of all, and of Christ our Saviour Who made for us this new 
way. For He gave up His soul into the hands of His Own Father, that 
we, too, having in this and through this received a beginning, may have 
bright hopes, firmly settled and believing, that we, when we have en 
dured the death of the flesh, shall be in the hands of God, and in a far 
exceeding better state than we were in the flesh. Wherefore also the 
wise Paul writes to us, that it is better to depart and be with Christ. " 
(On St. Joh., xix. 36, 1. xii. Opp. iv. 1069, Aub.) 

d Archbish op Ussher instances that St. Ambrose says of Valentinian : 
"Believe we, that the stain of sin being wiped away, he mounts up 
cleansed, whom his faith washed and his prayers consecrated. Believe 
we, that he has mounted up from the wilderness, i.e. this dry and un 
cultivated spot, to those flowery delights, where, united with his brothers, 
he enjoys the pleasure of eternal life." " Yet," he adds, " blessed both, 
if my orisons shall aught avail, no day shall pass you by in silence, no 
speech of mine shall pass you over unhorioured ; no night shall run by, 
some portion of my prayers unbestowed, I will frequent you in all my 
oblations." (De Obit. Valent., n. 77, 78, Opp. ii. 1194.) Of Theodosius, 
St. Ambrose says : " Freed from doubtful conflict, Theodosius, of august 
memory, now enjoys perpetual light, abiding tranquillity ; and, for the 



OF PURGAT011Y. 329 



This is the light, bright side. There are to be 
adj usted with this two sets of statements, both founded 
on Holy Scripture. 1. The one which unquestionably 
relates to the Day of Judgment, (whether the general 
judgment of all, or the particular judgment of the 
single soul, when it parts out of the body,) St. Paul s 

things which he did in this body, he rejoices in the fruits of the Divine 
reward. Therefore, because he loved the Lord his God, he hath 
attained the fellowship of the saints." (De Obit. Tkeod., n. 32, Opp. ii. 
1206.) Then he prays, " Give perfect rest to Thy servant Theodosius ; 
that rest which Thou hast prepared for Thy saints. Let his soul turn 
thither, whence it came down, where it cannot feel the sting of death, 
where it may know that this death is the e/id, not of nature but of 
fault. For in that he died, he died to sin, that now there may be no 
more room for sin ; but he shall rise again, that life may be restored 
more perfect by a renewed gift. I loved him, and, therefore, I follow 
him to the land of the living ; nor will I forsake him until by my tears 
and prayers I bring the man, whither his merits call him, to the holy 
mount of God, where is perpetual life, where is no corruption, no con 
tagion, no groan, no dolour, no society of the dead, the true land of the 
living, where this mortality puts on immortality, and this corruption puts 
on incorruption." (Ibid., n.36, 37.) And then again : " Theodosius there 
abideth in light, and glorieth in the assemblies of the saints." (Ibid., n. 
39.) Of his own brother Satyrus, after setting forth his excellences, he 
says : " He hath, then, entered the kingdom of heaven, because he be 
lieved the Word of God," (ibid., n. 61, Opp. ii. 28) ; and concludes the 
oration, " To Thee now, Almighty God, I commend the guiltless soul, to 
Thee I offer my sacrifice ; receive, propitious and serene, the brother s gift, 
the sacrifice of the priest." (Ibid., n. 80.) And to Faustinus he contrasts 
his sister s death with the perpetual decay of earthly things ; she, " a holy 
and admirable woman, who is for a time snatched from us, but is pass 
ing a better life there;" " so then," he adds, " I think that she is not so 
much to be mourned, as to be followed by orisons ; nor is she, I deem, 
to be saddened by many tears, but rather her soul is to be commended 
to the Lord." (Ep. 39, Opp. ii. 944.) St. Ephrem, in his Canons, for the 
Departed, prays for those whose pra) ers he had asked, e.g. Can. 16, Opp. 
Syr. iii. 259, 261. 



330 ARTICLE XXII. 



description of that fire which shall try every man s 
work, when they whose work shall be burned shall 
escape, yet so as by fire. 2. The other, our blessed 
Lord s words of that prison, into which they who shall 
be "cast, shall not come forth till" they have "paid 
the uttermost farthing," which, while some interpreted 
of hell, others conceived to be a temporary prison ; the 
debt being paid, not by anything which we can do, but 
by suffering. 

1. Of the first class, St. Clement of Alexandria 
says, " We say that fire purifies not flesh but sinful 
souls, speaking not of that all-devouring and common 
fire, but of that discriminating fire, which penetrates 
the soul which passes through the fire e ." Origen pur 
sues this with much fuller reference to St. Paul s words : 
" If, after the remission of sins and the dispensation of 
the washing of regeneration, we sin, (as we most of us 
do who are not perfected like the Apostles,) and after 
or with this sinning do some things as we ought, what 
awaits us ? If, after the foundation Christ Jesus, thou 
hast gold, much or little, silver, precious stone, but 
also wood, hay, stubble, what wouldest thou should 
happen to thee after thy departure ? Enter into the 
holies, with thy wood, hay, and stubble, to defile the 
kingdom of God ? Or again, abide in the fire for the 
hay, wood, stubble, and receive nothing for the gold, 
silver, precious stone ? Neither were this equitable. 
What, then, followeth, to receive first for the wood ? 
Plainly, that the fire consumeth the wood, hay, stubble. 
Strom, vii. 6, p. 851. 



OF PURGATORY. 331 



For God, Who is a consuming fire, consumed not His 
own image and likeness, but the wood, hay, stubble, 
superbuilded f ." Origen is followed in this by St. Am 
brose, who believed that the Day of Judgment would 
be prolonged so that all but great saints would have 
suffering in it. 

" Thou hast proved us by fire, says David, there 
fore we shall be proved by fire ; therefore the sons 
of Levi will be purged by fire; by fire, Ezekiel ; by fire, 
Daniel. But these, though proved by fire, yet shall 
say, ^WQ passed through fire and water/ (Ps. Ixvi. 12). 
Others shall remain in the fire ; and the fire shall be 
as dew to them (Song of Three Children, 27), as to the 
Hebrew children who were exposed to the fire of the 
burning furnace. But the avenging flame shall con 
sume the ministers of impiety. Woe is me, should 
my work be burned, and I suffer this worsting of my 
labour ! Although the Lord will save His servants, we 
shall be saved by faith, but so saved as by fire. Al 
though we shall not be burned up, yet we shall be 
burned. But how some remain in the fire, others 
escape through it, learn from another Scripture. The 
Egyptians were drowned in the Eed Sea, the Israelites 
passed over ; Moses passed through, Pharaoh sank, for 
his heavy sins drowned him. In like manner the 
irreligious will sink in the lake of burning fire g ." 

f In Jerem. Horn. xvi. n. 5, 6, t. iii., pp. 231, 232 (abridged); 
in Num. Horn. xxv. t. ii. p. 368 ; also, in Lev. Horn. xiv. n. 3, 
p. 259. 

In Ps. xxxvi. n. 26, i. 790, Sen. Again; "All must be proved 



332 ARTICLE XXII. 



St. Hilary also, probably, here as elsewhere h , fol 
lowed Origen ; the more so, since he, with Origen *, 
combines with St. Paul s words our Lord s saying, 
"He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with 
fire ;" " for/ he adds, " to those baptized in the Holy 
Ghost it remains to be consummated by the fire of judg 
ment V "Since we are to give an account for every 



\ through fire, as many as desire to return to Paradise ; for it is not said 
ior nothing, that, when Adam and Eve were expelled from Paradise, 
God placed at the outlet of Paradise a fiery sword which turned every 
way. All must pass through the flames, whether he be John the Evan 
gelist, whom the Lord so loved as to say to Peter of him, If I wish 
him to tarry, what is that to thee ? Follow thou Me ? Some have 
doubted of his death ; of his passage through the fire we cannot doubt, 
for he is in Paradise, not separated from Christ. Or, whether he be 
Peter, he who received the keys of the Kingdom of Heaven, who 
walked upon the sea, must still say, We passed through fire and water, 
and Thou broughtest us out into a place of refreshment. But the fiery 
sword will soon be turned by St. John, for iniquity is not found in him 
whom Righteousness loved. Whatever human defect was in him, Divine 
Love melted it away, for her wings are as the wings of fire ? (Cant, 
viii. 6.) He who possesses here the fire of love, will have no cause to 
fear there the fiery sword. But he shall be tried as silver, I, as lead ; 
I shall burn till the lead melts away. If no silver be found in me, 
ah me ! I shall be plunged down into the lowest pit, or consume entire 
as the stubble. Should aught of gold or silver be found in me, not for 
my works, but through the mercy and grace of Christ, by the ministry 
of the priesthood, I shall peradventure say, They that hope in Thee 
shall not be ashamed. The fiery sword, then, shall consume iniquity, 
which is placed on the leaden scale. One, then, only could not feel that 
; fire, Christ the Righteousness of God, because He did no sin ; for the 
! fire found nought in Him which it might consume." (In Ps. cxviii. 
Serm. xx. n. 1214, i. 1225, B.) 
h See Bened. Prof., n. 29. 

1 Horn. 24, in Luc., Opp. iii., 961, 962, De la Rue. 
k In Matt. ii. 4, p. 616; add In Ps. cxviii. Lit. iii. n. 5. 



OF PURGATOTIY. 333 



idle word, shall we desire the Day of Judgment, in 
which we must undergo that unspent fire, and those 
heavy penalties for expiating the soul from its sins ? 
The sword will pass through the soul of blessed Mary, 
that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed. 
If that Virgin, who could contain God, shall come 
into the severity of the judgment, who shall dare 
desire to be judged of God 1 ?" 

St. Gregory Nazianzen says, of those who rejected 
the penitent : " Let these, if they will, go my way and 
Christ s ; if not, their own. Perchance then they will 
be baptized with the fire, the last baptism, the more 
painful and longer, which devours what is course, like 
hay, and consumes the lightness of all vice m ." He 
says, in a doubtful case of acting : " The end of these 
things I will remit to the last fire, which convicts and 
purifies all things with judgment, if by some craft 
we escape notice here D ." 

St. Ephrem, since he did not know Greek , is plainly 
independent. He says, "Both the just and the unjust 
shall pass through the fire which is to try them, and 

1 In Ps. cxviii. Lit. iii. n. 12. 

m Orat. xxxix. in 88. Lwm., n. 19, p. 690, Ben. He uses the word 
Tt/xo " in the same way of himself : " Perchance, I shall hereafter be 
moulded by another moulding, cleansed by the friendly fire." De seipso, 
v. 496, p. 48, Toll. In Orat. iii. n. vii. p. 71, he exhorts to " build on 
the foundation of faith, not wood, nor hay, nor stubble, matter unre 
sisting and easily consumed, when what is ours is judged by the fire 
or purified but gold, silver, precious stones, which abide and are 
stable." 

" De seipso, 10 13. 

9 See Dr. Pusey, " Doctrine of the Real Presence," pp. 411, 412. 



334 ARTICLE XXII. 



shall be proved by it; the righteous pass and the 
flame is quiet ; but it burneth the wicked and snatcheth 
him away p :" and " What shall I do, who must pass 
over the burning flame ? How shall I be able to soar 
high above it q ?" St. Ephrem connects this fire with 
the fire of hell, which he prays may shrink back 
"through the precious Body and Blood of Christ, 
which" "the saved had received; and that the Cross 
of the Son of the living God may be a bridge over 
the sea of fire r ." 

St. Jerome, in answer to Jovinian, (who maintained 
the paradox, that, as there were only two classes, those 
on the right hand, and those on the left, all the saved 
would have the same reward,) alleged, among other 
places, those words of St. Paul : " If he whose work 
was burned and perished, shall lose indeed the reward 
of his labour, but himself be saved, yet not without 
the probation of fire ; then, he whose work abides, 
which he built on the foundation, will be saved with 
out the probation of fire, and so there will be some 
difference between the salvation of each s ." 

St. Augustine expresses himself as strongly as any 
I. other fathers as to the benefit of prayers for the de- 

P Canon xlii., Opp. Syr., t. vi. p. 298 ; Burgess s Hymns of St. Ephr., 
p. 32. 

i Can. ix., ib. 236 ; Burg., p. 18. 

1 See Canon Ixxxi. init., p. 355 ; Parcen. in. p. 386, P. xiii. p. 432 ; 
P. xxiii. pp. 458, 459 ; P. Ixiv. p. 535 ; in Dr. Pusey s " Real Presence," 
1P . 124, 418422. 

s Adv. Jov., lib. ii. n. 22; t. ii. p. 360, Vail. His words on Am. 
vii. 4, seem to me to belong to this life. 



OF PURGATORY. 335 



parted, and enumerates it among the errors of the 
Arian Aerius, that he said that oblation "ought not 
to be made for those asleep*." In regard to the puri 
fying fire at the judgment, he used the same language 
as the others, briefly but undoubtingly in earlier works, 
and has the well - known passage on its awfulness : 
" Rebuke me not, Lord, in Thine indignation/ Let 
me not be among those to whom Thou wilt say, Go 
into fire everlasting, which is prepared for the devil 
and his angels. Nor rebuke me in Thy wrath/ but 
purge me in this life, and make me such that I shall 
no longer need the amending fire. (This he says) on 
account of those who shall be saved, yet so as by fire/ 
Why, but because here they build on the foundation 
wood, hay, stubble ? If they would build gold, silver, 
precious stones, they would have no fear as to either 
fire, not only that eternal fire which shall to eternity 
torment the ungodly, but that also which shall amend 
those who shall be saved by fire. For it is said, 
Yet himself shall be saved, but so as by fire. And 
because it is said, himself shall be saved, that fire 
is despised. Yet, although they shall be saved by 
fire, more grievous will be that fire, than whatever 
men can suffer in this life u ." In his latest works he 

* De Hares., n. 53, t. viii. p. 55. 

tt In Ps. xxxvii. n. 3, t. iv. p. 295. He adds, that in this life 
good or bad, the martyr and the malefactor, suffer alike the same 
things. More briefly, de Gen. c. Man. ii. 30, Opp. i. 677. " He who 
cultivates not this field, but allows it to be choked with thorns, has in 
this life the curse upon his * earth in all his works, and after this life 
will have either a fire of purgation or eternal punishment. Thus no one 



336 ARTICLE XXIT. 



somehow throws a doubt on the interpretation, ex 
plaining the "fire" primarily of tribulation in this life x . 
Even in that last book, De Civitate Dciv, he writes 
thus doubtfully : " After the death of this body, until 
the arrival of that last day of condemnation and re 
ward after the resurrection of the bodies, should it be 
said that in this interval the spirits of the dead suffer 

escapes that sentence (Gen. iii. 17)." "All are rebuked in the day of 
Judgment, who have not the Foundation, which is Christ. But they 
are amended, i.e. purged, who, on this foundation, build up wood, bay, 
stubble. For they will suffer loss, yet shall be saved so as by fire. 
What, then, prayeth he who willeth not in the anger of the Lord to be 
either rebuked or amended? What but that he be healed? For 
where health is, neither is death to be feared, nor the physician s hand, 
burning or cutting." In Ps. vi. n. 3, Opp. iv. 26. " If he shall have 
built on the foundation, wood, hay, stubble ; that is, if he has built on 
the foundation of his faith worldly love ; yet, if Christ be in the foun 
dation, so as to have the first place in his heart, and nothing whatever 
be preferred to Him, such are endured, are suffered. The furnace 
shall come and shall burn the wood, hay, and stubble; and he shall 
be saved, yet so as by fire. This will the furnace (from Gen. xv. 17) 
do ; it will separate off some to the left ; others it will in a manner 
strain off unto the right ; the birds it did not divide." In Ps. ciii. n. 5, 
ib. 1154. He gives the same explanation of Abraham s vision, De Civ. 
Dei, xvi. 24. 4, " By that fire is signified the Day of Judgment, severing 
the carnal who are to be saved by fire or condemned in fire ;" and xx. 26; 
" From these things it seems to appear more evidently, that in their 
judgment there will be some purifying punishments of some;" and xxi. 
16 : " Let him opine that there will be no purifying punishments, save 
before that last and tremendous judgment." 

* Sufferings in this life are but prominent and in the first place, as an 
adequate meaning of 1 Cor. iii. 11 sqq., with an expression of un 
certainty as to any further fulfilment of the words " after this life," 
defide et oper., c. 16, pp. 62 65, Oxf. Tr. (about A.D. 413, Ben. Preface), 
in the Enchiridion (not earlier than 421, Ben. Pref.), c. 68, 69, ela 
borately in the de 8 Dulcitii quastt. [A.D. 422 or 425, Ben. Pref.] 
q. i. n. 6. r xxi. 26, 4. 



OF PURGATORY. 337 



such a fire, which they do not feel who had not habits 
and likings in the life of this body, which require 
their wood, hay, and stubble, to be burned up ; but they 
feel who have carried with them the like worldly taber 
nacles, whether there only, or here and there, or not 
there because here, though they experience the fire 
of transitory tribulation, rescuing venial offences from 
damnation by consuming them, I do not oppose, for 
perchance it is true." 

St. Paulinus, of ISTola : " Our God is a consuming 
fire/ The Lord grant unto me here, that in me, too, 
for me, He be a consuming fire. May my heart burn 
for me with this fire to life eternal, lest my soul burn 
with it to perpetual punishment. For in this fire shall 
the day of the Lord be revealed, and the fire shall 
try every man s work, of what sort it is. If we 
dwell in the city of God by those works, whereby we 
become meet to be citizens with the saints, our work 
shall not be burned ; and that sagacious fire will, when 
we pass through its ordeal, surround us with no severe 
heat of punishment ; but, as if we were commended to 
its care, it will play around us with a kind caress, so 
that we may say, We have passed through fire and 
water, and Thou hast brought us to a place of re 
freshment Z . J " 

The other passage, of a prison, where one who is 
cast shall pay the very last mite, if not interpreted of 

1 Epist. xxviii. ad Sever., n. 13, i. 176, Paris, 1085. So also the 
author of the Ep. ad Marc., n. 7 ; ib. App. ii. 6. Lactantius (though 
no authority) expresses much the same. 

Z 



338 ARTICLE XXII. 



hell, as some fathers do, would imply the existence of 
a place, where those souls should be detained, who 
although saved, were not yet (on account of their pre 
vious misdeeds or neglect of God) admitted to be 
hold Him. 

The very ancient Acts of St. Perpetua and St. Felicitas 
have been thought to have been written by Tertullian a , 
and, if so, when a Montanist. In them St. Perpetua 
relates her being called suddenly to pray for her 
brother Dinocrates, to have seen him with tokens of 
distress in darkness, and pining for something with 
held. After her prolonged prayers night and day she 
saw him in light, cleansed, refreshed b . In answer to 
the Pelagians, who quoted this vision, in proof that 
those who died without baptism might gain its bene 
fits through the prayers of others, St. Augustine 
answers, (1) that it is not Canonical Scripture , from 
which, in questions of this sort, testimonies ought to 
be produced; (2) that "perhaps after baptism he had 
been in time of persecution alienated from Christ 
through idolatry/ " for which he was in punishment, 
whence he was freed by his sister s prayers d ." St. 

a Maintained in a letter to Valesius their editor. Ruinart leaves this 
doubtful, denies their being Montanist, which Valesius thought, and 
which to me seems most natural. Tertullian, de Anima, c. 55, refers 
to one of the visions, so they are very old anyhow. 

b Acta, n. 7, 8. e De Anima, \. 10, iii. 9, Opp. x. 343, 380. 

d II. cc. In i. 10, St. Augustine uses the stronger language : " for which 
he went into the damnation of death, nor went forth, but as granted to 
the prayers of his sister about to die for Christ." St. Augustine s con 
jecture of the nature of the sin falls in with the expression in the 
Acts, " I grieved, remembering his fall." 



OF PU11GATORY. 339 



Augustine entirely believed the Acts, and speaks of 
"the exhortations of the martyrs in Divine revela 
tions 6 ." 

St. Cyprian f , in maintaining that the clemency of 
the Church in restoring extreme cases of sin, as of 
adulterers or of those who in persecution had denied 
the Lord, would not unnerve devotedness or conti 
nence, seems to combine both passages. He contrasts 
" being tortured with long anguish for sins, and long 
cleansed and purged by fire," with " having purged all 
sins by suffering" (martyrdom); the "being cast into 
prison, not to go hence until one has paid the last 
farthing," with " receiving at once the reward of faith 
and courage." He adds a contrast yet more awful, "to 
wait in suspense until the Day of Judgment for the 
Lord s sentence," and being " crowned at once" by Him. 

St. Ambrose, explaining this passage, says, " that the 
offence is either redeemed by the price of charity, or 
the punishment relaxed by the estimation of the in 
jury ; and that the sin of each is washed away, when 
the guilty is so long tried by punishment as to pay 
the penalty of the fault committed g ." 

Eusebius, of Gaul, also connects this text with the 
fires of judgment : " Thou who hast done things wor 
thy of temporal punishment, to whom is addressed the 

e Serm. 280, beg., t. v. 1134. 

Epist. 55, ad Antonian., n. 16, p. 128, Oxf. Tr. 

z In S. Luc., lib. vii. n. 156, 157, t. i. 1448. I omit Origen on 
this place, t. iii. Horn. xxv. p. 975; because, speaking of "infinite 
ages," in the payment of the 10,000 talents, he, probably, is substi 
tuting temporal for eternal punishment. 



340 ARTICLE XXII. 



Word of God, that they go not out thence until they 
pay the uttermost farthing, through the fiery stream, 
which the prophetic spirit mentions. In proportion to 
the matter of the sin, will be the lingering in the pas 
sage ; in proportion to the growth of the fault, will be 
the discipline of the discerning flame ; in proportion to 
the things which iniquity in its folly has wrought, will 
be the severity of the wise punishment h ." 

St. Jerome also explains the text briefly : " What 
He says means this : Thou shalt not go forth from 
prison, until thou hast paid for even the least sins*/ >: 

St. Chrysologus says, on the words of Abraham, " Nor 
can any one pass hence to you:" "The hearing of 
this voice terrifies me, brethren, terrifies exceedingly; 
shewing that, after death, those who have been con 
signed to penal custody in hell cannot be transferred 
to the rest of the saints, unless, having been already 
redeemed by the grace of Christ, they be freed from 
this hopelessness by the intercession of holy Church. 
So that what the sentence [of the Judge] denies them, 
the Church may obtain, grace bestow V He seems to 
contemplate some extreme cases, in which, but for the 
foreseen intercession of the Church, sinners would have 
been left to hell, but were delivered from it through 
those foreseen intercessions. 

St. Paulinus asks prayers for his brother who had 
died " as a debtor " to God in spiritual negligence. 
""We mourn his death more truly, because we perceive 

h De Epiph., Horn. iii. Bibl. P. vi. 625. 
* ad loc. vil. 28, Vail. k Serm. 123, Bibl. P. vii. 943. 



OF PURGATORY. 341 



from those things which were done or ordered by him 
to his end, he did what corresponded more to our sins 
than to our prayers, so that he chose to pass to the 
Lord, a debtor rather than free." St. Paulinus then 
begged St. Amandus to pray with others earnestly to 
God, " that through your prayers He may refresh his 
soul with drops of His mercy. For as a fire kindled 
by Him will burn down to hell below/ so doubtless 
the dew also of His forgiveness will penetrate to hell, 
so that when scorched in the kindled darkness he be 
refreshed with the dewy light of His pity 1 ." To 
Delphinus, who had converted him, he speaks of his 
"spiritual negligence," whereby he provided for his 
sons in this world, rather than remedies for the world 
to come, " preferring what ought to be secondary, 
making secondary what was to be preferred." For 
him he asks, in allusion to the history of Dives and 
Lazarus, that he would pray lest "we should bring 
to shame your piety, which gloried in us your sons, 
a portion of the inheritance being wasted, but rather 
that it be granted to your prayers, that a drop of re 
freshment distilling even from the little finger of your 
holiness may sprinkle his soul m ." 

These two aspects of the intermediate state require f 

1 Ep. xxxvi. ad Amand., n. 2, pp. 224, 225. 

111 JZp. xxxv. p. 223. St. Nilus speaks of praying for everlasting mercy 
for the departed : " He that believes that the just buried will rise again 
from the dead, will be strengthened by hope, will give thanks unto God, 
will change lamentations into cheerfulness, will pray that the departed 
may obtain everlasting mercy, will turn to the correction of their own 
stumbling." (Ep. i. 101, p. 105.) 



342 ARTICLE XXII. 



reconciliation ; the more so, since each is founded upon 
Holy Scripture. On the one side it says, " Blessed 
are the dead who die in the Lord ! Amen, saith the 
Spirit, for they rest from their labours." For, al 
though it is primarily said " from their labours," i.e. 
from the toils of this continual strife with infirmities, 
passions, temptations, sin, it could hardly have been 
said that " they rest " at all, if, as More said in the 
names of the departed souls, " when ye rest, which 
we do never" On the other side, there are those 
awful descriptions of the judgment, especially that of 
St. Paul, in which he speaks of a destruction of the 
building which some who still built upon Christ had 
raised during their lives, the loss which these endure, 
the saving of the man himself so as by fire. Then 
there are our Lord s awful words, as to that gradation 
of punishment on breaches of charity (which are the 
more terrible, if that gradation be understood of eter 
nal punishment only) ; as to the prison, where " the 
uttermost farthing" is to be paid ; as to the account to 
be taken of every idle word. Truly, this throws a very 
awful light upon the Judgment. If every idle word is 
to be taken account of, what a very individual, search 
ing thing, judgment must be ; and this before Him, 
and by Him, Who loved us and Whom we offended ! 
Awakened conscience and love can imagine no such 
suffering as this, short of hell. What if the soul be, 
for a time, or even a prolonged time, uncertain of the 
issue ! Each such moment would be like a lifetime. 
St. Macarius of Alexandria says, as by Divine reve- 



OF PURGATORY. 343 



lation, that forty days elapsed before the judgment, 
and that then, according to its works, the Judge com 
manded the place of the soul s custody ; and this the 
Angels are related to have assigned to him as the rea 
son why " the Church prayed for the souls of the de 
parted on the fortieth day n ." St. Cyprian speaks of 
waiting in suspense to the Day of Judgment . St. 
Ambrose says, that " the soul is freed from the body, 
and yet after this life still hangs in suspense through 
the uncertainty of the future judgment p ." St. Gregory 
of Nyssa, uniting in one the particular and the general 
judgments, describes how, in the sight of the glories 
of heaven and the punishment of hell, the whole hu 
man race, from the first creation to the consumma 
tion of all things, shall stand in suspense between fear 
and hope of the future, trembling oftentimes at the 
events of the things looked for either way, and they 
who have lived with a good conscience, mistrusting 
what shall be, when the} 7 see others dragged down 
to fearful darkness by an evil conscience as by an 
executioner q . The description of the destruction of 
the wood, hay, stubble, in the fire of the Judgment 
Day, was thought, not unnaturally, by Origen and 
others, to imply a more or less prolonged suffering in 
that Day, according to the greater or less gravity of 
the things to be destroyed in those who are saved. 
Christian instinct agrees with this. It cannot ima- 

n De excessujust. et peccat., n. 4, Gall. vii. 239. 
Ep. Iv. ad Anton., n. 16. P De Cain, ii. 2. 

i De leatitud., i. 809. 



344 ARTICLE XXII. 



gine that all this history of sin in those who are saved, 
can be without some great meaning for eternity. And 
yet in this life none, probably, but the greatest saints, 
have any conception what sin is. Then it must be 
revealed to them in judgment. 

Again, the human instincts of persons of no depth 
of Christianity, in view of the great mass of im 
perfect, ill-taught, erring humanity, the sheep that 
have gone astray having no shepherd, living and 
dying as the great mass of men in our large towns 
live and die have turned aside from the idea of hell, 
and sought comfort in the deadly error of its denial. 
Yet the false doctrine does not lie in the assertion of 
a temporal penal abode, but in the denial of an eternal 
one. The deep instincts of humanity, combined of 
pity and of justice, demand a belief in some punish 
ment, but deprecate eternal punishment, in the case 
of many who go out of this world ; and here such 
teaching as has been cited from the early Church 
comes in to our aid. Nay, not such as those poor out 
casts only whom men have most in their eyes and 
their minds, because their sins are more tangible and 
coarse, but and even yet more than these rich 
and educated men and women, who have more light 
than they, yet who, to outward appearance, live mere 
natural lives, immersed in worldliness, yet not alto 
gether, it is hoped, separated from God, are, as they 
are, seemingly ripe neither for heaven nor hell. God 
alone knows whether they have deserved hell ; yet 
their whole tastes, thoughts, feelings, tone of mind, 



OF PURGATORY. 345 



would seem to fit them more for a Grecian Elysium 
than for the Christian s heaven and for the sight of 
God, of whom they have scarce thought, save to hope 
that He would not cast them into hell r . Will God 
think it best for them at once to admit them into His 
presence, which they have never desired ? Or would 
they be fit to enjoy it, if He did ? But if not, and if, 
when the soul is parted from all earthly distractions, 
it comes to see that God is its only Good, and is yet 
withheld from His beatific sight, that it may learn to 
long for Him, this is at once what the schools have 
called the pcena damni ; and this awakened, unsatisfied 
longing, with the sense that, through its own fault, it 
remains in this darkness as to God, may be intenser 
pain than any, or than all the pain which could be 
accumulated in one in this life. We know what pain 
separation from an object of deep human love occasions. 
What may it not be, of God ? This falls in singularly 
with St. Cyril of Jerusalem s remarkable expression, 
" His banished/ as though banishment were a chief 
suffering. 

The very theory of the morality of the Gospel, the j 
notion that justification and sanctification are real, 
though in the individual often imperfect processes, 
the belief that salvation depends on obedience 8 , con 
duct us to this thought that the work of Christ in us 

r Of course tins charitable hope must not be twisted into any argu 
ment for the postponement of a man s conversion to God, in the hope 
that all will be made well in the intermediate state. 

s Matt. v. 1, xxv. 34 ; Horn. viii. 17. 



346 ARTICLE XXII. 



whereby we are saved, being individually imperfect, 
in view of our insufficient co-operation with it, shall 
continue to work in us, so that at the day of judg 
ment we may be found pure in Him ; that having had 
grace to keep the Law of God and having failed to 
do so, yet having died in His faith and fear, God will 
carry on the process of our being made fit for heaven, 
not by the gift of fresh grace, but by the same purify 
ing process of adversity whereby He fines our souls in 
this life. We know that we have in us passive bad 
habits, unheavenly tastes, which the soul contracts 
through sin, and which remain after the guilt of sin is 
remitted, and that these must be removed before our 
entrance into heaven, into which nothing that is im 
pure or imperfect may enter. St. Macarius thought 
that these were removed by God in an instant *. The 
same has been held by very thoughtful minds, who yet 
had a deep perception of the holiness of God s love u . 
Others may think it more probable that God removes 
the stain gradually, as it was gradually contracted, 
and that man s cleansing after death will bear some re 
lation to his cleansing in this life, as St. Augustine 
often suggests. Only as regards the eternal condi 
tion, as the tree has fallen so will it lie ; and the 
eternal distinction between the lost and saved is not 
confused by the process. 

But not only is this thought a source of comfort, in 
view of such as we have mentioned, it is also fraught 
with unspeakable consolation in the case of all those 

* Horn. xxvi. n. 18, in Gall. vii. 29. tt Suarez, Disp. xlvii. 16. 



OF PUBGATORY. 347 



who try to do their duty, and who put their whole 
trust in their Lord s Passion, and yet are conscious 
of many short-comings, of want of depth and realit}^ 
in their contrition. To such, the idea that after death, 
although they will have no choice of their own, they 
will be so conformed to the just will of God, that they 
may joyfully endure that which is to prepare them 
for the eternal vision and fruition of Him Whom in 
their poor way they love above all things, is not only 
not appalling, however terrible, but actually conducive 
to holy peace. That true humility which ever seeketh 
the lowest room, will extend beyond the grave ; and 
to bear the indignation of the Lord because one has 
sinned against Him, is a disposition of soul well-pleas 
ing to Him. 

To sum up what has gone before : while our Church 
has justly stigmatized popular practices which had be 
come gainful superstitions, she has not condemned 
either the devotions of the primitive Church, or the 
deep truths on which those devotions are grounded. 
Recognising the fact that prayer for the dead, as 
taught in the Jewish schools, was nowhere repre 
hended by our Lord ; that it was most probably prac 
tised by St. Paul, and certainly embodied in all the 
early liturgies ; knowing that the soul does not sleep 
in the interval before the resurrection; and that, 
although the Christian s trial ends at the moment of 
death, there is no ground to think that the soul is 
simply perfected at once, as it shall be at the coming 
of the Lord Jesus ; deeply convinced that the general 



348 ARTICLE XXII. 



- tone of the teaching of antiquity goes beyond a mere 
prayer for consummation of bliss both in body and 
soul, and probably extends to actual forgiveness for 
some sins (perhaps at the foreseen prayers of the 
Church), and the mitigation of some penalties ; she 
has formed her burial service on a theory, of which 
this doctrine is the only interpretation : that words of 
hope may be used with regard to all whom she does 
not know to have died not in the state of grace, that 
is, all save the unbaptized, the suicide, and the excom 
municate x and that therefore by implication, with re 
gard to all save them, however basely they may have 
lived, if (which God alone knows) they but died in 
a state of grace, the door of salvation is not closed, 
that prayer and Eucharist for them are still available, 
and that with trembling hearts we may in the case 
of those we love, who have been riven from us by 
death, cast ourselves on the ineffable mercy of Jesus. 
And so, with regard to the imperfect Christian, who 
has gone to his account, we may rejoice in the thought 
that God s love is preparing the soul for perfect frui 
tion, and that, through the fire of suffering and the 
water of affliction, He is bringing him into a wealthy 
place y. 

* The Burial Service is framed for those who die in Christ ; the un 
baptized are excluded, because they have not been made members of 
Christ, and therefore prayers cannot be said over them, which express 
that they had been; the suicide and excommunicate, as having ceased 
to be so. 

y For the legality of prayer for the dead, see case of Woolfrey v. 
Breeks, Stephen s " Clergy Law," i. 191. The acquittal of Mr. Wilson 



OF PURGATORY. 349 



Our English minds have so shrunk from the popular 
doctrine of Purgatory, because, in the representations 
of it, physical suffering, and that the suffering of fire, 
(equal perhaps to that of hell, except in its duration,) 
has been the one thought brought before us. How 
could the souls be at rest there ? but the very same 
Fathers, who speak of suffering after death, speak also 
of the souls being in real rest and peace, as our Service 
for the Burial of the Dead says, that " the souls of the 
faithful, after they are delivered from the burden of 
the flesh, are in joy and felicity." They believed, then, 
that their sufferings, however great, did not interfere 
with that joy. And so Bellarmine, too, says : " Joy 
and rest are given immediately upon death, to all who 
depart in charity. For presently all become certain 
of their eternal salvation, which brings great joy." 
"Yet," he adds, "that joy is not given in the same 
way but diversely, according to the diversity of merits. 
For to some it is given without admixture of dolour, 
to others, not without admixture of temporal sufferings, 
as the same St. Augustine very often teaches z ." The 
same has been said yet more boldly, because in the 
language of devotion. 

The treatise of St. Catherine of Genoa (only canonized 
by Benedict XIY. a ) brought out the happy side of the 
state of souls, detained, for a time, through their own 

was on the ground of his own defence, that all that he meant was, that 
in the case of the erring and imperfect, the infinite love of God might 
pursue them beyond the grave. z De Purg., i. 9, t. i. col. 1894. 

" Ben. xiv. De Canoniz. Sanct,, 3, 3, p. 20. 



350 ARTICLE XXII. 



fault when in the flesh, from the sight of God. " I do 
not believe," she says b , "it would be possible to find 
any joy comparable to that of a soul in purgatory, ex 
cept the joy of the blessed in paradise a joy which 
goes on increasing day by day as God more and more 
flows in upon the soul, which He does abundantly, in 
proportion as every hindrance to His entrance is con 
sumed away." " The souls in purgatory, having their 
wills perfectly conformed to the will of God, and hence 
partaking of His goodness, remain satisfied with their 
condition, which is one of entire freedom from the 
guilt of sin. Cleansed thus from all sin, and united 
in will to God, they see God clearly according to the 
light He imparts to them ; they are conscious, too, 
what a good it is to enjoy God, that for this very end 
souls are created. Again, there is in them a con 
formity of will so uniting them to God, so drawing 
them to Him through that natural instinct whereby 
God is, as it were, bound up with the soul, that no 
description, no figure, no example, can give a clear 
idea of it, as it is actually felt and apprehended by 
inward consciousness c ." " When the soul, by interior 

b Treatise on Purgatory, edited by Abp. Manning, c. 2, p. 3. 

c Ibid., c. 5. The only notice of this treatise by Alban Butler, is 
in these terms : " The necessity of the spirit of universal sanctification 
and perfect humility to prepare the way for the pure love of God to 
be infused into the soul, is the chief lesson which she inculcates." 
1 Less. xv. Objections have been made to the line of argument in the 
text, that from the date of S.Catherine, her treatise must have been 
known in England at the time of the framing of the Articles : but there 
is no proof that it was at this time translated into English, or had at 
tracted any notice. 



OF PURGATORY. 351 



illumination, perceives that God is drawing it with 
such loving ardour to Himself, straightway there 
springs up within it a corresponding fire of love for 
its most sweet Lord and God, which causes it wholly 
to melt away : it sees in the Divine light how con 
siderately, and with what unfailing providence God is 
ever leading it to its full perfection, and that He does 
it all through pure love ; it feels itself stopped by sin 
and unable to follow the heavenly attraction. I mean 
that look which God casts on it to bring it into union 
with Himself, and this sense of the grievousness of 
being kept from beholding the Divine light, coupled 
with that instinctive longing which would fain be 
without hindrance to follow the enticing look; these 
things, I say, make up the pains of purgatory. Not 
that they think anything of their pains, however great 
they be ; they think far more of the opposition they 
are making to the will of God, which they see clearly 
is burning intensely with pure love to them. God 
meanwhile goes on drawing the soul to Himself 
mightily, and, as it were, with undivided energy : 
this the soul knows well; and could it find another 
purgatory greater than this, by which it could sooner 
remove so great an obstacle, it would immediately 
plunge therein, impelled by that conforming love 
which is between God and the soul d ." "It is true 
that the overflowing love of God bestows upon the 
. souls in purgatory a happiness beyond expression 
great; but then this happiness does not in the least 

d Treatise on Purgatory, c. 9. 



352 ARTICLE XXII. 



i diminisli the pain, rather the pain is constituted by 
this love finding itself impeded ; the more perfect the 
love, of which God makes the soul capable, the greater 
the pain. In this manner, the souls in purgatory at 
the same time experience the greatest happiness and 
the most excessive pain ; and one does not prevent the 
other 6 ." 

Had this been even an aspect of Purgatory, pre 
sented to the minds of the framers of our Articles, 
as a possible authoritative exposition of the doctrine, 
who would say that " the Romish doctrine of Purga 
tory" would ever have been censured in it? Anyhow, 
this doctrine was not included in that censure, since 
it was not taught. But what heart, which has known 
but a little of the love of Jesus, and has hated its own 
sin, would not respond to the thought : 

" It is the face of the Incarnate God 
Shall smite thee with that keen and subtle pain ; 
And yet the memory which it leaves will be 
A sovereign febrifuge to heal the wound; 
And yet withal it will the wound provoke, 
And aggravate and widen it the more. 
When, then, (if such thy lot,) thou seest thy Judge, 
The sight of Him will kindle in thy heart, 
All tender, gracious, reverential thoughts. 
Thou wilt be sick with love, and yearn for Him, 
And feel as though thou could st but pity Him, 
That one so sweet should e er have placed Himself 
At disadvantage such, as to be used 
So vilely by a being so vile as thee. 

e Treatise on Purgatory, c. 14. 



OF INDULGENCES. 353 



There is a piercing in His pensive eyes, 
"Will pierce thee to the quick, and trouble thee. 
And thou wilt hate and loathe thyself; for, though 
Now sinless, thou wilt feel that thou hast sinned, 
As never didst thou feel ; and wilt desire 
To slink away, and hide thee from His sight ; 
And yet wilt have a longing, aye to dwell 
Within the beauty of His countenance. 
And these two pains, so counter and so keen, 
The longing for Him, when thou seest Him not ; 
The shame of self at thought of seeing Him, 
Will be thy veriest, sharpest purgatory f ." 

II. It is a well-known historical fact that it was the 
shameless traffic in indulgences which burst the bar 
rier which had long pent up the dissatisfaction which 
prevailed on account of the scandals and corruptions 
in the Church. The reforming Councils had no power 
to stem the increasing corruption ; and the expensive 
tastes of the Roman Curia demanding more and more 
money, a doctrine, which had its roots in primitive 
antiquity, was preached in a way to destroy all Chris 
tian morality. To the Dominican and Franciscan 
Orders, now fallen from their first purity, much of 
the blame is due, though it is fair to state that they 
were not the only guilty persons. A hundred years 
before the promulgation of the Articles, this practice 
had pointed the satire of the poet; and those ac 
quainted with the literature of the period are fami 
liar with Chaucer s and Sir David Lindsay s pictures 
of the " Pardonere." 

f The Dream of Gerontius, pp. 43, 44 
A a 



354 ARTICLE XXII. 



To call this a " fond thing, vainly invented, and 
repugnant to the Word of God," is a mild censure. 
Gardiner himself describes them as " the devil s craft g ." 
At the close of the thirteenth century the fervent 
Franciscan preacher, Berthold, called the "Penny 
Preachers" " favourite servants of the devil," and said 
that " they crowned the devil daily with many thou 
sand souls V In theory, the practice was an application 
of the power to bind and to loose on earth, which was 
given by our Lord to St. Peter and to the rest of the 
Apostles l ; as exercised by St. Paul at Corinth k , when 
he forgave in the person of Christ. Such power was 
inseparable from all canonical penance upon deadly 
sin, the "godly discipline," the loss of which the 
English Church yearly laments, when "such persons 
as stood convicted of notorious sin were put to open 
penance and punished in this world, that their souls 
might be saved in the Day of the Lord l ." For it is 
essential to law, that the same offence should be sub 
jected to the same penalty. But equity alike and 
mercy required that this severity should be mitigated 
in view of the subsequent conduct, penitence, and cir 
cumstances of the offender. And this the rather, be 
cause the question related, not only to the remission of 
canonical penance, appointed to certain sins, but (and 
that chiefly) to the restoration to the communion of 
the Body and Blood of Christ. Hence it was provided 

* Against Joye, cit. Hardwick, p. 390. h Deutsche Pred., 

p. 384, ed. Kl. l St. Matt. xvi. 10 sqq., xviii. 18. k 2 Cor. ii. 

4 10. * Comm. Service. 



OF INDULGENCES. 355 



in most cases that communion should be given, in dan 
gerous illness, to those excommunicate, yet under peni 
tential discipline; and on the approach of a new per 
secution in St. Cyprian s time, the lapsed were restored 
universally, that they " might be fortified with the pro 
tection of the Body and Blood of Christ m ." And, more 
generally, (as was reasonable,) the period of penitence 
was abridged, on evidence of more than usual sorrow 
for the sins n ; as, contrariwise, it was prolonged to the 
impenitent . " When fervour and discipline were 
weakened, the Church, both in East and West, sub 
stituted lighter penances, sooner than the penitent 
should refuse all acts of penitence, and so risk the loss 
of his soul P." Penitents were also restored to com 
munion, either altogether, or at an earlier period, at 
the solicitation of those who were about to die, or 
had suffered for Jesus Christ; in other words, at the 
instance of martyrs and confessors. Sometimes that 
restoration was delayed until the martyrdom was ac 
complished. The martyrs at Vienne obtained restora 
tion for all the lapsed at once, yet at the hands of the 
Bishop s. St. Dionysius notices the carefulness of the 

m St. Cypr., Up. Ivii. ad Corn. 

" " Cone. Neocces., can. 3. Cone. Anc., c. 2, 7, 16. Nic. i. c. 12. 
Arelat. ii. c. 10. Canons of St. Basil, Up. ad AmpML, c. 4, 7, 53, 74, 84. 
St. Greg. Nyss., Ep. Can. ad Letoium, can. 811, 13, 18, 20." St. Leo, 
Ep. 79, c. 5. 

Cone. Garth, iv., can. 75. 

P In the East by Joannes Jejunator and Joannes Monachus, in their 
Penitentials (ap. Amort, Hist. Ind., P. i. p. 32); as also in Bede, 
Theodore, Burchard, the Roman. 

1 Ep. Eccl. Lugd., &c., in Eus. H. E., v. 1. 



356 ARTICLE XXII. 



Alexandrian martyrs in recommending those whose 
"conversion and penitence they discerned 1 ." In Ter- 
tullian s time, not the lapsed, but those excommunicated 
for adultery, &c., sought restoration from the martyrs 
in prison s . In St. Cyprian s time the indiscriminate 
largess of restoration to the lapsed by certain con 
fessors, threatened an utter overthrow of discipline, 
but was moderated and guided by the loving wisdom 
of St. Cyprian t . St. Gregory of Nyssa regulated by 
canon u , that " to those who were zealous in penitence 
all the stages of the public penitence might be abridged 
by him who was over this matter." Pope Innocent 
laid down that the ordinary term of remission, the 
Thursday before Easter, might be anticipated for those 
in whom " the Priests saw fitting satisfaction x ." By 
the Council of Ancyra, bishops might deal (<j>i\av- 
OpawTevecrOai) indulgently with those who had taken 
part in idol- sacrifices y . 

The Crusades awoke through Europe a deep sense 
of religion among all classes; and when religion af 
fects all classes, it has been well said that needs 
must it be, that it should become coarse. As an in 
ducement to make men take up the cross, the privi- 
le^es which the Church was said to hold within her 

o 

treasuries were freely unlocked to the faithful. It 

r St. Dion. Epist., in Eus. H. E., vi. 41, 42. 
8 Tert. cZe pudic., c. i. and xxii. 

4 See his Epistles xv. xxiii., xxv. xxvii., xxx., xxxii. xxxv., Iv. ; 
and those of the Roman Clergy, Ep. xxx., xxxvi. 
u Ad Letoium, can. 8, P. ii. p. 119. 
1 Ep, xxv. ad Decentium. * Can. 5. 



OF INDULGENCES 357 



was said that as our Lord and the saints have merited 
more than was necessary, there was a disposable stock 
of merits, which the Church could bestow on all who 
were fitly prepared to receive the benefit, and remis 
sion of sin was freely pronounced to all who joined the 
army that was marching against the Saracens; and 
these indulgences were declared to be available not 
only for the living but for the dead. When the Cru 
sades ceased, actual service being no longer possible, 
the permission to buy oneself off the Crusade was al 
lowed to the indulgences, and they became marketable. 
To this day in Spain you may obtain a dispensation 
for fasting, except on three days in the year, by the 
purchase of the Bull of the Crusade for five-pence, if 
a lay person. 

Indulgences were, from the middle of the eleventh 
century, granted on the occasion of the dedication of 
churches and canonization of saints. On the occasion 
of the re-consecration of the Portiuncula, in the time 
of St. Francis of Assissi, A.D. 1221, the first plenary 
indulgence seems to have been granted by Pope Ho- 
norius III. z 21. s 

In the beginning of the fourteenth century, a new 
phase of the doctrine manifested itself in the system 
of jubilees. In 1300, Boniface VIII. issued a Bull of 
Jubilee, inviting the faithful to frequent the Basilicas 
of St. Peter and St. Paul, promising to all who ap 
proached them reverently, being truly penitent and 
contrite, or who shall be penitent, or shall confess in 

1 On its genuineness, see Amort, p. 149. 



358 ARTICLE XXII. 



the present or in any future year of the century, 
not only plenary, but larger, yea, the fullest pardon of 
all their sins, " non solum plenam, sed largiorem, imo 
plenissimam omnium suorum coneedimus veniam pec- 
catorum a ." The system was found so profitable, that 
the period of the jubilee was reduced to fifty, thirty- 
three, and twenty-five years. 

It was from such a state of discipline as this, that, 
after the dark ages, the corruptions we have stated 
were developed. When the Articles were promul 
gated, they were in all their abomination. It is but 
fair to say, that the Council of Trent, while it main 
tained the practice, as being the exercise of a power 
given to the Church by God, and used in the most 
ancient times also, set itself to check the abuses which 
it acknowledged b . How far this last has succeeded, 
one has no power of judging ; but moderate theolo 
gians have since that time generally expressed them 
selves with great candour on the subject, holding in 
dulgences in the primitive sense to be only the re 
laxation of those canonical penalties, which, in propor 
tion to the gravity of his offence, the sinner ought to 
endure ; and that in the case of those for the dead, 
they are but the prayers of the Universal Church, 
which the Pope and all bishops offer in the name of 
the Church to God, and which God hears, or hears not, 
as seemeth good to Him. 

Mabillon says that " there are three degrees of in- 

a In Amort, Hist. 2nd., P. i. p. 80. 
b Session xxv. De Indulgentiis. 



OF INDULGENCES. 359 



diligences : 1. In the time of the Apostles, the relaxa 
tion from excommunication, as in the case of the in 
cestuous Corinthian; 2. In the time of the martyrs, 
when at the instance of their prayers the public pen 
ance was relaxed ; and 3. at the time of the failure 
of the public penance which in the ninth century 
began to be not a little diminished. From that time 
certain indulgences, some more ample than others, 
were granted, for the remission of the penalty imposed 
upon or due to sin. The use of public penance was 
still in force in those times ; but it could be bought 
off either by Masses and other suffrages, or by alms, 
or by pilgrimages, or by pious works . The Coun 
cil of Cloveshoe (A. D. 747) thought the buying off 
of penance by alms, a new invention, a dangerous 
custom ( nova adinventio, periculosa consuetude ). 
By degrees, however, this method of redemption pre 
vailed." 

"In A.D. 878, indulgences were for the first time 
granted to the dead. Pope John VIII. granted in that 
year an indulgence to those who fell or were to fall 
in battle with the Pagans ; and the Bishops of Bavaria 
besought the same favour for the soul of the Emperor 
Arnulph, which they desired should be absolved by his 
authority V The notion of a war against the infidels 

c Prof, ad Sac. 5, Benedictm, n. 107. 

d Ibid. Amort, however, doubts whether these were strictly indul 
gences. He observes that, 1. "John VIII. says, we absolve them, 
quantum fas est ; 2. the absolution was from their sins; 3. the Pope 
adds, and we commend them by prayers to the Lord. 4. The Bava 
rian Bishops asked for that same indulgence for Arnulph. 5. Card. 



360 ARTICLE XXII. 



being a directly religious act, involved as a sequence 
that death in such a war was a sort of martyrdom ; 
accordingly plenary forgiveness of sins was freely pro 
mised. The Bull of the Crusade against the Saracens 
(A.D. 1118) ran in these terms: "And since ye have 
determined to expose both yourselves and the things 
belonging to you to the most extreme perils, if any 
of you, having accepted the penance for your sins, shall 
die in the expedition, we, by the merits of the saints 
and by the prayers of the whole Catholic Church, ab 
solve him from the chains of his sins 6 / That of 
A.D. 1122 says: "that to those who go to Jerusalem 
to defend the Christians, and to aid in breaking down 
the tyranny of the infidels, we concede the remission 
of all their sins f ." 

However much the Council of Trent may have cleared 
away the difficulties with regard to pardons, by defining 
them to be only a remission of the canonical discipline 
of the Church, it cannot be denied that at the promul 
gation of the Article there was a substantial abuse 
which well deserved its reprobation. What that abuse 
was will best be seen from Erasmus tract, De Utilitate 



Ostiensis, A.D. 1260, thought that such indulgences were only absolu 
tions from censures, to the effect that the faithful might be free to pray 
for them in the church," (Hist. Indulg., p. ii. S. v. 1). See the letter 
to the French bishops as given from Baronius, A. 878, xxxtv. ib. 

e In Baronius, A. 1118, xviii. That against Roger, Count of Sicily, 
in like way, "remitted all sins" under the same terms. Baron., A. 
1127, v. 

f Given by Calixtus II. in the Council of Lateran, Aj>. 1122, 
can. 11. 



OF INDULGENCES. 361 



Colloquiorum, where he defends the line he took with re 
gard to them : " Nor do I, then, condemn papal indul 
gences and bulls ; but I censure that greatest of triflers 
who, thinking nothing of amendment of life, presumes 
to place his whole trust on human pardon." So in 
the colloquy " Rash Vows," speaking of one who died 
on pilgrimage : 

" Con. Was he, then, so pious ? 

" Am. Nay, the greatest trifler imaginable. 

" Con. Whence, then, do you draw the conclusion 
(that he is now in heaven) ? 

" Am. Because he had his satchel stuffed full of the 
most ample indulgences." 

Thus in the Vision of Piers Ploughman : 

" Then preched a pardoner, as he a prest were, 
Brought forth a bulle, with many a bishope s seles, 
And seide that himself might assolven them all 
Of falshod, of fastynge, of a-vowes y -broken." 

These indulgences were not granted by the Pope 
only, but by all bishops %. 

" The Questionarius/ Pardoner/ or Preacher/ was 
already so scandalous, that the antipope, Clement VII., 
in granting indulgences for building the nave of the 
cathedral of Aberdeen, A.D. 1380, declares that they 
shall be of no force if hawked about by these spiritual 
pedlars : Presentes autem mitti per Questuarios dis- 



* Vide J. GL Nichols "Pilgrimage of St. Mary of Walsinghain," 
p. 98, London, 1849. 



362 ARTICLE XXII. 



trictius inhibemus, eas si secus actum fuerit carere 
viribus decernentes V 

"The Quoestor, Questuarius, or Questionarius, the Par 
doner, or Home- raker as lie was called, had now fallen 
on evil days. Even in his better state, when he played 
something like the part of the travelling deputation 
of the popular religious society of our own time, the 
Synod of Exeter, A.D. 1287, could describe him as 
Communiter idiota, vitse pariter inhonestse, confin- 
gens se peritum et vitse sanctitatem exterius prteten- 
dens . . . ut sic simplicium alliciat animos ad majores 
eleemos} T nas largiendas, quas postea in ebrietatibus et 
luxuriis in omnium conspectu prodigaliter consumere 
non erubescit \" He was the constant butt of ridicule 
from the fourteenth century downwards. He figures 
in the flighting of Kennedy and Dunbar, in the 
Satire of the Three Estates/ and in Symmie and his 
brother ; but no portrait of him can be compared with 
that drawn by the master-hand of Chaucer. Lindsay 
paints him as disheartened and discredited: 

But now alace ! our gret abusion 
Is cleirly knawen till our confusion 

Quhilk I may sair repent. 
Of all credence I am now guyte, 
For ith man holds me in despyte, 

That reids the New Testament V 

"The Council of Trent silenced him in 1546, and 
suppressed him altogether in 1562 l ." 

h Bobertson s Statuta Eccl. Scot., vol. ii. p. 266. * Wilkins 

Concilia, vol. ii. p. 154. k Poet. Works, torn. ii. p. 9, 27. Ro 
bertson s Statuta EccL Scot., vol. ii. p. 288. 



OF IMAGE WORSHIP. 363 

III. " Worshipping and adoration, as well of images 
as of relics," is the next point excepted against. In 
the state of ignorance in which the common people 
were for some time before the Reformation, it is riot 
surprising that this should be so. There is always 
a danger of religion among the unlettered becoming- 
superstitious, and even in northern nations, there is 
a tendency to turn objects of faith into anthropo 
morphic forms. The employment of Christian art, 
necessary and advisable as it was, to keep alive 
a belief among the poor, on St. Gregory s principle, 
that pictures are the books of the ignorant, had of 
course its dangerous tendency ; and, as a matter of 
fact, a cultus of images had grown up which required 
to be checked, and all its coarser manifestations to be 
condemned. That condemnation is still due where 
men of education, in the nineteenth century, have gone 
so far as to attribute a sort of quasi-sacramental value 
to images, as is said to be the case with some recent 
theologians. On the other hand, the absence of pic 
tures can alone account for the gross ignorance of re 
ligion so prevalent among the peasantry of England. 

The whole history of the employment of art in reli 
gion is intensely interesting. In the earliest times 
there is an entire absence of images, though not of 
pictures, from the worship of the Christians. Ter- 
tullian seems to deny that any images were used. 
Origen and the apologists follow in the same line m , 

m Orig. c. Cels., viii. 17. Csecilius in Minut. F., p. 91. Arnobius, lib. 
vL, Lact. de mort. Persec., 12. 



364 ARTICLE XXII. 



and so long as heathenism was an existing fact, there 
was great reserve in the Church in this respect. In 
the Catacombs, though there are figures of our Lord 
and His Mother, most of the decorations are symbo 
lical, e.g. Orpheus drawing the beasts to him, to typify 
our Lord drawing all hearts to Him, and Moses 
striking the rock, and the multiplication of the loaves, 
to indicate the two principal sacraments. The early 
writers held that no image of God was to be made n ; 
they maintained the bindingness of the literal sense of 
the Second Commandment ; some censured painting 
and sculpture altogether p ; yet Tertullian himself men 
tions the symbol of the Good Shepherd on the cha 
lice 41 ; and the Encratites were blamed for a certain 
heathenish cultus to the images of Christ r . The statue 
at Csesarea Philippi which Eusebius relates, " they 
say, is the image of Jesus," set up by the woman 
whom our Lord had healed of the issue of blood ; and 
the pictures of St. Peter and St. Paul are said, at 



n St. Clem. AL, Strom., vii. 5 ; Orig. c. Gels., 1. c. ; Minut. F., p. 313 ; 
Lact. ii. 2 ; and, in regard to God the Father, Greg. II., Ep. 2, ad Leon. 
Is. in 7 Syn., p. 503 A; St. Aug., defide et Symb., c. 7. 

St. Clem. AL, Strom., v. 5; Orig. c. Cels., v. 6, vi. 14, vii. 64; Tert. 
de Sped., 23; de Idol., 3, 4; St. Cypr. Test., iii. 59. St. Augustine 
held all the Decalogue to be binding on Christians except as to the Sab 
bath ; c. Faust., xv. 4, 7, xix. 8 ; con. 2 Epp. Pelag., iii. 4. 

v Clem. AL, Protr., n.4, p. 18; Orig. c. Cels., iv. 31 ; Tert., de idol., 
3, 4; c. Hermog., init. 

1 De Pudic., c. 6, 10. In note 28, on St. Paulinus, Ep. xi., it is said 
" under this form Christ occurs in the Roman Hagioglypta." St. Pau- 
lin., Opp., t. ii. p. 35. Constantine set them up in the market-places. 
Eus. de Tit. Const., iii. 49. r St. Iren. i. 25, 6. 



OF IMAGE WORSHIP. 365 

least by him, to have been made " after a Gentile cus 
tom of so honouring benefactors 8 ." Then, however, 
the vetri Ckristiani, and other articles in the Christian 
museums, shew that gradually the use of art in aid of 
religion asserted itself. It did not do so, without con- 
ciliar resistance, as in the celebrated Canon of Elvira : 
"We will not have pictures placed in churches, lest 
that to which our worship is directed be seen on the 
walls/ There is the history of St. Epiphanius de 
stroying in Palestine the "picture as of Christ or 
some saint" (he remembered not which), and his re 
quest to John, Bishop of Jerusalem, to enjoin that "such 
veils which are against our religion, should not be 
hung up in the Church of Christ " and St. Augustine 
denies that Christians had images in Churches *, and 
speaks strongly against them u . On the other hand, 
we have St. Paulinus of Nola s praise of Sulpicius 
Severus *, for having had St. Martin as " a perfect imi 
tation of Christ," painted " in the place where man is 
formed anew" [the Baptistery] as "an object of imita 
tion." Out of modesty, he blames him for representing 
himself y . St. Paulinus himself had pictures of Job 
with his sores, Tobit in his blindness, Esther and 
Judith on two side doors of the Basilica of St. Felix, 
and figures of Martyrs on the centre door. In the 
interior he mentions symbols only in mosaic; Christ 

s H. E., vii. 18. * In Ps. cxiii. n. 6. 

u Ib., and de cons. ~Evang., \. 10. 

x Up. xxxii. ad Sev., n. 2, 3, pp. 199, 200. 

r Natal. 8. Felic., x. 2027, Poem., pp. 159, 160. 



366 ARTICLE XXIT. 



as a Lamb ; a hand with a crown, symbolizing the pre 
sence of the Father ; the Dove, probably on the Cross j 
the Cross in a globe of light ; or, standing on a rock 
whence issued four streams, the Four Gospels z . 

A favourite type was Abraham s sacrifice of Isaac a . 
Then there were the representations of martyrdoms, 
as of St. Cassian b and St. Hippolytus c in Prudentius ; 
St. Theodorus in St. Gregory of Nyssa d ; St. Euphemia 
(in a piece of exquisite beauty) in St. Asterius e . St. 
Gregory of Nyssa, too, seems to speak as if the pic 
tures of the martyrdoms, such as that basilica had, 
were to be found commonly in the basilicas of martyrs f . 
Evidently at first these paintings were historical, and 
St. Gregory, in his Epistle to Serenus, Bishop of Mar 
seilles, commends him for having broken and cast out 
some images: "I praise thee that thou wert zealous, 
that nothing made with hands shall be worshipped &." 
Then he distinguished between their use for instruc 
tion, and their abuse for worship. 

From the time of Constantino the cross continued 
more and more to be honoured ; he himself set it up 
in many places 11 ; it was worn as a protection by 



7 Ep. xxxii. ad Sev., n. 10, p. 206. and notes, pp. 6670. 

a St. Greg. Nyss., Orat. de Fil. et Sp. Div., iii. 476, painted in so 
many places ; Aug. c. Faust., xxii. 73. b Perist., ix. 5 sqq. 

c Ib., xi. 126 sqq. d T. iii. p. 579. 

e Enarr. in Mart. D. Euphem. in Combefis, i. 207 210. 

f "Whoso cometh unto some spot like this, where is a memorial of 
the just, and a holy relic, his soul," &c. (Ibid.) 

* Epp. ix. 105, xi. 13. 

11 De laud. Const., c. ix. p. 740. 



OF IMAGE WORSHIP. 367 

St. M acrina, the sister of St. Gregory of Nyssa i ; it was 
defended as an object of honour by blessed Jerome of 
Jerusalem k . St. Nilus recommends for the decoration 
of a church one and one only cross, in the sanctuary 
to the East 1 , and histories contained in the Old and 
New Testament on every side, done by the hand of 
the most skilful painter, in order that they who are 
unable to read the Divine Scriptures, may have a re 
membrancer of the worthy actions of those who have 
nobly served the true God, and be excited to emu 
late their "glorious excellencies." In the accusation 
against Ibas in the Council of Chalcedon, mention is 
made of a the crosses of silver and gold offered and 
dedicated m ." 

The history of the enlarged use of images is obscure. 
Of their use apart from churches, there is the memo 
rable instance of St. Meletius, whose image, St. Chry- 
sostom relates, was placed by the Antiochenes on rings, 
seals, cups, and chamber-walls 11 . Theodoret mentions 
a report that small images of St. Symeon Stylites 
were set up at the entrances of all the workshops, as 
a protection . St. Chrysostom speaks of 



{ Ep. ad JoJian. Hieros., translated into Latin by St. Jerome, Ep. lx. 
He uses stronger language in relation to the image made of the Blessed 
Virgin by the Collyridians, Hser. 79, pp. 447. Another statement of 
the unlawfulness of images was quoted from him in Cone. Const, in 
Act. vi. ; t. v. Cone. Nic., ii. 

k Galland., torn. vii. p. 530. ! Lib. iv. Ep. Ixi. p. 491, 2. 

m n. 8, Cone. iv. 650, Labbe. 

n Horn, de S. Meletio, t. ii. p. 519, Ben. 

Hist. Eelig., c. 26, t. iii. p. 1272. 



368 ARTICLE XXII. 



which stood in the church p , which some think to have 
been the Cross. In the Canons of the Quini-sext 
Council it is asserted that our Lord should be repre 
sented under the human figure, rather than under 
that of the Lamb^. Pope Hadrian says at the time 
of the Sixth General Council (A.D. 680) that "sacred 
images and painted histories had of old time been 
reverenced r ." The popular excitement at the insult, 
when Leo Isauricus had an image of our Lord cast 
down, evinces what an outrage they felt it to be to 
Himself. The Iconoclast troubles were Eutychian in 
their origin 3 , carried on by godless Emperors, and 
settled by the second Council of Mce. The protest 
of the Council of Frankfort rested probably on the 
misinformation that the Council of Mce had enacted 
that they who did not pay to the images of the saints 
service " or adoration, in the same way as to the Deific 
Trinity, should be adjudged anathema 1 ." 

The dark ages set in, then commences the time of 
those miraculous and rudely-carved representations 
which still hold their places in some countries, the 
Yolto Santo at Lucca, and the like. Many sacred 
images were brought from the East in the times of 
the Iconoclastic troubles, and formed centres of devo 
tion in the West : God probably blessing the poor 
ignorant creatures who came to Him with what im 
perfect faith they had. Nor them only, for from that 

P Horn. 10, in EpJi., n. 2, t. xi. p. 89. * Can. 82. 

r Cone., t. vi. p. 136. * See Petav. de Inc., xv. 11. 

* Cone. Francof., can. 2, quoted ib. 



OF IMAGE WORSHIP. 369 



rude Byzantine art sprung the unspeakable devotional 
glories of the early Tuscan and Sienese schools ; the 
pictures that speak to the soul as very symbols of di 
vine truth ; which pourtray, as no human hand before 
or since has done, the purity of the Virgin Mother, the 
ever young, ever fresh bliss of the saints in glory, the 
ineffable sufferings of God made man for us. God is 
to be praised for the gifts which. He bestowed, ob 
tained by prayer and sacramental communion, on Beato 
Angelico da Fiesole, and on those who have toiled in 
the same spirit, Sano di Pietro, Duccio, and Gen til da 
Fabraino. Next to the development of a Christian 
philosophy, the greatest desideratum of the times is 
the development of a school of Christian art. 

Of the having images or pictures, nothing is said in 
the Article, only of worshipping them. It was a com 
mon saying among many schoolmen, that "the same 
honour was due to the image as to the original, and 
so that the image of Christ was to be worshipped with 
latria, that of the Blessed Mary with hypercfulia, that 
of the saints with dulia u ." But this language was 
easily misunderstood ; and probably nothing more was 
intended than what was expressed in the very opposite 
way, viz. that " the image was nowise to be worshipped 
in itself, but only the original was to be worshipped 
before the image x ," according to the lines engraven 
in a church at Venice, contemporary, it is thought, 
with the second Council of Nice : 

u Quoted by Bellarm., Contr. de Imag. Sanct., ii. 20, t. i. col. 
2146. * Ibid. 

Bb 



370 



ARTICLE XXII. 



" Nam Deus est, quod imago docet, sed non Deus ipsa; 
Hanc videas, sed mente colas quod cernis in ipsa y ." 

And the Council of Nice, which they all acknowledged, 
had said that " images were to be worshipped, but not 
with latria* ;" and Basil of Ancyra, and Constantine, 
who recanted before the Council, said " that they re 
ceived and worshipped images, but not with latria*." 
Whence Bellarmine, too, says, "As to the mode of 
speaking, especially in sermons to the people, it is 
not to be said, that any images are to be adored with 
latria, but contrariwise that they are not to be so 
adored." In support of this, he quotes two Councils 
of his own time, which said, " that the people ought to 
be admonished by preachers not to adore images b ." 

A vivid representation calls forth in us the feelings 
which are felt towards the original. It is so in feelings 
merely human. People kiss the picture or some relic of 
one whom they deeply love, as if it were the person. 
The picture of a friend speaks to us, and people speak 
to it, as if it were himself. If one kissed the feet of 
the Crucifix, it would be accompanied by a mental act 
to our crucified Redeemer, such as St. Mary Magda 
lene s when she kissed His feet in the feast ; it would 
be an act of humble penitence and adoring love to 
Himself as our Redeemer. The act would be addressed 
to our Lord Himself, although elicited by the image. 

The Homilies illustrate what it was in regard to the 

? Quoted by Bellarm., Contr. de Imag. Sanct., ii. 20, t. i. col. 2146. 
z Act. vii. a Act. i. and iii., quoted by Bell. I. c. c. 22. 

b Cone. Senon., c. 14 ; Mogunt., c. 41, ib. 



OF IMAGE WORSHIP. 371 

veneration or worship of images, which the framers 
of the Articles had before their eyes c . The Council 
of Trent reformed in the direction which our writers 
wished, but, by reforming, owned the existence of 
the evils complained of: 

"Into these holy and salutary observances should 
any abuses creep, of these the Holy Council strongly 
\_rehementer~\ desires the utter extinction ; so that no 
images of a false doctrine, and supplying to the unin- 
structed opportunity of perilous error, should be set 
up. All superstition, too, in invocation of saints, 
veneration of relics, and sacred use of images be put 
away ; all filthy lucre be cast out of doors ; and all 
wantonness be avoided ; so that images be not painted 
or adorned with an immodest beauty ; or the celebra 
tion of saints and attendance on relics be abused to 
revelries and drunkenness ; as though festival days 
were kept in honour of saints by luxury and lascivi- 
ousness." 

IY. The worshipping and adoration of relics, is the 
next subject of condemnation of the Article. The 

c See Tract XC., p. 32 37, ed. Pusey. " Thus there was a rood at 
Boxley, in Kent, made with devices to move the eyes and lips (but not 
to see and speak), which, in the year 1538, was publickly shewn at 
S. Paul s by the preacher, then Bishop of Rochester, and there broken 
to pieces ; the people laughing at that which they adored but an hour 
before. Such imposture was also used at Hailes Abbey, in Gloucester 
shire, where the blood of a duck (for such it appeared at the dissolving 
of the house) was so cunningly conveyed that it spirted or sprung up, 
to the great amazement of common people, accounting it the blood 
of our Saviour/ (Fuller, Ch. Hist., book vi. sect. iv. 8 10, vol. ii. 
p. 244, ed. 1837.) 



372 ARTICLE XXII. 



shameless frauds of the Friars at the time of the 
Reformation are well exposed in the writings of the 
time, and the undue veneration in which the relics 
of the saints were held is one of its most powerful 
chapters. Yet the principle that lay at the bottom of 
the sentiment was not in itself vicious, and had early 
established itself in the Church. They who see nothing 
incredible in the mantle of Elias dividing Jordan, in 
the bones of Elisha restoring a man to life, in the hand 
kerchiefs and aprons that had touched St. Paul healing 
disease and casting out evil spirits, will see no ante 
cedent improbability in some of the effects which well- 
authenticated Church history alleges to have been 
wrought by God, in connexion with the remains of 
some of His most distinguished servants. 

To attach a sanctity to the bodies of the saints, which 
in life had been the temples of the Holy Ghost, which 
had carried Christ formed within them, was one of the 
earliest feelings of the Church d . To save the bodies 
of the martyrs, after their passions, became the privilege 
of the early Christians. The more solid parts of St. 
Ignatius, torn by wild beasts, were carried to Antioch, 
wrapped in linen, and bequeathed to the Church e . The 
Church of Smyrna collected the bones of St. Poly carp 
from the fire, where they had been cast to prevent his 
body being carried off f . St. Saturus plunged a ring 

d See a magnificent passage in the peroration of St. Chrys. Comm. on 
the Romans. Horn. 32, p. 757, ed. Mont. 
< Martyr. S. Ignat., n. vii. 
1 Up. Encycl. Eccl. Smyrn. de mart. S. Polyc., n. 17, 18. 



OF RELICS. 373 



into his wound and gave it to Pudens as a memorial *. 
Clothes stained with the sweat of St. Cyprian were 
eagerly coveted h . At the martyrdom of St. Yincentius, 
the multitude received the blood in linen cloths with 
sacred veneration, to be a benefit to their posterity 1 . 
The governor Maximus gave notice that he would 
not allow the relics of St. Tarachus and others to be 
carried away, but was defeated by the Christians 
prayers 4 . St. Ambrose, St. Augustine, and Paulinus of 
Milan, agree in attesting the miracle of the restoration 
of a well-known blind-born man to sight, when he 
touched the hem of the garment which covered the 
newly-discovered relics of St. Gervasius and Protasius l . 
The miracle stopped the persecution against St. Am 
brose. St. Cyril of Jerusalem mentions that the world 
was filled with wood of the Holy Cross which was dis 
covered there in his time m . The depositing of the 
relics of martyrs, as an honour of basilicas, is men 
tioned by Eusebius n , by Nilus , the eye-witness of the 
martyrdom of St. Theodotus, by St. Gregory of JSTyssa 



Pass. SS. Perp. et Fel., n. 21, p. 96, Ruin. 

h Tit. et pass. St. Cypr., in Ruin., p. 214. 

1 Pass. St. Vincent., ib., p. 395. Prudcntius says the same, pro 
bably from the Acts, Hymn. v. Pass. St. Vincent., 34144. 

k Pass. St. TaracJii, &c., Ruinart., pp. 490, 491. 

1 St. Ambrose, Ep. xxii. Sorori, t. ii. 874, 848, embodying his dis 
course to the people ; St. Augustine, Conf., ix. 7, n. 16 (see note, Oxf. Tr.) 
Serm. 286, n. 4, 5, (where he says, " 1 was there ; I was at Milan,") 
t. v. p. 1689 ; de Civ. D., xxii. 7, t. vii. pp. 1057, 1058 ; Paulinus, Vit. 
S. Ambr., n. 14. 

" Cat. x. 19. " Vit. Const., ii. 40. 

In Gall., iv. 119. 



374 ARTICLE XXII. 



on the Martyr Theodoras p , and on the forty mar 
tyrs q , and by St. Ambrose r . St. Basil promises to assist 
the zeal of Arcadius by sending him some martyrs 
relics, if he can discover them s ; he asks Soranus to send 
him some, " since the persecution in your parts even now 
makes martyrs unto the Lord V St. Paulimis writes 
" Our brother Victor has informed me, that you, as is 
worthy of your faith and grace, want, for the basilica 
which you have built, the blessing from the sacred 
relics of saints, whereby your Church should be 
adorned. The Lord is my witness, that if I had even 
a scruple of sacred ashes more than I need for dedi 
cating the basilica which will soon be completed in the 
Name of the Lord, I would have sent it to you V 

St. Jerome asks Vigilantius whether it is ill done 
of the Bishop of Rome, who, over the venerable bodies 
of the departed Peter and Paul, offers sacrifice to the 
Lord, and accounts their tombs Christ s altars; and 
not the Bishop of one city only, but the Bishops of the 
whole world who go into the basilicas of dead men, &c. 
He relates that the Emperor Constantinus " translated to 
Constantinople the relics of Andrew, Luke, Timothy, 
before whose relics demons howl ; that Arcadius trans 
lated the bones of the blessed Samuel from Judaea into 

P T. Hi. pp. 579, 580. 

i Orat. in xl. Mart., t. ii. p. 213. He says, that "well-nigh the 
whole earth is blessed with the remains of the forty martyrs," p. 211. 
r Exh. Virg., n. 1. Ep. xxii. Sorori, t. ii. pp. 874 878. 
8 Ep. xlix. Arcad., t. iii. p. 203. 
1 Ep. civ. Sorano, p. 354. 
u Ep. xxxi. ad Sever., init. 



OF RELICS. 375 



Thrace ; while from Palestine to Chalcedon the crowds 
were as one mighty hive, and lifted on high with one 
voice the praise of Christ V In the fourth century 
the system was distinctly recognised and regulated by 
Canon, as in the 5th Council of Carthage, A.D. 398, 
which legislated in regard to the wayside altars erected 
as memories of the martyrs ?. The coarse attack of the 
inn-keeper Vigilantius was not of a nature to gain him 
followers, or to disturb the tide of pious feeling. Emi 
nent fathers believed that there resided power in the 
bodies also of the just, which had so long been the 
temples of the Holy Ghost z ; that God witnessed to 
them who had witnessed to Him ; and that He shewed, 
in this way also, that "right dear in the sight of 
the Lord is the death of His saints;" that prayers 
were answered near the bodies of the martyrs, and 
that the touch of their relics dispelled disease. The 
evidence is irresistible 3 . Modern theorists will solve 

* Adv. Vigil., n. 4. 

y Can. xiv. It directs that the bishops should overthrow those iii 
which it should be proved that there was no body or relic of martyrs. 

z St. Cyril Jerus., Cat. xviii. 16. "There reposes in that body 
a power greater than that of the soul itself, the grace of the Holy 
Spirit, which, by the miracles which it performs, gives proof to all of 
the resurrection." (St. Chrys. de St. abyl., t. ii. p. 635.) 

a St. Hilary says : " Everywhere was the holy blood of the martyrs 
received, and daily are their venerable bones a testimony, while demons 
howl at them, while sicknesses are dispelled, while wonderful works are 
seen." (Cont. Const. Imp., n. 8.) "The tombs of the apostles and mar 
tyrs, by the operations of miracles, speak of Him [Christ]/ (De Trin., 
1. xi. n. 3, p. 1084) St. Gregory of Nazianzum : " By them devils are 
cast out and maladies cured; whose bodies, even alone, whether touched 
or honoured, can effect as much as their holy souls ; even whose drops 



376 ARTICLE XXII. 



the knot by believing that the cures were wrought by 
the subjective excitation of spirit and the heated ima 
gination of the ignorant votary. It is a humbler and 

of blood alone, and the minute symbols of their passion, can do as much 
as their bodies." (Adv. Julian. Orat. iii., t. i. p. 76.) " The driving 
away of evil spirits, the removal of diseases, the foreknowledge of future 
events all which the very dust of Cyprian can effect, where there is 
faith, as they know who have made trial, and have transmitted the 
miracle even to us, and will deliver it to future ages." (Orat. xviii. de 
S. Cypr., p. 285.) " What if I should speak of diseases and demons 
expelled in a manner surpassing belief, so as to amount to miracles?" 
(Carm. Iamb, xviii.) St. Ambrose : "It is a source of joy unto all, to 
touch but the extremest portion of the linen that covers them; and 
whoso touches is healed." (Ep. xxii. Sorori, t. ii. p. 87.) St. Augus 
tine : " What does God, by performing marvellous works near the bodies 
of the saints but furnish a testimony that what dies perishes not to 
Him ? and it may hence be understood in what honour He holds the 
souls of the saints who are with Him when the soul-bereft flesh is 
adorned with so mighty an operation of the Divinity." (Serm. 275, 
in Nat. S. Vincent., n. 3, t. v. col. 1631.) "Think what things God 
reserves for us in the land of the living, He who bestows things so great 
from the dust of the dead." (Serm. 317, n. i. de S. Steph., ib., 1870.) 
St. Isidore of Pelusium : " Ask those who are cured by those martyrs 
and learn to how many they vouchsafe remedies." (Ep. i. 55. Hieraci.) 
St.Victricius, A.D. 396: "Do they [the particles of the relics] afford 
healing to the miserable, in a different way in the East, at Constanti 
nople, Antioch, Thessalonica, Neissa, Rome, in Italy ? Are the suffering 
bodies cleansed in different ways ? John Evangelist heals at Ephesus, 
and in many other places; and with us is his same medicine. At 
Bologna heals Proculus, Agricola, and here too we see their majesty; 
Antoninus heals at Placentia ; Saturninus heals, Trajan heals in Mace 
donia. Nazarius healeth at Milan ; Mutius, Alexander, Datysus, Chyn- 
deus, infuse the grace of health with abundant virtue. Healeth Eogata, 
Leoriida, Anastasia, Anatoclia. I ask, is tue remedy of the saints one 
with us, another with others ? But if all the saints everywhere defend 
with like tenderness those who reverence them [c uliores~\, cztltus is to be 
added, not majesty to be discussed." (De laud. Sanct., n. xi. Gall. viii. 
232 ; see also Theodoret, below, pp. 413, 414.) 



OF RELICS. 377 



surer line to take, to say that God, dealing with a rude 
and unlettered race, permitted that these relics should 
be the media of His own mercy in cure. 

All through the dark ages relic- worship prevailed, 
but it was after the Crusades that it arrived at its 
intensity. The thought of the Holy Land filled all 
Europe with the tenderest sentiments of love and 
compassion, from the contemplation of the Life and 
Sufferings of the Saviour; and the soldiers of the 
Cross brought home objects which purported to be 
of the most sacred nature. Beautiful churches, in 
the purest taste of the first Pointed style were erected 
to receive them, and the skill of the goldsmith and 
enameller enlisted to do honour to the blessed objects 
in a style which still excites our admiration. At 
first, no doubt, the sight of these relics advanced 
piety. Who would not feel his heart burn within him 
at the sight of a real Thorn that once pierced the 
Sacred Brow ? But where will not the idolatry of 
gain creep in ? Even St. Augustine had to complain 
of the sale of relics, probably fictitious. The enemy 
" hath dispersed on every side so many hypocrites, 
under the garb of monks, strolling about the pro 
vinces, nowhere sent, nowhere settled, nowhere stand 
ing, nowhere sitting. Some hawk about the limbs 
of martyrs, if indeed they be martyrs b ." So now, 
too, the trade in relics led to the discovery of impos 
tures, and there was a reaction. In vain the Friars 
preached them up ; the feeling turned against them, 

b DK Monach., c. 28 ; Short Treatises, p. 509, Oxf. Tr. 



378 ARTICLE XXII. 



and at the Reformation in England and Scotland, well- 
nigh everything which had formerly excited the de 
votion of the people all well-nigh, but the body of 
Edward the Confessor, saved no doubt on account of 
his royal dignity was ruthlessly destroyed. 

It is again to be remarked that the Article relates, 
not to the reverence of the relics, (we reverence the 
remains of any holy dead, much more of those who 
bore witness to Christ through sufferings which we can 
hardly imagine), but to " superstitions in their venera 
tion" which the Council of Trent had to forbid. St. 
Jerome had to distinguish the honour to relics from 
the worship due to the Creator c . " We worship not, 
we adore not, I say not relics only, but not even sun 
and moon, nor angels, nor archangels, nor cherubim, 
nor seraphim, lest we serve the creature more than the 
Creator Who is blessed for evermore. But we honour 
the relics of martyrs, that we may adore Him Whose 
martyrs they are. We honour the servants, that the 
honour of the servants may redound to the Lord, Who 
says, He that receiveth you, receiveth Me/ } 

V. Of all the points of difference between un reformed 
Churches and ourselves, there is none which has prac 
tically widened the difference so much as the invocation 
of saints. The divergence has operated on both sides. 
Roman Catholics and Orthodox Easterns regard the 
disuse of this practice as an evidence of great want 
of faith, and of the presence of an impious unsuper- 
natural temper on the part of the reformed, while these 

c ~Ep. cix. ad Hiparium, n. 1. 



OF PRAYERS TO THE SAINTS. 379 

in return have accused of superstition, and even idol 
atry, the having recourse to any created being in the 
way of prayer d . One cannot help honouring both sen 
timents, however contrariant their practical results. 
To live in an atmosphere of faith, to recognise in 
a very loving and practical way the Communion of 
Saints, to have faith and confidence even in the most 
subordinate powers of the unseen world, sheds a beau 
tiful light over the Christian life of those who have 
been trained in such devotions; on the other hand, 
one respects that jealousy for the honour and incom 
municable privileges of God which sees danger where 
others find food for faith, and which centres all its 
thought on the one Supreme invisible Object of the 
aspirations of the believing soul. 

Viewing the matter from this dispassionate light, it 
shall be our duty, first to assert the truth of the literal 
meaning of the Article, that the doctrine of Romanists 
" on the Invocation of Saints" is " a fond thing, vainly 
invented, and grounded upon no warranty of Scripture, 
but rather repugnant to the Word of God ;" and then, 
to shew what has been the real mind of the ancient 
Church upon this point of doctrine. 

There will always be a tendency in human nature to 
rest in something short of the pure essence of God. 
His unapproachable holiness bears down upon the hu 
man spirit with a crushing weight. Anything that 
will satisfy the religious instinct, and at the same time 
prevent the soul from too great a proximity to Him 

d Palmer s Essay " On Orthodox Communion." 



380 ARTICLE XXII. 



Who is a consuming fire, will be eagerly bailed by 
tbose wbo recognise wbat God is and wbat tbey are, 
till the correctives supplied by the true faith, in the 
images of love and mercy revealed in the Gospel, make 
themselves living truths within the soul. It was in 
this spirit that the Jews in the wilderness desired 
Moses to stand between them and God. 

Even in Mahomedanism, the centre of the philo 
sophy of which is the unphilosophical belief in an 
unipersonal God, the worship of the Ooleys or Saints 
has developed itself. The votary of Islam, maintaining 
that <e God hath not begotten, is not begotten," con 
sistently refuses to worship the Only-Begotten. He 
cannot accept the blessed truths of a God united to 
human nature, and so human nature has avenged it 
self, and he is now given over to the cultus of men who 
ought not to be worshipped, and the devotion to AH, 
Iloosn, and Hooseyn, has avenged the neglect of the 
true God and our Saviour Jesus Christ. 

Again, not merely are there deep principles in the 
human mind which lead to a resting in secondary 
worship, but the political condition of a people will 
strongly influence belief in this respect. It cannot be 
doubted that the state of the old heathenism, at the 
time of the State-establishment by Constantine, told 
sensibly in the direction of the development of saint- 
worship. In Italy, specially, the old Pagan ideas got 
baptized, and the religious devotion of the vulgar was 
transformed from the elder forms of heathenism to the 
purer cultus of the personages of the Holy Gospel and 



OF PRAYERS TO THE SAINTS. 381 

of the Church. That the world gained immensely by 
the change, the most bigoted religionist must admit. 
To withdraw the mind from the sensual images that 
belonged to the beautiful but corrupt Nature- worship 
of the heathen, to those of the self-denying heroism 
of the martyrs, must be acknowledged as an immense 
gain by all those who hold that the imagination ex 
ercises power over the whole man ; but still, beneficial 
as the process was, it cannot be doubted that it carried 
a danger within it, and that it laid the foundation of 
a state of things, in which a lower standard of religious 
morality came to be tolerated, and the idea of the one 
true God to be obscured. Not that either result of 
necessity took place. M. Comte maintains 6 that, at 
no time have Monotheistic ideas been so prevalent or 
strong, as in the full sunlight of the Virgin-worship 
of the eleventh and twelfth centuries; but still the 
religion of the vulgar will always exaggerate tenden 
cies, and therefore such a warning as that contained 
in the Articles is specially salutary. 

At the time of the Reformation all this had specially 
to be insisted upon. The popularity of some devo 
tions must have been very great, if the offerings at St 
Thomas s shrine at Canterbury in one year amounted 
to 954 6s. 3d. ; while that at our Lord s was nothing, 
and at Our Lady s 4 Is. 8d. The gross immorality 
which was everywhere prevalent found a satisfaction 
for those spiritual aspirations which never die, even in 
the bad, in the cultus of some easy saint. 

e Comte Politique Positive, pp. 428433. Paris, 1823. 



382 ARTICLE XXII. 



But there is another aspect of the practice, which it 
would be uncandid and unphilosophical to pass over. 
There are certain high-strung souls, of whose undivided 
and entire love to God there can be no doubt, whose 
intense personal devotion to our Lord is the warmest, 
and who realize His Passion in a measure into which 
our cold hearts cannot enter, to whom this devotion is 
congenial. In them it exists in entire subordination 
to the feelings which the incommunicable right of 
God to our entire selves engenders and cultivates. 
We may not be able to understand them, but such 
there are. There must, therefore, be some aspect of 
this practice which appeals to a very high part of our 
nature, and therefore well deserves our careful con 
sideration. This can best be attained by tracing out 
the development of the doctrine in the history of the 
Church. We have, then, to ask two questions : 1. Did 
the Early Church believe in the intercession of those 
holy persons who have gone to their rest ? and 2. Did 
the Early Church think it right to address words of 
petition to them? With regard to the first of these 
questions, there is not a shadow of a doubt. But, 
before entering into the details of evidence, it may be 
as well to point out that it is not only in conformity 
to all our Christian instincts of love, but that it is 
a truth of Scripture. All creatures are, of course, 
alike at an infinite distance from God. The highest 
creature which God could create must be a creature 
still ; and, as a creature, finite ; and everything finite 
is alike distant from the Infinite. But God, "who has 



OF PRAYERS TO THE SAINTS. 383 

ordained and constituted the services of angels and 
men in wonderful order," has made their mutual 
ministries a part of the harmony of love in His crea 
tion. Not only does Holy Scripture declare, that they 
are " all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for 
them who shall he heirs of salvation f ," but it speaks 
of offices which they render, the higher to the lower, 
and individually to ourselves *. "Twice, in Daniel s 
visions, an angel enquireth of one most exalted angel, 
(who yet himself is a creature, for he swears by the 
living Grod h ,) and receives an answer 1 ." In Zechariah 
we see that angels whom God had sent to " walk to and 
fro on the earth," give account to " the angel of the 
Lord V A superior angel, in another vision, directs 
another angel to instruct Zechariah 1 . In regard to 
ourselves, it is our Lord Who told us of the angels of 
the little ones, "their angels," "always beholding the 
face of His Father in heaven" 1 ," as a ground of our 
reverent care not to offend them. It was the Apostolic 
body which, thinking it impossible that Peter himself, 
whom they knew to have been in prison, could be at 
the door, said, " It is his angel n ." They were mistaken 
as to the fact, but they gave expression to their belief. 
Our Lord Himself allowed His angels to minister to 
Him, either together , or in an individual relation 
to Him. In His dread agony, He admitted of the 

f Heb. i. 14. * Dan. xii. 6, viii. 13. h Ibid. xii. 7. * Dr. 

Pusey, Daniel the Prophet, p. 521. k Zech. i. 1012. H. 7, 

8 Heb. ; 3, 4, Eng. m St. Matt, xviii. 10. n Acts xii. 15. St. 
Matt. iv. 11. 



384 ARTICLE XXII. 



strengthening of an angel to His Manhood 1 . The 
Old Testament revealed that they were interested in 
our race. They all " burst forth into jubilee q " at the 
prospect of our birth ; God gave them charge of His 
own to "keep them in all their ways r ," "ascending 
and descending 8 " from heaven to earth. We know 
how they ministered to the patriarchs and defended 
Elisha * ; how one especially " stood up to protect the 
people of Israel u ." The angel of the Lord "prayed 
for Jerusalem x ;" and, although "the angel of the 
Lord" in the Old Testament is mostly a manifestation 
of God, yet since the angel prayed he must have had a 
created existence y. God s declaration, "Though Moses 
and Samuel stand before Me, My mind is not towards 
this people z ," by the force of the words implies that 
they could intercede, though, doubtless, knowing the 
will of God, they did not. Isaiah s appeal to God im 
plies the same, "For Thou art our Father, though 
[or, for] Abraham knoweth us not, and Israel will not 
acknowledge us a ." For the belief that God would own 
them as their Father, though for their misdeeds the 
fathers of their race should give them up, implies that 
these ordinarily did remember them. The prophet 

P St. Luke xxii. 43. Job xxxviii. 7. r Ps. xci. 11. s Gen. 
xxviii. 12, 13. l 2 Kings vi. 17. tt Dan. xii. 1. x Zech. i. 12. 

y Job xxxiii. 23, is probably an anticipation of our Lord s coming 
in the flesb. See Pusey on Daniel, p. 519. 

z Jer. xv. 1. The words are TD3P DM, not ib- Comp. Jer. v. 2 ; 
Is. i. 18, x. 22 ; Am. v. 22 ; Job ix. 20. Even when spoken of things 
impossible (Jer. xxii. 24 ; Ps. cxxxix. 8) DS presupposes them as pos 
sible, since it speaks of what would follow. a Is. Ixiii. 16. 



OF PRAYERS TO THE SAINTS. 385 

contrasts the endurance of God s love with the pos 
sible failure of any manifestation of man s. But then 
this implies a real care on the part of man, although, 
like Abraham s intercession for Sodom and Gomorrah, 
it had to come to an end at last. This belief continued 
on, after the Canon of the Old Testament was closed. 
In Tobit the angel Raphael says, " When thou didst 
pray, I offered thy prayer to the Lord b ," and says that 
he is one of the seven holy angels who present the 
prayers of the saints, and enter into the presence of the 
glory of the Holy One c . And Judas sees, in a vision, 
Onias, " the High Priest who prayed for all the people 
of the Jews," and Jeremiah, " environed with great 
beauty and majesty ;" of whom Onias saith, " This is 
a lover of his brethren and of the people of Israel ; 
this is he that prayeth much for the people and for 
all the holy city, Jeremiah the prophet of God d ." 
Both are confirmed in the New Testament, where 
heaven is opened to us and we see "the angel 6 ," 
who " stood before the altar, having a golden censer, 
and there was given to him much incense, that he 
should offer of the prayers of all saints upon the 
golden altar, which was before the throne ; and the 
smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, 
ascended up before God out of the angel s hands ;" and 
not he only, but they who are represented by "the 

b Tobit xii. 12. 

c Ibid. 15. These (with 2 Mace.) are alleged in proof by Origen, 
de Orat., n. 11, t. i. p. 213 ; in Joann., t. 13, n. 57, Opp. iv. 273. 
d 2 Mace. xv. 1214. e Rev. viii. 3, 4. 

C C 



386 ARTICLE XXII. 



four beasts and the four-and-twenty elders/ who fall 
down before the Lamb, and every one of them had 
harps, "and golden vials full of odours, which are the 
prayers of the saints f ." And those, who so present 
the prayers of the saints, must themselves be of our 
race ; for in their " new song" their thanksgiving is, 
" Thou hast redeemed us to God by Thy Blood out 
of every kindred and tongue and people and nation, 
and hast made us to our God kings and priests." 
Heaven and earth are joined in one in Christ our 
Head. "The heavenly Jerusalem," to which, Scrip 
ture says, " we are come," counts in it, we are told 
in the same place, " an innumerable company of angels, 
the general assembly and Church of the first-born, 
which are written in heaven, and the spirits of just 
men made perfect g ." In Jesus, our Head, are " united 
things in earth and things in heaven h ." Angels and 
men are one family. The " Jerusalem which is above" 
is the mother of us all \ But then, not of us on earth 
only is that true, that " we, being many, are one body 
in Christ, and every one members one of another k / 
and that " the members should have the same care one 
for another; and whether one member suffer, all the 
members suffer with it ; or one member be honoured, 
all the members rejoice in it ; now ye are the body of 
Christ, and members in particular l ." As our blessed 
Lord says that He is persecuted in His members, or 
receives our benefits in them, so they who are per- 

f Rev. v. 8. s Heb. xii. 22, 23. h Col. i. 20. 

1 Gal. iv. 26. k Rom. xii. 5. l I Cor. xii. 2527. 



OF PRAYERS TO THE SAINTS. 387 

fected must have a care for us, who are yet in our 
pilgrimage, and are beset by infirmities, and whose 
crown is as yet unwon ; and we rejoice in the glory 
and honour of those who have attained. Since the 
angels rejoice over one sinner that repenteth, they 
must have a very individual love for those of our 
race, and know much of our individual histories ; and 
so then must those of our race, who are admitted 
among them, and are " like unto the angels." Angels 
and saints are one body, Scripture saith. It is, at 
least, a pious belief, that, out of the redeemed, every 
rank of the angels shall be filled up, or, if none fell 
from it m , shall be enlarged. Nay, as our Divine Lord 
for ever in-oned with His Divine Nature this our poor 
human nature, the lowest of His rational creation, so, 
in the nearest possible relation to His Godhead has 
He, from our same race, placed her, whom, by His 
grace, He prepared for that unspeakable nearness to 
Himself; whom, through those her early years, He 
formed to be the sacred shrine for His Deity ; whom 
He taught to believe what was in human sight im 
possible, yet which, if brought to pass, involved the 
peril of utter shame ; her, through whose obedience 
the curse of Eve s disobedience was annulled ; from 
whose " Behold the handmaid of the Lord, be it unto 
me according to Thy word," her own redemption and 
the redemption of the world had its beginning. No 
titles, which the eloquence of human reverence and 

111 The Seraphim, with their burning love. Satan, the chief of those who 
fell, is thought to have been one of the Cherubim. (Ezek. xxviii. 14.) 



388 ARTICLE XXII. 



love have culled for her, reach the majestic simplicity 
of that, which, in barest truth, utters the mystery of 
the Incarnation declared in our Creeds, " conceived of 
the Virgin. Mary," that "she bare God," Theotokos. 
And since no Divine mystery ends with this world, 
then, in that closest relation to Himself, higher than 
the Seraphim, or whatever is highest in the host of 
heaven, is she, His creature, as God, but, as God-Man, 
His Mother still. "Well, then, may we think of angels 
and saints as one body under Him, our Head, since 
He, their Head, is God-Man, and nearest to Himself 
is His human Mother. Our Lord calls them, too, "like 
to the angels n ;" nay, He has admitted them to His 
own throne, as He says, " To him that overcometh will 
I grant to sit with Me in My throne ; even as I also 
overcame, and am set down with My Father in His 
throne ;" " he that overcometh and keepeth My work 
unto the end, to him will I give power over the 
nations : and he shall rule them with a rod of iron ; 
as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to 
shivers : even as I received of My Father P." 

It may almost seem superfluous to adduce passages 
from the fathers to shew that they taught that angels 
and saints pray for us. Yet it may have its use. First, 
then, as to the angels. Clement of Alexandria says * : 
"The Gnostic prays with angels, as being already the 
equal of angels ; nor does he ever come to be out of 
the holy guardianship ; even though he pray alone, 

" St.Markxii. 25. Rev. iii. 21. 

f Rev. ii. 26, 27. * Strom., vii. p. 879. 



OF PRAYERS TO THE SAINTS. 389 

he lias the choir of the holy one standing with him." 
Tertullian speaks of the indecency of sitting at prayer, 
while the angel of prayer standeth by r . Origen unites 
the angels and the departed saints: "But not the High- 
Priest [our Lord] alone prays with those who pray 
sincerely, but also the angels who joy in heaven 
over one sinner who repenteth more than over ninety - 
and-nine just persons who need no repentance/ and 
the souls of the saints who have fallen asleep be 
fore (us) 8 ." He says, " The angel of each one, even 
of the little ones in the Church, both prays with us, 
and acts with us in those things about which we pray, 
wherein it is possible *." " If the angel of the Lord 
encamp round about them that fear him, and shall 
deliver them/ and Jacob speaks truly, not concerning 
himself only, but all besides devoted to God, saying 
to him that understands, The angel that delivered 
me from all evils/ it is likely that when many are 
assembled together sincerely unto the glory of Christ, 
the angel of each one encamps round each of those 
who fear ; with that man, that is, whom he has been 
entrusted to guard and minister to ; so as to be, when 
the saints are assembled, a twofold Church, one of 

r De Orat,, 16, p. 310, Oxf. Tr. 

8 Ibid., n. 11, t. i. p. 213. "It is likely that the angelic powers 
are present at the assemblies of the faithful, and the power of our 
Lord and Saviour, yea, too, of the holy spirits, and I think too, even 
of those who hdve fallen asleep before (us), and undoubtedly also of 
those who are still living, even though the how is not easy to 
d. clare." Ibid., n. 31, p. 269. 

1 Ibid., p. 215. 



390 ARTICLE XXII. 



men and another of angels." "The power of Jesus, 
and the spirits of Paul and such as he, and the angels 
of the Lord that encamp round about each of the 
saints, concur with and come together with those who 
are assembled in sincerity u ." And in answer to Celsus, 
who said, "we must render" to angels "first-fruits 
and prayers, as long as we live, that we may gain 
their friendliness," Origen says x , " To Whom we give 
the first-fruits, to Him we send up the prayers also, 
having a great High-Priest, Who hath entered into the 
heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, and we hold the con 
fession while we live, having God favourable to us, and 
His Only-Begotten Son, Jesus, manifested among us. 
But if we long for a multitude, too, whom we wish 
to be friendly to us, we learn that thousands of thou 
sands stand by Him, and ten thousand times ten thou 
sand minister to Him, who, looking at those who 
imitate their piety to God as kinsmen and friends, 
co-operate to their salvation who call upon God and 
pray sincerely, appearing to [them] and thinking that 
they themselves ought to obey them, and as by one 
compact, to be present for the benefit and salvation of 
those who pray to God, to Whom themselves also pray. 
For they are all ministering spirits sent forth," &c. : 
and, " The one God over all we must thoroughly pro 
pitiate, and have Him propitious Whose entire good 
will is gained by piety and all virtues ; but if he 
(Celsus) will have it, that certain others are to be so 
propitiated by us after the God over all, let him 

a De Orat., n. 31, p. 269. * c. Cels., viii. 34, t. i. p. 766, 7. 



OF PRAYERS TO THE SAINTS. 391 

observe that as the motion of its shadow followeth. the 
body when moved, in like way upon the propitiation of 
the God Who is above all it followeth, that one has all 
His friends, angels, and souls, and spirits, propitious ; 
and not only do they, too, become propitious to those 
who are worthy, but they also co-operate with those 
who wish to serve the God Who is above all, and gain 
His favour, and comprecate, and co-petition; so that 
we may dare to say, that with those who delibe 
rately prefer the better part when they pray to God, 
many myriads of holy powers, uncalled, pray with 
them?." 

Origen supports his own belief by that of one of the 
" older masters :" " I so deem that all those fathers 
who fell asleep before us fight with us and help us by 
their prayers. For so also did I hear one of the older 
masters saying z ." He exhorts Ambrose not to fear mar 
tyrdom on account of wife and children ; for by thus 
" becoming the friend of God, thou wilt have greater 
power to help them." "Then thou wilt love them 
with more perfect knowledge, and wilt pray for them 
with greater wisdom V He asks, " Who doubts that 
all the holy fathers help us by prayers b ?" &c. And 
there is the passage, well known for the beauty of the 
thought, that since knowledge is perfected in the life 
to come, so also other virtues, especially love. " But 
one of the principal virtues, according to the Divine 

y c. Gels., n. 64, pp. 789, 790. * In Jos., Horn. 16, t. ii. p. 437. 

a De Mart., n. 37, 38, t. i, p. 299. b In Num., Horn. 26, n. 6, 

t. ii. p. 373. 



392 ARTICLE XXII. 



word, is charity towards our neighbour, which we must 
needs think is felt by the departed saints towards those 
who are struggling in this life, more exceedingly than 
by those who are yet in human infirmity, and are 
struggling together with those who need aid c ." 

St. Dionysius, of Alexandria : " They who are about 
to struggle in the sacred conflict of suffering for right 
eousness, have angels bringing them aid from heaven d ." 
St. Gregory Thaumaturgus speaks incidentally of " the 
holy angel of God, who had as his lot, with great 
judgment to govern and tend me and be my guardian 
from boyhood, who nourisheth me from my youth ; 
him, who in addition to the common governors of all 
men, is, whoever he may be, specially the attendant 
teacher of me who am a child, who, being in all 
besides, everywhere and in all things, my bringer up, 
stood in charge of me of old, and now, too, rears me 
up and instructs me and leads me by the hand e . " 
Even Eusebius says : " How shall we give thanks (for 
the death of Christ for us) ? Our tongues, our mouths, 
suffice not, though we had a thousand. We suffice 
not ; let us seek helpers ; let angels help us ; let 
archangels, too, give thanks with us, that they, too, 
may rejoice f ." Didymus, of Alexandria : " It is the 



c De Orat., n. 11, t. i. p. 214. d De Martyr., pp. 40, 41. 

e Orat. Paneg. in Orig., n. 4, Gall. iii. 418. St. Methodius says : 
" We have received, in the God-inspired writings, that these children, 
though born of adultery, are delivered over to guardian angels." (Conv., 
ii. 7, Gall. iii. 682.) 

f Defide adv. SabelL, 1. i., Gall. iv. 473. 



OF PRAYERS TO THE SAINTS. 393 

longing of perfect men, coming to the consummation 
of sanctity, to become equal to the angels. For angels 
give aid to men, not men to angels, ministering to 
them salvation, and announcing to them larger bene 
fits of God^." St. James, of Nisibis : " Let not the 
hatred thou hast against any re-enter thy mind whilst 
thou prayest. Be assured that thy prayers will be left 
before the altar, and that he who offers prayer will 
not receive and raise it from the earth. For he 
examines thy gift, whether it be polluted. If the 
prayer be holy, he raises it and offers it in the sight of 
God. But if he find thee saying in thy prayer, For 
give me, I too forgive/ he that raises prayer will 
answer thee who prayest, First forgive thou thy 
debtor, and then I will raise thy prayer to the Lord, 
Whose debtor thou art V " St. Basil : " Of the holy 
spiritual powers who have their places in heaven, some 
are called eyes, from being intrusted to watch over 
us ; others, ears, from receiving our prayers \" St. Am 
brose comments on the words in the Revelations : 
"which incense, the prayers of saints, is carried by an 
angel unto that golden altar which is before the throne 
of God, and glows like a sweet ointment of pious 
prayer k ." St. Hilary : " The angels of the little ones 
day by day see God, because the Son of Man came to 
save what was lost/ Therefore both the Son of Man 

s De Sp. S., n. 7, Gall. vi. 266. h Serm. iv. n. 7, Gall. v. 30. 
1 Horn, in Ps. xxxiii., n. 11, t. i. p. 154. On the Guardian Angel, 
see further St. Basil, ib., p. 148. 

k De Isaac et anima, c. 5, u. 44, t. i. p. 369. 



394 ARTICLE XXII. 



saves, and angels see God and are angels of the little 
ones/ The authority is absolute that angels pre 
side over the prayers of the faithful; wherefore an 
gels day by day offer up to God the prayers of those 
who are saved by Christ. Therefore it is dangerous to 
despise him, whose desires and supplications are borne 
to the eternal and invisible God by the lofty service 
and ministry of angels V ; 

So also in regard to those who, of our race, were 
perfected ; those especially who had borne testimony to 
Jesus by their deaths. In the very earliest times we 
find such testimony as this. In the account of the 
martyrdom of St. Ignatius, many profess that they saw 
him praying over them m . Origen says, " It will not be 
wrong to say, that all the Saints departed, retaining 
love for those who still are alive, take care of their 
salvation and them, by their prayers and by their 
intervention with God n ." St. Cyprian suggests to 
St. Cornelius that whichever should first be vouch 
safed martyrdom, should not cease our prayers for our 
brethren and sisters, in presence of the mercy of the 
Father; and asks the Virgins whom he exhorts to 
" remember him when virginity shall begin to be 
honoured in them [i.e. in person] ." 

Eusebius relates how the martyr Potamisena pro 
mised to a kind soldier to beg him from her Lord, and 
obtained his conversion by her prayers p ; and how 

1 In, St. Matt., c. 18, n. 5, p. 758. m Patres Apostolici, p. 116, 

ed. Hefele. n In Cant. iii. t. iii. p. 75. De liab. Virg., 362 ; 

Ep. \\ii.fin. Ben. P H. E., vi. 14. 



OF PRAYERS TO THE SAINTS. 395 

Theodosia came to the confessors in bonds, " both out 
of kindness, and, as is likely, to ask them to remember 
her when they came to the Lord q ." St. Athanasius 
speaks of the holy Psalmists, " who communicated the 
words as ministers praying with us r ;" St. Antony says 
" that the saints use much prayer and gladness in ex 
ultation before our Creator. The Maker, too, of all re 
joices in our works, and on account of the testimony 
of the saints gives us immense charismata 5 . 3 Nilus, 
an eye-witness, relates how (about A.D. 303) the Martyr 
St. Theodotus, just before he was beheaded, bade the 
weeping Christians, " weep not, but glorify our Lord 
Jesus, who had enabled him to finish his course. For 
I shall be with confidence unceasingly interceding with 
God in heaven for you *." Eusebius himself says : 
" that it is probable that holy powers and choirs of 
sacred angels pray with and over those who send up to 
God, by prayers, spiritual and pure sacrifices," as it 
" was probable that a choir of holy angels and men 
dear to God, the sacred ministers of God, prayed with 
David u ." St. Cyril, of Jerusalem, says : " that we 
commemorate those who have fallen asleep before us, 
patriarchs, prophets, apostles, martyrs, that God, by 
their prayers and intercessions, may receive our peti 
tions x ." St. Hilary says : " that apostles, patriarchs, 
prophets, or rather angels, with a kind of guard, fence 
round the Church. Good, indeed, is an angel s pro- 

i De Martyr. Pal., c. 7. * n. 31, t. i. p. 1001. * Epist. v. 

n. 1, in Gall. iv. 666. * Mart. S. Theod., n. 32, in Gall. iv. 128. 

u In Ps. xix. 1, Montf. Coll. Nov., i. 75. * Cat. Myst., v. 9. 



396 ARTICLE XXII. 



tection, but that of the Lord is better y." St. Gregory, 
of Nazianzum, says of his father : " I am persuaded 
that he now (guards the flock) more effectually by his 
intercession, than he did formerly by his teaching, by 
how much he is nigher to God z ." And of St. Basil : 
" His body is assigned to the tomb of his fathers, and 
he is joined, the high-priest to the priests, that grand 
voice which still ringeth in my ears to the preachers, 
the martyr to the martyrs ; and now, indeed, he is in 
heaven, and there, as I think, is offering up sacrifices 
for us and praying for the people ; for though he has 
left us, yet has he not utterly deserted us a ." And of 
St. Athanasius : " He now, I well know, looks down 
from above upon our affairs, and reaches out his hand 
to those who toil for what is excellent, and so much 
the more that he is free from the bonds [of the flesh] b ." 
And of his mother Nonna : " And now from heaven 
she greatly prays over our affairs 6 ." St. Ambrose 
hopes that he might the sooner rejoin St. Satyrus by 
his intercessions d . St. Augustine holds that the souls 
of the martyrs reign with Christ. They chiefly reign, 
when dead, who have combated for the truth, even 
unto death. 

St. Chrysostom ends a Lenten exhortation, " If we 
thus rule our lives, and, together with abstinence from 
meats, manifest abstinence from evil too, we, too, shall 
enjoy greater confidence and be admitted to a larger 

y In Ps. cxxiv. n. 6. z Or. xxviii. p. 332. 8 Orat. xliii. 

p. 831. b Orat. xxxiv. p. 620. c Garni, xciv. 5, Gall. vi. 

379. 288. d De Fide Eesur. earn, fin., t. ii. 1170. 



OF PRAYERS TO THE SAINTS. 397 

loving-kindness of God, both in the present life and 
in that coming awful day, by the prayers and inter 
cession of those who have pleased Him, by the grace 
and loving-kindness of our Lord Jesus Christ, with 
Whom e ,"&c. 

St. Asterius, a contemporary of St. Chrysostom, says : 
" The freedom of speech of the martyrs accomplishes 
the intercession for the world; and the enemy un 
awares fell into the opposite of what he meant. For 
as many as he slew, having confessed the faith, so 
many succourers of men did he provide f ." 

St. Leo nowhere uses invocations, but speaks very 
frequently of the value of the intercession of St. Peter 
and St. Paul ; once, also, of St. Laurence. He appeals 
to his own experience and that of those before him : 
" But as we, too, experienced, and our ancestors have 
proved, we believe and are confident, amid all the 
toils of this life, that, to obtain the mercy of God, we 
shall ever be helped by the prayers of special patrons; 
that in proportion as we are sunk down by our own 
sins, we may be raised by Apostolic merits s ." " Let us 
use for our amendment the lenity of Him who spares 
us, that blessed Peter and all the saints, who were pre 
sent with us in many tribulations, may vouchsafe to aid 
our entreaties for you with the merciful God h ." Of 

* Horn. 9, in Gen. fin., t. iv. 71. 
f In SS. Mart. Combef. N. Auct., p. 192. 
B Serm. 82, in Nat. SS. Pet. et Paul., pp. 326, 327. 
h Serm. 84, in Oct. App. Pet. et Paul., p. 337. He speaks of the 
prayers of St. Peter, Serm. 12, 14, 76, 86, 88, 90, 92, 94. 



398 ARTICLE XXII. 



St. Laurence he says, " by whose prayer and patronage 
we trust that we are aided without ceasing i ." 

It was, then, an intense, stupid, loveless paradox, 
of Vigilantius, that, "while we are alive, we ever 
pray mutually for one another, but that when we have 
departed this life no one s prayer is heard for an 
other k ." "If the Apostles and martyrs," St. Jerome 
answers, "while yet placed in the flesh, can yet pray 
for others, while they must still be anxious for them 
selves, how much more after their crowns, victories, 
triumphs ! Paul the Apostle says that e two hundred 
threescore and sixteen souls were granted him in the 
ship ; and after that, being dissolved, he has begun to 
be with Christ, shall he then close his mouth, and be 
unable to utter a word for those, who throughout the 
world believed at his Gospel?" St. Jerome himself 
speaks of it as certain that some departed pray for him. 
He says to Heliodorus, that, when he should himself be 
crowned, " then wilt thou pray for me too, who spurred 
thee on to conquer 1 ;" and to Paula of Blaesilla, "she 
prays to the Lord for thee, and impetrates for me, (cer 
tain I am of her mind,) the pardon of my sins m ;" and 
to Theodora, on the death of her husband : " He, 
already safe and triumphant, beholds thee from on 
high, and aids thee in thy efforts, and prepares thee 
a place near himself n ." St. Augustine says : " For 
the faithful departed, prayers are offered ; for Martyrs, 

1 Serm. 85, c. iv. p. 340. k In St. Jerome, c. Vigilant., n. 7. 

1 Ep. xiv. n. 3, ad Heliod., p. 29, Vail. M Ep. xxxix. n. 6, p. 183. 

n .Ep. Ixxv. n. 2, ad Theod. Vid., p. 448. 



OF PRAYERS TO THE SAINTS. 399 

not : for they departed so perfect, that they are not 
our clients but our advocates. Nor this in themselves, 
but in Him, to Whom, their Head, they, perfect mem 
bers, cohered. For He is truly the One Advocate, 
Who intercedeth for us, sitting at the right hand of 
the Father ; but He is our One Advocate, as also our 
One Shepherd ." As, then, His character of "the 
Shepherd of the sheep" does not exclude others being 
shepherds in and under Him, so neither does His being 
the One Advocate preclude others being advocates, in 
His body, with and through Himself. Sulpicius Se- 
verus, comforting a friend on the death of St. Martin, 
says : " I cannot command myself not to weep. I have, 
indeed, sent before me a patron, but I have lost the 
solace of this present life, although, if grief admitted of 
reason, I ought to rejoice. For he is inserted among 
the Apostles and Prophets. He will not be wanting 
to us, believe me, he will not be wanting ; he will be 
with us discoursing of him ; he will stand by us pray 
ing ; and what he has vouchsafed to do to-day, he will 
often let us see him, and protect us with his continual 
blessing, as he did just now p ." Prudentius says of 
St. Cyprian : " Here below he is a teacher ; above, 
a martyr: here, he instructs men; thence, a patron, 
he gives loving gifts <*." St. Maximus says " that the 



Serm. 285, in Nat. Martt. Casti et ^EmiL, n. 5, t. v. p. 1147. 

P Epist. ii. de ol. et app. B. Mart., Gall. viii. 400, 401. The allu 
sions are to a dream which Severus had, just before he heard of 
St. Martin s decease, in which St. Martin blessed him 

1 Hymn. 13, fin. Gall. viii. 467. 



400 ARTICLE XXn. 



heathen aimed a blow at the Church by the martyr 
dom of St. Sixtus ;" but " that great Xystus, who had 
011 earth been a shepherd of the sheep committed to him 
by God, was at hand, a patron from heaven r ." At the 
Council of Chalcedon, mention being made of Flavian, 
all the Constantinopolitan Bishops said : " Eternal 
the memory of Flavian ; of the orthodox, eternal the 
memory Flavian after death lives ; the martyr will 
pray for us s ," &c. The Bishops, collectively, in their 
synodical Relation to St. Leo, own some aid from 
St. Euphemia, in whose church they assembled, in the 
happy accomplishment of their labours : "It was 
God Who worked, and the victorious Euphemia who 
crowned the Council by her bridal-chamber ; who, re 
ceiving the definition of the faith from us as her own 
confession, did, through the most pious king and the 
Christ-loving queen, present it to her Spouse, having 
lulled the whole confusion of the adversaries, and 
strengthened the love and confession of truth, and by 
hand and tongue, having put the question to the votes 
of all for demon strationV The Bishops in the Council 
of Tours, A.D. 461, express their hope that " the in 
tercession of the holy and most blessed bishop, St. 
Martin, which is acceptable to God, will obtain, that 
the constitution of our humility may, by the mercy of 
the Lord helping, be preserved ." 

* Horn. 2, in Nat. S. Laur. * Cone. Chalc., Act. xi. iv. 

698, Labbe. * Cone. Chalc., part iii. cap. 2 ; Labbe, torn. 

iv. p. 835. 

u Cone. Turon.y Labbe, torn. iv. p. 1052, prima pagination!? serie. 



OF PRAYERS TO THE SAINTS. 401 

But, further, it is equally true and equally scriptural 
that, in prayer to God, they pleaded to Him the accept- 
ableness of those to whom they stood in this relation 
of love. Thus Moses prayed to God, after the people s 
sin as to the calf: " Remember Abraham, Isaac, and 
Israel, Thy servants, to whom Thou swarest by Thine 
own self, and saidst unto them, I will multiply your 
seed*," &c. He does not say simply, "Remember 
Thy promise ;" but, " Remember those to whom Thou 
didst make it." And God speaks of Himself as " keep 
ing mercy for thousands ? ;" and Jeremiah pleads to 
Him that His character " that shewest loving-kindness 
to thousands z ," i.e. that whereas He " visited iniquity 
to the third and fourth generation" only, He kept or 
retained His mercy to manifold more, if they would 
at last admit of it. And Solomon seems to have 
pleaded to God, " Lord remember David, and all his 
trouble," i.e. his laborious zeal for the House of God, 
and entreats Him, not for his own deserts, but " for 
Thy servant David s sake turn not away the face of 
Thine anointed a ." And it is recorded that " for David s 
sake did the Lord his God give Abijam a lamp in 
Jerusalem, to set up his son after him, and to establish 
Jerusalem ; because David did right in the eyes of the 
Lord, and turned not aside from anything that He 
commanded him all the days of his life, save only in 
the matter of Uriah the Hittite b ." And St. Paul says 

r Exod. xxxii. 13. J Ib. xxxiv. 7. z Jer. xxxii. 18. 

a Ps. cxxxii. 1, 10 ; comp. 2 Chr. vi. 41, 42. 

b 1 Kings xv. 4, 5. 

ud 



402 ARTICLE XXII. 



of all Israel, " as touching the election, they are be 
loved for the fathers sakes. For the gifts and calling 
of God are without repentance c ." 

Among the friends of God in the Church of Christ, 
an eminent place was early given to the Martyrs, as 
having borne witness to Christ " the True Witness d ," 
as having been likenesses to His sufferings, in whom 
especially these words were fulfilled, " If we suffer with 
Him we shall also reign with Him e ;" and His pro 
mise, that " he that overcometh, to him will I grant to 
sit down on My throne f ." Hence the title that they 
were avvOpovoi, enthroned with Christ. Hence came 
the language, so often used of them, that they had 
much " boldness of speech" with Christ, as having suf 
fered for Him. " I know," says St. Gregory of Nyssa of 
the forty martyrs *, "how mighty they are, and what 
boldness of speech they have with God." " They," 
says St. Chrysostom, " have much boldness of speech, 
not when living only, but also having died, yea, much 
more, having died. For they now bear the stigmata h , 
the marks of Christ; and, displaying those stigmata, 
they are able to persuade the King all things 1 ;" 
and "as soldiers, exhibiting wounds which they have 
received from the enemy, speak boldly to the king, so 
these [Juventinus and Maximin, martyrs,] bearing in 
their hands their severed heads, and bringing them 
in the midst, can with reason effect all they wish with 

c Rom. xi. 28, 29. d Rev. iii. 14. e 2 Tim. ii. 12. f Rev. Hi. 21. 
8 Orat. in xl. Mart., Opp. ii. 211. h Ghil. vi. 17. 

1 Horn, de SS. Bernice et Prosdoce fin., Opp. ii. 645. 



OF PKAYERS TO THE SAINTS. 403 

the King of heaven k ." Thus, also, Eusebius says, on 
Psalm Ixxviii. [Ixxix. :] " We are instructed to say 
these things in prayers, instead of sacrifice and whole 
burnt offerings putting forward the blood of the holy 
martyrs, and sending up such supplications as these. 
We, indeed, have not been held worthy to strive unto 
death, nor to empty out our blood for God ; but since 
we are the sons of those who suffered these things, 
glorying in our fathers virtue, we beseech to be com 
passionated for their sakes 1 ;" and, at the close of his 
commentary on Isaiah : " Of which (heavenly con 
templation) may we, too, be deemed worthy by the 
merits and intercessions of all the saints" 1 ." And St. 
Gregory of Nazianzum: "May my affairs be con 
ducted how God wills; may they, by his [St. Basil s] 
intercessions, be conducted better n ." And St. Gregory 
of Nyssa : " May we, too, [as well as the forty mar- 
iyrs,] enter Paradise, having been strengthened through 
tneir intercession unto the good confession of our Lord 
Jesus Christ; to Whom ," &c. And St. Ambrose to 
his brother : " That this favour [a speedy reunion] 
may be conferred on me by thy intercessions, that 
thou mayest summon me, who long to join thee, more 
speedily P." St. Chrysostom closes his homily on St. 
Pelagia: "May it be by the prayers of this holy 
martyr, and by those of the rest who wrestled with 

k In Juvent. et Maxim, fin., Opp. ii. 583. Monff. Nov. 

Coil., i. 486, 487. m Ibid., t. ii. p. 593. " Orat. 43 

in laud. S. Basil., n. 25, t. i. p. 791. Orat. ii. in xl. Mart, 

fin., t. iii. p. 511. p JJe Res. fin., Opp. ii. 1170. 



404 ARTICLE XXII. 



her, that you may retain in accurate remembrance 
these things and the rest which have been said, and 
shewing them all forth by your deeds, may in all 
things abide well pleasing to God; to Whom V &c. 
And on the saying "God remembered Abraham, and 
sent just Lot out of the overthrow r :" " What, then ? 
one may say, was the just man saved on the ground of 
the intercession of the patriarch and not of his own 
righteousness ? Nay, for the intercession of the patri 
arch too. For, when we contribute our part too, does 
the intercession of the righteous most benefit us ; since 
if we ourselves are remiss, and place the hope of our 
deliverance on them alone, we shall gain nothing. 
Not because the righteous are weak, but because we 
betray ourselves by our own remissness." Then, hav 
ing contrasted God s forbidding Jeremiah to pray for 
Israel when obstinate in sin, he says, "knowing this, 
beloved, let us flee to the intercession of the saints, and 
exhort them to beseech for us ; but let us not rely on 
their supplications alone, but let us also order, as is 
meet, our part, and hold fast to amendment of life ; 
that we may give room for their intercession for us." 
He closes his oration on St. Meletius : " Let us all 
pray in common, rulers and ruled, women and men, 
old and young, slaves and free, taking the blessed 
Meletius as sharer of this prayer, (for he has greater 
freedom of speech now, and his love to us is more 
glowing,) that this love may be increased, and that 

i Horn. i. in S. Pelag.fin., ii. 590. 

Horn. 44, in Gen., n. 2, Opp. iv. 448, 449, 



OF PRAYERS TO THE SAINTS. 405 

it be vouchsafed to us all, as we are now near this urn, 
so there, too, we may be near his everlasting taber 
nacles, and obtain the goods laid up there 8 ;" and, 
" Taking the holy martyrs as partakers of our prayers, 
let us pray for length of her [the empress s] life, 
cheerful old age, sons and sons sons, and, above all 
these, that this zeal may be heightened, piety in 
creased*, 5 &c. 

There remains the question, "Apart from the prayer 
to God to grant favours at the intercession of such or 
such a martyr or saint ; apart also from those instances 
of rhetorical apostrophe with such expressions as el TIS 
ala6r]aL$, taken evidently from the form of the heathen 
rhetoricians ; did the early Church think it right 
directly to ask the saints to use those intercessions, in 
whose efficacy they believed ?" It is true that no in 
stance can be quoted before the Council of Nicaea, 
except the case related by St. Gregory Nazianzen, out 
of Acts undoubtedly apocryphal, how Justina, fleeing 
the assault of Cyprian the magician, (whom those 
Acts confounded with the great African father and 
martyr before his conversion,) " abandoning all other 
hope, fled to God for refuge, and took as her defender 
against that accursed passion Him to Whom she was 
betrothed ;" and after many such prayers " besought 



8 Horn, in S. Melet.fin., Opp. ii. 523. 

1 Horn. ii. ex xi. Jin., Opp. xii. 334; "preached before the Empress 
and the whole city and magistrates, in the Martyrium, three miles 
from the city, after she had translated thither the relics of the mar 
tyrs at midnight/ 



406 ARTICLE XXII. 



the Virgin Mary to aid a virgin in danger 11 ." Yet 
it cannot be doubted that in the latter part of the 
fourth century the great fathers, who secured and 
transmitted our faith, practised it and taught it. St. 
Ephrem, in his funeral canons for a departed bishop 
(for whom yet he prays), asks him, in the vacancy 
of the see, " Visit thy Church, father, by thy prayers 
which are heard, and pray for it, like Moses, that 
there may be a priest like Joshua ; for David had 
long departed and was not in the day of Hezekiah; 
his prayer defended and delivered Jerusalem from 
Sennacherib." "Let thy prayers defend thy flock, 
and entreat deliverance for it, and may the congre 
gation, which praises thy memory, be blessed by thy 
prayers ; that thy people may rejoice in the (heavenly) 
chamber, and may say, Praise to Him "Who chose theeV 
And for a monk, for the forgiveness of whose sins he 
afterwards prays : " Pray to and supplicate God for 
the congregation of thy beloved, that He would re 
ward their tears, which they have shed for thee. 
Supplicate Him Who lieareth thee, that He would for 
give them their sins ; raise up thy hand over thy con 
gregation, which, beareth thy corpse with honour, and 
bless it as thou wert wont in the name of the holy 
God ; for very loved and precious is the prayer of the 
hour of departure. Remember the holy Church, and 
recall it in the general assembly; for as a mother 
she buried thee, and as a sister she honoured thy 

u Orat. xxiv. n. 10, 11. Can. 1, Opp. Syr. iii. 227. 



OF PRAYERS TO THE SAINTS. 407 

death y." These, however, are not invocations of saints, 
but mutual deprecations. In another, the congrega 
tion says : " Pray and beseech for all of us, that we 
may be worthy to behold thee in the (heavenly) courts, 
and with thee may rejoice and be glad z ." There is 
also a short prayer : " Apostles twelve, intercede for 
me; prophets and martyrs, entreat for me a :" and, 
" Martyrs, who endured resolutely, afflictions cheer 
fully, and received crowns perfectly, as is meet, justly, 
supplicate with us b conjointly, to Christ lordlily, that 
He would shew mercies abundantly, upon us all un 
ceasingly." 

St. Damasus, in his poems, says to a martyr : " Now 
dweller with the Lord, who guardest the altars of 
Christ, I pray thee to favour the prayers of Damasus, 
illustrious martyr c ." St. Gregory of Nyssa asks the 
martyr, St. Theodore : " Intercede with our common 
King for thy country, for the martyr s country is the 
place of his passion. We anticipate afflictions ; we 
expect danger; not far off are the wicked Scythians, 
in pangs with war against us. As a soldier fight for 
us ; as a martyr use boldness of speech for thy fellow- 
servants. Ask for peace, that these public assemblies 
may not cease. That we have been preserved un 
harmed, to thee we ascribe the benefit; but we ask 
for safety in the future too. If there be need of greater 
importunity, assemble the choir of thy brother martyrs; 

y Can. 16, p. 259. z Can. 15 fin., p. 255. 

a Parcen. ad pcenit., 33, fin., ib., p. 486. b JS T ot "for us, 3 

as Ass. 1. c. c Carm. 22, Gall. vi. 549. 



408 ARTICLE XXII. 



and implore with all. Let the prayers of many righte 
ous loose the sins of peoples and districts. Remind 
Peter ; arouse Paul ; John too, the theologian and be 
loved disciple, that they have a care for the Churches 
which they established d ," &c. He closes his panegyric 
on St. Ephrem, "Do thou, standing by the Divine 
altar, and ministering with angels to the life-giving 
and All -holy Trinity, remember us all, asking for 
us remission of sins, and the fruition of an everlasting 
kingdom in Christ our Lord ; to Whom e ," &c. St. 
Gregory of Nazianzum says to St. Cyprian : " Do thou 
look down on us propitiously from above, and direct 
our speech and life, and shepherd or co-shepherd this 
holy flock; and, directing the rest, as far as may be, 
for the best, and driving away the grievous wolves, 
the hunters of syllables and phrases, and bestowing on 
us a more perfect and bright illumination of the Holy 
Trinity, by Whom thou standest, Whom we worship f ," 
&c. And to St. Basil : " Do thou, divine and sacred 
one, look down upon us, and by thy intercessions either 
stay the thorn of the flesh, given us by God, our 
discipline, or persuade us to endure it bravely, and 
direct our whole life for us for the best; and if we 
be removed thence, receive us in thy tabernacles, that, 
living together and together beholding the holy and 
blessed Trinity s," &c. St. Ambrose says : " Angels 

d Horn, de S. Theod.fin., Opp. iii. 585, 586. e De Vit. S. 

Ephr.fin., iii. 616. f Orat. 24, fin., p. 450. 

s Or. 43, fin., p. 832. He also asks his father and mother, " Save me 
now, too, by mighty supplications." Carm. 97. 



OF PRAYERS TO THE SAINTS. 409 

are to be besought for us, who were given to us as 
a guard; martyrs are to be besought, whose patronage 
we seem to claim for ourselves by the pledge of the 
body. They can ask for our sins, who washed what 
ever sins they had with their own blood. For they 
are God s martyrs, our presiders, the surveyors of our 
life and actions. Be we not ashamed to employ them 
as intercessors for our infirmity, who knew the in- 
iirmity of the body even when they overcame h ." 

St. Chrysostom says to the people : " Thou, then, 
when thou perceivest that God is chastening thee, 
fly not to His enemies the Jews, lest thou kindle His 
wrath the more against thee, but to His friends the 
martyrs, the holy and well -pleasing unto Him, who 
have also much freedom of speech [towards Him] ." 

St. Jerome says to St. Paula : " Help with thy prayers 
the extreme old age of thy devotee. Thy faith and 
works associate thee with Christ ; present, thou wilt 
obtain more easily what thou askest V St. Chryso 
stom exhorts the people : " Not on this festival only, 
but on other days too, let us be at their side, let us 
invoke them; let us beg them to be our patronesses 1 " 
[S. Bernice and Prosdoce]. "Since they have such 
power and friendship with God, let us, making our 
selves their familiars by constant attention and coming 
to them continually, draw on us, through them, the 
loving-kindness of God." 

St. Augustine, in his beautiful De Curd pro Mor- 

h De Viduis, c. 9. t. ii. p. 200. Adv. Jud. Or. 8, n. 6. 

k Ep. cviii. ad Eustoch. l Opp. ii. 6i5, Ben. 



410 ARTICLE XXII. 



tuis m , says, that the benefit of burying their friends at 
the Memorials of the Saints, was that the living "recol 
lecting where are the bodies of those whom they love, 
may commend them to the same saints or patrons." 
At the second synod of Rome, A.D. 495, they exclaimed, 
" Lord Peter preserve him," (the Pope) n . 

But a far stronger impulse than the advice given 
by these reverenced fathers or their practice, lay in 
the facts of those days. For apparently (and, in face 
of the evidence, we cannot contradict it) it was God 
who encouraged it by the answers to prayer so ad 
dressed. Gibbon has scoffed at the fact that one of 
the miracles very commonly dwelt upon was the cast 
ing out of devils. But if it were ever so much, that 
these persons who spoke as demoniacs, persons pos 
sessed, were simple maniacs, still the maniacs were 
healed. Were it ever so much, that, in some cases, 
the body was healed through the mind, this would 
leave a large residue, in which any mind, open to 
evidence, must acknowledge " the finger of God." 
St. Augustine says : "If, to omit others, I would write 
the miracles of healing alone, which were wrought 
through this martyr, the glorious Stephen, in the 
colony of Calama and in ours, many books must be 
written. And yet all cannot be gathered in one, but 
those only, of which accounts have been sent in, to 
be recited before the people. For this we had done, 
seeing that Divine miracles, like those of old, were 
multiplied in our times, and that this ought not to 
m c. iv. t. vi. p. 519. n Labbe, torn. iv. pp. 137, 8. 



OF PRAYERS TO THE SAINTS. 411 

be lost to the knowledge of many ." " Many know 
how great miracles take place in that city (Ancona) 
through the most blessed martyr Stephen p ." "At 
Uzalis, where my brother Euodius is Bishop, how 
many miracles take place, seek and ye will find q ." 
One which he guarantees, was the temporary restora 
tion of an infant, who had died unbaptized, that it 
might be baptized r . He is careful to say that all was 
done by Christ : " Ye who know how to love Stephen, 
love him in Christ. Do we read, or can we read any 
where in sound doctrine, that Jesus did or doth mira 
cles through the name of Stephen. Stephen did them, 
but by the name of Christ s . This he doth now, too. 
Whatever ye see done through the memorial of Ste 
phen, it is done in the name of Christ, that Christ 
may be extolled, Christ adored, Christ expected as 
Judge of quick and dead V 

St. Gregory of Nyssa says : " I placed the bodies of 
my parents near the reliques of the [forty] soldiers, 
that, at the time of the resurrection, they may be raised 
with those who have noble freedom of speech. For 
I know how mighty they are, and I have seen the 



De Civ. Dei, xxii. 8. P Serm. 323, post lilell. de 

S. Sleph., n. 2. * Ibid., n. 3. 

r Serm. 324 : " The mother said, Holy martyr, thou seest I have no 
solace. Thou knowest why I mourn. Restore me my son, that I may 
have him in the presence of Him who crowned thee. " The child re 
vived, was baptized, and, all the sacraments now completed, was taken. 
" When, then," St. Augustine sums up, " God wrought such a miracle 
through His martyr, could He not there [at Uzalis] cure these ?" 

Acts vi. 8. * Serm. 316, n. 1. 



412 ARTICLE XXII. 



evident demonstration of their freedom of speech with 
God." He then relates how " a soldier, long and almost 
incurably lame, being within the martyrium. and the 
resting-place of the saints [the forty martyrs], having 
prayed to God, implored the intercession of the saints." 
The soldier was restored in a vision, his companions 
heard the sound of the re-setting of the bone. " He 
awoke and was whole." " This miracle," St. Gregory 
says, " I saw, falling in with the man, relating it to 
all, and proclaiming the good deed of the martyrs u ." 

St. Basil is less definite in regard to the forty mar 
tyrs. He attests only the number of the applicants : 
" Forty are they, that send up harmonious prayer. 
Where two or three are gathered together in the 
name of the Lord, there is He in the midst of them ; 
and where forty are, who doubts of God s presence? 
The afflicted flies unto the forty, the gladdened runs 
unto them ; the former to find escape from his troubles ; 
the latter, that his prosperity may be preserved. Thus 
a pious woman is found praying for her children, asking 
a return for her husband when absent, health for him 
when sick. Let your prayers be with martyrs x ." In 
regard to the martyr St. Mamas, he speaks more defi 
nitely : " Remember for me the martyr, all who have 
benefited by him through dreams ; all who lighting 
on this holy place, had him as co-operator to prayer ; 
all to whom, called by name, he has stood by in their 
deeds ; all whom he has raised from sickness ; all to 

u Or at. in xl. Mart., Opp. ii. 211, 212. 

* Horn, in xl. Mart., n. i. t. ii. pp. 209, 210. 



OF PRAYERS TO THE SAINTS. 413 

whom he has given back sons, when now dead ; all 
to whom he lengthened the appointed term of life. 
Bring them all together ; form a panegyric from the 
common contribution y." St. Gregory Nazianzen tells 
the Emperor Julian, "By them [the martyrs] devils 
are driven out and diseases cured 2 ." St. Chrysostom 
says of the Egyptian martyrs : " Many, both of the 
natives and of those who have come from elsewhere, 
know how great the power of these saints, who also 
bear witness to what I say, having learned through 
the experience itself, their free access to God a ." 

St. Asterius, Bishop of Amasea, relates : " Those op 
pressed by calamities incidental to man hasten, as to 
an asylum, to those places, where those thrice-blessed 
rest, and employ them as legates and mediators of 
their prayers and requests, on account of their bound 
less confidence with God ; thence the poor are solaced ; 
the sacred temples of the martyrs are tranquil harbours 
amidst all tumults and storms of life. Thus father or 
mother taking the sick child having come to any of 
the martyrs, through him offer up a prayer to the 
Lord, saying to her mediator, Thou hast suffered for 
Christ, intercede for one who suffers and is ill. Having 
freedom of speech, use it for thy fellow-servant V 

Even Yigilantius appears to have admitted the fact 
of the miracles; for he argued about them: "He 
argues against signs and miracles, which take place 

* Horn, in Mam. Mart., n. i. t. ii. pp. 259, 260. 

z Orat. 4, n. 69, p. 108. a Opp. ii. 700. 

b In S. Mart, in Combef. Nov. Auct., i. 186, 187. 



414 ARTICLE XXI I. 



in the basilicas of the martyrs, and says that they 
benefit unbelievers, not believers ; as though the ques 
tion now were, for whom they take place, and not, 
by what power they take place." " Tell me not, they 
are signs for unbelievers/ but answer how in most 
vile dust and I know not what ashes there is such 
presence of signs and wonders ." Rufinus relates, that 
the bodies of the martyr Apollonius and his com 
panions " were buried in one sepulchre, by which up 
to the present time many miracles and wonderful signs 
are wrought for all. Yea, and the vows and prayers 
are received by them, and are fulfilled with the fruits 
of the petition d ." 

Prudentius says to St. Laurence : " What power is 
entrusted, what gifts granted, the joys of the Romans 
prove, to whom, asked, thou assentest. What every sup 
plicant asketh, he beareth off obtained prosperously; 
they ask, are enriched, tell, and no one returns sad e ." 

Yet more remarkable are the statements of Theo- 
doret, both as being himself of a dry matter-of-fact 
mind, and in regard to the extent of the facts which 
he states, For, in refuting Heathenism, he is con 
trasting the martyrs with all which the heathen held 
great, gods or men : "Time, which withereth all things, 
hath preserved their glory un withered. For the noble 
souls of the victorious (martyrs) traverse heaven, form 
ing part of the incorporeal chorus, but their bodies 
it is not a single tomb that conceals each one of them, 

c S. Jer. cont. Vigil., n. 11, Opp. ii. 397. 
<* De vitis Pah-urn, c. IV, Jin. Perist., ii. 561568. 



OF PRAYERS TO THE SAINTS. 415 

but cities and villages, having shared them between 
them, style them the Preservers both of soul and body, 
and healers, and honour them as tutelars and guar 
dians : and, employing them as intercessors with the 
Lord of all, by these means obtain divine gifts. And 
when the body is severed, the grace remains un- 
severed. And that small and tiniest relic hath the 
same power with the martyr who hath never been dis 
tributed. For the grace abounding distributeth the 
gifts f ." " These are truly leaders, and champions and 
succourers of men, averters of evils, conducting away 
the injuries brought by demons g ." " Those who were 
distinguished for piety, and were slain for it, we call 
averters of evil and physicians, friends of God and 
benevolent servants, using freedom of speech, and 
announcing to us the harvest of good h ." 

"But the shrines of the martyrs glorious in their 
victory, are grand, magnificent, and conspicuous in size, 
and manifoldly adorned, and sending forth flashes of 
beauty. And to these, not once or twice in the year, 
nor even five times do we go, but ofttimes we hold 
solemn assemblies, and often every day offer hymns to 
their Lord; and they who are in health beg for the 
preservation of their health; they that are wrestling 
with any sickness ask a riddance from their sufferings ; 
the childless men ask for offspring, and the barren 
women for children. And they who have gained this 
gift, ask that their gifts may be preserved perfect ; and 

f Grcec. off. cur., viii. t. iv. p. 902, Sch. 
t Ibid., p. 912. h Ibid., p. 915. 



416 ARTICLE XXIT. 



those who are setting out upon any journey, implore 
them to become their fellow-travellers and guides on 
the way ; and they who have gained their return, offer 
the acknowledgment of the favour ; drawing nigh to 
them not as gods, but approaching them as devout 
men, and beseeching them to be intercessors on their 
behalf. But that they who faithfully ask obtain the 
things which they ask, their votive offerings clearly 
testify, manifesting the healing ; for some offer models 
of eyes, others of feet, and others of hands ; and some 
of them fashioned of gold, others of silver. For their 
Lord receives the small and cheap things, too, mea 
suring the gift by the power of the offerer. But the 
things which are there testify the ceasing of the suffer 
ings, whereby they are placed as memorials by those 
who have become \vhole. And these things proclaim 
the power of those buried there; and their power 
shews that their God is the true God 1 ." 

We have already seen St. Augustine, before his 
people, carefully referring to Christ the miracles done 
at the intercession of the martyrs. He does the same, 
in answer to the allegations of the heathen ; that 
"their gods, too, had done some marvels" [the fables 
of a legendary antiquity]. He says that neither did 
the facts bear comparison, nor the ends for which they 
were done. For that the end of those things had been 
to obtain worship for creatures ; " but the martyrs do 
these things, or rather God doth them, they either 
praying or co-operating, to the advancement of that 
1 Ibid., pp. 921, 922. 






OF PRAYERS TO THE SAINTS. 417 

faith whereby we believe that they are not our gods, but 
have one God with us. Lastly, they [heathen] both built 
temples and set up altars, and made priests and offered 
sacrifices to such gods of theirs ; we build not to our 
martyrs temples as to gods, but memorials as to dead 
men, whose spirits live to God ; and we erect altars 
therein, not to sacrifice to martyrs, but to the One God 
of the martyrs and of ourselves ; at which Sacrifice, as 
men of God, who, in confessing Him, overcame the 
world, they are named in their place and order, yet 
are not invoked by the priest who sacrifices. For he 
sacrifices to God, not to them, although he sacrifices 
in their memorials ; for he is God s priest, not theirs. 
But the sacrifice itself is the Body of Christ, which is 
not offered to them, because they, too, are it [viz. 
Christ s mystical body]." He draws out more sci 
entifically the contrast between the cultus done to 
Almighty God and that shewn to the martyrs (which, 
he says, was the same in kind as that to holy men 
on earth). In his celebrated treatise against Faustus 
the Manichean, who charged the Church with hav 
ing made an exchange for idols in the cultus of the 
martyrs, he says : " The Christian people unite in 
celebrating with religious solemnity the memories of 
the martyrs, both to excite to an imitation of them, 
and to be associated with their merits and aided by 
their prayers ; yet so, that to none of the martyrs, but 
to the God Himself of the Martyrs, although in places 
dedicated to martyrs, do we raise altars. For what 
prelate, standing at the altar in the places of their 

6 



418 ARTICLE XXTT. 



holy bodies, ever said, ( we offer to thee, Peter, or Paul, 
or Cyprian? But what is offered is offered to God 
Who crowned the martyrs, in the memorials of those 
whom He crowned ; that through the admonition of 
the places themselves, a greater affection may arise, to 
make our love keener both towards those whom we 
are able to imitate, and towards Him by Whose help 
we are able. We, therefore, worship the martyrs with 
that worship of love and of fellowship with which 
even in this life holy men of God are worshipped, 
whose hearts we feel are prepared for the like suffer 
ing for Gospel truth ; but the martyrs the more 
devotedly, the safer it is, their conflicts ended ; as 
also with the more confident praise do we exalt those 
who are already conquerors in a happier life, than those 
who are still warring here below. But with that wor 
ship, which, in Greek, is called latria/ in Latin it 
cannot be expressed by one word, as it is a kind of 
service due and appropriate to the Divinity alone, we 
neither worship nor teach to worship other than the 
One God. But whereas to this worship appertains 
the oblation of sacrifice (whence their worship, who 
give this to idols, is called idolatry), we do not any 
wise offer, or teach to be offered anything of this kind, 
either to any martyr, to any holy soul, or to any 
angel; and whosoever falls into this error he is re 
proved by the sound teaching, either that he may 
amend or be avoided k ." 

k c. Faust, xx. 21. And again : " Even at the memorials of the 
holy inartjrd, do we not offer to God? The holy martyrs have an 



OF PRAYERS TO THE SAINTS. 419 

And St. Jerome : " Madman, who ever adored 
martyrs ? Who thought man to be God } ?" 

And St. Cyril, of Alexandria, in answer to Julian : 
" The holy martyrs we neither say are gods, nor are 
we wont to worship them, viz., with Divine worship, 
but relatively and honorifically. But rather we crown 
them with the highest honours, as having striven nobly 
for the truth m ." 

St. Asterius, of Amasea, in like manner, says to the 
heathen : " We worship not martyrs, but we honour 
them, as sincere worshippers of God. We do not wor 
ship men, but we admire those who, in time of per 
secution, nobly worshipped God. We deposit them in 
beautiful shrines, and the houses of their repose we 
raise magnificent in structure, that we may zealously 
honour men who died gloriously. But we shew them 
not an unrequited zeal, but enjoy their patronage to 
ward God. For since our prayer suffices not to im 
portune God in time of necessity and calamity ; for our 
supplication is not an obsecration but a reminiscence of 

honourable place. Observe. In the recital at the altar of Christ, they 
are recited in a better place ; yet they are not adored as Christ; whence 
their act who offer this too to idols is called idolatry. When heard ye 
it said by any Other my brother and colleague, or any Presbyter, I offer 
to thee, holy Theogenis, or I offer to thee, Peter, I offer to thee, Paul. 
Never have ye heard. It is not, it may not be. If it be said to thee, 
Dost thou worship Peter ? answer what Eulogius [the deacon] said 
[to the heathen judge] of Fructuosus [his bishop, whose martyrdom 
he shared], I do not worship Peter, but God I worship, whom Peter 
too worships. Then Peter loves thee. "Serm. 273, in Nat. Fruct. 
Aug. Eulog., n. 7. t. v. 1108. 

1 c. Vigil., n. 5, t. ii. 391, Vail. 1. v i. t. vi. p. 203. 



420 AKT1CLE XXIT. 



our sins, therefore we flee to those our fellow- servants, 
the beloved of the Lord, that they in their own good 
deeds may heal our transgressions. What censure is 
it that, honouring martyrs, we too are zealous to please 
God ? What accusation is it to flee to patrons 11 ?" 

Such, then, being the authorities, for the practice 
of asking the prayers and intercessions of the saints, 
even those same great fathers who jealously guarded 
for us, and by their toils and sufferings transmitted to 
us the belief in the A 11- Holy Trinity and our Blessed 
Lord s Divine Person : such being the testimony upon 
which they tested it; viz., the experience of those, who 
had sought through the saints what God alone could 
give and had found it, we could have nothing, in 
principle, to except against it, if only those errors be 
guarded against, to which our poor nature is so easily 
inclined, of betaking ourselves to the saints, as to 
beings less holy, less awful, whom the soul ever ap 
proaches with less effort and less fear than Him, Who, 
being our Mediator, will also be our Judge. The 
Council of Trent itself desired that " all superstition 
in the invocation of saints should be removed/ A 
learned writer said, " Many Christians sin for the most 
part in a thing which is good, in that they venerate 
the saints no otherwise than God. Nor, in many, do I 
see what difference there is between their opinion of the 
saints, and what the Gentiles thought of their gods ." 

" Encom. in SS. Martt. in Combefis. N. Auct., pp. 191, 192. Paris, 
1648. Lud. Vives on S. Aug. de Civ. D., viii. ult., quoted by 

Bp. W. Forbes Consid. Mod. t. 11. p. 310. 



OF PRAYERS TO THE SAINTS. 421 

This is precisely what our homily (which illustrates 
this Article) excepts against, when, having spoken of 
the conduct of Paul and Barnabas at Lystra, and the 
monition of the angel in the Revelations to St. John, 
it sums up, " which examples declare unto us that the 
angels and saints in heaven will not have us to do any 
honour unto them, that is due and proper unto God?" 

On the other side, Bellarmine, in treating on this 
subject, lays down formally these propositions 01 : 
" (1.) We may not ask the saints, that they, as authors 
of the Divine benefits, would grant us glory or grace, 
and other means to beatitude. (2.) Saints are not our 
immediate intercessors with God, but whatever they 
impetrate for us from God, they impetrate through 
Christ/ The first statement he proves (1.) from Holy 
Scripture : " The Lord will give grace and glory ;" 
and St. James, " Every good gift and every perfect gift 
cometh down from the Father of lights :" (2.) From the 
usage of the Church ; for in the prayers read at mass, 
or in the office on the festival of the saints, we never 
ask anything else but that, at their prayers, benefits 
may be granted to us by God. (3.) From reason ; for 
what we need surpasses the powers of the creature, and 
therefore even of saints ; therefore we ought to ask 
nothing of saints beyond their impetrating from God 
what is profitable for us. (4.) From Augustine and 
Theodoret, who expressly teach that " saints are not to 
be invoked as gods, but as able to gain for men what 
they wish." Bellarmine, however, subjoins : " When 

v Homily on Prayer, p. 277. 1 De Sanct. Beat., i. 17. 



422 ARTICLE XXII. 



we say that nothing should be asked of saints, save 
that they should pray for us, the question is not about 
the words, but about the sense of the words. For, as 
far as the words go, it is lawful to say, * St. Peter, have 
mercy upon me, save me/ &c., so that we understand, 
save me and have mercy upon me, by praying for 
me/ &c. ; for so speaks Gregory Nazianzen and many 
other of the ancients, and the universal Church, &c. 
And, as the Apostle says of himself, Rom. xi., that 
I might save some of them/ and 1 Cor. ix." 

St. Thomas Aquinas says : " To Him alone, from 
"Whom we hope to obtain what we pray for, do we, by 
praying, pay the cultus of religion, because in this 
we testify that He is the Author of our good things; 
but not to those to whom we resort as our advocates 
with God V 

In principle, then, there is no question, herein, be 
tween us and any other portion of the Catholic Church. 
Even where the incommunicable attributes of God 
have, in expression at least, been invaded, the real 
underlying belief has been explained to be, that no 
thing is obtained for man, no grace, no aid, no gift for 
body, soul, or spirit, except through or from the One 
Mediator between God and Man, our adorable Lord, 
Christ Jesus. Prayer to the saints in heaven is ex 
plained, again and again, to be the same in kind as the 
prayers to the saints on earth ; as St. Augustine speaks 
of the cultus of the saints in heaven being the same in 
kind as the cultus of saints on earth. " Since the me- 

* 2. 2. q. 83, art. 4, ad 1. 



OF PRAYERS TO THE SAINTS. 423 

diation of the saints is not invoked like that of Christ, 
since their mediation is held to be only one of inter 
cession not of redemption, since the effectualness of 
their intercession rests on God s free mercy and the 
merits of Christ, then the honour of Christ and the 
aloneness of His redemption is not in the least in 
trenched upon. If the intercession of believers on earth 
may be invoked, without injury to the honour of Christ 
as Mediator, why not also the intercession of the saints 
in heaven 8 ?" Had this been all, the Article never 
could have been written. Not our own Divines only, 
but foreign reformers, too, have seen nothing herein 
to reject*. The Church of Rome has not stated the 
practice to be necessary to salvation, nor required it of 
any, so that he deny not that, as above explained, it is 
in itself good and useful. The more this aspect is dwelt 
upon, the more we shall be disposed to accept the con 
clusion of a pious Divine: "Let God alone be reli 
giously adored ; let Him alone be prayed to through 
Christ, Who, truly and properly speaking, is the sole 

s Klee, KatJi. Dogmalilc., iii. 407, 408, ed, 3, " It is good and useful 
to apply to the saints for intercession and help. They are, namely, 
friends and beloved of God, whose intercession is effectual, and they 
being, by reason of their love, inclined to help us, then it is also praise 
worthy and beneficial to apply for their intercession, as for that of 
the righteous living upon earth. Therefore the Church has of old 
approved and recommended the invoking them, and only rejected the 
saint-worship which obscured the merits of the Redeemer." Dieringer 
Lehrb. d. Kath. Dogm., p. 733, ed. 5. 

1 Bishop William Forbes quotes even Luther (A. 1518 and 1522). 
(Ecolampadius, Bucer, Camerarius, apparently the author of the En- 
chirid. T/teol., Consid. Mod., t. ii. pp. 266, 274. 



424 ARTICLE XXII. 



and only Mediator between God and man. Let not 
that most ancient custom, common in the universal 
Church, as well Greek as Latin, of addressing angels 
and saints in the way we have said, be condemned or 
rejected, as impious, or as vain and foolish. Let foul 
abuses and superstitions which have crept in be taken 
away, and so shall peace hereafter be easily formed 
and ratified between the parties. Which, may the God 
of peace and all holy concord, vouchsafe to grant for 
the sake of His Only-Begotten Son u ." 

u Forbes, Consid. Mod., ii. 513. 



ARTICLE XXIII. 
DE VOCATIONS MINISTRORITM. 

(ttl. DE MlNISTRANDO IN ECCLESIA.) 

NON licet cuiquam sumere sibi munus publics pr&dicandi, 
aut administrandi Sacramento, in Ecclesia, nisi prim 
fuerit ad hcec obeunda legitime vocatus et missus. Atque 
illos legitime vocatos et missos existimare debemus, qui 
per homines, quibus potestas vocandi ministros, atque 
mittendi in vineam Domini, pub lice concessa est in Ec 
clesia, cooptati fuerint et adsciti in hoc opus. 



" Of Ministering in the Congregation. 

" IT is not lawful for any mail to take upon him the 
office of public preaching, or ministering the sacra 
ments in the congregation, before he be lawfully called 
and sent to execute the same. And those we ought to 
judge lawfully called and sent, which be chosen and 
called to this work by men who have public authority 
given unto them in the congregation, to call and send 
ministers into the Lord s vineyard." 



THE Article here treats of what is technically called 
Mission a . That the clergy should have such mission 
is affirmed, not only by implication in such terms as 
describe them as stewards and ambassadors, but also 

Vide S. Parian, Ep. i. 12, Oxf. Tr. 325, 320. 



420 AUTICLE XX1IT. 



in so many terms by St. Paul b , where, in a beautiful 
anti-climax, lie describes the order whereby men arrive 
at righteousness and salvation. First comes the mis 
sion of the preachers ; then the actual preaching of the 
Gospel ; then the faith of the hearers ; then their wor 
ship and calling upon God ; lastly, salvation in this 
life from the disease of sin, hereafter from death and 
corruption in glory everlasting. "Whosoever shall 
call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." " How 
shall they call on Him in whom they have not be 
lieved ? and how shall they believe on Him of whom 
they have not heard ? and how shall they hear without 
a preacher ? and how shall they preach unless they be 
sent ? (aTToo-TdXcoai) except they be Apostles ?" 

Now mission is divided into two kinds, that which 
comes immediately and proximately from God, and 
which needs the authentication of miracles and signs ; 
and that which comes mediately from Him, through 
those to whom the power of mission is given by the 
institution of Christ. Just as in the old Jewish Church 
these two powers existed side by side in the respective 
institutions of the prophetic and priestly offices, so in 
the primitive Church we recognise the same. The 
Epistle to the Corinthians is full of allusions to the 
supernatural consequences which ensued on the gift of 
the Holy Ghost, while in the Pastoral Epistles those 
to Timothy and Titus, we have evidence of the forma 
tion of the ordinary hierarchy. Of this hierarchy the 
t, the mission, is the key-note, referring us 
b Rom. x. 14. 



OF MINISTERING IN THE CONGREGATION. 427 

back to Him, Who is the Apostle and High Priest of 
our Profession, as receiving mission from the Father, 
for the purpose of transmitting it fresh to the twelve, 
in whom He lodged all power and authority. The title 
of Apostle was not confined to the twelve. Barnabas 
and Paul are first assumed into the holy band to the 
violation of the mystic number of twelve completed by 
Matthias. Epaphroditus c is termed by St. Paul " my 
brother, and companion in labour, and fellow-soldier, 
but your apostle," (aTrocrroXo^). In the Corinthians, 
not only does he recognise the existence of Apostles 
first in their capacity of recipients of supernatural 
gifts " He gave some Apostles/ but we find certain 
of his brethren recognised as " Apostles of Churches, 
a glory of Christ," (aTrocrroXot eKKkiqa-iMV, Soga Xpia- 
TOV,) where their office and dignity is happily recog 
nised in one pregnant sentence. Again, in Horn. xvi. 
7, Andronicus and Junia are said to be " of note 
among the Apostles." 

Meanwhile the discontent of the Hellenistic Jews, 
who thought that their widows were neglected in the 
distribution of alms, had evoked the institution of the 
diaconate, and wherever the Apostles established a 
Church, they ordained men who in the Jewish com 
munities were called " elders," in the Gentile Churches 
t( overseers. * The first title was one associated with 
notions of great dignity among the Jews, as there were 
elders in the Sanhedrin, assessors to the chief priests 
and scribes, and every synagogue had a chief or pre- 

Phil. ii. 25. 



428 ARTICLE XX1IT. 



sident. The title overseer or bishop/ occurs in the 
Alexandrian version in the sense of an ecclesiastical 
and civil officer. Thus there are three orders in the 
Church, apostles, overseers or elders, and deacons. 

But only a part of the Apostolic office was to be 
transmitted, and such part as was transmitted had to 
be regulated. It was impossible that the solidarity of 
their power should continue, and there were certain 
prophetical powers which in the purpose of God and in 
the nature of things must cease. Accordingly before 
the close of the Canon of Scripture, we find a certain 
monarchical power establishing itself in each Church. 
St. James exercised what we should now call episcopal 
jurisdiction over the city of Jerusalem; and the seven 
Churches of Asia have each an officer termed an angel. 
Timothy and Titus, from acting as Apostolic delegates 
of St. Paul, become diocesan bishops, the first of Ephe- 
sus, the second of Gortyna in Crete. 

In the early quarrels and insubordination, e.g. of 
Novatians, the line taken, was not to dispute the office 
of the episcopate, but to set up an anti-bishop. 

This state of things is exactly represented in the 
Epistle of St. Clement to the Corinthians, which be 
longs to the end of the first century. He recognises 
three orders : 1. the Apostles, who, in prospect of con 
tention arising about the office of ruling, appointed 
rulers, and ordained for the future after their death 
other tried men who should hold their office of ap 
pointing such persons ; 2. presbyters or overseers ; and 
3. deacons. He also quotes the threefold ministry as 



OF MINISTERING IN THE CONGREGATION. 429 

a type and parallel of the hierarchy of the old law. 
By the time of St. Ignatius, we find the title of Apostle 
dropped, out of reverence to those who first bore it ; 
the name of Overseer apportioned to the apostolic 
office, and thus separated from the presbyteral; in 
this way the three orders are still maintained in their 
integral distinction. ISTor is this the mere local usage 
of the Churches of Asia Minor. We have distinct evi 
dence, at the end of the second century, that this hier 
archical constitution prevailed universally, without any 
known exception, throughout the whole of Christen 
dom. " The episcopate was a whole in which each en 
joys possession in solidarity." All over the earth, from 
India to Spain, the episcopate was a definite organ 
ization. It is impossible to account for this hier 
archical uniformity without pre-supposing an original 
Divine institution. If we consider the difficulty of the 
transmission of intelligence, the rarity of the occasions 
of communication, the deep-rooted ethnical peculiarities 
of the varying tribes which were converted to Chris 
tianity, we can in no way account for it save on the 
supposition of the threefold ministry being a part of 
the original constitution of the Christian Church. 

No new form could thus have established itself uni 
versally without exciting some opposition ; of that oppo 
sition there is no trace in any of the earlier records. 
In the fifth century, indeed, we find the existence of 
opposition on the part of Aerius and Vigilantius, but 
this opposition actually tests the universality of the 
organization. It was left to the religious exigencies 



430 ARTICLE XXTIT. 



of the foreign Reformers to frame, first, a theory of 
the non-necessity of bishops; and then, to erect the 
platform of their polity without reference to them. 
By some, indeed, the new constitution was justified 
only on the plea of absolute necessity. Calvin re 
gretted this imagined necessity. 

The gravity of the matter consists in this. That 
while we are not in any way to limit the mere} 
of God, and therefore can understand that in excep 
tional circumstances, exceptional conditions of things 
may be allowed; yet, in the course of the guidance 
of the Church, it is a truth universally accepted by 
all who have any pretensions to be sound theologians, 
that the validity of certain rites depends upon Epi 
scopal ordination, i.e. upon the Apostolical Succession, 
and as a result of the character of Holy Order, none 
but one so appointed can bind or loose in the Name of 
Christ, or consecrate His Body. As a matter of fact, 
in the bodies who have not apostolic mission, the be 
lief in both these functions has disappeared, and that 
disappearance is not the least terrible result of the 
schisms of the sixteenth century. " If the light that 
is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness !" 



ARTICLE XXIV. 

DE PRECTBUS PUBLICIS DICENDIS IN LINGUA VULGARI. 
(al. DE LOQUENDO IN ECCLESIA LINGUA QUAM POPULUS 

INTELLIGIT.) 

LINGUA populo non intellecta, publicas in ecdesia preces 
peragere aut Sacramento, administrare, verbo Dei et 
primitives EtclesicB consuetudini plane repugnat. 



" Qf Speaking in the Congregation in such a Tongue as 
the People understandeth. 

"!T is a thing plainly repugnant to the Word of 
God, and the custom of the primitive Church, to have 
public prayer in the church, or to minister the Sacra 
ments, in a tongue not understanded of the people." 



IT seems strange that, considering what divine ser 
vice is, it should have been necessary to ordain that it 
should be in the language of the worshipper. Bearing 
in mind that one great part of oral prayer is the ele 
vation of the soul to God, one would hardly imagine 
that the greater part of the Christian Church should 
deem it right to offer it in a tongue not understanded 
of the people. There must be some reason for what is 
rightly declared in the Article to be " plainly repug 
nant to the Word of God, and the custom of the primi 
tive Church." 



432 ARTICLE XXIV. 



And that this custom is thus repugnant, is manifest 
from the text of St. Paul, " Yet in the church I had 
rather speak five words to the edifying of the hearers, 
than ten thousand words in an unknown tongue a ." 
So also, " Else when thou shalt bless with the spirit, 
how shall he that occupieth the room of the unlearned 
say Amen at the giving of thanks, seeing he under- 
standeth not what thou sayest b ?" Again, positively, 
we are told, " I will pray with my spirit, and I will 
pray with my understanding also." God s service is 
a reasonable service, Xoyi/crjv \arpeiav vpwv, a service 
in which the \6yos is concerned. 

Though we have no trace of it remaining, except 
the * Kyrie Eleison before the Lord s Prayer, and the 
1 Agios o Theos in the office for Good Friday, there can 
be no doubt that in the earliest ages the Liturgy of 
the Greek -speaking Roman Church was Greek, and 
continued such till the transference of the Empire 
to Byzantium. It is probable that the Latin Liturgy 
of St. Peter existed also from the very earliest times, 
if not in Rome, at least in Africa. The Eastern 
Church, of course, employed the Greek language, which 
also served for Palestine, where, in consequence of 
more than two centuries of Hellenism, it was so uni 
versally employed, that many scholars believe that it 
was the very language of our Lord and His Apostles. 
We have no knowledge of the offices which were used 
by the Apostles who carried the Gospel into India, 
Parthia, and other regions, but there is no reason for 
1 Cor. xiv. 19. b Ibid., 16. 



OF SPEAKING IN THE CONGREGATION, &C. 433 

supposing that the services were in any other language 
than the vernacular of each region. 

Martene says c , " Although the modern use of the 
Church is that the mass shall only be celebrated in 
Greek, Latin, and Hebrew, and the reasons for pro 
scribing the mother tongue are sufficient, yet it was not 
so in the beginning." In support of this he quotes the 
story of St. Anthony the Abbot, told by St. Athanasius, 
who, knowing nothing but the Egyptian idiom, entered 
the church, and hearing the Gospel read in which it 
is enjoined to sell all, straightway went and did so. 
Still more to the purpose is the history of the life 
of St. Theodosius the Archimandrite, who built in his 
monastery four churches, one for the Greeks, one for 
the Bessi, a third for the Armenians, and a fourth for 
those beset with evil spirits ; so that it happened that 
they all (except the beset) carried on the services in 
their own tongues, so far as the Gospel, and then 
joined together in the great Greek Church, and here 
upon were made partakers of the Divine mysteries. 

A similar fact is narrated by Cyrillus Scythopoli- 
tanus, in his life of St. Saba. 

In the ninth century, when the Slaves were con 
verted to Christianity by St. Methodius, John VIII. 
highly praised their performing the service in the 
Slavonic tongue d . He, however, adds, that for the ho 
nour of Divine worship, the Gospel is to be read first 
in Latin and then translated, and if the Count and his 

c De Antiq. Eccl. Nat., lib. i. cap. iii. art. ii. torn. i. p. 101. 
d Ep. 247. to Sfentopulcher, Count of Moravia. 

Ff 



434 ARTICLE XXIV. 



judges like to hear it read in Latin they may do so. 
Before this, Methodius had introduced the vernacular 
among the Pannonians, with the consent of Pope John ; 
but Gregory YII. forbad it when writing to Vratisloff, 
Duke of Bohemia. All the Slaves still use the Slavonic, 
and not only the schismatical communities in the East e , 
but those in communion with the Latins, as the Ma- 
ronites, who use Arabic or Chaldaic, worship in their 
own language. 

It is unnecessary to allude to those mixed rites, where 
Latin was used in the East, and Greek in the West, 
sometimes to typify intercommunion, sometimes to meet 
the case of alien populations, as was specially common 
in Magna Grsecia. A still more interesting question 
suggests itself, whether in the West the use of the ver 
nacular ever obtained to any great extent. Martene 
mentions that in the Church of Soissons (Suessonensis), 
on the feast of St. Stephen, the Epistle was sung in 
Latin and in French, as also at St. Gatien s, at Tours, 
and he gives the beginning of it. It is a specimen of 
what are termed " farsuras," and in a philological point 
of view is eminently curious. He mentions that in some 
parishes in the diocese of Bheims they sang, in his 
own time, a piece in French, describing the life of 
St. Stephen, which was forbidden by the existing arch 
bishop. 

Theodoret makes mention of the translation of the 
Bible into many tongues f ; and the version of Ulphilas 
into Maesogothic, A.D. 360, is the first that prevailed in 

e Vide Bona Eer. Lit., lib. i. c. 9. n. 4. f Grate. Affect., 1. 5. 






OF SPEAKING IN THE CONGREGATION, &C 435 

the West. But we know nothing of a Gothic Liturgy. 
It is true the Church, hymns, e. g. the Te Deum, were 
rendered into German, as well as the Epistles and Gos 
pels, in the ninth century ; and by the Council of Lep- 
tines, A.D. 743, certain parts of the Baptismal Service 
were appointed to be in the German language s . Still 
there was always a tendency to enforce the Latin lan 
guage in the West. As the fresh tribes from the north 
were evangelized by the Roman clergy, it was natural 
that the Roman clergy should employ and recommend 
the rites to which they had been accustomed. It be 
came the measure of the solidity of the conversion that 
the Latin tongue was accepted. It was also a great 
means for the consolidation of the Church s power. 
Even in the Celtic tribes of Ireland and Scotland the 
mass, though not the rubrics and hymns, was always 
in Latin ; and whatever may have been the polity and 
nationality of the race who first raised to heaven the 
prayers of the Mozarabic Rite, that glorious formulaiy 
speaks to God in the language of the Romans. 

The Eastern Church did not take this exclusive line. 
Wedded as that Church has ever been to tradition, it 
freely allowed of the translation of the Euchologia and 
Liturgies. The great Slave races, who received their 
knowledge of Christ from the East, as we have seen, 
were freely allowed their Slavonic services. The Arme 
nians and Georgians, Cophts and Syrians, were all 
allowed to worship God in a tongue which they un 
derstood. Time, of course, has told on this arrange- 

% Labbe and Cossart, Cone., torn. viii. p. 278. 



436 ARTICLE XXIV. 



ment. The language of daily use has altered, while 
the Church language has remained as it was, so that 
now over the greater part of the Christian world the 
ignorant among the worshippers imperfectly under 
stand what is said in church. 

In extenuation of this state of things, it is urged 
1. that it would be impossible to be eternally altering 
the service to suit the alterations of the language of 
common life ; 2. that more is gained by the reverence 
which an ancient form inspires than is lost by a par 
tial ignorance of it ; 3. that in fact, by means of trans 
lation and explanation, the great mass of the faithful 
do adhibit a rational attention to the sense of that in 
which they are occupied ; and 4. that it is most impor 
tant to embalm the expression of doctrine in a lan 
guage, which, by being dead, has got a definite mean 
ing sealed to each word. 

To sum up, it is desirable that, due precaution being 
taken for the conservation of the true doctrine by cer 
tain unalterable formulae, the language of prayer and 
praise should be that which every ordinarily educated 
person of average intelligence should be able to follow 
with perfect facility ; and that in the mutation of lan 
guage, the service-books should from time to time be 
corrected, but only when the amount of discrepancy 
between the archaic and ordinary tongues has become 
so great, that an intelligent rational worship is ren 
dered difficult or impossible. 



ARTICLE XXV. 
DE SACRAMENTIS. 

SACRAMENTA a Christo instituta, non tantiim stint notce 
professions Christianorum, scd certa qucedam potius 
testimonia et efficacia signa gratia atque bonce in nos 
voluntatis Dei, per quce invisibiliter ipse in no[bi~]s 
operatur, nostramque fidem in se non sohim excitat, 
rerum etiam confirmat. 

Duo a Christo Domino nostro in Evangelio instituta sunt 
Sacramento, : scilicet, Baptismus, et Ccena Domini. 

Quinque ilia milyo nominata Sacramenta, scilicet, con- 
firmatio, poenitentia, ordo, matrimoniiim, et extrema 
unctio, pro Sacramentis Evangelicis habenda non sunt, 
ut quce, partim a pram Apostolorum imitatione pro- 
fluxerunt, partim vitce status sunt in Scripturis quidem 
prolati, sed sacramentorum eandem cum Baptismo et 
Ccena Domini rationem non habentes, ut quce signuui 
aliquod msibile, seu cteremoniam, a Deo institutam, no/i 
habeant. 

Sacramenta non in hoc instituta sunt a Christo ut specta- 
rentur, aut circumferrentur, sed ut rite illis uteremur ; 
et in his duntaxat qui digne percipiunt, salutarem ha- 
bent effectum. Qui vero indigne pcrcipiunt, damna- 
tionem (ut inquit Paulus) sibi ipsis acquirunt. 



" Of the Sacraments. 

" SACRAMENTS ordained of Christ, be not only badges 
or tokens of Christian men s profession, but rather they 
be certain sure witnesses and effectual signs of grace 
and God s good-will towards us, by the which He doth 



438 ARTICLE XXV. 



work invisibly in us, and doth not only quicken, but 
also strengthen and confirm our faith in Him. 

" There are two Sacraments ordained of Christ our 
Lord in the Gospel, that is to say, Baptism, and the 
Supper of the Lord. 

" Those five commonly called Sacraments, that is to 
say, Confirmation, Penance, Orders, Matrimony, and 
extreme Unction, are not to be counted Sacraments of 
the Gospel, being such as have grown partly of the 
corrupt following of the Apostles, partly are states of 
life allowed in the Scriptures : but yet have not like 
nature of Sacraments with Baptism and the Lord s 
Supper, for that they have not any visible sign or 
ceremony ordained of God. 

" The Sacraments were not ordained of Christ to be 
gazed upon, or to be carried about, but that we should 
duly use them. And in such only as worthily receive 
the same, they have a wholesome effect or operation : 
but they that receive them unworthily, purchase to 
themselves damnation, as St. Paul saith." 



THE Article begins by stating that Sacraments or 
dained of Christ are something more than badges or 
tokens of Christian men s profession. This was the 
miserable conception of Zwingli. He maintained Sa 
craments to be signs of covenant between man and 
man, external things in no wise affecting the con 
science, neither spiritual in themselves nor working 
anything spiritual in us, the tokens of those who are 
spiritual. Luther arid Melanchthon s theory was also 
inadequate. They reduced the Sacraments to tokens 



OF THE SACRAMENTS. 439 



of a covenant between God and man, to pledges of the 
truth of the divine promises for the forgiveness of sins, 
to means of assurance that the debt of the sins of the 
faithful receiver is remitted, and of peace to comfort 
and console him. All this springs from the one-sided 
conceptions of the justification of man before God. 
The effects of the Sacraments were confined to the 
subjective acts of the individual at the moment of 
reception. In fact, the objective character of the 
means of grace was lost. Luther s variations were 
endless. His permanent belief was, that they were 
a sort of visible preaching to kindle faith. But the 
Confession of Augsburg is not even fairly orthodox 
on this point. 

Calvin s teaching was in most respects similar to that 
of Luther, but he carefully points out all the parts of 
what is understood by a Sacrament, and recommends, 
with much urgency, its use, but then he divorces the 
inward grace from the outward sign. This is the neces 
sary result of his theory of election. If it is only to 
the elect that God s grace is tendered, the rest being 
passed over by God, it follows that grace is by no 
means necessarily connected with the outward sign. 
Hence, in Baptism, those who are not elected are 
only outwardly washed, and in the Lord s Supper re 
ceive mere bread and wine. According to him, Sacra 
ments are merely obsignatory. 

Having thus cleared the way to a definition, the 
Article goes on to state that Sacraments ordained by 
Christ are " certain sure witnesses and effectual si<ms 



440 ARTICLE XXV. 



of grace and God s good- will towards us, by the which 
He doth work invisibly in us, and doth not only 
quicken, but strengthen and confirm our faith in Him." 
Observe the singular strength of these words, in com 
parison with those of the Confession of Augsburg : 
" Sacraments are the signs and testimonies of God s 
good- will towards us, bestowed for exciting and con 
firming the faith of those who use them." Again, we 
call Sacraments rites, which have the commandment 
of God, and to which is added the promise of grace. 
Our Article makes five assertions with regard to them : 
they are 1. sure witnesses of grace, and God s good 
will towards us ; 2. effectual signs of grace, and God s 
good-will towards us ; 3. by Sacraments God works in 
visibly in us ; 4. by Sacraments He quickens our faith 
in Him; 5. by Sacraments He strengthens and con 
firms that Faith. There is no point of Catholic teach 
ing on the subject which is not amply and explicitly 
contained in these words. 

1. The first point impressed upon us is, the sense 
of Sacraments being witnesses of grace, or, in stricter 
theological language, signifying grace. They are types 
of that holiness and righteousness which they convey. 
There is a celebrated passage in St. Augustine, where 
he says that " Sacraments are called the things which 
they signify, from a certain similarity and likeness a ." 
Thus they are the pledges of the divine will in regard 
to man, and sureties of the truth of God s promises. 
As God, under the Mosaic dispensation, employed out- 
S. Aug., torn. ii. p. 203 f., Ep. 98, 9. 



OF THE SACRAMENTS. 441 

ward signs, and wonders, and tokens, to strengthen 
the trust of the Jews in the divine assurance, as in 
the words of Deut. vi. 20, " And when thy son asketh 
thee in time to come, saying, What mean the testi 
monies, and the statutes, and the judgments, which the 
Lord our God hath commanded you ?" so our blessed 
Lord, the new Moses, the Legislator of a better cove 
nant, instituted these rites as pledges of the forgiveness 
of sin, of the bestowal of grace, of communion with 
God. A pledge to assure us of the inward and spiri 
tual grace given to us, is a necessary part of the defi 
nition. But this is not all. 

2. The Article says further, that a Sacrament is 
an effectual sign of God s grace. It not only typifies, 
it conveys. It is not a bare sign, but an effectual 
sign, a sign that carries its effect along with it. It 
is the means whereby we receive the same grace, of 
which it is the outward visible sign. 

3. By Sacraments God works invisibly in us. All 
grace flows from the Humanity of Jesus Christ, and 
the Sacraments are main channels whereby that grace 
flows into the soul. Christ is the chief and principal 
worker in all Sacraments, as a function of His ever 
lasting priesthood. They work in us by means of the 
institution of Christ. He has merited for us all things 
necessary to salvation, and these are freely bestowed 
upon us by God, if our free- wills only consent to re 
ceive them. This consent to receive grace, in other 
words expresses itself as repentance and faith. Re 
pentance and faith make us susceptible of the grace 



442 ARTICLE XXV. 



of the Sacrament, which, thus abide in the Absolute 
and the Objective. 

4. Sacraments quicken or give life to faith. In the 
old rituals, the service of Baptism begins with this 
question to the sponsor in the name of the candidate, 
What seekest thou of the Church ? and the answer is, 
Faith. 

5. Sacraments strengthen and confirm faith. As 
a means of grace, they strengthen the whole soul, in 
crease its spiritual capacities both as to the intellectual 
and the moral part of man s being, and therefore in 
timately affect the faith, which, though dwelling in 
the intellectual part of the soul, is intimately in 
fluenced by the morals. The power of increase in 
faith is indicated by our Lord in the similitude of the 
mustard seed. Faith exists in the faintest recognition 
of a superior Being amid the fetich worship of the 
ignorant savage ; it rises to the keenest recognition 
of Divine truth in the perfected saint, and to the 
endurance of martyrdom for these holy convictions. 
A power so infinitely varying in degree must be pro 
foundly affected by the means which God gives us of 
advancing in righteousness and holiness, so that the 
Sacraments act directly according to their own nature, 
and for their appointed purpose, when they confirm 
and strengthen the faith. 

The Article adds that " the Sacraments were not 
ordained of Christ to be gazed upon, or to be carried 
about, but that we should duly use them." In this 
sentence the stress is on the words, " were not ordained 



OF THE SACRAMENTS. 443 

of Christ to be," &c. The Article does not say, that 
the things spoken of may not be done, but that they 
were not the objects for which Christ ordained them. 
Had they been, they could not have been laid aside 
without sin. Being of ecclesiastical, not of Divine 
institution, they were mutable, not immutable. What 
it affirms is strictly historically true. By carrying 
the Sacraments about, we are probably to understand 
the Procession of the Corpus Domini. No person in 
his senses would say that this was ordained of Christ, 
but, though not actually ordained of Christ, the prac 
tice is not necessarily sinful, nay, if ordered by the 
Church, in accordance with His will, permissible and 
edifying. If " gazing" be supposed to imply assisting 
at the Eucharistic celebration without communicating, 
it must be recollected that from the very beginning, the 
penitents called consistentes were required to be present 
without communicating; and as love waxed cold, the 
Church thought it better that men should be present 
at the great Eucharistic Service without communion, 
rather than turn their backs upon the holy mysteries. 
But it was distinctly an accommodation to weakness in 
the beginning, and the normal order of the Church 
is still, that all present should be in a fit state to par 
ticipate in the holy mysteries, and actually do so a . 

As regards the circ urn gestation of the blessed Sa 
crament. From the beginning of the third century 

a Both the Articles and jCouncil of Trent agree in considering that 
private masses are the result of the coldness of Christians. Both con 
demn it, but both have failed in enforcing universal participation. 



444 ARTICLE XXV. 



we have evidence of its being reserved in the Church. 
It was sometimes carried home by the faithful for pri 
vate communion, but generally it rested in a ciborium, 
in the form of a dove hanging over the altar. It was 
then ready for the exigencies of the sick and dying, 
and Church history is full of records of the tremendous 
profanations it endured from the hands of the heathen, 
or even heretic Christians. At length, on the occasion 
of the upspring of a pantheistic school in Europe, 
headed by David de Dinant, and Amaury de Chartres b , 
the doctrine of the Sacrament received additional con 
sideration, and it was deemed expedient to carry the 
Sacrament through the streets, as a protest patent to 
every one against the dangerous errors of pantheism ; 
and since those days the devotional use of the Lord s 
Body, as divorced from its Sacramental participation, 
has greatly increased in the Western Church, while 
the Greek Church and the English Church have re 
frained from developing in this direction. 

It is observable that the framers of our present 
Article omitted a clause contained in the Forty-two 
Articles, founded upon a misconception, common at 
that time, of the theological meaning of the term, 
opus operatum. After the words, "in such only as 
worthily receive the same, they have a wholesome 
effect and operation ;" there followed, " and yet that, 
not of this work wrought \_ex opere opcrato] as some 
men speak ; which word, as it is strange and un 
known to Holy Scripture, so it engendereth no godly 
b Mohler, Symlolik, vol. i. p. 350. 



OF THE SACRAMENTS. 445 

but a very superstitious sense." This supposed sense 
was, that the Sacraments conferred the benefits attached 
to them, to all who received them, without any good 
dispositions on their part, sine aliquo bono motu utentis, 
as people used to say. Such an opinion could not be 
too strongly condemned, but nothing could be more 
alien from the meaning of the term. It is a well- 
known distinction of the Schoolmen ; " Some receive 
both the Sacrament and the substance of the Sacra 
ment" [viz. those who receive it worthily] ; " some, 
the Sacrament and not the substance" [viz. those who 
receive it unworthily] ; "some, the substance and not 
the Sacrament " [viz. those who desire to receive it 
aright, but, in the ordering of God s Providence, are 
prevented]. This distinction in itself excludes the 
imputation that, according to this doctrine, the Sacra 
ments benefited those who received them unworthily 
by their mere reception. Such, in the language of 
St. Augustine, " placed a bar" to the reception of 
their grace. And so those alone universally received 
the benefits of a Sacrament, who could place no bar. 
" The Sacrament and the substance together all, in 
fact, receive who in Baptism are cleansed from original 
sin." The phrase, ex opere operate* , was devised in con 
trast with the ex opere operantis, and to distinguish the 
Sacraments of the new law from those of the old ; to ex 
clude human merits, not worthy reception ; to express 
that God s gift in the Sacrament is a gift special to 
the Sacrament, " a work worked" by God, beyond and 

c P. Lomb., 1. iv. dist. iv. 



446 ARTICLE XXV. 



above human co-operation. " When Catholics say that 
Sacraments confer grace ex opere operato, they do not 
think that they confer it only from the merits of the 
receiver, either of condignity or impetratory, but by 
the virtue of the Sacrament itself, without which, even 
if such disposition preceded, it would not be given d ." 
"It is said that Sacraments justify men, ex opere 
operato, because they do not justify by reason of the 
merits of the work of the minister, who confers the 
Sacrament, as far as it is his, as operating [opus oper- 
antis], viz. in what way he may be worthy of praise or 
blame : but the work of the minister is considered only 
in itself, be it done well or ill, so that it be done 
according to the Divine institution, because it hath 
this power, not by the virtue or merits of the minister, 
but by the virtue of the Author who instituted it" 
[the doctrine of our Article XXVI.]. The Council of 
Trent guarded the meaning of the ex opere operato by 
the words : " If any one say that the Sacraments of 
the new law do not contain grace, or confer it to 
those tcho place no bar to it ;" and in their rejection of 
those who confined the grace of the Sacraments to the 
elect : " If any say that grace is not given through 
such Sacraments always to all, as far as relates to 
God s part, although they duly receive them, but some 
times and to some 6 ." In which words they express 
the same limitation as our Article. 

Of the number of the Sacraments little notice was 
taken in the Protestant confessions. Luther, regard- 
d Vazquez in 3, P. d. 131, q. 1. e Sess. vii. can. 6, 7. 



OF THE SACRAMENTS. 447 

ing them as symbols for the purpose of confirming 
a man s faith in the forgiveness of sins, could neces 
sarily see no sacramental character in many of those 
rites which had long been esteemed such. He ad 
mitted three, Baptism, the Lord s Supper, Penitence f . 
Calvin also admitted only two Sacraments, in the sense 
in which he believed any Sacraments ; viz. " outward 
symbols, whereby God seals to our consciences the 
promises of His good will towards us to support 
the weakness of our faith, and we, in turn, attest our 
piety towards Him, before Him, the angels, and men s." 
"Baptism testifies that we have been cleansed and washed; 
the Eucharistic Supper, that we have been redeemed 11 ." 
The " five falsely-named Sacraments" he rejected with 
much vehemence 1 , whence there is no allusion to them 
in any of the original reformed confessions j . 

f The number is not denned in the Confession of Augsburg, but these 
are enumerated in Art. ix. xii. The Apology, on Art. xiii., declares 
these three to be Sacraments, as "having the command of God and 
the promise of the grace of the New Testament. For in all three our 
hearts ought to settle, that God really forgives us for Christ s sake. 
Confirmation and Extreme Unction, it says, are rites received from the 
fathers, which the Church, too, does not require as necessary to salva 
tion, because they have not the command of God." " If Orders be ac 
counted the ministry of the word [i.e. preaching], we should un 
deniably call order a Sacrament. Matrimony/ it says, " if any one 
wills to call it a Sacrament, should be distinguished from the former, 
which are properly signs of the New Testament, and are testimonies of 
grace and of forgiveness of sins." (p. 155, ed. Tittm.) 

* Inst. iv. n. i. h Ibid., n. 22. Ibid., n. 19. 

J The " declaratio Thoruniensis," the result of an attempt in Poland 
to unite Catholics, Lutherans, and Reformers, A.D. 1645, alone speak of 
them. It was received by the reformed in Brandenburg. Aug. Diss. 
Sist. Lit., in his Corpus Libb. St/mb., pp. 642, 643. 



448 ARTICLE XXV. 



The septenary number of the Sacraments had long 
been held both by the Greek and Latin Churches, and 
there is no ground to deprive of a sacramental cha 
racter the rites for which that character is claimed. 

Peter Lombard is the first to formulize the number 
in the Latin Church. Before that nothing had been 
defined. Alexander Alensis k held that confirmation 
was not apostolic, but ordained by the Council of 
Meaux; Buonaventura 1 denies that it was established 
by Christ; Cajetan m denies that extreme unction is the 
ceremony mentioned in St. James. Rupertus Tuicen- 
sis says, " Sacred Baptism, the Holy Eucharist of His 
Body and Blood, the twin gift of the Holy Ghost. . . . 
These three Sacraments are the necessary instruments 
of our salvation n ." 

The language of the Article is awkward and embar 
rassed, whether it be that the use of the word " partly" 
did not at that time (as it certainly does not by 
the force of the word itself) imply a logical division 
into two classes, or that the framers of the Article 
used it illogically. But, certainly, the words could not 
have been intended to express any absolute division of 
the five Sacraments into the two classes spoken of, 
since, by no possibility, according to the principles of 
the framers, could Confirmation be classed in either. 
For the right interpretation of the Article, we need but 
these simple principles : 1. That the framers did not 

k Alensis, p. 4, q. 9. l Buonaventura, Sent., 1. 4, dist. 7, q. 2. 

m Cajetan, in Jac. 5, p. 419, ed. Lugd., 1556. n De Victoria 

Verbi Dei, 1. xii. c. 11, cit. Owen. 



OF THE SACRAMENTS. 449 

mean to contradict the Homilies, which they praised ; 
2. That the writers, both of the Articles and the Homi 
lies, did not use carefully guarded language without 
a meaning. The word " Sacrament" has notoriously 
been used in a wider and a stricter sense. The Homi 
lies mention St. Augustine s description, "a visible 
sign of an invisible grace." In this respect they stand 
out from those other mysteries of the Christian life, 
which the fathers have here and there called Sacra 
ments, such as prayer , or the Lord s prayer p , or fast 
ing 1, or Holy Scripture 1 , or the Creed p , or Martyr 
dom s ; for although these are instruments of grace, 
through the blessing of God, they have not been 
marked out by any visible sign. Now, in this wider 
sense, " this Article does not deny the five rites in 
question to be Sacraments ; it only denies them to be 
Sacraments in the same sense in which Baptism and 
the Lord s Supper are Sacraments, Sacraments of the 
Gospel, Sacraments with an outward sign ordained 
by God/ r " If, then, a Sacrament be merely an out 
ward sign of an invisible grace given under it, the 
five rites may be Sacraments ; but if it must be an 
outward sign ordained by God or Christ, then only 
Baptism and the Lord s Supper are in this sense 

St. Hilary, in 8. Matt., c. v. n. 1. 

p " The Sacrament of the Creed, which they ought to believe ; the 
Sacrament of the Lord s Piayer, how th-y ought to ask." S.Aug., 
Serm. 228 fin. 

1 " Sacramentum esuritionis." St. Hilary, in S. Matt., c. xii. n. 2. 
r St. Hi!., ibid., c. xxiii. n. 4. 

St. Jerome, Ep. ad Ocean., n. 6, p. 418, Vail. 



450 ATITICLE XXV. 



Sacraments. Now, in separating off these two 
Sacraments from the rest, the framers of the Article 
followed very high authority in the Latin, Greek, 
and Syriac-speaking Churches. To name no others 
now, St. Chrysostom, St. Augustine, and their con 
temporary St. Isaac the Great, gave special honour to 
those two Sacraments which flowed from the side of 
Christ 4 . 

These two, the Article calls " Sacraments of the 
Gospel," as being, as the Catechism says, " generally 
necessary to salvation;" or, according to the Homily, 
" having annexed to the visible signs the promise of 
free forgiveness of sins, and of our holiness and joining 
to Christ." " Orders," it has been said, " gives power, 
yet without making the soul acceptable to God ; Con 
firmation gives light and strength, yet is the mere 
completion of Baptism ; and Absolution may be looked 
upon as a negative ordinance, removing the barrier 
which sin has raised between us and that grace which 

1 St. Chrysos., ad loc. in Horn. 85 ; St. Aug., in Joan. 10. t. iii. tr. 
xlv. 9 ; de Luct. Jacob, Serm. 5, t. v. p. 30. " Faith came to me, and 
called to me, and said to me, that the Sacraments of the Church came 
forth from the opened side of Christ." (St. Isaac, Serm. de fide ap. 
Assem. Bibl. Or., t. i. p. 243.) See also Tertullian, de Bapt., c. 16, 
p. 263 ; St. Ambrose, in S. Luc., 1. x. 135 ; St. Aug., in S. Joh., Tract. 
cxx. n. 2, ix. n. 10, xv. n. 8; de Civ. Dei, xv. 26, xxii. 17 ; c. Faust., xii. 
39 ; St. Leo, Ep. xxviii. Flavian. ; S. Paulin. Nol., Ep. xlii. Florent., 
n. 4; Auct. de Symb., 1. ii. c. 6; de cataclysm., c. iv. ; in St. Aug. Opp. 
t. vi.; St. Cyril Al., and probably Apollinarius, in S. Joh. xix. 34; 
author of Testim. de Adv. Dom., in St. Greg. Nyss. ; St. John Damasc., 
de Fid. Orthod., iv. 9. See in Dr. Pusey s Scriptural Doctrine of B<tpt., 
pp. 294297. 



OF THE SACRAMENTS. 451 

is by inheritance ours. But the two Sacraments of 
the Gospel/ as they may be emphatically styled, are 
the instruments of inward life, according to our Lord s 
declaration, that Baptism is a new birth, and that in 
the Eucharist we eat the living bread u ." 

But although these two great Sacraments are severed 
off from the other five, it has been observed, that so 
far from denying them to be Sacraments, the writers 
of all the formularies acknowledge or imply that they 
are in some sense " Sacraments." The Homilies directly 
call Marriage a " Sacrament x ;" and of Orders they 
say, "neither it, nor any other Sacrament else be such 
Sacraments as Baptism and Communion are?." So 
that we have two of the five expressly called " Sacra 
ments," besides the allusion to " other Sacraments." 
The Article could not say that the five have not " like 
nature of Sacraments with Baptism and the Lord s 
Supper," unless the writers meant that they were in 
some sense " Sacraments." And the difference assigned 
(which is further remarkable) does not relate to the 
inward grace, but to the outward form. " For that," 
it continues, " they have not any visible sign or cere 
mony ordained of God." In the same way the Homi 
lies expressly say, that "absolution" has the inward 
grace, " forgiveness of sins," only " not by express 
word of the New Testament, annexed and tied to the 
visible sign, which is imposition of hands." 

u Newman on "Justification," Lee*;. 6, v.fin. x Sermon on 

Swearing, pt. i. T Homily on Common Prayer and Sacra 

ments, p. 298. 



452 ARTICLE XXV, 



It was said that the language of the Article, on the 
number of the Sacraments, is defensible : 

1. To state that there are only seven Sacraments, 
neither more nor less, is a mode of speech unknown 
to antiquity. The word was used, if not loosely, in 
a very extended sense. Christianity, being a religion 
of mystery, was full of Sacraments. It was the great 
sacrament of godliness itself, testifying as it did to 
God manifest in the flesh. 

2. The Sacraments of Baptism and the Holy Eucha 
rist are so pre-eminent over the other five, differ so in 
kind from them, and hang so closely together, that 
they may be bracketed off by themselves. What cir 
cumcision and the passover were to the Fathers, they 
are to the Israel of God. They alone are generally 
necessary to salvation. 

3. Moreover, these two Sacraments alone have an out 
ward sign, instituted by Christ Himself, being the means 
of conveying the inward grace. There is a marked 
parallelism between them in their previous announce 
ment, actual institution, and subsequent administration. 

4. As representing spiritual birth and spiritual food 
they are the very substance of the Church. All other 
blessings are subsidiary to these, both in the order of 
nature, and in the order of grace. 

5. They stand also pre-eminent in that they and 
they alone, according to the Fathers, have flowed from 
the riven side of the Second Adam as He slept the 
sleep of death on the cross, and thus they constitute 
the mystic Eve, the bride, the Church. 



OF THE SACRAMENTS. 453 

The language of the Article is unfortunate, not 
in that it raised two Sacraments above the rest, but 
in tending to obscure the sacramental character of 
the other five rites by undue disparagement. Yet, 
happily, this Article is neither the exclusive, nor the 
main teacher of our people, according to the ancient 
principle, lex supplicandi, lex credcndi. And, upon the 
simple principle, that documents should not be inter 
preted so as to contradict one another, where they can 
be harmonized the one with the other, since, in regard 
to Orders and Confirmation, in the service for each 
an outward sign is prescribed and an inward grace 
spoken of; and in Matrimony the benediction of the 
priest is appointed for those who would be married 
according to the law of the Church ; and, in Penitence, 
there is a form appointed for conveying the grace of 
that Sacrament; it is clear that this Article must not 
be interpreted as denying that they are ordinances of 
God for the conveyance of spiritual grace. Of the 
fifth, the Anointing of the Sick, hereafter. It cannot 
be denied that seven ordinances have enclosed the 
whole Christian life in blessed bonds, not all necessary 
for all, nay, in the highest form of Christian life there 
is no room for Matrimony ; and in the first fervour 
of Christian love, they were the exception who needed 
to be restored by the Sacrament of Penitence, but con 
veying, according to men s needs, the grace of which 
they are channels. They have ever been regarded to 
have a mystical significance of their own, and separately 
from the beginning have existed as practices in the 



454 ARTICLE XXV. 



Church. To illustrate which truth, it may be well to 
dwell on each in order as follows : 

I. The Sacrament (in this inferior sense) by which 
the Holy Spirit is communicated to the faithful, to con 
firm and perfect in them faith and religion, is termed, 
on that account, the gift of the Holy Spirit ; Confirma 
tion ; perfection ; the seal ; also, the Sacrament of the 
Spirit, the symbol of the Spirit, the Sacrament of 
Unction, the imposition of hands, unction, the mystic 
unction, the unction of salvation. An outward sign 
and an inward grace are both assigned in Holy Scrip 
ture, in that Peter and John were sent by the Apostles 
to those baptized in Samaria, " And they laid their 
hands on them, and they received the Holy Ghost 2 ;" 
and that the Holy Ghost came on the baptized a , when 
Paul laid his hands on them. Baptism and Confirma 
tion standing thus distinct in Holy Scripture, the in 
timate relation between them, and the custom of ad 
ministering the one immediately upon the other, do 
not prove their identity. In matter, form, and cha 
racter they are entirely different. Confirmation Ter- 
tullian names with Baptism and the Eucharist b ; St. 
Cyprian gives it the dignity of a Sacrament c ; St. 
Cyril, of Jerusalem, calls it " the seal of the fellowship 
of the Holy Ghost d ;" the author of the de Sacramentis, 
a special " spiritual seal," speaking of it under " Sa 
craments." The Council of Elvira speaks of the bap 
tized as "perfected 6 " by it; that of Laodicea said the 

z Acts viii. 17. Ibid. xix. 6. b frees, xxxvi. 

c 70 ad Januar. d Cat. xviii. n. 33. e c. 38, 77. 



OF THE SACRAMENTS. 455 

baptized " ought after Baptism to be anointed with the 
heavenly chrism, and be partakers of the kingdom of 
Christ f ;" the Apostolical Constitutions call the unc 
tion "the confirmation of the confession [in Baptism], 
the seal of the covenants s ." St. Cyril, of Alexandria, 
speaks of "the use of oil, contributing to perfection 
to those justified in Christ through holy Baptism/ 
as a spiritual meaning of oil h ; and says, "We are 
anointed with ointments, especially at the time of 
holy Baptism, making it a symbol of partaking the 
Holy Spirit 1 ." 

The Fathers, both Greek and Latin, speak of Con 
firmation being given with the imposition of hands, or 
with Unction with the Holy Chrism, or with both k . 

f c. 48. g iii. 16, 17. h In Joel ii. 23, t. iii. p. 224, Aub. 

1 On Is. xxv. 6, t. ii. p. 353, Aub. 

k Some Marcosian heretics, denying (St. Irenseus says) " the Baptism 
of the regeneration to God," said, "it was superfluous to bring persons 
to the water ; but, mingling oil and water with certain words, put it on 
the heads of those perfected. These, too, anoint with balsam." (St. 
Iren., i. 10, 1 and 4.) Tertullian mentions both as following upon 
Baptism, and speaks of them as the complement of Baptism : "Then, 
going forth from the laver, we are anointed with the blessed unction 
according to the ancient discipline, whereby they used to be anointed 
to the priesthood with oil from a horn. So in us, too, the anointing 
runneth corporally, but profiteth spiritually; as the carnal act of Bap 
tism itself, that we are immersed in water, is made spiritual that we are 
delivered from sins. Then the hand is imposed, calling and inviting by 
its benediction the Holy Spirit." (De Bapt., c. 7.) Again, he places 
both between Baptism and the Holy Eucharist : " The flesh is washed, 
that the soul may be unbespotted ; the flesh is anointed, that the soul may 
be consecrated ; the flesh is sealed, that the soul, too, may be guarded ; 
the flesh is overshadowed by imposition of hands, that the soul, too, 
may be illumined by the Spirit ; the flesh is fed with the Body and 



456 ARTICLE XXV. 



" In the oldest Latin Sacramentaries and Pontificals 
only the laying on of hands and its form is prescribed." 

Blood of Christ, that the soul, too, may be nourished from God." (De 
Res. earn., c. 8.) St. Cyprian speaks of the sanctification of the oil 
wherewith the baptized are anointed. (Ep. Ixx. ad Jan.) In the Ep. 
Ixxiii., ad Jubaian., having spoken of Peter and John "supplying what 
was wanted, viz. that, prayers being made for them and hands imposed, 
the Holy Spirit might be invoked and poured upon them ;" he adds, 
"the like whereto is done among us, that they who are baptized in the 
Church are offered to those set over the Church, that by our prayers 
and the imposition of hands they may obtain the Holy Spirit, and be 
perfected with the seal of the Lord." St. Firmilian speaks of the im 
position of hands alone, (Ep. ad S. Cypr., Ep. Ixxv.) ; as does the Council 
of Elvira (can. 38). The Luciferian in St. Jerome asks: "Knowest 
thou not that this is the custom of the Churches, that on the baptized 
hands should afterwards be laid, and so the Holy Spirit invoked ? 
Askest thou where this is written? In the Acts of the Apostles. Even 
if it were not supported by the authority of Scripture, the agreement 
of the whole Church herein would have the weight of a precept." 
St. Jerome answers thus far : " I deny not that this is the custom of 
the Churches, that to those who have been baptized by Presbyters and 
Deacons, at a distance from larger cities, the Bishop goes forth, to lay on 
hands for the invocation of the Holy Spirit." (St. Jerome, adv. Lucif. 
n. 8, 9, Opp. ii. 180, 1, Vail.) St. Epiphanius mentions imposition of 
hands, yet speaking only of Acts viii. 17, 18, (Hcer. xxi., Simon, n. 1) ; 
and St. Chrysostom, speaking of Acts xix. 6 only. (In Actt. Horn, xl., 
n. 1.) On the other hand, St. Cyril of Jerusalem mentions the anoint 
ing only. (Cat. xxi.) St. Basil instances the anointing of the bap 
tized as an unwritten tradition. (De Sp. S., c. 27.) Theodoret (as 
a mystical exposition of Cant. i. 2) : " Remember the holy mysteries 
wherein those initiated [baptized], after denying the tyrant [Satan] 
and confessing the King, receive as the royal seal the Chrism of the 
spiritual ointment, receiving, as in the type, the ointment, the invisible 
grace of the Spirit." (Opp. ii. 30.) St. Augustine, in his de Bapt. 
(iii. xvi. n. 21), speaks only of the imposition of hands ; on Ps. xxvi. (in 
explanation of the dum linitur in the title, n. 2), Cont. Litt. Petil., ii. 
n. 239 (in allusion to Ps. cxxxiii. 2), de Trin., xv. 26 (on Acts x. 38), 
of the anointing only. The Apostolic Constitutions mention both in 



OF THE SACRAMENTS. 457 

In the formula sent by Clement IY. to Palaeologus for 
the adoption of the Greeks, in view of union (in 1274), 
it is said of the Sacrament of Confirmation, " which the 
Bishops confer through imposition of hands, chrisming 
the regenerate 1 ." The whole statement of faith was 
accepted in the letters sent to the second Council of 
Lyons, held in 1274 m : but the Greeks asked to use the 
creed and the rites which they had before the schism ; 
so that this is absolute evidence for the West only. The 
Synod of Mayence, in 1549, citing the Acts, states that 
" the Catholic Church received from the Apostles the 
rule of giving the Holy Spirit to the faithful by the 
hands of the Bishops, and that this Sacrament was 
from the beginning given by the imposition of hands 
alone ; but that soon in the very time of the Apostles, 
by their tradition, it began to be conferred, with the 
use of unction." The ground it assigns is, that the 
Holy Spirit first descended visibly; when this was 
withdrawn, "the anointing began to be employed to 
represent the internal spiritual unction n ." 

A Confession of Faith published in 1662, by Nectarius 

ii. 32, vii. 43, 44 ; unction only in iii. 16, vii. 22. St. Optatus (Sch. 
Don., iv. 7) alludes to both. Innocent I. (Ep. i. ad Decent. Eugub., n. 
3) says that a Priest can seal only with oil consecrated by a Bishop. 
St. Leo (Serm. 24, [in Nat. Dom., iv.] c. 6) mentions Chrism only ; in 
regard to returning heretics, baptized out of the Church, imposition of 
hands only (Ep. clix. ad Nicet., c. 7), as being " what was wanting 
there ;" (Ep. clxvi. ad Neon., n. 2) " by imposition of hands, the power 
of the Holy Spirit invoked, which they could not receive from heretics." 
(Ep. clxvii. Rust. Inq., 18.) 

1 Baron., A. 1267, n. 77. m Cone. Lugd. ii., Lit. 

Mich. Palatal, ad Greg. X. n Can. 17, 18. 



158 ARTICLE XXV. 



of Jerusalem, says that Confirmation was originally 
given by imposition of hands, but now by unction. 

The blow bestowed on the cheek of the newly-con 
firmed person, was a usage imported from chivalry. It 
is not mentioned before the tenth century. 

II. The second inferior Sacrament mentioned in the 
Article is that of Penance. According to the ancient 
faith, for those who had fallen into deadly sin after 
Baptism, there was established a Sacrament to restore 
the soul to grace, which is variously called Penance, 
Confession, Absolution, Reconciliation, the second Bap 
tism, the Laborious Baptism, the second Repentance, 
the second raft after Shipwreck. 

The inward grace, the forgiveness of sins, is promised 
in the most absolute terms by our Lord Himself, when 
He said to His Apostles, "Receive ye the Holy Ghost. 
Whosesoever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto 
them ; and whosesoever sins ye retain, they are re 
tained." This power was given in the Apostles to the 
Church, in the same way as the authority to baptize 
in the Name of the Holy Trinity, to preach the Gospel 
to all the world, to teach whatsoever Jesus had com 
manded, to celebrate the Holy Eucharist. All were 
primarily committed to the Apostles, to be transmitted 
by them to their successors. Since we continue to 
baptize, to teach, to celebrate the Holy Eucharist by 
virtue of a commission given to the Apostles pri 
marily, it would be in the last degree inconsistent 
to deny the Church s power to absolve from sins in 
His Name. 



OF THE SACRAMENTS. 459 

There is absolutely no doubt that this mercy towards 
grievous sinners was exercised by the Church from the 
very first. The course of public penance, by which the 
soul was prepared for the grace of Christ in the Abso 
lution, is mentioned by St. Irenseus, who speaks of an 
adulteress, who " having been converted, continued 
during the whole period [of her life] in a state of 
penitence" [_%o^o\oyov/jievr), in exhomologesi, old Lat.], 
" weeping and lamenting what she had undergone 
through the impostor " Marcus the Gnostic, and of 
the women, who, having been led astray by him, had 
no courage to undertake the labours of penance P ; 
by Tertullian, who shews how, by the disposition of 
divine goodness, penance purifies the soul from all 
sins whatsoever, how it is a plank which should 
bear those sunk beneath the waves of sin to the haven 
of Divine mercy, and how sin must not be con 
cealed, but confessed sincerely <*; by Lactantius, who 
observes as a distinctive note of the Church Catholic 
the advantage she has in having confession and pe 
nance as the cure of sin and of the wounds of the 
soul r ; by Origen, who says the seventh means of ob 
taining the remission of sin, hard and laborious, is 
penance, when the sinner waters his couch with his 
tears, when his tears become his meat day and night, 
when he blushes not to discover his sin to the priest 
of the Lord, and seek a remedy for the ills of his 

i. 13, n. 5. P Ib., n. 7. De Pan., ii., iv., 

ix., x. He asks : " Is it better to be damned in secret, than ab 
solved openly ?" r Instlt. JDiv., iv. 30. 



460 



ARTICLE XXV. 



soul 8 . The course of public penance was known by 
a technical Greek term, " exomologesis." 

While the true dispenser of pardon is God in His 
Son Jesus Christ, our great High-Priest, the visible 
and earthly organ is the Christian Hierarchy ; but no 
absolution of theirs is valid, without a true repentance 
arising from the love of God, and a steady determina 
tion by His grace never to fall into deadly sin again. 
Furthermore, perfect contrition, in virtue of the ardor 
charitatis i which is its form, without the sacrament, 
effaces all sin ; yet no enlightened and instructed con 
science would venture into the presence of its Judge 
with any of those sins unconfessed and unabsolved, of 
which He saith : " They which do such things shall 
not inherit the Kingdom of God u ." 

8 In Lev. Horn. ii. n. 4. 

1 Origen, in the same passage, in which he speaks of the remission of 
sins, according to the public penitential discipline of the Church, just 
quoted, sets, side by side with it, the remission, which is through abun 
dance of charity : " The sixth remission takes place through abundance 
of charity ; as the Lord Himself, too, says, Verily, I say unto you, 
many sins are remitted to her, because she loved much ; and the 
Apostle sa} s, For charity covereth a multitude of sins/ There is 
yet, too, a seventh, although hard and laborious, remission of sins 
through penance, when the sinner," &c , (as above.) Origen then 
contrasts these modes of obtaining forgiveness with different sacrifices 
of the Mosaic law : " If that charity, which is greater than faith and 
hope, have abounded in thy heart, so that thou love thy neighbour, not 
only as th> self, but as He sheweth, Who said, Greater love hath no 
man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends ; know that 
thou hast offered bread, too, of fine flour, kneaded in the oil of charity, 
in the unleavened of sincerity and truth. But if in the bitterness 
of thy weeping thou art subdued by sorrow, tears, and lamentation, if 
thou have macerated thy flesh and dried it with fasting and much 
abstinence," &c. (I. c., t. ii. p. 191.) u Ghil. v. 21. 



OF THE SACRAMENTS. 461 

Til. The rite whereby men were raised in the Church 
to the clerical state x , was early called order/ the lay 
ing on of hands/ ordination/ the { sacrament of the 
pontiff/ the priestly benediction/ the Levitical bene 
diction/ Both the outward sign and the inward gift 
are named in Holy Scripture : " Stir up the gift of 
God, which is in thee, by the laying on of my hands V 

From all antiquity the Church has firmly believed 
in a special and proper priesthood, having its un 
doubted title in the mission and authority it has re 
ceived from Jesus Christ, and has expressed this belief 
in its outward life and organization. It has never 
denied the universal priesthood of those who are the 
members of Jesus Christ, our great High-Priest, who 
have received the unction of the Spirit, and who should 
offer themselves ever a living sacrifice to God ; but 
this belief does not contradict the notion that our 
Lord has intrusted the ministry of the word and Sacra 
ments, not to all the faithful, but to certain delegated 
individuals. While in one sense acknowledging our 
Lord to be the One Priest, she has ever firmly held 
the existence of a proper Priesthood, having an un 
doubted title in the mission and authority received 
from Christ. "Bishops and presbyters are properly 
termed priests 2 ." That the right to administer the 
Sacraments is given to a corporation, and very strong 
language of a certain mediation between God and the 
people, is found through all the Fathers. 

* " Ordo Sacerdotalis." Tertullian, Exhort, cast., 7, p. 778, Rig. 
y 2 Tim. i. 6. z St. Aug., Civ. Dei, xx. 10. 



462 ARTICLE XXV. 



The Marcionites were the first to misconceive the 
universal priesthood of Christians. In the Middle 
ages the Cathafi and Flagellants denied the objective 
reality of the Christian Priesthood. "Wickliffe main 
tained that a priest in mortal sin is thereby degraded 
from the priesthood, and loses the power of adminis 
tering the Sacraments; whence it would follow that, 
the inward state of priests being known only to Grod, 
the validity of their clerical acts would become radi 
cally doubtful and uncertain. 

Luther, insisting on the universal priesthood of 
Christians, absolutely denied any grace of orders, yet, 
to avoid anarchy, he admitted, though inconsistently, 
the necessity of ordination ; yet by it he understood 
nothing else than an external delegation on the part 
of the Christian community, which can recall the power 
thus granted. Calvin allowed Ordination to be " a cere 
mony, taken from Scripture, not empty or superflu 
ous, but a faithful symbol of spiritual grace." He 
only did not class it with the other two, he says, 
" because it is not ordinary nor common among all 
faithful, but a special rite to a certain function 3 ." 
But to him Sacraments were as outward things, as 
seals to a parchment, pictures visibly representing the 
promises of God b . 

The Church has always recognised these orders in 
the dignity of the clerical state, the Episcopate, the 
Priesthood, and the Diaconate. 

St. Ignatius of Antioch is the earliest exponent of 
Inst., pp. 19, 28. b Ibid., pp. 14, 15. 



OF THE SACRAMENTS. 463 

a fact to which the universal consent of tradition bears 
witness. 

IY. If marriage, even according to the Roman laws, 
was estimated as the mutual enjoyment of right, both 
divine and human (jurium divinorum et humanorum 
consortium), one may imagine how much more highly 
it was regarded in the purer atmosphere of Chris 
tianity. First in the actual life of the members of 
Christ, and then in the scientific development of the 
idea, we find a perfect revolution in the relations 
which obtained between the sexes. The prevalence 
of the Manichsean heresy and of Gnosticism, both 
of which depreciated Matrimony, was under God the 
means whereby the doctrine concerning it became 
submitted to Christian analysis, and therefore we find, 
in those authors who confuted these heresies, a sci 
entific treatment of it. Especially is this the case in 
St. Augustine. 

Matrimony, such as it exists under the Gospel, is 
the most mysterious expression of human love, shadow 
ing out Divine. St. Chrysostom remarks the mystery 
in this, as laid down in Paradise, how, towards one, 
heretofore a stranger and unknown, it surmounts 
the highest love of relationship of parent and child, 
and parents rejoice to be forsaken for it, as being 
the earthly contentment of human love. But the 
Gospel made it more. Through grace, the full, self- 
forgetful, self- surrender of each to the other in all 
things lawful, in unfelt, unconscious, because love- 
ensouled self-denial, makes it a human shadow of that 



464 ARTICLE XXV. 



Divine self-emptying love of Christ for His Church, 
wherewith " He gave Himself for it," and of the 
Church s fealty to its Lord and Head. The mysterious 
oneness of the married " signified the mystical union 
between Christ and His Church." St. Paul was 
speaking of Christian marriage when he said, " this 
mystery," or " Sacrament, is great, but I say with 
reference to Christ and the Church," i.e. the mystery 
of the conjugal union is great, in its bearing on the 
union between Christ and the Church. But marriage 
out of Christianity did not so picture that union, on 
account of the toleration (1.) of polygamy, (2.) of di 
vorce. In any case, it is of Christian marriage that 
he is speaking, since he is giving a rule for living 
in it according to the greatness of its mystery. He 
is writing to Christians about themselves and their 
own duties. 

Christian marriage being, then, so high a mystery, 
the Church from the first joined it in with sacred 
grace- conferring rites. " How can we find words," 
says Tertullian c , " to describe the happiness of that 
marriage, which the Church joineth together, and the 
oblation confirmeth, and the blessing sealeth, the an 
gels report, the Father ratifieth ! " St. Siricius says d , 
" that among the faithful it is a sort of sacrilege, 
if that blessing, which the priest places upon one 
about to marry, were violated by any transgression," 
[viz., if one betrothed to one were to marry another]. 

c Ad Uxor., ii. 8, fin. See the beautiful sequel, pp. 430, 431, 
Oxf. Tr. d Epist. ad Rimer. Tarrac., n. 4. 



OF THE SACRAMENTS. 465 

St. Jerome e says that matrimony, so far from being dis 
approved by the Church, is on the contrary conferred 
by her. If Marius Victorinus, St. Zeno of Yerona, 
St. Chrysostom, St. Epiphanius, content themselves by 
recognising in general terms the profound and mys 
terious signification of marriage ; St. Augustine fre 
quently calls it in. the most express terms a Sacra 
ment^ even predicating of it an indelible character 
as in Baptism and Confirmation e. 

In 1179 it was forbidden to receive fees for it, "as 
for other Sacraments V Yet several of the middle-age 
theologians do not express themselves very strongly 
on the subject. Abelard and Peter Lombard denied 
that Matrimony conveyed grace. Durandus, granting 
that the theologians of his age held it to be a Sacra 
ment properly so called, maintained that it was not so 
in a proper and rigorous sense, but only taken largely. 

V. The unction of the sick is the lost pleiad of the 
Anglican firmament. One must at once confess and 
deplore that a distinctly Scriptural practice has ceased 
to be commanded in the Church of England. Excuses 
may be made of " corrupt following of the Apostles," 
in that it was used, contrary to the mind of St. James, 
when all hope of the restoration of bodily health was 

e Adv. Jovin., 1. i. 

f Gen. ad lit., c. ix. n. 12, 7 ; Bon. Conjug., c. vii. n. 7, xxiv. n. 32; 
Nupt. et Concup., i. xii. n. 13, xvii. n. 19; Pecc. Orlg., xxxiv. n. 39, 
xxxvii. n. 42. 

e Adult. Conj., ii. 4 ; Nupt. et Concup., i. x. n. 4, xvii. n. 19 ; de 
bono Conj., c. vii. ; de Gen., 1. c. 

b Later an., 1179. Can. \ii. 

Hh 



466 ARTICLE XXV. 



gone; but it cannot be denied that there has been 
practically lost an Apostolic practice, whereby, in case 
of grievous sickness, the faithful were anointed and 
prayed over, for the forgiveness of their sins, and to 
restore them, if God so willed, or to give them spiri 
tual support in their maladies. "Is any sick among 
you ? Let him call for the elders of the Church. And 
let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the 
Name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith shall save 
the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up, and if he 
have committed sins they shall be forgiven him *." 

On whatever ground, the earliest notice which occurs 
of the unction of the sick k , is in an Epistle of Innocent 
I., A.D. 416. For, although Origen quotes the text 
of St. James, he does so ; exclusively in relation to the 
power of the keys, and the course of public penitence 1 , 
as Bellarmine acknowledges" 1 , in regard both to him 
and St. Chrysostom 11 , Yet, since the object of Inno 
cent was to inform Decentius as to the practice at 
Home, as being the only Apostolic Church in the 
West , his answer conveys not his own judgment 



1 St. James v. 14, 15. 

k Baronius (H. E. 63, xvi.) separates off as altogether distinct from 
" the Sacrament of unction," the mention of miraculous cures by the 
use of oil, such as Tertullian mentions to have been used by Proculus 
(ad Scap., c. 4); or as Egyptian monks used to expel diseases (Sozom., vi. 
20 and 29; Ruffin. H. E. ii. 4); and St. Martin, according to Severus 
(Vita S. Martini, n. 15); and St. Hilarion, as related by St. Jerome 
(vit. S. Hilarion.) 

1 In Lev., Horn. ii. n. 4. m De Sacr. 

u De Sac., iii. 6. Inn. I., ad Decent., Przuf. and Resp. viii. 



OF THE SACRAMENTS. 467 

only but a knowledge of that practice. The question 
of Decentius was, whether a Bishop might anoint the 
sick ; Innocent s answer was, certainly he might, since 
according to St. James, presbyters might. But the 
answer brings out the facts, that the Chrism for that 
object was prepared by the Bishop, and that the 
laity might use it in any needs of themselves or their 
friends. Only those under penance, being in fact ex 
communicate, could not have it, being a Sacrament, 
since they were debarred from all Sacraments. 

" There is no doubt that this [the passage of St. 
James] ought to be understood of the faithful, when 
sick, who can [possuni] be anointed with the holy oil 
of Chrism, which, being made by the Bishop, not 
the Priest only, but all Christians may use, by anoint 
ing, in their own or their friends necessities. But it 
was added needlessly, that it was doubted as to Bishops, 
in what, there is no doubt, is allowed to Presbyters. 
For it is therefore said [in St. James] of Presbyters, 
because the Bishops, being hindered by other occu 
pations, cannot go to all sick persons. But if a Bishop 
either can or thinks it meet to visit any one, he can 
unhesitatingly bless and touch with the Chrism, to 
whom it appertaineth to make the Chrism itself. For 
on penitents it cannot be poured, because it is a kind 
of Sacrament. For to whom the remaining Sacraments 
are denied, how can it be thought that one kind is 
allowed P?" 

St. Csesarius, of Aries, exhorts persons in sickness to 

P Kesp. viii. 



468 ARTICLE XXV. 



have recourse to the remedies of the Church, not to 
charms : " As soon as any illness supervenes, let the 
sick person receive the Body and Blood of Christ, and 
then anoint his poor body, that that which is written 
may be fulfilled in him ; If any is sick among 
you/ &c. See, brethren, that he who in sickness has 
recourse to the Church, will both receive health . of 
body and obtain forgiveness of sins. Since these two 
fold benefits can be found in the Church, why do 
hapless men strain to bring on themselves manifold 
evils through enchanters, or soothsayers, or diviners q ?" 
The passage of Csesarius agrees with that of Innocent I. 
in presupposing that the sick man anointed himself. 

In the Eastern Church, the early reference to the 
text relates (as we have seen) to "the power of the 
keys;" in Origen and St. Chrysostom no mention of, 
or allusion being made to the sick, much less to any 
anointing of them. The passage of Victor, of Aiitioch, 
was made to bear upon it, only through an inaccurate 
Latin translation. Victor himself, while explaining the 
meaning of St. Mark r , adduces the passage of St. James 

i In App. S. Aug., t. v. Serm. 265, olim. S, Aug. de Temp., 
Serm. 215. 

r On St. Mark vi. 13, Greek Catena, in S. Marc., p. 125, ed. Possini, 
Rom. 1673, p. 324, ed. Cram., Oxon. The whole passage is : "Things 
like this, Luke, too, sets forth j but the * anointed with oil [Peltanus 
glosses * de mystica unctione et olei usu/] Mark alone said ; to whom 
James, too, said the like in the Catholic [Epistle] : Is any sick among 
you, let him call to him the presbyters of the Church, and let them 
pray over him ; and the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord 
shall raise him up/ The oil then applied signified both the irercy from 
God, and the cure of the disease, and the enlightening of the heart. 



OF THE SACRAMENTS. 4G9 

as akin to it, but speaks of the anointing and the 
prayer accompanying it, as a thing of the past, so that 
the natural inference would rather be, that it was not 
used in Antioch in his time. He ascribes emphatically 
the whole effect to the prayer. St. Cyril, of Alex 
andria, also quotes the text barely, in the course of an 
abstract argument about heathen incantations a . If 
people thought that the titles of God would dispel 
their diseases, he bids them, praying for themselves, 
utter the words. " Thou," he says, " wilt do better than 
they [the evil spirits], offering glory to God and not to 
the foul spirits. I will mention the Divinely-inspired 
Scripture too, which saith, Is any sick among you 
let him call/ " &c. 

The meagreness of tradition is, however, replaced in 
some measure by the agreement of the Greeks, the 
Armenians, the Nestorians, and all the Orientals, with 
the Latins on this subject ; so that one cannot doubt 
that a sacramental use of anointing the sick has been 
from the beginning. 

Our Abp. Theodore, A.D. 680, contrasts the customs 
of the Greeks and Latins, in that " according to the 

For it is manifest to every one, that the prayer effected the whole, but 
the oil, as I deem, was the symbol of these things." [Pelt, para- 
. phrased, " But it may be said that prayer effected all these things, 
but that the oil is only an outward symbol of all those things whicli 
take place. "] 

s De Adorat., 1. vi. t. i. p. 211, Aub. Palladium, the other speaker 
in St. Cyril s Dialogue, being satisfied on this subject of augury, St. 
Cyril goes on to speak of false- swearing. Anastasius Sinaita, qu. 23, 
on the power of evil spirits to produce miraculous effects, extracts 
this with other passages. 



470 ARTICLE XXV. 



Greeks a Presbyter may make the Chrism for the 
sick, if need be ; according to the Romans, it is not 
allowed, save to the Bishop only *." Ecgbert, Abp. of 
York, A.D. 732, in his extract de jure sacerdotali, has 
the rule, "That according to the enactment of the 
holy fathers, if any is sick, he be diligently anointed 
with sanctified oil together with prayers u ." Among the 
canons enacted under King Edgar, it is enjoined, that 
" every Priest give unction to the sick, if they desire 
it" and "have both baptismal oil and unction for 
the sick x ," and an enactment occurs, as to his re 
port of himself, " when he fetches Chrism," i.e. from 
the Episcopal city. The unction of the sick " if the 
sick layman desire it," is enjoined in the canons of 
.ZElfricy; and a separate portion of the consecrated 
Chrism is directed to be kept for that use z . It ap 
pears from the ritual, alike of the Western a and 

* Cap. Theod. in Thorpe, Ang.-Sax. Laws, ii. 63. 
u Excerpt. Ecgb., n. 21. Ibid., ii. 100. 

* Can. 65, 66, 67. Ibid., ii. 259. 7 Can. 47. Ibid., 385. 

* JElfr., Ep., Ibid., 391. 

a " O Lord God, Who hast said by Thy Apostle James, Is any sick 
among you ? let him call the presbyters of the Church, and let them 
pray over him in the Name of the Lord; and the prayer of faith shall 
save the sick, and the Lord shall a leviate him ; and if he be in sins, 
they shall be remitted to him ; Cure, we beseech Thee, our Redeemer, 
by the grace of the Holy Spirit, the languors of this sick person, and 
heal his wounds, and forgive his sins, and expel from him all dolours of 
mind and body, and mercifully restore full health within and without, 
that, restored by the hrlp of Thy mercy, he may be repaired for his 
former duties; who," &c. " Ho y Lord, Almighty Father, Everlasting 
God, Who, pouring the grace of Thy ble-sing into sick bodies, with 
manifold love guard* st Thy creature, be present, of Thy goodness, at the 



OF THE SACRAMENTS. 471 

Eastern b Church, that restoration to bodily health 
was, and is still, according to the belief of the Church, 
a primary object of the anointing. Mabillon c traces 
the change to the popular superstition about the be 
ginning of the thirteenth century. 

" Of old," he says, " it was used before the via 
ticum," [and probably some time before, whence it 
would follow, that, since it was used once only in the 
same illness, it would not be used at the last] . Hence 
he explains the fact, that there is no mention of unc 
tion in the life of St. Gertrude (died A.D. 678), of St. 
Eustasius (died about A.D. 625), of St. Bicharius (died 
about 645), although there is mention of their receiving 
the viaticum. The anointing with the holy oil before 
the viaticum is mentioned in Sugerius life of Louis 
VI., as to his Queen St. Chrotildis, and in the contem 
porary but anonymous life of St. Hernigundis (died 
about A.D. 660). 

Mabillon says, moreover, that it came to be called 
" extreme unction" [probably, originally, the last of the 

Invocation of Thy Name, and, freeing Thy servant from sickness and 
granting him health, raise him up with Thy right hand, strengthen 
him with might, protect him with power, and, with the longed-for 
prosperity, restore him to Thy Holy Church, through/ &c. Rituale 
Rom. Paul V. jussu, edit. Antw. 1669. 

b " Holy Father, healer of souls and bodies, Who didsfc send Thine 
Only-Begotten Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, healing every disease and 
redeeming from death, heal this Thy servant also of the sickness of 
soul and body which encompasses him, and quicken him through the 
grace of Thy Christ; for Thou art the Fountain of healings, O Christ 
our God, and to Thee we send up the glory, to the Father, and the Son, 
and the Holy Spirit." Euchologion, p. 417. Paris, 1647. 

e Prof, ad torn. i. Actt. S. Ordinis Benedict. 



472 ARTICLE XXV. 



unctions used in the rites of the Church during the 
Christian s life], " not before the close of the 12th cen 
tury." For that "the name extreme unction does not 
occur in the Sacramentaries published by Menard ; nor 
in Uldaric, in the Consuetudines Cluniacemes ; nor in 
Lanfranc, Anselm, Peter Damiani, Peter de Honestis, 
in the regula Clericorum ; nor in St. Bernard or P. 
Lombard." Yet that " it was called extreme unction/ 
before it was placed after the viaticum, as appears from 
the contemporary life of William, Abp. of Bourges, 
died A.D. 1209, in Bollandus, Jan. 10." " This custom," 
he says, " continues intact till now only among the 
Cistercian monks, and perhaps certain Churches." 

The first appearance of the superstition cited by 
Mabillon, occurs in Constitutions of Richard, Bishop of 
Salisbury, about A.D. 1227 : " Let the Priest, more 
over, say and announce confidently, that after the use 
of this Sacrament, it is lawful to return to the use of 
Marriage." 

It occurs, however, two centuries before in .^Elfric s 
Pastoral Epistle, from which it appears, that some, as 
a religious act, vowed, in case of recovery, to abstain 
from the use of marriage ; others, who had not vowed, 
held themselves to be so bound, looking upon it as 
a sort of ordination. .ZElfric had to say that those who 
had not vowed were free in these things, and that 
unction might be repeated, if any should again fall 
sick d . From the Canons of JElf ric, it appears that 

d "If the sick layman desires to receive unction, let him then con 
fess him and forgive every grudge before the unction; and if he 
recovers and after the unction become sick, he may, unless he have 



OF THE SACRAMENTS. 473 

some so dreaded the anointing, that they would not 
consent to receive it. Confession of sin to the Priest 
was required before the unction could be used e . The 
superstition was condemned by the sixth statute of the 
Synod of Exeter, A.D. 1287. There it was found neces 
sary to enjoin, that it should be publicly declared 
through the parochial presbyters f , that that Sacra 
ment, as also some others, may be repeated as often as 
there is need. And thus, because some unskilled laity, 
thinking unwisely concerning this Sacrament, so ab 
hor it, and refuse to receive it even in extremis, fool 
ishly thinking that after its reception, the eating of 
flesh, walking barefoot, and even tokens of love from 
one s lawful wife, are entirely forbidden g ; the Synod 
speaks of it as a heresy. This enactment is itself 
repeated almost verbatim in the Synodal Constitutions 

vowed the contrary, enjoy the society of women, and flesh, if he himself 
will. In the unction there is healing and forgiveness of sins, and it is 
no ordination as some men imagine. And if the man be again sick, let 
him again receive unction, when it be needful." (^Elfric. Past. Ep., 
n. 47, 48. Thorpe, ii. 385.) 

e " The priest shall have allowed oil apart for children, and apart for 
sick men, and always anoint the sick in bed. Some sick men are 
fearful, so that they will not consent to be anointed in their illness. 
Now we will tell you how James, the Apostle of God, taught hereon : 
If any among you be sick, let him pray with one mind and praise his 
Lord ! If any one among you be sick, let him order to be fetched to 
him the mass-priests of the Church, and let them sing over him, and 
pray for him/ &c. Thus spake James the Apostle concerning the 
unction for sick men ; but the sick must confess with inward groan 
ing to the priest, whether he has any crimes unatoned for, before he 
anoints him, as the Apostle lias before enjoined; and no man may 
anoint him before he pray for this, and do his confession." 

f Wilkins, Cone , ii. 295. 

e Ibid., torn. ii. p. 135 ; sec Statuta Scotice, torn. ii. 278. 



474 A11T1CLE XXV. 



of H. Wodlake, Bishop of Winchester, about A.D. 130S h . 
But the popular dread of the Sacrament prevailed ; 
and Mabillon thinks it probable, that " on account 
of such phrenzies, the anointing of the sick began to 
be reserved for the point of death, and that that cus 
tom was gradually extended to all Churches." 

But abusus non tollit usum. The Church of England 
acted more in conformity to its declared adherence to 
antiquity, by appointing, in the first instance, a service 
for the anointing of the sick in her first English 
Prayer-book. This was among the losses in those 
unhappy times just before the accession of Mary, and 
although everything of that earlier liturgy was praised 
by those who removed it, it has never been restored. 
Since, however, the Visitation of the Sick is a private 
office, and uniformity is required only in the public 
offices, there is nothing to hinder the revival of the 
Apostolic and Scriptural custom of anointing the sick, 
whensoever any devout person may desire it. It is, 
indeed, difficult to say on what principle it could be 
refused. The rite was restored by the nonjuring 
Bishops. Meanwhile, until it can be generally re 
stored, it may be observed, that it was never considered 
necessary to salvation, as is formally laid down by 
St. Thomas *. It was rather a privilege of the devout. 

h And in the Statuta Ecclesice Scoticancc, No. 62 (Robertson, Sta 
tute!,, vol. ii. p. 34), and No. 119 (Rob., ii. 58), where we find the 
remarkable expression, "Proponat autem sacerdos nihil infirm o quod 
ante a3gritudmera fuerat licitum post convalentiaoa per extremam uncti- 
onem reddi illicitum." i iv. dist. 23, q. i. art. I, Jin. 



ARTICLE XXVI 

DE vi INSTITUTIONUM DIVINARUM, QUOD EAM NON 

TOLLAT MALITIA MlNISTRORUM. 

QUAMVIS in Ecclesia visibili bonis mali semper sunt ad- 
mixti, atque interdum ministerio verbi et Sacramentorum 
administrationi prcesint, tamen cum non suo, sed Christi 
nomine agant, ejusque mandato et authoritate ministrent, 
ittorum ministerio uti licet, cum in verbo Dei audiendo, 
turn in Sacramentis percipiendis. Neqiie per ittorum 
malitiam, effectus institutorum Christi tollitur, aut gra 
tia donorum Dei minuitur, quoad eos qui fide et rite 
sibi oblata percipiunt, qua propter institutionem Christi 
et promissionem efficacia sunt, licet per malos adminis- 
trentur. 

Ad Ecclesice tamen disciplinampertinet, ut in malos minis- 
tros inquiratur, accusenturque ab his, qui eorum flagitia 
noverint, atque tandem justo convicti judicio, deponantur. 



" Of the Tfmcorthiness of the Ministers, which hinders not 
the effect of the Sacraments. 

" ALTHOUGH in the visible Church the evil be ever 
mingled with the good, and sometimes the evil have 
chief authority in the ministration of the Word and 
Sacraments ; yet, forasmuch as they do not the same 
in their own name, but in Christ s, and do minister 
by His commission and authority, we may use their 
ministry, both in hearing the Word of God, and in 
the receiving of the Sacraments. Neither is the effect 
of Christ s ordinance taken away by their wickedness, 
nor the grace of God s gifts diminished from such 



476 ARTICLE XXVI. 



as by faith, and rightly do receive the Sacraments 
ministered unto them, which be effectual, because of 
Christ s institution and promise, although they be 
ministered by evil men. 

"Nevertheless, it appertaineth to the discipline of 
the Church, that inquiry be made of evil ministers 
and that they be accused by those that have know 
ledge of their offences; and finally, being found guilty 
by just judgment, be deposed." 



SOME special prerogatives and responsibilities of the 
Christian ministry have with more or less logical con 
sistency been acknowledged by every sect and Church. 
Even those who have taught that the ministerial power 
is a mere delegation of power from the congregation, 
have yet recognised a certain authority, and demanded 
a certain morality as a consequence thereof. What is 
venial in the ordinary member is not so in the case 
of the minister. A higher standard is demanded of 
those whose position is that of the chosen and selected 
teachers of the congregation. 

But if this be so in the case of those sects who claim 
no sacramental authority for their ministers, how much 
more is it so with those who recognise the divine 
hierarchy ; who hold that the Christian priesthood 
is a delegation from the priesthood of Jesus Christ, 
according to the words, " As My Father sent Me, so 
send I you;" who recognise in the sacerdotal power 
a transmission from above, not a representation from 
beneath, according to the words, " Obey them that are 



OF THE UNWORTH1NESS OF THE MINISTERS, &C. 477 

set over you in the Lord," and who regard the sacred 
office as the medium of certain mysterious blessings, 
the holders of that office being " stewards of the mys 
teries of God." 

Where this belief prevails, not only is a higher stand 
ard demanded of the officers of religion, but anything 
like sin or immorality is regarded with the greatest 
abhorrence. That any so invested with the gifts of 
ordination should partake in the vices or worldlinesses 
of those around them, is offensive in the highest degree 
to Christian instincts. A specially holy life is the cor 
relative of specially holy gifts, and therefore, like the 
hedge of the law" among the Jews, certain amusements 
and occupations, not in themselves wrong, are pro 
scribed by the spiritual sense of the Church, and termed 
unclerical, meaning thereby that they are unworthy of 
the thoughts of the clerus, or Lord s heritage. 

Moreover the measure of proportion indicated in the 
old law, where it is said, " as with the priest so with the 
people," is observable under the new law. The vices 
and virtues of the clergy will form a pretty accurate 
gauge of the religious condition of a Church, and while 
every reformation and revival has been attended or 
preceded by increasing strictness on the part of the 
clergy, (as in the great Cistercian movement in the 
twelfth century,) all periods of religious decay have 
been caused or accompanied by a corresponding degra 
dation of the character of the clergy. The state of 
things indicated by the manners pourtrayed in Chau 
cer s " Canterbury Tales," is sufficient proof of this. 



478 ARTICLE XXVI. 



Or take the scornful picture given by Dante a : 

" Yenne Cephas : e venne el gran vasello 
De lo Spirito Santo magri e scalzi 
Prendendo 1 cibo di qualunque hostello 

Or voglion quinci e quindi chi rincalzi 
Le moderni Pastori, e che li meiii 
Tanto son gravi : e chi dirietro gli alzi. 

Cuopron de manti loro i palafreni, 
Si che due bestie van sott una pelle : 
Patienza che tanto sostieni." 

But while the sensitiveness of the conscience of the 
Church touching the virtues of the clergy must be re 
cognised and admired, the student of history cannot 
fail to notice from the earliest period a tendency to 
forget the institution in the individual, and to ignore 
the organic commission in the qualities of the person 
commissioned. Nothing but a well-grounded faith 
in the hierarchical structure of the Church will pre 
vent men falling into this extreme, and as a matter 
of fact, from very ancient times there have been sects 
who made the validity of the Sacraments depend on 
the worthiness of him who administered them, and it 
is against these that the Article is directed. 

Now the very nature of a Sacrament implies that it 
not only signifies grace given, but actually bestows it, 
in virtue of the institution of Christ. The Thomists 
held that the Sacraments worked as physical causes, the 
Scotists as moral causes of grace, but both maintained 
that they operated not per accidcns but per se ; that is, 

a Paradise, xxi. 119. 



OF THE UNWORTHINESS OF THE MINISTERS, &C. 479 

in conformity with their divine purpose and by the 
virtue attached to them by our Lord, they always ob 
tain their end, and confer their peculiar grace in all 
cases universally, where man imposes no obstacle. But 
a further question arose : could that obstacle be found 
in the moral state of the administrator ? It was granted 
that certain moral conditions in the case of the reci 
pient could mar the effect of the Sacrament, but what 
about him who ministered it ? The Church has always 
held that his unworthiness could put no obstacle to 
grace, nor foul the source whence flowed the streams of 
Christ s benediction. " He who receiveth is not injured, 
even if he who bestows should seem unworthy ; nor are 
the unspotted mysteries denied, should the priest ex 
ceed all men in wickedness, (TrapekdcreLev*)" St. Au 
gustine points out that if this were not so, man would 
lose all his motives for confidence in God, and God 
would cease to be his only hope c . St. Optatus shews 
that they who baptize are the labourers, not the 
householder ; and that the Sacraments are holy per se ; 
and that it is to shut God out of His gifts to main 
tain otherwise d . 

Yet from an early period this truth was resisted, 
1. by the Novatians, who rejected the Baptism of 
the Church 6 , ascribing, an ancient writer says f , the 

b S. Isid., 1. iii. Ep. cccxl. : see also Greg. Naz., Orat. 40; Chrys., in 
Matth. Horn. 1. n. 3. c Cont. Lit. PetiL, i. 4. n. 5, and 

i. 3. n. 4 ; 6. n. 7. d De Schism. Don., v. 4. 

e St. Cypr., Up. Ixxiii. n. 2. p. 243, Oxf. Tr. 

f Quaistt. V. et N. T.y ap. q. 102, in St. Aug., Opp. t. iii. App., 
p. 98, Ben. 



480 ARTICLE XXVI. 



efficacy of the Sacraments to the character of him 
who administered them ; 2. by the Donatists, who, re 
garding the piety of the administrator as the condition 
of the efficacy of the Sacraments, refused to recognise 
the ordination of Csecilian by Felix of Aphthonga, 
whom the Donatists accused falsely of having been 
a traditor, that is, having in the persecution deli 
vered up the sacred vessels and books, under threat 
of death *. 

At the great revival of mental thought in the 
middle ages, this notion, probably caused by the ex 
ceeding corruption in the lives of the ecclesiastics, was 
again and again produced. Arnold of Brescia, and 
his adherents, taught it. The Vaudois maintained 
that priests in mortal sin could not consecrate the 
Eucharist, and that the transubstantiation took place 
not in the hand of the unworthy celebrator, but in the 
mouth of the worthy communicant ; that a bad priest 
could not absolve ; that it was better to confess to a pious 
laic than to a wicked clergyman. Wicliffe, and Huss, 
though he is not always consistent, pretended that 
a priest in mortal sin is thereby degraded from his 
priesthood, and from his power to operate Sacra 
ments. It will be seen that as the inward state of 
the clergy is known to God alone, the validity of 



It appeared subsequently, from the curious Acts of the Synod of 
Cirta (in St. Aug. c. Crescon., iii. 27, 28), that those who originated the 
Donatist schism by consecrating Majorian in the place of Caecilian, had 
themselves been " traditores," and had at that S^nod accorded each 
other a mutual amnesty. 



OF THE UNWORTHINESS OF THE MINISTERS, &C. 481 

their acts on this theory becomes radically doubtful 
and uncertain h . 

This led on to another error at the time of the Re 
formation. The efficacy of the Sacraments was held 
no longer to depend on the interior disposition of the 
minister. Not the beneficial effect only, but the reality 
also of the Sacrament was held to depend on the in 
terior disposition, the faith of him to whom the Sacra 
ment was administered *. 

Our Article condemns both these notions. It lays 
down that the Sacraments have an objective value in 
virtue of their institution. Sacraments " be effectual 
because of Christ s institution and promise ;" there 
fore they do not depend on the state of the recipients. 
It also lays down that the clergy, who have chief 
authority in the ministration of Word and Sacra 
ments, do not minister in their own name, but in 
Christ s; therefore neither do they depend on the 
state of the celebrant. The Article, however, thinks 
it right to bring prominently forward the necessity 
of men being in a fit state for the beneficial par 
taking of these ordinances, and therefore dwells on 
the fact that the grace of God s gifts in the case of 
wicked clergy is not diminished from such as " by 
faith and rightly" receive them. 

h Vide Gerson, Responsio ad Error, de or at. privat. fidelium, torn. ii. 
p. 654 ; Du Pin, D Argentie, Collect. Judiciorum de nov. err., torn. i. 
p. 2 ; p. 168. 

1 Luther, Capt. Bab., torn. ii. ed. Gen. p. 286 ; Con/. Aug. xiii. Apol. 
art. iii. n. 155. 

T i 



482 ARTICLE XXVI. 



" Nevertheless, it appertained to the discipline of the 
Church that inquiry be made of evil ministers." That 
the vices of the clergy helped to produce the Reforma 
tion is a fact allowed on all hands. In the Provincial 
Council held in 1549 at Edinburgh, it is declared 
"that the two main roots and causes of the evils 
which have occasioned the disturbances, and the here 
sies which the Synod met to check, are the corruption 
of manners and profane indecency of life of the clergy 
on the one hand, and the gross ignorance of good let 
ters and all arts on the other k ." The same convention 
exhorts the prelates and beneficed clergy in the bowels 
of Jesus Christ and for zeal of piety, in order to meet 
heresy, to amend their ways, " lest they should pro 
ceed to correct the morals of others, themselves en 
tangled in notorious crimes, to the great scandal of 
the people, and increase of heresy 1 ." The pictures 
of the habits of the clergy given by these canons is 
terrible. To forbid the unblest offspring of unhallowed 
alliances to remain in the parsonages, to condemn im 
plication in secular business, to repress sumptuousness 
of apparel, to enforce some sustentation for poor people 
out of their benefices, to order decency in their fami 
lies, which families were most ill-ordered, to enforce 
preaching at least four times a-year, to regulate the 
schools and the quality of those ordained and presented 
to benefices, to repress pluralities, were among some 
of the efforts made to turn the tide of the Reforma 
tion in Scotland ; but it was too late. The very effort 

k Cone. Prov. Eccl. Scot., ii. p. 81, ed. Robertson. l Ibid., p. 118. 



OF THE TJNWORTHTNESS OF THE MINISTERS, &C. 483 

to restore discipline drove over some of the younger 
abbots and beneficiaries to the cause of the Reformed 
to escape Reformation. Perhaps sin and fear had 
paralysed the energies of those who made the laws. 
Of the six bishops present at the Synod of 1549, three 
at least were stained with the worst crimes condemned ; 
the salt had lost its savour, and the violence of the 
subsequent changes becomes the measure of the cor 
ruption which occasioned them. 

In England it was not so bad, though even here 
there was much to amend. The succession of earnest 
prelates never wholly died out, even to the last. Wit 
ness the praise of Warham by Erasmus, and Fuller s 
less generous testimony to the eminent merits of Eisher. 

That a false opinion, that had created the great 
schism of the Donatists in Africa, should be con 
demned, is not surprising. No body such as the Eng 
lish Church could continue to maintain an organic 
existence, if the efficacy of its sacramental rites de 
pended upon the inward condition of its ministers. 
But the condemnation is remarkable when we remem 
ber that the opinion here censured was the centrs-point 
of the reforming theories both of Wicliff and of Huss. 
According to these, the wicked or unworthy priest was 
no priest. An immoral Pope was no true successor of 
Peter, or Vicar of Jesus Christ. The great popularity 
of the name of Wicliff, as the great forerunner of the 
English Reformation, has blinded men to the real cha 
racter of the communistic and anti-social theories in 
State craft which he advocated ; and it is a remark- 



484 ARTICLE XXVT. 



able thing that one of the Articles of the Reformed 
Church of England should in such trenchant terms 
deny his theory of the priesthood. The solution of 
the difficulty seems to be that although Wicliff had 
told profoundly on the conscience of England, (we 
find this in the conduct of Robert Hallain, Bishop 
of Salisbury, at the Council of Constance, who not 
only inveighed against the vices of Pope John XXIII., 
but objected to the burning of Huss,) nevertheless 
as a party the Lollards were never popular in Eng 
land, (Shakspeare is said to have called Falstaff, Sir 
John Oldcastle, in his first draft of Henry IV.,) and 
therefore it is doubtful whether these earlier Re 
formers are the true fathers of the later ones. Pro 
bably, so far as the destructive side was concerned, 
the earlier denunciations of the scandals did much to 
break down the faith of the people in the old objects 
of reverence, either persons or things, but they did 
not go to construct anything of the late Reformation. 
On the contrary, the distinctive tenets were, as in the 
case of the present Article, condemned by the Church, 
and the notions found a more congenial home in. some 
of the wild sectaries who gave so much trouble in the 
later days of Elizabeth s reign. 



ARTICLE XXVII. 
DE BAPTTSMO. 

BAPTISMUS non est tantum professions signum, ac dis- 
criminis nota, qua Christiani a non Christianis discer- 
nantur, scd etiam est signum regenerations, per quod 
tanquam per instrumentum, recte baptismum suscipientes 
Ecclesice msenmtur, promissiones de remissione pecca- 
torum, atque adoptione nostra in filios Dei per Spiritum 
Sanctum visibiliter obsignantur, fides confirmatur, et m 
divines invocations gratia augetur. 

Baptismus parvulorum omnino in Ecclesia retinendus est, 
ut qui cum Christi institutione optime congruat. 



" Of Baptism. 

" BAPTISM is not only a sign of profession, and mark 
of difference, whereby Christian men are discerned 
from others that be not christened ; but it is also 
a sign of regeneration or new birth, whereby, as by 
an instrument, they that receive baptism rightly are 
grafted into the Church ; the promises of forgiveness 
of sin, and of our adoption to be the sons of God by 
the Holy Ghost, are visibly signed and sealed; faith 
is confirmed, and grace increased by virtue of prayer 
unto God. The baptism of young children is in any 
wise to be retained in the Church, as most agreeable 
with the institution of Christ." 



48G ARTICLE XXVII. 



To be severed from the mass of mankind, to be dis 
tinguished as the little flock to whom it has pleased 
the Father to give the kingdom, is no small privilege, 
yet this is the first and lowest conception of the Sacra 
ment of Baptism. It is a mark of difference " whereby 
Christian men are discerned from others that be not 
christened" (Lat. a non Christianis). But it is something 
infinitely higher than this, and the gifts therein be 
stowed are classed by the Article under the following 
four heads. 

First, " it is a sign of regeneration or new birth, 
whereby, as by an instrument, they that receive Bap 
tism rightly are grafted into the Church." 

Here observe, first of all, that the word " sign" is 
the technical word for the outward part of any Sacra 
ment, and therefore, it means that the aspersion of the 
neophyte with water, or his immersion therein, ac 
companied by a definite form of words, is the outward 
act which conveys regeneration or new birth ; such Sa 
crament acting instrumentally (per instrumentum), that 
is, as the instrument ordained by Almighty God, the 
result of which is, by a strict law of cause and effect, 
that the person receiving Baptism rightly is grafted 
into the Church. Of this engrafting St. Chrysostom 
says a : "Blessed be God, Who alone with wonders 
made all things, and changeth all. Behold they en 
joy the calm of freedom who a little before were held 
captives; they are denizens of the Church who were 

Orat. ad neopJiytos apud Augustinum contra Julianum, lib. i. 
paragraph 21. 



OF BAPTISM. 487 



wandering in error ; and they have the lot of righteous 
ness who were in the confusion of sin. For they are 
not only free, but holy ; not holy only, but righteous ; 
not righteous only, but sons ; not sons only, but heirs ; 
not heirs only, but brethren of Christ ; not brethren 
of Christ only, but co- heirs ; not co-heirs only, but 
members ; not members only, but a temple ; not a 
temple only, but instruments of the Spirit. See how 
many are the free gifts of Baptism : and whereas some 
think that the heavenly grace consists only in the 
remission of sin, lo ! we have accounted ten glories 
thereof. Wherefore we baptize infants, although they 
have no sins, that holiness, righteousness, adoption, in 
heritance, brotherhood with Christ, may be added to 
them ; that they may become His members." 

Secondly, " The promises of forgiveness of sin, and 
of our adoption to be the sons of God by the Holy 
Ghost, are visibly signed and sealed," (visibiliter obsig- 
nantur). Again, says St. Chrysostom : "The being 
sealed is a mark of great Providence ; that we are not 
set apart only, not taken by lot only, but sealed. For 
as one would make manifest those who fell to him, so 
also God set us apart that we should believe, He has 
sealed us that we should inherit the things to come. 
Again, through the things that are passed, He esta- 
blisheth those to come. For if it is He Who establisheth 
us to Christ, (that is, Who suffereth us not to be broken 
from the faith toward Christ) ; and He also Who 
anointed us, and gave the Spirit in our hearts, how 
shall He not give us the things to come ? For, if He 



488 ARTICLE XXVII. 



gave the beginnings, and the foundations, and the 
root, and the fountain, that is, the true knowledge 
of Himself, the participation of the Spirit, how shall 
He not give the result thereof?" 

The Liturgies of the East and West agree in calling 
Baptism a seal, an impress, a guardian mark to those 
baptized. The baptized themselves are, in the language 
of the Hevelations, called " the sealed ;" and while they 
use the word " seal" chiefly of the great sacramental 
act of Baptism itself, they regard that great mystery 
as casting a portion of its radiance before and behind, 
and giving efficacy to other acts connected with it. 
The Church regards our Lord as favourably allowing 
the charitable work of bringing new members to Him, 
and so believing that He anticipated a portion of His 
grace to preserve them during the interval until they 
are fully prepared for Baptism, they ventured to affix 
His seal on catechumens ; or, after Baptism, they again 
visibly and formally affixed it, thereby representing to 
the mind what has first been worked invisibly by the 
Holy Spirit. As this was done in the form of the 
Saviour s cross, and the term "seal" applied to that 
act of impressing the cross, it is probable that the 
word "sealing" was connected with a corresponding 
outward act, such as the sealing of the forehead ac 
tually spoken of by St. John ; so that, we may infer 
that the use of the cross in Baptism was coeval with 
Christian Baptism itself, which imparts to us the saving 
virtue of the Passion of Christ b . 

b of. Dr. Pusey s Tract on Baptism, p. 140. 



OF BAPTISM. 489 



Thirdly, " Faith is confirmed." In the ancient rituals, 
at the beginning of the service, the god-parents were 
asked in the name of the child to be baptized, " "What 
seekest thou of the Church ?" and the answer is, 
"Faith." This teaches us that, whereas God s first or 
prevenient grace brings men to Faith and Baptism, 
and a certain pre-disposition of faith along with re 
pentance is bestowed in that holy ordinance, yet, as 
a consequence of our incorporation in Christ, fuller 
measures of assisting grace are bestowed upon the 
recipient, and that faith, which in its inchoate state 
obtained the grace of Baptism, is by that same Bap 
tism increased and confirmed according to the blessed 
promise of God, " Open thy mouth wide, and I will 
fill it." 

Fourthly, " Grace is increased by virtue of the invo 
cation of the divine name" (m divince invocations), for 
thus the Latin version of the Article teaches us to 
understand what in this connection would be unin 
telligible, viz. the expression in the English Article, that 
" grace is increased by virtue of prayer to God." This 
in its literal sense would be a truism, but, rightly in 
terpreted, it asserts the great religious truth that Bap 
tism not only confers but increases grace, bestows more 
abundantly the help and assistance of God according 
to the enlarged capacities of the new man in Christ, 
makes the soul more and more radiant and beautiful 
in the eyes of God. 

The question of infant Baptism, while not without 
its authority, according to the terms of the Article, in 



490 ARTICLE XXVIT. 



the inspired Word of God, rests mainly upon that of 
the Church. Perhaps nothing tends to exhibit in so 
striking a manner the objective nature of the Sacra 
ments of the new law, than the practice of conferring 
them upon those who are incapable of reason, in the 
belief that from such a ceremony any possible good 
result shall follow. This difficulty has not only per- 
plexed many good Christians, but forms the ground 
of defence of the advocates of adult baptism. 

The doctrine can in no way be explained away, or 
its edge blunted. True, that beyond certain indica 
tions of the existence of baptismal grace and growth 
herein exhibited in the lives of some favoured ser 
vants of God, we have ordinarily no direct evidence of 
the new principle of spiritual life therein imparted. 
But faith needs not external tokens of what God has 
promised. We have nothing to do but to submit 
our reason to what the Church has taught us, firmly 
convinced that since our Blessed Lord suffered the little 
children to come unto Him, and since St. Paul pro 
nounced the children of his converts to be holy, we 
may be sure that the bounty and goodness of God 
works invisibly in His elect, anticipates by grace the 
first risings of the lower motions of our nature, deter 
mines the soul to good from earliest days, tends it 
from youth up with fostering hand, arms it in the 
beginning for the battle of life, and prevents it in all 
its doings with His most gracious favour. 

The Article expresses itself distinctly but cautiously 
on the subject of infant Baptism. It asserts that " it 



OF BAPTISM. 491 



is in any wise to be retained," and grounds that re 
tention on the dogmatic fact, that it is most congruous 
with the institution of Christ, (cum institutione Christi 
optime congruat,) i.e. just what we should expect from 
that law of benediction, supernatural power, and un 
merited grace, which the Gospel emphatically exhibits. 

And this very much represents what Holy Scripture 
indicates on the subject. While there is no direct 
command for the practice, all analogies and all in 
ferences are in its favour. The practice of infant 
circumcision, and of the infant baptism of proselytes 
among the Jews; the universality of the injunction 
"to teach all the nations, baptizing them ;" the ab 
soluteness of what our Lord said to Nicodemus d , 
coupled with the " Suffer the little children to come 
unto Me 6 ;" the assertion that the children of Chris 
tians are " holy f ," which implies a cleansing from 
original sin ; the practice of the Baptism of house 
holds g , all are in favour of the practice, which actually 
from St. Justin 11 , Tertullian*, Origen k , and others, we 
find to have obtained, although in later times the 
practice of deferring Baptism became common, out 
of fear of forfeiting the fulness of its gift by grave 
subsequent sin l . 

The reader will remember what has been said under 
Article XYI. as to the effect of the Sacrament of Bap- 

c St. Matt, xxviii. 19. d St. John iii. 5. e St. Mark x. 14. 

f 1 Cor. vii. 14. * Acts xvi. 15, 33 ; 1 Cor. i. 16. 

h Apol., i. 15, p. 11, Oxf. Tr. i De Bapt. t c. 18. 

k In Luc., Horn. xiv. l See St. Aug. Conf., i. n. 17, 18, 
pp. 10, 11, Oxf. Tr. 



492 AIITICLE XXVII. 



tism on sin m . It is in amplification of what was there 
stated that we assert the general effects of Baptism to 
be as follows : 

I. According to the words of Ezekiel n : " Then will 
I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be 
clean : from all your filthiness, and from all your idols 
will I cleanse you;" and those of the Apostle: " So 
many of us as have been baptized into Jesus Christ 
were baptized into His death ? Therefore we are 
buried with Him by Baptism into death : that like as 
Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of 
the Father, even so we also should walk in newness 
of life. For if we have been planted together in the 
likeness of His death, we shall be also in the likeness 
of His resurrection : knowing this, that our old man 
is crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be 
destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. 
For he that is dead is freed from sin. ISTow if we 
be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live 
with Him : knowing that Christ being raised from 
the dead dieth no more ; death hath no more domi 
nion over Him. For in that He died, He died unto 
sin once : but in that He liveth, He liveth unto God. 
Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed 
unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our 
Lord " since all sin pertains to the oldness of life 
to which a man by his Baptism dies, and he thereby 
begins to live in newness of life, it follows that all sin 
is taken away by Baptism. 

m p. 235. n ch. xxxvi. 28. Rom. vi. 311. 



OF BAPTISM. 493 



II. As by Baptism a man is incorporated into the 
Death and Passion of Christ, (for if " we be dead with 
Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him p / ) 
so the Passion of Christ becomes the remedy of each 
man just as if he had suffered in deed ; but the Passion 
of Christ is a sufficient satisfaction for all the sins of 
mankind, and therefore he who is baptized is freed 
from the reatus, the liability to all the punishment due 
to his sins, as if he had fully satisfied for them. This 
happens by his being made a member of that Body, of 
which He Who suffered and satisfied is the Head. 

III. Baptism takes away the penalties of this pre 
sent life, but not in this present life ; only in the re 
surrection of the just, when this mortal shall have 
put on immortality, shall these be removed. And this 
is as it should be, for two reasons. 

1. It is meet that the incorporate members of the 
one Body should, like the Head, suffer and die, bear 
the cross, and win the crown. 

2. Men must not come to Baptism to avoid the 
sufferings of this present life, but to gain the glories 
of the next. 

IY. By Baptism graces and virtues are conferred 
upon men; for, being thereby incorporated into and 
made members of that Body, of which Christ is the 
Head, from that Head graces and the plenitude of 
virtues are derived unto all. " Of His fulness have 
all we received q ." 

V. By Baptism each one is born again into the spi- 
P Rom. vi. 8. i St. John i. 16. 



494 



ARTICLE XXVII. 



ritual life, which is by the faith of Christ, according 
to the Apostle, "The life which I now live in the 
flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God r ." But 
life can only exist in members united to their head, 
from which they receive sense and motion ; so from 
the spiritual Head, Christ, are derived the spiritual 
sense, which is the knowledge of truth ; and the spiri 
tual motion, which is the instinct of grace. 

VI. This of course opens up the question of the 
theological reasons for infant Baptism, for how can 
the knowledge of the truth and the instinct of grace 
be in those who have no will or reason ? To this 
it is answered, that as the promises attached to Bap 
tism by Christianity belong to all the members of 
Christ, they attach to children with all their con 
comitants ; but grace and the infused virtues are 
the concomitants of that newness of life which is the 
special grace of Baptism, therefore children obtain 
them, in habit but not in act; of which, of course, 
they are incapable ; just as one asleep may have the 
habit of virtue, but while sleeping he is precluded 
from exercising it. St. Augustine s beautifully illus 
trates the theory of sponsorship : " Mother Church, 
in dealing with her babes, uses for them others feet 
that they may come, others hearts that they may be 
lieve, others tongues that they may confess." So that 
they believe, not by their own act, but by the faith of 
the Church communicated to them. 

r Gal. ii. 20. s Serm. x., de Verb. Ap., 176, t. v. 840, Ben. 



OF BAPTISM. 495 



VII. The next grace of Baptism is the opening 
of the Kingdom of Heaven, which was signified mi 
raculously * at the Baptism of our Saviour. To open 
the door is to remove the impediment which, prevents 
entrance ; but that impediment is the culpa and reatus 
poence, both of which are removed by Baptism, in that 
it incorporates men into the Passion of Christ. 

VIII. The effects of Baptism are, as to its essence, 
the same in all, but not, of necessity, its accidental 
effects. Essentially, it was ordained to regenerate all 
men into the spiritual life ; but accidentally, in the 
case of adults, coming with more or less devotion, they 
may receive more or less of the grace of newness : also 
the divine virtue, in the extinction of the law of sin 
in the members, may in some cases miraculously work, 
to its entire destruction, according to a special ordina 
tion of divine Providence u . 

IX. A serious question arises, how far does a feigned 
Baptism hinder its effect. It is almost too horrible to 
suppose such a thing, but a fiction may arise, either 
from unbelief, or from contempt of the Sacrament, or 
from a celebration of the ordinance in such a way as 
would vitiate the Sacrament, or from an indevout ac 
cess to it. The answer is, that in all cases Character, 
the invisible seal upon the soul, is conferred ; but the 
other effects are for the time suspended, and emerge 
when the fiction is destroyed by penitence x . 

1 St. Luke iii. 22. u St. Aug., de Peccat. Merit, et Remiss. , c. 89. 

* St. Thos. 3 a qu. 69, 110. 

Baptism holds the first place among the Sacraments, because it is 



496 ARTICLE XXVII. 



the gate of the spiritual life ; by it we are made members of Christ, 
and become of the Body of the Church. It was instituted by our Loru 
before His Passion, as we learn from the third chapter of the Gospel 
of St. John. Baptism is divided into Baptism fluminis, flaminis, and 
sanguinis ; yet the first only is the Sacrament, the others, in defect 
thereof, are sufficient for the justification of the sinner. 

Yet beyond these cases, Baptism is necessary to salvation, neces 
sitate medii. 

The matter of Baptism is twofold, proximate and remote. The 
proximate matter is the ablution of the body, which should be such 
that it may be perceived that the water touches the body ; this may 
be, either by immersion of any part of the body into water, or by 
the affusion of water on the body, or by the aspersion of sufficient 
water to wet the body. The remote matter is natural water, either 
cold or hot, or bitter or sweet, or rain or river, or well or spring, or 
bath or sea, or turbid or muddy, or sulphurous. Also melted snow or 
condensed steam are valid. But oil, any bodily excreta, wine, milk, 
juices, are invalid vehicles of the grace. Distilled water and broths are 
doubtful. Where from necessity baptism has been administered in 
doubtful material, it is best to rebaptize conditionaliter. 

The form of Baptism in the Latin and English Church, is, " I bap 
tize thee," &c. In the Greek Church, " Be the servant of God baptized 
in the Name," &c. 

For the essence of the form of Baptism four things are required. 
There must be expressed, 1. The person "Thee;" 2. The action of the 
minister " I baptize ;" 3. The invocation of the adorable Trinity " in the 
name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost;" 4. The 
assertion of the Unity as well as Trinity conveyed by " la the name 
of." The expression " In the power of," would not be valid. 

Baptism in the name of Christ, or in the name of the Lord Jesus, in 
spite of a Canon of Pope Nicholas I. {A quodam Judizo 24 de Consec. 
dist. 4) is generally held to be invalid. The passages in the Acts of the 
Apostles do not mean that this was the primitive form, for that were 
to contradict the direct command of our Lord ; but that the Apostles 
administered the baptism of Christ, not that of John, or of Paul, or of 
Cephas; that it was instituted by Christ, and admitted men into His 
Communion and covenant. St. Cyprian (Ep. Ixxiii.) says : "Peter makes 
mention of the Lord Jesus, not in the way of omitting the Father, but 
that the Son may be joined with the Father." (See also St. Aug., lib. 
iii. cont. Maximin., 17.) The ordinary minister of Baptism is he who 



OF BAPTISM. 497 



lias ordinary jurisdiction. A deacon may baptize, by commission from 
the bishop, in defect of priests. 

In case of necessity any one, having the use of reason, who baptizes 
with water in the name of the Holy Trinity, is accepted, priest, 
deacon, layman, male, female, heretic, or excommunicate. Persons are 
not to be re-baptized who are baptized with the proper form and words 
by heretics, even by Calvinists who deny that Baptism remits sin, 
unless there be a doubt of the sufficiency of the administration. The 
Baptism of adults is properly in the hands of the Bishop, if he wills to 
do it solemnly, otherwise it belongs to the parish priest. 

Priests of another parish baptizing against the will of the incumbent 
are to be severely punished, for usurping jurisdiction contrary to the 
mind of Christ. 

One person ought to be baptized at a time, except in extreme 
necessity. 

A parent ought not to baptize his child, except in case of necessity. 
No one can baptize himself. 

Every man, and man only, while on earth is the subject of Baptism. 
Children, idiots, madmen, monsters, are all subjects of Baptism. It is 
not the custom of the Church to baptize the children of unbelievers 
against the will of both their parents, but if one parent be Christian, 
or if there be the immediate approach of death, or if, arrived at the age 
of reason, they themselves require it, they may be baptized. 

No moral disposition is required in children or idiots, but in adults 
to receive Baptism validly and fructuously are required three things, 
1. The consent of the will ; 2. Faith, at least actual ; 3. Repentance. 

The external confession of sin is not of necessity. (Tract, de Sacr., 
ap. S. Amlr. y 3, 2 ; S. Thos. 3 a . qu. 68, art. 6.) A dying man who has 
lost his senses may be baptized, if one only witness has heard him ex 
press the desire of it. A person coming to Baptism without faith or 
contrition receives the character of Baptism, for it is valid, but in his 
case for the time infructuous. He, may, however, repent aud believe, 
and then the Sacrament is not to be reiterated. 



Kk 



AETICLE XXVIII. 
DE CCENA DOMINI. 

CCENA Domini non est tantum signum mutuce benevolentice 
Christianorum inter sese, vcrum potius est Sacramentum 
nostra per mortem Christi redemptions. 

Atque adeo, rite, digne, et cum fide sumentibuSj panis quern 
frangimus est communicatio corporis Christi: similiter 
poculum benedictionis est communicatio sanguinis Christi. 

Panis et vini transubstantiatio in Eucharistia ex sacris 
Uteris probari non potest ; sed apertis Scriptures verbis 
adversatur, Sacramenti naturam evertit, et mnttarum 
superstitionum dedit occasionem. 

Corpus Christi datur, accipitur, et manducatur in Ccena, 
tantum coelesti et spirituali ratione. Medium autem 
quo corpus Christi accipitur, et manducatur in Cvena, 
fides est. 

Sacramentum Eucharistice, ex institutions Christi non ser- 
rabatur, circumferebatur, elevabatur, nee adorabatur. 



" Of the Lord s Supper. 

" THE Supper of the Lord is not only a sign of the 
love that Christians ought to have among themselves 
one to another; but rather it is a Sacrament of our 
redemption by Christ s death : insomuch that to such 
as rightly, worthily, and with faith receive the same, 
the bread which we break is a partaking of the Body 
of Christ, and likewise the cup of blessing is a par 
taking of the Blood of Christ. 

" Transubstantiation (or the change of the substance 



OF THE LORD S SUPPER. 499 

of bread and wine) in the supper of the Lord, cannot 
be proved by Holy Writ, but is repugnant to the plain 
words of Scripture, overthroweth the nature of a Sacra 
ment, and hath given occasion to many superstitions. 

"The Body of Christ is given, taken, and eaten, 
in the Supper, only after an heavenly and spiritual 
manner. And the mean whereby the Body of Christ 
is received and eaten in the Supper, is faith. 

"The Sacrament of the Lord s Supper was not by 
Christ s ordinance reserved, carried about, lifted up, 
or worshipped." 



1. THE awful and tremendous mystery of the Sacra 
ment of our Lord s most sacred Body and precious 
Blood, the holy of holies of the new law, the Shechinah 
of the Christian dispensation, is the subject of the 
Twenty-eighth Article. It begins by denying the low 
and grovelling conception of Zwingli, who maintained 
that the Supper was no more than a tessera, or sign of 
communion between man and man. Zwingli elimi 
nated all supernatural influence from the act. In the 
plainest sense he taught an entire absence of spiritual 
grace. The Article also denies the doctrine of (Eco- 
lampadius, who saw nothing more in the Eucharist 
than a symbol whereby one is bound to sacrifice for 
one s neighbour, after the example of Jesus Christ, 
one s body and blood, as baptism is a sign by which 
one binds oneself to give up one s life for the faith 
which one professes. The Anabaptists also, seeking 
in their false enthusiasm to establish an abstract mo- 



500 ARTICLE XXVIII. 



rality on the ruins of dogmatic faith, desired only to 
recognise in the Eucharist a symbol of the mutual de 
votion which Christians ought to have for each other. 

2. The first positive statement of the Article is that 
it is "a Sacrament of our redemption by Christ s 
death." This is equivalent to the expression of Theo- 
doret, fjLVGTTjpiov awTi]piov*, or to that used by St. 
Augustine on the occasion of his mother s death b , 
Sacr amentum pretii nostri. 

" Insomuch as to such as rightly, worthily, and with 
faith receive the same, the bread which we break is 
a partaking of the Body of Christ, and likewise the 
cup of blessing is a partaking (in the edition of 1553 
1 a communion 7 ) of the Blood of Christ." This expres 
sion, being the embodiment of Holy Scripture, must 
mean, of course, what God the Holy Ghost meant in 
Holy Scripture, and of that meaning the consent of 
the ancient Church is a better interpreter than any 
of us. The word Koivtovia everywhere in Holy Scrip 
ture means an actual participation or communion of 
that which is spoken of. 

The Scripture word Koivvvia, as applied to the Body 
and Blood of Christ, means not only that we receive 
that Body and Blood, but that we become one Body 
and one Blood with Him, as St. Paul explains in 
1 Cor. x. 17 : " For we, being many, are one Bread." 
On which Theophylact says : "He does not say, yLtero^??, 
but Koivcovia, a more excellent word, as if he would 
imply the closest union. What he says is of the act : 
a In 1 Cor. xi. 23. b Conf., ix. 36. 



501 



It is that which flowed from the side of Christ, and 
receiving of it we commemorate, that is, we are united 
to Christ. Are you not ashamed, Corinthians, to 
return to the cup of idols, after that cup which hath 
delivered you from idols ? " St. Chrysostom also notes 
this difference : " Why said he not participation ? Be 
cause he intended to express something more, and to 
point out how close are the unions ; in that we com 
memorate not only by participating and partaking, 
but also by being united. For as that Body is united 
to Christ, so also are we united to Him by this Bread c ." 
It will be seen, therefore, that the word "partaking" 
in the English translation is no adequate rendering of 
the Latin, which is the Scriptural communicatio. 

This patristic explanation of the word Koiv&vta dis 
poses of the formula whereby Calvin endeavoured to 
steer a middle course between the Lutheran teaching 
on the one hand, and that of Zwingli and (Ecolampa- 
dius on the other. He taught that the Body of Christ 
is truly present in the Lord s Supper, and that the 
believer partakes of it ; but he only meant that simul 
taneously with the bodily participation of the material 
elements, which in every respect remained what they 
were, and merely signified the Body and the Blood, 
a power emanating from the Body of Christ, which 
is now in heaven only, is communicated to the Spirit. 
Framed originally under the pressure of the confusions 
among the Reformed, this middle opinion made its 
way among them, and included many of the Lutherans 

c Horn. xxiv. ; 1 Cor. x. 17. 



502 ARTICLE XXVIII. 



themselves, as its advocates employed, without hesita 
tion, the expression that Christ is really present in the 
Eucharist, and His Body and Blood given to believers 
for participation. In England, in consequence of the 
great authority of Richard Hooker, who, in the gradual 
process of working himself out of Puritanism, had on 
this mysterious doctrine attained to Catholic feeling, 
while he adhered to Calvinistic definition, this view 
has obtained to an extent remarkable in view of its 
intrinsic inanity. It does not satisfy the letter of 
Scripture, which distinctly predicates the affirmative 
proposition, " This is My Body." It contradicts the 
testimony of the primitive Church, as we shall pre 
sently proceed to shew from a long catena of autho 
rities. It has exhibited its unsatisfactoriness in. never 
having been able to maintain an abiding existence, 
either rising into the Catholic doctrine, or, more com 
monly, degenerating into a bare Zwinglianism, and has 
only found favour with those who, unwilling to accept 
the profound mystery of the Holy Eucharist with all 
its consequences, are unable to bring themselves to 
an absolute denial of any presence of Christ, and, 
therefore, in this formula find a sop to the cravings 
of an intellect which dreads to carry to conclusions the 
premisses which in reason only lead to the acceptance 
of the Catholic doctrine. 

The word Koivwvia disposes also of what has been 
termed the theory of virtualism or equivalence 
a theory which proposes to attempt the impossible 
task of reconciling the high and mysterious expres- 



503 



sions of our Lord Himself, His holy Apostles, and the 
primitive Fathers, with such a view of the doctrine 
of the blessed Sacrament as practically amounts to the 
real absence of our Lord therefrom. A virtual Pre 
sence, as it is sometimes incorrectly called, means, when 
we examine it, a bestowal of the grace, efficacy, virtue, 
or influence of the atoning Death of our Lord. It sup 
poses the bread and wine to be equivalents for the 
absent Body and Blood, so that to partake with faith 
of the former is virtually and in effect as though we 
partook of the latter. The very Body and very Blood 
are supposed to be absent. They are not actually 
"given" or "taken." They are neither present by 
consecration nor present in devout reception. Some 
what of this nature was that theory of a school of 
the Nonjurors, which owed its existence to John 
Johnson, the learned author of " The Unbloody Sacri 
fice." It was, that the Body of our Lord, which had 
been conceived by the Holy Ghost, and born of the 
Virgin Mary, had ascended into heaven, there to re 
main till the restitution of all things ; but that in the 
Divine mysteries, on consecration, the Holy Ghost de 
scended upon the gifts of bread and wine, which had 
been offered in sacrifice to God, and joining Himself 
with them, made them the Body and Blood of Christ 
in power and efficacy. 

Moreover, it is not said in the Article that we are 
partakers of Christ, or of a grace from Christ, but the 
Bread which we break, i.e. the Bread which has been 
blessed and consecrated by our Lord s words, " This is 



504 ARTICLE XXVIII. 



My Body/ through the operation of the Holy Ghost, 
is the communion or participation of the Body of 
Christ ; and the Cup of Blessing, i.e. the Cup blessed 
by the words, " This is My Blood/ is the partaking 
of or communication of the Blood of Christ. 

In adducing the following passages from the Fathers, 
I would only premise that I have selected such passages 
as contain the doctrine of the Real Objective Presence, 
I mean that the Body and Blood of Christ are so 
sacramentally present in, or under, the consecrated 
Bread and Wine, that the Fathers either called the 
whole, the outward and the inward part together, or 
even the outward part alone, by the name of the in 
ward part, the Body and Blood of Christ. I have 
passed over all the passages (which are naturally far 
more numerous) in which the Fathers speak of our 
"receiving the Body and Blood of Christ/ "that 
saving Body, Christ Himself;" that we " eat His Body," 
or "drink Blood from His side;" "receive Him and 
lay Him up in ourselves, and place the Saviour in our 
breasts." All passages which speak only of the " re 
ception" I have omitted. 

St. Ignatius d , consecrated Bishop of Antioch by St. 
Peter, says of the Docetse who did not believe in the 
reality of our Lord s Body : " They confess not that 
the Eucharist is the Flesh of our Saviour Jesus Christ, 
which suffered for our sins, which the Father in His 
mercy raised again." 

Justin Martyr, a disciple of Apostles, in giving an 

d Ep. ad Smyrn.y n. 7. 



505 



account of the Christian worship to the Emperor : 
" We do not receive it as common bread, or as common 
drink, but in what way Jesus Christ our Saviour, being 
through the Word of God Incarnate, had both flesh 
and blood for our salvation, so also have we been 
taught that the Food, over which thanksgiving has been 
made by the prayer of the word which is from Him 
(from which [food] our blood and flesh are, by trans 
mutation, nourished), is the Flesh and Blood of Him, 
the Incarnate Jesus. For the Apostles, in their records 
which are called the Gospels, have delivered that Jesus 
so commanded them, that He, having taken bread and 
given thanks, said, Do this in remembrance of Me. 
This is My Body/ And, likewise, having taken the 
cup and given thanks, He said, This is My Blood c . " 

St. Irenseus, who says that he remembers the times 
of his youth with Polycarp (the disciple of St. John) 
better than recent things, argues against the Gnostics : 
" If the Lord belonged to another Father, how was 
it just that taking bread, of this our creation, He con 
fessed that it was His Own Body, and He affirmed that 
the mingled drink of the cup was His Own Blood f ?" 

In the Harmony ascribed to Tatian or Ammonius, the 
words of the Gospel are paraphrased thus : " And 
then, having taken bread, and afterwards the cup of 
wine, He bare witness that it was His Body and Blood, 
and bade them eat and drink, for that it was a memo 
rial of His coming suffering and death g ." 

e Apol., i. 66. f iv. 33, 2. * Harm. iv. Evany., 

Bibl. Patr., ii. P. ii. p. 210, A. 



506 ARTICLE XXVIII. 



Tertullian, on whose antiquity the Homily lays such 
stress, speaks to this effect : " The zeal of Faith might 
speak on this head all the day long, mourning that the 
Christian should come from the idols into the Church . . . 
that he should approach those hands to the Body of the 
Lord, which bestowed bodies on demons. Nor is this 
enough. It were a small matter that they should re 
ceive from other hands that which they defile, but 
they themselves also deliver to others that which they 
have defiled. Makers of idols are chosen into the 
ministry of the Church. Horrid sin ! The Jews laid 
violent hands but once upon Christ; these every day 
assault His Body. 0, hands worthy of being cut off ! 
Let them now consider whether it were said only in 
a figure, If thine hand offend thee, cut it off/ What 
hands ought more to be cut off than those by which 
the Body qf the Lord is offended^ ?" 

And here, in order of time, comes in the Greek 
inscription found at Autun, which is assigned to the 
second century, because, in A.D. 202, the Greek Church 
in France was laid desolate. The antiquity of this part 
of the inscription, and its testimony to " the Divinity 
of our Lord, and the divine dignity of the Sacraments," 
are recognised with satisfaction by Dr. Christopher 
"Wordsworth. As the inscription has only been known 
for these few years, but is of extreme value for the 
simplicity of the faith expressed by it, it is right to 
cite his words from his printed letter to Cardinal Pitra, 
the Benedictine editor 1 . The inscription relates to 

b De Idol., 8, p. 228, 0. T. Spicil. Solesm., t. i. p. 563. 



OF THE LORD S SUPPER. 507 

the two great Sacraments, and affirms only what all 
Catholic Christians must hold in common, the Real 
Objective Presence. " Quam valida vero ad catholicam 
veritatem stabiliendam et ad hsereticam pravitatem de 
Christo Deo, de divina Sacramentorum dignitate, pro- 
fligandam, testimonia suppeditet non sine summa volup- 
tate videmus. Et hanc priorem inscriptionis partem 
antiquitus in marmore extitisse . . . pro comperto 
habeo." Dr. Wordsworth does not say anything about 
the definite date of the inscription, but he believes it 
to be ancient, " antiquitus." The lines relating to the 
Holy Eucharist are: "Receive the honey-sweet [food] 
of the holy things of the Saviour;" or, as others, "of 
the Saviour of the holy." " Eat, drink, having Jesus 
Christ, the Son of God, the Saviour, in thy hands." 
The well-known anagram IXQT2 occurs at this same 
time, both in the Greek and Latin Church ; in the 
Greek, in a hymn ascribed to St. Clement of Alex 
andria ; in the Latin, in Tertullian. In St. Clement of 
Alexandria, as well as in this inscription, it is used in 
reference to the Eucharist k . It occurs in the recently 
discovered works attributed to St. Melito. It occurs 
also in Origen, St. Hilary, St. Ambrose, St. Optatus, 
Severian, Bishop of Gabala, the rival and enemy of 
St. Chrysostom, Sedulius, St. Paulinus, St. Augustine, 
St. Peter Chrysologus, St. Prosper, the African author 
of the De Promiss. Dei, and St. Cyril of Alexandria l . 
There can neither be a simpler nor a fuller statement 

k See Dr. Pusey, Real Presence, p. 338, note. 

1 See the passages collected in Spicil. Solesm., t. iii. p. 527. 



508 ARTICLE XXVIII. 



of the Objective Presence of our Lord, God and Man, 
in the Holy Eucharist, received in the hands to be food 
to the faithful than in this inscription, which the Pro 
vidence of God has brought to light. 

Author of the Carmina adv. Mar don m ; " From what 
creation suppose ye the Bread and Wine are, and must 
be confessed to be, His Body and Blood ? Proved not 
He Himself the Maker of the world by deeds ? And, 
at the same time, that He bare a Body of Flesh and 
Blood?" 

Origen : " We, rendering thanks (ev^apiorrovvre^) 
to the Creator of the universe, eat the Bread, offered 
with thanksgiving (eu^aptcrrta?) and prayer over the 
things offered, which [bread] becometh, for the prayer s 
sake, a certain Holy Bodij, which halloweth those who 
use the same with a sound purpose n ." 

Note the reserve in this passage. The author is 
arguing with a heathen, to whom it was not right to 
expose the Mystery, and therefore uses reserve : " Ye 
who are wont to be present at the Divine Mysteries, 
know how, when ye receive the Body of the Lord, ye 
keep It with all care and veneration, lest any particle 
of It should fall, lest any of the consecrated gift should 
escape you. For ye believe yourselves guilty (and ye 
believe rightly) if any thereof fall through negligence ; 
but if ye use so great caution, and rightly use it, in 
preserving His Body, how do ye think it a less guilt to 
have neglected the Word of God than His Body ?" 

m L. 5, op. Tertull. " Cont. Cels., 8, c. 33. 

In Exod., Horn. xiii. 3, p. 176. 



509 



St. Dionysius the Great, of Alexandria, who was 
consulted in most questions of moment by other 
Churches : " For I could not venture to renew from 
the beginning (i.e. to re-baptize) one who had heard 
the Eucharist, and joined in answering the Amen, and 
stood by the table, and stretched forth his hands to 
receive the Holy Food, and had received it, and for 
a long while had partaken of the Body and Blood 
of our Lord Jesus Christ P." " For I do not think that 
women, who are faithful and devout, would venture, in 
such a state, to approach the Holy Table, or to touch 
the Body and Blood of Christ"." 

St. Cyprian : " For how do we teach or provoke 
them to shed their blood in confession of the name, if, 
when about to engage, we deny them the Blood of 
Christ r ." " Let us also arm the right hand with the 
sword of the Spirit/ that it may boldly reject the 
deadly sacrifices, that, mindful of the Eucharist, the 
hand which has received the Lord s Body, may em 
brace the Lord Himself, from Him to receive hereafter 
the reward of heavenly crowns 8 ." "Those mouths 
sanctified by heavenly food, after the Body and Blood 
of the Lord, loathed the profane contagion, and the 
relics of idol feasts V " A violence is offered to His 
Body and Blood, and they sin more now against the 
Lord with hand and mouth, than when they were 
denying Him u ." 

P Euseb. H. E. vii. 9. Up. ad Basilid., can. 2. p. 114. 

r Up. Ivii. ad Cornel. s Ep. Iviii. ad Thibarit., 10. * De 

Lapsis, 2, p. 154, Oxf. Tr. tt Ibid., 11, p. 163. 



510 ARTICLE XXVIII. 



See how St. Dionysius the Great, Origen, St. Cyprian, 
agree with the Inscription of Autun in speaking of 
communicants as having in their hands "the Body 
of Christ." 

Magnes : " For it is not a type of the Body, nor 
a type of the Blood, as some have blindly and idly 
said, but is in truth the Body and Blood of Christ x ." 
" Through that union whereby I am united, the Holy 
with the earthly, I give Bread and Wine, commanding 
them to be My Body and Blood >"." 

Hipparchus and Philotheus, martyrs in the persecu 
tion of Maximian, about A.D. 297 : " Three years have 
now passed since we received Baptism in the Name of 
the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, 
from the hand of a priest of the true faith, whose 
name was James, and he gave us continually the Body 
of Christ and His Blood z ." When they had con 
verted James, Pyragrus, Rumono, and another, this 
same priest " baptized them in the name of the 
Trinity, and imparted to them the Body and Blood 
of Christ." 

Eusebius, the historian: " On every day before 
the Sabbath [Friday] we make a remembrance of the 
Saviour s Passion, through the fast which the Apo 
stles then first fasted, when the Bridegroom was taken 
from them ; on every Lord s- day, quickened by the 
consecrated Body of the same Saviour s Passion, and 
sealed in our souls by His precious Blood a ." 

1 Frag. op. Gall., iii. 541. r Ibid., 2. z Assem. Acta 

Mart., ii. 123. a De Pasch. in Mail Scriptt. Vett., i. 257. 



511 



St. James of Nisibis (one of the foremost of the 
Nicene Fathers, who had the gifts of miracles and 
prophecy) : " Abstain thou from all uncleanness, and 
then receive the Body and Blood of Christ, and care 
fully guard thy mouth, through which the King hath 
entered ; nor mayest thou, man, any more bring 
forth through thy mouth words of uncleanness V 
"From that place where He kept the Passover, and 
gave His Body that they should eat, and His Blood 
that they should drink, He went away and departed 
thither with His disciples, where they took Him. 
When then His Body was eaten, and His Blood drunk, 
He was counted among the dead. For our Lord 
with His own hands gave His Body for food, and 
when He was not yet crucified He gave His Blood 
for drink c ." " When He had washed His disciples 
feet, He sat down at the table, and then gave them 
His Body and Blood d ." 

St. Athanasius : " Thou wilt see the Levites (dea 
cons) bearing bread and a cup of wine, and placing 
them on the table; and so long as the supplications 
and prayers have not yet taken place, bare (-fyi\6s) is 
the bread and the cup ; but when the great and won 
derful prayers have been completed over it, then the 
Bread becometh the Body, the Cup the Blood of our 
Lord Jesus Christ 6 ." "Let us come to the consecra 
tion of the mysteries. This bread and this cup, so 

b Serm. iii. 2, p. 46, ed. Rom. c Serm. xiv. de PascTi., 

4, p. 341. d Ibid., p. 346. e Serm. ad Baptizat. ap. 

Eutycli. de Pasch. Mali Scriptt. Vett., ix. 625. 



512 ARTICLE XX VIII. 



long as the prayers and supplications have not yet 
taken place, are bare elements, but when the great 
prayers and holy supplications have been sent up, the 
word cometh down into the bread and cup, and it 
becometh His Body f ." 

Juvencus, a Spanish poet about A.D. 330, thus para 
phrases the history of the institution of the Lord s 
Supper: "When He said these things, He brake the 
Bread with His hands, and being broken He gave it 
to them, and having holily prayed, He taught His 
disciples that He gave them His own Body." "Then 
the Lord taketh the cup, and it being filled with wine, 
He sanctifieth It with mighty words, and giveth It 
them to drink, and taught them that He had di 
vided His own Blood. And He saith, "This Blood 
will remit the sins of the people, This My Blood 
drink ye &. " 

St. Julius, Bishop of Rome : " An inquiry concern 
ing Christ s Blood and Christ s Body [on occasion of 
the false accusation that St. Athanasius had broken 
a chalice] is carried on before an external judge, in 
the presence of catechumens, nay, worse than that, 
before heathens and Jews, who have so bad a name 
in regard to Christianity V 

Council of Alexandria, A.D. 339: "Our sanctuaries 
are now, as they have always been, pure, and ho 
noured only with the Blood of Christ, and His pious 



* Ibid. ft Hist. Evang., L. iv. B. P. iv. 74. 

h Ep. ad Eusel. in S. AtJi. Apol. ag. Arians, 31. 



513 



worship 1 / "For to you only it appertains to have 
the first taste of the Blood of Christ, and to none 
besides. But as he who breaks a sacred cup is an 
impious person, much more impious is he who in 
sults the Blood of Christ k ." 

Julius Firmicus : " We drink the immortal blood 
of Christ ; to our blood is the Blood of Christ united ; 
this is the healthful remedy for thy wickedness 1 ." 

St. Thecla, Maria, Martha, Maria, Ami, Persian 
martyrs under Sapor, A.D. 337, to the apostate priest, 
who, with a drawn sword, endeavoured to make them 
apostatize : " Is this that holy propitiatory Thing 
which we received from thy hands ? Is this the life- 
giving Blood which thou usedst to bring near to our 
mouths m ?" 

St. Hilary : " If the Word was truly made Flesh, 
and we, through the food of the Lord, truly receive 
the Word made Flesh, how must He not be thought 
to abide in us by the way of nature, Who, being born 
Man, took to Himself the nature of our Flesh, now 
inseparable from Him, and, under the sacrament of 
the Flesh to be communicated to us, hath mingled 
the nature of His own Flesh with His Eternal Na 
ture 11 ." "Was He unwilling to suffer? but, before, 
He had consecrated the Blood of His own Body, which 
was to be shed for the remission of sins ." " What 

1 S.AtJi. Apol. c. Arian., init. p. 14, O. T. k In S. Ath. 

Apol. ag. Ar., 6, p. 20, 0. T. l De err. Prof, relig., p. 44. 

m In S. Maruthas, Assem. Acta Mart., i. 125. n De Trin., viii. 13. 
In Matt., c. 31, 7. 

Ll 



514 ARTICLE XXVIII. 



frenzy didst thou exercise against the Church of 
Thoulouse ? The clergy were beaten with clubs ; the 
Deacons were crushed with boxing-gloves armed with 
lead ; and on Himself, as the holy will understand, 
on Christ Himself hands were laid P." 

Arian Council at Philippopolis : " Presbyters were 
dragged naked by him to the market-place, and (what 
must be said with tears and grief) he openly and pub 
licly profaned the consecrated Body of the Lord, hung 
to the necks of the priests q ." It is to be observed 
that they use the same phrase as Eusebius. It was 
then probably a received phrase. But to speak of 
the " consecrated Body of the Lord," must mean that 
that of which he speaks became such by consecration. 
" Sinning profanely and atrociously against the Body 
of the Lord and His mysteries r ." 

St. Damasus, " learned in the Scriptures s : " 

"Tarsicium sanctum Christi sacramenta gerentem, 
Cum male sana manus voluit vulgare profanis, 
Ipse animam potius voluit dimittere csesus, 
Prodere quam canibus rabidis caelestia membra *." 

St. Optatus : " For what is the Altar, but the 
Throne of the Body and Blood of Christ u ?" " Where 
in had Christ offended you, Whose Body and Blood 
dwelt here at stated times ?"...." In this way ye 

P c. Const. Imp., 11. q Ap. S. Hil. Fragm., iii. 9. 

r Ibid., 23. St. Jerome, Ep. xlviii. ad Pamm., n. 17. 

t In Baronius, A. 381, n. 21, from Antiq. Inscrip. App., p. 1174, n. 2. 
u De Schism. Donat., vi. 1, p. 90, ed. Dupin. 



515 



have imitated the Jews ; they laid their hands on 
Christ on the Cross ; by you He was smitten on the 
Altar v ." "This great crime has been doubled by 
you, in that ye brake the chalices too, which bear 
the Blood of Christ x ." 

St. Ephrem : " Standing on their feet ! because 
one sitting may not receive the living Body ; and 
no stranger shall eat thereof/ because no one unbap- 
tized eateth of the Bodyy." "This was fulfilled in 
our Lord, when in the Mount of Jerusalem He brake 
His Body and divided His Blood, and said, This ye 
shall do for a remembrance of Me z . r " Thou wilt 
not burn the hand which received a portion of Thy 
holy Body, together with the hand which smote Thee 
on Thy cheek, Thee, the Creator. The mouth which 
ate Thee will not howl, together with the mouth which 
spat on Thee, on Thy face & ." " Whom Thou hast made 
meet to administer in the Sanctuary, and to distribute 
Thy Body and Thy Blood to Thy flock, may his pas 
ture be with Thy lambs V "He brake His Body 
before thee, and mingled His Blood and gave it 
thee c ." 

St. Basil : " Thou introducest higgling into spiri 
tual things and the Church, where we are entrusted 
with the Body and Blood of Christ d ." "Let him not 
bless either publicly or privately, nor distribute the 

T Ibid., p. 91. x Ibid., c. 2, p. 92. r On Exod. xii. 

t. i. p. 213. z In Isa. xxv. 26, t. ii. p. 61. a Can. 12, 

t. iii. p. 246. b Can. 13, p. 247. c Parcen., 16, p. 439. 
11 Up. liii. Chorepisc., 1, iii. 147. 



516 AKTICLE XXVIII. 



Body of Christ to others, nor perform any liturgical 
office ; but, satisfied with his rank, let him weep before 
the Lord, that his sin of ignorance may be forgiven 
him 6 ." 

St. Gregory of Nyssa : " Wherefore also He who ever 
is, sets Himself before us as Food, that we receiving 
Him in ourselves, may become that which He is f ." The 
Bread, again, is up to a certain time common bread, but 
when the mystery shall consecrate it, it is called and 
becomes the Body of Christ e . " Well do I believe 
that now, too, the bread, sanctified by the Word of 
God, is trans-made (/j,6Ta7roteio-0ai,) into the Body of 
God, the Word 11 ." "For both there [in the Lord s 
Natural Body] the grace of the Word hallowed that 
Body, whose composition was from bread, and which 
itself, too, was in a manner bread ; and here [in the 
Sacrament], in like way, the bread (as the Apostle 
says) is hallowed by the Word of God and prayer, not 
through meat and drink passing on into the Body of 
the Word, but trans-made (/JLeraTroiovfievos) straight 
into the Body of the Word, as it was said by the 
Word, This is My Body 1 ! " 

St. Gregory of Nazianzum : " One of those who 
approach to the approaching God, and is accounted 
worthy of the holy station and order k ." "Whoever 
besides ministers about the holy Table of God, and 
approaches to the approaching God 1 ." 

e Ep. cxcix. (Can. 2), Can. 27, p. 294. f In Secies, iii. 8. 

Horn. viii. t. i. p. 456. De Bapt. Christi, iii. 370. h Orat. 

Catech., c. 37. i Ibid. k Orat. xxi. c. 7. l Orat. xlii. c. 26. 



517 



"And thou, wretched man, wilt thou boldly receive 
In thy palms the Mystic Pood, or God embrace 
With hands, wherewith thou hast dug up my grave m ." 

Csesarius (brother of St. Gregory of Nazianzum) : 
"He trampleth under foot God the Word, the Son of 
God, who, in covetous hands lifted up against his 
neighbour, receiveth fearlessly the Sacramental ele 
ments, accounting them like common bread and wine, 
which, in the eyes of the faithful mind, are contem 
plated, God n ." " And yet we believe the Divine 
Revelation, that not as being equal or like, yet that 
still properly and fitly, It is the Divine Body which 
is consecrated on the holy Table, and is indivisibly 
distributed to the whole sacred band, and partaken 
of without ceasing to be ." 

St. Amphilochius (friend of St. Basil and St. Gregory 
of Nazianzum) : " He, the Father, is both greater and 
equal, greater than He who receives vinegar to drink, 
equal to Him who poureth out as wine His own proper 
blood, rov TO ol/ceiov olvo-^oovvros alpa p ." 

Esaias Abbas : " If thou wiliest to take the Body 
of Christ, take heed that there be no anger or hatred 
in thy heart against any one q ." 

St. Ambrose : " So often as we receive the Sacra 
ments, which by the mystery of the sacred prayer are 
transfigured into Body and Blood, we shew forth the 

111 Carm., 1. ii. 2, Epigr. 69. n Interrog. 140, Dial. 3 ; 

Gall. vi. 98. Ibid., Int., pp. 127, 169. P Serm. adv 

Arian. in Mali Script. Vett., iv. p. 10. q Reg. ad Monach., 50. 



518 ARTICLE XX VIII. 



death of the Lord r ." " What more noble than Christ, 
who in the Feast of the Church both ministers and is 
ministered 8 ?" " Where His Body is, there is Christ V 
"And in the ministering of the Apostles is set forth 
the future distribution of the Body and Blood of the 
LordV "Where Christ, the Head of all, is daily 
consecrated v ." " At the same time, it is shewn what 
sort of person he ought to be who ministereth to Christ. 
For, first of all, he must be free from the allurements 
of various pleasures, shun inward drowsiness of mind 
and body, that he may administer the Body and Blood 

of Christ See what thou doest, O priest, and 

touch not with feverish hand the Body of Christ x ." 
" How in such hands wilt thou receive the all-holy 
Body of the Lord ? how wilt thou bear to thy mouth 
the Precious Blood, having in thine anger unlawfully 
shed so much bloody?" " But if human blessing was 
of such avail as to change nature, what say we of the 
Divine Consecration itself, wherein the very words of 
our Lord and Saviour operate? For that Sacrament 
which thou receivest is consecrated by the Word of 
Christ. But if the word of Elijah was of so great 
power as to bring down fire from Heaven, shall not 
the Word of Christ avail to change the nature of the 
elements ? Of the works of the whole world thou hast 
read, He spake, and they were made ; He com- 

De Fide, iv. 10. s De Cain et Abel, i. 5, 19. In Ps. 

cxix. Serm. viii. 48. u In S. Luc., 1. vi. 84. v De Virg. y 

i. 11, 65. * De Vid., c. x. 65. ? In Theodoret, Eccles. 
Hist., 1. v. c. xvii. t. iii. 



I 



519 



manded, and they were created/ The word of Christ, 
then, which could make of nothing what (as yet) was 
not, cannot it change the things which are into that 
which they were not? For it is not a less thing to 
give new natures to things, than to change natures. 
But why use we arguments ? Let us use His own 
example, and build up the truth of the mystery by 
the example of the Incarnation. Did the wont of 
nature precede, when the Lord Jesus was born of 
a Virgin ? If we inquire for the order of nature, 
woman united with man was wont to bear. And this 
Body which we consecrate is from the Virgin. Why 
inquirest thou here for the order of nature in the 
Body of Christ, when, against nature, the Lord Jesus 
Himself was born of a Virgin ? True is the Flesh 
of Christ, which was crucified, which was buried ; 
true therefore is the Sacrament of that Flesh. The 
Lord Jesus Himself declares, This is My Body/ Be 
fore the blessing of the heavenly words, another kind 
is named; after the consecration the Body is signi 
fied. He Himself saith, it is His Blood. Before con 
secration it is called other ; after the consecration it is 
named Blood. And thou sayest, Amen, i.e. it is true ; 
what the mouth speaketh, let the inward mind confess ; 
what the speech uttereth, let the affection feel z ." " In 
that Sacrament Christ is : because it is the Body of 
Christ; it is not therefore bodily food, but spiritual. 
Whence, too, the Apostle saith of its type : Our 
fathers did eat spiritual meat, and did drink spiritual 

1 De Myster., 5254. 



520 ARTICLE XXVIII. 



drink/ For the Body of God is a spiritual Body ; the 
Body of Christ is the Body of the Divine Spirit a ." 

Author of the De Sacramentis (a Bishop, and pro 
bably a disciple of St. Ambrose) : " The Altar is 
a figure of the Body, and the Body of Christ is on the 
Altar a ." "You say, perhaps, my bread is common 
bread. But that bread is bread before the words of 
the Sacraments ; when the consecration is added, from 
bread it becomes the Flesh of Christ. How can that 
which is bread, be the Body of Christ ? By Consecra 
tion. And the Consecration, in whose words is it? 
The Lord Jesus . For all the rest which had been 
said before is said by the priest ; praises are offered to 
God ; prayer is made for the people, for kings, for the 
rest. When the Venerable Sacrament is to be con 
secrated, the priest now no longer uses his own words, 
but he uses the words of Christ. So, then, the word 
of Christ consecrates the Sacrament. What is the 
word of Christ ? That by which all things were 
made. The Lord commanded, the heaven was made ; 
the Lord commanded, and the earth was made ; the 
Lord commanded, and the seas were made ; the Lord 
commanded, and all creatures were brought forth. 
Thou, seest, then, how powerful in working is the 
Word of Christ. If, then, there is such power in the 
Word of the Lord Jesus, that those things which were 
not should begin to be, how much more is it opera 
tive that the things which were should still be, and 
be changed into something eke f So, then, that I may 

a De My tier. t 58. 



OF THE LORD S SUPPER. 521 

answer thee, it was not the Body of Christ before the 
Consecration, but after the Consecration I say to thee 
that now it is the Body of Christ He spake, and 
it was made ; He commanded, and it was created. 
Before it is consecrated, it is bread ; when the words 
of Christ are added, it is the Body of Christ. Then 
hear Himself saying Take and eat ye all of this, 
for this is My Body/ And before the words of Christ, 
it is a cup, full of wine and water ; when the words of 
Christ have operated, the Blood of Christ is caused 
to be there, which redeemed His people V " So, then, 
not idly dost thou say, Amen, already thereb}^ confess 
ing in spirit that thou receivest the Body of Christ. 
The priest saith to thee The Body of Christ, and 
thou sayest, Amen, i.e. true c ." 

St. Jerome : " God forbid that I should speak any 
thing unfavourable of these; for, succeeding to the 
Apostolic rank, with holy mouths they make Christ s 
Body, through whom also we are Christians d ." " But 
let us hear that the bread which the Lord brake and 
gave to His disciples was the Body of the Lord our 
Saviour, since He Himself said to them, Take, eat; 
this is My Body ; and that the cup was that of which 
He said again, Drink ye all of this ; for this is My 
Blood of the New Testament, which is shed for many. 
That is the cup of which we read in the Prophet 
I will receive the cup of salvation/ And in another 
place Thine inebriating cup, how good is it! If, 

b Ibid., c. iv. 14, 15 j c. v. 23; 25. c iv. 2, 7. 

d Ep. xiv. ad Heliod., 8 ; comp. Hooker, v. 77, 2. 



522 ARTICLE XXVIII. 



then, the bread which came down from Heaven is the 
Lord s Body ; and the wine which He gave to His 
disciples is the Blood of the New Testament, which 
was shed for many for the remission of sins e / " &c. 
" Nought richer than he who carries the Body of the 
Lord in a wicker basket, His Blood in a glass f ." 
" What ails the minister of tables and of widows 
(the deacon), that he swells and lifts himself up above 
those (bishops and priests) at whose prayers the Body 
and Blood of Christ is made & ?" 

Luciferian, quoted by St. Jerome : Lucif. " It is not 
the same thing to shed tears for sins, and to handle 
the Body of the Lord. It is not the same thing to 
fall at the feet of the brethren, and from on high 
to administer the Eucharist to the people \" 

Jerome of Jerusalem : " Many of those in the world 
often experience workings of such grace and of the 
Holy Spirit; those, I mean, who assist at the altar, 
and who approach to partake of the mysteries of Christ. 
For on a sudden they are filled with tears and joy 
and gladness. Whence also the Christian is fully 
convinced that he doth not receive mere (\jri\ov) bread 
and wine, but in truth the Body and Blood of the Son 
of God, sanctified by the Holy Ghost \" 

Theophilus, of Alexandria: "Nor do we call the 
bodily substance vanity, as he (Origen) thinketh (fall 
ing, in other words, into the doctrines of Manichaeus), 

e Up. cxx. ad Hedib., 2. f Ep. cxxv. ad Rust., 20. 

B Ep. cxlvi. ad Evang. 1. h Adv. Lucif., 3. 

1 Comm. Christian, util., Gall. vii. 52U. 



OF THE LORD S SUPPER. 523 

lest the Body of Christ also should be subject to vanity, 
through the eating whereof we, being satiated, daily 
ruminate on His words, Unless a man eat My Flesh, 
and drink My Blood, he has no part in Me V " 

St. Gaudentius, of Brescia: "Himself then the 
Creator and Lord of Nature, who bringeth forth 
bread from the earth/ of bread again (for He both 
can, and hath promised), makes His Own Body ; and 
He who of water made wine, makes also wine of His 
Own Blood k ." "That you may not think that to be 
earthly, which has been made heavenly through Him 
who passeth into it, and made it His Body and Blood." 
. . . . " When He reached forth the consecrated Bread 
and Wine to His disciples, He said, This is My Body ; 
this is My Blood. Let us believe Him Whom we have 
believed. Truth cannot lie.". .."But that He appointed 
the Sacraments of His Body and Blood to be offered 
in the form of Bread and Wine, there is a twofold 
reason l ." 

St. Isaac the Great: "I beheld that her cup was 
mingled, and instead of wine it was full of Blood, and 
instead of bread, a Body was placed for her in the 
midst of her table. I saw the Blood and trembled ; 
and the Body ; and fear seized me ; and she [Faith] 
made a sign to me, Eat, and be silent; drink, child, 
and scrutinize not. 3 . . . She shewed me a Body slain, 
and placed thereof between my lips, and cried to me 
sweetly, See what it is thou art eating. She gave 

l Epist. Pasch., A. 401, 11; ap. S. Jerome, Ep. xcvi. i. 564. 
k De Pasch., tr. ii. B. P. v. p. 946. 1 Ibid., p. 947. 



524 ARTICLE XXVIIT. 



the pen of the Spirit, and bade me subscribe ; and 
I took, I wrote, and I confessed, < This is the Body 
of God V" 

St. Paulinas, of Nola, friend of St. Ambrose and 
St. Augustine, wrote as part of an inscription for an 
altar, under which a piece of the Cross was to be 
placed : 

" Cuncta salutiferi coeunt martyria Christi, 
Crux, Corpus, Sanguis, martyris ipse Deus." 

St. Maruthas (a very great man, a friend of St. Chry- 
sostom) : " Now as often as we approach to the Body 
and Blood, and take It in our hands, we believe that 
we embrace the Body, and that we are of His Flesh 
and His Bones, as it is written. For Christ did not 
call it a type and a likeness, but that in truth This 
is My Body, and this is My Blood V " And so St. 
Maruthas, in his Liturgy, paraphrases our Lord s words 
of Consecration : " Jesus took bread into His holy 
hands, and giving thanks to the Father, blessed, sancti 
fied, brake, and divided to the disciples, and said, Take 
eat, believe and be certain, and so proclaim and teach, 
that this is My Body which is broken for the salvation 
of the world, and to those who eat It and believe in 
Me, giveth expiation of sins and life eternal ." And 
in like way he paraphrases the words of Consecration 
of the Cup. 

We now come to the testimony of the great St. 

m Serm. de Fide ap. Assem. Bibl. Or., t. i. p. 220. " Comm. 

Lcang. in Assem., i. 179. In Renaudol. Lilurg. Or., ii. 263. 



525 



Augustine : " For on this account it seemed good to 
the Holy Spirit, namely, that for the honour of so 
great a Sacrament, the Lord s Body should enter the 
mouth of a Christian previously to other food p ." " And 
when the Apostle said this, the discourse was upon 
the subject of those who, treating the Lord s Body 
like any other food, took it in an undiscriminating 
and negligent way. If, then, this man is rebuked who 
does not discriminate, that is, see the difference of, the 
Lord s Body from other meats, how must he be damned, 
who, feigning himself a friend, comes to His Table 
a foe q !" "Christ was carried in His Own Hands, 
when commending His Own Body, He said, "This is 
My Body/ For that Body He carried in His Own 
Hands r ." " That Bread which ye see on the Altar, 
sanctified by the Word of God, is the Body of Christ. 
That Cup, rather what the Cup holds, sanctified by the 
Word of God, is the Blood of Christ s ." " For the 
Blood of Christ hath a loud voice on earth, when, on 
receiving It, all nations answer, Amen V 

St. Chrysostom : " marvel ! love of God for 
man ! He who sitteth aloft with the Father, is at that 
hour held in the hands of all, and giveth Himself to 
those who will, to enfold and embrace u ." " For when 
they were eating and drinking, He took bread, brake 
it, and said, This is My Body which is broken for 

P Up. liv. ad Januar., 8. 1 In S. Joh., Horn. Ixii. 1. 

r In Ps. xxxiii. [xxxiv.] Serm. \. n. 10. s Serm. 227, in Die 

Pasch., iv. l Cont. Faust., xii. 10, t. viii. p. 231. u De Sa- 

cerdot., iii. 5, i. 382. 



526 ARTICLE XXYTIT. 



you for the remission of sins/ The initiated know 
what I mean : and again, the Cup, saying, This is 
My Blood, which is shed for many for the remission 
of sins. And Judas was present when Christ said this. 
This is the Body which thou, O Judas, didst sell for 
thirty pieces of silver ; this is the Blood for which, 
a little before, thou madest that shameless compact 
with the reckless Pharisees x ." " The same who adorned 
that Table, adorneth this too now. For it is not man 
who maketh what lieth there to become the Body and 
Blood of Christ, but Christ Himself who was crucified 
for us y ." " For indeed His Body is set before us 
now ; not His garment only, but even His Body ; 
not for us to touch It only, but also to eat, and be 

filled Believe, therefore, that even now it is that 

Supper, at which He Himself sat down. For This is 
in no respect different from That. For neither doth 
man make This and Himself the Other, but both This 
and That is His own work. When, therefore, thou 
seest the Priest delivering It unto thee, account not 
that it is the Priest that doeth so, but that it is Christ s 
Hand that is stretched out. . . . For He that hath given 
the greater, i.e. hath set Himself before thee, much 
more will He not think scorn to distribute unto thee 
of His Body. Let us hear, therefore, both priests and 
subjects, what we have had vouchsafed to us; let us 
hear and tremble. Of His Own Flesh He hath granted 
us our fill ; He hath set before us Himself sacrificed z ." 

* De Prodit. Jud., 5. * Ibid., 6. 

7 In S. Matt., Horn. 1. 3. 



OF THE LORD S SUPPER. 527 

" That Table at that time was not of silver, nor that 
cup of gold, out of which Christ gave His disciples 
His Own Blood: but precious was everything there, 
and awful, for that they were full of the Spirit a ." 
" Purer than what sunbeam should not that hand be, 
which is to sever this Mesh, the mouth that is filled 
with spiritual fire, the tongue that is reddened by that 
most awful Blood b ?" "I would give up my life rather 
than impart of the Lord s Blood to the unworthy ; and 
will shed my own blood rather than impart of such 
awful Blood contrary to what is meet c ." "I say now, 
if even a man s garment be what one would not ven 
ture inconsiderately to touch, what shall we say of the 
Body of Him who is God over all, spotless, pure, asso 
ciate with that Divine Nature, the Body whereby we 
are, and live ; whereby the gates of hell were broken 
down, and the sanctuaries of Heaven opened? How 
shall we receive This with so great insolence ? Let us 
not, I pray you, let us not slay ourselves by our irre 
verence, but with all awfulness and purity let us draw 
nigh to It ; and when thou seest It set before thee, 
say thou to thyself, Because of this Body am I no 
longer earth and ashes, no longer a prisoner but free ; 
because of This I hope for heaven, and to receive the 
good things therein, immortal life, the portion of 
angels, converse with Christ; this Body, nailed and 
scourged, was more than death could stand against ; 
this Body the very sun saw crucified, and turned aside 
his beams; for This, both the veil was rent in that 

ft Ibid., 3. b Horn. Ixxxii. 5. c Ibid., 6. 



528 ARTICLE XXVITT. 



moment, and rocks were burst asunder, and all the 
earth was shaken. This is even that Body, the blood 
stained, the smitten, out of which gushed the saving 
fountains, the one of blood, the other of water, for all 
the world d . " "And these things thou doest when thou 
hast enjoyed the Table of Christ, on that day on which 
thou hast been counted worthy to touch His Flesh with 
thy tongue. "Whosoever thou art then, that those 
things be not so, do thou purify thy right hand, thy 
tongue, thy lips, which have become a threshold for 
Christ to tread upon e ." " For it is in no common 
manner that our lips are honoured when they receive 
the Lord s Body f ." " And then, thus scrupulous as 
thou art in this little matter, dost thou come with 
soiled soul, and thus dare to touch It ? And yet the 
hands hold It but for a time, whereas into the soul 
It is received entirely 8 ." 

Council of Carthage (under Aurelius), A.D. 398 or 
401 : " That if need compel, the Deacon ma} 7 ", in the 
presence of the Presbyter, at his bidding, deliver to 
the people the Eucharist of the Body of Christ h ." 

Philo Carpasius, of Cyprus, A.D. 401 : " These (the 
deacons) bear the Body of Christ and His Blood, the 
Head of the Church ." 

Apostolical Constitutions, doubtless a very ancient 
and authoritative workJ : "Those who bestow upon 

d In 1 Cor. x. 16, Horn. xxiv. 7. e Horn, xxvii. 7. 

f Rom. xxx., 2 Cor. xiii. 12. * On Ephes. i., Horn. iii. 

c. 38. i In Cant., c. 37. j See Dr. Pusey on 
the Heal Presence, pp. 605 8. 



529 



you the Saving Body and the Precious Blood k ." " Let 
the Deacons after the prayer, some attend exclusively 
to the offering of the Eucharist, ministering to the 
Lord s Body with fear 1 ." 

St. Cyril, of Alexandria : " What is the cause and 
efficacy of the mystical Eucharist ? Why do we re 
ceive It within us ? Is it not that It may make 
Christ to dwell in us corporeally also by participation 
and communion of His Holy Flesh m ." " We shut 
to the doors, and Christ appeareth to us all visibly 
and invisibly invisibly as God, and visibly again in 
the Body, and He permitteth and giveth us to touch 
His Holy Flesh. For according to the grace of God, 
we approach to the participation of the mystical Eu 
charist, receiving Christ in our hands, that we too 
may firmly believe that He hath truly raised His own 
Temple n ." "If any one should dare to say that the 
Word of God was transformed into the nature of the 
Body, one might very reasonably object to him, that 
He, on giving His Body, did not rather say, Take, 
eat, this is My Divinity which was broken for you/ 
and This is not My Blood, but rather My Divinity, 
which is shed for you/ But since the Word, being 
God, hath made the Body, born of a woman, His Own, 
without undergoing any alteration or change, how 
was it not right and true that He said to us, Take, 
eat, this is My Body? For being Life, as God, He 
made it both Life and Life-giving ." "I hear that 

k ii. 33. ! 1. ii. c. 57. m On St. John xv. 1, 1. x. c. 2. 

n Ibid., in xx. 16. Adv. Nest., iv. 5. t. vi. pp. 118, 119, 

M m 



530 ARTICLE XXVIII. 



they say that the mystic Eucharist is unavailing for 
blessing, if a portion of it remain to the next day. 
They are mad who say this. For Christ is not altered, 
nor shall His Holy Body be changed; but the power 
of the Eucharist and the life-giving grace is abid 
ing in it p ." 

St. Isidore, of Pelusium : " If our God and Savi 
our, being made Man, gave the Holy Ghost to be the 
completion of the Divine Trinity, both as being, in the 
invocation of Holy Baptism, numbered together with 
the Father and the Son as freeing from sins, and as, 
upon the Mystical Table, making the common bread 
the Very Body of His own Incarnation V &c. " The 
fine linen that is spread out underneath the ministry 
of the Divine gifts, is the ministration of Joseph of 
Arimathea. For as he, having wrapped the Body of 
the Lord in fine linen, committed to the tomb that 
Body, through which our whole race has gained the 
fruit of the resurrection, so we, consecrating the shew- 
bread upon fine linen, find undoubtedly the Body of 
Christ, gushing forth for us with that incorruptibility, 
which He whom Joseph attended to the tomb, the 
Saviour Jesus, rising from the dead bestowed 1 *." 

Theodotus, Bishop of Antioch, died A.D. 427: 
" As the king himself and his image are not two 
kings, neither are the Yery Personal Body of Christ, 
(avrb TO Xpicrrov <rwfj,a TO evvrroo-TaTov) , which is 
in heaven, and the Bread, the antitype thereof, dis- 

P Ep. ad Calosyr., t. vi. P. 2, p. 365. 1, i. Ep. 109, ad 

Marathon., p. 34. r 1. i. Ep. 123, p. 38. 



501 



tributed to the faithful by the priests in the churches, 
two bodies." Thus he asserts the identity of the Body 
of Christ in heaven and on the altar, and yet, in that 
he speaks of the antitypes, distinguishes the outward 
and inward parts. 

Paulinus, the Deacon : " Honoratus also, priest of 
the Church at Vercellse, when he had laid himself 
down to rest in the upper part of the house, heard 
three times the voice of one calling him, and saying 
to him : Arise, make haste, for he is now about to 
depart/ He, going down stairs, offered to the Saint 
the Body of the Lord s ." 

Eusebius, of Alexandria : " Be early then in the 
Church of God, approach the Lord, confess to Him 
thy sins, repent with prayer and a broken heart, abide 
during the Divine and Holy Eucharistic service, com 
plete thy prayer, on no account leaving before the 
dismissal. Behold thy Lord, divided in pieces and 
distributed and not expended; and if thou hast thy 
conscience clean, approach and communicate of the 
Body and Blood V 

St. Maximus, of Turin : " Fitly then, and as though 
for a sort of fellowship, was it appointed that the 
martyrs should be buried there, where the Lord s death 
is daily celebrated, as He Himself saith : As often 
as ye do this, ye do shew forth My death, till I come. 
So should they who died for His Death rest under 

* Vita S. Ambrosii, n. 47, ctp. S. A.mbrosii Opp. t. ii., App. p. xii. 

* Orat. de Die Dom. init., Gall. viii. 252, about A.D. 444. See for 
an account of this Father, Dr. Pusey, Real Presence, pp. 449, 450. 



532 ARTICLE XXVIII. 



the mystery of His Sacrament. Fitly, I say, and as 
though for a sort of fellowship, is the tomb of him 
who was slain placed there, where the Lord s slain 
Body is placed, that they whom the cause of one 
suffering had bound with Christ, the sanctity of one 
place might unite u ." 

Theodoret : " Do not we, enjoying the holy Myste 
ries, communicate with the Lord Himself, whose Body 
and Blood we say they are ? For we are all partakers 
of that one Bread. How can we communicate with 
the Lord through His precious Body and Blood, and 
again with devils through meat offered to idols v ?" 

As the "meat offered to idols" is something orally 
received, " through which" idolaters communicated with 
devils, so, plainly by force of the contrast, " the Body 
and Blood" was orally received, " through which they 
communicated with Christ." 

While Theodoret states, that " after the consecration 
the mystic symbols do not depart from their own 
nature, for they remain in their former substance, and 
figure, and form, and can be seen and touched as be 
fore*;" he adds, "but in thought they are conceived, 
and believed, and adored as being those things which 
are believed x ." Moreover, he distinctly says, " we call 
the mystic fruit of the vine, after the consecration, 
the Lord s Blood." . . . "Thou knowest that God hath 
called Bread His own Body ?," assuredly not untruly 
nor unreally. 

u Serm. 73, de Sanctis, pracip. S. Cyprian. v In 1 Cor. x. 16, 17, 
iii. 228. x Dial. ii. t. iv. p. 126, Sch. r Dial, i., Ib. p. 25. 






533 



Theodotus, of Ancyra (he took a prominent part 
against Nestorius in the Council of Ephesus) : "He 
who then drew the Magi with unspeakable might to 
holiness, hath now also to-day gathered together this 
joyous assembly : He, no longer laid in the manger, 
but lying on this saving Table. For that manger was 
the mother of this Table. For that cause did He 
lie in that [manger], that on this [table] He might 
be eaten, and might to the faithful become Saving 
Food ." 

St. Peter Chrysologus : " The woman touched His 
raiment, and was healed, and was freed from her long 
weakness. Wretched we, who daily handle and re 
ceive the Body of the Lord, and are not healed of our 
wounds a ." "Let Christians, who daily touch the 
Body of Christ, hear how much medicine they can 
take from the Body Itself, when the woman seized all 
her health from the hem only of Christ b ." " Himself 
is the Bread, which, sown in the Yirgin, leavened in 
the Flesh, kneaded in His Passion, baked in the fur 
nace of the Sepulchre, laid up in Churches, placed on 
the altars, provides heavenly Food daily for the faith 
ful ." "He is Himself the Bread which cometh down 
from Heaven : . . . . which is daily brought to the 
Table of the Church for heavenly Food : which is 
broken for the forgiveness of sins, which feeds and 
nourishes them who eat It to life everlasting : this 
Bread we daily ask to be given to us, until we enjoy 

z Horn, in Nativ. Dom. in Cone. Eph., p. 3, c. 9. 
a Serm. 33. b Ibid. 34. c Ibid. 67. 



534 ARTICLE XXVIII. 



It wholly in that endless day d ." "He transmitted 
His Body to the Table of the Church, that It might 
be heavenly Flesh for the nations to eat unto salva 
tion 6 ." "I grieve, truly do I grieve, when I see 
that the Magi poured gold around the cradle of Christ, 
and I see that Christians have left empty the Altar 
of the Body of Christ f ." 

St. Proclus : "By such prayers then they looked 
for the descent of the Holy Ghost, that by His Divine 
Presence, He might make and declare the Bread of 
fered for sacrifice, and the wine mingled with water, 
that very Body and Blood of our Saviour Jesus Christ ; 
which takes place no less even until now, and shall 
take place unto the end of the world g ." 

St. Leo : " Since the Lord says, Except ye eat the 
Flesh of the Son of Man, and drink His Blood, ye 
have no life in you/ ye ought so to communicate of 
the holy Table as to doubt nothing of the truth of 
the Body and Blood of Christ ; for by the mouth is 
that received which is by faith believed; and vainly 
is Amen answered by them who dispute against what 
they receive h ." " They neither learn by hearing, nor 
understand by reading, what in the Church of God 
is so concordantly in the mouth of all, that not even 
by tongues of babes is the truth of the Body and 
Blood of Christ in the Sacrament of the Communion 
passed over in silence \" 

d Serm. 71. e Ibid. 95. f Ibid. 103. * Tract, de 

Tradit. Liturg. Div. h Serm. 91. l Up. lix. ad Cler. 

et Pleb. Const., 2. 



535 



St. Nilus : "A leaf of paper made of pap} r rus and 
size, is called mere (^ln\b$) paper, but when it receives 
the signature of the Emperor, it is (as is well known) 
called Sacra. So conceive with me also of the Divine 
Mysteries, that before the Intercession of the Priest, 
and the descent of the Holy Ghost, the oblations are 
mere (-tyi\ov) bread and common (/cotvov) wine; but 
that, after those dread invocations, and the coming of 
the Adorable, Good, and Life-giving Spirit, the Obla 
tions, laid on the Holy Table, are no more mere 
(^L\OV) bread and common (KOLVOV) wine, but the Pre 
cious and Immaculate Body and Blood of Christ, the 
God of all, purifying from all iniquity those who 
communicate with fear and great longing k ." " Then 
[the Angels] dispersed hither and thither over the 
whole holy House, co-operating, each of them, with 
the Bishops, Priests, and all the Deacons, there pre 
sent, who were administering the Body and venerable 
Blood, they aided and strengthened them V " Let 
us not approach to that Mystic Bread, as to mere bread 
(tyi\<x> apra). For It is the Flesh of God; Flesh 
Venerable, and Adorable, and Life-giving. For It 
quickens men dead in sins m ." 

St. James, of Sarug : " From what time He took 
it [the bread] and called it His Body, it was not 
bread, but His Body, and they ate it, marvelling ; 
eating His Body, and He lay with them at the 
table, and drinking His Blood, and hearing the 

k 1. i. Ep. 44. i L ii. Up. 294. m 1. iii. Up. 39. 



536 ARTICLE XXVIII. 



voice of His teaching n ." Again, on the Real Pre 
sence : " Our Lord divided His Body with His own 
Hands at the table, and who dareth to say now that 
it was not His Body? He said, This is My Body/ 
and who averreth it not? If any aver it not, he is 
no disciple of the Apostolate. The Apostles averred 
it, and whilst He was alive, and lay at table with Him, 
they ate Him." He adds the reason : " Faith stoops 
not to questionings. She knows how to accredit : to 
scrutinize she never learnt. The chosen disciples were 
anxious to hold true what the Son said ; not, to scruti 
nize or ask as shameless ones. The bread which He 
brake, and called His Body, they knew to be His 
Body : and so they accounted it, as if in very deed 
its Blood were trickling ." 

After stating the Supper of the Lord to be a Sacra 
ment of our redemption by Christ s death, the Article 
proceeds, " Insomuch that to those who rightly, wor 
thily, and with faith receive the same, the Bread which 
we break is a partaking of the Body of Christ." 

Admitting the distinction of a Sacrament being 
generally necessary, necessitate medii and necessitate prce- 
cepti, and holding that the Holy Eucharist is thus 
necessary on the latter ground p , it will be seen that 
to a beneficial reception, everything must be done 
which is necessary to secure on man s part the sub 
jective appropriation of the work of Christ. If Christ 

n Serm. 66, de Pass. Horn, in Antirrhet., 2, cap. 9, p. 46, S.Ephr. 
Opp. Syr. t. ii. 
Ibid., c. 12, p. 50. P Lugo. De Euch., Dist. iii. 11. 



537 



on the cross be the Objective Atonement, Christ in the 
Holy Mysteries rightly, worthily, and with faith re 
ceived is its subjective appropriation. The import 
ance of these words cannot be exaggerated. First, 
the sacrament must be received rite, all that the 
Church requires in the way of previous preparation 
of repentance, according to the present discipline of 
the Church, must be gone through. " Let a man ex 
amine himself, and so let him eat of that bread." He 
must interpose between his sins and the Holy Mys 
teries such means as the Church has laid down in 
different times, to secure a prosperous approach. This 
has varied in different times. The penitential Canons 
shew this in the early Church ; in the modern Roman 
and Greek Church alike auricular confession is obliga 
tory before Communion in case of every mortal sin ; 
whereas the Anglican Church admits all on contrition, 
with the practice of confession in case of an unquiet con 
science, and of consequent scruple or doubtfulness, viz. 
whether a person should or should not communicate. 

And next it must be received digne. This applies to 
the inward disposition of the heart. Not till a man is 
really contrite for his sins is he justified in approaching 
the Lord s Body. Confession and absolution without 
a hearty sorrow for sin, springing, at least, from de 
testation of its foulness, will not avail to destroy the 
past. We must repent for the love of Jesus, because 
we have offended the kindest and tenderest of friends, 
the Spouse and Lover of our immortal souls. Charity 
is the form of contrition. The supernatural love of 



538 ARTICLE XXVIII. 



God is that which gives life to the sorrow for the past, 
which otherwise would work death, as the Apostle 
bears witness. Hence true sorrow for sin is lifelong, 
and hence, in spite of the fullest faith in the ordinances 
of grace and the fulfilment of the Lord s promises, the 
cry of the penitent Christian is still "Amplius lava 
me ab iniquitate mea," and he dies crying to his 
Master, " Dimitte nobis debita nostra." 

The question of " with faith" shall be treated more 
at length as we proceed in considering the Article. 

The doctrine of the real objective Presence being 
certainly true, as being contained in our Blessed Lord s 
own words, "This is My Body;" and attested by the 
whole Christian Church from the times of the Apostles q , 
it follows that some sort of change must have taken 
place as to the elements through consecration. " Be 
fore," as St. Athanasius says, " bare (fyikbs) is the 
Bread and the Cup ; but, upon consecration, the Bread 
becometh the Body ; the Cup, the Blood of our Lord 
Jesus Christ 1 ." 

This change was, in the oldest time, expressed by 
the simplest terms 8 ; "It is," "It becomes;" or, in 
prayer to God, " consecrate," " perfect," " appoint," 
"make 8 ." The Liturgy of St. Chrysostom, and others 
following him, use the words, " changing by Thy 
Spirit." There are also other more emphatic, yet 

i See Dr. Pusey, " The Real Presence of the Body and Blood of our 
Lord Jesus Christ the Doctrine of the English Church;" and "The 
Defence of the Bishop of Brechin." 

r See ahove, p. 511. 8 See Dr. Pusey, pp. 252254. 



OF THE LORD S SUPPER. 539 

rare words, occurring once or twice only in each father 
who used them, " transmake," " transelement," " trans- 
fashion," "re-order," " transfigure," "transfer*." 

Against any of these, the English Church has never 
made any exception ; but only to a specified sense of 
the word " transubstantiate," which is popularly taken, 
not as implying a change in the ovala, or " essence," 
of a material thing, but the desition of the material 
substances of which that creature of God is composed. 
The word, "substance," "substantially," came to have 
stress laid upon it through the heresy of Berenger. 
That talented, bountiful, but vain-glorious and dis 
honest man, used the terms of the Church in an 
unreal sense. He made no difficulty in professing 
that " the Bread of the Altar, after consecration, is the 
very Body of Christ, which was born of the Yirgin, 
which suffered on the Cross, which sitteth at the right 
hand of the Father ; and the Wine of the Altar, after it 
is consecrated, is the true Blood, which flowed from 
the side of Christ u ." But he meant, (as he explains him- 



once by St. Gregory of Nyssa, and once by Theodoret, 
translating St. Ambrose; /ieTacrro^eiJco once in the same passage of 
St. Greg. Nyss. ; pra#vtyJ$M and neraa-Kevafa, each once by St. 
Chrysostom; " trans figure" twice by St. Ambrose; "trausfero" iu 
the Gallican Sacramentary. 

u This was in the Council of Lateran, 1078. (See Martene and 
Durand, Thes. Nov. Anecd., iv. 103.) Berenger states that the con- 
lession was accepted by Gregory VI., as clearing him from heresy at 
a convention of Bishops, on All Saints Day [A.D. 1078]; that in 
a Council in the following Lent this amended form was substituted : 
" I believe in my heart and confess with my mouth, that the Bread and 
Wine, which are placed on the Altar, are, by the mystery of holy 
and by the words of our Redeemer, substantially converted into 



540 ARTICLE XXVIII. 



self,) only by representation x ; he assailed impetuously 
the belief, that the Body of Christ, which is at the 

the irue and proper and life-giving Body and Blood of Jesus Christ 
our Lord; and are, after consecration, the true Body of Christ, which 
was born of a Virgin, and which, offered for the salvation of the world, 
hung upon the Cross, and which sitteth on the right hand of the 
Father, and the true Blood of Christ, which was shed from His side, not 
only by the sign and virtue of the Sacrament, but in its own proper na 
ture, and the truth of its substance." (Ib. 104.) Berenger, after explain 
ing these words away in his own fashion, says that he declined accept 
ing them as an exposition of his meaning, understanding that the Pope 
was satisfied with his own statement, but that finding he was required 
to own, and "did own, prostrate on the ground, that" he "had up 
to that time erred, in that when" he " said of the sacrifice of the 
Church, that the Bread and Wine consecrated on the altar are the 
Body and Blood of Christ/" he "had not added, * substantially/ " 
This he recanted. (Ib., pp. 108, 109.) 

* The following statements, from his second answer to Lanfranc, 
are pure Calvinism, but they agree with what Lanfranc says of him at 
an earlier period : " Not seen are the Body and Blood of Christ, which 
are laid up in heaven, because if before the time of the restitution of all 
things thou layest down that the Flesh of Christ can, (I say not, be seen 
by the bodily eyes,) but be anywhere upon the earth, thou dost against 
the prophecy of David, against the Apostle Peter, against his co- Apostle 
Paul, against all authentic Scripture. But thou dost lay down, that 
the Flesh of Christ, being called down (devocatam\ is, before the time 
of the restitution of all things, present, when thou assertest that the 
faithful receive nothing else from the altar except the Flesh and Blood 
of Christ (sensualiter), which is so against the grounds of faith, that none 
of the faithful ought to think that he receives to the refreshment of his 
soul ought save the Flesh of his Lord God, whole and entire. Yet not 
called down from heaven, but abiding in heaven, which no reason 
allows to take place by the mouth of the body ; but that it should be 
done by that most enlarged devotion of the heart, cleansed to see God, 
is hindered by no indignity, by no difficulties; to which, i.e. to the 
devotion of the heart, to the gaze of the soul, St. Ambrose necessarily 
draws you, (will you, nill you,) in the book wherein he exhorts to 
receive the Sacrament of the altar." (Bereng. de S. Coena adv. Lanfr., 
pp. 157, 158, ed. Neander.) 



541 



right hand of God, is brought down thence so as to be 
present here ?. He rejects contemptuously the belief of 

" Christ the Lord requires of thee, that thou shouldest believe that by 
His most pitying love towards the human race, it was wrought that He 
shed His Blood, and, by so believing, shouldest wash thee from all sin by 
His Blood (sanguine for sanguinem) ; He requires that, having ever in 
memory that same Stood of Christ, thou shouldest place the life of thy 
inner self in it, as a viaticum to accomplish the journey of this life, as 
thou settest the life of thy outer self in external food and drink." 
Then, after speaking of Baptism, " He requires that through the bodily 
eating and drinking, which takes place through the outward things, the 
bread and wine, thou admonish thyself of the spiritual eating and 
drinking, which takes place in the mind from the Body and Blood of 
Christ, while thou refreshest thyself in thy inner self with the Incarna 
tion and Passion of the Lord, that according to the humility whereby the 
Word was made Flesh, and the patience whereby He shed His Blood, 
thou form the life of thy inner self with what humility thou oughtest, be 
eminent in what patience thou oughtest, that thou acquiesce in them, 
rejoice in them, as, in thy outer self, thou acquiescest in thy food and 
drink. For thou hast no reason to shrink from eating bread and drink 
ing wine, because it is, as St. Ambrose says in this very treatise on the 
Sacraments, a wonted and known creature. But making an inference 
from the washing, which takes place in regeneration through the Blood 
of Christ, in the refreshment of the altar, he says, as thou hast 
received the likeness of death, so thou drinkest the likeness of His 
precious Blood." (Ibid., pp. 222, 223.) Lanfranc had charged him with 
this, in his answer to the recantation of the confession, to which he 
swore at the Council of Rome : " Thou boldest that the bread and wine 
of the Lord s table, at the consecration, remain, as to the substance, 
immoveable. That is, that they were bread and wine before consecra 
tion, and are bread and wine after consecration, and that they are 
therefore called the Flesh and Blood of Christ, because they are cele 
brated in the Church in memory of the crucified Flesh, and of the Blood 
shed from His side, that we, being thereby admonished, may ever have 
in mind the Passion of the Lord, and, so bearing it in mind, may un 
ceasingly crucify our flesh with its vices and affections." Lanfranc well 
adds, " If these things be true, the Sacraments of the Jews were better 
and Diviner than the Sacraments of Christians." (B. P. xviii. 775, fin.) 

y See in note x. He had said in his former book, " Who caa either 



542 ARTICLE XXVIII. 



Lanfranc in an actual substantial Presence, which he 
repeatedly calls by a scoffing term, (of which he knew 
that it did not express that belief,) " portiuncula 
carnis et sanguinis z ." The term " substantialiter," 
which he complains of being required to add to his 
confession at the Synod at Rome, was necessary to 
prevent evasion, in that he confessed that the Bread 

conceive by reason, or grant that by miracle it could come to pass, that 
bread is broken in the Body of Christ, which [Body], after the Resur 
rection, is perfect with entire incorruptibility, and, unto the time of the 
restitution of all things, remains in heaven indevocable" (B. P. xviii. 
770, in Lanfr. de Corp. Dom., c. 17.) Lanfranc answers, "As to this, 
that thou opposest the incorruption of the Lord s Body, and that, until 
the Day of Judgment, it cannot be called down (devocari) from heaven, 
as a ground of impossibility to our faith, whereby we believe that He 
is truly eaten by His faithful, thou either dost not understand our faith, 
or understanding it, strivest, by expounding it amiss, to deprave it 
to thy own destruction. For we in such wise believe that our Lord 
Jesus Christ is truly and healthfully eaten by those who receive wor 
thily, as to hold most assuredly that He exists in the heavenly places, 
undefiled, uncorrupt, uninjured/ 

z The phrase occurs so often in his second book against Lanfranc, as 
evidently to have been a favourite term of reproach with him. He uses 
it also twice in his answer to Adelmann : " Mine, or rather the cause of 
the Scriptures, stood thus, that the Bread and Wine of the Lord s table, 
is not sensualiter, in a way cognisable by the senses, but intellectually, not 
by absumption, but by assumption, is changed, not into a portiuncula 
carnis against the Scriptures, but, according to the Scriptures, into the 
whole Body and Blood of Christ." And " it is not the opinion but the 
insanity of Paschasius and the vulgar, that in the altars a portiuncula 
of the Flesh of the Lord is now, too, broken with the hands, is now, too, 
crushed by the teeth of the outer man." (Epist. Purgator. c. Almann 
in Martene and Durand. Thes. Nov., t. iv. p. 111.) His meaning under 
the term portiuncula must be, that whereas, according to his own 
opinion, he fed on Christ whole and entire, at the right hand of God, 
only a portiuncula of His Body and Blood could be present under the 
consecrated species. He calls it " particula carnis Christi" (lb.) 



543 



and "Wine were the Body and Blood of Christ, but 
only as reminding us of them. It was the conviction 
of his contemporaries that this was his heresy % and the 

a Adelmann states to Berenger what was said of him, both in Italy and 
Germany, that he seemed to think " of the Body and Blood of Christ, 
immolated daily on the holy Altars throughout the earth, otherwise 
than the Catholic faith holds ; viz., (to use their words of thee) that 
there is neither true Body of Christ nor true Blood, but a certain 
figure and similitude." (Ep. ad Bereng., B. P. xviii. 438.) Berenger, 
in his answer, evades this by saying that he "was never a Manichsean; 
i.e. that he believed that the Body of Christ was true and human." He 
adds, " When I grant that anything is given [dari, Mab.] to become the 
Body of Christ, then, since Christ had only a true Body, I must grant 
that it becomes the true Body of Christ. But I grant that the Bread 
and Wine of the Altar, after consecration, become, according to the 
Scriptures, the Body and Blood of Christ ; and therewith I cannot but 
grant that the Bread and Wine are made to faith and intellect the true 
Body and Blood of Christ." Distinguishing the res sacramentorum 
from the sacramenta, he says: "it is true nevertheless that the true 
Body of Christ is set forth on the very Table, but spiritually true to the 
inner man; that in it [the Table] the Body of Christ is spiritually eaten 
uncorrupted, uncontaminated, unattrite, by those only who are mem 
bers of Christ." (Epist. Purg. c. Almann., p. 110.) See also ab. note x. 
Hugo, Bishop of Langres, writes to him, " Thou sayest, speaking too 
largely, * In this Sacrament the Body of Christ is in such wise, that 
the nature and essence of the Bread and Wine is not changed/ and 
thou makest the Body, which thou hadst said was crucified, intellectual, 
wherein it is most evident that thou confessest it incorporeal." ( Tract, 
de corp. et sang. Christi cont. Berengar., B. P. xviii. 417.) Abbot Durand 
treats the explanation of the Berengarians as mere colouring of their 
heresy. [Satan] "has persuaded some to think, and with cunning whis 
pers to convey to others, that nothing in the Sacraments of the Lord is 
done according to truth, but rather that everything is enacted in figure 
and likeness. Who, cunningly to free themselves of the suspicion of 
heresy, and to shew their agreement with the Lord s teaching, cloak 
themselves with this cunning act, and so, tampering, colour their dogma 
of profane novelty, as to say that the Bread and Wine, which are 
brought to the altar, after consecration too, remain what they had 
been, and so are, in a manner, the Body and true Blood of Christ, not 



544 ARTICLE XXVIII. 



Catechism of the Council of Trent says, that the cor- 

naturally, but figuratively. But if this great perverseness be anywise 
admitted, that in the mysteries of the Lord there be believed to be no 
truth, but a shadoivy falsehood is alone maintained, what remains but 
that the whole teaching of the Christian profession perish ?" ( De corp. 
et sang. Dom., P. i., Bibl. P. xviii. 420.) "God forbid that we should 
be joined in like faithlessness with men so perverted, and from the 
truth itself averted, and in the Holy Communion of the Lord s Body 
and Blood, we should confess aught less than the Catholic Church 
throughout the whole world preaches; in which there is, in truth, as 
true Flesh of Christ and true Mood as Christ Himself is truthful, 
Who first sanctified them, and gave to His own thereafter the autho 
rity and form of sanctifying them by His own power. * (Ib., P. ii. p. 421.) 
" It being understood that thou didst extol John Scot [Erigena], con- 
demnest Paschasius, boldest things contrary to the common faith of the 
Church, a sentence of condemnation was promulgated against thee, 
depriving thee of the communion of the Holy Church, which thou 
busiedst thyself to deprive of its Holy Communion." (Lanfranc (to 
Berenger) de corp. et sang. Dom., c. 3, B. P. xviii. 765.) " Berenger, of 
Angers, formed a heresy after his own name, and contrary to Evangelic 
truth, presumed to deny the truth of the Body and Blood of the Lord ; 
asserting that, in the sacrifice of the Lord, the Bread and Wine are not 
really or essentially, but figuratively only, converted into the Body and 
Blood of the Lord. Pope St. Leo IX. then diligently examined the heresy 
by the general judgment of a synod, and, after examination, condemned 
it by a synodal judgment. Berenger himself he deprived of the com 
munion of the Church, which he by his assertions wished to deprive of 
the communion of the Lord s Body and Blood. Then he summoned 
him to be heard at the then approaching synod, to be held on the next 
September at Vercella3. The Apostolicus by synodal judgment condemned 
the opinion of Berenger, and the book of John Scotus on the Body of 
the Lord, under anathema, and confirmed the faith, which all Catholics 
have hitherto had and still have, of the truth of the Body and Blood of 
the Lord." " At the General Synod at Tours, Berenger anathematized 
under oath his own heresy, and under the same oath promised that he 
would thenceforth keep the common faith of the holy Church, as to the 
truth of the Body and Blood of the Lord." (Auct. de Berengarii 
damnatione multiplici (written A.D. 1088, the year of Berenger s death) 
in Cone. xi. 1425, ed. Col.) Of the Joannes Scotus, whom Berengcr 



or THE LORD S SUPPER. 545 

rection of this error was the object of the definition of 

professed himself ready to vindicate, Ascalinus says that he argued 
vehemently against the Real Presence. "I see that John Scotus 
strains with every nerve and his whole intent to this alone, viz., that 
this which is consecrated on the Altar is neither truly the Body nor 
truly the Blood of Christ. This he endeavours to establish from works 
of the Fathers, which he explains perversely : as the prayer of St 
Gregory, Let Thy Sacraments, O Lord, perfect in us what they con 
tain, that what we act in figure, we may receive in real trnth. In ex 
pounding this the aforesaid John, among other things contrary to the 
faith, says, these things are done in (specie) appearance, not in truth. " 
Theodosius, in his letter to Henry I. of France, states the heresy to be 
that they [Bruno, Bishop of Angers, and Berenger, of Tours] maintain 
that the Body of the Lord is not so much a body as a figure and 
shadow of the Lord s Body. (Cone. xi. 1437, Col.) Guitmund alone 
says that some of his disciples ascribed to him " impanation." In 
answer to Roger, who mentions the common belief, "Berenger and 
those who follow him assert that the Eucharist of the Lord is not truly 
and substantially the Body and Blood of the Lord, but is only called 
so, because it is a sort of shadow and figure significant of the Body 
and Blood of the Lord," Guitmund says, that as far as he could 
extract from some Berengarians, " some say that there was nothing 
whatever of the Body and Blood of the Lord in that Sacrament, but 
that they are only shadows and figures. But gome, ceding to the right 
reasons of the Church, yet not receding from their folly, that they may 
seem to be in some measure with us, say that the Body and Blood of 
the Lord are there really contained but in a hidden way, and that they 
may be received (so to speak) impanated. And this they say is the 
more subtle mind of Berengarius himself." (De corp. et sang. Christi 
veritate in JSuch., L.i. B. P. xviii. 441.) Undoubtedly Berenger often 
veiled his attack on the doctrine of the Real Presence, under the sem 
blance of an attack on the belief that that which decayed was the Body 
of Christ. The then belief of some (e.g. of Guitmund himself) that the 
Holy Eucharist did not nourish, and that the consecrated elements 
never decay (Guitmund, ib., L. ii.), which the Roman Church has aban 
doned, gave him an advantage in this respect, in that some of his 
opponents shrunk back from an evident truth. But no one, I think, 
who knows Berenger s utter dishonesty, can doubt that this was but 
a veil of his real attack. The expression, too, of horror at his blas- 

N n 



546 ARTICLE XXVIII. 



the Council of Lateran b . And, accordingly, the Canon 
uses the word, " is transubstantiated/ but the whole 
stress is on the Eeal Presence. " c The Same is the 
Priest and the Sacrifice, Jesus Christ, Whose Body and 
Blood in the Sacrament of the Altar are truly contained 
under the species of Bread and Wine ; the Bread being 
transubstantiated into the Body, and the Wine into 
His Blood, that for the perfecting of the mystery of 
unity, we may receive of His, what He received of ours 
[Flesh and Blood]." In the writings against Berenger, 
"truly" and "essentially" are used as equivalent to 
"substantially d ." 

Lanfranc, when appealing against Berenger to the 

phcmies (See Cone. Brion. Cone. xi. 1430, Cone. Paris., ib., 1436) is not 
jikely to have been elicited, had there been a reverent acknowledgment 
of the Heal Presence. 

b " Another means remains by which we may investigate the judgment 
of the Church on matters of faith, viz., the condemnation of the con 
trary doctrine and opinion : but it is a known fact that so universally 
diffused and disseminated throughout the Universal Church at all times, 
and so unanimously received by all the faithful, was the belief of the 
Real Presence of Christ s Body in the Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist, 
that when, five hundred years since, Berengarius dared to deny it, 
asserting that it was only a sign of Christ s Body, he having been 
promptly condemned by the unanimous voice of the Council of Vercellee, 
convoked by the authority of Leo IX., anathematized his heresy; sub 
sequently returning to the same impious madness, was condemned by 
three other Councils, one held at Tours, the other two at Eome, of 
which latter two, one was convened by Nicholas II., the other by 
Gregory VII. ; the same sentence was afterwards confirmed by Innocent 
III. in the great Council of Lateran; and the faith of the same truth 
was subsequently more openly declared and established by the Councils 
of Florence and Trent." (Cat. Rom., p. ii. c. 4, qu. 29.) 

c Cone. Lat., iv. can. 1. d See above, note a. 



OF THE LOIID S SUPPER. 547 

faith of the Church throughout the world, uses no 
other language than we should use now. What he 
affirms of Latins, Greeks, Armenians, and all who are 
called Christians, he might have affirmed of us now. 
" If that is true which thou believest and supportest as 
to the Body of Christ, false is that which is believed 
and supported thereon by the Church throughout the 
world. For all who rejoice in being, and being called, 
Christians, glory that they receive in this Sacrament 
the true Flesh of Christ and His true Blood, both 
taken from the Virgin. Ask all who have received 
any knowledge of the Latin language and of our 
letters. Ask Greeks, Armenians, or any Christians 
whatsoever, of whatsoever nation, they attest with 
one mouth, that this is their faith e ." 

It is self-evident that the English Article does not 
go directly against the Council of Lateran : (1.) be 
cause the term " transubstantiatio" is a subordinate 
part of the Lateran Canon ; (2.) because, (as we shall 

e Adv. Bereng., c. 22, B. P. xviii. 776. In like way we should all 
subscribe to Ascalin s protest to Berenger : " With Paschasius and 
other Catholics, I am not only minded, but with veneration I receive 
that the Very Body and Very Blood are taken by the faithful on the 
Altar under the species of Bread and Wine." (Epist. ad Bereng. in 
Cone. xi. 1434, Col. Again, "We ought not to wonder or doubt that 
God can effect, that this which is consecrated on the Altar, is by the 
virtue of God the Holy Ghost, and the ministry of the Priest, united 
to that Body, which our Redeemer took of the Virgin Mary, (since each 
is a corporeal substance, each is visible,) if we remember that we our 
selves are compacted of a corporeal and incorporeal, of a mortal and im 
mortal substance ; if, lastly, we firmly believe that the Divine and 
Human Nature met in One Person. Let dust and ashes unfold to me 
the explanation of the first and second, and then let it think that 
it suffices to make clear the first." (Ib., 1435.) 



548 ARTICLE XXVIII. 



see hereafter) even of the statement in which it occurs, 
our Article does not even touch upon the most im 
portant part, the change "into the substance of the 
Body and Blood of Christ;" (3.) because there is 
ground to think that two entirely distinct meanings, 
and those not having the slightest bearing upon one 
another, have been given to the word " substance." 

The solution of what difficulty remains will be found 
in the meaning attached to that word. Does the 
word mean natural substance ? the component parts, 
the constitutive principles which chemistry makes 
known to us, or is it the subtle essence, subsistence, 
the ova la, which corresponds to personality in men 
and angels ? This can only be determined by a com 
parison of the Article with other documents of the 
Church, and with the context of the Article itself. 

I. The other document of the Church in which the 
doctrine of Transubstantiation is treated of is the 
Black Rubric at the end of the Communion Service, 
the history of which forms a significant commentary 
on our exposition. 

It is well known that a declaration in form like this, 
but containing a mighty and vital difference, was, with 
out the consent of the Church, and apparently without 
any authority but that of the Privy Council, appended 
to King Edward s Second Book. It had apparently 
been discussed among the bishops, and no deter 
mination come to, and at last, before publication, it 
was put out and bound up with that edition of the 
Prayer-book. 



540 



It disappeared from the Prayer-book of Queen Eliza 
beth, and was not taken in by King James. 

At the last revisal in Charles the Second s time, to 
meet as far as possible the scruples of the Puritans, 
on their petition, it was agreed f that the Declaration 
should be for the first time assumed into the Prayer- 
book by competent authority as we should now hold, 
but a total and radical change was made before it was 
deemed orthodox and admissible. The courtiers of 
King Edward had denied that there was any " real or 
essential presence there being of Christ s natural flesh 
and blood." The divines of King Charles could not 
assent to this, so they altered the words, into "any 
corporal presence of Christ s natural flesh and blood." 
The emphatic word here is " corporal/ which is a very 
different thing. Heal or essential implies the quidditas 
or substantia of the Schoolmen j corporal, one of the 
qualities of the same. 

Now in this document we find that it is not the 
metaphysical ova La that we are concerned with, but 
the natural substance. "The Sacramental Bread and 
Wine remain still in their very natural substances." 
Natural substance here is equivalent to the cfrvcris, or 
natura, of Pope Gelasius and Theodoret. 

II. The context of the Article further confirms this 
interpretation. 

Four results are said to spring from it. Four con 
comitants are in the tenor of the Article said to attend 

Cardwell s Confer., p. 322. 



550 ARTICLE XXVIII. 



upon Tran substantiation. 1. That it cannot be proved 
by Holy Writ ; 2. that it is repugnant to the plain 
words of Scripture ; 3. that it overthroweth the nature 
of a Sacrament ; 4. that it has given occasion to super 
stition. 

1. and 2. Now it is perfectly clear, that so far from 
the fjieTa/BoXr) in the Holy Sacrament being improbable 
on the grounds of the letter of Scripture, it is the sacra 
mental theory which comes nearest to that letter ; for 
our Lord did not say, This is joined with My Body/ or 
this signifies My Body/ or this represents My Body/ 
or this has the power and efficacy of My Body/ but 
"This is My Body/ It is evident that the letter 
of Holy Bible alludes to a deep inward mysterious 
change, whereby what was bread is called, and is, 
Christ s Body. 

"The Bread and the Wine is not TUTTO? of the 
Body and Blood of Christ. God forbid. But it is the 
very (avro) deified Body of that very (avrov) Lord, 
who said, This is of Me, not the type of the Body, 
but the Body, and not the type of the Blood, but the 
Blood *." 

Yet the plain words of Scripture, in that they 
freely use the word "bread" to describe the Blessed 
Sacrament after consecration, go against the desition 
of the siynum therein. 

3. The Article does not charge Transubstantiation 
with the common incorrect argument thaif,it contra- 

* St. John Dam., Orth.fid., 1. iv. c. 13. 



551 



diets the senses, but that it overthrows the nature 
of a Sacrament. Now this greatly helps us in our 
view that it is not the abstract theory of a change, but 
the incorrect physics which are condemned. Such 
a change only is excepted against, as would involve 
a physical desition of what before existed in such wise, 
that the visible sign of That which is invisible should 
have no real existence. 

There is no argument so strong against this abuse 
of the Scholastic theory of Transubstantiation as the 
natural one, connected with the thought of its de 
stroying the nature of a Sacrament, derived from the 
controversies of the fifth century with regard to the 
Natures and Person of our Lord. The Monophysite 
heretics wished to teach that our Lord s Body was 
now changed into a Divine substance, and they illus 
trated it by the supernatural change of the sacramental 
symbols. This was met in the face by Orthodoxus : 
" You are taken in the net which you have woven ; 
the mystic symbols do not, after consecration, depart 
from their own nature; they continue in the former 
essence and shape, and are visible and palpable as 
before; but in thought they are conceived, and be 
lieved, and adored, as being those things which are 
the objects of faith h ." 

The same assertion is made by Pope Gelasius in his 
treatise De Dudbus Naturis, a tractate which, though 
doubted by some Horn an theologians, is quoted by 
St. Fulgentius only nine years after its publication, 

h Tlieodoret, Eranistcs. 



552 ARTICLE XXVIII. 



and therefore must be genuine. An indirect argument 
like this stands on the ground of circumstantial evi 
dence, which, though hardly a safe guide where none 
other exists, adds indefinitely to certainty when it 
operates in confirming direct testimony. Granting 
the existence of that whole class of authors who 
admit that in the Holy Eucharist there is an earthly 
and a heavenly nature, this incidental argument comes 
in with tremendous power, nothing having been less 
in the mind of the authors at the time, than to make 
any declaration on the subject, so vexed in after times, 
i.e. the desition of the signum in the Holy Eucharist. 

And yet if this analogy is quoted for the continued 
existence of the signum, it is only just that it should 
be extended to that which is supplied by the similitude 
of the entire doctrine of the Incarnation. Given that 
our Lord exists in two natures, there is but one Divine 
personality which determines the mode of existence of 
tho se natures. Analogically, therefore, given that the 
two natures remain in the Blessed Sacrament, the per 
sonal existence of it must be Divine, and therefore the 
soul will not rest in the outward sign, but will rise to 
the thought of the Thing signified, and dwell therein 
by faith and loving contemplation. It is as a result of 
this that the Fathers, when they speak of the Holy 
Sacrament, speak of it only by the name of the in 
ward part. 

4. The last assertion is that the coarse view of Tran- 
substantiation has given rise to many superstitions. 
This goes very much to enforce what has been said 



553 



above. People would not have asserted that any honour 
was superstitious which was paid to the Presence of 
our Lord in the Sacrament, but they would say that it 
was superstitious to use the blessed Sacrament for pur 
poses for which it never was intended, and which have 
never been sanctioned by the Church; for example, 
it would be superstitious to bury the Sacrament with 
the dead, or to mix It with ink for the purpose of 
signing the condemnation of a heretic, as was done in 
the case of the Synod of Rome in 648, in the matter of 
the Monothelites. 

Again, it would not be superstitious to believe, that 
as in the case at Bolsena, (assuming the circumstance 
to be true,) our Lord attested the truth of His pre 
sence in the Sacrament by an appearance of blood ; but 
it would be superstitious to believe that that appearance 
was physical, that it was our Lord s Blood, and as such 
be received. And so, it would be superstitious to be 
lieve that those appearances of Christ as a little child 
in the Sacrament, which have been said from time to 
time to have been vouchsafed to God s servants, was 
the actual body of our Lord in its natural condition. 

All that the letter of the Article denies, is that by 
virtue of the words of consecration such a change 
takes place in the proportions and conditions of the 
elemental substances now mentioned, that the same 
component parts which before made up the forces of 
bread, now make those of flesh and blood. This is not 
the case even as to human food. Bread and Wine are 
commuted into flesh and blood; but the same physical 



554 



AIITICLE XXVIII. 



component parts are not present in each *. Much less 
have we any occasion to think of anything so earthly, 
under the name " substance," i.e. " essence" of Bread 
and Wine, since it is confessed on all hands that " our 
Saviour Himself ever sitteth at the Eight Hand of the 
Father in heaven, according to His natural mode of 
existence," while He is " sacramentally present with 
us by His own substance," not in any carnal way, but 
"by that mode of existing, which although we can 
hardly express in words, we may, through thought 
illumined by faith, understand to be possible to God V 
And here it is of moment to draw attention to an 
other important change in our present Article. Bishop 
Geste, who said of the Article, " that it was of mine 
owne pennynge," (that is, obviously so much of it as 
was new in the final revision), caused to be struck out 
all mention of the terminus ad quern, i.e. "into the 

The following analysis of the component parts of wheat, flesh, and 
blood, has been furnished to me by an eminent physiologist : 



Oxygen 

Hydrogen 

Carbon 

Nitrogen 

Sulphur 

Phosp. Lime and Magnesia 

Pot. and Soda, (Phosp., &c.) 

Chlor. Soda 

Iron (Ox. and Phosp.) 

Silicon 



k Cone. Trid., Sess. xiii. c. 1. 



"Wheat, 


Flesh, 


Blood, 


43-40 


21-39 


21-43 


5-80 


7-57 


7-17 


46-10 


51-83 


51-95 


2-29 


15-01 


15-07 


0-03 


0-03 


0-05 


1-06 


0-64 


0-29 


0-75 (potass) 


3-09 


1-17 


(Salt in bread) 


0-44 


2-40 


(?) occasional 


(?) 


0-47 


0-03 




o-oo 


accidental from 






husks. 






100-00 


100-00 


100-00 



555 



substance of Christ s Body and Blood ;" and restricted 
the rejection of the word Transubstantiation to the 
terminus a quo, "the change of the substance of the 
Bread and Wine." This alteration is much stronger 
than if the words which he omitted had never stood ; 
for the omission was a deliberate act. It shews evi 
dently that of the former complex explanation " the 
change of the substance of bread and wine into the 
substance of Christ s Body and Blood/ the only point 
excepted against was a change in the substance of 
Bread and Wine. 

It remains to consider what the Article means as 
to this, which alone remains as a difficulty. 

Substanti<2 is manifestly, by the force of term, some 
one thing. It concerns us not so far, whether it be 
material or immaterial ; only it may be observed that 
we do not know what matter itself is. Chemistry, 
whose employment is the analysis of the compound 
objects of which our senses are cognisant, has (at least 
as represented by one of its most eminent discoverers J ) 
set aside the idea that matter is compounded of atoms. 
He says, "To my mind a, or the nucleus, vanishes, 
and the substance consists of the powers, or m. And, 
indeed, what notion can we form of the nucleus, in 
dependent of its powers? All our perception and know 
ledge of the atom, and even our fancy, is limited to 
the ideas of its powers. What thought remains, on 
which to hang the imagination of an a, independent 

1 Professor Faraday, in a paper on the Nature of Matter, in the 
" Philosophical Magazine/ Feb., 1844, p. 141. 



556 ARTICLE XXVIII. 



of the acknowledged forces ? Now the powers we know 
and recognise in every phenomenon of the creation, 
the abstract matter in none; why, then, assume the 
existence of that, of which we are ignorant, which 
we cannot conceive, and for which there is no philo 
sophical necessity?" 

All which we know of are certain " forces." AVhat 
is the unity which holds them together we know not. 
But one thing cannot, at the same time and in the 
same sense, be many things. The substanti^ of bread 
and wine cannot be what we mean by the physical 
substances, i.e. all those component parts which are 
united in it. This is but to say that we use a singular 
and a plural in different senses. Every crumb of a 
piece of bread would, if detached, have its own sub- 
stantia ; but also every crumb of a piece of bread would 
have in it all those things which the whole has 
oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, &c. And the component 
parts, or, as we popularly call them, substances, can 
not be the same as substance. "Substance" is some 
thing beyond them. St. Thomas says that " substance 
is discerned by the intellect alone, and not by sense." 
But these component parts of bread may, by analysis, 
be made discernible by sense. Now what those who, 
believing our blessed Lord s Presence in the Sacrament 
of the Altar, alone desiderate, is, not to be required 
to believe what, in things of which the senses are 
cognisant, would contradict them. The Catechism of 
the Council of Trent meets these difficulties by saying, 
that " the Eucharist is, after consecration, called bread, 



557 



because it has the appearance, and still retains the 
quality, natural to bread, of supporting and nourishing 
the body" 1 . It says that this natural quality is retained, 
not that it is restored by the creation of fresh raateria, 
or by the bringing back of the old miraculously, or 
by any other miracle, which the explanations of the 
Schoolmen presupposed. All Christians must believe 
any miracle which comes to them by authority. But 
no authority is alleged for these. They are only 
opinions of the Schoolmen, and those, mutually con 
tradictory. This " natural power of nourishing," of 
which our senses are cognisant, is the only remaining 
property of natural substances, which the Anglican 
formularies can include, when they speak of the " bread 
and wine remaining in their natural substances," i.e. 
that they have all the characteristic properties which 
our senses can discern. Those formularies do not refer 
to any abstract questions about "substance." 

But now even natural philosophy comes in to our 
aid. It is pretty well agreed that material bodies con 
sist of a number of unextended forces. " Some of these 
forces are permanent, others are visible; for while 
the substance remains the same, the phenomena are 
perpetually varying. Each body, therefore, may be 
considered to be a collection of changeable forces, re 
sulting from the activity of a great substantial force. 
It is evident that the shifting forces may be looked 
upon as qualities, emanating and radiating from a 
central force, which is the permanent source of them 
m P. ii. c. 4, q. 38. 



558 ARTICLE XXVIII. 



all, and which is the substance. It is also clearly 
conceivable, that these forces should remain after the 
central force or substance is gone 11 ." 

Wow this is just the distinction which was needed. 
We do not at all understand what the ova-la or substan- 
tia of anything is. We can conceive that it is, not what 
it is. It seems, according to these last explanations, 
to be that, which constitutes a thing what it is, that 
which lies at the bottom of its being. It is deeper and 
more recondite than anything which affects our senses, 
even than those forces which "naturally support and 
nourish our bodies." If this be so, the question is at 
an end. There is but one belief as to the presence of 
Christ, that He, "our Saviour, Who now sitteth at the 
right hand of the Father in heaven according to His 
natural mode of existence, is yet present to us by His 
substance sacramentally ." The question has relation 
only to the Bread and Wine, what the Homan Church 
means by the " substantial* which it affirms to cease to 
remain, and we by the "substances" which we affirm 
to remain. If "substance" means no more than its 
Greek equivalent, ova la, "essence;" and if the term, 
" is transubstantiated," means no more than those old 
words, "becomes," "is;" and if, by it, the Roman 
Church only means to guard with greater accuracy our 
blessed Lord s words, " This is My Body," not contra 
dicting anything which we know by experience, not 
basing a theology upon a supposed illusion of our 

n Dalgairns, "The Holy Communion," App., note F., p. 423. 
Cone. Trid., 1. c. 



OF THE LORD S SUPPER. 559 

senses, but only asserting that that "quidditas" (what 
ever it be) whereby the bread was bread, is removed, 
leaving all those forces of which alone we are cogni 
sant, then, God be thanked, Who has said to a great 
mountain which stood between us, " Be thou a plain." 
There is nothing in such a statement which, our Article 
denies, or which could form a difficulty to any soul, 
which believed the blessed Presence of our Saviour, of 
His Body and His Blood. 

" The Body of Christ is given, taken, and eaten, in 
the Supper, only after an heavenly and spiritual 
manner." One cannot exaggerate the importance of 
the words given, taken, and eaten. " The Body of 
Christ," observe how completely the Article adopts 
the old nomenclature ; it does not say the Sacrament 
of the Body of Christ, but Corpus Christi, the Body of 
Christ, shewing that what was in a partial way de 
scribed in the beginning of the Article, from its effects 
as a partaking of the Body, is objectively the Body 
itself. "The Body of Christ" is first given, that is, by 
the Priest, or rather by the Great High-Priest, through 
the ministry of His earthly representative. It is next 
taken, first into the hand of the communicant, there 
fore the Body is something external to him who takes 
it; it is objective and independent of anything in him. 
It is Christ s Body before he takes it. It is given to 
him in what the Priest gives him, and that, the Article 
says, is the Body of Christ. The heavenly and spi 
ritual manner applies equally to all the three. It is 
given in a heavenly and spiritual manner, for the 



560 ARTICLE XXVIIT. 



whole action is supernatural. It is taken in a heavenly 
and spiritual manner, for we have here to do with the 
order of grace, not the order of nature. It is eaten 
after a heavenly and spiritual manner, for "It is the 
Spirit that quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing." 
The explanation of the term " only/ is best left to its 
author, Bishop Geste. 

Yet once more, the words, " The Body of Christ 
is given, taken, and eaten, only after a spiritual and 
heavenly manner," contain the doctrine of an Objec 
tive Presence. For it is said not only given and re 
ceived, which might imply something which takes 
place within the soul only, but given, taken, and eaten, 
which implies an external act on the part of the person 
receiving. The "taking" and " eating" are two dis 
tinct acts Q. 

i It is vain to say, as some have said, that this has no force. The 
very arguments used to disprove its force add to it. It has been said 
(and these are the strongest cases which they can produce) that even 
Calvin says, " Nihil dubito quin et Ipse vere porrigat et ego accipiam." 
Accipio, in Calvin s sense, is "receive," not "take." 

The formula of the Conference at Poissy (1561), " Confitemur Jesum 
Christum in coena nobis offerre, dare, et vere exhibere substantial!) sui 
corporis et ?anguinis, operatione Spiritus sancti, et nos recipere et edere 
spiritualiter et per fidem verum illud corpus quod pro nobis mortuum 
est" (quoted from Hospiniau, Hist. Sacram., ii. p. 520), was not 
a genuine, "reformed" statement, but a form in which the reformed 
statement had been re-moulded by the Roman Catholic theologian 
Despense. It has also an important qualification at the close, which 
Beza supplies in his account of the Conference. (Histoire Ecclesi- 
astique des Eglises Reformees, t. i. p. 382, ed. 1841.) Nothing could 
be more hollow than this attempt to state the Calvinistic doctrine, so 
that it might pass with the Queen Mother and the French politicians 
and the Galilean divines. 



OF THE LORD S SUPPER. 561 

The accurate language of this clause is further illus 
trated by what was deliberately rejected on revision. 
In the Articles of 1553, there had been a sentence in 
these terms : " Forasmuch as the truth of man s nature 
requireth that the body of one and the self-same man 
cannot be at one time in diverse places, but must needs 
be in one certain place : therefore the Body of Christ 
cannot be present at one time in many and diverse 
places. And because (as Holy Scripture doth teach) 
Christ was taken up into heaven, and there shall con 
tinue unto the end of the world, a faithful man ought 
not either to believe or openly to confess the real and 
bodily presence (as they term it) of Christ s flesh and 
blood in the Sacrament of the Lord s Supper." In the 
Parker Latin MS. of 1563, the following clause was 
here added, but struck out in the Synod : " Christus, 
in ccelum ascendens, corpori suo immortalitatem dedit, 
naturam non abstulit ; humane enim nature verita- 
tem (juxta Scripturas) perpetuo retinet, quam uno et 
definite loco esse, et non in multa, vel omnia simul 

The real meaning of this ambiguous statement is further illustrated 
by Beza himself: " Jesum Christum, verum Deum et verum hominem 
per visibilia signa nobis offerri, ut m entes nostrse fide in coelum, ubi 
mine e*t Christus, sublatse Ilium spiritualiter contemplentur, et omni 
bus Ip-dus bonis et thesauris perfruantur : idque tarn certo et vere quam 
nos videmus accipimus edimus et bibimus corporalia et visibilia signa. 5 * 
(Ib., p. 514.) Beza s party explained the "Sancti Spiritus opera - 
tione" to be that "fide et Spiritus S. .operatione, mentes nostra3, quarum 
hie est prsecipue cibus, in coelum elatse perfruantur corpore et sanguine 
praesente." (Ib., p. 521.) Beza also maintains, " Quserendum esse in 
ccena Christum eo modo quo esset antequam carnena induisset." 
(Ib., p. 513.) 





562 ARTICLE XXVIII. 



loca difFundi, oportet. Quum igitur Christus in coelum 
sublatus ibi usque ad finem seculi permansurus, atque 
inde, non aliunde, (ut loquitur Augustinus,) venturus 
sit, ad judicandum vivos et mortuos, non debet quis- 
quani fidelium, et carnis ejus et sanguinis, realem et 
Corporalem (ut loquuntur) prsesentiam in Eucharistia 
vel credere vel profiteri r ." The dogmatic importance 
of these deliberate rejections must not be undervalued. 

The clause in the Article which we are consider 
ing, contains first the fact that the subject we have 
treated of is the Body of Christ in the Supper. And 
all the assertions made concerning it are that its 
mode of existence is absolutely supernatural. What 
is heavenly and spiritual cannot be liable to the laws 
of physics. It is something emphatically mysterious. 
The relation of the Body of Christ to the species of 
Bread and Wine is so wondrous that the mind fails 
to grasp it, and only dares to use language with re 
gard to it which has been sanctioned by the Church. 
Thus we may properly say without figure that the 
Body of Christ is fed upon, but only in an improper 
sense may we say that it is broken, according to the 
words 

" ]S"ulla rei fit scissura 
Signi tantum fit fractura." 

All these matters find their ultimate term in the diffi 
cult question whether it can be said that Christ is 
locally in the Sacrament s , " of which we may in brief 

* See Hardwick, pp. 312, 313. 

s St. Tno ., quso-t. 75, art. 1, and 76, art. 5. 



563 



lay down, that the Body of Christ, if it be compared 
with the form of bread, is not in them as in a place, 
because as the substance of bread is not said to be in 
its accidents as in a place, so neither does the Body 
of Christ which succeeds to it under those accidents. 
But, if the Body of Christ be compared with the place 
of the species, it can be so compared in two ways ; 
either as the Body of Christ according to itself, or as 
denominated by and invested with the species. In 
this second consideration, the Body of Christ may be 
said to be in that circumscribed place, not properly, 
but improperly, and secimdum quid; for as, by reason 
of the species, we in an improper sense say it is seen 
and handled, because the species are seen and handled, 
so, for the same reason, we may improperly say that, 
because the species are circumscribed by space, It also 
is. Lastly, if the substance of the Body of Christ ac 
cording to itself be compared to place, it is not said to 
be in place physically and in a circumscribed fashion 
or quantitatively; for although it be there properly, 
yet it is not by a circumscription ubi, because the res 
ubicata corresponds with the parts of space by its own 
parts, and in this sense St. Thomas denies that the 
Body of Christ is locally in this sacrament V 

We proceed to consider " the means whereby the 
Body of Christ is received and eaten." 

The words of the Article must, both (1) on account 
of the literal meaning, and (2) in reference to the con 
text, be confined to the subjective act of communi- 

* Lugo, Disp. vi. iii. ed. Migne, 228. 



564 ARTICLE XXVIII. 



eating. The passage does not mean that Faith makes 
the difference between its being the Body of the Lord, 
or not the Body of the Lord which is received and 
eaten ; it does not mean that Faith is that which 
makes the distinction between a real presence and 
a real absence of the Body of Christ: but it means 
that the condition of reception on the part of the re 
cipient, according to Christ s ordinance and the inten 
tion of the Church, that is, for the spiritual good of 
the said recipient, is Faith. 

Observe the words "received and eaten." These, 
in their literal sense, are essentially subjective. They 
describe what is necessary on the part of the commu 
nicants to a beneficial partaking, and they mean no 
more, for we must now compare the words with the 
preceding clause of the Article. The preceding clause 
has stated the supernatural and mysterious nature of 
the whole transaction. " The Body of Christ is given, 
taken, and eaten in the Supper/ there is the whole 
action, after a Heavenly and Spiritual manner, in 
a way that transcends the senses, in the order of grace 
and not in the order of nature ; and Bishop Geste, the 
author of the Article, tells us that his own insertion 
of the word "only" does not militate against the 
objectivity of the Presence. But when we come to 
consider the office of Faith in the matter, there is 
a remarkable omission. It is asserted that the whole 
action is Heavenly and Spiritual, by avouching that 
the Body is given, taJien, and eaten; when we speak 
of Faith it is said merely that it is received and eaten. 



SUPPER. 565 

The word "given" is the differentia between the two 
statements, and in the word " given" there is bound 
up the whole question of the reality and objectivity of 
the Presence. 

This view of the real meaning of the Article is sup 
ported by the response in the Scottish Communion 
Office at the awful moment of reception. The com 
municant is directed to answer to the words of the mi 
nister, "Amen." What does this mean? It means 
what it meant in the ancient Church, from which the 
custom is derived. In the early Church the earliest 
words were alone, " the Body of Christ, the Blood of 
Christ," to which the faithful assented " Amen." The 
disciple of St. Ambrose gives the interpretation, " So 
then not idly dost thou say Amen, already thereby 
confessing in spirit that thou receivest the Body of 
Christ. The Priest sayeth to thee, the Body of Christ, 
and thou sayest Amen, i.e. true. What thy tongue 
eonfesseth let thy affections retain u ." 

The statement in the Article is in perfect harmony 
with the language of the ancient Church. It would 
be unnatural if in the glowing language of Liturgies 
and Fathers the high office of Faith should not be 
fully recognised. 

When, in 1661, the words " with faith" were added 
to the words " draw near" in the English office, the 
apparent source from which they were taken was the 
Liturgies of Armenia, Jerusalem, St. Chrysostom, and 
St. Basil. All say, " Approach with the fear of God, 

u De Sacr.. 1. iv. c. iv. 



5G6 ARTICLE XXVIII. 



and faith and love." The love is omitted in the Ar 
menian. What was this but to say to the people, 
It is by Faith that you will profitably partake of these 
holy mysteries. 

And this again is most emphatically set forth in 
the Confession of the Eucharistic Faith, which, in va 
rious forms, is so prominent in the Liturgies of Egypt 
and Ethiopia x . As for example : 

"The holy, precious, living, and very Body of our 
Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, which is given for re 
mission of sins and life eternal to those who receive it 
with faith. Amen. 

" The holy, precious, life-giving, and very Blood of 
our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, which is given for 
remission of sins, and eternal life to those who receive 
it with faith. Amen. 

" This is the Body and Blood of Emmanuel, in very 
truth. Amen. I believe, I believe, I believe, hence 
forth and for evermore. Amen. 

"This is the Body and Blood of our Lord and Sa 
viour Jesus Christ, which He took of the holy and 
pure Virgin Mary. . . . 

" I believe, I believe, I believe that His Divinity 
was not divided from His humanity, no, not for an 
hour, nor the twinkling of an eye. He gave Himself 
for us to salvation, remission of sins, and life eternal, 
to those who receive them (the Body and Blood) with 
faith. I believe, I believe, I believe, henceforth and 
for ever." 

x Kenaudot, vol. i. p. 520. 



OF THE LORD S SUPPER. 567 

This is only the richest specimen of a class of these 
Confessions. For another, taken from the Coptic Li 
turgy of St. Basil, vide Neale s " Introduction to His 
tory of the Eastern Church." So also in the Western 
Church y. From the Leonine Sacramentary, take the 
following: " Adesto qusesumus Domine plebi tua) ; ut 
quse sumsit fideliter, et mente sirnul et corpore, te pro- 
tegente, custodiat." 

So also St. Gregory : " Da nobis . . . ut sancta tua 
. . . semper fideli mente sumamus 2 ." 

This language of primitive antiquity bears witness 
to the fact that faith is the appointed instrument for 
reception of that which (in the sublime words which 
the ancient Liturgy of the "West, embodying, as we 
may believe, the tradition of the Apostles, has not 
feared to put in juxtaposition with the very words of 
the divine Consecrator,) is emphatically Mysterium 
Fidei. 

The necessity of the office of Faith in devout recep 
tion must be ever present in our view. It is indeed 
Jlf/sterium Fidei in ways and senses far beyond what 
the course of controversies has elicited, or indeed what 
our mind can ever exhaust. If ever faith have an 
office in our approaches to God, it is when we kneel 
before His altar. 

" The Sacrament of the Lord s Supper was not by 
Christ s ordinance reserved, carried about, lifted up, 
or worshipped." 

The Latin version here is suggestive. Hitherto the 

7 Muratori Lit. Horn., i. 3G9. l Ibid., ii. 43. 



568 AllTICLE XXVIII. 



rendering of the term "Lord s Supper" has been Ccena 
Domini; here, as in the preceding clause touching 
Transubstantiation, we have the ancient word Eu- 
charistia, Evxapio-ria*. And it is necessarily used not 
for the ceremony, but for the Divine Gift; that which 
was the result of consecration ; the " Elements," as 
they are popularly termed by a phraseology in which 
the common language has preserved a sense of the un 
speakable mysteriousness of that most august Sacra 
ment 15 . 

The Article does not prohibit the practices men 
tioned, but merely states that the reservation, circum- 
gestation, elevation, and adoration of the Sanctissimum 
is no part of Christ s institution. " Such ceremonies 
may be, and are, omitted without breaking our Lord s 
enactment touching the Eucharist. The Church might 
leave them out, and yet leave the whole of His institu 
tion untouched. So much is really the whole amount 
of the prohibition, as far as the sentence is con 
cerned c ." 

That the Sacrament of "the Eucharist/ as the Latin 
Articles term it, was not by Christ s ordinance reserved 
is admitted on all hands. The Council of Trent asserts 
that " it was instituted that it might be received d ," 
but the Church has from the earliest times reserved 
the Holy Sacrament, regarding it as a most precious 
pledge from heaven and the miracle of divine love. 

a See the word Hwcharistia in Ducange s Glossary. 
h Ignat., Smyrn., n. 7; Phil., n. 4; Justin, Apol., 5. 65, Iren. iv. 
18, n. 5. c J. Kebie. d Se s. xiii. cap. 5. 



OF THE LORD S SUPPER. 509 

St. Justin Martyr says, that after celebration, the Eu- 
charistic Elements were sent by the hands of the Dea 
cons to those not present 6 . A touching instance of 
this is recorded in the act of the martyrdom of St. 
Lucian f . In the second century it was the custom for 
Bishops to send It as a token of peace and unity g . 
That the Eucharist was reserved in the Church under 
both kinds from the fourth century, is proved by St. 
Chrysostom in his letter to Pope Innocent h , where 
the Saint describes the outrages of the soldiers in the 
church of Constantinople. At Nola It was kept in 
a golden casket 1 , which was laid up in the sanctuary. 
And this is probably the meaning of what Anastasius 
writes in his Life of Pope Nicholas, " Fecit autem ut 
in Basilica Salvatoris cruces de argento purissimo 
quse pendent ante figuram substaiitiae carnis ejusdem 
Dni. N. J C. k " 

St. Basil not only mentions that in times of persecu 
tion the faithful were constrained to take the Com 
munion into their own hands, and that the solitaries 
in the desert had to have recourse to the same prac 
tice, but mentions that it was the ordinary use of the 
Church of Alexandria, and asks, " Ought they not to 
believe that That which they carry home 1 in their 

e ApoL, i. 68, p 52, Oxf. Tr. f Act. 8. Luc. ap. Sur. 

Ep. Irencei ad Victor, ap. Euseb. H. E., v. c. 24. 

h Ep. ad Innocent., PP. apud D. Constant., t. i. p. 783. i Amb., 
Up. iv. n. 4. k Vide Ducange. 

1 " Eucharistiam domum delatam et in area servatam, scribunt Tertul- 
lianus sub finem libri ad Mart., lib. ii. ad uxor. S. Cyp., lib. de lapsis. 
S. Aug., lib. iii. Cont. Crescon., cap. 11 ; Bas., in Epist. cclxxxix.; Joan. 



570 ARTICLE XXVIII. 



hands, is the Same Thing which they receive in church 
at the hands of the Priest m ." This custom, which was 
universal, is believed to have lasted till the Papacy of 
Hormisdas, A.D. 514, and to have been retained even 
longer in the East. It was also reserved in long 
journeys by land and by sea n . The custom lasted till 
the Crusades . 

Becket carried It round his neck on the occasion 
of his going in search of Henry II. When the ordeal 
by fire was proposed to be resorted to, to test whether 
the Pope was right in excommunicating Savonarola, 
his friend, Fr. Dominic, who was to make the fiery 
trial, held It in his hand. 

Anciently the Sacrament was reserved at the con 
secration of bishops and at the ordination of priests, 
to be consumed by them during the forty days after 
the ceremony p , and it was frequently buried with the 
dead q . 

So also for the communion of infants and of the 
sick, and for the Missa Pr&sanctificatorum both in the 
Homan, Greek, and Milanese Churches. In fact, till 

MoscJius, cap. 29. 79 ; Verum id Canon 3 Cone. Csesaraugustani 
vetitum, quo anathematizatur is qui Eucharistia? Gratiam acceptam in 
ecclesia non consumpserit. Vide Baron., An. 57, n. 149, 150 ; An. 293, 
n. 2. Cone. Tolet., i. cap. 14 ; Capitul., lib. vii. cap. 473." Ducange 
in verb. Eucharistia. 

m JSp. cclxxxix. ad Ces. Pat. 

n S. Amb., de Mort. Sat. ; S. Greg., Dial., iii. 37, &c. 

Vit. S. Lauren. O Toole, Archiep. Dub., Apud Surium. 14 Nov.; 
cap. 8, t. vi. 313; Vit. S. Ludovici, Reg. Fr., 25 Aug. ; t. iv. 912. 

P Ord. Romanus, Epist. Fulbert ad Erhard. 

1 S. Greg., Dial., ii. 24. 



571 

the thirteenth century, we have distinct evidence that 
in different ways, sometimes in a ciborium, sometimes 
suspended over the altar enveloped in veils, some 
times in tabernacles in the form of a dove, some 
times in aumbries beside the altar, sometimes along 
with images and relics of the saints, sometimes under 
baldachins, and sometimes in towers a few feet from 
the high altar, the blessed Sacrament was reserved 
with great dignity and honour. The practice of re 
serving the blessed Sacrament for the sick has ob 
tained in the Scottish Church, by an unwritten tra 
dition, since the days of the Non-jurors. 

The carrying about of the Blessed Sacrament in 
solemn procession is a ceremony of the Western 
Church. It does not exist in the orthodox Eastern 
Church, nor in the English Church; neither do any 
of the Eastern heretical Churches practise it. It is 
impossible to fix the exact date of the commencement 
of the practice. On the one hand, the opinion of 
those who would maintain that it took its rise in 
Pavia in 1404, on the authority of Donatus Bossius, 
a jurisconsult of Milan r , is contradicted by history ; 
on the other hand, that of those who make it syn 
chronize with the authorization of the Festum Corporis 
Christi by Urban IV. in 1264, is confuted by the 
silence of Durandus writing in 1286. It is, however, 
alluded to in documents of the Church of Chartres, 
1339 : of Sens, 1320 ; of Tournay, 1323. Cassander 
maintained that it is certain that the Feast was not 

r Chron. a Miindi init. ad an. 1492. 



572 ARTICLE XXVIII. 



instituted by Urban IY. for the exposition of the 
Blessed Eucharist, but that the faithful should as 
semble in great numbers in the churches, there to 
sing the praises of God, and to prepare themselves 
by acts of piety to participate worthily on that day, 
and receive it with respect. The celebrated Cardinal 
Groper, the ornament of the Church of Cologne, in 
veighed against many of the abuses connected with 
this ceremony, so late as 1560. St. Carlo Borromeo, 
in the acts of the Council of Milan, puts restrictions 
on the public exposition of the Blessed Sacrament 8 . 
The feast was celebrated at Liege fourteen years be 
fore the Bull of Urban, and did not become universal 
till after the Council of Yienne in 1311. 

" The Sacrament was not by Christ s ordinance lifted 
up." In spite of the text in St. Paul s Epistle to the 
Galatians, where in allusion to the divine mysteries, 
it is said that Jesus Christ is set forth verily crucified 
before their eyes*, we cannot trace back this custom 
to Apostolic times. In a certain form we find some 
thing of the kind very anciently practised in the 
Greek Church u . 

In the Western Church there is no allusion to it in 
the early Sacramentaries of Gelasius, Leo, or Gregory, 
nor in the works of St. Isidore of Seville, or Eabanus, 

* Tit. De Sac. EucJi. De Expos, in orat., 40 horarurn. 

* Gal. iii. 1. 

u "Longepost orationem dominicam brevitamen ante communionem 
spatio, juxta Jacobi, Basilii et Chrysostomi Liturgias, Dorainicum 
Corpus, non ita ut a populo conspicatur elevat Grsecus Sacerdos." 
(Goar, not. 158, in Miss. Chrys., p. 143. col. 2.) 



573 



or Walafride, or any of the ancient writers who explain 
the ceremonies of the Church. It is when we come to 
mediaeval times, that the practice is recognised, such 
as in the Speculum Eccksia of Hugh of St. Victor ; 
in Hildebertus of Le Mans x (A.D. 1136). It is con 
stantly alluded to in the Provincial Synods of the 
thirteenth century, as also by Durandus^. The eleva 
tion of the chalice does not obtain among the Greeks, 
and is by no means universal among the Latins. 

It is unnecessary to go into the question of the 
worship of our Lord in the Sacrament, after the ex 
haustive treatise of John Keble, TOV paicapLTov, to 
which the reader is referred. 

* De Offic. Miss. r Rationale Div. Off. 



ARTICLE XXIX. 

Dfi MANDUCATIONE CoRPORIS CHRISTI, ET IMPIOS 
ILLUD NON MANDUCARE. 

IMPII, et fide viva destituti, licet carnaliter, et visibiZitcr 
(ut Augustinus loquitur] Corporis et Sanguinis Christ i 
Sacramentum, dentibus premant, nullo tamen modo 
Christi participes cffiduntur. Sed potius tantce rci 
Sacramentum, seu Symbolum, ad judicium sibi man- 
ducant, et bibunt. 



" Of the Wicked which eat not the Body of Christ 
in the Use of the Lord s Siqiper. 

" THE wicked, and such as be void of a lively faith, 
although they do carnally and visibly press with their 
teeth (as St. Augustine saith) the Sacrament of the 
Body and Blood of Christ, yet in no wise are they 
partakers of Christ, but rather to their condemnation 
do eat and drink the sign or Sacrament of so great 
a thins:." 



THIS Article was first published in 1571. It is 
wanting in all the printed copies till that date. It 
is found in the Parker Latin MS. of 1563, and in the 
Parker English MS., 1571 ; also in the Latin edition 
of 1571, printed by John Day, and published by the 
Queen s authority. It does not appear in the early 



OF THE WICKED, &C. 575 

printed copies of the Articles as finally put forth 3 . 
The passage from the supposed treatise of St. Augus 
tine, which, extruded by the Benedictine editors from 
that author, is found in Bede, Alcuin, and others, was 
distinctly verified by a reference to the treatise from 
whence it is taken b . The Twenty-ninth Article was re- 
adopted on the llth of May, 1571, and finds its place 
in all the printed copies of that date, whether English 
or Latin. We must account for the hesitation with 
regard to its enunciation on the grounds either of 
Queen Elizabeth s own feelings, or on those of the 
scruples of her advisers. In fact we know that an 
interview took place on the subject between Parker 
and Cecil , where the latter called in question the 
fairness of the quotation from St. Augustine. 

The doctrine concerning That which is received 
by the wicked in the Holy Sacrament, stands in 
a middle position between two truths, with e ther of 
which it must be reconciled. On the en 3 hand, 
)garding the blessed Sacrament as the food of the 
soul and the subjective appropriation of the merits 
of Christ, remembering also that the Sermon on this 
doctrine, in the sixth chapter of St. John, is entirely 
silent on the subject, we must hold that there can be 
no beneficial reception to those in a state of sin ; that 
it cannot act as a charm in the case of those who are 
unprepared ; that so far are they from the blessedness 



a Hardwick, p. 128, n. 2. b ibid., p. 140. 

c Strype s Parker, p. 331. 



576 ARTICLE XXIX. 



of union with. Christ, that it were far better that they 
had not approached those holy mysteries. On the 
other hand, it is equally true that the Holy Commu 
nion is such by virtue of consecration ; that Christ s 
presence does not depend upon the mental emotion and 
spiritual condition of the recipient ; that the Sacrament 
is what it is by the power of the institution of Christ. 
If this be so, wherein shall we reconcile these apparent 
contradictions ? It is found in the fact that Christ 
is, in certain cases, present in the Sacrament, not to 
bless, but to judge that reception of the Sacrament 
by the wicked conveys something more serious than 
a negation that the wicked not only do not receive 
grace, but do receive judgment. 

The language of the Article means that the res 
Sacramenti is received by the wicked ; and the great 
voice of antiquity, with the exception of some passages 
in St. Augustine, supports this view. 

It is in entire conformity with the teaching of the 
Epistle to the Corinthians : " Wherefore whosoever 
shall eat this bread and (or) drink this cup of the 
Lord unworthily, shall be guilty of the Body and 
Blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself, 
and so let him eat of that bread and drink of that 
cup. For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, 
eateth and drinketh judgment to himself, not dis 
cerning the Lord s body d ." 

Unless the Bread and the Cup be what we believe 

d 1 Cor. xi. 27. 



OF THE WICKED, &C. 577 

Them to be, how can an unworthy communicant be 
guilty of the Body and Blood of Christ ? On any other 
theory he may be ungodly, irreverent, profane, even 
sacrilegious ; but on this theory alone can these terri 
ble words be used in their truth, " Guilty of the Body 
and Blood of the Lord." What else can they mean 
than that to receive the inward part, the Body and 
Blood of Christ, unworthily, is to be guilty in that 
very respect ? 

Again, in the next verse, the Apostle supplies the 
way and means towards avoiding that profanation 
"Let a man examine himself." The whole Church 
system of penitence is here placed between past sin 
and the Holy Communion. The lapsed Christian is to 
purge his unworthiness by examination, and its con 
comitant exercise of repentance. 

And all this in view of the dreadful results of a neg 
lect of these means, for he that eateth and drinketh 
unworthily eateth and drinketh rcpi/na, judgment/ 
which our translators have rendered by the very strong 
word damnation ; and why ? because they do not 
discern "the Lord s Body." Bengel says, "Domini 
Antonomasia, i.e. Jesu. Ecclesia non dicitur corpus 
Jesu aut corpus Domini, sed corpus Christi, hie igitur 
de proprio corpore Domini Jesu agitur." 

How could the Lord s Body be discerned, if It was 
not there ? Why should St. Paul give this reason for 
these fearful condemnations falling upon the irreverent 
sinner, if there were no presence of the Lord to be 
violated no ineffable condescension to be disdained. 

p p 



578 ARTICLE XXTX. 



In the words of St. Chrysostom e , commenting on the 
words, " Not discerning the Lord s Body/ " not 
searching, not bearing in mind as he ought, the great 
ness of the things set before him not estimating the 
weight of the gift, For if thou shouldst come to know 
accurately, Who it is that lieth before thee, and Who 
He is who giveth Himself, and to whom, thou wilt 
need no other argument, but this is enough for thee 
to use all vigilance." 

The argument from St. Paul rests partly on the 
whole tenor of what he says in this passage, partly on 
his very express words. That first argument from the 
whole context may be stated syllogistically in this 
fashion : 

Unworthy communicants either receive something 
besides bread and wine, or they do not. 

If they receive nothing but bread and wine, their 
sin is not greater in kind than the misuse of any other 
ordinance, e.g. prayer. 

But St. Paul plainly teaches that it is greater in 
kind, that it is something sui generis, a sin standing by 
itself. It is to be guilty of, or in relation to, the Body 
and Blood of Christ. 

Therefore they who are so guilty cannot be receiver 
of nothing but bread and wine. 

And there being no alternative between real absence 
and real presence, they must in some sense receive 
Christ, the inward part of the Sacrament. 

But, distinct from, and over and above this, i 

e Horn. 28, in 1 Cor., sect. 2. 



OF THE WICKED, &C. 579 

St. Paul s remarkable phrase, the most characteristic 
and doctrinal expression in the passage, that which 
St. Paul assigns as the ground why to " eat and drink 
unworthily/ is to eat and drink damnation to them 
selves, Viz. /JL7J SiCiKpLVWV TO fJCOyLta TOV KvpiOV, //,?) 

SiciKpivtov, that is, not discerning in the Latin sense 
not discriminating between the Body of the Lord and 
all other foods. But there would be no blame in not 
so discriminating between the Body of the Lord and 
other food, unless that Body were present there. 

If these words of the Apostle may be turned aside 
from their meaning, there is no safety for the reten 
tion of any plain and explicit statement of the Word 
of God. 

The formularies of the Church rightly understood 
support the view that the res Sacramenti is received by 
the wicked. 

1. In the exhortation before the actual reception we 
are told " For as the benefit is great, if with a true 
penitent heart and lively faith we receive that Holy 
Sacrament (for then we spiritually eat the Flesh of 
Christ and drink His Blood ; then we dwell in Christ, 
and Christ in us : we are one with Christ, and Christ 
with us) ; so is the danger great if we receive THE 
SAME unworthily." Whether " the same" here applies, 
according to the strictness of construction, to "the 
Flesh of Christ," or to the antecedent word "Holy 
Sacrament," we arrive at the same result, and that is, 
that that which is received by the good, the Same 
is received by the wicked and unworthy. 



580 ARTICLE XXIX. 



2. Moreover, in the warning before the Communion, 
we are exhorted " to consider the dignity of that 
Holy Mystery, and the great peril of the unworthy 
receiving thereof ;" where we again see that what is 
provided for the good may be unworthily received by 
the evil. 

3. Again, the same "Holy Sacrament" is described 
to be " so divine and comfortable a thing to them who 
receive it worthily, and so dangerous to them that will 
presume to receive it (that is, the same) unworthily." 

4. Then, the Church commits herself to the belief 
that Judas received the Holy Sacrament, according to 
the almost unanimous consent of antiquity, and de 
duces a warning lest, after the taking of the Holy 
Sacrament, certain evil results follow. 

5. So also the receiving the Holy Communion un 
worthily is said to " do nothing else than increase the 
sinner s damnation." 

It must be observed that here, in an address to the 
people, the word Sacrament is taken in the popular 
sense, not to mean the Sacramentum, or outward part 
only, but the whole ordinance. 

6. In the prayer of Humble Access the emphatic 
word "so to eat the Flesh of Christ, that our sinful 
bodies may be made clean by His Body," implies 
thereby that there is, such a way of eating the Flesh 
of Christ as that men may not be cleansed thereby. 

7. In the second Post-Communion Prayer, or public 
thanksgiving, beginning " Almighty and ever-living 
God," emphasis is laid on the word " duly." 



OF THE WICKED, &C. 581 

But the Article under consideration affords another 
proof of the position. 

At the end of Article XXV., in speaking of the 
Sacraments generally it is said : " The Sacraments 
were not ordained of Christ to be gazed upon, or to 
be carried about, but that we should duly use them. 
And in such only as worthily receive the same they 
have a wholesome operation, but they that receive 
them unworthily purchase to themselves damnation, 
as St. Paul saith." 

Here, though the passage is put under the head of 
the Sacraments in general, it is clear that the Holy 
Eucharist is specially alluded to, for no one then gazed 
on Baptism, nor could they carry it about; but the 
other Sacrament was both gazed upon and carried 
about. Assuming then that it is the Holy Eucharist 
which alone is alluded to, we find in the end of this 
Article the same doctrine which we have found in the 
Exhortations, and therefore, under pain of detecting 
a fearful inconsistency, we must believe that the true 
sense of Article XXIX. must be in accordance with 
this. It is also to be observed that by connecting this 
passage of Article XXV. with Article XXIX. we are 
led to identify the statement, that in worthy receivers 
only Sacraments have a wholesome effect or operation, 
with the statement that unworthy receivers are in no 
wise partakers of Christ. In other words, to be a 
"partaker of Christ/ in the sense of Article XXIX., 
is to have in one s self that wholesome operation, 
which is identical with the "strengthening and re- 



582 ARTICLE XXIX. 



freshing " of the Catechism which strengthening and 
refreshing is distinguished by the Catechism from the 
Body and Blood, as the Virtus Sacramenti from the 
Res Sacramenti. 

Moreover, it must be mentioned that there is much 
that is curious about the reception of this Article. It 
is a well-known fact that Queen Elizabeth never, in 
the midst of her worldly policy, lost her faith in the 
Objective Presence of our Lord in the Holy Sacrament. 
Peter Heylin mentions f , in close connexion, these two 
anecdotes : " That when Dean No well of St. Paul s 
spoke less reverently in a sermon preached before her, 
of the Sign of the Cross, she called aloud to him from 
her closet window, commanding him to retire from that 
u