V. ut catechumeni et excommunicati, si fidem et caritatem CHAP. habeant. Denique aliqui sunt de corpore et non de animâ, ut qui nullam habeant internam virtutem et tamen spe aut timore aliquo profiteantur fidem, et in sacramentis communicent, et tales sunt sicut capilli aut ungues aut mali humores in corpore humano. HOOKER, III. 1. 11. We must acknowledge even Heretics themselves to be, though a maimed part, yet a part of the Visible Church. 3 S. AUG. in Ps. liv. In multis erant mecum: Baptismum habebamus utrique, Evangelium utrique legebamus: erant in eo mecum; in schismate non mecum, in hæresi non mecum. Sed in his paucis in quibus non mecum non prosunt multa in quibus mecum. Etenim videte, fratres, quam multa enarravit apostolus Paulus; (1 Cor. xiii.) unum dixit (caritatem) si defuerit, frustra sunt illa. 4 CRAKANTHORPE, Def. Eccl. Angl. p. 83. 5 S. HIERON. Ephes. i. Dominus noster, cum sit Caput Ecclesiæ, habet membra eos omnes qui in Ecclesiâ congregantur tam sanctos quam peccatores, sed sanctos voluntate, peccatores necessitate sibi conjunctos. Q. 29. What are the consequent duties of individual members of the Church toward Heretics and Schismatics? A. To feel deep sorrow for them; to act towards them in a spirit of charity and gentleness, but not to communicate with them in their Heresy or Schism, or to encourage or flatter them in it, or to treat it lightly, but to speak the truth in love concerning its sin and danger; to pray for them; to offer them counsel and exhortation; and to employ all practicable means for bringing them to the enjoyment of those spiritual1 blessings which are pro- Ps. cxxxiil. mised to all who love the peace of Christ's Church, cxxii. 6. and dwell together in Unity. 1 S. AUG. in S. Joann. Tract. xxxiii. 8. Accipimus ergo et nos Spiritum Sanctum, si amamus Ecclesiam, si charitate compaginamur, si catholico nomine et fide gaudemus. damus, fratres; quantum quisque amat Ecclesiam Christi, tantum habet Spiritum Sanctum. Cre CHAPTER VI. PART I. 1 Pet. i. 23., James i. 18. iii. 17. ON PRIVILEGES IN THE CHURCH. Word of God.-The Church its Witness and Keeper. Q. 1. WHAT privileges do the members of the 1 A. As the two tables of the Law were by God's command consigned to the Ark, so by His divine Deut. x. 2. Will the two Testaments are committed to the Church, who is the appointed Witness, Keeper, and Interpreter of Holy Writ, and is thence called 1 Tim. ill. 15. by St. Paul oriños xai ispaiwμu rys annoɛías, "the pillar and ground of the truth." Isa. viii. 20. Acts vii. 38. xiii. 14, 15, Rom. iii. 2. 27. xv. 21. Lord BACON, Confession of Faith, Works, iii. p. 124, ed. 1778. The Church is as the Ark, wherein the Tables of the first Testament were kept and preserved. See also v. 530. De Ecclesiâ et Scripturis. Contradictiones linguarum ubique occurrunt extra tabernaculum Dei. Quare quocunque te verteris, exitum controversiarum non reperies nisi huc te receperis. Q. 3. How is the Church a Witness and Keeper of Holy Writ? A. The Old Testament is received by us from the Church of the Jews, to whom were committed the oracles of God, and who received those "lively oracles to give unto us, ," and by whom "of old time they were read in the Synagogues every Sabbath day;" and we know that they were by them VI. delivered, pure and entire, into the hands of the CHAP. Christian Church, from the fact that the Jews, being dispersed in all parts of the world, could never have conspired to make any change in their sacred books, had they desired to do so, which they were so far from doing, that they would rather die a thousand deaths, than allow any change to be made in them; and that every verse and every letter of the sacred text was scrupulously registered in their Masora; and, lastly, that Christ, when reproving the Scribes and Lawyers, never chargess them with the sin of corrupting the Books of the Law, which He would not have omitted to do, had they been guilty of it; and that He and his Apostles quote the Scriptures of the Old Testament as they existed then amongst the Jews, and as they still exist derived through them to us. 1 S. AUGUST. tom. ii. 610. iv. 501, 760. viii. 391. Judæi Librarii, Capsarii, et Scriniarii Christianorum iis Sacros Codices portant. S. CHRYSOSTOм, i. p. 631, ed. Savil. 2 S. AUG. de Civ. Dei, xv. 13. 3 PHILO apud Euseb. Præp. Evang. viii. 6. JOSEPHUS apud Euseb. iii. 9. 4 HOTTINGER, Thesaurus, p. 138. 5 S. HIERON. in Esai. vi. Nunquam Dominus et Apostoli, qui cætera crimina arguunt in Scribis et Pharisæis, de hoc crimine, quod erat maximum, reticuissent. Bp. COSIN on the Canon, p. 11. 98, ed. 1672. Bp. BEVERIDGE on Art. vi. vol. i. p. 275-280. Q. 4. Next, what has been the office of the Christian Church with respect to the New Testament? A. To deliver it, as well as the Old Testament, down to us also, from age to age, as it was first written. That these writings, as we now possess them, are precisely the same as when they were first given to the world, we know from the facts of their having been publicly received by Synods of I. Col. iv. 16. PART the Church; from their having been openly read, immediately after their publication, in Congregations of the Church in numerous places very dis1 Thess. v. 27. tant from each other; from their having been translated at an early period into different languages for the use of various Churches, which Versions thus made are found to coincide precisely with the present text; and from the fact, that the Fathers of the Church, in all parts of the world, beginning with the Apostles themselves, have re2 Pet. iii. 15, ferred to them, quoted them, and commented upon them, without any discrepancy from the copies which have been handed down to us. 16. 1 Canon lx. Concil. Laodicenum, (about A. D. 352.) p. 79, ed. Bruns. compared with the sixth Article of the Church of England: the two catalogues coincide with the exception of the Apocalypse, (of which see Concil. Tolet. iv. can. 16, and Bp. Cosin, p. 56, 58, and Hooker, V. xx. 4. with Mr. Keble's note,) not contained in the former; and the book of Baruch, (which, however, is not in the old Latin Version, Labbe Concil. i. p. 1521, and see Bp. COSIN, p. 53, 58,) not received as canonical in the latter. See also the very ancient Fragmentum de Canone SS. Scripturarum, of the New Test. in Routh's Reliquiæ Sacræ, iv. pp. 3-5, with the notes of the Editor; and on the history of the New Test. Canon, see KIRCHHOFER, QUELLENSAMMLUNG, Zürich, 1842. S. CYRIL. Cateches. iv. n. xxii. p. 66. S. CYRIL Cateches. iv. xxxv. πρὸς τὰ ἀπόκρυφα μηδὲν ἔχε κοινόν· ταύτας μόνας μελέτα (βίβλους) σπουδαίως ἃς ἐν Εκκλησίᾳ ἀναγιγνώσκομεν· πολὺ σοῦ φρονιμώτεροι ἦσαν οἱ ̓Απόστολοι, καὶ οἱ ἀρχαῖοι Επίσκοποι οἱ τῆς Ἐκκλησίας προσε τάται οἱ ταύτας παραδόντες, σὺ οὖν τέκνον τῆς Ἐκκλησίας ὢν μὴ παραχάραττε τοὺς θεσμούς. S. AUG. Epist. xciii. p. 369. Canonica Scriptura tot linguarum litteris et ordine et successione celebrationis Ecclesiasticæ custoditur. S. AUG. c. Faust. xxxii. c. 16. Corrumpi Scripturæ non possunt, quia sunt in manibus omnium Christianorum; et quisquis hoc primitus ausus esset, multorum codicum vetustiorum collatione confutaretur: maxime quia non unâ linguâ sed multis continetur Scriptura. S. CHRYSOST. in S. Joann. i. thus speaks of Translations VI. existing in his time:—Σύροι καὶ Αἰγύπτιοι καὶ Ἴνδοι καὶ CHAP. Πέρσαι τε καὶ Αἰθίοπες καὶ μυρία ἔθνη ἕτερα, εἰς τὴν ἑαυτῶν γλῶτταν μεταβαλόντες τὰ παρὰ τούτου (εὐαγγελιστοῦ) εἰσαχθέντα δόγματα ἔμαθον. S. AUG. c. Faust. xiii. Nostrorum Librorum Auctoritas tot Gentium consensione, per successiones Apostolorum, Episcoporum Conciliorumque roboratur. Q. 5. How do we know that the Books of the New Testament are genuine, i. e., were written by those whose names they bear? A. From the testimony of the Church, which received them as such, both in General Councils collectively, and also separately in different and distant parts of the world, and read them publicly in Christian assemblies as the works of such writers, from the time of their first appearance.1 1 ORIGENES et S. AMBROSIUS in S. Luc. init. TERTULLIAN, c. Marcion. iv. 5. Auctoritas Ecclesiarum Apostolicarum patrocinatur Evangeliis, quæ proinde per illas et secundum illas habemus. Abp. LAUD against Fisher, p. 87, ed. Oxf. 1840. It is morally as evident that St. Matthew and St. Paul writ the Gospel and Epistles which bear their names, as that Cicero or Seneca wrote theirs. See Hooker, V. xxii. 2. and Bp. KAYE'S Tertullian, p. 300–304. Q. 6. Next, have we any witness of the Church that these writings are inspired, i. e., are the Word of God? 1 Cor. xii. 10. 2 Pet. iii. 15, A. Yes; the Primitive Church, which had both 1 John iv. 1. the supernatural power of trying and discerning 2 John 7. the spirits, and also the best natural opportunities 16. for ascertaining the truth, every where received Rev. ii. 2. and publicly read them as inspired, while at the same time she rejected other writings falsely pretending to be so; and excommunicated those who published them.” 1 S. AUG. de Doct. Christ. ii. 13. |