* Hilary, "It is not through thorny questions that God invites us to heaven: our way to eternal life is clear and easy:-to believe that Jesus was raised from the dead by the power of God, to confess him to be the Lord," &c. These are the articles which we must believe, which are the sufficient and adequate object of that faith which is required of us in order to salvation. And therefore it was, that when the bishops of Istria deserted the communion of Pope Pelagius, in causâ trium capitulorum,† he gives them an account of his faith by recitation of the creed, and by attesting the four general councils, and is confident upon this that no question or suspicion can arise respecting the validity of his faith let the apostles' creed, especially so explicated, be but secured, and all faith is secured; and yet that explication too, was less necessary than the articles themselves; for the explication was but accidental, but the articles, even before the explication, were accounted a sufficient inlet to the kingdom of heaven. And that there was security enough, in the simple believing the first articles, is very certain amongst them, and by their principles who allow of an implicit faith to serve most persons to the greatest for if the creed did contain in it the purposes; whole faith, and that other articles were in it implicitly, (for such is the doctrine of the school, and particularly of Aquinas,) then he that explicitly believes all the creed, does implicitly believe all the articles contained in it; and then it is better the "Non per difficiles nos Deus ad beatam vitam quæstiones vocat, &c. In absoluto nobis et facili est æternitas; Jesum suscitatum à mortuis per Deum credere, et ipsum esse Dominum confiteri, &c."-Lib. x. De Trin. ad finem. + Concil. tom. iv. edit. Paris. p. 473. O implication should still continue, than that, by any explication, (which is simply unnecessary,) the church should be troubled with questions, and uncertain determinations, and factions enkindled, and animosities set on foot, and men's souls endangered, who before were secured by the explicit belief of all that the apostles required as necessary; which belief also did secure them for all the rest, because it implied the belief of whatsoever was virtually in the first articles, if such belief should by chance be necessary. The sum of this discourse is this: if we take an estimate of the nature of faith from the dictates and promises evangelical, and from the practice apostolical, the nature of faith and its integrity consists in such propositions which make the foundation of hope and charity, that which is sufficient to make us to do honour to Christ and to obey him, and to encourage us in both; and this is completed in the apostles' creed. And since contraries are of the same extent, heresy is to be judged by its proportion and analogy to faith, and that is heresy only which is against faith. Now, because faith is not only a precept of doctrines, but of manners and holy life, whatsoever is either opposite to an article of creed, or teaches ill life, that is heresy; but all those propositions which are extrinsical to these two considerations, be they true or be they false, make not heresy, nor the man a heretic; and therefore, however he may be an erring person, yet he is to be used accordingly, pitied and instructed, not condemned or excommunicated: and this is the result of the first ground, the consideration of the nature of faith and heresy. 81 SECTION III. Of the difficulty and uncertainty of Arguments from Scripture, in Questions not simply necessary, not literally determined. GOD, who disposes of all things sweetly, and according to the nature and capacity of things and persons, had made those only necessary which he had taken care should be sufficiently propounded to all persons of whom he required the explicit belief. And therefore all the articles of faith are clearly and plainly set down in Scripture, and the Gospel is not hid, excepting to them that are lost, saith St. Paul; "for there we find the encouragement to every virtue, and the warning against every vice," saith Damascen;* and that so manifestly, that no man can be ignorant of the foundation of faith without his own apparent fault. And this is acknowledged by all wise and good men; and is evident, besides the reasonableness of the thing, in the testimonies of Saints Austin,+ Jerome, Chrysostom, § Fulgentius,|| Hugo de Sancto Victore, Theodoret,* Lactantius,+ Theophilus Antiochenus,‡ Aquinas,§ and the latter schoolmen. And God * Πάσης γὰρ ἀρετῆς παράκλησιν, και κακίας ἀπάσης TρOπηV Év TáνTai įvρiokoμev.—Orthod. Fidei. lib. iv. c. 18. + Super. Psal. 88, et de Util. Cred. c. 6. Super Isa. c. 19, and in Psal. 86. § Homil. 3, in Thess. Ep. ii. Miscel. ii. lib. i. tit. 46. Serm. de Confess. + Cap. 6. Par. i. q. i. art. 9. G hath done more; for many things which are only profitable, are also set down so plainly, that, as St. Austin says, "every one may partake, if he come in a devout and pious spirit:"* but of such things there is no question commenced in Christendom; and if there were, it cannot but be a crime and human interest that are the authors of such disputes; and therefore these cannot be simple errors, but always heresies, because the principle of them is a personal sin. But besides these things, which are so plainly set down, some for doctrine, as St. Paul says, that is, for articles and foundation of faith, some for instruction, some for reproof, some for comfort, that is, in matters practical and speculative of several tempers and constitutions, there are innumerable places, containing in them great mysteries, but yet either so enwrapped with a cloud, or so darkened with umbrages, or heightened with expressions, or so covered with allegories and garments of rhetoric, so profound in the matter, or so altered or made intricate in the manner, in the clothing, and in the dressing, that God may seem to have left them as trials of our industry, and arguments of our imperfections, and incentives to the longings after heaven, and the clearest revelations of eternity, and as occasions and opportunities of our mutual charity and toleration to each other, and humility in ourselves, rather than the repositories of faith and furniture of creeds, and articles of belief. For wherever the word of God is kept, whether in Scripture alone, or also in tradition, he that considers that the meaning of the one, and the truth "Nemo inde haurire non possit, si modò ad hauriendum devotè ac piè accedat."-Ubi supra de Util. Cred, c. 6. or certainty of the other, are things of great question, will see a necessity in these things, (which are the subject matter of most of the questions in Christendom,) that men should hope to be excused by an implicit faith in God Almighty. For when there are, in the explications of Scripture, so many commentaries, so many senses and interpretations, so many volumes in all ages, and all, like men's faces, exactly none like another, either this difference and inconvenience is absolutely no fault at all, or, if it be, it is excusable, by a mind prepared to consent in that truth which God intended. And this I call an implicit faith in God, which is certainly of as great excellency as an implicit faith in any man or company of men. Because they who do require an implicit faith in the church for articles less necessary, and excuse the want of explicit faith by the implicit, do require an implicit faith in the church, because they believe that God hath required of them to have a mind prepared to believe whatever the church says; which, because it is a proposition of no absolute certainty, whosoever does, in readiness of mind, believe all that God spake, does also believe that sufficiently, if it be fitting to be believed; that is, if it be true, and if God hath said so; for he hath the same obedience of understanding in this as in the other. But, because it is not so certain God hath tied him in all things to believe that which is called the church, and that it is certain we must believe God in all things, and yet neither know all that either God hath revealed or the church taught, it is better to take the certain than the uncertain, to believe God rather than men; especially since, if God hath bound us to believe men, our absolute submission |