divided against itself cannot stand; it is a rend- CHAP ing of Christ's blessed body; a violation of the

22.

V.

marriage compact between Him and the Church Matt. xii. 26. (μoizeía Avevμatizn;) a disregard of His Divine John xiii. 34. Example, by which He taught His disciples to love one another; an open contempt of His Prayer, "As Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee; s0 John xvii. 21, may they also be one in Us, that they may be one, as We are one;" a breaking of the bond of love, by which Christ's disciples are to be known; John xiii. 35, a falling away from the practice of the members of Acts ii. 46. iv the Apostolic Church, who were all of one accord, Col. ii. 14 of one heart and one soul.*

1 S. IREN. iii. 43. Hæretici quidem alienum ignem offerentes ad altare Dei, id est alienas doctrinas, a coelesti igne comburuntur, quemadmodum Nadab et Abiud. Qui vero exsurgunt contra veritatem, et alteros adhortantur contra Ecclesiam Dei, remanent apud inferos voragine terræ absorpti, quemadmodum qui circa Chore, Dathan, et Abiron. S. CYPRIAN, de Unit. Eccl. p. 116.

2 S. IGNATIUS concerning Schism, Frag. p. 454, ed. Jacobson, οὐδὲ μαρτυρίου αἷμα ταύτην δύνασθαι ἐξαλείφειν τὴν ȧμaptíav.-So S. CYPRIAN, de Unit. Eccles. p. 113. Inexpiabilis culpa discordiæ nec passione purgatur: esse Martyr non potest qui in Ecclesiâ non est; occidi talis potest, coronari non potest.

3 See ans. 28. Pt. i. chap. v. note 3.

Bp. HORNE'S Discourse on Schism (in the Scholar Armed, ii. 320-326.)

Q. 27. But if the Legislature of a country tolerates schismatics, does it not make Schism to be innocent?

A. No; this is beyond all human power. As, if the State prescribe Schism under a penalty, it would oblige ad pœnam, but not ad culpam; so, although it may remove all the civil penalties of Schism, it cannot diminish its religious guilt; "Pœna potest demi; culpa perennis erit.”

1

1 NORRIS, John, in Christian Institutes, iii. 302, note.

32.

Gal. v. 22.

PART

I.

Q. 28. To consider the case of wilful and obstinate Heretics and Schismatics; are they in the Church?

A. We may not say they are in the Invisible Church; for wilful and obstinate Heretics,1 as far as their heresy, and Schismatics, as far as their schism, is concerned, have forsaken the true Church of God, which is sound in doctrine, and joined together in unity; but by virtue of the Sacraments which they may have received, and of such articles of Christian Faith as they may still continue to hold, they are so far in the Visible Church. Being Heretics or Schismatics, but not being Jews, Saracens, Infidels, Atheists, or Apostates, they are still members of the Visible Church, though peccant and unsound members; they are a part, though a maimed and corrupt part, of the Visible Church. "Sunt in Ecclesiâ quamvis non3 salubriter in Ecclesiâ." They are, indeed, in the Church, but as long as they are wilful Heretics or Schismatics they receive no benefit from it. They are subjects of Christ, but rebellious ones. By breaking Unity, they have forsaken Charity, with1 Cor. xiii. 3. out which other things profit them not, but rather increase their condemnation.

3

1 HOOKER, III. 1. 7–11, and V. LXIII. 7. V. lxviii. 6. Many things exclude from the kingdom of God, although from the visible Church they separate not.

MASON, de Ministerio Anglican. p. 195.

2 S. AUG. de Bapt. iii. c. 19. Hæretici aliquo modo sunt in Ecclesia etiam postquam ex illâ exierunt, propter sacramentorum administrationem.

S. AUG. in Breviculo Collationis 3. Ecclesia est corpus vivum, in quo est Anima et Corpus; et quidem Anima sunt interna Spiritus Sancti dona, Fides, Spes, Caritas. Corpus sunt externa professio fidei et sacramentorum communicatio. Ex quo fit ut quidam sint de animâ et de corpore Ecclesiæ, et proinde uniti Christo Capiti interius et exterius, et tales sunt perfectissimè de Ecclesia, sunt enim quasi membra viva in corpore: rursum aliqui sunt de animâ et non de corpore,

ut catechumeni et excommunicati, si fidem et caritatem 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?

CHAP.
V.

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 spiritual 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. Credamus, fratres; quantum quisque amat Ecclesiam Christi, tantum habet Spiritum Sanctum.

CHAPTER VI.

ON PRIVILEGES IN THE CHURCH.

PART

I.

1 Pet. i. 23. James i.-18. iii. 17.

Word of God.-The Church its Witness and Keeper.

Q. 1. WHAT privileges do the members of the
Church derive through her means from God?
A. First, the Word of God pure and entire.
Q. 2. How is the Word of God received through
the Church?

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. ii. 15. by St. Paul orixos xai idpaíwμu τns àλnorías, "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 charges 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. CHRYSOSTOM, 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