Obrazy na stronie
PDF
ePub

66

Pope and a General Council together, are absolutely infallible, when they make Decrees on FAITH and MORALS, pontificem cum generali concilio non posse errare, in condendis fidei decretis, vel generalibus præceptis morum.) Now the Council of Trent was convoked by Papal authority; three Legates of the Pope presided at the Council; and it finally received the Confirmation of the Pope, entitled Confirmatio Concilii, which is annexed to its Decrees 29. Moreover, in every decree it is styled a General Council. It is styled also a "Council lawfully assembled in the Holy Spirit," and consequently a Council free from the possibility of error. There was nothing wanting therefore in this Council to give it give it the character of infallibility, according to the principles of the Church of Rome. And that Councils, thus general in their convocation and celebration, are really infallible, is no where more strongly enforced, than in the theological Lectures at the College of Maynooth. For in the treatise de Ecclesiá Christi this proposition is asserted, Concilia, convocatione et celebratione generalia, sunt infallibilia 3. Nay even in regard to discipline, the authority of this Council, though resisted in France, is maintained in the College of Maynooth. For the concluding sentence of the Treatise de Ecclesia Christi pronounces, not only that the Council of Trent is in respect to Doctrine a Compendium of all preceding Councils, but

28 De Romano Pontifice, Lib. IV. cap. 2.
"See p. ccxXVII.

3o De Ecclesiâ Christi, p. 166.

that also in respect to Discipline it is to be received as a Manual of the Clergy",

Lastly, there is one respect, in which the Council of Trent is still more important, to our present Inquiry, than all former Councils united. It is the last General Council, assembled by the Church of Rome. Consequently, there is no pretext for the opinion, that its Decrees and Canons represent not the present tenets of that Church. Not that the pretext would be valid, even if a General Council had been since assembled. For, according to the principles of the Church of Rome, it is not in the power of one General Council, to revoke what a former General Council has decreed on Faith and Morals. Infallibility itself cannot declare to be false, what infallibility has declared to be true...

Having now ascertained, beyond the possibility of doubt, the tenets of the Church of Rome on Scripture and Tradition, I shall proceed in the next Chapter to ascertain the tenets of the Church of England on the same subjects, by an appeal to our Liturgy, Articles, and Homilies.

31 Itaque maximo in pretio illud Concilium habere debent omnes Clerici, cum ratione Dogmatum sit veluti omnium præcedentium Synodorum compendium, et ratione Disciplina merito dici possit Manuale Sacerdotum, vel eorum qui Sacerdotio sunt initiandi. P. 442.

CHA P. III.

APPEAL TO THE LITURGY, ARTICLES, AND HOMILIES, IN PROOF OF THE POSITION, THAT THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND REJECTS THE AUTHORITY OF TRADITION, AS A RULE OF FAITH, AND FOUNDS ITS DOCTRINES ON THE SOLE AUTHORITY OF SCRIPTURE.- -EFFECTS OF THAT REJECTION EXEMPLIFIED IN A REVIEW OF OUR DOCTRINAL ARTICLES.

As the tenets of the Church of Rome, on Scripture and Tradition, were ascertained by an appeal to the Council of Trent, so the tenets of the Church of England, on the same subjects, must be determined by an appeal to our Liturgy, Articles, and Homilies. But the first, and principal appeal, must be made to the Articles; for in the Articles of our religion we may of course expect a declaration of the authority, on which the Doctrines of our Church are founded. Now the sixth Article exactly corresponds with the Decree, which had been made a few years before, at the fourth Session of the Council of Trent, and of which a full account was given in the preceding Chapter. As the Council of Trent, had declared in that Decree the authorities, by which it proposed to establish its Doctrines, sa the Synod of London, declared in the sixth Article

[ocr errors]
[ocr errors]

on what authority its Doctrines were founded. The Council of Trent had acknowledged two equal and independent authorities, as foundations of Doctrines. But our sixth article declares, that there is only one such authority. "Holy Scripture (says this Article) containeth all things necessary to Sal"vation, so that whatsoever is not read therein, nor may be proved thereby, is not to be required of 66 any man, that it should be believed as an article "of faith, or be thought requisite or necessary to "salvation." This Article then directly contradicts the Decree in question. For, instead of describing the total Rule of Faith, as composed of two partial Rules of Faith, in Scripture, and Tradition; instead of describing Tradition, or the unwritten Word, as equal in authority with Scripture, as the written Word; it gives the whole authority to Scripture alone. The sixth Article therefore rejects, entirely and absolutely, Tradition as a Rule of Faith, though the term Tradition is not used in it. The twentieth and twenty-first Articles are no less decisive. The former declares, that "although the Church be "a witness and 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 believed for necessity of salvation." The latter declares, that things ordained by General Councils "as necessary to Salvation have neither "strength nor authority, unless it may be declared, "that they be taken out of Holy Scripture." Nothing can be more pointed, than this Article, against such General Councils as the Council of Trent, where many things relating to faith were

[ocr errors]

ordained, of which it neither was nor could be declared, that they were taken out of Holy Scripture.

If we examine the Homilies, we shall find, that Scripture is every where represented, as the sole fountain of Christian Faith. But it will be suffi cient to quote the beginning of the first Homily; which I select for this very reason, that it shews, how important it appeared to our Reformers, as soon as possible to free themselves from Tradition as a Rule of Faith. The first Homily then begins in the following manner; "Unto a Christian man "there can be nothing either more necessary or " profitable, than the knowledge of Holy Scripture; "forasmuch as in it is contained God's true Word

setting forth his glory, and also man's duty. And "there is no truth nor doctrine, necessary for our 'justification, and everlasting salvation, but that is, "or may be, drawn out of that fountain and well of "truth." Now, if we compare this passage of the first Homily with the Decree made at the fourth Session of the Council of Trent, we may almost conclude, that the author or authors of it had at least the substance of that Decree in contemplation. For in contradiction of the opinion, that the Word of God' is composed of a written and an unwritten Word, this Homily declares, that 'God's true Word,' must be sought in Scripture, or the written Word. Again, in contradiction of the opinion, that there are two fountains or wells of truth, this Homily declares, that there is no truth nor doctrine, necessary for our justification and everlasting salvation, but that is or may be, drawn from the fountain, or well, of Scripture,

« PoprzedniaDalej »