B. Positive. (1.) Councils that have erred. 2 Nice, a. D. 786, C. Confession. Westminster, c. xxxi. § 4. PROP. V. Things ordained by general Councils, as necessary unto salvation, have neither strength nor authority, unless it may be declared that they be taken out of Holy Scriptures. 1. Divine Testimony. A. Old Testament. Deut. xii. 32, "What thing soever I command you, observe to do it, thou shalt not add thereto, nor diminish from it."-See also Isa. viii. 20. Ezek. xx. 18, 19. B. New Testament. 1 Thess. v. 21, “Prove all things, hold fast that which is good."-See also Matt. xv. 8, 9. Gal. i. 8, 9. 2 Tim. iii. 16, 17. 1 John iv. 1. 3 The second of Ephesus was cecumenical or general. The bishops assembled in it were "ubique sanctarum ecclesiarum," (Theodos. Imp. Epist. ad Synod. Ephes. Secund. in Concil. Chalced. in Concil. Stud. Labb. et Cossart. Lut. Paris, 1671, tom. iv. cols. 109, 110). Nicephorus and Evagrius, who have given a history of the council, have not repudiated its œcumenical character.— Nieph. Callist. Hist. Eccles. Lut. Par. 1630, lib. xiv. cap. xlvii. tom. II. .pp. 546, &c. Evagr. Scholast. in Hist. Eccles. Script. lib. 1. cc. ix. x. pp. 266, 267. Liberat. Breviar. cap. x11. p. 73, ed. Par. 1675. 2. Human Testimony. A. Fathers. August. cont. Donat. II. iii. pp. 32, 33, vol. vII. fol. ed. Lugd. 1664, "You are accustomed to object against us the letters of Cyprian, the judgment of Cyprian, and the council holden under Cyprian. Now who knows not that the holy and canonical Scripture is confined solely to the Old and New Testament; and in this it is distinguished from the writings of all succeeding bishops, that no doubt or dispute whatever is to be had about the sacred Scriptures, as to the truth and right of anything contained in the same; but the letters of bishops, written after the confirmation of the sacred canon, may be reprehended or corrected, if in anything they deviate from the truth, by the wiser writings of any one having in this matter more knowledge than they, or by the weightier authority and deeper prudence of other bishops or councils. And even councils themselves, holden in particular region or provinces, yield without question to the authority of fuller councils, collected from the whole Christian world; and these fuller councils are often corrected by succeeding ones, when experience hath brought something to the light which was before hid, and something which escaped has become known; and all this may, and ought to be done, without any sacrilegious presumption, any inflated arrogance, and with Christian charity."-See also Ignat. Epist. ad Trall. c. ix. August. contra Maxim. lib. п. tom. VIII. col. 499, cf. col. 460, ed. Antwerp. 1700. B. Confessions. Scotland, Arts. xvii. xx. Belgic, Art. vii. Westminster, c. i. § 10. Wirtemburg, c. xxxiv. Westminster, c. xxxi. § 3. 1. As compared with Article XXIII. of those of 1552. 2. When the Latin and English are compared together. res est futilis, inaniter conficta is a fond' thing, vainly in I. The Romish doctrine concerning Purgatory is a fond thing, vainly invented, and grounded upon no warranty of Scripture, but rather repugnant to the Word of GOD. II. The Romish doctrine concerning Pardons is a fond thing, vainly invented, and grounded upon no warranty of Scripture, but rather repugnant to the Word of God. III. The Romish doctrine concerning worshipping and adoration of images is a fond thing, vainly invented and grounded upon no warranty of Scripture, but rather repugnant to the Word of GOD. IV. The Romish doctrine concerning worshipping and adoration of relicks is a fond thing, vainly invented, and grounded upon no warranty of Scripture, but rather repugnant to the Word of God. V. The Romish doctrine concerning Invocation of Saints is a fond thing, vainly invented, and grounded upon no warranty of Scripture, but rather repugnant to the Word of GOD. PROP. I. The Romish doctrine concerning Purgatory is a fond thing, vainly invented, and grounded upon no warranty of Scripture, but rather repugnant to the Word of God. A. The Romish doctrine concerning Purgatory is a fond thing, i. e. contradictory to reason. It is derogatory to the doctrine of CHRIST's satisfaction. It is contrary to the justice of GOD. It assigns a power to man of which he is not possessed. 1 Fond: i.e. foolish. In Spenser's Pastoral the word Fon for fool occurs. "Sicker I hold him for greater fon That loves the thing he cannot purchase." Vainly invented: i. e. founded on no substantial reason. 3 The Romish doctrine concerning Purgatory, Council of Trent, Sess. vi. c. xxx., "If any one say, that after the grace of justification received, the B. The Romish doctrine concerning Purgatory is a thing vainly invented. It is a Platonic conceit. It is a graft from Plato by Origen upon Christianity, that all the faithful (the Apostles themselves not excepted) would at the day of judgment pass through a purgatorial fire. St. Augustine invented the notion that purgatory inter- The invention of Augustine was espoused by Pope Pope John XVIII. instituted a holiday wherein prayer Council of Florence, 1439, decreed this vain invention to be a doctrine of the Catholic Church. Council of Trent finally established it "as handed down by the holy fathers and sacred councils." C. The Romish doctrine concerning Purgatory is grounded upon no warranty of Scripture.' fault is so pardoned to every penitent sinner, and the guilt of eternal punishment is so blotted out, that there remains no guilt of temporal punishment to be done away in this world, or that which is to come in Purgatory, before the passage can be opened into heaven,-let him be accursed." Sess. xxv. init. "There is a purgatory, and the souls detained therein are helped by the suffrages of the faithful, but principally by the acceptable sacrifice of the altar, and this holy council commands the bishops to do their diligent endeavours that the sound doctrine of purgatory, as handed down by the holy fathers and the sacred councils, be believed, retained, taught, and everywhere preached by the faithful in CHRIST." Creed of Pope Pius IV. Art. 6, "I constantly hold that there is a Purgatory, and that the souls therein detained are helped by the suffrages of the faithful." Catechism of the Council of Trent, on the Article of the Creed "He descended into Hell, part 1. Art. v. § 5, "Besides there is the fire of Purgatory, in which the souls of the pious are purified by a temporal punishment, to qualify them to be admitted into their eternal country, into which nothing polluted enters.' -See also part iv. § 2. The Church of Rome derives the doctrine of Purgatory from 2 Macc. xii. 40. "Now under the coats of every one [of the Jews] that was slain they found things consecrated to the idols of the Jamnites, which is forbidden the Jews by the law. (Deut. vii. 25, 26.) Then every man saw that this was the cause wherefore they were slain. All men therefore praising the LORD, the Righteous Judge, who had opened the things that were hid, betook themselves unto prayer, and besought Him that the sin committed might wholly be put out of remembrance...... Besides, that noble Judas exhorted the people to keep themselves from sin, forasmuch as they saw before their eyes the things that came to pass for the sins of those that were slain. And when he [Judas] had made a Q |