These clauses are the following:

I.

"Whosoever will be saved, before all things it is necessary that he hold the Catholick Faith."

2. "Which Faith except every one do keep whole and undefiled, without doubt he shall perish everlastingly."

28. He therefore that will be saved, must thus think of the Trinity."

42. "This is the Catholick Faith, which except a man believe faithfully, he cannot be saved."

1. Now the first thing to be noticed is this, that the English words are a translation of the Latin, and to be understood in the sense of the Latin. Their sound may be harsher in English, and may suggest a more sweeping condemnation of unbelievers or misbelievers than the Latin original, but, if so, they must be interpreted "modestly," and in the sense of the Latin.

Examine these clauses then, and apply this principle.

"Whosoever will be saved"—whosoever would be, or willeth to be among the saved,-to be of the number of those whom the New Testament speaks of as the saved-i.e. to be a member of the Church of Christ, "before all things,"—because faith is the root of all else, the first thing in point of time and of importance in everyone who comes to Christ, "before all things it is necessary that he hold the Catholick Faith,"

"Which Faith except everyone do keep❞—literally shall have kept (servaverit), "whole and undefiled, without doubt he shall perish everlastingly."

Here observe that the expression "shall have kept," cannot rightly apply to those who have never had the true faith revealed to them. A man cannot

keep what he has never grasped. Those who have been brought up in a different Creed, or who have been prevented by invincible ignorance or prejudice from accepting the true faith, are not therefore spoken of here, whether on other grounds they are responsible or not; but I will return to this presently. "He therefore that will be saved"-the same expression as before he therefore that desires to be in a state of salvation, salvation being regarded as a thing of the present rather than a thing of the future-"must thus think of the Trinity." The Latin is "ought thus to think," or "let him thus think". it is the language of teaching, not of denunciation.

Again "this is the Catholick Faith, which except a man believe faithfully, he cannot be saved," i.e. not he must certainly be lost, but he is not now at this present time to be considered as in a state of salvation, a true member of Christ's Holy Catholic Church. Thus interpreted, these clauses are to be understood, as Bishop Cotton, of Calcutta1, pointed out in an important charge delivered many years ago (in 1864), not as declaring the conditions of final acceptance or rejection, which conditions are rather defined in the verse, "they that have done good shall go into life everlasting, and they that have done evil into everlasting fire," but as laying down the conditions of Baptism of Church membership in regard to faith. The first point then in dealing with this difficulty is to take the words, as they are intended, remembering that their meaning is to be explained by the Latin original.

2. Next let us remember that the threatenings of Scripture must always be taken just as Article XVII declares that its promises are to be, viz. "as they be 1 See Appendix, p. 70.

generally set forth to us in Holy Scripture." That is, they are to be taken as warnings of the general principles by which God will judge men, but not to be applied to individuals without the reservations, which justice itself requires to be made, and which it is the office of the Judge to make.

Our Lord Himself has said, "He that believeth not, shall be condemned." He thus declares that men are responsible for their belief; and each of us must take the warning to himself; but we must be extremely careful how we apply it to others. It is a general principle, like many others in the Bible. The Bible declares that various classes of personsliars, drunkards, fornicators, extortioners, covetous persons-shall not inherit the kingdom of heaven; but no one would presume so to apply these warnings as to decide on the final state of individuals, or would suppose that they left no room for God's merciful consideration of men's circumstances, temptations, and early training; and no one, this being understood, would think it uncharitable to repeat them, as warnings.

Go back then once more to this clause. "Which Faith except every one do keep whole and undefiled, without doubt he shall perish everlastingly." Take it to mean, as it surely does, that whoever, having received the true faith of a Christian, has not kept it, but cast it away, or corrupted it through pride or carelessness or a perverse will, he, without doubt, is guilty of a mortal sin—he shall perish, if he repent not-and, after all, there is nothing very harsh in this statement.

The words "without doubt" apply to the truth of the principle. They declare that the warning is

sure, as it would be in the case of any other sin condemned by God, but this does not make our application of it to this or that individual sure. In every case there must be doubt-room for a charitable hope-for who knows what God's dealings may be with any individual soul?

But it may be said, Are men responsible for their belief? To this we must answer,—every one who has deeply considered the matter must answer, Yes! faith in Christ, and in the doctrines of the Gospel-faith in the only sense in which it is worth anything, is not a matter of the intellect only, it depends partly and in great measure upon the life and character-in short upon moral habits1. And these clauses would be important if it were only for the fact that they assert this. They do not mean that every one who fails to understand, or to believe aright every detail of this Creed shall certainly perish2; but they do mean that every one who by his own sin or fault has let go, or defiled the truth, which he has once received, is " without doubt" on the way to perdition, and not on the way to eternal life.

Thus we neither condemn the heathen, who have never heard the Gospel; nor those who have been brought up outside the Church's fold; nor even those who have mistakenly, but yet in the sincerity of their hearts, withdrawn themselves from her teaching. We speak of those within the fold; we speak, above

1 See Appendix V.

2 "To keep" (servare) is not used in the Creed in the sense of "hold" intellectually (tenere), but rather in that of "guard," "preserve," in a moral and spiritual sense (custodire), so St. Paul says, "I have kept the faith," &c. See Bishop Cotton's Charge, p. 40, who quotes from Donaldson's Christian Orthodoxy. 2 Tim. iv. 7. Appendix, p. 70.

all, to ourselves, and we say that the Catholic Faith, which in all ages has been assailed by human error, is before all things to be believed and maintained, because it is the foundation of all true belief; because it is the Church's most precious deposit, which she has to keep and to hand on pure and undefiled to remotest generations; because it is the well-spring of all that is good and holy in her teaching; and the root out of which all true works of love should grow.

Does any one still doubt whether he can use the language of the Creed, and yet exercise a large and charitable hope towards others? let him ponder the words of one of the greatest Champions of the faith, which our own or any other Church has produced

"The Church would not pronounce even upon the authors of heresy, widely desolating as their errors have been. To their own Master they have stood or fallen. But it is acknowledged that hereditary misbelief mitigates the responsibility of individuals. Heresy loses some of its virus by transmission. Voluntary and culpable rejection of God's truth, bad faith, perversity of will alone condemn . . . . Ño— that word of God stands sure, In every nation, he that feareth God and worketh righteousness is accepted of Him.' For the Lover and Father of mankind, Who willeth not that any should perish, has not one way only of bringing home His lost sheep. All who shall be saved, shall be saved for the sake of that precious blood which has redeemed our earth and arrayed it with divine glory and beauty; . . . in those ever open portals [of heaven] there enter day and night that countless multitude of every people, nation, and language; they who in the Church were

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