omnino est sola immobilis et irreformabilis," &c. "Hâc lege fidei manente, cætera jam disciplinæ et conversationis admittunt novitatem correctionis, operante scilicet, et proficiente usque in finem gratia Dei :" This symbol is the one sufficient, immovable, unalterable, and unchangeable rule of faith, that admits no increment or decrement; but if the integrity and unity of this be preserved, in all other things men may take a liberty of enlarging their knowledges and prophesyings, according as they are assisted by the grace of God.'

SECTION II.

Of Heresy, and the Nature of it; and that it is to be accounted according to the strict Capacity of Christian Faith, and not in Opinions speculative, nor ever to pious Persons.

1. AND thus I have represented a short draught of the object of faith, and its foundation. The next consideration, in order to our main design, is to consider what was, and what ought to be, the judgment of the apostles concerning heresy for although there are more kinds of vices than there are of virtues, yet the number of them is to be taken by accounting the transgressions of their virtues, and by the limits of faith we may also reckon the analogy and proportions of heresy, that as we have seen who were called faithful by the apostolical men, we may also perceive who were listed by them in the catalogue of heretics, that we, in our judgments, may proceed accordingly.

2. And, first, the word heresy is used in Scripture indifferently; in a good sense, for a sect or division of opinion, and men following it; or sometimes in a bad sense, for a false opinion, signally condemned but these kind of people were then called Antichrists and false prophets, more frequently than heretics, and then there were many of them in the world. But it is observable that no heresies are noted 'signanter' in Scripture, but such as are great errors practical, ‘in materiâ pietatis,' such whose doctrines taught impiety, or such who denied the coming of Christ directly or by consequence, not remote or withdrawn, but prime and immediate; and,

therefore, in the code de Sanctâ Trinitate et Fide Catholica,' heresy is called ἀσεβὴς δόξα, καὶ ἀθέμιτος διδασκαλία, “ a wicked opinion, and an ungodly doctrine."

3. The first false doctrine we find condemned by the apostles, was the opinion of Simon Magus, who thought the Holy Ghost was to be bought with money: he thought very dishonourably to the Blessed Spirit; but yet his followers are rather noted of a vice, neither resting in the understanding, nor derived from it, but wholly practical; it is simony, not heresy; though in Simon it was a false opinion, proceeding from a low account of God, and promoted by his own ends of pride and covetousness. The great heresy that troubled them, was the doctrine of the necessity of keeping the law of Moses, the necessity of circumcision; against which doc trine they were therefore zealous, because it was a direct overthrow to the very end and excellency of Christ's coming. And this was an opinion most pertinaciously and obstinately maintained by the Jews, and had made a sect among the Galatians and this was, indeed, wholly in opinion; and against it the apostles opposed two articles of the creed, which served, at several times, according as the Jews changed their opinion, and left some degrees of their error; "I believe in Jesus Christ, and I believe the holy catholic church :" for they, therefore, pressed the necessity of Moses' law, because they were unwilling to forego the glorious appellative of being God's own peculiar people; and that salvation was of the Jews, and that the rest of the world were capable of that grace no otherwise but by adoption into their religion, and becoming proselytes. But this was so ill a doctrine, as that it overthrew the great benefits of Christ's coming; for, "if they were circumcised, Christ profited them nothing:" meaning this, that Christ will not be a Saviour to them, who do not acknowledge him for their Lawgiver; and they neither confess him their Lawgiver, nor their Saviour, that look to be justified by the law of Moses, and observation of legal rites: so that this doctrine was a direct enemy to the foundation, and, therefore, the apostles were so zealous against it. Now then, that other opinion, which the apostles met at Jerusalem to resolve, was but a piece of that opinion; for the Jews and proselytes were drawn off from their lees and sediment by degrees, step by step. At first, they would not endure any

should be saved but themselves, and their proselytes. Being wrought off from this height by miracles, and preaching of the apostles, they admitted the Gentiles to a possibility of salvation, but yet so as to hope for it by Moses' law. From which foolery when they were, with much ado, persuaded, and told that salvation was by faith in Christ, not by works of the law, yet they resolved to plough with an ox and an ass still, and join Moses with Christ; not as shadow and substance, but in an equal confederation, Christ should save the Gentiles, if he was helped by Moses,-but, alone, Christianity could not do it. Against this the apostles assembled at Jerusalem, and made a decision of the question, tying some of the Gentiles (such only who were blended by the Jews ' in communi patria,') to observation of such rites, which the Jews had derived, by tradition, from Noah, intending, by this, to satisfy the Jews, as far as might be, with a reasonable compliance and condescension; the other Gentiles who were unmixed, in the mean while, remaining free, as appears in the liberty St. Paul gave the church of Corinth of eating idol sacrifices (expressly against the decree at Jerusalem), so it were without scandal. And yet, for all this care and curious discretion, a little of the leaven still remained: all this they thought did so concern the Gentiles, that it was totally impertinent to the Jews; still they had a distinction to satisfy the letter of the apostles' decree, and yet to persist in their old opinion; and this so continued, that fifteen Christian bishops in succession were circumcised, even until the destruction of Jerusalem, under Adrian, as Eusebius reports.

4. First, by the way, let me observe, that never any matter of question in the Christian church was determined with greater solemnity, or more full authority of the church, than this question concerning circumcision: no less than the whole college of the apostles, and elders at Jerusalem, and that with a decree of the highest sanction, "Visum est Spiritui Sancto et nobis." Secondly; Either the case of the Hebrews, in particular, was omitted, and no determination concerning them, whether it were necessary or lawful for them to be circumcised, or else it was involved in the decree,

a Eccles. Hist. lib. iv. c. v.

and intended to oblige the Jews. If it was omitted since the question was de re necessaria,' (for" dico vobis," " I, Paul, say unto you, if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing,") it is very remarkable, how the apostles, to gain the Jews, and to comply with their violent prejudice in behalf of Moses' law, did, for a time, tolerate their dissent etiam in re alioquin necessariâ,' which, I doubt not, but was intended as a precedent for the church to imitate for ever after: but if it was not omitted, either all the multitude of the Jews (which St. James, then their bishop, expressed by Toral μupiádes “Thou seest how many myriads of Jews that believe, and yet are zealots for the law :-and Eusebius, speaking of Justus, says, he was one ex infinitâ multitudine eorum, qui ex circumcisione in Jesum credebant,') I say all these did perish, and their believing in Christ served them to no other ends, but, in the infinity of their torments, to upbraid them with hypocrisy and heresy; or if they were saved, it is apparent how merciful God was, and pitiful, to human infirmities, that, in a point of so great concernment, did pity their weakness, and pardon their errors, and love their good mind; since their prejudice was little less than insuperable, and had fair probabilities, at least, and was such as might abuse a wise and good man (and so it did many), they did bono animo errare.' And, if I mistake not, this consideration St. Paul urged as a reason why God forgave him, who was a persecutor of the saints, because he did it "ignorantly in unbelief," that is, he was not convinced in his understanding of the truth of the way which he persecuted, he, in the mean while, remaining in that incredulity, not out of malice or ill ends, but the mistakes of humanity and a pious zeal; therefore" God had mercy on him:" and so it was in this great question of circumcision; here only was the difference, the invincibility of St. Paul's error, and the honesty of his heart, caused God so to pardon him, as to bring him to the knowledge of Christ, which God therefore did because it was necessary,' necessitate medii ;' no salvation was consistent with the actual remanency of that error; but in the question of circumcision, although they, by consequence, did overthrow the end of Christ's coming: yet, because it was such

b Acts, xxi. 20.

e Eccles. Hist. lib. iii. c. 32.

1 Tim. i.

a consequence, which they, being hindered by a prejudice non-impious, did not perceive, God tolerated them in their error, till time, and a continual dropping of the lessons and dictates apostolical did wear it out, and then the doctrine put on its apparel, and became clothed with necessity; they, in the mean time, so kept to the foundation, that is, Jesus Christ crucified and risen again, that although they did make a violent concussion of it, yet they held fast with their heart what they ignorantly destroyed with their tongue,-which Saul, before his conversion, did not,-that God upon other titles, than an actual dereliction of their error, did bring them to salvation.

5. And in the descent of so many years, I find not any one anathema past, by the apostles or their successors, upon any of the bishops of Jerusalem, or the believers of the circumcision, and yet it was a point as clearly determined, and of as great necessity, as any of those questions that, at this day, vex and crucify Christendom.

6. Besides this question, and that of the resurrection, commenced in the church of Corinth, and promoted, with some variety of sense, by Hymenæus and Philetus, in Asia, who said that the resurrection was past already, I do not remember any other heresy named in Scripture, but such as were errors of impiety, seductiones in materiâ practica;' such as was, particularly, forbidding to marry,—and the heresy of the Nicolaitans, a doctrine that taught the necessity of lust and frequent fornication.

7. But in all the animadversions against errors made by the apostles in the New Testament, no pious person was condemned, no man that did invincibly err, or bonâ mente;' but something that was amiss in genere morum,' was that which the apostles did redargue. And it is very considerable, that even they of the circumcision, who, in so great numbers, did heartily believe in Christ, and yet most violently retain circumcision, and, without question, went to heaven in great numbers;-yet, of the number of these very men, they came deeply under censure, when, to their error, they added impiety: so long as it stood with charity, and without human ends and secular interests, so long it was either innocent or connived at; but when they grew covetous, and for filthy lucre's sake, taught the same doctrine which others did in