CHAP. truly, for as much as pertaineth to them in the Old TestaXVIII. ment, (for we acknowledge no such distribution in the New,) there may be a good use made of this distinction, whereby to reconcile the Epistle of Pope Innocent, (if ever there was any such,) and the catalogue that S. Augustine and the council of Carthage made, to the universal consent of the Church, before and after their times. For the second canon was never made equal to the first, nor did they intend to attribute the like authority in all things to all the books of either sort together. But, in the mean while, there will be no such use of this distinction had, to reconcile the decree of the council at Trent, either to S. Augustine, or to S. Augustine's ancestors, or to any other ecclesiastical writer that followed him. For our new masters will by no means grant, that the books of the second order are to be distinguished from the first, as any way second or inferior to them in dignity,-but contend and believe, that they have both alike as much truth, and equally as much authority, the one as the other; admitting no other difference between them, than a difference of time only, wherein they were written and made known to the world; and hereupon commanding all the world, upon pain and peril of their eternal perdition, to believe as they do, (or, at least, say they do, if a man might believe and trust them,) that it is no less a necessary article of the Christian Faith, to believe the books, which we call apocryphal, to be as canonical as the other are, and both to be penned by the Holy Ghost, than to believe that God is the Creator of heaven and earth, or that Christ was born of the blessed Virgin for they have put both these, bus duabus rebus sit, ut ordo alter d Concil. Trid., in Bulla super forma Juramenti Professionis Fidei. [Vid. Bull. P. Pii IV. ap. Concil., Labbe, tom xiv. col. 944. et seq.-Pius Episcopus, servus servorum Dei, ad perpetuam rei memoriam. Injunctum nobis Apostolicæ servitutis officium requirit, ut ea quæ Dominus Omnipotens, ad providam Ecclesiæ suæ directionem, sanctis patribus in Nomine Suo congregatis, divinitus inspirare dignatus est, ad Ejus laudem et gloriam incunctanter exequi properemus. Cum itaque, juxta Concilii Tridentini dispositionem, omnes, quos deinceps cathedralibus et superioribus Ecclesiis and the decrees of the council of Trent together, all into one COUNCIL and the same Creed; without which, (according to their new, præfici, vel quibus de illarum dignitatibus, canonicatibus, et aliis quibuscunque beneficiis Ecclesiasticis, curam animarum habentibus, provideri continget, publicam orthodoxæ fidei professionem facere, seque in Romanæ Ecclesiæ obedientia permansuros spondere, et jurare, teneantur; Nos volentes etiam per quoscumque, quibus de monasteriis, conventibus, domibus, et aliis quibuscumque locis, Regularium quorumcumque Ordinum, etiam militarium,quocumque nomine vel titulo, providebitur, idem servari; et ad hoc,] ut unius ejusdem fidei professio uniformiter ab omnibus exhibeatur, unicaque et certa illius forma cunctis innotescat, [nostræ sollicitudinis partes in hoc alicui minime desiderari,] formam ipsam [præsentibus annotatam] publicari (fecimus,) et [ubique gentium per eos, ad quos ex decretis ipsius concilii et alios prædictos spectat, recipi et observari, ac sub pœnis per concilium ipsum in contravenientes latis,] juxta hanc ac non aliam formam, professionem (Fidei) [prædictam] solemniter fieri, auctoritate Apostolica [tenore præsentium] districte præcipiendo mandamus, hujusmodi sub tenore: Ego N. firma fide credo, et profiteor, omnia et singula quæ continentur in Symbolo Fidei, quo S. Romana Ecclesia utitur, viz., Credo in Unum Deum Patrem Omnipotentem, Factorem cœli et terræ, [visibilium omnium, et invisibilium :] et in Unum Dominum Jesum Christum, Filium Dei [Unigenitum, et ex Patre natum ante omnia sæcula, Deum de Deo, Lumen de Lumine, Deum verum de Deo vero, genitum, non factum, consubstantialem Patri, per Quem omnia facta sunt,] qui [propter nos homines, et propter nostram salutem, descendit de cœlis, et] incarnatus est de Spiritu Sancto ex Maria Virgine, [et homo factus est, crucifixus etiam pro nobis sub Pontio Pilato, passus, et sepultus est, et resurrexit tertia die secundum Scripturas, et ascendit in cœlum, sedet ad dexteram Patris, et iterum venturus est cum gloria judicare vivos et mortuos, Cujus regni non erit finis: et in Spiritum Sanctum, Dominum, et Vivificantem, Qui ex Patre Filioque procedit, Qui cum Patre et Filio simul adoratur, et conglorificatur, Qui locutus est per Prophetas : et Unam Sanctam Catholicam et Apo stolicam Ecclesiam: confiteor unum Baptisma in remissionem peccatorum ; et expecto resurrectionem mortuorum, et vitam venturi sæculi. Amen. Apostolicas et Ecclesiasticas traditiones, reliquasque] ejusdem Ecclesiæ observationes et constitutiones, [firmissime admitto, et amplector:] (sensum S. Scripturæ:) [item, Sacram Scripturam juxta eum sensum quem tenuit et tenet sancta Mater Ecclesia, cujus est judicare de vero sensu et interpretatione Sacrarum Scripturarum, admitto; nec eam unquam nisi juxta unanimem consensum Patrum accipiam, et interpretabor: profiteor quoque] septem [esse vera et] proprie Sacramenta [Novæ Legis, a Jesu Christo Domino nostro instituta, atque ad salutem humani generis, licet non omnia singulis, necessaria, scilicet, Baptismum, Confirmationem, Eucharistiam, Pœnitentiam, Extremam Unctionem, Ordinem, et Matrimonium; illaque gratiam conferre et ex his Baptismum, Confirmationem, et Ordinem, sine sacrilegio reiterari non posse: receptos quoque et approbatos Ecclesiæ Catholicæ ritus, in supradictorum omnium Sacramentorum solemni administratione, recipio et admitto:] (doctrinam) [omnia et singula, quæ] de peccato originali, et [de] justificatione, [in sacrosancta Tridentina synodo definita et declarata fuerunt, amplector et recipio: profiteor pariter in Missa offerri Deo verum,] propitiatorium, et proprium (Missæ) sacrificium pro vivis et defunctis; [atque in sacrosancto Eucharistiæ Sacramento esse vere, realiter, et substantialiter, Corpus et Sanguinem, una cum Anima et Divinitate Domini nostri Jesu Christi, fierique conversionem totius substantiæ panis in Corpus, et totius substantiæ vini in Sanguinem, quam conversionem Catholica Ecclesia] transubstantionem [appellat: fateor etiam] (communionem) sub altera tantum specie [totum atque integrum Christum, verumque Sacramentum, sumi: constanter teneo] Purgatorium [esse, animasque ibi detentas Fidelium suffragiis juvari: similiter et] (Invocationem sanctorum) [Sanctos, una cum Christo regnantes, venerandos atque invocandos esse, eosque orationes Deo pro nobis offerre, atque eorum reliquias esse venerandas: firmiter assero] (imaginum venerationem) [imagines Christi, ac AT TRENT. CHA P. uncharitable, and unchristian religion,) no body can be saved. XVIII. Wherein they have set themselves at open defiance with the Church, and cursed that which God hath blessed. But, while we are in awe of S. John's curse, we fear not theirs ; and, by the grace of God, our foundation, which is built upon the Prophets and Apostles, standeth sure. Rev. 22. 18. Ephes. 2. 20. 2 Tim. 2. 19. CHAPTER XIX. THE CONCLUSION AND SUMMARY OF ALL THE FORMER CHAPTERS. CXCIX. The conclusion therefore of all this discourse will be,—That the religion of the Church of England, in her Article concerning the Holy Scriptures, (whereunto the public Confessions of the reformed and protestant Churches abroad, besides the Christians of the East and South parts of the world, be agreeable,) is truly Catholic:-That the ancient Church of the Old Testament acknowledged no other books to be canonical, than we do:-That our blessed Saviour, and His Apostles after Him, received no other :-That the several ages following adhered to the same canon :-That the authors of the books of Tobit, and Judith, and the rest of that order, were no prophets inspired of God to write His authentical Deiparæ semper Virginis, necnon alio- test, quam in præsenti sponte profiteor, Si SION. Scriptures:-That they, who first put these deutero-canonical, CONCLUor ecclesiastical, books into the volume of the Bible, did not thereby intend to make them equal to the books of Moses and the Prophets, but only to recommend them unto the private and public reading of the Church, both for the many excellent precepts and examples of life that be in them, and for the better knowledge of the history and estate of God's people, from the time of the Prophets to the coming of Christ :-That it is not in the power of the Roman Church, nor any other, either to make new articles of Faith, or to make any books sacred and canonical Scriptures, (so as to be the binding rules of our Faith and Religion,) which were not such in their own nature before, that is, certainly inspired by God, and by His authority only ordained to be such, from the time when they were first written: and, lastly,-That, adhering to the ancient Catholic Faith and Doctrine of the Church, we cannot admit or approve any such new decree as it hath lately pleased the masters of the council at Trent to make; who have not only obtruded these books upon their own people, to be received as true and authentical parts of the ancient Testament, but have likewise damned all the world besides, that will not recede from the universal consent of the Christian Church, and subscribe to that horrid anathema, whereby they have most rashly condemned so many ages of Fathers and writers before them. And, if there were no other cause to reject the pretended authority of this late and exorbitant assembly, (as there be many more,) this only is enough. CHAPTER XX. THE REMAINDER. CC. There remains nothing now, but that, having laid our foundation sure upon the canonical and undoubted Scriptures, wherein the will of God, and the mysteries of our whole religion, are revealed to us, we proceed from the e Nota: Ecclesia enim Testis tantum et Index est de receptis omni tempore Scripturis Sacris, quæ ab Ipso Deo primam et cælestem suam habent originem. Idcirco, neque quoad nos XX. 286 A Scholastical History of the Canon of the Scriptures. CHAP. truth and principles of our belief, to a righteous, sober, and holy regulation of our lives, in the strict and uniform practice of all religious duties and obligations, that these Divine Scriptures have laid upon us. COROLLARIUM. Canon Eccles. Anglic.-Ne quid unquam doceatur, quod religiose teneri et credi debeat, nisi quod consentaneum sit Doctrinæ Veteris et Novi Testamenti, quodque ex illa ipsa Doctrina Catholici Patres et Veteres Episcopi collegerint. DEO OPTIMO MAXIMO, SACRARUM SCRIPTURARUM CONDITORI, Laus, Honor, Sæculorum. Editus est hic Canon, una cum Articulis Religionis, Anno Domini 1571. [Vid. Lib. Quorundam Canonum Disciplinæ Ecclesiæ Anglicanæ, ed. anno 1571., sect. Concionatores, p. 19.-Imprimis vero videbunt, ne quid unquam doceant pro concione, quod a populo religiose teneri et credi velint, nisi quod consentaneum sit doctrinæ Veteris et Novi Testamenti, quodque ex illa ipsa Doctrina Catholici Patres et veteres Episcopi collegerint; &c.-These canons are found published with the Latin Articles of 1562., ed. Lond. ap. Joh. Dayum, 1571.] |