6. "But to what end should we use many arguments? Even yourself are forced to limit your own doctrine, and come to say, that the Creed is a perfect catalogue of fundamental points, 'taken as it was further opened and explained in some parts (by occasion of emergent heresies) in the other catholic Creeds of Nice, Constantinople, Ephesus, Chalcedon, and Athanasius.' But this explication or restriction overthroweth your assertion. For as the Apostles' Creed was not to us a sufficient catalogue till it was explained by the first council, nor then till it was declared by another, &c. ; so now also, as new heresies may arise, it will need particular explanation against such emergent errors; and so it is not yet, nor ever will be, of itself alone, a particular catalogue, sufficient to distinguish betwixt fundamental and not fundamental points.

7. "I come to the second part, 'That the Creed doth not contain all main and principal points of faith:' and to the end we may not strive about things either granted by us both, or nothing concerning the point in question, I must premise these obser

vations:

8. "First, that it cannot be denied but that the Creed is most full and complete, to that purpose for which the holy apostles, inspired by God, meant that it should serve, and in that manner as they did intend it; which was, not to comprehend all particular points of faith, but such general heads as were most befitting and requisite for preaching the faith of Christ to Jews and Gentiles, and might be briefly and compendiously set down, and easily learned and remembered. And, therefore, in respect of Gentiles, the Creed doth mention God as Creator of all things; and for both Jews and Gentiles, the Trinity, the Messias and Saviour, his birth, life, death, resurrection, and glory, from whom they were to hope remission of sins, and life everlasting, and by whose sacred name they were to be distinguished from all other professions, by being called Christians: according to which purpose St. Thomas of Aquine* doth distinguish all the articles of the Creed in these general heads: that some belong to the majesty of the Godhead, others to the mystery of our Saviour Christ's human nature: which two general objects of faith the Holy Ghost doth express and conjoin, John xvii. Hæc est vita æterna, &c. This is life everlasting, that they know thee, the true God, and whom thou hast sent, Jesus Christ. But it was not their meaning to give us, as it were, a course of divinity, or a catechism, or a particular expression of all points of faith, leaving those things to be performed, as occasion should require, by their own word or writing, for their time, and afterwards by their successors in the catholic church. Our question then is not, whether the Creed be perfect, as far as the end for which it was composed did require; for we believe and are ready to give our lives for this; but only we deny, that the apostles did intend to comprise therein all particular points of belief necessary to salvation, as even by Dr. Potter's own confession it doth not comprehend agenda, or things belonging to practice; as sacraments, com* 2. 2. t. 2. art. 8.

mandments, the acts of hope and duties of charity, which we are obliged not only to practise, but also to believe by Divine infallible faith. Will he therefore infer that the Creed is not perfect, because it contains not all those necessary and fundamental objects of faith? He will answer, No, because the apostles intended only to express credenda, things to be believed, not practised. Let him therefore give us leave to say, that the Creed is perfect, because it wanteth none of those objects of belief which were intended to be set down, as we explicated before.

9. "The second observation is, that to satisfy our question what points in particular be fundamental, it will not be sufficient to allege the Creed unless it contains all such points, either expressly and immediately, or else in such manner, that by evident and necessary consequence they may be deduced from articles both clearly and particularly contained therein. For if the deduction be doubtful, we shall not be sure that such conclusions be fundamental; or if the articles themselves, which are said to be fundamental, be not distinctly and particularly expressed, they will not serve us to know and distinguish all points fundamental, from those which they call not fundamental. We do not deny but that all points of faith, both fundamental and not fundamental, may be said to be contained in the Creed, in some sense; as for example, implicitly, generally, or in some such involved manner. For when we explicitly believe the catholic church, we do implicitly believe whatsoever she proposeth as belonging to faith; or else by way of reduction, that is, when we are once instructed in the belief of particular points of faith, not expressed, nor by necessary consequence deducible from the Creed; we may afterwards, by some analogy, or proportion, and resemblance, reduce it to one or more of those articles which are explicitly contained in the symbol. Thus St. Thomas, the cherubim among divines, teacheth* that the miraculous existence of our blessed Saviour's body in the eucharist, as likewise all his other miracles, are reduced to God's omnipotency, expressed in the Creed. And Dr. Potter saith, 'The eucharist being a seal of that holy union which we have with Christ our Head by his Spirit and faith, and with the saints his members by charity, is evidently included in the communion of saints.' But this reductive way is far from being sufficient to infer out of the articles of God's omnipotency, or of the communion of saints, that our Saviour's body is in the eucharist, and much less whether it be only in figure, or else in reality, by transubstantiation or consubstantiation, &c., and least of all, whether or no these points be fundamental. And you hyperbolize in saying, the eucharist is evidently included in the communion of saints, as if there could not have been, or was not a communion of saints before the blessed sacrament was instituted. Yet it is true, that after we know and believe there is such a sacrament, we may refer it to some of those heads expressed in the Creed, and yet 80 as St. Thomas refers it to one article and Dr. Potter to

2. 2. q. 1. 8. and 6.

another; and in respect of different analogies or effects, it may be referred to several articles. The like I say of other points of faith, which may in some sort be reduced to the Creed, but nothing to Dr. Potter's purpose; but contrarily it showeth, that your affirming such and such points to be fundamental or not fundamental is merely arbitrary, to serve your turn, as necessity and your occasions may require. Which was an old custom amongst heretics, as we read in St. Austin,* Pelagius, and Colestius, desiring fraudulently to avoid the hateful name of heresies, affirmed that the question of original sin may be disputed without danger of faith.' But this holy father affirms that it belongs to the foundation of faith. We may,' saith he, 'endure a disputant who errs in other questions not yet diligently examined, not yet diligently established by the whole authority of the church; their error may be borne with; but it must not pass so far as to attempt to shake the foundation of the church.' We see S. Augustin placeth the being of a point fundamental or not fundamental, in that it hath been examined and established by the church, although the points of which he speaketh, namely, original sin, be not contained in the Creed.

10. "Out of that which hath been said, I infer, that Dr. Potter's pains in alleging catholic doctors, the ancient fathers, and the council of Trent, to prove that the Creed contains all points of faith, was needless; since we grant it in manner aforesaid. But Dr. Potter cannot in his conscience believe that catholic divines, or the council of Trent, and the holy fathers, did intend that all points in particular which we are obliged to believe are contained explicitly in the Creed; he knowing well enough that all catholics hold themselves obliged to believe all those points which the said council defines to be believed under an anathema, and that all Christians believe the commandments, sacraments, &c., which are not expressed in the Creed.

11. "Neither must this seem strange. For who is ignorant that summaries, epitomes, and the like brief abstracts, are not intended to specify all particulars of that science or subject to which they belong? For as the Creed is said to contain all points of faith, so the Decalogue comprehends all articles (as I may term them) which concern charity and good life, and yet this cannot be so understood, as if we were disobliged from performance of any duty, or the eschewing of any vice, unless it be expressed in the Ten Commandments. For (to omit the precepts of receiving sacraments, which belong to practice or manners, and yet are not contained in the Decalogue) there are many sins, even against the law of nature, and light of reason, which are not contained in the Ten Commandments, except only by similitude, analogy, reduction, or some such way. For example, we find not expressed in the Decalogue, either divers sins, as gluttony, drunkenness, pride, sloth, covetousness in desiring things either superfluous or with too much greediness, or divers of our chief obligations, as obedience to princes and all superiors, not only ecclesiastical, but also civil; "whose laws Luther, Melanc

De Peccat. Orig. cont. Pelag. 1. 2. c. 22.

thor, Calvin, and some other protestants, do dangerously affirm not to oblige in conscience, and yet these men think they know the Ten Commandments; as likewise divers protestants defend usury to be lawful; and the many treatises of civilians, canonists, and casuists are witnesses, that divers sins against the light of reason and law of nature are not distinctly expressed in the Ten Commandments; although when by other diligence they are found to be unlawful, they may be reduced to some of the commandments, and yet not so evidently and particularly but that divers do it divers manners.

12. "My third observation is, that our present question being whether or no the Creed contains so fully all fundamental points of faith, that whosoever do not agree in all and every one of those fundamental articles cannot have the same substance of faith, nor hope of salvation; if I can produce one or more points not contained in the Creed, in which if two do not agree, both of them cannot expect to be saved, I shall have performed as much as I intend; and Dr. Potter must seek out some other catalogue for points fundamental than the Creed. Neither is it material to the said purpose, whether such fundamental points rest only in knowledge and speculation, or belief, or else be further referred to work and practice. For the habit or virtue of faith which inclineth and enableth us to believe both speculative and practical verities, is of one and the self-same nature and essence. For example, by the same faith, whereby I speculatively believe there is a God, I likewise believe that he is to be adored, served, and loved; which belong to practice. The reason is, because the formal object or motive for which I yield assent to those different sorts of material objects is the same in both, to wit, the revelation or word of God. Where, by the way, I note, that if the unity or distinction and nature of faith were to be taken from the diversity of things revealed, by one faith I should believe speculative verities, and by another such as tend to practice, which I doubt whether Dr. Potter himself will admit.

13. "Hence it followeth, that whosoever denieth any one main practical revealed truth, is no less a heretic, than if he should deny a point resting in belief alone. So that when Dr. Potter (to avoid our argument that all fundamental points are not contained in the Creed, because in it there is no mention of the sacraments, which yet are points of so main importance, that protestants make the due administration of them to be necessary and essential to constitute a church) answereth, that the sacraments are to be reckoned rather among the agenda of the church than the credenda, they are rather Divine rites and ceremonies than doctrines; he either grants that we affirm, or in effect says, of two kinds of revealed truths which are necessary to be believed, the Creed contains one sort only; ergo, it contains all kinds of revealed truths necessary to be believed. Our question is not de nomine, but re, not what be called points of faith or of practice, but what points indeed be necessarily to be believed, whether they be termed agenda or credenda; especially, the chiefest part of Christian perfection consisting more in action

than in barren speculation, in good works than bare belief, in doing than knowing. And there are no less contentions concerning practical than speculative truths; as sacraments-obtaining remission of sin-invocation of saints-prayers for the dead-adoration of Christ in the sacrament, and many other; all which do so much the more import, as on them, beside right belief, doth also depend our practice, and the ordering of our life. Though Dr. Potter could therefore give us (as he will never be able to do) a minute and exact catalogue of all truths to be believed, that would not make me able enough to know whether or no I have faith sufficient for salvation, till he also aid bring in a particular list of all believed truths, which tend to practice, declaring which of them be fundamental, which not; that so every man might know, whether he be not in some damnable error, for some article of faith, which further might give influence into damnable works.

14. “These observations being premised, I come to prove that the Creed doth not contain all points of faith necessary to be known and believed. And to omit that in general it doth not tell us what points be fundamental or not fundamental, which, in the way of protestants, is most necessary to be known; in particular, there is no mention of the greatest evils from which man's calamity proceeded; I mean, the sin of the angels, of Adam, and of original sin in us; nor of the greatest good, from which we expect all good, to wit, the necessity of grace for all works tending to piety. Nay, there is no mention of angels, good or bad. The meaning of that most general head (Oportet accedentem, &c. It behoves him that comes to God, to believe that he is, and is a remunerator)* is questioned by the denial of merit, which makes God a giver, but not a rewarder. It is not expressed whether the article of remission of sins be understood by faith alone, or else may admit the efficiency of sacraments. There is no mention of ecclesiastical, apostolical, Divine traditions, one way or other; or of Holy Scriptures in general, and much less of every book in particular; nor of the name, nature, number, effects, matter, form, ministry, intention, necessity of sacraments; and yet the due administration of the sacraments is with protestants an essential note of the church. There is nothing for baptism of children, nor against re-baptization. There is no mention in favour or against the sacrifice of the mass, of power in the church to institute rites, holydays, &c., and to inflict excommunication, or other censures; of priesthood, bishops, and the whole ecclesiastical hierarchy, which are very fundamental points; of St. Peter's primacy, which to Calvin seemeth a fundamental error; nor of the possibility or impossibility to keep God's commandments; of the procession of the Holy Ghost from the Father and Son; of purgatory, or prayer for the dead, in any sense. And yet Dr. Potter doth not deny but that Aerius was esteemed a heretic, for denying all sort of commemoration for the dead. Nothing of the Church's visibility or invisibility, fallibility or infallibility, nor of other

* Heb. xi, 6.