CONTENTS OF VOL. II. CHAP. IV. To say that the Creed contains all points neces- sary to be believed, is neither pertinent to the question in CHAP. V. That Luther, Calvin, their associates, and all who began or continue the separation from the external commu- ANSWER V. The separation of protestants from the Roman church, being upon just and necessary causes, is not any way CHAP. VI. That Luther and the rest of protestants have added heresy unto schism ANSWER VI. That protestants are not heretics...............316 CHAP. VII. In regard of the precept of charity towards one's self, protestants are in a state of sin, as long as they re- CHARITY MAINTAINED BY CATHOLICS. PART I. CHAPTER IV. To say that the Creed contains all points necessarily to be believed, is neither pertinent to the question in hand, nor in itself true. "I SAY, neither pertinent nor true. Not pertinent ; because our question is not what points are necessary to be explicitly believed; but what points may be lawfully disbelieved or rejected after sufficient proposition that they are Divine truths. You say, the Creed contains all points necessary to be believed: be it so: but doth it likewise contain all points not to be disbelieved? Certainly it doth not. For how many truths are there in holy scripture not contained in the Creed, which we are not obliged distinctly and particularly to know and believe, but are bound, under pain of damnation, not to reject, as soon as we come to know that they are found in holy scripture; and we having already shewed that whatsoever is proposed by God's church as a point of faith is infallibly a truth revealed by God, it followeth, that whosoever denieth any such point opposeth God's sacred testimony, whether that point be contained in the Creed or no. In vain then was your care employed to prove, that all points of faith necessary to be explicitly believed are contained in the Creed. Neither was that the catalogue which Charity Mistaken demanded. His demand was, (and it was most reasonable,) that you would once give us a list of all fundamentals, the denial whereof destroys salvation; whereas the denial of other points not fundamental may stand with salvation, although both these kinds of points be equally proposed as revealed by God. For if they be not equally proposed, the difference will arise from diversity of the proposal, and not of the matter fundamental or not fundamental. This catalogue only can shew how far protestants may disagree without breach of unity in faith; and upon this many other matters depend according to the ground of protestants. But you will never adventure to publish such a catalogue. I say more; you cannot assign any one point so great or fundamental, that the denial thereof will make a man a heretic, if it be not sufficiently propounded as a Divine truth. Nor can you assign any one point so small, that it can without heresy be rejected, if once it be sufficiently represented as revealed by God. 66 2. Nay, this your instance in the Creed is not only impertinent, but directly against you. For all points in the Creed are not of their own nature fundamental, as I shewed before; and yet it is damnable to deny any one point contained in the Creed. So that it is clear, that to make an error damnable it is not necessary that the matter be of itself fundamental. 3. "Moreover, you cannot ground any certainty upon the Creed itself, unless first you presuppose that the authority of the church is universally infallible, and consequently that it is damnable to oppose her declarations, whether they concern matters great or small, contained or not contained in the Creed. This is clear; because we must receive the Creed itself upon Cap. iii. n. 3. a |