: guish all the articles of the Creed into 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, commandments, 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 h Page 235, 215. 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, teachethi 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 k Page 231. i 2. 2. q. 1. art. 8. ad. 6. 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 so as St. Thomas refers it to one article and Dr. Potter to 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 Coelestius, 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 1 De Peccat. Orig. cont. Pelag 1. 2. c. 22. 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 either things 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, Melancthon, 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 selfsame 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 |