I believe in One Almighty God, Father, Son, and Holy Ghoft, Three Perfons, One Subftance: The Father unbegotten, the Son begotten, the Holy Ghoft neither begotten, nor unbegotten, but Coeternal, proceeding from the Father and the Son. I confefs the only begotten Confubftantial Son, born of his Father before all Time, Creator of all Things, vifible and invifible, Light of Light, very God of very God, the Brightness of his Glory, the Character of his Subftance, who being the Word before all Worlds, was created perfect Man towards the end of the World, conceived, and born of the Holy Ghoft and the Virgin Mary, he took our Nature without Sin, and was crucified under Pontius Pilate, and was buried, and rofe the third Day from the dead, and afcended the fortieth Day into Heaven, and fits at the right Hand of the Father, from whence he will come to judge the quick and the dead, and will lay open the Secret of every Man before all Men, and will give the everlafting Rewards of the Kingdom of Heaven to the Righteous, but to the Unrighteous the Punishments of eternal Fire, and renew the World by Fire, and the Refurrection of the Body. I confefs one Faith, one Baptifm, one Apoftolical and Univerfal Church, in which only there is remiffion of Sins, in the Name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Of this Confeffion before his Confecration, Johannes Diaconus faith thus. This Man of Confummate Humanity and Orthodox Authority, ftanding on the Watch-Tower of the Holy Univerfal Church, from whence he might be clearly feen and beard as a Preacher of the Gospel, confirmed the right Faith, and confounded all Herefies with one Creed in thefe Words, Credo in Unum Deum, &c. AFTER his Confecration, he fent a Synodical Confeffion of Faith, according to ancient Custom, to F 4 the the other + Patriarchs (for he abhorred the Title of Univerfal Bishop) in thefe Words: Becaufe with the Heart Man believeth unto Righteousness, and with the Mouth Confefhon is made unto Salvation,* as I confefs to receive and reverence the four Books of the Holy Gospel, fo I confefs, I receive and reverence four Councils, viz. the Nicene in which was confounded the wicked Doctrine of Arius; the Conftantinopolitan, in which was convicted the Error of Eunomius and Macedonius; the Ephefin, in which was condemned the impious Doctrine of Neftorius; and that of Chalcedon, in which the naughty Doctrine of Eutyches and Diofcorus was. rejected, I embrace with all Devotion, and obferve with entire Approbation, because on thefe Councils the Structure of the Holy Faith is erected, as on a four-fquare Stone, and the right Rule of every Chriftian's Life and Action confifts in them. In like manner, I also reverence the fifth Council, in which the Epiftle, which is called the Epifile of Ibas, being full of Error is rejected, and Theodorus, who taught that there were two Perfons in the Mediator between God and Man in the two Natures is convicted to have lapfed into perfidious Impiety. Alfo the Writings of Theodore, in which the Faith of St. Cyril is reprehended. Furthermore, I reject all Perfons whom thofe venerable Councils reject, and those whom they reverence I embrace; because they being established by Univerfal Confent, he defroys bimfelf and not them, whosoever prefumes + Lib diurn. Appendix ad Notas Cap. 11. p. 159. Synodicam quoque fuam Gregorius, fecundum prifcum decefforum fuorum morem Johanni Conftantinopolitano, Eulogio Alexandrino, Gregorio Anticheno, Joanni Hierofolymitano, & Anaftafio Patriarche Antiocheno deftinavit. * This Confeffion of Gregory the Great is in the Decretum of Gratian. 1.d. 15. c. 11. either to loose whom they bind, or bind whom they loofe. And whofoever thinks otherways, let him be Anathema. This Vth General Council determined all things out of the Holy Scriptures and the Fathers. They owned the Nicene and Conftantinopolitan Creeds. They received the four firft General Councils, and all their definitions pro unâ eâdémque Fide, in defence of one and the fame Faith. That one and the fame Faith, which Gregory fent into England by Auguftin the Monk, between 900 or icoo Years ago, we profeffed at the Reformation, and ftill profefs it. And therefore in naming Gregory the Great, who was both a Bifhop and a Writer, and the Patriarchs of Conftantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, and Hierufalem, to whom he fent his Synodical Confeffion, I think I have named Bifhops, Writers, and Churches enough, who profeffed our Religion 900 or 1000 Years before our Separation from your Church. Nay, Sir, we own and profefs every thing in that excellent form of Confeffion before Confecration, intituled, fecunda profeffio Fidei, in the IX. Tit. of Liber Diurnus, which was made between the Years 685. and 715, * and in which Pope Honorius is number'd * Auctores verò novi Haretici dogmatis Sergium, Pyrrhum, Paulum, & Petrum, Conftantinopolitanos, unà cum Honorio, qui pravis eorum affertionibus fomentum impendit- -qui haretica dogmata contra veritatem fidei Synodaliter decreverunt. Hono rius was anathematized as an Heretick by the fixth General Council. od wew aige/x, &c. Anathema to Theodorus Pharanita the Heretick; Anathema to Sergius the Heretick; Anathema to Honorius the Heretick; Anathema to Cyrus the Heritick; Anathema to Pyrrhus the Heretick; Anathema to all favourers of Hereticks. He is anathematized again in the Oration they made to the Emperor, and by Pope Leo in his Epiftle to the Emperors, which is at the end of the Acts of that Synod. ber'd among the Hereticks; the Hereticks; and to use the Words of it, Cognofcat veftra dilectio, &c. Let your Reverence know and be affured, that we preach, and bold, and defend with entire fatisfaction the Faith of Chrift, which the Apoftles delivered, the Difciples of the Apoftles taught, and their Apoftolical Succeffors, our approved Predeceffors, immutably kept and defended. To which let me add thefe Words: Unde & diftridi anathematis interdi&ioni subjecimus, &c. If any Perfon, whether I or any other, prefume to alter this Evangelical Tradition (of the firft fix General Councils) or the entireness of the right Faith and Chriftian Religion by attempting any new thing, or any thing contrary thereunto, or to fubftract from the entireness of our Faith, or to confent to thofe, who with facrilegious boldness prefume to do fo; we Subject him to the fentence of an Anathema, i. e. to be feparated from the Communion of the Catholick Church. We likewife own and profefs what is contained there, in the third profeffion of Faith to be made after Confecration, of the fame Age with the former: Orthodoxa atque Apoftolica fidei Normam tenentes, holding the rule of right Apoftolical Faith, & nunquam aliquid novi contra Catholicam atque Orthodoxam Fidem fufcepturi, and refolving never to receive any new Additions against the true Catholick Faith. To thefe Confeffions we appeal in the Controverfy between you and us, and let * Synod. And how can the Pope of Rome, faith Neilus Archbifhop of Theffalonica, like a Tyrant, pretend to be unaccoun table; when in the cafe of Doctrine, Honorius is an example to the contrary who by the judgment of the fixth General Council, was delivered up to an Anathema? From which at the time of Death he had not Abfolution. See Du Pin de Antiquâ Ecclefia difciplina Differt. V. §. iii. See the three Confeffions of Faith in the Ordination of a Bishop in Morinus De Sacris ordinibus, p. 119 c. it be tryed by them, whether your Religion or ours is an Innovation; and whether ours was not profeffed by the Church of God and its Bishops, Writers, and Congregations 900 or 1000 Years before our Separation from your Church, when I challenge you again to fhew any Bishops, Writers, or Churches, that profefled yours. CHA P. IV. I. AVING now anfwered your Challenge, H proceed to anfwer the reft of your Reply, which is like all that I have already answered, verbose, ambiguous, and cavilling. The ground of your Query, as you call your Suppofition, was penned in thefe Words: Suppofing this for true, that the Church of Chrift can never perish; where I defired to know what you meant by perish? For perish, I faid, might either fignify that the Church may be quite deftroyed, fo as to have no being in the World, as it had not before it began to be; or fecondly, that it may fignifie only not to be the fame Church, as to Doctrine, Worship, or Polity, which was founded by Chrift, and finished by the Apoftles, but to be corrupted (I now defire to add, miferably corrupted) in one or all thofe parts of its Constitution; fo that it ceases to be a found, right conftituted, or Apoftolical Church, being fo depraved in one, or more, or all the parts of its Conftitution, that a Catholick or truly faithful Chriftian cannot communicate in it without Sin. To perish in the former Signification I told you, was for the Church to perish in a metaphyfical fenfe; but to perifh in the latter, was to perifh in a moral fenfe; and this distinction, which is plain and obvious to any common |