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Decree III.

Hereas the Holy Scriptures are the Pillars that fupport our Holy Faith, and as it were the Foundations whereon it ftands, and wherein the Truth and Purity thereof is to be met with, which has made all Hereticks in their endeavours to deftroy the faid Faith, constantly and industriously to corrupt the Text of the Divine Scriptures, partly by taking away fuch paffages as did manifeftly contradict their Errors, and by perverting other places fo as to make them feem to favour them; which hath alfo happened in this Bishoprick, through its having been governed by Bishops who were Nefto rian Hereticks, and that used the fame practices upon the Holy Scriptures, that were in their hands in favour of their Herefies; as in the 20th.of the Acts of the Apoftles, where St. Paul faith, Take heed to your felves, and the whole Church, over which the Holy Spirit hath made you Bishops to rule the Church of God, which he purchafed with his Blood; the word God is impioully changed for

Seem to favour them.] It is hard to give any other reafon than this, why the Church of Rome, tho' fince the time of the Conncil of Trent, fhe has corrected fome hundreds of Errors in the Vulgar Latin, did not think fit to correct that in the 3d. of Genefis, which they apply to the Virgin Mary; nor that in the 11th.

of Isaiah, which they make use of to promote Pilgrimages to Jerafalem; nor that in the th.to the Hebrews, which feems to make for the Adoration of Images; nor that in the firft Chapter of the 2d. Epift. of St. Peter, which feems to give fome countenance to the Invocation of Saints.

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that

that of Christ, and it is faid that Chrift hath made them to govern his Church, which he purched with his own Blood; becaufe the Neftorians, being inftigated by the Devil, will not acknowledge according to the Catholick Truth, that Gód fuffered and fhed his Blood for us; and in the fourth Chapter of the first Epistle of St. John, this Verfe is left out, Qui folvit Jefum, non eft ex Deo; because it contradicts the Neftorians, who do impioufly divide Chrift, by making him to have two Perfons; and in the 3d. Chap. of the fame Epistle, where it is faid, In this we know the Love of God, because he laid down his Life for us, the word God is maliciously left out, and that of Chrift put in its ftead, faying, That in this we know the Love of Christ, &c. and fo it favours the Neftorian Herefie, which denies God to have dyed for us; and in the 2d. Chap. of the Epistle to the Hebrews, where the Apostle faith, We have seen Jefus for the Paffion of his Death crowned with glory and honour, that he by the Grace of God should tafte death for all men; the Surian, the better to make a difference of Perfons in Chrift, which was what Neftorius taught, has impiously added, We have feen Jefus for the paffion of his death crowned with honour and glory, that the Grace of God,(prater Deum, or befides God) might tafte death for all; and in the 6th. of St. Luke, where our Lord Chrift faith, Lend, hoping for nothing again; to favour and juftifie their Ufury, they have made it, Lend, and from thence hope for Something: All which places being depraved and corrupted by

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Hereticks, the Synod commandeth to be corrected in all their Books, and to be restored according to the Purity and Truth of the Vulgar Edition used by Holy Mother Church, entreating the most Illuftrious Metropolitan forthwith to vifit the Churches of this Diocefs, either in Perfon, or by fome well skilled in the Syrian Tongue, whom he shall be pleased to depute.

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Decree IV.

He Synod being informed that the Chriftians of this Diocefs, by reason of the Communication they have with Infidels, and by living among them, have imbibed feveral of their Errors and Ignorances, namely, three that are the common Errors of all the Infidels of these parts; the first is, That there is a * Transmigration of Souls, which after Death go either into the Bodies of Beafts, or of fome other Men; which besides that it is a great Ignorance, is also an Error contrary to the Catholick Faith, which teacheth, That our Souls after Death are carried to Heaven or Hell, or Purgatory, or Limbus, according to every ones Merits, and that there is no fuch fabulous and falfe Tranfmigration.

* Transmigration.] This was not the Doctrine of this Church, as appears plainly from what is faid in twenty places of this Synod, of her believing, that

the Souls of the Juft departed this Life, were in a Terreftrial Paradife, where they were to remain till the day of Judgment.

The

*

The fecond is, That all things come neceffarily to pass, or through Fate or Fortune, which they call the Nativity of Men, who they say are, compelled to be what they are, and that there is no help for it; which is a manifest Error, and condemned by Holy Mother Church, for as much as it destroys that Liberty of Will, with which God created us, leaving us in the power of our own Will, to do Good or Evil, to obey his Holy Inspirations and Internal Motions, by which he excites to Good, or to refift Evil; so that as it depends on his Divine mercy and goodness to move us to Good, fo it depends on our Free-Will, whether by his affiftance we will obey thofe Infpirations, and will profit our felves of his Internal Motions, or of our own free Will refuse to do it; or in a word, do Well, or Ill; fo that if we perish for doing any thing that is Ill, it is the fault of our own Free-Will; as the Catholick Faith teaches us; and not from the fate of our Nativity,as the ignorant Heathens will have it.

The third is, f That every one may be faved in his own Law; all which are Good, and lead Men to Heaven. Now this is a manifest Herefy; there being no other Law upon earth in which Salvation is to be found, befides that of

* I am very apt to believe that they are here falfely accused of attributing all things to Fate, for no other reafon but because they believed Predeftination; which if it was fo, Arch-Bifhop Menezes, who was himself an Auftin Fryar, fhewed but little refpect to the

Memory of his pretended Father, in making Predeftination and Fate to be equally deftructive of humane Liberty.

This is an Error that Justin Martyr, Clemens Alexandrinus, and others of the Philofophical Fathers feem to have been in.

Our

our Saviour Chrift, for that he only teacheth the Truth; fo that all that live in any other Sect, are out of a state of Salvation, and fhall be condemned to Hell; there being no other Name given to Men, by which we can be faved, but only the Name of our Lord Jefus Christ the Son of God, who was Crucified for us: All which Er

rors, the Synod commandeth the Vicars and Preachers often to preach against in the hearing of the ignorant People; and all Confeffors to examine their Penitents concerning them, and to teach them the Catholick Truth.

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Decree V.

*

His Synod being informed, that there is a dangerous Heresy, and very injurious to our Lord Jefus Chrift, fown and preached through this Diocefs; which is, That it is a grievous fin fo much as to think or fpeak of our Saviour's Holy Paffion: and as there are a great many of this Opinion, fo the doing of it has formerly been prohibited by impious Cenfures; all which is a manifest Error, and extreamly prejudicial to the Souls of all faithful Chriftians; and the fruit and profit of Souls, arifing from fuch Confiderations, and Difcourfes, which is very great,as well for that love and affection which they beget in us, for our Saviour, who fuffer'd for our Salvation, as

* Grievous Sin.] How does this confift with their having fo many Croffes in their Churches, and Houses, as they tell us they had; or with their adminiftring

the Sacrament of the Eucharift; or with their Preaching that it was Chrift, and not the Son of God, that suffered upon the Cross.

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