still gathered together by the command and will of princes. Whence we may well conclude, without their command and will no such general councils may be gathered together.

AND WHEN THEY BE GATHERED TOGETHER, (FORAS

MUCH AS THEY BE AN ASSEMBLY OF MEN, WHERE-
OF ALL BE NOT GOVERNED WITH THE SPIRIT AND
WORD OF GOD,) THEY MAY ERR, AND SOMETIME HAVE
ERRED, EVEN IN THINGS PERTAINING UNTO GOD.
WHEREFORE THINGS ORDAINED BY THEM AS NECES-
SARY TO SALVATION, HAVE NEITHER STRENGTH NOR
AUTHORITY, UNLESS IT MAY BE DECLARED THAT
THEY BE TAKEN OUT OF HOLY SCRIPTURE.

To demonstrate the truth of this latter part of the Article, I need prove no more than that general councils have so erred. For if they have erred, it must needs follow that they may err; and if they may err and have erred, it must needs follow also, that what they ordain as necessary to salvation can have neither strength nor authority, unless it may be proved that it is taken out of holy Scripture.' For they may ordain that which the Scripture doth not say is necessary to salvation; nay, that which the Scriptures say is not necessary to salvation: whereas we have seen, in the Sixth Article, that all things necessary to salvation are contained in the Scriptures. And therefore what is not contained in the Scriptures, nor may be proved by them, though all the councils in the world should ordain it as necessary to salvation, their ordaining it cannot make it so.

But now to prove that general councils have erred, I shall use the same argument whereby I prove that the church of Rome hath erred, (Art. XIX.) even because they have decreed some things contrary to the doctrine of these Articles, all of which being grounded upon Scripture, consonant to reason, and delivered by the fathers, cannot but be true; and, by consequence, whatsoever is contrary unto them cannot but be false.

Now the first general council, I think, that ever decreed any thing contrary to these Articles, or so erred in matters of faith, was the second Nicene council, which, as Bal

samon saith, relatively defined that images should be worshipped and saluted. And therefore they decreed also, that all the childish scoffings and mad words, and all lying writings whatsoever, made against venerable images, ought to be given to the bishop of Constantinople, that they may be put amongst other heretical books.' And several other the like decrees about images did this council make, wherein, as we shall see in the next Article, the catholic church cannot but acknowledge they erred.

The other councils that pretended to be general, and erred in contradicting any truths contained in these Articles, are of a far later date; as the Lateran council, which determined, that the true body and blood of Christ are truly contained in the sacraments of the altar, under the forms of bread and wine, the bread being transubstantiated, or substantially changed into the body, and the wine into the blood of Christ, by the power of God.' And the council of Constance that decreed, that no presbyter administer both the kinds, viz. both bread and wine, to the people, under the pain of excommunication.' Contrary to Art.

XXX.

In the same error also was the council of Basil; which also declared, that the doctrine that asserts the blessed

• Ητις τὰς εἰκονομικὰς ἐντυπώσεις προσκυνεῖσθαι καὶ κατασπάζεσθαι σχετικῶς ἐψηφίσ σατο. — Balsam. proem. ad Can. 7. Synodi. Πάντα τὰ μειρακιώδη αθυρματα, καὶ μανιώδη βακχέυματα, τὰ ψευδοσυγγράμματα, τὰ κατὰ τῶν σεπτῶν εἰκόνων γενόμενα, δέον δοθῆναι ἐν τῷ ἐπισκοπείῳ Κωνσταντινουπόλεως· ἵνα ἀποτεθῶσιν μετὰ τῶν λοιπῶν ἁιρετικῶν BiCriar. Concil. Nicen. Sec. Can. 9.

• Verum Christi corpus et sanguis in sacramento altaris sub speciebus panis et vini veraciter continentur, transubstantiatis pane in corpus, et vino in sanguinem potestate divinâ. Concil. Lateran. Quart. Can. 1.

Item præcipimus sub pœna excommunicationis, quòd nullus presbyter communicet populum sub utraque specie panis et vini.- Concil. Constant. Ses. 13.

Hæc sancta synodus decernit et declarat, quòd fideles laici communicantes et non conficientes non astringuntur ex præcepto Domini, ad suscipiendum sub utraque specie, panis scilicet et vini, sacrum eucharista sacramentum.-Concil. Basil. Ses. 30.

' Doctrinam illam disserentem, gloriosam Virginem Mariam, præveniente et operante divini numinis gratiâ singulari, nunquam actualiter subjacuisse originali peccato, sed immunem semper fuisse ab omni originali et actuali culpa, sanctamque et immaculatam, tanquam piam et consonam cultui ecclesiastico, fidei catholicæ, rectæ rationi, et sacræ Scripturæ, appro

Virgin Mary, by the singular preventing and working grace of God, did not actually lie under original sin, but was always free from all, both original and actual fault, holy and unspotted, is to be approved, held, and embraced, as holy doctrine, and consonant to ecclesiastical worship, the catholic faith, right reason, and the holy Scripture.' Contrary to Art. IX. and XV.

The council of Florence declares ", that if any, being truly penitents, depart in the love of God before they have satisfied for their commissions and omissions, by the worthy fruits of repentance, their souls are purged in the pains of purgatory.' Contrary to Art. XXII. they declared also, that the sacraments of the New Testament are seven, to wit, baptism, confirmation, the eucharist, penance, extreme unction, orders, and matrimony; and that by the virtue of the sacramental words, the substance of the bread is changed into the body of Christ, and the substance of the wine into the blood: yet so as that Christ is wholly contained under the form of bread, and wholly under the form of wine; yea, and under every part of the consecrated host and consecrated wine, after separation, the whole Christ is contained.' Both contrary to Art. XXIV.

But it would be an endless thing to reckon up the many errors of the papistical, falsely called general and œcumenical councils. Some of the many errors of the Tridentine council I have written down, Art. XIX. Many more, both of that and other councils, I might record here: but these already rehearsed are both great and many enough from whence to conclude, that general councils may, yea, and have erred.

bandam fore et tenendam et amplectendam defininimus et declaramus. Concil. Basil. Ses. 36.

6 Item, si verè pœnitentes in Dei charitate decesserint, antequam dignis pœnitentiæ fructibus de commissis satisfecerint et omissis, eorum animas pœnis purgatorii purgari.- Concil. Florent. de Purg. Novæ legis septem sunt sacramenta, scilicet baptismus, confirmatio, eucharistia, pœnitentia, extrema unctio, ordo, et matrimonium. - Ibid. et in Concil. Lateran. 5. Nam ipsorum verborum virtute substantia panis in corpus Christi, substantia vini in sanguinem convertuntur; ita tamen quòd totus Christus continetur sub specie panis, et totus sub specie vini; sub qualibet quoque parte hostiæ consecratæ et vini consecrati, separatione factâ, totus est Christus. Ibid.

ARTICLE XXII.

Of Purgatory.

THE ROMISH DOCTRINE CONCERNING PURGATORY, PARDONS, WORSHIPPING AND ADORATION AS WELL OF IMAGES AS OF RELICS, AND ALSO INVOCATION OF SAINTS, IS A FOND THING VAINLY INVENTED, AND GROUNDED UPON NO WARRANTY OF SCRIPTURE, BUT RATHER REPUGNANT TO THE WORD OF GOD.

In this Article we.have several of the Romish inventions crowded up together. I shall single them out one after another, that so, though I speak but briefly, I may speak clearly to them.

I. And first, therefore, to encounter with that which stands in the front of the battle, and that is PURGATORY; of which it is here said, that the Romish doctrine concerning it is a fond thing, repugnant to the word.' Now to handle this aright, there are two things to be done : first, to show what is the Romish doctrine concerning it; and, secondly, to show what a fond and false thing it is.

1. As for the first, what the Romish doctrine concerning Purgatory is, I think it cannot be better explained than by the Romish doctors themselves, who tell us in the council of Trent, If any one say, that after the grace of justification received, the fault is so pardoned to every penitent sinnner, and the guilt of temporal punishment is so blotted out, that there remains no guilt of temporal punishment to be done away in this world, or that which is to come in Purgatory, before the passage can be opened into heaven, let him be accursed.' And elsewhere they say, 'There is a

• Si quis post acceptam justificationis gratiam, cuilibet peccatori pœnitenti ita culpam remitti, et reatum æternæ pœnæ deleri dixerit, ut nullus remaneat reatus pœnæ temporalis exsolvendæ, vel in hoc sæculo vel in futuro, in purgatorio, antequam ad regnum cœlorum aditus patere possit, anathema sit.-Concil. Trident. Ses. 6. cap. 30. Purgatorium esse, animasque ibi detentas fidelium suffragiis potissimùm verò acceptabilis altaris sacrificio juvari.-Ibid. Ses. 25. init.

Purgatory, and that the souls detained there are helped by the suffrages of the faithful, but principally by the sacrifice of the acceptable altar.' So that, as Bellarmine saith, Purgatory is a certain place, in which as in a prison the souls are purged after this life, which were not fully purged in this life, to wit, that so they may be able to enter into heaven, where no unclean thing enters in.' Thus we see, in few words, what the Romish doctrine concerning Purgatory is.

2. Now that this doctrine is a fond thing,' is plain, in that, by the confession of some of their own.writers, there is little or no footing for it in the Scriptures. Nay, if we examine it by Scripture light, we shall find it so far from being grounded upon the Scriptures, that it is directly contrary to them. For the Scriptures say, "The dead know not any thing, neither have they any more a reward, for the memory of them is forgotten. Also their love and their hatred and their envy are how perished; neither have they any more a portion, for ever, in any thing that is done under the sun," Eccles. ix. 5, 6. Whereas this doctrine saith quite contrary, that when they are dead, they have a part or portion in the prayers of the faithful, and the sacrifices of the altar. Again, the Scripture makes mention but of a twofold receptacle of souls after death, the one of happiness, the other of misery, 1 Sam. xxv. 29. Matt. vii. 13, 14; viii. 11. Luke, xvi. 22, 23. Whereas this doctrine brings in a third, called Purgatory, betwixt heaven and hell, half happiness and half misery. Again, the Scripture saith, " The blood of

b Purgatorium est locus quidam, in quo tanquam in carcere post hanc vitam purgantur animæ, quæ in hac vita non fuerunt plenè purgatæ, ut nimirum sic in cœlum ingredi valeant, quò nihil intrabit coinquinatum.— Bellar. de Purgat. lib. i. cap. 1.

c Quanquam fortassis unam aliquam Scripturam, quæ protervientem adigat, ut velit nolit confiteatur purgatorium, in promptu non sit adducere ; potest esse nihilominus illic aliqua, tametsi diligentissimos inquisitores hactenus illa latuerit.-Fisher. Roffen. contra Luther. Art. 37. Nec eorum qui hoc (purgatorium) negant argumenta efficacia sunt, sumpta ex eo maximè quòd in Scriptura nihil perspicuè de eo traditur, cùm jam constat multa non scripta fuisse eorum quæ credenda sunt, sed ecclesiastica autoritas satis est.-Petrus à Soto in Assert. Cathol. Minùs apertas, minùs efficaces esse, et minùs probare autoritates Scripturæ quæ à doctoribus afferuntur, illis itaque non esse utendum ad probandum purgatorium.— Id. de Instruc. Sacerd. Lect. 1.