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النشر الإلكتروني

ARTICLE XVIII.

Of obtaining eternal Salvation only by the Name of Christ.

They also are to be had accursed that presume to say, That every man shall be saved by the Law or Sect which he professeth, so that he be diligent to frame his life according to that Law, and the light of Nature. For Holy Scripture doth set out unto us only the Name of Jesus Christ, whereby men must be saved.

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Notes.-They also are to be had accursed. The word "also seems to be used in continuation of the last clause of the sixteenth Article; and the phrase "are to be had accursed" (in the Latin "anathematizandi") here is probably merely a variation of the phrase are to be condemned" (damnandi) there; both phrases meaning to be judged heretical. The Church reprobates the opinion, without meaning for a moment that one who is so heretical as to hold it is necessarily a reprobate.

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Who presume to say, etc. Latitudinarians are here condemned, who say that so long as a man lives conscientiously, it matters not what his religious opinions are. It has been said by a popular modern writer that "all genuine faith is of equal value,-the value being in the act of faith more than in the object."

places," referring to our present glorious privileges. In the no less famous passage about the Potter (Rom. xi. 21) we must observe that he is said to make some for nobler, some for meaner uses, but none for destruction.

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This Article asserts the contrary, that it is of the utmost importance that our faith be directed to those eternal truths which God has revealed to us in His Word.

The question of the eventual salvability of the heathen is not touched by this Article. Sundry passages in Scripture (for example, Acts xvii. 26-31 and Rom. ii. 11-16) imply that they may be eventually saved. Indeed, Holy Scripture says distinctly that Christ died not for our sins only, "but for the sins of the whole world" (1 John ii. 2), and in Matt. xxv. 37, we learn that many will find that they are redeemed by Christ who in this world never knew Him. But this is neither affirmed nor denied in this Article. But manifestly the Article is addressed only to those who have the Name of Christ "set forth" to them; and to them it says distinctly, "There is none other Name whereby you can be saved."

It is, moreover, of the utmost importance to remember that very usually, in the Church's formularies, the words "saved" and "salvation" are used to denote a present rather than a future state. A man may obtain salvation hereafter, and yet he may be outside the pale of salvation now. For instance, who can doubt that Cornelius ("a devout man, and one that feared God and prayed to God alway") would have been a saved man in the other world if he had died before he sent for Peter? But what saith the Angel? Send to Joppa, and call for Simon surnamed Peter," who shall tell thee words whereby thou and all thy house shall be saved." Clearly the word saved here points to a present privilege, the privilege of being in communion

with Christ in this world,-quite irrespective of what shall be hereafter.

In this sense of the word "salvation," it is absolutely true that outside the pale of the Christian Church there is no salvation ("extra ecclesiam nulla salus"). This was continually affirmed by the ancient Christian Fathers (as in our Athanasian Creed); and if any think it harsh towards the heathen who have never known Christ, he merely shows that he misunderstands the word salvation. What the Fathers meant was, that a man who was outside the pale of the Church was losing the inestimable present privilege of being in communion with Christ, without in the least prejudging his doom hereafter. A missionary is fired by a burning desire to bring the heathen within the pale of the Christian Church, not because he thinks that if left outside that pale they will necessarily perish everlastingly, --but because he knows, on the authority of Scripture, that while outside that pale they are losing the present blessedness of knowing their Saviour, and of being now in communion with Him.

To conclude:-This Article condemns the notion that every man will be saved if he live conscientiously according to the religion which he professes, whatever that religion be. And this may be interpreted in either of two senses, both senses being true. It may mean: (a) No man who has Christianity fairly offered to him, and rejects it, can hope for salvation either now or hereafter, however conscientiously he live in that other religion which he prefers. Or it may mean: (b) No man who is outside the pale of the Christian Church, though it may be through no fault of his own, and though he be living ever so conscientiously, can be

salvation.

supposed to be a sharer in the present blessedness of He is now at any rate outside the ark of salvation, whatever be his destiny hereafter.

For both these assertions we have the plain authority of Holy Scripture.

For the first (a), we have our Lord's words in Mark xvi. 16. Our Lord had just been charging His Apostles to preach the Gospel to every creature; He adds,— clearly speaking of those to whom they should preach it, and of none other," He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned." And again: “He that rejecteth Me, and receiveth not My words, hath one that judgeth him; the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him at the last day” (John xii. 48).

For the second assertion (), we have the notable case of Cornelius, already referred to, a God-fearing man of most conscientious life, who notwithstanding needed Baptism in order that he might be "saved" in this latter sense of the term (Acts xi. 14). And again : "The Lord added to the Church daily such as were being saved" (ii. 47). So again St. Peter: "The like figure whereunto, even baptism, doth also now save us" (doth put us in a present state of salvation; 1 Pet. iii. 21).

LESSON VIIL

OF THE CHURCH.

ARTICLE XIX.

Of the Church.

THE visible Church of Christ is a congregation of faithful men, in the which the pure Word of God is preached, and the Sacraments be duly ministered according to Christ's ordinance in all those things that of necessity are requisite unto the same.

As the Church of Jerusalem, Alexandria, and Antioch, have erred; so also the Church of Rome hath erred, not only in their living and manner of Ceremonies, but also in matters of Faith.

Notes.-A congregation. Used here, not for a group of people assembled in one place, but for the whole number of God's people; as continually in the Pentateuch,-"That soul shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel," Exod. xii. 19, for instance; and as in Ps. lxxiv. 2, “O think upon Thy congregation, whom Thou hast purchased and redeemed of old."

Of faithful men. Believers in Jesus Christ ;not "faithful" in the sense of trustworthy.

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