Gibson on Article XVIII: Of obtaining eternal Salvation only by the Name of Christ

This Article now stands as it was originally published in 1553.^ The copula with which it begins is difficult to account for. ” They also are to be had accursed ” : The “et” of the Latin was omitted in 1563, but restored again in 1571, and was perhaps intended to link this Article on to the last clause of Article XVI. : ” They are to be condemned (illi damnandi sunt) which say they can no more sin here,” etc.

The language of the Article has not been traced to any earlier source, but there is a section in the Reformatio Legum Ecclesiasticarum which affords a close parallel to it.

• In 1553 and 1563 the title was as follows: “Tantum in nomine Christi speranda est jetema salus”: “We must trust to obtain eternal salvation only by the name of Christ.” The change of construction in 1571 brought it into harmony with the titles of the other Articles, almost all of which now begin in tlie same way.

” Horribilis est et immanis illorum audacia, qui coutendunt in omni religione vel secta, quam homines professi fuerint, salutem illis esse sperandam, si tantum ad innocentiam et integritatem vitae pro viribus enitantur juxta lumen quod illis praelucet a natura infusum. Authoritate vero sacrarum literarum confixa^ sunt hujusmodi pestes. Solum enim et unicum ibi Jesu Christi nomen nobis commendatum est, ut omnis ex eo salus ad nos perveniat.” ^

This section and the Article before us are evidently intended to rebuke the same error; and it has sometimes been thought that the opinion condemned is that which maintains a possibility of salvation for the heathen, and those who have never heard the name of Christ. On a careless reading of the Article such a view may seem probable. But there are two considerations which make strongly against it : (1) The title in the Latin is ” De speranda aeterna salute,” etc. ; strictly, ” of hoping for eternal salvation.” Such a phrase could only be used if the case contemplated was that of those within sound of the gospel, knowing “the name of Christ ” and able to ” trust to obtain salvation by it.” (2) From the fact that the Article begins with a definite anathema of certain people, and couples the opinion denounced with that condemned in Article XVI., it is clear that it is no vague opinion that is intended to be here rejected, but the positive teaching of a particular set of persons. Now it does not appear that the question of the salvability of the heathen was formally raised by any of the sects of the day; but when we discover that one of the many schools of Anabaptists was teaching, not only that religion was a matter of indifference, but also that the deliberate rejection of the Saviour of the world would not be attended with loss, it

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is almost certain that it is against them that this Article is directed. “There are such libertines and wretches,” writes Hooper, ” who are daring enough in their conventicles not only to deny that Christ is the Messiah and Saviour of the world, but also to call that blessed Seed a mischievous fellow, and deceiver of the world.” 2 So at a somewhat later date (1579) one Matthew Hamant was burnt at Norwich for maintaininc that ” Christ is not God nor the Saviour of the world but a mere man, a sinful man, and an abominable idol.” There are other indications in the Articles— such as the emphatic language used in Article XV. on Christ who ” came to be the Lamb without spot, Who, by sacrifice of Himself once made, should take away the sins of the world,” and Who was ” clearly void ” from sin ” both in His flesh and in His spirit “—of the necessity there was to guard against teaching of this character; and it certainly was not without cause that the compilers of the Articles introduced into them this strong assertion, that eternal salvation is only to be looked for throu<h the name of Christ.

The Article, then, means neither more nor less than S. Peter’s words in Acts iv. 12, which are referred to in It : ” In none other is salvation : for neither is there any other name under heaven that is given amona men wherein we must be saved.” If this text be, as it%urely 18, reconcilable with a belief in the salvability of the heathen, then so also is this Article, which proclaims

that Holy Scripture doth set out unto us only the name of Jesus Christ, whereby men must

be saved, for the one says no more than the other. With regard to the heathen who live and die out of reach of the gospel. Scripture says but little;^ but

[…]

1 hold It to be a most certain rule of interpreting Srrii.ture that it

sufficient is revealed, not only to make us shrink from pronouncing their condemnation, because we are taught not to judge ” them that are without” (1 Cor. v. 12, 13), but even to enable us to have a good hope concerning them. God is ” the Saviour of all men” but ” especially of believers ” (1 Tim. iv. 10), — an expression which can only mean that others besides Christians or *’ believers ” can be saved. S. Paul also speaks of the “Gentiles which have no law,” and yet ” do by nature the things of the law,” showing ” the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness therewith ” (Rom. ii. 14, 15); and it is probable that our Lord’s parable of the Sheep and the Goats in S. Matt. xxv. is intended to refer primarily to their case.^ Consequently, whatever individual teachers may have mainteined, the Church as a whole has never committed herself to the assertion that the heathen must be lost, nor denied to them the possibility of salvation. Though never brought into covenant with God here, they may be brought to know Him hereafter. But if so, whatever

never speaks of persons when there is a physical impossibility of its ai>eaking to them. … So the heathen, who died before the word was spoken, and in whose land it was never preached, are dead to the word ; it concerns them not at all : but the moment it can reach them it is theirs, and for them.”— Dr. Arnold’s Life and Correspondence, Letter LXV. quoted in Browne On the Articles, p. 443.

» In this chapter (S. Matt, xxv.) there are three parables: the first two, the Ten Virgins and the Talents, refer directly to the kingdom of heaven, i.e. the Church. With the third, the Sheep and the Goats, the i-ase is different. (1) It is spoken of irdvra tA mij, all the nations, a phrase which most naturally refers to the heathen world ; (2) neither those on the right hand nor those on the left recognise that they have ever seen Christ or ministered to Him on earth. Apparently, then, they had not known Him in this life ; and (3) the test by which their lives are judged is the test of works of mercy and kindness, just those ” things of the law” which the Gentiles might “do by nature,” if they had “the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness therewith.’*

grace may be theirs here, or glory be granted to them hereafter, they will not have been SEYed by the law

(in lege) or sect which they professed, but only by

Christ, the one Mediator, Who is ” the light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world ” (S. John i. 9), and to whom, although they knew it not, they ministered’ m doing works of mercy to their fellow-men.

If these considerations are carefully borne in mind, it appears to the present writer that there need be no’ hesitation concerning the acceptance of this Article. It certainly condemns a lax and latitudinarian view which would treat religion as a matter of indifference, and hold that the rejection of Christ mattered not. But Scripture equally condemns this, and speaks in the strongest terms of those who reject the truth, and let it go after they have received it (see [S. Mark] xvL 16; S. John iii 18 19, xii. 48, etc.). But this letting go of the true faith was exactly the sin of which so many of the Anabaptists of the sixteenth century were guUty, looking on our Lord sometimes as a mere man, and denying Him to be the Saviour of the world; affirming that Holy Scripture was given ” only to the weak,” and claiming the inner light of the Spirit, and licence therefrom for every kmd of profanity.^ Not without good reason was this Article inserted to condemn them.

See the Nineteenth Article of 1553, which immediately followed

If it w-n r f T’ […] in the original series. The text of It will be found m vol. i. p. 78, and cf. p. 233.

De Eeclesia,

Ecclesia Christi visibilis est coetus fidelium, in quo verbum Dei purum prsedicatur et sacramenta, quoad ea quse neeessario exiguntur, juxta Christi institutum recte administrantur. Sicut erravit ecclesia Hierosolymitana, Alexandrina et Antiochena : ita et erravit Ecclesia Romana, non solum quoad agenda et cffiremoniarum ritus, verum in his etiam quse credenda sunt.

Notes

• Ileformatio Legum Eccl.t De If ceres, c. xi.