Maclear and Williams on Article XVIII: Of obtaining eternal Salvation only by the Name of Christ

i. Connection. But if all deliverance, all everlasting salvation, is to be referred to the secret counsel of God as wrought out by the all-perfect sacrifice of His Blessed Son, can they be right, who hold that as long as men are sincere “in following out their own systems, their deliberate re- jection of the Saviour of the world will prove no obstacle to their salvation1?” It is with this theory of the ration- alistic school of Anabaptists that the Eighteenth Article is concerned.

ii. Title. The Latin title of this Article, while it was the same in 1553 and 1563, as given above, became in 1571, “De speranda aeterna Salute tantum in Nomine Christi.”

quam homines professi fuerint, salutem illis esse sperandam, si tantum ad innocentiam et integritatem vitae pro viribus enitantur juxta lumen, quod illis prxlucet a natura infusum.”

The original English, however, gave a literal translation of the Latin, “We must trust to obtain eternal Salvation only by the name of Christ1.”

iii. Language. The opening of the Article presents a slight difficulty by the occurrence of the word […] also are to be had accursed2.” The explanation seems to be that reference is here made to the closing words of the Sixteenth Article, “And therefore they are to be condemned.” The present Article takes up the thread of the language there used, as though there was no break in the continuity of the two Articles.

iv. The Object of the Article is to protest against the lax notion that it does not much matter what men believe, so long as their morals are right3, and that nothing in religion is so certain, that it need be insisted on as essential to salvation4. For if this were so, it is obvious that the whole of Christ’s work and His life and death could be deprived of all meaning and all purpose5.

v. Analysis. The Article consists of two parts : — (i) A proposition which is condemned :

also are to be had accursed, and ab- 4 It is the spirit that breathes in the

horred.” The latter word was dropped well-known lines of Pope:

in 1563. By being “accursed” is “For creeds and forms let senseless

meant that they are to be debarred bigots fight,

from the privileges of the Church or He can’t be wrong, whose life is in

excommunicated so long as they per- the right.”

sist in their error. 6 ” It is the one spiritual sin, which

next, belief is essentially moral, an act

That every man may owe his eternal salvation to “the Law or Sect1 which he professeth;” (ii) The reason of this condemnation :

“For holy Scripture doth set out2 unto us only the name of Jesus Christ, whereby men must be saved.”

vi. The Scripture Argument in favour of the position taken up in the Article may be arranged under the heads of (a) Indirect, and (b) Direct proofs : —

(a) Indirect Proofs :

The best Law ever given to man was the Law of Moses, and if any people could have owed their salvation to the Law which they professed it was the Jews3. But the possession even of this perfect Law did not avail to this end, and S. Paul distinctly affirms that by the works of the Law shall no flesh be justified in God’s sight (Rom. hi. 20), and that Israel, following after a law of righteousness, did not arrive at4 that law (Rom. ix. 31). Moreover the

1 Secta, from seco = to cut, denotes Gall. iv. 34, ” Barbari paucitatem (i) A trodden or beaten path ; (ii) a may nostrorum militum suis prosdicave- or mode oj conduct or procedure ; (iii) a runt.” For […] to proclaim philosophical school or sect. Comp. or publish, comp. Cooper’s Thesaurus Quintil. v. 7, 35, “Inter Stoicos et (1565), “Edo, to utter or put forth: Epicuri sectam secutos pugna perpetua to publish or sette abroade” ; ” to sette est” ; Tac. Hist. iv. 40, “Demetrio out in writing”; Lord Bacon, ” I will Cynicam sectam professo.” use no other authority than that excel-

2 Comp. the Latin, “Cum sacrce lent proclamation set out by the king literce tantum Jesu Christi nomen in the first year of his reign and an- praxlicent.” Pruedicare, to be carefully nexed before the Book of Common di>tinguished from proedicere, = (i) to Prayer;” Winthrop, Hist. New Eng- cry in public, to proclaim; Plaut. land, i. 264, “The other Minister also Bacch. iv. 7. 17, ” Praco prcedicat;” set out an answer to his sermon, con-

Cic. 1 Verr. iii. 16, 40, ” Si palam futing the same by many strong argu prxco pmdicassel ;” (ii) to make known, ments.”

or publicly declare, state, or affirm. 3 See Bp Browne On the Articles,

Comp. Ter. Andr. iii. 1. 7

[…]

P- 44.V

strictest obedience to the Law of Conscience, though it might conceivably entitle a man to temporal reward, could not constitute any claim whatever to everlasting life. This is ever declared in Scripture to be not a matter of right, but the free gift of God to men, and this free gift He has willed should stand connected in the way of cause and effect not with the light of nature, but with the Divine Economy of Grace1. (b) Direct Proofs : (i) Our Lord says

(a) He that believetJi on the Son hath eternal life2 ; but he that obeyeth not3 the Son shall not see life, but thc wrath of God abideth on Him (John iii. 36); […] the way5, and the truth, and the

eh vb/iov ovk (<p6a<re Rom. ix. 31. Israel following after the law of righte- ousness, did not reach the standard of the Law, which has only been attained by the perfect obedience of Christ. “E(p8a<re. From the sense of antici- patingmXh t’ivb. (comp. 1 Thess. iv. 1 5) comes that of reaching by anticipation of others, reaching unmolested, arriving at, whether (1) absolutely, as Ezra iii. 1, 2, LXX. ; Dan. vii. 22, lxx., or (2) as here, with eh, as in Dan. iv. 21, LXX.; vi.24, LXX. ; Phil. iii. 16, or (3) with Irt, as in Matt. xii. 28 ; 1 Thess. ii. 16.

1 The -wages 0/ sin is death writes S. Paul, but the free gift (xdpiana) of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord. TA […] fav alwvtos

[…] T(jJ \Vpi<i) T]U-ClV Roill.

vi. 23. Comp. Bp Forbes On the Articles, p. 262.

2 “The absolute supremacy of the Christian revelation as compared with all that went before is seen in its final issues of life, and incapacity for life.”

Westcott in loe.

3 ‘0 kireiQCiv = he that disobeyeth. ” Disbelief is regarded in its activity.” Comp. Rom. ii. 8; xi. 30, 31; 1 Pet. iv. 17. “Nothing is said of those who have no opportunity of coming to the true knowledge of Christ.” ibid.

4 He says not “I reveal,” or “I open,” or “I make,” but […] pronoun is emphatic, and at once turns the thought of the Apostles from a method to a Person.” West- cott in loc. “Ego sum via, Veritas, et vita. Sine via non itur, sine veritate non cognoscitur, sine vita non vivitur. Ego sum viaquam sequi debes : Veritas, cui credere debes : vita, quam sperare debes.” Thomas a Kempis, De Imit. iii. 56. For the application of the expression “the Way, to the Christian Faith, comp. Acts xix. 23; xxii. 4; xxiv. 14, 22.

5 “The Way involves the double Office of Christ as doing for us what we cannot do, and as the power in

life1 ; no one comet h unto the Father but by me (John xiv. 6); (7) He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that disbelieveth shall be con- demned2 (Mark xvi. 16) ;

(ii) Again, S. Peter says

In none other is there salvation; for neither is there any other name under heaven, that is given among men, wherein we must be saved (Acts iv. 12) ;

(iii) Similarly S. Paul writes

(a) Other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ (1 Cor. iii. 11);

(/S) There is one God, one mediator also be- tween God and man, Himself man, Christ Jesus, Who gave Himself a ransom for all (1 Tim. ii. 5, 6);

(iv) And also S. John writes

The witness is this, that God gave3 unto us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He that hath the Son hath the life*; he that hath not the Son of God hath not the life (1 John v. 11, 12).

which we do all things, and it makes 2 See R.V. marginal note on Mark our work, with all its imperfections, xvi. a — 20.

coextensive with His.” Prof. Hort’s 3 E5uKtv,“gave eternal life,no.halh Hulsean Lectures, p. 201. given. …The reference is to the historic

1 ”/ am the Life. This is the facts by which this life was communi- crowning revelation of Himself which cated to humanity. That which be- our Lord makes to the soul of man. fore Christ’s coming was a great hope, He does not merely show us a road or by His coming was realised and given.” reveal a truth; He offers the inward Westcott in loc.

power without which we cannot to 4 […] hath the life, any purpose follow the one or grasp which God has given. See Joh. v. the other.” Liddon’s Christ mas tide 26; x. 10; xx. 31. Comp. Westcott Sermons, p. 34. in loc.

vii. Conclusion. These explicit statements bear out the words of the Article. Without denying that the power of our Lord’s Incarnation and Passion may extend to many who have not heard His Name, it asserts that our access to God is through Christ, and conversely that there is no access to God save through Him1. It simply affirms that apart from God’s way of salvation, there is no possibility of salvation at all2. On the ultimate condition of many of the heathen world it pronounces no opinion. It simply declares that, if a man is saved at all, his salvation must be due not to his holding the doctrines of any particular school or the tenets of any special sect, but to the One Redeemer of the Universe, Who was and is alone for every child of man at once the Way, and the Truth, and the Life. What the Article denies is this, that a man’s law or sect will of itself be sufficient for his salvation3.

1 The Article is often quoted as harsh, just because it is not rightly understood. It is supposed not only to exclude heathen from salvation, but also sceptics, who are honest in their convictions and blameless in theirlives. What the Article does protest against is the mere easy-going notion, that a man’s creed cannot be wrong if his life is in the right.

8 It would have been a serious dif- ficulty if the Article had said that a man may not be saved in his sect; what it does deny is that a 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.” The Latin (“in Lege aut secta”) of 1563 may fairly be interpreted by the English of 1571. ” In Acts iv. 12 e? translated in the Latin Article in quo, is rendered in the English ■whereby. The meaning is obviously admissible that a man may be saved in an imperfect religion by God’s mercy and Christ’s merits, though not in virtue of his being a faithful member of that sect.” Dr Jelf On the Articles, p. 230. F. D. Maurice, Sermon on the Articles, p. 48.

Articles XIX.— XXXIV.

The Articles in this group deal with men as Members of the Church.

(a) They define the characteristic marks of the visible Church, and while acknowledging the infallibility of the Church as a whole, they deny the infallibility of any particular branch of it (Art. xix.) ;

(/3) They next deal with (i) the authority of the Church and the limitations thereto (Art. xx.) ; with (ii) general Councils as the voice of the Church (Art. xxi.) ; and with (iii) certain doctrines sanctioned by Councils claiming to be general (Art. xxii.) ;

(y) They then pass on to treat (i) of the Ministers of the Church, their call and mission (Art. xxiii.), and the language proper to their ministrations (Art. xxiv.) ; (ii) of the Sacraments of the Church, first generally (Arts. xxv. and xxvi.), and then specially, of Holy Baptism (Art. xxvii.), and of the Holy Eucharist (Arts, xxviii. and xxix.), which is to be administered to the laity in Both Kinds (Art. xxx.) ;

(u) They next deal (i) with the relation of the Sacraments to the one sacrifice of Christ upon the Cross (Art. xxxi.) ; (ii) with the question of clerical celibacy (Art. xxxii.), with the power of excommunication (Art. xxxiii.), and with the right of particular Churches to accept, in things indifferent, local usages (Art. xxxiv.).

Notes

• Hardwick, Hist. Articles, p. 102, ed. 1 859. Compare Reformatio Legum, “de Haeresibus,” c. 11. ” Horribilis est et immanis illorum audacia, qui contendunt in omni religione vel secta,
• See Hardwick, Hist. Art. pp. or habit of the moral will. Since 298, 299 11. ed. 1859. will is “the expression of the man as
• ” Sunt et illi anathematizandi,” he is,” belief is very reasonably to be 1553. The “et” is retained in two defined in the same terms. See Caird, mss. of the Latin draft of 1563. In Evolution of Religion, i. p. 30; Green, 1553 the English Version ran, “They Prolegomena to Ethics, p. ij8.
• The notion is based upon the fallacy the Church of England anathematizes, thatbeliefisanactorhabitof the intel- because it finds its logical basis in the lect merely, the intellect in vacuo. abnegation of all objective truth what- But, to begin with, there is no such soever.” Bp Forbes On the Articles, thing as the intellect in vacuo, and, p. 259.
• Andreas de Perusio, a Franciscan, speaking of the prospects of the Church in the dominions of the Great Khans, and especially in China, says, ” In illo vasto imperio sunt gentes de omni natione quae sub coelo est, et de omni secta, et conceditur omnibus et singulis vivere secundum sectam suam. Est enim hccc opinio apud eos, sat potius error, quod unusquisque in sua secta tatuatur.” Hardwick, Articles, p. 386, ed. 1859.