Page:Tracts for the Times Vol 2.djvu/553

2. (c. 3. 4.)

Again, much attention is to be paid in the Church Catholic itself, to maintain what has been believed everywhere, always, and by all. This is true and genuine Catholicism, as the very word means, comprehending all truths every where, and truly; and this will be ours, if we follow in our inquiries Universality, Antiquity, and Consent. We shall follow Universality, if we confess that to be the one true faith, which is held by the Church all over the world; Antiquity, if we in no respect recede from the tenets which were in use among our Holy Elders and Fathers; and Consent, if, in consulting antiquity itself, we attach ourselves to such decisions and opinions as were held by all, or at least by almost all, the ancient Bishops and Doctors.

What then will the Catholic Christian do, in a case where any branch of the Church has cut itself off from the communion of the universal faith? What can he do but prefer the general body which is sound, to the diseased and infected member of it?

[This may be illustrated by the case of the Church of Geneva among others, which near three centuries since broke off from the great Episcopal communion, took to it a head of its own, new laws and customs, and in part a new creed. It is our duty then, according to Vincentius, to keep fast by the old stock of the Church Catholic, and guard against all infection of our faith or discipline from such schismatical members.]

What if some novel contagion attempt with its plague-spots, not only a portion, but even the whole Church? Then he will be careful to keep close to antiquity, which is secure from the possibility of being corrupted by new errors.

[This case had been instanced even before Vincentius's time, in the history of the Arians. In our own day it is fulfilled in the case of the Church of Rome, which indeed has not erred vitally, as the Arians did, nor has infected with its errors the whole Church, yet has to answer for very serious corruptions, which it has not merely attempted, but managed to establish in a great part of the Churches of Christendom. Here then apply Vincentius's test, Antiquity;—and the Church of Rome is convicted of unsoundness, as fully as those other sects among us which have already been submitted to the trial.]