common Saviour left as a legacy to His Church, that I might live to see the re-union of Christendom, for which I shall always bow the knees of my heart to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is not impossible but that this desire of unity may have produced some unwilling error of love, but certainly I am most free from the wilful love of error. In questions of an inferior nature, Christ regards a charitable intention much more than a right opinion. 66 Howsoever it be, I submit myself and my poor endeavours, first to the judgment of the Catholic Ecumenical essential Church, which if some of late days have endeavoured to hiss out of the schools as a fancy, I cannot help it. From the beginning it was not so. And if I should mistake the right Catholic Church out of human frailty or ignorance, (which, for my part, I have no reason in the world to suspect, yet it is not impossible when the Romanists themselves are divided into five or six several opinions, what this Catholic Church, or what their Infallible Judge is), I do implicitly and in the preparation of my mind sub-. mit myself to the True Catholic Church, the Spouse of Christ, the Mother of the Saints, the Pillar of Truth. And seeing my adherence is firmer to the Infallible Rule of Faith, that is, the Holy Scriptures interpreted by the Catholic Church, than to mine own private judgment or opinions; although I should unwittingly fall into an error, yet this cordial submission is an implicit retractation thereof, and I am confident will be so accepted by the Father of Mercies, both from me and all others who seriously and sincerely do seek after peace and truth. "Likewise I submit myself to the Representative Church, that is, a free General Council, or so General as can be procured; and until then to the Church of England, wherein I was baptized, or to a National English Synod. To the determination of all which, and each of these respectively, according to the distinct degree of their authority, I yield a conformity and compliance, or at the least and to the lowest of them, an acquiescence."-Works, p. |