Jeremy Taylor Week: Nicene Faith and the first four General Councils
When Taylor, as the newly-consecrated Bishop of Down and Connor, preached to his clergy during the primary visitation at Lisnagarvey in 1661, he thus instructed them to conform their expounding of the Scriptures to "the consent of the Catholic Church". The words following define Taylor's understanding of 'Catholic consent': "doctrine ... in which all Christians have consented" (emphasis added). This was the understanding of the Trinitarian and Christological teaching of the first four general councils, as Taylor made explicit in the accompanying Rules and Advices to his clergy:
Every Minister ought to be careful that he never expound Scriptures in publick contrary to the known sence of the Catholick Church, and particularly of the Churches of England and Ireland, nor introduce any Doctrine against any of the four first General Councils; for these, as they are measures of truth, so also of necessity; that is, as they are safe, so they are sufficient; and besides what is taught by these, no matter of belief is necessary to salvation.
We see here what Taylor meant in the sermon in referring to that to which "all Christians always have consented". This limited that which is necessary Christian doctrine. In the words of the sermon, "it will be the safer, because it cannot go far" - it does not stretch the definition of saving faith beyond fundamentals. As the Rules and Advices put it, "besides what is taught" by the Trinitarian and Christological confessions of the four general councils, "no matter of belief is necessary to salvation".
What is more, and as we saw yesterday, this is not at all understood to be 'in addition to Scripture'. In the sermon to his clergy, Taylor repeated this understanding:
you are to teach your people nothing but what is the word of God, yet by this word I understand all that God spake expressly, and all that by certain consequence can be deduced from it.
The four general councils set forth Trinitarian and Christological doctrines which "by certain consequence" are from the Scriptures and therefore entirely reliant upon the sufficiency and authority of holy Scripture.
Such is the Catholic Faith, declares Taylor. And this is the Catholic Faith professed by the Church of England, as he set forth in A Letter to a Gentlewoman Newly Seduced to the Church of Rome:
For its doctrine, It is certain it professes the belief of all that is written in the Old and New Testament, all that which is in the three Creeds, the Apostolical, the Nicene, and that of Athanasius, and whatsoever was decreed in the four General Councils, or in any other truly such, and whatsoever was condemned in these, our Church hath legally declared it to be Heresy. And upon these accounts above four whole ages of the Church went to Heaven; they baptized all their Catechumens into this faith, their hopes of Heaven was upon this and a good life, their Saints and Martyrs lived and died in this alone, they denied Communion to none that professed this faith. This is the Catholic faith, so saith the Creed of Athanasius; and unless a company of Men have power to alter the faith of God, whosoever live and die in this faith, are entirely Catholic and Christian. So that the Church of England hath the same faith without dispute that the Church had for 400 or 500 Years, and therefore there could be nothing wanting here to saving faith, if we live according to our belief.
Again, it is the first four general councils that are a marker for such saving Faith. Beyond their Trinitarian and Christological confession - dependent upon the authority of holy Scripture - no other doctrines promulgated by later councils or authorities are necessary for salvation:
what can be supposed wanting in order to salvation? We have the Word of God, the Faith of the Apostles, the Creeds of the Primitive Church, the Articles of the four first general Councils ...
It is appropriate to refer to these first four general councils as articulating Nicene faith: Nicaea proclaimed the creedal expression of this faith, Constantinople applied it to the Third Person of the Holy Trinity, while Ephesus and Chalcedon rightly expounded it. Without Nicaea there is not the confession of the Son's consubstantiality, without Constantinople the divinity of the Holy Spirit is not duly confessed, without Ephesus and Chalcedon Nicaea's confession would be obscured. When Taylor, therefore, following a well-established understanding amongst Church of England divines, attributes particular standing to "the four first General Councils", it is because they articulate the Trinitarian and Christological truth of Nicene faith.
It is this which explains why these four councils have particular standing in defining the Catholic faith, a standing which Taylor - in common with other Church of England divines - did not extend to other councils. As he stated in the Dissuasive from Popery:
But what is the meaning, that some Councils are partly approv'd and partly condemned, the Council of Sardis, that in Trullo, those of Frankfurt, Constance, and Basil, but that every man, and every Church accepts the General Councils, as far as they please, and no further? The Greeks receive but seven General Councils, the Lutherans receive six, the Eutychians in Asia receive but the first three, the Nestorians in the East receive but the first two, the Anti-trinitarians in Hungary and Poland receive none. The Church of England receives the four first Generals as of highest regard, not that they are infallible; but that they have determin'd wisely and holily.
It is this Nicene faith which, Taylor declares, defines the generous orthodoxy of the Church of England:
English Protestants ... deny not their Communion to any Christian who desires it, and believes the Apostles' Creed, and is of the Religion of the four first General Councils.
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