such a People for the neglect or change of it If ever God would have done this we might most reasonably expect it under the Jewish Oeconomy in which every minute Circumstance was so strictly commanded by God as having something Sacred and Typical in it and yet it does not appear that every deviation from their Rule though in some very material parts of it did provoke God to cast them off God had appointed a certain place where they should offer their Sacrifices to him and when this place was actually fixed and determined it was unlawful for them to offer Sacrifice in any other place And yet when the Temple at Jerusalem was built which was the only place God had appointed for Sacrifice the People continued to offer Sacrifice in their high places even in the Reign of very good Kings and though this practise was condemned yet it did not un-church them God had appointed Aarons Family for the Priesthood 1 Kings 12.31 and yet Jeroboam made Priests of other Tribes and Families and the Law which expresly appoints Aaron and his Sons for the Priests Office only threatens death against Usurpers Numb 3.10 Thou shalt appoint Aaron and his Sons and they shall wait on the Priests Office and the stranger that cometh nigh shall be put to death God did not reject the Church of Israel for the irregularities of their Priests but owned them for his Church and People many years after this till they defiled themselves with the worship of Baal and other Heathen Gods And Josephus observes that after the death of Menelaus Joseph Antiq l. 12. cap. 14. Antiochus made Alchymus High-Priest who was not of the Family of the Priests and yet I should be loth to say that such an irregular promotion did un-church the Jewish Church and whoever considers in what manner the High-Priests were advanced and deposed even in the time of our Saviour possibly may think it as inconsistent with the first Institution of that Office as the irregular Ordinations of Presbyters 2. We ought especially to consider the force and power of necessity to dispence even with divine Institutions No necessity can dispence with the eternal Laws of good and evil because no necessity can be pleaded to justifie men in sin though in some cases it may extenuate the evil and guilt of it for the internal necessity in the nature of things is stronger than any external necessity can be no external force can compel men to sin which is an Act of their own will and choice and the obligations to Vertue remain in the most extreme necessity But in positive Institutions which depend upon the Will of God we find necessity has often dispensed and that with God's allowance and approbation As to give some few examples of it 1. The necessity of the divine Worship has dispensed with positive Institutions Thus in Hezekiah's Sacrifice the Priests being too few 2 Ch ron 29.34.35.11 the Levites assisted them in doing the Priests work in slaying the Sacrifices and the like we may see in Josiah's Passeover And by the same reason we may suppose that if the Family of Aaron had failed other Families of the Tribe of Levi might have succeeded into the Priest's Office though against a positive Law For the necessity of the divine Worship is much greater and more unalterable than the confinement of the Priesthood to a certain Family and where the divine Providence makes a necessity necessity will make a Priest And therefore I think a late learned and ingenious Author who disputes so earnestly that the Power of administring Sacraments must be derived from God and that this Power now is given only by Episcopal Ordination ought to have distinguished between the ordinary and extraordinary conveyance of Power Whoever administers in holy things must derive his Power from God because he acts in God's Name and when it may be done he must derive his Power in such a way as God hath appointed by a positive Law and whoever rejects this way without necessity can have no valid Power but whatever he does is null and void as I doubt not but all Ordinations of Presbyters are in opposition to and contempt of their Bishops as I think that learned man hath sufficiently proved But the case of necessity ought to be considered it being contrary to the Nature of all positive Institutions to oblige in case of necessity and I take that to be a case of necessity when Episcopal Orders cannot be had and yet the Church must sail without them Bishops are for the Church not the Church for Bishops and when the ordinary conveyance of this Authority fails necessity legitimates other extraordinary ways We have all the reason in the World to presume in such cases that God will confirm and ratifie the choice and designation of the People much more the Ordinations of the Presbytery where Episcopal Ordination cannot be had For I see no reason why Presbyters may not do the Bishops work in case of necessity as well as Levites do the work of Priests 2. The necessity of mens lives dispense with positive Laws Upon this account our Saviour justifies David's eating the Shew-Bread when he was an hungred which was not lawful for him to eat Mark 2.24 25 26. but for the Priests and his Disciples plucking the Ears of Corn on the Sabbath day Upon this Principle Matathias allowed the Jews to fight on the Sabbath-day Joseph antiq l. 12. cap. 7. in case they were assaulted by their Enemies and our Saviour resolves all such cases by that general Principle I will have mercy and not Sacrifice and certainly mercy to the Souls of men is as considerable as any temporal concernments 3. But we may further consider what force and Authority the presumptive allowance of the Church has in such cases The Christian Church in all Ages has thought fit to dispense with positive Institutions in case of necessity and by her own Approbation and Authority to supply the defects and irregularities of such Administrations and therefore certainly did believe she had Power to do it And indeed if there be not sufficient Authority in the Church to provide for cases of necessity the Power of the Church is more defective than of any other Society of men and cannot in many cases without a miracle preserve her own being and therefore if the Church may be presumed in cases of necessity to allow Persons to perform such religious Offices and Ministries as otherwise they are not qualified to perform this very allowance supplies the incapacity of the Person and does virtually confer that Authority on him which in other cases he had not Now it is not only highly reasonable to presume that the Catholick Church will rather allow the Ordinations of Presbyters though they are not regularly qualified for that Office where there are no Bishops to Ordain than that a considerable member of the Christian Church should want a succession of Pastors to
to the same passions nay he asserts the divine nature it self to be passible And I think I need not shew how this overthrows the fundamental Doctrine of Salvation by Christ which proves it to be a fundamental Heresie I shall only observe that Leo Bishop of Rome in his Letter to Flavian who was then Bishop of Constantinople and was afterwards murdered by the Eutychian Faction in the packt Council of Ephesus confutes the Heresie of Eutyches from the very Principle Et ad resolvendum conditionis noslrae debitum natura inviolabilis naturae est unita passibili ut quod nostris remediis congruebat medlator Dei bominum homo Jesus christus mori posset ex uno non mori posset ex altero Leo ep ad Flavian on which I have all along proceeded because it destroys the Doctrine of Salvation by Christ For says he to discharge the debt and obligation of our lapsed State a nature which cannot suffer is united to a nature which can That so as our Redemption required the Mediator between God and man the man Christ Jesus might be capable of suffering and dying as man and exempted from all possibility of dying as God This I think is sufficient to shew how fundamental the belief of the sacred Trinity and the Incarnation of our Saviour is in the Christian Religion Salvation by Christ is a fundamental Doctrine or nothing is fundamental in the Christian Faith and yet the Doctrine of Salvation by Christ is necessarily founded on the belief of the holy Trinity each sacred Person being peculiarly concerned in the Oeconomy of man's Salvation And I confess it does mightily confirm me in this way of stating the notion of Fundamentals that it does so plainly discover the necessity of that Faith which has always been accounted sacred and inviolable by the Catholick Church This is the Faith we are baptized into according to our Saviours Command to baptize in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost This is the sum of all the ancient Creeds The Apostles Creed being little else than the explication of the form of Baptism what we are to believe of God the Father what of God the Son and what of God the Holy Ghost And when Hereticks arose who corrupted this Faith the Catholick Church expressed greater Zeal in nothing than in preserving this Faith pure and sincere This was the occasion of the first general Councils wherein Arius Nestorius Eutyches Macedonius and such other Hereticks were condemned This occasioned the Nicene Constantinopolitan and the Athanasian Creeds which contain only the Catholick exposition of the Doctrine of the Trinity in opposition to these ancient Heresies And it would be very strange if that which is the chief nay almost the only Subject of all our Creeds should not be thought a fundamental of our Religion And yet it is as strange that is should be a fundamental if it be only an abstruse and difficult speculation which is of no other use nor valuable upon any other account than pure Orthodoxy which is the only reason that can be assigned why any men who believe the Doctrine of the Trinity should not express a great and warm Zeal for it because they do not observe how the whole Gospel-Doctrine of Salvation by Christ depends on it The end of Christian Faith is a holy Life and if men may lead a very holy Life without the velief of the Trinity some think this Faith cannot be absolutely necessary to Salvation but now this must be a great and dangerous mistake though we should suppose that men may live very holily without the belief of the Trinity unless we suppose also that a holy Life will carry men to Heaven without Faith in Christ or Salvation by him for we cannot rightly believe in Christ for Salvation without this Faith And thus I might shut up the Doctrine of Fundamentals for indeed I know nothing strictly fundamental in the Christian Religion but the Doctrine of the holy Trinity and the several Acts and Offices if I may so speak of each sacred Person in the Oeconomy of man's Salvation which I have already briefly hinted But having entred upon a Discourse of such vast Importance to give the greater satisfaction to inquisitive men I shall venture one step further and I think no man need go any further 3. The next inquiry therefore shall be what is fundamental in the Doctrine of Salvation it self Now this our Saviour briefly comprehends in that Commission he gave to the Apostles to preach Repentance and Forgiveness of sins in his Name Luke 24.47 i. e. to preach forgiveness of sins to all true Penitents through Faith in his Name Rom. 3.24 25. or through Faith in his Blood as St. Paul expounds it Now not to dispute this point at present with the Socinians all who believe that Christ died to make atonement for our sins must acknowledg the atonement and expiation of Christs death to be a fundamental Article of the Christian Faith whereon the Doctrine of Salvation by Christ is built For therefore he is our Saviour because he saves his People from their sins and how this is we are often told viz. by dying for our sins the just for the unjust that he may reconcile us to God Now if this be true as I shall at present take for granted then it must be a fundamental Doctrine upon these two accounts 1. Because the belief or the denial of the atonement of Christ's death makes a specifical change in Religion A Religion with a Sacrifice and a Religion without a Sacrifice differ in the whole kind the first respects the atonement of our past sins and our daily infirmities it respects God as the Judge and avenger of wickedness as well as the rewarder of those who diligently seek him the other is a kind of Philosophical institution to train men up in the practice of Piety and Vertue That is a Religion without a Sacrifice is at most but half as much as a Religion with a Sacrifice and that half wherein they agree of a quite different nature from each other That Religion which requires an expiatory Sacrifice to make atonement for sin and to obtain the Pardon of it does also strictly enjoyn the practiee of an universal Righteousness which is the whole of a Religion without a Sacrifice And yet this practical part of Religion is vastly altered by the belief or denial of the Sacrifice and expiation of Christ's death Those who deny the death of Christ to be an expiatory Sacrifice for the sins of the World may pay all that Homage and Worship to God which is due to the great Creator and Benefactor of mankind and may observe all the duties of moral Righteousness but there are some new Acts of Religious Worship or some new instances of Duty or new degrees and respects of Vertuâ—â—… which necessarily result from the expiation of Christ's death which either cannot be
observed at all or not in their true meaning and signification by those who deny it as to give some few instances of it The love of God as our Redeemer and Saviour who gave his own Son for our Ransom to die for our sins and to make atonement and expiation by his Blood is very different from the love of God as our Creator and Benefactor nay as our Redeemer by Covenant Promise and Power it is a more transporting and sensible Passion and the peculiar Worship of the Gospel which those cannot give to God who deny the expiation of Christ's death The Worship of a God Incarnate a God in our nature and likeness a God who is our Saviour Mediator and Advocate through his own Blood vastly differs from the Worship of a pure infinite eternal Spirit or from the Worship of an exalted Creature And this is the peculiar Worship of the Lord's Supper that great and venerable Mystery of our Religion which is a thin and empty Ceremony without it To pray to God in the Name and Mediation of Christ and in vertue of his Sacrifice vastly differs from a natural hope and trust in God's mercy or in his bare promise or in the Power and Interest of a great Favourite though appointed to be our Mediator not in vertue of his Sacrifice but by Royal Favour Not but that God's Promise of Pardon and acceptance confirmed to us by such a powerful Favourite whom God himself hath appointed to be our Advocate may give us sufficient security that God will hear and answer our Prayers but this assurance is of a different nature from the vertue of a Sacrifice and affects our minds in a different manner and excites different Passions and very different acts of Devotion and makes our Worship differ as much as a Mediator by Sacrifice does from a Mediator by Interest and Power As for the other parts of Religion which concern our Conversation with men or the Government of our own Appetites and Passions there seems to be some new instances or new degrees of Vertue which have a necessary dependance on the Sacrifice of Christ's death as the example or reason of them As that high degree of brotherly love which Christ requires of us as the Badg of our Discipleship to love one another as he hath loved us to forgive one another even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven us all Acts of kindness and charity to our poor Brethren as knowing the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that though he were rich yet for your sakes he became poor that you through his poverty may be rich the force and prevalency of which example and of which reason I think is greatly abated by denying the expiation of Christ's death However I think it is very plain that the true principle of Gospel-obedience that which makes all our actions in a strict and proper sence Christian Graces and Vertues has a necessary respect to the expiation of Christ's death We must cheerfully obey the Will of God not only considered as our Creator but as a Redeemer we must give up our selves to Christ as the purchase of his Blood for we are not our own but bought with a price and therefore must glorifie God both with our Bodies and with our Spirits which are God's we must yield our selves willing Captives to the conquering and constraining Power of his Love the Love of Christ constrains us for we thus judg that if Christ dyed for all then were all dead and that he dyed for us that we who live might not henceforth live unto our selves but unto him who dyed for us If Christ did not redeem and purchase us by his Blood all this signifies nothing it is all but Phrase and Metaphor and Allusion which cannot form a principle of Action And yet the Apostles of Christ do not so much insist on the Authority of God as our Maker and Governor as on his purchase as Redeemer on the love of our dying Lord who is our Priest our Sacrifice and Mediator and were it possible to obey the Gospel without any regard to the redemption of Christ and that stupendious love of God in it it were not true Evangelical obedience no more than it is obedience to God to do what he commands for some private end and reason of our own without any regard to his Authority and Government So that whether the Doctrine of the atonement and satisfaction of Christ's death be true or false it is certainly fundamental either way either a fundamental Article of Faith or a fundamental Error because it alters Foundations and changes the whole frame of Christian Religion If Christ have made atonement and expiation for our sins Christianity is one thing if he have not it is quite another thing as different as it is possible which I think is a plain argument that the expiation of Christ's Blood is a fundamental or foundation Doctrine since the whole Fabrick of Christian Religion as it is taught in the Gospel is built on it 2. There is one consideration more which will confirm this that the atonement and expiation of Christ's death is a fundamental Doctrine because the Blood of Christ that is the expiation of his Blood is the peculiar object of justifying Faith now certainly that must be fundamental which is essential to justifying Faith Salvation or Justification by Christ being the sum of the Gospel whatever is essential to justifying Faith is certainly a fundamental Doctrine of Christianity if there be any such thing as Fundamentals Repentance in its full Extent and Latitude as it includes not only a sorrow for our past sins but the reformation of our lives and an actual obedience to all the Laws of the Gospel is a necessary condition of our Pardon and Justification or necessarily required in those whom God will justifie But Repentance and a new Life cannot justifie us No Religion that ever was in the World taught men certainly to expect Pardon of sin meerly upon their Repentance And it is plain that mankind never did for both Heathens and Jews thought the expiation of Sacrifices as necessary and more prevalent than meer Repentance to obtain their Pardon And the reason why God hath appointed us no Sacrifice but a broken heart or the living Sacrifice of an obedient Soul and Body to offer to him is because he has provided an expiatory Sacrifice himself hath given his own Son to be a Sacrifice for us and the Pardon of our sins is every where attributed to the death of Christ as the meritorious Cause But then as Christ hath dyed for our sins and redeemed us with his Blood and God for Christ's sake will pardon and justifie all repenting sinners so we must consider that meer repentance can no more apply or appropiate the Sacrifice and Expiation of Christ's death to us for our Pardon than it can justifie us without a Sacrifice That is the peculiar Office of Faith in Christ or Faith in his Blood as