capable of a vast Inflammation and Elevation by which a man's powers might be exalted to much higher degrees of Knowledge and Capacity The Animal Spirits receiving their Quality from that of the Blood a new and a strong Fermentation in the Blood might râ—ise them and by consequence exalt a man to a much greater sublimity of Thought But with that it might dispose him to be easily inflamed by Appetites and Passions it might put him under the power of his Body and make his Body much more apt to be fired at outward Objects which might sink all Spiritual and pure Ideas in him and raise gross ones with much Fury and Rapidity Hereby his whole frame might be much corrupted and that might go so deep in him that all those who descended from him might be defiled by it as we see Madness and some Chronical Diseases pass from Parents to their Children All this might have been natural and as much the Physical effect of Eating the forbidden Fruit as it seems Immortality would have been that of Eating the Fruit of the Tree of Life This might have been in its nature a slow poison which must end in Death at last It may be very easy to make all this appear probable from Physical Causes A very small Accident may so alter the whole Mass of the Blood that in a very few Minutes it may be totally changed so the Eating the forbidden Fruit might have by a natural chain of things produced all this But this is only an Hypothesis and so is left as such All the Assistance that Revealed Religion can receive from Philosophy is to shew That a reasonable Hypothesis can be offered upon Physical Principles to shew the possibility or rather probability of any particulars that are contained in the Scriptures This is enough to sâ—op the mouths of Deists which is all the use that can be made of such Schemes To return to the main Point of the Fall of Adam He himself was made liable to Death But not barely to cease to live for Death and Life are terms opposite to one another in Scripture In Treating upon these Heads it is said That the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life Rom. 6.23 And though the addition of the word Eternal makes the Signification of the one more express yet where it is mentioned without that addition no doubt is to be made but that it is to be so meant As where it is said That to be carnally minded is death but to be spiritually minded is life and peace And believing we have life through his Name Rom. 8.6 Joh. 20.31 Joh. 5.50 Ye will not come unto me that ye may have life So by the rule of Opposites Death ought to be understood as a word of a general Signification which we who have the Comment of the New Testament to guide us in understanding the Old are not to restrain to a natural Death and therefore when we are said to be the servants of sin unto death we undersâ—and much more by it than a natural Death So God's threatning of Adam with Death ought not to be restrained to a natural Death Adam being thus defiled all Emanations from him must partake of that vitiated State to which he had brought himself But then the Question remains How came the Souls of his Posterity to be defiled for if they were created pure it seems to be an unjust Cruelty to them to condemn them to such an Union to a defiled Body as should certainly corrupt them All that can be said in Answer to this is That God has setled it as a Law in the Creation That a Soul should inform a Body according to the Texture of it and either conquer it or be mastered by it as it should be differently made and that as such a degree of Purity in the Texture of it might make it both pure and happy so a contrary degree of Texture might have very contrary effects And if with this God made another general Law that when all things were duly prepared for the propagation of the Species of Mankind a Soul should be always ready to go into and animate those first Threads and Beginnings of Life those Laws being laid down Adam by corrupting his own frame corrupted the frame of his whole Posterity by the general course of Things and the great Law of the Creation So that the suffering this to run through all the Race is no more only different in degrees and extent than the Suffering the folly or madness of a man to infect his Posterity In these things God acts as the Creator of the World by general Rules and these must not be altered because of the Sins and Disorders of men But they are rather to have their course that so Sin may be its own punishment The defilement of the Race being thus stated a Question remains Whether this can be properly called a Sin and such as deserves God's Wrath and Damnation On the one hand an opposition of Nature to the Divine Nature must certainly be hateful to God as it is the root of much malignity and sin Such a Nature cannot be the Object of his Love and of it self it cannnot be accepted of God Now since there is no mean in God between Love and Wrath Acceptation and Condemnation if such persons are not in the first order they must be in the second Yet it seems very hard on the other hand to apprehend how persons who have never actually sinned but are only unhappily descended should be in consequence to that under so great a misery To this several answers are made Some have thought that those who die before they commit any actual Sin have indeed no share in the favour of God but yet that they pass unto a state in the other World in which they suffer little or nothing The stating this more clearly will belong to another Opinion which shall be afterwards Explained There is a further Question made Whether this Vicious Inclination is a Sin or not Those of the Church of Rome as they believe that Original Sin is quite taken away by Baptism so finding that this corrupt Disposition still remains in us they do from thence conclude that it is no part of Original Sin but that this is the Natural State in which Adam was made at first only it is in us without the restraint or bridle of Supernatural Assistances which was given to him but lost by Sin and restored to us in Baptism But as was said formerly Adam in his first state was made after the Image of God so that his bodily powers were perfectly under the command of his mind This Revolt that we feel our Bodies and Senses are always in cannot be supposed to be God's Original Workmanship There are great Disputings raised concerning the meaning of a long Discourse of St. Paul's the 7th of the Romans concerning a constant struggle that he felt within himself which some arguing
the design and effect of the Sin and Trespass-Offerings among the Iews and more particularly of the Goat that was offered up for the Sins of the whole People on the day of Atonement This was a piece of Religion well known both to Iew and Gentile that had a great many Phrases belonging to it such as the Sacrifices being offered for or instead of Sin and in the name or on the account of the Sinner it s bearing of Sin and becoming Sin or the Sin-offering it s being the Reconciliation the Atonement and the Redemption of the Sinner by which the Sin was no more imputed but forgiven and for which the Sinner was accepted When therefore this whole set of Phrases in its utmost extent is very often and in a great variety applied to the Death of Christ it is not possible for us to preserve any Reverence for the New Testament or the Writers of it so far as to think them even honest men not to say Inspired men if we can imagine That in so Sacred and Important a Matter they could exceed so much as to represent that to be our Sacrifice which is not truly so This is a Point that will not bear Figures and Amplifications it must be treated of strictly and with a just exactness of Expression Christ is called the lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world he is said to have born our sins on his own body to have been made sin for us John 1.29 1 Pet. 2.24 2 Cor. 5.21 Matth. 20.28 Rom. 3.25 1 Joh 2.1 Eph 1.7 Col. 1.14 20 21. Heb. 9.11 12 13 14 26 28. it is said That he gave his life a ransom for many That he was the propitiation for the sins of the whole world and that we have redemption through his blood even the remission of our sins It is said That he hath reconciled us to his Father in his cross and in the body of his flesh through death That he by his own blood entred in once into the Holy place having obtained Eternal Redemption for us That once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself That he was once offered to bear the sins of many That we are sanctified by the offering of the body of Christ once for all And That after he had offered one sacrifice for sin he sate down for ever at the right hand of God It is said That we enter into the holiest by the blood of Christ That is the blood of the New Covenant Heb. 10.10 12 14 19 29. Heb. 13.12.20 1 Pet. 1.19 1 Pet. 2.24 1 Pet. 3.18 by which we are sanctified That he hath sanctified the people with his own blood and was the great shepherd of his people through the blood of the everlasting Covenant That we are redeemed with the precious blood of Christ as of a Lamb without blemish and without spot And That Christ suffered once for sins the just for the unjust that he might bring us to God In these and a great many more passages that he spread in all the parts of the New Testament it is as plain as words can make any thing That the Death of Christ is proposed to us as our Sacrifice and Reconciliation our Atonement and Redemption So it is not possible for any man that considers all this to imagine That Christ's Death was only a Confirmation of his Gospel a Pattern of a holy and patient suffering of Death and a necessary preparation to his Resurrection by which he gave us a clear proof of a Resurrection and by consequence of Eternal Life as by his Doctrine he had shewed us the way to it By this all the high commendations of his Death amount only to this That he by dying has given a vast Credit and Authority to his Gospel which was the powerfullest mean possible to redeem us from Sin and to reconcile us to God But this is so contrary to the whole design of the New Testament and to the true Importance of that great variety of Phrases in which this Matter is set out that at this rate of Expounding Scripture we can never know what we may build upon especially when the great Importance of this thing and of our having right Notions concerning it is well considered St. Paul does in his Epistle to the Romans state an opposition between the Death of Christ Rom 5.12 to the end and the Sin of Adam the ill effects of the one being removed by the other but he plainly carries the Death of Christ much further than that it had only healed the Wound that was given by Adam's Sin for as the judgment was of one sin to Condemnation the free gift is of many offences to justification but in the other places of the New Testament Christ's Death is set forth so fully as a Propitiation for the Sins of the whole World that it is a very false way of arguing to inferr That because in one place That is set in opposition to Adam's Sin that therefore the virtue of it was to go no further than to take away that Sin It has indeed removed that but it has done a great deal more besides Thus it is plain That Christ's Death was our Sacrifice The meaning of which is this That God intending to reconcile the World to himself and to encourage Sinners to repent and turn to him thought fit to offer the pardon of Sin together with the other Blessings of his Gospel in such a way as should demonstrate both the Guilt of Sin and his Hatred of it and yet with that his love of Sinners and his compassions towards them A free Pardon without a Sacrifice had not been so agreeable neither to the Majesty of the Great Governor of the World nor the Authority of his Laws nor so proper a method to oblige men to that strictness and holiness of Life that he designed to bring them to And therefore he thought fit to offer his Pardon and those other Blessings through a Mediator who was to deliver to the World this new and holy Rule of Life and to confirm it by his own unblemisht Life And in conclusion when the Rage of Wicked men who hated him for the Holiness both of his Life and of his Doctrine did work them up into such a fury as to pursue him to a most Violent and Ignominious Death he in compliance with the secret design of his Father did not only go through that dismal series of Sufferings with the most intire Resignation to his Father's Will and with the highest Charity possible towards those who were his most Unjust and Malicious Murderers but he at the same time underwent great Agonies in his Mind which struck him with such an Amazement and Sorrow even to the Death that upon it he did sweat great drops of Blood and on the Cross he felt a withdrawing of those comforts that till then had ever supported him when he cried out
had certainly put the chief strength of their Cause on this That they adhered to the Apostles Creed in opposition to the Innovations of the Nicene Fathers There is therefore no reason to believe that this Creed was prepared by the Apostles or that it was of any great Antiquity since Ruffin was the first that published it It is true he published it as the Creed of the Church of Aquileia but that was so late that neither this nor the other Creeds have any Authority upon their own account Great Respect is indeed due to things of such Antiquity and that have been so long in the Church but after all we receive those Creeds not for their own sakes nor for the sake of those who prepared them but for the sake of the Doctrine that is contained in them because we believe that the Doctrine which they declare is contained in the Scriptures and chiefly that which is the main Intent of them which is to assert and profess the Trinity therefore we do receive them tho we must acknowledge that the Creed ascribed to Athanasius as it was none of his so it was never established by any General Council ARTICLE IX Of Original or Birth-Sin Original Sin standeth not in the following of Adam as the Pelagians do vainly talk but it is the fault or corruption of the nature of every man that naturally is engendred of the Offspring of Adam whereby man is very far gone from Original Righteousness and is of his own nature inclined to evil so that the Flesh lusteth always contrary to the Spirit and therefore in every Person born into the World it deserveth God's Wrath and Damnation And this Infection of Nature doth remain yea in them that are regenerated whereby the Lust of the Flesh called in Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which some do expound the Wisdom some Sensuality some the Affection some the Desire of the Flesh is not subject to the Law of God And though there is no Condemnation for them that believe and are baptized yet the Apostle doth confess That Concupiscence and Lust hath of it self the nature of Sin AFter the First Principles of the Christian Religion are stated and the Rule of Faith and Life was setled the next thing that was to be done was to declare the special Doctrines of this Religion and that first with relation to all Christians as they are single Individuals for the directing every one of them in order to the working out his own Salvation which is done from this to the Nineteenth Article And then with relation to them as they compose a Society called the Church which is carried on from the Nineteenth to the End In all that has been hitherto explained the whole Church of England has been all along of one mind In this and in some that follow there has been a greater diversity of Opinion but both sides have studied to prove their Tenets to be at least not contrary to the Articles of the Church These different Parties have disputed concerning the Decrees of God and those Assistances which pursuant to his Decrees are afforded to us But because the Foundation of those Decrees and the Necessity of those Assistances are laid in the Sin of Adam and in the Effects it had on Mankind therefore thâ—se Controversies begin on this Head The Pelagians and the Socinians agree in saying That Adam's Sin was Personal That by it as being the first Sin it is said that Sin entred into the World But that as Adam was made mortal â—om 5 1â— and had died whether he had sinned or not so they think the liberty of Human Nature is still entire and that every man is punished for his own sins and not for the sin of another to do otherwise they say seems contrary to Justice not to say Goodness In opposition to this Iudgment is said to have come upon many to condemnation through one either Man or Sin ver 1â— Death is said to have reigned by one and by one man's offence and many are said to be dead through the offence of one All these Passages do intimate that death is the consequence of Adam's Sin and that in him as well as in all others Death was the Wages of Sin so also that we dye upon the account of his Sin We are said to bear the Image of the first Adam as true Christians bear the Image of the second Now we are sure that there is both a derivation of Righteousness 1 Cor 15.49 and a Communication of Inward Holiness transferred to us through Christ So it seems to follow from thence that there is somewhat both transferred to us and conveyed down throughMankind by the first Adam and particularly that by it we are all made subject to Death from which we should have been freed if Adam had continued in his first state and that by virtue of the Tree of Life Gen. 3.22 in which some think there was a natural Virtue to cure all Diseases and relieve against all Accidents while others do ascribe it to a Divine Blessing of which that Tree was only the Symbol or Sacrament through the words said after Adam's sin as the reason of driving him out of Paradise lest he put forth his hand and take of the Tree of Life and eat and live for ever seem to import that there was a Physical Virtue in the Tree that could so fortify and restore Life as to give Immortality These do also think that the Threatning made to Adam That upon his eating the forbidden Fruit he should surely dye is to be taken literally and is to be carried no further than to a Natural Death This Subjection to Death and to the Fear of it brings men under a slavish Bondage many Terrors and other Passions and Miseries that arise out ofit which they think is a great Punishment and that it is a Condemnation and Sentence of Death passed upon the whole Race and by this they are made sinners that is treated as guilty Persons and severely punished This they think is easily enough reconciled with the Notions of Justice and Goodness in God since this is only a Temporary Punishment relating to mens Persons And we see in the common methods of Providence that Children are in this sort often punished for the sins of their Fathers most men that come under a very ill habit of Body transmit the Seeds of Diseases and Pains to their Children They do also think that the Communication of this liableness to death is easily accounted for and they imagine that as the Tree of Life might be a Plant that furnished men with an Universal Medicine so the forbidden Fruit might derive a slow Poyson into Adam's Body that might have exalted and inflamed his Blood very much and might though by a slower operation certainly brought on death at the last Our being thus adjudged to Death and to all the Miseries that accompany Mortality they think may be well called the wrath of
from the Scope of the whole Epistle and the beginning of that Chapter understand only of the state that St. Paul represents himself to have been in while yet a Iew and before his Conversion Whereas others understand it of him in his converted and regenerated state Very plausible things have been said on both sides but without arguing any thing from words the sense of which is under debate Gal. 5.17 Rom. 8.13 there are other places which do manifestly express the struggle that is in a good Man The flesh is weak though the spirit is willing The flesh lusteth against the spirit as the spirit lusteth against the flesh We ought to be still mortifying the deeds of the body and we feel many Sins that do so easily beseâ— us that from these things we have reason to conclude that there is a Corruption in our Nature which gives us a biass and propensity to Sin Now there is no reason to think that Baptism takes away all the Branches and Effects of Original Sin It is enough if we are by it delivered from the Wrath of God and brought into a State of Favour and Acceptation We are freed from the Curse of Death by our being Entitled to a Blessed Resurrection And if we are so far freed from the Corruption of our Nature as to have a foederal right to such Assistances as will enable us to resist and repress it though it is not quite extinct in us so long as we live in these frail and mortal Bodies here are very great Effects of our Admission to Christianity by Baptism though this should not go so far as to root out all Inclinations to Evil out of our Nature The great Disposition that is in us to Appetite and Passion and that great heat with which they Inflame us the Aversion that we naturally have to all the Exercises of Religion and the Pains that must be used to work us up to a tolerable Degree of Knowledge and an ordinary Measure of Virtue shews that these are not natural to us Whereas Sloth and Vice do grow on us without any care taken about them so that it appears that they are the natural and the other the forced growth of our Souls These ill Dispositions are so universally spread through all Mankind and appear so early and in so great a Diversity of ill Inclinations that from hence it seems reasonable and just to infer That this Corruption is spread through our whole Nature and Species by the Sin and Disobedience of Adam And beyond this a great many among our selves think that they cannot go in asserting of Original Sin But there is a further step made by all the Disciples of S. Austin who believe That a Covenant was made with all Mankind in Adam as their First Parent That he was a Person Constituted by God to represent them all and that the Covenant was made with him so that if he had obeyed all his Posterity should have been happy through his Obedience but by his Disobedience they were all to be esteemed to have sinned in him his Act being Imputed and Transferred to them all S. Austin considered all Mankind as lost in Adam and in that he made the Decree of Election to begin There being no other Reprobation asserted by him than the leaving Men to continue in that state of Damnation in which they were by reason of Adam's Sin so that though by Baptism all Men were born again and recovered out of that lost state yet unless they were within the Decree of Election they could not be saved but would certainly fall from that state and perish in a state of Sin But such as were not Baptized were shut out from all hope Those words of Christ's Except ye be born again of the water and of the Spirit Joh. 3.3 5 ye cannot enter into the kingdom of God being Expounded so as to Import the Indispensable Necessity of Baptism to Eternal Salvation All who were not Baptized were reckoned by him among the Damned Yet this Damnation as to those who had no Actual Sin was so mitigated that it seemed to be little more than an Exclusion out of Heaven without any Suffering or Misery like a state of Sleep and Inactivity This was afterwards dressed up as a Division or Partition in Hell called the Limbo of Infants so by bringing it thus low they took away much of the horror that this Doctrine might otherwise have given the World It was not easy to Explain the way how this was propagated They wished well to the Notion of a Soul's propagating a Soul but that seemed to come too near Creation So it was not received as certain It was thâ—refore thought That the Body being propagated defiled the Soul was created and infused at the time of Conception And the though God did not Create it impure yet no time was interposed between its Creation and infusion So that it could never be said to have been once pure and then to have become impure All this as it afforded an easy Foundation to Establish the Doctrine of Absolute Decrees upon it no care being taken to shew how this Sin came into the World whether from an Absolute Decrâ—e or not so it seem'd to have a great Foundation in that large Discourse of St. Paul's where in the 5th of the Romans he compares the Blessings that we receive by the Death of Christ with the Guilt and Misery that was brought upon us by the Sin of Adam Now it is confessed That by Christ we have both an Imputation or Communication of the Merits of his Death and likewise a Purity and Holiness of Nature convey'd to us by his Doctrine and Spirit In opposition then to this if the comparison is to be closely pursued there must be an Imputation of Sin as well as a Corruption of Nature transfused to us from Adam This is the more considerable as to the Point of imputation because the chief design of St. Paul's Discourse seems to be levelled at that since it is begun upon the Head of Reconciliation and Attonement Upon which it follows That as by one man sin entred into the world Rom. 5.12 to the end and death by sin and death passed upon all men for that or as others render it in whom all have sinned Now they think it is all one to their Point Whether it be rendered for that or in whom For though the later words seem to deliver their Opinion more precisely yet it being affirm'd That according to the other rendring all who die have sinned and it being certain That many Infants die who have never actually sinned these must have sinned in Adam they could sin no other way It is afterwards said by St. Paul That by the offence of one many were dead That the judgment was by one to Condemnation That by one man's offence death reigned by one That by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to Condemnation And that by one man's disobedience
many were made sinners As these words are positive and of great importance in themselves so all this is much the stronger by the opposition in which every one of them is put to the Effects and Benefits of Christ's Death particularly to our Justification through him in which there is an Imputation of the Merits and Effects of his Death that are thereby transferred to us so that that the whole Effect of this Discourse is taken away if the Imputation of Adam's Sin is denied And this Explication does certainly quadrate more entirely to the words of the Article as it is known that this was the Tenet of those who prepared the Articles it having been the generally-received Opinion from S. Austin's days downward But to many other Divines this seems a harsh and unconceivable Opinion it seems repugnant to the Justice and Goodness of God to reckon Men guily of a Sin which they never committed and to punish them in their Souls Eternally for that which was no Act of theirs And though we easily enough conceive how God in the Riches of his Grace may transfer Merit and Blessings from one Person to many this being only an Oeconomy of Mercy where all is free and such a method is taken as may best declare the Goodness of God But in the Imputation of Sin and Guilt which are Matters of strict Justice it is quite otherwise Upon that Head God is pleased often to Appeal to Men of the Justice of all his ways And therefore no such Doctrine ought to be admitted that carries in it an Idea of Cruelty Jer. 31.29 Ezek. 18.20 beyond what the blackest Tyrants have ever invented Besides that in the Scripture such a method as the punishing Children for their Fathers Sins is often disclaimed and it is positively affirmed that every man that sins is punished Now though in Articles relating to the Nature of God they acknowledge it is highly reasonable to believe That there may be Mysteries which exceed our Capacity yet in Moral Matters in God's foederal dealings with us it seems unreasonable and contrary to the Nature of God to believe that there may be a Mystery contrary to the clearest Notions of Justice and Goodness such as the condemning Mankind for the Sin of one Man in which the rest had no share and as contrary to our Ideas of God and upon that to set up another Mystery that shall take away the Truth and Fidelity of the promises of God Justice and Goodness being as inseparable from his Nature as Truth and Fidelity can be supposed to be This seems to expose the Christian Religion to the Scoffs of its Enemies and to Objections that are much sooner made than answered And since the foundation of this is a supposed Covenant with Adam as the Representative Head of Mankind it is strange that a thing of that great consequence should not have been more plainly Reported in the History of the Creation But that men should be put to fetch out the knowledge of so great and so extraordinary a thing only by some remote Consequences It is no small prejudice against this Opinion That it was so long before it first appeared in the Latin Church that it was never received in the Greek and that even the Western Church though perhaps for some Ignorant Ages it received it as it did every thing else very implicity yet has been very much divided both about this and many other Opinions related to it or a rising out of it As for those words of St. Paul's that are its chief if not its only Foundation they say many things upon them First it is a single Proof Now when we have not a variety of places proving any point in which one gives Light and leads us to a sure Exposition of another we cannot be so sure of the meaning of any one place as to raise a Theory or found a Doctrine upon it They say further That S. Paul seems to argue from that Opinion of our having sinned in Adam to prove that we are justified by Christ. Now it is a piece of Natural Logick not to prove a thing by another unless that other is more clear of it self or at least more clear by its being already received and believed This cannot be said to be more clear of it self for it is certainly less credible or conceivable than the Reconciliation by Christ. Nor was this clear from any special Revelation made of it in the Old Testament Therefore there is good reason to believe that it was then a Doctrine received among the Iews as there are odd things of this kind to be found among the Cabbalists as if all the Souls of all Mankind had been in Adam's Body Now when an Argument is brought in Scripture to prove another thing by though we are bound to acknowledge the Conclusion yet we are not always sure of the Premises for they are often founded upon received Opinions So that it is not certain that S. Paul meant to offer this Doctrine to our belief as true but only that he intended by it to prove our being reconciled to God through the Death of Christ and the Medium by which he proved it might be for ought that appears from the words themselves only an Opinion held true among those to whom he writes For he only supposes it but says nothing to prove it Which it might be expected he would have done if the Iews had made any doubt of it But further they say that when Comparisons or Oppositions such as this are made in Scripture we are not always to carry them on to an exact Equality We are required not only to be holy as God is holy but to be perfect as he is perfect 1 Pet. 1.15 16. Mat. 5.48 Where by the as is not to be meant a true Equality but some sort Resemblance and Conformity Therefore those who believe that there is nothing imputed to Adam's Posterity on the account of his Sin but this Temporary punishment of their being made liable to Death and to all those Miseries that the fear of it with our other concerns about it bring us under say that this is enough to justify the comparison that is there stated And that those who will carry it on to be an exact parallel make a stretch beyond the Phraseology of the Scripture and the use of Parables and of the many comparisons that go only to one or more points but ought not to be stretched to every thing These are the things that other great Divines among us have opposed to this Opinion As to its Consonancy to the Article those who oppose it do not deny but that it comes up fully to the highest sense that the words of the Article can Import Nor do they doubt but that those who prepared the Articles being of that Opinion themselves might perhaps have had that sense of the words in their Thoughts But they add That we are only bound to sign the Articles in a
Doctrine as to note those who obey not the Gospel 2 Thess. 36.14 15. and to have no company with them that they may be ashamed yet not so as to hate such a one or count him as an Enemy but to admonish him as a Brother Into what neglect or prostitution soever any Church may have fallen in this great point of separating Offenders of making them ashamed and of keeping others from being corrupted with their ill Example and bad Influence that must be confessed to be a very great defect and blemish The Church of Rome had slackned all the ancient Rules of Discipline and had perverted this matter in a most scandalous manner and the World is now sunk into so much corruption and to such a contempt of holy things that it is much more easy here to find matter for lamentation than to see how to remedy or correct it ARTICLE XVII Predestination and Election Predestination to life is the everlasting purpose of God whereby before the foundations of the World were laid he hath constantly decreed by his Counsel secret to us to deliver from curse and damnation those whom he hath chosen in Christ out of mankind and to bring them by Christ unto everlasting Salvation as vessels made to honour Wherefore they which be endued with so excellent a benefit of God be called according to God's purpose by his Spirit working in due season They through grace obey the calling they be justified freely they be made Sons of God by Adoption they be made like the Image of his only begotten Son Iesus Christ they walk religiously in good works and at length by God's mercy they attain to everlasting felicity As the godly consideration of Predestination and our Election in Christ is full of sweet pleasant and unspeakable comfort to godly persons and such as feel in themselves the working of the Spirit of Christ mortifying the works of the flesh and their earthly members and drawing up their mind to high and heavenly things as well because it doth greatly establish anâ—â—â—â—firm their Faith of eternal Salvation to be enjoyed through Christ as because it doth fervently kindle their love towards God So for curious and carnal persons lacking the Spirit of Christ to have continually before their eyes the sentence of God's Predestination is a most dangerous downfall whereby the Devil doth thrust them either â—nto desperation or into wrechlesness of most unclean living no less perillous than â—esperation Furthermore We must receive God's promises in such wise as they be generally set forth to us in holy Scripture and in our doings that Will of God is to be followed which we have expresly declared unto us in the Word of God THere are many things in several of the other Articles which depend upon this and therefore I will explain it more fully For as this has given occasion to one of the longest the subtilest and indeed the most intricate of all the Questions in Divinity so it will be necessary to open and examine it as fully as the Importance and Difficulties of it do require In treating of it I shall First State the Question together with the consequences that arise out of it Secondly Give an account of the differences that have arisen upon it Thirdly I shall set out the strength of the Opinions of the Contending Parties with all possible Impartiality and Exactness Fourthly I shall see how far they agree and how far they differ and shall shew what reason there is for bearing with one another's Opinions in these matters and in the Fifth and last place I shall consider how far we of this Church are determined by this Article and how far we are at liberty to follow any of those different Opinions The whole Controversy may be reduced to this single Point as its head and source Upon what Views did God form his Purposes and Decrees concerning Mankind Whether he did it merely upon a design of advancing his own Glory and for manifesting his own Attributes in order to which he setled the great universal Scheme of his whole Creation and Providence Or whether he considered all the free motions of those rational Agents that he did intend to create and according to what he foresaw they would chuse and do in all the various circumstances in which he might put them formed his Decrees Here the Controversy begins and when this is setled the three main Questions that arise out of it will be soon determined The First is Whether both God and Christ intended that Christ should only dye for that particular number whom God intended to save Or whether it was intended that he should dye for all so that every Man that would might have the benefit of his Death and that no Man was excluded from it but because he willingly rejected it The Second is Whether those Assistances that God gives to Men to enable them to obey him are of their own nature so efficacious and irresistible that they never fail of producing the Effect for which they are given or Whether they are only sufficient to enable a Man to obey God so that their Efficacy comes from the freedom of the Will that either may co-operate with them or may not as it pleases The Third is Whether such persons do and must certainly persevere to whom such Grace is given or Whether they may not fall away both entirely and finally from that State There are also other Questions concerning the true Notion of Liberty concerning the Feebleness of our Powers in this lapsed State with several lesser ones all which do necessarily take their determination from the decision of the first and main Question About which there are four Opinions The First is of those commonly called Supralapsarians who think that God does only consider his own Glory in all that he does and that whatever is done arises from its first Cause from the Decree of God That in this Decree God considering only the Manifestation of his own Glory intended to make the World to put a Race of Men in it to constitute them under Adam as their Fountain and Head That he decreed Adam's Sin the lapse of his Posterity and Christ's Death together with the Salvation or Damnation of such Men as should be most for his own Glory That to those who were to be saved he decreed to give such efficacious Assistances as should certainly put them in the way of Salvation And to those whom he rejected he decreed to give such Assistances and means only as should render them inexcusable That all Men do continue in a state of Grace or of Sin and shall be saved or damned accâ—rding to that first Decree So that God views Himself only and in that View he designs all things singly for his own Glory and for the manifesting of his own Attributes The Second Opinion is of those called the Sublapsarians who say That Adam having sinned freely and his Sin being imputed to all his Posterity God did
to condemnation so by the righteousness of one Rom. 5.18 the free gift came upon all men to justification of life The all of the one fide must be of the same extent with the all of the other So since all are concerned in Adam's Sin all must be likewise concerned in the Death of Christ. This they urge further with this Argument That all Men are obliged to believe in the Death of Christ but no Man can be obliged to believe a Lye therefore it follows that he must have died for all Nor can it be thought that Grace is so efficacious of it self as to determine us otherwise why are we required not to grieve God's Spirit Why is it said Acts 7.51 Matth. 23 37. Ye do always resist the Holy Ghost as your fathers did so do ye How often would I have gathered you under my wings but ye would not What more could I have done in my vineyard that has not been done in it These seem to be plain Intimations of a Power in us Isa. 5.4 by which we not only can but often do resist the Motions of Grace If the determining Efficacy of Grace is not acknowledged it will be yet much harder to believe that we are efficaciously determined to Sin This seems to be not only contrary to the Purity and Holiness of God but is so manifestly contrary to the whole Strain of the Scriptures that charges Sin upon Men that in so copious a Subject it is not necessary to bring Proofs Hos. 13.9 Joh. 5.40 Ezâ—k 33.14 O Israel thou hast destroyed thy self but in me is thy help And ye will not come unto me that ye may have life Why will you dye O house of Israel And as for that Nicety of saying That the Evil of Sin consists in a Negation which is not a positive Being so that though God should determine Men to the Action that is sinful yet he is not concerned in the Sin of it They think it is too Metaphysical to put the Honour of God and his Attributes upon such a Subtilty For in Sins against Moral Laws there seems to be an Antecedent Immorality in the Action it self which is inseparable from it But suppose that Sin consisted in a Negative yet that Privation does immediately and necessarily result out of the Action without any other thing whatsoever intervening So that if God does infallibly determine a Sinner to commit the Action to which that Guilt belongs tho' that should be a Sin only by reason of a Privation that is dependent upon it then it does not appear but that he is really the Author of Sin since if he is the Author of the sinful Action on which the Sin depends as a Shadow upon its Substance he must be esteemed say they the Author of Sin And though it may be said That Sin being a Violation of God's Law he himself who is not bound by his Law cannot be guilty of Sin yet an Action that is Immoral is so essentially opposite to Infinite Perfection that God cannot be capable of it as being a contradiction to his own Nature Nor is it to be supposed that he can Damn Men for that which is the necessary result of an Action to which he himself determined them As for Perseverance the many Promises made in the Scriptures to them that overcome Rev. 2 3. that continue stedfast and faithful to the death seem to insinuate that a Man may fall from a good state Those famous Words in the Sixth of the Hebrews Heb. 6. do plainly intimate That such men may so fall away that it may be impossible to renew them again by repentance And in that Epistle Heb. 10. where it is said The just shall live by faith it is added but if he draw back any man is not in the Original my Soul shall have no pleasure in him And it is positively said by the Prophet Ezek. 18.24 When the righteous turneth away from his righteousness and committeth iniquity all his righteousness that he hath done shall not be mentioned in his sin that he hath sinned shall he dye These Suppositions with a great many more of the same strain that may be brought out of other places do give us all possible reason to believe that a good Man may fall from a good state as well as that a wicked Man may turn from a bad one In conclusion the End of all things the Final Judgment at the Last Day which shall be pronounced according to what Men have done whether good or evil and their being to be rewarded and punished according to it seems so effectually to assert a Freedom in our Wills that they think this alone might serve to prove the whole Cause So far I have set forth the Force of the Argument on the side of the Remonstrants As for the Socinians they make their Plea out of what is said by the one and by the other side They agree with the Remonstrants in all that they say against Absolute Decrees and in urging all those Consequences that do arise out of them And they do also agree with the Calvinists in all that they urge against the possibility of a certain Prescience of future Contingents So that it will not be necessary to set forth their Plea more specially nor needs more be said in opposition to it than what was already said as part of the Remonstrants Plea Therefore without dwelling any longer on that I come now to make some Reflections upon the whole Matter It is at first view apparent That there is a great deal of weight in what has been said of both Sides So much that it is no wonder if Education the constant attending more to the Difficulties of the one side than of the other and a Temper some way proportioned to it does fix Men very steddily to either the one or the other Persuasion Both Sides have their Difficulties so it will be natural to chuse that Side where the Difficulties are least felt But it is plain there is no reason for either of them to despise the other since the Arguments of both are far from being contemptible It is further to be observed That both Sides seem to be chiefly concerned to assert the Honour of God and of his Attributes Both agree in this That whatever is fixed as the primary Idea of God all other things must be Explained so as to be consistent with that Contradictions are never to be admitted but things may be justly believed against which Objections may be formed that cannot be easily answered The one Side think That we must begin with the Idea of Infinite Perfection of Independency and Absolute Soveraignty And if in the Sequel Difficulties occur which cannot be cleared that ought not to shake us from this primary Idea of God Others think That we cannot frame such clear Notions of Independency Soveraignty and Infinite Perfection as we can do of Justice Truth Holiness Goodness and
Isa. 12.3 ye shall receive a new Doctrine with joy from some select Persons Since then the Figure of eating and drinking was used among the Iews for receiving and imbibing a Doctrine it was no wonder if our Saviour pursued it in a Discourse in which there are several hints given to shew us that it ought to be so understood It is further observable that our Saviour did frequently follow that common way of Instruction among the Eastern Nations by Figures that to us would seem strong and bold These were much used in those Parts to excite the Attention of the Hearers and they are not always to be severely expounded according to the full Extent that the words will bear The Parable of the unjust Judge of the unjust Steward of the ten Virgins of plucking out the right Eye and cutting off the right Hand or Foot and several others might be instanced Our Saviour in these considered the Genius of those to whom he spoke So that these Figures must be restrained only to that Particular for which he meant them and must not be stretched to every thing to which the Words may be carried We find our Saviour compares himself to a great many Things to a Vine a Door and a Way And therefore when the Scope of a Discourse does plainly run in a Figuâ—e we are not to go and descant on every Word of it much less may any pretend to say that some Parts of it are to be understood literally and some Parts figuratively For instance if that Chapter of St. Iohn is to be understood literally then Christ's Flesh and Blood must be the Nourishment of our Bodies so as to be meat indeed and that we shall never hunger any more and never die after we have eat of it If therefore all do confess that those Expressions are to be understood figuratively then we have the same reason to conclude that the whole is a Figure For it is as reasonable for us to make all of it a Figure as it is for them to make those Parts of it a Figure which they cannot conveniently expound in a literal Sense From all which it is abundantly clear that nothing can be drawn from that Discourse of our Saviour's to make it reasonable to believe that the words of the Institution of this Sacrament ought to be literally understood On the contrary our Saviour himself calls the Wine after those Words had been used by him the Fruit of the Vine which is as strict a Form of Speech as can well be imagined to make us understand that the Nature of the Wine was not altered And when St. Paul treats of it in those two Chapters in which all that is left us besides the History of the Institution concerning this Sacrament is to be found he calls it five times Bread and never once the Body of Christ. 1 Cor. 10.16 In one Place he calls it the Communion of the Body as the Cup is the Communion of the Blood of Christ. Which is rather a saying that it is in some sort and after a manner the Body and the Blood of Christ than that it is so strictly speaking If this Sacrament had been that mysterious and unconceivable Thing which it has been since believed to be we cannot imagine but that the Books of the New Testament the Acts of the Apostles and their Epistles should have contained fuller Explanations of it and larger Instructions about it There is enough indeed said in them to support the plain and natural Sense that we give to this Institution and because no more is said and the design of it is plainly declared to be to remember Christ's death and to shew it forth till he come we reckon that by this natural Simplicity in which this Matter is delivered to us we are very much confirmed in that plain and easy Signification which we put upon our Saviour's words Plain things need not be insisted on But if the most sublime and wonderful Thing in the World seems to be delivered in Words that yet are capable of a lower and plainer Sense then unless there is a concurrence of other Circumstances to force us to that higher meaning of them we ought not to go into it for simple Things prove themselves Whereas the more extraordinary that any thing is it requires a fulness and evidence in the Proof proportioned to the uneasiness of conceiving or believing it We do therefore understand our Saviour's Institution thus that as he was to give his body to be broken and his blood to be shed for our Sins so he intended that this his Death and Suffering should be still commemorated by all such as look for remission of sins by it not only in their Thoughts and Devotions but in a visible Representation Which he appointed should be done in Symbols that should be both very plain and simple and yet very expressive of that which he intended should be remembred by them Bread is the plainest Food that the Body of Man can receive and Wine was the common nourishing Liquor of that Countrey So he made choice of these Materials and in them appointed a Representation and Remembrance to be made of his body broken and of his blood shed that is of his Death and Sufferings till his Second coming And he obliged his Followers to repeat this frequently In the doing of it according to his Institution they profess the Belief of his Death for the Remission of their Sins and that they look for his Second coming This does also import that as Bread and Wine are the simplest of bodily Nourishments â—o his Death is that which restores the Souls of those that do believe in him As Bread and Wine convey a vital Nourishment to the Body so the Sacrifice of his Death conveys somewhat to the Soul that is vital that fortifies and exalts it And as Water in Baptism is a natural Emblem of the Purity of the Christian Religion Bread and Wine in the Eucharist are the Emblems of somewhat that is derived to us that raises our Faculties and fortifies all our Powers St. PÃ ul does very plainly tell us that unworthy receivers that did neither examine nor discern themselves nor yet discern the Lord's Body were guilty of the body and blood of the Lord 1 Cor. 11.27 29. and did eat and drink their own damnation That is such as do receive it without truly believing the Christian Religion without a grateful acknowledgment of Christ's Death and Sufferings without feeling that they are walking suitably to this Religion that they profess and without that decency and charity which becomes so Holy an Action but that receive the Bread and Wine only as bare bodily Nourishments without considering that Christ has instituted them to be the Memorials of his Death such Persons are guilty of the Body and Blood of Christ That is they are guilty either of a Prophanation of the Sacrament of his Body and Blood or they do in a manner Crucify
Figuratively of the Wrath of God due for Sin which Christ bore in his Soul besides the Torments that he suffered in his Body And they think that these are here mentioned by themselves after the Enumeration of the several steps of his bodily Sufferings And this being equal to the Torments of Hell as it is that which delivers us from them might in a large way of Expression be called a descending into Hell But as neither the word descend nor Hell are to be found in any other place of Scripture in this sense nor in any of the Ancients among whom the Signification of this Phrase is more likely to be found than among Moderns So this being put after Buried it plainly shews that it belongs to a period subsequent to his Burial There is therefore no regard to be had to this Notion Othets have thought That by Christ's descent into Hell is to be understood his continuing in the State of the Dead for some time But there is no Ground for this conceit neither these words being to be found in no Author in that Signification Many of the Fathers thought That Christ's Soul went locally into Hell and preached to some of the Spirits there in Prison 1 Pet. 3.19 that there he triumphed over Satan and spoiled him and carried some Souls with him into Glory But the account that the Scriptures give us of the Exaltation of Christ begins it always at his Resurrection Nor can it be imagined That so memorable a Transaction as this would have been passed over by the Three first Evangelists and least of all by St. Iohn who coming after the rest and designing to supply what was wanting in them and intending particularly to magnify the Glory of Christ could not have passed over so wonderâ—ul an Instance of it We have no reason to think that such a matter would have been only insinuated in general words and not have been plainly related The Triumph of Christ over Principalities and Powers is ascribed by St. Paul to his Cross and was the Effect and Result of his Death The place of St. Peter seems to relate to the Preaching to the Gentile World by virtue of that Inspiration that was derived from Christ which was therefore called his Spirit and the Spirits in Prison were the Gentiles who were shut up in Idolatry as in Prison Eph. 2.2 2 Cor. 4.4 Isa. 61.2 and so were under the Power of the Prince of the Power of the Air who is called the God of this World that is of the Gentile World It being one of the ends for which Christ was Anointed of his Father to open the prisons to them that were bound So then though there is no harm in this Opinion yet it not being Founded on any part of the History of the Gospel and it being supported only by passages that may well bear another sense we may lay it aside notwithstanding the Reverence we bear to those that asserted it and that the rather because the first Fathers that were next the Source say nothing of it Another Counceit has had a great course among some of the latest Fathers and the Schoolmen They have fancied that there was a place to which they have given a peculiar name Limbus Patrum a sort of a Partition in Hell where all the Good Men of the Old Dispensation that had died before Christ were detained and they hold that our Saviour went thither and emptied that Place carrying all the Souls that were in it with him to Heaven Of this the Scriptures say nothing not a word either of the Patriarchs going thither or of Christ's delivering them out of it And though there are not in the Old Testament express Declarations and Promises made concerning a Future State Christ having brought life and immortality to light through his Gospel yet all the Hints given of it shew that they looked for an Immediate Admission to Blessedness after death So David Thou wilt shew me the path of life Psal. 16.11 Acts 2.31 Psal. 73.27 Isa. 37.2 in thy presence is fulness of joy and at thy right hand are pleasures for evermore Thou shalt guide me here by thy counsel and afterwards receive me to glory Isaiah says That the righteous when they dye enter into peace In the New Testament there is not a Hint given of this for though some Passages may seem to favour Christ's delivering some Souls out of Hell yet there is nothing that by any management can be brought to look this way There is another Sense of which these words descended into Hell are capable See Bishop Person on the Creed by Hell may be meant the Invisible Place to which departed Souls are carried after their death For though the Greek word so rendred does now commonly stand for the Place of the Damned and for many Ages has been so understood yet at the time of writing the New Testament it was among Greek Authors used indifferently for the place of all departed Souls whether good or bad and by it were meant the Invisible Regions where those Spirits were lodged So if these words are taken in this large sense we have in them a clear and literal account of our Saviour's Soul descending into Hell it imports that he was not only dead in a more common acceptation as it is usual to say a man is dead when there appear no signs of life in him and that he was not as in a deep Extasy or Fit that seemed Death but that he was truly dead that his Soul was neither in his Body noâ— hovering about it ascending and descending upon it as some of the Iews fancied Souls did for some time after death but that his Soul was really removed out of his Body and carried to those unseen Regions of departed Spirits among whom it continued till his Resurrection That the Regions of the Blessed were known then to the Iews by the name of Paradise as Hell was known by the name of Gehenna is very clear from Christ's last Words To day thou shalt be with me in Paradise â—uke 23 4â— â—6 and into thy hands do I commend my spirit This is a plain and full account of a good Sense that may be well put on the Words though after all it is still to be remembred That in the first Creeds that have this Article that of Christ's Burial not being mentioned in them it follows from thence as well as from Ruffin's own Sense of it that they understood this only of Christ's Burial ARTICLE IV. Of the Resurrection of Christ. Christ did truly rise again from Death and took again his Body with Flesh Bones and all things appertaining to the Perfection of Man's Nature wherewith he ascended into Heaven and there sitteth until he return to judge all Men at the Last Day THere are Four Branches of this Article The First is concerning the Truth of Christ's Resurrection The Second concerning the Compleatness of it That he took to him again his whole
that Affectation of Sublimity had denied that there was any Reward and from thence sprung the Sect of the Sadducees so these men perhaps at first mistaking the meaning of the New Testament went wrong only in their Notions and still meant to press the necessity of true Holiness though in another set of Phrases and upon other Motives yet from thence many wild and ungovern'd Notions arose then and were not long ago revived among us All which flowed from their not understanding the Importance of the Word Law in the New Testament in which it stands most commonly for the complex of the whole Iewish Religion in opposition to the Christian as the Word Law when it stands for a Book is meant of the Five Books of Moses The maintaining the whole frame of that Dispensation in opposition to that Liberty which the Apostles granted to the Gentiles as to the Ritual parts of it was the Controversy then in debate between the Apostles and the Judaizing Christians The stating that matter aright is a Key that will open all those difficulties which with it will appear easy and without it insuperable In opposition to these who thought then that the Old Testament having brought the World on to the knowledge of the Messias was now of no more use this Article was framed The Second Part of the Article relates to a more Intricate Matter and that is whether in the Old Testament there were any promises made other than Transitory or Temporal ones and whether they might look for Eternal Salvation in that Dispensation and upon what account Whether Christ was the Mediator in that Dispensation or if they were saved by Virtue of their Obedience to the Laws that were then given them Those who deny that Christ was truly God think that in order to the raising him to those great Characters in which he is proposed in the New Testament it is necessary to assert that he gave the first assurances of Eternal Happiness and of a free and full pardon of all Sins in his Gospel And that in the Old Testament neither the one nor the other were certainly and distinctly understood It is true That if we take the words of the Covenant that Moses made between God and the People of Israel strictly and as they stand they Import only Temporal Blessings That was a Covenant with a Body of Men and with their Posterity as they were a People engaged to the Obedience of that Law Now a National Covenant could only be establish'd in Temporal promises of Publick and Visible Blessings and of a long continuance of them upon their Obedience and in Threatnings of as signal Judgments upon the Violation of them But under those general promises of what was to happen to them Collectively as they made up one Nation every single person among them might and the good men among them did gather the hopes of a future State It is clear that Moses did all along suppose the Being of God the Creation of the World and the promise of the Messias as things fully known and carried down by Tradition to his days So it seems he did also suppose the knowledge of a future State which was then generally believed by the Gentiles as well as the Iews though they had only dark and confused Notions about it But when God was establishing a Covenant with the Iewish Nation a main part of which was his giving them the Land of Canaan for an Inheritance it was not necessary that Eternal Rewards or Punishments should be then proposed to them But from the Tenor of the promises made to their Forefathers and from the General Principles of Natural Religion not yet quite extinguished among them they might gather this That under those Carnal promises Blessings of a higher nature were to be understood And so we see that David had the hope of arriving at the presence of God and at his right hand where he believed there was a fulness of joy and pleasures for evermore And he puts himself in this opposition to the wicked Ps. 16.11 Ps. 17.14 15. That whereas their portion was in this life and they left their substance to their Children he says That as for him he should behold God's Face in righteousness and should be satisfied when he awaked with his likeness which seems plainly to relate to a state after this Life and to the Resurrection He carries this opposition further in another Psalm where after he had said That men in honour did not continue but were like the beasts that perished Ps. 49.14 15. That none of them could purchase immortality for his brother that he should still live for ever and not see Corruption They all died and left their wealth to others and like sheep they were laid in the grave where death should feed on them In opposition to which he says That the upright should have dominion over them in the morning Which is clearly a Poetical Expression for another day that comes after the night of Death As for himself in particular he says That God shall redeem my Soul that is his Life or his Body for in those senses the word Soul is used in the Old Testament from the power of the grave That is from continuing in that state of death for he shall receive me This does very clearly set forth David's belief both of future Happiness and of the Resurrection of his Body To which might be added some other passages in the Psalms Ecclesiastes Ps. 84.11.87.6.90.17.96.17 Eccl. 11.9.12.14 Isa. 25.8.26.19 Dan. 12.2 Isaiah and Daniel In all which it appears That the holy men in that Dispensation did understand That under those promises in the Books of Moses that seemed literally to belong to the Land of Canaan and other Temporal Blessings there was a Spiritual meaning hid which it seems was conveyed down by that Succession of Prophets that was among them as the mystical sense of them It is to this that our Saviour seems to appeal when the Sadducees came to puzzle him with that question of the seven Brethren who had all married one Wife He first tells them They erred not knowing the Scriptures which plainly Imports That the Doctrine which they denied was contained in the Scriptures Matt. 22. â—â— and then he goes to prove it not from those more express passages that are in the Prophets and Holy Writers which as some think the Sadducees rejected but from the Law which being the Source of their Religion it might seem a just prejudice against any Doctrine especially if it was of great Consequence that it was not contained in the Law Therefore he cites these words that are so often repeated and that were so much considered by the Iews as containing in them the Foundation of God's love to them that God said upon many occasions particularly at his first appearance to Moses I am the God of Abraham the God of Isaac and the God of Iacob Which words imported not only that
God had been their God Ver. 31.32 but still was their God Now when God is said to be a God to any by that is meant that he is their Benefactor or exceeding rich reward as was promised to Abraham Exod. 3.6 And that therefore Abraham Isaac and Iacob lived unto God that is were not dead But were then in a happy state of life in which God did reward them and so was their God Whether this Argument rests here our Saviour designing only to prove against the main error of the Sadducees that we have Souls distinct from our Bodies that shall outlive their separation from them or if it goes further to prove the rising of the Body it self I shall not determine On the one hand our Saviour seems to apply himself particularly to prove the Resurrection of the Body so we must see how to find here an Argument for that to Answer the Scope of the whole Discourse Yet on the other hand it may be said that he having proved the main Point of the Soul 's subsisting after death which is the Foundation of all Religion the other Point which was chiefly denied because that was thought false would be more easily both acknowledged and believed As for the Resurrection of the Body all that can be brought from hence as an Argument to prove it is That since God was the God of Abraham Isaac and Iacob and by consequence their Benefactor and Rewarder and yet they were Pilgrims on this Earth and suffered many Tossings and Troubles that therefore they must be rewarded in another State or because God promised that to them he would give the Land of Canaan as well as to their Seed after them and since they never had any Portion of it in their own possession that therefore they shall rise again and with the other Saints reign on Earth and have that Promise fulfilled in themselves From all this the Assertion of the Article is as to one main Point made good That the Old Fathers look'd for more than Transitory Promises It is also clear That they looked for a further Pardon of Sin than that which their Law held forth to them in the Expiation made by Sacrifices Sins of Ignorance or Sins of a lower sort were those only for which Sin or Trespass-offerings were appointed The Sins of a higher Order were punished by Death by the Hand of Heaven or by cutting off so that such as sinned in that kind were to dye without Mercy Heb. 10.28 Yet when David had fallen into the most heinous of those Sins he prays to God for a Pardon according to God's Loving-kindness Psal. 51.1 2 16 1â— and the Multitude of his tender Mercies For he knew that they were beyond the Expiation by Sacrifice The Prophets do often call the Iews to repent of their Idolatry and other crying Sins such as Oppression Injustice and Murder with the Promise of the Pardon of them even though they were of the deepest Dye as Crimson and Scarlet Since then Isa. 1.18 for lesser Sins an Expiation was appointed by Sacrifice besides their confessing and repenting of it and since it seems by St. Paul's way of arguing that they held it for a Maxim That without shedding of blood there was no remission of sins this might naturally lead them to think that there was some other consideration that was interposed in order to the pardoning of those more heinous Sins For a greater degree of Guilt seems by a natural Proportion to demand a higher degree of Sacrifice and Expiation But after all whatsoever Isaiah Daniel or any other Prophet might have understood or meant by those Sacrificatory Phrases that they use in speaking of the Messiah Isa. 53. Dan. 9. yet it cannot be said from the Old Testament That in that Dispensation it was clearly revealed that the Messias was to die and to become a Sacrifice for Sin The Messias was indeed promised under general terms but there was not then a full and explicite Revelation of his being to dye for the Redemption of Mankind Yet since the most heinous Sins were then pardoned though not by virtue of the Sacrifices of that Covenant nor by the other means prescribed in it we have good reason to affirm that according to this Article Life was offered to Mankind in the Old Dispensation by Christ who was with relation to the obtaining the Favour of God and Everlasting Life the Mediator of that as well as of the New Dispensation In the New Testament he is set in opposition to the Old Adam that as in the one all died so in the other all were made alive Nor is it any way incongruous to say That the Merit of his Death should by an Anticipation have saved those who died before he was born For that being in the view of God as certain before as after it was done it might be in the Divine Intention the Sacrifice for the Old as well as it is expresly declared to be the Sacrifice for the New Dispensation And this being so God might have pardoned Sins in consideration of it even to those who had no distinct Apprehensions concerning it For as God applies the Death of Christ by the secret Methods of Grace to many Persons whose Circumstances do render them incapable of the express Acts of laying hold on it the want of those for instance in Infants and Ideots being supplied by the goodness of God So though the Revelation that was made of the Messias to the Fathers under the Old Dispensation was only in general and Prophetical Terms of which they could not have a clear and distinct knowledge yet his Death might be applied to them and their Sins pardoned through him upon their performing such Acts as were proportioned to that Dispensation and to the Revelation that was then made And so they were reconciled to God even after Sins for which no Sacrifices were appointed by their Dispensation upon their Repentance and Obedience to the Foederal Acts and Conditions then required which supplied the want of more express Acts with relation to the Death of Christ not then distinctly revealed to them But though the Old Fathers had a Conveyance of the Hope of Eternal Life made to them with a Resurrection of their Bodies and a Confidence in the Mercy of God for pardoning the most heinous Sins yet it cannot be denied but that it was as a light that shined in a dark place till the day-star did arise 2 Pet. 1.19 and that Christ brought life and immortality to light by his Gospel giving us fuller and clearer discoveries of it both with relation to our Souls and Bodies and that by him also God has declared his righteousness for the remission of sins Rom. 3.24 25. through the forbearance of God through the redemption that is in Christ Iesus and through Faith in his blood The Third Branch of this Article will not need much Explanation as it will bear no dispute except with Iews
God and damnation So Temporary Judgments are often expressed in Scripture And to this they add That Christ has entirely redeemed us from this by the Promise he has given us of raising us up at the Last Day And that therefore when St. Paul is so copiously discoursing of the Resurrection he brings this in That as we have born the image of the first Adam who was earthy so we shall also bear the image of the heavenly and since by man came death 1 Cor. 15.21 22. In Ep. ad Rom. passim by man came also the resurrection from the dead and that as in Adam all dye so in Christ shall all be made alive and that this is the Univesal Redemption and Reparation that all mankind shall have in Christ Jesus All this these Divines apprehend is conceivable and no more therefore they put Original Sin in this only for which they pretend they have all the Fathers with them before St. Austin and particularly St. Chrysostom and Theodoret from whom all the latter Greeks have done little more than copied out their words This they do also pretend comes up to the words of the Article for as this general adjudging of all men to dye may be called according to the Stile of the Scriptures God's wrath and damnation so the fear of Death which arises out of it corrupts mens Natures and inclines them to evil Others do so far approve of all this as to think that it is a part of Original Sin yet they believe it goes much farther and that there is a Corruption spread through the whole Race of Mankind which is born with every man This the Experience of all Ages teaches us but too evidently every man feels it in himself and sees it in others The Philosophers who were sensible of it thought to avoid the difficulty that arises from it when it might be urged That a good God could not make men to be Originally depraved and wicked they therefore fancied that all our Souls pre-existed in a former and purer state from which they fell by descending too much into Corporeal pleasure and so both by a lapse and for a punishment they sunk into grosser Bodies and fell differently according to the different degrees of the Sins they had committed in that state And they thought that a Virtuous Life did raise them up to their former pitch as a Vicious one would sink them lower into more depraved and more miserable Bodies All this may seem plausible But the best that can be said for it is That it is an Hypothesis that saves some difficulties but there is no sort of proofs to make it appear to be true We neither perceive in our selves any remembrances of such a state nor have we any warning given us either of our fall or of the means of recovering out of it So since there is no reason to affirm this to be true we must seek for some other source of the Corruption of human Nature The Manichees imputed it to the Evil God and thought it was his work which some say might have set on St. Austin the more earnestly to look for another Hypothesis to reconcile all But before we go to that it is certain that in Scripture this general Corruption of our Nature is often mentioned The Imaginations of man's thoughts are only evil continually Gen. 6.5.8.21 1 Kings 8.46 Prov. 24.16 Jer. 17.9 2 Cor. 5.17 Eccl. 7.20 Gal. 5.17 Rom. 8.7 8. John 3.6 What man is he that liveth and sinneth not The just man falleth seven times a day The heart of man is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked who can know it All that are in Christ must become new Creatures old things must be done away and every thing must become new God made man upright but he sought out to himself many Inventions The Flesh is weak The Flesh lusteth against the Spirit The carnal mind is enmity to the law of God and is not subject to the law of God neither indeed can be And they that are in the Flesh cannot please God Where by Flesh is to be meant the natural State of Mankind according to those words That which is born of the Flesh is Flesh and that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit These with many other places of Scripture to the same purpose when they are joined to the universal Experience of all Mankind concerning the Corruption of our whole Race lead us to settle this point that in Fact it has over-run our whole kind the contagion is spread over all Now this being setled we are next to enquire how this could happen We cannot think that God made men so For it is expresly said Gen. 1 27. That God made man after his own Image The surest way to find out what this Image was at first is to consider What the New Testament says of it when we come to be restored to it We must put on the new man Eph. 4.22 24. after the Image of him that created him or as elsewhere the new man in righteousness and true holiness This then was the Image of God in which man was at first made Nor ought the Image of God to be considered only as an Expression that imports only our representing him here on Earth and having Dominion over the Creatures For in Genesis the Creation of Man in the Image of God is expressed as a thing different from his Dominion over the Creatures Gen. 1.27 28. which seems to be given to him as a consequent of it The Image of God seems to be this That the Soul of Man was a Being of another Sort and Order than all those material Beings till then made which were neither capable of Thought nor Liberty in which respect the Soul was made after the Image of God But Adam's Soul being put in his Body his Brain was a Tabula rasa as White Paper had no Impressions in it but such as either God put in it or such as came to him by his senses A Man born deaf and blind newly come to hear and see is not a more Ignorant and Amazed-like Creature than Adam must have been if God had not conveyed some great impressions into him such as first the acknowledging and obeying him as his Maker and then the managing his Body so as to make it an Instrument by which he could make use of and observe the Creation There is no reason to think that his Body was at first inclined to Appetite and that his Mind was apt to serve his Body but that both were restrained by supernatural Assistances It is much more natural and more agreeable to the words of the Wise-man to think that God made man upright that his Body craved modestly and that his Mind was both Judge and Master of those cravings and if a natural Hypothesis may be offered but only as an Hypothesis it may be supposed That a Man's blood was naturally low and cool but that it was
a publick Law So if we have Families or the Necessities of a feeble Body and a weak Constitution for which God has supplied us with that which will afford us food convenient for us Prov. 30.8 we must not throw up those provisions and cast our selves upon others Therefore that Precept must be moderated and expounded so as to agree with the other Rules and Orders that God has set us A distinction is therefore to be made between those things that do universally and equally bind all Mankind and those things that do more specially bind some sorts of men and that only at some times There are greater degrees of Charity Gravity and all other Virtues to which the Clergy for instance are more bound than other men but these are to them Precepts and not Counsels And in the first beginnings of Christianity there were greater Obligations laid upon all Christians as well as greater Gifts were bestowed on them It is true in the Point of Marriage S. Paul does plainly allow that such as marry do well but that such as marry not do better 1 Cor. 7.38 But the meaning of that is not as if an unmarried Life were a state of Perfection beyond that which a Man is obliged to But only this That as to the Course of this Life and the present distress and as to the judgment that is to be made of men by their Actions no Man is to be thought to do amiss who marries but yet he who marries not is to be judged to do better But yet inwardly and before God this matter may be far otherwise for he who marries not and burns certainly does worse than he who marries and lives chastly But he who finding that he can limit himself without endangering his Purity though no Law restrains him from Marrying yet seeing that he is like to be Tempted to be too careful about the Concerns of this Life if he marries is certainly under Obligations to follow that Course of Life in which there are fewer Temptations and greater Opportunities to attend on the Service of God With Relation to outward Actions and to the Judgments that from visible Appearances are to be made of them some Actions may be said to be better than others which yet are truly good But as to the particular obligations that every Man is under with Relation to his own State and Circumstances and for which he must Answer at the last Day these being secret and so not subject to the Judgments of Men certainly every Man is strictly bound to do the best he can to chuse that Course of Life in which he thinks he may do the best Services to God and Man Nor are these free to him to chuse or not He is under Obligations and he Sins if he sees a more excellent thing that he might have done and contents himself with a lower or less valuable thing St. Paul had wherein to Glory for whereas it was Lawful for him as an Apostle to suffer the Corinthians to supply him in temporals when he was serving them in Spiritual Things yet he chose rather for the Honour of the Gospel and to take away all occasion of Censure from those who sought for it Acts 20.34 1 Cor. 9.18 2 Cor. 12.13 to work with his own hands and not to be burthensome to them But in that State of Things though there was no Law or outward Obligation upon him to spare them he was under an inward Law of doing all things to the Glory of God And by this Law he was as much bound as if there had been an outward compulsory Law lying upon him This distinction is to be remembred between such an Obligation as arises out of a Mans particular Circumstances and such other Motives as can be only known to a Man himself and such an Obligation as may be fastned on him by stated and general Rules He may be absolutely free from the latter of these and yet be secretly bound by those inward and stronger constraints of the Love of God and of Zeal for his Glory Enough seems to be said to prove that there are no Counsels of Perfection in the Gospel That all the Rules set to us in it are in the Stile and Form of Precepts and that though there may be some Actions of more Heroical Virtue and more Sublime Piety than others to which all men are not obliged by equal or general Rules yet such men to whose Circumstances and Station they do belong are strictly obliged by them so that they should Sin if they did not put them in practice This being thus made out the Foundation of Works of Supererogation is destroyed But if it should be acknowledged that there were such Counsels of Perfection in the Scripture there are still two other clear proofs to shew that there can be no such thing as Supererogating with God Firâ—t Every Man not only has Sinned but has still so much Corruption about him as to feel the truth of that of St. Iames in many things we offend all James 3.2 Now unless it can be supposed that by obeying those Counsels a Man can compensate with Almighty God for his Sins there is no ground to think that he can Supererogate He must first clear his own Score before he can imagine that any thing upon his account can be forgiven or imputed to another and if the Guilt of Sin is Eternal and the pretended Merit of obeying Counsels is only Temporary no Temporary Merit can take off an Eternal Guilt So that it must first be supposed that a Man both is and has been perfect as to the Precepts of Obligation before it can be thought that he should have an Overplus of Merit The other clear Argument from Scripture against Works of Supererogation is that there is nothing in the whole New Testament that does in any sort favour them We are always taught to trust to the Mercies of God and to the Death and Intercession of Christ and to work out our own Salvation with fear trembling Phil. 2.12 but we are never once directed to look for any help from Saints or to think that we can do any thing for another man's Soul in this way Psal. 49.7 The Psalm has it No man can by any means give a ransom for his brother's Soul The words of Christ cited in the Article are full and express aganst it The words in the Parable of the five foolish Virgins and the five wise may seem to favour it but they really contradict it for it was the foolish Virgins that desired the wise to give them of their Oil which if any will apply to a supposed Communication of Merit they ought to consider that the Proposition is made by the foolish Mat. 25.9 and the Answer of the wise Virgins is full against it Not so lest there be not enough for us and you What follows of bidding them go to them that sell and buy for themselves is only
that there were many very effectual ways to prevent and avoid or at least to shorten those Sufferings and if the Apostles knew this and yet said not a Word of it neither in their first Sermons nor in their Epistles here was a great Treachery in the discharge of their Function and that to the Souls of Men not to warn them of their Danger nor to direct them to the proper Methods of avoiding it but on the contrary to speak and write to them just as we can suppose Impostors would have done to terrify those who would not receive their Gospel with Eternal Damnation but not to say a Word to those who received it of their danger in case they lived not up to that Exactness that their Religion required and yet upon the main adhered to it and followed it This is a Method that does not agree with common Honesty not to say Inspiration A fair way of proceeding is to make Men sensible of Dangers of all sorts and to shew them how to avoid them The Apostles told their Converts That through much tribulation we must enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Acts 14.22 Rom. 8.18 they assurâ—d them That their present sufferings were not worthy to be compared to the Glory that was to be revealed and that those light afflictions which are for a moment wrought for them a more exceeding and eternal weight of Glory 2 Cor. 4.17 Here if they knew any thing of Purgatory a powerful Consideration was past over in silence that by these Afflictions they should be delivered from those Torments This Argument goes further than meer Silence though that is very strong The Scriptures speak always as if the one did immediately follow the other and that the Saints or true Christians pass from the Miseries of this State to the Glories of the next So does our Saviour represent the matter in the Parable of Lazarus and the Rich Gluâ—ton whose Souls were presently carried to their different abodes the one to be comforted as the other was tormented He promised also to the repenting Thief To day thou shalt be with me in Paradise 〈◊〉 24.43 St. Paul comforts himself in the apprehension of his dissolution that was approaching with the prospect of the crown of righteousness that should be given him after death 2 Tim. 4.8 and so he states these two as certain Consequents one of another to be dissolved and to be with Christ Phil. 1.2 3. 2 Câ—r 5.6.8 v. 1 2. Heb. 1 10. to be absent from the body and present with the Lord And he makes it appear that it was no peculiar Privilege that he promised to himself but that which all Christians had a Right to expect for he says in general this we know that if our earthly house of this Tabernacle be dissolved we have a building of God a house not made with hands eternal in the heavens In the Epistle to the Hebrews the Patriarchs under the Old Dispensation are represented as looking for that City whose builder and founder is God Though in that State the manifestations of another Life were more imperfect than in this In which life and immortality are brought to light they being veiled and darkned in that State And finally St. Iohn heard a voice commanding him to Write Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord that is being true Christians from henceforth or immediately yea Rev. 14 13. saith the Spirit that they may rest from their labours and their works do follow them The solemnity in which these words are delivered carry in them an Evidence sufficient to determine the whole matter So that we must have very hard thoughts of the sincerity of the Writers of the New Testament and very much disparage their Credit not to say their Inspiration if we can imagine that there are Scenes of Suffering and those very dismal ones to be gon through of which they gave the World no sort of notice But spoke in the same style that we do who believe no such dismal Interval between the Death of good Men and their final Blessedness The Scriptures do indeed speak of a full reward and of different Degrees in Glory as one Star exceeds another They do also represent the Day of Judgment upon the Resurrection of the Body 2 Ep. John v. 8. 1 Cor. 15.41 as that which gives the full and entire possession of Blessedness so that from hence some have thought upon very probable Grounds that the Blessed though admitted to Happiness immediately upon their Death yet were not so compleatly Happy as they shall be after the Resurrection And in this there arose a diversity of Opinions which is very natural to all who will go and form Systems out of some general Hints Some thought that the Souls of good Men were at Rest and in a good measure Happy but that they did not see God before the Resurrection Others thought that Christ was to come down and Reign visibly upon Earth a Thousand Years before the End of the World And that the Saints were to rise and to Reign with him some sooner and some later Some thought that the last Conflagration was so to affâ—ct all that every one was to pass through it and that it was to give the last and highest Purification to those Bodies that were then to be glorified but that the better Christians that any had been they should feel the less of the Pain of that last Fire These Opinions were very early entertained in the Church An itch of intruding too far into things which Men did not throughly understand concerning Angels began to disturb the Church even in the days of the Apostles which made St. Paul charge the Colossians to beware of vain Philosophy Plato thought there was a middle Sort of Men who though they had sinned yet had repented of it and were in a curable condition and that they went down for some time into Hell to be purged and absolved by grievous Torments The Iews had also a Conceit that the Souls of some Men continued for a Year going up and down in a state of Purgation From these Opinions somewhat of a Curiosity in describing the Degrees of the next State began pretty early to enter into the Church As for that Opinion of the Platonists and the Fictions of Homer and Virgil setting forth the Complaints of Souls departed for their not being relieved by Prayers and Sacrifices though these perhaps are the true Sources of the Doctrine of Purgatory and of redeeming Souls out of it yet we are not so much concerned in them as in what is represented to us by the Author of the Second Book of the Maccabees concerning the Sacrifice that was offered by Iudas Maccabeus for those about whom after they were killed they found such things as shewed that they had defiled themselves with the Idolatry of the Heathens All this is of less Authority with us who do not acknowledge that Book to be Canonical According
consider Mankind thus lost with an Eye of pity and having designed to rescue a great number out of this lost state he decreed to send his Son to dye for them to accept of his Death on their account and to give them such Assistances as should be effectual both to convert them to him and to make them persevere to the â—nd But for the rest he framed no positive Act about them only he left them in that lapsed state without intending that they should have the benefit of Christ's Death or of efficacious and persevering Assistances The Third Opinion is of those who are called Remonstrants Arminians or Vniversalists who think that God intended to create all Men free and to deal with them according to the use that they should make of their liberty that therefore he foreseeing how every one would use it did upon that Decree all things that concerned them in this life together with their Salvation and Damnation in the next That Christ died for all Men That sufficient Assistances are given to every Man but that all Men may chuse whether they will use them and persevere in them or not The Fourth Opinion is of the Socinians who deny the certain Prescience of future Contingencies and therefore they think the Decrees of God from all Eternity were only general that such as believe and obey the Gospel shall be saved and that such as live and dye in Sin shall be damned But that there were no special Decrees made concerning particular persons these being only made in time according to the state in which they are They do also think that Man is by nature so free and so entire that he needs no inward Grace so they deny a special Predestination from all Eternity and do also deny inward Assistances This is a Controversy that arises out of Natural Religion For if it is believed that God governs the World and that the Wills of Men are free then it is natural to enquire which of these is subject to the other or how they can be both maintained Whether God determines the Will Or if his Providence follows the motions of the Will Therefore all those that believed a Providence have been aware of this difficulty The Stoicks put all things under a Fate even the God's themselves If this Fate was a necessary Series of Things a Chain of Matter and Motion that was fixed and unalterable then it was plain and downright Atheism The Epicureans set all things at liberty and either thought that there was no God or at least that there was noProvidence ThePhilosophers knew not how to avoid this difficuly by which we see Tully and others were so differently moved that it is plain they despaired of getting out of it Joseph Ant. Jud. lib 18. c. 2. de Bell. Jud. lib. 2 c. 7. The Iews had the same Question among them for they could not believe their Law without acknowledging a Providence And yet the Sadducees among them asserted Liberty in so intire a manner that they set it free from all restraints On the other hand the Essens put all things under an absolute Fate And the Pharisees took a middle way they asserted the Freedom of the Will but thought that all things were governed by a Providence There are also subtle Disputes concerning this matter among the Mahometans one Sect asserting Liberty and another Fate which generally prevails among them In the first Ages of Christianity Iren. Adv. Her lib. 1. c. 1. Epiph. Her 31. Clem. Alex. Paed. lib. 1. c. 6. Orig. Peri. archon l. 3. Phiolcal c. 12. Explain 21. Ep. ad Rom the Gnosticks fancied that the Souls of Men were of different Ranks and that they sprang from different Principles or Gods who made them Some were Carnal that were devoted to Perdition others were Spiritual and were certainly to be saved Others were Animal of a middle Order capable either of Happiness or Misery It seems that the Marcionites and Manichees thought that some Souls were made by the bad God as others were made by the good In opposition to all these Origen asserted That all Souls were by Nature equally capable of being either good or bad and that the difference among Men arose merely from the freedom of the Will and the various use of that Freedom That God left Men to this liberty and rewarded and punished them according to the use of it yet he asserted a Providence but as he brought in the Platonical Doctrine of Preexistence into the Government of the World and as he explained God's loving Iacob and his hating of Esau before they were born and had done either Good or Evil by this of a regard to what they had done formerly so he asserted the Fall of Man in Adam and his being recoverd by Grace but he still maintained an unrestrained Liberty in the Will His Doctrine though much hated in Egypt was generally followed over all the East particularly in Palestine and at Antioch S. Gregory Nazianzen and S. Basil drew a system of Divinity out of his Works in which that which relates to the Liberty of the Will is very fully set forth That Book was much studied in the East Chrysostom Isidore of Damiete and Theodoret with all their followers taught it so copiously Orig. Philocanâ— that it became the received Doctrine of the Eastern Church Ierome was so much in love with Origen that he Translated some parts of him and set Ruffin on Translating the rest But as he had a sharp quarrel with the Bishops of Palestine so that perhaps disposed him to change his Thoughts of Origen For ever after that he set himself much to disgrace his Doctrine and he was very severe on Ruffin for Translating him Though Ruffin confesses that in Translating his Works he took great Liberties in altering several passages that he disliked One of Origen's Disciples was Pelagius a Scottish Monk in great esteem at Rome both for his Learning and the great strictness of his Life Ruffin Peror in Vers. Com. Orig. in Ep. ad Rom. Chrys. Ep. 4 ad Olymp. Isid. Pelus Lib. 1. Ep. 314. He carried these Doctrines further than the Greek Church had done so that he was reckoned to have fallen into great Errors both by Chrysostom and Isidore as it is represented by Iansenius though that is denied by others who think they meant another of the same Name He denied that we had suffered any harm by the Fall of Adam or that there was any need of inward Assistances and he asserted an entire Liberty in the Will S. Austin though in his Disputes with the Manichees he had said many things on the side of Liberty yet he hated Pelagius's Doctrine which he thought asserted a Sacrilegious Liberty and he set himself to beat down his Tenets which had been but feebly attackt by Ierom. Cassian a Disciple of St. Chrysostom's came to Marseilles about this time having left Constantinople perhaps when his Master was banished out of it He