ὰγαπῶν τὸν ἕτεÏον hath fulfilled the Law Rom. 13. 8. And therefore Charity as it is taken for the sincere Love of God above all things doth not alone justifie Solut. One and the same Word ὰγάπῶν is used in Scripture for God's Love to Man for Man's Love to God and one Man's Love another so that no Argument can be drawn from the bare Word αγάπη Love or Charity for it is rendred both ways in Holy Writ to make it clearly out in what Love or Charity Righteousness is placed And therefore although it be infallibly true that he that loveth another ὠἀγαπῶν τὸν ἕτεÏον hath fulfilled the Law yet the Reason thereof is not that the Love of ones Neighbour doth formally justifie but because it is impossible for any man to love his Neighbour as he ought to do until and by reason he loveth God in sincerity of heart above all things Sect. 18. Par. 7 8 9 10. by which he is formally justified And alike impossible it is for him that loveth God with sincerity of Affection but that he should also love his Neighbour as himself Sect. 11. Solut. of Obj. 2. and sect 18. par 9 10. consonant whereunto are the Words of the Beloved Disciple If a Man say I love God and hateth his Brother he is a liar 1 John 4. 20. It is no wonder then that he that loveth his Neighbour is said to have fulfilled the Law albeit the Love of God alone be that which formally justifies sect 11. par 6 7 8. Object 2. No man in this Life can love God with all his heart with all his Soul with all his strength and with all his mind therefore no man alive is justified by Charity Solut. Because no man can so love God in this Life by reason of the Frailty of the Flesh 't will rightly follow that none is perfectly justified or clear from all impurity while he breaths a mortal Life But there is an imperfect Righteousness or a state of Grace here consisting in sincere Charity sect 11. par 6 7 8. which is plainly held forth by Scripture The End of the Commandment is Charity out of a pure Heart and of a good Conscience and of Faith unfeigned 1 Tim. 1. 5. And such Charity or Righteousness is attainable in this Life There is no Condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit Rom. 8. 1. Neither Fornicators nor Idolaters nor Adulterers nor Effeminate nor Abusers of themselves with Mankind nor Thieves nor Covetous nor Drunkards nor Revilers nor Extortioners shall inherit the Kingdom of God and such were some of you but ye are washed but ye are sanctified but ye are justified in the Name of our Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God 1 Cor. 6. v. 9 10 11. In a word the love of the World and the false Pleasures thereof are so diametrically opposed to the Love of God and the solid Delight of the same that they cannot habitually possess on individual Soul at once Love not the world neither the things that are in the world Iâ— any man love the World the love of the Father is not in him For all that is in the world the lust of the Flesh the lust of the Eyes and the pride of Life is not of the Father but is of the world 1 John 2. v. 15 16. The Love therefore of the one always excludes and expels the Love of the other and their Ends are as distant as Heaven and Hell the Result of the Love of the World being eternal Misery and the Consequent of the Love of God everlasting Bliss as was proved Sect. 7 11 12. whereunto the Holy Scripture so fully agrees for confirmation of its truth that it would be superfluous to produce any particular Texts to that end Which Bliss that Mankind might attain unto by a Way suitable to their Rational Nature is the great Design of the Gospel of Christ the Christian Religion being evidently if the preceding Treatise be true a Divine Art for making Man eternally blessed or a Method instituted by God the best and most connatural that could be for the perfecting of Human Nature by duly preparing it for the enjoyment of the Beatific Vision The like Assertion to which I meet with in a most pious and highly valued Author by all I will only add for an Accomplishment and Confirmation to my Discourse these his excellent Words whether we take Christianity in its whole complex or in its several and distinct Branches 't is certainly the most excellent the most compendious ART of happy living its very Tasks are Rewards and its Precepts are nothing but a divine sort of Alchimy to sublime at once our Natures and our Pleasures Art of Contentment sect 1. par 2. If in this Treatise or in the Appendix to it there be any Assertion of mine which is repugnant to Catholic and Apostolic Faith I do hereby as in duty bound heartily revoke the same and for ever renounce it as an Erorur to be detested by me and every good Christian whatsoever FINIS AN APPENDIX OF OBJECTIONS TO Several Things Asserted in the preceding Treatise With their Respective ANSWERS Objection 1. IT is said sect 1. par 3. That an actual infinite Series of things is impossible which Assertion if it were true then could not the Omniscient comprehend at once all the Thoughts which the Glorified Saints and Angels shall have to Eternity Answer The Omniscient knows at once all the Thoughts which Men and Angels shall ever have but their number is not infinite For when Christ has delivered up the Kingdom to his Father there will be no more Change but whatever the present state of the Blessed shall then be 't will never admit of any alteration afterward so that the Thoughts of the glorified Saints and Angels will be perpetually the same without any succession of new Conceptions incident to them For if after they have obtained their utmost Perfection in the full Fruition of God their chiefest Good they should receive a Change especially in their Thoughts wherein the Prime of their Felicity consists such Change to whatever it were would of necessity be for the worse and so they should depart thereby from the Perfection and Fulness of Bliss enjoyed by them which is impossible sect 4. par 14. Objection 2. God you say is one pure essential Act and simple Being sec 1. par 9 10. and yet you put two essential Acts in God viz. Knowing and Loving sec 2 par 2 9. Answer I do not say in the cited places that Knowing and Loving are two essential Acts in God I say there and no where else to the contrary that they are God himself differently related or relatively opposed to himself so that in my sense the Trinity of Persons in the Vnity of Essence is the very self-same pure essential Act and simple Being under distinct Relations to it self in the manner set forth
had never been recovered from his lost Condition to have attained the end of his Creation if God himself had not undertaken the great and otherwise insuperable Work of his Recovery by being made Man and in doing and suffering what he did to regain his Love. And therefore lastly whereas Christs bloody Death and Passion was the strongest and most endearing Argument and Motive of all other Testimonies of his stupendious Love to man for drawing his Affections off from the Love of the World to the Love of God which is the purging away of Sin the shedding of Christs pretious Blood on the Cross is said to be a Sacrifice for Sin that is for the putting or taking away of Sin even as the sacred Text it self directly asserteth He appeared to put away Sin by the Sacrifice of himself Hebr. 9. 26. Hence it is that mans Redemption and Salvation are so frequently attributed to Christs Death on the Cross it being the most remarkable Instance of his Love and thereupon the potentest Motive of all others to win mans firm Affection to himself For that our Blessed Saviours Incarnation and whatsoever he either did or suffered in his Manhood are likewise real Causes of mans Redemption and Salvation the Churches Litany assures us in which we pray to be delivered from all Sin and Mischief from the Crafts and Assaults of the Devil from the Wrath of God and from everlasting Damnation by the Mystery of Christs holy Incarnation by his holy Nativity and Circumcision by his Baptism Fasting and Temptation by his Agony and Bloody Sweat by his glorious Resurrection and Ascension and by his sending of the Holy Ghost aswell as by his Cross and Passion Object 6. If after all the Endeavour that hath been used to frame Arguments to solve Objections and to explicate how mans Redemption Reconciliation and Salvation are in a true scriptural Sense wrought by Christ for clearing the Assertion that the sincere habitual Love of God or Charity is the Formal Cause of Justification it be found that the Assertion it self is repugnant to the 11th Article of our Religion wherein it is said that we are justified by Faith only for the Merit of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ all that has been done is nothing better not to say worse then labour in vain Solut. That Christ's Doings and Sufferings which constitute his Merit are a real Cause of mans Justification has been both asserted and proved in this Section so that if any difference be between what the 11th Article teaches and what is averred by me concerning Justification 't is only after what manner the Merit of Christ justifies a Sinner namely whether as an Efficient or a Formal Cause And yet even as to this also there will be found no difference when the matter is well discussed For I stedfastly hold and maintain together with the Article that Christ's Merit is apprehended and applied to a Sinner for his Justification by Faith only whilst he firmly believes that God through them will according to his free Promise in the Gospel deliver him from the Slavery of Sin and the Consequent of it everlasting Misery so that in regard it is the Grace of Faith alone which draws the Merit of Christ home to a Christians Soul whence it becomes an effectual Motive to gain his Affections in turning them from the false Pleasures of the World unto God the sole true Delight of the Soul which is to be an efficient Cause of cleansing the Heart from Sin through Charity it must needs be that in this sense we are justified for the Merit of Christ by Faith only And that the 11th Article of Religion is to be understood in this sense seems clear both from the words wherein it is expressed and from the Churches Homily referred to for a fuller explication of what they intend The words of the Article are these We are accounted righteous before God only for the Merit of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ by Faith and not for our own Works or Deservings Wherefore that we are justified by Faith alone is a most wholsome Doctrine and very full of Comfort as more largely is expressed in the Homily of Justification Here 't is plain that our Blessed Saviour is affirmed to be the meritorious Cause of Justification and it is undeniably true that aswell Divines as Philosophers place a Meritorious Cause among the efficient Causes whence the learned Prelate Forbesius writeth thus Justitia Christi nos justificari ut Causa formali atque etiam meritoria ut asserunt qui priorem tuentur sententiam nempe Christi Justitiam esse Causam formalem Justificationis dici non potest nequit enim fieri ut eadem res sit simul Causa efficiens ad quam Meritum reducitur Formalis ejusdem effecti quia sic simul de essentia effecti foret non foret cum Causa formulis sit interna 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 efficiens autem externa uti constat Considerationes modestae pacificae Lib 2. Cap. 3. Paragr 5. Seeing then it is impossible that a Meritorious Cause should be a Formal Cause and that in the 11th Article no mention is made of a Formal Cause it remains that the Merit of Christ spoken of in the Article is either an efficient Cause of Mans Justification or else none at all And the same is likewise manifest from the Churches Homily referred to in the Article in which we read Part 2. Par. 4. as follows You shall understand that in our Justification by Christ it is not all one thing the Office of God unto Man and the Office of Man unto God. Justification is not the Office of Man but of God or Man cannot make himself righteous by his own Works neither in part nor in the whole for that were the greatest Arrogancy and Presumption of Man that Antichrist could set up against God to affirm that Man might by his own Works take away and purge his own Sins and so justifie himself What can well be more plain unless it were expressed in the very Language of the Schools then that God is here affirmed and Man denied to be the efficient Cause of his Justification But Justification is the Office of God only and is not a thing which we render to him but which we receive of him not which we give to him but which we take of him by his free mercy and by the only merits of his most dearly beloved Son our only Redeemer Saviour and Justifier Jesus Christ Here the free Mercy of God and the Merits of Christ are put together as Causes of the same kind and who is ignorant that the free Mercy of God is an efficient Cause only of Justification so that the true understanding of this Doctrine We be freely justified by Faith without Works or that we be justified by Faith in Christ only is not that this our own Act to believe in Christ or this our Faith in Christ which is
no influence at all from them but is wholly miraculous as every Effect immediately produced by God is To me it seems more rational to say that as those Children who live till they be of years capable of understanding the Reason and Use of Baptism are appointed by the Church to be informed thereof that they may make good the Engagement of their Sureties without doing of which their Baptism will not avail them to Salvation so Infant-Children upon the separation of Soul and Body are illuminated by their Angels for are they not ministring Spirits sent forth to minister for them who shall be Heirs of Salvation Heb. 1. 14. And that Baptized Children are such we be taught by the Answer to the second Question in our Catechism where the Word Inheritor is rendred in the Latin Haeres and in the Greek κληÏονόμος with the Knowledg of their Baptism for then they are capable of apprehending any thing offered to the intellect it proceeding from the disposition of their Bodies and not from the nature of their Souls that they are ever uncapable of actually understanding And seeing the inclination to the Creature through Original Sin is not by far so strong as that which is contracted by frequent Acts of sinning their affections will be instantly turned to God by virtue of their Baptism signified unto them But however the Truth in this obscure Point stand this is certain that in regard Felicity consists in the Love of God sect 4. par 13. baptized Infants must some way or other obtain Charity before they arrive at Bliss or at least upon the very instant of being possessed thereof And how their Baptism should be useful to them for the obtaining of Charity except they have Knowledg of it and by whom it should be made known unto them but by their Angels unless miraculously and Miracles are not wrought where there 's no necessity of them I do not understand Yet since I know of no Divine Revelation nor of any clear demonstration after what manner their Love of God depends upon their being baptized I do not presume to affirm that my delivered Thoughts are positively true SECT XVIII In the exercise of the hearty Love of God or Charity consists the sincere observance of every Precept of the Decalogue But the absolute entire fulfilling of the Moral Law is not accomplished till Charity have attained its ultimate Perfection in Heaven 1. WHen treating of the Moral Virtues I shewed the Assistance which Prudence Temperance and Fortitude exhibit to Charity sect 14. par 2 4 5. I said I would defer my intended Discourse on Justice till I came to the Explication of the Ten Commandments whither being now come I shall endeavour to make it appear that every Precept of the Decalogue tends to the causing a firm establishment of Charity in the Soul of Man and that in the exercise thereof when it is acquired the sincere observance of the whole Law is practised albeit the absolute exact fulfilling of it be not accomplished till Charity have obtained its utmost Perfection which human Frailty will not permit the attainment of while Men carry about them a Body of Flesh 2. For since to love God with all the Heart with all the Soul with all the Mind and with all the strength Mark 12. 30. is required to the compleat exact fulfilling of the Law and that such Love would perpetually take up all the Powers of the Soul it is plain that in regard while we live in this world our Thoughts must be often employed in taking care for the necessary accommodations of Life and in using Means to further our own and others Welfare here and hereafter we cannot in this mortal state so fully fix our Affections on God as to have our Souls fully possessed of him 3. And yet forasmuch as to give God the pre-eminence in our Affections and to despise all other things in comparison of the fruition of him to eternity so as that when we are tempted to violate any of his holy Commandments the ardent desire we have for the enjoyment of him enables us to resist and overcome the Temptation forasmuch I say as thus to love God permits us not wilfully and advisedly to break any of his Precepts but engages and puts us upon the keeping them all in sincerity of Affection and unfeignedness of heart it is apparent that in the exercise of Charity is virtually contained the sincere unfeigned Observance of the whole Moral Law. 4. Which Law consists of Ten Commandments the four first whereof totally respecting Man's Behaviour towards the supream Being the only Object of these is God whom therefore they command us to look up to as he is the Author and Finisher of Eternal Salvation in which respect we are to esteem him as he truly is the prime Verity whom we are to believe the sovereign Power in whom we are to trust and the chiefest Good whom we ought to love above all things or the Object of Faith Hope and Charity 5. And seeing neither Faith nor Hope are available to Salvation save only as they contribute to Charity either in helping to produce the Habit thereof or being obtained to confirm and strengthen it sect 13. 't is clear that the Precepts of the Former Table are not observed till we love God as our Sovereign Good or be endued with Charity 6. Whosoever therefore exerciseth the Grace of Charity he is all the while employ'd in the sincere keeping of the Four first Commandments the whole design of God's forbidding us to have any other Gods besides himself to make any graven Image to fall down before it and worship it to take his holy Name in vain and to do any unnecessary worldly Business at Times appointed for Divine Offices being totally accomplished in this to cause us to fix our Souls Affections on God and to pursue with earnestness the eternal Fruition of him as our sole Sovereign Good. Object 1. If Faith and Hope be not absolutely necessary to Salvation in themselves abstracting from this that they are Ministerially beneficial to Charity then are the opposite Vices to them Infidelity and Apostacy Presumption and Despair not Sins damnable in themselves or as destructive of the contrary Virtues but only as they cannot consist together with the Grace of Charity But Infidelity and Apostasie Presumption and Despair are Sins damnable in themselves or as they are destructive of the contrary Virtues Faith and Hope abstracting from this that these are Ministerially beneficial unto Charity Ergo Solut. The Minor Proposition must be denied and justly I conceive may for although it be most certainly true that Infidelity and Apostasie Presumption and Despair debar Men of Felicity yet the Reason thereof is not because of their immediate opposition to Faith and Hope but for that they are totally inconsistent with Charity For since that no Habit is truly virtuous but in virtue of the End whereto it serves and that the End of all Virtues is Charity
troubled and what shall I say Father save me from this hour but for this cause came I unto this hour John 12. 27. And to what end came he unto it but to destroy Sin by the Sacrifice of himself upon the Altar of the Cross that Men might die unto Sin and live unto Righteousness whose Fruit is everlasting Life for so the two chief Apostles plainly tell us Now once in the end of the World hath he appeared to put away sin by the Sacrifice of himself Hebr. 9. 26. Who his own self bare our sins in his own Body on the Tree that we being dead to sin should live unto Righteousness by whose Stripes ye were healed 1 Pet. 2. 24. Knowing this that our Old Man is crucified with him that the Body of sin might be destroyed that henceforth we should not serve sin Rom. 6. 6. That he died for all that they which live should not henceforth live to themselves but unto him which died for them and rose again 2 Cor. 5. 15. Who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all Iniquity and purifie unto himself a People zealous of good Works Tit. 2. 14. For if the Blood of Bulls and of Goats and the Ashes of an Heifer sprinkling the unclean sanctifieth to the purifying of the Flesh how much more shall the Blood of Christ who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without Spot to God purge your Conscience from dead Works to serve the living God Heb. 9. 13 14. Which Scriptures since they evidently prove that Christ came into the World to undergo Death that by virtue thereof we might die unto Sin and live unto Righteousness or be converted from our wicked Courses to lead a godly Life what I have now only remaining to do is to prove Secondly That there is no Condemnation to those who forsaking their sins turn unto God or that are converted from the Love of the World and worldly Vanities to the Love of God for the certainty of the truth whereof we have the Testimony of Truth it self assuring us He that hath my Commandments and keepeth them he it is that loveth me and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father and I will love him and will manifest my self to him John 14. 21. And a little after If a Man love me he will keep my Words and my Father will love him and we will come unto him and make our abode with him Ver. 23. And St. Paul in express words saith There is therefore now no Condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit Rom. 8. 1. Nor is the truth of this Doctrine averred only by Scripture but it is also evident to Human Reason for since Sin is the privation of the due Love of God in the Soul through the inordinate Love of the World Sect. 8. Par. 2 3 4. and that everlasting Misery is the necessary effect of the perpetual continuance in sin after this Life Sect. 7. Par. 1 2 3 4 5. 't is as manifestly impossible that he who has forsaken the Love of the World for the Love of God should eternally perish unless he relapse and die in mortal sin by leaving again the Love of God for the Love of the World as it is impossible that the same Man should love the World above God and God above the World both together to eternity For what end Christ died for us suffered for us bare our sins in his own Body upon the Tree for us the Word of God it self having expresly shewn viz. That we being dead unto Sin should live unto Righteousness 1 Pet. 2. 24. there is no need for the explicating those Expressions that Christ either really transferred our sins from us to himself or took upon him the Punishment due to our sins being the perpetual Loss of Heaven and the everlasting Pains of Hell to assert any of which would be no less than Blasphemy 'T is abundantly enough that in regard Christ is ΘεάνθÏωπος God-man he underwent so much in behalf of Sinners that his unexpressible Sufferings are a truly meritorious i. e. an efficacious efficient cause of cleansing us from sin of justifying us and of bringing us to Glory which they effectually are to as many as through a vigorous Faith rightly weigh the Value of them whilst the due Consideration of the immense and unmerited Love of Christ to Man manifested chiefly in his bitter and ignominious Death constraineth Men to forsake all worldly Pleasures for the Blessed Enjoyment of so gracious and stupendiously loving a God and Saviour accordingly as St Paul averreth saying For the love of God constraineth us because we thus judge that if one died for all then were all dead and that he died for all that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves but unto him which died for them and rose again 2 Cor. 5. 14 15. which words are thus cleared unto us by the learned Dr. Hammonds Paraphrase on the place For our Love to Christ founded on his to us hath us in its Power to make us do whatsoever it will have us making this Argument from this certain acknowledged truth of Christs having died for all Men that then certainly all Men are Sinners lapsed in a lost Estate and so hopeless unless they use some means to get out of that Estate which that he might help us to do was the Design of Christ's dying for all that we might having received by his Death Grace to lead a new Life live no longer after our own Lusts and Desires but in Obedience to his Commands that died and rose again to that end to bless us in turning every man from his Iniquities Acts 3. 26. 'T is clear then from what hath been said that our Conversion to God was the very Design of Christ's Crucifixion to the end we might be eternally saved and not that he might so suffer for us as to really transfer our Sins or the Punishment thereof from our Persons to his own which that the words he bare our sins in his own Body on the Tree so very much urged and insisted on by some do not necessarily import may be certainly gathered from another Text not unlike to this When the Even was come they brought unto him many that were possessed with Devils and he cast out the Spirits with his word and healed all that were sick that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the Prophet saying himself took our Infirmities and bare our Sicknesses Matth. 8. 16 17. for none questionless will affirm that Christ transferred the Infirmities and Sicknesses of those whom he cured to his own Body from theirs When it is therefore said that Christ bare our Sins and bare our Infirmities it is to be understood that he really cured both and as truly by virtue of his Death takes away sin and the eternal Punishment thereof from all that by Faith apply it to themselves as he took away diverse Infirmities by his Word from several who believed on him so that the Socinians injuriously and blasphemously deny the Divine Power and efficacy of the infinitely meritorious and satisfactory Sacrifice of our Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ upon the Cross for the Redemption of Man who by the eternal Love of GOD the FATHER through the Merits of GOD the SON apprehended by Faith wrought in the Heart by GOD the HOLY GHOST is effectually delivered from the miserable Thraldom of Sin Sathan and Damnation for which ineffable undeserved Kindness is of Right therefore perpetually to be given to that ever adorable TRIN-VNI DEO GLORIA