that he can divert if not all of the sudden resist the present impressions that seem to master him We do also feel that in many Trifles we do Act with an entire liberty and do many things upon no other account and for no other reason but because we will do them and yet more important things depend on these Our Thoughts are much governed by those impressions that are made upon our Brain When an Object proportioned to us appears to us with such advantages as to affect us much it makes such an impression on our Brain that our Animal Spirits move much towards it and those Thoughts that answer it arise oft and strongly upon us till either that Impression is worn out and flatted or new and livelier ones are made on us by other Objects In this depressed state in which we now are the Ideas of what is useful or pleasant to our Bodies are strong they are ever fresh being daily renewed and according to the different Construction of Mens Blood and their Brains there arises a great variety of Inclinations in them Our Animal Spirits that are the immediate Organs of Thought being the subtiler parts of our Blood are differently made and shaped as our Blood happens to be Acid Salt Sweet or Phlegmatick And this gives such a Biass to all our Inclinations that nothing can work us off from it but some great strength of Thought that bears it down So Learning chiefly in Mathematical Sciences can so swallow up and fix ones Thought as to possess it entirely for some time but when that amusement is over Nature will return and be where it was being rather diverted than overcome by such Speculations The Revelation of Religion is the proposing and proving many Truths of great importance to our Understandings by which they are enlightened and our Wills are guided but these Truths are feeble things languid and unable to stem a Tide of Nature especialy when it is much excited and heated So that in fact we feel that when Nature is low these Thoughts may have some force to give an inward Melancholy and to awaken in us Purposes and Resolutions of another kind but when Nature recovers it self and takes fire again these grow less powerful The giving those Truths of Religion such a Force that they may be able to subdue Nature and to govern us is the Design of both Natural and Revealed Religion So the Question comes now according to the Article to be Whether a Man by the Powers of Nature and of Reason without other inward Assistances can so far turn and dispose his own Mind as to believe and to do works pleasant and acceptable to God Pelagius thought that Man was so entire in his liberty that there was no need of any other Grace but that of Pardon and of proposing the Truths of Religion to Mens knowledge but that the use of these was in every Man's power Those who were called Semipelagians thought that an assisting inward Grace was necessary to enable a Man to go through all the harder steps of Religion but with that they thought that the first Turn or Conversion of the Will to God was the effect of a Man 's own free choice In opposition to both which this Article asserts both an Assisting and a preventing Grace That there are inward Assistances given to our Powers besides those outward Blessings of Providence is first to be proved In the Old Testament it is true there were not express Promises made by Moses of such Assistances yet it seems both David and Solomon had a full persuasion about it David's Prayers do every where relate to somewhat that is Internal Psal. 119.13 27 3â— 35. Psalm 51.10 11. He prays God to open and turn his eyes to unite and incline his heart to quicken him to make him to go to guide and lead him to create in him a clean heart and renew a right spirit within him Solomon says That God gives wisdom that he directs mens paths and giveth grace to the lowly Jâ—r 31.33 34. In the Promise that Ieremy gives of a New Covenant this is the Character that is given of it I will put my Law in their inward parts and write it in their hearts They shall all know me from the least of them unto the greatest Like to that is what Ezekiel promises Ezek. 36.26 27. A new heart also will I give and a new spirit will I put within you and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh and I will give you an heart of flesh and I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and ye shall keep my judgments and do them That these Prophecies relate to the New Dispensation cannot be question'd since Ieremy's words to which the other are equivalent are cited and applied to it in the Epistle to the Hebrews Now the opposition of the one Dispensation to the other as it is here stated consists in this That whereas the Old Dispensation was made up of Laws and Statutes that were given on Tables of Stone and in writing the New Dispensation was to have somewhat in it beside that External Revelation which was to be Internal and which should dispose and inable Men to observe it A great deal of our Saviour's Discourse concerning the Spirit which he was to pour on his Disciples did certainly belong to that extraordinary Effusion at Pentecost and to those wonderful Effects that were to follow upon it Yet as he had formerly given this as an Encouragement to all Men to Pray Luke 11.13 That his heavenly Father would give the Holy Spirit to every one that asked him so there are many parts of that his last Discourse that seem to belong to the constant Necessities of all Christians It is as unreasonable to limit all to that time as the first words of it I go to prepare a place for you and because I live ye shall live also The Prayer which comes after that Discourse Joh. 14.2 being extended beyond them to all that should believe in his Name through their word we have no reason to limit these words I will manifest my self to him My Father and I will make our abode with him In me ye shall have peace to the Apostles only so that the Guidance the Conviction the Comforts of that Spirit seem to be Promises which in a lower order belong to all Christians St. Paul speaks of the love of God shed abroad in their hearts by the Holy Ghost When he was under Temptation Rom. 5.5 and prayed thrice he had this Answer My grace is sufficient for thee 2 Cor. 12 9. my strength is made perfect in weakness He prays often for the Churches in his Epistles to them That God would stablish comfort and perfect them Eph. 3.17 enlighten and strengthen them and this in all that variety of Words and Phrases that import inward Assistances This is also meant by Christ's living
reed or quench the smoking flax ver 8. he was to bring forth judgment to the Gentiles and the Isles were to wait for his Law There is a whole Chapter in the same Prophet Isa. 53. setting forth the Mean Appearance that the Messias was to make the Contempt he was to fall under and the Sufferings he was to bear and that for the Sins of others which were to be laid on him so that his Soul or Life was to be made an Offering for Sin in reward of which he was to be highly exalted In another place his Mission is set forth not in the Strains of War or of Conquest but of Preaching to the Poor Isa. 61. setting the Prisoners free as in a Year of Jubilee and comforting the afflicted and such as mourned In the two last Chapters of that Prophet mention is made more particularly of the Gentiles that were to be called by him and the Isles that were afar off out of whom God was to take some for Priests and Levites Which shewed plainly that a new Dispensation was to be opened by him in which the Gentiles were to be Priests and Levites which could not be done while the Mosaical Law stood that had tied these Functions to the Tribe of Levi and to the House of Aaron Ieremy renewed the Promise to the House of David of a King that should reign and prosper Jer. 23.5 in whose days Iudah and Israel were to dwell safely whose name was to be The Lord our Righteousness It is certain this Promise was never literally accomplished and therefore recourse must be had to a Mystical Sense The same Prophet gives a large Account of a new Covenant that God was to make with the house of Israel Jer. 31.31 not according to the Covenant that he made with their fathers when he brought them out of Egypt We have also Two Characters given of that Covenant one is That God would put his Law in their inward parts and write it in their hearts that he would be their God and that they should all be taught of him The other is That he would forgive their iniquities and remember their sin no more One of these is in opposition to their Law that consisted chiefly in Rituals and had no Promises of Inward Assistances and the other is in opposition to the limited Pardon that was offered in that Dispensation on the condition of the many Sacrifices that they were required to offer There is a Prediction to the same purpose in Ezekiel Ioel prophesied of an extraordinary Effusion of the Spirit of God on great Numbers of Persons Old and Young Ezek. 36.25 Joel 2.28 that was to happen before the great and terrible Day of the Lord that is before the Final Destruction of Ierusalem Micah after he had foretold several things of the Dispâ—nsation of the Messiah Miâ—â—h 5.2 says that he was to come out of Bethlehem Ephratah â—ag 2.6 â— 8 9. Haggai encouraged those who were troubled at the meanness of the Temple which they had raised after their return out of the Captivity It had neither the outward Glory in its Fabrick that Solomon's Temple had nor the more real Glory of the Ark with the Tables of the Law of Fire from Heaven on the Altar of a Succession of Prophets of the Urim and Thummin and the Cloud between the Cherubims which last strictly speaking was the Glory all which had been in Solomon's Temple but were wanting in that In opposition to this the Prophet in the Name of God promised That he would in a little while shake the heavens and the earth and shake all Nations words that import some surprizing and great Change upon which the desire of all nations should come and God would fill the house with his Glory and the Glory of this latter house should exceed the Glory of the former for in that place God would give Peace Here is a plain Prophecy That this Templs was to have a Glory not only equal but superior to the Glory of Solomon's Temple These Words are too August to be believed to have been accomplished when Herod rebuilt the Temple with much Magnificence for that was nothing in comparison of the real Glory of the Symbols of the Presence of God that were wanting in it This cannot answer the Words That the desire of all Nations was to come and that God would give Peace in that Place So that either this Prophecy was never fulfilled or somewhat must be assigned during the Second Temple that will answer those solemn Expressions which are plainly applicable to our Saviour who was the Expectation of the Gentiles by whom Peace was made and in whom the Eternal Word dwelt in a manner infinitely more August than in the Cloud of Glory Zechary prophesied That their King by which they understood the Messias Zech. 9.9 was to be meek and lowly and that he was to make his Entrance in a very mean Appearance riding on an Ass but yet under that he was to bring Salvation to them and they were to rejoyce greatly in him Malachi told them That the Lord whom they sought Mal. 3.1 even the Messenger of the Covenant in whom they delighted should suâ—denly come into his Temple and that the Day of his coming was to be dreadful that he was to refine and purify in particular the Sons of Levi and a terrible Destruction is denounced after that One Character of his coming Mâ—l 4.1 was That Elijah the Prophet was to come before that great and dreadful Day who should convert many Old and Young Now it is certain that no other Person came during the Second Temple to whom these Words can be applied so that they were not accomplished unless it was in the Person of our Saviour to whom all these Characters do well agree But to conclude with that Prophecy which of all others is the most particular When Daniel at the End of the Seventy Years Captivity was interceeding for that Nation Dan. 9.24 25 26 27. an Angel was sent to him to tell him That they were to have a new Period of Seventy Weeks that is Seven times Seventy Years 490 Years and that after Sixty two Weeks Messiah the Prince was to come and to be cut off and that then the People of a Prince should destroy the City and the Sanctuary and the end of these was to be as with a Flood or Inundation and Desolations were determined to the end of the War They were to be destroyed by Abominable Armies that is by Idolatrous Armies They were to be made desolate till an utter End or Consummation should be made of them The Pomp with which this Destruction is set forth plainly shews that the Final Ruin of the Iews by the Roman Armies is meant by it From which it is justly inferred not only that if that Vision was really sent from God by an Angel to Daniel and in consequence to that was fulfilled then the
all are not actually good and so put in a way to be saved that God did not intend that it should be so for who hath resisted his will The Counsel of the Lord standeth fast and the Thoughts of his heart to all Generations It is true Rom. 9.10 Ps. 33.12 His Laws are his Will in one respect He requires all to obey them He approves them and he obliges all Men to keep them All the Expressions of his desires that all Men should bâ— saved are to be explained of the Will of Revelation commonly called the Sign of his Will When it is said What more could have been done Isa. 5.4 that is to be understood of outward Means and Blessings But still God has a secret Will of his good pleasure in which he designs all things and this can neaver be frustrated From this they do also conclude That though Christ's Death was to be offered to all Christians yet that Intentionally and Actually he only died for those whom the Father had chosen and given to him to be saved by him They cannot think that Christ could have died in vain which St. Paul speaks of as a vast Absurdity Now since if he had died for all Gal. 2.21 he should have died in vain with relation to the far greater part of Mankind who are not to be saved by him they from thence conclude That all those for whom he died are certainly saved by him Perhaps with relation to some subaltern Blessings which are through him Communicated if not to all Mankind yet to all Christians he may be said to have died for all But as to Eternal Salvation they believe his Design went no further than the secret Purpose and Election of God and this they think is implied in these words John 17.9.10 all that are given me of my Father Thine they were and thou gavest them me He also limits his Intercession to those only I pray not for the world but for those that thou hast given me for they are thine and all thine are mine and mine are thine They believe that he also limited to them the extent of his Death and of that Sacrifice which he offered in it It is true the Christian Religion being to be distinguished from the Iewish in this main Point that whereas the Iewish was restrained to Abraham's Posterity and confined within oneRace and Nation the Christian was to be preached to every Creature Universal words are used concerning the Death of Christ But as the words Mark 16.15 preaching to every Creature and to all the World are not to be understood in the utmost extent for then they have never been verified since the Gospel has never yet for ought that appears to us been preached to every Nation under Heaven but are only to be explained generally of a Commission not limited to one or more Nations none being excluded from it The Apostles were to execute it in going from City to City as they should be inwardly moved to it by the Holy Ghost So they think that those large words that are applied to the Death of Christ are to be understood in the same qualified manner that no Nation or sort of Men are excluded from it and that some of all kinds and sorts shall be saved by him And this is to be carried no further without an Imputation on the Justice of God For if he has received a sufficient Oblation and Satisfaction for the Sins of the whole World it is not reconcileable to Justice that all should not be saved by it or should not at least have the Offer and Promulgation of it made them that so a trial may be made whether they will accept of it or not The Grace of God is set forth in Scripture by such Figures and Expressions as do plainly intimate itâ— efficacy and that it does not depend upon us to use it Eph. 2.10 2 Cor. 5.17 Phil. 2.13 Ps. 110.3 Jerem. 31.33 34. Ezek. 36.26 27. Rom. 9.21 or not to use it at pleasure It it said to be a Creation we are created unto good works and we become new Creatures It is called a Regeneration or a New Birth it is called a Quickning and a Resurrection as our former state is compared to a feebleness a blindness and a death God is said to work in us both to will and to do His people shall be willing in the day of his power He will write his Laws in their hearts and make them to walk in them Mankind is compared to a Mass of Clay in the hands of the Potter who of the same lump makes at his pleasure Vessels of honour or of dishonour These passages this last in particular do insinuate an Absolute and a Conquering power in Grace and that the love of God constrains us as S. Paul speaks expresly All outward coaction is contrary to the nature of liberty and all those inward Impressions that drove on the Prophets so that they had not the free use of their Faculties but felt themselves carried they knew not how are inconsistent with it yet when a Man feels that his Faculties go in their method and that he assents or chuses from a thread of inward Conviction and Ratiocination he still acts freely that is by an Internal Principle of Reason and Thought A Man acts as much according to his Faculties when he assents to a Truth as when he chuses what he is to do And if his Mind were so enlightned that he saw as clearly the good of Moral Things as he percieves Speculative Truths so that he felt himself as little able to resist the one as the other he would be no less a free and a rational Creature than if he were left to a more unlimited Range Nay the more evidently that he saw the true good of things and the more that he were determined by it he should then act more suitably to his Faculties and to the Excellence of his Nature For though the Saints in Heaven being made perfect in Glory are no more capable of further Rewards yet it cannot be denied but they act with a more accomplished Liberty because they see all things in a true Light according to that in thy light we shall see light Psal. 26.9 And therefore they conclude that such an overcoming degree of Grace by which a Man is made willing through the Illumination of his Understanding and not by any blind or violent Impulse is no way contrary to the true Notion of Liberty After all they think That if a Debate falls to be between the Sovereignty of God his Acts and his Purposes and the freedom of Man's will it is modest and decent rather to make the abatement on Man's part than on God's but they think there is no need of this They infer That besides the outward Enlightening of a Man by Knowledge there is an inward Enlightening of the Mind and a secret forcible conviction stampt on it otherwise what can be meant
wild loose and irregular Frâ—m all this they conclude that Man is free and not under Inevitable Fate or Irresistable Motions either to good or evil All this they confirm from the whole Current of the Scripture that is full of Persuasions Exhortations Reproofs Expostulations Encouragements and Terrors which are all vain and Theatrical things if there are no free Powers in us to which they are addrest To what purpose is it to speak to dead Men to persuade the Blind to see or the Lame to run If we are under an impotence till the Irresistable Grace comes and if when it comes nothing can withstand it then what occasion is there for all those solemn Discourses if they can have no effect on us They cannot render us inexcusable unless it were in our power to be bettered by them and to imagine that God gives Light and Blessings to those whom he before intended to Damn only to make them inexcusable when they could do them no good and they will serve only to aggravate their Condemnation gives so strange an Idea of that Infinite Goodness that it is not fit to express it by those Terms which do naturally arise upon it It is as hard to suppose two contrary Wills in God the one commanding us our Duty and requiring us with the most solemn Obtestations to do it and the other putting a certain Bar in our way by Decreeing that we shall do the contrary This makes God look as if he had a Will and a Will though a Heart and a Heart import no good quality when applied to Men The one Will requires us to do our Duty and the other makes it impossible for us not to sin The Will for the good is ineffectual while the Will that makes us sin is infallible These things seem very hard to be apprehended and whereas the Root of True Religion is the having right and high Ideas of God and of his Attributes here such Ideas arise as naturally give us strange Thoughts of God and if they are received by us as Originals upon which we are to Form our own Natures such Notions may make us grow to be Spiteful Imperious and without Bowels but do not seem proper to inspire us with Love Mercy and Compassion tho' God is always proposed to us in that view All Preaching and Instruction does also suppose this For to what purpose are Men called upon taught and endeavoured to be persuaded if they are not free Agents and have not a power over their own Thoughts and if they are not to be convinced and turned by Reason The Offers of Peace and Pardon that are made to all Men are delusory things if they are by an Antecedent Act of God restrained only to a few and all others are barred from them It is further to be considered say they That God having made Men free Creatures his Governing them accordingly and making his own Administration of the World suitable to it is no diminution of his own Authority it is only the carrying on of his own Creation according to the several Natures that he has put in that variety of Beings of which this World is composed and with which it is diversified Therefore if some of the Acts of God with relation to-Man are not so free as his other Acts are and as we may suppose necessary to the ultimate Perfection of an Independent Being This arises not from any defect in the Acts of God but because the Nature of the Creature that he intended to make free is inconsistent with such Acts. The Divine Omnipotence is not lessened when we observe some of his Works to be more beautiful and useful than others are and the Irregular Productions of Nature do not derogate from the Order in which all Things appear lovely to the Divine Mind So if that Liberty with which he intended to endue Thinking Beings is incompatible with such positive Acts and so positive a Providence as governs Natural Things and this material World then this is no way derogatory to the Sovereignty of his Mind This does also give such an account of the Evil that is in the World as does no way accuse or lessen the Purity and Holiness of God since he only suffers his Creatures to go on in the free use of those Powers that he has given them about which he exercises a special Providence making some Mens Sins to be the immediate Punishments of their own or of other Mens Sins and restraining them often in a great deal of that Evil that they do design and bringing out of it a great deal of Good that they did not design but all is done in a way suitable to their Natures without any violence to them It is true it is not easy to shew how those future Contingences which depend upon the free choice of the Will should be certain and infallible But we are on other accounts certain that it is so for we see through the whole Scriptures a Thread of very positive Prophecies the accomplishment of which depended on the free Will of Man and these Predictions as they were made very precisely so they were no less punctually accomplished Not to mention any other Prophecies all those that related to the Death and Sufferings of Christ were fulfilled by the free Acts of the Priests and People of the Iews They sinned in doing it which proves that they acted in it with their Natural Liberty By these and all the other Prophecies that are in both Testaments it must be confessed that these things were certainly foreknown but where to found that Certainy cannot be easily resolved The Infinite Perfection of the Divine Mind ought here to silence all Objections A clear Idea by which we apprehend a thing to be plainly contrary to the Attributes of God is indeed a just ground of rejecting it and therefore they think that they are in the right to deny all such to be in God as they plainly apprehend to be contrary to Justice Truth and Goodness But if the Objection against any thing supposed to be in God lies only against the manner and the unconceivableness of it there the Infinite Perfection of God answers all It is further to be considered That this Prescience does not make the Effects certain because they are foreseen but they are foreseen because that they are to be So that the Certainty of the Prescience is not antecedent or causal but subsequent and eventual Whatsoever happens was future before it happened and since it happened it was certainly future from all Eternity not by a Certainty of Fate but by a Certainty that arises out of its being once from which this Truth That it was future was eternally certain Therefore the Divine Prescience being only the knowing all things that were to come that â—oes not infer a Necessity or Causality The Scripture plaiâ—â—y shews on some occasions a conditionate Prescience God answered David That Saul was to come to Keilah and that the Men of Keilah
These words in themselves and separated from all that went before seem to speak out this matter very fully But when the occasion of them and the matter that is treated of in them are considered nothing can be plainer than that our Saviour is speaking of such private Differences as may arise among Men and of the Practice of forgiving Injuries and composing their Differences If thy Brother sin against thee first private Endeavours were to be used then the Interposition of Friends was to be tried And finally the matter was to be referred to the Body or Assembly to which they belonged And those who could not be gained by such Methods were no more to be esteemed Brethren but were to be looked on as very bad Men like Heathens They might upon such refractoriness be Excommunicated and Prosecuted afterwards in Temporal Courts since they had by their Perversness forfeited all sort of right to that Tenderness and Charity that is due to true Christians This Exposition does so fully agree to the Occasion and Scope of these words that there is no colour of Reason to carry them further The Character given to the Church of Ephesus in St. Paul's Epistle to Timothy 1 Tim. 3. That it was the pillar and ground of Truth is a Figurative Expression And it is never safe to build upon Metaphors much less to lay much weight upon them The Iews described their Synagogues by such honourable Characters in which it is known how profuse all the Eastern Nations are These are by St. Paul applied to the Church of Ephesus For he there speaks of the Church where Timothy was then in which he instructs him to behave himself well It has visibly a relation to those Inscriptions that were made on Pillars which rested upon firm Pedestals But whatsoever the strict Importance of the Metaphor may be it is a Metaphor and therefore it can be no Argument Christ's promise of the Spirit to his Apostles Jâ—h 16.13 that should lead them into all truth relates visibly to that extraordinary Inspiration by which they were to be acted and that was to shew them things to come so that a Succession of Prophecy may be inferred from these words as well as of Infallibility Those words of our Saviour with which St. Matthew concludes his Gospel Matth. 28.20 Lo I am with you always even to the end of the World infer no Infallibility but only a promise of Assistance and Protection Which was a necessary encouragement to the Apostles when they were sent upon so laborious a Commission that was to involve them into so much danger God's being with any his walking with them his being in the midst of them his never leaving nor forsaking them are Expressions often used in the Scripture 2 Cor. 6.16 Heb. 13.5 which signifie no more but God's watchful Providence Guiding Supporting and Protecting his People All this is far from Infallibility The Last Objection to be proposed is that which seems to relate most to the Point in hand taken from the Decree made by a Council at Ierusalem Act 15.28 which begins It seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us From which they infer That the Holy Ghost is present with Councils and that what seems good to them is also approved by the Holy Ghost But it will not be easie to prove that this was such a Council as to be a pattern to succeeding ones to copy after it We find Brethren are here joined with the Apostles themselves Now since these were no other than the Laity here an Inference will be made that will not go easily down If they fate and voted with the Apostles it will seem strange to deny them the same privilege among Bishops By Elders here it seems Presbyters are meant and this will give them an Entrance into a General Council out of which they cannot be well excluded if the Laity are admitted But here was no citation no time given to all Churches to send their Bishops or Proxies It was an Occasional Meeting of such of the Apostles as happened to be then at Ierusalem who called to them the Elders or Presbyters and other Christians at Ierusalem For the Holy Ghost was then poured out so plentifully on so many that no wonder if there was then about that truly Mother Church a great many of both sorts who were of such Eminence that the Apostles might desire them to meet and to joyn with them The Apostles were Divinely Assisted in the delivering that Commission which our Saviour gave them in charge To preach to every creature and so were Infallibly Assisted in the Executing of it Mark 16.15 yet when other Matters fell in which were no Parts of that Commission they no doubt did as St. Paul who sometimes writ by Permission 1 Cor. 7.6 12. as well as at other times by Commandment Of which he gives notice by saying It is I and not the Lord He suggested Advices which to him according to his Prudence and Experience seemed to be well founded and he offered them with great Sincerity for though he had some reason to think that what he proposed flowed from the Spirit of the Lord ver 40. from that Inspiration that was Acting him yet because that did not appear distinctly to him he speaks with Reserves and says ver 25. he gives his judgment as one that had obtained mercy of the Lord to be faithful So the Apostles here receiving no Inspiration to Direct them in this Case but observing well what St. Peter put them in mind of concerning God's sending him by a Special Vision to Preach to the Gentiles and that God had poured out the Holy Ghost on them even as he had done upon the Apostles who were Iews by Nature and that he did put no difference in that between Iews and Gentiles Acts 15.9 purifying the hearts of the Gentiles by Faith They upon this did by their Judgment conclude from thence That what God had done in the particular Instance of Cornelius was now to be extended to all the Gentiles So by this we see that those Words seemed good to the Holy Ghost relate to the Case of Cornelius and those Words seemed good to us import that they resolved to extend that to be a general Rule to all the Gentiles This gives the Words a clear and a distinct Sense which agrees with all that had gone before whereas it will otherwise look very strange to see them add their Authority to that of the Holy Ghost which is too Absurd to suppose Nor will it be easy to give any other consisting Sense to these Words Here is no Precedent of a Council much less of a General one but a Decision is made by Men that were in other things Divinely Inspired which can have no relation to the Judgment of other Councils And thus it appears that none of those Places which are brought to prove the Infallibility of Councils come up to the Point
these are of no Value being only Inventions to deceive Men and to expose Religion to Mockery But even severe and afflicting Fasting if done only as a Punishment which when it is over the Penance is believed to be compleated gives such a low Idea of God and Religion that from thence Men are led to think very slightly of Sin when they know at what price they can carry it off Such a continuance in Fasting in order to Prayer as humbles and depresses Nature and raises the Mind is a great mean to reform the World but Fasting as a prescribed Task to expiate our Sins is a scorn put upon Religion Prayer when it arises from a serious Heart that is earnest in it and when it becomes habitual is certainly a most effectual mean to reform the World and to fetch down Divine Assistances But to appoint so many vocal Prayers to be gone through as a Task and then to tell the World that the running through these with few or no inward Acts accompanying them is Contrition or Attrition this is liker a Design to root out all the Impressions of Religion and all sense of that Repentance which the Gospel requires than to promote it This may be a Task fit to accustom Children to but it is contrary to the true Genius of Religion to teach Men instead of that reasonable Service that we ought to offer up to God to give him only the Labour of the Lips which is the Sacrifice of Fools Prayers gone through as a Task can be of no value and can find no acceptation in the sight of God And as St. Paul said that if he gave all his goods to the poor and had not Charity he was nothing 1 Cor. 13 1 2. So the greatest profusion of Alms-giving when done in a mercenary Way to buy off and to purchase a Pardon is the turning of God's House from being a house of prayer to be a den of thieves Upon all these Reasons we except to the whole Doctrine and Practice of the Church of Rome as to the Satisfaction made by doing Penance And in the last place we except to the Form of Absolution in these Words I Absolve thee We of this Church who use it only to such as are thought to be near Death cannot be meant to understand any thing by it but the full Peace and Pardon of the Church For if we meant a Pardon with relation to God we ought to use it upon many other occasions The Pardon that we give in the Name of God is only declaratory of his Pardon or supplicatory in a Prayer to him for Pardon In this we have the whole Practice of the Church till the Twelfth Century universally of our side All the Fathers all the ancient Liturgies all that have writ upon the Offices and the first Schoolmen are so express in this Matter that the thing in Fact cannot be denied Morinus has published so many of their old Rituals that he has put an end to all doubting about it In the Twelfth Century some few began to use the Words I Absolve thee Yet to soften this Expression that seemed New and Bold some tempered it with these Words in so far as it is granted to my frailty and others with those Words as far as the accusation comes from thee and as the pardon is in me Yet this Form was but little practised So that William Bishop of Paris speaks of the Form of Absolution as given only in a Prayer and not as given in these Words I Absolve thee He lived in the beginning of the Fourteenth Century so that this Practice though begun in other Places before that Time yet was not known long after in so publick a City as Paris But some Schoolmen begun to defend it as implying only a declaration of the Pardon pronounced by the Priest And this having an air of more Authority and being once justified by Learned Men did so universally prevail that in little more than sixty Years time it became the universal Practice of the whole Latin Church So sure a thing is Tradition and so impossible to be changed as they pretend when within the compass of one Age the new Form I Absolve thee was not so much as generally known and before the end of it the old Form of doing it in a Prayer with Imposition of Hands was quite worn out The Idea that arises naturally out of these words is that the Priest pardons Sins and since that is subject to such abuses and has let in so much corruption upon that Church we think we have reason not only to deny that Penance is a Sacrament but likewise to affirm that they have corrupted this great and important Doctrine of Repentance in all the Parts and Branches of it Nor is the matter mended with that Prayer that follows the Absolution The Passion of our Lord Iesus Christ Rituale Romanum de sacr poeniten the Merits of the Blessed Virgin and all the Saints and all the good that thou hast done and the evil that thou hast suffered be to thee for the remission of Sins the increase of Grace and the reward of eternal Life The third Sacrament rejected by this Article is Orders which is reckoned the sixth by the Church of Rome We affirm that Christ appointed a Succession of Pastors in different Ranks to be continued in his Church for the Work of the Gospel and the Care of Souls and that as the Apostles setled the Churches they appointed different Orders of Bishops Priests and Deacons And we believe that all who are dedicated to serve in these Ministries after they are examined and judged worthy of them ought to be separated to them by the Imposition of Hands and by Prayer These were the only Rites that we find practised by the Apostles For many Ages the Church of God used no other therefore we acknowledge that Bishops Priests and Deacons ought to be blest and dedicated to the HolyMinistry by Imposition of Hands and Prayer And that then they are received according to the Order and Practice setled by the Apostles to serve in their respective Degrees Men thus separated have thereby Authority to perfect the Saints or Christians that is to perform the Sacred Functions among them to minister to them and to build them up in their most Holy Faith And we think no other Persons without such a Separation and Consecration can lawfully touch the Holy Things In all which we separate the Qualifications of the Functions from the inward Qualities of the Person the one not at all depending on the other The one relating only to the Order and the good Government of the Society and the other relating indeed to the Salvation of him that Officiates but not at all to the Validity of his Office or Service But in all this we see nothing like a Sacrament Here is neither Matter Form nor Institution here is only Prayer The laying on of Hands is only a gesture in Prayer