The justest abatement that we can offer for thisCorruption which is too manifest to be either denied or justified is this They were then engaged with the Heathens and were much set on bringing them over to the Christian Religion In order to that it was very natural for them to think of all methods possible to accommodate Christianity to their taste It was perhaps observed how far the Apostles complied with the Iews that they might gain them St. Paul had said that to the Iews he became a Iew and to them that were without law 1 Cor. 9.19 20. that is the Gentiles as one without law that by all means he might gain some They might think that if the Iews who had abused the light of a Revealed Religion who had rejected and crucified the Messias and persecuted his Followers and had in all respects corrupted both their Doctrine and their Morals were waited on and complied with in the observance of that very Law which was abrogated by the Death of Christ but was still insisted on by them as of perpetual Obligation and yet that after the Apostles had made a solemn decision in the matter they continued to conform themselves to that Law all this might be applied with some advantages to this matter The Gentiles had nothing but the Light of Nature to Govern them they might seem willing to become Christians but they still despised the nakedness and simplicity of that Religion And it is reasonable enough to think that the Emperors and other great Men might in a Political view considering the vast strength of Heathenism press the Bishops of those times to use all imaginable ways to adorn Christianity with such an exteriorForm ofWorship as might be most acceptable to them and might most probably bring them over to it The Christians had long felt the weight of Persecution from them and were no doubt much frighted with the danger of a Relapse in Iulian's time It is natural to all Men to desire to be safe and to weaken the numbers of their implacable Enemies In that state of things we do plainly see they began to comply in lesser Matters For whereas in the First Ages the Christians were often reproached with this that they had no Temples Altars Sacrifices nor Priests they changed their dialect in all those Points so we have reason to believe that this was carried further The Vulgar are more easily wrought upon in greater Points of Speculation than in some small Ritual Matters Because they do not understand the one and so are not much concerned about it But the other is more sensible and lies within their compass We find some in Palestine kept Images in their Houses as Eusebius tells us others began in Spain to light Candles by Day-light and to paint the Walls of their Churches And though these things were condemned by the Council of Elliberis yet we see by what St. Ierom has cited out of Vigilantius that the Spirit of Superstition did work strongly among them We hear of none that writ against those abuses besides Vigilantius yet Ierom tells us that many Bishops were of the same Mind with him with whom he is so angry as to doubt whether they deserved to be called Bishops Most of these abuses had also specious beginnings and went on insensibly Where they made greater steps we find an opposition to them Epipli Heres 79 Epiphanius is very severe upon the Collyridians for their Worshipping the Blessed Virgin And though they did it by Offering up a Cake to her yet if any will read all that he says against that Superstition they will clearly see that no Prayers were then Offered up to her by the Orthodox And that he rejects the thought of it with Indignation But the respect paid the Martyrs and the opinion that they were still hovering about their Tombs might make the calling to them for their Prayers seem to be like one Mans desiring the Prayers of other Good Men and when a thing of this kind is once begun it naturally goes on Of all this we see a particular Account in a Discourse writ on purpose on this Argument of curing the Affections and Inclinations of the Greeks by Theodoret Theod. de cur Gr. affect l. 8. de Martyr who may be justly reckoned among the greatest Men of Antiquity and in it he insists upon this particular of proposing to them the Saints and Martyrs instead of their Gods And there is no doubt to be made but that they found the effects of this compliance many Heathens were every day coming over to the Christian Religion And it might then perhaps be intended to lay all those aside when the Heathens were once brought over To all which this must be added that the good Men of that time had not the Spirit of Prophesy and could not foresee what Progress this might make and to what an Excess it might grow they had nothing of that kind in their View So that between Charity and Policy between a desire to bring over Multitudes to their Faith and an Inclination to secure themselves it is not at all to be wondred at by any who considers all the Circumstances of those Ages that these Corruptions should have got into the Church and much less having once got in they should have gone on so fast and be carried so far Thus I have offered all the Considerations that arise from the State of Things at that time to shew how far we do still preserve the Respect due to the Fathers of those Ages even when we confess that they were Men and that something of human Nature appeared in this Piece of their Conduct This can be made no Argument for later Ages who having no Heathens among them are under no Temptations to comply with any of the Parts of Heathenism to gain them And now that the abuse of these Matters is become so scandalous and has spread it self so far how much soever we may excuse those Ages in which we discern the first beginnings and as it were the small Heads of that which has since overflow'd Christendom Yet we can by no means bear even with those beginnings which have had such dismal Effects and therefore we have reduced the Worship of God to the Simplicity of the Scripture Times and of the First Three Centuries And for the Fourth we reverence it so much on other Accounts that for the Sake of these we are unwilling to Reflect too much on this Another Consideration urged for the Invocation of Saints is that they seeing God we have reason to believe that they see in him if not all things yet at least all the Concerns of the Church of which they are still Parts and they being in a most perfect State of Charity they must certainly love the Souls of their Brethren here below So that if Saints on Earth whose Charity is not yet perfect do pray for one another here on Earth they in that State of Perfection do certainly
to pursue We are never to mix these two together or to imagine that the Condition upon which Justification is offered to us is the Consideration that moves God as if our Holiness Faith or Obedience were the moving Cause of our Justification oâ— that God justifies us because he sees that we are truly just For though it is not to be denied but that in some places of the New Testament Iustification may stand in that Sense because the word in its Signification will bear it yet in these Two Epistles in which it is largely treated of nothing is plainer than that the design is to shew us what it is that brings us to the Favour of God and to a state of Pardon and Acceptation So that Iustification in those places stands in opposition to Accusation and Condemnation The next Term to be explained is Faith which in the New Testament stâ—nds generally for the Complex of Christianity in opposition to the Law which stands as generally for the Complex of the whole Mosaical Dispensation So that the Faith of Christ is equivalent to this the Gospel of Christ because Christianity is a Foederal Religion founded on God's part on Promises that he has made to us and on the Rules he has set us and on our part on our believing that Revelation our trusting to those Promises and our setting our selves to follow those Rules The believing this Revelation and that great Article of it of Christ's being the Son of God and the true Messias that came to reveal his Father's Will and to offer himself up to be the Sacrifice of this New Covenant is often represented as the great and only Condition of the Covenant on our part but still this Faith must receive the whole Gospel the Precepts as well as the Promises of it and receive Christ as a Prophet to Teach and a King to Rule as well as a Priest to Save us By Faith only is not to be meant Faith as it is separated from the other Evangelical Graces and Virtues but Faith as it is opposite to the Rites of the Mosaical Law for that was the great Question that gave occasion to St. Paul's writing so fully upon this Head since many Judaizing Christians as they acknowledged Christ to be the true Messias so they thought that the Law of Moses was still to retain its force In opposition to whom St. Paul says That we are justified by Faith without the works of the Law Rom. 3.28 Gal. 2.16 Rom. 2.12 It is plain that he means the Mosaical Dispensation for he had divided all Mankind into those who were in the Law and those who were without the Law That is into Iews and Gentiles Nor had St. Paul any occasion to treat of any other Matter in those Epistles or to enter into nice Abstractions which became not one that was to Instruct the World in order to their Salvation Those Metaphysical Notions are not easily apprehended by plain Men not accustomed to such Subtilties and are of very little value when they are more critically distinguished Yet when it seems some of those Expressions were wrested to an ill sense and use St. Iames treats of the same matter but with this great difference that though he says expresly That a man is justified by Works and not by Faith only yet he does not say by the Works of the Law Jam. 2.24 so that he does not at all contradict St. Paul the Works that he mentions not being the Circumcision or Ritual Observances of Abraham but his offering up his Son Isaac which St. Paul had reckoned a part of the Faith of Abraham This shews that he did not intend to contradict the Doctrine delivered by St. Paul but only to give a true Notion of the Faith that justifies that it is not a bare believing such as Devils are capable of but such a believing as exerted it self in Good Works So that the Faith mentioned by St. Paul is the Complex of all Christianity whereas that mentioned by St. Iames is a bare believing without a life suitable to it And as it is certainly true that we are taken into the Favour of God upon our receiving the whole Gospel without observing the Mosaical Precepts so it is as certainly true that a bare professing or giving credit to the Truth of the Gospel without our living suitably to it does not give us a right to the Favour of God And thus it appears that these two Pieces of the New Testament when rightly understood do in no wise contradict but agree well with one another In the last place we must consider the signification of Good Works By them are not to be meant some voluntary and assumed pieces of Severity which are no where enjoyned in the Gospel that arise out of Superstition and that feed of Pride and Hypocrisy These are so far from deserving the name of Good Works that they have been in all Ages the Methods of Imposture and of Impostors and the Arts by which they have gained Credit and Authority By Good Works therefore are meant Acts of true Holiness and of sincere Obedience to the Laws of the Gospel The Terms being thus explained I shall next distinguish between the Questions arising out of this Matter that are only about Words and those that are more Material and Important If any Man fancy that the Remission of Sins is to be considered as a thing previous to Iustification and distinct from it and acknowledge that to be freely given in Christ Jesus and that in consequence of this there is such a Grace infused that thereupon the Person becomes truly just and is considered as such by God This which must be confessed to be the Doctrine of a great many in the Church of Rome and which seems to be that established at Trent is indeed very visibly different from the Stile and Design of those Places of the New Testament in which this matter is most fully opened But yet after all it is but a question about words for if that which they call Remission of Sins be the same with that which we call Iustification and if that which they call Iustification be the same with that which we call Sanctification then here is only a strife of words Yet even in this we have the Scriptures clearly of our side so that we hold the form of sound words from which they have departed The Scripture speaks of Sanctification as a thing different from and subsequent to Iustification 1 Cor. 6.11 Now ye are washed ye are sanctified ye are justified And since Justification and the being in the Love and Favour of God are in the New Testament one and the same thing the Remission of Sins must be an Act of God's Favour For we cannot imagine a middle state of being neither accepted of him nor yet under his Wrath as if the Remission of Sins were merely an extinction of the guilt of Sin without any special Favour If therefore this
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
particular or National Church hath Authority to ordain change and abolish Ceremonies or Rights of the Church ordained only by mens Authority so that all things be done to edifying THIS Article consists of two Branches The first is That the Church hath Power to appoint such Rites and Ceremonies as are not contrary to the Word of God and that private Persons are bound to conform themselves to their Orders The second is That it is not necessary that the whole Church should meet to determine such maters the Power of doing that being in every National Church which is fully empowr'd to take care of it self and no Rule made in such matters is to be held unalterable but may be changed upon occasion As to the first it hath been already considered when the first words of the Twentieth Article were explained There the Authority of the Church in matters indifferent was stated and proved It remains now only to prove That private Persons are bound to conform themselves to such Ceremonies especially when they are also enacted by the Civil Authority It is to be considered That the Christian Religion was chiefly designed to raise and purify the Nature of man and to make Human Society perfect now Brotherly Love and Charity does this more than any one Virtue whatsoever It raises a man to the Likeness of God it gives him a Divine and Heavenly Temper within himself and creates the tenderest Union and firmest Happiness possible among all the Societies of Men. Our Saviour has so enlarged the Obligation to it as to make it by the Extent he has given it a great and new Commandment by which all the World may be able to know and distinguish his Followers from the rest of Mankind And as all the Apostles insist much upon this in every one of their Epistles not excepting the shortest of them so St. Iohn who writ last of them has dwelt more fully upon it than upon any other Duty whatsoever Our Saviour did particularly intend that his Followers should be associated into one Body and join together in order to their keeping up and inflaming their mutual Love and therefore he delivered his Prayer to them all in the Plural to shew that he intended that they should use it in a Body He appointed Baptism as the way of receiving men into this Body and the Eucharist as a joint Memorial that the Body was to keep up of his Death For this end he appointed Pastors to teach and keep his Followers in a Body And in his last and longest Prayer to the Father he repeats this That they might be one That they might be kept in one Body and made perfect in one in five several Expressions Joh. 17.11 21 22 23. which shews both how necessary a part of his Religion he meant this should be and likewise intimates to us the danger that he foresaw of his Followers departing from it which made him intercede so earnestly for it One Expression that he has of this Union shews how entire and tender he intended that it should be for he prayed that the Union might be such as that between the Father and himself was The Apostles use the Figure of a Body frequently to express this Union than which nothing can be imagined that is more firmly knit together and in which all the parts do more tenderly sympathize with one another Upon all these considerations we may certainly gather That the dissolving this Union the dislocating this Body and the doing any thing that may extinguish the Love and Charity by which Christians are to be made so happy in themselves and so useful to one another and by which the Body of Christians grows much the firmer and stronger and shines more in the World that I say the doing this upon slight grounds must be a Sin of a very high nature Nothing can be a just Reason either to carry men to it or justify them in it but the imposing on them unlawful Terms of Communion for in that case it is certain that we must obey God rather than man that we must seek Truth and Peace together Acts 24.16 and that the rule of keeping a good Conscience in all things is laid thus To do it first towards God and then towards man So that a Schism that is occasioned by any Church's imposing unlawful Terms of Communion lies at their door who impose them and the Guilt is wholly theirs But without such a necessity it is certainly both in its own nature and in its consequences one of the greatest of Sins to create needless Disturbances in a Church and to give occasion to all that alienation of Mind all those rash Censures and unjust Judgments that do arise from such Divisions This receives a very great Aggravation if the Civil Authority has concurred by a Law to enjoyn the Observance of such indifferent things for to all their lawful Commands we owe an Obedience not only for fear but for conscience sake since the Authority of the Magistrate is chiefly to be imployed in such matters Rom. 13.3 As to things that are either commanded or forbidden of God the Magistrate has only the Execution of these in his hands so that in those his Laws are only the Sanctions and Penalties of the Laws of God The Subject-matter of his Authority is about things which are of their own nature indifferent but that may be made fit and proper means for the maintaining of Order Union and Decency in the Society And therefore such Laws as are made by him in those things do certainly bind the Conscience and oblige the Subjects to Obedience Disobedience does also give Scandal to the weak Scandal is a Block or Trap laid in the way of another by which he is made to stumble and fall So this Figure of giving Scandal or the laying a stumbling-block in our Brother's way is applied to our doing of such Actions as may prove the occasions of Sin to others Every man according to the influence that his Example or Authority may have over others who do too easily and implicitely follow him becomes thereby the more capable of giving them Scandal that is of drawing them after him to commit many Sins And since men are under Fetters according to the Persuasions that they have of things he who thinks a thing sinful does sin if he does it as long as he is under that apprehension because he deliberately ventures on that which he thinks offends God even while he doubts of it or makes a distinction between Meats for the word rendered doubts Rom. 14.23 signifies also the making a difference he is damned that is self-condemned as acting against his own sense of things if he does it Another ma n that has larger Thoughts and clearer Ideas may see that there is no sin in an Action about which others may be still in doubt and so upon his own account he may certainly do it But if he has reason to believe that his