capable of a vast Inflammation and Elevation by which a man's powers might be exalted to much higher degrees of Knowledge and Capacity The Animal Spirits receiving their Quality from that of the Blood a new and a strong Fermentation in the Blood might râ—ise them and by consequence exalt a man to a much greater sublimity of Thought But with that it might dispose him to be easily inflamed by Appetites and Passions it might put him under the power of his Body and make his Body much more apt to be fired at outward Objects which might sink all Spiritual and pure Ideas in him and raise gross ones with much Fury and Rapidity Hereby his whole frame might be much corrupted and that might go so deep in him that all those who descended from him might be defiled by it as we see Madness and some Chronical Diseases pass from Parents to their Children All this might have been natural and as much the Physical effect of Eating the forbidden Fruit as it seems Immortality would have been that of Eating the Fruit of the Tree of Life This might have been in its nature a slow poison which must end in Death at last It may be very easy to make all this appear probable from Physical Causes A very small Accident may so alter the whole Mass of the Blood that in a very few Minutes it may be totally changed so the Eating the forbidden Fruit might have by a natural chain of things produced all this But this is only an Hypothesis and so is left as such All the Assistance that Revealed Religion can receive from Philosophy is to shew That a reasonable Hypothesis can be offered upon Physical Principles to shew the possibility or rather probability of any particulars that are contained in the Scriptures This is enough to sâ—op the mouths of Deists which is all the use that can be made of such Schemes To return to the main Point of the Fall of Adam He himself was made liable to Death But not barely to cease to live for Death and Life are terms opposite to one another in Scripture In Treating upon these Heads it is said That the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life Rom. 6.23 And though the addition of the word Eternal makes the Signification of the one more express yet where it is mentioned without that addition no doubt is to be made but that it is to be so meant As where it is said That to be carnally minded is death but to be spiritually minded is life and peace And believing we have life through his Name Rom. 8.6 Joh. 20.31 Joh. 5.50 Ye will not come unto me that ye may have life So by the rule of Opposites Death ought to be understood as a word of a general Signification which we who have the Comment of the New Testament to guide us in understanding the Old are not to restrain to a natural Death and therefore when we are said to be the servants of sin unto death we undersâ—and much more by it than a natural Death So God's threatning of Adam with Death ought not to be restrained to a natural Death Adam being thus defiled all Emanations from him must partake of that vitiated State to which he had brought himself But then the Question remains How came the Souls of his Posterity to be defiled for if they were created pure it seems to be an unjust Cruelty to them to condemn them to such an Union to a defiled Body as should certainly corrupt them All that can be said in Answer to this is That God has setled it as a Law in the Creation That a Soul should inform a Body according to the Texture of it and either conquer it or be mastered by it as it should be differently made and that as such a degree of Purity in the Texture of it might make it both pure and happy so a contrary degree of Texture might have very contrary effects And if with this God made another general Law that when all things were duly prepared for the propagation of the Species of Mankind a Soul should be always ready to go into and animate those first Threads and Beginnings of Life those Laws being laid down Adam by corrupting his own frame corrupted the frame of his whole Posterity by the general course of Things and the great Law of the Creation So that the suffering this to run through all the Race is no more only different in degrees and extent than the Suffering the folly or madness of a man to infect his Posterity In these things God acts as the Creator of the World by general Rules and these must not be altered because of the Sins and Disorders of men But they are rather to have their course that so Sin may be its own punishment The defilement of the Race being thus stated a Question remains Whether this can be properly called a Sin and such as deserves God's Wrath and Damnation On the one hand an opposition of Nature to the Divine Nature must certainly be hateful to God as it is the root of much malignity and sin Such a Nature cannot be the Object of his Love and of it self it cannnot be accepted of God Now since there is no mean in God between Love and Wrath Acceptation and Condemnation if such persons are not in the first order they must be in the second Yet it seems very hard on the other hand to apprehend how persons who have never actually sinned but are only unhappily descended should be in consequence to that under so great a misery To this several answers are made Some have thought that those who die before they commit any actual Sin have indeed no share in the favour of God but yet that they pass unto a state in the other World in which they suffer little or nothing The stating this more clearly will belong to another Opinion which shall be afterwards Explained There is a further Question made Whether this Vicious Inclination is a Sin or not Those of the Church of Rome as they believe that Original Sin is quite taken away by Baptism so finding that this corrupt Disposition still remains in us they do from thence conclude that it is no part of Original Sin but that this is the Natural State in which Adam was made at first only it is in us without the restraint or bridle of Supernatural Assistances which was given to him but lost by Sin and restored to us in Baptism But as was said formerly Adam in his first state was made after the Image of God so that his bodily powers were perfectly under the command of his mind This Revolt that we feel our Bodies and Senses are always in cannot be supposed to be God's Original Workmanship There are great Disputings raised concerning the meaning of a long Discourse of St. Paul's the 7th of the Romans concerning a constant struggle that he felt within himself which some arguing
the design and effect of the Sin and Trespass-Offerings among the Iews and more particularly of the Goat that was offered up for the Sins of the whole People on the day of Atonement This was a piece of Religion well known both to Iew and Gentile that had a great many Phrases belonging to it such as the Sacrifices being offered for or instead of Sin and in the name or on the account of the Sinner it s bearing of Sin and becoming Sin or the Sin-offering it s being the Reconciliation the Atonement and the Redemption of the Sinner by which the Sin was no more imputed but forgiven and for which the Sinner was accepted When therefore this whole set of Phrases in its utmost extent is very often and in a great variety applied to the Death of Christ it is not possible for us to preserve any Reverence for the New Testament or the Writers of it so far as to think them even honest men not to say Inspired men if we can imagine That in so Sacred and Important a Matter they could exceed so much as to represent that to be our Sacrifice which is not truly so This is a Point that will not bear Figures and Amplifications it must be treated of strictly and with a just exactness of Expression Christ is called the lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world he is said to have born our sins on his own body to have been made sin for us John 1.29 1 Pet. 2.24 2 Cor. 5.21 Matth. 20.28 Rom. 3.25 1 Joh 2.1 Eph 1.7 Col. 1.14 20 21. Heb. 9.11 12 13 14 26 28. it is said That he gave his life a ransom for many That he was the propitiation for the sins of the whole world and that we have redemption through his blood even the remission of our sins It is said That he hath reconciled us to his Father in his cross and in the body of his flesh through death That he by his own blood entred in once into the Holy place having obtained Eternal Redemption for us That once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself That he was once offered to bear the sins of many That we are sanctified by the offering of the body of Christ once for all And That after he had offered one sacrifice for sin he sate down for ever at the right hand of God It is said That we enter into the holiest by the blood of Christ That is the blood of the New Covenant Heb. 10.10 12 14 19 29. Heb. 13.12.20 1 Pet. 1.19 1 Pet. 2.24 1 Pet. 3.18 by which we are sanctified That he hath sanctified the people with his own blood and was the great shepherd of his people through the blood of the everlasting Covenant That we are redeemed with the precious blood of Christ as of a Lamb without blemish and without spot And That Christ suffered once for sins the just for the unjust that he might bring us to God In these and a great many more passages that he spread in all the parts of the New Testament it is as plain as words can make any thing That the Death of Christ is proposed to us as our Sacrifice and Reconciliation our Atonement and Redemption So it is not possible for any man that considers all this to imagine That Christ's Death was only a Confirmation of his Gospel a Pattern of a holy and patient suffering of Death and a necessary preparation to his Resurrection by which he gave us a clear proof of a Resurrection and by consequence of Eternal Life as by his Doctrine he had shewed us the way to it By this all the high commendations of his Death amount only to this That he by dying has given a vast Credit and Authority to his Gospel which was the powerfullest mean possible to redeem us from Sin and to reconcile us to God But this is so contrary to the whole design of the New Testament and to the true Importance of that great variety of Phrases in which this Matter is set out that at this rate of Expounding Scripture we can never know what we may build upon especially when the great Importance of this thing and of our having right Notions concerning it is well considered St. Paul does in his Epistle to the Romans state an opposition between the Death of Christ Rom 5.12 to the end and the Sin of Adam the ill effects of the one being removed by the other but he plainly carries the Death of Christ much further than that it had only healed the Wound that was given by Adam's Sin for as the judgment was of one sin to Condemnation the free gift is of many offences to justification but in the other places of the New Testament Christ's Death is set forth so fully as a Propitiation for the Sins of the whole World that it is a very false way of arguing to inferr That because in one place That is set in opposition to Adam's Sin that therefore the virtue of it was to go no further than to take away that Sin It has indeed removed that but it has done a great deal more besides Thus it is plain That Christ's Death was our Sacrifice The meaning of which is this That God intending to reconcile the World to himself and to encourage Sinners to repent and turn to him thought fit to offer the pardon of Sin together with the other Blessings of his Gospel in such a way as should demonstrate both the Guilt of Sin and his Hatred of it and yet with that his love of Sinners and his compassions towards them A free Pardon without a Sacrifice had not been so agreeable neither to the Majesty of the Great Governor of the World nor the Authority of his Laws nor so proper a method to oblige men to that strictness and holiness of Life that he designed to bring them to And therefore he thought fit to offer his Pardon and those other Blessings through a Mediator who was to deliver to the World this new and holy Rule of Life and to confirm it by his own unblemisht Life And in conclusion when the Rage of Wicked men who hated him for the Holiness both of his Life and of his Doctrine did work them up into such a fury as to pursue him to a most Violent and Ignominious Death he in compliance with the secret design of his Father did not only go through that dismal series of Sufferings with the most intire Resignation to his Father's Will and with the highest Charity possible towards those who were his most Unjust and Malicious Murderers but he at the same time underwent great Agonies in his Mind which struck him with such an Amazement and Sorrow even to the Death that upon it he did sweat great drops of Blood and on the Cross he felt a withdrawing of those comforts that till then had ever supported him when he cried out
God had been their God Ver. 31.32 but still was their God Now when God is said to be a God to any by that is meant that he is their Benefactor or exceeding rich reward as was promised to Abraham Exod. 3.6 And that therefore Abraham Isaac and Iacob lived unto God that is were not dead But were then in a happy state of life in which God did reward them and so was their God Whether this Argument rests here our Saviour designing only to prove against the main error of the Sadducees that we have Souls distinct from our Bodies that shall outlive their separation from them or if it goes further to prove the rising of the Body it self I shall not determine On the one hand our Saviour seems to apply himself particularly to prove the Resurrection of the Body so we must see how to find here an Argument for that to Answer the Scope of the whole Discourse Yet on the other hand it may be said that he having proved the main Point of the Soul 's subsisting after death which is the Foundation of all Religion the other Point which was chiefly denied because that was thought false would be more easily both acknowledged and believed As for the Resurrection of the Body all that can be brought from hence as an Argument to prove it is That since God was the God of Abraham Isaac and Iacob and by consequence their Benefactor and Rewarder and yet they were Pilgrims on this Earth and suffered many Tossings and Troubles that therefore they must be rewarded in another State or because God promised that to them he would give the Land of Canaan as well as to their Seed after them and since they never had any Portion of it in their own possession that therefore they shall rise again and with the other Saints reign on Earth and have that Promise fulfilled in themselves From all this the Assertion of the Article is as to one main Point made good That the Old Fathers look'd for more than Transitory Promises It is also clear That they looked for a further Pardon of Sin than that which their Law held forth to them in the Expiation made by Sacrifices Sins of Ignorance or Sins of a lower sort were those only for which Sin or Trespass-offerings were appointed The Sins of a higher Order were punished by Death by the Hand of Heaven or by cutting off so that such as sinned in that kind were to dye without Mercy Heb. 10.28 Yet when David had fallen into the most heinous of those Sins he prays to God for a Pardon according to God's Loving-kindness Psal. 51.1 2 16 1â— and the Multitude of his tender Mercies For he knew that they were beyond the Expiation by Sacrifice The Prophets do often call the Iews to repent of their Idolatry and other crying Sins such as Oppression Injustice and Murder with the Promise of the Pardon of them even though they were of the deepest Dye as Crimson and Scarlet Since then Isa. 1.18 for lesser Sins an Expiation was appointed by Sacrifice besides their confessing and repenting of it and since it seems by St. Paul's way of arguing that they held it for a Maxim That without shedding of blood there was no remission of sins this might naturally lead them to think that there was some other consideration that was interposed in order to the pardoning of those more heinous Sins For a greater degree of Guilt seems by a natural Proportion to demand a higher degree of Sacrifice and Expiation But after all whatsoever Isaiah Daniel or any other Prophet might have understood or meant by those Sacrificatory Phrases that they use in speaking of the Messiah Isa. 53. Dan. 9. yet it cannot be said from the Old Testament That in that Dispensation it was clearly revealed that the Messias was to die and to become a Sacrifice for Sin The Messias was indeed promised under general terms but there was not then a full and explicite Revelation of his being to dye for the Redemption of Mankind Yet since the most heinous Sins were then pardoned though not by virtue of the Sacrifices of that Covenant nor by the other means prescribed in it we have good reason to affirm that according to this Article Life was offered to Mankind in the Old Dispensation by Christ who was with relation to the obtaining the Favour of God and Everlasting Life the Mediator of that as well as of the New Dispensation In the New Testament he is set in opposition to the Old Adam that as in the one all died so in the other all were made alive Nor is it any way incongruous to say That the Merit of his Death should by an Anticipation have saved those who died before he was born For that being in the view of God as certain before as after it was done it might be in the Divine Intention the Sacrifice for the Old as well as it is expresly declared to be the Sacrifice for the New Dispensation And this being so God might have pardoned Sins in consideration of it even to those who had no distinct Apprehensions concerning it For as God applies the Death of Christ by the secret Methods of Grace to many Persons whose Circumstances do render them incapable of the express Acts of laying hold on it the want of those for instance in Infants and Ideots being supplied by the goodness of God So though the Revelation that was made of the Messias to the Fathers under the Old Dispensation was only in general and Prophetical Terms of which they could not have a clear and distinct knowledge yet his Death might be applied to them and their Sins pardoned through him upon their performing such Acts as were proportioned to that Dispensation and to the Revelation that was then made And so they were reconciled to God even after Sins for which no Sacrifices were appointed by their Dispensation upon their Repentance and Obedience to the Foederal Acts and Conditions then required which supplied the want of more express Acts with relation to the Death of Christ not then distinctly revealed to them But though the Old Fathers had a Conveyance of the Hope of Eternal Life made to them with a Resurrection of their Bodies and a Confidence in the Mercy of God for pardoning the most heinous Sins yet it cannot be denied but that it was as a light that shined in a dark place till the day-star did arise 2 Pet. 1.19 and that Christ brought life and immortality to light by his Gospel giving us fuller and clearer discoveries of it both with relation to our Souls and Bodies and that by him also God has declared his righteousness for the remission of sins Rom. 3.24 25. through the forbearance of God through the redemption that is in Christ Iesus and through Faith in his blood The Third Branch of this Article will not need much Explanation as it will bear no dispute except with Iews
Figuratively of the Wrath of God due for Sin which Christ bore in his Soul besides the Torments that he suffered in his Body And they think that these are here mentioned by themselves after the Enumeration of the several steps of his bodily Sufferings And this being equal to the Torments of Hell as it is that which delivers us from them might in a large way of Expression be called a descending into Hell But as neither the word descend nor Hell are to be found in any other place of Scripture in this sense nor in any of the Ancients among whom the Signification of this Phrase is more likely to be found than among Moderns So this being put after Buried it plainly shews that it belongs to a period subsequent to his Burial There is therefore no regard to be had to this Notion Othets have thought That by Christ's descent into Hell is to be understood his continuing in the State of the Dead for some time But there is no Ground for this conceit neither these words being to be found in no Author in that Signification Many of the Fathers thought That Christ's Soul went locally into Hell and preached to some of the Spirits there in Prison 1 Pet. 3.19 that there he triumphed over Satan and spoiled him and carried some Souls with him into Glory But the account that the Scriptures give us of the Exaltation of Christ begins it always at his Resurrection Nor can it be imagined That so memorable a Transaction as this would have been passed over by the Three first Evangelists and least of all by St. Iohn who coming after the rest and designing to supply what was wanting in them and intending particularly to magnify the Glory of Christ could not have passed over so wonderâ—ul an Instance of it We have no reason to think that such a matter would have been only insinuated in general words and not have been plainly related The Triumph of Christ over Principalities and Powers is ascribed by St. Paul to his Cross and was the Effect and Result of his Death The place of St. Peter seems to relate to the Preaching to the Gentile World by virtue of that Inspiration that was derived from Christ which was therefore called his Spirit and the Spirits in Prison were the Gentiles who were shut up in Idolatry as in Prison Eph. 2.2 2 Cor. 4.4 Isa. 61.2 and so were under the Power of the Prince of the Power of the Air who is called the God of this World that is of the Gentile World It being one of the ends for which Christ was Anointed of his Father to open the prisons to them that were bound So then though there is no harm in this Opinion yet it not being Founded on any part of the History of the Gospel and it being supported only by passages that may well bear another sense we may lay it aside notwithstanding the Reverence we bear to those that asserted it and that the rather because the first Fathers that were next the Source say nothing of it Another Counceit has had a great course among some of the latest Fathers and the Schoolmen They have fancied that there was a place to which they have given a peculiar name Limbus Patrum a sort of a Partition in Hell where all the Good Men of the Old Dispensation that had died before Christ were detained and they hold that our Saviour went thither and emptied that Place carrying all the Souls that were in it with him to Heaven Of this the Scriptures say nothing not a word either of the Patriarchs going thither or of Christ's delivering them out of it And though there are not in the Old Testament express Declarations and Promises made concerning a Future State Christ having brought life and immortality to light through his Gospel yet all the Hints given of it shew that they looked for an Immediate Admission to Blessedness after death So David Thou wilt shew me the path of life Psal. 16.11 Acts 2.31 Psal. 73.27 Isa. 37.2 in thy presence is fulness of joy and at thy right hand are pleasures for evermore Thou shalt guide me here by thy counsel and afterwards receive me to glory Isaiah says That the righteous when they dye enter into peace In the New Testament there is not a Hint given of this for though some Passages may seem to favour Christ's delivering some Souls out of Hell yet there is nothing that by any management can be brought to look this way There is another Sense of which these words descended into Hell are capable See Bishop Person on the Creed by Hell may be meant the Invisible Place to which departed Souls are carried after their death For though the Greek word so rendred does now commonly stand for the Place of the Damned and for many Ages has been so understood yet at the time of writing the New Testament it was among Greek Authors used indifferently for the place of all departed Souls whether good or bad and by it were meant the Invisible Regions where those Spirits were lodged So if these words are taken in this large sense we have in them a clear and literal account of our Saviour's Soul descending into Hell it imports that he was not only dead in a more common acceptation as it is usual to say a man is dead when there appear no signs of life in him and that he was not as in a deep Extasy or Fit that seemed Death but that he was truly dead that his Soul was neither in his Body noâ— hovering about it ascending and descending upon it as some of the Iews fancied Souls did for some time after death but that his Soul was really removed out of his Body and carried to those unseen Regions of departed Spirits among whom it continued till his Resurrection That the Regions of the Blessed were known then to the Iews by the name of Paradise as Hell was known by the name of Gehenna is very clear from Christ's last Words To day thou shalt be with me in Paradise â—uke 23 4â— â—6 and into thy hands do I commend my spirit This is a plain and full account of a good Sense that may be well put on the Words though after all it is still to be remembred That in the first Creeds that have this Article that of Christ's Burial not being mentioned in them it follows from thence as well as from Ruffin's own Sense of it that they understood this only of Christ's Burial ARTICLE IV. Of the Resurrection of Christ. Christ did truly rise again from Death and took again his Body with Flesh Bones and all things appertaining to the Perfection of Man's Nature wherewith he ascended into Heaven and there sitteth until he return to judge all Men at the Last Day THere are Four Branches of this Article The First is concerning the Truth of Christ's Resurrection The Second concerning the Compleatness of it That he took to him again his whole
that Affectation of Sublimity had denied that there was any Reward and from thence sprung the Sect of the Sadducees so these men perhaps at first mistaking the meaning of the New Testament went wrong only in their Notions and still meant to press the necessity of true Holiness though in another set of Phrases and upon other Motives yet from thence many wild and ungovern'd Notions arose then and were not long ago revived among us All which flowed from their not understanding the Importance of the Word Law in the New Testament in which it stands most commonly for the complex of the whole Iewish Religion in opposition to the Christian as the Word Law when it stands for a Book is meant of the Five Books of Moses The maintaining the whole frame of that Dispensation in opposition to that Liberty which the Apostles granted to the Gentiles as to the Ritual parts of it was the Controversy then in debate between the Apostles and the Judaizing Christians The stating that matter aright is a Key that will open all those difficulties which with it will appear easy and without it insuperable In opposition to these who thought then that the Old Testament having brought the World on to the knowledge of the Messias was now of no more use this Article was framed The Second Part of the Article relates to a more Intricate Matter and that is whether in the Old Testament there were any promises made other than Transitory or Temporal ones and whether they might look for Eternal Salvation in that Dispensation and upon what account Whether Christ was the Mediator in that Dispensation or if they were saved by Virtue of their Obedience to the Laws that were then given them Those who deny that Christ was truly God think that in order to the raising him to those great Characters in which he is proposed in the New Testament it is necessary to assert that he gave the first assurances of Eternal Happiness and of a free and full pardon of all Sins in his Gospel And that in the Old Testament neither the one nor the other were certainly and distinctly understood It is true That if we take the words of the Covenant that Moses made between God and the People of Israel strictly and as they stand they Import only Temporal Blessings That was a Covenant with a Body of Men and with their Posterity as they were a People engaged to the Obedience of that Law Now a National Covenant could only be establish'd in Temporal promises of Publick and Visible Blessings and of a long continuance of them upon their Obedience and in Threatnings of as signal Judgments upon the Violation of them But under those general promises of what was to happen to them Collectively as they made up one Nation every single person among them might and the good men among them did gather the hopes of a future State It is clear that Moses did all along suppose the Being of God the Creation of the World and the promise of the Messias as things fully known and carried down by Tradition to his days So it seems he did also suppose the knowledge of a future State which was then generally believed by the Gentiles as well as the Iews though they had only dark and confused Notions about it But when God was establishing a Covenant with the Iewish Nation a main part of which was his giving them the Land of Canaan for an Inheritance it was not necessary that Eternal Rewards or Punishments should be then proposed to them But from the Tenor of the promises made to their Forefathers and from the General Principles of Natural Religion not yet quite extinguished among them they might gather this That under those Carnal promises Blessings of a higher nature were to be understood And so we see that David had the hope of arriving at the presence of God and at his right hand where he believed there was a fulness of joy and pleasures for evermore And he puts himself in this opposition to the wicked Ps. 16.11 Ps. 17.14 15. That whereas their portion was in this life and they left their substance to their Children he says That as for him he should behold God's Face in righteousness and should be satisfied when he awaked with his likeness which seems plainly to relate to a state after this Life and to the Resurrection He carries this opposition further in another Psalm where after he had said That men in honour did not continue but were like the beasts that perished Ps. 49.14 15. That none of them could purchase immortality for his brother that he should still live for ever and not see Corruption They all died and left their wealth to others and like sheep they were laid in the grave where death should feed on them In opposition to which he says That the upright should have dominion over them in the morning Which is clearly a Poetical Expression for another day that comes after the night of Death As for himself in particular he says That God shall redeem my Soul that is his Life or his Body for in those senses the word Soul is used in the Old Testament from the power of the grave That is from continuing in that state of death for he shall receive me This does very clearly set forth David's belief both of future Happiness and of the Resurrection of his Body To which might be added some other passages in the Psalms Ecclesiastes Ps. 84.11.87.6.90.17.96.17 Eccl. 11.9.12.14 Isa. 25.8.26.19 Dan. 12.2 Isaiah and Daniel In all which it appears That the holy men in that Dispensation did understand That under those promises in the Books of Moses that seemed literally to belong to the Land of Canaan and other Temporal Blessings there was a Spiritual meaning hid which it seems was conveyed down by that Succession of Prophets that was among them as the mystical sense of them It is to this that our Saviour seems to appeal when the Sadducees came to puzzle him with that question of the seven Brethren who had all married one Wife He first tells them They erred not knowing the Scriptures which plainly Imports That the Doctrine which they denied was contained in the Scriptures Matt. 22. â—â— and then he goes to prove it not from those more express passages that are in the Prophets and Holy Writers which as some think the Sadducees rejected but from the Law which being the Source of their Religion it might seem a just prejudice against any Doctrine especially if it was of great Consequence that it was not contained in the Law Therefore he cites these words that are so often repeated and that were so much considered by the Iews as containing in them the Foundation of God's love to them that God said upon many occasions particularly at his first appearance to Moses I am the God of Abraham the God of Isaac and the God of Iacob Which words imported not only that
had certainly put the chief strength of their Cause on this That they adhered to the Apostles Creed in opposition to the Innovations of the Nicene Fathers There is therefore no reason to believe that this Creed was prepared by the Apostles or that it was of any great Antiquity since Ruffin was the first that published it It is true he published it as the Creed of the Church of Aquileia but that was so late that neither this nor the other Creeds have any Authority upon their own account Great Respect is indeed due to things of such Antiquity and that have been so long in the Church but after all we receive those Creeds not for their own sakes nor for the sake of those who prepared them but for the sake of the Doctrine that is contained in them because we believe that the Doctrine which they declare is contained in the Scriptures and chiefly that which is the main Intent of them which is to assert and profess the Trinity therefore we do receive them tho we must acknowledge that the Creed ascribed to Athanasius as it was none of his so it was never established by any General Council ARTICLE IX Of Original or Birth-Sin Original Sin standeth not in the following of Adam as the Pelagians do vainly talk but it is the fault or corruption of the nature of every man that naturally is engendred of the Offspring of Adam whereby man is very far gone from Original Righteousness and is of his own nature inclined to evil so that the Flesh lusteth always contrary to the Spirit and therefore in every Person born into the World it deserveth God's Wrath and Damnation And this Infection of Nature doth remain yea in them that are regenerated whereby the Lust of the Flesh called in Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which some do expound the Wisdom some Sensuality some the Affection some the Desire of the Flesh is not subject to the Law of God And though there is no Condemnation for them that believe and are baptized yet the Apostle doth confess That Concupiscence and Lust hath of it self the nature of Sin AFter the First Principles of the Christian Religion are stated and the Rule of Faith and Life was setled the next thing that was to be done was to declare the special Doctrines of this Religion and that first with relation to all Christians as they are single Individuals for the directing every one of them in order to the working out his own Salvation which is done from this to the Nineteenth Article And then with relation to them as they compose a Society called the Church which is carried on from the Nineteenth to the End In all that has been hitherto explained the whole Church of England has been all along of one mind In this and in some that follow there has been a greater diversity of Opinion but both sides have studied to prove their Tenets to be at least not contrary to the Articles of the Church These different Parties have disputed concerning the Decrees of God and those Assistances which pursuant to his Decrees are afforded to us But because the Foundation of those Decrees and the Necessity of those Assistances are laid in the Sin of Adam and in the Effects it had on Mankind therefore thâ—se Controversies begin on this Head The Pelagians and the Socinians agree in saying That Adam's Sin was Personal That by it as being the first Sin it is said that Sin entred into the World But that as Adam was made mortal â—om 5 1â— and had died whether he had sinned or not so they think the liberty of Human Nature is still entire and that every man is punished for his own sins and not for the sin of another to do otherwise they say seems contrary to Justice not to say Goodness In opposition to this Iudgment is said to have come upon many to condemnation through one either Man or Sin ver 1â— Death is said to have reigned by one and by one man's offence and many are said to be dead through the offence of one All these Passages do intimate that death is the consequence of Adam's Sin and that in him as well as in all others Death was the Wages of Sin so also that we dye upon the account of his Sin We are said to bear the Image of the first Adam as true Christians bear the Image of the second Now we are sure that there is both a derivation of Righteousness 1 Cor 15.49 and a Communication of Inward Holiness transferred to us through Christ So it seems to follow from thence that there is somewhat both transferred to us and conveyed down throughMankind by the first Adam and particularly that by it we are all made subject to Death from which we should have been freed if Adam had continued in his first state and that by virtue of the Tree of Life Gen. 3.22 in which some think there was a natural Virtue to cure all Diseases and relieve against all Accidents while others do ascribe it to a Divine Blessing of which that Tree was only the Symbol or Sacrament through the words said after Adam's sin as the reason of driving him out of Paradise lest he put forth his hand and take of the Tree of Life and eat and live for ever seem to import that there was a Physical Virtue in the Tree that could so fortify and restore Life as to give Immortality These do also think that the Threatning made to Adam That upon his eating the forbidden Fruit he should surely dye is to be taken literally and is to be carried no further than to a Natural Death This Subjection to Death and to the Fear of it brings men under a slavish Bondage many Terrors and other Passions and Miseries that arise out ofit which they think is a great Punishment and that it is a Condemnation and Sentence of Death passed upon the whole Race and by this they are made sinners that is treated as guilty Persons and severely punished This they think is easily enough reconciled with the Notions of Justice and Goodness in God since this is only a Temporary Punishment relating to mens Persons And we see in the common methods of Providence that Children are in this sort often punished for the sins of their Fathers most men that come under a very ill habit of Body transmit the Seeds of Diseases and Pains to their Children They do also think that the Communication of this liableness to death is easily accounted for and they imagine that as the Tree of Life might be a Plant that furnished men with an Universal Medicine so the forbidden Fruit might derive a slow Poyson into Adam's Body that might have exalted and inflamed his Blood very much and might though by a slower operation certainly brought on death at the last Our being thus adjudged to Death and to all the Miseries that accompany Mortality they think may be well called the wrath of
Literal and Grammatical Sense Since therefore the words God's wrath and damnation which are the highest in the Article are capable of a lower sense Temporary Judgments being often so expressed in the Scriptures Ex. 32.10 and 〈◊〉 the whole Old Testâ—ment Mat. 3.7 1 Thess. 2.16 Luk. 23.40 1 Cor. 11.29 1 Pet. 4.17 Rom. 13.2 2 Câ—r 7.5 John 8.10 11. Rom. 14.13 therefore they believe the loss of the Favour of God the Sentence of Death the Troubles of Life and the Corruption of our Faculties may be well called God's wrath and damnation Besides they observe That the main point of the Imputation of Adam's Sin to his Posterity and its being considered by God as their own Act not being expresly taught in the Article here was that moderation observed which the Compilers of the Articles have shewed on many other occasions It is plain from hence that they did not intend to lay a Burthen one Mens Consciences or oblige them to profess a Doctrine that seems to be of hard digestion to a great many The last prejudice that they offer against that Opinion is That the softening the terms of God's wrath and damnation that was brought in by the followers of St. Austin's Doctrine to sâ—ch a moderate and harmless Notiâ—n as to be only a loss of Heaven with a sort of unactive Sâ—â—ep was â—n effect of their apprehending that the World could very ill bear an Opinion of so strange a sound as that all Mankind were to be Damned for the Sin of one Man And that therefore to make this pass the beâ—ter they mitigated Damnation far below the Representation that the Scriptures generally give of it which propose it as the being adjudged to a place of Torment and a state of Horror and Misery Thus I have set down the different Opinions in this point with that true Indifference that I intend to observe on such other occasions and which becomes one who undertakes to explain the Doctrines of the Church and not his own And who is obliged to purpose other Mens Opinions with all Sincerity and to shew what are the Senses that the Learned Men of different persuasions in these matters have put on the words of the Article In which one great and constant Rule to be observed is To represent mens Opinions candidly and to judge as favourably both of them and their Opinions as may be To bear with one another and not to disturb the Peace and Union of the Church by insisting too much and too peremptorily upon matters of such doubtful Disputaion but willingly to leave them to all that liberty to which the Church has left them and which she still allows them ARTICLE X. Of Free-Will The Condition of Man after the Fall of Adam is such that he cannot turn and prepare himself by his own natural strength and good works to Faith and calling upon God Wherefore we have no power to do good works pleasant and acceptable to God without the Grace of God by Christ preventing us that we may have a good will and working with us when we have that good will WE shall find the same Moderation observed in this Article that was taken notice of in the former where all disputes concerning the degrees of that feebleness and corruption under which we are fallen by the Sin of Adam are avoided and only the necessity of a preventing and a cooperating Grace is asserted against the Semipelagians and the Pelagians But before we enter upon that it is fitting first to state the true Notion of Free-Will in so far as it is necessary to all rational Agents to make their Actions morally good or bad since it is a Principle that seems to rise out of the Light of Nature That no man is accountable rewardable or punishable but for that in which he acts freely without force or compulsion and so far all are agreed Some imagine That Liberty must suppose a freedom to do or not to do and to act contrariwise at pleasure To others it seems not necessary that such a liberty should be carried to denominate Actions morally good or bad God certainly acts in the perfectest liberty yet he cannot sin Christ had the most exalted liberty in his Human Nature of which a Creature was capable and his Merit was the highest yet he could not sin Angels and glorified Saints though no more capable of Rewards are perfect Moral Agents and yet they cannot sin And the Devils with the damned though not capable of further Punishment yet are still Moral Agents and cannot but sin So this Indifferency to do or not to do cannot be the true Notion of Liberty A truer one seems to them to be this That a Rational Nature is not determined as mere Matter by the Impulse and Motion of other Bodies upon it but is capable of Thought and upon considering the Objects set before it makes Reflection and so chuses Liberty therefore seems to consist in this inward capacity of thinking and of acting and chusing upon Thought The clearer the Thought is and the more constantly that our choice is determined by it the more does a Man rise up to the highest Acts and sublimest Exercises of Liberty A question arises out of this Whether the Will is not always determined by the Understanding so that a Man does always chuse and determine himself upon the account of some Idea or other If this is granted then no liberty will be left to our Faculties We must apprehend things as they are proposed to our Understanding for if a thing appears true to us we must assent to it and if the Will is as blind to the Understanding as the Understanding is determined by the Light in which the Object appears to it then we seem to be concluded under a Fate or Necessity It is after all a vain attempt to argue against every man's experience We perceive in our selves a liberty of turning our Minds to some Ideas or from others we can think longer or shorter of these more exactly and steadily or more slightly and superficially as we please and in this radical freedom of directing or diverting our Thoughts a main part of our Freedom does consist Often Objects as they appear to our Thoughts do so affect or heat them that they do seem to conquer us and carry us after them some Thoughts seeming as it were to intoxicate and charm us Appetites and Passions when much fired by Objects apt to work upon them do agitate us strongly and on the other hand the Impressions of Religion come often in our Minds with such a secret force so much of Terror and such secret Joy mixing with them that they seem to master us yet in all this a Man Acts freely because he thinks and chuses for himself And though perhaps he does not feel himself so entirely balanced that he is indifferent to both sides yet he has still such a remote liberty that he can turn himself to other Objects and Thoughts so
unless we do thus believe It were not suteable to the Truth and Holiness of the Divine Nature to void a Covenant so solemnly made and that in favour of wicked men who will not be reformed by it So Faith is the certain and necessary Mean of our Salvation and is so put by Christ since upon our having it we shall be saved as well as damned upon our not having it On the other hand the nature of a Ritual Action even when commanded is such that unless we could imagine that there is a Charm in it which is contrary to the Spirit and Genius of the Gospel which designs to save us by reforming our Natures we cannot think that there can be any thing in it that is of it self effectual as a Mean therefore it must only be considered as a Command that is given us which we are bound to obey if we acknowledge the Authority of the Command But this being an Action that is not always in our power but is to be done by another it were to put our Salvation or Damnation in the power of another to imagine that we cannot be saved without Baptism and therefore it is only a Precept which obliges us in order to our Salvation and our Saviour by leaving it out when he reversed the words saying only he that believeth not without adding and is not Baptized shall be damned does plainly insinuate that it is not a Mean but only a Precept in order to our Salvation As for the Ends and Purposes of Baptism St. Paul gives us two the one is that we are all baptized into onâ— body we are made members one of another 1 Cor. 12.13 We are admitted to the Soâ—â—â—ty of Christians and to all the Rights and Priviledges of that Body which is the Church And in order to this the outward action of Baptism when regularly gone about is sufficient We cannot see into the sincerity oâ— mens Hearts Outward Professions and regular Actions are all that fall under mens Observation and Judgment But a second End of Baptism is Internal and Spiritual Of this St. Paul speaks in very high terms when he says that God has saved us according to his mercy Tit. 3.5 by the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost It were a strange perverting the design of these words to say that somewhat Spiritual is to be understood by this washing of regeneration and not Baptism when as to the word save that is here ascribed to it St. Peter gives that undeniably to Baptism and St. Paul elsewhere in two different places Rom. 6. Col. 2. makes our Baptism to represent our being dead to sin and buried with Christ and our being risen and quickned with him and made alive unto God which are words that do very plainly import Regeneration So that St. Paul must be understood to speak of Baptism in these words here then is the inward effect of Baptism It is a death to sin and a new life in Christ in imitation of him and in conformity to his Gospel So that here is very expresly delivered to us somewhat that rises far above the Badge of a Profession or a Mark of difference That does indeed belong to Baptism it makes us the visible Members of that one Body into which we are Baptized or admitted by Baptism but that which saves us in it which both deadens and quickens us must be a thing of another nature If Baptism were only the receiving us into the Society of Christians there were no need of saying I Baptize thee in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost It were more proper to say I Baptize thee in the Name or by the Authority of the Church Therefore these august words that were dictated by our Lord himself shew us that there is somewhat in it that is Internal which comes from God that it is an admitting men into somewhat that depends only on God and for the giving of which the authority can only be derived by him But after all this is not to be believed to be of the nature of a Charm as if the very act of Baptism carried always with it an inward Regeneration Here we must confess that very early some Doctrines arose upon Baptism that we cannot be determined by The words of our Saviour to Nicodemus were expounded so as to import the absolute necessity of Baptism in order to Salvation for it not being observed that the Dispensation of the Messias was meant by the Kingdom of God but it being taken to signifie Eternal Glory that expression of our Saviour's was understood to import this that no Man could be saved unless he were Baptized so it was believed to be simply necessary to Salvation A natural consequence that followed upon that was to allow all Persons leave to Baptize Clergy and Laity Meâ— and Women since it seemed necessary to suffer every Person to do that without which Salvation could not be had Upon this these hasty Baptisms were used without any special Sponsion on the part of those who desired it of which it may be reasonably doubted whether such a Baptism be true in which no Sponsion is made and this cannot be well answered but by saying that a general and an implied Sponsion is to be considered to be made by their Parents while they desire them to be Baptized Another Opinion that arose out of the former was the mixing of the outward and the inward effects of Baptism It being believed that every Person that was born of the Water was also born of the Spirit and that the renewing of the Holy Ghost did always accompany the washing of Regeneration And this obliged St. Austin as was formerly told to make that difference between the regenerate and the predestinated for he thought that all who were Baptized were also regenerated St. Peter has stated this so fully that if his words are well considered they will clear the whole matter He after he had set forth the miserable state in which Mankind was under the figure of the Deluge in which an Ark was prepared for Noah and his Family says upon that The like figure whereunto even Baptism doth also now save us 1 Pet. 3 21. Upon which he makes a short digression to explain the nature of Baptism not the putting away the filth of the flesh but the answer or the Demand and Interrogation of a good conscience towards God by the Resurrection of Iesus Christ who is gone into Heaven The meaning of all which is that Christ having risen again and having then had all power in heaven and in earth given to him he had put that vertue in Baptism that by it we are saved as in an Ark from that miserable state in which the world lies and in which it must perish But then he explains the way how it saves us that it is not as a Physical action as it washes away the filthiness of the flesh
the concurrence of other Churches In the way of managing this every Body of Men has somewhat peculiar to it self and the Pastors of that Body are the properest Judges in that matter We know that the several Churches even while under one Empire had great varieties in their Forms as appears in the different Practices of the Eastern and Western Churches And as soon as the Roman Empire was broken we see this Variety did increase The Gallican Churches had their Missals different from the Roman And some Churches of Italy followed the Ambrosian But Charles the Great in compliance with the desires of the Pope got the Gallican Churches to depart from their own Missals and to receive the Roman which he might the rather do intending to have raised a New Empire to which a Conformity of Rights might have been a great Step. Even in this Church there was a great Variety of Usages which perhaps were begun under the Heptarchy when the Nation was subdivided into several Kingdoms It is therefore suitable to the Nature of Things to the Authority of the Magistrate and to the Obligations of the Pastoral Care That every Church should act within her self as an entire and independent Body The Churches owe only a Friendly and Brotherly Correspondence to one another but they owe to their own Body Government and Direction and such Provisions and Methods as are most likely to promote the great Ends of Religion and to preserve the Peace of the Society both in Church and State Therefore we are no other way bound by Antient Canons but as the same reason still subsisting we may see the same cause to continue them that there was at first to make them Of all the Bodies of the World the Church of Rome has the worst Grace to reproach us for departing in some Particulars from the Antient Canons since it was her ill Conduct that had brought them all into desuetude And it is not easy to revive again Antiquated Rules even though there may be good reason for it when they fall under that tacit Abrogation which arises out of a long and general disuse of them ARTICLE XXXV Of Homilies The Second Book of Homilies the several Titles whereof we have joined under this Article doth contain a godly and wholesome Doctrine and necessary for these Times as doth the Former Book of Homilies which were set forth in the Time of Edward the Sixth and therefore we judg them to be read in Churches by the Ministers diligently and distinctly that they may be understanded of the People The Names of the Homilies 1. Of the right use of the Church 2. Against Peril of Idolatry 3. Of repairing and keeping clean of Churches 4. Of Good Works First Of Fasting 5. Against Gluttony and Drunkenness 6. Against Excess of Apparel 7. Of Prayer 8. Of the Place and time of Prayer 9. That common Prayers and Sacraments ought to be ministred in a known tongue 10. Of the reverent estimation of God's Word 11. Of Alms-doing 12. Of the Nativity of Christ. 13. Of the Passion of Christ. 14. Of the Resurrection of Christ. 15. Of the worthy receiving of the Sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ. 16. Of the Gifts of the Holy Ghost 17. For the Rogation-days 18. Of the state of Matrimony 19. Of Repentance 20. Against Idleness 21. Against Rebellion AT the time of the Reformation as there could not be found at first a sufficient Number of Preachers to instruct the whole Nation so those that did comply with the changes which were then made were not all well-affected to them so that it was not safe to trust this matter to the Capacity of the one side and to the Integrity of others Therefore to supply the Defects of some and to oblige the rest to teach according to the Form of sound Doctrine there were two Books of Homilies prepared the first was published in King Edward's time the second was not finished till about the time of his Death so it was not published before Queen Elizabeth's time The Design of them was to mix Speculative Points with Practical matters Some explain the Doctrine and others enforce the Rules of Life and Manners These are plain and short Discourses chiefly calculated to possess the Nation with a Sense of the Purity of the Gospel in opposition to the Corruptions of Popery and to reform it from those crying Sins that had been so much connived at under Popery while men knew the Price of them how to compensate for them and to redeem themselves from the Guilt of them by Masses and Sacraments by Indulgences and Absolutions In these Homilies the Scriptures are often applied as they were then understood not so critically as they have been explained since that time But by this Approbation of the two Books of Homilies it is not meant that every Passage of Scripture or Argument that is made use of in them is always convincing or that every Expression is so severely worded that it may not need a little Correction or Explanation All that we profess about them is only that they contain a godly and wholesom Doctrine This ratheâ— relates to the main Importance and Design of them than to every Passagâ— in them Though this may be said concerning them That considering thâ— Age they were written in the Imperfection of our Language and some lesser Defects they are Two very extraordinary Books Some of them arâ— better writ than others and are equal to any thing that has been writ upon those Subjects since that time Upon the whole matter every one whâ— subscribes the Articles ought to read them otherwise he subscribes a Blank he approves a Book implicitely and binds himself to read it as he may be required without knowing any thing concerning it This Approbation is not to be stretched so far as to carry in it a special Assent to every Particular in that whole Volume but a man must be persuaded of the main of the Doctrine that is taught in them To instance this in one particular since there are so many of the Homilies that charge the Church of Rome with Idolatry and that from so many different Topicks no man who thinks that Church is not guilty of Idolatry can with a good Conscience subscribe this Article That the Homilies contain a good and wholesom Doctrine and necessary for these times for according to his sense they contain a false and an uncharitable Charge of Idolatry against a Church that they think is not guilty of it and he will be apt to thâ—nk that this was done to heighten the Aversion of the Nation to it Therefore any who have such favourable thoughts of the Church of Rome are bound by the force of that Persuasion of theirs not to sign this Article but to declare against it as the authorizing of an Accusation against a Church which they think is ill grounded and is by consequence both unjust and uncharitable By necessary for these times is not to be meant
Violence of Wicked men We owe to Human Society and to the Safety and Order of the World our Endeavours to put a stop to the Wickedness of Men which a good man may do with great inward Tenderness to the Souls of those whom he prosecutes It is highly probable that as nothing besides such a Method could stop the Progress of Injustice and Wickedness so nothing is so likely a Mean to bring the Criminal to repent of his sins and to fit him to dye as a Christian as to condemn him to dye for his Crimes If any thing can awaken his Conscience and strike Terror in him that will do it Therefore as Capital Punishments are necessary to Human Society so they are often real Blessings to those on whom they fall And it may be affirmed very positively That a man who can harden himself against the Terrors of Death when they come upon him so solemnly so slowly and so certainly he being in full Health and well able to reflect on the Consequences of it is not like to be wrought on by a longer continuance of Life or by the Methods of a Natural Death It is not possible to fix Rules to which Capital Punishments ought to be proportioned It is certain that in a full Equality Life only can be set against Life But there may be many other Crimes that must end in the Ruin of Society and in the Dissolution of all Order and all the Commerce that ought to be among men if they go unpunished In this all Princes and States must judge according to the real Exigencies and Necessities that appear to them Nor can any general Rules be made save only this That since Man was made after the Image of God and that the Life of Man is precious and when once extinguished it ceases for evermore therefore all due Care and Tenderness ought to be had in preserving it and since the End of Government is the Preservation of Mankind therefore the Lives of Men ought not to be too lightly taken except as it appears to be necessary for the Preservation and Safety of the Society Under the Gospel as well as under the Law the Magistrate is the Minister of God and has the Sword put in his hand which he beareth not in vain Rom. 13.4 for he is appointed to be a revenger to execute wrath on him that doth evil The natural signification of his carrying the Sword is That he has an Authority for punishing Capitally since it is upon those occasions only that he can be said to use the Sword as a Revenger Nor can Christian Charity oblige a man whom the Law has made to be the Avenger of Blood or of other Crimes to refuse to comply with that obligation which is laid upon him by the Constitution under which he is born He can only forgive that of which he is the Master but the other is a Debt which he owes the Society and his private forgiving of the wrong done himself does not reach to that other obligation which is not in his own power to give away The last Paragraph in this Article is concerning the Lawfulness of Wars Some have thought all Wars to be contrary to Christian Charity to be inhuman and barbarous and that therefore men ought according to the Rule set us by our Saviour Not to resist evil But when one Injury is done not only to bear it Matth. 5.39 but to shew a readiness rather to receive new ones turning the other cheek to him that smites us on the one going two miles with him that shall compel us to go one with him And giving our Cloak to him that shall take away our Coat 40. It seems just that by a parity of reason Societies should be under the same Obligations to bear from other Societies that single Persons are under to other single Persons This must be acknowledged to be a very great difficulty for as on the one hand the words of our Saviour seem to be very express and full so on the other hand if they are to be understood literally they must cast the World loose and expose it to the Injustice justice and Insolence of wicked persons who would not fail to take advantages from such a compliance and submission Therefore these words must be considered first as addressed to private persons then as relating to smaller Injuries which can more easily be born and finally as Phrases and Forms of Speech that are not to be carried to the utmost extent but to be construed with that softning that is to be allowed to the use of a Phrase So that the meaning of that Section of our Saviours Sermon is to be taken thus That private Persons ought to be so far from pursuing Injuries to the equal Retaliation of an eye for an eye or a tooth for a tooth that they ought in many cases to bear Injuries without either resisting them or making returns of evil for evil shewing a Patience to bear even repeated Injuries when the matter is small and the wrong tolerable Under all this secret conditions are to be understood such as when by such our Patience we may hope to overcome evil with good or at least to shew to the World the Power that Religion has over us to check and subdue our Resentments In this case certainly we ought to sacrifice our just Rights either of defence or of seeking reparation to the Honour of Religion and to the gaining of men by such an Heroical Instance of Virtue But it cannot be supposed that our Saviour meant that good men should deliver themselves up to be a Prey to be devoured by bad men or to oblige his Followers to renounce their Claims to the Protection and Reparations of Law and Justice In this St. Paul gives us a clear Commentary on our Saviour's words He reproves the Corinthians for going to Law with one another and that before unbelievers 1 Cor. 6.6 7. when it was so great a Scandal to the Christian Religion in its first Infancy He says Why do not ye take wrong why do not ye suffer your selves to be defrauded Yet he does not deny but that they might claim their Rights and seek for redress therefore he proposes their doing it by Arbitration among themselves and only urges the Scandal of suing before Heathen Magistrates so that his Reproof did not fall on their suing one another but on the scandalous manner of doing it Therefore men are not bound up by the Gospel from seeking Relief before a Christian Judge and by consequence those words of our Saviour's are not to be urged in the utmost extent of which they are capable If private persons may seek Reparation of one another they may also seek Reparations of the Wrongs that are done by those who are under another Obedience and every Prince owes a Protection to his People in such cases for he beareth not the Sword in vain He is their Avenger He may demand Reparation by
such Forms as are agreed on among Nations and when that is not granted he may take such Reparation from any that are under that Obedience as may oblige the whole Body to repair the Injury Much more may he use the Sword to protect his Subjects if any other comes to invade them For this end chiefly he has both the Sword given him and those Taxes paid him that may enable him to support the Charge to which the use of it may put him And as a private man owes by the Ties of Humanity Assistance to a man whom he sees in the hands of Thieves and Murderers so Princes may assist such other Princes as are unjustly fallen upon both out of humanity to him who is so ill used and to repress the Insolence of an unjust Aggressor and also to secure the whole Neighbourhood from the effects of Success in such unlawful Conquests Upon all these accounts we do not doubt but that Wars which are thus originally as to the first occasion of them Defensive though in the Progress of them they must be often offensive may be lawful God allowed of Wars in that Policy which he himself constituted in which we are to make a great difference between those things that were permitted by reason of the hardness of their hearts and those things which were expresly commanded of God These last can never be supposed to be immoral since commanded by God whose Precepts and Judgments are altogether righteous When the Soldiers came to be baptized of St. Iohn he did not charge them to relinquish that course of Life Luk. 3.14 but only to do violence to no man to accuse no man falsly and to be content with their wages Nor did St. Peter charge Cornelius to forsake his Post when he baptized him â—cts 10. The Primitive Christians thought they might continue in Military Employments in which they preserved the Purity of their Religion entire as appears both from Tertullian's Works and from the History of Iulian's short Reign But though Wars that are in their own nature only Defensive are lawful and a part of the Protection that Princes owe their People yet unjust Wars designed for making Conquests for the enlargement of Empire and the raising the Glory of Princes are certainly publick Robberies and the highest Acts of Injustice and Violence possible in which men sacrifice to their Pride or Humour the Peace of the World and the Lives of all those that dye in the Quarrel whose Blood God will require at their hands Such Princes become accountable to God in the highest degree imaginable for all the Rapine and Bloodshed that is occasioned by their Pride and Injustice When it is visible that a War is unjust certainly no man of Conscience can serve in it unless it be in the Defensive part For though no man can owe that to his Prince to go and murder other persons at his command yet he may owe it to his Country to assist towards its Preservation from being over-run even by those whom his Prince has provoked by making War on them unjustly For even in such a War though it is unlawful to serve in the Attacks that are made on others it is still lawful for the People of every Nation to defend themselves against Foreigners There is no Cause of War more unjust than the propagating the true Religion or the destroying a false one That is to be left to the Providence of God who can change the hearts of men and bring them to the knowledg of the Truth when he will Ambition and the desire of Empire must never pretend to carry on God's work The wrath of man worketh not out the righteousness of God And it were better barefacedly to own that men are set on by Carnal Motives than to prophane Religion and the Name of God by making it the Pretence ARTICLE XXXVIII Of Christian Mens Goods which are not common The Riches and Goods of Christians are not common as touching the right Title and Possession of the same as certain Anabaptists do falsly boast Notwithstanding every man ought of such things as he possesseth liberally to give Alms to the Poor according to his Ability THere is no great difficulty in this Article as there is no danger to be apprehended that the Opinion condemned by it is like to spread Those may be for it who find it for them The Poor may claim to it but few of the Rich will ever go into it The whole Charge that is given in the Scripture for Charity and Almsgiving all the Rules that are given to the Rich and to Masters to whom their Servants were then Properties and Slaves do clearly demonstrate that the Gospel was not designed to introduce a Community of Goods And even that Fellowship or Community which was practised in the first beginnings of it was the effect of particular mens Charity and not of any Law that was laid on them Barnabas having land sold it and laid the Price of it at the Apostles feet And when St. Peter chid Ananias for having vowed to give in the whole Price of his Land to that distribution and then withdrawing a part of it Acts 4.36 37· and by a Lye pretending that he had brought it all in he affirmed that the Right was still in him till he by a Vow had put it out of his power When God fed his People by Miracle with the Manna there was an equal distribution made yet when he brought them into the promised Land every man had his Property The equal division of the Land was the foundation of that Constitution but still every man had a Property and might improve it by his Industry either to the increasing of his Stock the purchasing Houses in Towns or buying of Estates till the Redemption at the Jubilee It can never be thought a just and equitable thing that the sober and industrious should be bound to share the fruits of their labour with the idle and the luxurious This would be such an Incouragement to those whom all wise Governments ought to discourage and would so discourage those who ought to be encouraged that all the Order of the World must be dissolved if so extravagant a Conceit should be entertained Both the Rich and the Poor have Rules given them and there are Virtues suitable to each state of Life The Rich ought to be sober and thankful modest and humble bountiful and charitable out of the abundance that God has given them and not to set their hearts upon uncertain Riches but to trust in the living God and to make the best use of them that they can The Poor ought to be patient and industrious to submit to the Providence of God and to study to make sure of a better Portion in another State than God has thought fit to give them in this World It will be much easier to persuade the World of the Truth of the first part of this Article than to bring them up
were to deliver him up â— Sam. 23. â—1 12. and yet both the one and the other was upon the condition of his staying there and he going from thence neither the one nor the other ever happen'd Here was a Conditionate Prescience Such was Christ's saying That those of Tyre and Sidon Sodom and Gomorrah would have turned to him Matth. 11. â—1 22. if they had seen the Miracles that he wrought in some of the Towns of Galilee Since then thisPrescience may be so certain that it can never be mistaken nor misguide theDesigns orProvidence of God and since by this both the Attributes of God are vindicated and the due Freedom of the Will of Man is asserted all difficulties seem to be easily cleared this way As for the giving to some Nations and Persons the Means of Salvation and the denying these to others the Scriptures do indeed ascribe that wholly to the Riches and Freedom of God's Grace but still they think that he gives to all Men that which is necessary to the state in which they are to answer the Obligations they are under in it And that this Light and common Grace is sufficient to carry them so far that God will either accept of iâ— or give them further degrees of Illumination From which it must be inferâ—â—d That all Men are inexcusable in his sight and that God is always just and clear when he judges Psal. 51.4 since every Man had that which was sufficient if not to save him yet at least to bring him to a state of Salvation But besides what is thus simply necessary and is of it self sufficient thâ—râ—â—re innumerable Favours like Largesses of God's Grace and Goodness these â—od gâ—ves freely as he pleases And thus the great Designs of Providence go on according to the Goodness and Mercy of God None can complain tho' some have more cause 〈◊〉 rejoice and glory in God than others What happens to Nations in a Body may also happen to Individuals some may have higher Privileges â—e put in happier Circumstances and have such Assistances given them as God foresees will become effectual and not only those which though they be in their nature sufficient yet in the Event will be ineffectual Every Man ought to complain of himself for not using that which was sufficient as he might have done and all good Men will have matter of rejoycing in God for giving them what he foresaw would prove effectual After all they acknowledge there is a depth in this of God's not giving all Nations an equal measure of Light nor putting all Men into equally happy Circumstances which they cannot unriddle but still Justice Goodness and Truth are saved tho' we may imagine a Goodness that may do to all Men what is absolutely the best for them And there they confess there is a difficulty but not equal to those of the other side From hence it is that they expound all those Passages in the New Testament concerning the Purpose the Election the Foreknowledge and the Predestination of God so often mentioned All those they say relate to God's design of calling the Gentile World to the knowledge of the Messias This was kâ—pt secret tho' Hints of it are given in several of the Prophets so it was a Mystery but it was then revealed when according to Christ's Commission to his Apostles to go and teach all Nations they went Preaching the Gospel to the Gentiles This was a Stumbling-block to the Iews and it was the chief Subject of Controversy betwixt them and the Apostles at the time when the Epistles were writ So it was necessary for them to clear this very fully and to come often over it But there was no need of amusing People in the beginnings of Christianity and in that first infancy of it with high and unsearchable Speculations concerning the Decrees of God Therefore they observe that the Apostles shew how that Abraham at first Isaac and Iacob afterwards were chosen by a discriminating Favour That they and their Posterity should be in Covenant with God And upon that occasion the Apostle goes on to shew that God had always designed to call in the Gentiles though that was not executed but by their Ministry With this Key one will find a plain coherent sense in all St. Paul's Discourses on this Subject without asserting antecedent and special Decrees as to particular Persons Things that happen under a permissive and directing Providence may be also in a largeness of expression ascribed to the Will and Counsel of God for a permissive and directing Will is really a Will though it be not antecedent nor causal The hardning Pharaoh's heart may be ascribed to God though it is said that his heart hardned it self Exod. 7.22 Exod. 8.15 19 32. because he took occasion from the stops God put in those Plagues that he sent upon him and his People to encourage himself when he saw there was a new Respite granted him And he who was a cruel and bloody Prince deeply engaged in Idolatry and Magick had deserved such Judgments for his other Sins so that he may be well considered as actually under his final Condemnation only under a Reprieve not swallowed up in the first Plagues but preserved in them and raised up out of them to be a lasting Monument of the Justice of God against such hardned Impenitency Whom he will he hardneth Rom. 9.18 must be still restrained to such Persons as that Tyrant was It is endless to enter into the discussion of all the Passages cited from the Scripture to this purpose this Key serving as they think it does to open most of them It is plain these Words of our Saviour concerning those whom the Father had given him are only to be meant of a Dispensation of Providence and and not of a Decree since he adds And I have lost none of them Joh. 17.12 Phil. 2.12 Acts 13.48 except the son of Perdition For it cannot be said that he was in the Decree and yet was lost And in thâ— same Period in which God is said to work in us both to will and to do we are required to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling The Word rendered ordained to eternal life does also signify fitted or predisposed to Eternal Life That Question Who made thee to differ 1 Cor. 4.7 seems to refer to those Gifts which in different degrees and measures were poured out on the first Christians in which Men were only passive and discriminated from one another by the freedom of those Gifts without any thing previous in them to dispose them to them Christ is said to be the Propitiation for the sins of the whole world 1 Joh. 2.2 2 Pet. 2.1 and the wicked are said to deny the Lord that bought them and his Death as to its extent to all men is set in opposition to the Sin of Adam so that as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men
to condemnation so by the righteousness of one Rom. 5.18 the free gift came upon all men to justification of life The all of the one fide must be of the same extent with the all of the other So since all are concerned in Adam's Sin all must be likewise concerned in the Death of Christ. This they urge further with this Argument That all Men are obliged to believe in the Death of Christ but no Man can be obliged to believe a Lye therefore it follows that he must have died for all Nor can it be thought that Grace is so efficacious of it self as to determine us otherwise why are we required not to grieve God's Spirit Why is it said Acts 7.51 Matth. 23 37. Ye do always resist the Holy Ghost as your fathers did so do ye How often would I have gathered you under my wings but ye would not What more could I have done in my vineyard that has not been done in it These seem to be plain Intimations of a Power in us Isa. 5.4 by which we not only can but often do resist the Motions of Grace If the determining Efficacy of Grace is not acknowledged it will be yet much harder to believe that we are efficaciously determined to Sin This seems to be not only contrary to the Purity and Holiness of God but is so manifestly contrary to the whole Strain of the Scriptures that charges Sin upon Men that in so copious a Subject it is not necessary to bring Proofs Hos. 13.9 Joh. 5.40 Ezâ—k 33.14 O Israel thou hast destroyed thy self but in me is thy help And ye will not come unto me that ye may have life Why will you dye O house of Israel And as for that Nicety of saying That the Evil of Sin consists in a Negation which is not a positive Being so that though God should determine Men to the Action that is sinful yet he is not concerned in the Sin of it They think it is too Metaphysical to put the Honour of God and his Attributes upon such a Subtilty For in Sins against Moral Laws there seems to be an Antecedent Immorality in the Action it self which is inseparable from it But suppose that Sin consisted in a Negative yet that Privation does immediately and necessarily result out of the Action without any other thing whatsoever intervening So that if God does infallibly determine a Sinner to commit the Action to which that Guilt belongs tho' that should be a Sin only by reason of a Privation that is dependent upon it then it does not appear but that he is really the Author of Sin since if he is the Author of the sinful Action on which the Sin depends as a Shadow upon its Substance he must be esteemed say they the Author of Sin And though it may be said That Sin being a Violation of God's Law he himself who is not bound by his Law cannot be guilty of Sin yet an Action that is Immoral is so essentially opposite to Infinite Perfection that God cannot be capable of it as being a contradiction to his own Nature Nor is it to be supposed that he can Damn Men for that which is the necessary result of an Action to which he himself determined them As for Perseverance the many Promises made in the Scriptures to them that overcome Rev. 2 3. that continue stedfast and faithful to the death seem to insinuate that a Man may fall from a good state Those famous Words in the Sixth of the Hebrews Heb. 6. do plainly intimate That such men may so fall away that it may be impossible to renew them again by repentance And in that Epistle Heb. 10. where it is said The just shall live by faith it is added but if he draw back any man is not in the Original my Soul shall have no pleasure in him And it is positively said by the Prophet Ezek. 18.24 When the righteous turneth away from his righteousness and committeth iniquity all his righteousness that he hath done shall not be mentioned in his sin that he hath sinned shall he dye These Suppositions with a great many more of the same strain that may be brought out of other places do give us all possible reason to believe that a good Man may fall from a good state as well as that a wicked Man may turn from a bad one In conclusion the End of all things the Final Judgment at the Last Day which shall be pronounced according to what Men have done whether good or evil and their being to be rewarded and punished according to it seems so effectually to assert a Freedom in our Wills that they think this alone might serve to prove the whole Cause So far I have set forth the Force of the Argument on the side of the Remonstrants As for the Socinians they make their Plea out of what is said by the one and by the other side They agree with the Remonstrants in all that they say against Absolute Decrees and in urging all those Consequences that do arise out of them And they do also agree with the Calvinists in all that they urge against the possibility of a certain Prescience of future Contingents So that it will not be necessary to set forth their Plea more specially nor needs more be said in opposition to it than what was already said as part of the Remonstrants Plea Therefore without dwelling any longer on that I come now to make some Reflections upon the whole Matter It is at first view apparent That there is a great deal of weight in what has been said of both Sides So much that it is no wonder if Education the constant attending more to the Difficulties of the one side than of the other and a Temper some way proportioned to it does fix Men very steddily to either the one or the other Persuasion Both Sides have their Difficulties so it will be natural to chuse that Side where the Difficulties are least felt But it is plain there is no reason for either of them to despise the other since the Arguments of both are far from being contemptible It is further to be observed That both Sides seem to be chiefly concerned to assert the Honour of God and of his Attributes Both agree in this That whatever is fixed as the primary Idea of God all other things must be Explained so as to be consistent with that Contradictions are never to be admitted but things may be justly believed against which Objections may be formed that cannot be easily answered The one Side think That we must begin with the Idea of Infinite Perfection of Independency and Absolute Soveraignty And if in the Sequel Difficulties occur which cannot be cleared that ought not to shake us from this primary Idea of God Others think That we cannot frame such clear Notions of Independency Soveraignty and Infinite Perfection as we can do of Justice Truth Holiness Goodness and