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
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
with that we do also perceive the advantage of such an easy Thought as arises out of a Sensation such as Seeing or Hearing which gives us no trouble we think without any trouble of many of the Objects that we see all at once or so near all at once that the progression from one Object to another is scarce perceptible but the labour of Study and of pursuing Consequences wearies us though the Pleasure or the Vanity of having found them out compensates for the Pain they gave us and sets men on to new Enquiries We perceive in our selves a love of Truth and a vexation when we see we are in Error or are in the dark and we feel that we act the most perfectly when we act upon the clearest Views of Truth and in the strictest pursuance of it and the more present and regular the more calm and steady that our Thoughts of all things are that lye in our compass to know present past or to come we do plainly perceive that we do thereby become perfecter and happier Beings Now out of all this we can easily rise up in our Thoughts to an Idea of a Mind that sees all things by a clear and full Intuition without the possibility of being mistaken and that ever acts in that Light upon the surest Prospect and with the perfectest Reason and that does therefore always rejoice in every thing it does and has a constant Perception of all Truth ever present to it This Idea does so genuinely arise from what we perceive both of the Perfections and the Imperfections of our own Minds that a very little Reflection will help us to form it to a very high degree The Perception also that we have of Goodness of a desire to make others good and of the pleasure of effecting it of the joy of making any one wiser or better of making any one's Life easy and of raising his Mind higher will also help us in the forming of our Ideas of God But in this we meet with much difficulty and disappointment So this leads us to apprehend how diffusive of it self Infinite Goodness must needs be and what is the Eternal Joy that Infinite Love has in bringing so many to that exalted state of endless Happiness We do also feel a Power issuing from us by a Thought that sets our Bodies in motion The Varieties in our Thoughts create a vast Variety in the state of our Bodies but with this as that Power is limited to our own Bodies so it is often check'd by Disorders in them and the Soul suffers a great deal from those painful Sensations that its Union with the Body subjects it to From hence we can easily apprehend how the Supreme Mind can by a Thought set Matter into what Motions it will all Matter being constantly subject to such Impressions as the Acts of the Divine Mind give it This Absolute Dominion over all Matter makes it to move and shapes it according to the Acts of that Mind and Matter has no Power by any Irregularity it falls into to resist those Impressions which do immediately command and govern it nor can it throw any uneasy Sensations into that Perfect Being This conduces also to give us a distinct Idea of Miracles All Matter is uniform and it is only the variety of its Motions and Texture that makes all the variety that is in the World Now as the Acts of the Eternal Mind gave Matter its first Motion and put it into that Course that we do now call the Course of Nature so another Act of the same Mind can either suspend stop or change that Course at pleasure as he who throws a Bowl may stop it in its Course or throw it back if he will this being only the altering that Impulse which himself gave So if one Act of the Infinite Mind puts things in a regular Course another Act interposed may change that at pleasure And thus with Relation to God Miracles are no more difficult than any other Act of Providence They are only more amazing to us because they are less ordinary and go out of the Common and Regular Course of Things By all this it appears how far the Observation of what we perceive concerning our selves may carry us to form livelier and clearer Thoughts of God So much may suffice upon the First Article ARTICLE II. Of the Word or Son of God which was made very Man The Son which is the Word of the Father begotten from Everlasting of the Father the very and Eternal God of One Substance with the Father took Man's Nature in the Womb of the Blessed Uirgin of her Substance so that two whole and perfect Natures that is the Godhead and Manhood were joined together in one Person never to be divided whereof is one Christ very God and very Man who truly suffered was dead and buried to reconcile his Father to us and to be a Sacrifice not only for Original guilt but also for actual Sins of Men. THERE are in this Article Five Heads to be Explained I. That the Son or Word is of the same Substance with the Father begotten of him from all Eternity II. That he took Man's Nature upon him in the Womb of the Blessed Virgin and of her Substance III. That the Two Natures of the Godhead and Manhood both still perfect were in him joined in one Person never to be divided IV. That Christ truly suffered was Crucified Dead and Buried V. That he was our Sacrifice to Reconcile the Father to us and that not only for Original Guilt but for Actual Sins The first of these leads me to prosecute what was begun in the former Article And to prove That the Son or Word was from all Eternity begotten of the same Substance with the Father It is here to be noted That Christ is in Two respects the Son and the only begotten Son of God The one is As he was Man the Miraculous overshadowing of the B. Virgin by the H. Ghost having without the ordinary course of Nature formed the first beginnings of Christ's Human Body in the Womb of the Virgin Thus that Miracle being instead of a Natural begetting he may in that respect be called the begotten and the only begotten Son of God The other sense is That the Word or the Divine Person was in and of the Substance of the Father and so was truly God It is also to be considered That by the Word one Substance is to be understood that this second Person is not a Creature of a Pure and Excellent Nature like God Holy and Perfect as we are called to be but is truly God as the Father is Begetting is a term that naturally signifies the Relation between the Father and the Son But what it strictly signifies here is not possible for us to understand till we comprehend this whole Matter nor can we be able to assign a Reason why the Emanation of the Son and not that of the H. Ghost likewise is called begetting In
God and damnation So Temporary Judgments are often expressed in Scripture And to this they add That Christ has entirely redeemed us from this by the Promise he has given us of raising us up at the Last Day And that therefore when St. Paul is so copiously discoursing of the Resurrection he brings this in That as we have born the image of the first Adam who was earthy so we shall also bear the image of the heavenly and since by man came death 1 Cor. 15.21 22. In Ep. ad Rom. passim by man came also the resurrection from the dead and that as in Adam all dye so in Christ shall all be made alive and that this is the Univesal Redemption and Reparation that all mankind shall have in Christ Jesus All this these Divines apprehend is conceivable and no more therefore they put Original Sin in this only for which they pretend they have all the Fathers with them before St. Austin and particularly St. Chrysostom and Theodoret from whom all the latter Greeks have done little more than copied out their words This they do also pretend comes up to the words of the Article for as this general adjudging of all men to dye may be called according to the Stile of the Scriptures God's wrath and damnation so the fear of Death which arises out of it corrupts mens Natures and inclines them to evil Others do so far approve of all this as to think that it is a part of Original Sin yet they believe it goes much farther and that there is a Corruption spread through the whole Race of Mankind which is born with every man This the Experience of all Ages teaches us but too evidently every man feels it in himself and sees it in others The Philosophers who were sensible of it thought to avoid the difficulty that arises from it when it might be urged That a good God could not make men to be Originally depraved and wicked they therefore fancied that all our Souls pre-existed in a former and purer state from which they fell by descending too much into Corporeal pleasure and so both by a lapse and for a punishment they sunk into grosser Bodies and fell differently according to the different degrees of the Sins they had committed in that state And they thought that a Virtuous Life did raise them up to their former pitch as a Vicious one would sink them lower into more depraved and more miserable Bodies All this may seem plausible But the best that can be said for it is That it is an Hypothesis that saves some difficulties but there is no sort of proofs to make it appear to be true We neither perceive in our selves any remembrances of such a state nor have we any warning given us either of our fall or of the means of recovering out of it So since there is no reason to affirm this to be true we must seek for some other source of the Corruption of human Nature The Manichees imputed it to the Evil God and thought it was his work which some say might have set on St. Austin the more earnestly to look for another Hypothesis to reconcile all But before we go to that it is certain that in Scripture this general Corruption of our Nature is often mentioned The Imaginations of man's thoughts are only evil continually Gen. 6.5.8.21 1 Kings 8.46 Prov. 24.16 Jer. 17.9 2 Cor. 5.17 Eccl. 7.20 Gal. 5.17 Rom. 8.7 8. John 3.6 What man is he that liveth and sinneth not The just man falleth seven times a day The heart of man is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked who can know it All that are in Christ must become new Creatures old things must be done away and every thing must become new God made man upright but he sought out to himself many Inventions The Flesh is weak The Flesh lusteth against the Spirit The carnal mind is enmity to the law of God and is not subject to the law of God neither indeed can be And they that are in the Flesh cannot please God Where by Flesh is to be meant the natural State of Mankind according to those words That which is born of the Flesh is Flesh and that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit These with many other places of Scripture to the same purpose when they are joined to the universal Experience of all Mankind concerning the Corruption of our whole Race lead us to settle this point that in Fact it has over-run our whole kind the contagion is spread over all Now this being setled we are next to enquire how this could happen We cannot think that God made men so For it is expresly said Gen. 1 27. That God made man after his own Image The surest way to find out what this Image was at first is to consider What the New Testament says of it when we come to be restored to it We must put on the new man Eph. 4.22 24. after the Image of him that created him or as elsewhere the new man in righteousness and true holiness This then was the Image of God in which man was at first made Nor ought the Image of God to be considered only as an Expression that imports only our representing him here on Earth and having Dominion over the Creatures For in Genesis the Creation of Man in the Image of God is expressed as a thing different from his Dominion over the Creatures Gen. 1.27 28. which seems to be given to him as a consequent of it The Image of God seems to be this That the Soul of Man was a Being of another Sort and Order than all those material Beings till then made which were neither capable of Thought nor Liberty in which respect the Soul was made after the Image of God But Adam's Soul being put in his Body his Brain was a Tabula rasa as White Paper had no Impressions in it but such as either God put in it or such as came to him by his senses A Man born deaf and blind newly come to hear and see is not a more Ignorant and Amazed-like Creature than Adam must have been if God had not conveyed some great impressions into him such as first the acknowledging and obeying him as his Maker and then the managing his Body so as to make it an Instrument by which he could make use of and observe the Creation There is no reason to think that his Body was at first inclined to Appetite and that his Mind was apt to serve his Body but that both were restrained by supernatural Assistances It is much more natural and more agreeable to the words of the Wise-man to think that God made man upright that his Body craved modestly and that his Mind was both Judge and Master of those cravings and if a natural Hypothesis may be offered but only as an Hypothesis it may be supposed That a Man's blood was naturally low and cool but that it was
and dwelling in us and by our being rooted and grounded in him 2 Cor. 6.16 Heb. 4.16 Jam. 1.5 1 Joh. 39. our being the Temples of God a holy habitation to him through his Spirit our being sealed by the Spirit of God to the day of Redemption by all those directions to pray for grace to help in time of need and to ask wisdom of God that gives liberally to all men as also by the Phrases of being born of God and the having his seed abiding in us These and many more places which return often through the New Testament seem to put it beyond all doubt that there are inward Communications from God to the Powers of our Souls by which we are made both to apprehend the Truths of Religion to remember and reflect on them and to consider and follow them more effectually How these are applied to us is a great difficulty indeed but it is to litle purpose to amuse our selves about it God may convey them immediately to our Souls if he will but it is more intelligible to us to imagine that the Truths of Religion are by a Divine direction imprinted deep upon our Brain so that naturally they must affect us much and be oft in our Thoughts And this may be a Hypothesis to explain Regeneration or habitual Grace by When a deep Impression is once made there may be a direction from God in the same way that his Providence runs through the whole Material World given to the Animal Spirits to move towards and strik upon that Impression and so to excite such Thoughts as by the Law of the Union of the Soul and Body do correspond to it This may serve for a Hypothesis to explain the Conveyance of Actual Grace to us But these are only proposed as Hypotheses that is as methods or possible ways how such things may be done and which may help us to apprehend more distinctly the manner of them Now as this Hypothesis has nothing in it but what is truly Philosophical so it is highly congruous to the Nature and Attributes of God That if our Facultiâ—s aâ—â— fallen under a decay and corruption so that bare Instruction is not like to prevail over us he should by some secret methods rectify this in us Our Experience tells us but too often what a fâ—eble thing Knowledge and Speculation is when it engages with Nature strongly assaulted How our best Thoughts fly from us and forsake us whereas at other times the sense of these things lies with a due weight on our Minds and has another effect upon us The way of conveying this is invisible our Saviour compared it to the wind that bloweth where it listeth Joh. 3.8 no man knows whence it comes and whither it goes No man can give an account of the sudden changes of the Wind and of that vast force with which the Air is driven by it which is otherwise the most yielding of all Bodies to which he adds so is every one that is born of the Spirit This he brings to illustrate the meaning of what he had said That except a man was born again of Water and of the Spirit he could not enter into the kingdom of God And to shew how real and internal this was he adds That which is born of the flesh is flesh that is a Man has the Nature of those Parents from whom he is descended by Flesh being understood the Fabrick of the Human Body animated by the Soul in opposition to which he subjoins That which is born of the Spirit is spirit that is to say a Man thus regenerated by the Operation of the Spirit of God comes to be of a Spiritual Nature With this I conclude all that seemed necessary to be proved That there are inward Assistances given to us in the New Dispensation I do not dispute whether these are fitly called Grace for perhaps that word will scarce be found in that Sense in the Scriptures it signifying more largely the Love and Favour of God without restraining it to this Act or Effect of it The next thing to be proved is That there is a preventing Grace by which the Will is first moved and disposed to turn to God It is certain that the first Promulgation of the Gospel to the Churches that were gathered by the Apostles is ascribed wholly to the Riches and Freedom of the Grace of God This is fully done in the Epistle to the Ephesians in which their former Ignorance and Corruption is set forth under the Figures of blindness of being without hope Eph. 2.2.12 and without God in the world and dead in trespasses and sins they following the course of this world and the prince of the power of the Air and being by nature children of wrath that is under Wrath I dispute not here concerning the meaning of the word by Nature whether it relates to the Corruption of our Nature in Adam or to that general Corruption that had overspread Heathenism and was become as it were another Nature â—o them In this single Instance we plainly see that there was no previous disposition to the first preaching of the Gospel at Ephesus Many expressions of this kind though perhaps not of this force are in the other Epistles St. Paul in his Epistle to the Romans puts God's chusing of Abraham upon this That it was of grace not of debt Rom. 4.2 otherwise Abraham might have had whereof to glory And when he speaks of God's casting off the Iews and grafting the Gentiles upon that Stock from which they were cut off he ascribes it wholly to the Goodness of God towards them Rom. 11.20 and charges them not to be high-minded but to fear In his Epistle to the Corinthians he says That not many wise mighty nor noble were chosen but God had chosen the foolish the weak and the base things of this world 1 Cor. 1.26 so that no flesh should glory in his presence And he urges this further in words that seem to be as applicable to particular Persons as to Communities or Churches Who maketh thee to differ from another and what hast thou 1 Cor. 4.7 that thou didst not receive now if thou didst receive it why dost thou glory as if thou hadst not received it From these and many more passages of the like nature it is plain that in the Promulgation of the Gospel Isa. 65.1 God was found of them that sought not to him and heard of them that called not upon him that is he prevented them by his Favour while there were no previous dispositions in them to invite it much less to merit it From this it may be inferred That the like method should be used with relation to particular Persons We do find very express Instances in the New Testament of the Conversion of some by a Preventing Grace It is said Acts 16.14 That God opened tâ—e heart of Lydia so that she attended to the things that were spoken