much from the Blessed Virgin on the one hand as she had been over-exalted on the other So they said that Christ had only gone through her But this Impiety sunk so soon that it is needless to say any thing more to refute it The Third Branch of the Article is That these two Natures were joined in one Person never to be divided What a Person is that results from a close Conjunction of Two Natures we can only judge of it by considering Man in whom there is a Material and a Spiritual Nature joined together They are Two Natures as different as any we can apprehend among all created Beings yet these make but One Man The Matter of which the Body is composed does not subsist by it self is not under all those Laws of Motion to which it would be subject if it were mere inanimated Matter but by the Indwelling and Actuation of the Soul it has another Spring within it and has another Course of Operations According to this then to subsist by another is when a Being is acting according to its Natural Properties but yet in a constant dependance upon another Being so our Bodies subsist by the Subsistence of our Souls This may help us to apprehend how that as the Body is still a Body and operates as a Body though it subsists by the Indwelling and Actuation of the Soul so in the Person of Jesus Christ the Human Nature was entire and still acted according to its own Character yet there was such an Union and Inhabitation of the Eternal Word in it that there did arise out of that a Communication of Names and Characters as we find in the Scriptures A man is called Tall Fair and Healthy from the state of his Body and Learned Wise and Good from the qualities of his Mind So Christ is called holy harmless and undefiled is said to have died risen and ascended up into Heaven with relation to his Human Nature He is also said to be in the form of God to have created all things Phil. 2.6 Col. 1.16 to be the brightness of the Father's glory and the express image of his person with relation to his Divine Nature The Ideas that we have of what is Material and what is Spiritual Heb. 1.3 lead us to distinguish in a Man those descriptions that belong to his Body from those that belong to his Mind so the different apprehensions that we have of what is created and uncreated must be our Thread to guide us into the Resolution of those various Expressions that occur in the Scriptures concerning Christ. The design of the Definition that was made by the Church concerning Christ's having one Person was chiefly to distinguish the nature of the Indwelling of the Godhead in him from all Prophetical Inspirations The Mosaical degree of Prophecy was in many respects superior to that of all the subsequent Prophets Yet the difference is stated between Christ and Moses in terms that import things quite of another nature the one being mentioned as a Servant the other as the Son that built the House It is not said that God appeared to Christ or that he spoke to him but God was ever with him and in him Joh. 1.14 and while the Word was made flesh yet still his glory was as the glory of the only begotten Son of God The Glory that Isaiah saw was called his Glory and on the other hand God is said to have purchased his Church with his own Blood If Nestorius in opposing this meant only as some think it appears by many Citations out of him that the Blessed Virgin was not to be called simply the Mother of God but the Mother of him that was God and if that of making Two Persons in Christ was only fasten'd on him as a Consequence we are not at all concerned in the Matter of Fact whether Nestorius was misunderstood and hardly used or not but the Doctrine here asserted is plain in the Scriptures That though the Human Nature in Christ acted still according to its proper Character and had a peculiar Will yet there was such a constant Presence Indwelling and Actuation on it from the Eternal Word as did constitute both Human and Divine Nature one Person As these are thus so entirely united so they are never to be separated Christ is now exalted to the highest degrees of Glory and Honour and the Characters of Blessing Honour and Glory are represented in St. Iohn's Visions as offered to the Lamb for ever and ever It is true St. Paul speaks as if Christ's Mediatory Office and Kingdom were to cease after the Day of Judgment Rev. 5.13 and that then he was to deliver up all to the Father But though when the full number of the Elect shall be gathered the full End of his Death will be attained and when these Saints shall be glorified with him and by him his Office as Mediator will naturally come to an end yet his own Personal Glory shall never cease And if every Saint shall inherit an everlasting Kingdom much more shall he who has merited all that to them and has conferred it on them be for ever possessed of his Glory The Fourth Branch of the Article is concerning the Truth of Christ's Crucifixion his Death and Burial The Matter of Fact concerning the Death of Christ is denied by no Christian the Iews do all acknowledge it the first Enemies to Christianity did all believe this and reproached his Followers with it This was that which all Christians gloried in and avowed so that no question was made of his Death except by a small number called Docetae who were not esteemed Christians till Mahomet denied it in his Alcoran who pretends that he was withdrawn and that a Iew was crucified in his stead But this corruption of the History of the Gospel came too late afterwards to have any shadow of credit due to it nor was there any sort of Proof offered to support it So this Doctrine concerning the Death of Christ is to be received as an unquestionable Truth There is no part of the Gospel writ with so copious a Particularity as the History of his Sufferings and Death as there was indeed no part of the Gospel so important as this is The Fifth Branch of the Article is That he was a true Sacrifice to reconcile the Father to us and that not only for Original but for Actual Sins The Notion of an Expiatory Sacrifice which was then when the New Testament was writ well understood all the World over both by Iew and Gentile was this That the Sin of one Person was transferred on a Man or a Beast who was upon that devoted and offered up to God and suffered in the room of the offending Person and by this Oblation the Punishment of the Sin being laid on the Sacrifice an Expiation was made for Sin and the Sinner was believed to be reconciled to God This as appears through the whole Book of Leviticus was
yet it seems more reasonable to think that God has put us under such an Order of Being from which that does naturally follow than that he himself should interpose in every Thought The difficulty of apprehending how a thing is done can be no prejudice to the belief of it when we have the Infinite Power of God in our Thoughts who may be as easily conceived to have once for all put us in a method of receiving such Sensations by a general Law or Course of Nature as to give us new ones at every Minute But the greatest difficulty against this is That it makes God the first Physical cause of all the Evil that is in the World Which as it is contrary to his Nature so it absolutely destroys all Liberty and this puts an end to all the distinctions between Good and Evil and consequently to all Religion And as for those large Expressions that are brought from Scripture every word in Scripture is not to be stretched to the utmost Physical sense to which it can be carried It is enough if a sense is given to it that agrees to the Scope of it Which is fully Answered by acknowledging That the Power and Providence of God is over all things and that it directs every thing to Wise and Good Ends from which nothing is hid by which nothing is forgot and to which nothing can resist This Scheme of Providence fully agrees with the Notion of a Being Infinitely perfect and with all that the Scriptures affirm concerning it and it lays down a firm Foundation for all the Acts and Exercises of Religion As to the Power and Providence of God with relation to Invisible Beings we plainly perceive that there is in us a Principle capable of Thought and Liberty of which by all that appears to us Matter is not at all capable After its utmost Refinings by Fires and Furnaces it is still passive and has no Self-Motion much less Thought in it Thought seems plainly to arise from a single Principle that has no Parts and is quite another thing than the Motion of one subtle piece of Matter upon another can be supposed to be If Thought is only Motion then no part of us thinks but as it is in Motion So that only the moving Particles or rather their Surfaces that strike upon one another do think But such a Motion must end quickly in the Dissipation and Evaporation of the whole thinking-Substance nor can any of the quiescent Parts have any Perception of such Thoughts or any Reflection upon them And to say that Matter may have other Affections unknown to us besides Motion by which it may think is to affirm a thing without any sort of Reason It is rather a flying from an Argument than an Answering it No man has any reason to affirm this nor can he have any And besides all our Cogitations of Immaterial Things Proportions and Numbers do plainly show that we have a Being in us distinct from Matter that rises above it and commands it We perceive we have a freedom of Moving and Acting at pleasure All these Things give us a clear Perception of a Being that is in us distinct from Matter of which we are not able to form a compleat Idea We having only four Perceptions of its Nature and Operations 1. That it thinks 2. That it has an inward Power of Choice 3. That by its Will it can move and command the Body And 4. That it is in a close and intire Union with it That it has a dependance on it as to many of its Acts as well as an Authority over it in many other Things Such a Being that has no Parts must be immortal in its Nature for every single Being is immortal It is only the Union of Parts that is capable of being dissolved that which has no parts is indissoluble To this Two Objections are made One is That Beasts seem to have both Thought and Freedom though in a lower Order if then Matter can be capable of this in any Degree how low soever a higher Rectification of Matter may be capable of a higher Degree of it It is therefore certain That either Beasts have no Thought or Liberty at all and are only pieces of finely Organised Matter capable of many subtile Motions that come to them from Objects without them but that they have no Sensation nor Thought at all about them or since how prettily soever some may have dressed up this Notion it is that which Human Nature cannot receive or bear there being such evident Indications of even high degrees of Reason among the Beasts it is more reasonable to imagine That there may be Spirits of a lower order in Beasts that have in them a capacity of Thinking and Chusing but that so intirely under the Impressions of Matter that they are not capable of that largeness either of Thought or Liberty that is necessary to make them capable of Good or Evil of Rewards and Punishments And that therefore they may be perpetually rouling about from one Body to another Another Objection to the belief of an Immaterial Substance in us is That we feel it depends so intirely on the Fabrick and State of the Brain that a Disorder a Vapour or Humour in it defaces all our Thoughts our Memory and Imagination and since we find that which we call Mind sinks so low upon a disorder of the Body it may be reasonable to believe That it Evaporates and is quite Dissipated upon the Dissolution of our Bodies So that the Soul is nothing but the livelier Parts of the Blood called the Animal Spirits In Answer to this we know that those Animal Spirits are of such an Evanid and Subtile Nature that they are in a perpetual Waste new ones always succeeding as the former go off but we perceive at the same time that our Soul is a Stable and Permanent Being by the steddiness of its Acts and Thoughts We being for many Years plainly the same Beings and therefore our Souls cannot be such a Loose and Evaporating Substance as those Spirits are The Spirits are indeed the inward Organs of the Mind for Memory Speech and bodily Motion and as these flatten or are wasted the Mind is less able to Act As when the Eye or any other Organ of Sense is weakned the Sensations grow feeble on that side And as a Man is less able to work when all those Instruments he makes use of are blunted so the Mind may sink upon a decay or disorder in those Spirits and yet be of a Nature wholly different from them How a Mind should work on Matter cannot I confess be clearly comprehended It cannot be denied by any that is not a direct Atheist That the Thoughts of the Supreme Mind give Impressions and Motions to Matter So our Thoughts may give a Motion or the Determination of Motion to Matter and yet rise from Substances wholly different from it Nor is it unconceivable That the Supreme Mind should
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
My God My God Why hast thou forsaken me It is not easy for us to apprehend in what that Agony consisted For we understand only the Agonies of Pain or of Conscience which last arise out of the Horror of Guilt or the Apprehension of the Wrath of God It is indeed certain That he who had no Sin could have no such horror in him and yet it is as certain That he could not be put into such an Agony only through the Apprehension and Fear of that violent Death which he was to suffer next day Therefore we ought to conclude That there was an inward Suffering in his Mind as well as an outward visible one in his Body We cannot distinctly apprehend what that was since he was sure both of his own spotless Innocence and of his Father's unchangeable love to him We can only imagine a vast sense of the heinousness of Sin and a deep Indignation at the Dishonour done to God by it a melting Apprehension of the Corruption and Miseries of Mankind by reason of Sin together with a never-before-felt withdrawing of those Consolations that had always filled his Soul But what might be further in his Agony and in his last Dereliction we cannot distinctly apprehend only this we perceive That our Minds are capable of great pain as well as our Bodies are Deep horror with an inconsolable sharpness of Thought is a very intolerable thing Notwithstanding the Bodily or Substantial Indwelling of the fulness of the Godhead in him yet he was capable of feeling vast pain in his Body So that he might become a compleat Sacrifice and that we might have from his Sufferings a very full and amazing apprehension of the Guilt of Sin all those Emanations of joy with which the Indwelling of the Eternal Word had ever till then filled his Soul might then when he needed them most be quite withdrawn and he be left merely to the firmness of his Faith to his patient Resignation to the Will of his heavenly Fâ—ther and to his willing readiness of drinking up that Cup which his Father had put in his hand to drink There remains but one thing to be remembred here though it will come to be more specially Explained when other Articles are to be opened which is That this Reconciliation which is made by the Death of Christ between God and Man is not absolute and without conditions He has Established the Covenant and has performed all that was Incumbent on him as both the Priest and the Sacrifice to do and to suffer and he offers this to the World that it may be closed with by them on the terms on which it is proposed and if they do not accept of it upon these conditions and perform what is enjoined them they can have no share in it ARTICLE III. Of the going down of Christ into Hell As Christ died for us and was buried so also is it to be believed that he went down into Hell THIS was much fuller when the Articles were at first prepared and published in King Edward's Reign For these words were added to it That the body of Christ lay in the Grave untill his Resurrection but his Spirit which he gave up was with the Spirits which were detained in Prison or in Hell and preached to them as the place in St. Peter testifieth Thus a determined sense was put upon this Article which is now left more at large and is conceived in words of a more general Signification In order to the explaining this it is to be premised That the Article in the Creed of Christ's descent into Hell is mentioned by no Writer before Ruffin who in the beginning of the Fifth Century does indeed speak of it But he tells us That it was neither in the Symbol of the Roman nor of the Oriental Churches and that he found it in the Symbol of his own Church at Aquileia But as there was no other Article in that Symbol that related to Christ's Burial so the words which he gives us descendit ad Inferna he descended to the lower parts do very naturally signify Burial according to these words of St. Paul Eph. 4.9 He ascended what is it but that he also descended first to the lower parts of the Earth and Ruffin himself understood these words in that sense None of the Fathers in the first Ages neither Irenaeus Tertullian Clemens nor Origen in the short Abstracts that they give us of the Christian Faith mention any thing like this And in all that great variety of Creeds that was proposed by the many Councils that met in the Fourth Century this is not in any one of them except in that which was agreed to at Arimini and was pretended though falsly to have been made at Sirmium In that it is set down in a Greek word that does exactly answer Ruffin's Inferna 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And it stood there instead of Buried When it was put in the Creed that carries Athanasius's Name tho' made in the Sixth or Seventh Century the word was changed to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Hell But yet it seems to have been understood to signify Christ's Burial there being no other word put for it in that Creed Afterwards it was put into the Symbol of the Western Church That was done at first in the words in which Ruffin had expressed it as appears by some Ancient Copies of Creeds which were published the Great Primate Usher We are next to consider what the Importance of these words in themselves is for it is plain that the use of them in the Creed is not very Ancient nor Universal We have a most unquestionable Authority for this that our Saviour's Soul was in Hell In the Acts oâ— the Apostles St. Peter in the first Sermon that was preached after the wonderful Effusion of the Spirit at Pentecost applies these words of David concerning God's not leaving his Soul in Hell nor suffering his Holy one to see corruption to the Resurrection of Christ. Now since in the composition of a Man there is a Body and a Spirit and since it is plain that the raising of Christ on the Third day was before that his Body in the course of Nature was corrupted The other Branch seems to relate to his Soul though it is not to be denied but that in the Old Testament Soul in some places stands for a dead Body But if that were the sense of the word there will be no opposition in the two Parts of this period The one will be only a redundant repetition of the other Therefore it is much more natural to think that this other Branch concerning Christ's Soul's being left in Hell must relate to that which we commonly understand by Soul if then his Soul was not to be left in Hell then from thence it plainly follows that once it was in Hell and by consequence that Christ's Soul descended into Hell Some very Modern Writers have thought that this is to be understood
that very credible For this we have only the Testimony of the Apostles who did all attest that they saw it being all together in an open Field When Christ was Walking and Discoursing with them and when he was Blessing them he was parted from them They saw him Ascend till a Cloud received him and took him out of their sight And then Two Angels appeared to them and assured them Acts 1. â—1 That he should come again in like manner as they had seen him Ascend Here is a very particular Relation with many Circumstances in it in which it was not possible for the Apostles to be mistaken So that there being no reason to suspect their Credit this rests upon that Authority But Ten days after it received a much clearer Proof When the Holy Ghost was poured out on them in so visible a manner and with most remarkable effects Immediately upon it they spoke with divers Tongues and wrought many Miracles and all in the Name of Christ. They did often and solemnly disclaim their doing any of those wonderful things by any power of their own They owned that all that they had or did was derived to them from Iesus of Nazareth Acts 3.12 16. of whose Resurrection and Ascension they were appointed to be the Witnesses Christ's coming again to judge the World at the last day is so often affirmed by himself in the Gospel and is so frequently mentioned in the Writings of his Apostles that this is a main part of his Doctrine So that his Resurrection Ascension together with the Effusion of the Holy Ghost having in general proved his Mission and his whole Doctrine this is also proved by them Enough seems to be said in Proof of all the parts of this Article it remains only that somewhat should be added in Explanation of them As to the Resurrection it is to little purpose to Enquire whether our Saviour's Body was kept all the while in a compleat Organisation that so by this Miracle it might be preserved in a Natural State for his Soul to re-enter it Or whether by the Course of Nature the vast Number of the inward Conveyances that are in the Body were stopt and if all of a sudden when the time of the Resurrection came all was again put in a vital State fit to be animated by his Soul There must have been a Miracle either way So it is to little purpose to enquire into it The former though a continued Miracle yet seemes to agree more fully to these words Thou wilt not suffer thy Holy One to see corruption It is to as little purpose to enquire how our Saviour's new Body was supplied with Blood Since he had lost the greatest part of it on the Cross. Whether that was again by the power of God brought back into his Veins or whether as he himself had formerly said That Man lives not by bread alone but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God Blood was supplied by Miracle Or whether his Body that was then of the Nature of a Glorified Body though yet on Earth needed the supplies of Blood to furnish new Spirits for serving the natural Functions He Eating and Drinking so seldom that we may well believe it was done rather to satisfy his Apostles than to answer the Necessities of Nature These are Curiosities that signify so little if we could certainly resolve them that it is to no purpose to enquire about them since we cannot know what to determine in them This in general is certain that the same Soul returned back to the same Body so that the same Man who died rose again and that is our Faith We need not trouble our selves with enquiring how to make out the Three Days of Christ's being in the Grave Days stand in the common acceptation for a Portion of a Day We know the Iews were very exact to the Rest on the Sabbath so the Body was without question laid in the Grave before the Sun-set on Friday so that was the First day the Sabbath was a compleat one and a good part of the Third day that is the Night with which the Iews began to count the day was over before he was raised up As for his stay on Earth forty days we cannot pretend to give an account of it whether his Body was passing through a slow and Physical Purification to be meet for Ascending or whether he intended to keep a proportion between his Gospel and the Law of Moses that as he suffered at the time of their killing the Passover so the Effusion of the Holy Ghost was fixed for Pentecost and that therefore he â—ould stay on Earth till that time was near not to put his Apostles upon too long an expectation without his Presence which might be necessary to animate them till they should be endued with Power from on high As to the manner of his Ascension it is also questioned whether the Body of Christ as it ascâ—nded was so wonderfully changed as to put on the Subtility and Purity of an Ethereal Body or whether it 〈…〉 same Form in Heaven that it had on Earth or iâ— it puâ— on a new one It is more probable that it did and that the wonderful Glory that appeared in his Countenance and whole Person at his Trâ—â—sâ—â—gurâ—tion was a manifestation of that more permanent Glory to which it was to be afterwards exalted It seems probable from what St. Paul says 1 Coâ— 15.50 That flesh and blood shall not inherit the kingdom of God which relates to our glorified Bodies when we shall bear the Image of the second and the heavenly Adam that Christ's Body has no more the modifications of Flesh and Blood in it and that the Glory of the Celestial Body is of another Nature and Texture than that of the Terrestrial It is easily imagined how this may be and yet the Body to be numerically the same Ver. 40. For all Matter being uniform and capable of all sort of Motion and by consequence of being either much grosser or much purer the same Portion of Matter that made a thick and Heavy Body here on Earth may be put into that Purity and Fineness as to be no longer a fit Inhabitant of this Earth or to breath this Air but to be meet to be transplanted into Ethereal Regions Christ as he went up into Heaven so he had the whole Government of this World put into his hands and the whole Ministry of Angels put under his Command even in his Human Nature So that all things are now in subjection to him All Power and Authority is derived from him 1 Cor. 15.27 28. and he does whatsoever he pleases both in Heaven and Earth In him all fulness dwells And as the Mosaical Tabernacle being filled with Glory the Emanations of it did by the Urim and Thummim enlighten and direct that People so out of that Fulness that dwelt Bodily in Christ there is a constant Emanation of his
who do not acknowledge the New Testament The Ceremonial Parts of the Mosaical Law which comprehends all both the Negative and the Positive Precepts were enjoined the Iews either with relation to the Worship of God and Service at the Temple or to their Persons and course of Life That which is not Moral of its own nature or that had no relation to Civil Society was commanded them to separate them not only from the Idolatrous and Magical Practices of other Nations but to distinguish them so entirely as to all their Customs even in the Rules of Eating and of Cleanness that they might have no familiar Commerce with other Nations but live within and among themselves since that was very likely to corrupt them of which they had very large experience Some of those Rituals were perhaps given them as Punishments for their frequent Revolts and were as a Yoke upon them who were so prone to Idolatry They were as Rudiments and Remembrances to them They were as it were subdued by a great variety of Precepts which were matter both of much Charge and great Trouble to them By these they were also amused for it seems they did naturally love a Pompous Exterior in Religion They were also by all that Train of Performances which were laid on them kept in mind both of the great Blessings of God to them and of the Obligations that lay on them towards God and many of those particularly their Sacrifices and Washings were Typical All this was proper and necessary to restrain and govern them while they were the only People of the World that renounced Idolatry and worshipped the true God And therefore so soon as that of which they had anEmblem in the Structure of theirTemple of a Court of the Gentiles separated with a middle Wall of Partition from the place in which the Israelites worshipped was to be removed and that the House of God was to become a House of Prayer to all Nations then all those distinctions were to be laid aside and all that Service was to determine and come to an end The Apostles did declare that the Gentiles were not to be brought under that heavy Yoke which their Fathers were not able to bear yet the Apostles themselves as born Iews and while they lived among the Iews did continue in the Observance of their Rites as long as God seemed to be waiting for the Remnant of that Nation that was to be saved before his Wrath came upon the rest to the uttermost They went to the Temple they purified themselves and in a word to the Iews they became Iews and in this compliance the first Converts of the Iewish Nation continued till the destruction of Ierusalem after which it became impossible to observe the greatest part of their most important Rituals even all those that were tied to the Temple But that Nation losing its Genealogies and all the other Characters that they formerly had of a Nation under the Favour and Protection of God could no more know after a few Ages whether they were the Seed of Abraham or not or whether there were any left among them of the Tribe of Levi or of the Family of Aaron So that now all those Ceremonies are at an end many of them are become impossible and the rest useless as the whole was abrogated by the Authority of the Apostles who being sent of God and proving their Mission by Miracles as well as Moses had done his they might well have loosed and dissolved those Precepts upon Earth upon which according to our Saviour's words they are to be esteemed as loosed in Heaven The Judiciary Parts of the Law were those that related to them as they were a Society of Men to whom God by a special Command gave Authority to drive out and destroy a wicked Race of People and to possess their Land which God appointed to be divided equally among them and that every Portion should be as a Perpetuity to a Family so that though it might be mortaged out for a number of Years yet it was afterwards to revert to the Family Upon this bottom they were at first set and they were still to be preserved upon it so that many Laws were given them as they were a Civil Society which cannot belong to any other Society And therefore their whole Judiciary Law except where any parts of it are founded on Moral Equity was a complicated thing and can belong to no other Nation that is not in its first and essential Constitution made and framed as they were For instance The Prohibition of taking Use for Money being a Mean to preserve that Equality which was among them and to keep any of them from becoming excessively rich or others from becoming miserably poor this is by no means to be applied to other Constitutions where men are left to their Industry and neither have their Inheritance by a Grant from Heaven nor are put by any special Appointment of God all upon a level So that it is certain and can bear no debate That the Mosaical Dispensation as to all the parts of it that are not of their own nature Moral is determined and abrogated by the Gospel The Descisions which the Apostles made in this matter are so clear and for the Proof of them the whole Tenor of the Epistles to the Galatians and the Hebrews is so full that no doubt can rest concerning this with any man who reads them The last Branch of the Article that remains to be considered is concerning the Moral Law by which the Ten Commandments are meant together with all such Precepts as do belong to them or are Corollaries arising out of them By Moral Law is to be understood in opposition to Positive a Law which has an antecedent Foundation in the nature of things that arises from Eternal Reason is suitable to the Frame and Powers of our Souls and is necessary for maintaining Human Society All such Laws are commanded because they are in themselves good and suitable to the staâ—e in which God has put us here The two Sources out of which all the Notions of Morality flow are first the considerations of our selves as we are single Individuals and that with relation both to Soul and Body and next the consideration of Human Society what is necessary for the Peace and Order the Safety and Happiness of Mankind There are two Orders of Moral Precepts some relate to things that of their own nature are inflexibly good or evil such as Truth and Falshood whereas other things by a variety of Circumstances may so change their nature that they may be either morally good or evil A merciful or generous Temper is always a good Moral Quality and yet it may run to excesses There may be many things that are not unalterably Moral in themselves which yet may be fit Subjects of perpetual Laws about them For instance in the Degrees of Kindred with relation to Marriage there are no degrees but direct Ascendents
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
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
as that it can be no where else at the same time And though we can very easily apprehend that an Insinite Power can both create and annihilate Beings at pleasure yet we cannot apprehend that God does change the Essences of Things and so make them to be contrary to that Nature and sort of Being of which he has made them Another Argument against Transubstantiation is this God has made us capable to know and serve him And in order to that he has put some Sâ—nses in us which are the conveyances of many subtile Motions to our Brains that give us Apprehensions of the Objects which by those Motions are represented to us When those Motions are lively and the Object is in a due distance when we feel that neither our Organs nor our Faculties are under any disorder and when the Impression is clear and strong we are determined by it We cannot help being so When we see the Sun risen and all is bright about us it is not possible for us to think that it is dark Night No authority can impose it on us we are not so far the Masters of our own Thoughts as to force our selves to think it though we would for God has made us of such a Nature that we are determined by such an Evidence and cannot contradict it When an Object is at too great a distance we may mistake a weakness or an ill disposition in our sight may misrepresent it and a false Medium Water a Cloud or a Glass may give it a tincture or cast so that we may see cause to correct our first Apprehensions in some Sensations but when we have duly examined every thing when we have corrected one Sense by another we grow at last to be so sure by the Constitution of that Nature that God has given us that we cannot doubt much less believe in contradiction to the express Evidence of our Senses It is by this Evidence only that God convinces the World of the Authority of those whom he sends to speak in his Name He gives them a Power to work Miracles which is an Appeal to the Senses of Mankind and it is the highest Appeal that can be made for those who stood out against the Conviction of Christ's Miracles had no Cloak for their Sins It is the utmost Conviction that God offers or that Man can pretend to From all which we must infer this That either our Senses in their clearest Apprehensions or rather Representations of Things must be Infallible or we must throw up all Faith and Certainty since it is not possible for us to receive the Evidence that is given us of any thing but by our Senses and since we do naturally acquiesce in that Evidence we must acknowledge that God has so made us that this is his voice in us because it is the voice of those Faculties that he has put in us and is the only way by which we can find out Truth and be led by it And if our Faculties fail us in any one thing so that God should reveal to us any thing that did plainly contradict our Faculties he should thereby give us a right to disbelieve them for ever If they can mistake when they bring any Object to us with the fullest Evidence that they can give we can never depend upon them nor be certain of any thing because they shew it Nay we are not and cannot be bound to believe that nor any other Revelation that God may make to convince us We can only receive a Revelation by hearing or reading by our Ears or our Eyes So if any part of this Revelation destroys the certainty of the Evidence that our Senses our Eyes or our Ears give us it destroys it self for we cannot be bound to believe it upon the Evidence of our Senses if this is a part of it that our Senses are not to be trusted Nor will this matter be healed by saying that certainly we must believe God more than our Senses And therefore if he has revealed any thing to us that is contrary to their Evidence we must as to that paâ—ticular believe God before our Senses But that as to all other things where we have not an express Revelation to the contrary we must still believe our Senses There is a difference to be made between that feeble Evidence that our Senses give us of remote Objects or those loose Inferences that we may make from a slight view of Things and the full Evidence that Sense gives us as when we see and smell to we handle and taste the same Object This is the voice of God to us he has made us so that we are determined by it And as we should not believe a Prophet that wrought ever â—o many Miracles if he should contradict any part of that which God had already revealed so we cannot be bound to believe a Revelation contrary to our Sense because that were to believe God in contradiction to Himself which is impossible to be true For we should believe that Revelation certainly upon an Evidence which it self tells us is not certain and this is a Contradiction We believe our Senses upon this foundation because we reckon there is an Intrinsick certainty in their Evidence we do not believe them as we believe another Man upon a Moral presumption of his Truth and Sincerity but we believe them because such is the nature of the Union of our Souls and Bodies which is the work of God that upon the full Impressions that are made upon the Senses the Soul does necessarily produce or rather feel those Thoughts and Sensations arise with a full Evidence that correspond to the motions of sensible Objects upon the Organs of Sense The Soul has a sagacity to examine these Sensations to correct one Sense by another but when she has used all the means she can and the Evidence is still clear she is perswaded and cannot help being so she naturally takes all this to be true because of the necessary connexion that she feels between such Sensations and her assent to them Now if she should find that she could be mistaken in this even tho' she should know this by a Divine Revelation all the Intrinsick certainty of the Evidence of Sense and that connexion between those Sensations and her assent to them should be hereby dissolved To all this another Objection may be made from the Mysteries of the Christian Religion which contradict our Reasons and yet we are bound to believe them altho' Reason is a faculty much superior to Sense But all this is a mistake we cannot be bound to believe any thing that contradicts our Reasons for the Evidence of Reason as well as that of Sense is the voice of God to us But as great difference is to be made between a feeble Evidence that Sense gives us of an Object that is at a distance from us or that appears to us through a false Medium such as a Concave or a Convex-Glass
Marriage of most of the Reformers was urged as an ill Character both of them and of the Reformation as a Doctrine of Libertinism that made the Clergy look too like the rest of the World and involved them in the common Pleasures Concerns and Passions of Human Life The Appearances of an Austerity of Habit of a Severity of Life in watching and fasting and of avoiding the common Pleasures of Sense and the Delights of Life that was on the other side did strike the World and inclined many to think that what ill consequences soever Celibate produced yet that these were much more supportable and more easy to be reformed than the ill consequences of an unrestrained Permission of the Clergy to marry In treating this matter we must first consider Celibate with relation to the Laws of Christ and the Gospel and then with relation to the Laws of the Church It does not seem contrary to the Purity of the Worship of God or of Divine Performances that Married Persons should officiate in them since by the Law of Moses Priests not only might marry but the Priesthood was tied to descend as an Inheritance in a certain Family And even the High-Priest who was to perform the great Function of the Annual Atonement that was made for the Sins of the whole Iewish Nation was to marry and he derived to his Descendants that Sacred Office If there was so much as a remote unsutableness between a Married State and Sacerdotal Performances we cannot imagine that God would by a Law tie the Priesthood to a Family which by consequence laid an Obligation on the Priests to marry When Christ chose his Twelve Apostles some of them were married men we are sure at least that St. Peter was so that he made no distinction and gave no preference to the unmarried Our Saviour did no where charge them to forsake their Wives nor did he at all represent Celibate as necessary to the Kingdom of Heaven or the Dispensation of the Gospel He speaks indeed of some that brought themselves to the state of Eunuchs for the sake of the Gospel Matth. 19.10 11 12. but in that he lest all men at full liberty by saying Let him receive it that is able to receive it so that in this every man must judg of himself by what he finds himself to be That is equally recommended to all Ranks of men as they can bear it St. Paul does affirm That Marriage is honourable in all and to avoid Uncleanness he says It is better to marry than to burn and so gives it as a Rule Heb. 13.4 1 Cor. 7.9 That every man should have his own Wife Among all the Rules or Qualifications of Bishops or Priests that are given in the New Testament particularly in the Epistles to Timothy and Titus there is not a word of the Celibate of the Clergy but plain Intimations to the contrary 1 Tim. 3.2 4 5 12. That they were and might be married That of the Husband of one Wife is repeated in different places Mention is also made of the Wives and Children of the Clergy Rules being given concerning them and not a word is so much as insinuated importing that this was only tolerated in the beginnings of Christianity but that it was afterwards to cease On the contrary the forbidding to marry is given as a Character of the Apostacy of the later times 1 Tim. 4.3 1 Cor. 9.5 We find Aquila when he went about preaching the Gospel was not only married to Priscilla but that he carried her about with him Not to insist on that Privilege that St. Paul thought he might have claimed of carrying about with him a Sister and a Wife as well as the other Apostles And thus the first Point seems to be fully cleared That by no Law of God the Clergy are debarr'd from Marriage There is not one word in the whole Scriptures that does so much as hint at it whereas there is a great deal to the contrary Marriage being then one of the Rights of Human Nature to which so many reasons of different sorts may carry both a wise and a good man and there being no positive Precept in the Gospel that forbids it to the Clergy the next question is Whether it is in the Power of the Church to make a perpetual Law restraining the Clergy from Marriage It is certain that no Age of the Church can make a Law to bind succeeding Ages for whatsoever Power the Church has she is always in possession of it and every Age has as much Power as any of the former Ages had Therefore if any one Age should by a Law enjoin Celibate to the Clergy any succeeding Age may repeal and alter that Law For ever since the Inspiration that conducted the Apostles has ceased every Age of the Church may make or change Laws in all matters that are within their Authority So it seems very clear that the Church can make no perpetual Law upon this Subject In the next place it may be justly doubted Whether the Church can make a Law that shall restrain all the Clergy in any of those Natural Rights in which Christ has left them free The adding a Law upon this Head to the Laws of Christ seems to assume an Authority that he has not given the Church It looks like a pretending to a strain of Purity beyond the Rules set us in the Gospel and is plainly the laying a Yoke upon us which must be thought Tyrannical since the Author of this Religion who knew best what Human Nature is capable of and what it may well bear has not thought fit to lay it on those whom he sent upon a Commission that required a much greater Elevation of Soul and more Freedom from the Entanglements of Worldly or Domestick Concerns than can be pretended to be necessary for the standing and settled Offices in the Church Therefore we conclude That it were a great Abuse of Church-Power and a high Act of Tyranny for any Church or any Age of the Church to bar men from the Services in the Church because they either are married or intend to keep themselves free to marry or not as they please This does indeed bring the Body of the Clergy more into a Combination among themselves it does take them in a great measure off from having separated Interests of their own it takes them out of the Civil Society in which they have less concern when they give no Pledges to it And so in Ages in which the Papacy intended to engage the whole Priesthood into its Interests against the Civil Powers as the Immunity and Exemptions of the Clergy made them safe in their own Persons so it was necessary to free them from any such Incumbrances or Appendages by which they might be in the Power or at the Mercy of Secular Princes This joined with the belief of their making God with a few words by the virtue of their Character and of their forgiving