not true No consequences can be worse than the Corruption that is in the World and the Damnation that follows upon sin and yet God permits it because he has made us free Creatures Nor can any reason be given why we should be less free in the use of our understanding than we are in the use of our Will or why God should make it to be less possible for us to fall into Errors than it is to commit Sins The Wrath of God is as much denounced against Men that hold the Truth in unrighteousness as against other Sins Rom. 1.18 24 26. 2 Thes. 2.11 and it is reckoned among the heaviest of Curses to be given up to strong delusions to believe a lye Upon all these reasons therefore it seems clear that our Understandings are left free to us as well as our Wills and if we observe the Stile and Method of the Scriptures we shall find in them all over a constant Appeal to a Man's Reason and to his Intellectual Faculties If the mere dictates of the Church or of Infallible Men had been the resolution or foundation of Faith there had been no need of such a long Thread of Reasoning and Discourse as both our Saviour used while on Earth and as the Apostles used in their Writings We see the way of Authority is not taken but Explanations are offered Proofs and Illustrations are brought to convince the Mind which shews that God in the clearest Manifestation of his Will would deal with us as with reasonable Creatures who are not to believe but upon Persuasion and are to use our Reasons in order to the attaining that Persuasion And therefore upon the whole matter we ought not to believe Doctrines to be true because the Church teaches them but we ought to search the Scriptures and then according as we find the Doctrine of any Church to be true in the Fundamentals we ought to believe her to be a true Church and if besides this the whole Extent of the Doctrine and Worship together not only with the essential parts of the Sacraments but the whole Administration of them and the other Rituals of any Church are pure and true then we ought to account such a Church true in the largest Extent of the word true and by consequence we ought to hold Communion with it Another question may arise out of the first words of this Article concerning the Visibility of this Church Whether it must be always Visible According to the distinction hitherto made use of the resolution of this will be soon made There seem to be Promises in the Scriptures of a perpetual Duration of the Christian Church I will be with you always Matth. 28.20 Matth. 16.18 even to the end of the world And the gates of Hell shall not prevail against the Church The Iewish Religion had a Period perfixed in which it was to come to an end but the Prophecies that are among the Prophets concerning the new Dispensation seem to import not only its Continuance but its being continued still Visible in the World But as the Iewish Dispensation was long continued after they had fallen generally into some very gross Errors so the Christian Church may be Visible still though not Infallible God may preserve the Succession of a true Church as to the Essentials and Fundamentals of Faith in the World even though this Society should fall into Error So a Visible Society of Christians in a true Church as to the Essentials of our Faith is not controverted by us We do only deny the Infallibility of this true Church And therefore we are not afraid of that Question Where was your Church before Henry the Eighth We Answer It was where it is now here in England and in the other Kingdoms of the World only it was then corrupted and it is now pure There is therefore no sort of Inconvenience in owning the constant Visibility of a constant Succession and Church of true Christians true as to the Essentials of the Covenant of Grace though not true in all their Doctrines This seems to be a part of the Glory of the Messias and of his Kingdom That he shall be still visibly worshipped in the World by a Body of Men called by his Name But when Visibility is thus separated from Infallibility and it is made out that a Church may be a true Church though she has a large Allay of Errors and Corruptions mixed in her Constitution and Decisions there will be no manner of Inconvenience in owning a constant Visibility even at the same time that we charge the most eminent part of this Visible Body with many Errors and with much Corruption So far has the first part of this Article been treated of From it we pass to the second which affirms That as the other Patriarchal and Apostolical Churches such as Ierusalem Alexandria and Antioch have erred so the Church of Rome has likewise erred and that not only in their living and manner of Ceremonies but also in matters of Faith It is not questioned but that the other Patriarchal Churches have erred both that where our Saviour himself first taught and which was governed by two of the Apostles successively and those which were founded by St. Peter in Person or by Proxy as Church History represents Alexandria and Antioch to have been Those of the Church of Rome by whom they are at this day condemned both of Heresy and Schism do not dispute this Nor do they dispute that many of their Popes have led bad and flagitious Lives They deny not that the Canons Ceremonies and Government of the Church are very much changed by the Influence and the Authority of their Popes But the whole question turns upon this Whether the See of Rome has erred in matter of Faith or not In this those of that Communion are divided Some by the Church or See of Rome mean the Popes personally so they maintain That they never have and never can fall into Error Whereas others by the See of Rome mean that whole Body that holds Communion with Rome which they say cannot be tainted with Error and these separate this from the Personal Infallibility of Popes for if a Pope should err they think that a General Council has Authority to proceed against him and to deprive him And thus though he should err the See might be kept free from Error I shall upon this Article only consider the first Opinion reserving the Consideration of the second to the Article concerning General Councils As to the Popes their being subject to Error that must be confessed unless it can be proved that by a clear and express Privilege granted them by God they are excepted out of the common condition of Human Nature It is further highly probable that there is no such Privilege since the Church continued for many Ages before it was so much as pretended to and that in a time when that See was not only claiming all the Rights that
all impure Desires being enjoined as indispensably necessary for without holiness no man can see the Lord. And thus every thing relating to this Article is considered and I hope both explained and proved ARTICLE VIII Of the Three Creeds The Three Creeds Nice Creed Athanasius Creed and that which is commonly called the Apostles Creed ought throughly to be received and believed for they may be proved by most certain Warrants of Holy Scripture ALthough no doubt seems to be here made of the Names or Designations given to those Creeds except of that which is ascribed to the Apostles yet none of them are named with any exactness Since the Article of the Procession of the Holy Ghost and all that follows it is not in the Nicene Creed but was used in the Church as a part of it for so it is in Epiphanius In Anchoreto before the Second General Council at Constantinople and it was confirmed and established in that Council Only the Article of the Holy Ghost's proceeding from the Son was afterwards added first in Spain Anno 447. which spread it self over all the West So that the Creed here called the Nice Creed is indeed the Constantinopolitan Creed together with the Addition of Filioque made by the Western Church That which is called Athanasius's Creed is not his neither â—or as it is not among his Works so that great Article of the Christian Religion having been settled at Nice and he and all the rest of the Orthodox referring themselves always to the Creed made by that Council there is no reason to imagine that he would have made a Creed of his own besides that not only the Macedonian but both the Nestorian and the Eutychian Heresies are expresly condemned by this Creed and yet those Authorities never being urged in those Disputes it is clear from thence that no such Creed was then known in the World as indeed it was never heard of before the Eighth Century and then it was given out as the Creed of Athanasius or as a Representation of his Doctrine and so it grew to be received by the Western Church perhaps the more early because it went under so great a Name in Ages that were not Critical enough to judge of what was genuine and what was spurious There is one great difficulty that arises out of several Expressions in this Câ—â—ed in which it is said That whosover will be saved must believe it That the Belief of it is necessary to Salvation and that such as do not hold it pure and undefiled shall without doubt perish everlastingly Where many Explanations of a Mystery hard to be understood are made indispensably necessary to Salvation and it is affirmed That all such as do not so believe must perish everlastingly To this two Answers are made 1. That it is only the Christian Faith in general that is hereby meant and not every Period and Article of this Creed so that all those severe Expressions are thought to import only the necessity of believing the Christian Religion But this seems forced for the words that follow And the Catholick Faith is do so plainly determine the sâ—gnification of that word to the Explanation that comes after that the word Catholick Faith in the first Verse can be no other than the same word as it is defined in the third and following Verses so that this Answer seems not natural 2. The common Answer in which the most Eminent Men of this Church as far as the Memory of all such as I have known could go up have agreed is this That these Condemnatory Expressions are only to be understood to relate to those who having the Means of Instruction offered to them have rejected them and have stifled their own Convictions holding the Truth in Unrighteousness and chusing darkness rather than light Upon such as do thus reject this great Article of the Christian Doctrine concerning One God and Three Persons Father Son and Holy Ghost and that other concerning the Incarnation of Christ by which God and Man were so united as to make one Person together with the other Doctrines that follow these are those Anathâ—maes denounced Not so as if it were hereby meant that every man who does not believe this in every tittle must certainly perish unless he has been furnished with sufficient means of conviction and that he has rejected them and hardned himself against them The Wrath of God is revealed against all sin and the wages of sin is Death So that every Sinner has the Wrath of God abiding on him and is in a state of Damnation yet a sincere Repentance delivers him out of it even though he lives and dies in some sins of Ignorance which though they may make him liable to damnation so that nothing but true Repentance can deliver him from it yet a general Repentance when it is also special for all known sins does certainly deliver a man from the guilt of unknown sins and from the Wrath of God due to them God only knows our hearts the degrees of our knowledge and the measure of our obstinacy and how far our Ignorance is affected or invincible and therefore he will deal with every man according to what he has received So that we may believe that some Doctrines are necessary to Salvation as well as that there are some Commandments necessary for Practice and we may also believe that some Errors as well as some Sins are exclusive of Salvation all which imports no more than that we believe such things are sufficiently revealed and that they are necessary Conditions of Salvation but by this we do not limit the Mercies of God towards those who are under such darkness as not to be able to see through it and to discern and acknowledge these Truths It were indeed to be wished that some express Declaration to this purpose were made by those who have Authority to do it But in the mean while this being the Sense in which the Words of this Creed are universally taken and it agreeing with the Phraseology of the Scripture upon the like occasions this is that which may be rested upon And allowing this large Explanation of these severe words the rest of this Creed imports no more than the Belief of the Doctrine of the Trinity which has been already proved in treating of the former Articles As for the Creed called the Apostles Creed there is good reason for speaking so doubtfully of it as the Article does since it does not appear that any determinate Creed was made by them None of the first Writers agree in delivering their Faith in a certain Form of Words every one of them gives an Abstract of his Faith in Words that differ both from one another and from this Form From thence it is clear that there was no common Form delivered to all the Churches And if there had been any Tradition after the Times of the Council of Nice of such a Creed composed by the Apostles the Arians
Holy Ghost it must be understood of the Father for when the Father is named with Christ sometimes he is called God simply and sometimes God the Father This Argument from the Threefold Salutation appears yet stronger in the Words in which St. Iohn addresses himself to the Seven Churches in the beginning of the Revelations Rev. 1.4 5. Grace and Peace from him which is which was and which is to come and from the seven Spirits which are before his Throne and from Iesus Christ. By the Seven Spirits must be meant one or more Persons since he wishes or declares Grace and Peace from them Now either this must be meant of Angels or of the Holy Ghost There are no where Prayers made or Blessings given in the Name of Angels This were indeed a worshipping them against which there are express Authorities not only in the other Books of the New Testament but in this Book in particular Nor can it be imagined that Angels could have been named before Iesus Christ So then it remains that Seven being a Number that imports both Variety and Perfection and that was the Sacred Number among the Iews this is a Mystical Expression which is no extraordinary thing in a Book that is all over mysterious And it imports one Person from whom all that variety of Gifts Administrations and Operations that were then in the Church did flow And this is the Holy Ghost But as to his being put in order before Christ as upon the supposition of an Equality the going out of the common order is no great matter so since there was to come after this a full Period that concerned Christ it might be a natural way of Writing to name him last Against all this it is objected That the Designation that is given to the first of these in a Circumlocution that imports Eternity shews that the Great God and not the Person of the Father is to be meant But then how could St. Iohn writing to the Churches wish them Grace and Peace from the other Two A few Verses after this the same Description of Eternal Duration is given to Christ and is a strong Proof of his Eternity and by consequence of his Divinity So what is brought so soon after as a Character of the Eternity of the Son may be also here used to denote the Eternal Father These are the Chief Places in which the Trinity is mentioned all together I do not insist on that contested Passage of St. Iohn's Epistle There are great doubtings made about it 1 Joh. 5.7 The main ground of doubting being the Silence of the Fathers who never made use of it in the Disputes with the Arians and Macedonians There are very considerable things urged on the other hand to support the Authority of that Passage yet I think it is safer to build upon sure and undisputable grounds So I leave it to be maintained by others who are more fully persuaded of its being Authentical There is no need of it This matter is capable of a very full Proof whether that Passage is believed to be a part of the Canon or not It is no small Confirmation of the Truth of this Doctrine that we are certain it was universally received over the whole Christian Church long before there was either a Christian Prince to support it by his Authority or a Council to establish it by Consent And indeed the Council of Nice did nothing but declare what was the Faith of the Christian Church with the addition only of the Word Consubstantial For if all the other Words of the Creed settled at Nice are acknowledged to be true that of the Three Persons being of one Substance will follow from thence by a just consequence We know both by what Tertullian and Novatian writ what was the Faith both of the Roman and the African Churches From Irenaeus we gather the Faith both of the Gallican and the Asiatick Churches And the whole proceedings in the Case of Samosatenus that was the solemnest business that past while the Church was under Oppression and Persecution give us the most convincing Proof possible not only of the Faith of the Eastern Churches at that time but of their Zeal likewise in watching against every Breach that was made in so Sacred a part of their Trust and Depositum These things have been fully opened and enlarged on by others to whom the Reader is referred I shall only desire him to make this Reflection on the state of Christianity at that time The Disputes that were then to be managed with the Heathens against the Deifying or Worshipping of Men and those extravagant Fables concerning the Genealogies of their Heroes and Gods must have obliged the Christians rather to have silenced and supprest the Doctrine of the Trinity than to have owned and published it So that nothing but their being assured that it was a Necessary and Fundamental Article of their Faith could have led them to own it in so publick a manner since the Advantages that the Heathen would have taken from it must be too visible not to be soon observed The Heathens retorted upon them their Doctrine of a Man's being a God and of God's having a Son And every one who engaged in this Controversy framed such Answers to these Objections as he thought he could best maintain This as it gave the Rise to the Errors which some brought into the Church so it furnishes us with a Copious Proof of the common Sense of the Christians of those Ages who all agreed in general to the Doctrine though they had many different and some very Erroneous ways of explaining it among them I now come to the special Proofs concerning each of the Three Persons But there being other Articles relating to the Son and the Holy Ghost the Proofs of these Two will belong more properly to the Explanation of those Articles Therefore all that belongs to this Article is to prove that the Father is truly God but that needs not be much insisted on for there is no dispute about it None deny that he is God many think that he is so truly God that there is no other that can be called God besides him unless it be in a larger sense of the word And therefore I will here conclude all that seems necessary to be said on this first Article on which if I have dwelt the longer it was because the stating the Idea of God right being the Fundamental Article of all Religion and the Key into every part of it this was to be done with all the Fulness and Clearness possible In a word to recapitulate a little what has been said The liveliest way of framing an Idea of God is to consider our own Souls which are said to be made after the Image of God An attentive Reflection on what we perceive in our selves will carry us further than any other thing whatsoever to form just and true Thoughts of God We perceive what Thought is but
an Oral Tradition which they themselves had not put in writing They do sometimes refer themselves to such things as they had delivered to particular Churches but by Tradition in the Apostles days and for some Ages after it is very clear that they meant only the conveyance of the Faith and not any unwritten Doctrines They reckoned the Faith was a sacred depositum which was committed to them and that was to be preserved pure among them But it were very easy to shew in the continued Succession of all the first Christian Writers That they still Appealed to the Scriptures That they Argued from them That they Condemned all Doctrines that were not contained in them and when at any time they brought human Authorities to justify their Opinions or Expressions they contented themselves with a very few and those very late Authorities So that their design in vouching them seems to be rather to clear themselves from the Imputation of having innovated any thing in the Doctrine or in the ways of expressing it than that they thought those Authorities were necessary to prove them by For in that case they must have taken a great deal more pains than they did to have followed up and proved the Tradition much higher than they went We do also plainly see that such Traditions as were not founded on Scripture were easily corrupted and on that account were laid aside by the succeeding Ages Such were the Opinion of Christ's Reign on Earth for a Thousand years The Saints not seeing God till the Resurrection The necessity of giving Infants the Eucharist The Divine Inspiration of the 70 Interpreters besides some more important Matters which in respect to those Times are not to be too much descanted upon It is also plain That the Gnosticks the Valentinians and other Hereticks began very early to set up a Pretension to a Tradition delivered by the Apostles to some particular persons as a Key for understanding the secret meanings that might be in Scripture in opposition to which both Irenaeus Tertullian and others Iren. I. 3. c. 1 2 3 4 5. Tertul. de presc Cap. 20 21 25 27 28. make use of Two sorts of Arguments The one is the Authority of the Scripture it self by which they confuted their Errors The other is a Point of Fact That there was no such Tradition In asserting this they appeal to those Churches which had been founded by the Apostles and in which a Succession of Bishops had been continued down They say in these we must search for Apostolical Tradition This was not said by them as if they had designed to establish Tradition as an Authority distinct from or equal to the Scriptures But only to shew the falshood of that pretence of the Hereticks and that there was no such Tradition for their Heresies as they gave out When this whole Matter is considered in all its parts such as 1 st That nothing is to be believed as an Article of Faith unless it appears to have been Revealed by God 2 dly That Oral Tradition appâ—ars both from the Nature of Man and the Experience of former Times to be an incompetent conveâ—er of Truth 3 dly That some Books were written for the conveyance of those Matters which have been in all Ages carefully preserved and esteemed sacred 4 thly That the Writers of the First Ages do always Argue from and Appeal to these Books And 5 thly That what they have said without Authority from them has been rejected in succeeding Ages the Truth of this Branch of our Article is fully made out If what is contain'd in theScripture in express words is theObject of our Faith then it will follow That whatsoever may be proved from thence by a just and lawful consequence is also to be believed Men may indeed Err in framing these Consequences and Deductions they may mistake or stretch them too far but though there is much Sophistry in the World yet there is also true Logick and a certain Thread of Reasoning And the sense of every Proposition being the same whether expressed always in the same or in different words then whatsoever appears to be clearly the sense of any place of Scripture is an Object of Faith tho it should be otherwise expressed than as it is in Scripture and every just Inference from it must be as true as the Proposition it self is Therefore it is a vain cavil to ask express words of Scripture for every Article That was the Method of all the Anciâ—nt Hereticks Christ and his Apostles Argued from the words and passages in the Old Testament to prove such things as agreed with the true sense of them and so did all the Fathers and therefore so may we do The great Objection to this is That the Scriptures are dark That the same place is capable of different Senses the Literal and the Mystical And therefore since we cannot understand the true Sense of the Scripture we must not Arguefrom it but seek for an Interpreterofit on whom we may depend All Sects Argue from thence and fancy that they find their Tenets in it And therefore this can be no sure way of finding out sacred Truth since so many do err that follow it In Answer to this it is to be considered That the Old Testament was delivered to the whole Nation of the Iews that Moses was read in the Synagogue in the hearing of the Women and Children that whole Nation was to take their Doctrine and Rules from it All Appeals wâ—re made to the Law and to the Prophets among them And though the Propâ—â—cies of the Old Testament were in their Stile and whole Contexture dark and hard to be understood yet when so great a Question as this Who was the true Messias came to be examined the proofs urged for it were Passages in the Old Testament Now the Question was How these were to be understood No Appeal was here made to Tradition or to Church-Authority but only by the Enemies of our Saviour Whereas he and his Disciples urge these passages in their true sense and in the consequences that arose out of them They did in that Appeal to the rational Faculties of those to whom they spoke The Christian Religion was at first delivered to poor and simple Multitudes who were both illiterate and weak the Epistles which are by much the hardest to be understood of the whole New Testament were Addressed to the whole Churches to all the Faithful or Saints that is to all the Christians in those Churches These were afterwards read in all thâ—ir Assemblies Upon this it may reasonably be asked Were these Writings clear in that Age or were they not If they were not it is unaccountable why they were addressed to the whole Body and how they came to be received and entertained as they were It is the End of Speech and Writing to make things to be understood and it is not supposable That Men Inspired by the Holy Ghost either could not or would
not express themselves so as that they should be clearly understood It is also to be observed That the New Dispensation is opposed to the Old as Light is to Darkness an Open Face to a Veiled and Substance to Shadows Since then the Old Testament was so clear that David both in the 19 th and most copiously in the 119 th Psalm sets out very fully the Light which the Laws of God gave them in that darker State we have much more reason to conclude That the New Dispensation should be much brighter If there was no need of a certain Expounder of Scripture then there is much less now Nor is there any Provision made in the New for a sure Guide No Intimations are given where to find one From all which we may conclude That the Books of the New Testament were clear in those days and might well be understood by those to whom they were at first addressed If they were clear to them they may be likewise clear to us For though we have not a full History of that Time or of the Phrases and Customs and particular Opinions of that Age yet the vast Industry of the succeeding Ages of these two last in particular has made such discoveries besides the other collateral advantages which Learning and a Niceness in Reasoning has given us that we may justly reckon that though some Hints in the Epistles which relate to the particulars of that Time may be so lost that we can at best but make conjectures about them yet upon the whole matter we may well understand all that is necessary to Salvation in the Scripture We may indeed fall into Mistakes as well as into Sins And into Errors of Ignorance as well as into Sins of Ignorance God has dealt with our Understandings as he has dealt with our Wiils He proposes our Duty to us with strong Motives to Obedience he promises us inward Assistances and accepts of our sincere Endeavours And yet this does not hinder many from perishng Eternally and others from falling into great Sins and so running great danger of Eternal Damnation and all this is because God has left our Wills free and does not constrain us to be good He deals with our Understandings in the same manner he has set his Will and the knowledge of Salvation before us in Writings that are framed in a simple and plain Stile in a Language that was then common and is still well understood that were at first designed for common Use They are soon read and it must be confessed that a great part of them is very clear So we have reason to conclude that if a man reads these carefully and with an honest Mind if he prays to God to direct him and follows sincerely what he apprehends to be true and practises diligently those Duties that do unquestionably appear to be bound upon him by them that then he shall find out enough to save his Soul and that such Mistakes as lye still upon him shall either be cleared up to him by some happy Providence or shall be forgiven him by that Infinite Mercy to which his Sincerity and Diligence is well known That bad men should fall into grievous Errors is no more strange than that they should commit heinous Sins And the Errors of good men in which they are neither wilful nor insolent will certainly be forgiven as well as their Sins of Infirmity Therefore all the ill use that is made of the Scripture and all the Errors that are pretended to be proved by it do not weaken its Authority or Clearness This does only shew us the danger of Studying them with a biassed or corrupted mind of reading them too carelesly of being too curious in going farther than as they open matters to us and in being too implicite in adhering to our Education or in Submitting to the Dictates of others So far I have explained the First Branch of this Article The Consequence that arises out of it is so clear that it needs not be proved That therefore nothing ought to be esteemed an Article of Faith but what may be found in it or proved from it If this is our Rule our entire and only Rule then such Doctrines as are not in it ought to be rejected and any Church that adds to the Christian Religion is erroneous for making such Additions and becomes Tyrannical if she imposes them upon all her Members and requires positive Declarations Subscriptions and Oaths concerning them In so doing she forces such as cannot have Communion with her but by affirming what they believe to be false to withdraw from that which cannot be had without departing from the Truth So all the Additions of the Five Sacraments of the Invocation of Angels and Saints of the worshipping of Images Crosses and Relicks of the Corporal Presence in the Eucharist of the Sacrifice offered in it for the dead as well as for the living together with the Adoration offered to it with a great many more are certainly Errors unless they can be proved from Scripture and they are intolerable Errors if as the Scripture is express in opposition to them so they defile the Worship of Christians with Idolatry But they become yet most intolerable if they are imposed upon all that are in that Communion and if Creeds or Oaths in which they are affirmed are required of all in their Communion Here is the main ground of justifying our forming our selves into a distinct Body from the Roman Church and therefore it is well to be considered The further discussing of this will come properly in when other Particulars come to be examined From hence I go to the Second Branch of this Article which gives us the Canon of the Scripture Here I shall begin with the New Testament for though in order the Old Testament is before the New yâ—t the Proof of the one being more distinctly made out by the concurring Testimonies of other Writers than can possibly be pretended for the other and the New giving an Authority to the Old by asserting it so expresly I shall therefore prove first the Canon of the New Testament I will not urge that of the Testimony of the Spirit which many have had recourse to This is only an Argument to him that feels it if it is one at all and therefore it proves nothing to another person besides the utmost that with reason can be made of this is that a good man feeling the very powerful Effects of the Christian Religion on his own Heart in the reforming his Nature and the calming his Conscience together with those Comforts that arise out of it is convinced in general of the Whole of Christianity by the happy Effects that it has upon his own Mind But it does not from this appear how he should know that such Books and such Passages in them should come from a Divine Original or that he should be able to distinguish what is Genuine in them from what is Spurious To come
that he can divert if not all of the sudden resist the present impressions that seem to master him We do also feel that in many Trifles we do Act with an entire liberty and do many things upon no other account and for no other reason but because we will do them and yet more important things depend on these Our Thoughts are much governed by those impressions that are made upon our Brain When an Object proportioned to us appears to us with such advantages as to affect us much it makes such an impression on our Brain that our Animal Spirits move much towards it and those Thoughts that answer it arise oft and strongly upon us till either that Impression is worn out and flatted or new and livelier ones are made on us by other Objects In this depressed state in which we now are the Ideas of what is useful or pleasant to our Bodies are strong they are ever fresh being daily renewed and according to the different Construction of Mens Blood and their Brains there arises a great variety of Inclinations in them Our Animal Spirits that are the immediate Organs of Thought being the subtiler parts of our Blood are differently made and shaped as our Blood happens to be Acid Salt Sweet or Phlegmatick And this gives such a Biass to all our Inclinations that nothing can work us off from it but some great strength of Thought that bears it down So Learning chiefly in Mathematical Sciences can so swallow up and fix ones Thought as to possess it entirely for some time but when that amusement is over Nature will return and be where it was being rather diverted than overcome by such Speculations The Revelation of Religion is the proposing and proving many Truths of great importance to our Understandings by which they are enlightened and our Wills are guided but these Truths are feeble things languid and unable to stem a Tide of Nature especialy when it is much excited and heated So that in fact we feel that when Nature is low these Thoughts may have some force to give an inward Melancholy and to awaken in us Purposes and Resolutions of another kind but when Nature recovers it self and takes fire again these grow less powerful The giving those Truths of Religion such a Force that they may be able to subdue Nature and to govern us is the Design of both Natural and Revealed Religion So the Question comes now according to the Article to be Whether a Man by the Powers of Nature and of Reason without other inward Assistances can so far turn and dispose his own Mind as to believe and to do works pleasant and acceptable to God Pelagius thought that Man was so entire in his liberty that there was no need of any other Grace but that of Pardon and of proposing the Truths of Religion to Mens knowledge but that the use of these was in every Man's power Those who were called Semipelagians thought that an assisting inward Grace was necessary to enable a Man to go through all the harder steps of Religion but with that they thought that the first Turn or Conversion of the Will to God was the effect of a Man 's own free choice In opposition to both which this Article asserts both an Assisting and a preventing Grace That there are inward Assistances given to our Powers besides those outward Blessings of Providence is first to be proved In the Old Testament it is true there were not express Promises made by Moses of such Assistances yet it seems both David and Solomon had a full persuasion about it David's Prayers do every where relate to somewhat that is Internal Psal. 119.13 27 3â— 35. Psalm 51.10 11. He prays God to open and turn his eyes to unite and incline his heart to quicken him to make him to go to guide and lead him to create in him a clean heart and renew a right spirit within him Solomon says That God gives wisdom that he directs mens paths and giveth grace to the lowly Jâ—r 31.33 34. In the Promise that Ieremy gives of a New Covenant this is the Character that is given of it I will put my Law in their inward parts and write it in their hearts They shall all know me from the least of them unto the greatest Like to that is what Ezekiel promises Ezek. 36.26 27. A new heart also will I give and a new spirit will I put within you and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh and I will give you an heart of flesh and I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and ye shall keep my judgments and do them That these Prophecies relate to the New Dispensation cannot be question'd since Ieremy's words to which the other are equivalent are cited and applied to it in the Epistle to the Hebrews Now the opposition of the one Dispensation to the other as it is here stated consists in this That whereas the Old Dispensation was made up of Laws and Statutes that were given on Tables of Stone and in writing the New Dispensation was to have somewhat in it beside that External Revelation which was to be Internal and which should dispose and inable Men to observe it A great deal of our Saviour's Discourse concerning the Spirit which he was to pour on his Disciples did certainly belong to that extraordinary Effusion at Pentecost and to those wonderful Effects that were to follow upon it Yet as he had formerly given this as an Encouragement to all Men to Pray Luke 11.13 That his heavenly Father would give the Holy Spirit to every one that asked him so there are many parts of that his last Discourse that seem to belong to the constant Necessities of all Christians It is as unreasonable to limit all to that time as the first words of it I go to prepare a place for you and because I live ye shall live also The Prayer which comes after that Discourse Joh. 14.2 being extended beyond them to all that should believe in his Name through their word we have no reason to limit these words I will manifest my self to him My Father and I will make our abode with him In me ye shall have peace to the Apostles only so that the Guidance the Conviction the Comforts of that Spirit seem to be Promises which in a lower order belong to all Christians St. Paul speaks of the love of God shed abroad in their hearts by the Holy Ghost When he was under Temptation Rom. 5.5 and prayed thrice he had this Answer My grace is sufficient for thee 2 Cor. 12 9. my strength is made perfect in weakness He prays often for the Churches in his Epistles to them That God would stablish comfort and perfect them Eph. 3.17 enlighten and strengthen them and this in all that variety of Words and Phrases that import inward Assistances This is also meant by Christ's living
to pursue We are never to mix these two together or to imagine that the Condition upon which Justification is offered to us is the Consideration that moves God as if our Holiness Faith or Obedience were the moving Cause of our Justification oâ— that God justifies us because he sees that we are truly just For though it is not to be denied but that in some places of the New Testament Iustification may stand in that Sense because the word in its Signification will bear it yet in these Two Epistles in which it is largely treated of nothing is plainer than that the design is to shew us what it is that brings us to the Favour of God and to a state of Pardon and Acceptation So that Iustification in those places stands in opposition to Accusation and Condemnation The next Term to be explained is Faith which in the New Testament stâ—nds generally for the Complex of Christianity in opposition to the Law which stands as generally for the Complex of the whole Mosaical Dispensation So that the Faith of Christ is equivalent to this the Gospel of Christ because Christianity is a Foederal Religion founded on God's part on Promises that he has made to us and on the Rules he has set us and on our part on our believing that Revelation our trusting to those Promises and our setting our selves to follow those Rules The believing this Revelation and that great Article of it of Christ's being the Son of God and the true Messias that came to reveal his Father's Will and to offer himself up to be the Sacrifice of this New Covenant is often represented as the great and only Condition of the Covenant on our part but still this Faith must receive the whole Gospel the Precepts as well as the Promises of it and receive Christ as a Prophet to Teach and a King to Rule as well as a Priest to Save us By Faith only is not to be meant Faith as it is separated from the other Evangelical Graces and Virtues but Faith as it is opposite to the Rites of the Mosaical Law for that was the great Question that gave occasion to St. Paul's writing so fully upon this Head since many Judaizing Christians as they acknowledged Christ to be the true Messias so they thought that the Law of Moses was still to retain its force In opposition to whom St. Paul says That we are justified by Faith without the works of the Law Rom. 3.28 Gal. 2.16 Rom. 2.12 It is plain that he means the Mosaical Dispensation for he had divided all Mankind into those who were in the Law and those who were without the Law That is into Iews and Gentiles Nor had St. Paul any occasion to treat of any other Matter in those Epistles or to enter into nice Abstractions which became not one that was to Instruct the World in order to their Salvation Those Metaphysical Notions are not easily apprehended by plain Men not accustomed to such Subtilties and are of very little value when they are more critically distinguished Yet when it seems some of those Expressions were wrested to an ill sense and use St. Iames treats of the same matter but with this great difference that though he says expresly That a man is justified by Works and not by Faith only yet he does not say by the Works of the Law Jam. 2.24 so that he does not at all contradict St. Paul the Works that he mentions not being the Circumcision or Ritual Observances of Abraham but his offering up his Son Isaac which St. Paul had reckoned a part of the Faith of Abraham This shews that he did not intend to contradict the Doctrine delivered by St. Paul but only to give a true Notion of the Faith that justifies that it is not a bare believing such as Devils are capable of but such a believing as exerted it self in Good Works So that the Faith mentioned by St. Paul is the Complex of all Christianity whereas that mentioned by St. Iames is a bare believing without a life suitable to it And as it is certainly true that we are taken into the Favour of God upon our receiving the whole Gospel without observing the Mosaical Precepts so it is as certainly true that a bare professing or giving credit to the Truth of the Gospel without our living suitably to it does not give us a right to the Favour of God And thus it appears that these two Pieces of the New Testament when rightly understood do in no wise contradict but agree well with one another In the last place we must consider the signification of Good Works By them are not to be meant some voluntary and assumed pieces of Severity which are no where enjoyned in the Gospel that arise out of Superstition and that feed of Pride and Hypocrisy These are so far from deserving the name of Good Works that they have been in all Ages the Methods of Imposture and of Impostors and the Arts by which they have gained Credit and Authority By Good Works therefore are meant Acts of true Holiness and of sincere Obedience to the Laws of the Gospel The Terms being thus explained I shall next distinguish between the Questions arising out of this Matter that are only about Words and those that are more Material and Important If any Man fancy that the Remission of Sins is to be considered as a thing previous to Iustification and distinct from it and acknowledge that to be freely given in Christ Jesus and that in consequence of this there is such a Grace infused that thereupon the Person becomes truly just and is considered as such by God This which must be confessed to be the Doctrine of a great many in the Church of Rome and which seems to be that established at Trent is indeed very visibly different from the Stile and Design of those Places of the New Testament in which this matter is most fully opened But yet after all it is but a question about words for if that which they call Remission of Sins be the same with that which we call Iustification and if that which they call Iustification be the same with that which we call Sanctification then here is only a strife of words Yet even in this we have the Scriptures clearly of our side so that we hold the form of sound words from which they have departed The Scripture speaks of Sanctification as a thing different from and subsequent to Iustification 1 Cor. 6.11 Now ye are washed ye are sanctified ye are justified And since Justification and the being in the Love and Favour of God are in the New Testament one and the same thing the Remission of Sins must be an Act of God's Favour For we cannot imagine a middle state of being neither accepted of him nor yet under his Wrath as if the Remission of Sins were merely an extinction of the guilt of Sin without any special Favour If therefore this
particular for themselves is That the Scripture has not declared any thing concerning the Fall of Adam in such formal terms that they can affirm any thing concerning it A Liberty of another kind seems to have been then in Man when he was made after the Image of God and before he was corrupted by Sin And therefore though it is not easy to clear all difficulties in so Intricate a matter yet it seems reasonable to think that Man in a state of Innocency was a purer and a freer Creature to good than now he is But after all this seems to be only a fleeing from the difficulty to a less offensive way of talking of it for if the Prescience of future Contingents cannot be certain unless they are decreed then God could not certainly foreknow Adam's Sin without he had made an Absolute Decree about it and that as was just now said is the same thing with the Supralapsarians Hypothesis of which shall say no more having now laid together in a small compass the full Strength of this Argument I go next to set out with the same Fidelity and Exactness the Remonstrants Arguments They begin with this That God is Just Holy and Merciful That in speaking of himself in the Scripture with relation to those Attributes he is pleased to make Appeals to Men to call them to reason with him Thus his Prophets did often bespeak the Iewish Nation the meaning of which is That God Acts so that Men according to the Notions that they have of those Attributes may examine them and will be forced to justify and approve them Nay in these God proposes himself to us as our Pattern we ought to imitate him in them and by consequence we may frame just Notions of them We are required to be holy and merciful as he is merciful What then can we think of a Justice that shall condemn us for a Fact that we never committed and that was done many Years before we were born As also that designs first of all to be glorified by our being eternally miserable and that decrees that we shall commit sins to justify the previous Decree of our Reprobation If those Decrees are thus originally designed by God and are certainly effectuated then it is unconceivable how there should be a Justice in punishing that which God himself appointed by an Antecedent and Irreversible Decree should be done So this seems to lye hard upon Justice It is no less hard upon Infinite Holiness to imagine that a Being of purer eyes than that it can behold iniquity Heb. 1.13 should by an Antecedent Decree fix our committing so many Sins in such a manner that it is not possible for us to avoid them This is to make us to be born indeed under a Necessity of Sin and yet this necessity is said to flow from the Act and Decrees of God God represents himself always 〈◊〉 the Scriptures as gracious merciful slow to anger and abundant in goodness and truth Exod. 34.6 2 Pet. 3.9 Ezek. 18.12.33.11 It is often said That he desires that no man should perish but that all should come to the knowledge of the truth And this is said sometimes with the Solemnity of an Oath As I live saith the Lord I take no pleasure in the death of sinners They ask What sense can such words bear if we can believe that God did by an Absolute Decree reprobate so many of them If all things that happen do arise out of the Decree of God as its First Cause then we must believe that God takes pleasure both in his own Decrees and in the execution of them and by consequence that he takes pleasure in the death of sinners and that in contradiction to the most express and most solemn words of Scripture Besides what can we think of the Truth of God and of the Sincerity of those Offers of Grace and Mercy with the Obtestations the Exhortations and Expostulations upon them that occur so often in Scripture if we can think that by Antecedent Acts of God he determined that all these should be ineffectual so that they are only so many solemn words that do indeed signify nothing if God intended that all things should fall out as they do and if they do so fall out only because he intended it The chief Foundation of this Opinion lies in this Argument as its Basis That nothing can be believed that contradicts the Justice Holiness the Truth and Purity of God that these Attributes are in God according to our Notions concerning them only they are in him infinitely more perfect since we are required to imitate them Whereas the Doctrine of Absolute Decrees does manifestly contradict the clearest Ideas that we can form of Justice Holiness Truth and Goodness From the Nature of God they go to the Nature of Man and they think that such an inward Freedom by which a Man is the Master of his own Actions and can do or not do what he pleases is so necessary to the Morality of our Actions that without it our Actions are neither good nor evil neither capable of Rewards or Punishments Mad Men or Men asleep are not to be charged with the good or evil of what they do therefore at least some degrees of Liberty must be left with us otherwise why are we praised or blamed for any thing that we do If a Man thinks that he is under an Inevitable Decree as he will have little remorse for all the Evil he does while he imputes it to that inevitable Force that constrains him so he will naturally conclude that it is to no purpose for him to struggle with Impossibilities And Men being inclined both to throw all blame off from themselves and to indulge themselves in Laziness and Sloth these Practices are too natural to Mankind to be encouraged by Opinions that favour them All Virtue and Religion all Discipline and Industry must arise from this as their first Principle That there is a Power in us to govern our own Thoughts and Actions and to raise and improve our Faculties If this is denied all Endeavours all Education all pains either on our selves or others are vain and fruitless things Nor is it possible to make a Man believe other than this for he does so plainly perceive that he is a free Agent he feels himself balance matters in his Thoughts and deliberate about them so evidently that he certainly knows he is a free Being This is the Image of God that is stampt upon his Nature and tho' he feels himself often hurried on so impetuously that he may seem to have lost his Freâ—dom in some Turns and upon some Occasions yet he feels that he might have restrained that Heat in its first beginning he feels he can divert his Thoughts and master himself in most things when he sets himself to it He finds that Knowledge and Reflection that good Company and good Exercises do tame and soften him and that bad ones makes him
it looks plausiable and is calculated to take in the greatest Numbers They therefore suppose that God in his Infinite Goodness will accept equally the Services that all his Creratures offer to him according to the best of their skill and strength In opposition to all which they are here condemned who think that every Man shall be saved by the Law or Sect which he professeth Where a great difference is to be observed between the words saved by the Law and saved in the Law the one is condemned but not the other To be saved by a Law or Sect signifies That by the virtue of that Law or Sect such Men who follow it may be saved Whereas to be saved in a Law or Sect imports only That God may extend his Compassions to Men that are engaged in false Religions The former is only condemned by this Article which affirms nothing concerning the other In sum if we have fully proved that the Christian Religion was delivered to the World in the Name of God and was attested by Miracles so that we believe it's Truth we must believe every part and tittle of it and by consequence those Passages which denounce the Wrath and Judgments of God against Impenitent Sinners and that promise Mercy and Salvation only upon the account of Christ and his Death Rom. 10.9 10. Mark 8.38 We must believe with our hearts and confess it with our mouths We must not be ashamed of Christ or of his words lest he should be ashamed of us when he comes in the glory of his Father with his holy Angels This I say being a part of the Gospel must be as true as the Gospel it self is and these Rules must bind all those to whom they are proposed whether they are enacted by Law or not For if we are assured that they are a part of the Law of the King of Kings we are bound to believe and obey them whether Human Laws do favour them or not it being an evident thing that no subordinate Authority can derogate from that which is superior to it So if the Laws of God are clearly revealed and certainly conveyed down to us we are bound by them and no Human Law can dissolve this Obligation If God has declared his Will to us it can never be supposed to be free to us to chuse whether we will obey it or not and serve him under that or under another Form of Religion at our pleasure and choice We are limited by what God has declared to us and we must not fancy our selves to be at liberty after he has revealed his Will to us As to such to whom the Christian Religion is revealed there no question can be made for it is certain they are under an indispensable Obligation to obey and follow that which is so graciously revealed to them They are bound to follow it according to what they are in their Consciences persuaded is its true sense and meaning And if for any Secular Interest they chuse to comply with that which they are convinced is an Important Error and is condemned in the Scripture they do plainly shew that they prefer Lands Houses and Life to the Authority of God in whose Will when revealed to them they are bound to acquiesce The only difficulty remaining is concerning those who never heard of this Religion Whether or How can they be saved St. Paul having divided the World into Iews and Gentiles called by him those who were in the Law and who were without Law he says Those who sinned without Law Rom. 2.12 14 15. that is out of the Mosaical Dispensation shall be judged without Law that is upon another foot For he adds when the Gentiles which have not the Law do by nature things contained in the Law That is the Moral parts of it these having not the Law are a Law unto themselves that is their Consciences are to them instead of a Written Law which shew the work of the Law written in their hearts their conscience also bearing witness and their thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another This implies that there are either Seeds of Knowledg and Virtue laid in the Nature of Man or that such Notions pass among them as are carried down by Tradition The same S. Paul says How can they call on him in whom they have not believed And how can they believe in him of whom they have not heard Rom. 1â— 14 and how can they hear without a Preacher Which seems plainly to intimate that Men cannot be bound to believe and by consequence cannot be punished for not believing unless the Gospel is preached to them St. Peter said to Cornelius Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons Acâ—â— 1â— â—4 35. but in every nation he that feareth God and worketh righteousness is accepted of him Those places seem to import that those who make the best use they can of that small measure of Light that is given them shall be judged according to it and that God will not require more of them than he has given them This also agrees so well with â—he Ideas which we have both of Justice and Goodness that this Opinion wants not special colours to make it look well But on the other hand the Pardon of Sin and the Favourof God are so positively limited to the believing in Christ Jesus and it is so expresly said That there is no salvation in any other Acts 4.12 and that there is none other name or Authority under Heaven given among Men whereby we must be saved that the distinction which can only be made in this matter is this That it is only on the Account and in the Consideration of the Death of Christ that Sin is pardoned and men are saved This is the only Sacrifice in the sight of God so that whosoever are received into mercy have it through Christ as the Channel and Conveyance of it But it is not so plainly said that no Man can be saved unless he has an explicit Knowledge of this together with a belief in it Few in the Old Dispensation could have that Infants and Innocents or Ideots have it not and yet it were a bold thing to say that they may not be saved by it So it does not appear to be clearly Revealed That none shall be saved by the Death of Christ unless they do explicitely both know it and believe in it Since it is certain That God may pardon Sin only upon that score without obliging all Men to believe in it especially when it is not Revealed to them And here another distinction is to be made which will clear this whole matter and all the difficulties that arise out of it A great difference is to be made between a Foederal certainty of Salvation secured by the Promises of God and of this New Covenant in Christ Jesus and the extent to which the Goodness and Mercy of God may go None are in
other Church has them equally with her or beyond her If all these must be discussed before we can settle this Question Which is the true Infallible Church A Man must stay long e're he can come to a point in it Therefore there can be no other way taken here but to examine first What makes a particular Church And then since the Catholick Church is an united Body of all particular Churches when the true Notion of a particular Church is fixed it will be easy from that to form a Notion of the Catholick Church It would seem reasonable by the Method of all Creeds in particular of that called the Apostles Creed that we ought first to settle our Faith as to the great Points of the Christian Religion and from thence go to settle the Notion of a true Church And that we ought not to begin with the Notion of a Church and from thence go to the Doctrine The Doctrine of Christianity must be first stated and from this we are to take our measures of all Churches and that chiefly with respect to that Doctrine which every Christian is bound to believe Here a distinction is to be made between those Capital and Fundamental Articles without which a Man cannot be esteemed a true Christian nor a Church a true Church And other Truths which being delivered in Scripture all Men are indeed obliged to believe them yet they are not of that nature that the Ignorance of them or an Error in them can exclude from Salvation To make this sensible It is a Proposition of another sort That Christ died for Sinners than this That he died at the Third or at the Sixth Hour And yet if the Second Proposition is expresly revealed in Scripture we are bound to believe it Since God has said it though it is not of the same nature with the other Here a Controversie does naturally arise that wise People are unwilling to meddle with What Articles are Fundamental and what are not The defining of Fundamental Articles seems on the one hand to deny Salvation to such as do not receive them all which Men are not willing to do And on the other hand it may seem a leaving Men at liberty as to all other particulars that are not reckoned up among the Fundamentals But after all the Covenant of Grace the Terms of Salvation and the Grounds on which we expect it seem to be things of another nature than all other truths which though revealed are not of themselves the Means or Conditions of Salvation Wheresoever true Baptism is there it seems the Essentials of this Covenant are preserved For if we look on Baptism as a Foederal admission into Christianity there can be no Baptism where the Essence of Christianity is not preserved As far then as we believe that any Society has preserved that so far we are bound to receive her Baptism and no further For unless we consider Baptism as a sort of a Charm that such words joined with a washing with Water make one a Christian which seems to be expresly contrary to what St. Peter says of it 1 Pet. â— 21 That it is not the washing away the filth of the flesh but the answer of a good Conscience towards God that saves us We must conclude That Baptism is a Foederal thing in which after that the Sponsions are made the Seal of Regeneration is added From hence it will follow That all who have a true Baptism that makes Men Believers and Christians must also have the true Faith as to the Essentials of Christianity The Fundamentals of Christirnity seems to be all that is necessary to make Baptism True and Valid And upon this a distinction is to be made that will discover and destroy a Sophism that is often used on this occasion A True Church is in one sense a Society that preserves the Essentials and Fundamentals of Christianity In another sense it stands for a Society all whose Doctrines are true that has corrupted no part of this Religion nor mixed any Errors with it A true Man is one who has a Soul and a Body that are the Essential Constituents of a Man Whereas in another sense a Man of Sincerity and Candor is called a true Man Truth in the one Sense imports the Essential Constitution and in the other it imports only a Quality that is accidental to it So when we acknowledge that any Society is a true Church we ought to be supposed to mean no other than that the Covenant of Grace in its Essential Constituent parts is preserved entire in that Body and not that it is true in all its Doctrines and Decisions The Second thing to be considered in a Church is their Association together in the use of the Sacraments For these are given by Christ to the Society as the Rites and Badges of that Body That which makes particular Men Believers is their receiving the Fundamentals of Christianity so that which constitutes the Body of the Church is the Profession of that Faith and the use of those Sacraments which are the Rites and Distinctions of those who profess it In this likewise a distinction is to be made between what is Essential to a Sacrament and what is the exact observance of it according to the Institution Additions to the Sacraments do not annul them though they corrupt them with that adulterate mixture Therefore where the Sponsions are made and washing with Water is used with the words of Christ there we own that there is a true Baptism Though there may be a large Addition of other Rites which we reject as Superstitious though we do not pretend that they null the Baptism But if any part of the Institution is cut off there we do not own the Sacrament to be true Because it being an Institution of Christ's it can no more be esteemed a true Sacrament than as it retains all that which by the Institution appears to be the main and essential parts of the Action Upon this account it is That since Christ appointed Bread and Wine fo his other Sacrament and that he not only blessed both but distributed both with words appropriated to each kind we do not esteem that to be a true Sacrament in which either the one or the other of these kinds is w ithdrawn But in the next place there may be many things necessary in the way of Precept and Order both with relation to the Sacraments and to the other publick Acts of Worship in which tho' Additions or Defects are Erroneous and Faulty yet they do not annul the Sacraments We think none ought to Baptize but Men dedicated to the Service of God and Ordained according to that Constitution that was settled in the Church by the Apostles and yet Baptism by Laicks or by Women such as is most commonly practiced in the Roman Church is not esteemed null by us nor is it repeated Because we make a difference between what is Essential to a Sacrament and what is
therein and was the Lord of Heaven and Earth and therefore was not to be Worshipped by mens hands that is Images made by them who needed nothing since he gives us life breath or the continuance of Life and all things He therefore condemns that way of Worship as an effect of Ignorance and tells them of a day in which God will judge the World It is certain that the Athenians at that time did not think their Images were the proper resemblances of the Divinity Tully Cic. de Nat. Deor. l. 1. cap. 27. who knew their Theology well gives us a very different account of the notion that they had of their Images Some Images were of no Figure at all but were only Stones and Pillars that had no particular shape others were Hieroglyphicks made up of many several Emblems of which some signified one perfection of the Deity and some another and others were indeed the Figures of Men and Women but even in these the Wiser among them said they Worshipped One Eternal Mind and under him some Inferior Beings Demons and Men who they believed were subordinate to God and governed this World So it could not be said of such Worshippers that they thought that the Godhead was like unto their Images since the best Writers among them tell us plainly that they thought no such thing St. Paul therefore only argues in this against Image-Worship in it self which does naturally lead Men to these low thoughts of God and which is a very unreasonable thing in all those who do not think so of him It is contrary to the Nature and Perfections of God Few men can think God is like to those Images therefore that is a very good Argument against all Worshipping of them And we may upon very sure grounds say that the Athenians had such elevated Notions both of God and of their Images that whatsoever was a good Argument against Image-Worship among them will hold good against all Image-Worship whatsoever But as St. Paul staid long enough at Athens to understand their Opinions well and that no doubt he learned their Doctrine very particularly from his Convert Dionysius so at his coming to Corinth from thence when he had learned from Aquila and Priscilla the state of the Church in Rome and no doubt had learned among other things that the Romans admired the Greeks and made them their Patterns he in the beginning of his Epistle to them having still deep impressions upon his Spirit of what he had seen and known at Athens arraigns the whole Greek Philosophy Rom. 1.20 to the end and specially those among them who professed themselves wise but became fools who though they knew God yet glorified him not as God nor were thankful but became vain in their imaginations so that their foolish heart was darkened They had high speculations of the Unity and Simplicity of the Divine Essence but they set themselves to find such excuses for the Idolatry of the Vulgar that they not only continued to comply with them in the grossest of all their practices but they studied more laboured Defences for them than the ruder multitudes could ever have fallen upon They knew the true God for God had shewed to them that which might be known of him but they held the truth in unrighteousness and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man and to birds and fourfooted beasts and to creeping things Which seems to be a description of Hieroglyphick Figures the most excusable of all those Images by which they represented the Deity This St. Paul makes to be the original of all the Corruption and Immorality that was spread over the Gentile World which came in partly as the natural consequence of Idolatry of its debasing the Ideas of God and wounding true Religion and Virtue in its source and first seeds and partly as an effect of the just Judgments of God upon those who thus dishonoured him That was to a very monstrous degree spread over both Greece and Rome Of these St. Paul gives us some very enormous Instances with a Catalogue of the Vices that sprang from those vitiated Principles These two passages the one of St. Paul's Preaching and the other of his Writing being both applied to those who had the finest Speculations among the Heathen do evidently demonstrate how contrary the Christian Doctrine is to the Worshipping of Images of all sorts how speciously soever that may be disguised If these things wanted an Explanation we find it given us very fully in all the Writings of the Fathers during their Disputes with the Heathens They do not only charge them with the false Notions that they had of God the many Deities they Worshipped the absurd Legends that they had concerning them but in particular they dwell long upon this of the Worshipping God in or by an Image with Arguments taken both from the pure and spiritual Nature of God and from the plain Revelation he made of his Will in this matter Upon this Argument many long Citations might be gathered from Iustin Martyr Just. Mart. Apol. 2. Clem. Alex. Strom. l. 1.5 Protr Orig. Cont. Cels. l. 2.3.5.7 Tertull. Apol. Cypr. de Idol Vanitate Arnob. Lib. 5. Minut. Felix Oct. Euseb. praep Evang. l. 3. Lactan. l. 2. c. 2. Ambros Resp. ad Sym. August de Civitate Dei l. 7. c. 5. Orig. Con. Cels. l. 7. Euseb. Praep. Ev. l. 3. c. 7. Max. Tyr. diss 38. Jul. Frag. Ep. Euseb. praep Evan. l. 4. c. 1. from Clemens of Alexandria Origen Tertullian Cyprian Arnobius Minutius Felix Lactantius Eusebius Ambrose and St. Austin Their Reasonings are so clear and so full that nothing can be more evident than that they condemned all the use of Images in the Worship of God And yet both Celsus Porphiry Maximus Tyrius and Iulian told them very plainly that they did not believe that the Godhead was like their Images or was shut up within them they only used them as helps to their Imagination and Apprehension that from thence they might form suitable thoughts of the Deity This did not satisfy the Fathers who insisted on it to the last that all such Images as were made the objects of Worship were Idols so that if in any one thing we have a very full account of the sense of the whole Church for the first Four Centuries it is in this matter They do not speak of it now and then only by the way as in a Digression in which the heat of Argument or of Rhetorick may be apt to carry men too far they set themselves to treat of this Argument very nicely and they were engaged in it with Philosophers who were as good at Subtleties and Distinctions as other Men. This was one of the main parts of the Controversy so if in any Head whatsoever they writ exactly upon those Subjects They attack'd the established Religion of the Roman Empire and this was not to be done with Clamour nor
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
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
Body Here then was the Tradition and Practice of the Church falsified which is no small Prejudice against those that support the Doctrine as well as against the Credit of that Council About thirty Years after that Council Paschase Radbert Abbot of Corby in France did very plainly assert the corporal Presence in the Eucharist He is acknowledged both by Bellarmin and Sirmondus to be the first Writer that did on purpose advance and explain that Doctrine He himself values his Pains in that Matter and as he laments the slowness of some in believing it so he pretends that he had moved many to assent to it But he confesses that some blamed him for ascribing a Sense to the Words of Christ that was not consonant to Truth There was but one Book writ in that Age to second him the Name of the Author was lost till Mabillon discovered that it was writ by one Herigerus Abbot of Cob. But all the Eminent Men and the great Writers of that time wrote plainly against this Doctrine and affiâ—med that the Bread and Wine remained in the Sacrament and did nourish our Bodies as other Meats do Those were Rabanus Maurus Archbishop of Mentz Amalarius Archbishop of Triers Heribald Bishop of Auxerre Bertram or Ratramne Iohn Scot Erigena Walafridus Strabus Florus and Christian Druthmar Three of these set themselves on purpose to refute Paschase Rabanus Maurus in an Epistle to Abbot Egilon wrote against Paschase for saying that it was that Body that was born of the Virgin that was crucified and raised up again which was daily offered up And though that Book is lost yet as he himself refers his Reader to it in his Penitential so we have an Account given of it by the Anonymous defender of Paschase Ratramne was commanded by Charles the Bald then Emperour to write upon that Subject which he in the beginning of his Book promises to do not trusting to his own Sense but following the Steps of the Holy Fathers He tells us that there were different Opinions about it Some believing that the Body of Christ was there without a Figure Others saying that it was there in a Figure or Mystery Upon which he apprehended that a great Schism must follow His Book is very short and very plain He asserts our Doctrine as expresly as we our selves can do He delivers it in the same Words and proves it by many of the same Arguments and Authorities that we bring Raban and Ratramne were without dispute reckoned among the first Men of that Age. Iohn Scot was also commanded by the same Emperour to write on the same Subject He was one of the most Learned and the most Ingenious Men of the age and was in great Esteem both with the Emperour and with our King Alfred He was reckoned both a Saint and a Martyr He did formally refute Paschase's Doctrine and assert ours His Book is indeed lost but a full Account of it is given us by other Writers of that Time And it is a great Evidence that his Opinion in this Matter was not then thought to be contrary to the general Sense of the Church in that Age For he having writ against St. Augustin's Doctrine concerning Predestination there was a very severe Censure of him and of his Writings published under the Name of the Church of Lions In which they do not once reflect on him for his Opinions touching the Eucharist It appears from this that their Doctrine concerning the Sacrament was then generally received Since both Ratramne and he though they differ'd extreamly in that Point of Predestination yet both agreed in this It is probable that the Saxon Homily that was read in England on Easter-day was taken from Scot's Book which does fully reject the corporal Presence This is enough to shew that Paschase's Opinion was an Innovation broached in the Ninth Century and was opposed by all the Great Men of that Age. The Tenth Century was the blackest and most ignorant of all the Ages of the Church There is not one Writer in that Age that gives us any clear Account of the Doctrine of the Church Such remote Hints as occur do still savour of Ratramne's Doctrine All Men were then asleep and so it was a fit time for the Tares that Paschase had sown to grow up in it The Popes of that Age were such a Succession of Monsters that Baronius cannot forbear to make the saddest Exclamations possible against their Debaucheries their Cruelties and their other Vices About the middle of the Eleventh Century after this Dispute had slept almost two hundred Years it was again revived Bruno Bishop of Angiers and Berengarius his Archdeacon maintained the Doctrine of Ratramne Little mention is made of the Bishop but the Archdeacon is spoken of as a Man of great Piety So that he past for a Saint and was a Man of such Learning that when he was brought before Pope Nicolaus no Man could resist him He writ against Paschase and had many followers The Historians of that Age tell us that his Doctrine had overspread all France The Books writ against him by Lanfranc and others are filled with an impudent corrupting of all Antiquity Many Councils were held upon this Matter and these together with the Terrours of Burning which was then beginning to be the common Punishment of Heresy made him renounce his Opinion But he returned to it again yet he afterwards renounced it Though Lanfranc reproaches him that it was not the Love of Truth but the Fear of Death that brought him to it And his final Retracting of that renouncing of his Opinion is lately found in France as I have been credibly informed Thus this Opinion that in the Ninth Century was generally received and was condemned by neither Pope nor Council was become so odious in the Eleventh Century that none durst own it And he who had the Courage to own it yet was not resolute enough to stand to it For about this Time the Doctrine of extirpating Hereticks and of deposing such Princes as were Defective in that Matter was universally put in Practice Great Bodies of Men began to separate from the Roman Communion in the Southern Parts of France and one of the chief Points of their Doctrine was their believing that Christ was not corporally Present in the Eucharist and that he was there only in a Figure or Mystery But now that the contrary Doctrine was established and that those who denied it were adjudged to be burnt it is no wonder if it quickly gained Ground when on the one hand the Priests saw their Interest in promoting it and all People felt the Danger of denying it The Anathema's of the Church and the Terrours of Burning were infallible Things to silence Contradiction at least if not to gain Assent Soon after this Doctrine was received the Schoolmen began to refine upon it Lib. 4. Dist. 11. as they did upon every thing else The Master of the Sentences would not determine how Christ was Present