such Forms as are agreed on among Nations and when that is not granted he may take such Reparation from any that are under that Obedience as may oblige the whole Body to repair the Injury Much more may he use the Sword to protect his Subjects if any other comes to invade them For this end chiefly he has both the Sword given him and those Taxes paid him that may enable him to support the Charge to which the use of it may put him And as a private man owes by the Ties of Humanity Assistance to a man whom he sees in the hands of Thieves and Murderers so Princes may assist such other Princes as are unjustly fallen upon both out of humanity to him who is so ill used and to repress the Insolence of an unjust Aggressor and also to secure the whole Neighbourhood from the effects of Success in such unlawful Conquests Upon all these accounts we do not doubt but that Wars which are thus originally as to the first occasion of them Defensive though in the Progress of them they must be often offensive may be lawful God allowed of Wars in that Policy which he himself constituted in which we are to make a great difference between those things that were permitted by reason of the hardness of their hearts and those things which were expresly commanded of God These last can never be supposed to be immoral since commanded by God whose Precepts and Judgments are altogether righteous When the Soldiers came to be baptized of St. Iohn he did not charge them to relinquish that course of Life Luk. 3.14 but only to do violence to no man to accuse no man falsly and to be content with their wages Nor did St. Peter charge Cornelius to forsake his Post when he baptized him â—cts 10. The Primitive Christians thought they might continue in Military Employments in which they preserved the Purity of their Religion entire as appears both from Tertullian's Works and from the History of Iulian's short Reign But though Wars that are in their own nature only Defensive are lawful and a part of the Protection that Princes owe their People yet unjust Wars designed for making Conquests for the enlargement of Empire and the raising the Glory of Princes are certainly publick Robberies and the highest Acts of Injustice and Violence possible in which men sacrifice to their Pride or Humour the Peace of the World and the Lives of all those that dye in the Quarrel whose Blood God will require at their hands Such Princes become accountable to God in the highest degree imaginable for all the Rapine and Bloodshed that is occasioned by their Pride and Injustice When it is visible that a War is unjust certainly no man of Conscience can serve in it unless it be in the Defensive part For though no man can owe that to his Prince to go and murder other persons at his command yet he may owe it to his Country to assist towards its Preservation from being over-run even by those whom his Prince has provoked by making War on them unjustly For even in such a War though it is unlawful to serve in the Attacks that are made on others it is still lawful for the People of every Nation to defend themselves against Foreigners There is no Cause of War more unjust than the propagating the true Religion or the destroying a false one That is to be left to the Providence of God who can change the hearts of men and bring them to the knowledg of the Truth when he will Ambition and the desire of Empire must never pretend to carry on God's work The wrath of man worketh not out the righteousness of God And it were better barefacedly to own that men are set on by Carnal Motives than to prophane Religion and the Name of God by making it the Pretence ARTICLE XXXVIII Of Christian Mens Goods which are not common The Riches and Goods of Christians are not common as touching the right Title and Possession of the same as certain Anabaptists do falsly boast Notwithstanding every man ought of such things as he possesseth liberally to give Alms to the Poor according to his Ability THere is no great difficulty in this Article as there is no danger to be apprehended that the Opinion condemned by it is like to spread Those may be for it who find it for them The Poor may claim to it but few of the Rich will ever go into it The whole Charge that is given in the Scripture for Charity and Almsgiving all the Rules that are given to the Rich and to Masters to whom their Servants were then Properties and Slaves do clearly demonstrate that the Gospel was not designed to introduce a Community of Goods And even that Fellowship or Community which was practised in the first beginnings of it was the effect of particular mens Charity and not of any Law that was laid on them Barnabas having land sold it and laid the Price of it at the Apostles feet And when St. Peter chid Ananias for having vowed to give in the whole Price of his Land to that distribution and then withdrawing a part of it Acts 4.36 37· and by a Lye pretending that he had brought it all in he affirmed that the Right was still in him till he by a Vow had put it out of his power When God fed his People by Miracle with the Manna there was an equal distribution made yet when he brought them into the promised Land every man had his Property The equal division of the Land was the foundation of that Constitution but still every man had a Property and might improve it by his Industry either to the increasing of his Stock the purchasing Houses in Towns or buying of Estates till the Redemption at the Jubilee It can never be thought a just and equitable thing that the sober and industrious should be bound to share the fruits of their labour with the idle and the luxurious This would be such an Incouragement to those whom all wise Governments ought to discourage and would so discourage those who ought to be encouraged that all the Order of the World must be dissolved if so extravagant a Conceit should be entertained Both the Rich and the Poor have Rules given them and there are Virtues suitable to each state of Life The Rich ought to be sober and thankful modest and humble bountiful and charitable out of the abundance that God has given them and not to set their hearts upon uncertain Riches but to trust in the living God and to make the best use of them that they can The Poor ought to be patient and industrious to submit to the Providence of God and to study to make sure of a better Portion in another State than God has thought fit to give them in this World It will be much easier to persuade the World of the Truth of the first part of this Article than to bring them up
Grace of Christ and the Inspiration of his Spirit are not pleasant to God forasmuch as they spring not of Faith in Iesus Christ neither do they make men meet to receive Grace or as the School-Authors say deserve Grace of Congruity Yea rather for that they are not done as God hath commanded and willed them to be done we doubt not but that they have the nature of Sin THere is but one Point to be considered in this Article which is Whether Men can without any inward Assistances from God do any Action that shall be in all its circumstances so good that it is not only acceptable to God but meritorious in his sight though in a lower degree of merit If what was formerly laid down concerning a Corruption that was spread over the whole Race of Mankind and that had very much vitiated their Faculties be true then it will follow from thence That unassisted Nature can do nothing that is so good in it self that it can be pleasant or meritorious in the sight of God A great difference is here to be made between an external Action as it is considered in it self and the same Action as it was done by such a Man An Action is called good from the Morality and Nature of the Action it self so Actions of Justice and Charity are in themselves good whatsoever the Doer of them may be But Actions are considered by God with relation to him that does them in another light his Principles Ends and Motives with all the other circumstances of the Action come into this Account for unless all these be good let the Action in its own abstracted nature be ever so good it cannot render the Doer acceptable or meritorious in the sight of God Another distinction is also to be made between the Methods of the Goodness and Mercy of God and the strictness of Justice For if God had suchregard to the feigned Humiliation of Ahab 1 Kings 21.29 as to grant him and his Family a Reprieve for some time from those Judgments that had been denounced against them and him and if Iehu's executing the Commands of God upon Ahab's Family and upon the Worshippers of Baal procured him the Blessing of a long continuance of the Kingdom in his Family though he acted in it with a bad design 2 Kings 10.30 31. and retained still the old Idolatry of the Calves set up by Ieroboam then we have all reason to conclude according to the Infinite Mercy and Goodness of God that no Man is rejected by him or denied inward Assistances that is making the most of his Faculties and doing the best that he can but that he who is faithful in his little shall be made Ruler over more The Question is only Whether such Actions can be so pure as to be free from all sin and to Merit at God's hand as being Works naturally perfect for that is the formal Notion of the Merit of Congruity as the Notion of the Merit of Condignity is That the Work is perfect in the Supernatural Order To establish the Truth of this Article beside what was said upon the Head of Original Sin we ought to consider what St. Paul's words in the 7 th of the Romans do import Nothing was urged from them on the former Articles because there is just ground of doubting whether St. Paul is there speaking of himself in the state he was in when he writ it or whether he is personating a Iew and speaking of himself as he was while yet a Iew. But if the words are taken in that lowest sense they prove this That an Unregenerate Man has in himself such a Principle of Corruption that even a good and a holy Law revealed to him cannot reform it but that on the contrary it will take occasion from that very Law to deceive him and to slay him Rom. 7.12 13. So that all the benefit that he receives even from that Revelation is Ver. 14. that sin in him becomes exceeding sinful as being done against such a degree of Light by which it appears that he is carnal and sold under sin and that though his Understanding may be enlighten'd by the Revelation of the Law of God made to him so that he has some Inclinations to obey it yet he does not that which he would but that which he would not And though his Mind is so far convinced 16 17 18 that he consents to the Law that it is good yet he still does that which he would not which was the effect of sin that dwelt in him and from hence he knew that in him that is in his flesh in his carnal part or carnal state there dwelt no good thing for though to will that is to resolve on obeying the Law was present yet he found not a way how to perform that which was good the good that he wished to do that he did not but he did the evil that he wished not to do which he imputed to the sin that dwelt in him He found then a Law a Bent and Biass within him 21 that when he wished resolved and endeavoured to do good evil was present with him it sprung up naturally within him for though in his rational Powers he might so far approve the Law of God as to delight in it yet he found another Law arising upon his Mind from his Body 23 which warred against the law of his mind and brought him into captivity to the law of sin which was in his members 24 25. All this made him conclude that he was carnal and sold under sin and cry out O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death For this he thanks God through our Lord Iesus Christ And he sums all up in these words So then with the mind I my self serve the Law of God but with the flesh the Law of Sin If all this Discourse is made by St. Paul of himself when he had the Light which a Divinely-inspired Law gave him he being educated in the exactest way of that Religion both zealous for the Law and blameless in his own observance of it we may from thence conclude how little reason there is to believe that a Heathen or indeed an unregenerated Man can be better than he was and do Actions that are both good in themselves which it is not denied but that he may do and do them in such a manner that there shall be no mixture nor imperfection in them but that they shall be perfect in a Natural Order and be by consequence meritorious in a Secondary Order By all this we do not pretend to say That a Man in that state can do nothing or that he has no use of his Faculties He can certainly restrain himself on many occasions he can do many good works and avoid many bad ones he can raise his Understanding to know and consider things according to the Light that he has he can put
in which Dr. Pocock and Dr. Lightfoot were singularly eminent In all Dr. Hammond's Writings one sees great Learning and a solid Judgment A just Temper in managing Controversies and above all a Spirit of True and Primitive Piety with great Application to the right understanding of the Scriptures and the directing of all to practice Bishop Pearson on the Creed as far as it goes is the perfectest Work we have His Learning was profound and exact his Method good and his Stile clear he was equally happy both in the force of his Arguments and in the plainness of his Expressions Upon the Restoration of the Royal Family and the Church the first Scene of Writing was naturally laid in the late Times and with Relation to Conformity But we quickly saw that Popery was a restless thing and was the standing Enemy of our Church So as soon as that shewed it self then our Divines returned to those Controversies in which no man bare a greater share and succeeded in it with more honour than Bishop Stillingfleet both in his Vindication of Archbishop Laud and in the long-continued Dispute concerning the Idolatry of the Church of Rome When the dangers of Popery came nearer us and became sensible to all persons then a great Number of our Divines engaged in those Controversies They writ short and plain and yer brought together in a great variety of small Tracts the substance of all that was contained in the Large Volumes writ both by our own Divines and by Foreigners There was in these a Solidity of Argument mixed with an agreeableness in the way of Writing that both pleased and edified the Nation And did very much confound and at last silence the few and weak Writers that were of the Romish side The inequality that was in this Contest was too visible to be denied and therefore they who set it first on foot let it fall For they had other methods to which they trusted more than to that Unsuccessful one of Writing In those Treatises the Substance of all our former Books is so fully contained and so well delivered that in them the Doctrines of our Church as to all Controverted Points is both clearly and copiously set forth The perusing of all this was a large Field And yet I thought it became me to examine all with a due measure of exactness I have taken what pains I could to digest every thing in the clearest method and in the shortest compass into which I could possibly bring it So that in what I have done I am as to the far greatest part rather an Historian and a Collector of what others have writ than an Author my self This I have performed faithfully and I hope with some measure of Diligence and Exactness Yet if in such a variety some important matters are forgot and if others are mistaken I am so far from reckoning it an injury to have those discovered that I will gladly receive any advices of that kind I will consider them carefully and make the best use of them I can for the undeceiving of others as soon as I am convinced that I have misled them If men seek for Truth in the Meekness of Christ they will follow this Method in those private and Brotherly Practices recommended to us by our Saviour But for those that are contentious and do not obey the Truth I shall very little regard any Opposition that may come from them I had no other Design in this Work but first to find out the Truth my self and then to help others to find it out If I succeed to any degree in this Design I will bless God for it And if I fail in it I will bear it with the Humility and Patience that becomes me But as soon as I see a better Work of this kind I shall be among the first of those who shall recommend That and disparage This. There is no part of this whole Work in which I have labour'd with more Care and have writ in a more uncommon Method than concerning Predestination For as my small Reading had carried me further in that Controversy than in any other whatsoever both with relation to Ancients and Moderns and to the most esteemed Books in all the different Parties so I weighed the Article with that Impartial Care that I thought became me and have taken a Method which is for ought I know new of stating the Arguments of all Sides with so much Fairness that those who knew my own Opinion in this Point have owned to me That they could not discover it by any thing that I had written They were inclined to think that I was of another Mind than they took me to be when they read my Arguings of that side I have not in the Explanation of that Article told what my own Opinion was yet here I think it may be fitting to own That I follow the Doctrine of the Greek Church from which St. Austin departed and formed a new System After this declaration I may now appeal both to St. Austin's Disciples and to the Calvinists whether I have not stated both their Opinions and Arguments not only with Truth and Candor but with all possible Advantages One reason among others that led me to follow the Method I have pursued in this Controversy is to offer at the best means I can for bringing men to a better understanding of one another and to a mutual Forbearance in these matters This is at present the chief Point in difference between the Lutherans and the Calvinists Expedients for bringing them to an Union in these Heads are Projects that can never have any good Effect Men whose Opinions are so different can never be brought to an Agreement And the settling on some Equivocal Formularies will never lay the Contention that has arisen concerning them The only possible way of a sound and lasting Reconcilation is to possess both Parties with a Sense of the Force of the Arguments that lye on the other side that they may see they are no way contemptible but are such as may prevail on wise and good men Here is a Foundation laid for Charity And if to this men would add a just Sense of the Difficulties in their own Side and consider that the ill Consequences drawn from Opinions are not to be charged on all that hold them unless they do likewise own those Consequences then it would be more easy to agree on some General Propositions by which those ill Consequences might be condemned and the Doctrine in general settled leaving it free to the men of the different Systems to adhere to their own Opinions but withal obliging them to judge charitably and favourably of others and to maintain Communion with them notwithstanding that Diversity It is a good Step even to the bringing men over to an Opinion To persuade them to think well of those who hold it This goes as it were half way and if it is not possible to bring men quite to think as
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
Controversy with that which they think they can the most easily prove the one at the Establishing of Election and the other at the overthrowing of Reprobation Some have studied to seek out middle-ways For they observing that the Scriptures are writ in a great diversity of Stile in Treating of the Good or Evil that happens to us ascribing the one to God and imputing the other to our selves teaching us to ascribe the honour of all that is Good to God and to cast the blame of all that is Evil upon our selves have from thence concluded That God must have a different Influence and Causality in the one from what he has in the other But when they go to make this out they meet with great Difficulties yet they chuse to bear these rather than to involve themselves in those equally great if not greater Difficulties that are in either of the other Opinions They wrap up all in Two General Assertions that are great Practical Truths Let us Arrogate no good to our selves and impute no evil to God and so let the whole matter rest This may be thought by some the lazier as well as the safer way which avoids Difficulties rather than answers them whereas they say of both the Contending Sides That they are better at the starting of Difficulties than at the resolving of them Thus far I have gone upon the general in making such Reflections as will appear but too well grounded to those who have with any Attention read the chief Disputants of both Sides In these great Points all agree That Mercy is freely offered to the World in Christ Jesus That God did freely offer his Son to be our Propitiation and has freely accepted the Sacrifice of his Death in our stead whereas he might have Condemned every Man to have perished for his own Sins That God does in the Dispensation of this Gospel and the Promulgation of it to the several Nations act according to the Freedom of his Grace upon Reasons that are to us mysterious and past finding out That every Man is inexcusable in the sight of God That all Men are so far free as to be praise-worthy or blame-worthy for the Good or Evil that they do That every Man ought to employ his Faculties all he can and to pray and depend earnestly upon God for his Protection and Assistance That no Man in Practice ought to think that there is a Fate or Decree hanging over him and so become slothful in his Duty but that every Man ought to do the best he can as if there were no such Decree since whether there is or is not it is not possible for him to know what it is That every Man ought to be deeply humbled for his Sins in the sight of God without excusing himself by pretending a Decree was upon him or a want of Power in him That all Men are bound to obey the Rules set them in the Gospel and are to expect neither Mercy nor Favour from God but as they set themselves diligently about that And finally That at the Last Day all Men shall be Judged not according to secret Decrees but according to their own Works In these great Truths of which the greater part are Practical all Men agree If they would agree as honestly in the Practice of them as they do in Confessing them to be true they would do that which is much more important and necessary than to speculate and dispute about Niceties by which the World would quickly put on a new Face and then those few that might delight in curious Searches and Arguments would manage them with more Modesty and less Heat and be both less positive and less supercilious I have hitherto insisted on such general Reflections as seemed proper to these Questions I come now in the last place to examine how far our Church hath determined the Matter either in this Article or elsewhere How far she hath restrained her Sons and how far she hath left them at liberty For those different Opinions being so intricate in themselves and so apt â—o raise hot Disputes and to kindle lasting Quarrels it will not be suitable to that Moderation which our Church hath observed in all other things to sâ—retch her Words on these Heads beyond their strict sense The natural equity or reason of things ought rather to carry us on the other hand to as great a Comprehensiveness of all sides as may well consist with the Words in which our Church has expressed herself on those Heads It is not to be denied but that the Article seems to be framed according to St. Austin's Doctrine It supposes Men to be under a Curse and Damnation antecedently to Predestination from which they are delivered by it so it is directly against the Sâ—pralapsarian Doctrine Nor does the Article make any mention of Reprobation no not in a hint no Definition is made concerning it The Article does also seem to assert the Efficacy of Grace That in which the Knot of the whole Dfficulty lies is not Defined that is Whether God's Eternal Purpose or Decree was made according to what he foresaw his Creatures would do or purely upon an Absolute Will in order to his own Glory It is very probable that those who Penned it meant that the Decree was Absolute but yet since they have not said it those who subscribe the Articles do not seem to be bound to any thing that is not expressed in them And therefore since the Remonstrants do not deny but that God having foreseen what all Mankind would according to all the different Circumstances in which they should be put do or not do he upon that did by a firm and Eternal Decree lay that whole Design in all its Branches which he Executes in time they may subscribe this Article without renouncing their Opinion as to this matter On the other hand the Calvinists have less occasion for Scruple since the Article does seem more plainly to favour them The Three Cautions that are added to it do likewise intimate that St. Austin's Doctrine was designed to be settled by the Article For the danger of Mens having the sentence of God's Predestination always before their eyes which may occasion either desperation on the one hand or the wretchlesness of most unclean living on the other belongs only to that side since these Mischiefs do not arise out of the other Hypothesis The other Two of taking the Promises of God in the sense in which they are set forth to us in Holy Scriptures and of following that Will of God that is expresly declared to us in the Word of God relate very visibly to the same Opinion Though others do infer from these Cautions That the Doctrine laid down in the Article must be so understood as to agree with these Cautions and therefore they argue That since Absolute Predestination cannot consist with them that therefore the Article is to be otherwise explained They say the natural Consequence of an Absolute
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
Arguments for the Negative yet that was not necessary For as a Negative always proves it self so that holds more especially here where that which is denied is accompanied with so many and so strange Absurdities as do follow from this Doctrine The last Topick in this Matter is the Sense that the ancient Church had of it For as we certainly have both the Scriptures and the Evidence of our Senses and Reason of our side so that will be much fortified if it appears that no such Doctrine was received in the First and best Ages And that it came in not all at once but by degrees I shall first urge this Matter by some general Presumptions And then I shall go to plain Proofs But though the Presumptions shall be put only as Presumptions yet if they appear to be violent so that a Man cannot hold giving his Assent to the Conclusion that follows from them then though they are put in the Form of presumptive Arguments yet that will not hinder them from being considered as concluding ones By the stating this Doctrine it has appeared how many Difficulties there are involved in it These are Difficulties that are obvious and soon seen They are not found out by deep enquiry and much speculation They are soon felt and are very hardly avoided And ever since the Time that this Doctrine has been received by the Roman Church these have been much insisted on Explanations have been offered to them all and the whole Principles of natural Philosophy have been cast into a new Mould that they might ply to this Doctrine At least those who have studied their Philosophy in that System have had such Notions put in them while their Minds were yet tender and capable of any Impressions that they have been thereby prepared to this Doctrine before they came to it by a Train of Philosophical Terms and Distinctions so that they were not much alarmed at it when it came to be set before them They are accustomed to think that Ubication or the being in a Place is but an Accident to a Substance So that the same Bodies being in more Places is only its having a few more of those Accidents produced in it by God They are accustomed to think that Accidents are Beings different from Matter like a sort of cloathing to it which do indeed require the having of a Substance for their Subject But yet since they are believed to have a being of their own God may make them subsist As the Skin of a Man may stand out in its proper Shape and Colour though there were nothing but Air or Vacuity within it They are accustomed to think that as an Accident may be without its proper Substance so a Substance may be without its proper Accidents And they do reckon Extension and Impenetrability that is a Bodies so filling a Space that no other Body can be in the same Space with it among its Accidents So that a Body composed of Organs and of large Dimensions may be not only all crouded within one Wafer but an entire distinct Body may be in every separable Part of this Wafer At least in every piece that carries in it the Appearances of Bread These besides many other lesser Subtilties are the evident Results of this Doctrine And it was a natural Effect of its being received that their Philosophy should be so transformed as to agree to it and to prepare Men for it Now to apply this to the Matter we are now upon We find none of these Subtilties among the Ancients They seem to apprehend none of those Difficulties nor do they take any pains to solve or clear them They had a Philosophical Genius and shewed it in all other things They disputed very nicely concerning the Attributes of God concerning his Essence and the Persons of the Trinity They saw the Difficulties concerning the Incarnation of the Eternal Word and Christ's being both God and Man They treat of Original Sin of the Power of Grace and of the Decrees of God They explained the Resurrection of our Bodies and the different States of the Blessed and the Damned They saw the Difficulties in all these Heads and were very Copious in their Explanations of them And they may be rather thought by some too full than too sparing in the canvassing of Difficulties But all those were more speculative Matters in which the Difficulty was not so soon seen as on this Subject Yet they found these out and pursued them with that Subtilty that shewed they were not at all displeased when occasions were offered them to shew their Skill in answering Difficulties Which to name no more appears very evidently to be St. Augustin's Character Yet neither he nor any of the other Fathers seem to have been Sensible of the Difficulties in this Matter They neither state them nor answer them nor do they use those reserves when they speak of Philosophical Matters that Men must have used who were possessed of this Doctrine For a Man cannot hold it without bringing himself to think and speak otherways upon all natural Things than the rest of Mankind do They are so far from this that on the contrary they deliver themselves in a way that shews they had no such Apprehensions of Things They thought that all Creatures were limited to one Place And from thence they argued against the Heathens who believed that their Deities were in every one of those Statues which they consecrated to them From this Head they proved the Divinity of the Holy Ghost Because he wrought in many different Places at once Which he could not do if he were only a Creature They affirm that Christ can be no more on Earth since he is now in Heaven and that he can be but in one Place They say that which hath no Bounds nor Figure and that can neither be touched nor seen cannot be a Body That Bodies are extended in some Place and cannot exist after the Manner of Spirits They argue against the Eternity of Matter from this that nothing could be produced that had a Being before it was produced And on all Occasions they appeal to the Testimony of our Senses as Infallible They say that to believe otherwise tended to reverse the whole State of Life and Order of Nature and to reproach the Providence of God since it must be said that he has given the Knowledge of all his Works to Liars and Deceivers if our Senses may be false That we must doubt of our Faith if the Testimony of hearing seeing and feeling could deceive us And in their Contests with the Marcionites and others concerning the Truth of Christ's Body they appeal always to the Testimony of the Senses as Infallible And even treating of the Sacrament they say without Limitation or Exception that it was Bread as their Eyes witnessed and true Wine that Christ did Consecrate to be the Memorial of his Body and Blood and they tell us in this very Particular that we ought not to