Grace and Spirit descending on his Church He does also intercede for us at his Father's Right-hand where he is preparing a place for us The meaning of all which is this That as he is vested with an unccnceivable high degree of Glory even as Man so the Merit of his Death is still fresh and entire and in the virtue of that the Sins of all that come to God throâ—gh him claiming to his Death as to their Sacrifice and obeying his Gospel are pardoned and they are sealed by his Spirit until the day of Redemption In conclusion when all God's design with this World is accomplished it shall be set on Fire and all the great Parts of which it is composed as of Elements shall be melted and burnt down and then when by that Fire probably the Portions of Matter which was in the Bodies of all who have lived upon Earth shall be so far refined and fixed as to become both Incorruptible and Immortal then they shall be made meet for the Souls that formerly animated them to re-enter every one into his own Body which shall be then so moulded as to be a Habitation fit to give it everlasting Joy or everlasting Torment Then shall Christ appear visibly in some very conspicuous Place in the Clouds of Heaven where every Eye shall see him He shall appear in his own glory that is in his Human glorified Body Luk. 9.26 He shall appear in the glory of his angels having vast Numbers of these about him attending on him But which is above all he shall appear in his Father's glory that is there shall be then a most wonderful Manifestation of the Eternal Godhead dwelling in him and then shall he pass a final Sentence upon all that ever lived upon Earth according to all that they have done in the Body whether it be good or bad The Righteous shall ascend as he did and shall meet him in the Clouds and be for ever with him and the Wicked shall sink into a state of Darkness and Misery of unspeakable Horror of Mind and everlasting Pain and Torment ARTICLE V. Of the Holy Ghost The Holy Ghost proceeding from the Father and the Son is of one Substance Majesty and Glory with the Fathei and the Son very and Eternal God IN order to the explaining this Article we must consider First The Importance of the Term Spirit or Holy Spirit Secondly His Procession from the Father and the Son And Thirdly That he is truly God of the same Substance with the Father and the Son Spirit signifies Wind or Breath and in the Old Testament it stands frequently in that Sense The Spirit of God or Wind of God stands sometimes for a high and strong Wind but more frequently it signifies a secret Impression made by God on the Mind of a Prophet So that the Spirit of God and the Spirit of Prophecy are set in opposition to the vain Imaginations the false Pretences or the Diabolical Illusions of those who assumed to themselves the Name and the Authority of a Prophet without a true Mission from God But when God made Representations either in a Dream or in an Extasy to any Person or imprinted a sense of his Will on their Minds together with such necessary Characters as gave it Proof and Authority this was an Illapse from God as a Breathing from him on the Soul of the Prophet In the New Testament this word Holy Ghost stands most commonly for that wonderful Effusion of those Miraculous Virtues that was poured out at Pentecost on the Apostles by which their Spirits were not only exalted with extraordinary degrees of Zeal and Courage of Authority and Uâ—terance but they were furnished with the Gifts of Tongues and of Miracles And besides that first and great Effusion several Christians received particular Talents and Inspirations which are most commonly expressed by the word Spirit or Inspiration Those inward Assistances by which the Frame and Temper of Mens Minds are changed and renewed are likewise called the Spirit or the Holy Spirit or Holy Ghost So Christ said to Nicodemus John 3.3 5 6 Lu. 11.18 That except a man was born of water and of the Spirit he cannot see the kingdom of God and that his heavenly Father would give the Holy Spirit to every one that asked him By these it is plain that extraordinary or miraculous Inspirations are not meant for these are not every Christian's Portion there is no question made of all this The main question is Whether by Spirit or Holy Spirit we are to understand one Person that is the Fountain of all those Gifts and Operations or whether by One Spirit is only to be meant the Power of God flowing out and shewing it self in many wonderful Operations The Adversaries of the Trinity will have the Spirit or Holy Spirit to signify no Person but only the Divine Gifts or Operations But in opposition to this it is plain that in our Saviour's last and long Discourse to his Disciples John 14.16 26. in which he promised to send them his Spirit he calls him another Comforter to be sent in his stead or to supply his Absence and the whole Tenor of the Discourse runs on him as a Person John 16. â— 13. He shall abide with you He shall guide you into all truth and shew you things to come He shall bring all things into your remembrance He shall convince the world of sin of righteousness and of judgment In all those places he is so plainly spoken of not as a Quality or Operation but as a Person and that without any Key or Rule to understand the Words otherwise that this alone may serve to determine the matter now in dispute Christ's Commission to Preach and Baptize in the Name of the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost does plainly make him a Person since it cannot be said that we are to be called by the Name of a Virtue or Operation St. Paul does also in a long Discourse upon the Diversity of Gifts 1 Cor. 12.4 8 9 11 13. Administrations and Operations ascribe them all to one Spirit as their Authoâ— and Fountain of whom he speaks as of a Person distributing these in order to several Ends and in different Measures 1 Cor. 2.10 Rom. 8.26 Eph. 4.30 He speaks of the Spirit 's searching all things of his interceeding for us of our grieving the Spirit by which we are sealed This is the Language used concerning a Person not a Quality All these says he worketh that one and the self-same Spirit dividing to every man severally as he will Now it is not to be conceived how that both our Saviour and his Apostles should use the Phrase of a Person so constantly in speaking of the Spirit and should so critically and in the way of Argument pursue that Strain if he is not a Person They not only insist on it and repeat it frequently but they draw an Argument from it for Union and Love and
for mutual Condescension and Sympathy Upon all these grounds it is evident that the Holy Spirit is in the Scripture proposed to us as a Person under whose Oeconomy all the various Gifts Administrations and Operations that are in the Church are put The Second Particular relating to this Article is the Procession of this Spirit from the Father and the Son The Word Procession or as the Schoolmen term it Spiration is only made use of in order to the naming this Relation of the Spirit to the Father and Son in such a manner as may best answer the sense of the word Spirit For it must be confessed that we can frame no explicite Idea of this matter and therefore we must speak of it either strictly in Scripture-Words or in such Words as arise out of them and that have the same Signification with them It is therefore a vain Attempt of the Schoolmen to undertake to give a reason why the Second Person is said to be generated and so is called Son and the Third to proceed and so is called Spirit All these Subtilties can have no Foundation and signify nothing towards the clearing this matter which is rather darkned than cleared by a pretended Illustration In a word as we should never have believed this Mystery if the Scripture had not revealed it to us so we understand nothing concerning it besides what is contained in the Scriptures And therefore if in any thing we must think soberly upon those Subjects The Scriptures call the Second Son and the Third Spirit so Generation and Procession are words that may well be used but they are words concerning which we can form no distinct Conception We only use them because they belong to the words Son and Spirit The Spirit in things that we do understand is somewhat that proceeds and the Son is a Person begotten we therefore believing that the Holy Ghost is a Person apply the word Procession to the manner of his Emanation from the Father though at the same time we must acknowledge that we have no distinct Thought concerning it So much in general concerning Procession It has been much controverted whether the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father only or from the Father and the Son In the first Disputes concerning the Divinity of the Holy Ghost with the Macedonians who denied it there was no other Contest but whether he was truly God or not When that was settled by the Council of Constantinople it was made a part of the Creed but it was only said that he Proceeded from the Father And the Council of Ephesus soon after that fixed on that Creed decreeing that no Additions should be made to it Yet about the end of the Sixth Century in the Western Church an Addition was made to the Article by which the Holy Ghost was affirmed to proceed from the Son as well as from the Father And when the Eastern and Western Churches in the Ninth Century fell into an humour of quarrelling upon the account of Jurisdiction after some time of Anger in which they seem to be searching for matter to reproach one another with they found out this difference The Greeks reproached the Latins for thus adding to the Faith and corrupting the Ancient Symbol and that contrary to the Decree of a General Council The Latins on the other hand charged them for detracting from the Dignity of the Son And this became the chief Point in Controversy between them Here was certainly a very unhappy Dispute inconsiderable in its Original but fatal in its Consequences We of this Church though we abhor the Cruelty of condemning the Eastern Churches for such a difference yet do receive the Creed according to the usage of the Western Churches And therefore though we do not pretend to explain what Procession is we believe according to the Article That the Holy Ghost proceeds both from the Father and the Son Because in that Discourse of our Saviour's that contains the Promise of the Spirit and that long Description of him as a Person Christ not only says That the Father will send the Spirit in his name but adds That he will send the Spirit Joh. 14.26 and though he says next who proceedeth from the Father yet since he sends him Joh. 15.26 and that he was to supply his room and to act in his Name this implies a Relation and a sort of Subordination in the Spirit to the Son This may serve to justify our adhering to the Creeds as they had been for many Ages received in the Western Church But we are far from thinking that this Proof is so full and explicite as to justify our Separating from any Church or condemning it that should stick exactly to the first Creeds and reject this Addition The Third Branch of the Article is That this Holy Ghost or Person thus proceeding is truly God of the same Substance with the Father and the Son That he is God was formerly proved by those Passages in which the whole Trinity in all the Three Persons is affirm'd But besides that the lying to the Holy Ghost by Ananias and Saphira is said to be a lying not unto men Act. 5.34 but to God His being called another Comforter his teaching all things his guiding into all truth his telling things to come his searching all things even the deep things of God his being called the Spirit of the Lord in opposition to the spirit of a man his making intercession for us his changing us into the same image with Christ are all such plain Characters of his being God that those who deny that are well aware of this That if it is once proved that he is a Person it will follow that he must be God therefore all that was said to prove him a Person is here to be remembred as a Proof that he is truly God So that though there is not such a variety of Proofs for this as there was for the Divinity of the Son yet the Proof of it is plain and clear And from what was said upon the First Article concerning the Unity of God it is also certain that if he is God he must be of one Substance Majesty and Glory with the Father and the Son ARTICLE VI. Of the Sufficiency of Holy Scriptures for Salvation Holy Scripture containeth all things necessary to Salvation So that whatsoevet is not read therein nor may be proved thereby is not to be required of any Man that it should be believed as an Article of Faith or be thought requisite or necessary to Salvation In the Name of the Holy Scripture we do understand those Canonical Books of the Old and New Testament of whose Authority was never any doubt in the Church Of the Names and Number of the Canonical Books Genesis The First Book of Samuel The Book of Hester Exodus The Second Book of Samuel The Book of Iob Leviticus The First Book of Kings The Psalms Numbers The Second Book of Kings The Proverbs
weak and brag continually of the Spirit by which they do pretend that all whatsoever they Preach is suggested to them though manifestly contrary to the Holy Scriptures This whole Article relates to the Antinomians as these last words were added by reason of the Extravagance of some Enthusiasts at that time but that Madness having ceased in Queen Elizabeth's time it seems it was thought that there was no more occasion for those words There are Four heads that do belong to this Article First That the Old Testament is not contrary to the New Secondly That Christ was the Mediator in both Dispensations so that Salvation was offered in both by him Thirdly That the Ceremonial and the Judiciary Precepts in the Law of Moses do not bind Christians Fourthly That the Moral Law does still bind all Christians To the first of these The Manichees of old who fancied that there was a Bad as well as a Good God thought that these Two Great Principles were in a perpetual struggle and they believed the Old Dispensation was under the Bad One which was taken away by the New that is the work of the Good God But they who held such monstrous Tenets must needs reject the whole New Testament or very much corrupt it since there is nothing plainer than that the Prophets of the Old foretold the New with approbation and the Writers of the New prove both their Commission and their Doctrine from Passages of the Old Testament This therefore could not be affirmed without rejecting many of the Books that we own and corrupting the rest So this deserves no more to be considered Upon this occasion it will be no improper Digression to consider what Revelation those under the Mosaical Law or that lived before it had of the Messias This is an Important Matter It is a great Confirmation of the Truth of the Christian Religion as it will furnish us with proper Arguments against the Iews It is certain they have long had and still have an Expectation of a Messias Now the Characters and Predictions concerning this Person must have been fulfilled long ago or the Prophecies will be found to be false and if they do meet and were accomplish'd in our Saviour's Person and if no other Person could ever pretend to this then that which is undertaken to be proved will be fully performed The first Promise to Adam after his Sin speaks of an Enmity between the Seed of the Serpent and the Seed of the Woman Gen. 3.15 It shall bruise thy head and thou shalt bruise his heel The one might hurt the other in some lesser Instances but the other was to have an entire Victory at last which is plainly signified by the Figures of bruising the Heel and bruising the Head which was to be performed by one who was to bear this Character of being the Woman's Seed The next Promise was made to Abraham In thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed Gen. 12.3 Gen. 22.18 Gen. 26.24 Gen. 28.14 Gen. 49.10 This was lodged in his Seed or Posterity upon his being ready to offer up his Son Isaac That Promise was renewed to Isaac and after him to Iacob When he was dying it was lodged by him in the Tribe of Iudah when he prophesied That the Scepter should not depart from Iudah nor the Law-giver from between his feet till Shiloh should come and the gathering of the people that is of the Gentiles was to be to him It is certain the Ten Tribes were lost in their Captivity whereas the Tribe of Iudah was brought back and continued to be a political Body under their own Laws until a Breach was made upon that by the Romans first reducing them to the Form of a Province and soon after that destroying them utterly So that either that Prediction was not accomplished or the Shiloh the Sent to whom the Gentiles were to be gathered came before they lost their Scepter and Laws Moses told the People of Israel That God was to raise up among them a Prophet like unto him Deut. 18.15 to whom they ought to hearken otherwise God would require it of them The Character of Moses was That he was a Lawgiver and the Author of an entire Body of Instituted Religion so they were to look for such a one Numb 24. â—â— Balaam prophesied darkly of one whom he saw as at a great distance from his own time and he spoke of a Star that should come out of Iacob and a Scepter out of Israel Some Memorial of which was probably preserved among the Arabians In the Book of Psalms there are many things said of David which seem capable of a much Auguster Sense than can be pretended to be answered by any thing that befel himself What is said in the 2 d the 16 th the 22 d the 45 th the 102 d and the 110 th Psalms afford us copious Instances of this Passages in these Psalms must be stretched by Figures that go very high to think they were all fulfilled in David or Solomon But in their Literal and largest Sense they were accomplished in Christ to whom God said Thou art my Son this day have I begotten thee In him that was verified Thou wilt not leave my Soul in hell neither wilt thou suffer thy Holy One to see Corruption His hands and his feet were pierced and lots were cast upon his vesture Of him it may be strictly said Thy throne O God is for ever and ever To him that belonged The Lord said unto my Lord Sit thou on my Right-hand till I make thine enemies thy footstool And The Lord sware and will not repent Thou art a Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedeck The Prophets gave yet more express Predictions concerning the Messias Isaiah did quiet the Fears of Ahaz and of the House of David by saying The Lord himself shall give you a sign Behold Isa. 8 1â— a Virgin shall conceive and bear a Son It was certainly no Sign for one that was a Virgin to conceive afterwards and bear a Son therefore the Sign or extroardinary thing here promised as a signal Pledge of God's Care of the House of David must lie in this That one still remaining a Virgin should conceive and bear a Son not to insist upon the strict signification of the Word in the Original The same Prophet did also foretell That as this Messiah or the Branch Isa. 11.1 2. should spring from the Stem of Iesse so also he was to be full of the Spirit of the Lord and that the Gentiles should seek to him ver 10. In another place he enumerates many of the Miracles that should be done by him He was to give sight to the Blind make the Deaf to hear and the Lame to walk Isa. 35. â— 6. He does further set forth his Character not that of a Warrior or Conqueror on the contrary He was not to cry nor strive Isa. 42.1 nor break the bruised
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
Opus operatum it is conveyed to the Souls of those to whom they are applied unless they themselves put a Bar in the way of it by some mortal Sin In consequence of this they reckon that by the Sacraments given to a Man in his Agonies though he is very near past all Sense and so cannot joyn any lively Acts of his Mind with the Sacraments yet he is justified not to mention the common practice of giving Extreme Unction in the last Agony when no appearance of any Sense is left This we reckon a Doctrine that is not only without all Foundation in Scripture but that tends to destroy all Religion and to make Men live on securely in Sin trusting to this that the Sacraments may be given them when they die The Conditions of the New Covenant are Repentance Faith and Obedience and we look on this as the corrupting the Vitals of this Religion when any such means are proposed by which the main Design of the Gospel is quite overthrown The business of a Character is an unintelligible Notion We acknowledge Baptism is not to be repeated but that is not by virtue of a Character imprinted in it but because it being a Dedication of the Person to God in the Christian Religion what is once so done is to be understood to continue still in that State till such a Person falls into an open Apostacy In case of the Repentance of such a Person we finding that the Primitive Church did reconcile but not rebaptize Apostates do imitate that their Practice but not because of this late and unexplicable Notion of a Character We look on all Sacramental Actions as acceptable to God only with regard to the Temper and the inward Acts of the Person to whom they are applied and cannot consider them as Medicines or Charms which work by a Virtue of their own whether the Person to whom they are applied co-operates with them or not Baptism is said by St. Peter to save us not as it is an Action that washes us Not the putting away the filth of the flesh 1 Pet. 3.21 but the answer of a good conscience towards God And therefore Baptism without this Profession is no Baptism but seems to be used as a Charm unless it is said that this Answer or Profession is implied whensoever Baptism is desired When a Person of Age desires Baptism he must make those Answers and Sponsions otherwise he is not truly Baptized and though his outward making of them being all that can fall under Human Cognizance he who does that must be held to be truly baptized and all the outward Priviledges of a baptized Person must belong to him yet as to the effect of Baptism on the Soul of him that is baptized without doubt that depends upon the sincerity of the Professions and Vows made by him The Wills of Infants are by the Law of Nature and Nations in their Parents and are transferred by them to their Sureties the Sponsions that are made on their behalf are considered as made by themselves but there the outward Act is sufficient for the inward Acts of one Person cannot be supposed necessary to give the Sacrament its Virtue in another 1 Cor. 10 1â— In the Eucharist by our shewing forth our Lord's Death till he comes we are admitted to the Communion of his Body and Blood To a share in Partnership with other Christians in the Effects and Merits of his Death But the unworthy Receiver is guilty of his Body and Blood and brings thereby down Judgments upon himself so that to fancy a Virtue in Sacraments that works on the Person to whom they are applied without any inward Acts accompanying it and upon his being only Passive is a Doctrine of which we find nothing in the Scriptures which teach us that every thing we do is only accepted of God with regard to the Disposition of Mind that he knows us to be in when we go about it Our Prayers and Sacrifices are so far from being accepted of God that they are Abomination to him if they come from wicked and defiled Hearts The making Men believe that Sacraments may be effectual to them when they are next to a State of Passivity not capable of any sensible thoughts of their own is a sure way to raise the Credit of the Clergy and of the Sacrament but at the same time it will most certainly dispose Men to live in Sin hoping that a few Rites which may be easily procured at their Death will clear all at last And thus we reject not without great Zeal against the fatal Effects of this Error all that is said of the Opus operatum the very doing of the Sacrament we think it looks liker the Incantations of Heathenism than the Purity and Simplicity of the Christian Religion But the other Extream that we likewise avoid is that of sinking the Sacraments so low as to be meer Rites and Ceremonies St. Peter says Baptism saves us St. Paul calls it The laver of Regeneration to which he joyns the renewing of the Holy Ghost Tit. 3.5 Mark 16.16 John 3.3 5. Our Saviour saith He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved and except ye are born again of Water and of the Spirit ye cannot enter into the Kingdom of God These Words have a Sense and Signification that rises far above a meer Ceremony done to keep up Order and to maintain a settled Form The Phrase Communion of the Body and Blood of Christ is above the Nature of an Anniversary or Memorial Feast This Opinion we think is very unsuitable to those high Expressions and we do not doubt but that Christ who instituted those Sacraments does still accompany them with a particular Presence in them and a Blessing upon them so that we coming to them with Minds well prepared with pure Affections and holy Resolutions do certainly receive in and with them particular largesses of the Favour and Bounty of God They are not bare and naked Remembrances and Tokens but are actuated and animated by a Divine Blessing that attends upon them This is what we believe on this Head and these are the Grounds upon which we found it A Sacrament is an Institution of Christ in which some material thing is sanctified by the use of some Form or Words in and by which federal Acts of this Religion do pass on both sides on ours by Stipulations Professions or Vows and on God's by his secret Assistances by these we are also united to the Body of Christ which is the Church It must be Instituted by Christ for though Ritual Matters that are only the Expressions of our Duty may be appointed by the Church yet federal Acts to which a conveyance of Divine Grace is tied can only be instituted by him who is the Author and Mediator of this New Covenant and who lays down the Rules or Conditions of it and derives the Blessings of it by what Methods and in what Channels he thinks fit
that this was a Book fit to serve a Turn but only that this Book was necessary at that time to instruct the Nation aright and so was of great use then But though the Doctrine in it if once true must be always true yet it will not be always of the same necessity to the People As for Instance There are many Discourses in the Epistles of the Apostles that relate to the Controversies then on foot with the Judaizers to the Engagements the Christians then lived in with the Heathens and to those Corrupters of Christianity that were in those days Those Doctrines were necessary for that time but though they are now as true as they were then yet since we have no Commerce either with Iews or Gentiles we cannot say that it is as necessary for the present time to dwell much on those matters as it was for that time to explain them once well If the Nation should come to be quite out of the danger of falling back into Popery it would not be so necessary to insist upon many of the Subjects of the Homilies as it was when they were first prepared ARTICLE XXXVI Of Consecration of Bishops and Ministers The Book of Consecration of Archbishops and Bishops and ordering of Priests and Deacons lately set forth in the time of Edward the Sixth and confirmed at the same time by Authority of Parliament doth contain all things necessary to such Consecration and Ordering neither hath it any thing that of it self is superstitious and ungodly And therefore whosoever are Consecrated and Ordered according to the Rites of that Book since the Second Year of the aforenamed King Edward unto this time or hereafter shall be Consecrated or Ordered according to the same Rites we decree all such to be rightly orderly and lawfully Consecrated and Ordered AS to the most essential parts of this Article they were already examined when the pretended Sacrament of Orders was explained where it was proved that Prayer and Imposition of Hands was all that was necessary to the giving of Orders and that the Forms added in the Roman Pontifical are new and cannot be held to be necessary since the Church had subsisted for many Ages before those were thought on So that either our Ordinations without those Additions are good or the Church of God was for many Ages without true Orders There seems to be here insinuated a Ratification of Orders that were given before this Article was made which being done as the Lawyers phrase it ex post facto it seems these Orders were unlawful when given and that Error was intended to be corrected by this Article The opening a part of the History of that time will clear this matter There was a new Form of Ordinations agreed on by the Bishops in the Third Year of King Edward and when the Book of Common-Prayer with the last Corrections of it was Authorized by Act of Parliament in the Fifth Year of that Reign the New Book of Ordinations was also enacted and was appointed to be a part of the Common-Prayer-Book In Queen Mary's time these Acts were repealed and those Books were condemned by Name When Queen Elizabeth came to the Crown King Edward's Common-Prayer-Book was of new enacted and Queen Mary's Act was repealed But the Book of Ordination was not expresly named it being considered as a part of the Common-Prayer-Book as it had been made in King Edward's time so it was thought no more necessary to mention that Office by Name than to mention all the other Offices that are in the Book Bishop Bonner set on foot a Nicety That since the Book of Ordinations was by name condemned in Queen Mary's time and was not by name revived in Queen Elizabeth's time that therefore it was still condemned by Law and that by consequence Ordinations performed according to this Book were not legal But it is visible that whatsoever might be made out of this according to the Niceties of our Law it has no relation to the Validity of Ordinations as they are Sacred Performances but only as they are Legal Actions with relation to our Constitution Therefore a Declaration was made in a subsequent Parliament That the Book of Ordination was considered as a part of the Book of Common-Prayer And to clear all Scruples or Disputes that might arise upon that matter they by a Retrospect declared them to be good and from that Retrospect in the Act of Parliament the like Clause was put in the Article The chief Exception that can be made to the Foâ—m of giving Oâ—deâ—s amongst us is to those words Receive ye the Holy Ghost which as it is â—o Antient Form it not being above Five hundred Years old so it is taken from Words of our Saviour's that the Church in her besâ— times thought were not to be applied to this It was proper to him to use them who had the Fulness of the Spirit to give it at pleasure He made use of it in constituting his Apostles the Governours of his Church in his own stead and therefore it seems to have a Sound in it that is too bold and assuming as if we could convey the Holy Ghost To this it is to be answered That the Churches both in the East and West have so often changed the Forms of Ordination that our Church may well claim the same Power of appointing New Forms that others have done And since the several Functions and Administrations that are in the Church are by the Apostle said to flow from one and the same Spirit all of them from the Apostles down to the Pastors and Teachers we may then reckon that the Holy Ghost though in a much lower degree is given to those who are inwardly moved of God to undertake that Holy Office So that though that extraordinary Effusion that was poured out upon the Apostles was in them in a much higher degree and was accompanied with most amazing Characters yet still such as do sincerely offer themselves up on a Divine Motion to this Service receive a lower Portion of this Spirit That being laid down these Words Receive ye the Holy Ghost may be understood to be of the nature of a Wish and Prayer as if it were said May thou receive the Holy Ghost and so it will better agree with what follows And be thou a faithful Dispenser of the Word and Sacraments Or it may be observed That in those Sacred Missions the Church and Church-men consider themselves as acting in the Name and Person of Christ. In Baptism it is expresly said I baptize in the Name of the Father c. In the Eucharist we repeat the Words of Christ and apply them to the Elements as said by him So we consider such as deserve to be admitted to those Holy Functions as Persons called and sent of God and therefore the Church in the Name of Christ sends them and because he gives a Portion of his Spirit to those whom he sends therefore the Church in his Name
Tell the Church Ibid. Hâ—w the Church is the Pillar and Ground of Truth 206 Christ's Promise I am with you alway even to the end of the world Ibid. Of that It seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us Ibid. Some Generâ—l Councils have ereed 207 ARTICLE XXII 217 THE Dâ—ctrine of Purgatory Ibid. Sins once pardâ—ned are not punished 218 Vnlâ—ss with chastisements in this life 219 No state of satisfaction aftâ—r death Ibid. No mention made of that in Scripture 220 But it is plain to the contrary 221 Different Opinions among the Ancients Ibid. The Original of Purgatory 222 A pâ—ssâ—ge in Maccabees considered Ibid. A pâ—ssâ—ge in the Epistle to the Corinthians câ—nsidered 223 The prâ—gress â—f the â—elief of Purgatory 2â—4 Prayers for the dead among the Ancients 225 Endâ—wments for redeeming out of Purgâ—toâ—y 226 Whether these ought to be sacred or nâ—t 227 The Doctrine of Pardons and Indulgences 228 It is only the excusing from Penance 229 Nâ— Foundation for it in Scripâ—ure Ibid. General Rules concerning Idolatry 230 Of the Iâ—olatry of Hâ—athens 231 Laws given to the Jews against it Ibid. The Expostulâ—â—ions of the Prophets 232 Concerning the Golden Calf Ibid. And The Calves at Dan and Bethel 233 The Ap stles opposed all Idolatry Ibid. St. Paul at Athens and to the Romans 334 The sense of the Primitive upon it 235 The first use of Images among Christians Ibid. Pictures in Churches for Instruction 236 Were afterwards worshipped Ibid. Contests abâ—ut that Ibid. Images of the Deity and Trinity 237 On what theWorship of Images terminates 238 The due Worship settled by the Council at Trent Ibid. Images consecrated and how 239 Arguments for worshipping them answered Ibid. Arguments against the use or worship of Images 240 The worship of Relicks 241 A due regard to the Bodies of Martyrs Ibid. The progress of Superstition Ibid. No warrant for this in Scripture 242 Hezekiah broke the Brazen Serpent Ibid. The memorable passage concerning the Body of St. Polycarp 243 Fables and Forgeries prevailed Ibid. The Souls of the Martyrs believed to hover about their Tombâ— 244 Nothing of this kind objected to the first Christians Ibid. Disputes between Vigilantius and St. Jerom 245 No Invocation of Saints in the Old Testament 246 The Invocating Angels condemned in the New Tâ—stament 247 No Saints invocated Christ only Ibid. No mention of this in the three first Ages 248 In the Fourth Martyrs invocated Ibid. The progrâ—ss that this made 249 Scandalous Offices in the Church of Rome Ib. Arguments against this Invocation 2â—0 An Apology for those who begun it Ibid. The Scandal given by it 251 Arguments for it ansâ—ered 252 Whethâ—r the Saints see all things in God Ib. This no part of the Communion of Saints 253 Prayers ought to be directed only to God Ib. Revealed Religion designed to deliver the World from Idolatry 254 ARTICLE XXIII 255 A Succâ—ssiâ—n of Pastors ought to be in the Church Ibid. 〈◊〉 was settlâ—d by the Apostles 256 And must continue to the end of the World Ibid. It was settlâ—d in the first Age of the Church 257 The danger of mâ—ns taking to themselves this Authority without a due Vocation Ibid. The difference between means of Salvation and precâ—pts for orders sake 258 What is lawful Authority Ibid. What may be done upon extraordinary occasions 259 Necessity is above Rules of Order Ibid. The High Priests in â—ur Saviour's time 260 Baptism by Women 261 ARTICLE XXIV 262 THE chief end of worshipping God Ib. The Practice of the Jews 263 Rules given by the Apostles Ibid. The Prâ—ctice â—f the Church 264 Arguments for Worship in an unknown Tongue answered Ibid. ARTICLE XXV 266 DIfference between Sacraments and Rites Ibid. Sacraments do not imprint a Character 267 But are not mere Ceremâ—nies 268 What is necessary to constitute a Sacrament 269 That applied to Baptism Ib. And to the Eucharist 270 No meâ—tion of seven Sacraments before Peter Lombard Ibid. Confirmation no Sacrament Ibid. How practised among us Ibid. The use of Chrism in it is new 271 Oyl early used in Christian Rituals Ibid. Bishops only consecrated the Chrism 272 In the Greek Church Presbyters appliâ—d it Ibid. This used in the Western Church but condemned by the Popes Ibid. Disputes concerning Confirmation 273 Concerning Penance Ibid. The true Notion of Repentance Ibid. Confâ—ssion not the matter of a Sacrament 274 The use of Confession Ibid. The Priâ—st's Pardon Ministerial 275 And restrained within bounds Ibid. Auricular Confâ—ssion not necessary 276 Not commanded in the New Testament Ibid. The beginnings of it in the Church 277 Many Canons about Penance Ibid. Confession forbid at Constantinople 278 The ancient Dâ—scipline slâ—ckâ—n'd Ibid. Confâ—ssion may be advised but not commanded 279 The good and bad effâ—cts it may have Ibid. Of Contrition and Attrition 280 The ill effects of the Doctrine of Attrition Ibid. Of doing the Penance or Satisfaction 281 Concerning sorrow for sin Ibid. Of the ill effects of hasty Absolutions 282 Of Fasting and Prayer Ibid. Of the Form I absolve thee 283 Of Hâ—ly Orders 284 Of the ancient Form of Ordinations Ibid. Of delivering the Vessels 285 Orders no Sacrament Ibid. Whether Bishops and Priests are of the same Order 286 Of Marriage Ibid. It can be no Sacrament 287 Intention not necessary Ibid. How Marriage is called a Mystery or Sacrament 288 Marriage dissolved by Adultery Ibid. The Practice of the Church in this matter 289 Of Extreme Vnction Ibid. St. James's words explained 290 Oyl much used in ancient Rituals 291 Pope Innocent's Epistle considered Ibid. Anointing used in order to Recovery 292 Afterwards as the Sacrament of the dying 293 The Sacraments are to be used Ibid. And to be received worthily 294 ARTICLE XXVI 295 SAcraments are not effectual as Prayers are Ibid. Of the Doctrine of Intention 296 The ill consâ—quences of it 297 Of a just Severity in Discipline Ibâ—d Particularly towards the Clergy 298 ARTICLE XXVII 299 COncerning St. John's Baptism Ibid. The Jews used Baptism Ibid. The Christian Baptism 300 The difference between it and St. John's Ib. The necessity of Baptism 301 It is a Precept but not a Mean of Salvation Ibid. Baptism unites us to the Church 302 It also saves us Ibid. St. Peter's words explained 303 St Austin's Doctrine of Baptism Ibid. Baptism is a Foederal Stipulation 304 In what sense it was of more value to preach than to baptize Ibid. Of Infant-Baptism 305 It is grounded on the Law of Nature Ibid. And the Law of Moses and warranted in the New Testament Ibid. In what sense Children can be holy 306 It is also very expedient Ibid. ARTICLE XXVIII 308 THE change made in this Article in Queen Elizabeth's time Ibid. The Explanation of our Doctrine 309 Of the Rituals in the Passover Ibid. Of the words This is my Body 310 And This Cup is the New Testament in my Blood Ibid. Of the horror the Jews had at Blood 311 In what sense only the Disciples could understand our
Name This increased daily We have a full Account of the special Declaration that a Bishop was obliged to make in the First Canon of that which passeth for the Fourth Council of Carthage But while by reason of new Emergencies this was swelling to a vast Bulk General and more Implicit Formularies came to be used the Bishops declaring that they received and would observe all the Decrees and Traditions of Holy Coâ—â—cils and Fathers And the Papacy coming afterwards to carry every thing before it a Formal Oath that had many loose and indefinite words in it which were very large and comprehensive was added to all the Declarations that had been formerly established The Enlargements of Creeds were at first occasioned by the Prevarications of Hereticks who having put Senses favouring their Opinions on the simpler Terms in which the First Creeds were proposed it was thought necessary to use more express words This was absolutely necessary as to some Points for they being obliged to shew that the Christian Religion did not bring in that Idolatry which it condemned in Heathens it was also necessary to state this matter so that it should appear that they worshipped no Creature but that the Person to whom all agreed to pay Divine Adoration was truly God And it being found that an Equivocation was used in all other words except that of the same Substance they judged it necessary to fix on it besides some other words that they at first brought in but which were afterwards made more doubtful by the Glosses that were put on them At all times it is very necessary to free the Christian Religion from the Imputation of Idolatry but this was never so necessary as when Christianity was engaged in such a Struggle with Paganism And since the main Article then in dispute with the Heathens was Idolatry and the Lawfulness of worshipping any besides the Great and Eternal God it was of the last Importance to the Christian Cause to take care that the Heathens might have no reason to believe that they worshipped a Creature There was therefore just reason given to secure this main Point and to put an end to Equivocation by establishing a Term which by the Confession of all Parties did not admit of any It had been a great Blessing to the Church if a Stop had been put here and that those nice Descantings that were afterwards so much pursued had been more effectually discouraged than they were But men ever were and ever will be men Factions were formed and Interests were set up Hereticks had shewed so much Dissimulation when they were low and so much Cruelty when they prevailed that it was thought necessary to secure the Church from the Disturbances that they might give them And thus it grew to be a Rule to enlarge the Doctrines and Decisions of the Church So that in stating the Doctrines of this Church so copiously our Reformers followed a Method that had been used in a course of many Ages There were besides this common Practice two particular Circumstances in that time that made this seem to be the more necessary One was That at the breaking out of that Light there sprang up with it many impious and extravagant Sects which broke out into most violent Excesses This was no extraordinary thing for we find the like happened upon the first spreading of the Gospel many detestable Sects grew up with it which tended not a little to the defaming of Christianity and the obstructing its Progress I shall not examine what Influence Evil Spirits might have both in the one and the other Bâ—t one visible occasion of it was That by the first Preaching of the Gospel as also upon the opening the Reformation an Enquiry into the Matters of Religion being then the Subject of mens Studies and Discourses many men of warm and ill-govern'd Imaginations presuming on their own Talents and being desirous to signalize themselves and to have a Name in the World went beyond their Depth in Sâ—udy without the necesâ—ary degrees of Knowledge and the yet more necessary dispositions of Mind for arriving at a right understanding of Divine Matters This happening soon after that the Reformation was first set on foot those whose Corruptions were struck at by it and who both hated and persecuted it on that account did not fail to lay hold of and to improve the Advantage which these Seâ—ts gave them They said That the Sectaries had only spoke out what the rest thought and at last they held to this That all Sects were the Natural Consequences of the Reformation and of shaking off the Doctrine of the Infallibility of the Church To stop those Calumnies the Protestants in Germany prepared that Confession of their Faith which they offered to the Diet as Ausburg and which carries its name And after their Example all the other Churches which separated from the Roman Communion published the Confessions of their Faith both to declare their Doctrine for the Instruction of their own Members and for covering them from the Slanders of their Adversaries Another reason that the first Reformers had for their descending into so many Particulars and for all these Negatives that are in their Confessions was this They had smarted long under the Tyranny of Popery and so they had reason to secure themselves from it and from all those who were leavened with it Those here in England had seen how many had complied with every Alteration both in King Henry and King Edward's Reign who not only declared themselves to have been all the while Papists but became bloody Persecutors in Q. Mary's Days Therefore it was necessary to keep all such out of their Body that they might not secretly undermine and betray it Now since the Church of Rome owns all that is positive in our Doctrine there could be no Discrimination made but by condemning the most important of those additions that they have brought into the Christian Religion in express words It is true that in Matters of Fact or in Theories of Nature it is not safe to affirm a Negative because it is seldom possible to prove it yet the Fundamental Article upon which the whole Reformation and this our Church depends is this That the whole Doctrines of the Christian Religion are contained in the Scripture and that therefore we are to admit no Article as a part of it till it is proved from Scripture This being laid down and well made out it is not at all unreasonable to affirm a Negative upon an Examination of all those places of Scripture that are brought for any Doctrine and that seem to favour it if these are found not at all to support it but to bear a different and sometimes a contrary sense to that which is offered to be proved by them So there is no weight in this cavil which yet may look plausible to such as cannot distinguish common Matters from Points of Faith This may serve in general to justify the largeness and the
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
that Affectation of Sublimity had denied that there was any Reward and from thence sprung the Sect of the Sadducees so these men perhaps at first mistaking the meaning of the New Testament went wrong only in their Notions and still meant to press the necessity of true Holiness though in another set of Phrases and upon other Motives yet from thence many wild and ungovern'd Notions arose then and were not long ago revived among us All which flowed from their not understanding the Importance of the Word Law in the New Testament in which it stands most commonly for the complex of the whole Iewish Religion in opposition to the Christian as the Word Law when it stands for a Book is meant of the Five Books of Moses The maintaining the whole frame of that Dispensation in opposition to that Liberty which the Apostles granted to the Gentiles as to the Ritual parts of it was the Controversy then in debate between the Apostles and the Judaizing Christians The stating that matter aright is a Key that will open all those difficulties which with it will appear easy and without it insuperable In opposition to these who thought then that the Old Testament having brought the World on to the knowledge of the Messias was now of no more use this Article was framed The Second Part of the Article relates to a more Intricate Matter and that is whether in the Old Testament there were any promises made other than Transitory or Temporal ones and whether they might look for Eternal Salvation in that Dispensation and upon what account Whether Christ was the Mediator in that Dispensation or if they were saved by Virtue of their Obedience to the Laws that were then given them Those who deny that Christ was truly God think that in order to the raising him to those great Characters in which he is proposed in the New Testament it is necessary to assert that he gave the first assurances of Eternal Happiness and of a free and full pardon of all Sins in his Gospel And that in the Old Testament neither the one nor the other were certainly and distinctly understood It is true That if we take the words of the Covenant that Moses made between God and the People of Israel strictly and as they stand they Import only Temporal Blessings That was a Covenant with a Body of Men and with their Posterity as they were a People engaged to the Obedience of that Law Now a National Covenant could only be establish'd in Temporal promises of Publick and Visible Blessings and of a long continuance of them upon their Obedience and in Threatnings of as signal Judgments upon the Violation of them But under those general promises of what was to happen to them Collectively as they made up one Nation every single person among them might and the good men among them did gather the hopes of a future State It is clear that Moses did all along suppose the Being of God the Creation of the World and the promise of the Messias as things fully known and carried down by Tradition to his days So it seems he did also suppose the knowledge of a future State which was then generally believed by the Gentiles as well as the Iews though they had only dark and confused Notions about it But when God was establishing a Covenant with the Iewish Nation a main part of which was his giving them the Land of Canaan for an Inheritance it was not necessary that Eternal Rewards or Punishments should be then proposed to them But from the Tenor of the promises made to their Forefathers and from the General Principles of Natural Religion not yet quite extinguished among them they might gather this That under those Carnal promises Blessings of a higher nature were to be understood And so we see that David had the hope of arriving at the presence of God and at his right hand where he believed there was a fulness of joy and pleasures for evermore And he puts himself in this opposition to the wicked Ps. 16.11 Ps. 17.14 15. That whereas their portion was in this life and they left their substance to their Children he says That as for him he should behold God's Face in righteousness and should be satisfied when he awaked with his likeness which seems plainly to relate to a state after this Life and to the Resurrection He carries this opposition further in another Psalm where after he had said That men in honour did not continue but were like the beasts that perished Ps. 49.14 15. That none of them could purchase immortality for his brother that he should still live for ever and not see Corruption They all died and left their wealth to others and like sheep they were laid in the grave where death should feed on them In opposition to which he says That the upright should have dominion over them in the morning Which is clearly a Poetical Expression for another day that comes after the night of Death As for himself in particular he says That God shall redeem my Soul that is his Life or his Body for in those senses the word Soul is used in the Old Testament from the power of the grave That is from continuing in that state of death for he shall receive me This does very clearly set forth David's belief both of future Happiness and of the Resurrection of his Body To which might be added some other passages in the Psalms Ecclesiastes Ps. 84.11.87.6.90.17.96.17 Eccl. 11.9.12.14 Isa. 25.8.26.19 Dan. 12.2 Isaiah and Daniel In all which it appears That the holy men in that Dispensation did understand That under those promises in the Books of Moses that seemed literally to belong to the Land of Canaan and other Temporal Blessings there was a Spiritual meaning hid which it seems was conveyed down by that Succession of Prophets that was among them as the mystical sense of them It is to this that our Saviour seems to appeal when the Sadducees came to puzzle him with that question of the seven Brethren who had all married one Wife He first tells them They erred not knowing the Scriptures which plainly Imports That the Doctrine which they denied was contained in the Scriptures Matt. 22. â—â— and then he goes to prove it not from those more express passages that are in the Prophets and Holy Writers which as some think the Sadducees rejected but from the Law which being the Source of their Religion it might seem a just prejudice against any Doctrine especially if it was of great Consequence that it was not contained in the Law Therefore he cites these words that are so often repeated and that were so much considered by the Iews as containing in them the Foundation of God's love to them that God said upon many occasions particularly at his first appearance to Moses I am the God of Abraham the God of Isaac and the God of Iacob Which words imported not only that
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
of Paul The Conversion of St. Paul himself was so clearly from a Preventing Grace that if it had not been miraculous in so many of its Circumstances it would have been a strong Argument in behalf of it These words of Christ seem also to assert it Without me ye can do nothing ye have not chosen me but I you and no man can come to me except the Father which hath sent me draw him Joh. 1.13.15.5 16. Phil. 2.13 Those who received Christ were born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of the will of God God is said to work in us both to will and to do of his own good pleasure The one seems to import the first beginings and the other the progress of a Christian Course of Life So far all among us that I know of are agreed though perhaps not as to the force that is in all those places to prove this Point There do yâ—t remain Two Points in which they do not agree the one is the Efficacy of this Preventing Grace some think that it is of its own nature so Efficacious that it never fails of Converting those to whom it is given others think that it only awakens and disposes as well as it enables them to turn to God but that they may resist it and that the greater part of Mankind do actually resist it The examining of this Point and the stating the Arguments of both sides will belong more properly to the Seventeenth Article The other Head in which many do differ is concerning the Extent of this Preventing Grace for whereas such as do hold it to be Efficacious of it self restrain it to the number of those who are Elected and converted by it others do believe That as Christ died for all Men so there is an Universal Grace which is given in Christ to all Men in some degree or other and that it is given to all Baptized Christians in a more eminent degree and that as all are corrupted by Adam there is also a general Grace given to all Men in Christ. This depends so much on the former Point that the discussing the one is indeed the discussing of both and therefore it shall not be further entred upon in this place ARTICLE XI Of the Justification of Man We are accounted Righteous before God only for the Merit of our Lord and Saviour Iesus Christ by Faith and not for our own Works or Deservings Wherefore that we are justified by Faith only is a most wholsome Doctrine and very full of Comfort as more largely is expressed in the Homily of Iustification IN order to the right understanding this Article we must first consider the true meaning of the Terms of which it is made up which are Iustification Faith Faith only and Good Works and then when these are rightly stated we will see what Judgments are to be passed upon the Questions that do arise out of this Article Iust or Iustified are words capable of two senses the one is a Man who is in the Favour of God by a mere Act of his Grace or upon some Consideration not founded on the Holiness or the Merit of the Person himself The other is a Man who is truly holy and as such is beloved of God The use of this word in the New Testament was probably taken from the term Chasidim among the Iews a designation of such as observed the external parts of the Law strictly and were believed to be upon that account much in the Favour of God an Opinion being generally spread among them that a strict observance of the external parts of the Law of Moses did certainly put a Man in the Favour of God In opposition to which the design of a great part of the New Testament is to shew that these things did not put Men in the Favour of God Our Saviour used the word saved in opposition to condemned Job 3.18 and spoke of Men who were condemned already as well as of others who were saved St. Paul enlarges more fully into many Discourses in which our being justified and the righteousness of God or his grace towards us are all terms equivalent to one another His design in the Epistle to the Romans was to prove that the observance of the Mosaiâ—al Law could not justifie that is could not put a Man under the grace or favour of God or the righteousnâ—ss of God that is into a state of acceptation with him as that is opposite to a state of wrath or condemnation He upon that shews that Abraham was in the Favour of God before he was Circumcised upon the account of his trusting to the Promises of God and obeying his Commands and that God reckoned upon these Acts of his as much as if they had been an entire course of Obedience Gen. 15.6 Rom. 4.3.22 for that is the meaning of these words Aâ—d it was imputed to him for righteousness These Promises were freely made to him by God when by no previous Works of his he had made them to be due to him of debt therefore that Covenant which was founded on those Promises was the justifying of Abraham freely by grace upon which St. Paul in a variety of Inferences and Expressions assumes That we are in like manner justified freely by grace through the redemption in Christ Iesus Rom. 3.24 That God has of his own free Goodness offered a new Covenant and new and better Promises to Mankind in Christ Jesus which whosoever believe as Abraham did they are justified as he was So that whosoever will observe the Scope of St. Paul's Epistles to the Romans and Galatians will see that he always uses Iustification in a sense that imports our being put in the Favour of God The Epistle to the Galatians was indeed writ upon the occasion of another Controversy which was Whether supposing Christ to be the Messias Christians were bound to observe the Mosaical Law or not Whereas the Scope of the first part of the Epistle to the Romans is to shew that we are not justified nor saved by the Law of Moses as a Mean of its own nature capable to recommend us to the Favour of God but that even that Law was a Dispensation of Grace in which it was a true Faith like Abraham's that put Men in the Favour of God yet in both these Epistles in which Iustification is fully treated of it stands always for the receiving one into the Favour of God In this the Consideration upon which it is done and the Condition upon which it is offered are two very different things The one is a Dispensation of God's Mercy in which he has regard to his own Attributes to the Honour of his Laws and his Government of the World The other is the Method in which he applies that to us in such a manner that it may have such Ends as are both perfective of Human Nature and suitable to an infinitely Holy Being
went about always doing good and was as a lamb without spot is so oft affirmed in the New Testament 1 Pet. 1.19 that it can admit of no Debate This was not only true in his Rational Powers the superior part called the Spirit in opposition to the lower part but also in those Appetites and Affections that arise from our Bodies and from the Union of our Souls to them called the Flesh. For tho' in these Christ having the Human Nature truly in him had the Appetites of Hunger in him yet the Devil could not tempt him by that to distrust God or to desire a miraculous supply sooner than was fitting He overcame even that necessary Appetite whensoever there was an occasion given him to do the will of his heavenly Father Joh. 4.34 He had also in him the aversions to pain and suffering and the horror at a violent and ignominious Death which was planted in our Natures and in this it was natural to him to wish and to pray that the Cup might pass from him But in this his Purity appeared the most eminently That tho' he felt the weight of his Nature to a vast degree he did notwithstanding that limit and conquer it so entirely that he resigned himself absolutely to his Father's Will Not my will but thy will be done Besides all that has been already said upon the former Articles to prove that some taint and degree of the Original Corruption remains in all Men the peculiar Character of Christ's Holiness so oft repeated looks plainly to be a distinction proper to him and to him only We are called upon to follow him to learn of him and to imitate him without restriction whereas we are required to follow the Apostles only as they were the followers of Christ 1 Cor. 11.1 1 Pet. 1.15 Mat. 5.48 And though we are commanded to be holy as he was holy in all manner of conversation that does no more prove that any man can arrive at that pitch than our being commanded to be perfect as our heavenly father is perfect will prove that we may become perfect as God is The Importance of these words being only this That we ought in all things to make God and Christ our patterns and that we ought to endeavour to imitate and resemble them all we can There seems to be a particular design in the Contexture and Writing of the Scriptures to represent to us some of the Failings of the best Men For though Zacharias and Elizabeth are said to have been blameless that must only be meant of the Exterior and Visible part of their Conversation that it was free from blame Luk. 1.6 and of their being accepted of God but that is not to be carried to import a sinless Purity before God For we find the same Zachary guilty of misbelieving the Message of the Angel to him to such a degree Ver. 20. that he was punished for it with a Dumbness of above Nine Months continuance Perhaps the Virgin 's Question to the Angel had nothing blame-worthy in it Luk. 2.49 Joh. 2.4 but our Saviour's Answers to her both when she came to him in the Temple when he was Twelve Years old and more particularly when she moved him at the Marriage in Cana to furnish them with Wine look like a Reprimand The Contentions among the Apostles about the Preheminence and in particular the Ambition of Iames and Iohn cannot be excused St. Peter's Dissimulation at Antioch in the Judaizing Controversy Matth. 20.20 24. Gal. 2.11 12 13 14. Act. 15.39 and the sharp Contention that happened between Paul and Barnabas are recorded in Scripture and they are both Characters of the Sincerity of those who Penned them and likewise Marks of the Frailties of Human Nature even in its greatest Elevation and with its highest Advantages So that all the high Characters that are given of the best Men are to be understood either comparatively to others whom they exceeded or with relation to their outward Actions and the visible parts of their Life Or they are to be meant of their Zeal and Sincerity which is valued and accepted of God and as it was to Abraham is imputed to them for Righteousness Yet this is not to be abused by any to be an encouragement to live in Sin for we may carry this Purity and Perfection certainly very far by the Grace of God In every Sin that we commit we do plainly perceive that we do it with so much freedom that we might not have done it here is still just Matter for Humiliation and Repentance By this Doctrine our Church intends only to repress the Pride of vain-glorious and hypocritical Men and to strike at the Root of that filthy Merchandise that has been brought into the House of God under the pretence of the Perfection and even the over-doing or supererogating of the Saints ARTICLE XVI Of Sin after Baptism Note very deadly sin willingly committed after Baptism is the sin against the Holy Ghost and unpardonable Wherefore the grant of Repentance is not to be denied to such as fall into sin after Baptism After we have received the Holy Ghost we may depart from grace given and fall into sin and by the grace of God we may arise again and amend our Lives And therefore they are to be condemned which say they can no more sin as long as they live here or deny the place of forgiveness to such as truly repent THis Article as it relates to the Sect of the Novatians of old so it is probable it was made a part of our Doctrine upon the Account of some of the Enthusiasts who at that time as well as some do in our Days might boast their Perfection and join with that part of the Character of a Pharisee this other of an unreasonable rigour of Censure and Punishment against Offenders By deadly Sin in the Article we are not to understand such Sins as in the Church of Rome are called mortal in opposition to others that are venial As if some Sins though Offences against God and Violations of his Law could be of their own nature such slight things that they deserved only Temporal Punishment and were to be expiated by some piece of Pennance or Devotion or the Communication of the Merits of others The Scripture no where teaches us to think so slightly of the Majesty of God or of his Law There is a curse upon every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the Book of the Law to do them Gal. 3.10 And the same Curse must have been on us all if Christ had not redeemed us from it The wages of Sin is death And St. Iames asserts that there is such a Complication of all the Precepts of the Law of God both with one another and with the Authority of the Lawgiver that he who offends in one point Jam. 2.10 11. is guilty of all So since God has in his Word given
us such dreadful Apprehensions of his Wrath and of the guilt of Sin we dare not soften these to a degree below the Majesty of the Eternal God and the Dignity of his most Holy Laws But after all we are far from the Conceit of the Stoicks who made all Sins alike We acknowledge that some Sins of Ignorance and Infirmity may consist with a state of Grace which is either quite destroyed or at least much eclipsed and clouded by other Sins that are more heinous in their nature and more deliberately gone about It is in this sense that the word deadly Sin is to be understood in the Article For though in the strictness of Justice every Sin is deadly yet in the Dispensation of the Gospel those Sins are only deadly that do deeply wound the Conscience and that drive away Grace Another Term in the Article needs also to be a little explained the sin against the Holy Ghost concerning which since there is so severe a Sentence pronounced by Christ it is necessary that it be rightly understood and that can only be done by considering the Occasion of those Words as well as the Words themselves Christ wrought such Miracles in the sight of his Enemies that when there was no room left for any other Cavil Matth. 12.24 31. they betook themselves to that that he did not cast out devils but by Belzebub the Prince of Devils And this was the occasion that led our Saviour to speak of the Sin or blasphemy against the Holy Ghost It was their rejecting the clearest Evidence that God could give to prove any thing by The power by which those Miracles were wrought and which was afterwards communicated to the Apostles is called through the whole New Testament the Holy Ghost By which is not to be meant here the Third Person of the Trinity but the wonderful Effusion of those extraordinary Gifts and Powers that were then communicated the Oeconomy and Dispensation of which is said to be derived from that one Spirit This was the utmost Proof that could be given of Truth And when Men set themselves to blaspheme this and to ascribe the Works of Christ to a collusion with the Devil they did thereby so wilfully oppose God and reproach his Power they did so stifle their own Conviction and set themselves against the Conviction of others that nothing could be done further for their Conviction this being the highest degree of Evidence and Proof And this was so high an Indignity to God when he descended so far to satisfy their scruples that it was not to be pardoned as their Impenitence and Incredulity was so obstinate as not to be overcome Upon this Occasion given our Saviour makes a difference between their Blaspheming him and instead of owning him to be the Messias calling him a deceiver a glutton and a wine-bibber of which upon hearing his Doctrine and seeing his Life they were still guilty This was indeed a great Sin but yet there were means left of convincing them of the Truth of his being the great Prophet sent of God And by these they might be so far prevailed on as to repent and believe and so to obtain pardon But when they had those means set before them when they saw plain and uncontested Miracles done before them and when instead of yielding to them that set up such an Opposition to them which might have been as reasonably said of every Miracle that could have been wrought then it was not possible to convince them This is an impious rejecting of the highest Method that God himself uses for proving a thing to us The scorn put upon it as it flows from a Nature so depraved that it cannot be wrought on so it is a sin not to be pardoned All things of extream severity in a Doctrine that is so full of Grace and Mercy as the Gospel is ought to be restrained as much as may be From thence we infer That those dreadful words of our Saviour's ought to be restrained to the subject to which they are applied and ought not to be carried further Since Miracles have ceased no Man is any more capable of this Sin These Terms being thus explained the Question in the Article is now to be explained There are words in St. Iohn's Epistle and elsewhere that seem to import that men born of God that is to say Baptized or Regenerated Christians sin not Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not 1 Joh. 3.6 9.5.18 whosoever sinneth hath not seen him neither known him whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin for his seed remaineth in him and he cannot sin for he is born of God This is again repeated in the end of that Epistle together with these words He that is begotten of God keepeth himself and that wicked one toucheth him not As these words seem to import that a true Christian sins not so in the Epistle to the Hebrews it is said to be Impossible to renew again by Repentance those who fall away Heb. 6.4.5.6 after they had been once enlightened and had tasted of the heavenly gift had been made partakers of the Holy Ghost and had tasted the good word of God and the powers of the world to come Upon these Expressions and some others though not quite of their force it was that in the Primitive Church some that â—ell after Baptism were cast out of the Communion of the Church and though they were not cut off from all hopes of the Mercy of God yet they were never restored to the Peace of the Church This was done in Tertullian's time if what he says on this Subject is not to be reckoned as a piece of his Montanism But soon after there were great Contests upon this Head while the Novatians withdrew from the Communion of the Church and believed it was defiled by the receiving of Apostates into it Though that was not done so easily as some proposed but after a long separation and a severe course of Penance Upon this followed all those Penitentiary Canons concerning the several Measures and Degrees of Penance and that not only for Acts of Apostacy from the Christian Religion but for all other crying Sins According to what has been already said upon the former Articles it has appeared that the Sanctification of Regenerated Men is not so pâ—rfected in this Life but that there is still a mixture of Defects and Imperfections left in them And the state of the New Covenant is a continuance of Repentance and Remission of Sins for as oft as one sins if he repents truly of it and forsakes his Sins there is a standing Offer of the Pardon of all Sins And therefore Christ has taught us to pray daily Forgive us our sins If there were but one general Pardon offered in Baptism this would signify little to those who feel their Infirmities and the Sins that do so easily beset them so apt to return upon them It was no wonder if the entertaining this
Doctrine as to note those who obey not the Gospel 2 Thess. 36.14 15. and to have no company with them that they may be ashamed yet not so as to hate such a one or count him as an Enemy but to admonish him as a Brother Into what neglect or prostitution soever any Church may have fallen in this great point of separating Offenders of making them ashamed and of keeping others from being corrupted with their ill Example and bad Influence that must be confessed to be a very great defect and blemish The Church of Rome had slackned all the ancient Rules of Discipline and had perverted this matter in a most scandalous manner and the World is now sunk into so much corruption and to such a contempt of holy things that it is much more easy here to find matter for lamentation than to see how to remedy or correct it ARTICLE XVII Predestination and Election Predestination to life is the everlasting purpose of God whereby before the foundations of the World were laid he hath constantly decreed by his Counsel secret to us to deliver from curse and damnation those whom he hath chosen in Christ out of mankind and to bring them by Christ unto everlasting Salvation as vessels made to honour Wherefore they which be endued with so excellent a benefit of God be called according to God's purpose by his Spirit working in due season They through grace obey the calling they be justified freely they be made Sons of God by Adoption they be made like the Image of his only begotten Son Iesus Christ they walk religiously in good works and at length by God's mercy they attain to everlasting felicity As the godly consideration of Predestination and our Election in Christ is full of sweet pleasant and unspeakable comfort to godly persons and such as feel in themselves the working of the Spirit of Christ mortifying the works of the flesh and their earthly members and drawing up their mind to high and heavenly things as well because it doth greatly establish anâ—â—â—â—firm their Faith of eternal Salvation to be enjoyed through Christ as because it doth fervently kindle their love towards God So for curious and carnal persons lacking the Spirit of Christ to have continually before their eyes the sentence of God's Predestination is a most dangerous downfall whereby the Devil doth thrust them either â—nto desperation or into wrechlesness of most unclean living no less perillous than â—esperation Furthermore We must receive God's promises in such wise as they be generally set forth to us in holy Scripture and in our doings that Will of God is to be followed which we have expresly declared unto us in the Word of God THere are many things in several of the other Articles which depend upon this and therefore I will explain it more fully For as this has given occasion to one of the longest the subtilest and indeed the most intricate of all the Questions in Divinity so it will be necessary to open and examine it as fully as the Importance and Difficulties of it do require In treating of it I shall First State the Question together with the consequences that arise out of it Secondly Give an account of the differences that have arisen upon it Thirdly I shall set out the strength of the Opinions of the Contending Parties with all possible Impartiality and Exactness Fourthly I shall see how far they agree and how far they differ and shall shew what reason there is for bearing with one another's Opinions in these matters and in the Fifth and last place I shall consider how far we of this Church are determined by this Article and how far we are at liberty to follow any of those different Opinions The whole Controversy may be reduced to this single Point as its head and source Upon what Views did God form his Purposes and Decrees concerning Mankind Whether he did it merely upon a design of advancing his own Glory and for manifesting his own Attributes in order to which he setled the great universal Scheme of his whole Creation and Providence Or whether he considered all the free motions of those rational Agents that he did intend to create and according to what he foresaw they would chuse and do in all the various circumstances in which he might put them formed his Decrees Here the Controversy begins and when this is setled the three main Questions that arise out of it will be soon determined The First is Whether both God and Christ intended that Christ should only dye for that particular number whom God intended to save Or whether it was intended that he should dye for all so that every Man that would might have the benefit of his Death and that no Man was excluded from it but because he willingly rejected it The Second is Whether those Assistances that God gives to Men to enable them to obey him are of their own nature so efficacious and irresistible that they never fail of producing the Effect for which they are given or Whether they are only sufficient to enable a Man to obey God so that their Efficacy comes from the freedom of the Will that either may co-operate with them or may not as it pleases The Third is Whether such persons do and must certainly persevere to whom such Grace is given or Whether they may not fall away both entirely and finally from that State There are also other Questions concerning the true Notion of Liberty concerning the Feebleness of our Powers in this lapsed State with several lesser ones all which do necessarily take their determination from the decision of the first and main Question About which there are four Opinions The First is of those commonly called Supralapsarians who think that God does only consider his own Glory in all that he does and that whatever is done arises from its first Cause from the Decree of God That in this Decree God considering only the Manifestation of his own Glory intended to make the World to put a Race of Men in it to constitute them under Adam as their Fountain and Head That he decreed Adam's Sin the lapse of his Posterity and Christ's Death together with the Salvation or Damnation of such Men as should be most for his own Glory That to those who were to be saved he decreed to give such efficacious Assistances as should certainly put them in the way of Salvation And to those whom he rejected he decreed to give such Assistances and means only as should render them inexcusable That all Men do continue in a state of Grace or of Sin and shall be saved or damned accâ—rding to that first Decree So that God views Himself only and in that View he designs all things singly for his own Glory and for the manifesting of his own Attributes The Second Opinion is of those called the Sublapsarians who say That Adam having sinned freely and his Sin being imputed to all his Posterity God did
all are not actually good and so put in a way to be saved that God did not intend that it should be so for who hath resisted his will The Counsel of the Lord standeth fast and the Thoughts of his heart to all Generations It is true Rom. 9.10 Ps. 33.12 His Laws are his Will in one respect He requires all to obey them He approves them and he obliges all Men to keep them All the Expressions of his desires that all Men should bâ— saved are to be explained of the Will of Revelation commonly called the Sign of his Will When it is said What more could have been done Isa. 5.4 that is to be understood of outward Means and Blessings But still God has a secret Will of his good pleasure in which he designs all things and this can neaver be frustrated From this they do also conclude That though Christ's Death was to be offered to all Christians yet that Intentionally and Actually he only died for those whom the Father had chosen and given to him to be saved by him They cannot think that Christ could have died in vain which St. Paul speaks of as a vast Absurdity Now since if he had died for all Gal. 2.21 he should have died in vain with relation to the far greater part of Mankind who are not to be saved by him they from thence conclude That all those for whom he died are certainly saved by him Perhaps with relation to some subaltern Blessings which are through him Communicated if not to all Mankind yet to all Christians he may be said to have died for all But as to Eternal Salvation they believe his Design went no further than the secret Purpose and Election of God and this they think is implied in these words John 17.9.10 all that are given me of my Father Thine they were and thou gavest them me He also limits his Intercession to those only I pray not for the world but for those that thou hast given me for they are thine and all thine are mine and mine are thine They believe that he also limited to them the extent of his Death and of that Sacrifice which he offered in it It is true the Christian Religion being to be distinguished from the Iewish in this main Point that whereas the Iewish was restrained to Abraham's Posterity and confined within oneRace and Nation the Christian was to be preached to every Creature Universal words are used concerning the Death of Christ But as the words Mark 16.15 preaching to every Creature and to all the World are not to be understood in the utmost extent for then they have never been verified since the Gospel has never yet for ought that appears to us been preached to every Nation under Heaven but are only to be explained generally of a Commission not limited to one or more Nations none being excluded from it The Apostles were to execute it in going from City to City as they should be inwardly moved to it by the Holy Ghost So they think that those large words that are applied to the Death of Christ are to be understood in the same qualified manner that no Nation or sort of Men are excluded from it and that some of all kinds and sorts shall be saved by him And this is to be carried no further without an Imputation on the Justice of God For if he has received a sufficient Oblation and Satisfaction for the Sins of the whole World it is not reconcileable to Justice that all should not be saved by it or should not at least have the Offer and Promulgation of it made them that so a trial may be made whether they will accept of it or not The Grace of God is set forth in Scripture by such Figures and Expressions as do plainly intimate itâ— efficacy and that it does not depend upon us to use it Eph. 2.10 2 Cor. 5.17 Phil. 2.13 Ps. 110.3 Jerem. 31.33 34. Ezek. 36.26 27. Rom. 9.21 or not to use it at pleasure It it said to be a Creation we are created unto good works and we become new Creatures It is called a Regeneration or a New Birth it is called a Quickning and a Resurrection as our former state is compared to a feebleness a blindness and a death God is said to work in us both to will and to do His people shall be willing in the day of his power He will write his Laws in their hearts and make them to walk in them Mankind is compared to a Mass of Clay in the hands of the Potter who of the same lump makes at his pleasure Vessels of honour or of dishonour These passages this last in particular do insinuate an Absolute and a Conquering power in Grace and that the love of God constrains us as S. Paul speaks expresly All outward coaction is contrary to the nature of liberty and all those inward Impressions that drove on the Prophets so that they had not the free use of their Faculties but felt themselves carried they knew not how are inconsistent with it yet when a Man feels that his Faculties go in their method and that he assents or chuses from a thread of inward Conviction and Ratiocination he still acts freely that is by an Internal Principle of Reason and Thought A Man acts as much according to his Faculties when he assents to a Truth as when he chuses what he is to do And if his Mind were so enlightned that he saw as clearly the good of Moral Things as he percieves Speculative Truths so that he felt himself as little able to resist the one as the other he would be no less a free and a rational Creature than if he were left to a more unlimited Range Nay the more evidently that he saw the true good of things and the more that he were determined by it he should then act more suitably to his Faculties and to the Excellence of his Nature For though the Saints in Heaven being made perfect in Glory are no more capable of further Rewards yet it cannot be denied but they act with a more accomplished Liberty because they see all things in a true Light according to that in thy light we shall see light Psal. 26.9 And therefore they conclude that such an overcoming degree of Grace by which a Man is made willing through the Illumination of his Understanding and not by any blind or violent Impulse is no way contrary to the true Notion of Liberty After all they think That if a Debate falls to be between the Sovereignty of God his Acts and his Purposes and the freedom of Man's will it is modest and decent rather to make the abatement on Man's part than on God's but they think there is no need of this They infer That besides the outward Enlightening of a Man by Knowledge there is an inward Enlightening of the Mind and a secret forcible conviction stampt on it otherwise what can be meant
by the Prayer of St. Paul for the Ephesians who had already heard the Gospel preached and were instructed in it That the eyes of their understanding being enlightened they might know what was the hope of his calling Eph. 1.17 18 19. and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints and what was the exceeding greatness of his power towards them that believed This seems to be somewhat that is both Internal and Efficacious Christ compares the Union and Influence that he communicates to Believers to that Union of a Head with the Members and of a Root with the Branches which imports an Internal a Vital and an Efficacious Influence And though the outward means that are offered may be and always are rejected when not accompanied with his overcoming Grace yet this never returns empty These outward means coming from God the resisting of them is said to be the resisting God the grieving or quenching his Spirit Act. 7.51 Eph. 4.30 Jam. 1.17 18. Joh. 13.1 Heb. 13.5 and so in that sense we resist the Grace or Favour of God But we can never withstand him when he intends to overcome us As for Perseverance it is a necessary consequence of Absolute Decrees and of Efficacious Grace For since all depends upon God and that as of his own will he begat us so with him there is neither variableness nor shadow of turning Whom he loves he loves to the end and he has promised That he will never leave nor forsakâ— those to whom he becomes a God We must from thence conclude That the purpose and calling of God is without Repentance And therefore though good Men may fall into grievous Sins to keep them from which there are dreadful things said in Scripture against their falling away or Apostacy yet God does so uphold them that though he suffers them often to feel the weight of their Natures yet of all that are given by the Father to the Son to be saved by him none are lost Upon the whole Matter They believe that God did in himself and for his own Glory foreknow such a determinate Number whom he pitched upon to be the persons in whom he would be both Sanctified and Glorified That having thus foreknown them he predestinated them to be holy conformable to the Image of his Son That these were to be called not by a General Calling in the Sense of these words Many are called but few are chosen but to be called according to his purpose Matth. 20 16. Rom. 8.29 30. Rom. 9.18 And those he justified upon their obeying that Calling and he will in conclusion Glorify them Nor are these words only to be limited to the Sufferings of good Men they are to be extended to all the effects of the love of God according to that which follows That nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ. The whole Reasoning in the 9 th of the Romans does so plainly resolve all the acts of God's Mercy and Justice his hardning as well as his pardoning into an Absolute Freedom and an Unsearchable Depth that more express words to that effect can hardly be imagined It is in general said That the children being yet unborn neither having done good or evil that the purpose of God according to election might stand not of work but of him that calleth Iacob was loved and Esau hated ver 11. ver 17. ver 20. ver 22. That God raised up Pharaoh that he might shew his power in him and when an Objection is suggested against all this instead of Answering it it is silenced with this Who art thou O Man that repliest against God And all is illustrated with the Figure of the Potter and concluded with this solemn Question What if God willing to shew his wrath and to make his power known endured with much long-suffering the Vessels of wrath fitted to destruction This carries the Reader to consider what is so often repeated in the Book of Exodus concerning God's hardning the heart of Pharaoh Exod. 4.21.10.18.11.10.14.8 Prov. 16.4 Acts 1.48 Rev. 13.8.3.5.20.12.21.27 Rom. 1.26 28. so that he would not let his people go It is said That God has made the wicked man for the day of evil as it is written on the other hand That as many believed the Gospel as were appointed to eternal life Some are said to be written in the book of life of the lamb slain before the foundation of the world or according to God's purpose before the world began Vngodly Men are said to be of old ordained to condemnation and to be given up by God unto vile affections and to be given over by him to a reprobate mind Therefore they think that Reprobation is an absolute and free act of God as well as Election to manifest his Holiness and Justice in them who are under it as well as his Love and Mercy is manifested in the Elect. Nor can they think with the Sublapsarians That Reprobation is only God's passing by those whom he does not elect this is an act unworthy of God as if he forgot them which does clearly imply Imperfection And as for that which is said concerning their being fallen in Adam they argue That either Adam's Sin and the Connexion of all Mankind to him as their Head and Representative was absolutely decreed or it was not If it was then all is absolute Adam's Sin and the Fall of Mankind were decreed and by consequence all from the beginning to the end are under a continued Chain of Absolute Decrees and then the Supralapsarian and the Sublapsarian Hypothesis will be one and the same only variously expressed But if Adam's Sin was only foreseen and permitted then a conditionate Decree founded upon Prescience is once admitted so that all that follows turns upon it and then all the Arguments either against the Perfection of such Acts or the Certainty of such a Prescience turn against this for if they are admitted in any one Instance then they may be admitted in others as well as in that The Sublapsarians do always avoid to answer this and it seems they do rather incline to think that Adam was under an Absolute Decree and if so then tho' their Doctrine may seem to those who do not examin things nicely to look more plausible yet really it amounts to the same thing with the other For it is all one to say that God decreed that Adam should sin and that all Mankind should fall in him and that then God should chuse out of Mankind thus fallen by his Decree such as he would save and leave the rest in that lapsed state to perish in it as it is to say That God intending to save some and to damn others did in order to the carrying this on in a method of of Justice decree Adam's Fall and the Fall of Mankind in him in order to the saving of his Elâ—ct and the damning of the rest All that the Sublapsarians say in this
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
there must be a living speaking Judge always ready to guide the Church and to decide Controversies they say this cannot be in the diffusive Body of Christians for these cannot meet to judge Nor can it â—e in a General Council the meeting of which depends upon so many accidents and on the consent of so many Princes that the Infallibility will lie dormant for some Ages if the General Council is the Seat of it Therefore they conclude That since it is certainly in the Church and can be no where else but in the Pope therefore it is lodged in the See of Rome Whereas we on the other hand think this is a strong Argument against the Infallibility in general That it does not appear in whom it is vested And we think that every side does so effectually Confute the other that we believe them all as to that and think they argue much stronger when they prove where it cannot be than when they pretend to prove where it must be This in the Point now in hand concerning the Pope seems as evident 〈◊〉 thing can possibly be It not appearing That after the words of Christ 〈…〉 the other Apostles thought the Point was thereby decided Who 〈…〉 should be the greatest For that Debâ—â—e was still on foot and was 〈◊〉 among them in the very Night in which our Saviour was betrayâ—d Nor does it appear That after the Effusion of the Holy Ghost which certainly Inspired them with the full understanding of Christ's words that thâ—y thought there was any thing peculiarly given to S. Peter beyond the â—â—st He was questioned upon his Baptizing Cornelius He was not singly appealed to in the great Question of Subjecting the Gentiles to the Yoke of the Mosaical Law he delivered his Opinion as one of the Apostles After which St. Iames summed up the Matter and setled the Decision of it He was charged by St. Paul as guilty of dissimulation in that matter for which St. Paul withstood him to his Face And he justifies that in an Epistle confessed to be writ by Divine Inspiration St. Paul does also in the same Epistle plainly assert the equality of his own Authority with his And that he received no Authority from him and owed him no Dependance Nor was he ever Appealed to in any of the Points that appear to have been Disputed in the times that the Epistles were written So that we see no Characters of any special Infallibility that was in him besides that which was the effect of the Inspiration that was in the other Apostles as well as in him Nor is there a Tittle in the Scripture not so much as by a remote Intimation that he was to derive that Authority whatsoever it was to any Successor or to lodge it in any particular City or See The Silence of the Scripture in this Point seems to be a full proof that no such thing was intended by God Otherwise we have all reason to believe that it would have been clearly expressed St. Peter himself ought to have declared this And since both Alexandria and Antioch as well as Rome pretend to derive from him and that the Succession to those Sees began in him this makes a decision in this Point so much the more necessary When St. Peter writ his 2d Epistle in which he mentions a Revelation that he had from Christ of his approaching dissolution though that was a very proper occasion for declaring such an important Matter 2 Pet. 1 1â— he says nothing that relates to it but gives only a new Attestation of the truth of Christ's Divine Mission and of what he himself had been a witness to in the Mount when he saw the excellent glory and heard the voice out of it He leaves a Provision in Writing for the following Ages but says nothing of any Succession or See So that here the greatest of all Privileges is pretâ—nded to be lodged in a Succession of Bishops without any one Passage in Scripture importing it Another set of difficulties arise concerning the Persons who have a right to chuse these Popes in whom this Right is Vested and what number is necessary for a Canonical Election How far Simony voids it and who is the competent Judge of that or who shall judge in the Case of two different Elections which has often happened We must also have a certain Rule to know when the Popes judge as private Persons and when they judge Infallibly With whom they must consult and what Solemnities are necessary to make them speak ex Cathedra or Infallibly For if this Infallibility comes as a Privilege from a Grant made by Christ we ought to expect that all those necessary Circumstances to direct us in order to the receiving and submitting to it should be fixed by the same Authority that made the Grant Here then are very great difficulties Let us now see what is offered to make out this great and important Claim The chief Proof is brought from these Words of our Saviour when upon St. Peter's confessing That he was the Christ the Son of the living God Mat. 16. 16 17 18 19. He said to him Thou art Peter and upon this Rock I will build my Church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it I will give unto thee the keys of the Kingdom of heaven and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven This begins with an Allusion to his Name and Discourses built upon such Allusions are not to be understood strictly or Grammatically By the Rock upon which Christ promises to build his Church many of the Fathers have understood the Person of Christ others have understood the Confession of him or Faith in him which indeed is but a different way of expressing the same thing And it is certain that strictly speaking the Church can only be said to be founded upon Christ and upon his Doctrine But in a Secondary sense it may be said to be founded upon the Apostles and upon St. Peter as the first in order which is not to be Disputed Now though this is a Sense which was not put on these Words for many Ages yet when it should be allowed to be their true sense it will not prove any thing to have been granted to St. Peter but what was common to the other Apostles who are all called the Foundations upon which the Church is built That which follows of the gates of hell not being able to prevail against the Church may be either understood of Death Eph. 2.20 Rev. 21.2 14. which is often called the gate to the grave Which is the sense of the Word that is rendred Hell And then the meaning of these Words will be That the Church which Christ was to raise should never be extinguished nor die or come to a period as the Iewish Religion then did Or according to the Custom of the Iews of holding their
These words in themselves and separated from all that went before seem to speak out this matter very fully But when the occasion of them and the matter that is treated of in them are considered nothing can be plainer than that our Saviour is speaking of such private Differences as may arise among Men and of the Practice of forgiving Injuries and composing their Differences If thy Brother sin against thee first private Endeavours were to be used then the Interposition of Friends was to be tried And finally the matter was to be referred to the Body or Assembly to which they belonged And those who could not be gained by such Methods were no more to be esteemed Brethren but were to be looked on as very bad Men like Heathens They might upon such refractoriness be Excommunicated and Prosecuted afterwards in Temporal Courts since they had by their Perversness forfeited all sort of right to that Tenderness and Charity that is due to true Christians This Exposition does so fully agree to the Occasion and Scope of these words that there is no colour of Reason to carry them further The Character given to the Church of Ephesus in St. Paul's Epistle to Timothy 1 Tim. 3. That it was the pillar and ground of Truth is a Figurative Expression And it is never safe to build upon Metaphors much less to lay much weight upon them The Iews described their Synagogues by such honourable Characters in which it is known how profuse all the Eastern Nations are These are by St. Paul applied to the Church of Ephesus For he there speaks of the Church where Timothy was then in which he instructs him to behave himself well It has visibly a relation to those Inscriptions that were made on Pillars which rested upon firm Pedestals But whatsoever the strict Importance of the Metaphor may be it is a Metaphor and therefore it can be no Argument Christ's promise of the Spirit to his Apostles Jâ—h 16.13 that should lead them into all truth relates visibly to that extraordinary Inspiration by which they were to be acted and that was to shew them things to come so that a Succession of Prophecy may be inferred from these words as well as of Infallibility Those words of our Saviour with which St. Matthew concludes his Gospel Matth. 28.20 Lo I am with you always even to the end of the World infer no Infallibility but only a promise of Assistance and Protection Which was a necessary encouragement to the Apostles when they were sent upon so laborious a Commission that was to involve them into so much danger God's being with any his walking with them his being in the midst of them his never leaving nor forsaking them are Expressions often used in the Scripture 2 Cor. 6.16 Heb. 13.5 which signifie no more but God's watchful Providence Guiding Supporting and Protecting his People All this is far from Infallibility The Last Objection to be proposed is that which seems to relate most to the Point in hand taken from the Decree made by a Council at Ierusalem Act 15.28 which begins It seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us From which they infer That the Holy Ghost is present with Councils and that what seems good to them is also approved by the Holy Ghost But it will not be easie to prove that this was such a Council as to be a pattern to succeeding ones to copy after it We find Brethren are here joined with the Apostles themselves Now since these were no other than the Laity here an Inference will be made that will not go easily down If they fate and voted with the Apostles it will seem strange to deny them the same privilege among Bishops By Elders here it seems Presbyters are meant and this will give them an Entrance into a General Council out of which they cannot be well excluded if the Laity are admitted But here was no citation no time given to all Churches to send their Bishops or Proxies It was an Occasional Meeting of such of the Apostles as happened to be then at Ierusalem who called to them the Elders or Presbyters and other Christians at Ierusalem For the Holy Ghost was then poured out so plentifully on so many that no wonder if there was then about that truly Mother Church a great many of both sorts who were of such Eminence that the Apostles might desire them to meet and to joyn with them The Apostles were Divinely Assisted in the delivering that Commission which our Saviour gave them in charge To preach to every creature and so were Infallibly Assisted in the Executing of it Mark 16.15 yet when other Matters fell in which were no Parts of that Commission they no doubt did as St. Paul who sometimes writ by Permission 1 Cor. 7.6 12. as well as at other times by Commandment Of which he gives notice by saying It is I and not the Lord He suggested Advices which to him according to his Prudence and Experience seemed to be well founded and he offered them with great Sincerity for though he had some reason to think that what he proposed flowed from the Spirit of the Lord ver 40. from that Inspiration that was Acting him yet because that did not appear distinctly to him he speaks with Reserves and says ver 25. he gives his judgment as one that had obtained mercy of the Lord to be faithful So the Apostles here receiving no Inspiration to Direct them in this Case but observing well what St. Peter put them in mind of concerning God's sending him by a Special Vision to Preach to the Gentiles and that God had poured out the Holy Ghost on them even as he had done upon the Apostles who were Iews by Nature and that he did put no difference in that between Iews and Gentiles Acts 15.9 purifying the hearts of the Gentiles by Faith They upon this did by their Judgment conclude from thence That what God had done in the particular Instance of Cornelius was now to be extended to all the Gentiles So by this we see that those Words seemed good to the Holy Ghost relate to the Case of Cornelius and those Words seemed good to us import that they resolved to extend that to be a general Rule to all the Gentiles This gives the Words a clear and a distinct Sense which agrees with all that had gone before whereas it will otherwise look very strange to see them add their Authority to that of the Holy Ghost which is too Absurd to suppose Nor will it be easy to give any other consisting Sense to these Words Here is no Precedent of a Council much less of a General one but a Decision is made by Men that were in other things Divinely Inspired which can have no relation to the Judgment of other Councils And thus it appears that none of those Places which are brought to prove the Infallibility of Councils come up to the Point
orantes inclinantesque se propter Deum ante istam crucem inveniant corporis animae sanitatem per eundem reisque dona veniam It is expresly said in the Pontifical Cruci debetur Latria and the Prayers used in the Consecration of a Cross it is prayed That the Blessing of that Cross on which Christ hung may be in it that it may be a healthful Remedy to Mankind a Strengthner of Faith an Increaser of Good Works the Redemption of Souls and a Comfort Protection and Defence against the Cruelty of our Enemies These with all the other Acts of Adoration used among them seem to favour those who are for a Latria to be given to all those Images to the Originals of which it is due and in like the Proportion for Dulia and Hyperdulia to other Images It is needless to prosecute this Matter further It seemed necessary to say so much to justify our Church which has in her Homilies laid this Charge of Idolatry very severely on the Church of Rome and this is so high an Imputation that those who think it false as they cannot without a good Conscience Subscribe or require others to Subscribe the Article concerning the Homilies so they ought to retract their own Subscriptions and to make Solemn Reparations in Justice and Honour for laying so heavy an Imputation unjustly upon that whole Communion There is nothing that can be brought from Scripture that has a shew of an Argument for supporting Image-Worship unless it be that of the Cherubims that were in the holiest of all and that as is supposed were worshipped at least by the High Priest when he went thither once a Year if not by the whole People But first there is a great difference to be made between a Form of Worship immediately prescribed by God and another Form that not only has no warrant for it but seems to be very expresly forbidden It is plain the Cherubims were not seen by the People and so they could be no visible Object of Worship to them Heb. 9.3 7. They were scarce seen by the High Priest himself for the Holiest of all was quite dark no light coming into it but what came through the Veil from the Holy Place and even that had very little Light Nor is there a word concerning the High Priests Worshipping either the Ark or the Cherubim It is true there is a place in the Psalms that seems to favour this as it is rendred by the Vulgar worship his footstool Psal. 99.5 9. for it is holy but both the Hebrew and the Septuagint have it as it is in our Translation worship at his footstool for he is holy and all the Greek Fathers cite these Words so Many of the Latin Fathers do also cite them according to the Greek and the last Words of the Psalm in which the same words are repeated make the Sense of it evident For there it is thus varied Exalt ye the Lord our God and worship at his holy hill for the Lord our God is holy These words coming so soon after the former are a Paraphrase to them and determine their Sense No doubt the High Priest worshipped God who dwelt between the Cherubims in that Cloud of Glory in which he shewed himself visibly present in his Temple but there is no sort of reason to think that in so Majestick a Presence Adoration could be offered to any thing else or that after the High Priest had adored the Divine Essence so manifested he would have fallen to Worship the Ark and the Cherubims This agrees ill with the Figure that is so much used in this Matter of a King and his Chair of State for in the Presence of the King all Respects terminate in his Person whatsoever may be done in his Absence And thus this being not so much as a Precedent much less an Argument for the use of Images and there being nothing else brought from Scripture that with any sort of wresting can be urged for it and the Sense and Practice of the whole Church being so express against it the Progress of it having been so long and so much disputed the tendency of it to Superstition and Abuse being by their own Confession so visible the Scandal that it gives to Iews and Mahometans being so apparent and it carrying in its outward appearances such a Conformity to say at present no more to Heathenish Idolatry we think we have all possible advantages in this Argument We adhere to that Purity of Worship which is in both Testaments so much insisted on we avoid all Scandal and make no Approaches to Heathenism and follow the Pattern set us by the Primitive Church And as our simplicity of Worship needs not be defended since it proves it self so no proofs are brought for the other side but only a pretended usefulness in outward Figures to raise the Mind by the Senses to just Apprehensions of Spiritual Objects which allowing it true will only conclude for the Historical Use of Images but not for the directing our Worship towards them But the effect is quite contrary to the pretence for instead of raising the Mind by the Senses the Mind is rather sunk by them into gross Ideas The Bias of Human Nature lies to Sense and to form gross Imaginations of Incorporeal Objects and therefore instead of gratifying these we ought to wean our Minds from them and to raise them above them all we can Even Men of Speculation and Abstraction feel Nature in this grows too hard for them but the Vulgar is apt to fall so headlong into these Conceits that it looks like the laying of Snares for them to furnish them with such methods and helps for their having gross Thoughts of Spiritual Objects The fondness that the People have for Images their readiness to believe the most incredible Stories concerning them the expence they are at to Enrich and Adorn them their Prostrations before them their Confidence in them their humble and tender Embracing and Kissing of them their pompous and heathenish Processions to do them Honour the Fraternities erected for particular Images not to mention the more universal and established Practices of directing their Prayers to them of setting Lights before them and of Incensing them these I say are things too well known to such as have seen the way of that Religion that they should need to be much enlarged on and yet they are not only allowed of but encouraged Those among them who have too much good sense that they should sink into those foolish apprehensions themselves yet must not only bear with them but often comply with them to avoid the giving of Scandal as they call it not considering the much greater Scandal that they give when they encourage others by their practice to go on in these Follies The enlarging into all the corruptions occasioned by this way of Worship would carry me far but it seems not necessary the thing is so plain in it self The next Head
scandalous Parts Such as the Worship of subordinate Gods and of Images These are the chief Grounds upon which we separate from the Roman Communion Since we cannot have fellowship with them unless we will join in those Acts which we look on as direct violations of the First and Second Commandment God is a jealous God and therefore we must rather venture on their Wrath how burning soever it may be than on his who is a consuming Fire ARTICLE XXIII Of Ministring in the Congregation It is not lawful for any Man to take upon him the Office of publick Preaching or Ministring the Sacraments in the Congregation before he be lawfully called and sent to execute the same And those we ought to judge lawfully called and sent which be chosen and called to this work by Men who have publick Authority given unto them in the Congregation to call and send Ministers into the Lord's Uineyard WE have two particulars fixed in this Article The First is against any that shall assume to themselves without a lawful Vocation the authority of dispencing the things of God The Second is the defining in very general Words what it is that makes a lawful Call As to the First it will bear no great difficulty We see in the old Dispensation that the Family the Age and the Qualifications of those that might serve in the Priesthood are very particularly set forth In the New Testament our Lord called the Twelve Apostles and sent them out He also sent out upon another occasion Seventy Disciples And before he left his Apostles He told them that as his Father had sent him so he sent them John â—â— 2â— Which seems to Import that as he was sent into the World with this among other Powers that he might send others in his Name so he likewise empowered them to do the same And when they went planting Churches as they took some to be Companions of Labour with themselves so they appointed others over the particular Churches in which they fixed them Such were Epaphras or Epaphroditus at Colosse Timothy at Ephesus and Titus in Crete To them the Apostles gave Authority Otherwise it was a needless thing to write so many directions to them in order to their conduct They had the Depositum of the Faith 2 Tim. 1.13 with which they were chiefly entrusted Concerning the succession in which that was to be continued we have these Words of St. Paul The things which thou hast heard of me among many witnesses the same commit thou to faithful Men 2 Tim. 2.2 1 Tim. 2.1 2 3. 1 Tim. 2.12 1 Tim. â— c. who shall be able to teach others also To them directions are given concerning all the different Parts of their Worship Supplications Prayers Intercessions and giving of thanks and also the keeping up the decency of the Worship and the not suffering of Women to Teach like the Women Priests among the Heathen who were believed to be filled with a Bacchick Fury To them are directed all the Qualifications of such as might be made either Bishops or Deacons They were to examine them according to these and either to receive or reject them All this was directed to Timothy that he might know how he ought to behave himself in the house of God 1 Tim. 3.15 1 Tim. â— 1 3 17 19 22. He had Authority given him to Rebuke and Entreat to Honour and to Censure He was to Order what Widows might be received into the Number and who should be refused He was to receive Accusations against Elders or Presbyters according to directed Methods and was either to Censure some or to lay Hands on others as should agree with the Rules that were set him And in conclusion he is very solemnly charged 1 Tim. 6.20 2 Tim. 2.15 2 Tim. 4.2 5. to keep that which was committed to his Trust. He is required rightly to divide the word of truth to preach the word to be instant in season and out of season to reprove rebuke and exhort and to do the work of an Evangelist and to make full proof of his ministry Some of the same things are charged upon Titus whom St. Paul had left in Crete to set in order the things that were wanting Tit. 1.5 9 13. and to ordain Elders in every City Several of the Characters by which he was to try them are also set down He is charged to rebuke the people sharply and to speak the things that became sound doctrine He is instructed concerning the Doctrines which he was to Teach and those which he was to Avoid and also how to Censure an Heretick He was to admonish him twice Tit. 3.10 and if that did not prevail he was to reject him by some publick Censure These Rules given to Timothy and Titus do plâ—inly Import that there was to be an Authority in the Church and that no Man was to assume this Authority to himself according to that Maxim that seems to be founded on the Light of Nature as well as it is set down in Scripture as a standing Rule agreed to in all Times and Places No Man taketh this honour to himself Heb. 5.4 but he that is called of God as was Aaron St. Paul in his Epistles to the Romans and Corinthians did reckon up the several Orders and Functions Rom. 12.6 7 8. 1 Cor. 12.28 Eph. 4.11 12 13 16. that God had set in his Church and in his Epistle to the Ephesians he shews that these were not transient but lasting Constitutions For there as he reckons the Apostles Prophets Evangelists Pastors and Teachers as the Gifts which Christ at his Ascension had given to Men so he tells the Ends for which they were given For the perfecting the Saints by Perfecting seems to be meant the initiating them by Holy Mysteries rather than the compacting or putting them in joint For as that is the proper Signification of the Word so it being set first the other things that come after it make that the strict Sense of Perfecting that is Compleating does not so well agree with the Period for the work of the Ministry the whole Ecclesiastical or Sacred Services for the edifying the Body of Christ to which instructing exhorting comforting and all the other Parts of Preaching may well be reduced and then the duration of these Gifts is defined 'Till we all come in the Vnity of the Faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto a perfect Man This seems to Import the whole State of this Life We cannot think that all this belonged only to the Infancy of the Church and that it was to be laid aside by her when she was farthâ—r advanced For when we consider that in the Beginnings of Christianity there was so liberal an Effusion of the Holy Spirit poured out upon such great Numbers who had very extraordinary Credentials Miracles and the Gift of Tongues to prove their Mission it does not seem so necessary in such a
probably to belong to this so from these Warrants we find in the earliest Writings of Christianity mention of a Confirmation after Baptism which for the greater Solemnity and Awe of the Action and from the precedent of St. Peter and St. Iohn was reserved to the Bishop to be done only by him Upon these Reasons we think it is in the Power of the Church to require all such as have been baptized to come before the Bishop and renew their Baptismal Vow and pray for God's Holy Spirit to enable them to keep their Vow and upon their doing this the Bishop may solemnly pray over them with that ancient and almost natural Ceremony of laying his Hands upon them which is only a Designation of the Persons so prayed over and blest that God may seal and defend them with his Holy Spirit in which according to the nature of the New Covenant we are sure that such as do thus Vow and Pray do also receive the Holy Spirit according to the Promise that our Saviour has made us In this Action there is nothing but what is in the Power of the Church to do even without any other Warrant or Precedent The doing all things to Order and to Edifying will authorize a Church to all this especially since the now universal Practice of Infant Baptism makes this more necessary than it was in the first times when chiefly the Adult were baptized It is highly reasonable that they who gave no actual Consent of their own should come and by their own express Act make the Stipulations of Baptism It may give greater impressions of awe and respect when this is restrained to the highest Order in the Church Upon the sincere Vows and earnest Prayers of Persons thus Confirmed we have reason to believe that a proportioned degree of God's Grace and Spirit will be poured out upon them And in all this we are much confirmed when we see such warrants for it in Scripture A thing so good in it self that has at least a probable Authority for it and was certainly a practice of the first Ages is upon very just grounds continued in our Church Would to God it were as seriously gone about as it is lawfully established But after all this here is no Sacrament no express Institution neither by Christ nor his Apostles no Rule given to practise it and which is the most essential there is no matter here for the laying on of Hands is only a gesture in Prayer nor are there any federal Rites declared to belong to it it being indeed rather a Ratifying and Confirming the Baptism than any new Stipulation To supply all this the Church of Rome has appointed Matter for it The Chrism which is a mixture of Oil Olive and Balm Opobalsamum the Oil signifying the clearness of a good Conscience and the Balm the savour of a good Reputation This must be peculiarly blessed by the Bishop who is the only Minister of that Function The Form of this Sacrament is the applying the Chrism to the Forehead with these words Signo te signo crucis confirmo te chrismate salutis in Nomine Patris Filii Spiritus Sancti I sign thee with the sign of the Cross and confirm thee with the Chrism of Salvation in the Name of the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost They pretend Christ did Institute this but they say the Holy Ghost which he breathed on his Disciples being a thing that transcended all Sacraments he settled no determined Matter nor Form to it And that the succeeding Ages appropriated this Matter to it We do not deny but that the Christians began very early to use Oil in Holy Functions The Climates they lived in making it necessary to use Oil much for stopping the Perspiration that might dispose them the more to use Oil in their Sacred Rites It is not to be denied but that both Theophilus and Tertullian in the end of the Second Theophil l. 1. ad Autolyc Tert. de Bapt. c. 7 8. de Resur caâ— c. 8. Cypr. Ep. 70. and the beginning of the Third Century do mention it The frequent mention of Oil and of Anointing in the Scripture might incline them to this It was Prophesied of Christ That he was to be anointed with the oil of joy and gladness above his fellows And the Names of Messias and Christ do also import this but yet we hold all that to be Mystical and that it is to be meant of that fulness of the Spirit which he received without measure Upon the same account we do understand those words of St. Paul in the same mystical Sense he that establisheth us with you in Christ and hath anointed us is God who hath also sealed us and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts 2 Cor. 1.21 22. 1 John 2.20 27. As also those words of St. Iohn but ye have an Vnction from the holy one and ye know all things The anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you and ye need not that any man teach you but as the same anointing teacheth you all things These words do clearly relate to somewhat that the Christians received immediately from God and so must be understood figuratively For we do not see the least hint of the Apostles using of Oil except to the sick of which afterwards So that if this Use of Oil is considered only as a Ceremony of a natural Signification that was brought into the Rituals of the Church it is a thing of another Nature But if a Sacrament is made of it and a divine Vertue is joined to that we can admit of no such thing without an express Institution and Declaration in Scripture The Invention that was afterwards found out by which the Bishop was held to be the only Minister of Confirmation Con. Araus c. 1 2. Cod. Affr. Can. 6. Con. Tol. c. 20. even tho' Presbyters were suffered to Confirm was a piece of Superstition without any colour from Scripture It was settled that the Bishop only might consecrate the Chrism and tho' he was the ordinary Minister of Confirmation yet Presbyters were also suffered to do it the Chrism being consecrated by the Bishop Presbyters thus Confirming was thought like the Deacons giving the Sacrament tho' Priests only might consecrate the Eucharist In the Latin Church Ierom tells us Hieron ad Lucifer that in his Time the Bishop only Confirmed and tho' he makes the Reason of this to be rather for doing an Honour to them than from any necessity of the Law yet he positively says the Bishops went round praying for the Holy Ghost on those whom they Confirmed It is said by Hilary that in Egypt the Presbyters did Confirm in the Bishops absence So that custom joined with the distinction between the Consecration Hilar. in cap. 4. ad Ephes. ut Supra and the applying of the Chrism grew to be the universal Practice of the Greek Church The greatness of Diocesses with the
the First Innocent Ep. 1. ad Decent how much soever it is insisted on is really an Argument that proves against it and not for it For not to enlarge on the many idle things that are in that Epistle which have made some think that it could not be genuine and that do very much sink the credit both of the Testimony and of the Man for it seems to be well proved to be his The passage relating to this matter is in answer to a demand that was made to him by the Bishop of Eugubium Whether the Sick might be Anointed with the Oil of the Chrism And whether the Bishop might Anoint with it To these he answers That no doubt is to be made but that St. Iames's words are to be understood of the Faithful that were sick who may be Anointed by the Chrism which may be used not only by the Priests but by all Christians not only in their own necessities but in the necessities of any of their Friends and he adds that it was a needless doubt that was made whether a Bishop might do it For Presbyters are only mentioned because the Bishop could not go to all the Sick but certainly he who made the Chrism it self might Anoint with it A Bishop asking these Questions of another and the answers which the other gives him do plainly shew that this was no Sacrament practised from the beginnings of Christianity for no Bishop could be ignorant of those It was therefore some newly begun Custom in which the World was not yet sufficiently instructed And so it was indeed for the subject of these questions was not pure Oil such as now they make to be the matter of Extreme Unction But the Oil of Chrism which was made and kept for other occasions and it seems very clear that the miraculous power of Healing having ceased and none being any more Anointed in order to that some begun to get a Portion of the Oil of Chrism which the Laity as well as the Priests applied both to themselves and to their Friends hoping that they might be Cured by it Nothing else can be meant by all this but a superstitious using the Chrism which might have arisen out of the memory that remained of those who had been cured by Oil as the use of Bread in the Eucharist brought in the Holy Bread that was sent from one Church to another and as from the use of Water in Baptism sprung the use of Holy Water This then being the clear meaning of those words it is plain that they prove quite the contrary of that for which they are brought and though in that Epistle the Pope calls Chrism a kind of a Sacrament that turns likewise against them to shew that he did not think it was a Sacrament strictly speaking Besides that the Ancients used that word very largely both for every mysterious Doctrine and for every holy Rite that they used In this very Epistle when he gives directions for the carrying about that Bread which they Blessed and sent about as an Emblem of their Communion with other Churches he orders them to be sent about only to the Churches within the City because he conceived the Sacraments were not to be carried a great way off so these Loaves are called by him not only a kind of Sacrament but are simply reckoned to be Sacraments We hear no more of Anointing the Sick with the Chrism among all the Ancients which shews that as that practice was newly begun so it did not spread far nor continue long No mention is made of this neither in the first Three Ages nor in the Fourth Age though the Writers and particularly the Councils of the Fourth Age are very copious in Rules concerning the Sacraments Nor in all their penitentiary Canons when they define what Sins are to be forgiven and what not when Men were in their last Extremities is there so much as a hint given concerning the last Unction The Constitutions and the pretended Dionisius say not a word of it though they are very full upon all the Rituals of that time in which those Works were Forged in the Fourth or Fifth Century In none of the Lives of the Saints before the Ninth Century is there any mention made of their having Extreme Unction tho' their deaths are sometimes very particularly related and their receiving the Eucharist is oft mentioned Nor was there any question made in all that time concerning the Persons the Time and the other Circumstances relating to this Unction which could not have been omitted especially when almost all that was thought on or writ of in the Eighth and Ninth Century relates to the Sacraments and the other Rituals of the Church It is true from the Seventh Century on to the Twelfth they began to use an Anointing of the Sick Lib. Sacram Gregor Menardi Nota. according to that mentioned by Pope Innocent and a peculiar Office was made for it but the Prayers that were used in it shew plainly that it was all intended only in order to their recovery Of this anointing many Passages are found in Bede and in the other Writers and Councils of the Eighth and Ninth Century But all these do clearly express the Use of it not as a Sacrament for the Good of the Soul Bede Hist. Ang. l. 3. c. 15. Euchol Gra. p. 408 but as a Rite that carried with it Health to the Body and so it is still used in the Greek Church No doubt they supported the Credit of this with many reports of which some might be true of Persons that had been recovered upon using it But because that failed so often that the Credit of this Rite might suffer much in the Esteem of the World they began in the Tenth Century to say That it did Good to the Soul even when the Body was not healed by it and they applied it to the several Parts of the Body This begun from the Custom of applying it at first to the diseased Parts This was carried on in the Eleventh Century And then in the Twelfth those Prayees that had been formerly made for the Souls of the Sick though only as a Part of the Office Decr. Eug. in Con. Flor. Con. Trid. Sess 14. the Pardon of Sin being considered as Preparatory to their Recovery came to be considered as the main and most essential Part of it Then the Schoolmen brought it into shape and so it was decreed to be a Sacrament by Pope Eugenius and finally established at Trent The Argument that they draw from a parity in reason that because there is a Sacrament for such as come into the World there should be also One for those that go out of it is very trifling for Christ has either Instituted this to be a Sacrament or it is not One If he has not Instituted it this pretended fitness is only an Argument that he ought to have done somewhat that he has not done The Eucharist was considered by
the Ancients as the only Viaticum of Christians in their last Passage With them we give that and no more Thus it appears upon what Reason we reject those Five Sacraments though we allow both of Confirmation and Orders as Holy Functions derived to us down from the Apostles and because there is a visible Action in these though in strictness that cannot be called a Sacrament yet so the thing be rightly understood we will not dispute about the Extent of a Word that is not used in Scripture Marriage is in no respect to be called a Sacrament of the Christian Religion tho' it being a State of such Importance to Mankind we hold it very proper both for the Solemnity of it and for Imploring the Blessing of God upon it that it be done with Prayers and other Acts of Religious Worship But a great difference is to be made between a pious Custom begun and continued by publick Authority and a Sacrament appointed by Christ. We acknowledge true Repentance to be One of the great Conditions of the New Covenant but we see nothing of the Nature of a Sacrament in it And for Extreme Unction we do not pretend to have the Gift of Healing among us and therefore we will not deceive the World by an Office that shall offer at that which we acknowledge we cannot do Nor will we make a Sacrament for the Good of the Soul out of that which is mentioned in Scripture only as a Rite that accompanied the curing the Diseases of the Body The last Part of this Article concerning the Use of the Sacraments consists of Two Parts the First is Negative that they are not ordained to be gazed on or to be carried about but to be used And this is so Express in the Scripture that little Question can be made about it The Institution of Baptism is go preach and baptize And the Institution of the Eucharist is take eat and drink ye all of it Which Words being set down before those in which the Consecrating them is believed to be made This is my body And this is my blood and the Consecratory Words being delivered as the Reason of the Command take eat and drink nothing can be more clearly exprest than this that the Eucharist is consecrated only that it may be used that it may be eat and drunk The Second Part of this Period is that the Effect of the Sacraments comes only upon the Worthy receiving of them of this so much was already said upon the first Paragraph of this Article that it is not necessary to add any more here The pretending that Sacraments have their Effect any other way is the bringing in the Doctrine and Practice of Charms into the Christian Religion And it tends to dissolve all Obligations to Piety and Devotion to a Holiness of Life or a Purity of Temper When the being in a Passive and perhaps Insensible State while the Sacraments are applied is thought a Disposition sufficient to give them their Vertue Sacraments are federal Acts and those visible Actions are intended to quicken us so that in the use of them we may raise our inward Acts to the highest Degrees possible but not to supply their Defects or Imperfections Our Opinion in this Point represents them as means to raise our Minds and to kindle our Devotion whereas the Doctrine of the Church of Rome represents them as so many Charms which may heighten indeed the Authority of him that Administers them but do extinguish and deaden all true Piety when such helps are offered by which the worst Men living and dying in a bad State may by a few faint Acts and perhaps by none at all of their own be well enough taken care of and secured But as we have not so learned Christ so neither dare we corrupt his Doctrine in its most vital and essential Parts ARTICLE XXVI Of the Unworthiness of the Ministers which hinder not the Effect of the Sacraments Altho in the Uisible Church the Evil be ever mingled with the Good and sometime the Evil have chief Authority in the Ministration of the Word and Sacraments yet for as much as they do not the same in their own Name but in Christ's and do Minister by his Commission and Authority we may use their Ministry both in hearing the Word of God and in receiving the Sacraments Neither is the Effect of Christ's Ordinance taken away by their Wickedness Nor the Grace of God's Gifts diminished from such as by Faith and rightly do receive the Sacraments ministred unto them which be Effectual because of Christ's Institution and Promise although they be ministred by Evil Men. Nevertheless it appertaineth to the Discipline of the Church that enquiry be made of Evil Ministers and that they be accused by those that have knowledge of their Offences and finally being found Guilty by just Iudgment to be deposed THE occasion that was given to this Article was the heat of some in the beginnings of the Reformation who being much offended at the publick Scandal which was given by the enormous Vices that were without any Disguise practised by the Roman Clergy of all Ranks did from thence revive the conceit of the Donatists who thought that not only Heresy and Schism did invalidate Sacred Functions but that personal Sins did also make them void It cannot be denied but that there are many Passages in St. Cyprian that look this Way and which seem to make the Sacraments depend as much on the good State that he was in who administred them as the Answer of their other Prayers did In the Progress of the Controversy with the Donatists they carried this Matter very far and considered the Effect of the Sacraments as the Answer of Prayers So since the Prayers of a wicked Man are Abomination to God they thought the Vertue of these Actions depended wholly on him that officiated Against this St. Augustin set himself very zealously He answered all that was brought from Cyprian in such a manner that by it he has set us a Pattern how we ought to separate the just Respect that we pay the Fathers from an Implicite receiving of all their Notions If this Conceit were allowed of it must go to the secret Thoughts and inward State in which he is who officiates for if the Sacraments are to be considered only as Prayers offered up by him then a Man can never be sure that he receives them Since it is impossible to see into the Hearts or know the Secrets of Men. Sacraments therefore are to be considered as the publick Acts of the Church and though the Effect of them as to him that receives them depends upon his Temper his Preparation and Application yet it cannot be imagined that the Vertue of those federal Acts to which Christians are admitted in them the Validity of them or the Blessings that follow them can depend on the secret State or Temper of him that Officiates Even in the case of publick Scandals though
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
among themselves one to another but rather it is a Sacrament of our Redemption by Christ's Death Insomuch that to such as rightly worthily and with faith receive the same the Bread which we break is a partaking of the Body of Christ and likewise the Cup of Blessing is a partaking of the Blood of Christ. Transubstantiation or the change of the Substance of Bread and Wine in the Supper of the Lord cannot be Proved by Holy Writ but it is repugnant to the plain words of Scripture overthroweth the nature of a Sacrament and hath given occasion to many Superstitions The Body of Christ is given taken and eaten in the Supper only after a Heavenly and Spiritual manner and the mean whereby the Body of Christ is received and eaten in the Supper is Faith The Sacrament of the Lord's Supper was not by Christ's Ordinance reserved carried about lifted up and Worshipped In the Edition of these Articles in Edward the VIth's Reign there was another long Paragraph against Transubstantiation added in these words Forasmuch as the Truth of Man's Nature requireth that the Body of one and the self-same Man cannot be at one time in divers places but must needs be in one certain place therefore the Body of Christ cannot be present at one time in many and divers places And because as Holy Scripture doth teach Christ was taken up into Heaven and there shall continue unto the end of the World a Faithful Man ought not either to Believe or openly Confess the Real and Bodily Presence as they term it of Christ's Flesh and Blood in the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper WHEN these Articles were at first prepared by the Convocation in Queen Elizabeth's Reign this Paragraph was made a part of them for the Original Subscription by both Houses of Convocation yet extant shews this But the design of the Government was at that time much turned to the drawing over the Body of the Nation to the Reformation in whom the old Leven had gone deep and no part of it deeper than the belief of the Corporeal Presence of Christ in the Sacrament therefore it was thought not expedient to offend them by so particular a Definition in this matter in which the very word Real Presence was rejected It might perhaps be also suggested that here a Definition was made that went too much upon the Principles of Natural Philosophy which how true soever they might not be the proper subject of an Article of Religion Therefore it was thought fit to suppress this Paragraph though it was a part of the Article that was Subscribed yet it was not published but the Paragraph that follows The Body of Christ c. was put in its stead and was received and published by the next Convocation which upon the matter was a full Explanation of the way of Christ's Presence in this Sacrament that he is present in a heavenly and spiritual Manner and that Faith is the mean by which he is received This seemed to be more Theological and it does indeed amount to the same thing But howsoever we see what was the Sense of the first Convocation in Queen Elizabeth's Reign it differed in nothing from that in King Edward's Time And therefore though this Paragraph is now no Part of our Articles yet we are certain that the Clergy at that time did not at all doubt of the Truth of it we are sure it was their Opinion Since they subscribed it though they did not think fit to publish it at first and though it was afterwards changed for another that was the same in Sense In the treating of this Article I shall first lay down the Doctrine of this Church with the Grounds of it and then I shall examine the Doctrine of the Church of Rome which must be done copiously For next to the Doctrine of Infallibility this is the most valued of all their other Tenets this is the most Important in it self since it is the main Part of their Worship and the chief Subject of all their Devotions There is not any one thing in which both Clergy and Laity are more concerned which is more generally studied and for which they pretend they have more plausible Colours both from Scripture and the Fathers and if Sense and Reason seem to press hard upon it they reckon that as they understand the Words of St. Paul every thought must be captivated into the obedience of Faith 2 Cor. 10.5 In order to the expounding our Doctrine we must consider the Occasion and the Institution of this Sacrament The Iews were required once a Year to meet at Ierusalem in remembrance of the deliverance of their Fathers out of Egypt Exod. 12.11 Moses appointed that every Family should kill a Lamb whose Blood was to be sprinkled on their Door-posts and Lintels and whose Flesh they were to eat at the sight of which Blood thus sprinkled the destroying Angel that was to be sent out to kill the First-born of every Family in Egypt was to pass over all the Houses that were so marked And from that passing by or over the Israelites the Lamb was called the Lord's passover as being then the Sacrifice and afterwards the Memorial of that Passover The People of Israel were required to keep up the Memorial of that Transaction by slaying a Lamb before the Place where God should set his Name and by eating it up that Night They were also to eat with it a Sallet of bitter Herbs and unleavened Bread and when they went to eat of the Lamb they repeated these Words of Moses That it was the Lord's Passover Now tho' the first Lamb that was killed in Egypt was indeed the Sacrifice upon which God promised to pass over their Houses yet the Lambs that were afterwards offered were only the Memorials of it though they still carried that Name which was given to the First And were called the Lord's Passover So that the Iews were in the Paschal-Supper accustomed to call the Memorial of a thing by the Name of that of which it was the Memorial And as the Deliverance out of Egypt was a Type and Representation of that greater Deliverance that we were to have by the Messias the first Lamb being the Sacrifice of that Deliverance 1 Cor. 5.7 John 1.29 Compare Matt. 26.26 Mark 14.22 and the succeeding Lambs the Memorials of it so in order to this new and greater Deliverance Christ himself was our Passover that was sacrificed for us He was the Lamb of God that was both to take away the Sins of the World and was to lead Captivity Captive To bring us out of the Bondage of Sin and Satan into the Obedience of his Gospel He therefore chose the time of the Passover that he might be then offered up for us And did Institute this Memorial of it while he was celebrating the Iewish Pascha with his Disciples who were so much accustomed to the Forms and Phrases of that Supper in which every Master of a
him again and put him to an open shame when they are so faulty as the Corinthians were in observing this Holy Institution with so little Reverence and with such scandalous Disorders as those were for which he reproached them Of such as did thus Prophane this Institution he says farther that they do eat and drink their own Damnation or Iudgment that is Punishment for the word rendred Damnation signifies sometimes only temporary Punishments So it is said 1 Pet. 4.17 that Iudgment the Word is the same must begin at the House of God God had sent such Judgments upon the Corinthians for those disorderly Practices of theirs that some had fallen sick and others had died perhaps by reason of their drinking to excess in those Feasts But as God's Judgments have come upon them so the words that follow shew that these Judgments were only Chastisements in order to the delivering them from the Condemnation under which the World lies It being said that when we are judged we are chastened of the Lord 32. v. that we should not be condemned with the World Therefore though God may very justly and even in great Mercy punish Men who prophane this Holy Ordinance yet it is an unreasonable Terrour and contrary to the Nature of the Gospel Covenant to carry this so far as to think that it is an impardonable Sin which is punished with eternal Damnation We have now seen the ill Effects of unworthy Receiving and from hence according to that Gradation that is to be observed in the Mercy of God in the Gospel that it not only holds a Proportion with his Justice but rejoyceth over it we may well conclude that the good Effects upon the worthy receiving of it are equal if not superiour to the bad Effects upon the unworthy receiving of it And that the Nourishment which the Types the Bread and the Wine give the Body are answered in the Effects that the thing signified by them has upon the Soul In explaining this there is some diversity Some teach that this Memomorial of the Death of Christ when seriously and devoutly gone about when it animates our Faith encreases our Repentance and inflames our Love and Zeal and so unites us to God and to our Brethren that I say when these follow it which it naturally excites in all holy and good Minds then they draw down the returns of Prayer and a farther increase of Grace in us according to the Nature and Promises of the New Covenant And in this they put the Vertue and Efficacy of this Sacrament But others think that all this belongs only to the inward Acts of the Mind and is not Sacramental And therefore they think that the Eucharist is a federal Act in which as on the one Hand we renew our Baptismal Covenant with God so on the other Hand we receive in the Sacrament a visible Consignation as in a Tradition by a Symbol or Pledge of the blessings of the New Covenant which they think is somewhat superadded to those returns of our Prayers or of our other inward Acts. This they think answers the nourishment which the Body receives from the Symbols of Bread and Wine and stands in opposition to that of the unworthy Receivers being guilty of the Body and Blood of the Lord and their eating and drinking that which will bring some judgment upon themselves This they also found on these words of St. Paul The cup of blessing that we bless is it not the communion of the blood of Christ the bread which we break is it not the communion of the body of Christ St. Paul considers the Bread which was offered by the People as an emblem of their Unity that as there was one Loaf so they were one Body and that they were all partakers of that one Loaf From hence it is inferred that since the word rendred Communion signifies a communication in fellowship or Partnership that therefore the meaning of it is that in the Sacrament there is a distribution made in that Symbolical action of the death of Christ 2 Cor. 13. last verse Phil. 2.1 Eph. 3.9 and of the benefits and effects of it The Communion of the Holy Ghost is a common sharing in the effusion of the Spirit the same is meant by that if there is any fellowship of the Spirit that is if we do all partake of the same Spirit We are said to have a fellowship in the sufferings of Christ Phil. 3.10 in which every one must take his share The communication or fellowship of the mystery of the Gospel was its being shared equally among both Iews and Gentiles and the fellowship in which the first Converts to Christianity lived was their liberal distribution to one another they holding all things in common In these and some other places it is certain that Communion signifies somewhat that is more real and effectual than merely mens owning themselves to be joined together in a Society which it is true it does also often signify and therefore they conclude that as in Bargains or Covenants the ancient Method of them before Writings were invented was the mutual delivering of some Pledges which were the Symbols of that Faith which was so plighted instead of which the sealing and delivering of Writings is now used among us so our Saviour instituted this in compliance with our frailty to give us an outward and sensible Pledge of his entring into Covenant with us of which the Bread and Wine are constituted the Symbols Others think that by the Communion of the Body and Blood of Christ can only be meant the joint owning of Christ and of his Death in the receiving the Sacrament and that no Communication nor Partnership can be inferred from it Because St. Paul brings it in to shew the Corinthians how detestable a thing it was for a Christian to join in the Idols Feasts That it was to be a partaker with devils So they think that the Fellowship or Communion of Christians in the Sacrament must be of the same Nature with the fellowship of devils in Acts of Idolatry Which consisted only in associating themselves with those that worshipped Idols for that upon the Matter was the Worshipping of Devils And this seems to be confirmed by that which is said of the Iews 1 Cor. 10.18 20. that they who did eat of the Sacrifices were partakers of the Altar which it seems can signify no more but that they professed that Religion of which the Altar was the chief Instrument the Sacrifices being offered there To all this it may be replied that it is reasonable enough to believe that according to the Power which God suffered the Devil to exercise over the Idolatrous World there might be some Inchantment in the Sacrifices offered to Idols and that the Devil might have some Power over those that did partake of them And in order to this St. Paul removed an Objection that might have been made that there could be no harm in
express in this matter as is possible The whole Constitution of their Worship and Discipline shews it Their Worship concluded always with the Eucharist Such as were not capabl e of it as the Catechumens and those who were doing Publick Penance for their Sins assisted at the more general parts of the Worship and so much of it was called their Mass because they were dismissed at the Conclusion of it When that was done then the Faithful staid and did partake of the Eucharist and at the conclusion of it they were likewise dismissed from whence it came to be called the Mass of the Faithful The great Rigor of Penance was thought to consist chiefly in this That such Penitents might not stay with the Faithful to communicate And though this seems to be a Practice begun in the Third Century yet both from Iustin Martyr and Tertullian it is evident that all the Faithful did constantly communicate There is a Canon among those which go under the name of the Apostles Can. 9. Aâ—ost against such as came and assisted in the other parts of the Service and did not partake of the Eucharist The same thing was decreed by the Council of Antioch Con. Antioch Can. 2. Const. Apost l. 8. cap. 11. Hom. 3. in Ep. ad Eph Lib. 2. And it appears by the Constitutions That a Deacon was appointed to see that no man should go out and a Subdeacon was to see that no Woman should go out during the Oblation The Fathers do frequently allude to the Word Communion to shew that the Sacrament was to be common to all It is true in St. Chrysostom's time the Zeal that the Christians of the former Ages had to communicate often began to slacken so that they had thin Communions and few Communicants against which that Father raises himself with his Pathetick Eloquence in words which do shew that he had no Notion of Solitary Masses or of the Lawfulness of them And it is very evident that the Neglect of the Sacrament in those who came not to it and the Prophanation of it by those who came unworthily both which grew very scandalous at that time set that Holy and Zealous Bishop to many Eloquent and Sublime Strains concerning it which cannot be understood without making those Abatements that are dâ—e to a copious and Asiatick stile when much inflamed by Devotion In the succeeding Ages we find great Care was taken to suffer none that did not communicate to stay in the Church and to see the Mysteries There is a Rubrick for this in the Office mentioned by Gregory the Great Dialog Conc. Mogunt Can. 43. The Writers of the Ninth Century go on in the same Strain It was decreed by the Council of Mentz in the end of Charles the Great 's Reign That no Priest should say Mass alone for how could he say The Lord be with you or Lift up your hearts if there was no other Person there besides himself This shews that the practice of Soâ—itary Masses was then begun but that it was disliked Walafridus Strabus says That to a lawful Mass it was necessary that there should be a Priest Walaf Strab. de rebus Eccles c. 22. together with one to answer one to offer and one to communicate And the Author of Micrologus who is believed to have writ about the End of the Eleventh Century does condemn Solitary Communions as contrary both to the Practice of the Antients and to the several parts of the Office So that till the Twelfth Century it was never allowed of in the Roman Church as to this day it is not practised in any other Communion But then with the Doctrine of Purgatory and Transubstantiation mixt together the saying of Masses for other Persons whether alive or dead grew to be considered as a very meritorious thing and of great Efficacy Thereupon great Endowments were made and it became a Trade Masses were sold and a small Piece of Money became their Price So that a prophane sort of Simony was set up and the holiest of all the Institutions of the Christian Religion was exposed to Sale Therefore we in cutting off all this and in bringing the Sacrament to be according to its first Institution a Communion have followed the Words of our Saviour and the constant Practice of the whole Church for the first Ten Centuries So far all the Articles that relate to this Sacrament have been considered The variety of the Matter and the Important Controversies that have arisen out of it has made it necessary to enlarge with some Copiousness upon the several Branches of it Next to the Infallibility of the Church this is the dearest piece of the Doctrine of the Church of Rome and is that in which both Priests and People are better instructed than in any other Point whatsoever and therefore this ought to be studied on our side with a Care proportioned to the Importance of it That so we may govern both our selves and our People aright in a matter of such Consequence avoiding with great Caution the Extremes on both hands both of excessive Superstition on the one hand and of Prophane Neglect on the other For the nature of Man is so moulded that it is not easy to avoid the one without falling into the other We are now visibly under the Extreme of Neglect and therefore we ought to study by all means possible to inspire our People with a just Respect for this Holy Institution and to animate them to desire earnestly to partake often of it and in order to that to prepare themselves seriously to set about it with the Reverence and Devotion and with those Holy Purposes and Solemn Vows that ought to accompany it ARTICLE XXXII Of the Marriage of Priests Bishops Priests and Deacons are not commanded by God's Law either to vow the Estate of Single Life or to abstain from Marriage Therefore it is lawful for them as well as for all Christian Men to Marry at their own discretion as they shall judg the same to serve better to Godliness THE first Period of this Article to the word Therefore was all that was published in King Edward's time They were content to lay down the Assertion and left the Inference to be made as a Consequence that did naturally arise out of it There was not any one Point that was more severely examined at the time of the Reformation than this For as the irregular Practices and dissolute Lives of both Seculars and Regulars had very much prejudiced the World against the Celibate of the Roman Clergy which was considered as the occasion of all those Disorders so on the other hand the Marriage of the Clergy and also of those of both Sexes who had taken Vows gave great Offence They were represented as Persons that could not master their Appetites but that indulged themselves in Carnal Pleasures and Interests Thus as the Scandals of the Unmarried Clergy had alienated the World much from them so the
says Receive the Holy Ghost And in this sense and with this respect the use of these Words may be well justified ARTICLE XXXVII Of Civil Magistrates The Queen's Majesty hath the chief Power in this Realm of England and other her Dominions unto whom the chief Government of all Estates of this Realm whether they be Ecclesiastical or Civil in all Causes doth appertain and is not nor ought to be subject to any Foreign Iurisdiction Where we attribute to the Queen's Majesty the chief Government by which Titles we understand the minds of some slanderous Folks to be offended we give not to our Princes the ministring either of God's Word or of the Sacraments the which thing the Injunctions also lately set forth by Elizabeth our Queen do most plainly testify but that only Prerogative which we see to have been given always to all godly Princes in Holy Scriptures by God himself that is That they should rule all Estates and Degrees committed to their charge by God whether they be Ecclesiastical or Temporal and restrain with the Civil Sword the stubborn and evil-doers The Bishop of Rome hath no Iurisdiction in this Realm of England The Laws of the Realm may punish Christian Men with Death for heinous and grievous Offences It is lawful for Christian Men at the Commandment of the Magistrate to wear Weapons and serve in the Wars THIS Article was much shorter as it was published in King Edward's time and did run thus The King of England is Supreme Head in Earth next under Christ of the Church of England and Ireland Then followed the Paragraph against the Pope's Jurisdiction worded as it is now To which these Words were subjoined The Civil Magistrate is ordained and allowed of God wherefore we must obey him not only for fear of Punishment but also for Conscience sake In Queen Elizabeth's time it was thought fitting to take away those Prejudices that the Papists were generally infusing into the minds of the People against the term Head which seemed to be the more incongruous because a Woman did then reign therefore that was left out and instead of it the words chief Power and chief Government were made use of which do signify the same thing The Queen did also by her Injunctions offer an Explanation of this matter for whereas it was given out by those who had complied with every thing that had been done both in her Father and in her Brother's time but that resolved now to set themselves in opposition to her That she was assuming a much greater Authority than they had pretended to She upon that ordered that Explanation which is referred to in the Article and is in these words For certainly Her Majesty neither doth nor ever will challenge any Authority other than that was challenged and lately used by the said Noble Kings of famous Memory King Henry the Eighth and King Edward the Sixth which is and was of antient time due to the Imperial Crown of this Realm that is under God to have the Sovereignty and Rule over ail manner of Persons born within these her Realms Dominions and Countries of what Estate either Ecclesiastical or Temporal soever they be so as no other Foreign Power shall or ought to have any Superiority over them And if any Person that hath conceived any other sense of the said Oath shall accept the same Oath with this Interpretation Sense or Meaning Her Majesty is well pleased to accept every such in that behalf as her good and obedient Subjâ—cts and shall acquit them of all manner of Penalties contained in the said Act against such as shall peremptorily and obstinately refuse to take the same Oath Thus this matter is opened as it is both in the Article and in the Injunctions In order to the treating regularly of this Article it is First To be proved That the Pope hath no Jurisdiction in these Kingdoms 2 dly That our Kings or Queens have it And 3 dly The Nature and Measures of this Power and Government are to be stated As for the Pope's Authority though it is now connected with the Infallibility yet it was pretended to and was advanced for many Ages before Infallibility was so much as thought on Nor was the Doctrine of their Infallibility ever so universally received and submitted to in these Western Parts as was that of their Universal Jurisdiction They were in possession of it Appeals were made to them They sent Legates and Bulls every where They granted Exemptions from the ordinary Jurisdiction and took Bishops bound to them by Oaths that were penned in the Form of Oaths of Fealty or Homage This was the first Point that our Reformers did begin with both here and every where else that so they might remove that which was an insuperable Obstruction till it was first taken out of the way to every step that could be made toward a Reformation They laid down therefore this for their Foundation That all Bishops were by their Office and Character equal and that every one of them had the same Authority that any other had over that Flock which was committed to his Care And therefore they said that the Bishops of Rome had no Authority according to the Constitution in which the Churches were settled by the Apostles but over the City of Rome And that any further Jurisdiction that any Antient Popes might have had did arise from the Dignity of the City and the Customs and Laws of the Empire As for their deriving that Authority from St. Peter it is very plain that the Apostles were all made equal to him and that they never understood our Saviour's Words to him as importing any Authority that was given to him over the rest since they continued to the last while our Saviour was among them disputing which of them should be the greatest The Proposition that the Mother of Iames and Iohn made Mat. 20.21 ver 24. ver 26. in which it was evident that they likewise concurred with her shews that they did not apprehend that Christ had made any Declaration in favour of St. Peter as by our Saviour's Answer it appears that he had not done otherwise he would have referred them to what he had already said upon that occasion By the whole History of the Acts of the Apostles it appears that the Apostles acted and consulted in common without considering St. Peter as having any Superiority over them He was called to give an account of his Baptizing Cornelius and he delivered his Opinion in the Council of Ierusalem without any strain of Authority over the rest Acts 11.2 3. Acts 15.7 ver 14 19. Gal. 2 7 8. ver 11. St. Paul does expresly deny that the other Apostles had any Superiority or Jurisdiction over him and he says in plain words that he was the Apostle of the Vncircumcision as St. Peter was the Apostle of the Circumcision and in that does rather claim an advantage over him since his was certainly the much wider Province He
Testimony that Christ and his Apostles gave to those Books as they were then received by the Iewish Church to whom were committed the Oracles of God Now it is not so much as pretended that ever these Books were received among the Iews or were so much as known to them None of the Writers of the New Testament cite or mention them neither Philo nor Iosephus speak of them Iosephus on the contrary says they had only 22 Books that deserved belief but that those which were written after the time of Artaxerxes were not of equal credit with the rest And that in that Period they had no Prophets at all The Christian Church was for some Ages an utter Stranger to those Books Melito Bishop of Sardis being desired by Onesimus to give him a perfect Catalogue of the Books of the Old Testament took a Journey on purpose to the East to examine this matter at its Source And having as he says made an exact Enquiry he sent him the Names of them just as we receive the Canon of which Eusebius says that he has preserved it Euseb. hist l. 4. c. 26. because it contained all those Books which the Church owned Origen gives us the same Catalogue according to the Tradition of the Iews who divided the Old Testament into 22 Books In Psal. 1. according to the Letters of their Alphabet Athanasius reckons them up in the same manner to be 22 and he more distinctly says that he delivered those In Synop. as they had received them by Tradition In Eppasch and as they were received by the whole Church of Christ because some presumed to mix Apocryphal Books with the Divine Scriptures And therefore he was set on it by the Orthodox Brethren in order to declare the Canonical Books delivered as such by Tradition and believed to be of Divine Inspiration It is true he adds That besides these there were other Books which were not put into the Canon but yet were appointed by the Fathers to be read by those who first come to be instructed in the way of Piety And then he reckons up most of the Apocryphal Books Here is the first mention we find of them as indeed it is very probable they were made at Alexandria by some of those Iews who lived there in great Numbers Both Hilary and Cyril of Ierusalem give us the same Catalogue of the Books of the Old Testament and affirm that they delivered them thus according to the Tradition of the Ancients Cyril says That all other Books are to be put in a Second Order Catech. 4. Gregory Nazienzen reckons up the 22 Books and adds that none besides them are genuine The words that are in the Article are repeated by St. Ierom in several of his Prefaces And that which should determine this whole matter is Can. 59. and 60. That the Council of Laodicea by an express Canon delivers the Catalogue of the Canonical Books as we do decreeing that these only should be read in the Church Now the Canons of this Council were afterwards received into the Code of the Canons of the Universal Church so that here we have the concurring sense of the whole Church of God in this matter It is true the Book of the Revelation not being reckoned in it this may be urged to detract from its Authority But it was already proved that that Book was received much Earlier into the Canon of the Scriptures so the design of this Canon being to establish the Authority of those Books that were to be read in the Church the darkness of the Apocalypse making it appear reasonable not to read it publickly that may be the reason why it is not mentioned in it as well as in some later Catalogues Here we have four Centuries clear for our Canon in Exclusion to all Additions It were easy to carry this much further down and to shew that these Books were never by any express definition received into the Canon till it was done at Trent And that in all the Ages of the Church even after they came to be much esteemed there were divers Writers and those generally the most learned of their time who denied them to be a part of the Canon At first many Writings were read in the Churches that were in high reputation both for the sake of the Authors and of the Contents of them though they were never lookt on as a part of the Canon Can. 47. Such were Clemens's Epistle the Books of Hermas the Acts of the Martyrs besides several other things which were read in particular Churches And among these the Apocryphal Books came also to be read as containing some valuable Books of Instruction besides several Fragments of the Iewish History which were perhaps too easily believed to be true These therefore being usually read they came to be reckoned among Canonical Scriptures For this is the reason assigned in the Third Council of Carthage for calling them Canonical because they had received them from their Fathers as Books that were to be read in Churches And the word Canonical was by some in those Ages used in a large sense in opposition to spurious so that it signified no more than that they were genuine So much depends upon this Article that it seemed necessary to dwell fully upon it and to state it clearly It remains only to observe the Diversity between the Articles now Established and those set forth by K. Edward In the latter there was not a Catalogue given of the Books of Scripture nor was there any distinction stated between the Canonical and the Apocryphal Books In those there is likewise a Paragraph or rather a Parenthesis added after the words proved thereby in these words Although sometimes it may be admitted by God's faithful People as Pious and conducing unto Order and Decency Which are now left out because the Authority of the Church as to matters of Order and Decency which was only intended to be asserted by this Period is more fully explained and stated in the 35 th Article ARTICLE VII Of the Old Testament The Old Testament is not contrary to the New For both in the Old and New Testament Everlasting Life is offered to Mankind by Christ who is the only Mediator between God and Man being both God and Man Wherefore they are not to be heard which feign that the Old Fathers did look only for Transitory Promises Although the Law given from God by Moses as touching Ceremonies and Rites do not bind Christian Men nor the Civil-Precepts thereof ought of necessity to be received in any Commonwealth yet notwithstanding no Christian Man whatsoever is free from the Obedience of the Commandments which are called Moral THIS Article is made up of the Sixth and the Nineteenth of King Edward's Articles laid together Only the Nineteenth of King Edward's has these words after Moral Wherefore they are not to be heard which teach that the Holy Scriptures were given to none but to the